Short Stories By Yours Truly

| #7 1980s Horror Films |

Rio was tired of living like this. She was tired of shutting a part of herself out from her best friend. She'd been keeping a massive secret from Dallas for years now, but tonight she'd finally take the skeleton out of the closet. The skeleton that just so happened to be her own.

Looking into the mirror, Rio bit her lip, unsure about whether or not her outfit was good enough. She wore a pair of cuffed blue jeans, a white button up with a sunflower design, and a yellow beanie under which the girl had tucked her braids. She straightened the septum ring in her nose and whispered encouragements to herself before finally getting up from her bed and leaving the room.

"Mom, I'm going to Dallas's house!" Rio called once at the front door though she knew the woman was likely passed out on the couch like she usually was. Not waiting for a reply, Rio opened the door and stepped out, digging into her back pocket for her bike keys.

She jumped onto her rusty old bike and pedaled towards Dallas's home. Rio enjoyed going to places on her bike; the feeling of the wind caressing her face as she rode down the usually empty streets of her quiet town was something that always calmed her. Now, with nervousness bubbling up in her stomach, she needed all the calming that she could get.

Finally arriving at her friend's house, Rio slowed her bike to a stop and parked it so that it was leaning against the wall of the red brick building. She made her way to the door and rang the doorbell, hearing Bieber, Dallas's dog, bark at the door when she did so. Rio heard some muffled voices inside before the door opened and Dallas's familiar face was looking straight at Rio.

Dallas looked more beautiful than normally. She'd tied her hair up into a bun, showing off her undercut and her deep brown eyes twinkled in the dim lighting. The girl grinned at her friend, completely unaware of how fast Rio's heart was racing and how Rio's head had immediately been filled with thoughts that clouded her judgement just slightly. "Hey!" Dallas greeted happily, her perfect teeth showing as she smiled. "Come on in! I've got The Shining ready for us already," She said, grabbing Rio's hand and dragging the taller girl up to her room in the attic.

Ten minutes later, Rio found herself sat on Dallas's bed, stuffing popcorn into her mouth while the movie played on the laptop screen in front of the girls.

"I love this movie," Dallas sighed, leaning back on her hands that were behind her. Rio glanced at her friend and smiled. Dallas looked adorable.

Not many people could say that Dallas was adorable to them, usually people claimed her to be intimidating and scary even though she stood short at barely 5'3". Dallas could look quite scary if she wanted to despite her height, her physique made her look like she could knock down a football player in one punch, and her default facial expression just so happened to be an expression that said "fuck with me and I'll kick your ass so hard you will never sit again". Despite that, Rio always found everything Dallas did to be more than just adorable.

"And I love you," Rio whispered under her breath, catching the attention of Dallas who looked at her with a raised eyebrow.

"Did you say something?" Dallas asked, and though Rio could have had her chance right then and there, she didn't take it. Instead, she shook her head and returned her attention to the 1980s hit movie while thanking her parents for giving her the dark complexion that made it so that it was harder to pick up on her furious blushing.

It took only a few moments for Rio to realise she'd just wasted a perfect opportunity to not only come out to her friend about her sexuality, but her feelings too. The girl mentally slapped herself in the face for being so stupid as to let it happen before going back to trying to build up the courage to just tell Dallas.

...

Halfway into the movie, Rio had completely spaced out and focused on her daydreaming rather than on watching the movie; she'd already seen it at least a hundred times with Dallas so she didn't need to pay attention to know what was happening in the movie. Dallas on the other hand was so focused on the movie that she didn't notice her friends lack of focus.

Thinking about what she'd planned to do tonight, Rio looked down at her hands. She wanted to do it, to tell Dallas about everything, but now she felt like maybe she shouldn't. Maybe it was too soon. Maybe it would ruin their sixteen years of friendship. If it didn't ruin it, it would surely change it, and Rio wasn't sure if she was ready for that.

"No," Rio thought to herself. "I need to stop overthinking this and just do it. I've been overthinking for months already, and besides, Dallas wouldn't hate me."  A sudden wave of confidence rushed through Rio and she opened her mouth to speak to Dallas. "Hey D?"

Dallas turned her head to meet gazes with the taller girl, a questioning look in her eyes. She was about to speak when, still under the burst of confidence, Rio smashed her lips against Dallas's.

It took two seconds for Rio to completely lose confidence and try to pull away, and two and a half for Dallas to react and pull the other girl closer.

Rio happily kissed back when she realised that Dallas was fully reciprocating her advances and was actually kissing her. Their lips moved against each other while their hands travelled up to hold on to each other's faces. They kissed for what felt like hours but really was closer to only a minute, but when they pulled away, they were both smiling.

"So you like me, huh?" Dallas asked with a smirk, making Rio blush such a deep shade of red that it was obvious even through her dark skin.

"Yeah," Rio mumbled, playing with her long braids.

"Well don't worry, I like you too."

---

June 2nd, 2020

Word count: 1049

So I'm trying to slowly get myself to become more comfortable with writing female characters again lol. I've been writing so many stories with mostly male characters that female characters seem foreign to me.