A/N: It got lonely living across the world so I got into GMW and this is what happened. It's your fault we're here. Just a quick note that I'm jumping ahead because I need them to be in college, like stat.

Warnings: I am a terrible typer.

Girl Meets University

.

"This is it, huh," Topanga remarks, looking around the tiny dorm room as Lucas settles the final box from the pick-up.

"This is it, Mom," Riley nods with a smile. "I can't believe I'm going to be so far away from you," she adds, darting looks between her Mom and Dad.

Auggie, who now prefers to be called August, chuckles from his place on Riley's single bed, "Riley, our house is 10 minutes away." He adds, "On foot."

Cory grins, "Fifteen with traffic."

Riley manages a small laugh.

The decision to go to NYU wasn't a hard choice. NYU is where her mom got her Law degree; and it is actually just 10 minutes away from home. On foot. She got accepted to several schools including one in Michigan and Boston but she couldn't imagine living that far away from her parents.

Besides, she's already here in New York. A lot of people her age can only dream of coming here. She wasn't going to waste that opportunity. She's just thankful that her parents allowed her to live on-campus.

Cory didn't want to at first but Riley made a very elaborate argument about having a University experience she can only get if she's living independently, even if it's just on a different building in the same neighborhood.

Topanga had agreed with Riley and really, that was the end of the discussion and Cory knew it.

"Well, it's time for us to go, honey," Cory say as he spreads his arms to his sides, inviting his daughter for one last hug.

Riley smiles and goes in for the hug; and like clockwork, Topanga joins in.

August just looks at them which earns him a glare from her mother, "Auggie, come on. Hug your sister."

Left without a choice, August hops off the bed and joins the Matthews family hug, "Ugh."

Lucas takes out his phone and takes a picture of the moment.

After a few moments, Cory, Topanga, and August are gone, leaving just Lucas and Riley to themselves inside the tiny dorm room.

"You're going to have a roommate," Lucas says, eyeing the other bed on the opposite side of the room.

Riley's smile is wide, "Yeah, I checked the Random box."

Lucas mocks a proud nod, "Look at you, all grown up and shit."

Riley just laughs as she settles on her bed. The room is still bare. She'll need the next two days to completely Riley-fy her side of the room but for now, this feels right.

"Look at us, all grown up and shit."

Lucas lets out a breath, "Best of luck settling in."

"I hope my roommate is nice."

"Not too nice, I hope."

"Yeah, not too nice."

None of them admits that Maya crosses their minds at that.

Silence settles them for a while and it's when Riley realizes that she and Lucas never really knew how to be alone. After the whole Triangle has ended, they dated each other until three years later, when they can no longer deny that the spark has been long gone.

Up until this day, Riley still wonders if there was ever a spark.

They broke up the summer before their senior year, both deciding to stay friends but not before they took a few weeks without communication. It all worked well. Their little group of misfits eventually became the kings of high school.

Until it was time to graduate.

Suddenly, Riley is about to meet the rest of the world by herself.

"I better keep going," Lucas says with a bittersweet smile. He knows this is the last she'll see Riley for a while.

"Yeah, of course," Riley nods. She stands and walks to where Lucas is standing, "Thanks for helping out today."

"Anytime," he says.

They gaze into each other's eyes and for the last time, Riley tries to reach out to the part of her that once thought he was the one. But at this moment, it's clear.

He's not the one.

As good of a relationship it was, he's simply not the Cory to her Topanga.

"Goodbye, Riley."

"Goodbye, Lucas."

It feels like she's bidding goodbye to something else entirely, like the possibility of them being them again.

She walks him to the door and kisses his cheek before he turns to leave. She watches him go and completely disappear once he turns the corner.

All a sudden, she's alone inside a room she can barely call her own. The sound of the city is so far away even though the building is standing right in the middle of it.

None of it makes sense.

New beginnings are weird.

.

Just a few minutes after the sun had set, Riley was able to finish dressing her bed and pulling out a couple of pictures for her desk.

She took her time sorting out the pictures she's going to display. After all, it's a Saturday and her classes don't start until Tuesday. She has time.

Of course, there's a picture of her with her parents and her brother. There's a picture of her with her friends—Farkle, Smackle, Lucas, Zay, and Maya. But perhaps, the one that grounds her the most is that of her and Maya.

Just looking at it makes her smile.

It's a picture of them taken on the day they graduated high school. They're both wearing their graduation cap and gown, sitting happily by the bay window. Riley is making a goofy face at the camera while Maya is looking at her smilingly, her eyes shining of something Riley can't put a finger on.

It's her favorite picture of her and her bestfriend.

Like a cool joke, her phone rings and she instantly recognizes that special ringtone. She grabs her phone from the desk and throws herself into the bed as she answers the call.

"Peaches," she opens, her smile wide and warm. Her ceiling above her is pale but her eyes are shining.

"Hey, sweetie," the voice from the other line greets. Riley can tell she's smiling in that way she always does when she's calling Riley by her pet name.

"I am so glad you called," Riley tells her.

"I told you I will."

"I miss you already!" she whines childishly. "Why did you have to be so far away?"

"Because this is the only school that's willing to give me a full ride," Maya says. "It's only three hours away, Riles."

"I know," Riley says with a sigh. Since she'd learned about where all of her friends are going after high school, she'd felt this constant pull in her chest.

Farkle and Smackle are both going to MIT. Lucas and Zay are headed to North Carolina to pursue their baseball scholarships. And then there's Maya.

After her first solo showcase last year, Maya got tons of calls from different art schools. They'd invited her for a tour and Maya only entertained the schools closest to home. In the end, she picked Pennsylvania College of Art & Design in Lancaster which is approximately three hours from NYC.

Not that Riley was calculating. Not that she'd researched different ways of cutting down the commute time.

"Hey," Maya pulls her out of her thoughts. Riley knows she'd sensed whatever Riley was feeling. She's Maya, of course, she'd sense it. "What did I tell you when you got into NYU?"

Riley smiles and the mimics Maya's voice, "Good luck spending college life in the same neighborhood as your father."

Maya laughs, loud. And there's that pull in her chest again.

"No, I mean after that."

"If you need me to come home to you every week, I will," Riley recites and almost tears up, again feeling how sincere Maya was when she said those words.

"And I mean it," Maya follows through from the other line.

"I just—" Riley stutters. "We've done everything together all our lives."

"Riles, we're just growing up, that's all. You're in New York, I'm in Pennsylvania. I'm not usually this optimistic but the only thing that's going to change is our zip code. I'm Peaches and you're every single term of endearment I can think of."

This makes Riley smile.

Maya was the first one who moved out. She got a cheap deal for a dorm room on-campus which required her to move in earlier than usual.

The next ones who moved out were Farkle and Smackle. It was Riley's turn and then there's Zay and Lucas who will be moving to North Carolina tomorrow.

"How's your roommate?" Riley asks, trying to get rid of that feeling in her gut. "Is she better than me?"

Maya laughs again, "She's been absent so far. But maybe, we'll see. Who knows, I might find somebody else who turns gold at 5:30."

"Maya! I will hurt them!" she spats and gasps the moment it left her mouth. It was worth it, 'cause she can hear Maya laughing on the other line.

"Relax, Drama Queen. My roommate could be Michelle Obama and she still wouldn't be better than you."

"Well, good to know I am still better than the best first lady who ever lived."

They settle for a comfortable silence after that. Though Riley hates silence in general, silence with Maya is easy. Anything with Maya is easy.

"I'm sorry I couldn't make it today. I was short on cash."

Riley had known this, that's why she really didn't complain or demand much. After all, they're all growing up now and the world is no longer a large-scale version of Rileytown. It's real world time now and this world needs Riley and Maya to be three hours and $45 away from each other.

"It's okay, Maya. It would've been so much better if you're here but I'm fine. I'll see you soon, right?"

"How soon do you want me to be there?"

"Next week?"

"I've got a better idea."

"What?"

"Open the door."

Riley's eyes widen in an instant as she quickly jumps off her bed and runs the short distance to the door. She grabs the knob and swings the door open with a force similar to actually ripping it from the frame.

And on the other side stands Maya, still very Maya even though they haven't seen each other in three weeks. She's still holding her phone close to her ear.

"Sweetie," Maya greets with a smile.

"Peaches," Riley greets back, pulling her best friend for a crushing hug. It's the first time since Maya left that the weird pull in her chest stopped making loud noises. For a moment there, it's peaceful. For a moment there, her world is in place and the ground under her feet stops shaking.

Just by showing up at her doorstep, Maya was able to put Riley's world back together. That's what best friends are for, right? They travel three hours from a different state just to share a special moment with you.

"You're here," Riley mutters as they pull apart.

"Of course. I just couldn't get in earlier 'cause I had a job interview at the café near the school."

"Did you get the job?"

Maya shrugs, smug, "They gave me a few hours per week. How else will I ever afford coming home to you when you need me?"

Riley grins and once again pulls Maya in a hug. Her heart is beating fast for some odd reason but she ignores it. She's ignoring so many odd feelings right now because Maya is here and it's all that ever matters.

"Are you ever going to let me in or—"

Riley cuts her off by tugging at her wrist to drag her inside the room. They share a laugh and the normality of it manages to strip away any kind of fear that had clung onto Riley.

They're going to be fine. She just knows.

And just like that, Riley… Riley is Riley again.

.

Riley is woken up the next day by the sound of footsteps tentatively padding across the room.

Though reluctantly, she opens her eyes and wills herself up. By the time her environment registers to her, she sees someone standing in the middle of the room, smiling at her in this way that you know they're apologetic for waking you up.

"Hi," the girl greets with a small smile.

Though she really has no idea who the girl is, Riley manages a smile and a small wave. She rubs her eyes with her knuckles as if still trying to wake herself up.

"I'm your roommate," the girl tells her and that's only the time Riley makes sense of it.

"Oh! Right!" she grins so stupidly wide as she hops off her bed and crosses the room in one stride. "I'm Riley!" she introduces herself. She extends her hand to the stranger.

The stranger smiles, this time wider too, as she shakes Riley's hand, "Aria."

"Aria, that's a cool name."

For a moment there, Riley studies Aria. She's not a lot taller than Riley but she seems more mature. It's the way she had chosen to choose this heavily patterned white top with her plain black skirt; or the way she'd chosen those dark brown calf boots; or the way her short, brunette hair ends just above her shoulders. There's something seasoned about her, maybe that's why Riley has a feeling they'd get along just fine.

"Thanks," Aria says. "I'm sorry I woke you up."

"Nah," she dismisses casually. "We just had a long night, is all."

"We?"

And that reminds her—

She turns around only to find her bed empty.

"My bestfriend spent the night," she says, slightly confused. Where the hell are you, Maya?

After spending hours just talking about the last three weeks they've been apart, Maya and Riley had fallen asleep beside each other on Riley's tiny bed. The space was small but they've managed, and Riley still wonders how they did that.

"She must've slipped out for a bit," Riley concludes, turning back to Aria.

Before Aria could utter another word, a ball of sleepy mess that is Maya walks effortlessly inside the room with a paper bag on one hand and a tray of two cups on the other.

"I got hungry," she mutters under breath.

Something happens in that exact moment.

It's probably that slight ray of sunlight that managed to slither through the half-covered windows; or maybe the way her blonde hair is all up in a loose bun that only highlights her face—but right at that moment, Riley sees Maya in a completely different way. And in a way she's never seen her before.

Right at that moment, when Maya is sleepy and a tad vulnerable, Riley feels something that's in equal parts powerful and tender. She can't quite explain it.

It's real. She feels it in her gut. And you see, Riley feels a lot of things. She can feel five different kinds of feelings in the span of two seconds but this is different.

Seeing Maya there, standing by her door as this new life dawns upon them, something inside Riley shifts.

She doesn't know how to name it.

It's because she's never felt it before.

.

Before she realizes it, Maya and Aria have already acquainted themselves with each other. As Riley sits there completely dumbstruck with her personal moment earlier, her bestfriend and her roommate have already bonded.

Turns out, they are both artists. Aria is a second-year transferee from UPenn who transferred to NYU because she wanted to get away. Maya reacts with a good-natured mockery to it, saying, "You are terrible at making decisions," in which Aria responded with a laugh.

Riley had laughed with her as well but deep inside, she's still torn between trying to name that feeling from earlier and wondering how Maya is so good with people despite claiming to hate them.

It's an artist thing, Riley guesses.

.

Riley finds herself that night slumped on her bed, looking at the plain ceiling above her. Maya is already about two and a half hours on her journey back to Lancaster.

Aria has just finished setting up her bed and is currently typing away at her laptop.

"Aria, can I ask you something?" Riley opens, eyes still on the bland ceiling.

"Hmm?" Aria hums.

Riley takes it as a go-signal, "You're good with words, right?"

"I hope so."

Riley turns to Aria just as the other girl is looking up from the screen of her laptop, "Is it possible to miss something that's been in front of you all along?"

If she's intrigued by the question, Aria doesn't show it. "Yeah," she nods.

"Even if it's something so big? Like life-changing big?"

"Hmm," Aria thinks for a moment. "I think that we don't necessarily miss it. I believe that big things come in different forms at different moments in our life."

"That's deep," Riley grins despite herself.

Aria smiles, "You know how sometimes, when you read a chapter in a book and parts of it don't make sense at all so you just interpret it the way you've understood the narrative? And when you get to the end when the story concludes, you're like 'oh, that's why Chapter 12 was so fuckin' weird'?"

Riley nods, getting exactly what Aria is trying to say.

"It's exactly like that, except with people it's harder to tell when that weird Chapter 12 happens. Sometimes, it's a series of weird Chapter 12s until you realize it's been happening all along."

This silences Riley for a while. But she recovers, "So, I've been seeing it this whole time and I've just never really saw it right?"

Aria manages a tight-lipped smile as she nods in agreement.

Riley doesn't respond to that anymore and instead focuses on that feeling in her gut that's telling her that the moment from this morning is something else.

Her phone beeps and it serves as a welcome distraction.

It's Maya.

Honey, I'm home.

Riley releases a sigh. She wonders if Maya felt butterflies in her stomach when she sent this text because all Riley could feel right now are butterflies and somersaults.

And she thinks of blonde hair and blue eyes and for a split second she wonders how many more signs she'd been missing all this time.

Thoughts?