ruin▹rilaya

𝘰𝘯𝘦

ᴍᴀʏᴀ 

Riley turns to me with the purest grin on her face.

"What is it, Riles?"

She tilts her head to the side and I look over to find a cute boy slouching on the bench. He looks up from his book and smiles at Riley.

A thought crosses my mind and I unlink our arms as the subway train takes off. She flies onto his lap and shyly looks at him.

"Hi," I catch him say through the booming subway chatter. "I'm Lucas."

"I'm Riley," she awkwardly waves and smiles.

I tune them out as they continue small talking. I get a strange feeling in my stomach and furrow my eyebrows. She's still sitting in his lap and I feel this strong urge to pull her away from him.

"Who's your friend?" he asks and gestures towards me.

"That's Maya, my best friend," she tells him. "Maya, this is Lucas. He moved from Texas and he's in our grade!"

"Texas?" I smirk and tip down an imaginary cowboy hat. "Howdy, huckleberry."

He raises his eyebrows and Riley gives me a look.

"Am I gonna have to deal with that whenever we hang out?" he laughs.

Riley shrugs and gets up from his lap. "Wherever I go, she goes. And you'd hang out with me again?"

"Yeah, of course," he smiles, revealing bright and flawless teeth. "Only if you want."

She nods and smiles. "I'd love that."

I bite my lip and try not to show how irritated I am at this.

The train stops and the three of us walk to the school. Riley and Lucas are in front of me while I'm treading behind them. I feel a little hurt that she's walking with him and not me. I mean, they just met, but she'd rather talk about his wild Texas rodeos and shit. Riley and I always walk to school together. I don't want him to take my place.

Maybe I'm just being overprotective. 

Riley's never really had a boyfriend or anything. I mean, there was Charlie Gardner, but that was hardly a thing. I just don't want to see her get hurt, right? They just met and hardly know each other. Knowing Riley, she probably won't get past the first date without being awkward as hell.

I must look like I'm deep in thought because Riley turns to me and tilts her head. "You okay, Peaches?"

I rapidly blink my eyes and smile. "Yeah, all good."

"Peaches?" Lucas repeats, a little confused.

"Yeah," Riley says. "It's our thing."

We get to the school and grab our schedules from the office. 

"Oh my god, we have History and Chemistry together!" Riley excitedly says to Lucas.

I feel an ache in my heart when she completely forgets I'm standing there. She didn't even compare our schedules like we always do on the first day. 

Why am I getting so hurt over this? 

It's not a big deal. It's just Riley. But why can't I stop feeling this awful feeling? Lucas doesn't seem like a terrible person. In fact, he reminds me of Riley in so many ways and it's only been a few minutes. I try to push the thought away and look at my schedule. I have Algebra first block and I groan.

"Hey, Maya, I'm gonna show Lucas his class, see ya," she waves and walks away with him.

I stand there in shock for a minute. After the bell rings, I slowly make my way to Algebra, not caring that I'll be late.