A slightly longer chapter this time... you'll soon find out why.

Enjoy! :)

☆ DESTINY ☆

"And what in tarnation is going on here?"

Destiny & Kassandra had just finished their argument with each other, with Destiny's friends as well as Sekani and Kiandre getting involved.

The fight didn't start off serious but it had ended up quite serious when Esmeralda had pushed Kassandra to the wall, because she was so ticked off at Kassandra taunting Destiny.

Kassandra had done the same thing... but things had only gotten worse from there because now a staff member (Richard Gold himself) was involved, so they were all in deep trouble now, no doubt about that.

When Richard had asked them what had been happening, they had all talked over each other like crazy.

He had then silenced everybody by blowing his whistle-- goodness knew why he had one in the first place but he did, and the whistle was so loud that it could have made one completely deaf.

"One at a time please," he ordered. "You," he pointed to Kassandra. "What happened?"

For goodness sake.

Why ask Kassandra what happened?

She was just going to tell Richard, and lie to him for that matter, that Destiny had started everything, even though she didn't.

And that was what Kassandra unsurprisingly did.

She never knew when to keep her big mouth shut, and she never knew when to tell the truth.

She did know how to tell the truth... just not regarding her enemies.

If that had made sense anyway.

"She started it," Kassandra sneered, pointing to Destiny. "She started everything."

Destiny scoffed, with her friends arguing with Kassandra in the meantime.

"Are you seriously going to believe a word this idiot is sayin' right now?" Destiny whispered to Richard. "I did nothing of the sort."

But Richard didn't say anything.

He had just eyed Destiny, hard.

Why did her face seem so familiar?

Then he remembered.

"You! You're the one that knocked over the coat rack earlier," Richard shouted. "I thought I told you to leave the shop!"

"But she's innocent, chica," Valentina argued, resting her arm on Destiny's shoulder. "Kassandra ain't tellin' the truth."

Kassandra commented that Valentina was only saying that because she was friends with Destiny.

Richard didn't believe any of them though.

All of Destiny's friends were now forced to leave the shop, even Calista herself, because even though she didn't do anything, Richard knew she was part of Destiny's friendship group that was at the shop right now.

Kassandra waved bye to Destiny's crew, and they all pretty much gave her a dirty look at almost the same time.

Things were pretty much going downhill for Destiny now...

...Until God had saved the day.

"Now hold on one second."

They had all stopped what they were doing straight away, turning around to figure out who might have said that.

An old lady-- and dang, she was really old, she looked about ninety or something- was staring at Kassandra spitefully, eyeing her up and down.

She was dark skinned, and she had a silver hat saying Florence on it in pink writing, which was presumably her name.

She was wearing a light pink dress with flowers all over it, with matching shoes. She also unsurprisingly had a purple walking stick, and she did not look happy, at all.

"And who are you?" Sekani demanded.

Even though Esmeralda had told him to go away as "the adults were talking", he came back anyway because... why not?

He wanted to get involved.

Apparently Florence had seen everything that had happened, and was condemning Kassandra for it.

In other words... she told Richard that Kassandra had started everything and not Destiny.

Because of that, Richard had told Kassandra, Kiandre and Sekani to leave the shop.

Kiandre didn't even do anything, and everyone had told Richard that, but he didn't want to hear anything.

"Call me, Kiandre!" Destiny called as Kiandre was leaving, indicating that with her hand gestures.

Kiandre just told her that he didn't have her number, which he had actually stopped to get, had Sekani not stopped him halfway.

"Don't get her number, you bozo, we ain't got time for that. She ain't even worth it anyway. Let's go."

Sekani gave Destiny the I'm watching you signal before him and Kiandre had walked off with Kassandra out of the shop.

Except they didn't actually leave... but more on that later.

He was probably just in a bad mood because he had gotten in trouble by the maker of the shop. Not just Sekani though- Kassandra and Kiandre too.

But, eh.

Same difference.

"That was awesome, girls!" Destiny told her friends when the three of them had finally gone away, with her friends squealing with her.

"I'm so happy we got away with that, even though we did nothing wrong. Thank you guys so much."

They kind of did do something wrong.

OK so Kassandra had started the feud between them, but Esmeralda had started the physical feud between them, as she had pushed Kassandra first and not the other way around.

But oh well.

Richard was probably talking about who had started the whole argument in the first place. As in the non physical one, and just the verbal one instead.

And that was Kassandra.

"No problem sis, we know we got your back," Esmeralda told Destiny. "Now. Tell us, babe. How'd things go with Kiandre?"

They had kind of started shouting again, with Calista joining them because she didn't want to feel left out.

Destiny was about to say something but then stifled it when Florence cleared her throat.

"I think the real person you should be thanking here is me," she reminded Destiny. "Y'all would have been in serious trouble if I hadn't saved any of y'all."

She was right though, so Destiny couldn't disagree with her.

Therefore she had thanked her, which Florence had said that she was welcome to, before asking Destiny another completely unrelated question.

"That guy fine as hell," she commented. "You guys a thing?"

"Uhm..." Destiny didn't know what to say. "It's kinda complicated."

"It ain't that complicated, boo," Calista disagreed. "They ain't a thing... but she wishes they were!"

They were talking about Destiny and Kiandre.

Destiny and Kiandre being a thing didn't seem too unlikely.

Though it wasn't much of a possibility either way.

Destiny wasn't allowed to date yet, and neither was Kiandre too for that matter.

She could have told Kiandre she liked him, but they couldn't really have dated yet until they were in university, and both of them were only eighteen at the moment, as far as both of them were concerned anyway.

They would have started university soon though, but for now not quite yet.

Janette had then thanked Florence for sticking up for them, but what Florence had told them next kind of shocked them.

"How do y'all know my name?"

"It's on your hat." Calista pointed out.

She didn't say anything... except from the fact that that wasn't her hat and it was her granddaughter's instead.

They had all stared at her blankly, wondering why she had her granddaughter's hat and didn't just have her own.

Then she laughed, but nobody knew why.

"Y'all are easy to deceive," she shook her head. "Here's a lesson about life: looks are deceiving."

She then went off, before Esmeralda had thanked her one more time.

Then Florence warned her.

"Be very careful," she whispered. "I know you started the fight with that girl. I saved all of y'all because I knew that she started the argument first, and I don't like bullies. Anyway, I've got to dash. Enjoy Same Difference tonight."

"How do you know about Same Difference?" Valentina enquired.

"Everyone knows about Same Difference."

Then she was off for good, all five of them yelling bye to her.

She was right though, everybody knew about it.

But not everybody could go to it, maybe because they weren't the right age or because they didn't like nightclubs in general.

Perhaps even both.

As soon as Florence had gone, the first thing that Destiny's friends had asked her was how things had gone with Kiandre.

In their defence, Destiny didn't tell them.

Except from the fact that she was about to... but didn't because Florence had interrupted her.

"Did you finally tell your boo you like him?" Janette requested, which shut Destiny right up because she had actually forgotten to do that, and she told them that.

"Seriously, girl? All that talk with Kiandre and the words I like you didn't come out once? What's going girl? You're better than this, no offence."

She sighed.

"I want to tell him but I don't know. This is my first proper conversation with him."

And it was as well... Destiny hadn't usually acted differently when she was around him.

And it was not a good different either.

"The future ain't guaranteed, sis!" Valentina hollered. "You only have today. Tell you what... I'll come with you whilst you confess to Kiandre that you like him. How does that sound?"

Destiny wanted to tell him she liked him...

...But how would he have reacted?

I've only had one proper conversation with him though. So if I think about it, I wouldn't be surprised if he rejects me.

But at the same time... Valentina's right. God forbid but today could be my last day on Earth.

Or even worse...

Kiandre's!

Reluctantly, Destiny nodded, where Valentina told Esmeralda, Janette and Calista to wait for them in Esmeralda's Cadillac.

They nodded too, then they had gone in the blink of an eye.

"Hang on, I just realised that Kiandre, Sekani & Kassandra got kicked out of the shop-how am I supposed to confess to Kiandre now?"

Valentina didn't say anything, just looked behind Destiny and laughed.

"They haven't left boo, look right behind you."

Destiny had listened to her, and she was right.

But there was only one problem.

He was talking to Sekani.

"We need to separate him and Sekani."

"Already on it."

Then Valentina called Sekani's name, telling him that she needed his opinion on something real quick.

Kiandre was shocked that Sekani knew Valentina, because he had never told him about her before.

They were at the shoe section talking about tonight, until Sekani heard Valentina call his name.

"Your cousin doesn't have to tell you everything, you know," Sekani laughed. "Plus Valentina's brother tutored me in Spanish. I was failing Spanish miserably and he helped a lot. He was absolutely dope."

Then Sekani had left Kiandre for good, but when he had seen Destiny, he wasn't happy at all.

He left with Valentina, Valentina giving her the thumbs up when Sekani wasn't looking.

Destiny smiled a bit, staring at Kiandre when they had gone.

You can do this, girl.

You can do this.

And she did.

"Kiandre?"

Destiny was right in front of him now, whilst he was doing his shoelaces.

He looked up and saw her, and he was honestly shocked because he thought she had left the shop.

He greeted her for a while, before apologising on Kassandra's behalf as she could have been overprotective sometimes, and stingy too, for that matter.

Then Kiandre had asked her if she was OK, Destiny had said yes, blah blah blah blah, then Destiny figured out that it was time to tell him the truth.

He was about to leave the shop, but Destiny had held him back.

"Kiandre?" Destiny susurrated. "I really need to tell you something. And I don't think it can wait anymore."