based on the song of the same name by Tegan and Sara
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Riley knew Maya loved her. She hadn't ever doubted that before. Her mom, dad, Auggie, and Maya always had her complete confidence even when she doubted everything else in her life. She just wasn't certain if Maya might love her the same way she felt for the other girl. Riley wanted to get closer, but she wasn't certain if Maya wanted the same thing.
"Hey, uhm, Maya? There was something I wanted to ask you. Can you come to sit for a moment?" Riley patted Maya's spot in their bay window nook. She hadn't seen Maya look that nervous around her in a long while. Riley was horrified about having this conversation. Her heart pounded in her chest and seemed to be making its' way up her throat to choke her.
"You're making me nervous, Riley. What's going on?" Maya asked. She'd thought she was coming over to work on homework and maybe sleepover afterward. This was unexpected. Maya did not like the unexpected. She slid a bit closer to Riley and noticed how Riley's breath caught in her chest.
"I was, uh, just wondering if... I know we were talking about going to Homecoming together, as friends, but I don't think I can do that anymore. My uh, my feelings have changed." Riley said quietly, hoping Maya wouldn't be too mad at her or hate her for what she had to say next. She was pretty sure Maya couldn't ever hate her, but that didn't stop the irrational fear from existing in the pit of her stomach anyway.
"Your feelings have changed? What... what feelings are you talking about, Peaches?" Maya asked, her own stomach roiling now. Between the two of them, it was Maya who kept secrets and held things back from Riley. She wasn't liking the way it felt the other way around. Maya really didn't have any idea of what Riley could be talking about. They'd been planning this for months and Maya had been planning to tell Riley how she felt during the last dance. She'd been working hard to build up her courage.
"My feelings towards you. Over the past couple of years, slowly but surely." Riley felt legitimately nauseous. Saying it out loud was harder than she'd expected. What may or may not destroy her would be Maya's reaction.
"Your feelings have changed or what? How? I don't understand what you mean." Maya felt a twinge of hope deep in her chest that maybe what Riley meant was what Maya wanted her to mean.
"As opposed to my deep platonic, friendship love from over the years; so many years, I think I've slowly fallen in love with you. I didn't figure it out for a long while... I probably didn't want to know that I felt this way, but lately, I just can't deny it anymore."
"You... you love me. Like, romantically?" Maya asked, eyes wide and surprised.
"Yes. That's correct." Riley replied, swallowing hard. She couldn't read anything in Maya's eyes to know how she might be feeling.
Maya leaned forward, cupping Riley's cheek into her hand, smiling gently in a manner that made Riley's own heart ache a bit. It stopped completely when Maya's lips brushed against Riley's cheek, a mere centimeter away from her lips. Riley stopped breathing again.
"Is that a uhm, ... what?" Riley asked, her brain ceasing to function completely at the response she hadn't expected at all. She had planned for a lot, but not that. "I'm confused."
"Yes, I still want to go to Homecoming with you... as a real date. I kind of thought it was a real date the whole time, but I'm happy to be on the same page as you now." Maya leaned back away from her again and grinned brightly, the way she only ever did around Riley Matthews.
