Imperfectly Perfect

24.

The look on her face as these words come out of my mouth is a look of pure love and joy appears, making my heart sing. A voice inside my head tells me, you did that, you caused that smile to appear on her face. I suddenly remember, this is my Internet best friend; this isn't a dream, yet it feels so unreal. Like a dream, but maybe that's because it is a dream come true. She's right here and we've exchanged our gifts for each other, but I still can't believe she's here right in front of me. She can't seem to either, as we hear the murmuring of my parents, her dad, Kenidi, and Alex's constant hovering; we just can't seem to stop hugging, embracing one another as our eyes continue to connect.  Scarlet turns back to her dad once she hears his voice.

"Scar," her dad calls out to her breaking our eye contact and causing Scarlet to turn around towards him.

"Yeah?"

"Ken and I are gonna head out, you gonna be okay?"

"Yeah," she replies, excitement obvious in her voice.

She hugs Kenidi, then her dad goodbye, and I hear whispered goodbyes as the two of them depart, leaving Scarlet looking at me.

                 

"Well, who's hungry," my dad says, walking briskly towards the door with Momma in tow and Alex trailing slowly behind them.

"So, Scarlet," my mom asks, "Have you ever been here before?"

My dad and I look towards her curiously, anticipating her response,  "Actually," Scarlet pauses a moment, "I've never even been to the Gas Lamp District before."

"Well, there's a new time for everything," Scarlet looks over and grins at me as we walk up to the front desk, and as I hear her murmur the name her dad saved our reservation under to the hostess.

We follow behind my family, so close, less than inches apart; neither of us can seem to believe that the other is there right in front of them.

We sit down and decide to play Never Have I Ever while waiting for our server to come and take our order.

"Isn't that a drinking game?"

Scarlet asks me, clearly confused on why we would be playing a drinking game while we're: underage, with my family, have no sort of alcohol, and in public doing that.

I attempt to hold back a laugh, which I fail majorly at as I bust up in laughter and attempt to slow my breathing back to normal, yet failing miserably.

"It can also be a normal game, Scar," I respond, rolling my eyes as I watch her face slowly turn a vibrant bright red color.

"Shut up, Ariel, no one cares..."

My parents are starting to look very amused by our banter, as we are arguing like an old married couple, y'know, the usual.

"Well..."

My mom after a while pipes up, "I need to go use the bathroom, would you girls care to join me?"

"Yeah, I need to wash my hands," I speak up, pausing looking at Scarlet, who seems to be carefully studying the menu, as if she has a test on it tomorrow. I laugh under my breath at the thought.

"Scarlet."

No response.

I poke her in the ribs and she jerks, yelping.

"What the heck was that for?!"

"You were studying the menu like there was no tomorrow."

She gasps dramatically, "I just want my best friend to pay attention to meeeee!"

"I am!"

She glares at me for a minute as I poke her cheeks and continuously say 'baby fat' when I poke the pudge.

"We're gonna go wash our hands, would you care to join us Scar?"

"YES!"

She exclaims, "BATHROOM PARTY!!!"

"God, you're weird," I say, following her as she starts skip-dancing and singing Poor Unfortunate Souls from The Little Mermaid.

She skips into the bathroom and to a sink, once she gets there, she looks around.

"What are you doing?"

"Making sure no one was watching me as I came in here!"

"Honey, I can assure you everyone we passed by in the restaurant was watching you."

"You ruin all my dreams!"

She turns towards the sink, as she begins to wash her hands, humming happy birthday under her breath and I do likewise, minus the happy birthday part.

"I swear you're five."

"No one ever denied that."