disclaimer: i do not hate any antagonist in this story or protagonist! they are just used for convenience, thank you

Selena woke up to the feeling of comfortable skin below her, peeling her eyelids open to reveal the fast-asleep girl below her. She wished that she could sink back into the girl's chest, but she knew she had to get up. Sure, it took her awhile, but eventually she was dragging her feet across the kitchen floor and towards her coffee pot.

The coffee pot seethed and steamed, making the sound of screaming inside of the hot socket. Beeping ensued, confirming that the coffee was done. Selena unlatched the pot from the inside, popping open the top and pouring the hot liquid slowly. The creamy vanilla aroma drifted into her nostrils, the ecstacy of caffeine already giving her energy.

She heard a stifled groan from the couch, and she chuckled quietly. Demi had to be waking up now, and she was so not a morning person. Which really conflicted with her, as well, because she took forever to get ready. However, the girl trudged up anyways, dropping her chin on the girl's shoulder so she could smell the coffee as well.

"Why are we up so early? It's Saturday…" she groaned; Demi always woke up when Selena did, it was just something that happened.

"Cuz," Selena stirred her coffee creamer in, "I wanted to do something."

"Like what?" Demi asked, her chin digging deeper into her shoulder. "I'm too tired. I'm going to the bed."

Selena snorted, taking a hit of her coffee. And yes, she called it a hit―because coffee was basically her drug. Without it, Selena wouldn't be able to get up so early and deal with the other girl's morning angst. Selena proceeded to follow the girl into her room, locking her fingers and stretching them above her head. Instead of curled up, like Selena imagined, Demi was perched up on the side of the bed, head in her hands with her fingers rubbing her eyes.

"What's up?" Selena asked slinging an arm around the girl's shoulders.

"I'm tired," the girl whined. "I didn't go to bed until you stopped snoring."

Selena's face flushed, "I do not snore!"

Demi stretched her shoulders with a laugh, "You do. Just really quietly―but you can hear it pretty well when you're directly below the noise maker."

"Ugh! Whatever," the girl crossed her arms, setting her coffee down on the end table. "What do you want to do today?"

Demi thought for a second, but her eyes lit up in joy soon after. "Let's go shopping!"

Squelching, the girl squinted one eye and weakly smiled, "Really? Shopping? That's… what you're suggesting?"

"Do you not like shopping?" Demi asked, tilting her head.

"Do you like shopping?" the other girl rebutted.

"Yea," the sleepy girl shrugged, the bags under her eyes slightly fading. "Cuz' I'm female."

Selena shrugged, "I don't―it's too stressful."

"Get off the bed." Demi half-joked, nudging the girl with her shoulder, while Selena let out an exasperated laugh and a glorified, "What? Hey!"

"I can't believe you dragged me into a mall." Selena hissed as they walked in, while Demi's eyes just filled up with joy.

"Y'know, I always saw you as the girl who adores shopping." Demi voiced her thoughts, looping her thumbs through the circles of her jeans, adjacent to the back pockets.

"Nah," Selena waved her hand, "I really don't like it. When I shop, I shop once and get a ton of stuff so I don't have to go again. It's just so much pressure."

The shop-crazed girl shrugged, she could see that. However, Demi would always come to the mall with her grandma whenever she visited, and her grandma would buy her all the clothes her parents new bought her. She was so bright in elementary school because of all the dresses her grandma would knit for her or buy her; and even if her parents were distant, she found it just fine.

When her Grandma died, however, the girl was plunged into an irretrievable depression, and Selena's constant torture didn't help her cause.

"Let's go in here," Demi interrupted her own thoughts, not wanting to go back to such a dark time. Instead, she looped fingers with the girl and pulled her along. Selena and her were better now―there was no reason to retreat back to the hidden memories of her past.

"Whaddya think?" Demi asked, puckering her lips together and posing dramatically for Selena.

"Haha," Selena snorted, pointing at her straw hat and overalls. They had spent over an hour in this specific store, just trying on clothes and laughing at each other.

"Ladies," the manager raised her eyebrows at the teens, "I'm going to have to ask you to leave, you're very disruptive."

"That's the third store that's kicked us out!" Demi joked, pulling off the overalls and slinging the sunny straw hat back on its hook. The girl linked arms with Selena with a laugh, running out of the store and onto the next.

Without warning, Selena smashed into someone's neck, and groaned with a hand over her head. She muttered a sorry when she opened her eyes, but gaped at her friend, Jennifer.

Three shopping bags were looped around her arms, and designer sunglasses were sitting atop of her hair. Jennifer squinted at their locked arms, recoiling back.

"Selena? Why are you with her?"

Selena breathed in, puffing her chest out, "I… She's not so bad, Jen. You should give her a chance."

Jennifer snorted, pulling her phone out of her back pocket with a laugh. She jeered, "I thought Taylor was being dramatic when she said you two were really friends,"

Demi instinctively tugged Selena closer to her when Jennifer took a stride forward, her lips curled in a scornful smile.

"That's okay, you both are a perfect match for each other," Demi loosened her grip a bit at this, thinking that it was a compliment. "You both are ugly whores, any-who."

Selena's arm twitched slightly, and her eyes widened at her red-haired friend's words. Demi knew that Selena was very sensitive, and that words would always hurt her. Maybe not if they came from a stranger, but if they were coming from her friend, Demi knew it hurt. So, she unhooked her joints from Selena's and took a step forward, the cloth of Jen's shirt balled up in her fists.

"What?"

damn demi is gonna beat a bitch

i hope you're digging this story, it's super fun to write lol

next chapter is the BIG ENDING! it's gonna be WAY short, just bc i want to wrap some stuff up neatly with a ribbon and a bow