Chapter Thirteen

"Let's hang out later," Destiny asks, interrupting my conversation about All American with Dylan. Kayden looks up from his phone, suddenly interested in the conversation.

"Like as a group?" She nods with a smile showing her big teeth that boys seem to go crazy for.

"The bowling alley is half off on Fridays," She wiggles her eyebrows. "Remember the last time we went?" I groaned, remembering when we went two months ago.

Kayden and Erika laughed along with Destiny at my misfortune. The last time we went to that bowling alley I couldn't write with my left hand for three weeks. Long story short, I crushed my finger with an extra heavy ball and spent the rest of the night in the hospital.

"What happened last time?" Dylan asks with his mouth full of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

I give him a dry look before looking back at Destiny. "Why would you even bring that up? It's like you wanted me to say no."

"Please, you don't even have to bowl just come hang out for the night with your favorite people." That last part may have taken it a little too far. I try not to have favorite people except when they are characters in books like Sam Henry from Catching Jordan by Miranda Kennealy.

"Still no," I say, reaching over to steal one of her Doritos from the open bag on the table.

Her eyes light up. "What if I buy you food?" I never turn down food and how could a few hours of bowling hurt.

It's not like I have anything else better to do since Jace is on an overnight school trip to D.C. Thinking back to it the only reason she wants to hang out is because her boyfriend is out of town.

"Fine," The table cheers at my response. She shoves her bag of Doritos over to me and I happily eat the rest of them. I better not regret this.

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I regretted my decision as soon as I walked into Roll N Bowl. It's in the middle of a less than a great neighborhood with numerous junkies littered outside. The bright neon lights blinded me within seconds of stepping through the doors. Bad rap music was blasting through the bulky black speakers on the wall making it hard to hear myself think.

Roll N Bowl is famous for the pizza which isn't half as good as Papa Johns (in my opinion) and the fact that it's big enough to serve as a roller rink, bowling alley, and arcade. Teenagers from all around the city come to this spot on Friday nights for a night of good food and fun. I find it disgusting how many hookups have happened in the girl's bathroom that we were passing. The people in front of me paid no mind to the couple making out against the wall beside us. How was I the only one that realized the bacteria floating around ready to infect us all?

"Can you stop looking so depressed?" Destiny chides, appearing beside me.

"This place reeks of the boy's gym locker and desperation," I mutter, narrowly dodging being run over by a girl speeding down the narrow hallway in skates.

"Look alive," She slaps my back, making me stand up straight. "This is a perfect way to find you a man."

"Not interested."

"You need to put yourself out there if you ever want that Netflix shit," She refers back to my obsession with Netflix teen romance movies. "I can talk you up to..." She scans the room before settling on a light- skin boy with an amazing afro and light brown eyes that I never wanted to look away from. He's sitting by the snack bar with a few other equally attractive looking guys.

"He's-" I stop myself before I say something I don't mean. "Wait, no! Destiny I don't want a boyfriend and I don't need you to set me up!"

"Come on, please for me." I shake my head before standing in line behind Dylan for bowling shoes. I glance over at the table where the boy and his friends have now disappeared.

We grab our shoes and head over to our lane. I was the last to put their name on the board and the last to grab a ball because it took me five minutes to put on the stupid shoes. The ball rack was on the other side next to the last lane and when it was empty I headed over. I lifted different balls until I found one at the very bottom. I bent down to grab it before standing up quickly and hitting my head on something hard.

"Shit!" I cursed loudly, my head throbbing. I turned around to meet the same light-skinned boy from earlier. He was holding a bowling ball that must've been over my head with his phone lit up in the other.

"You good, shorty?" His rough voice pierced through my soul, but I couldn't focus on his above-average looks when he was too dense to not hold a bowling ball over somebody's head.

"No, I'm not good shorty. You and your stupid bowling ball might've given me a concussion," Okay I have exaggerated a little since the pain had lessened. "How couldn't you see me?" He looked at me, confused like he couldn't fathom somebody calling him out.

"What's your problem?" He spits out, agitated.

"My problem is that I have a huge ass headache because of some poser-" I motion to his grills and low hanging jeans. I was about to keep going when I saw Destiny run up behind him.

"Scarlett, sweetie!" Her eyes flitted back from the guy back to me. "It's your turn." I know damn well it's not my turn. It takes Kayden double the time I've been over here to get himself warmed up and he's going first.

"Hold up, give me a second," I wave her off. "And another thing-"

"What's your name?" She cuts me off, blocking me from the boy.

"Ambrose," He smirks at my best friend, giving her a once over. Taking in her skin tight light blue Fashion Nova jeans and a white tube top.

"Destiny and this is my best friend," She pulls me out from behind her. I stand awkwardly, too much weight being put on my right leg from my constant slouch. "Scarlett."

"Ohrd," His expression goes sour at my school hoodie and American Eagle jeans. "Where you from?" He aims his question at Destiny.

"Turner, how bout you?"

"Eastmond." Bored with their conversation, I take this as my chance to leave.

I'm a few feet away when I hear Destiny's shrill voice. "My friend thinks you're sexy." I was about to ignore it and keep walking. I didn't care what he thought.

"Your friends a bitch." I sucked in a sharp breath, my step faltering. Next thing I knew, I was on the ground grunting at my clumsiness.

"Scarlett!" Destiny rushes over and bends down. The area we were in went quiet as people looked at the crazy girl who tripped face-first over the air. "Are you okay?" I sat up hating this place ten times more than when I started.

"Later," Ambrose said eager to get away from the two girls on the floor.

I sit up as soon as he leaves, my cheeks were red from embarrassment. Destiny and I silently walk back to the lane which happened to be right next to Ambrose and his friends. They all look at me with distaste and I fight the urge to shoot them a middle finger. It's like they have never seen a bitch trip.

"What took you guys so long?" Erika asks, sitting next to me.

"Don't ask," I reply curtly. Destiny stares at me with a look of pity, but the encounter with Ambrose is never mentioned again.

The night was fun, at least better than I thought it would be. I still sucked at bowling and Kayden's turn lasted ten minutes each time. Erika won like always, but Dylan gave her some good competition. They had a friendly competition going on and because I being who I am can find romance in any situation, was secretly hoping that it was more than friendly.

Kayden and Destiny didn't speak to each other for the majority of the night unless it was absolutely required, it's been like this since lunch last week while Erika, Dylan and I have to suffer through their stiff interactions. It reminds me of lunch last week when Kayden accidentally squirted his ketchup packet onto Destiny's new shirt, she didn't even flinch, just got up and walked to the bathroom. Destiny loud is normal, it's when she's quiet that you worry. And I was worried.

After we bowled for an hour or two, the night was still young so the group forced me to get off my ass and skate. While the next edition of roller skating champions was circling around the rink, Erika and I were clutching the wall like our life depended on it. I wasn't about to fall on my ass twice in one day. Erika was good company, we made up stories for every person we saw. There was a middle-aged guy sulking in the corner, staring at an older woman with a much younger man. We made up that he was her ex-husband who she left for a fresh out of college guy that she met at a strip bar when she was shaking for dollar bills.

One thing about Erika is that she always knew how to make somebody laugh.

"Can we go now?" I asked Destiny who just got done paying for her Slurpee at 7-11.

We left Bowl N Roll a few minutes earlier, but she insisted we stopped for a Pina Colada Slurpee-- why she would pick that flavor is beyond me when we all know blue raspberry is the best. Erika was waiting for us in the car, she claimed it was too bright in here for her sensitive eyes, but to bring her back a can of Pringles. We didn't get her Pringles.

We got back in the car and Erika was pouting when she saw we had no bags in our hands.

"Stop your whining!" I snapped when she groaned for the fifth time. "I have Pringles in the house." She shut up and let me drive in peace. The only sound to be heard is the Rihanna song blasting from the speakers.

The girls are sleeping over my house tonight since it's the first time in two months that all of us don't have plans. Erika doesn't know about my plans since the only people who know about Jace are Destiny and Dylan, but everybody at Turner knows about how Destiny tricked a rich white boy into dating her.

Most people didn't even know what Elkridge was until Destiny told anybody who could listen what expensive private school her boyfriend went to. Girls walk up to her every day asking how she snagged him or giving her tips on how to fake a pregnancy to get child support. Destiny maybe with him for money, but thankfully she isn't that crazy.

We pull up to my house and there's Brielle standing on the front porch. I'm almost positive that she's smoking a cigarette, my parents would kill her if they saw her, but since their car isn't in the driveway they must've not come back from the Pastor's dinner yet. They tried to force me to go and I was going to until Destiny's suggestion at lunch saved me. They weren't happy with my decision, but they never denied me.

"Hey sis," Brielle said in a monotone voice when we got to the porch. She brought the white and orange death trap to her lips and inhaled before blowing the smoke in my face causing me to have a coughing fit. "And friends." She glared at Destiny. They never liked each other from as long as Des and I became friends they were constantly going at each other's throats.

"Brielle, still whoring yourself on North Avenue?" Destiny briskly asked, her face impassive.

"Destiny, I heard that you're a white man's whore now." She threw the cigarette over the ground and ground it out with her foot. She smirked at Destiny who I knew from her clenched jaw was about to pounce any second. I grabbed her arm softly and pulled her toward the house.

"She's not worth it." I try to reason and Destiny backs down

"And you let punk-ass Scarlett bitch you into submission," Brielle teases with a hint of a smirk. "White man's whore and a dog. Need a muzzle?"

"You see," Destiny starts, handing Erika her purse. "Now, I'm bout to fuck you up. See how good your men like it when their bitch's nose is broke."

"Please Des, don't do this," Her eyes flit from me to Brielle who's watching us amused at the mess she caused. "I'll handle this." Destiny grunts, swinging open the screen door. Erika follows in behind her with a worried expression.

"What's your problem?" I yelled.

"My problem is that your friend thinks she's all that just cause some cracker got her on a leash!"

"What she got to do with you?" I shove her in the chest causing her to stumble backward. "Mad cause you can't get a man who with you for more than an hour." Her eyes narrow. I struck a nerve.

"You don't know what the hell you're talking about," She gets so close I can smell the lingering tobacco smoke on her breath. "Mind your damn business."

"I'll do whatever the hell I want. You need to take your ass in the house and apologize to my friend."

"Your friend is fucking a slave master. You okay with that?"

"At least he's not paying her," My voice gets low. "You go in there and stop being a bitch for once in your life."

"Or what?" I'll expose her dumb ass with every piece of juicy information I have that the whole school or better yet our parents would like to hear.

"You know what."

"What are you trying to say?" She sounds scared.

"See you later," I flash her a smile. "Sis." I walk past her and into the house, slamming the door behind me with a bang.

I find the girls already in their pajamas, laying on my bed trying to find something to watch on Netflix. They turn their heads when I walk through the door and their eyes light up when they see what I'm carrying. My house is known as a snack galore. We have any snack food you want: chips, cookies, cake, cupcakes, ice cream, candy, chocolate. You name it we got it. I threw Destiny the unopened pack of Oreos and Erika a full-sized can of Sour Cream and Onion Pringles.

I get myself ready in the bathroom, I've never been a big fan of getting dressed in front of people. If I can avoid it, I will take every measure to. When I'm finally finished I squeeze in the middle of the two girls since I'm the smallest in height (not weight if my size 28 jeans have anything to say about it).

"Des, you've been MIA," Erika states. "Tell us all about your new man."

I listen in as Destiny tells us about the fancy rich white boy she's dating. Erika is hanging on to her every word, there are not many white people around us and if we see them they are either junkies or meth heads (sometimes both). Destiny dating one who isn't from around here is groundbreaking, every girl in school wants one of her own. I listen to her with mild interest. Even though I'm in the same house as the happy couple, I never see them together since Jace tends to stay far away from anywhere that Jasper might be. I still haven't cracked the whole story on that since every time I bring up his brother he shuts down.

"I'm almost jealous," Erika throws a wink at Destiny who smiles coyly.

She just told us about some sexual position that Jasper has been dying to get her to try. He even tried to bribe her with a new Louis Vitton purse (I heard from Jasmine that he stole it from his mother) which she graciously accepted. It's sitting on the chair next to my desk, gold and glittering, the object of purely opulent wealth worth more than my closet.

"Enough of my sex life," I take a sip of my iced tea. "What about yours Scar?" I forcefully swallow and the icy liquid travels down my throat as a slew of coughs erupt. Destiny pats my back and with her freakishly strong hands does more harm than help.

"W-what," I sputter between coughs. "S-s-sex life?" The coughing fit had ended and I was breathing heavily.

"Exactly," Erika remarks. "You're the only virgin here."

"And I'm happy about that."

"You act like sex is such a big deal just get it over with," Destiny says casually.

"You act like it's a shot. Just get it over with Scarlet it'll be done in a jiffy." I mock

"First of all, who says in a jiffy?" Erika laughs as Destiny's mock of my phrase. "Second, it's a hell of a lot better than a shot."

"Ah ah ah Des, I think we're forgetting about Scarlet's little fear." Erika teases as Destiny's smile widens. I groan as their instituting of my totally and completely rational fear.

"Oh yes, Erika we've forgotten," Destiny starts. "She's scared of dick!" They burst into a fit of laughs. My cheeks burn as I focus hard on an interesting spot of paint on my hardwood floors.

Some people are scared of snakes. Some of spiders. Some of clowns. Hell, even some people are scared of other people. I had to be the only human being on the planet with a vagina who is scared of penises. Even hearing the word makes me cringe. I accidentally let it slip one day when we were playing Truth or Dare, sophomore year and they never let me live it down.

"It's a completely rational fear," I try to interject, but their laughter is too loud. "Seriously guys, it's not funny!" I pout with a frown. They sober up and try to hold a straight face before eventually cracking again.

This fear that my asshole friends are making fun of me for started when my middle school friend Shawn showed me pornography for the first time. Let's just say it was the second time I'd seen my lunch that day. Penises are nasty and they look weird and they have so many different parts and sizes. I could never imagine myself having sex with anybody at least any time soon with this fear plaguing my mind.

I grab my phone, heading downstairs away from the cackling hyenas upstairs. I'm getting a juice box when my phone rings and Jace's ringtone, the Big Time Rush theme song (his choice) starts playing. I swipe up and a dark screen appears before he moves his hand out of the way and I get a full view of his face. His hair is wet and his shirt is slightly wrinkled. There's a loud DaBaby song playing in the background that I almost positively hear Henry and Carter rapping to.

"How's your trip?" He doesn't respond, I assume he didn't hear me.

"Turn it down I'm on the phone!" He yells, taking me by surprise, He takes a pillow that he's laying on and chucks it at somebody in the room. The volume decreases and he turns to me unfurrowing his brows. "Sorry about that."

"No problem, how's your trip?" I repeat

"It's cool, we went to the White House." I want to hear more, we've never talked about politics. I wonder if he's a Trump supporter, I wouldn't be surprised.

"Did you see the President?" Why did I ask such a stupid question?

"No," He scrunches up his nose in what I hope is disgust. "Why would I want to?" Ah, he's in the clear.

I'm about to ask another question about his trip when there's a commotion. A few seconds later I see Henry, Carter, and Alexander's face in the camera. Jace from what I hear is groaning on the floor.

"Jace's preoccupied right now," Carter says with a sly smile. "We deserved some Scarlett time. Jace has been keeping you all to himself." The other three murmur in agreement.

"Shut the fuck up!" I hear Jace again.

"Alex, handle him," Alexander moves away from the camera and I hear muffled screams before a door closes. He appears back on the screen with a satisfied grin.

"THIS ISN'T FUNNY!" Jace's voice bounds through the room. I'm struggling to hold back my laughter as he starts knocking furiously. The guys attempt to keep a straight face as Jace threatens to knock down the door.

"How's your day been so far?" Alexander asks as we try to ignore Jace's pleads.

"It's not too bad," I start before a loud noise bang interrupts me. The boy's eyes widen and the screen goes dark. I can hear screams mostly from Carter. A minute later Jace's face is in the camera.

"Sorry about that. It won't happen again," His eyes cut to somewhere else in the room. "Right guys?" He asks with a smirk. There are mumbled yes's assuming from the three boys who locked him outside.

"How did you get back in?"

"I actually had my key card in the back pocket," I hear a groan from the background.

"I told you, we should've checked his pocket, stupid," Henry grumbles.

"Lucky you. They would've had you out there all night." I hear a scoff.

"They don't understand the rules of friendship," His voice raises slightly and his eyes narrow. "Rule 1: Don't lock your friends out of the room."

"Hold up," I interrupt, remembering what happened last week. "Didn't you lock me out of your room last week?"

"I was changing clothes that's completely different."

"What if the boys were changing?" I counter

"It's not the same." Why cause you all have dicks? That's what I wanted to say but decided against it, in fear of being laughed at.

"It is when you left me in the hallway with no phone," I argue. I was staring at the wall for five straight minutes until the door swung open and he was there.

"It's not my fault you don't bring your phone to the bathroom!"

"Who doesn't take their phone to the bathroom?" Carter interjected.

"What do you do in there without your phone?" There's Henry.

"It's your fault, sorry Scarlet. Should've brought your phone." And finally Alexander. I should've guessed they would all say this considering they never look up from their phone.

"See, it's not my fault," Jace said with a satisfied grin. I was about to reply with a comeback something along the line of 'It's not my fault that I'm not obsessed with the little screen in my hand like you leeches', but then I heard a commotion coming from the stairs behind me.

"What did you just say?" Erika shrieked, laughing maniacally.

"My favorite food is dick, PERIOD!" I scramble to look for my AirPods that I thought were in my pocket. When my pockets turned up empty, I started to panic.

"I have to go, see you. Have fun guys!" I hang up quickly before the girls can get downstairs.

"Hey, we've been waiting for you," I swirl around with a wide smile

"I was looking for something," I grab the next thing I see which happens to be a pack of Capri Sun juice boxes and hold up a juice pouch. "Found it. Let's go."

I followed them upstairs, the whole time my mind trailed back to the boy in the hotel room in D.C. His stupid eyes and his stupid hair. His stupid laugh and his stupid smile. A boy I'm starting to trust. Trust. It's been a while since I've trusted somebody who wasn't my immediate family. Even that's a little iffy with my relationship with my wayward sister and parents who don't know what I really believe.

"You're not slick," Destiny whispers an hour later when Erika was in the bathroom. We were watching a Tyler Perry movie-- one that my mother's made me watch a million times-- when she caught me by surprise with her offhand comment.

"What are you talking about?"

"We know what a guy's voice sounds like." My eyes widen before I cover it up with a laugh.

"I was watching a Tik Tok." I quickly lied.

"We all know you weren't, but don't worry she doesn't know," I breathe out a sigh of relief. "I don't know why you don't tell her." I scoffed. I'm not planning on telling anybody else, the last person who found out was by accident.

"The more people who know, the more ways it can get out," I admit. I can try, but Destiny always knows when I'm lying

"He needs to know." Why does she keep saying that?

"And I'll tell him. It just hasn't been the right time." I scroll through my phone trying to ignore the throbbing headache that comes with lying.

"You can't lie to me," Yeah, I know. "But it's none of my business. I know you'll make the right decision." We hear Erika's footsteps and it's like the conversation never happens.

Destiny presses play on the remote and we watch the movie play out in front of us. Silence falls over us and at that moment I push everything else out of my mind. No lying. No family problems. No drama. Just us. Three juniors in high school just trying to make the best out of the life we've been given.