Chasing Butterflies | a GMW fanfic

Girl Meets the Mysterious Text Message

Riley frowned, looking back at the number. She certainly didn't recognize the number, but the area code was the same as hers. She replied, hoping to get some clarification:

"Who are you? And, how did you get my number?"

Riley sat up while she waited for the mysterious person to respond. This was really weird. She jumped a little as the response came in.

"Let's just say I'm a concerned friend. You can call me Char. And, as for the phone number part, that's nothing that you should worry about."

A concerned friend? No one she knew went by the name "Char."

"How do I know that I can trust you? I don't even know you"

She sent the message, and the reply was almost instantaneous.

"Maybe you do know me. And, perhaps you shouldn't trust me. That's up to you."

Riley sighed. Despite how odd this was, she was intrigued to figure out what this person was up to.

"How do you know what happened at Topanga's? Did I see you there?"

The reply came quickly.

"I'm very observant. I'm also very inconspicuous. People usually don't notice me unless they want to."

Riley replied,

"Do you go to my school?"

"Char" replied,

"I don't think you'd know who I am, even if I said I did."

Riley frowned. She was getting nowhere.

"So I don't know you?"

The reply came,

"Perhaps you do, rather, perhaps you did."

Did? Does that mean it was someone she knew from years ago? From ninth grade? Middle school? Elementary school? How far back could it be?

Before she could get a reply, she heard someone outside her door, and she quickly turned off her phone.

"Hello?" She called out.

The door opened, and her mom walked in. She had a smile on her face. "Hi, sweetheart," she said.

She moved across the room and sat down on the edge of Riley's bed. "How was your day?"

"Good," Riley replied, perhaps too quickly. She didn't look up at her mom, trying to hide the tears that had begun to form in her eyes.

Her mom clearly didn't believe her. "What happened, Riley?"

Riley looked up at her mom. "Lucas broke up with me," she admitted, her voice thick with tears. "I didn't see it coming. I thought we were okay."

Topanga's face fell. "Oh, sweetheart." She reached out and put an arm around Riley, who leaned into her mom.

"I don't even have to ask what I did wrong," Riley said, "I already know."

Topanga pulled Riley closer. "Everyone makes mistakes in a relationship, Riley. That's normal."

"What I did wasn't normal. I told Lucas's big secret. I had no right to do that." Riley felt the tears sliding down her cheeks.

"You're right, you didn't." Topanga said. "But, now you recognize that it was wrong. That's a step in the right direction."

Riley shook her head. "It's too late. I ruined our relationship. He'll never trust me again."

Topanga frowned. "That's not true. Maybe he doesn't trust you now. Maybe he won't trust you in a few weeks. Trust is something that once lost, takes a lot of time and effort to mend. Getting Lucas to trust you again is going to take time. If you really want to be friends again, you need to put time into making sure he knows that he can trust you."

Riley let her mom's advice swirl in her head. "Okay," she said.

Topanga nodded. "Good. Now, don't spend any more time dwelling on what you did wrong. Just focus on making it right."

Riley sniffled, reaching up and wiping the tears off her face. "Thank you," she whispered.

Topanga just looked down at Riley and smiled.

-&-

Riley lay in her bed that night, holding her phone in her hand and studying the cryptic messages from Char. She typed out a message, then sat, fingers hovering over the send button. Was it really a good idea to be texting a complete stranger? How did she know she wasn't falling into some kind of trap?

Riley decided to take her chances with the stranger:

"Why did you decide to text me? Why now?"

It took a few minutes for Char to reply, but finally, they did:

"You seem like you need a friend. A real friend."

Riley frowned down at the screen.

"I do have real friends."

Char replied quickly:

"Are they your real friends?"

The question lingered on the glowing screen. Riley stared at it for a few seconds, then turned off her phone. She didn't want to think about all of this right now.

She set her phone on her nightstand and rolled onto her back, looking up at her ceiling. As she lay there, she couldn't help but think about her day. Suddenly, the wave of the fresh heartbreak seemed to crash over her, and a sob escaped her lips. She rolled onto her stomach and buried her face in her pillow, trying to muffle the sound of her tears. Why had she been so stupid? Lucas had brought her to Texas because he wanted to open up to her. He wanted her to understand his past. Instead of accepting him for who he was, Riley had just become angry at him. She had drawn away from him, blaming him for something that wasn't his fault. She had acted like all of the bad things that had happened recently were because of him. Now, she realized that everything that had happened was her fault. It was on her.

Lucas had had every right to break up with her. If she was in his shoes, she would have done the exact same thing.

[A/N: Hey guys! Sorry it took so long for me to update this! I've been away on vacation and haven't had the chance to update for a while. Hopefully, I'll be updating more regularly and writing more frequently, which means, of course, more updates. While I realize that the plot of this is very back-and-forth right now, I promise I'm trying to straighten it all out into a dramatic and satisfactory ending. I hope you can all stick with me until then. Hopefully this chapter has some drama -- especially with a new, mysterious character. Any guesses on who it could be? I promise you all some drama in the next few chapters, especially with their Winter Formal coming up!]