Growing Pains

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"We have to talk about it," Maya teased, bumping Riley's shoulder in the bay window. Ryan laughed from where he was sitting over on Riley's bed, knowing Riley would never get past the awkwardness of the talking stage.

It had been about three months since Riley and Ryan's double date with Aiden and Lucas. On Ryan's end, things were going great, they had gone on to go on more dates and eventually started dating officially during the summer.

Riley and Lucas? Not so much.

They haven't so much as spoken about a second date since their first. Only after endless prying on Ryan and Maya's end did they find out that the two kissed. It was a peck, but a kiss is a kiss.

"Riley, we have to keep moving, just talk to him," Ryan sighed, turning upside down on the bed.

Riley's face turned red. "Sorry, not all of us can just walk up to the guy of our dreams and ask him to be their boyfriend, ok?"

Ryan rolled his eyes. "Aiden's not the guy of my dreams."

Maya scoffed. "Uh-huh. Sure. Ok." She and Riley rolled their eyes.

Ok, so what if he found Aiden a little dreamy? This was about Riley, not him!

"We don't have to talk about this, we have so many other things going on!" She tried. That's when Faarkle came in the window.

"Ladies," he greeted casually, winking at Ryan. He rolled his eyes. Try as he might, Farkle was never going to live down what he did.

"Yay!" Riley hugged Farkle tightly before letting go. Farkle sat down and smiled.

"Well that settles that then."

Ryan scoffs and rolls his eyes. Farkle frowns at him. "You said no."

"I like to be asked first!" Ryan argued.

"What are you talking about?" Maya asked, looking between the two of them with furrowed eyebrows.

"He's got tickets to a concert and didn't invite me first!" Ryan complained.

"See! This is a new problem we can solve," Riley rejoiced, clasping her hands, "This might even take all day."

Maya shook her head. "Nope, Ryan and Farkle problem. He's got it, just watch."

"Why didn't you ask me first?" Ryan asked, pouting.

Farkle sighed and climbed more fully into the room. "Your phone was off and Lucas was the one I ran into first. I'm sorry, okay? You're still my best friend."

Ryan smiled. "That's all I wanted to hear. I'll go to the concert with you."

Farkle raised an eyebrow teasingly. "Oh, really? But, now I want Riley to go with me."

"Not happening, Farkle," Maya said for her. Farkle shrugged.

"Okay, guess that settles that." He took this as his cue to leave. Ryan laughed and settled back on the bed.

Maya held out her hands in front of her to mime what she was about to say next, "Restaurant booth, you lock eyes, you climb into his lap, you grab Lucas by the face."

"O-okay, I'm leaving," Ryan said awkwardly, getting to his feet and following Farkle out the fire escape.

--

Back in the classroom, Ryan was rubbing his temples as a headache was building. Riley still hadn't told Cory that she had kissed Lucas. Ryan had argued that she didn't have to, but Riley didn't like keeping secrets.

Which was fine for her, but was a terrible policy for a teenager to keep up in the long run.

Farkle, being the great friend he is, saw his opportunity to take advantage of the situation.