Picture above: Regina King as Denise (left/ Destiny's mum) & Somali Rose as Treyvonetta (right / Destiny's younger sister)

Enjoy! :)

☆ DESTINY ☆

Destiny didn't know what to say.

Should I tell Priscilla that I'm going Same Difference tonight... or should I keep it a secret?

Tell her?

Don't tell her.

Tell her.

Don't tell her.

For goodness sake, Destiny. Make up your mind already. It wasn't really that hard.

And Kiandre could have been indecisive sometimes. Destiny was the same thing if not then more.

It didn't really help much that Priscilla couldn't really keep much of a secret. For example, when their younger sister Treyvonetta had accidentally killed Denise's goldfish the other day and she had told Priscilla & Destiny not to tell anyone...

...Priscilla told her mum because she just didn't like the idea of keeping a secret. It was weird to her and it just didn't feel right.

This had happened a year ago now, and all of them had gotten grounded for a week for three reasons.

1) For keeping it secret
2) For not confessing it
3) For playing with the goldfish in the first place.

"If I tell you where I'm going, Priscilla," Destiny said eventually. "You promise not to tell anyone?"

For some reason, Priscilla had to think really hard about that.

She didn't even know why she had to think hard about that, she just did.

But I'm not good at keeping secrets though, then at the same time, I don't want to blow Destiny's cover.

Nodding vigorously, Priscilla smiled widely, before saying anything else.

"Yes but even better- how about I guess where you guys are going?"

Guesstimate or not, Priscilla was probably never going to get where Destiny was going (either Destiny telling her first) right.

She didn't.

"Fine but you have three guesses and three guesses only because I have limited time."

Her first guess was that Destiny was going to Esmeralda's birthday party, with Destiny telling her that Esmeralda's birthday was just over a month ago now.

Her second guess was that she was going to Janette's birthday party instead, which was even worse than Esmeralda's as Janette's birthday was two months ago instead of one, and the girl hated birthday parties in the first place.

Her last was Calista's birthday party, and by now, Destiny had gotten beyond fed up, but not in an annoyed way.

In a gentle way.

If it was possible for someone to be fed up but not in an annoyed way whatsoever.

"Seriously, girl?" Destiny interrupted, placing a hand on her hips and smiling. "No offence, sis but you're terrible at this. Calista's birthday was three months ago."

Then Destiny had eventually told Priscilla where she was going, and like the girl had expected.

Priscilla did not take this news very well.

"Same Difference? Are you out of your dang mind? Mum's going to kill you if she finds out!"

Destiny had covered her sister's mouth halfway so that nobody knew that she was sneaking off to that nightclub tonight.

She had then told Priscilla to quieten herself down, which had shut her up entirely, Destiny whispering something to her.

"Exactly, Priscilla. You said it yourself, mum will only tell me off if she finds out that I go to Same Difference tonight. I'm not going to let her do that."

"Don't tell me your friends were in on this too," Priscilla told her. "As in, they forced you to go Same Difference and you're following them even though you don't want to go. No offence sis, but you're better than this. Way better than this."

When Destiny had heard that, she froze.

In fact, she froze so hard that if there was a prize money for doing the mannequin challenge, then she would have won the prize money, big time.

Priscilla was right though.

Destiny was better than this.

So why was she wasting her life going to Same Difference tonight in the first place then?

Because she wanted to fit in, plus she was already dressed up for it so she might as well have just gone already.

It wasn't that her friends were against Destiny doing something contrasting to what they were doing, it was just that Destiny didn't always feel like she could have said no to them easily as she was so close to them.

Calista kind of felt that way too to be honest, she didn't really want to go to Same Difference tonight either but she was way too scared to say no as well.

She had told Destiny this on the way to Richard Gold in Esmeralda's Cadillac, and Destiny couldn't relate to her more.

"I know that I'm better than this but think about it Priscilla. I've been studying non stop all throughout this summer holiday, without meeting up with my friends once. I kind of need a break too, haha. I'm not a machine."

"No disputing that, big sis but Same Difference is lowkey dangerous. I just don't want you getting yourself drunk. I mean, I can tolerate Israel and Treyvonetta and everything but I can't tolerate losing you. Israel & Treyvonetta are good siblings and all but none of them are as good as you!"

When Destiny had heard that, she had hugged Priscilla tightly, before telling her that everything was going to be OK and that there was nothing to worry about.

Then she had told her that her girls were waiting for her downstairs, causing her to hug Priscilla again before texting Janette back and leaving her room.

Like Destiny's friends had said they were going to do, they were going to take the back way outside.

Destiny didn't get informed about this, so therefore when she had seen all of her friends take the back way, she was lowkey confused.

"What the heck, y'all? Why are you taking this way? It's completely off limits."

"Shhhh," Esmeralda whispered, covering Destiny's mouth. "Your mum doesn't know we're here, remember? We're tryna keep a low profile."

They had all sneaked off the back way, they had attempted to do so...

That was until Denise had somehow figured out that all five of them were there, even though she couldn't actually see any of them.

She was just lowkey smart like that.

"And what do you four nitwits think you're doing in my house?"

When Destiny and her friends had heard that, they had all freaked out internally, especially Calista who had asked Destiny how her mum had heard them without them seeing each other.

"Shoot. I forgot. She's got eyes like a hawk. And she has really good hearing. She must have heard Esmeralda and I talk to each other."

Then Destiny had reluctantly suggested that her friends should have actually met Denise before they had all gotten into more trouble than they were already in.

All five of them had taken the back way, which had led to the sitting room.

Destiny & her friends had met Denise and Treyvonetta watching TV together with both of the legs up on the table (they were watching 'The Hate U Give' together), but when Denise had seen Destiny's friends...

She did not look happy.

At all.

What Destiny's sitting room had looked like?

Here.

She wasn't rich now but... she used to be.

Goodness knew what Israel was doing right now but he wasn't in the scene.

Priscilla had walked into the scene later, but she didn't say anything about Destiny going to Same Difference tonight, because she had made a promise to her sister that she wasn't going to snitch on her.

And for once, she was going to stick to her promise.

"I thought I told you four to never come into my house again 'cause y'all are bad influences on Destiny," Denise ranted, pausing the movie and putting an arm around Treyvonetta, who was sitting right next to her.

When Destiny & her girls had heard that, they didn't really say anything, and were indicating with their eyes about who should have replied to what Denise had said.

In the end, Janette answered, sitting down on the sofa opposite Denise & Treyvonetta, smiling widely at them.

"Look, Mrs Ryan, we can explain," Janette began. "We were studying."

"Oh please, Janette, like my mum's supposed to believe that. She wasn't born yesterday."

"You tell 'em, girl," Denise added, high fiving Treyvonetta hardly when she had done that. "And why are y'all in fancy dress?"

Uhm...

Because they were sneaking out to a nightclub that nobody wanted you to know about?

But nobody had said that, for very obvious reasons.

Janette didn't know how to reply to that, so she had randomly handed things over to Valentina, which wasn't much of a help either, as she didn't exactly know what to say as well.

Straight away, anyway.

She had kind of made up an excuse later.

A good excuse?

No comment on that.

"It's my parents' anniversary party today and we were just making our way there."

Suspiciously, Denise didn't say anything, because she had just typed someone's number out on her phone instead, probably one of Valentina's parents, to wish them a happy anniversary.

And she did.

"Oh," Denise deadpanned. "Seriously? Their anniversary's today?"

Valentina nodded vigorously, smiling her head off.

"In that case, let me call them and wish them a happy anniversary-"

"Oh, no no no no!" Valentina interrupted, snatching Denise's phone away from her. "Don't do that."

"And why not?" Demise wanted to know sternly, staring her up and down suspiciously.

"They don't like people getting all up in their business like that," Valentina replied. "Look, Destiny'll be back by 1AM latest. We know y'all have got church tomorrow and everything because tomorrow's Sunday."

Denise didn't say anything much, before changing 1AM to midnight, only for Priscilla to change midnight to half past midnight instead.

Because they were 18 now so they were pretty much adults.

It was five in the afternoon now and Same Difference began at six o'clock. It had taken half an hour to get there from Destiny's house, but there was probably going to be a lot of traffic on the way there, as well as a long queue too, so one had to leave extra early.

Reluctantly, Denise had said OK to half past midnight, telling Destiny any later than half past midnight and she would have been in serious trouble.

Then her and her friends were off.

"I feel like Destiny and her friends aren't really going to an anniversary party," Treyvonetta said to her mother when all five of them had left.

"Oh I know, baby. I know," Denise replied, continuing the movie but pausing it again when he had realised her daughters hadn't finished talking to her yet.

"If you knew that then why did you act like you didn't?" Priscilla wanted to know, joining them on the sofa to watch the movie with them, even though it was about to end.

In her defence though, she didn't exactly know that the movie was about to end. But she was curious as to why her mum had pretended not to know something that she did.

"It's called one-upping her, babies," Denise explained. "I now have an advantage over Destiny. Either way, that girl's in trouble 'cause I highly doubt she'll get back on time anyway."

Treyvonetta was about to say something but stifled it when she had realised that her mum hadn't finished talking yet.

"Now, no more questions, y'all. I just realised that it's your grandmother's birthday today. Let's call her before she gets mad at us for not doing so earlier. You know what she's like."

And they did exactly that.

Destiny and her girls in the meantime?

They didn't know what hit 'em.