Chapter Three

"That Elkridge party was tough last night," I nodded along to Destiny as we walked through the mall on Saturday afternoon. "It was this crazy white boy who hosted it and his house was big as shit!"

She has spent the last ten minutes retelling every part of the tough party that I missed. From what I've heard it didn't sound as tough as she might suggest considering within the first five minutes of her story there were already three wasted white girls who threw up in the pool. Why they got into the pool in the middle of February was beyond me.

Destiny would've told me last night, but as soon as I texted her she grilled me about this supposed guy. I had to listen to her overly enthused facetime call later that night claiming he was my soulmate and we were going to make cute mixed babies. I got her to drop the subject by telling her I'd probably never see him again. She ignored me and said, third time's a charm. I wasn't counting on there being a third time. It was a miracle there was a second time, but I think the universe just wanted me to apologize and have some fun for a night.

"That's really cool, Des," I say absentmindedly looking for an Auntie Annies so I can get a cinnamon pretzel.

"Look there's the guy who threw the party, he's feeling up on that girl over there." I look in the direction of where she's not so discreetly pointing, but can only see the back of his brown-haired head.

"Oh, he's a real charmer," I tease as he moves his hand from the girl's waist to her ass.

"Lighten up!" I listen to her shrill voice as she tells me about the rich guy making out with a girl in the middle of the mall. We move from side to side as we try and avoid bumping into the people around us in the overly crowded mall.

We got here late since I woke up this morning already off schedule and my hair was extra unmanageable today. I ended up breaking my comb and Destiny had to run to the store to get me a new one. I ended up giving up anyway and shoving everything under a hat.

"Girl, I'm starving and not for no damn pretzel," She slings her arm over my shoulder and takes me in the direction of the food court.

I see teenagers everywhere, probably all from the neighborhood private schools or regular county public schools. I made a rule which Destiny reluctantly agreed to a long time ago that if we were going to any mall together it wouldn't be any in the city. She goes to whatever mall she wants to with her other friends, but if I'm with her we don't go just to any mall.

We reach the food court and I make a beeline for Chick Fil A while Destiny goes the opposite way to Subway. I grab my food and decide to find a table for when Destiny gets back

I looked up from my phone to see her across the food court talking to the same boy from earlier. I still can't see his face because of how far I am from the two. But I know where this is headed by the way she pushed her breasts out in front of her and she has her manicured hand sliding down his back.

I rolled my eyes as he grabbed her hand and kissed it. She does this weird giggle thing that shows her perfectly perfected smile. Nobody knows that before high school she had a huge gap which was only fixed with braces her whole middle school life.

Whatever he's saying is working on her. She adds a wink and I decide to just leave them alone. I finish my meal alone and leave the food court. I contemplate texting her, but decide against it, she won't care. When it comes to guys, she'll ditch me in a heartbeat.

I find a seat outside of the Nike store and sit down. Grabbing my book from my bag, a hand rests on top of mine. Startled, I snatch my hand away and my head jerks up just for it to hit somebody else's.

"Fuck, my apologies Scarlet," Who says my apologies and why do they know my name? I look back over and next to me is Jace. He's rubbing his forehead with one hand and holding his glasses in another. "I saw you over here and wanted to say hi..." He trails off not knowing what else to say.

Guess, Destiny was right. Third time's a charm.

"It's fine, what brings you to this sweaty, overcrowded germ fest?" He scratches his neck and looks in the direction of the younger girl standing a few feet away inside the Justice store. "Aww, you have a little sister!"

"Yeah, sadly." He looks over at the small girl with anything but sadness in his eyes.

"Can I meet her?" He nods and we walk inside the Justice store. His sister has blue eyes unlike his brown ones and doesn't have any freckles like he does. I can see the resemblance in their similar face structures and brown hair except hers is a few shades lighter than his.

"JACEY, FINALLY YOU'RE HERE!" The young girl screeches with the energy of a thousand chihuahuas. "AND YOU BROUGHT A GIRL!" He looks at me nervously

"Yes, Jasmine this is-" I cut him off bending down to her height which isn't very far considering I'm 5'1, she might be 4' 11.

"I'm Scarlett. It's very nice to meet you, Jasmine. I didn't know Jace had such a beautiful little sister," She smiles even wider with a small gap in between her two front teeth.

"I didn't know Jace had friends that were girls, especially not ones as pretty as you," It's my turn to smile while Jace grimaced. "I'm going to a party tonight!"

"Really, who's it for?" She blushed. It's for a boy.

"Just a boy from my class," She avoids my eyes and starts flipping through the clothing rack. I know this look, I wore it every day in middle school.

"Is he a cute, nice boy from your class?" She blushes harder and Jace grunts

"She's too young to know what cute is," He ruffled her hair and I tapped her on the shoulder. She faced me trying to hide the smile.

"I know a store that has the most gorgeous dresses, that boy will never know what hit him," She nodded furiously and the three of us walked downstairs to Forever 21. Jace doesn't ask questions and just follows behind us as we whisper quietly so he won't hear.

I rushed us all straight to the back, thinking about the dress I saw last week when we were shopping for Destiny's younger cousin. It's still hanging on the rack, short, but still appropriate and a gorgeous maroon. She'll look amazing in this, it's simple and way better than the stuff they sell in Justice.

"What about this one?" I hold up the dress and her eyes go wide with excitement. She snatches the dress from my hand making sure it's her size before running to the dressing room. Jace and I follow her and sit in the chairs outside.

"How did you know?"

"I was here last week, my friend has a younger cousin and I showed her that dress. Let's just say she went in a different direction." I shudder, remember the disgusting neon orange monstrosity that she pulled out. Destiny gushed about how much she loved it, while I was holding back my Subway sandwich I had for lunch that day. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree with that family.

My ringtone Take Yo Man by City Girls for Destiny starts blaring and I excuse myself to answer it. I get outside the store and pull my phone out.

"Hey girl, where've you been?" Her voice is muffled like her cell phone reception is bad.

"I've been hanging out with a friend. What's up? Are you done with the party guy?"

"Yeah, he had to bounce, but I'm going to his house next Friday for some alone time." I can hear her eager smile.

"What happened to Dondre?" She scoffs.

"Psh, sis he got nothing, but speeding tickets. This white boy has everything I've been looking for and hundreds more!" Oh there it is, she likes his money.

"In it just for the money?" She started to argue but I cut her off. "Just don't get too attached." She groaned.

"Yeah yeah just where you at?" I really don't feel like her meeting Jace right now. He doesn't need to know anything more about me then he already does.

"Meet me at my car, outside of Macy's Home." She agreed and I went back inside to see Jasmine in the dress. She looks absolutely gorgeous and I think Jace is close to tears.

"You look amazing, Jasmine. That boy would be an idiot not to snatch you up," She giggles. I turn to Jace tucking a stray hair back inside my hat, starting to regret today's fashion choice. "Hey, I have to go now, it was nice to see you again."

He stands to walk me out. I give Jasmine a hug and wish her luck before she rushes back into the dressing room. Jace walks me outside of the store and we're left kind of standing there, awkwardly.

"Can I have your number?" He blurts out as I'm about to walk away. We exchange numbers and I notice that our phones are identical, iPhone XRs except mine is yellow and his is blue.

When I get a few feet away I get a phone call from an unknown number and answer it.

"Hello." I hear laughing on the other end and contemplate hanging up.

"I just wanted to make sure you didn't give me a fake number," I look back at the boy wearing a knit sweater and jeans. He looks at me, sheepishly.

"Wouldn't dream of it," I wink at him and turn back around.

I hang up the phone and walk towards my car, where Destiny is waiting patiently. By patiently, I mean tapping her foot and stabbing her fingers into her keyboard probably scripting an angry text for me.

I clear my throat and she slices her eyes up at me, "It's about time, slowpoke," I unlock the door and we both get in. "If I didn't know any better I would think some boy is sticking their tongue down your throat with all the time you took to get down here!"

"That's your department, Des, I just ran into that boy that I was telling you about." She shuts her phone suddenly, more intrigued.

"You talking about the same one from all your fairytales," I shake my head, annoyed. Please, that boy is the farthest thing from my fairytale.

"No, the one I was with yesterday,"

"Mhm, yeah that's who I was talking about. What did I say, third time's a charm!" I tried to protest and say this was just a weird coincidence that won't happen again, but she cuts me off. "He's your dream guy. You guys even met in a cute way."

"Okay, that's where you're wrong. I yelled at him for something stupid, not a smart way to start a romance."

"And see that's where you're wrong, you guys met the same way that all the movies you make me watch, meet."

"Movies aren't real, in case you haven't noticed. Even if they were it's definitely not my time to have mine and it certainly won't be with Jace."

"Believe what you want, but that boy's your fairytale," She slathers on some lipgloss and I know that conversation is over. "Now, what did you get for that Trig test?"

One thing about Destiny and I are we know when to stop talking about certain topics. She knows that the fact that I've never had a boyfriend bothers me which means the Jace thing will bother me. I also know not to mention anything about families around Destiny, it's a long story.

I drop Destiny off before heading back home. I see both my parents' cars in the driveway. Walking inside, I hang up my coat and go inside my parents' room. My father is sitting up, reading a book and my mother is doing the same thing beside me.

"You will be joining us at church tomorrow, won't you Scarlet?" I smile briefly, not looking forward to celebrating a religion I don't believe in. "Wonderful, your mother and I have been talking and we decided that you aren't spending enough time in the church. We have signed you up for bible study every Tuesday and Thursday night."

Shit. I thought if I kept a healthy distance my parents would be satisfied, but I guess I have to go more often. Listen to their biblical bullshit, my theory on religion is that it's all made up by people a long time ago who made the bible as a joke to trick their friends. Then one person took it too far and passed it down through generations until more people started believing in it and now it's a huge thing. This whole damn country is run on religion, the main one being Christianity. It's impossible not to believe in it because it's shoved down your throat wherever you turn.

I believe in science, but my parents would never understand that. I know my sister while she can be... herself; she believes in god and I know if my parents figured out that I didn't. I would become a bigger disappointment than she is.

"Bible study sounds great, daddy!" I excuse myself to my room and switch on a Disney movie to drown out the nagging in my head.

Why can't you just be the Christian daughter that your parents want? If you just believed in what they believed in your life wouldn't be so difficult. It's not so hard to be a good Christian girl.