It's You (Lucaya Fanfic)

Part 8 (BOTH)

Oh no.

No. No. No. No!

This cannot be happening.

Where did I go wrong? Did I actually slip up somewhere and just made it obvious to Riley that I liked Lucas?

This was never supposed to happen! This is terrible!

"Riley I-" She interrupts me.

"Maya, it's okay." She says then she reaches for my arm and then rubs it up and down like she's trying to comfort me. I should be the one comforting her. "He likes you." She pauses and it is so obvious she's doing her best to hold back tears that are probably very eager to fall.

There it is again. He likes me? That's impossible. "Riley, stop this." I remove her hand that's rubbing my arm and I make her look me in the eyes. "Ranger Rick doesn't like me. He. Likes. You." Now it's my turn to hold back tears. This shouldn't be affecting me. I'm just stating facts. I see how Lucas looks at Riley every single day and the way he looks at me is way different than the way he looks Riley.

"Maya, he does. Why can't you see it?" She insists, which makes the pain in my chest hurt more.

Why can't she just be happy that she's the one Lucas is interested in? Lucas will never like me the way I like him. It's just something I have accepted but it doesn't mean it doesn't hurt me still. Which is why it makes me so frustrated that Riley still questions what is obviously the clearest fact in the world right now.

"Riley, why are you like this? Stop questioning Lucas' feelings for you. I can see the way he looks at you Riley and it's definitely not the way you should be looking at a person who you consider as 'just a friend'." I sigh. "I do not like Ranger Rick. I will never like him." Lie.

"No Ma-"

"No Riley. Trust me. I don't." I interrupt her even before she can complete her sentence. "Lucas is a great guy. Just appreciate what you have with him. He likes you Riley. Don't ever question that."

---

Why do things always go wrong? I never wanted her to find out or think about anything close to that idea. I'm fine keeping everything buried deep down if it means Riley doesn't get hurt.

But she said he likes me.

I also need that to stop happening. I already know that Lucas will never like me. I don't need Riley to feed my brain with things that can make me hope.

Hope can be a very great thing to have at times where you need to achieve something. But with this situation it just means I can get hurt more than I can probably hande.

---

*One week later

"Where are you going?" Lucas asks as he tries to catch up with me as I exit our classroom.

"Uh, home?" I say in the most normal way I can.

"Can't you hang out with us after school anymore?" He asks.

Is that hurt I hear in his voice?

It has been a week since I last hung out with them and I think it has been a good thing for me. Sorta. Seeing him a lot less outside of school can be a bit better than seeing him with Riley. I'm not saying I'm planning on doing this forever I'm just doing this so I can just forget.

"I'm really sorry. I know it's been a while but I've been helping out my mom at home a lot after school. She wants to make our house more homey and it apparently means giving input on where to put stuff. Why? Is there anything inportant I'm missing?" What am I doing? Did I seriously just ask him that?

He looks taken aback for a moment but I see him recompose himself. "Uh- no. Not really. It's just been weird not having you around. That's all." He gives me a smile that doesn't reach his eyes.

Is he actually sad?

"Okay?" I give him a quick weird look then I decide to just leave it at that. "Bye Ranger Rick." I give him one last pat on the shoulder and I get out of there before anything else happens.

***

LUCAS

"She's going home early again?" Zay asks me as soon as he reaches me by my locker.

"Yeah," I try to say it in an unaffected way but my voice just betrays me. "Zay is there something wrong or what is this? This is not just Maya helping out her mom after school." I say as I air quote "helping out her mom".

"I don't know man. Even Riley is letting her be. I know there's something off about this but nothing seems to be bad. Maybe Maya's just going through her own stuff you know?" He says with obvious doubt about what he's saying.

"Should I talk to her?" I really don't know what to do. All I know is I want to see Maya happy and right now she's not.

---

I knock on the door and seconds later Maya's mom opens the door.

"Hello Lucas. You here to see Maya?" She asks and I swear she was about to smile but she stopped herself.

What?

I shrug it off and just enter the apartment as soon as she gestures for me to do so.

"Maya's in her room." She points to the door nearest the kitchen. "I'll be cooking dinner in a while just tell me as soon as you know if you'd be staying to eat."

"Thank you." I say as I start to walk towards Maya's room. I knock twice and she doesn't open. I knock again and I hear footsteps and the doorknob turns then I see Maya.

She just looked at me sleepily for about five seconds and then I think when she finally realized that it was me her eyes grew big before closing the door on my face.

"What?" I knock again. "Maya open the door. It's just me."

"Why are you here? Go home Lucas." She says, stubborness clear in her voice.

"Why? I just want to talk to you and you went home so early so I didn't have the chance earlier at school." I say persistent for her to open the door.

"Lucas can't this wait?" She says sounding a bit off.

"No." I reply right away.

"Why?" Her voice sounding curious.

"Just because," I say not offering up any explanation. I need her to open the door. "Please can you just open the door?" My voice almost sounding desperate.

"Lucas please just go home. I really don't want to talk right now and you really have no good reason to talk to me, so let's just talk tomorrow." She says and her voice now just sounds tired.

" I have a good reason, just open the door and--" I stop. Am I actually going to do this? "You'll know." I guess I am.

"What is it?" She asks now seemingly wanting to know what my point to all of this really is. "Just say it and I'll decide if it's worth opening my door for." She bargains, not letting her stubborness get away.

No other time than the present.

"Maya, I--" Should I really do this? Just do it Friar. "I miss you."

There's so many things I want to say but that is the most important. I need her to know it.

For what felt like forever silence filled the whole apartment. I think even Katy, Maya's mom, stopped doing whatever she was doing.

"Maya?" I say. I cannot take this silence anymore. "Did you hear me?" I swallow before saying again,"Maya I miss you." My voice filling up with unexpected and unintended longing.

I didn't know I missed her this much.

"Maya--" I was going to repeat again but this time the door to her room opens.

She doesn't show herself but as the door fully opens in somewhat the slowest rate a door can ever open I ever so lightly hear her voice say, "Come in Ranger Rick."