A Better Boyfriend (GirlxGirl)

Thirty-one- Scarlet

Destiny's dad left the room, once he had placed down some snacks for the two of us.

"You want to go out to the bar tonight?" I asked Destiny, after a beat of time. I figured that the both of us could use something to take our mind off everything that had happened recently.

"And have a bunch of guys leer at us? I could think of better things to be doing with our time," Destiny said.

I had to admire her honesty.

Besides, it wasn't as though she was entirely wrong about that.

The older guys in our town could sort of be assholes, after all.

"Can we go see that cool new movie in the cinema instead?" I said, meeting her with puppy-dog eyes.

Destiny's lips twitched upwards at that.

"We sure can, sweetheart. What would you like to see?" she asked.

There was something in the way that her voice grew warmer as she called me 'sweetheart' that caused my heart to skip a beat.

This wasn't the first time that I had felt like this, truthfully.

I had a certain feeling that it wouldn't be the last.

My pupils were probably dilating right now, but I wasn't some lovesick teenager anymore. I needed to shake this feeling away.

"The new animation?" I asked her.

"Nerd," she said behind a cough.

"That's true, but you love it," I said.

She tilted her head to the side and crinkled her nose up slightly.

"Hm... do I?" she asked me.

I playfully hit her arm.

"Hey!" I spoke.

"Alright, you know what, Scarlet. You're right. We can go and see this movie, but you have to let me buy the popcorn," she said.

"I see this as a win-win situation," I said, with a grin.

I had been worrying about the size of my own pupils, but it appeared that Destiny's had grown, the black a stark contrast from the glorious ocean blue of her eyes.

I had to wonder what she was thinking.

"Let's go then," she said, standing up from the sofa.

I stood up with her and the two of us exited the house.

"My driving test is tomorrow," she said, as she eyed her dad's car with longing. I could tell Destiny wanted to be out on the road. She was practically born to travel.

"We could walk. It's not too far," I suggested, and Destiny nodded in her agreement.

We both walked side by side as we headed in the direction of the cinema.

"Do you miss Chase?" Destiny blurted, after a few minutes of us walking.

I turned to her with a swiftness and shook my head.

"Really?" she asked.

"I miss elements of the relationship, for sure, but I don't miss him," I said.

I didn't anymore, at least.

"I suppose there are benefits to you no longer being together. I don't have to steal you from him," she said.

When Destiny noticed my eyes enlarging, she quickly continued.

"I'm just joking, Scarlet. Don't worry," she said.

Why was there a certain part of me, even if it may have only been small, that didn't want her to be joking?

The thing was everything seemed so comfortable with Destiny.

Maybe I had been overlooking something about myself for a long time, because being with Chase had been easy, for some time. Having a boyfriend had been easy enough, too.

Nevertheless, I could recall at least a dozen occasions when I had liked a girl or been friends with a girl and silently wished for more or, at the very least, had felt as though there could have been more.

God. Did that make me a terrible person? I hoped that it didn't, but I sort of felt that way.

My parents hadn't liked me as it was, if they had even an inkling that I was, I guess, bisexual, that would have been the final nail in the coffin for me, I was pretty sure.

Destiny's phone lit up with a new message.

"Milly wants to hang out with me tomorrow after my driving test. You're more than welcome to come with us," she said. "Plus, Andre will be there."

I had only met the guy a handful of times, but he was cool. I liked him.

Destiny pulled a 'vote tomorrow for a better future' sign on one of the streetlights nearby.

"Dest," I said. "I'd love to hang out with you tomorrow."

She turned to me and smiled.

"Great! Hey, don't give me that look. If people vote for this dude, there's no way there's going to be a 'better future'," Destiny said.

I chose to believe her, because I honestly didn't really have a clue when it came to politics.

I just wished for peace. I didn't understand why everyone had to go and fight each other all the time. It was exhausting.

Destiny's open disapproval was enough to put me off voting in the next election, or at least enough to make me choose not to vote for that guy.

"Tax the rich. Eat the rich," Destiny said.

"Aren't you rich?" I pointed out.

Destiny turned to me then with a slightly annoyed expression.

"Well, si, mi amiga. However, you know what I meant. The wealthier rich. The likes of Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and..."

"Bezos?" I finished off.

Destiny nodded in agreement, a small smile creeping onto her face.

"We need to be quiet. They're watching," she said, as though we were in some kind of sci-fi movie.

This wasn't the Matrix, but I wasn't going to argue with Destiny on that one.

The two of us continued onward to the cinema, which we soon reached.

It was in perfect timing, too, because my stomach rumbled as soon as I caught a scent of sweet, buttery popcorn in the air.