It was already the next morning.

Zinnia snoozed her alarm. She pulled the covers over her head and sighed deeply. 

She was not looking forward to tonight.

And its not like she could back down on it now. She had no valid excuse.

"Kelly was right. I need to learn how to shut my mouth." She grumbled before getting out of the bed.

[Later that day]

Zinnia was dressed in a royal green cropped corset thay complimented her dark skin, a cropped jean jacket, jean short-shorts and platform black and white converse. Her long curly hair was down in a side part.

She walked out of her room and Jordan was already there.  

"Girl! You look so damn cute." Jordan cheered.

Jordan was dressed in a black, short-sleeved bodycon dress and black heeled sandals. 

"No, you look even cuter! Especially with your red hair." Zinna said as she came to hug the lightskinned girl. 

Soon, Kelly walked out and Zinnia scoffed as soon as she saw her.

Kelly was in a more tomboy style today. She wore a baggy boyfriend jeans and a red polo shirt to match her red jordan 11's. Her faux locs were was in a low ponytail in a side part.

"Excuse me, you need to change!" Zinnia said as she crossed her arms. Kelly raised her hand slip in confusion. 

"What? I'm not underdressed Z." She said.

"Yeah. She looks fine..." Jordan said, agreeing with Kelly.

"Can you dress like your trying to impress them?" Zinnia said.

Kelly rolled her eyes and sighed. "Zinnia, you're doing too much! You forced me to do this anyways. So, I'm gonna dress how I want."

"You're doing this on purpose! I swear you are." Zinnia complained. 

"So what if I am. Let's just leave please. And you’re the DD tonight."

Zinnia huffed and grabbed the keys. "Aren't I always? No need to remind me." She said, now walking out the door to the car.

"Yall argue everyday?" Jordan asked as she followed after Zinnia

Kelly laughed and nodded. "Yes ma'am."

~

After a 20 minute drive with Zinnia nagging about Kelly, the three girls arrived at the bowling alley, Cherry Bomb Bowling.

Jaehyun texted Zinnia saying that he was already at the lane with his friends waiting for them to come. She didn't even ask him to pay, but he still did anyways.

The three girls walked into the alley and went to where the boy's were. The bowling alley was modern style with the main colors being red, neon green and pink. 

The boys weren’t hard to spot since they were pretty tall and had model-worthy faces. 

Jaehyun saw the girls walking towards then waved at Zinnia and smiled brightly.

"Hey Zinnia, you look amazing like always." He said, looking down at her in awe.

Zinnia smiled and nodded. "I know, haha." She joked.

Johnny didn't even acknowledge Zinnia and went straight to Jordan and Kelly, shaking their hands to introduce himself. He held onto Jordan's a bit longer since she caught his eye. 

Mark waved to all three of the girls. "You guys look really pretty! But not pretty enough for me to let yall win though Let's get this started!”

"Yeah! I wanna go first." Zinnia said, grabbing the bowling ball before Mark.

Everyone had average skills with bowling, but Jaehyun was the only one hitting strikes like a professional. 

"Wow, you're really good at this... Do you actually compete?" Zinnia said to Jaehyun who was walking towards her after hitting his 5th strike in a row.

"No. Its just a hobby. But my dad was a professional. He taught me all of his tricks." Jaehyun said, now putting his arm behind Zinnia's seat. 

"Ah, I see. You must be good at lot of things at this point.” She said.

"Yup. A lot of things, Zinnia.” Jaehyun said and laughed shooting her a wink.

Zinnia shook her head and smiled at the ground. “Shut up Jaehyun.”

Jordan and Johnny just kept chatting since they seem attracted to each other. Jordan couldn’t stop laughing and blushing at Johnny jokes and flirtatious motives.

When Zinnia noticed the two, she sighed. Her plan was get Jordan or even Kelly to fall for Jaehyun. Kelly clearly isn’t dressed to impress and Jordan so smitten with Johnny.

Zinnia got up and looked at Jaehyun. 

"You should meet my friend Jordan. She really wanted to meet you." Zinnia said.

Jaehyun raised his eyebrow. "Uh, okay..."

She stood up and made her way to the two that were standing to the other side of lane. 

"Hey Jordan, let's go meet Jaehyun like you wanted to." She said and took her hand. As she walked away, she glared at Johnny for a second.

Soon the two were facing each other. Zinnia left the two quickly and went to Johnny.

"Uh. Hey Jaehyun…. My friend talks about you alot." Jordan said awkwardly.

Jaehyun smirked. "Does she?"

Jordan nodded. "Mhm... You're her problem, but I'm sure she enjoys having you in her life. She just don't see it yet, but she will." She said and winked.

Jaehyun smiled. "I hope so too."

"What the hell is your problem Zinnia?" Johnny said as she walked up to him.

Zinnia ignored his question and grabbed his arm to walk him towards the concession stand that was away from the group.

"Stay away from Jordan." She said bluntly. 

Johnny laughed in awe.

"You're such a control-freak. Its just getting funny at this point." Johnny said. 

"I don't care. I don't want you near the people I love."

Johnny nodded his head. "That makes alot of sense. I know you don't like Jaehyun. It's so obvious. What are you trying to do?"

Zinnia crossed her arms and shifted. "He's just a friend."

"If that's the case, then stop being his friend. You're just gonna make things worse."
Johnny said.

Zinnia was starting to get angry. “Don't you think I know that?"

She dragged Johnny even further away from the group and into the family restroom.

"I want Jaehyun to like Jordan, or Kelly. Or anyone! Just not me. I'm trying, and you're ruining it."

Johnny shook his head. "She started talking to me anyways. And I think she's cool."

Zinnia rolled her eyes. "Stop talking to her, maybe she'll talk to Jaehyun instead.

Johnny blinked a couple times. "So...My feelings don't matter anymore?"

Zinnia sighed. “Do you really want me to answer that?”

Johnny shook her head and snapped.

"See! This is what I'm talking about. You have no compassion for anyone but yourself! You're stuck up, rude, and have no respect for anyone or anything that isn't in your favor."

Zinnia looked up to Johnny with wide eyes. "Can y-"

"No! I'm not done. You need to learn how to love others. But I think you need to start with yourself. I've never met someone was rude as you. And you wonder why people don't like you. I don't see what Jaehyun does. But I know one day he'll see how disrespectful you are." Johnny said, now storming out the bathroom.

Zinnia fell on the bathroom floor and started to cry into her arms. She was sobbing uncontrollably. No one has ever talked to her like that, not even her parents.

Johnny went to group and sat down. Jaehyun could already tell something was off. 
"Johnny, where is Zinnia?" Johnny shrugged.

"But I saw that yall went to the bathroom? What was that for?" Jaehyun asked. At this point, the whole group was tuned into the conversation. 

"She dragged me in there to talk. I guess she's still in there." Johnny said, now taking a drink.

Jaehyun shook his head. "I'll go and check on her." Kelly said suddenly. She put the ball down and ran to the bathroom.

"Zinnia? You there baby?" She said. She got no response.

She then opened the door and saw Zinnia with her head down crying.

"Zinnia! What happened? Did he touch you?" Kelly said in a panic. She went down to her level and hugged her. Zinnia just continued to cry.

"Zinnia he touched you? I'll fight him. Trust me." Kelly said then stood up.

Zinnia shook her head slowly. "No.. He didn't... touch me..."

Kelly placed her hands on her shoulder and looked in her eyes. "Are you sure?"

Zinnia nodded. "It's me..." She said and started to sob. "I'm sorry...I need to apologize to him."

Kelly was so confused. "What...did you do to him?"

Zinnia tried to calm herself down, but Kelly hugged her so she could stop panicking. 

After about 10 minutes, Zinnia was calm enough to speak.

Zinnia backed away from Kelly's embrace and asked her a question. "Why do you love me even though I'm such a terrible person?" 

Kelly was taken back. "You're not a terrible person, why would you say that?"

"That's what Johnny told me. And he's right. I'm so mean to everyone..."

Kelly shook her hand and wiped Zinnia's tears. "I love you because of who you are. And now that I think about it... I failed as friend to tell you to love yourself first." She said, now holding her hand.

"Johnny told me the same thing, on how I need to learn to love myself. "

"First off, this Johnny boy should not have a say on your life. He's not even your friend, so don't listen to him." Kelly snapped.

Zinnia smiled slightly and nodded. She loved Kelly fierce spirit. 

"But like I was saying, I feel like you need to learn about yourself and love who you are. I always had this feeling that you never loved your self. And I'm sorry for never being honest and offering to help."

Tears started to flow from Zinnia’s eyes as she shook her head. "No.. It's okay. I would've ignored ya anyways. But now I hear you. So thank you Kelly." Zinna said and hugged her friend who was crying as well.

The two girls hugged eachother for a while. Kelly pulled away and kissed Zinnia's forehead.  She stood up and offered Zinnia her hand. "Get up mama. We need to play this game and get out of here."

Zinnia took her hand and got up. She's never been the one to stay weak and vulnerable for too long. And she's never going to change that.