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Apology

It was the last day of school before winter break. Riley was on the lunch line when Farkle caught up with her.

"Where's Maya?" he questioned.

"She's waiting for me in my dad's classroom. The cafeteria's too loud for her."

"Hangovers will do that to you," he remarked.

"She's not hungover. You don't know anything about her situation, so just stop acting like you do."

Riley finished putting her food on her tray and paid the lunch lady. Without another word, she turned and left the cafeteria.

"Finally, you're back. I was falling asleep talking to your dad," Maya smirked.

"Yeah, I got a little caught up in the lunch line, but I'm here now."

"I can see why," Maya looked down at Riley's tray.

It looked like Riley had taken at least one of each thing there. Sure, Riley was a growing girl and was pretty active, but that much food would make a full-grown man explode.

"It's not all for me," Riley realized why Maya was looking at her dumbfounded.

"Riley, no," Maya immediately protested. "I'm too nauseous to eat anything right now."

"You've been too nauseous to eat almost anything for days. Please?" Riley pleaded.

Maya relented and grabbed Riley's extra plastic fork. Riley watched as she slowly picked her way through some mac and cheese.

She had on grey sweatpants and a dark zip-up hoodie, paired with dark black sunglasses. If they were to block out the bright lights or cover Maya's now black eyes Riley wasn't sure, but she didn't ask.

The part of her face that wasn't covered by her sunglasses, hair, or sweatshirt hood was pale. If it hadn't been snowing the past few days, a little bit of sunlight and fresh air would have done her some good.

"Alright, that's enough," Maya put one last small forkful in her mouth.

"If you think that's a lot of food, you're in for a surprise at Christmas dinner."

"Christmas dinner?"

Maya wasn't quite sure how the Matthews celebrated, but she and her mother never did anything special for the holiday. Usually, her mom worked and Maya would have to find a way to entertain herself.

"Yeah, we usually go to Philadelphia to my grandparents' house, but we're gonna have it here this year."

Maya immediately felt guilty.

"It's because of me, isn't it?"

"I actually don't think they know about you yet," Riley told her. "I think we're having it here cause my Uncle Josh goes to NYU."

They looked to the door as a familiar figure appeared.

"Farkle, are you here for a teacher conference?" Mr. Matthews asked.

"No, sir, I was actually hoping to talk to Riley," he said sheepishly.

"If you're here to criticize me or make some drug reference about Maya, then just leave, Farkle," she nearly pushed him out the door.

"I came to apologize to you," he quickly said, so as to not have the door slammed in his face.

"For what?" Riley crossed her arms in front of her chest.

"For being a terrible friend to you. I should have been supportive of you. I'm sorry, okay?"

"If you're really sorry, then you'll stop being an ass."

"You're right. That's what I want to do. Please give me another chance," he begged.

"I'm not the one who can decide that, Maya is."

Farkle nodded his head and took a seat next to Maya.

"Can I help you, Minkus?" Maya raised an eyebrow.

"I wanted to say I'm sorry for being a jerk to you."

"It's cool."

"No, it's not. I was horrible to you."

"Sometimes people treat others like shit, it happens," she shrugged her shoulders.

Farkle analyzed her to try and uncover some sort of hidden meaning in her words. From her body language and tone, he  concluded that Maya was truly indifferent to the whole thing.

"There has to be something I can do to make it up to you."

"I'll give you another chance if you stop being so loud," Maya held her hand to her forehead seemingly in pain or discomfort.

"Okay, I get it, you want me to leave you alone," he said more quietly. "But if you ever need anything, from now on, I'm here for you."

Maya watched wordlessly as Farkle left the classroom.

"Farkle can be a little bit of an ass, but he means well and he seemed genuinely sorry."

"Sometimes people say they're sorry, but they repeatedly screw you over anyway."

"Like your parents? Not everyone is like that."

"Can we not talk about this now?"

Riley nodded her head in agreement.

"What are we gonna do over break?" she changed the subject.

"We could throw snowballs at the skaters at Rockefeller Center," Maya suggested.

"Maybe we could do something that doesn't harm others. Perhaps a Red Planet Diary marathon?"

"You want me to watch multiple seasons of your favorite show? What's in it for me?"

"Popcorn and hot chocolate," she answered with a hopeful look.

"As long as it's your mom's homemade hot chocolate, then it's a deal."

Words: 844