Between You & I: A Laya Fan-Fic

Chapter Three

I'm sitting on a bench at Central Park, waiting for Lucas to show up. I check my phone. It reads 4:20.

Let me just leave. Apparently he doesn't take this as seriously as I thought.

I get up to leave.

"MAYA! MAYA WAIT!" I hear a voice yell behind me.

I look around and see Lucas running towards me.

"I'm. I'm sorry that. That I'm. That I'm late." Lucas apologizes out of breathe.

"Dude. It's okay." I sit him down and I sit next to him.

"Lucas I had to lie a little to Riley yesterday....But then I told her that we were going to be here and pushed her off the train."

Lucas sits up.

"What?! Why did you tell her?"

I move away from him a bit.

"It's okay. She's not going to be here. And even if she is, I didn't tell her the time. I just feel so guilty. She probably thinks that we're doing something that may hurt her. Plus it is 'honest week' remember. One hundred percent honesty." I stand up.

"Well we're not. Doing anything wrong."

"I know. So get up lazy ass we need to practice on what you need to do to impress Riles."

Lucas smiles and gets up.

"Lazy ass? I'm the one who had to run for a mile to get here after getting kicked out of a cab."

"Not enough money?"

"You are correct."

I walk to a spot were we have space.

"Okay first, pretend I'm Riley. Now just say to me how you would normally ask Riley out to a picnic in the park." I say

"Uh...okay." Lucas takes a deep breath.

"So uh, Riley. I was just wondering if-if you w-wanted-"

"EEEEERRRR!!!" I yell loudly.

Lucas backs away holding his ear. "What was that for?"

"And here's the first lesson. Self confidence." I walk around him in a circle.

"When you pretended to ask Riley out, do you think you had confidence?" I stop right in front of him.

"Well, no." He puts his head down.

I put it back up with my two fingers on his chin. "And why not?"

"I was stuttering."

"Exactly. You can't do that. You have to think positive and be confident. Also smile and act a little shy. Girls love that crap." I take a few steps back.

"Okay now start over. Remember. Positive thoughts. Confidence. Smile." I put a fake cheesy smile on my face.

"Okay." Lucas says nodding and standing up straight.

"Hey Riley." He says to me with both his hands in his pockets. "I was just wondering if..." He smiles, laughs, then puts his head down. He puts it back up. "If you would like to go on a picnic with me."

My heart starts thumping loudly and I start getting nervous. I catch myself smiling. I snap out of my trance to remind myself that he's not talking to me. He's talking to Riley. So I need to calm down.

"No." I say with a straight face.

Lucas's mouth drops. "What?!" He exclaims. "That was so good you even fell for it!"

I grab my bag on the ground. "Hmmm I don't think I did."

"Maya. One hundred percent honesty. Remember?"

I stop for a sec and continue to get a blanket out of my bag. I take it out and lay it on the floor.

"Okay so now it's the practice picnic." I sit on the blanket and pat on my side to signal Lucas to sit.

"A practice picnic?" Lucas has a confused look on his face.

"Yeah. Sit. Now." I demand.

He sits down. "I thought you said no picnic."

"Nooo. Maya said no. But, you were asking out Riley, and she didn't respond. So deal with it." I take out some grapes.

"Grapes?" Lucas looks at me.

"Yeah I see it in the movies all the time." I put two grapes in my mouth. "Don't judge me."

He laughs.

"So what will you do first?"

"Uh..." Lucas looks down. "I'll start conversation."

"Good! Now what will you talk about."

"Well I don't know. It depends on the situation. Like these grapes for example. I can talk about how my uncle runs a vineyard to make wine in-"

"Lucas. Lucas. I don't care. Save that for Riley." I interrupt him.

"Catch!" I yell to him throwing a grape at his face.

"You threw a grape at me." Lucas raises up the grape.

"Yes. Yes I did. You're suppose to catch them with your mouth. Like, try me." I hand him the grapes.

Lucas throws a grape at me and I catch it with my mouth.

"That's it." Now your turn.

I take the grapes from Lucas and throw it at him. He misses and I throw more at him.

"Stop throwing so many at once!" He yells at me.

"No it's actually pretty funny to see you fail." I start laughing.

Lucas takes the grapes away from me and starts throwing a bunch at me.

"How's that Miss Hart?" He says laughing.

"Stop!" I laugh along. I catch at least two and take the grapes away from him.

I pretend to put the grapes away but instead I throw more at him. He starts laughing along with me.

"Alright, that's it." Lucas jumps on top of me and tries to take the grapes.

With my back on the ground I stretch out my arms and move the grapes around. Lucas reaches up to get the grapes and out chins touch. He takes the grapes and gets up a little, he's hovering over me.

We just stare at each other. That's it. We just look in each other's eyes smiling. Lucas leans in more and I feel his breathe coming towards my face. I want to, I really do. But I can't.

I can't kiss him.

I roll over quickly and go to my bag. "Enough with the grapes." I say, putting them away, for real this time, while we're both still smiling and laughing a little.

I check my phone. It reads 5:12. "I don't have much time left so moving on."

I focus on Lucas's face and realize that he's actually really attractive. Especially when he's happy. Now I know that I want him to be happy. I want Riley to be happy.

"After the grape war, what are you going to do next?"

"Well I can wrap my arms around her like this." Lucas moves towards me. He puts one arm around me, and pulls me in closer next to him.

"And Riley can do this." I lay down on his chest.

He looks at me and I look at him. We stare into each others eyes for a moment and Lucas says "And I, would like that." He smiles. I smile back.

"LUCAS?! MAYA?!?" I hear a familiar voice yell at us angrily.

We break apart and look up to see the only person who knew where we were,

Riley.