*Destiny’s POV*

“Where are we going?” I asked my friends.

“Far from them,” Mable growled.

“Okay I’m pissed at them too, but like gotta admit they had us good,” Elizabeth says.

“Easy for you to say right now. Louis was there practically the whole time, and nothing happened to you.” June says.

“Harry was there for the whole time too, though!” Elizabeth tried of defending herself.

“Yeah, well everyone bullied me.” I sighed, looking away with my arms crossed.

“Okay yeah. That was funny.” Ally chuckled.

“Ha-ha. So, funny.” I rolled my eyes. “Where are we going?”

“I’m sorry. How about that pizza restaurant?” Elizabeth asked, nodding.

“Yeah.” I nodded.

Finally, calming ourselves down and recovering our sanity. We sat down and enjoyed our food, a laughing and talking about blind gossip that we had heard.

“Did you hear Amanda started dating some kid named David?” Elizabeth started.

“No, what are you talking about? I swear Julie told me she was with Max now.” Mable says.

“Are you sure? I swear I was her making out with Maxwell on the last day of school before the break.” Ally adds.

“Wow.” I laughed, shaking my head, as I sipped on my shake.

Our voices continued to babble happily like a mountain river until we were interrupted by a familiar voice.

“Destiny?” The voice called.

I turned to see a boy I had once knew a long time ago. “Neal? Oh my god, is that you?”

“Yeah. Wow, you don’t look too bad now.” He says, chuckling.

“Not too bad yourself. You lost those hideous glasses and braces, I see.” I laughed, noticing his two friends file into the restaurant behind him.

‘Ahem’ I heard someone cleared their voice, I turned to realise I was still with my friends.

“Oh right, girls, this is Neal Cassidy. My childhood friend. Neal, these are my friends: Elizabeth, Ally, Mable and June.”

“Hey.” The girls say in unison to him.

“Hi. And these are my friends: Arthur and Zachariah.” Neal says, introducing the two boys that stood next to him.

“Hey there, girls.” Arthur smiled at us.

“Mind if we join you girls? This place seems to pack.” Zachariah asked, looking around the fully packed pizza restaurant.

“Not at all,” Mable nods on everyone's behalf. The girls and I scoot down in the booth, and Neal sits next to me, on the side of the booth where June and Ally were, as well. On the opposite side, Mabel, Elizabeth, Arthur and Zachariah were seated.

“So, what are you doing in America?” Neal asked me, remembering that I used to live in Canada.

“Oh, well I moved.” I started.

“Oh yeah, to here?” He asked, naturally.

“No. To England actually. My friends and I are here, vacationing for the winter break.” I continued to explain.

“Oh, that’s so cool.” Neal nods. As Neal and I continued to catch up, his friends and mine struck up a nice conversation about movies, sports and music.

*Harry’s POV*

“Okay, Zayn enough games, where the heck did you take us,” Liam growled at him.

“How did you lose them? They were walking!” Louis sighed.

“Come on, Zayn. Hurry up.” I whined.

“Zayn –“ Niall began.

“Guys, shut up!” Zayn spat, annoyed.

“Sorry,” I mumbled on everyone’s behalf.

“It’s so dark I don’t even know where we are going. I lost them when you lot were arguing back there.” Zayn sighed.

“How about we try the pizza restaurant?” Niall suggested.

“No time to snack right now, Niall.” Liam rolled his eyes.

“No, no. Niall might have a point. I mean, after all, that I’m pretty sure they are all starving. I mean we hadn’t let them eat since the morning.” I clarified his point.

“Yeah … that.” Niall nodded, clearly not thinking of that.

“Alright, then. Won’t hurt to get a bite.” Zayn shrugged, driving into the parking lot of the restaurant. We filed out of the car and entered the shop. Scanning the building for the girls, until my eyes finally landed on Destiny. Seeing that she and the girls weren’t alone, but were accompanied by three boys our age.

Watching Destiny laugh at whatever the boy with blonde hair, I tightened my fist and clenched by jaws.

“What is it?” Louis asked me, noticing my state, but hadn’t need to reply when he saw what I was staring at.

“Who are they?” Liam inquired.

“No clue,” I say.

“Let’s find out.” Zayn starts for the girls.

“Hey there, girlies.” Niall smiles at them, as we crowd around their booth. The three boys with them clearly noticed us and became slightly tensed, but the girls, on the other hand, did a fantastic job of ignoring us and continued on talking.

“Ahem.” Niall tried again, “I said, ‘Hello, there.’”

Still no reply.

“AHEM.” Niall tried again.

“I think these boys are trying to get your attention.” The blonde dude next to Destiny, says nervously.

“What boys? I don’t see any.” Destiny shrugs.

“You’re kidding me, right? You’re still mad at us, so you go and get a bunch of dude off the street to get back at us.” I say, rolling my eyes.

“So, Neal. Remember back in second grade we would go by the stream and hang out there for hours.” Destiny says, with a smirk.

“Okay, fine. You go ahead and hit up old friends when you’re mad at us.” I sighed, out loud.

“What? Do you know everyone here?” Liam laughs.

“Come on. We’re sorry.” Louis begged, trying cuddle next to Elizabeth.

“What’d they do?” Zachariah asked.

“They tried to scare us, with a haunted house prank,” Elizabeth says, rolling her eyes.

“Actually, we didn’t ‘try’ per se, but actually did scare them, so like …” Niall started but was immediately shut down by a death glare from June.

“Oh come on don’t be babies. It’s a harmless prank. No one got hurt or died, so that’s a good thing.” Neal says.

“Yeah, see. The blonde knows what he’s saying.” Zayn says.

“Actually they did hurt us. I was bullied by, like everyone.” Destiny mumbled, angrily.

“Of course they did. You’re like some bully magnet. Why? Was it against you being a virgin? It was, wasn’t it? Girl. I give up on you.” Neal shots at her.

“Uhm excuse me. What? You didn’t seem to think that’s a problem before.” Destiny says angrily.

“Hun, that was before. Times changed. And seriously, I bet you’re dating this one,” Neal say, motioning his head towards me, “And he seems like the type to sleep around a lot, and you’re just preventing it. Honey, old habits die hard. You gotta give it up some day.”

“I will, just not right now. Sheesh. I still don’t understand why it’s a big deal.” Destiny spat at him, now completely pissed.

“It isn’t, don’t worry. We were just messing around. We won’t go anymore. I swear.” Elizabeth intrudes, nervously.

“Yeah. It’s actually a nice thing that you managed to keep your dignity together.” Mabel adds.

“Complete respect for you, Destiny,” Liam adds, tryna ease up her angry.

“Yeah, whatever,” Destiny mumbled and got up and walked out of the restaurant.

“You’re welcome. Destiny wasn’t about to leave anytime soon. She can be real stubborn. So now go make up for what I screwed up.” Neal laughed, talking to me.

“Yeah, okay.” I nodded, giving him a strange look before I ran after Destiny.

Running out into the pitch black night, I notice Destiny leaning against the side of the building.

“Hey, love.” I slowly approach her.

“Does it really bother everyone that much that I’m a virgin?” Destiny blurted out, looking out into the darkness of the night.

“No, it's just, it's different no one else is, and you know people they make a big deal out of the different things that other people have. Don’t take it too heart. We all really do respect you for holding yourself like this and not letting anyone take advantage of you.” I explain.

“Promise?” Destiny questions me, turning her focus to me.

“Yeah. Promise. Baby steps. No need to rush into anything.” I nod, as I hold her close to me.

Notes