Work Text:
“So guys, what kind of booth are you going to set up for the fair?” Lucas questioned, glancing at his friends with a raised eyebrow. Every year the gangs high school held a fundraising fair, and the seniors were required to partner up and build and run a booth as part of their senior project. This year, the six friends were seniors and the fair was being held the next weekend.
Farkle smiled and eyed Smackle. “Well Lucas, Smackle and I have decided to run the rubber duck booth.” The rubber duck game was a booth filled with countless toy ducks floating around a shallow pool, each with a colour on the bottom. Ones with a red dot would win one a large prize, a green dot would win you a small prize, and a blue dot would win you nothing. It was a game of sheer luck, as it was impossible to tell what colour each duck had on the bottom.
“You see,’ Farkle continued, ‘Smackle and I thought we could conduct an experiment coinciding with the booth. The game is all about probability, and we hypothesize that the majority of participants, that being half or more, will try the game at least three times because they believe that their chances of winning must go up a significant amount with each trial. When in truth, the probability of picking a winning duck remains exactly the same each time.
Zay stared at Farkle with glazed eyes. “…Wha..?” Was the confused noise that ended up coming out of his mouth.
“Probability!” Smackle suddenly shouted with excitement, causing Farkle to grin at his adorable girlfriend.
“Yeah, heh heh, probability…” Zay said with mock enthusiasm.
Riley, Maya and Lucas were totally unfazed by the exchange. It was common for Farkle and Smackle to get overly excited about academics, and for Zay to be a little confused, but trying to understand nonetheless because he knew how important it was to them.
“Anyways!’ Riley piped up, “Lucas and I are going to do the ring toss.”
“Why, because Ranger Rick over here wants to show how tossing a ring is just like tossing a rope around wild and crazy, very scary sheep?” Maya smirked.
“No, that’s not why,” Lucas rolled his eyes but smiled a little, always amused by Maya’s jokes, but then added more seriously, ‘and just so you know, sheep may be fluffy on the outside, but they are not all fluffy on the inside.”
“Aw, poor Mad Dog,” Maya pouted and patted Lucas on the head, to which Lucas playfully batted her hand away.
Lucas turned to Riley. “You believe me, don’t you?”
“Of course I do!” Riley exclaimed, making Lucas smile. But the second he looked away, Riley and Maya locked eyes and both just shook their heads.
“Hey hey, don’t y’all wanna know what Maya and I are doing?” Zay asked, growing excited.
“No.” Came a reply from Maya.
Zay paused and scrunched his eyebrows together. “But Maya, you already know what we’re doing. You’re my partner. I was asking the others.”
“Noooo.” Was all she said in response, vigorously shaking her head.
Zay shrugged it off as one of Maya’s usual shenanigans, and smiled brightly. “Okay guys, y’all are going to be so jealous I came up with this. Like literally, I’m a genius.” Smackle glared at him for the use of the term ‘genius’. “Oh shush,” Zay waved off her expression and continued with vigor. “So Maya and I are doing a kissing booth. A kissing booth. You know how many free smooches the Zay man is gonna get?” Zay asked rhetorically, clearly very proud of himself.
The rest of the group was a little incredulous, but amused by his revelation nonetheless.
Riley however turned to Maya, Zay’s partner in crime with disbelief. “You don’t mind running a kissing booth?”
Maya shrugged nonchalantly. “He said he’d do all the work.”
“Ahh,” the group all simultaneously kind of nodded their heads as it became clear.
Just then the bell rang, signalling that lunch was over. The group rose from their seats to head to their next classes.
“Maya?” Riley held out her hand to the blonde girl to accompany her to her next class.
Maya took Riley’s hand silently but with a smile. A smile that meant to Riley that they were best friends, but a smile that Maya knew deep down was from feeling something a little more than friendship.
Maya had known for a while that her feelings for Riley had become more than platonic somewhere along the way of their friendship, and it scared the hell out of her. Firstly, this made her have to come to terms with her being attracted to the same sex, something that wasn’t frowned upon generally, but wasn’t always whole heartedly accepted by others. Secondly, and most importantly, she was scared of losing Riley. Maya couldn’t even put into words how much she cared for Riley. If she lost her because of some dumb lovey dovey feelings, she’d never forgive herself. Thus Maya had decided to remain comfortably, or at least somewhat comfortably in the closet. This meant keeping up the façade that she used to have feelings for Lucas, which she never really did, and trying to hide her blush when Riley would casually kiss her cheek or not stuttering when she was talking and Riley gazed intensely into her eyes. She couldn’t risk her friendship. She couldn’t.
“So Peaches –’ Maya’s heart fluttered at the sound of the affectionate nickname ‘– you really agreed to do the kissing booth with Zay because you wouldn’t have to do any work?”
A student rushing down the hall brushed against Maya’s shoulder. “Yeah, why else would I?”
Riley wasn’t very good at smirking, so instead she bit her lip in a smile and raised her eyebrows a couple of times.
Maya, still not understanding just gave her a questioning glance.
Riley, still wearing a stupid grin finally made it clear. “Boys.”
This caused Maya to come to a halt. “Like, because I want to kiss? Boys?”
Riley tugged on her hand getting her to walk with her again and started giggling. “You want to kiss some booooys,” she said in a sing-songy voice.
Maya, feeling flustered about talking about wanting to kiss boys just replied, “Um, no. I do not want to. Kiss boys that is. Or kiss girls, obviously. Just, no kissing. I don’t want to kiss. Yeah.”
But Riley just took her interesting reply as confirmation that she was right. “My little Peaches is growing up! Wanting to kiss boys…aw, I remember when you were just a pup.” Riley gazed off into the distance as if she was having a flashback.
“Riley, that’s not what I –” But they had made it to Riley’s class, and she was cut off with a goodbye.
“I’ll see you after class Maya, and actually bring your text book this time!” and she left a swift peck on Maya’s cheek.
Maya’s face flushing, she leaned back against the near set of lockers, closed her eyes and groaned. Riley did not always make things easier for her.
“You have to run the booth.”
“What? Why?” It was the day of the fair, and Maya had just received an alarming phone call from Zay.
Maya heard Zay sigh over the line. “You wouldn’t believe this, but I have mono. Mono. The kissing disease. And I haven’t even kissed anyone yet!”
“No, you’re lying,” Maya said, desperately hoping this was just one of Zay’s dumb jokes.
“Would I joke about this? Do you know how many fly honeys were gonna get a trip from these perfect lips?” Zay exclaimed.
Maya ignored his cringe-worthy statement. “Can’t you just wear a mask or something over your mouth?” Maya hurriedly tried to think of a solution, any solution.
“No, I cannot. Wait. Maybe…hold on.”
Maya waited as she heard the phone being put down and then picked back up a minute later.
“No. Mom says I cannot in fact just wear a mask over my mouth.”
“But Zay –”
“Look Maya,’ Zay cut her off, ‘you gotta do it. If you don’t, we’ll fail our senior project. Plus, there’ll probably be a few hunks wanting to kiss you, Maya Hart, the blonde beauty herself.”
Maya groaned in frustration. Why did everyone think she wanted to kiss guys? “Fine, fine. I’ll do it. But I will be unhappy about it the entire day. Probably even the entire week afterwards.”
“Thanks Maya, just remember that the money goes towards the school, not your pocket!”
“Yeah yeah,” Maya hung up the phone and frowned. Great. This was just great. Maya didn’t even like guys, but she highly doubted any girls were going to come along wanting to make out. And even if any did, she wouldn’t want to kiss them. The only girl she wanted to kiss was her best friend. The only lips she wanted to taste were the ones that she felt on her cheek now and then, the lips that would probably taste like sunshine and rainbows and pure happiness. But that was never going to happen, and so Maya just grabbed her bag and left for the school with a sigh.
Upon reaching the school, Maya could see booths set up all over the quad; different games and food stands, and kids everywhere. Somehow through the crowded environment, she spotted Riley at the ring toss booth with Lucas, and after waving to get her attention, smiled and blew her a kiss which Riley responded to by pretending to catch it in her hand and hold it to her heart. It was a silly little exchange, but it filled Maya’s heart with warmth. She then headed to her booth, already set up from the day before and hesitantly took a seat behind the large sign that said “$2.00 kisses with Zay the Bae (I’ll make your day)”. Frowning at the ridiculous sign, Maya grabbed a marker and made a change to the wording. “$2.00 kisses with Zay the Bae (I’ll make your day) me, I guess.” She put the marker down and sat back hoping she wouldn’t draw too much attention.
About ten minutes later, a boy around her age with shaggy blonde hair and a baseball cap strode over with a lazy grin on his face and pulled two $1 bills out of his pocket.
“I’m here for my kiss, blue eyes,” he drawled with a wink. Maya scowled but took the money. Of all the guys to kiss, the first one had to be some creepy dumb-ass that thinks he’s smooth?
“So,’ the creepy dumb-ass continued, ‘If I give you a couple more bucks, do I get a little extra merchandise?” Maya’s eyes widened in disgust as she saw his eyes drift to her chest.
Maya shoved the money back at the boy. “You’re disgusting. Walk away or I’ll mess you up so bad that you need a stretcher to leave.”
The creep put his hands up in defense. “Okay, okay, it was just a joke. Whatever, you’re the one missing out anyways.” He turned around and Maya watched as he made his way to one of the food carts. She couldn’t believe she just had to deal with that. If that’s where the day was heading, it was going to be a very long day.
Fortunately, Maya didn’t have to deal with many more creeps. However, every time she got even close to missing a guy, she made some excuse not to kiss him. Sometimes she’d pretend to get into a coughing fit, sometimes she’d shove food in her mouth and chew very loudly, mouth hanging open. One time, she even told the guy to look over his shoulder and bolted behind a tree while he wasn’t looking and stayed there until he eventually just walked away. She just couldn’t do it.
Finally, the day was over and Maya could take that dumb sign down. She glanced over at the empty money jar and frowned. She wasn’t sure how she was going to explain why they made no money at all. Just as she was contemplating what to do about the money situation, Riley popped into Maya’s field of vision.
“Peaches!” Riley flung herself at Maya, whom returned the hug as soon as she recovered from her surprise. “We were apart for so long,” Riley pouted, pulling away from Maya just enough to give her sad puppy eyes.
“I know honey,” Maya responded with equally sad eyes. Maya grabbed the empty jar and held it up in front of her. “I guess even the guys would have rather kissed Zay than me,” she joked.
Riley looked puzzled. “You didn’t kiss any boys? But I saw guys heading to your booth like every ten minutes!”
Maya looked down and started awkwardly shuffling her feet. “Yeah well, they showed up, they just didn’t get what they came for.”
“Aw Maya,” Riley grabbed Maya’s hands and started rubbing little comforting circles with her thumbs. Maya bit her lip and continued to look down, refusing to meet Riley’s sad, but questioning eyes.
“Look Riley,’ Maya started nervously, ‘I didn’t kiss any boys because…I didn’t want to.”
Riley didn’t look any less confused. “Why not? Were you just really nervous?”
“No, I mean maybe, I mean –”
“Maya.” Riley stopped her by putting a soft hand on her cheek. Maya finally made eye contact with the brunette in front of her. “Just tell me. What is it?”
Maya, still extremely aware of the hand on her cheek, took a deep breath and then said quietly, “I don’t like boys romantically. I like girls.”
The blonde didn’t know exactly what she was expecting, maybe for Riley to look uncomfortable or confused or run away screaming. But instead, Riley smiled and moved her hand from her face and back to Maya’s hand.
“Maya, have you been scared to tell me this whole time?” Maya just weakly nodded her head, praying that Riley wouldn’t get upset.
Riley laughed a little, almost with exasperation. “I understand why you’d be nervous to tell me, but I also don’t. You know I’ll always love you no matter what, right?”
Maya ran her free hand through her hair, laughed a little and said “Yeah, of course. Of course I know.” But she couldn’t say it with complete honesty, because she knew she was still holding back, and she was still worried. Riley sensed this immediately.
“There’s more.” Riley’s soft brown eyes urged Maya to go on, and the blonde knew she had to tell her the truth.
“Riley…I like girls, but there’s one girl I especially like. One girl I love more than anything. The only girl I want to kiss…is you.” Maya closed her eyes, terrified, when she felt paper being pressed into her hand. She opened her eyes in confusion, just in time to see Riley lean in and place a gentle kiss on her lips. Maya blushed immediately, too stunned for words.
“Now you don’t have to explain why you didn’t make any money,” Riley smiled shyly.
“I love you.” Maya couldn’t help but blurt out the three words, words that she had used before, but never in this way.
Riley’s smile grew bigger and replied, “And I love you.” And Maya didn’t know how, but she knew that Riley was saying it in a different way too.