Maylee POV (Who's ready for Maylee's POV!)

Maylee sat on a small, red leather chair in the movie theater lobby, waiting for Sophie to show. What was taking this girl so long? She had to hurry up, Maylee couldn't watch Frozen II alone! She anxiously tapped her long, manicured fingernails on her phone case, glancing up at the large doors every ten seconds. Maylee heard the squeak of the old, rusty doors swinging open, and there, a blonde girl with warm brown eyes, flecked with gold walked in. Maylee immediately popped up from her seat and speed walked over to Sophie.

"What took you so long? I've been sitting here for twenty minutes, and that young couple over there-"

"Let me guess, they were staring at you weirdly, probably thinking you were lonely." Sophie interrupted, "Good! You know what I've been going through!"

"I had to get my coat from the dorm, you don't want me to get frostbite, do you?" Sophie accused, "Don't be so dramatic." Maylee waved her hand as if saying, 'I'm more important than getting frostbite'. 

"And I thought I was supposed to meet you at the dorm," she acknowledged. "Well, you were taking too long," Maylee explained. 

"Okay, okay, let's just get the snacks and watch the movie," Sophie said. "Good idea," Maylee replied.

After struggling to agree on whether to get the Airheads Extreme Bites, or the Milk Duds, they finally settled on just getting a large popcorn the two of them could share, and each got a medium fountain drink. Maylee had planned ahead, and reserved seats for her and Sophie, unlike some people. The two girls followed the letters and numbers on their tickets, and finally stopped at two seats right in the middle of the third row, right where two older boys were sitting.

"What do we do?" Sophie furiously whispered, "We can't just stand here in the middle of the aisle, go tell them they are in our seats!" Maylee argued back. Sophie just stared back at her with wide eyes, shaking her head. Maylee sighed.

"Excuse me, I think these are our seats," she politely told the two guys. They didn't even spare a glance at Maylee.

She cleared her throat and the boys looked over at her, an annoyed expression displayed on their faces. "I said," Maylee repeated, "I think these are our seats." She gestured between Sophie and herself.

One of the boys with raven black hair and stunning blue eyes stared at the girls for a couple seconds too long, then spoke.

"We're just trying to see what happens to Elsa and Sven," he replied in an offended voice.

"Oh, we aren't trying to say you can't, but we reserved those seats." Sophie chimed in, the boys jumped, like they just seemed to notice her. The boys whispered something Maylee couldn't hear to each other and left. She watched as they walked out of the aisle, and then sat down in seats two rows behind them. Sophie and Maylee sat down and relaxed in the comfortable movie lounge chairs.

"Finally, I was starting to think I was going to need to make them get out," Maylee scoffed. Sophie just shook her head and threw a piece of popcorn into her mouth. "Hey! Don't eat all the popcorn during the previews!" Sophie glared at Maylee and popped another piece into her mouth before handing her the popcorn bucket and turning to the movie screen.

"I can't believe Disney would do that," Maylee ridiculed, "I mean, you can't just let-"

"Shh!" Sophie cut her off, "those little kids are going to see the movie you were about to spoil the whole thing!"

"Psh, no I wasn't, I'm not that evil. Though I can be." Maylee defended. Sophie sighed and held the door for Maylee, and they headed down the street towards their dorms. "I mean, can you believe those guys though? To talk back to me? Maylee Lisa Lin? The nerve of some people, the nerve." 

She kept her chin up and shoulders back as if she was some sort of royalty and tried to look down on Sophie, but that was hard when your best friend was 5'7 and you were 5'3.

When Maylee moved into the dorm, which was only a couple months ago, Sophie was barely 5'5. Maylee didn't know what this girl was eating, but she needed some of it. Maylee hadn't grown since she was a freshman in high school.

Four years ago.

In some cases, being short for your age had benefits, like going on the kids rides at amusement parks, and finding oversized hoodies wasn't a problem. But then, of course, you have those friends who make short jokes all the time.

'Need some help reaching that, Maylee?'

'I bet Maylee can fit in that!'

'How old are you, again?'

Even Sophie cracked some short jokes, sometimes, though much less than others.  Maylee and Sophie differed in many ways, not just in height.

Maylee's straight, shoulder length black hair with dark purple highlights, contrasted with Sophie's honey blonde with light brown roots. Maylee preferred bright and elaborate clothes, her hair always done in a neat braid or down, curled. Sophie wore lighter pastels, casual clothes, and always had her hair in a low ponytail or messy bun. Maylee understood why she wore her hair up so much, though.

Sophie's honey blonde hair had grown out to just an inch or two above her navel, so it probably got in the way. Maylee didn't know why Sophie didn't just cut it, but whenever Maylee asked her, she just brushed the topic away.

By the time the girls got back to the dorm, it was already a quarter past ten. Sophie unlocked the door with her key and pushed the door open. She dropped her set of keys on the counter with a metallic jingle.

"What are we having for lunch? I'm starving." Sophie remarked, her stomach grumbling in agreement.

Maylee sighed. "I don't know, we were just out, we couldn't have just gotten food while we were out?"

"Well, I didn't remember, and you didn't remind me." Sophie answered. Maylee made eye contact with Sophie and sat down on the small sofa. The sofa slightly sunk down when Sophie sat down next to her.

"Please," she whispered, "you can choose where we eat! It can be take out! Anywhere you want! And, and!" Sophie clapped her hands together. "I'll pay!"

Maylee's lips turned upwards at that, she placed her index finger on her chin, and put on a fake thinking face.

"Hmm, I want Juniors." Sophie's face lit up.

"Done! Now just tell me what you want, and I'll go order the food." Sophie scrambled up from the sofa and dialed the restaurant's number.

Sophie POV

Sophie waited at the bus stop, small forms of sleet starting to fall from the sky, as if the universe decided they wanted to anger Maylee by getting her cheesecake crushed.

After five minutes, the bus pulled up to the stop and the sleet was now growing in size. The bus driver was an older man, who looked about to be sixty years old, with a kind face. He rushed to open the doors for Sophie who quickly hopped up the stairs of the blue bus.

She chose a seat in the back, a few feet away from an older couple. They smiled at Sophie and she gave a small smile back.

"Are you alone?" the elderly women asked.

"Oh, um, yes. I'm just getting food for my friend and I." Sophie replied, as the woman and her husband smiled.

"Where to?" the woman continued. This lady sure was nosy, Sophie thought.

"Juniors."

"Ah, I used to work there when I was young. I was a waitress for ten years." The lady explained, "You said you were getting food for your friend and yourself, right, dear?" Sophie nodded. "Tell the staff at the counter that Emmy paid for your meal."

Sophie's jaw dropped. How could this lady just pay for her meal? She didn't have time to ponder that thought, though, because the bus driver called out from the front of the bus.

"The young lady in the back, this is your stop." Sophie quickly gathered her things and thanked the elderly couple. 

Emmy smiled, "Happy Holidays, sweetie." Sophie smiled back and exited the bus, leaving a tip for the bus driver at the front. As she excited the bus, Sophie wondered what the difference would be if that old lady paid for her meal, especially because Emmy couldn't have just paid for it, physically.

She shrugged and carried on her way, up one street and walked in to Juniors.

Sophie smiled slightly when the warm, cozy heat of the classic diner overcame the outside cold. She walked over to the front counter, where two small kids—one boy who seemed to barely be older than four, and a girl who seemed around the age of six—and their mother were waiting to be seated.

"I'm going to sit next to the window," the young boy boasted.

"No fair!" the angry girl argued, "You always sit next to the window!" She stuck her tongue out at her brother, but this time their mother replied.

"That's not very nice, Charlotte," she told her, "let's hurry up and go sit. Follow that nice man," the woman pointed to a man standing with three menus in hand. He had  perfectly styled blonde hair, and piercing blue eyes.

Sophie would admit, he was pretty hot, but she knew he was at least a couple years older than her. Also, he was giving her a creepy vibe. He was staring at her, even though he was suppose to be waiting the mother and two kids.

His stare was cold, like he owned everyone here. Chills flew up Sophie's spine, and the warm air grew suffocating. Sophie remembered a random fact she had picked up a while ago; if you think someone is following you, pretend to be on your phone.

She wasn't really sure what being on your phone would do, but tried it anyways. She opened her phone and scrolled through her feed. The guy had returned, this time slipping through the door to the back, into the kitchen.

He came out two minutes later, holding one large brown paper bag. He walked over to the counter, just a few feet away from Sophie now.

"Sophie Foster?" he called out, pushing the bag to the front of the counter, and looked straight at her. She awkwardly waved and put her phone in her pocket, inching closer slowly before straightening next to the counter.

"Um, yeah, that's me," Sophie replied, nervously pulling out an eyelash. This guy gave her the creeps.

"Okay, and you paid online, right?" he asked in a bored voice. Sophie nodded, taking the bag and turning to leave.

Sophie exited Junior's, shuddering at the sudden coldness of the busy sidewalk. She was about two hundred feet away from the bus stop when she turned to look behind her. Sophie had heard light footsteps behind her, but didn't bother to look over her shoulder at first. Your being paranoid, she scolded herself, but when she looked behind her, she realized she should have done that as soon as she left the restaurant.

The boy from Juniors had a black hoodie now, the hood pulled over his face and hands in his pockets, right on her heels. He was following Sophie.

Yay! First time I updated with a real chapter in almost a month! I'm really sorry about how long it took me to update, but I'm a little busy right now. I promise chapters will come out more frequently in 2021!

~bubblekissed