I don't like the way I ended this first half of the chapter. I'm sort of runnin' on empty here guys :/

Anyways, like I said, this is only half a chapter, so because it's new year's eve, I thought I'd give you guys a nice little read.

Enjoy, guys. Hopefully.

Much love,

ReesesPieces2112 (:

Charlie fiddled with his thumbs as he stared at his hands; he'd been sitting on Riley's couch for about 30 minutes after they had come home from school. Riley was hold up in her room and he understood why. Everyone knew about her feelings for Lucas, so when he heard whispers among his friends that he'd lose Riley to Lucas Friar, it never surprised him the way she reacted to Lucas. It was a wonder to him why she remained his girlfriend for so long. Okay, yes, he knew the situation with Riley, Lucas, and Maya was complicated, and he knew Riley wasn't comfortable around them. Still, that didn't mean she needed him. He understood how lucky he was to have found and been able to have kept a girl like Riley. So, as he sat on her couch and watched the clock hands tick by, his stomach was in knots.

Riley had her face buried in her knees, tears staining her cheeks, and her chest rising and falling heavily as she struggled to control her breathing. This wasn't what she'd imagined her first kiss with Charlie would be like. She thought it would be a happier time. It wasn't lost on her that Charlie was very aware of how she felt about Lucas, it's why she was thankful for him. Had he been any other boy, he'd have broken up with her long ago. But Charlie was patient and kind. He understood more than she ever thought possible. So naturally, it broke her heart when she couldn't give as much as he gave.

The buzzer to their apartment building rang and Charlie sprang up to answer it, hoping it would be a good distraction. "Hello?"

"It's Lucas."

And just like that Charlie's world shifted. If he was nervous before, he was down right terrified now.

"And Maya."

Charlie relaxed his body just a little before buzzing them in, counting the seconds before he heard a knock on the door. Reluctantly, he opened the door to allow Lucas and Maya to step in. "Hey, guys, what's up?"

"Mrs. Matthews said Riley was upset." Maya explained, looking around for her best friend. "Is everything okay?"

"Where is she?" Lucas asked with his eyebrow raised.

"She's in her room." Charlie scratched the back of his head. "She's just not feeling good. I'm waiting for her to come out so we can talk. I don't want to go banging on her door when she isn't up for seeing anyone right now."

Maya took a step in the direction of Riley's room, but Charlie called to her, "Maya, please?"

"I need to see if she's okay." She glared at him.

"I do too, but she's not happy right now, and I'm not going to force this talk on her." He argued.

Maya and Charlie threw digs back and forth about why Riley was upset; 'it was something you did.' Maya accused. 'It was more like something you did.' Charlie shot back. Maya had expected Lucas to come to her defense, but heard nothing. When she looked to him, she found that he'd disappeared.

"Where's Lucas?" Charlie asked her.

"I don't know." She turned down the hall to Riley's room with Charlie following but didn't find him there either. "What the heck?"

The faint sound of his knuckle gently tapping on the window made Riley jump. She looked to see Lucas sitting right outside, a gentle smile on his face. She wiped away her tears and unlocked her window, sliding it open.

"What are you doing here?" She asked, moving back so he had room to come in.

"Wow. More than one word this time." He joked and closed her window. "It must be my birthday."

Riley rolled her eyes and sat back on her bed. "I don't want to talk, Lucas."

"Riles, come on." He moved to sit in front of her.

"I should um…I gotta go." She was quick to jump up from her spot and run to the door.

"Riley, stop!" Lucas tugged on her arm and spun her around to face him. "Stop, please? And just talk to me."

"There's nothing to talk about, really." Riley stepped away from him, tugging on a piece of her hair.

"There's everything to talk about." Lucas felt something in him stir as she took one giant step away from him, like he had some kind of virus. "You're pushing us out, Riley, and I just want to know why."

She met his stare and frowned before putting up the mask she had built so well. "I'm not pushing anyone out. I've just got more going on this year."

"You're lying." He stepped towards her and she took another step back. "Friends don't lie to each other, Riley. You don't lie, Riley."

"Lucas," Riley took a deep breath, "you said we were like brother and sister. That means, as your 'sister' I'm allowed to keep some things to myself. And you, as my 'brother', don't get to question me about it. I don't tell Auggie everything, mostly because he wouldn't understand it anyways, but that's our relationship. That's the way we are, and that's the way I thought you and I would be too. It's easier that way…isn't it?"

"No." Lucas breathed, shaking his head. "How can I help you if you won't talk to me?"

"I don't need your help." She wrapped her arms around herself. "There's nothing wrong, Lucas, why do you keep pushing this?"

"Because you keep pushing us away!" He threw his arms in the air out of frustration. "You keep pushing me away, Riley! This isn't what I wanted! I wanted us to be okay and now…now you can't even stand to be in the same building as me. And Farkle and Zay? They can cut the tension with a knife when we're all together, Riley. They know you're not comfortable, so they're not comfortable, so I'm not comfortable, Riley."

"Then we won't be friends!" She felt the tears beginning to brim around her eyes and she just wanted out. "We'll go our separate ways, Lucas, so I won't be a bother anymore! It was bound to happen. We're too different now. So much has changed and I don't know what part of me was stupid enough to believe everything would go back to normal. I don't know what part of me was stupid enough to hold on to hope. Because hoping can lead to disappointment. Hope is such a fragile and dangerous thing, and I held on to it like it would just make everything better. Well, it doesn't. And I don't want to hold on to something so pointless anymore."

"Riley, stop." Lucas grabbed her in a tight embrace; he noticed the tears in her eyes and seeing her so broken left him on the brink of crying too. "Please just…stop. If there's one thing about you that I've come to love, Riley, it's your ability to see the better side of things. It's your willingness to make everyone happy even if it means you're not. It's your drive to see the good in people. Don't let go of that, Riley, please? Don't lose who you are because…I can't handle losing you."

"Goodbye, Lucas." She whispered, pulling away from his embrace and walking away. Wiping furiously at her tears, she knew…this was their end. No matter what happened from then on out, they couldn't go back to the way they were.

She didn't really see it coming, neither of them did, until she was suddenly backed against her bedroom door, his lips on hers.

This was not their Junior High kiss, this was far from it; Riley was completely surrounded by Lucas, his arms wrapped around her waist while her hands clung to his shoulders and her body pushed so close to her door, that she was sure she'd be absorbed by it.

Riley bunched his shirt up in her hands; she had tried to pull away but his grip was much stronger than she expected it to be. She thought a kiss like as intense as this one would be more frightening, but it didn't scare her in the least. Instead, it made her upset that Lucas could give her such a feeling of pure joy.

Lucas thought she'd have slapped him away by now, but when she didn't, he couldn't have been happier. Although he knew he'd hate himself later for doing this to Maya, but he wanted to savor the moment he had with Riley. He loved Maya, but the time he spent with her had him realizing, he had loved her like a sister. It was what he had told Riley back in eight grade because he hadn't yet figured out his feelings and Maya was such a mystery to him.

"Wait, stop." Riley had finally gathered enough strength to shove him away. She held a hand to her mouth and let a few tears slip.

"Riley." Lucas breathed, reaching for her again. "Riley, I'm sorry."

She shook her head and held up her free hand to stop him from coming closer. She couldn't believe she had just done that; Maya would hate her now. That thought struck her, she'd lose Maya. She couldn't lose Maya, out of everyone in her life, Maya was one of the few people she couldn't live without. Yes, they weren't very close right now, but she was still a sister to her.

"Get out." She finally spoke up. "Please, Lucas, just go."

"Riley-." Lucas tried.

"Get out!" She screamed loud enough for him to finally take the hint.

He took a step back, his hands clenched into fists; he couldn't push anymore. There was no way she'd forgive him now, he couldn't even forgive himself. He nodded and headed for her window when her voice stopped him.

"Don't tell Maya." She whispered, her voice breaking. "Please?"

Lucas didn't answer her, only stepped out of her room; he wouldn't tell Maya. Only because he knew that Riley wanted to be the one to do it, her pride wouldn't allow her to keep it a secret and her guilt would eat away at her too much.

One Week Later

Riley stared at Charlie's mouth as he laughed at his friends joke. He glanced at her and she blushed, turning her attention to the ground.

Charlie wasn't naïve. He wasn't so clueless as to not know what had happened when Lucas had snuck into her room last week. She had come out in a daze, fell into his arms, and buried her head into his chest. He had asked Maya to leave because it was clear what happened and he knew Maya had yet to figure it out. She fought with him but he was persistent and finally, she had left after telling Riley to call her if she felt like talking because they were, after all, still best friends.

He turned to her and kissed the top of Riley's head, feeling his shirt being twisted in her grip. He frowned; she hadn't spoken about the incident and it scared him that she was bottling everything up. His friends gave him a light pat on the shoulder before taking off to the cafeteria for lunch.

"Ready?" He asked her gently as he slid his hand into hers.

Riley nodded and fell into step with him. Her stomach was in knots, she wasn't sleeping and she wasn't eating; her kiss with Lucas left her shaken, mostly because she could still feel the butterflies fluttering inside. What really made her angry was that she couldn't make herself feel that way about Charlie, her boyfriend.

Charlie nearly fell back when he felt his arm being tugged on and realizing Riley had stopped walking. "What's wrong?"

"I kissed Lucas." She blurted out then bit her lip. "I'm sorry."

He sighed and pulled her into his arms, wrapping them tight around her. "I know. I know you and Lucas kissed."

"You're not mad?" She whispered into his jersey. "Why aren't you angry with me?"

"Riley." He pulled back and cupped her face after pushing her hair aside. "I don't care about what happened with Lucas. All I care about is that you're okay. I know you still have feelings for him, but I also know that you have some feelings for me too. I know we're just Sophomores and we don't understand most of it, but I like being with you. And all I could ever ask from you was that you're honest, and you have been, so thank you."

"You knew and you didn't say anything?" Riley reached up to wipe away her tears.

"You don't lie, Riley." He explained. "You would have told me when you were ready."

"How can you do this?" She whimpered. "How can you be so patient with me? How can you stand to hold on to someone who doesn't know when to let go? How?! How can you be so amazing to me when I've been terrible to you?! How, Charlie?! How?!"

Charlie stayed silent; this is what he had expected. Riley held everything in and he was just waiting for it to all come out. He just had to remind himself that anything she said had been building up.

"A-And why?!" She stuttered, pulling away from him and scratching her head. "Why would you ever put up with me for so long?! Are you crazy?! A-Are you…are you…?" She couldn't find the words. Riley always had the right words. She ran a hand through her hair and gasped, feeling her chest tightening.

"Riley, calm down, please?" Charlie pleaded, taking her in his arms once again and feeling her body shaking. "It's okay. It's going to be okay. We'll figure everything out, just please…please relax."

Around the corner, a hand was held against a mouth, an attempt to stop the sobbing from echoing in the empty hallway. Maya slid down the lockers and covered her face with her hands. She had come to find Riley after finally tracking Lucas down; he had been avoiding her all week. He had told her that Riley needed her, that they needed to talk and not to push it if Riley refused. She didn't ask questions, she simply turned on her heel and went to find her best friend.

Maya had caught them just as Riley had spoken up about her kiss with Lucas. She had stayed and listened instead leaving them. She didn't know why she did it, she just listened, and waited, and cried. She felt too many things at once; anger, jealousy, hurt, everything mixing around inside and it made her sick.

"Maya?" A voice called from down the hall.

Maya was quick to jump up and run to Farkle, shushing him and pushing him into an empty classroom.

"Maya, what the heck?" He argued, taking in her tears. "What's going on?"

She shook her head, slumping against him and letting her cries out freely as he hugged her close and tried to soothe her.