AN: Okay so first off I just want to say that this is not me saying I think Rowan Blanchard or Riley Matthews it ugly. I think Rowan and Riley are beautiful, I think Peyton Meyer is beautiful, I think Sabrina Carpenter is beautiful, I think Corey Fogelmanis is beautiful, I think Ben Savage is beautiful, I think Danielle Fishel is beautiful, I think August Maturo is beautiful. I think anybody that is at all related to GMW is beautiful and if you are reading this story you are absolutely gorgeous and I love you already! I'm just taking this from the point of view as an average high school male. I think most guys around this age are more confused about their feelings than anything or convinced they feel one way when they really feel the other. Lucas Friar seems to be the exception to that. I get it and I like it but this is just my take on what their love story could had been like if Lucas hadn't realized how he felt about Riley right away.

This is slightly AU. You can reference the first episode for sure but any Rucas moments that have happened so far aren't real or at least haven't happened yet.

Also, this story is not fully baked so if you have any ideas that you would like to see happen between Riley and Lucas or any of the other characters (As long as they don't interfere with the ships I've already established), I would love to hear them. I can't promise I will use it but if I do, I will definitely credit you with the idea!

Please follow, review and favorite! I am open to constructive criticism but let's keep it PG. I know this fanfic is mature rated, but it is a Disney franchise!

Riley Matthews was never ugly, but Lucas was never attracted to her. He never needed a trophy wife but he still felt like if he was going to date somebody he would need to feel like she was attractive. If he ever dated Riley or Maya Hart, the other female friend in their fearsome foursome, he didn't want to risk losing them. They needed to be everything to him and neither of them were. Riley wasn't attractive to him and Maya had never said anything sweet to him unless it was concerning her or any other friends.

He couldn't quite pinpoint what it was about her he didn't like. He really did like everything about her and she could make him feel like nobody else could but a part of him always felt like he could do better. Her hair was this long, wavy, chocolate brown monstrosity that always seemed to have tangles in it. Her makeup started off fine but her black eyeliner was leaking down her eyes by the end of the day and her acne started to become more noticeable since her foundation would fade. Her wardrobe between middle school and high school hardly changed. He didn't expect her to wear a cocktail dress that barely concealed her rear every day or any day, but he had expected it to mature at least a bit between those years. Her body was straight and she barely had any extra weight on her chest.

Lucas wasn't trying to act like a shallow jerk or anything but he just never found her attractive. She was pretty but she wasn't drop dead gorgeous like some of the other girls he saw around New York. He respected that she wouldn't change who she was for him, unlike some girls he had gotten to know in his life. He certainly cared about her more than just about anyone. He felt bad because he knew she liked him. She wasn't as boisterous about it as Maya was to Riley's Uncle Josh, but she wasn't as shy as she was in middle school either. She had grown more and more comfortable with him as time went on, which really did make him happy. She would tell him she liked him and when he would reject her, she would brush it off or laugh but he could tell it hurt her. He didn't like hurting her. When he would date in high school, he saw the pain on her face, even behind the extra eyeliner and foundation she would wear on those days. It was because of her he didn't date as much as he could have in high school and because of her he didn't have a relationship that would last more than a few months.

Lucas, Riley, Maya and Farkle Minkus had all graduated high school last year. Farkle was of course top of the class and Lucas was in the top ten percent. Riley finished with a B average, which wasn't terrible, Lucas thought but he did have close to an A. Riley and Maya had decided to go to New York University since it was close to home and they weren't quite ready to leave their families or each other yet. Farkle had been accepted to Boston College and was planning on going there so he could stay close to home but far enough to get some distance from his slightly overbearing parents. Lucas had decided to go the furthest away from the group and returned to his home state. He was attending Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas. He felt a bit like Benedict Arnold since he grew up a Longhorn fan but A&M did have a better veterinarian program. He, like Farkle, felt like he needed a little distance from his parents but they were close enough he could visit them on weekends.

Despite the distance, he kept in contact with his friends through text messages and would sometimes call them if they weren't busy. He wasn't big on social media and would rather share details about his life privately with his friends. He hadn't seen Riley, Maya or Farkle in months but that was about to change.

Lucas was currently on a plane from Chicago to New York. He had been invited by Riley and her family to spend Christmas with them. He had told her he had plans with his family and she was surprisingly fine with it and didn't badger him at all like the old Riley would have. However, Maya and Farkle had other ideas. Eventually he asked his parents if he could go to New York for Christmas and they had also surprisingly agreed to let him go and even helped pay for airfare.

He was a bit nervous because he knew Maya and Farkle could scheme him into situations he didn't really want to be in. He had once been put into a date with Riley as planned by the devilish pair. All it had done was hurt Riley even more and make Lucas very upset with them. He was worried they hadn't told Riley at all and that she was going to be shocked he was there at her door. He had even worried that Maya had stolen Riley's phone and texted him about Christmas. He wasn't attracted to her but he did care about her and he didn't like hurting her. That was the main reason he never dated her because he knew if he had said yes to her requests she would be all in and he would call it quits sometime soon. He was a nice enough guy but he rarely stayed very close to any of his ex-girlfriends. He valued his friendship with Riley more than anything and didn't want to lose that. He also didn't want Maya or Farkle to have to choose between who they wanted to hang out with more because he and Riley didn't want to be in the same place.

Finally his plane had landed; he had collected his bags from luggage claim and hailed a taxi. He used to fly back to Texas on long weekends and breaks and then back to New York, so he was an old hat at this. He could feel his heart beating faster and faster as he got closer to Riley's parent's apartment. What if it was Maya who had texted him through Riley's phone? What if Riley saw this as a sign he was professing his love for her? What if they had to get married? What if they had children? Would they look like him? Maybe they could just have clone babies.

Lucas arrived in Greenwich Village and paid the cab driver. He took his bags out of the trunk and took a deep breath before entering the apartment complex. He hit the buzzer that would let him into the Matthews' apartment and heard a female voice on the other end that he would never forget.

"Come on up, Huckleberry," Maya said as she buzzed him in.

Lucas walked in and stepped into the elevator. He remembered some trips up this elevator as fast but never this fast. Before he knew it he was on the floor Riley's parents' lived. He slowly walked to the door and knocked. After no response, he knocked again a bit louder. He thought he had knocked loud enough but it turned out not to be true. The second time however, Riley's father and his former middle school history teacher, answered the door and looked at him surprisingly. Yep, that was definitely Maya who texted him.

"Mr. Friar?" Cory asked. "I didn't know Riley invited you."

"Hey, Cowboy," he heard as Maya Hart peeked out from behind Cory. Maya looked pretty much the same since the last time he had seen her. Her blonde hair showered down to her waist and she wore a black v-neck tee shirt and a pair of dark skinny jeans. She was only wearing socks on her feet but he guessed the tan suede boots in the corner of the room were hers.

"Hey, Pancakes," Lucas said with a bit of a strict tone in his voice. "I'm sorry Mr. Matthews."

"No, it's perfectly fine, Mr. Friar," Cory said. "You're always welcome here. Let me take your bags."

That was a bit odd Lucas thought. Cory Matthews was always nice enough to him but he always held a bit of a grudge to Lucas because it was pretty obvious that Riley had a crush on him. Maybe he was okay with it now because when he was Riley's age he was engaged to his wife.

Lucas entered the crowded apartment after Cory took his luggage. He hardly recognized anybody in the apartment. He knew Maya, and Farkle was on the window sill with his face pressed into a book. Shawn, Maya's stepfather and Cory's best friend, was there along with Maya's mother Katy and Riley's Uncles Josh and Eric were there as well. There were two people sitting at the dining room table that looked older than everybody else so he assumed they were Riley's grandparents. There was a good looking guy standing next to Eric he didn't know and a red headed girl as tall as a building helping Topanga with the meal. Riley and her brother Auggie didn't seem to be anywhere in the crowded living space.

"So you finally broke down and came, uh?" Maya teased him. "Couldn't stay away from the city could you?"

"Like you and Farkle gave me much of a choice." Lucas said. "How are you, Maya?"

"I'm doing good, how about you? Any girls in the heehaw state?"

"Yes, there are believe it or not." Lucas responded.

"No, I meant any you are interested in." Maya said.

"Oh, well, no," Lucas said. "Not yet. I'll find somebody someday though. But Maya I'm telling you now if this is a scheme to get Riley and I together I'm leaving."

"It's no scheme, cowboy," Maya assured him. "Calm down. Although I don't see how you couldn't find her attractive now."

"What?"

"Find who attractive?" Cory butted in to their conversation.

"The new Miss New York," Maya said quickly. "Isn't she great, Lucas?"

"Yeah," Lucas agreed.

Cory gave them each an odd look before shrugging his shoulders and sitting down on the couch.

"Hey, buddy," Lucas heard from behind him. He turned around to see Farkle. Farkle was a far cry from his middle school self. He wasn't the most attractive man on the planet but Lucas would catch girls staring at Farkle on the subway when they were in high school. He had exchanged his turtlenecks for plaid button downs and loosely fit blue jeans. He just looked like an average guy.

"Farkle," Lucas said as he patted his shoulder. "How've you been, buddy?"

"Good," he then leaned over to Maya and asked her, "Have you shown him to Riley yet?"

"Nope." Maya answered with a smirk on her face that made Lucas sick.

"What is going on?" Lucas asked. "Maya, I swear-"

"It's not a scheme to get you to date her, I swear on Riley's life." Maya responded. "But speaking of Riley, would you like to see her?"

"Sure," Lucas said as Maya and Farkle basically carried him to her room. They were definitely excited about something.

As they approached Riley's room, Lucas could hear Riley's voice coming from the inside. It was just her voice so he assumed she was on the phone with somebody. Maya then started banging on the door.

"Just a second." Riley shouted back.

BANG! BANG!

"Hold on," Riley shouted back a little more irritated at this point.

BANG! BANG!

"I'll be out in a minute."

Just before Maya knocked again, Lucas interrupted her.

"Maya, can't this wait? She said she'll be out in a minute."

"Nope." Maya said as she banged on the door again.

"Oh, for the love of- Lucas."

Riley had answered her door and was definitely surprised at what she saw, but not as surprised as Lucas was.

"I'll call you back, bye," Riley said to whoever was on the phone.

Lucas looked her up and down again to see if his eyes were deceiving him. This was not the same Riley Matthews he knew in middle school and high school. She was so much more different but in the best way possible. Her eyebrows, which were bushy before, were trimmed but still looked natural. She had traded in her globs of black eyeliner for a precise cat eye look across the top of her eye and some very natural looking eyeshadow. He acne was nearly gone or at least very well concealed. Her hair had been chopped off to her shoulder and her ends were the same color as Maya's but her roots remained natural. Her flowing, Bohemian clothes had been traded in for a more fitted simple shirt with navy and white horizontal stripes and a casual looking black blazer with a gold button in the center. She also wore a pair of dark skinny jeans nearly identical to Maya's. Also, was it just him, or did she had curves now? She looked very different but Lucas could tell she did it for herself and nobody else and that was what was beautiful about her.

Beautiful.

Yes, Lucas couldn't deny it. Riley Matthews was beautiful and for the first time in his life, he was attracted to her.