the girl who coughs up flower petals | rilaya ✓

an extraordinary relationship

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.•°•.•chapter thirteen: an extraordinary relationship•°•.

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Maya felt tired. She felt sick and worried and stressed. But most importantly, she was just tired. She didn't know if the heavy feeling in her chest was because of the flowers blooming in her lungs or because of this stress. She didn't know why she was crying, but salty tears raced down her cheeks and then she was full on sobbing. Riley knee.

She knew.

And Maya hated it. Riley was never supposed to know. She was never supposed to know that she was her extraordinary relationship. No matter what happened, Maya would only ever belong to Riley Matthews.

Speak of the devil...

Riley was there, knocking impatiently on her window. Maya sniffled as she sat up, wiping away the remaining tears. "How did you get in here? You're too scared to cling my fire escape."

"This was important. Can you let me in, please?"

"No", Maya croaked out. "I can't. Letting you know makes this real and I don't want any of this to be real."

The brown eyed girl frowned outside of her friend's window. She needed Maya to understand, to hear her. "Maya, please", Riley begged. "Just let me in. I really need to talk to you, it's important. I think you need to hear me. I think you'll like it."

She doubted it. But still, Maya sighed and stood up. She approached the window and slid it open, with Riley quickly scrambling inside. "You don't have to—"

"I'm talking this time", Riley interrupted. "Please, just listen." Maya sighed heavily, allowing Riley to pull her over to her bed and sit her down. "I realized a lot of things today. Things I didn't want to think about, because I was afraid. I was afraid they would hurt me. But sometimes we have to face things head on, even if they're scary. Lucas and I are like brother and sister. You tried to tell me that once. I didn't want to believe it. He was, I thought, my first love. I wanted to hold on to him so I could run away from myself. But I was wrong. And hiding it away out of fear was wrong too. It wasn't Lucas. It's never been Lucas... Because it was you. It's always been you, Maya. You're my happy ending."

Maya shook her head. She didn't want Riley to lie to her out pity. She only wanted her to say these things if they were true. "No. You don't mean that. You're just saying that because you feel bad for me. It's okay, Riles. You don't have to... try and make this go away. I've accepted it. I'm going to be fine. If you think about it... it's a beautiful death. Poetic and sad. And if I have to have a poetic death, then I'm glad you're the cause."

Riley shook her head, thin brows furrowed. "I'm not lying to you, Maya. I love you. I'm in love with you. And I need you to know that now before it's too late, while we still have time to fix this."

Maya shook her head. They were crying. They were both crying. Why were they crying? "Don't say it if you don't mean it", she whispered. "I love you is a powerful sentence. You shouldn't use it if you don't absolutely mean it, because someone could get hurt."

"I do mean it", Riley insisted. "When gave I eve lied to you, peaches?"

Maya tried her best to smile. Never. Never had Riley ever lied to her, not without good reason. She snuggled once more as she wiped her stray tears away. "So, Matthews... You gonna kiss me or what?"

Riley chuckled, leaning in and gently pressing her lips against Maya's. And it was everything that Maya could have ever asked for. The fireworks. The sparks. And the heavy feeling in her chest slowly began to recede, just a little. Her heart beat quickly against her rib cage. Nothing else mattered. It all seemed to fade away. For a brief moment, everything was perfect.

Riley Matthews was still her extraordinary relationship.

MARCH 30, 2020
I'm gonna go back and fix the gifs when wattpad stops tripping out about uploading them. Idk what's wrong.

To Be Continued.