Girl Meets Ryan Matthews

47.

Ryan would be the first to admit that he and Maya weren't exactly close. He never saw a problem in it... until it was her birthday.

Ryan didn't know what to get her. His parents were hosting the dinner, Riley was giving her something sentimental, and even Auggie got her a card.

Ryan didn't know what to do. But he did know that they had one thing in common.

Art.

A few days before Maya's birthday, Ryan was sitting with Farkle and Aidan in his room. Aidan was spinning in his chair and Farkle was sitting on his bed with Ryan's legs in his lap.

"Farkle, what are you getting Maya for her birthday?" Ryan asked, lying with his head hanging off the side of the bed.

"Why?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. "Have you not gotten anything for her yet?"

"Ryan, you don't have to get her anything," Aidan said from the desk.

"I know, I want to though. I just don't know her very well so I wanted to get her something she wouldn't immediately throw away upon receiving it."

"Why would she do that?" Aidan asked.

"Because she did that to the last birthday gift I got her," Ryan said, rolling his eyes.

"What?" Aidan asked seriously. "That's so shitty, why?"

Ryan giggled and Farkle rolled his eyes. "In Maya's defense it was a gag gift."

"I gave her a unicorn plushie," Ryan said in between giggles.

Aidan laughed. "Ok, I can see why she'd throw it out then. Do you need help deciding what to get her?"

"Yeah," Ryan said, sitting up and moving to the end of the bed and folding his legs. "I know we both do art, so I was thinking about something to do with that?"

"I'm getting her art supplies," Farkle said. Ryan nodded. "Ok, so I can't do that then."

"Why not?" Farkle asked with a questioning look.

"He's gonna look like a copycat." Aidan helpfully supplied with a teasing smirk. Ryan rolled his eyes but nodded. "He's right. If I do that I might as well just sign my name on the gift you bought for her. No, Riley's doing something sentimental and I kinda wanna follow that."

"So, you're just going to copy someone else anyway?" Farkle raised an eyebrow.

Ryan frowned and Aidan laughed. "I mean, no, because I'm not gonna get her a pair of matching rings."

"Are they getting married or something?" Aidan laughed. Ryan smirked, "They might as well be, anyway. They act like a couple all of the time."

Ryan noticed that Farkle was laughing along instead of interrupting. "Wait, Farkle, wouldn't that bother you?"

"What?" He looked confused until a look of realization came across his face. "Oh, no, when I say I'm going to marry one of them in the future, it's mostly a joke."

"Really?" Aidan questioned. Farkle nodded. Ryan tried his best not to react other than with a nod of his head, but on the inside, he was screaming.

Farkle wasn't in love with Riley.

Farkle wasn't in love with Maya.

Holy shit.

"So what can you get her that relates to art?" Aidan tried to get the conversation going again.

"You could paint her portrait?"

"Yeah but couldn't she just paint one of herself?"

"Well, she could, but it's different when it's someone else painting you. I've been seeing this trend online where people paint pictures on glass, he could do something like that."