IT WAS THE very first week that Maya had never been over to Riley's house at least once, ever. Almost every single day since the two of them first met years ago, the rebellious blonde has always tapped gently on the glass to their bay window, the brunette would open it, greeting her with hugs and sunshine. It was the very first week where neither of them made the effort to even just look at each other and Riley can't take it anymore.

She sits within her blankets, a mountain of pillows engulfing her in warmth as she cried silent tears as she scrolled back through the previous messages she has sent her best friend over the past month. At this point, she's not even sure if she can call Maya her best friend anymore. She longed to hold her again, she wished she was with her right now, apologizing for everything.

Riley isn't so sure about how to handle the situation, nothing like this has ever happened to her before, so how was she supposed to respond? The second she heard tell of this Texas cowboy she knew that he would slowly start making his way into her best friend's life, whether she liked it or not. Knowing it's wrong, she realized that there may be a possible way to prevent that from occurring all together.

If this guy starts stealing my best friend away from me, she thought, I'm going to have to do something about it. Everything she's said, she doesn't feel guilty for, she doesn't even know what she really means when she says it. It's just being said to push Maya's buttons so that way she gets tired of Lucas and he leaves, but it turns out that she's starting to leave Riley instead.

Riley cares about Maya more than anything in the world, but if she really did care, she knows she should stay away from Lucas and let the two live their lives, but Riley couldn't just let that happen so easily. She's gotten herself in so deep at this point, she thought, why not continue digging her grave?

     But then she feels torn and broken when she remembers that Thanksgiving is in less than a week and she still hasn't invited Maya and her mother for dinner. There also hasn't been a Thanksgiving where Maya hasn't attended. You simply can't have Thanksgiving without her. She sparks up every conversation, keeps all of the kids entertained, and makes everyone smile. Riley wouldn't be able to function without her.

     Burying her face further into her pillows, she lets out an ugly sob and feels her heart sink into her stomach. What has she done? She knows that Maya would have never done anything like this to her, she couldn't believe herself. As she continued to cry, her breathing grew unsteady as she tapped her thumb on her phone screen to open the dial pad. She wanted to call her so badly and apologize, but she just couldn't bring herself to do so. Maya would never forgive her.

Maybe it's better to talk about it at school, face-to-face, but Monday is too far away. Maybe she won't even mention it and just bring up Thanksgiving. She was confused beyond what words can express.

Riley rubbed her eyes aggressively, wiped away her tears, wiggled her toes around in her fluffy socks, and reached over to her bedside table to turn off her lamp and shut her eyes. Pulling the cover over her head, she hid from the world and cried herself to sleep.