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It was just supposed to be a fun, weekend long trip to Vegas. Lucas had finally found a job as a vet and they all decided that this would be a good time to celebrate. Apparently, they celebrated a little too hard and ended up in a tangled mess of bodies in the single hotel room that they rented for themselves. They didn’t even end up in separate beds.
Maya Hart wakes up in a hungover haze, as light pours in from the motel drapes. Her feet are on someone's stomach, she thinks that it might be Zay's, and her head is on Riley's shoulder. She doesn’t really feel awake yet, and tries to stretch out awkwardly to wake herself up.
Instead of waking herself up, she beans Riley with her left hand. She notices that she feels something metal on her hand. The other girl groans, and Maya realizes that she’s wearing a ring. She brings her hand to her face, and examines it. On the fourth finger of her left hand, she’s wearing a silver looking ring with a big diamond in the center.
Holy shit , she thinks.
“Um,” she says, “guys?”
“Yeah?” Riley responds. Zay murmurs, and Farkle and Lucas are either still asleep or don’t care to answer.
“I think I got married last night,” Maya says. Zay starts laughing as he tries to sit up, but then Maya sends him a glare.
“I’m serious, Zay,” she says.
Riley sits up too, and she asks, “What do you mean?”
“I am wearing a wedding ring, Riles,” she says. She holds her hand out for the two to look at, and Zay’s eyes widen. Zay is the closest, so Maya takes his left hand to check for rings.
“What are you doing?” he asks, sounding incredibly confused.
“Making sure that you’re not my husband,” Maya says as she drops his hand.
"Maya," he says, "I'm an aromantic asexual. Hella aro ace, you really think that we'd end up married?" Maya stops listening the moment that he start his talk. Then Maya grabs Riley’s left hand and looks it over. Riley is wearing a ring on her left ring finger, and it matches Maya’s.
“Um,” Maya says awkwardly, “I think that we’re wives, Riles.” Zay, to his credit, waits a few moments before bursting into ugly laughter. Lucas groans as he and Farkle stir from their sleep on the other end of the king sized bed.
“What’s going on?” Lucas asks groggily. He tries to sit up against the headboard.
“Maya and Riley got married,” Zay says in between laughs.
“What?” Lucas asks. Farkle looks confused.
“They got married,” Zay says, “matching rings and all.”
"Why the fuck didn't Lucas and Farkle end up married?" Maya asks loudly, "you two are actually dating? Wouldn't that make sense?" Lucas starts laughing.
"Maya,” Farkle says, “do you really think that I would let that happen?” He has his really look written all over his face. Maya sighs, because no. There's no way that Farkle would have allowed that to happen. He's been planning to have a formal wedding since they were elementary schoolers. He and Lucas actually have a date set now. It might still be six months out, but they’re planning. Of course Farkle wouldn't forget that, no matter how drunk they were.
“Alright,” Maya says, “what else is there to this?” Maya doesn’t know all that much about marriage. Especially not the “drunk wedding you forget about by morning” sort of marriage.
“Well,” Lucas says, “assuming that it’s actually legal, you have to have some papers somewhere. A marriage certificate. We were probably all witnesses.” Maya’s not sure if she wants to laugh or cry thinking about it.
“Oh my god,” Maya says.
“We should all check our phones,” Farkle says, “someone might have taken a picture.” Maya, thankfully, doesn’t have any pictures on it. Neither do Zay’s, Riley’s or Lucas’s. Farkle is the only one who ended up with any pictures. And even he only got a picture of Maya and Riley together, kissing fairly passionately. Riley is wearing a shotty white wedding veil, and Maya thinks that she sees a red bow tie around her neck.
“Delete that,” Maya says urgently. Maya might be out as a lesbian. She might have been in love with Riley since they were in high school, but that doesn’t mean that she wants a reminder that she actually got one night to be married to her.
“Why would you do that?” Riley asks. She sounds legitimately confused by Maya’s demand.
“Because it’s embarrassing,” Maya says, “hell Riles, you work in a public school. If that got out you could get fired.” Riley rolls her eyes.
“We aren’t going to print it out and staple it to the principal’s door,” Riley says. Lucas is rummaging around the room, trying to find the legal papers that would indicate that they did in fact get married in the eyes of the law, and not just play at it.
“Um,” Lucas says, “I found the papers, guys.” Maya bolts over like lightening. They find the certificate, and it looks as official as anything can ever be. There’s no denying that this is the real, legally binding sort of thing. The date, the minister’s signature, the witness signatures. They even fucking hyphenated their names on it. According to the certificate, they are now Maya and Riley Matthews-Hart, legally wives. Maya holds the certificates in her hands, and thinks about how much she desperately wants them to mean something. She wishes that she and Riley were dating, and that their marriage was the culmination of a long time learning to love each other. This is such a travesty that Maya wants to laugh.
Instead, she makes a joke that’s probably in poor taste, “Let’s go buy a divorce cake. Throw a whole party.”
“What?” Riley asks.
“Well,” Maya says, “we should at least have some fun after we get this taken care of.”
“You want to get a divorce?” Riley asks, sounding both confused and insulted at the prospect.
“Um,” Maya says, “yeah. That’s generally what people do when this sort of thing happens.” Farkle and Lucas exchange a look, and decide that this is probably a private conversation.
“I think that we should leave,” Lucas says. Zay decides that he would much rather be going with the group of guys who did not get drunk married last night, and they all leave the hotel room. At least none of them took off the clothes that they were wearing last night when they went to bed.
“Why would you want to get a divorce?” Riley asks.
“Riles,” Maya says, “why wouldn’t you? Did you suddenly get Catholic on me or something?” Riley blushes.
“No,” she says, “it’s just that, I don’t want to get divorced. I like the idea of being married to you.” That last comment makes Maya a little bit happy, but she isn’t going to just leave it be. There’s no reason why Riley should want to stay married to her.
“Don’t you want to marry someone that you actually love?” Maya asks. Sure, Riley’s pan, but that doesn’t mean that she wants to end up hitched to Maya. She’s never expressed any interest in Maya, and Maya’s always been to scarred to make a move.
“Of course I love you,” Riley says. Maya rolls her eyes.
“Romantic love,” Maya says, “sexual love. The sort of love that you build a marriage off of, Riley.”
Riley blushes scarlet, and looks away as she says, “I want that with you.” The knowledge hits Maya like a freight train.
“Wait,” she says, her head spinning and not working quite right, “you love me love me?”
"I do, Maya" Riley says, her voice speeding up along with her nerves, "I just- I've always been too scared of ruining our friendship to say anything about it. I didn’t want to mess things up."
"Oh my god," Maya groans. Riley's face falls.
"I guess it's a one-sided thing," Riley says, sounding disappointed to the point of heartbreak.
“We don’t have to stay married,” she adds, “I just thought, since we already live together and have been best friends forever and are basically married and I love you-”
"No, Riles, I love you too" Maya says, sounding frustrated and desperate. Riley seems confused by her tone of voice, unsure of how she should feel
"It's just, we could have been together so much sooner,” Maya finishes.
"Wait," Riley asks, her voice sounding hopeful, "does this mean you love me too?" Riley apparently took this as a good sign.
"Of course, Riles," Maya says, as if it's the most obvious thing in the world.
"Let's stay married," Riley says, wrapping her long arms all the way around Maya's waist.
"Not sure your parents would be happy about that," Maya mumbles into her neck.
"We could do a vow renewal thing," Riley suggests. Maya can tell that Riley really doesn't want to get divorced.
“Alright,” Maya says, “I think I can manage that.”
Five months later, Riley and Maya are standing in a gorgeous building, staring into each other's eyes to renew their vows. They both wear white dresses, though privately, Maya thinks that Riley’s suits her better. They say their vows for the second time, but this is the first time they'll remember saying them.
At the reception, all of the groomsmen give speeches, though Auggie insists on going first because he's the only one who's actually related to one of the brides and the only one who didn’t get to attend the actual wedding. The newlyweds intertwine their fingers underneath the table, and stare lovingly into each other’s eyes.
"I love you, Maya Matthews-Hart," Riley says, grinning from ear to ear.
"Til death do us part, babe," Maya says with a smile that she thinks might be even bigger. Riley grabs her by the hand, and drags her onto the dance floor. Maya grips her hand a little tighter, and smiles.
For better or for worse, they're married. And they sure as hell aren't getting divorced.