The Long Game ✅

6. Realizations

"Fine. Just let me get dressed" she says annoyed as she starts changing into a pair of jeans and a flowy blouse as I take a seat on the bay window.

Once she's ready to go we leave the house, luckily Josh is in his room so I don't have to see him. We climb into the car and turn on the radio jamming out to the various chart toppers until we reach the mall.

"I'm starving" I complain as we walk into the building.

"Well, I guess we can get something to eat" Riley says scanning the food court. "Fro-yo?" she suggests pointing to our favorite place. I nod in agreement and we walk over before placing our orders. I get chocolate with raspberries while Riley sticks with vanilla. We take a seat and dig into our yogurt quietly.

I know Riley knows something happened with Josh this morning and I'm incapable of keeping secrets from her. I take a deep breath before looking up at my best friend, "I need to tell you something" I blurt out taking her by surprise. Riley looks at me intrigued putting down her yogurt so that she could focus all of her attention on me. "Something happened with Josh this morning" I confess slowly unsure with how she was going to react.

"I knew it" she exclaims, "but Maya, this morning? What time did you get up?" she asks causing me to laugh.

"Riles what time I got up this morning is not important. But what is important is that he almost kissed me" I continue.

"WHAT?" Riley shouts momentarily forgetting that we're in public. I shush her and after I know she's calmed down a bit I elaborate.

"He pulled me into his room this morning to talk about yesterday and I told him that nothing happened and that I was with Zay. And I don't know we just, we ended up looking at each other and then he, he almost kissed me."

"What happened?" she asks causing me to look at her confused. She reads my face instantly and elaborates. "You said he almost kissed you, why didn't he?" I know that she isn't going to be happy when I tell her the only reason the kiss didn't actually happen was because her mom interrupted but this is Riley, I can't keep secrets from her.

"Your mom called us down for breakfast" I confess waiting for her to have another outburst, but she doesn't. Instead she sits there and looks at me.

"So, you would've kissed him back?" she asks looking at me expectantly already knowing the answer. I nod not wanting to actually admit it out loud.

I watch Riley stand up and for a second and I think this is it, I finally pushed her too far but she walks over and sits next to me. She places her hand over mine like I did to her on our first day of freshman year looking at me pityingly, "you're in quite a mess aren't you Peaches?"

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When Riley and I finally make it back to her house it's almost six o'clock. Cory, Topanga, and Auggie went to a movie so we have to make our own dinner. I head straight towards the fridge looking for something to eat.

"Riles, where is all the food?" I ask staring into the almost completely bare refrigerator. "Your house always has the best leftovers."

"Well, Josh is staying with us so all the food we have he eats" she responds. I sigh as I close the fridge since I evidently won't be enjoying any of Topanga's leftover lasagna.

"What are we gonna eat for dinner then?" I ask annoyed and just as the words leave my mouth the doorbell rings and Josh runs into the living room.

"I got it" he shouts before opening the door to reveal a pizza delivery man. He takes the pizzas from the man and pays him before shutting the door and coming to place the pizzas on the dining room table. Josh notices the two of us staring at the pizza and he realizes that he never offered any pizza to the two of us. "You guys can have some, I may eat a lot but there is no way I'm eating two pizzas by myself."

After he says this he grabs half of the first pizza and disappears back into his room. I feel a rush of relief come over me. I really didn't want to deal with drama tonight, I just wanted a movie night with my best friend. Riley and I split the remaining half of the pizza and make our way to the couch turning on our favorite movie, Adventures in Babysitting. We eat our pizza, watch the movie, and talk the night away.

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When I wake up I feel disoriented as if I'm being lifted out of Riley's bed. I open my eyes a little wider only to realize that I had fallen asleep on the couch and that someone was carrying me. I assume that it's probably Cory or Topanga, seeing as though this was routine during my sleepovers with Riley but when I look up I realize that the person carrying me is none other than Joshua Gabriel Matthews. I don't want him to know I'm awake so I shut my eyes again quickly.

Eventually we make it to Riley's room and Josh places me on the bed next to Riley before covering us up. I assume he had brought Riley her a few minutes before me. After he covers us up I think he's going to leave but instead he leans over and places a kiss on Riley's forehead saying goodnight and before I know what's happening he places a light kiss on my forehead.

"Goodnight Maya" he whispers before he finally stands up and leaves the room, and as soon as the door clicks shut I know I'm not getting any sleep tonight.