Lia's POV
"Um where do you think you're going?" I heard my manager, John, shout from behind me as I went to push the staff door open to go out the back. I turned round and looked at him.
"Excuse me?" I asked, squinting my eyes.
"Where are you going?" He repeated.
"Where do you think I'm going? My shift is done and my ride is here." I snapped and turned back around, pushing the door open and heading out. I heard the door close then immediately open again, and heavy footsteps behind me.
"What do you want?" I asked, abruptly stopping and turning around again to face John.
"You still have another half hour." He told me. I frowned and shook my head.
"No, I don't think so. I had a 6 hour shift today, 12pm until 6pm and I got here half an hour early. I finish at 6pm. It's 6pm." I told him in the simplest way I could, in case he was that stupid.
"You finish at half 6." He attempted to win. I gave him a deadly smile and indicated for him to follow me. I lead him into the staff locker room and opened the locker I had, with my shifts on a piece of paper stuck to the inside of the door. I pointed to today, where it clearly stated 12pm to 6pm.
"My mistake." He mumbled. I huffed and grabbed my bag, then slammed the locker door shut.
"Why such a rush anyway?" He asked. Did he really have to start a conversation right now?
"I believe that's my business, not yours." I said bluntly. He didn't move. I rolled my eyes and folded my arms across my chest.
"I have plans." I added briefly. He raised his eyebrows and took a small step backwards.
"At this time of night?" He challenged.
"John, it's a Saturday. For us young people, that doesn't mean going home and putting your feet up with the football on, it means exciting things. Saturdays are the days when people go out." I mocked him. He looked extremely offended.
"I'm not old!" He tried to fight back as I glided past him to the back door.
"I'm 19 John, that's what young is. And you can't tell me my judgement was wrong." I said. He scoffed and shook his head.
"So what are your plans then? Going to your boyfriends house and putting your feet up on his couch instead of yours!?" He attempted horribly at a come back.
"No no of course not," I said calmly. "However I do have a date, with my girlfriend," I stated, then watched his expression go blank. "We're exclusive." I added as I pushed the door open, then gave him a wink as I turned, the image of his shocked face burning in my mind, making me laugh as I went to find Demi.
I ran out the back door to find Marissa's car, whatever it was, I wasn't actually told what to look for. I walked past the steps I sat on in my lunch break and round the corner, then I stopped. What? Saph's car was there. Parked right at the corner. Why was Saph here? I thought. I went over to the drivers side and knocked on the window, seeing that it was Saph sitting there and not Demi in her car. She rolled down the window and looked at me.
"What are you doing..?" She asked me. I raised my eyebrows and took a step back.
"What am I doing? What are you doing? Why are you here?" I asked her. She sighed and shook her head.
"I'm picking you up, did Demi not tell you?" She asked. What the hell was going on?
"Um, no she didn't she said that she'd be here to pick me up, at 6pm, in Marissa's car. I spoke to her this morning what's going on?" I asked, completely and utterly confused.
"Oh um, she asked me to pick you up, she said she couldn't make it. I thought she would've called you or something.." She trailed off the end of her sentence. I pulled my phone out my pocket, which I'd taken out of my locker and shoved in there without even looking at it. I looked at the screen, 3 missed calls. Fuck sake...
"She did I missed them." I said quietly.
"Get in." Saph said after a while. I let my head drop, feeling my entire body about to shatter. What did she have going on that was more important? I sat on the passenger side of the car and put my seat belt on, then let my head rest against the window.
"Hey, why are you so upset about this?" She asked me.
So 3 months ago when we stayed in the barn, and Demi and I became official to ourselves, I never got round to telling Saph about it. Demi always reassured me that it would be okay for her to know, we both trusted her. She even offered to tell her herself to save me doing it. I almost let her one time but decided against it. I just couldn't live with the teasing from Saph. It would all be harmless, I knew that, but it would annoy me too much. So despite her being my best friend, I found it difficult to tell her these things. Maybe she already knew, she might have picked up on it by now, it had been 3 months. Maybe she was just waiting for me to tell her.
"I don't know." I mumbled, still not being able to actually tell her.
"Don't lie to me Lia." She scolded me. I lifted my head and furrowed my eyebrows together a little.
What?" I said a little louder.
"I know she's your girlfriend, and I know it's the 3 month anniversary." She said. her words took me by such a surprise that I took in a breath which got caught up in my throat, causing a coughing fit.
"Jeez Lia did you really think I didn't know?" Saph laughed a little as she spoke. I managed to stop myself coughing and cleared my throat several times.
"Did she tell you!?" I asked, unable to stop my tone from sounding shocked.
"No one had to tell me, it's pretty obvious." She told me. I cocked my head to the side a little.
"It is?" I asked hesitantly.
"Uh, yeah. You call her every morning before work and then you FaceTime every night until you fall asleep, and on days you don't work you spend them out with her. I know how a relationship works." She practically told me my daily routine.
"Um..I don't know what to say now.." I said in a whisper.
"You don't need to say anything. Just know that I know, and I'm really happy for you both." She spoke softly. This didn't quite seem like Saph, the Saph I knew would make some sarcastic joke, or say-
"I told you so..just by the way." She cut off my thoughts with exactly what I was thinking. I gave her a weird look, then looked out the window. Yeah, that was the Saph I knew.
Demi's POV
It was about 12:30pm. After I called Lia I showered and got dressed, nothing special just yet, a skater skirt, top and a flannel shirt over the top. I left my newly dyed blonde hair down falling past my shoulders in loose waves, my full fringe resting at my eyebrows. I grabbed my black studded creepers, and pulled them on my feet, then grabbed my shoulder bag, threw my keys, phone and purse in there and picked up a pair of sunglasses.
I stood by the front door, there was a full length mirror beside it, and gave myself a look over. Not too bad, I thought to myself. I grabbed a hat from the coat stand which I'd left there and placed it on my head, then pulled my phone out of my bag. I stepped back and took a selfie in the mirror (A/N: pic on the side) and then shoved my phone back in my bag. Twitter can have that later, I thought.
*****
"Demi! Where are you going!?"
"Demi I'm your biggest fan!"
"Hey Demi what did you buy!?"
"DEMI WHO ARE YOU DATING? WHERE'S WILMER!?"
I struggled to push through paps to get to Marissa's car in the parking lot outside the mall. They were swarming me. I put my arm over my face to block out the flashes from their cameras, and tried to walk faster, but couldn't get past them.
"Can you move out my way." I said as loud as I could to try to get over their voices.
"Are you going to see Wilmer?" They kept asking about him. I shoved forwards, bumping into a few of them.
"Excuse me." I said after clearing my throat to speak louder. I almost broke into a sprint as I managed to escape the crowd of them, but I didn't, just sped up my walk so I didn't seem like a freak running away. I heard someone yelling from behind me, and the uproar of the paps seemed to die down a little. I quickly looked over my shoulder to see a rather tall, very muscular man wearing a navy shirt and ripped jeans holding his arms out to the side to block off the paps.
"Move out the way c'mon now, move it! Let's go! Show's over!" The guy shouted, causing all the paps to turn and walk away. I turned back and headed to the car, opening the trunk and putting the shopping bags in there, then shutting it.
"Excuse me! Miss!" I heard someone shout. I looked up, holding my arm over my head to block the sun. The tall guy came jogging over to me, his arms were held out in front of him, almost as a barrier between the two of us.
"Are you alright miss?" He spoke with a thick southern accent. I gave him a weak smile and nodded.
"I'm okay. Thanks for that..back there." I indicated to behind him. He let his arms drop and he shrugged.
"Not the first time I've dealt with those kinds of people, glad I could help you out, miss." He accepted my gratitude.
"Have a good day now." He spoke, nodding his head and turning around to walk away. I remained silent, and just got in Mar's car, then resting my arms over the steering wheel and let my head drop on them. It felt like the walls were closing in on me as I forced myself not to cry. I took a breath. And another. And another. But I felt like I couldn't breathe; what if I run out of oxygen? My heart rate began to speed up, and so did my breathing. No Demi get your shit together. Don't fuck up now. I repeated the same things over and over in my head in an attempt to calm myself down. I felt a sharp pain in my chest, causing me to cry out. My hand flew to my chest and my breathing sped up even more. I fumbled with the handle on the door, trying to get it open to let in some air. I finally managed to push it open and I set one of my feet on the ground, letting my body slump down and take in the air. As the breeze hit my face I felt my cheeks become a lot colder, and I raised a hand to my face to find tears down my cheeks. I wiped them off and sat back in my seat properly, closing the car door. I evened out my breathing for a few seconds and then grabbed my phone from my bag. I scrolled through my contacts until I found Sapphire, and I tapped on her contact to call her.
"Demi?" She spoke as she picked up. I took in a breath before I answered.
"Hey, I need a favour.." I hesitated to asked.
"Sure, what's up?" She asked. I knew Lia hadn't told Sapphire about us yet, and I knew she wanted to. I think now was the time she had to find out.
"Um..well basically Lia and I are together and it's our 3 month anniversary today and-"
"I know I know, what do you need me to do?" She asked, laughing a little. I took a few seconds to digest the fact that she knew, and chose to ignore it, and just carry on.
"Okay, so I planned to take her out but I just had a bad experience with paps and I can't face going out tonight, is it okay if I organize something at your house..?" I asked her, eventually getting to the point.
"Are you okay?" She asked me. I didn't say anything for a few seconds.
"Yeah just a bit shaken up." I told her.
"Come by whenever you need to, I'm here to help with anything if you need me okay?" She told me. I couldn't help but smile. Lia had the best friends.
"Thank you so much, I'll be around in about and hour." I informed her.
"Okay, see you later." She said, then hung up the phone. I took in a breath again and put my phone down, then pulled out of the parking lot and headed to Saph's.
*****
"Demi! I'm going to get Lia!" I heard Sapphire shout from downstairs.
"Okay! Thank you again!" I shouted back. I heard the front door close and I turned back to Lia's bed. Earlier at the mall I bought an outfit for Lia, something she could wear tonight. I got a black tshirt with a Costa coffee logo on the front, a pair of blue denim shorts, a red checkered flannel shirt and a pair of black Vans. I had laid it out on her bed, with the tshirt tucked into the shorts, the flannel folded beside it and the Vans set the other side (A/N: pic on the side). I headed over to her dressing table with a piece of paper and a pen which Saph had given me. I began to write on the paper:
Dinner at 8pm. Put this on and be ready by 7:30. Love, Demi x
I ripped the paper to it was shaped around my writing, and I placed it on top of the outfit. I picked up the scrap paper and the pen, and left Lia's room, closing the door behind me. I grabbed a pile of blankets and pillows which Saph had got for me, and went upstairs to the loft, which was also another bedroom, and also lead to the roof which luckily for me was flat on the top. It was 5pm, which gave me about 2 hours to get everything ready.
Lia's POV
Saph pulled into the drive and shut off the car.
"You okay?" She asked me. I turned to her and gave her a sarcastic smile.
"Come on, I'm sure she's sorry she couldn't get you from work." She tried to comfort me.
"That's not the point. This was important to me. Maybe not so much to her." I mumbled.
"Stop it, okay? Demi loves you so unbelievably much you don't even know. I know I've seen the way she looks at you, the way you look at each other. Give her a chance to explain herself, call her when you get in." She spoke firmly. I felt like a disobedient child being scolded. I sighed, then pushed the car door open and headed inside, Saph weirdly close behind me.
As soon as I got in I ran up the stairs and into my room. Just as I was about to throw myself on my bed, I stopped myself. What is this? I thought. I looked at my bed, taking in the outfit which I had never seen before, a black tshirt with a Costa logo on it, shorts, a red flannel and Vans. My eyebrows knitted together as I tried to piece everything together. I then noticed a small piece of paper. I picked it up and read it.
Dinner at 8pm. Put this on and be ready by 7:30pm. Love, Demi x
My stomach roared with butterflies. God I love this girl so much. I quickly ran out of my room and down the stairs to see Saph standing at the door, looking like she was about to leave.
"Saph wait!" I called as I hurried across the room. She slowly turned around revealing a smirk on her face. I held up the note to her.
"Did you know about this?" I asked her. She shrugged.
"I'm going to Rose's. She's 5 months gone already.." She changed the subject, then turned and closed the door. What was going on?
*****
It was 7:30pm. I'd spent the last 45 minutes getting ready, putting on the outfit Demi got for me, and sorting myself out. I opened my bedroom door, expecting to see her standing there, but nothing. I let my head drop a little, which lead me to see a trail of rose petals on the floor. So cliche, I thought, but cliche things never happen in real life, I thought again. This was amazing. I followed the trail up the stairs to the loft, then across the room to the window. I looked out and up onto the roof, seeing something on the top, but I couldn't quite make out what. I climbed up and out, standing up on the flat of the roof, finding myself looking at a scene that you would never find in real life..this can't have been real. There were loads of blankets and pillows set out, and battery powered candles which made sense since they would've been blown out by the wind. There were two plates, each covered in tin foil probably to keep the heat. I took a step forward and looked up at the sky. It was beautiful up here, the stars were all so visible. I heard a shuffle from behind me, and I turned around to see Demi, looking drop dead gorgeous in a simple black v-neck with a denim shirt over the top and a black skater skirt. She gave me a beautiful white smiled and giggled.
"Surprise!"
(A/N: sorry it's so late!
Next update - June 20th)