"We have to talk about it," Maya teased, bumping Riley's shoulder in the bay window. Ryan laughed from where he was sitting over on Riley's bed, knowing Riley would never get past the awkwardness of the talking stage.

It had been about three months since Riley and Ryan's double date with Aiden and Lucas. On Ryan's end, things were going great, they had gone on to go on more dates and eventually started dating officially during the summer.

Riley and Lucas? Not so much.

They haven't so much as spoken about a second date since their first. Only after endless prying on Ryan and Maya's end did they find out that the two kissed. It was a peck, but a kiss is a kiss.

"Riley, we have to keep moving, just talk to him," Ryan sighed, turning upside down on the bed.

Riley's face turned red. "Sorry, not all of us can just walk up to the guy of our dreams and ask him to be their boyfriend, ok?"

Ryan rolled his eyes. "Aiden's not the guy of my dreams."

Maya scoffed. "Uh-huh. Sure. Ok." She and Riley rolled their eyes.

Ok, so what if he found Aiden a little dreamy? This was about Riley, not him!

"We don't have to talk about this, we have so many other things going on!" She tried. That's when Faarkle came in the window.

"Ladies," he greeted casually, winking at Ryan. He rolled his eyes. Try as he might, Farkle was never going to live down what he did.

"Yay!" Riley hugged Farkle tightly before letting go. Farkle sat down and smiled.

"Well that settles that then."

Ryan scoffs and rolls his eyes. Farkle frowns at him. "You said no."

"I like to be asked first!" Ryan argued.

"What are you talking about?" Maya asked, looking between the two of them with furrowed eyebrows.

"He's got tickets to a concert and didn't invite me first!" Ryan complained.

"See! This is a new problem we can solve," Riley rejoiced, clasping her hands, "This might even take all day."

Maya shook her head. "Nope, Ryan and Farkle problem. He's got it, just watch."

"Why didn't you ask me first?" Ryan asked, pouting.

Farkle sighed and climbed more fully into the room. "Your phone was off and Lucas was the one I ran into first. I'm sorry, okay? You're still my best friend."

Ryan smiled. "That's all I wanted to hear. I'll go to the concert with you."

Farkle raised an eyebrow teasingly. "Oh, really? But, now I want Riley to go with me."

"Not happening, Farkle," Maya said for her. Farkle shrugged.

"Okay, guess that settles that." He took this as his cue to leave. Ryan laughed and settled back on the bed.

Maya held out her hands in front of her to mime what she was about to say next, "Restaurant booth, you lock eyes, you climb into his lap, you grab Lucas by the face."

"O-okay, I'm leaving," Ryan said awkwardly, getting to his feet and following Farkle out the fire escape.

--

Back in the classroom, Ryan was rubbing his temples as a headache was building. Riley still hadn't told Cory that she had kissed Lucas. Ryan had argued that she didn't have to, but Riley didn't like keeping secrets.

Which was fine for her, but was a terrible policy for a teenager to keep up in the long run.

Farkle, being the great friend he is, saw his opportunity to take advantage of the situation.

"So everything he says is making them uncomfortable?" He asked him and Maya.

"Uh-huh." She said with a grin.

"Shall we take advantage of this?"

"How could we not?" she cackled manically. Ryan rubbed his forehead, both annoyed and amused.

"I will begin." Farkle stood up and sat at the front of the classroom. "So, Mr. Matthews, tell me, after you've had the courage to close your eyes and take the face of the new world in your trembling hands.." Farkle closed his eyes and mimed bringing a face closer to his.

"What are you trying to say, Farkle?" Cory asked him, equally as weirded out as many of his students had suddenly become.

"Are you supposed to be a couple next or what?"

"Huh?"

Oh my god.

Ryan put his head in his hands. Why did his friends have to keep doing things.

"Perhaps my dear friend Miss Maya Penelope Hart could help me out."

"OH!" Ryan yelled in shock. He quickly clamped his hands over his mouth as Maya's seething glare swept over his shaking figure. A few giggles escaped and Maya stomped on his foot.

"Penelope." Maya glared at him. "Farkle..."

"It came out. It just came out. It came out. It just came out. " Farkle was frozen in the position he gestured to Maya in for as long as her glare was on him.

"Penelope?" Lucas laughed in disbelief. Unfortunately for him, Maya wasn't going to take that lying down.

She quickly turned in her chair. "Really, huckleberry? You want to play with me right now? "

"No."

"'Cause you've done quite enough, haven't you? "

"Maya!" Both Lucas and Riley shouted out. Maya smirked and faced the front.

"Mr. Matthews, I think what Farkle is trying to say is once you've kissed... "

Riley choked.

"...the shores of this new world. I bet your friends from the old world would want to hear about how the new world is, and if you don't tell them, well that's just selfish." Maya laughed.

"What are you trying to say, Penelope?" Cory asked, totally and completely done with his class.

"Are you supposed to be a couple next, or what?"

Cory swept a hand over his face, "Alright, what's going on here, guys?"

"Didn't you get the memo? It's embarrassing Riley day," Ryan laughed. Riley glared at him from her seat two rows away.

"Nothing, dad, nothing is going on. Here's a crazy idea, why don't we read from the book for once!" Riley cried out, swinging her hands wildly.

An idea came into Ryan's head quickly. Biting back a smirk, Ryan quickly grabbed the health book out of his bag and stood up while she was swinging her arms around to place it in her hands.

Riley frowned and opened the book to a random page.

"The boy and the girl had no idea "of the changes they would soon be facing. Everything was different, including their own bodies..." What the..."

"That's a health book." Cory said, frowning at his son. Ryan shrugged and laughed loudly.

"Ryan!" Riley gripped the book with both hands and swung at him with it, but she nearly hit Maya instead.

"Okay, everybody sit down," Cory instructed and the twins both took a seat, still glaring at each other. "I want one person to tell me what all of this is about."

"Don't worry about it," Ryan rolled his eyes and crossed his arms, sitting back in his chair.

"Too late, I'm worried about it," Cory glared at his son. He glared back.

The bell rang. Quickly, everybody left the classroom, Maya and Farkle giving Ryan guilty looks as they passed by the father-son duo locked in a stalemate.

"If you wanna be worried, talk to Riley." Ryan relented, standing up and swinging his bag over his shoulder. Cory shook his head. "No, I'm gonna be worried about you. When you get home, your mother and I are going to have a serious talk with you."

Ryan scoffed and left the classroom, completely bypassing whatever crowd Riley and Lucas drew with their drama. Farkle followed quickly after him.

"Hey, hey, what's wrong, what happened?" He asked him as Ryan continued to walk faster.

"Nothing, Dad's just mad at me again, blaming me, something, something, perfect Riley, nothing out of the usual here." Ryan said under his breath, walking towards the front exit.

"Hey, hey!" Farkle grabbed his arm, forcing him to stop. Ryan groaned, sighing harshly and pulling his hood up. "I thought you said things were getting better? They weren't doing this anymore?"

Ryan shrugged his shoulders dismissively. "I've given up hope on things getting better. Even when we're getting along, she'll always be perfect Riley and I'll always be just some fuck up."

Farkle shook his head. He didn't have any other words to say, so he just pulled Ryan into a hug. He melted into it instantly, He gripped Farkle back tightly, holding back tears.

Maybe he wasn't that upset that his dad was mad at him, he didn't even really care anymore. As for 'serious talks'? Those never mattered, his parents never cared, not really. They wouldn't start now.

On the other end of the hallway, as she was being hounded by questions, Riley watched Ryan and Farkle as they hugged. If there was one thing she understood, it was when somebody was upset. What she didn't understand was why it seemed like her father was blaming everything on Ryan.

--

Ryan was lying down in Aiden's bed, tossing a baseball up into the air and catching it while Aiden worked on homework. He glanced up at him while the ball was in the air. He gave him a curious look as he caught it and sat up.

"Are you staring at me or doing your homework?" Ryan asked, smirking a little. Aiden laughed and spun away from his desk fully to face Ryan.

"What, I can't take a little break just to look at you?" he laughed. Ryan smiled and gestured him over with a nod of his head. Aiden left his chair and sat next to him facing the opposite wall. They way they sat had their shoulders touching but their legs hanging off opposite sides of the bed.

Aiden frowned. "What's wrong?"

Ryan raised an eyebrow, "What makes you think anything is wrong?"

Aiden laughed and shook his head. "You looked really frustrated when you were tossing that ball," he grabbed the baseball from Ryan's hands and began rolling it between his palms.

A small smile tugged on Ryan's face at the action. "Yeah, uh, just got in a fight with my dad today. Nothing big."

Aiden frowned again. Ryan nudged his shoulder, "Don't frown at me, this is normal. This happens, we know this."

"You're dad's annoying," Aiden said bluntly after a moment.

Ryan laughed loudly. "Yeah, uh," he ran a hand through his hair. "I'm not too fond of my mom, either. Which is why this whole thing is so weird, he's normally the one I can handle."

"Okay, do you want me to make you feel better or distract you from it?"

Ryan raised an eyebrow and smirked at him. "Kinda curious as to what you would do to distract me from it."

Aiden laughed before leaning forward and kissing him.

Ryan pulled back to laugh. "Oh, right, duh." Before leaning back in to kiss him again.

--

"If you thought sneaking back in after curfew would work this time, you were very mistaken," Topanga said, flipping the light switch on after the door shut at midnight.

Ryan sighed heavily, running his hands through his hair. "Alright, let's hear it, what?"

Cory was sitting on the couch, arms crossed, glaring at his son.

"I want to talk about why you were bullying your sister today."

"Bullying? You're joking, right?" Ryan laughed in disbelief. Topanga sat down next to Cory, equally serious. Ryan scoffed and rolled his eyes. "I'm assuming you missed the part where she tried to take my head off with the health book?"

"And why did you give her the health book in the first place? Were you trying to embarrass her in front of everyone?" Cory asked.

Ryan rubbed his face harshly. "Oh, my god, you are so out of it. Yeah, I was messing with her, but so was Maya, and so was Farkle, and they're not getting lectured in the middle of the night."

"It's only the middle of the night because you refused to come home until now, Ryan, that's completely unacceptable," Topanga chimed in.

Ryan yanked off his jacket and threw it over the coat rack. "Phenomenal, punish me."

He walked into the kitchen and his parents followed, exchanging confused looks.

"You're obviously grounded, and whenever you see Aiden it has to be over here, not at his apartment." Cory said.

"And you have to be in the living room, interacting with your family for at least 4 hours when you get home," Topanga added.

Ryan nodded and grabbed a banana from the counter. He turned around and leaned on it, peeling the banana and taking a bite. Afterwards, he frowned at his parents. "Nah."

"No, not acceptable," Topanga said immediately. Ryan took another bite and a step towards his room. Cory blocked the doorway. Ryan raised an eyebrow.

"What? What are you gonna do, are you gonna hit me?" Ryan laughed, fear racing through his heart. 

He would never think his father would hit him. Not in a million years, he's too soft for that. His mother was too righteous for that. But that didn't change the fact that this was the most direct way he had stood up to his parents in months, and it was over nothing. He couldn't even pretend to be justified because he wasn't fighting them on anything, really. Just the same shit they've rehashed a million times. And honestly? He was getting sick of it.

"What? No, Ryan," Cory balked. He reached out a hand to his shoulder, but Ryan took a step back. He stepped backward to face both of them, tossing the banana in the trash as he did.

"Look, this whole thing got blown out of proportion. You baby Riley, that's fine, but I won't. She's my sister, she can deal with whatever problems we have on her own," Ryan looked his mother in the eyes as he said this.

Cory would baby Riley the most, but Topanga was the one who would fight for her. Once, a little boy stole her sandwich, and Topanga got him suspended from the school for theft.

"It doesn't matter what you think of our parenting, Ryan. We've been too lenient with you for too long, now we're being more strict and you're mad at us?" Topanga complained. Ryan shook his head.

"You were neglectful."

Topanga shook her head and Cory looked away. Ryan grit his teeth. "Face it! You were neglectful! You don't get to turn around and try to punish me for acting like a brother to my twin sister, okay? Leave me alone!"

Ryan pushed past Cory and into his room, slamming the door shut. Ryan shut his eyes and slid to the floor. He pressed the heels of his palms to his eyes as he began to cry. 

Across the hall, Riley began to do the same. 

comment, vote, don't ghost me

not to spoil anything, but I do actually have the rest of ryan's story planned out. it's in cute little bullet point summaries, but it's there.