“SOPHIEEE! HII!!. Wait for us up there, we are coming!”, shouted Kate and Lauren. Lauren was wearing a white, long skirted flowing summer dress with cork mid-height platform heels, while Kate was wearing an oversize pink T-shirt and tight fitting jeans, and white converse with pink accents. The two of them had gone to the mall to pass the time, together as they frequently were, and were just heading for the stores on the lowest level of the shopping center looking for a skirt Lauren had seen a few days before that she had loved. What they did not expect, however, was to run into Sophie and her mysterious new friend! They needed to meet her, of course, so after getting their attention they headed to them as fast as they could.

As they got there, Sophie seemed a bit startled, while her friend was slightly hiding behind her, trying not to look at both of them too much. Maybe they were doing something in secret, maybe something embarrassing? Kate looked at Lauren and she seemed to have thought something similar, smiling a bit mischievously. Looking at the friend’s hand, she could see a lingerie store bag. Maybe they had bought something… racy for Sophie’s friend, she thought with a knowing look.

Whatever it was, they were polite enough not to mess with something like that from someone they did not really know. So, they introduced themselves normally. “Hi, Sophie! What a coincidence, right? You did say you had plans today, though. Who’s your friend?”, Lauren said curiously. She did know this girl must have been the one in the picture, and if her memory served her right, she was even wearing the same outfit!

“Wow, Lauren, Kate! What a coincidence indeed!”. Sophie started saying. “This is the girl I told you about, the one who kinda resembles Alex and with which I took that picture you saw on the phone. A...riana.”

The girl took a second to react after Sophie suddenly introducing her, but finally she said “Nice to meet you”, a bit quietly. Then, they greeted by giving each other a kiss on the cheek.

“Nice to meet you! I’m Kate, and this is Lauren! It’s great to meet more of Sophie’s friends, I always thought we were basically it. Well, and Alex, they seem attached at the hip”, Kate finished saying while giving Sophie a soft slap on the arm.

“Don’t be mean! You know how much I love Alex, I of course enjoy spending a lot of time with him! But I also meet you two quite a bit…”, Sophie said, causing Ariana to somehow blush a bit.

“I have an idea! How about we have lunch together? You were headed in that direction, right?”, Lauren said.

“Sounds great, it will be fun!”, Kate answered immediately.

Ariana and Sophie exchanged looks for a couple of seconds, before Sophie said “Sure, the more the merrier”. Ariana looked slightly worried, maybe she was not very good at social situations. That was OK, though, they just wanted to chat and get to know her better, no pressure on it.

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Alex tried to keep herself as calm as she could. Kate and Lauren seemed to have bought the Ariana story (who would believe the real one without direct proof anyway), and they were just going to have some lunch. She knew Kate and Lauren, and they were nice enough people, there would be no problems.

They settled for lunch in a hot dog place, quite crowded at that time of the day, and ordered a hot dog each, extra everything they could, cola to drink, and french fries. Then, they sat down on a bench close to a water fountain and a small pot of long-leaved plants Alex could not recognize.

Kate and Lauren were telling Sophie about the skirt they had come looking for, which Alex somewhat remembered seeing while passing in front of the store, and meanwhile Sophie and Alex were eating their food while listening. At one point, some of the sauce was coming down Sophie’s hot dog, so she slurped it up taking it in her mouth from the bottom. Lauren started giggling to herself.

“What?”, asked Sophie slightly confused. Alex also did not know what was so funny about the situation, so she also looked at Lauren.

“Nothing, I’m just thinking that I’m sure your boyfriend would have loved that”, she finished bursting out laughing.

Alex and Sophie both blushed, and Sophie replied embarrassed “Lauren, not so loud, we are in public!”

“Come on, how many times have we talked about sex stuff before?”, Kate replied.

“Not in a public place! For the record, he liked it that one time”, she finished giggling herself.

Alex was amazed that this kind of conversations seemed normal between them, normally she did not talk about sex with Aiden that much, but its true that being transgender could have something to do with it. She, of course, was not going to interject in the conversation. The topics changed between different stuff, series, movies, clothes, games… Alex only really replied when explicitly addressed, she mostly wanted to see her cute girlfriend in her “natural environment”. She made up a cover story of her being from another town, and having only recently moved here, and attending another highschool.

Eventually, it was time to leave, so Alex and Sophie decided to accompany Kate and Lauren on their mission, since they were having a nice time together. It took her a couple of minutes to complete it, and with that they had no more plans for the day. That is, until they saw the arcade, and Kate suggested going together. Alex was quite bad at these kind of games, like at video games she supposed, but Sophie normally was an ace. It was still fun for all of them, so she accepted.

The place was quite crowded, so they decided to make their way to one of the few that were not completely overrun by people, the air hockey table. The decided to do a mini league, with the loser having to pay for the combined tickets of the four of them. Alex lost terribly against Sophie and Kate, but Lauren and her were mostly evenly matched, even though in the end Alex lost 8-10. The match between Sophie and Kate was a very intense one, running for more than 5 minutes and fighting hard for each point, but in the end Sophie won the full league.

When they were leaving, they passed the claw machine, and Sophie decided to try and get a plush. She got one first try, a white bear with a big red heart, a few cm tall. Se gifted it to Alex, as a memento of their nice date, to which Lauren and Kate could only say “Awww”. Alex was very grateful, so she hugged Sophie and put it in her bag.

After saying goodbye to Kate and Lauren, they exited the shopping center and realized it was getting dark outside.

“Uh-oh”, Alex said. “Your parent… they would already be home!”

“Shit”, Sophie answered. “Ok, we’ll just go to my house like normal. Then, I’ll bring your stuff out, don’t worry dear”.

They arrived a few minutes later, and Sophie exited the car and closed it with Alex still inside. She opened the door of her house and closed it. After a couple of very long minutes for Alex, she returned with a lavender bag. She entered the car again, and after a quick kiss, she turned around to let Alex change in private in the back seat. Afterwards, she told her to just leave the clothes there, and show would pick them up in the morning. Before leaving, though, Alex took her new plush, and hugged Sophie lovingly, pleasantly surprised with how fun the day had been.