Small Town Girl (Farkle Minkus)

Chapter Seventeen: Girl Meets Anger

We all stood in Topanga's. And by all, I mean me, Maya, Farkle, Zay, Lucas, Riley, and Riley's parents. By duel to the death, they simply decided to have an ice cream battle. Zay passed the cones to Farkle and Lucas, who had towels draped over their arms.  I sat in a chair between them.

"You will come back to me after the war, won't ya darlin'?" Farkle asked in an accent. I rolled my eyes at  my ridiculous boyfriend.

"Just give me the ice cream Farkle." He handed it to her, as Lucas did to Maya.

"Why are you my second Huckleberry? Shouldn't you be over there with Riley?"

"Well it was decided that if things get out of hand, I was the best choice to...contain...you."

"Oh...you think you can?" She asked, taking a step towards him.

"Yeah, but I'll probably pay for it pretty good."

"Why would you let them do this?" Mr. Matthews asked his wife.

"Oh, it's a slow day and the ice cream expires tomorrow." The girls walked towards each other, standing back to back. Maya started rubbing her back against Riley's.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm itchy." She was trying to lighten the mood. Classic Maya.

"Maya, as the one challenged to this duel, you get the first shot. Alright, you'll take three paces, turn, and fire." Zay instructed.

"How do you know how to do this so well Zay?" Farkle questioned.

"Back in Texas, this was called a Wednesday." I called from behind them.

"Ice cream ready?" Zay counted three steps as they separated. "Turn. Fire!" He waved the scooper down like a flag, but continued to stand in between them. "Wait a minute. Something's wrong. Farkle and Lucas reached up to his shoulders while I grabbed his shirt and we pulled him back. "Oh, that would've been bad. Fire!"  Maya turned, handing the ice cream to Mr. Matthews.

"That's the best way to resolve a conflict I ever saw." He said, licking it. "This tastes one day before expired."

"Riley, take a hint please, so we can all be done with this."

"This will be done when you treat me like an ordinary person who nobody notices."

"You're not." Maya walked forward. "You're a sweet, weird little goofball and I love you just the way you are. Deal with it." She walked towards Maya, who opened her arms to hug her but instead, got a cone to the face. Riley stalked out."No need to contain me Lucas. I'm Fine."

"You don't look fine."

"Because...that's not Riley at all. Something's really wrong." Her parents went to go after her.

"Mr. and Mrs. Matthews..." I stopped them. "Riley and Maya have a conflict. If you help them, they won't ever figure out how to on their own. You have to let them resolve it." Maya nodded in agreement.

"Ok. We're here if you need us." Mr. Matthews said.

"We know." 

~~~

"How are you so calm right now?" Lucas asked.

"Well, what could have changed her all of a sudden?"

"This is like when I used to wear my turtle necks and then there was somebody that didn't like that I..." Farkle trailed off, looking at me with wide eyes.

"What? What's wrong?" I asked, putting a hand on his arm.

"You gots to go." He said, looking at Lucas and I.