New York, New Ariana (Ariana Grande, Nathan Sykes, & Jai Brooks)

Chapter 8 (Nathan ending)

((A.N. LeighGLovesAriG I hope this counts as long? As for the other comment, the Jariana ending is coming soon I promise!))

Chapter 8

Ariana’s POV

The consciousness slowly came to my body from the land of sleep at my phone sounding the iMessage alert rather loudly. I groaned, suddenly regretting staying up that late, but turned to look at my phone anyway. The message was a number I didn’t recognize, but I opened the message immediately nonetheless after giving my number to Jessica.

“###-####: Hey Ariana Jessica gave me your number can you meet in the park in 20? -Nathan”

My heart jumped in my chest out of happiness. I instantly said I would be there and jumped out of bed. After all of that time of stress and confusion, everything was finally looking like it was fixed-- or at least could be. I brushed my hair up into a ponytail, pulled on black leggings and an oversized NO H8 sweatshirt then pulled on my UGGs. Surprisingly, I didn’t care an ounce what I looked like, which was the complete opposite of when I was meeting Jai. I was planning what to wear for the entire week before.

When I was stepping out the front door with my phone dropped in my pocket, I still had ten minutes until I was actually supposed to be down there. I remembered that I had told the Brookses that I would tell them if I heard anything, and it was a reasonable time to be up, so I decided to quickly tell them. I started down the hallway stopping instinctually when I heard voices coming from the open door to their apartment. I knew one of them was Jai, and the other two sounded like Luke and Beau.

“It f_cking sucks we didn’t get that on camera,” what sounded like Beau said, followed by the clink of plates. I shouldn’t be listening; I don’t know why I am.

“I know, she completely believed us!” Luke laughed. I pressed my back against the wall and tried to make my breathing silent. They wouldn’t be talking about me, would they?

“Yea,” A voice I knew was Jai said. “She’s dumb, but she’s hot as f_ck.”

“Nice snag on that one,” Luke chimed.

“Remember when we met ‘er in the hallway that first day? Luke’s face was hilarious, he was so clearly thinking about f_cking the sh_t out of her.” Beau said and the three of them erupted into laughter.

The hallway part-- who else could they be talking about? I felt a lump forming in my throat but I couldn’t move to stop listening. Jai called me dumb, and apparently thought I was just “hot.” They tricked me; I did believe them; I thought they realized what they did wrong, and they were just wishing they could make stupidity go viral. Jai was so sweet. I feel so stupid: Liz even warned me.

“She’s such a dork, though. She and Nathan would belong together if he wasn’t such a loser.”

I felt sick to my stomach. Jai just said that; he was playing me. Acting like the antagonist in some sappy love story, then cackling at Nathan the second I couldn’t hear. They were still talking, but I’d had enough. Who they really were was pretty clear now.

I spun on my heel and walked to the elevator. It seemed to creep down agonizingly slow to the lobby. I could feel acid springing up my throat and water building up behind my eyes: I didn’t want to cry over it, I wouldn’t cry over it. It was my own fault, Liz warned me, Victoria warned me, Jennette warned me, and Daniella warned me. ‘The Infamous Brooks Brothers.’ How did I think they were just misunderstood?

The cold pierced the exposed skin on my hands and face as I trudged toward the park, now on time. I really did want to crawl up in a ball and hide for the rest of the day before I had to face them in school tomorrow, but now I had to focus on whatever Nathan wanted to meet about.