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te amo - rilaya

Riley's face fell into her Spanish book with a loud thump and a resounding groan.  "Maya this is hopeless! I'm just a disgrace, a single letter away from failure." They'd been working for nearing on two hours without prevail on Riley's behalf and the sky was darkening out the Matthews' living room windows. So far she'd only managed to say a few simple sentences; currently struggling on saying "I love you".

Maya, who found this ironic in many circumstances, only sighed and gazed lovingly at her best friend. Riley was not one who often experienced failure, but had self esteem issues to a fault. Maya understood, what kind of best friend would be if she didn't? Riley felt that she needed to be verified by things, by grades, by achievements (by a boy liking her, she whispered softly to herself) and if those things fell through, such as her Spanish pre-assessment which was printed with a red 'D', she felt like she was worthless. Which was totally not the case, Riley was anything but a worthless disgrace.

In Maya's eyes at least. She'd fight anyone who thought differently.

Taking all this to mind, Maya let out a small laugh and lifted Riley's chin out of the book with her manicured finger. When the brunette's eyes refused to meet her's she lifted her right hand with emphasis, putting on display a silver Claddagh ring, which was turned inward. No one needed to know what wearing in that particular spot on that particular hand meant, that her heart was captured by someone, no one would ever care to take notice of where it was, just what it meant to Riley and Maya. How strong their friendship was. 

Sometimes Maya felt like she was tainting the very meaning of the rings with her unrequited affections for her best friend, but others she wanted to scream it from the rooftops for people to just take notice, to put two and two together, but she never did. Because this was a charade, one she was stuck in for the long haul. And by god if pretending to like Lucas Friar was going to shove down her true feelings and eventual pain, she was going to throw everything she had into this game. 

But not now. Not when no one was around and she had Riley to herself. Not when later she could play it off as platonic, saying they were best friends if people later questioned. "Ring power," Maya whispered.

Riley's gaze flecked upwards to meet Maya's at last, unable to deny the two words, they both knew if they refused they lost their meaning. 

The first thing Maya noticed being this close was that her best friend looked so, so tired. With their faces less than a foot apart the bags under her eyes were much more visible, how disheveled her hair was, though endearing, anyone could tell the girl was a mess. Every time she blinked her eyes stayed closed for a long time, nearly proving that she'd barely slept since being handed back that test. 

"I can't do it, Peaches, I can't."

Something in Maya broke. Riley sounded so defeated, as if the world was ending. The blonde almost brought herself to say that it was just a test, just a grade, just a pre-assessment, but knew none of it would be of any comfort. This was one of the only ways Riley felt self-worth, diminishing that would hurt more than anything. So she took a lighter approach. 

"Honey, of course you can." Maya interlocked their fingers. "You can do absolutely anything you set your mind to, I promise. I can help you, we can do this together. You just need to take a deep breath and focus, don't over analyze it."

Riley nodded, gulped once, took a deep breath and straightened her slouched posture. Maya smiled, satisfaction blossoming in her chest. "Okay , now, pronounce slowly. Te amo."

"Te a-amo," Riley spoke slowly, dragging out the vowels carefully. Maya's face broke into a smile.

"Muy buena, Miel!"