Fall Apart

Chapter Eight

Maya's sat on Riley's bed, painting her nails an elegant shade of dark red. It's about 3AM, Riley won't sleep and she won't switch off her lamp either. Maya's smiling to herself. Her first kiss. With Lucas. Her first kiss with Lucas. Riley gets out of bed and paces around a bit. She does this several times. Everyone went home around 1AM. The girls got changed and went to bed. Riley hasn't asked to talk to her at the bay window. It's been two hours. She's going to crack soon. Maya blows on her nails to dry them, her eyes following Riley. She drops her hand and gets up. She sits and the window and rests her legs across it. "You alright there, sweetie?"

"I'm freakin' out, Peaches. I'm freakin' out." Riley loudly whispers. She sits next to Maya, who strokes her hair as she puts her head on her shoulder. "You know what to do when things happen. What do I do?"

"About wh-" Maya's mouth opens in an O shape. "Did you speak to Farkle?"

Riley's eyes widen. She lifts her head to look at Maya in the eyes. "You know? You knew!"

Maya quickly covers Riley's mouth with her hand before she can wake up Auggie or her parents. Riley licks her hand. "Eugh, that's disgusting." Maya quickly pulls her hand back and wipes it on her pyjama shirt. "Of course I knew. How could I not? How didn't you? He's loved you since the first grade!"

"I know! But not like this! This is new! This is- this is-" she frantically waves her arms around.

"I know, honey," she shakes her head.

"What do I do, Maya? I've had a crush on Lucas and then I realised that's all I had besides he's cute and one of my best friends. And I tried to date Charlie but that didn't work out because I didn't know him and I didn't like him even though he's nice guy. But Farkle's our best friend and I'm so confused I don't know how to feel anymore." She rambles. Maya looks at her sympathetically.

"I know, honey." Maya repeats. "You have to do whatever you want to do. I can't tell you how to feel. And if it means anything, I think we've all handled the last several weeks very well. You've been very grown up. I'm proud of you."

***

"You like Riley?" Lucas almost exclaims in the middle of the night. Farkle had given him the run down on what had happened in the last few hours, weeks, months. Right up to the roof they'd been on not too long ago. The only light coming from the planetarium ceiling of Farkle's bedroom. If Lucas had been able to see Farkle's face it would have been pink. They had spent several minutes in quiet conversation before Farkle had revealed his confession, neither of them having been able to sleep.

"I thought you ought to have known, probably before now." Farkle mumbles, "But she liked you and you liked her. I couldn't be honest with myself. And you guys are my best friends."

"And you told her tonight." Lucas states, "What happened?"

"Nothing. It was midnight. And we came to find you guys." Farkle answers, gazing up at the planets orbiting the sun. "It took a while, where were you?"

It was Lucas' turn to blush. "Uh... I was with Maya at midnight..." He quietly mutters out, expecting it to explain everything.

"Well, we kind of guessed that." Farkle laughs.

"I mean. We were... We kissed... Together... At midnight."

***

"YOU MADE OUT WITH HIM?" Maya winces at the volume of Riley's voice. She sounded excited, not mad. But the whole city probably knew she'd kissed Lucas now. Great. Maya nodded. "What was it like?"

"You've kissed him before." Maya replies back quietly.

"But not like, making out." Riley says. Back on her first date on the subway. "It lasted less than a second."

"Riles, calm down, it was just my first kiss."

"Was it good?"

Maya looks down, then at Riley and uncharacteristically giggled, "Yeah."

"How long did you kiss him for?"

"Like seven seconds."

"That's a long time to kiss someone... How did you do it?"

Maya laughs nervously, "Well I put my arms around his neck and he put his hands on my waist and we just kinda started at each other and leaned in and, yeah."

"That's a good move."

"I didn't hate it." She smirks, "All these questions, you gotta leave some mystery in romance."

***

"What do I do now?" Farkle asks. They're both sat up, both wide awake. They have the TV on low volume.

"You could ask her out, I mean, you want to. You could." Lucas suggests.

"But when you and Riley... Went out. Wasn't it awkward. And when you started dating Maya."

"Me and Riley weren't ready. And now everything's back how it was, kinda."

"Yeah. Maya still makes fun of you too."

"Yeah," Lucas sighs and smiles, "But I never really minded." He pauses and looks at Farkle. "You never know what'll happen unless you take the risk."