Stuck on Replay

Fighting Back

Hey guys! Sorry I havent updated! I didnt know where to lead this, but, i do now.

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Farkle's pov:

"Farkle..." Maya whisperes. She looks pretty concerned, well, so am I. Yesterday when maya had me tell riley all that had happened, i knew lucas would do something. And to think he could've changed. Actually, I never thought that at all. That was riley, who was obviously proven wrong in the saddest way.

Lucas is almost to our table when I see riley put her head in her heads and say "Oh no." I agree. Oh no.

"NOTHING!" Lucas calls out as he reaches the table.

"Haven't seen you all day, where've you been hiding?"

"I haven't been hiding at all." I say while standing up, trying to sound confident. Well, i didnt.

"Oh, you should've been." He says. This is Not good. Not good at all.

"It was little lover boy-sqeak to the rescue yesterday, huh? Well, lets see how that will help you now."

"Don't. I swear lucas." Says maya. She stands up as well. Lucas turns to her.

"Ah well seeing that you called me lucas, this nothing must mean a lot to you. To bad.." He chuckles. I really want to throw a punch but we all know who would end up winning that fight. My only chance here is to try to avoid all fighting and hitting. I may have gained a little muscle, but nothing compared to lucas.

Lucas steps closer to me, just like we were a few days ago by the bleachers. You can see the anger in his eyes. He grabs my shirt as they do in those action movies when they are ready to start a fight scene. I'm not ready.

"Who's going to save you this time. I'm the one against you now, I won't have any chance of saving you now." He laughs. I'm in awe of the fact that everyone is sitting by. But I wouldn't want to mess with this situation either.

"It's a shame Joey didn't finish his job. What a fool i was to interfere."

"Why'd you do it?" I ask

"Why'd i do what?" He says.

"Why did you stop them that day. I know it wasnt  for me. For sure you didnt want to get joey in trouble so why?"

"I wanted to be able to do it myself.." He says while chuckling

"So not for Riley?" He turns to her. She has fear in her eyes. He laughs.

"It's all part of the game." He whispers. The  next thing that happens I don't think any of us saw coming. Not me. Not maya. Not billy. Not zay. And definitely not lucas.

He is about to punch me, square in then face, to start the payback for spilling his dirty secret.

"Ready?" He says, with that idiotic smirk. No. I most certainly am not. But here we go.

Then, something surprising happens.

"DONT YOU EVEN DARE FRIAR!" Screams riley, jumping on his back. Holy crap.

"YOU EVEN THINK FOR ONE SECOND THAT THIS WOULD MAKE ME WANT YOU BACK?!" Now she's really yelling. Lucas is trying to get her off of him. Good luck with that.

"YOU KNOW WHAT YOU SELFISH BASTARD? I WONT COME BACK THIS TIME. I KNOW WHATS RIGHT! AND IT IS MOST CERTAINLY NOT YOU!"

"GET OFF ME!" He yells. I'm thoroughly enjoying this.

"NEVER THOUGHT  I'D HEAR THAT ONE!" She yells back. This is the best thing I've ever experienced in my life.

"I SWEAR RILEY!" Now he's in for it.

"YOU ALWAYS SWEAR! IN MANY DIFFERENT WAYS! CURSING, PROMISING THINGS YOU CANNOT KEEP, AND PROMISING YOU WOULD NEVER LEAVE YOUR FRIENDS!" I'm afraid riley's just getting started. I thought she let all her anger out last night. Boy was i wrong.

She continues,"REMEMBER THE  'I am home'  OR  'that's what friends are for riley'? YEAH, ME TO.  BUT I DO NOT SEE THE YOU I KNEW! AND I DONT THINK I EVER WILL. YOU'VE CHANGED FRIAR! YOU'VE GONE BACK TO THE WAY YOU WERE BEFORE!" Well, No kidding.

She lowers her voice. "I won't be waiting for you to let me back in this time. You'll never change lucas, you have to much damage that will always be right behind you."

And in that instant, she jumps off his back and begins to walk away. But she stops. She turns around and looks at him from the cafeteria doors.

And in that moment, probably one of the greatest moments of her life, she runs full force at him, punches him straight in the face, knocking him down.

She gets up. She grabs maya and me and walks out. Out of the lunch room. Out of the hallway. Out of the school. Out of the town. Straight to her house. Right to her bay window. With us cheering her on the whole way home. Leaving lucas in the school cafeteria, more confused than ever.

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When we finally reach Riley's building we were imagining what lucas is doing right now. Sulking in the corner of class. Working out in the school gym,pretending I'm the punching bag, or maybe wondering how he got beat up by two girls in the matter of 4 days. Probably the last one.

When we reach her apartment riley leads us up the fire escape to her floor. She unlocks the windows and lets us in. We have so many memories here. When i taught her how to flirt, when I had to choose between the girls for my buggy awards, when we were discussing the possibilities of me having austism, when we helped her while being bullied, and even just last night, which is probably my favorite.

Riley sits down in the middle, with maya on her left, me on her right. We all let out a deep breath. Probably because we were laughing the whole walk home, which, without taking the subway, is a pretty long walk.

"So that happened.." Riley says, smiling to herself. There is that smile again. Now there is nothing but goodness in those eyes again.

"Yeah. You were amazing Riles. You know, I threw the same exact punch at him when i found out he was cheating." Maya says, sounding proud.

"It's true. It was amazing. Both of you were amazing." I say they both turn to me. Suddenly i see an image of them from the buggy awards show night while sitting in this very window. We have all changed and grown up so much. Life was so much simpler then.

"Thankyou farkle. I was not going to stand for that insane guy, i mean lucas, to beat you up." Oh riley, very serious but still has a way of throwing in a joke.

"You know I'm glad we found lucas' secret. It brought us three back together just like old times." Says Maya.

"Yeah, i guess we have lucas to thank for this." Riley replies

"But we also have him to blame for starting this all in the first place." I say. Because it's true. Without him we would still be the three best friends we were since the 1st grade. Right?

"True. But i feel like somethings would have been different. It definitely brought us closer as a whole though. And that's all I ever wanted." Says riley while softly smiling.

And then out of the blue, for no reason, the three of us just hug. Maybe because of what just happened. Maybe because lucas. But probably because we were finally the bestfriends we always were again. Or so we thought.

The doorbell rings. So it must be someone we don't know well. Otherwise they would come through one of the  bay windows.

"I'll get it." Says maya.

"No! It's my house. I'll get it."

"We'll all get it, okay girls?" I say. I sound like an adult. They nod at me in approvement. We link arms and stand up.

We all walk out of the bedroom, down the hall, and across the kitchen and family room to the door. Still talking about all that had happened.

Riley turns the door knob, and little did she know that who it was would change all of our futures. Maya's, lucas', mine, and definitely hers.