XO, Joanne

Wide Open

*Nicole POV*

We got to the mall after making a quick stop at Starbucks. Surprisingly, we didn't see any paparazzi. I thought that was pretty unusual, but I just went with it. We were trying to keep things on the down-low anyway.

"What stores do you like?" Gaga asked me.

"Anything is fine with me."

I didn't want to be overly picky. I was still a bit afraid of becoming a burden to her.

"Let's go in here." Gaga said, pointing to H&M.

I walked in and grabbed a few shirts, a denim jacket and a couple pairs of jeans. There were a few other things I wanted, but I didn't want to make her buy that much for me.

Gaga looked at my small basket of clothes.

"You know you can get whatever you want."

"I know." I looked up at her and smiled.

"You're gonna need more than that."

Gaga started making laps around the store, grabbing everything that she thought was cute. She grabbed a cart and filled it with tons of clothes, shoes, and a few bags and purses.

She looked at the cart with satisfaction.

"Much better."

She started moving towards the checkout line.

"You really don't have to buy all of this for me." I said.

"I know, but I want to." She gave me a warm smile.

We checked out of H&M and went to a few more stores. All of our bags barely fit into Gaga's car.

"Thank you so much for doing this for me." I said.

"Of course babe, it's the least I could've done."

Once we got back to Gaga's apartment, I went up to the guest room and unpacked my new wardrobe.

"Dinner is ready!!" Gaga yelled from the bottom of the stairs.

"I'll be down in a second!"

I grabbed my phone to go downstairs and saw a ton of notifications. I probably shouldn't have looked at them.
I opened Instagram to find a bunch of DMs from people I knew in school.

"I saw your uncle on the news. I should've known you weren't a prude."

"No wonder nobody wants to be with you."

"You probably asked for it."

"Whore."

"Gaga would be ashamed to call you a fan."

"So disgusting."

My stomach was in knots.
I immediately turned around and ran back into the bedroom. After grabbing one of my razors, I locked myself in the bathroom. I was immediately calmed by the sight of my blood.
Suddenly, a voice interrupted me.

"Nicole!"

Shit.

I quickly cleaned up and went downstairs.

"There you are!" Gaga said, sitting down.

I felt so sick from what I saw on my phone. I couldn't even eat. I sat down and pushed my food around the plate.
Gaga looked up and faced me.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm just not that hungry." I said, still staring at my plate.

"Is something wrong?"