WITH HER BREATH lingering around her face, the cold left her nose a shade of red as Maya stood with her arms crossed for warmth at the side of the crib, waiting for the traffic light to give her a signal to cross. She was already regretting leaving the comfort of her home, but she knew that if she didn't heal things with Riley, it would never happen. Her mother always taught her to be the bigger person, and that's what she always tries to do.

     She squints her eyes and she stares up at all the tall buildings of New York that she normally passes by without a second thought, not once considering how each and everyone of them look so unique. Then again, she remembered how busy the streets can get and it's almost impossible to look at anything else besides the back of pedestrians heads.

     Maya shoved her hands further into her jacket pockets to keep them warm, she soon regretted not bringing her gloves along with her like her mother told her to do before she left for work in the morning. She cut through some back alleyways, waving and wishing the neighbours a good-afternoon and a happy thanksgiving. Her regular route to Riley's house was crowded with family's welcoming their arrivals.

     What else was she to do? She couldn't seem to figure out another way to solve this problem, and there was no way she was going to let Riley have what she wanted: for her to stop talking to Lucas. If this wasn't going to work, she didn't have a backup plan.

     Finally appearing in front of Riley's apartment, she scaled the fire escape and second guessed herself for even showing up. She loves Riley and she loves Riley's family, so it's hard to stay away. Auggie's tall tales about school are always the cutest, Cory freaking out over students not understanding his references, Topanga's meals were always the best. Riley is just going to have to suck it up whether she likes it or not.

     Approaching Riley's bedroom window, she took a deep breath in and sighed. With her hand shivering from the cold, she knocked gently on the glass. Waiting momentarily for an answer, Topanga soon appeared within the doorway of Riley's bedroom. She was in the process of untying her apron as she heard the knock from downstairs, knowing that her daughter was purposely ignoring it. Maya smiled sympathetically as the mother made her way over to unlock the bay window.

"She didn't think you were going to show up." She says as she pulls the young girl in and out of the cold weather. "She told me that you weren't sure if you were going to to come over or not."

Maya rolled her eyes, "Of course I came. I haven't missed a Thanksgiving with you guys, and I don't expect to any time soon." She took the hand of her best friends mother as she led her out of the bedroom and down the staircase to join everyone else in celebration.

     "Maya's here." Topanga cheerfully announced as she made her way back into the kitchen, slapping Cory's hand in the process to get him out of cranberry sauce.

     Auggie had been playing with some action figures on the floor in the living room, he looked over his shoulder and called out to her. "Hey, Maya!"

     "Hey, kid! Who's saving the world today?" She asked, crouching down beside him and placing her hands on the floor at her sides to balance herself. She quickly eyed the toys that were scattered over the floor, attempting to give her best guess as to what was going on.

     As the overly excited child began his long superhero backstory, Maya eye's drifted towards the sofa where she saw the back of her best friend's head. It was tilted down, so it was expected that she was on her phone. She didn't bother to turn her head to give her even a fake smile.

"Earth to Maya?" Auggie managed to snap the blonde out of her concentration and also have his sister's head turn. For a moment, her eyes met with her best friend's and we're quickly cut away.

Maya ran her fingers threw his curly locks, "I'm sorry, kid. Give me a minute, okay?" She stood up from her spot and walked over to the empty seat on the couch next to Riley. She swallowed hard and remembered all of the words that she had prepared herself to say on the way over, she wasn't prepared for how she would react to it all. "You're going to have to talk to me eventually about this... because I'm never leaving you, so you can't stay mad at me forever when I've never done anything wrong."

     Riley itches the corner of her eye where she was determined to not let a tear escape from it. "You did do something wrong-"

     "Then what did I do? Enlighten me." Maya grew irritated, she could feel the looks from both of Riley's partners burning into her.

"I already told you that I'm sorry-"

"That's not the point!" Maya sighed as she fell down onto the couch. "What did I do to make you treat me like this?"

Riley sniffled as she reaching over to the coffee table and grabbed glass of cream soda, "You talk about Lucas all the time and it really bothers me. You haven't made time for me-"

Maya rolled her eyes, "I have made time for you. I didn't have to go out to the movies that night with all of you, but Smackle convinced me too because I wanted to see if we could get over things."

From over in the kitchen, Cory and Topanga could eavesdrop on the two girls' conversation, desperately hoping that they're resolve their problems. "It seems like it's working, hopefully." Cory acknowledged as Topanga continued to stir the gravy that she was making on the stove.

"Well, I feel as if you haven't," Riley tried to explain, "When I'm with you and Smackle, it's all you guys talk about."

Maya tried to understand where Riley was coming from, but she still couldn't get her head around how Riley could be so mean to her over all of this, "That's because Smackle is happy for me, Riley." Maya attempted to reach out for her best friend's hand, Riley hesitated, but she intertwined her fingers anyways. "If it makes you uncomfortable, I won't talk about him so often. But he already has a flight booked and he's coming here, so you're going to have to be okay with that."

Riley nodded her head in an understanding matter. She was disappointed to hear her best friend say that he was coming officially, but she had no other way to prevent it from happening, she was just going to have to allow it to play out on it's own. "Alright."

     "C'mere." Maya said, wanting to get completely over this whole argument all together. She outstretched her arms and allowed Riley to sink into them. "They're coming in a couple days and I want them to have a good time." Cory and Topanga smiled.

After the two girls broke apart, Topanga called everyone into the kitchen for dinner. She had set out the table with every different Thanksgiving food under the sun. When Topanga cooks a dinner for the whole family, she goes all out. They waited on one more person. Cory had gotten a text from Shawn and he was to arrive to the apartment within the next ten minutes with Katy, which totally made Maya beam with joy.

The night turned out to be a success for the two family's, everything went according to plan. Maya and Riley didn't waste any time when it came to catching up with each other. They were both happy that they mended things, but that didn't change the way that Riley felt about Lucas, and it will take a while for her to get rid of that feeling.