"Minah, come on!" Nina laughed at the other girl as she waited at the curb. "Just leave it! No one's going to scratch it!"
"Nina, there is no way I'm letting anyone mess up my baby," Minah replied while looking at her car over her shoulder. She had just gotten her license, and Jake had gifted her an old Ford he'd been working on, so to celebrate Nina had planned a night driving around, but they had to get snacks first. "Jake's going to kill me if I let anything happen to her."
Nina rolled her eyes and grabbed Minah's hands, dragging her onto the sidewalk with her. "Minah, I promise you nothing is going to happen to her. Now can we go get snacks? My stomach's starting to growl!"
The two of them walked into the convenience store hand in hand, subtly letting go when they saw one of Nina's elderly neighbors shopping on the corner. They exchanged glances with each other before heading to separate parts of the store to get everything on their list. Nina was off looking at ice cream when Minah was called over to the cashier. The teen glared at the man across from, bristling at the smirk on his face.
"Brady, what do you want?"
"Oh, me? I just wanted to see how my favorite girl is! You and Nina look cute together by the way."
"We're just friends," Minah hurried to clarify, looking around the store in fear that someone may have heard. "She has a boyfriend, Brady. The quarterback, remember?"
"Honestly, that just screams of compulsory heterosexuality. Like the quarterback? Really?"
"He's, uh, he's really not that bad," Minah insisted as she felt her ears begin to get warmer. "Look, is there anything you need other than suggest things about my friendship with Nina?"
"Uh, yeah, when and where did Jaehwa set up that dancing class for us?"
"You guys are actually gonna go?"
"Considering there will be people other than the pack at this particular wedding, yeah we're gonna go. We don't want to embarrass your mom in front of your family. We heard your grandparents can be quite… intense."
"Tell me about it," Minah grumbled. "You should hear the things they say about Jae's boyfriend."
"Is he the guy who's always on her Instagram?"
"Yep, that's Ty."
"He's super attractive, what's the problem?"
"They're just super old and super old-fashioned. I'm not looking forward to having to spend time with them."
"They're your grandparents, kiddo."
"You'll see what I mean when they get here, Brady."
He shrugged before smiling at Nina as she came up to the counter with her arms full of food. "Have an exciting night planned?"
"We're going on a little road trip!" she told him with a fond glance in Minah's direction. "She just got her license."
"You guys grow up so fast!"
"Can you just ring us up please?" Minah asked. "We've got a pretty tight schedule."
"So, Nina, you bringing your boyfriend to the wedding?"
"I don't really think James would fit in at such an event. Also there's this zombie movie coming out that day and he says he has to go with the rest of the guys on the team. It's whatever. Just means I get to spend the whole night with Minah."
"Sounds nice."
Minah slammed a $50 on the counter and snatched up the snacks Nina had picked out. "Keep the change."
"You really need to learn how to budget!" Brady called after her as he pocketed the money. "Oh, and make good choices!"
Nina smirked at Minah as her friend angrily pulled out of the parking lot and headed onto the highway. Minah had a great relationship with Brady, Collin, and Seth as the three boys acted like her fun—albeit a bit annoying—older brothers instead of the overprotective brothers like the rest of the group.
"Hey, Minah, when does your aunt get in for the wedding?" Nina asked hesitantly, knowing the sort of feelings that came up whenever Jae was mentioned.
"Don't know and don't care."
"Minah—"
"I don't want to hear it, Nina. It's bad enough that my mom is marrying our guidance counselor, but having to see that traitor come back is just too much."
"Minah, I think you're overreacting a bit here."
"She's been gone for eight years! How am I overreacting? She was supposed to come back! But no, she graduates top of her class and gets into some fancy university and dates some fancy guy and has some fancy job and never once did she think about how this would affect us!"
"Don't you think she's entitled to her own life?"
"I would if I was entitled to live my own life."
"Who says you aren't?"
"Um, everyone? My family?"
"You don't know that."
"Yes, NIna, I do. Now can we stop talking about this? Tonight was supposed to be fun, and right now I'm feeling super bummed. Let's just drop it, okay?"
"I'll drop it for now, but I really think you should at least talk with Jae about your feelings when you get the chance. You were really close to her, so it's completely understandable that you're feeling betrayed, but I think that if you see things from her perspective you can move on from all this hatred."
"Ugh, oh my god, just shut up about this! Let's talk about something else like, uh… oh, like what are you going to wear to the wedding?"
"You hate talking about the wedding," Nina said.
"Well I hate talking about her more! So come on, just tell me!"
"Alright, just calm down. You're gonna get us in a wreck!"
"I am not!"
"Minah!"
"Okay, okay! I'll slow down!"
Minah let up on the gas and chanced a look over at her friend. She could feel her throat tighten and heart race as her eyes roamed over Nina's face. She really did look stunning, especially with the moonlight highlighting her features like that. She looked like some sort of goddess, and she was stuck dating someone like James Cooper, the high school quarterback. Just being around her was a blessing, and he treated her like she was someone you pass on the streets. Nina deserved better, but Minah couldn't be the one to give her the love that she deserved, no matter how much they both wanted it. Their families wouldn't allow it. There was just no way, and it broke their hearts. And, as much as it pained Minah to admit this, the one person she felt she could confess all this to was the one person who had betrayed her the most.