#winterliley

The only friend he really had up to this point was Farkle. There was pretty much nothing that the two of them had in common, but the kid was nice enough, a little weird but Lucas hardly minded. They talked in between classes, and sat with each other at lunch, and had plans to hang out during Lucas’ first real weekend in New York. He was basically the complete opposite of Zay, but Lucas thought that Farkle would be a good friend to have here.

Then there was Riley.

The two of them hadn’t talked since Lucas’ second day when her blonde friend, Maya, had accidentally set the sprinklers off. It certainly wasn’t from lack of trying on Lucas’ end, but every time he tried to talk her, either her father would get between them before Lucas had the chance to say something, or Riley would practically run away as soon as he got close to her. Lucas had the feeling that he made her nervous, a fact that made him a little happier than he was willing to admit.

It wasn’t that Lucas wanted to make her nervous, but it made him happy that he seemed to have the same effect on her that she had him. Every time he was around her, his heart started to beat really fast in his chest and he couldn’t contain the smile that he had on his face, but despite that, he really wanted to be her friend, or at least get to know her a little better. Based on what he had seen of her, and what he had heard from Farkle (who didn’t seem to know how to be quiet, he was the kind of kid who needed to be seen and heart), she was the best friend that anyone could have.

Which is how he found himself here, standing in front of her locker, a folded up piece of paper in his hand, trying to determine how weird it would be if he just slipped the paper in between the slots, or if he should try his luck and wait for her. He already knew he probably looked creepy enough waiting by her locker, considering she had never told him where it was and he only knew this is where it was because he always saw her out of the corner of his eye, ok he looked for her out of the corner of his eye, when he was sitting on the bench.

He also knew that there was a pretty good chance that once he was standing in front of her, he would lose his guts and they probably would just end up staring at each other or something equally as ridiculous, so before he could completely chicken out, he slipped the note under the door, breathing a sigh of relief when it disappeared from his vision. He could hear her voice around the corner, so checking to make sure he hadn’t dropped anything, he disappeared into her father’s classroom before she saw him. The last thing he wanted to do is look extra weird and creepy lurking around her locker, clearly waiting for her to see the note.

A couple minutes later there she was strolling into the classroom, her best friend by her side and Lucas felt that familiar smile creep into his face, however, she had a look of pure confusion etched all over hers.

“Maya, why would someone just leave me a phone number in my locker, without telling me who they are.” Oh no. His face fell and he put his head down on his desk, his cheeks hot with flush. Had he really forgotten to put his name on the note? How could he forget arguably the most important part of the entire note? “You don’t think…”

“Whatever it is that you’re thinking, that’s probably not it.” Lucas, despite having his head on the table, could practically see Riley’s wide eyed look and the eye roll of her best friend. “It’s probably just some guy trying to mess with you, I would just rip it up and be done with it.” Lucas popped his head up so fast, he was almost afraid for a moment he had broken his neck, luckily Farkle seemed to be the only one who noticed, as Riley was staring at his note like it held all answers to the universe and Maya already was half asleep on her desk.

“What note are you talking about Riley?” Farkle asked.

“Oh nothing Farkle, someone is just trying to kill me by leaving their phone number in my locker.” Lucas sunk in his chair, really wanting the ground to swallow him up whole. Maya gave Riley a look, clearly confused by her overdramatics. In any other situation, Lucas would probably grin, he happened to think Riley’s flare for the dramatics was quite endearing, but not in this case. He had tried to be smooth by sticking his number into her locker and now she thought he was some kind of murderer.

“You know, I’m very good at analyzing handwriting, maybe I know who wrote it.” Farkle says, a very proud grin on his face. Riley looks at Maya before shrugging and handing Farkle the note. Lucas feels his face burn with blush and he knows that it’s not long before he’s caught, this was really not how he had wanted anything to go.

“Oh, this is Lucas’ phone number, and this is definitely Lucas’ handwriting.” Farkle said, sending a look to Lucas. At this point, Lucas was surprised he hadn’t hit the floor he was sunk so low in his chair, his eyes trained completely on his desk, ignoring the gaze of the three people around him.

“Oh.” Was all he heard Riley say and he tore his glance away from his desk, and looked at her. Her face was bright red and as soon as they met eyes, she looked forward to the front of the class, where her father was writing on the board and about to start class. Lucas was happy for the distraction, considering now Maya was half turned around in her seat, practically glaring at him and Farkle was still giving him a weird look. Riley, however, was completely spun around her face almost completely covered by her hair, except for tips of her cheeks, which were pushed up high on her face. Lucas could practically see the grin on her face, and that image sent butterflies into his stomach and he couldn’t help the small smirk that found itself on his face.

…

“Maya! What am I supposed to do?!” Riley was definitely freaking out a little bit, but could you really blame her. Lucas had given her his phone number, something that she was pretty sure nobody else in school, except for Farkle, had. Maya rolled her eyes slightly and gave her best friend a look, closing her locker with a definite slam.

“I don’t know, maybe text him, or call him, or do anything with it instead of just staring at it and waiting for it to do something.” Riley looked away from Maya and began to stare at the note again, she had stared at basically the entirety of her father’s class. She didn’t even remember what they had talked about in class that day, some war happening somewhere that would inevitably come back to be about her at some point. She did however now know the seven digits of Lucas Friar’s phone number like the back of her hand.

“I can’t call him Maya...that’s almost worse than talking to him in person!” Riley exclaimed, she definitely could not talk to Lucas on the phone. She still didn’t know how to talk to him in person, and talking to people on the phone was almost never a good idea.

“You know, I don’t see what the big deal is with talking to him Riles, he’s just a boy, why don’t you just talk to him.” Maya clearly didn’t understand this, the last thing Riley wanted to do was say something to Lucas that he could hear.

“Because Maya, he could hear me.” Riley said, putting her hands on her hips and trying to make her best friend understand what exactly was holding her back. Maya merely looked at her, one eyebrow raised skeptically, but Riley stayed firm in her stance.

“Ok, so if you don’t want him to hear you, text him. Then you can take as much time as you need to write a response, and you never have to talk to him face to face.” Maya said, shrugging her shoulders. “Which I still think is completely ridiculous, but whatever, you’re going do your own thing no matter what I say.”

Riley sighed, a small smile on her face. She hadn’t been able to stop thinking about Lucas ever since the day on the subway, but she had been too nervous to talk to him every time the opportunity came up, so maybe this was exactly what she needed to do. Sending Maya a small smile, Riley lifted her phone out of her pocket and without even looking at the note entered Lucas’ number into the new message bubble.

“What’s your first message gonna say?” Maya asked, a small smirk dancing across her lips. Riley’s eyes widened and she looked from her phone to Maya. Maya only waggles her eyebrows and pats Riley on the shoulder. “I’ll catch you later, Riles.” The final bell rang then and Maya stalked away from Riley, making her way towards the front door of the school, leaving Riley in the school hallway, the crowds of students trying to get out the door nearly swallowing her whole.

Looking up, she immediately made eye contact with Lucas, who was coming towards her, clearly from his locker to leave from the day, but as soon as she lifted her hand to wave (what waving wasn’t talking, waving was safe, she could do waving), he turned beat red and turned his head away and walked nearly in the opposite direction. The gesture made her heart hurt a little bit and she wondering if she had done something to upset him, which would be odd considering they don’t talk to each other.

Shaking her head, she looked back down at her phone, the empty text bubble and blinking cursor haunting her, taunting her with the wrong words that she could say that would drive Lucas away before they even had a friendship to begin with. The wrong words could drive him straight into the arms of Missy Bradford and that thought scared her more than anything. Sighing to herself, she closed her locker door and began the trek back to her apartment, practically staring at her phone screen the entire way home.

By the time it was after dinner that night, she still had an empty text bubble staring back at her. She really wished Maya was here to help her. Sitting on her bed, she took a deep breath and decided to face whatever weird fear this way and tip her toe into the very very attractive and scary Lucas water.

Riley: Hi Lucas.

She looked at it for a moment, her finger hovering over the send button, before she shook her head and deleted the words. “A little more enthusiasm.” She whispered, her fingers skating across the keyboard.

Riley: Hi Lucas!!!! :) :) :)

She smiled this time, before realizing that maybe toning it down just a little bit wouldn’t hurt too much.

Riley: Hi Lucas! :)

This time she nodded, immediately hitting the send button, feeling a small weight being lifted off of her shoulders. Then, the dread set in, what if he didn’t respond back, what if the next day at school he completely ignored her, what if she had just ruined any and all chances she had with him, with two very simple words and a misplaced smiley face. Laying face down on her bed, she groaned, already had resigned herself to being a failure, however her phone dinged after a moment and she shot up, nearly falling as she jumped from her bed and onto the floor.

Lucas: Hey, is this Riley?

Her heart was beating fast and loud against her chest and she bit her lip, trying to refrain any kind of squeal or giggle from coming out of her mouth. She ignored that Lucas had to ask if it was her, seeing as she completely forgot to tell him who she was, and instead hit reply and smiled to herself as she crafted the absolutely perfect response.

Riley: Yeah!! :)

She giggled as she hit send, already feeling better about the whole thing. Sure, she still didn’t really know how to talk to Lucas in person, but this was better than just staring at him in the hallway and blushing when they met eyes in her father’s class or giggling nervously like she did that one time a couple days ago when their hands accidentally brushed up against each other.

Lucas: Cool. So, what’s up?

She giggles to herself, laying back on her bed, staring at the words on the screen. She briefly considered lying, she didn’t want Lucas to think she was lame, but she also knew that the best friendships didn’t start on lies.

Riley: Not much! :) :)

It doesn’t take long between when she presses send before her phone is dinging again with Lucas’ reply. She definitely could not ignore the way her stomach fluttered whenever her phone dinged, or the way her heart would thump in her chest as she fluttered her fingers across the letters of the keyboard. It felt so easy to talk to him like this, a complete reversal of when she would try and talk to him at school and her heart would jump into her throat and her mouth would go dry and she wouldn’t be able to even look at him and also form a coherent thought in her head.

She got nervous for a moment when their conversation fell a little flat, only single word responses being exchanged back and forth. She was afraid that they had already run out of things to say to each other, all her worst fears coming true in a single moment before her phone dinged again, her heart fluttering in her chest.

Lucas: Cool. So, pretty weird what you dad as saying in class the yesterday about the Great Wall of China, right?

Riley laughed, shaking her head at his comment, quickly typing up a response that included three smiley faces, which might have been a little excessive, but they were very accurate to the way she was feeling. All the nerves and fears that she had about the fate of their texting relationship dissipated in a blink of the eye, she had the feeling that this was the beginning of something really, really special.

…

This relationship continued on for almost an entire week, and in that week Riley and Lucas had developed a great texting relationship. They texted almost every single day, exchanging weird jokes and comments about her dad’s teaching style or something funny Farkle said in class. Riley was pretty sure Maya thought she was crazy the way she would grin at her phone whenever Lucas texted her, but she saw the same grin on his face when she sent him something so she hardly cared.

Of course, this all changed when her father forced them to connect without using their phones. It was nervous, talking to Lucas without the security of her screen and emoticons to show her true feelings and emotions, but when he laughed because she said something funny or smiled as she told a story, all the fears and nerves that she had slowly went away, replaced with a comfortability that she was all too grateful for.