I'm Home

Chapter 13

As soon as the officer escorted him out of the classroom, the room erupted with applause. I first went over and gave my dad a huge hug that only a daughter can give.

"Why didn't you tell me or mom?"

"Well, at first, I was ashamed and terrified. Then, once I met Erica and Jaz and heard he had done that to others, I channeled all of my feelings into making sure he never did that again."

"Well, I'm so sorry you had to go through all of this, But I am even prouder of how you handled yourself. Now, go over to your friends and boyfriend."

"Wait, did you just call Lucas my boyfriend?"

"If you really love each other, and you're grown up enough to do what you just did, I think you're mature enough to have a boyfriend." I gave him one more tight hug before going over to my friends. I first gave Maya a hug. I could feel the tears that were left on her face, and I instantly knew that she had been silently crying the whole time. After a few seconds, we released each other and I went over to Lucas. I wrapped my arms around his waist and clung to him while he kissed my forehead and kept whispering "I'm so proud of you." in my ear over and over again. I was tempted to just stay there forever, wrapped up in his strong arms, but I decided against it when I heard Zay clear his throat. I turned around, so that I was facing my friends and Lucas' arms were wrapped around me from behind.

"So Riley, can we finally know what caused all of this in the first place? What made you go to him in the first place?" Farkle asked, using the same voice and intonation he had used that New Year's Eve.

"Well, you remember when you and Maya came over for breakfast a couple days ago? When Lucas had come over earlier?"

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure that was the last time we've had breakfast, Riles."

"Well, when you and Lucas had another one of your stand-offs about who could call me what, I guess it was just the last straw for me." I silently sat back down at my desk, even though by now everyone else had left the room except for me, my friends, and my dad who was lurking in the corner.

"But we've done that countless times. What made that time any different?" Maya kept asking. I could tell she already thought that she was to blame. I then heard Lucas sigh loudly, which meant he had already figured it out. It was like we had our own language sometimes.

"She loves us both now and she doesn't want to hurt either of us by 'siding' with the other." I swear, he just spoke my mind. Maya looked over at me, giving me her "is this true?" face. Lucas sat down at his desk behind me, and Maya sat down at her's next to me.

"Is he right?" I silently nodded, a couple of tears making their ways down my cheek.

"Riley, you know you can always talk to us. We've seen how not talking and being honest with each other can hurt this group." Maya said to me, trying to keep her tears in her eyes and failing.

"I was just trying to stay neutral. I was about to tell you that I'm fine if both of you call me Riles, but then when I heard how you guys felt about staying neutral, I remembered when Maya and I got into a fight in 8th grade and Uncle Eric had to save us. I didn't want that to happen again." By now, there was a steady flow of tears on my face. I saw Maya and Lucas walk over to each other after a couple seconds.

"Look, Huckleberry. Riley is the most important person in my entire life. I guess I didn't want you calling her 'Riles' because I thought that that would mean I had fully lost her to you. But now that I've seen everything she's gone through, I can safely say that you have not made her change. If anything, you being with her has made her better. It's fine with me if you call her 'Riles'."

"Thanks, Maya. And I don't think I made her better. I think that as she's growing up, she's just discovering different parts of who she is that make her better." They hugged it out, finally at peace.