I wake up the next morning in Riley's bed. She enjoys sleeping in whenever she can so of course she's still fast asleep next to me. I lean over to the bedside table and grab my phone unlocking it. Before I have a chance to scroll through my socials I notice that Zay texted me last night after I had fallen asleep.
ZAY: Hey. I just wanted to let you know I'm home safe and sound. I'm sure you're already asleep so that means you're reading this tomorrow morning. So good morning 😊
I smile as I read the text but I can't help but feel guilty about my feelings towards Josh. Zay really is the sweetest guy ever and he's an amazing boyfriend, I just hoped that I could remember that the next time I ran into Josh. I shoot a quick good morning text in response and climb out of bed carefully so that I don't wake up Sleeping Beauty.
I start making my way towards the kitchen so that I can make myself breakfast when I'm pulled into the guest bedroom. I don't even have to look up to know it's Josh so I respond the way any girl would after being pulled into a room with an extremely attractive boy...I punch him.
"WHAT THE HELL HUNTER?" he yells holding his arm where I just punched him.
"Are you kidding me Josh, what the hell is wrong with you? You can't just go around pulling random girls into your bedroom."
"Maya, you're hardly random" he replies clearly missing my entire point. I roll my eyes and decide to find out what on earth he could possibly need from me so urgently.
"What do you want Josh?" I ask annoyed.
"We need to talk about yesterday" he states looking at my face waiting for a reaction.
"There's nothing to talk about Josh, nothing happened, I'm with Zay." I say calmly. "And even if I wasn't, that doesn't mean I'd go out with you. You left, you went back to Philly" I continue quickly. "Why can't you just back off and leave me alone?"
As I keep rambling on he stares at me listening intently slowly moving closer and closer to me and when I finally shut up he's millimeters away from me pinning me up against the door. He looks down at me and my breath hitches in my throat as he caresses my cheek gently.
"Hunter, you talk too much" he whispers as he leans in closer, and just as his lips are about to meet mine we hear Topanga calling us all down for breakfast.
Josh quickly lets go of me and backs up as I reach behind me twisting the doorknob bolting out of the room heading towards the kitchen. As I enter the room Riley looks up at me noticing that something is clearly wrong but she doesn't say anything as I sit down at the table next to her, opposite Topanga and Auggie.
A few seconds later Josh comes down the stairs and sits down at the table on the end opposite Cory. He looks at me out of the corner of his eye smirking as he takes a bite of his pancakes and as I start to eat my own breakfast my head spins and I feel sick to my stomach because at this point it's clear to me that Josh was going to kiss me, but what was even clearer was the fact that I was going to let him.
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I finish my breakfast and hop out of my seat quickly putting my plate in the sink before heading to Riley's room to get dressed. I'm pulling on a pair of jeans when Riley walks in. "You okay Peaches?" she asks as she shuts the door behind her.
"I really don't want to talk about it" I say after I button my jeans moving my hair out of my face as I look at my best friend.
"Maya" she starts but I cut her off.
"Riles, can we just get out of here for a little while?" I ask annoyed crossing my arms over my chest.
"Okay" Riley says as she sighs looking at me. "I need to go to the mall, should we go there?" she suggests and I nod.
"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.