I found myself at the same marble floored house that I was at the night Riley was arrested. A scrawny boy opened the door, letting me in silently.
"Is Lucas here yet?" I asked.
Farkle nodded and tilted his head to gesture towards the boy rummaging through his fridge as he led me to his room.
I cleared my throat, and looked around, noticing that the extremely large house was ironically empty; like it always was. "Parents working late again?" I asked.
The skinny boy nodded. "Yeah." He muttered. "They always are." His tone was sad, yet empty- like he's been used to this feeling of loneliness for a while now.
I didn't know what else to say to him, we haven't really talked since I yelled at him that night, and I wasn't sure if I should apologize or not.
"I'm not mad at you, you know." He said, almost as if he read my mind. "You were right. Riley is my childhood friend and I shouldn't have been that quick to jump to conclusions about her. I was just so upset about the death and I didn't know where to put that anger towards since they haven't been able to find the actual murderer yet."
He sat down at his computer desk and started up the system. I followed and placed a hand in his shoulder to comfort him. "I'm sure they'll find the culprit soon." I assured.
Farkle shook his head in denial. "It's been months, Maya. The statistics of finding the murderer decreases more and more each day." He said sadly.
"I know." I whispered. "But don't lose hope, okay?"
"I won't." He promised. "I just wished things would go back to the way they were before. Now Riley has been back in my life for a couple weeks and I can't even look at her without remembering that Mason isn't with us anymore."
I remembered back to this morning and how heartbroken Riley sounded when she told me about that. "I know, she told me about this morning."
Farkle spun his computer chair around and raised an eyebrow to look at me. "You two have really hit it off since you met, haven't you? I can't say I didn't expect it. People shunned the new girl and the girl accused of murder so they ended up not having anyone else there for them but each other."
"Uh yeah.." I agreed rubbing my neck with the back of my hand. I could hear Lucas' heavy footsteps travel up the staircase. "I'm guessing you've seen the photos?"
Farkle nodded and cracked his knuckles in a stretching motion just in time for Lucas to come into the room. "That's why you two are here today, isn't it?" He smirked. Computer systems and hacking used to be Farkle's favourite hobby but he's been too overwhelmed lately to be bothered with a case.
Not until today.
~
Lucas sighed and plopped himself onto Farkle's bed. "This is taking forever." He whined.
"Shut up cowboy it's been like two and a half minutes." I retaliated, watching Farkle type random numbers and letters into his computer.
I glanced down at my phone to see that Riley had texted me a little over an hour ago. Miss you already <3
My heart fluttered and I sent her a series of different coloured hearts as a reply.
"You are so gay." Lucas said over my shoulder. He saw the texts.
"You say that like it's a bad thing." I chuckled. "It's 2018 I don't get how people are still straight."
Farkle stopped typing for a second to chime in. "Tragic." He said.
Before Lucas could defend himself, Farkle stood up and clapped his hands together. "Aha!" He exclaimed. "I found the person behind the account!"
Immediately, Lucas and I ran over to the computer and stared blankly at the screen, not understanding the computer codes that were on it.
"It's Thomas." Farkle said. "The one who the police have started investigating after they moved on from Riley."
Lucas knew Thomas pretty well, I heard they played football together. "I guess he wanted to get the police off his back and put the blame back in Riley." The boy shrugged.
"Fuck him." I muttered, grabbing my bag and heading out of Farkle's room and down the long staircase.
The two boys glanced at each other for a second in confusion before running after me. "Where are you going?" Farkle asked.
"To kick Thomas' ass." I replied. "Nobody messes with my girl."
I walked out of the house confidently and made my way half way down the street before seeing that the boys were still far behind me. "You two better hurry up and lead the way because I have no idea where I'm going!" I shouted.
"Take a left!" Lucas shouted in response before the boys jogged to catch up with me.
~
When we found Thomas, he had just finished basketball practice and was leaned up against his car in the student parking lot- immersed in a deep conversation with Danielle Larsen.
"What is she doing now?" Lucas asked bitterly. He couldn't stand the girl anymore after finding out what she did and gets upset when we remind him that they used to be dating .
As we inched closer, the voices got louder. Danielle was yelling at Thomas for some undisclosed reason before slapping him across the face. The only phrases I could make out were "you idiot!" and "do you not have a heart?"
He just stood in silence and listened to each of her words. The scene almost looked identical to the one of Riley and Mason that was posted. We continued towards them but the two seemed to indulged in each other to even pay attention to their surroundings.
"Take those photos down this instant! Riley doesn't deserve this and you of all people should know that." She scolded him.
Thomas frowned. "But the police think that I did it now..." he trailed off guiltily.
"Who CARES what the police think Thomas you're ruining a girl's life just because you don't want to be asked a couple questions by the NYPD."
Danielle seemed to be yelling at Thomas before we even had the chance to. I was beyond confused but continued to lead the trio towards them and stepped into their conversation, pushing Danielle to the side with my hand.
"Sorry for interrupting your loving moment but I have a few words to say to Thomas here." I said unapologetically to her, knowing that I was getting on her last nerve.
The girl was shocked that we showed up. "How did you find us?" She asked.
"You two were having a heated argument in broad daylight in a public parking lot, I don't know why you're so surprised." Farkle said degradingly, towering over her. Sometimes I forget how tall he actually is.
"Why are you so upset?" I asked, raising and eyebrow at her and feigning curiosity as if I hadn't been listening to their entire conversation beforehand.
She sighed in frustration. "Thomas is behind those pictures of Riley and he refuses to delete them."
Thomas' black hair swooshed back with his sudden movement when he jumped forward to include himself in the conversation. "Hey! Don't just go around telling people that I'm behind the Instagram account!"
The brunette rolled her eyes. "She already knew, dimwit. Why else would boy genius and huckleberry be here."
"Danielle's right." I confirmed, glancing at him momentarily and enjoying the brief flash of fear in his eyes. Instead of yelling at him (since Danielle had already done the job) I turned to her instead "Why do you care anyways?" I asked.
"I care because she's my friend." She simply stated, crossing her arms.
Lucas stepped forward and stared at her eyes. "You know that's not true. Friends don't call the cops on each other for crimes they didn't commit." He swallowed angrily, I could see his muscles together as he clenched his fist and jaw tightly in anger. "You and Riley stopped being friends a long time ago. Just because she doesn't remember you now doesn't mean that you can take advantage of her for whatever twisted goal you have in mind."
"I'm not planning anything!" She defended. "Riley and I were best friends before this incident and you of all people should know that Lucas.
That's new. I thought to myself.
"I've made some mistakes but I just wanted a fresh start and when I found out that she didn't recognize me after she lost her memory, that was the perfect opportunity. Please don't tell her." She pleaded. "I'm trying my best to change."
Lucas softened for a moment for the girl that he used to love. All at once, his anger disappeared, his fists unclenched and he nodded. "Okay."
Satisfied with the interaction, I turned to Thomas threateningly. "Delete the account right now and keep our names out of your mouth." I spat.
He nodded obediently. "Danielle already forced me to delete it." He whimpered
I didn't understand why she cared so much protecting Riley but maybe she was being honest. Maybe she really did want to change. I turned to her and nodded in appreciation. "Thanks." I muttered, before walking away, knowing that Lucas and Farkle would follow suit.