☆ DESTINY ☆

"Chica, you didn't have to do all that," Janette had explained to Esmeralda. "Imagine how poor Kiandre had felt. You wouldn't want Trevor and Kazenosuke harassing you for rejecting Kiandre, would you? Assuming that you were Destiny and you had friendzoned Kiandre and not the other way around."

Janette, Calista and Esmeralda had just left Richard Gold now, and were now chilling in Esmeralda's pink Cadillac, talking about what had happened between Esmeralda and Kiandre.

Janette and Esmeralda were at the front whilst Calista was at the back because the car had belonged to Esmeralda anyway-- not that she had deserved to drive because of the way she had treated Kiandre, but she was the only one who could drive in the group so...

It was her or nothin'.

They had been waiting in front of McDonald's for quite a while now, which was where Valentina and Destiny had gone to to get some lunch.

Calista, Janette & Esmeralda had gone there earlier whilst Valentina and Destiny were in Richard Gold, and now it was time to wait for them.

The three of them would have gone in there again but who bought McDonald's for themselves twice in one day?

Trevor & Kazenosuke were Kiandre's two best friends from school.

Kiandre had two other best friends as well called Terrance & Kerazin, but Trevor and Kazenosuke were closer to him.

Much closer to him.

For some reason, Kiandre was way more popular on social media than at school, but it was probably because of Kassandra- as much as Kiandre had hated to admit it, his sister was pretty darn popular online.

"'Poor Kiandre'?" Esmeralda scoffed. "Pfft, girl, don't give me that. I was just correcting him for his very very stupid mistake of friendzoning Destiny."

"True but now Kiandre's going to think that Destiny's super desperate," Calista pointed out. "What if he has a completely different opinion on Destiny now because of you? Ever taken that into consideration?"

For some reason, Esmeralda laughed her head off at that statement coming from her friend.

Staring at each other blankly, Janette and Calista shrugged their shoulders at each other simultaneously before turning to face Esmeralda again.

"What's so funny, girl?" Janette asked.

"Calista!" Esmeralda echoed. "You crack me up, sis. But on a real level though, if a man can't see my baby girl's worth without losing her first, then that man ain't worth it in the first place."

Janette had high fived Esmeralda when she had said that, muttering 'you tell 'em girl!' as Esmeralda was talking.

And speak of the devil...

They had been talking about Kiandre, who had showed up.

No, not in that way.

Of course not.

Kiandre had seen Valentina and Destiny at McDonald's, who had actually apologised on Esmeralda's behaviour for her atrocious behaviour towards him.

But even then, he was still avoiding them.

Goodness knew if Esmeralda was going to attack him again, and Kiandre did not want to suffer just thinking about it.

Kiandre was walking with Sekani on the pavement (Kassandra had gone home herself but Kiandre could drive so things weren't too bad) but when he had seen Esmeralda's Cadillac, he hid behind the wall behind him, telling Sekani to do the exact same thing.

Because he most definitely didn't want Destiny and her girls to notice the kid one bit.

"Crud," he murmured under his breath. "You've got to be kidding me!"

Sekani didn't even realise that they had walked backwards from before, but when he finally noticed that Kiandre had brought him back, he instantly knew that something was up.

"What is it, bro? What's up? You OK?"

"No!"

"What's going on?"

But Kiandre didn't say anything, he had just unexpectedly pushed Sekani to the bush behind them, telling him to keep a low profile.

How were they supposed to keep a low profile when they were behind a bush at the moment?

Literally anyone walking past could have seen them and would have questioned why they were hiding there in the first place.

"Destiny's crew's here, Sekani. I could tell something was up when I saw Valentina and Destiny at McDonald's."

When Sekani had heard what Kiandre had just said, he did not seem very happy about it.

"Dude, are you seriously scared of Destiny's friends just 'cause Esmeralda attacked you for rejecting Destiny?"

Kiandre had nodded shamelessly, causing Sekani to face palm himself.

"You've fully gone mad, you know that?" He hissed. "Why can't you just ignore them? Or better still, fight back? You a man, Kiandre!"

Then he eyed him up and down before shaking his head in disgust.

"Or are you? And no disrespect, but for an eighteen year old, you're not really that smart sometimes!"

Kiandre gave him a dirty look.

"I said 'no disrespect'."

He rolled his eyes.

"Do you not think I've tried fighting back? Easier said than done, Sekani."

Actually, it wasn't that hard for you to stick up for yourself but OK Kiandre, whatever floats your boat.

Sekani had had enough now, so he had taken Kiandre's hand before walking him out of the bush.

Kiandre didn't even realise what he was doing at first, and when he did, he couldn't stop complaining about it.

"You re just going to ignore them," he demanded. "Just pretend they're not there."

At this point, Sekani had walked so many steps in front of Kiandre that whilst he was at the car park twenty spaces in front of them, Kiandre was still where he was.

Sekani had successfully managed to pretend that Destiny's friends weren't there just chilling at the Cadillac, but for Kiandre?

Yeah.

Easier said than done, like he said.

"Just keep walkin', man. Keep walkin'. Ain't no time for talkin'." Sekani encouraged, calling him over.

He had his hoodie up right now so Esmeralda, Calista & Janette couldn't really spot Sekani, even if they really wanted to.

I can do this, Kiandre thought to himself, taking deep breaths. I can do this.

No, Kiandre wasn't lacking in self confidence.

He had lots of self confidence, even if it didn't seem that way right now.

But, dang.

The way Esmeralda had attacked him knocked Kiandre's confidence so much that he felt like an unwanted book at a library just being thrown away to be recycled for good.

Kiandre didn't do it.

He did, to an extent.

It just wasn't 100% successful.

"Speak of the devil!" Esmeralda taunted. "We were just talking about you, Kiandre. You know how there's the walk of fame in Hollywood? Well, you're going to be on the walk of shame for rejecting Destiny!"

At this point, Kiandre was next to Sekani, but he seemed very aggravated by what Esmeralda had just told him.

Was this bullying?

Heck, Kiandre didn't even know.

And neither did Sekani to be honest, but this was getting almost way too serious now.

"You OK, bro?" He wanted to know, staring at Kiandre hard in the eyes.

"I am absolutely done to death with Destiny!"

When Sekani had heard this, his eyes had widened a bit, but he didn't know how to reply because he had to watch what he had said.

Kiandre was pissed.

How pissed?

So pissed that he had unexpectedly started swearing, and that was the thing.

Kiandre.

Never.

Swore.

Not even when he was extremely angry, however Esmeralda was really pushing the guy's limits right now.

"Uhm... you go wait in the car, I'll handle this."

"Go hard on them."

"I'm making no promises, sorry."

Saying that, Sekani gave Kiandre his car keys, before Kiandre walked to his car, with Sekani turning to face Esmeralda, Calista and Janette.

Oh gosh, they're so far away.

They really weren't, he was just lazy.

Do I really have to go all the way over there? OK... here goes nothing.

Thinking that, Sekani had grudgingly walked over to them trying to get Esmeralda's attention.

Surprisingly, he was actually pretty nice to them.

But he was still mad at Esmeralda for intentionally provoking Kiandre, though he didn't show this.

"Esmeralda."

No response.

"Esmeralda.."

When Esmeralda heard her name, she had stopped talking to Calista and Janette to stare at Sekani blankly.

"What are you doing here?"

Esmeralda didn't exactly hate Sekani per say...

But then she didn't like him either.

He was average.

50/50.

Comme si, comme sa.

None of them had even realised that Sekani was there, as Destiny & Valentina hadn't said anything about seeing Kiandre anywhere.

So when they had seen him, they were a bit surprised.

Although, Esmeralda was more annoyed than surprised realistically speaking, but she was still surprised regardless.

"Look," Sekani heaved, taking a deep breath before saying anything else.

Goodness knew what the deep breath was for, but it was probably because he was going to say a really long rant about Kiandre.

And he did.

"I know y'all are mad that Kiandre rejected Destiny," Sekani began. "But don't you think you're taking this a bit too far, Esmeralda? Kiandre can't control who he has feelings for- and he didn't really have any feelings for Destiny right now... is that a crime?"

No, it wasn't a crime.

But one would have thought otherwise from the way Esmeralda had been handling the situation.

"That's what we've been telling her, boo," Janette agreed, high fiving Sekani. "I mean, OK you're annoyed but at least Kiandre told the truth, way better than a lie."

"Exactly," Sekani added, smiling. "Plus Kiandre's got way too many things going on already in his life. He's failing school tests, man. So many of 'em, it's countless. And on top of that, he had to do this presentation from church which he hasn't done due to stress from school."

"Kiandre has his own problems?" Calista interrupted. "From the way Destiny describes him, he seems perfect."

Sekani laughed hard at that, laughing way too much.

He had pretty cute teeth to be honest, but that wasn't the point. This was about Kiandre, not him.

"Kiandre ain't perfect, Calista!" he shouted. "Far from it. But seriously, could y'all dial it down a bit with the insults? Kiandre's getting frustrated. He even swore for the first time and he never swears. That's how frustrated he was."

It was all down to Esmeralda really, and it was even worse when Janette had put pressure on her to forgive Kiandre.

"Esmeralda?"

"Yeah..." she deadpanned folding her arms and sinking in her seat due to how embarrassed she was.

"Will you forgive Kiandre?"

If anything, she didn't want to.

But unforgiveness was a sin.

So she sighed and said yes.

Kinda.

"I'll consider it."

"Esmeralda," Sekani repeated, where she stared at him blankly for like three seconds then rolled her eyes.

"Fine."

Sekani then told them that if that was it then he was going to go and that they would have seen him at Same Difference tonight, by God's Grace.

"But you underage, bro," Esmeralda realised.

"Way to ruin one's mood," he yakked. "I'm out of here!"

Then Sekani walked off for good, finding Kiandre.

Janette and Calista on the other hand were pretty mad at Esmeralda for what she had done, and they had shown this by frowning at her and folding their arms simultaneously in disgust.

"What? He is underage! I'm just stating facts."

But neither Janette and Calista did anything as they had just shaken their heads really slowly.

Until they had laughed really loudly simultaneously.