Backsliding

Lessons Learned

Thank you for the reviews/follows/favorites. The title of this chapter comes from the song "Lessons Learned" by Carrie Underwood.

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Sorry for any spelling/grammar mistakes.

Enjoy!

Lessons Learned

Maya stood in the doorway watching as her best friend slept in her bed. She quietly shut the door before joining her husband on the living room's couch.

"She asleep?"

Maya nodded, as she laid on top of Josh and he wrapped his arms around her. She shook off the goosebumps at the memory of her best friend showing up at her door, sobbing and saying she made a huge mistake. She tried to prepare herself for the moment and no matter how much she did she wasn't prepared to see or hear the devastation from her best friend. Her heart broke for Riley and she couldn't help but wonder why Riley keeps going in this circle with Lucas that allows him to ruin the good in her life.

"Why do you think she lets Lucas keep doing this to her?" she asked, resting her face into the crook of his neck.

"He's her first love. She dreamed her and Lucas were the next Cory and Topanga."

"But there not. No one is."

Josh nodded, "As soon as Riley lets that dream fully go then she will allow herself to be truly happy with whomever she ends up with."

Maya nodded, "Hopefully this is the wake up call she needs."

Josh nodded again, "But we need to let her choose her happiness even if we don't agree. She may be heartbroken over what happened with Farkle but her heart may still lie with Lucas and that is something you can't control. If Lucas makes her happy then you should step back and let her give it another real try and be happy."

Maya rolled her eyes, "But I thought-"

"I do. I do believe her and Farkle are meant to be but that doesn't mean that will be the way it turns out. Riley is the only one who knows where her heart truly lies. The only thing we can do is support her and her decision even if we disagree with it."

Maya sighed, "That's going to be hard."

Josh nodded, "But she would support you no matter what."

"I know," Maya agreed. "I'll support her no matter who she picks even if I disagree."

XOXOXOXO

Riley opened her eyes, surprised finding herself in her best friend and uncle's bed but then her memory of what happened earlier came rushing back in. She closed her eyes hard, not allowing her tears to fall. It was time to suck it up and face the world. She couldn't hide out forever. This was her fault. She made her bed and now she had lie in and fix it herself. She slowly got up, stretching her body out, knowing she needed to talk to Maya before quietly walking out of the bedroom. She stopped outside of Gabriel's room at the sound of Maya singing. She glanced through the slightly opened door to see Maya in the rocking chair, feeding her son while singing and smiling at him. She decided against interrupting the bonding moment between Maya and her son and went instead to find her uncle lying on the couch, channel surfing until he realized she was standing not far.

"Riley, Maya is-"

"Putting Gabriel to bed. I saw her when I passed his room."

Josh nodded before signaling for her to sit down as he sat up. "What's on your mind?" he asked after a few moments and could see his niece's mind was racing.

Riley sighed, looking over at her uncle. One thing she loved and knew was she could trust her uncle with her true feelings. He wouldn't judge how she felt no matter how she was feeling. "I feel like a bad person saying this, especially to you," she began, hesitantly before taking a deep breath in. "And I would never say this to Maya because I wouldn't want to hurt her feelings or to make her feel bad but I always thought I would be the one in Maya's position. Happy. Settle down. Married. Children. And she would be the one in mine. I would be the one worried about Maya and her God awful decisions. I look at her Instagram filled of pictures of you and Gabriel and the three of you together and I always imagine that would be me. I would be the one posting those types of pictures with my husband and my child. She has everything I want and I'm jealous," she hated admitting the truth. "I'm jealous of Maya because she has this perfect life with you. "

Josh understood on the outside it looked like him and Maya had everything and more. He agreed they have an amazing life together and he couldn't ask for more but he needed Riley to understand their lives weren't the fairy tale she pictured them to be. She needed to stop waiting for a fairy tale but find the right person for her to start the life she wanted and longed for. "Perfect?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. "Riles, mine and Maya's lives are far from perfect. It's never going to be perfect. We don't expect it to be. You do realized we didn't exactly do things in the right order and all the scolding we got for not doing it in the right order? Did you forget Gabriel wasn't exactly planned? Yes, we got engaged before we got pregnant but we had a newborn baby at our wedding. He got more love and attention from my wife on my wedding day then I did and when it was finally my turn to get the love and attention he made sure to let me know who comes first in her books and till this day he still does. Do I regret that we have him? No. Do I wish I could go back in time and change the timing? Not for a second. I love Maya and that little guy more than I love anything in the world. I never thought it was possible to love anything the way I love those two. The thing is I know Maya feels the same. I know she would fight for me like I would fight for her. We would fight for our family. We have our ups and we have our downs but at the end of the day we are both happy and in love and fight through our problems to come out on top and that's what matters. That's what you need Riley. You need someone who loves you like you love them and is willing to fight for you like you would for that person because if that person can't give you the love you are giving them or fight for you like you would fight for them and your relationship then they aren't worth your time. Everything else is just icing on the cake and sometimes you toss on a few sprinkles on there and they don't land exactly where you want them to but you go with it."

Riley chuckled, "Sprinkles?"

"Just go with," Josh smiled.

"I think you are right. I think I put too much fate and time into someone who doesn't love me the way I loved him."

"Love or loved?" Josh asked, both knowing he knew exactly who she was talking about.

Riley pressed her lips together, remaining quiet.

"You know Maya and I, we both want you to be happy and so does everyone else who loves you," he pointed out. "And if you feel you want to give a specific someone that everyone isn't fond of another chance then you should."

Riley nodded. "Its just really confusing. Lucas has been the person I've pictured marrying since the day I met him. We have had good times and we have had really bad times but I can't help but remember the good times we had but then there is Farkle. He helped me realize that I can move on and I can be happy. Really happy. He made my heart flutter and the butterflies start to fly again."

"Then I guess you need to figure out who really owns your heart."

Riley nodded.

"Listen to it. You are the only one who knows who your heart belongs to and will make you truly happy."

Riley nodded again as all of her uncle's words sunk in. "I know who."

XOXOXOXO

Riley found herself standing outside his door. She took in a deep breath before lifting her hand up to knock on the door. She let out the breath slowly as she waited for him to answer. She swallowed at the sight of him standing in front of her.

"Can we talk?"

Please leave me a review with your thoughts. I'm sorry this was on the shorter side. Who do you think will get Riley's heart? Lucas? Farkle? Someone else? I'm going to wrap this story up in the next chapter or two.