(Sorry it's been so long since I've updated. I've been dealing with a lot in my personal life. There are a couple of lines written in italics, which is meant to differentiate them as a memory.)

Riley's POV

I was going to walk to school but I was running late so I hurried down the stairs of the subway entrance.

A voice I vaguely recognized said "Hey" to me. I turned around and saw Sheldon and Cisco. The two guys who were bothering Maya and I after our speed date with Farkle. Of course! Of all the people in this city I could run into on a subway platform, I would just have to run into these oafs.

"Nice scarf," the shorter one said. Although he did seem to have a growth spurt since the last time I saw him. He was still shorter than his tall brother, but he stood at my eye level now.

"Thanks." I said out of politeness even though I doubted the sincerity of his comment.

"Hey, why is she wearing a rainbow scarf?"

The shorter one asked the taller one, as he stepped closer to me. What is his deal with getting in my face? It's not like we're squeezing onto the 6 train yet. We're still waiting for it. Haven't you heard of personal space?

I took a step back, but he just took another step toward me. I stepped away from him again, but this time I bumped into the taller one. They were sandwiching me. Where's Farkle with a spider when you actually need a spider?

"Well, perhaps it's possible that she really likes rainbows, or perhaps she's wearing it because she's part of the lgbt community" the taller one supposed.

"Oh, so that's why she wouldn't have pizza with us!" Sheldon realized. "Because she was already on a date with her little blonde dyke," the shorter one said.

"Hey! Don't talk about her like that!" I snapped back at him.

"Well isn't it true?" He asked.

"I don't appreciate that word you used," I said, firmly.

"Oh, which word?" The shorter one ask.

"I believe it was 'dyke', Sheldon, that was most likely the word that offended her," the taller one explained.

"But why is it offensive if it's true? Isn't your little blonde a lesbian? Aren't you her girlfriend? Why else would you be wearing this scarf?" He said as he snatched the scarf and pulled it off my neck.

"Hey! Give it back!" I exclaimed. He immediately saw the hickey on my neck burst into laughter. "Whoa, did blondie do that to you? Cisco, check out her neck!"

Cisco, who always seemed like the more reasonable of the two, said "Sheldon, maybe you should just give her back the scarf."

"Hey, where is your little blonde dyke anyway?" Sheldon asked.

"I told you not to call her that." I reaffirmed.

"What are you gonna do about it?" Sheldon asked.

"Do you think that just because we didn't want to have pizza with you guys, that gives you the right to disrespect me and my girlfriend?" I asked him.

Just then the train arrived, and Sheldon ran into a car still holding my scarf. Cisco followed. I ran into the car after them.

"Give me back my scarf!" I demanded.

I reached out to grab it but he eluded my reach.

"Riley?" I heard Lucas behind me. He was on the train. He stood up and looked at Cisco and Sheldon, and then back at me.

"Are these guys bothering you?"

"He took my scarf and won't give it back," I explained.

He looked at Sheldon, "Give her back the scarf, man." he requested in a serious, but polite tone.

"What if I don't want to?" Sheldon said, defiantly.

Lucas pushed Sheldon up against the subway door and held his left forearm against Sheldon's chest. "I wasn't asking." Lucas said, firmly, abandoning all previous efforts toward politeness.

"Why are you defending her, Cowboy? I heard she left you for a girl," Sheldon scoffed. Cisco snickered.

"Because she's my friend. So you can give it back to her or I can take it from you. But I can't promise I won't break your hand in the process," Lucas threatened.

Whoa. "Lucas," I said.

He looked at me. "I can handle this," he said. Well, sure you can. I just hope you don't revert back into Texas Lucas in the process.

Cisco walked up to Lucas. "There's two of us, and one of you," Cisco said. Lucas, still pinning Sheldon with his left arm, grabbed Cisco with his right arm and flung him against the subway door next to Sheldon. He pinned Cisco against the door with his right arm. "That's why I have two hands," Lucas replied, smirking at Cisco. "I'm as strong as a horse. I don't even work at it. I just am." His eyes shifted to Sheldon. "Give her the scarf back now, or your hand will be in a cast," he demanded.

Oh dear. Please, don't do that, Lucas. Sheldon reached out, handing me back the scarf in reluctant surrender. I took it back from him. "Thank you," I said as I wrapped the scarf back around my neck.

The train had pulled into the next station and the subway doors on the opposite side of the car were open. "I believe this is your stop, Gentlemen." Lucas grabbed Cisco and Sheldon by their shirts and pulled them across the car. He shoved them out onto the Astor Place platform.

They tried to get back on the train, but the conductor had already said "Stand clear" as the doors closed in their faces. Sheldon banged on the door, angrily.

"This isn't over, Cowboy! You better watch your backs!" He yelled out as the train started to roll away.

Lucas turned to me. His tough exterior quickly fell as his expression changed to one of concern. "Are you okay?" He asked me. I nodded.

"Who are those guys? How do you know them?" He asked.

I recounted when Maya and I first met Cisco and Sheldon and how Farkle scared them off with a spider. Lucas laughed.

"So Sheldon was hassling you to have pizza with him again?" Lucas asked.

"He seems to have a problem with the fact that I'd rather date a girl than go out with him," I answered.

I watched Lucas as he was shaking his head at Sheldon's behavior, wondering if he would ever realize that he had acted in a similar way himself at Farkle's house.

"Stop," I said.

"Stop what?" Lucas asked, innocently.

"Stop shaking your head." I answered.

"What he did was really messed up-"

I cut him off mid sentence. "What you did is just as messed up."

"What I did?" He asked, confused. "I was helping you."

"You spent half of prom night talking to me with romantic intentions," I accused.

He seemed to grow even more confused.

"Are you really comparing that to those guys harassing you?" He asked, incredulously.

The train pulled into Union Square as he asked his question. I exited onto the platform and kept walking briskly up the stairs, rather than answer him. He hurried up the staircase, beating me to the top, and faced me.

"Riley, come on," he persisted.

I darted around him and swiftly went through the turnstile. He ran after me, hopping over the turnstile. He cut me off in front of a metrocard vending machine. He leaned one arm against the vending machine, blocking me in. I was surrounded on all sides, by him, by his arm, by the adjacent wall and by the vending machine at my back.

"Riley, you don't really think I'm anything like those guys, do you?" he asked.

I couldn't help but laugh at the irony of the situation.

"You are. This is exactly how they cornered me at Bleecker Street, except now Cisco is a metrocard vending machine and Sheldon is you," I explained.

Lucas suddenly became aware of his imposing stance and quickly dropped his arm.

"The question on the card that Maya wanted to ask you, answer it," I demanded.

His eyes widened in astonishment.

"Would you ever romantically pursue Vanessa?" I asked.

"No, of course not," he answered quickly.

I nodded. "Out of respect for Zay?" I supposed.

He quickly agreed, "Exactly!"

"Why doesn't Maya deserve the same respect, Lucas?" I let the question sink in for a moment, and then walked away.

I headed out of the train station, and into school. Lucas followed behind and caught up to me while I was getting a book out of my locker.

"It's different," he argued.

"How?" I questioned.

He looked into my eyes with his own kind, blue eyes. Those eyes always had a way of drawing me in and making me listen.

"You're not Vanessa." He stated emphatically, as though it needed to be made a point even though it was obvious.

"You're Riley. And I'm Lucas."

An involuntary smile betrayed my will as his words instantly resurfaced the memory of when I first fell into his lap on the subway.

"I'm Lucas," a younger version of him said with a smile.

"I love it," I gushed.

"We have chemistry, Riley," he said smiling back at me.

I'm sure my cheeks were blushing, and my dimples were creased, replicating the expression my younger self had in the memory. I'm sure that was reinforcing whatever theory Lucas had about us. But I'm not the same girl who fell into his lap on the subway. I've evolved. We all have. People change people.

"No, Lucas, we don't have chemistry," I said. "What we have, is history." I closed my locker, and walked into my father's classroom.