Vanilla And Cocoa

Chapter 14 "Those Who Stay Together, Stay Together"

Was he serious?

"Come on, don't be shy."

I exchanged a glance with Justin and grimaced at Cameron. He smirked as I made my way over to him. The glare of the stage lights made me wince and I adverted my eyes to the crowd. But quickly realized that was a mistake as I noticed all the eyes on me.

Cameron leaned away from the microphone and whispered to me. "You look terrible."

"Well, hello to you, too." I whispered irritatedly.

He ignored me and spoke into the microphone. "Can we have another volunteer? Hm, how about you?"

I looked where Cameron was pointing and I nearly burst out laughing in disbelief that this was really happening to me. Ashley walked onstage, glared at me, and turned to the audience with a pretty smile.

"Thanks a lot, Cam." I muttered.

"We're going to have these two pretty, young ladies act out a few scenarios for us. Scenario 1 will be that..." He leaned over to ask Ashley her name and she answered accordingly. "Ashley is a volunteer at an retirement home and Destiny is a resident. We will correct their interaction and compliment the things they did well."

Janice, the other volunteer, grabbed a chair and placed it onstage so that I could sit in it. It was directly under a stage light so it didn't help the subtle throbbing at my temples. I took a quick look at my friends and they were all sharing the same look of pity.

If Cameron noticed that I was burning him to a crisp with my eyes, he chose not to speak on it. "Let's get started."

The other volunteers gave us microphones and stepped away. Ashley straightened out her form and walked up to me with a fake smile on her face. "How are you, ma'am?"

"I'd feel better if I wasn't talking to you." I said blandly.

There was some snickers from the crowd and the expression on Ashley's face twitched in annoyance. "That isn't very nice. Perhaps you should find a way to get rid of that bitterness. Yoga, maybe?"

I fixed her with a blank stare. "You've got to be kidding me."

"I only want you to be comfortable, ma'am. Is there anything you would like?"

"Yeah. You leaving." Normally, I would be more civil but I missed my chance to go home and sleep my headache away. She's just going to have to deal with it. Plus, who said revenge wasn't sweet?

Her smile twitched in annoyance and I sent her a smug look. "Oh, I understand. Do you need time change your diaper? It must be uncomfortable. No wonder you're in such a bad attitude."

Okay, I started it.

"Your nose is a bit crooked. Have you gotten it broken before?" I quipped back.

"Okay, girls. Break it u-" Cameron tried to interfere and Ashley sent him a glare.

"You're such...a rat. You betrayed my kindness and acted like you were my friend." Ashley started to get red a bit as she clenched her fists.

"...you're the most delusional person I've met in my life. I didn't ask for your damn kindness nor did I ever say that I wanted to be your friend. You assumed. And look, it made an ass out of you and me. And don't even get me started on-" I harshly breathed out through my nose and stood up. "Forget it. I don't even understand why I'm still here. Fuck you," I turned to Cameron. "Are we done?"

I didn't wait to hear his reply and exited stage left. I didn't bother to acknowledge the applause that reigned after me as I walked out into the hallway. "Destiny!"

I abrupted stopped as Justin appeared in front of me with his hands on my shoulders. "You okay?"

"My headache went away." I laughed dryly.

"Hey," He moved his hands to my cheeks and offered a small smile. "I asked if you were okay."

I inhaled and breathed out slowly. "I'll be fine. I'm sorry for that."

He let out a laugh. "Geez, don't apologise. That was badass. Telling her off in front of the whole school like that? Awesome."

The auditorium doors opened and Justin's hands dropped reluctantly. My friends came pouring into the hallway and grinned at me. "Don't even start."

"That was awesome." Drew bellowed and Izzy elbowed him in his ribs playfully.

"Damn, that might have been the highlight of the day." Zay laughed.

I sighed and smiled. "I thought today wasn't going to end well?"

Zay shrugged. "I guess I was wrong."

"Destiny!" We all turned to the sound of the voice and I rolled my eyes at the approaching form.

"Well, if it isn't the man of the hour..."

"Yeah, okay. You're probably pissed at me right now. That was..." Cameron trailed off and I raised an eyebrow.

"Infuriating?"

"Embarrassing?"

"Funny as fuck?" I sent a exasperated look to Zay and he smiled back.

Cameron rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah. All of that. Look, I'm sorry. I didn't notice that you didn't like each other until it was too late."

"I understand that you didn't know so it's okay. But that caused a lot of discomfort and stress on my part so you're going to have to make it up to me. Let's see..."

I pulled all my friends into a huddle and just spewed a lot of random words while we snickered like little kids. "Okay, I think it's settled," I pulled away from the group and turned to Cameron. "You have to treat all of us out to lunch."

Cameron looked disgruntled at the idea and I tilted my head at him. "Deal or no deal."

He groaned but held his hand out regardless. "Deal."

I grinned as we shook on it. "Now, I was thinking that fancy restaurant downtown. What do you guys think?"

Justin smiled down at me, ignoring Cameron's clear distress. "Two questions. Do we have to dress up and can Merissa come?"

"Merissa is always welcome and you don't have to dress up since we're leaving right now."

Everyone stopped and looked at me. A small smirk creeped up Chris' features and, creepily, Orlan mirrored him. They were scarily in sync lately. "Little Miss Destiny skipping school? Who would have thought..."

"I think we've finally corrupted her." Drew whispered to Izzy.

"A shame, really. I thought she was the sane one." Izzy whispered back.

"Oh my God, guys. Shut up. We're losing daylight."

"It's barely the middle of the day...?"

"Shut up."

As we started walking, I noticed Cameron wasn't following and I turned around with a hint of a teasing smile on my face. "Are you coming or not? It's going to be hard to pay for our food if you don't."

He snapped out of his daze and sighed dramatically. "I guess I have no choice but to embrace the fact that I'm going to be broke after this."

I laughed. "Atta boy."

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Never skip school to go to a fancy restaurant with your friends that another friend is paying for just because you had a stressful morning. It never ends well.

This might be a slow burn...

Shit, I'm using fanfic terms. I need to recover my sanity.

We'll get back to Justin's situation next chapter. I think.