(riley & lucas world of terror 3 AU)
-lucas-
It was weird finally starting to care about someone; finally realizing that I can accept another person into my life after what I did. I had avoided it for so long, that I've forgotten how good it felt to have that person care about me too.
I've lived in New York for three years now, and it isn't until now that I've actually wanted to get to know someone in my new surroundings. It wasn't until now that I've found someone else I wanted to protect so much since Zay. Once I met Riley, I couldn't stop the need to protect her. I found myself following her to make sure nothing happened to her. And eventually I finally found the courage to actually talk to her and tell her to stand up for herself.
After I was sure that she was okay, I kept my respectful distance, because I didn't want to scare her away. But she found me every single time.
"Are you still following me?" Her hair flicked my way as she turned to look at me.
"No. Of course not." I denied.
"You're following me," she grinned, "you care about me!" She teased.
I couldn't help but hide my smile underneath my hat.
"You know I don't need a bodyguard, right?" She peeks from under my hat, "and Maya and I are basically friends now, so there's really no need to protect me anymore. Your sheep is totally fine." She jumps as she spoke every word, with the sun shining through her eyes and smile.
"My sheep?" I smirked.
"That's what you said isn't it? I'm your sheep and you need to protect me?" She asked with a raise of her eyebrow.
"I guess so." I nodded and chuckled at her.
"Well, okay then. But if you want to be my friend, you have to stop following me. Sometimes I don't see you in your all-black get up and I might lose you."
"Friend? Why do you assume I'd want to be friends?"
"You don't?" She takes a step back from me with a disappointed look in her eyes.
"Maybe I do, maybe I don't. But being friends with me won't do you any good, sunshine."
"Maybe not. But maybe it'll do you some good. Your choice, though," she shrugs, "you always know where to find me." She skips away with her hair bouncing in her wake, leaving me to make a decision for myself.
-
"I'll wait for you out here, daddy." She yells out into the classroom.
"Here we are again, for another Riley Awards! And here's your host, Riley Matthews!"
I hear snickering in the corner of the hallway behind the lockers and find a brunette with her cell phone covering her face, filming the whole thing.
I sneak towards her and take her phone.
"Lucas! Hey! Give that back!"
I deleted the video and gave it back.
"Go over there and apologize." I pointed towards the pretty little brunette who continued on with her ceremony.
"What the hell? No."
"You were filming her without her consent. Without her even knowing. Who does that?"
"Well, you deleted the video and it's gone so there's really nothing to apologize for and I should go home."
"Riley." I called and caught Missy's wrist before she could leave.
She turned towards my voice and gave me a curious look.
"Lucas? What are you doing here?"
"Missy, here, has something to tell you."
"Uhh. Okay? Hi Missy!" She said in a cheerful tone and silence was her response.
"Missy..." I warned.
"No. I'm not going to talk to this weirdo." She muttered.
"Missy." I said in a more stern tone.
"Lucas, what are you doing?" Riley asked.
"Missy." I repeated.
"I'm sorry." She muttered under her breath and tried to walk away.
I pulled her back, "You have to mean it, Missy."
"Ugh. I'm sorry, Riley. You didn't know this but I was filming you do that dorky, stupid award show. And I apologize. Okay? Now, let go of me, freak!" She rolled her eyes while speaking and pulled her wrist from my grip and left.
"Oh." Riley bowed her head and sat at the bench.
"Ignore her, Riley. She's just being mean."
"I didn't realize what I've been doing was dorky and stupid. I do it every Friday so I could reward myself for every good thing I've done in the week so next week I'll do better. I didn't realize someone could be watching. I didn't realize how embarrassing it was." She said it more to herself than to me.
I took my hat off, sat beside her and put my hand over hers.
"It isn't embarrassing or stupid, Riley. Okay, maybe a little dorky," I joked and she smiled, "But you shouldn't feel embarrassed because it's actually really nice that you do that for yourself. And you're unique and special and no one should take that away from you." Her doe eyes looked up at me in disbelief but she stayed speechless.
"Remember the wolves I told you about?" She nodded, "Missy's one of them. She only wanted to make you feel bad because she needed something to feel good about. But she didn't even get to do that-"
"Because of you. You protected me from her. You protected me from the wolf who tried to get me. And I can't thank you enough for that." She put her other hand over mine and looked back into my eyes.
"You don't need to thank me, Riley."
"No. I do. You've been protecting me all this time and I don't understand why. You don't even know me." I shrugged, "Can you please explain to me why you feel the need to protect me?"
"I don't know why, Riley. I just feel like I need to be there for you and I really don't want you to get hurt."
"Your friend in Texas, were you his protector too?"
"I don't really-" I started to tell her I didn't want to talk about Zay, but as I looked into her eyes, I felt like I could trust her with my life, "His name is Zay."
"Did you protect Zay like you're protecting me?"
"I did. Maybe too much. And because of that he got hurt."
"How?"
"I didn't control myself. I did something and I had to leave. And what I did affected him after."
"But you controlled yourself with Missy. What was different?"
"Maybe me. I think I've changed from who I was in Texas."
"Why?"
"I'm not sure," I looked at her, "but I think it started when I met you." Her cheeks reddened and she had to look away.
"I thought it was because you wanted to become a sheep herder." She joked.
"I don-"
"I know. You want to be a veterinarian. And I bet you'd be a great one."
"You know, you're the only one who knows that."
"Well I guess we both discovered something new about each other today," she smiled her million-dollar smile at me, "and for the record, you changed me too."
"How did I change you?"
"I'm not sure yet, but all I know is, I feel less lonely with you around. I even stopped bringing Barry to school with me."
"Your teddy bear? Why?"
"I don't know. I guess I feel safer now than I did before, so I feel like I don't need to bring him everywhere with me anymore." She shrugged.
"So are you saying I'm yourreplacement teddy bear?" I laughed and she joined me. But before she could respond, we heard the door close with the voice of her father.
"Riley, are you ready to go?" Mr. Matthews comes out of his classroom, looking at us curiously, "Mr. Friar, what are you still doing here?"
"Just giving your daughter some company, sir." He nods.
"Thank you again, Lucas." She smiles at me, gets up and offers her hand, "Friends?"
I took her hand and shook it with a smile and a nod and she skips away with her father.
-
The following Monday at lunch, I sat at my usual table alone. Without saying a word, Riley sits across from me and starts eating her food like her being there was a usual thing.
"Uh hi."
"Hello!" She said with her usual happy voice.
"You're...sitting here..."
"Is that okay?" I responded with a thumbs up.
"I was thinking now that we're friends, maybe we can talk to each other more; maybe not lurk so much. I don't know maybe we can sit with each other at lunch or something. Because Maya's at this art trip and you two are really the only people I talk to besides Farkle and Smackle but they make me feel kind of dumb sometimes. So I hope this wasn't intrusive because I don't want to make you uncomfortable or anything-" She rambled.
"Riley, it's okay," I reached for her hand, "It's nice to have someone to sit with. Thank you."
"Really?" She sighed, "Oh, thank God. I thought you were going to tell me to leave."
"You say that like I'm not a nice guy." I say, taking fake offense.
"You are! You're just intimidating sometimes."
"I'm intimidating? You're intimidating?"
"What do you mean I'm intimidating? I'm a good little girl!" She defended.
"Yeah, and I feel like I'm not good enough to be around you."
"What? Lucas! Of all the boys in our grade you're the only one I feel like I can trust and be myself around. Remember what I told you yesterday?"
"Of all the boys in our grade? Not even Charlie Gardner?"
"Charlie? What does he have to do with anything?" I shrugged.
"Well, I followed you sometimes to make sure you were doing okay and I noticed he lurked around sometimes too. It's actually pretty creepy."
"Really, Charlie's the creepy one?" She laughed. "But I never really noticed him. I've only ever known when you were around."
"You did?" She nodded. "But that one time with Maya, you were surprised I was there."
"Yeah, but after that I noticed. You're never that far behind me, you know."
"I'm sorry if it was too much. I never wanted to be a creep. I just wanted to be there in case something happens."
"I know. And you were. So don't worry about it." She smiles at me and we both go back to eating our lunch.
While we ate I notice her stop and stare at me for a whole minute.
"What? Is something on my face?" I take my phone out of my pocket and checked my reflection.
"No, um. I just noticed you weren't wearing your hat."
"Oh yeah." I shrug and start playing with my food on my plate.
"I never noticed you had green eyes." She said in more of a whisper.
"What?"
"And you have a really nice smile." She said in more of a trance.
"Oh. Thanks." I felt my cheeks warm up as I look away from her again.
"Oh gosh. Did I say that out loud?" She rested her forehead on her hand and shook her head at herself. "You're just a really good looking guy." She said with a hint of surprise after taking another look at me.
I looked up at her with a small smirk playing on my lips.
"Well, you're a really good looking girl too."
"What?"
"And I think you have the prettiest smile I've ever seen." I continued.
"You do?"
"Yeah. I really do."
"You've ever seen?" She asks to clarify.
"I've never seen anything better." I confirm.
"Well, thank you. That's really nice of you to say." She blushes and I shrugged and smiled to myself.
"Would you maybe want to go to my mom's cafe with me after school?" She blurted.
"What?" I asked in surprise.
"I, uh, study and do my homework there after school," I nodded because I knew this, "and I was just wondering if you'd like to study with me. But it's okay if you don't want to."
"Sure. Yeah. I'd love to."
"You would?"
"Yeah. Maybe we can make it a regular thing?"
"You'd want that?" Her eyes widened.
"I would," I nodded, "I really like talking to you. And it'd be nice to talk outside of school."
"Yeah. I was thinking the same thing."
"Okay, good." I sighed.
"It's a date." Her eyes widened again, realizing what she just said. "I mean- it's, uh.-"
"Yeah, it's a date, Riley."