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≪ TO MEND A HEART ≫
Riley sniffled, hugging her knees to her chest as she listened to the sound of Missy Bradford's fairly decent singing coming from the auditorium. She dropped her chin onto her knees, wishing she could go back in time and do something to prevent her breakup from happening. But unfortunately for her, she couldn't go back in time— and even if she could, Riley doubted that anything would've been different.
It was the night of the talent show, and there she was, sobbing in the janitor's closet. It was all because Lucas dumped her, saying that the spark of their relationship was no longer present. He wasn't rude about it, and he hadn't been cheating on her or anything like that— it had just come out of nowhere, so unexpectedly, leaving Riley to forget all about the fact that she was supposed to be performing in the talent show. She couldn't care less about the stupid show anymore.
Her eyebrows furrowed as she heard Missy's voice fade, the sound of applause taking its place. She knew good and well that it meant Missy was finished, meaning Riley's turn was up next— however; she didn't plan on going, she only planned on staying in the dark janitor's closet where the stench of bleach stung her nostrils as her tears ruined her supposedly waterproof mascara.
Throwing her head back against the wall, Riley tried to wipe all memories of she and Lucas' relationship from her mind— which was hard to do when you dated someone for three years. The only thing that did was make her miss him even more as she thought about all the times they shared together, very seldom arguing. She just couldn't understand why he no longer felt the spark, because Riley definitely wasn't unhappy with their relationship.
She was pulled back into the harsh world of reality with a quiet gasp and a jerk of her head upon hearing the doorknob rattle. With a frown, she quickly wiped away her tears—only smudging her mascara more—with the back of her hand. It was probably just Maya, who'd been very excited to hear Riley sing, but she still didn't want anyone seeing her like this.
When the door opened, however, she did not see her very short blonde best friend— she saw Farkle Minkus, another good friend of hers, but still the last person she was expecting.
"Farkle," she breathed, looking up at him in confusion. "What are you doing here?"
"I could ask you the same question. It's your turn to preform," he explained in a soft tone, pulling the door closed as he sat down beside Riley. She laughed humorlessly in response to his statement.
"Singing is the last thing on my mind." She placed her head on her knees once more, saying, "I just wanna stay in here."
Farkle's eyebrows furrowed in confusion as he looked at the usually happy brunette, wondering what was going on. There were few things that could make Riley seem this sad—almost depressed—so he knew it had to be serious. The last thing he wanted to do was leave the poor girl in the closet all by herself to sulk in the darkness.
"What's wrong, Riles?"
Sniffling once more, she turned her head so that her cheek was pressed against her bent up knees as she looked at Farkle. "It's nothing, don't worry about it."
"It's obviously something," he pointed out with a heavy frown, scooting over to place a hand on her back. "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to— but I'm not leaving you in here alone, not like this."
Riley bit her lip as she attempted to look at him, tears stinging her eyes and clouding her vision. She couldn't believe he was actually going to stay in there with her while she was so upset— it wasn't exactly fun to spend the night of the talent show with someone who couldn't stop crying. It made her happy, though, to have a friend like Farkle.
"Lucas broke up with me."
She hadn't even meant to say anything, the words just fell from her mouth. But, she had to admit— it did feel nice to finally tell someone.
Farkle frowned, questioning, "Why would he do that?"
"He said there wasn't a spark anymore." Her lip quivered ever so slightly as she spoke, the tears threatening to come back. "He said we just didn't go well together."
"I'm so sorry, Riley."
She stared blankly ahead at the shelves of cleaning supplies as she mumbled, "Did I do something wrong?"
The way Farkle looked at her like she was insane led her to believe he didn't think she did anything— but Riley couldn't help believing otherwise. Lucas had shown no signs of unhappiness, and then out of the blue, he called things off. There had to have been something she did, or at least that was what Riley thought.
"You didn't do anything wrong, Riley," he insisted with a heavy frown. "Any guy would be lucky to have you."
She laughed lightly. "Thanks, Farkle."
"I'm serious." He turned abruptly, scooting around so his face was only inches away from hers. She sucked in a sharp, much needed breath as he continued. "You're an incredible person, Riley Matthews. I mean it— you're beautiful, smart, and a barrel of sunshine and rainbows."
Riley's breath hitched as she looked at him, her brown eyes pouring into his blue ones. She'd never heard him say something like that before— sure, she knew he "loved" her, but she honestly thought it was just a little crush. Now she realized that it could've been much more.
"Farkle..."
"Riley," he sighed, "You deserve someone who'll treat you as wonderful as you are."
She couldn't take it anymore— the way she felt around Lucas was nothing compared to the way the butterflies in her stomach swarmed when Farkle looked at her like that, and said those things. There was only one thing she could think of doing, and she wasn't going anywhere until she did it.
Riley leaned forward until the space between them had disappeared, her lips against his.
It didn't take long for Farkle to respond, using his hands to cup her tear-stained face as their lips moved in sync. She felt like she was up in the air, floating through a sky full of cotton candy clouds shaped like bunnies. All of the sudden, it was like this weight was lifted off of her shoulders and she was right where she needed to be.
Their lips detached moments later, the only sound being heavy breathing as they placed their foreheads together. Riley had finally stopped crying, the corners of her mouth quirked up into a content smile. She didn't know what was going to happen tomorrow or even in the next few minutes, but she didn't care.
Because for the first time in a long time, everything finally felt right with her universe.
[—]
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