A Girl Like You [Rilaya]

Hiding

Riley's POV

Maya was at her locker getting her books, about to go home. I tapped her right shoulder from behind.

"For the last time, Farkle, I don't need your help with math," she sighed. 

"Lucas is my tutor," she continued. "I never understand it when you try and explain everything."

"Try again," I laughed.

She smiled in realization before turning around. "Hey, you," she said. She spun us around and pushed me against the lockers and started kissing me.

I stopped her, but not because I wanted her to stop. "No PDA in school," I reminded her, blushing.

"But I'm Maya Hart, I don't follow the rules," she smirked and then continued kissing me.

I pulled away slightly. "But I'm Riley Matthews, I follow the rules."

"Must you always be a goody-two-shoes?" she jokingly asked.

"Ha ha," I said. "I didn't come to be made fun of. I actually came here to talk to you about something."

She furrowed her eyebrows in concern. "What's up?"

"We should hang out today," I told her, the relief evident on her face.

"Sure, we could go to your house," she said.

"Or we could go to your house," I suggested.

"Or we could go to your house," she said again.

"No, you've been to my house before. I want to go to yours," I told her. 

She tried to come up with an excuse, but agreed when she found none. 

"Fine," she sighed. "You're lucky you're cute cause it's hard to say no to you sometimes."

One subway ride and a short walk later, and we were at Maya's apartment. Maya got her key out and let us in.

"I know, it's small," she said.

I looked around at the kitchen and family room decorated with little accents.

"It's cozy," I told her making her shake her head and smirk a little.

"My room's over here," she said walking through the kitchen into a door at the beginning of the hallway.

I entered and immediately noticed all the sketches and paintings on the wall.

"Did you do all this?" I asked amazed.

"Yeah, I'm gonna have to start putting them on the ceiling or something I have so many," she joked. "It's mostly just pointless doodling though."

"Just pointless doodling?" I asked in disbelief. "I can only paint purple cats. This is incredible."

"Thanks, Riley. I'm glad you like it," she said smiling.

My eyes then drifted to the photographs on her dresser. There were pictures of a little Maya playing softball and basketball just like she said, a huge smile on her face in both of them. There were photos of her playing guitar and drawing, but the last one was what caught my attention the most.

It was a picture of  Maya as a baby and a man with the same blue eyes as her.

"Is that your dad?" I asked.

The smile from earlier had faded. "Yeah," she simply said.

"Well, it's a nice photo, you look so cute in it," I said.

"Thanks, but that's not me," she told me.

"What? It looks just like you," I said staring at the picture trying to spot any differences.

"That's because it's my father's daughter. He had her with his current wife, so I guess she's my sister," she said. "I've never really thought of it like that though."

"My dad sent the photo like a year ago or something," she said "A few months after she was born, but I've never met her and he hasn't sent anything since," she shrugged, turning the picture to lay flat on her dresser so the image couldn't be seen.

"What happened between your parents?" I asked cautiously.

"I'm not sure. My mom always tells me not to be mad at him," she breathed. "But she's never home for me to ask anyway."

The sound of the front door being unlocked and the jingling of keys could be heard.

"Except for now," Maya said questioningly as she got off the bed to go to the source of her confusion. "Mom, is that you?" she called out through the hallway.

"Hey, baby girl," said a woman with blonde hair. She was wearing a blue waitress outfit with a white apron and a name tag that said "Katy." 

Maya walked out of the room and I followed.

"I need to talk to you about something," her mom said, brushing off her apron before seeing both of us. "Oh, I'll talk to you about it later. You didn't tell me you were having someone over," she said motioning to me.

I extended my hand to shake hers. "It's nice to meet you, ma'am."

She swatted the air with her hand in disapproval of the formal title. "Please, call me Katy. Are you a friend of Maya's?"

"I'm Riley, and I'm actually Maya's gi–"

"Good friend," Maya quickly cut me off. "Best friend, even," she added.

I looked to Maya in disbelief, but neither of us said anything. Katy looked back and forth between the two of us. 

"Will you be staying for dinner?" Katy asked, making her way to the kitchen.

"No, no thank you," I said calmly. "I've gotta be heading home."

I started walking to the door when I felt a hand pulling me back by my wrist. "I'm sorry. Riley, please," Maya pleaded. "Don't go, I need you in my life."

"I, I need to think," I told her before walking out and closing the door behind me.