Aaliyah walks alongside Carolina through the food court after doing a bit of after Christmas shopping. "What are you craving?" Aaliyah asks Carolina as they decided what restaurant they wanted to go to.

"Hmm....Chinese maybe?" Carolina suggested.

"Always a great choice, huh?" She laughs. They headed over to the Chinese place and placed their orders. Once they got it, they sat down at the nearest and cleanest table possible. After not seeing each other for two weeks, Carolina suggested they go out to the mall to treat themselves to an after Christmas sale and to spend time with each other. And Aaliyah truly felt like she needed a friend right now.

"So how are you an Eli?" Carolina asks as she takes a bite out of her orange chicken.

"Fine," Aaliyah simply replies, her appetite ruined.

Carolina looked up and noticed this. "You not gonna eat?" She asks.

"I️ think I'll save it for when I️ get home," she excuses. Carolina gives her a weird look but mutters "okay" and keeps on eating. "Anyways..." she changes the subject. "The winter formal is coming up. And guess who I'm gonna ask to be my date?" She gushes.

"Jay?" Aaliyah offers while she reaches for her Sprite. She's noticed the guy has a huge crush on her. He wasn't very subtle about it in all honesty. And no doubt Carolina knows too, cause a lot of guys at school have a crush on her, she just chooses to ignore them. "High standards" was her excuse.

Carolina scrunches her nose in disgust. "Ugh, no," she dismisses quickly. "I️ was thinking about...Jackson."

Aaliyah chokes on her drink, coughing viciously as Carolina watches in a mixture of horror and confusion. "Holy shit, are you okay?"

"Jackson?!" She exclaims. "Why-why would you go with him?" She asks, desperately wondering what the fuck was going on at the moment.

Carolina looked at her as if the answer was obvious. "Um, he's hot and single?" She offers.

Aaliyah couldn't believe what she was hearing. "You gotta be fucking kidding me right now." She spits, making Carolina wince at the statement.

"Okay...what the fuck is your problem?" She hisses.

Aaliyah stares at her as if she was stupid. "You know how much me and Jackson-"

"What? Like each other?" Carolina tilts her head to the side. "Or did you forget you were dating someone?"

Aaliyah shakes her head. "This is so fucking low Carolina. Even for you," she starts to get up.

Carolina raises an eyebrow. "Me? Low? Really? That's interesting cause I'm not the one cheating on my boyfriend with someone else. Nor did I lie to the other and gave him hope that we were gonna date," She drags. "Do you really think it's fair you get to have two boys to yourself?" She points out, making Aaliyah stop. "That's what I️ thought."

She was right.

As much as she hated Eli...she was still dating him. And as much as she liked Jackson, she really did hurt him by stringing him along, giving him false hope that they were somehow gonna be together.

Aaliyah turned around to face her. "Y-your right," she reluctantly admits.

"I️ always put my feelings aside for you," she points out. "I'm not doing it anymore. Not now," Carolina gets up, grabbing her bags.

"Wait. Lina wait," Aaliyah calls out, making Carolina turn around. "I'm sorry. You're right, so you're so right," she apologizes. "It's not fair of me to do this. Jackson's a great guy and...you deserve someone like him," it pained her to say it. "I️ mean, you're both single and...I️ should've never gotten mad like that," she shakes her head.

Carolina eyes her up and down. "Thanks," she says. "But I️ wasn't asking your permission." She then turns and walks off, making Aaliyah sigh. Oh she had some major making up to do.

She sighs and continues her trek around the mall, window shopping while her mind replays their fight over and over again. When did Carolina ever have a crush on Jackson?

"I'm always putting my feelings aside for you."

Aaliyah felt like an idiot. Of course Carolina would have a crush on Jackson. Who wouldn't? But as she stated before, she had selfishly taken Jackson for herself and didn't even realize or even bother to ask Carolina how she felt. The more she thought about it, the more terrible she felt.

But then she remembered her great grandmother's words. Life was too short.

Aaliyah sighed in anguish as she walked into a Barnes and Nobles and looked at books. Maybe one of these will have the answers to her situation.

She passed them up one by one before headed towards the music section, looking through all the vinyls, until one in particular caught her eyes.

Queen's Greatest Hits complication album stood out to her in the sale's bin. Only $5. She picked it up and felt such a strong connection to it. Not being able to resist, she rushed over to the checkout line.

The cashier looked at the album and let out a low whistle, impressed. "A little too young be a Queen fan, don't you think?" He jokes.

"I'm...a bit of an old soul," she smiles jokingly. She then thanks the man and makes her way out into the parking lot. She hold the album near her chest, clutching it tightly. She wasn't sure what she wanted to do with it yet, but all she knew was that she had to have it.

Opened her car door and get in, happy to get out of the freezing air. She started the car, and while it warmed up, she opened her phone to open Snapchat. Jackson was the first one to appear, seeing as they talked a lot before the whole falling out incident. She clicked on his story and saw him hanging with his dad mostly, and going on family dinners and stuff. Typical holiday stuff.

She then came across a pic of him, except...it wasn't him?

. She almost typed to him, but stopping herself, she exits out of his story and continued watching other people's story. Soon, the car was warm enough and she put her phone down so she could start heading home.

This was some friend date, she thought to herself.

_______________________________

I️ ...I️ don't even know what to say right now 😂

Anyways I️ lied. Here's two more chapters. Keep up pwussy boisssss!

Anyways thanks for reading as always. The drama continues!