A Girl Like You [Rilaya]

Beautiful

Riley's POV

It was Friday afternoon, the last class of the day had just ended. I was coming out of my Spanish class when I saw Maya collecting her things to go home. We don't have Spanish together cause she's in a more advanced class than me. She claims it's the only class she can do, besides art, cause she grew up in a Spanish speaking neighborhood.

"Hey, Maya," I said. "How was your first week?"

"Pretty good, I already have a crap ton of homework though," she said. "I might do some of it," she added with a smirk. 

"Thanks for showing me around. I'll see you Monday, Riley," she said starting to walk down the hall.

"We can do our homework together at my house," I blurted out. Why did I do that, it's Friday. Who does their homework on a Friday, Riley?  I mentally scolded myself.

"Sure," she said with a smile.

"You have a card for the metro, right?" I asked.

"Of course I do, Riley. It's New York City," she responded.

Maya and I took the subway back to my apartment in Greenwich Village. 

"Hi, mom and dad," I said. They were both sitting at the kitchen table. My dad was grading papers and didn't look up while my mom, who was researching a case, did.

"Who's your friend?" my mom asked.

"Hi, I'm Maya Hart" she introduced herself to my mom.

My dad looked up from his papers at the mention of her name. "Ahhh!" he yelped.

"'Sup, Matthews. Nice crib," Maya crudely stated.

"We're going up to my room to do homework," I said, leading Maya up the stairs.

"She seems like a nice girl," I heard my mom say.

"She's a demon in training," my dad replied making me roll my eyes and making Maya let out a small chuckle.

"What do you want to work on first?" I asked Maya.

"Not math," she said.

"Why not? I could help you if you want."

"It's no use. The numbers hurt my brain," she complained.

"Can I at least try to help you with it?" I pleaded.

"Fine," she relented.

She took her textbook and notebook from her backpack along with a pencil.

"It says you have to do numbers 12 through 30 on page 219," I told her.

Maya opened up to the page and stared blankly at the problem.

"Maya?" I asked.

"Yeah," she weakly responded.

"Can you do the first problem you were assigned?"

She looked back at the problem. "I don't even know what to do."

"You're solving for x. You have to do inverse operations to get rid of everything else," I told her.

"I don't know how to do that. I have no idea how to get rid of the 25 and the 64," she said throwing her hands up in defeat.

"What?" I asked.

"I just said I don't know how to get rid of the 25 and 64," Maya repeated.

"Maya, the numbers are 52 and 49," I said.

She looked back at the problem confused. "This is hurting my brain. Can we do something else?" She asked.

"What about English? We could help each other write our poems," I suggested.

"Sure," Maya said.

We started writing our poems. They could be about anything we wanted. There was a long period of silence between us, we were just enjoying each other's presence.

"I actually really love poetry," Maya said breaking the silence. "It lets me express my emotions to other people."

"Can I see?" I asked.

Maya handed me her notebook with her poem written in it.

A new adventure in every which way, a new path to take every day, 

Buildings that pierce the sky in the city where activity never dies, 

The sunsets are nice, but the most beautiful sight...

A girl with pretty brown eyes, sparkling and bright                                                         

"What do you think?" She asked.

I could feel the heat rush to my cheeks.

"Huh?" I asked.

"What do you think?" She repeated. "It's about my first few weeks in the city."

"I think you're the best there is. It's beautiful." Just like you.