Notes and Words

Chapter 10 - Reconciliation

Riley sat on the beach watching the waves move as her friends played volleyball in the sand, she wasn't very athletic so she didn't want to tempt fate and injure herself. Lucas' parents had left a few hours before, asking them all if they wanted a ride back, Alison had gone with them when they decided to take the train back home.

"So... Riley," Maya said sitting down on the blanket next to her as the guys continued to play. "I guess everything went okay with his folks?"

Riley smiled and nodded, "It's for the better, plus it gave me some insight, I need to make amends as much as Lucas needed to."

"Josh is really going to drive us to your parents' house, which means I'm going to actually meet his brother, this is freaky even for me. We've been together for so long but we've never thought about taking this kind of step."

"Sorry if I'm putting that kind of pressure on you," she sighed realizing what this meant, but Maya shook her head.

"I love him, but I've always thought that he would do it on his own, I guess I'm a little disappointed."

"Don't be, Josh is a little weird like that, he was always the youngest and they all knew his business from day one, in the end I think he just wanted one thing that he didn't have to share with his family, with me, but in the end I think he's a little relieved about it. I asked him the other night when we were finalizing our plans, and he told me thank you," Riley sighed remembering the conversation. "He's always been afraid that he wouldn't live up to this promise that he made with my dad when he was like two years old. In the end he realized that he had lived up to it, by just meeting you."

Maya looked over at her and smiled, Riley couldn't understand why her friend was happy but Riley knew that her words had given the blonde some kind of hope. Maya hugged her close and Riley felt wetness on her shoulder, she didn't pull away but only held on to her friend. After a few minutes Maya pulled away and wiped her face smiling.

"One day I'm going to be your Aunt," she said as she pushed herself off of the towel. "Now come on let play on the beach before we have to head back."

Riley nodded and ran off to meet her friends, it was still new to her but she was starting to feel more comfortable around them. She watched as Maya and Zay dared one another into a sand castle building contest, that had turned into a massive competition with Farkle as the only judge. Riley tried her best against Lucas, while Maya built a massive structure by herself. Zay had spent too much time building a moat which had cost him time, so while half of his castle crumbled Maya ran around yelling about her victory.

Afterwards they all cooled off in the water before going to the beachside showers and rinsing off all of the sand. They didn't have time to go back to the hotel and change so they threw their clothes over their swimsuits and headed off to the train station. Alison had taken their luggage and dropped it off in Lucas' apartment so that they would be able to pick it up once they got back. The last thing that Riley remembered was falling asleep in Lucas' arms as the sunset around them.

One week had passed since the beach trip, Riley's nerves were all over the place and she couldn't get a grip on herself. She had written about her trip in a journal she had brought during the week, she had written for hours about the last year of her life, about meeting Lucas, about her problems at school, and lastly about falling in love. Each passage had a picture of her life in the last year and how she had changed, how her friends had helped her change and how love had given her hope. She wrote about Lucas' brother, and his parents, she wrote about why she felt alone for so long, and finally she wrote a letter to her parents on the first five pages. It was an apology, and a thank you. She was sorry that she had let their relationship get the where it had ended up, but thanked them for the chance to go to school where she had, because it had given her the confidence she had never known that she had.