"Now, girls, you aren't allowed to come out until you're getting along again." Cory announces as the rest of the class collectively exits the classroom.
"You and Lucas are keeping something from me and I don't like it. You're two of my best friends, and you should both be able to actually talk to me by now. WIth words. Are you dating again? It's our freshman year and our lives are finally about to start. DO what you want, date who you want, I don't care." Riley thunders, stomping around the classroom as Maya leans back in her desk, arms crossed across her chest.
"What if I can't?" Maya asks plainly.
"What if the person that I'd like to be with wouldn't even look my way in a thousand years? Maybe that's what I have been talking to Huckleberry about." Maya supposes.
"My uncle? You should be able to talk to me about him as well." Riley feels exasperated and confused.
"I'm not talking about Uncle Boing Boing. I'm not discussing this with you! I have a right to my own privacy! I should be able to keep a few things to myself." Maya insists, standing up from her desk much too calmly, pain in her eyes.
"I tell you everything, but I would be okay if you were actually keeping it to yourself. Instead, you're talking to Lucas instead of me. What does Lucas get that I don't?" Riley asks looking desperate.
"You." Maya answers. " He understands you much better than you do." she chuckles darkly.
"What do you need to ask him about me, that you can't just ask me?" Riley looks sad, sitting on one of the desks so that she was on Maya's level.
"It's no big deal." the blonde protests..
"It is to me." the taller girl refutes.
"I love you, you know that. Just talk to me."
"And I love you. That's the issue." Maya scoffs.
"In what world is that an issue?" Riley looks hurt and Maya hates that. Maya hates it that she's the one who hurt Riley.
"In the one where we don't love one another in the same way." Maya answers her.
"What do you mean by 'in the same way', Maya?" Riley asks very carefully, unsure of what piece of the puzzle it is that she is missing.
"You know that there are different kinds of love. Romantic, platonic, familial..." Maya listed off.
"Yeah." Riley nods.
"The one that you feel for me, isn't the same as the one that I feel for you." Maya sounds mournful and a knot that had been residing in Riley's chest loosened.
"Oh, you think that, huh? And which one of these all kinds of love is it that you think that I feel towards you, Maya?" Riley asks with an amused look. Maya is pretty sure that she's the one missing something.
"You don't see me platonically?" Maya asks.
"Not in the slightest." Riley laughs. "Is that what you were talking to Lucas about?"
"Umh, yeah." Maya answers.
"Why would I have ever told our boyfriend about my feelings for another person?" Riley asks, still looking amused.
"Do you see me talking to Auggie about stuff like that?" Riley asks. "Plus, he was with you."
"He's not with either of us now." Maya points out.
"No, he isn't. I don't think that he will be again, either." Riley says with a grin as Maya steps up and puts her arms around the brunette's neck.
"I like the sound of that. My Riley." Maya murmurs.
"Your Riley. My Maya." Riley bites her lip in a way that has gotten to Maya for years. Riley shudders and leans in to kiss her like they have both wanted to for years.
"Okay, that's enough! Back to class! Ms.Hart, hands off of my daughter!" Cory yells, busting back into the classroom.
