“well the probability of that is 0, but you go ahead.”

“I’m going to do a sick kickflip.”

Maya laughs. “Well, the probability of that is zero, but you go ahead.”

Riley, of course, doesn’t go ahead, because Maya is still holding onto her waist to steady her as she wobbles back and forth on the old skateboard they’d found in the back of a garage sale.

It had been four dollars, Riley had five in her pocket, the decision hadn’t been difficult to make.

“This isn’t fair, how do you already know how to ride it but I don’t?”

“Honey, I say this with so much love, but your balance is really bad.”

“It’s not! I just- DON’T LET GO!”

“Christ! Okay okay, please stop yelling.” Maya wraps her arms around Riley’s waist again. “Do you want me to walk you down the hall again?”

“Uh, not really.” A second of silence. “Actually, can you help me down?”

“Oh, of course.”

Maya steadies a foot against the board, making sure it doesn’t roll away as she leans backward and allows Riley to step off.

Her girlfriend pretty much falls into her arms, which Maya isn’t complaining about, but the sudden added weight comes as a surprise, and she stumbles backwards, the skateboard flying off and hitting the opposite wall with a resounding crack.

Without turning around, Riley grimaces. “I think our four dollars of fun just ran out.”

“It was good while it lasted,” Maya says, not too bothered about it. She straightens up, pressing against Riley’s hips, a suggestion to shift backwards that her girlfriend doesn’t take, so they’re pretty much squished together in the middle of the hallway. “We should probably go pick it up and put it somewhere else, though.”

“Good plan,” Riley says, though she doesn’t move. “But let’s just stand here for a while first.”

Maya nods, smiling as she feels the fabric of Riley’s shirt against her cheek. “Okay.”

It’s cold, that’s the first thing she notices when she struggles awake, confusion overtaking her for a second as she rubs blearily at her eyes. Riley fumbles around, blindly attempting to locate the source of the incessant buzzing that’s coming from between her sheets.

She finds it, finally, and, upon realizing that it’s her phone, swipes at the screen on instinct to pick up the call that’s coming through.

“H'llo?”

“Riles! Oh, did I wake you? Sorry, I’m sorry, you should go back to bed-”

“Peaches.” Riley sits up, instantly more awake than she was before. “Maya, it’s fine, is everything okay?”

Maya is quiet for a moment, and in the background Riley can hear the familiar rustle of traffic that she’s come to associate with New York in the nighttime. London is much quieter, the entire city falling asleep once the sun dips below the horizon, she’s not quite used to it yet, the deafening silence that blankets the quaint little neighborhood she’s found herself living in.

“Everything’s fine, I just missed you.”

And, oh, Riley can’t blame her for that. She misses Maya, too, more than words can say. It is, for lack of a better phrase, subtly disconcerting, to be away from someone that’s been apart of her life for so long that she can’t imagine living without them. Riley’s gotten used to being able to wake up in the middle of the night, stumble into the kitchen, and find Maya sketching in the dim light of the stove. Now, everything’s different, and she’s not going to lie to herself, it hasn’t been easy, trying to adjust.

Still, Maya’s voice crackling across the phone line is a small comfort in the icy coolness of an unfamiliar night.

“I miss you, too.” Riley presses the phone closer to her ear, knowing that there is so much more to that than she has said, but Maya can hear her, loud and clear, just like she always has.

“So, how’s school?”

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