If Jealousy Could Kill

“Oh my gosh, Haru! Isn’t he so cute?!” Rina gushed. Haruna crouched down beside Rina, looking the small black and white Shih Tzu puppy in the face. The small dog barked before running around in a circle, coming to another stop and barking again. Well, Rina had a point, the puppy was awfully cute. “Can we take him home?!” And there it was; animal lover Rina. Rina had a soft spot for animals, it seemed like she wanted to take home every cute animal she saw. She always asked even though Haruna said no every single time. She had hope that one of these days, she’d break down the older girl into saying yes. If you bother someone enough with the same question, eventually the answer will change from no to yes, wouldn’t it? That’s what Rina figured.

“Rina, you know we can’t afford a pet right now.” Haruna knew that her words would disappoint Rina, but there was really no use in lying to her, that would just be worse in the long run. Rina dropped her head in disappointment at Haruna’s words. Today was just not the day that Haruna would say yes to her. Her friend wrapped her arms around Rina. “Don’t be sad, we’ll get a pet soon. Just for you.”

“You always say that!” Rina whined. Haruna laughed softly, giving her a soft kiss on the top of her head. The girls needed better jobs before they could get more money to afford a pet. Even if they did, Haruna wasn’t exactly sure how a puppy would be able to survive around the three maniacs she called her friends. She was sure that Mami and Tomomi would try to do experiments with it or something else stupid like that, she didn’t put it past those two.

“I know, Rina, but I mean it. We’ll get you one soon; we just need to get a bit more stable, alright? Just be patient.” Rina huffed at the words. She was already being patient. She was tired of trying to be patient.

“Whatever you say, Haru.” Rina smiled at Haruna as the elder girl picked the two of them off the floor. Rina bid her goodbyes to the young puppy, promising it that she’d come back soon before the two left to try and find Mami and Tomomi, who were hidden away in the rodent section of the pet store. Why they had come to a pet store in the mall, Haruna would never know. She didn’t want to go but at 3 to 1, she was a little bit out-voted. She was never really given in a say in the matter. As Rina and Haruna made their way to the back of the store, they found the other two, staring intently into the tank of a small mouse.

“Leave it up to the two rats to be interested in the rats,” Haruna commented, stealing back the duo’s attention from the mice.

“Excuse me, Miss Snarky Pants, but they’re mice,” Mami corrected with a grin.

“Is there a difference?”

“A big one!” Mami exclaimed, preparing to launch into a tirade about how mice and rats were different from each other. Haruna stopped her, placing a hand over her mouth to quiet down the blonde. Haruna let out a small cry, feeling Mami’s saliva violate her hand. A red color came to Haruna’s cheeks as she noticed a few people were staring at her now thanks to Mami. She wiped her hand on her pants, glaring at the blonde.

“Why did you lick me?” she hissed to her blonde friend. Mami laughed softly, placing her hands on her hips and looking proud of herself.

“Shouldn’t put your hand over my mouth,” Mami said with her ever so familiar grin. Haruna just blinked at the blonde, not having anything more to say to her. Mami and Haruna were very similar to each other in this instance; they always had a smart comeback to whatever the other one said but eventually, the comebacks would run dry and they’d be at a loss for words.

Rina slung an arm over Haruna’s shoulder, mentioning something about wanting to get something to eat. The girls had been at the mall for a while, so it was no wonder they were getting hungry. The girls made their way to the food court, Rina and Tomomi both pointing out stores they wanted to go to afterwards. It would seem that Rina had a new partner in crime when she went shopping. She always spent so much money when they went to the mall but now with Tomomi, they would probably be spending even more money. Haruna wasn’t enjoying that idea. Sure it was Rina’s credit card and she could do whatever she wanted with it, but Haruna still needed to make sure she got money for the bills out of Rina before that girl could blow it all on useless knick knacks and clothing she probably wouldn’t ever wear.

Once the girls had gotten to the food court, they decided to settle with ice cream, saving their apatite later for dinner. Or, it was more like Haruna and Mami didn’t want the two little monsters spending any more money and refused to let them get a big meal. Once the girls had ordered, they found themselves a small table in the corner of the food court.

“So what are we going to do after this once Rina and Tomomi are satisfied?” Mami asked.

“Hey, you wanted to come too!” Rina defended.

“Yeah, but you and Tomomi are little monsters when it comes to shopping. At least I have some self-control,” she added before licking her ice cream cone. Rina huffed, digging her spoon into her small bowl of ice cream and shoving it into her mouth. She was not a monster when it came to shopping; she just enjoyed getting new things.

“I say we go to the movies,” Tomomi suggested, “there’s this awesome new horror movie, we should totally go see it!” Rina gulped, her eyes widening at the suggestion. She hated horror movies; they were too scary for her. She was a bit of a wimp when it came to scary things. But she knew Mami and Haruna would agree and force her to go, it wouldn’t be the first time they had done that. They always either forced the girl to go or guilt-tripped her into going. Usually it was Mami forcing her and Haruna trying to guilt-trip her. Rina never stood a chance when those two teamed up against her.

“I think that sounds awesome!” Mami was the first to speak, reaching over the table to give Tomomi a high five for her suggestion. Not everything that came out of the hyper brunette’s mouth was always nonsense.

“I’m cool with it. Are you okay with it, Rina?” Haruna asked, turning her attention to the now shivering brunette. Rina saw this one coming from a mile away.

“S-s-sure!” Rina said, unable to control her stutter. She had a habit of stuttering when she was getting scared, it was what always gave her fear away. Mami laughed at Rina’s obvious fear, not really making the brunette feel any better about the situation.

“Is little Ri-ri already scared?” she asked, pinching one of Rina’s cheeks.

“I am not!” Rina defended, pushing away Mami’s hands. She was really beginning to regret sitting on this side of the table with Mami, she was being reminded why she never did sit with the blonde.

“Don’t worry, Rina. I’ll be there to protect you from any monsters. No monsters will hurt my Ri-ri,”Haruna said, nodding firmly.

“Oh yeah? And who’s going to protect you? I distinctly remember that the last time we watched a scary movie together, you were shaking and shivering just as bad as Rina was. I had to spend the night just because you two were too scared to sleep in your own house alone,” Mami chimed in.

“I was not scared, I was just thinking about Rina. She is the one who needed the extra support.” Mami scoffed at Haruna’s statement. Haruna was such a prideful person.

“Sure you were, Haru. You’re such a liar.” Mami groaned as she felt Haruna’s foot hit her shin. Note to self: don’t taunt Haruna when you’re sitting right across from her. It doesn’t end well.

“Aw, was the little Haru scared?” Tomomi taunted. Haruna scoffed, purposely hitting Tomomi’s hand causing her to hit herself in the face with the ice cream cone she had been holding. Tomomi gasped at the action, pouting in Haruna’s direction. “That was mean!”

“That was the point. Want me to clean you up?” Tomomi noticed the mischievous glint pass through Haruna’s eyes again. Well that was never a good sign. But Tomomi decided to go with it anyway, how much harm could Haruna really do? They were in a public place after all. Even Haruna had to have some boundaries.

“And how do you plan to do that?” Tomomi cocked her head as Haruna wasted no time, leaning over and licking Tomomi’s cheek where the ice cream had hit her. Tomomi squealed at Haruna’s bold action, inching away from her. “You taste good,” Haruna whispered to the girl, giving her cheek another small lick. Tomomi pushed Haruna away from her, her eyes moving quickly to Rina and Mami. Mami had her nose scrunched up showing her disgust while Rina seemed to be ignoring what was going on, diligently eating her ice cream in peace. Tomomi wondered if Rina was just so used to Haruna and Mami’s antics that she had learned to tune them out by now.

“And you were mad about me licking people,” Mami commented.

“What do you mean?” she asked, batting her eyelashes innocently.

“If I can’t lick people then neither can you. Besides, it’s bad manners.” Haruna scoffed at Mami’s assertion. This is the person who talks with their mouth full of food all the time, and she was trying to lecture Haruna about bad manners? Mami was definitely someone who had no room to talk on the subject of manners.

“Oh, is that so?”

“It is so.”

“Too bad I don’t know how to listen to people,” Haruna chimed, leaning across the table and licking Mami on the nose. Mami shoved Haruna back, causing her to fall back into her seat in a fit of laughter. “You don’t taste as good as Tomomi did.”

“Ha! I’m tastier than you!”

“Not sure that’s something you should be proud of, Timo,” Mami said, calmly finishing her ice cream. To left of Mami, Rina sat quietly, eyeing Tomomi paying full attention to her friends, the thoughts racing through her mind. She didn’t trust Tomomi. It was different with Mami. Mami could be trusted not to take her Haruna away from her. Mami would never do that to them. But Tomomi couldn’t be trusted. She was different.

“Hey, Rina, are you okay?” Rina shook her head, her thoughts being pushed to the back of her mind as Mami’s voice brought her back to reality. Looking between the three of the girls who were now staring at her, Rina gave an awkward chuckle, rubbing the back of her head.

“S-sorry! I was just daydreaming a bit was all.” Haruna shook her head, making a comment about Rina being a space cadet just like Tomomi. The girls continued joking around for a while before they all finished their snacks, deducing that it was now time to hit the movies. Tomomi had enough shopping and Rina was just not in the mood anymore.

***

Rina whimpered softly, biting down on her bottom lip and holding the medium-sized bucket of popcorn to her chest. Sitting to the right of her, Mami and Tomomi routinely stuck their hands in the popcorn bucket they shared, chewing absentmindedly as their attention focused entirely on the screen in front of them. The two of them were in another world by this point in the movie. Noticing her friend’s fear, Haruna snaked her arms around Rina pulling her as close as the theater seats would allow.

“Don’t be scared, Rina, I’m here for you,” Haruna cooed to the scared girl. As she saw a character get killed on screen, Rina let out a shriek, wrapping her free arm around Haruna and burying her face in the crook of Haruna’s neck. Haruna laughed softly, taking the popcorn from Rina and tossing it down onto the floor. Finally have both her hands free, Rina wrapped her arms around Haruna, refusing to lift her head from where it was cradled against Haruna’s body.

Haruna smiled down at the girl in her arms. Rina resembled a small child when she was like this and Haruna thought it was cute. Rina was like her baby sister, the girls had been friends since they were children and they’d been together ever since the first day they met. Rina and Haruna had never been separated, the eldest girl couldn’t remember a time when she didn’t have Rina by her side.

“Yeah!” Haruna’s head shot up at the sudden shout from Mami and Tomomi. The girls high-fived each other, going back to staring intently at the big screen. Haruna looked back up at the screen, her nose scrunching up in disgust as she saw a man getting dismembered on the screen. Mami and Tomomi were cheering for a man getting cut up into small pieces. They were something else.

Sometimes, Haruna was both curious and terrified when she wondered what the inside of those girls’ heads were like.