She knows she's in trouble the second she notices it's missing. Theres a brief moment of panic before she's running, letting her feet carry her, practically flying to the Matthews home. She mashes the buzzer and prays it's Topanga or Cory that buzzes her in. If it's one of them, that means they're home now, so if Riley's found it, she'll have means of escape.
"Come on up."
It's Riley.
She has no memory of entering or sitting at the bay window. Part of her is convinced she was in such a hurry that she teleported.
"I left my-"
"Maya what is this?" Riley asked, holding up her journal. She chokes on air.
"Um..."
"Because I've read the entire thing." Riley starts slowly. This is it, her worst nightmare come to life. She clearly has to leave the country now. Maybe Spain. She is pretty good at Spanish. And she'll change her name to Maria. Maybe dye her hair brown and, hey, she can learn to salsa while she's there. And maybe become a salsa instructor. That's basically teaching right? Marry a nice girl named Suzette and never think of New York or anything in it again, especially not this.
"Um..."
"And it seems to be all about me..."
Is there no God that could've prevented this from happening?
"-and how much you love me."
Maya hopes that in the time she's pretending to have no answers she can come up with a plan, and she does. Maya turns around and tries to escape through the window, only to realize for the first time in 13 years that's it's closed and even locked. This was planned. It'd take too much time to unlock it, so instead she just looks outside longingly, exhales, and slowly turns around.
"Uh..."
"Maya! Come on. What is this? You have to tell me what this is!"
"But I'd really rather not." Maya groans. She considers the door but she's sure Riley could tackle her before she gets there. She could play defense, asking Riley why she was reading something of hers without permission anyway, but that's just a temporary fix to a big, big problem.
"If you don't explain in gonna read something from here aloud."
Big, big, BIG problem.
"How about instead we-" Maya jumps from the bay window and makes a run for the door, throwing all logic out the window. Hell, logic went out the window the moment she knew Riley knew.
And sure enough, Riley tackles her to the floor. She squirms a bit, still trying to at least crawl to freedom, but Riley adjust herself so she's sitting on her back, stilling her.
"July fourth, 2015." Riley starts loudly. "Riley looked so gorgeous staring up at the fireworks. She oohed at the pretty blues and aahed and the bright reds." Riley pauses, giving Maya time to interject.
"I'm an artist, artist make observations. What is wrong with me making nice observations?" Maya reasons. Riley rolls her eyes and continues.
"I just hope that one day I'll be able to hold her hand and kiss her and tell her how much I love her as I watch her react to all of those bright colors." Riley finishes the line and waits expectantly.
"Because we're friends." Maya cheers, weakly fisting pumping the air. It's all she has at this point. Riley didn't seem to think the last five years of flirting was any more than friendly, maybe she could play this off too. Riley rolls off of her and onto the floor.
"Friends? Really?" Riley groans. "Maya, are you in love with me?"
Maybe not.
"... Platonic love?"
"We're not doing this." Riley groans.
"How about we just-" Maya shoots to her feet and leaps for the nearest exit. This time she makes it and is out the door in seconds, ignoring Riley's shouting completely. She can't handle this. Not yet, at least.
***
Maya's locked in her room, ignoring Riley's texts when she hears a knock at the door. She jumps, and considers leaving through the window for a moment, but upon remembering she's on the fourth story, quickly test her wrists for Spider-Man powers so she can crawl along the wall.
"Yo Maya, open up." Lucas' strong voice booms through the door, and Maya rolls her eyes, getting up to unlock the door.
"What do you want, cowboy?" Maya asks, reclaiming her seat on the edge of her bed.
"Riley says you won't answer her text. She won't say why, but she wanted me to tell you something."
"Why didn't you just text me?"
"You have my number blocked along with all of my social media." He exclaims. Maya grins to herself.
"Yeah, I do don't I?" She smirks. "What does she want you to tell me?"
"She said she loves you no matter what. She also said for me to not leave until you truly understand that, so something big must've happened. What'd you do?" He asks. Maya shoots daggers at him. If looks could kill...
"And what makes you think I did something?"
"Oh, I just thought since-" Lucas doesn't finish his though because Maya shoves him to the floor.
"God, what'd I do?!" Lucas exclaims from the floor.
"Why would she send you instead of Farkle in this situation?" Maya says to herself, completely ignoring Lucas' groans on pain. Of all people, Lucas? That's just some kinda cruel. The last person she wants to see right now is Riley's crush.
"Why'd she send you?" Maya asks, looking toward the floor. Lucas is curled into himself, still moaning in pain.
"Ugh, I don't know, she just did."
But she knows Riley, and Riley wouldn't just send Lucas without a hidden motive.
And that's what makes her go over to Riley's apartment two hours later.
"I can't figure it out. Why, oh why would you send Lucas, of all people? Farkle exist. Smackle exist, Zay exist. And you don't have a crush on any of them. I can't figure it out." Maya rants. Riley just smiles fondly at her.
"Wanna see a rope trick?" Lucas asks from the corner. Maya shoots daggers at him, and again, if looks could kill, Maya would be hauled away for killing the same person twice.
"You don't even have any rope, and even if you did, why would I fall for this a second time?"
"I didn't say I would do the rope trick." He smirks. The moment the words are out of his mouth, Zay pops up by the window.
"Nothing personal ma'am." He says, tossing the rope over her. Zay rushes in the window and him and Lucas quickly tie Maya up the best they can, only moving away when she's secure. Maya jerks against the ropes only once before releasing a big sigh.
"Wow. Tie me up to tell me you don't like me like that. That's not excessive at all. Why don't you just rob me while I'm here, I think I've got ten bucks on me. Maybe take my clothes too and then just toss me out the window and-"
She's surprised at herself for letting something as simple as Riley's gentle kiss shut her up. But she sighs into it nonetheless and whimpers when she moves away far too quickly.
"You weren't so fond of talking about it before but what about now?" Riley asks. Maya ponders this for a moment.
"Did you have to tie me up to kiss me? why don't you just robme while I'm here-"
She's hoping Riley will kiss her again, and she does.
"Okay now we can talk."
Riley waves her hand toward the window, signaling for Zay and Lucas to leave.
"How long have you felt this way?" Riley asks. Maya now understands the point of the rope. She doesn't want to have this conversation, and Riley knows that.
"Please don't make me answer that." She moans, struggling against the rope once more. Damn those Texans and their rope tying skills that could literally only come in handy for this situation in New York.
"Forever." She mumbles, facing down. Riley tips her head up with the pads of her fingertips and Maya sighs contently at the feeling.
"Or maybe the first time you did that. I don't know. I just know how I feel." She groans again, and shifts away from Riley.
"Are you going to ask me?" Riley asks, and Maya can't help but smile at the look in her big doe eyes.
"Yeah." She murmurs dreamily.
"Always. I just didn't know until today. I realized today."
"When you were reading it?" Maya asks. She winces at herself for encouraging this conversation.
"Not exactly. A little before... Which is why it took it out of you backpack-"
"Oh my god! First of all, that makes way more sense because I always keep up with that thing, and second, I can't believe you! You purposely took my journal and read it?!"
"I just wanted to see if there was anything about me! And then all of it was about me and-" Riley is stumbling over her words trying to explain herself.
"I have never been prouder of you!" Maya exclaims. She tries to reach her arms up to give Riley a hug, but she's just as easily reminded that she's tied up. Riley, upon realizing there's no need for Riley to be tied up anymore, reaches over to undo the knots.
"So where does this leave us?" Maya hears Riley asking as she's shrugging out of the ropes. She gets up to stretch and Riley watches her in silence.
"You're asking what are we." Maya states, sitting down again.
"Well I didn't want to use those words, but yeah. What are we, Maya?" Riley asks, resting her head on Maya's shoulder.
"We're Riley and Maya. And we'll figure this out together." Maya murmurs into her hair.
"Am I allowed to kiss you while we figure this out?" Riley asks her chest. Maya laughs above her and she looks up to see it.
"Yeah, of course." Maya confirms, and she doesn't need to be told twice.