see you in spanish class
Maya was kissing Riley, and her lips were just as soft as they were in that gymnasium. When she was kissing Riley, it was like everything in her life finally made sense. When Riley had her hands in her blonde hair, and she was melting deep into her eyes, she couldn’t help but feel like she could do this for the rest of her life. Maya smiled and looked at Riley like she hung the stars in the sky. She couldn’t stop looking at Riley. That was until she woke up. 5:30 AM. Maya groaned. Of course it was a dream. She tried to rid her head of all the thoughts she had been having since the kiss yesterday. But it was all she could think about. She thought about kissing Riley, she thought about asking Riley to prom, she thought about holding Riley’s hand, she thought about marrying Riley. Riley was the only thing that was on her mind. But she told herself she had to stop thinking like that. It wasn't like Riley was actually a lesbian. And neither was Maya. She was straight. I'm straight, I'm straight, I'm straight . Her fantasies weren't buying it though because Riley’s kiss still occupied her brain. How was she going to face Riley in...6:00 AM. One hour? Shaking her head, Maya got up, got dressed, got her backpack ready, and headed over to the Matthews’ place.
She pressed their apartment number and said, “Hey losers, it’s Maya.”
After being buzzed in, she made a b line for Riley’s room, wasting no time. She thought she could handle seeing Riley, but looking at her sleepy face made her feel those butterflies in her stomach again.
“Morning Peaches!” Riley chirped, tying her shoelaces. “How's my girlfriend ?”
Maya faked a smile but couldn't help but feel disappointed that Riley wasn't being serious.
“I'm good, but um, Riles...what are those binders for?”
“Oh, they have all the information we need to be the perfect lesbians. And there are a bunch of plans in there too. And each plan has a little sub plan. And each sub plan has a little baby plan.”
“You really did your research, huh?” Maya commented, as she thumbed through the binder. “What's ‘bumper to bumper’?”
“That's Plan 3, subplan A, and the baby plan’s name is Jexica,” Riley replied. “It's on the sixtieth page.”
Sixtieth page? How many pages did Riley put in this binder? How much research did she do?
Maya rolled her eyes a bit, put down the enormous binder and posed a serious question Riley, “Don't you think this whole pretending to be girlfriends thing is a bit... weird ?”
“Geez, was I that bad of a kisser, Peaches?”
You were a wonderful kisser, it was the best (and only) kiss of my life, I wanted that kiss to last forever, I can't stop thinking about that stupid kiss, I can't stop thinking about your lips, I can't stop thinking about how much I want to kiss you again. Those were some of the things that Maya could have said. But of course, she didn't. Because she had to remind herself that this was all pretend. Make believe. For the popularity. For the free food she got when they first came out as a couple.
“It was like kissing my sister or whatever,” Maya managed to say, hating that she had to lie to Riley. Hating even more than she knew it would be worse if she told the truth.
“Ouch,” Riley said, putting her hand over her heart, feigning hurt.
“Please, it's not like you enjoyed it,” Maya scoffed.
“I thought you were great.”
There it was again, the butterflies. Maya's heart starting racing. Not that she showed it. She gave a little smile and tried to not think too hard about Riley calling her a great kisser. Does that mean she likes me? Does that mean she likes kissing girls?
“You did?”
Riley nods, with a smile on her face. They're interrupted by Cory and Topanga coming into Riley’s room. Without knocking of course because they never knock.
“Morning my two homecoming queens!” Topanga sang. “I'm so proud of the two of you for smashing the heteronormativity that you're constantly surrounded with.”
“What she said,” Cory said, with a big smile.
“You told your mom?” Maya whispered to Riley. She knew Cory knew because he was at the school but she wasn't sure how she felt about Topanga knowing. Especially because Topanga and her mom worked together and were quite close.
“Dad told her,” Riley admitted. “But she's really happy, look! She thinks we're really smashing the heteronormawhatever.”
“Maya, I want you to know that this is a safe space and you can say whatever you want,” Topanga said, walking over the obviously flustered blonde. “How did your mom take the news?”
“I haven't told her yet,” and she wasn't sure she ever wanted to. Sure, her mom was sort of progressive but when it came to her own daughter, Katy Hart was still traditional. She thought Maya would marry a rich businessman who would pay for all of her art supplies and took care of her and their three kids. And unlike Topanga, her mother was not as socially aware. Maya didn't learn about what gay meant from her mom. She learned about it from living in New York City and seeing two guys holding hands and kissing. And it was Topanga who explained to her what that meant. When she told her mom about it, her mom simply smiled (a bit uncomfortably) and muttered the words that's nice. So telling her mother that she was gay and dating Riley was not on the top of her todo list. (Even if the dating Riley part was fake. She wasn't sure about the first one).
“Take your time and you can always come to us if you need anything.”
“Thank you, Mrs. Matthews, I really appreciate it.”
Topanga gave Maya a squeeze of the shoulder and then along with Cory, exited Riley’s room.
“Your mom knows, what if she tells my mom?”
“She wouldn't do that. Besides, it's all fake anyways, right?”
Maya bit her lip and uttered, “Right.”
Walking to school with Maya as her girlfriend felt strangely normal to Riley, besides all the stares and congratulations. For Maya, it didn't feel normal at all. They had held hands countless times but now every seconds she was holding Riley’s hands, her fingertips were on fire. Her skin was tingling and the damn butterflies invaded her stomach again. She had to keep on reminding herself that this was all fake. To Riley. It was all fake to Riley, but the feelings she was having were very real. When Maya had heard about people being in love, she usually scoffed and thought that would never happen for her. Her mother didn’t have the best track record with men so she figured she wouldn’t either. And she was right. Maybe she wouldn’t have the best track record with men . But when she was holding Riley’s hand, walking down the hallway, she finally understood about the thing she used to scoff at. She now understood why people wanted to spend the rest of their lives with another person. To her, Riley was that person. She just wished she was the same to Riley. Maya felt every cliche in the book: weak in the knees, heart skipping a beat, only seeing Riley in a room full of other students, everything Riley doing being like magic, feeling like she was floating, and not being able to take her eyes off of Riley. If someone did a scan of her brain, about 85% of her brain would be Riley. The other 15% was freaking out because Riley was her best friend. Her female best friend. Her best friend that was a girl. Her best friend that she was 99.9% sure didn’t feel the same way. Her best friend that she couldn’t live without. Her best friend that knew everything there was to know about her, except this.
“Peaches, I gotta go to geometry, I’ll see you in Spanish class,” Riley said, leaving a quick kiss on Maya’s cheek before running off.
“See you in Spanish class,” Maya echoed, biting her lip, and trying to compose herself. But it was helpless, she was too far gone.