Love at a Price (re-write?) - a GMW Joshaya fic

Fourteen

I smile as the final bell rings, very grateful for a much-needed break before Monday. Riley and I leave class side-by-side and she begins to stress about her upcoming conversation with Farkle. "I can't tell him!" She panics, shutting her locker a little too aggressively.

"Just be upfront, tell him what he needs to know. You can trust him." I shut my locker and we walk out, bracing against the late winter air. "I wish you'd agree to come to Topanga's afterwards. I really need help with homework and the boys are very useless at the moment," I laugh, blowing warm air into my fingers.

Riley shrugs, "I don't think I'll have the energy after he breaks up with me."

"I wish you'd stop talking like that." I poke her when she shrugs again. "Seriously! You know that won't happen."

Her phone chimes with a text from Farkle, asking her to meet him at the front gates. "I have to go back. I'll see you later, okay?"

"Yep. Good luck, even though you don't need it." I hug Riley quickly, scurrying off to Topanga's, where I know I'll be warm and cosy, even though it means homework and feigning ignorance to Riley's situation.

By 5:00, when I excused myself home for dinner, a dull headache forming as a result of endless math problems and worrying about what topic to pick for the upcoming English essay. Mom and Shawn were both home before me and had apparently been cooking dinner together for quite some time before I got home. It felt good to see them so loved up and happy with each other. They have such an amazing relationship, one that I can actually observe and aspire to, but that doesn't mean they're without a few... moments. We all sat together at the dinner table chatting about work and school and this dammed winter that never seems to end. It's a better conversation than last night when they just wouldn't drop seeing me with Josh.

"I will say, I didn't expect you guys to get together so soon," Shawn teased, gesturing for me to pass him the pepper.

I kept it well out of his reach, "We are not together."

"Certainly didn't look that way to us," Mum continued, taking the pepper from me and passing it to Shawn.

I couldn't stop the colour creeping up my cheeks. They both knew, of course, just how much I want to be with Josh, but I can't let them think it's anywhere near happening when I don't know what he's thinking. It could all be just a bit of fun, like I'm a distraction from his college life when things get tough. "Well, either way, it's not anything at the moment. So let's drop this." They did not drop it, not until the end of dinner.

But tonight, the talk of weather redirects to talk of Riley. "She's expecting a fall baby, isn't she?" Mom asks, turning to me.

I think for a moment, trying to remember which months fit the seasons, and I nod, "Yeah, sometime in September probably, or maybe even late August."

"Imagine, her first Christmas with a baby. She'd love that. You were almost a year old by your first Christmas, Maya. Really put me through my paces." Mom laughs at the memory and I smile back. I know that things were far from perfect, but it helps to know that she still found light.

"I wonder how Farkle will cope. Has Riley told him yet? I can't imagine what Minkus will do when he finds out." Shawn winks at me, laughing.

"Shawn," Mom scolds playfully.

"What?" He shrugs dramatically, playing innocent, "I'm just saying."

I shake my head, laughing slightly at his antics, "She told him today, after school. She's told me that it went well and that I was right, he didn't dump her."

"I'd suspect as much. He'd have to run far to escape me and Cory if he did her wrong."

"I'm surprised you two haven't made his life misery yet!"

Mom pats Shawn's hand before he can respond, "Well, that wouldn't do anybody any good, would it?" She gives him a pointed look before settling back to dinner. 

A/N: Let's pretend it hasn't been ages, eh? Hope you're doing well, know that I truly appreciate you sticking around to read this