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Riley stares up at her bedroom ceiling as she wills herself to fall asleep. She can't sleep as her thoughts run rampant. 'Sometimes you're just too much for me, Riley'. She couldn't stop thinking about what Lucas said. He'd apologized. He felt guilty. But she still couldn't stop thinking about it. Is that what he feels? Is that how he really feels about her? There's no way he'd choose her if she's too much for him. Of course he's going to choose Maya. Why wouldn't he choose her? She's fiery. She's beautiful. She can sing. She's an artist. They flirt with each other.
Riley's thoughts are cut off by the sound of her window opening. She lifts her head up to see Lucas climbing in through her window. She sits up in bed, and has to remind herself to whisper so that she doesn't wake up her parents. She does not want to see how her dad would react to seeing Lucas sneaking in through her window in the middle of the night. He's in loose fitting gray pajama pants and a blue short sleeve shirt. His shirt looks like he's put it on in a hurry, and he's out of breath. Did he run here? She smiles at him, despite not knowing why he's here yet. For all she knows he's here to tell her that he's made his choice. And that isn't her. That it would never be her. Then he smiles back at her as he takes a seat on the edge of her bed.
"Hi."
"Hi."
"Not that I'm not happy to see you but why are you here?" She whispers back. He looks down, and she swears she sees him bite his lip.
"I… there's something I wanted to tell you. I made my decision." She blinks. He did choose. She looks down at her hands, which are resting over the top of her blankets.
"Oh, you did? Well, I hope you-"
"I choose you, Riley." He cuts her off, and she looks up at him with wide eyes. He's smiling nervously at her. "I choose you, Riley. It's always been you."
"It hasn't always been me, Lucas. You like Maya."
"No, I don't. You remember what I said? That I have different feelings for each of you?" He recounts. She gets the feeling that he's going somewhere with this so she decides to just let him continue. Then feels him reach for her hand, and she looks down just as he takes her hand in his. "What I meant is that I love you both. But in different ways. Maya's the one I love like a sister. And you, you're everything else. You're the one I want to go on dates with. You're the one I want to stay up all night talking to. You're the one whose hand I want to hold. You're not too much for me Riley. Your belief in me means everything to me. If you didn't believe in me, what would I have?"
"You'd have your friends. You'd have your family."
"My dad doesn't care, Riley. And my mom just goes along with him. My own dad doesn't believe in me. You're the only one who believes in me. So when I thought I lost that… I said something I didn't mean. And I regret it." He says alarmingly calmly. Her thoughts run rampant once again as she realizes that as much as he hurt her with his words, she'd hurt him just as much with her words. And here he is, saying all the things that she wanted to hear him say. He chose her. But there's still something bothering her.
"But we always said the most important thing is that no one gets hurt. Will Maya be okay?" As much as she loves him, she doesn't want her best friend to be hurt.
"I don't know. And I don't want to hurt her either. I couldn't hold this in for any longer."
"Hold this in? How long ago did you actually make your decision?"
"A f-few months ago." She gasps softly, and looks away from him. "But I didn't want anyone to get hurt. And I thought I wasn't good enough. That I didn't deserve you. You're perfect, Riley. And what am I? I'm the angry impulsive guy with daddy issues. Why would someone like you ever want to be with someone like me? So I lied. But I can't keep the lie up anymore."
She slowly turns to look at him. Is that how he saw himself? And she'd completely missed it. Rejecting him probably wouldn't help with his preexisting insecurities. She'd been so worried about him choosing Maya over her, and now he's made his choice. And he chose her. He picked her. If there's anything she's learned is that she's not very good at hiding her feelings. There's no way she'd be able to just let a confession like this go. So she grabs his face, and pulls him to her for a kiss. It reminds of their first kiss that feels so long ago but it's deeper. And longer as their lips move against each other. He grabs her waist to pull her body to him. Then they pull away, and she brings her hands down to rest on his muscular shoulders.
"I take that to mean you choose me too." His voice is hopeful but still uncertain despite the fact she'd just kissed him.
"I do. I always did."