Rucas fans you are welcome.
Disclaimer: I don't own the characters.
Valentine's week at Abigail Adams High for the junior class was something. Hormones were in the air with more couples pairing off and making it known who was together. You couldn't walk the hallways without seeing at least one couple making out against the lockers or in the supply closet or the bathrooms.
Maya would gag at all the lovey-dovey couples. Riley held on tight to Lucas's hand.
"I swear if I see one more couple make out in front of my locker..."
"Come on Maya, it's not like you and Josh don't do the same thing," Zay remarked, tossing his arm around her shoulders.
"You won't catch me shoving my tongue down his throat against the lockers. The janitor's closet maybe but not with you freaks watching." She closed her locker door and the group proceeded to walk.
"I think it's romantic. A couple whose not afraid to show how much they like each other." Riley squeezed her boyfriend's hand. He smiled back at her.
"Ugh, knowing you two, for Valentine's Day you're gonna have a romantic dinner at some fancy place with flowers and candles. Then walk around to get dessert and call it a night."
"They'll stare into each other's eyes." Zay added, "Oh Lucas you look so handsome in your cowboy boots and hat." His voice teased.
Maya pitched her voice lower to mock Lucas's voice. "You're so pretty in that dress Riley. It makes my heart go pity pat."
"How did you guys know our plans?" Riley asked.
"It's not that hard to guess what you guys do for dates Princess," Zay said.
"It is what's referred to as a cliche date Riley." Farkle backed them up.
"Well, what are you and Josh doing?"
"We're going to Rock on the Boulevard."
"Oh sweet! Can I come?" Zay asked.
Maya pinched his cheek. "You're not date crashing."
"Uh, I heard you have to be 21 to enter the festival," Lucas revealed.
"Yeah, but I know a guy and Josh paid him to make us fakes."
"Wow," Farkle said slightly deadpanned, "And here we thought romance was dead."
"I know right? What a romantic." She chirped back.
"What are you and Smackle doing?" Riley asked her other oldest friend.
"We got tickets to the new show the planetarium is doing."
"Aw, nerd love," Maya said, drawing a heart in the air with her finger.
They crossed the threshold into their homeroom class.
Riley turned to Lucas. "Maybe we should do an activity as well."
"Sure Riles, what do you want to do?"
"A movie? That new rom-com just came out."
"Hey, that's what me and my date are doing." Zay chimed in.
Lucas raised an eyebrow, "You got a date?"
"Yep. Rachel from third-period bio."
"I didn't know you were into rom-coms." Riley said.
"Oh, I'm not but everyone knows you just go to those movies to make out."
"Maya you went to see it with Josh didn't you the other weekend?"
"I don't remember."
"I asked you how it was and you said amazing."
"Uh-huh well to be honest I was also in the back row making out with Josh soooo."
Riley turned herself back around in her chair before Maya could see her frown.
They shuffled to fourth period for their health class that they had this marking period instead of gym. On the board was written in all caps SEXUAL EDUCATION WEEK.
Farkle was the first to notice the writing. "Oh no, I'm going to pass out."
Maya perked up her head from her seat in the back and giggled. "Oh, this is gonna be fun."
Riley shrugged, "What's there to be worried about? Sure it's going to be awkward but we got through Mr. Fanucchi teaching us about the body."
As soon as the bell rang the door opened and closed to reveal Mr. Matthews. He had his head down, dragging his feet to the front of the class.
"Dad?"
"Mr. Fanucchi got food poisoning from a seafood buffet yesterday and as the only teacher who has this block open I'll be covering for him the rest of this week."
The look of horror on Riley's face was palpable. Maya laughed even harder. "Oh man, this just gets better and better."
"I gotta get out of here." Riley cried, only to be stopped by Lucas's hand on her arm.
"As you can tell by the board, during Valentine's Day week we like to go over this topic with every grade." He pointed his ruler at the words. "Welcome to Sex Ed."
"Wow, it can't get worse than this for you Matthews," Marly remarked.
Maya tossed her feet up on her desk. "Go ahead, Matthews show us what'cha know."
Riley buried her head in her arms.
"Valentine's Day is always filled with expectations. Hormones run wild and you're wrapped up in the atmosphere and the blinding lights..." He smacks the ruler hard against the blackboard snapping most of the girls out of their daydreams. "Next thing you know, you're pregnant. Now everyone open your books and turn to page 324."
Everyone did and Farkle promptly passed out at seeing the diagrams. Smackle lifted him back up into his chair, his head flopped on his desk.
"Now show of hands if you're currently in a relationship."
At least half the class raised their hands.
"Some of you if not all of you at one point or another started to feel things and be comfortable in your relationships. Some of you I would be more considered than others about making bad decisions before you're ready." He sent a pointed glare at Maya.
"I can neither confirm nor deny the things I do with your brother."
Cory cringed, "Ew, ok Maya I didn't need to know shut up."
She shrugged, "You asked."
He rolled his eyes, he was now looking at Riley.
"Take my daughter for example, I know she would never do anything of the sort until she's thirty."
Nigel who sat next to Lucas hit him on the shoulder. "Not to mention Lucas the Good over here." He razzed.
"I'm pretty sure you have nothing to worry about for a long time Mr. Matthews." Wyatt joined in.
The rest of the class chuckled.
Riley blushed and moved further down in her seat.
"Maya? Mayaaaaaaa! Peaches!" She called her best friend's name from the hallway.
Class rock music reverberated through the walls leading up to her bedroom door.
She knocked sharply, not waiting for a reply before entering. "May—oh my eyes! My eyes!"
Her best friend was lying on her bed with her boyfriend on top of her. Said boyfriend happened to be Riley's uncle and he was minus a shirt.
Maya's hand in Josh's hair kept him still. "Hey! Close the door."
Riley did as she was told. Josh reached above for his phone on one of the pipes that served as a makeshift shelf. He paused the music that was coming out of her one Bluetooth speaker.
"You've ignored my texts and calls just for this!"
Josh winced at how loud his niece was being.
Maya pushed the both of them up into a sitting position without letting go of him. "Can you keep it down? My parents don't know he's here."
"And I would very much love not to be killed by Shawn." Josh pointed out.
Riley groaned, shoving Josh off the bed so she could sit next to her best friend.
He stumbled into the red round chair next to the bed.
"Not that I don't love you here but what do you want?" Maya said.
Riley sighed heavily, "I want to do things with Lucas."
"Ok...you gotta give me more info Riles."
Her face flushed, hesitating on the answer. "I think I want to sleep with Lucas."
"Woah! I don't think I should be listening to this." Josh raised his hands in a surrendering gesture.
Maya gripped his thigh to stay put. "You stay." She turned to Riley.
"Did you tell him?"
"I can't just tell him!" She gasped.
"Why not?" Josh asked.
"All we've done was hold hands and kiss."
"So all you've guys done was make out?"
Riley's eyes were fixated on her lap. "We haven't even gotten that far."
Maya rubbed her back, "Oh honey..."
"Boy, are you missing out." Josh snorted in disbelief.
Maya swatted at him which he dodged.
"Riley, you shouldn't pressure yourself into jumping right into sex if you haven't done anything before," Maya advised.
"But that's what you guys did."
"Maya! You told her?" Josh turned red.
"Oh Boing," She chuckled, "You knew when we started dating that we're a packaged deal."
Josh rolled his eyes and leaned back in his chair knowing he lost this battle.
"Anyway, you can't compare my and Josh's relationship with you and Lucas. Do you really imagine yourself losing your virginity in the back of your boyfriend's parents' car?"
Riley thought for a minute. "You're right. I want something romantic with flower petals and candles."
Josh crossed his arms and pouted, "I thought it was romantic kind of."
She rubbed his bicep, "You are trust me but I was just focused on getting your pants off."
"The point is you don't have to jump into this. Take your time, talk with him about it. No pressure." Josh said.
Riley still didn't look that convinced.
"Riley, is this about what people at school are saying?"
"Why? What happened at school?" Josh asked, his voice laced with concern.
"Sex ed was this week because of Valentine's Day. Let's just say everyone knows how innocent Riley and Lucas are."
"And you?"
Maya snorted, "Everyone knows I'm not."
"You don't have to explain your relationship to anybody. It's between you and Lucas. Screw anyone who tells you how your relationship should go."
Maya nodded in agreement with her boyfriend. "Yeah and if anyone else tries to say stuff about you I'll set 'em straight."
Riley hugged her best friend. "Thanks, Peaches." She turned to hug her uncle. "You too Josh."
"That's what I'm here for Riles. Now can you get out of here so I can go back to making out with your Uncle?"
Riley was nervous to talk to Lucas. Normally they had no problem communicating with each other since they started dating. She was scared that he was going to reject her or that he didn't find her attractive enough. She put off talking to him until Valentine's weekend. Everyone in the group split up for their respective dates.
Maya left the Matthews house with Josh over an hour ago. The festival was an all-day and night thing meanwhile Riley wasn't leaving until the evening. Her phone would ding occasionally from the group chat between everyone updating on how their dates were going.
Lucas picked her up half an hour early to their dinner reservation. It was a semi-fancy restaurant with a white tablecloth and no overhead lighting. He kissed her on the cheek when she greeted him at the door and other than the handholding to the restaurant, Lucas didn't seem interested in her.
The hostess sat them down, he pulled out a chair for his girlfriend to sit first.
"I can't believe you got reservations here," Riley told him after they sat down.
"I was hoping you'd be surprised. I know Maya and Zay kinda gave it away the other day at school."
The waiter came by to take their order. Lucas had stretched his hand across the table to cover Riley's hand.
"Speaking of Maya and Zay...do you think we're too predictable?"
His eyebrows scrunched.
"What do you mean?"
"Well...it's just that they were able to guess what our plans are."
"We can always do other stuff if you want. I just thought you would enjoy this." His face went ashen, "Are you not enjoying this?"
Riley squeezed his hand at his alarmed tone. "No, no I am enjoying this. You always do the most romantic things for me."
Lucas sighed in relief. "There's nothing wrong with liking a more romantic setting Riley. Would you rather be at that rock festival Maya is at?"
She was quiet for a moment. "Not a rock festival but if it was a pop festival I think I would have fun."
He smiled, "Then if there is ever a pop festival I'll be sure to take you."
She giggled and blushed at his commitment. "I look forward to it then."
Dinner was lovely and Riley couldn't have imagined it going any better. They decided to skip dessert in favor of walking down to one of their favorite ice cream carts. Her arms hugged his bicep as they strolled along the sidewalks.
She felt the buzz of her phone going off. It was a notification from Instagram. Just like the Abigail Adams social network, everyone moved onto Instagram and away from the school administration's prying eyes. It was still important to her to create a stylized profile and feed. She had a decent following and most of her photos were of the friend group anyway. The notification signaled that multiple of her friends posted.
Farkle and Smackle posted a series of photos of them at the planetarium. Zay didn't make a post but he had multiple stories on his profile of the movies. Lastly, Maya posted a series of photos and stories on hers. It was pretty rare for her to be this active.
Her stories contained a lot of the bands that played and videos of herself and the view from on top of Josh's shoulders. She tagged Josh in her post of course with the caption simply saying happy v day boing. The two of them appeared to be so carefree and Riley never really saw her uncle in that light before, like an actual teenager. One post was the two of them obviously kissing and another where their tongues just touched.
The obvious PDA display lowered Riley's mood. It reminded her of the uncomfortable conversation she wanted to ask him about tonight.
Lucas glanced over at her phone. "Is that the rest of the gang?"
"Uh, yeah all of them posted about their dates tonight."
He smiled cheekily and grabbed her phone. "Well, looks like we gotta post something too." He held the phone up high to capture the two of them and their ice creams walking through New York. Riley smiled at the photo and added it to her story.
"I'm glad everyone else is having a good time. It seems like Maya is having a really good time." He teased.
"Uh, Lucas?"
"Yeah, Riles?"
"Do you like me?"
He looked at her funny. "Of course I like you. I'm dating you."
"What do you like about me?"
"Everything."
"Then how come you don't want to..." She trailed off.
"Want to...what?" He was fully absorbed in what she had to say. "What's wrong Riley?"
"I just feel like..." She huffed, "I feel like you don't want to do anything with me."
"We spend almost every day together at school. I mean if this is because I don't take you out on dates more often I'm sorry but you know I have baseball and other obligations."
Riley shook her head. "No, I mean you don't seem to want to do anything intimate with me..." She said the word intimate so quietly Lucas had to strain to hear her.
Lucas stopped them and held onto her arms.
"Is this about what people at school were saying about us?"
She wanted to deny it but stayed silent.
"Riley..."
"I know it seems stupid and I'm not complaining about our relationship at all. I love us and I know you really care about me. I already talked to Maya and Josh about this and I know I shouldn't care what others think about me and my relationship but this is my first relationship and I want to do it right." By the end of her rant, she was out of breath.
"Surprisingly Maya is right. Our relationship is our relationship and no one is obligated to know what's going on. About the PDA, I was just waiting until we could talk about it. I was worried that you might think we were moving too fast or that I expected you to do all of this stuff right off the bat."
Riley took his hands into her own. "No that's not it all. I mean...maybe in the beginning I was and I know I'm certainly not ready to go all the way just yet...but I think we can at least start exploring and maybe make out a little bit?"
Lucas smiled crookedly, "Is that including against the school lockers or?"
She blushed, "No! No nothing like that. I don't know if I could do that in public."
He looked around at the nearly deserted streets. He cupped her cheek as his other hand wound around her waist. This wasn't a peck that they would normally share but a full-on kiss. She stood frozen for half a second until she hesitantly returned it. Both of her hands made their way to his cheeks.
Lucas pulled back to see her face red. "So like that?"
She was too stunned to speak but she was able to nod enthusiastically. He laughed at her expression.
"Promise me next time you feel like this to just tell me. I wouldn't mind getting to kiss you more often." He winked.
She giggled again because she could never help herself in front of him. "Promise."