And Then She Stopped

chapter thirteen

After the glory days of Maya's great return the tension between her and Riley resurfaced. Things were definitely better, in the sense that they still walked to school together every morning and went about their daily best friend rituals, but Riley seemed to be pulling away. Maya wanted to reassure her there was nothing between her and Lucas if it meant not losing Riley but she couldn't exactly prove anything when she was meeting with him every day after school to work on the assignment. Farkle was over at Riley's working on their assignment when they heard three swift taps on the window, Riley got up and pushed a curtain aside and opened the window. She peered outside and when no one was there she left it open. The instant she turned around Maya swung through the window. She had to wait for Riley to turn because according to the unspoken rules of their fight they couldn't see each other outside of walking to school, school, and Topanga's. Riley turned around to the sound of someone coming inside, she recognized the top of Maya's blonde head immediately, she was putting together different angry phrases in her mind until Maya looked up at her with puffy red eyes that made it more than obvious she had been crying.

"Maya what-?"

"My dad came back."

Riley came up to her and held her face in her hands, checking to make sure he didn't leave his mark on her face. When they were kids Maya did understand why her parents hurt her, she always assumed she'd done something to deserve it, so it was crushing when he left, and even more so when she grew up to realize that her childhood wasn't normal after all.

"Did he hurt-"

"No." She pulled Riley's hands away from her face, "Lucas was dropping me home and I saw him going in, so I came here."

She braced herself for an angry Riley, she didn't deserve a friend like her and it felt like she was throwing that friendship away every time she mentioned spending time with Lucas. Riley just looked at her and pulled her into a hug whispering "You're going to be alright peaches, I've got you." Yeah Maya thought, I don't deserve you. Farkle came in and Riley gave him a look that said 'I've got this, you can go home', so he ducked out without a word.

Riley went and checked that it was alright for Maya to stay the night, which of course it was. Maya may not have known it, or been capable of knowing it, but she was always considered family to the Matthews. Riley and Maya shared a bed that night, and they stayed up talking the entire time. Riley was used to going to bed early, but she fought the urge to just close her eyes and drift off to sleep because she knew that as long as they were talking Maya wasn't thinking about home. It was during this time that Riley realized that their ring power was stronger than any "girl code".

"Hey peaches?"

"Yes sunshine?"

"Are you and Lucas together... like together." Maya rolled onto her back and stared blankly up at the ceiling.

"No."

"Do you want to be?"

"I want to be your best friend." Riley sat up in bed and looked at her for a good minute or two, a serious look settling on her face.

"You will always be my best friend, do you understand that?"

Maya smiled up at her and bit her lower lip, "I love you."

The next day at school they had work time for their assignments. Lucas would look at Maya working and look down, then Maya would look at him working – and the cycle repeated. Riley watched the two and smiled, Farkle looked at her and then looked down to get to work.

"It's your turn to pick heehaw." She said with a smile, retrieving the map from her backpack.

"I pick your house."

"Y-you can't do that," She looked back at Cory who was watching him, "He can't do that."

Cory shrugged, "The assignment is the natural wonders of New York, I never told you what kind of natural."

"So he can do that?"

"He can do that."

Maya turned back to Lucas who was grinning – probably a little too proudly – and then she looked at Riley, who was too busy scribbling down notes about the places her and Farkle had gone to step in. Maya bit down on her lip and looked up at the ceiling, slowly a smirk spread across her face and she looked straight at Lucas.

"Let's go to your house." He shrugged,

"Okay."

"Wait – really?"

"Yeah, we can go to my house next. But right now it's my turn to pick, and I want to wander to your house Maya."

The bell rang and everyone left except Maya and Riley, Cory stood at the front of the room and wrote what looked like a structured lesson plan on the blackboard – he had other classes too, they all learned the same things it just didn't make as much sense to all of them.

"So..." Riley said, shifting in her seat.

"So."

"Want me to come with?"

Maya stood up from her seat and extended her hand to Riley, who reached and grabbed hold of it. They walked out of the room together holding hands, and they even got to the school doors together, Maya was hoping they could go back to her place and see if Kermit was still there – but of course Riley could never make it past the doors during school hours. It was fine though, Maya knew Riley wanted to, and she appreciated that she even missed the first few minutes of class to go to the door with her, but ditching school was one of the few things that Riley just wasn't capable of doing – even for Maya. So, they both went on with their day, and Maya kept worrying about who/what her and Lucas may be greeted by when they got to her place.

At the end of the school day when Lucas was walking out to his car he saw Maya already leaning against it, she had her arms crossed and she was squinting because of the sun. He went to open the door for her but she stopped him.

"We're going to my house we're getting there my way." At first Lucas hesitated when she said this, but then he threw both of their bags into the trunk of his car and they started walking to her apartment. They were quieter than they usually were together, and Lucas noticed Maya nervously picking at her cuticles and biting her nails, but he didn't mention it. After around half an hour they were standing in front of the door to Maya's apartment. Maya turned to Lucas, and then opened the door. She stepped back a little – at first – worried she would see one (or worse, both) of her parents, but neither of them were there. Kermit's bag was gone and Katy's jacket was off of the coat hanger, they were in the clear. Lucas walked over to the living room and sat on the old couch, making sure to avoid a spring that had been popping out of one of the cushions.

"How do we wander this place? We've both been here before." Maya asked, sitting next to him.

"We don't."

"Then what do we call this?"

Lucas smiled, "Our first date."