Hey guys! Thanks to those of you who keep reading, and I hope that I am writing this story to its full potential. Love you guys! Whose ready for this next chapter?
I just want to give a shout out to Maddyliza1234 for giving me a really great idea that I am excited about playing around with. You guys want jealous Lucas? Don't worry, he'll show up soon.
Hope yall like it!
Lucas places his earbuds in his ears, putting his music on full blast, and starts training. Now that he has an opponent for his match, he needs to start training already.
He wraps the tape around his hands and begins to punch the punching bag. He is training in his own home in the room that he decided would be good enough for him to practice boxing, and Sadie can practice ballet. He's very focused on where he's hitting the bag. He closes his eyes and imagines that he's in the match against Tony Espinoza. He's been watching some matches that Tony has been in and is studying him carefully.
He hears his music getting louder, and it begins to sound like the crowd cheering in his ears instead of the guitar. He's going at that bag pretty hard. He really wants to win the match.
In his head, he is winning the match. He's imagining that he's winning with his eyes closed. Then he imagines Maya in the crowd.
She is in the front row watching, and cheering for him. Her blue eyes are beaming with joy as she has Sadie on her lap. His little girl looks the opposite of Maya, though. Sadie looks terrified, and Lucas gets scared that it's him that she is scared of.
Lucas punches the bag at a rapid pace. He's releasing all of his frustrations right now. And in his head, everybody is gone, because of his career. Or maybe it's because he's gone from everyone else, because of his career.
Lucas stops his fists. He takes out his ear buds and is trying to catch his breath. He walks over and takes a drink of water from his water bottle. He closes his eyes again to take a deep breath and try to calm down a little bit. He unravels the tape from his hands and grabs a jump rope off the wall. He places his earbuds back into his ears and jumps.
He's jumping rope for a long time but stops when he sees his little girl walk in the gym with her baby sitter. He stops jumping and smiles. She runs over to him and gives him a big hug.
"Hey daddy!" Sadie greets him.
"Hey sweetie," Lucas responds. He picks her up and walks over to Sadie's baby sitter, Emma.
"Thank you for watching her today. Let me grab my check book, and I'll let you be on your way," Lucas says, but Emma stops him before he does.
"Mr. Friar, I need to tell you something." Emma begins. Lucas nods at her, telling her to go ahead, "Well, I was going to tell you this yesterday, but you gave me the day off yesterday. It's really hard to tell you this because I love working for you and taking care of Sadie, but there is a time in everyone's life where they have to move on. I have gotten a really great opportunity to go and live out a huge dream of mine. I really hope that this is okay. I just wanted to let you know because I absolutely adore Sadie, and I'm not gonna lie, I love getting your paychecks," Emma continues to ramble.
"Emma, slow down," Lucas stops her, "I am very proud of you. I want you to go out in the world and live your dreams. Sadie and I will miss you, but everything is okay between us. Let me still pay you," Lucas say writing out a very large check.
Emma's eyes almost explode out of her head, "Mr. Friar, I couldn't accept this-"
"Why not?" Lucas asks, "I think you deserve every penny. Good luck out in the world. I'll see you around, and don't go spend all that money in one place."
"Thank you, Mr. Friar," Emma waves good bye to him and walks over to Sadie. He watches her tell Sadie that she couldn't babysit her anymore, and he's thinking about who he could get to babysit Sadie now. His mom? She's already babysat for him for a long time while he was supposed to be going to school again, and now he's beating people up for a lot of money. He couldn't ask Maya because she's got a dance studio and sees Sadie most of the day anyway.
Now he has to add looking for a daycare service to his list of things to do.
Lucas invites Maya over to his home to help him with his predicament. She knocks on the door of his penthouse, and the look she has on her face makes Lucas chuckle.
"Hello Maya. Thanks for coming over to help me," He says.
"This is where you live?"
"Nope, that's why I called you here. The cops are after me!" Lucas jokes. Maya rolls her eyes and playfully shoves him. He laughs and shuts the door behind her after she walks in. He's pretty sure he hears her mutter something like 'lame joke' under her breath as she walks past him, but he doesn't care.
"Where is Sadie at?" Maya asks.
"She's asleep," Lucas responds and pauses for a moment before he continues, "You know she's been sleeping a lot here lately. I don't know. It's kinda weird. She's usually a ball of energy."
"She's four, she needs a lot of sleep," Maya responds.
"Well yea, but she's been coming home, extremely tired. And when I check up on her during the night, I can hear her mutter something along the lines of 'no more pirouettes Ms. Hart, please'? I'm getting really worried."
"Lucas Friar! You've known me forever. I would never work a child to the point where they were exhausted!" She responds, hitting his arm. Lucas laughs again, "I'm glad you're finding your own jokes funny. God knows, no one else will laugh at them."
Lucas can't stop smiling. The two of them walk to the kitchen and Maya sits at the bar. Lucas walks behind the bar.
"You gonna offer me a drink, or what?" Maya asks.
Lucas smirks and grabs water and apple juice, "What would you like?" Maya's eyebrow furrows, and she forgets that he has a kid for a few seconds. She grabs the apple juice and opens the cap, taking a sip of the refreshing beverage.
"I still can't believe you live here. Seems to me, like you are doing pretty well for yourself and Sadie," Maya says.
"Yea," Lucas pauses, "It wasn't easy. I had to pay Emma extra to keep Sadie occupied and away from a television while my matches were on."
"She's proud of her father, I can tell you that. She talks the world of you when you aren't around us. I can't say the same for myself," Maya confesses.
"Have you talked to your father anymore since middle school?" Lucas asks.
Maya nods, "I talked to him for a little while, and I even met my little half brother. Well, he tried to mess with my mother again while he had another family, and I told him to step off. Which, just like my parents, led to an argument. And I haven't seen or heard from him since."
Lucas feels bad for Maya. She is such an amazing person to be around, and she doesn't even know it because she's been abandoned so many times, which Lucas could relate to.
"Okay, so lets begin. I brought a few phone books because I know that you didn't know that phone books even exist. I've highlighted a few daycare centers that I've heard were great facilities and others that are cheap facilities, but since I see that money is not a problem for you, I will just ignore those," Maya begins. She hands him a list of half the daycare centers and she takes the other half, and they begin to call.
"Hello. I am calling to ask if you are accepting anymore children? My daughter's babysitter had to quit, and I am stumped. My daughter is very well behaved, she gets along with everybody, and she cleans up after herself... Oh... okay. It's no problem. Sorry for wasting your time," Lucas says hanging up the phone. This happens to both him and Maya for a while.
"I don't have anymore people to call. Are there really this many children in New York?" Lucas says making Maya snicker.
"Oh wait a minute. There is one here that I accidentally skipped over," Maya says, looking at the name. She freezes.
"What? What is it?" Lucas asks.
"Look at this name."
"Daddy, do I really have to go to daycare? I want Emma back," Sadie says.
"No, sweetie, you're not going today, but I do plan on enrolling you here if you like it. That's why we're here. I want to see if you like it before I put you in a place where you don't feel comfortable," Lucas explains.
"Daddy? When are you gonna get time off again? I wanna spend more time with you," Sadie confesses.
"Trust me baby girl, I will take a long time off after my next match. And I will spend a lot of time at home with you while I get ready for the next match. This daycare center is just for those days where you can be watched when I do have to go to work," Lucas explains some more.
He looks at his little girl in the rear view mirror, and she's smiling, like always.
"Daddy? I don't like it when you get hurt," Sadie says.
Lucas knows that him being hurt sometimes isn't good for Sadie. He remembers calling Emma after he gotten beaten pretty badly. He was in so much pain, but he didn't want his daughter to know that he was hurt. He should've known that she knows that he is hurt. Sadie is very intelligent for her age.
"I don't like it either sweetheart."
Lucas pulls into a parking place. He turns the car off and looks at his girl, "You ready munchkin?" He asks. She nods her head, and Lucas get out to unbuckle her from her car seat. He lifts her up and sets her on the ground. She holds onto his hand, and they make their way into the daycare center.
The colors on the walls really popped. There were tons of bright and fun colors, and the sound of small children laughing could be heard from the inside of one room. Lucas stops at the door and peaks into the window to see the two daycare workers walking around, looking at the children painting. He brings his fist up to knock on the door.
The brunette female opens the door with her award winning smile, "Lucas Friar."
"Riley Matthews...Minkus." Lucas responds, giving her a hug.
Riley and Lucas are taking a tour of the daycare center. Sadie is looking around and holding on to Lucas's hand very tightly.
"I still can't believe how big she has gotten," Riley says.
"I know. I still can't believe it myself. I also can't believe that you married Farkle," Lucas confesses, "I was sure you had Charlie Gardner wrapped around your finger for life, in high school."
"Well, I just found out that Charlie wasn't the guy for me. I don't even remember how things between Farkle and me began. All I know is that I am very happy with him, and I am happy to own this daycare center with him," Riley explains.
"If you don't mind me asking, what happened to your plans? Farkle's plans? What made you want to open up a daycare center instead?" Lucas asked.
Riley's face fell, and she sighed, "After Farkle and I got married, we wanted to start a family. We kept trying to get pregnant, and finally, one day, I found out that I was expecting a child."
Lucas could feel where this story was going as Riley sighs again, "God, the look on his face when he found out that I was pregnant. I've never seen him that happy. That was the last time I saw him happy for a long time. My pregnancy took a turn for the worse, and I lost him. We went through a very dark period of time, and if it weren't for our parents? We probably wouldn't have made it. That's why we opened our daycare center. We love these kids so much, and we will love Sadie just as much. Just as much as we did before."
"Riley, first, I wanted to say, that I am so sorry for what happened to you and Farkle. And second, thank you. I know Sadie will be in amazing care here, and I know she will grow to love you again," Lucas says.
Riley smiles down at Sadie and sees so much of Lucas in her. Not just physically, but emotionally too, and Riley can't wait to start taking care of her again.
"Thank you so much for meeting me and accepting Sadie here. I don't know what I would do without you guys. If it weren't for Maya, I would still be looking for a babysitter," Lucas says.
"Maya? You've seen Maya again?" Riley asks.
Lucas doesn't realize it, but he's blushing as he nods, "Yea. Sadie started taking ballet classes with her, and we've been catching up ever since I dropped Sadie off for the first time the other day. And don't expect me to try not to catch up with you guys either."
"Are you guys smitten for each other?" Riley teases. Lucas laughs and shrugs his shoulders.
"I don't think she'll ever have the feelings for me like she used to, but I don't blame her. I got into some pretty bad stuff in high school, and I know that I hurt her. I wish I could take everything back that I did to her," Lucas confesses.
"She still cares about you. I haven't talked to her since Farkle and I lost our baby, but I know she still cares about us. All of us," Riley says looking at Sadie who is staring at the painting on the wall.
There was a long moment of silence between the two of them. They were watching Sadie explore the hallway and look at the drawings that were hanging up. Things have changed so much. But that's growing up.
"Thanks, Lucas. For making me ready," Riley says.
"Ready for what?"
"For falling in love with Farkle."
Hope you guys liked this chapter! I know there isn't a lot of Lucaya in it, but I promise there will be in the next chapter. :)