Finding Yourself

|three|

I wanted to spend the whole day face-down on my bed.

And I would've if my phone hadn't buzzed.

I groaned and picked it up from next to me. There was a text.

From Maya.

Hey Riles, what happened? Missing you at school.

I quickly replied. I'm fine. Needed a little break. No need to worry about me.

That's it. She texted back. I'm coming over. If you say not to worry, I should worry.

Maya, I'm good. I typed as fast as possible.

I'm still coming! She answered and I groaned.

Don't come. I'm begging you. I sent.

No reply.

That meant she was coming.

I knew I couldn't stop her, so I busied about washing my face and attempting to look like I hadn't spent about an hour crying into a pillow, which was hard. Impossible.

I smoothed my dress and jacket so they weren't so wrinkled from being pressed into my bed and brushed my hair to fix the tangles I'd created.

I heard the window slide open so I threw the brush down and ran back into my room. Maya was there, back to me, closing the window behind her. She turned around.

"Hey." She raised an eyebrow. "What's up?"

"The opposite of down, duh. Don't you ever pay attention in school?" I laughed nervously at my joke.

"Nope." Maya replied, stepping farther into the room.

"Well, I'm fine. So you can go." I nodded curtly. "Bye."

"As if. You ran screaming out of class." Maya shook her head slowly. "What's up with you, Riley?"

"Nothing." I replied quickly. Too quickly. "Why would anything be wrong me? I'm not acting suspicious, you're acting suspicious. What's a pig?"

"What?" Maya looked utterly confused. Good. Let her lose the trail.

"Nevermind." I muttered.

This wasn't good. I didn't want to talk to anyone about this, but Maya was the worst possible person to have in front of me. Auggie, easy. Dad, easy. Even Mom, easy. But Maya? Not only was she a fierce interrogator, she was the center of the problem.

"Riley, listen. You can tell me what's wrong." She smiled knowingly. "You can trust me."

For now.

I decided I should give her half the truth so she'd give up and be satisfied. "I don't like him anymore."

"Huh? Who?" Maya cocked her head to the side in an almost Farkle-like manner.

"Lucas, duh. I don't like him." I repeated.

Maya's eyes widened.

"I just woke up this morning and I...didn't." I explained.

Maya nodded, then stopped and narrowed her eyes. "Wait...this isn't all because you have a new crush you don't want to tell about, is it? Because I know you, Riley. And you do that."

"N-no, why would you think that?" I laughed nervously again. "That's absolutely crazy, Maya! Haha...crazy. Definitely."

I knew instantly my stuttering spree had left her even more interested, and now sure it was about a new crush. Which it was.

I'm a terrible liar.

"Hmmm...mind if I skip school too and hang with you?" Maya asked, ignoring my stuttering.

For now.

I tried to ignore it too and nodded. "Uh, yeah. Cheesy romantic movies? Or comedies? Or action?"

Maya smiled. We both knew "hang with you" meant "watch too many movies in a row like idiots".

She appeared to think before saying, "Hmm, I don't know. How does National Treasure sound to you? That's pretty good."

I laughed. "Isn't that the historical movie my dad won't stop blabbing about? Sounds cheesy enough."

Maya laughed. "Yes, and it's not cheesy. It's the only movie your dad likes that I like too."

We set up the movie and sat on the couch with popcorn and cups of grape juice. It started and Maya scooted closer under the blanket we had. It was midday, but we closed all the blinds so it seemed like we were up late at night.

The movie started with some kid and his grandpa and secret societies and treasures and the like. Of course my dad liked it.

As the movie progressed, becoming a pretty good action movie, with fire and explosions and such, Maya rested her head on my shoulder, which made me a little uncomfortable.

"I like this part." Maya said as we watched Ian fire at Ben onscreen, and Ben block the bullets with the Declaration of Independence's bulletproof casing.

Of course she would like that part.

"I think Riley is funny." I commented, smiling at the fact there was a main character in this movie with my name, even if it was a guy.

"You think he's funny now?" Maya laughed. "You ain't seen nothing yet."

She never moved her head from my shoulder.

~
I love National Treasure, and Riley is my favorite character too so...yeah.
I had fun writing this.
Peace!