bad idea

Chapter 62

Ariana's Pov

Things at the house were tense, especially with Kai who was busy arguing with Dalton, Charlie, and Liam over their little stunt, and Shawn, who had Camila and Lauren constantly gunning for him, ever since his "crazy" accusations. Tommy, Zayn, and Cole had been working overtime to find any information they could on what Lucy was working on and who she was working with, and so far there was nothing. Because of that, I knew Kai was beating herself up for not remembering and so was Niall, who recently started coming over to help her put pieces together.

Unbeknownst to both Victoria and Courtney, I woke them up at around five in the morning, letting Courtney know I'd be there soon and waking Victoria up to get ready. Although things were beginning to fall apart, they were also getting more clear on who you could trust. After Lucy's party, I realized in a sense that Kai was right, at some point, I had to be okay with probably not ever getting answers because they weren't guaranteed. Instead, I chose to focus on things I could guarantee though, starting with my relationship.

"I can't believe you pulled up at my house at six am." Courtney groaned, getting in the backseat since Victoria was in the front with me.

"Same shit I said," Victoria added, causing me to roll my eyes at the dramatic duo, before pulling off and turning my GPS back on. "Whatever you woke us up for better be important, Lauren and Cole were getting started on breakfast."

After a while of driving, Courtney didn't really seem to mind. "Actually, I've been sleeping for the past three days, so I don't think it could get any worse than that."

"Honestly, it is important," I said, only twenty minutes away from the place. "I'm sorry I woke you guys up so early, but I finally made my mind up about something and I wanted to bring you guys with me before Kai was up."

"Are you moving, because if you are, then I'm coming with you. You already left me once—well, I guess you didn't because you were here the whole time, but you get the point," Courtney rambled, Victoria letting out a small laugh as she went on and on.

"Well?" Victoria insisted, looking at me curiously. "Ari, you can't leave us on a cliffhanger." But I did for the next twenty minutes until we pulled up to our destination.

There were other shops just like it, closer to our house, but this one specifically had exactly what I wanted. It was also very lowkey and Matt and Willow referred me to this place, so I was happy to shop at a place that had some connection to her family.

"The fuck are we doing at six in the morning outside of a jewelry store?" Courtney asked, raising her eyebrow as she looked around for any other store to see if she was wrong.

I finally turned to the two, my face serious as Victoria's nerves only grew worse, and Courtney started to make more guesses. "I need you to go ring shopping with me," I told them, watching confusion spread over their faces before Victoria gasped.

"What?" Victoria blurted and it was safe to say that she was now fully awake. "You're proposing?"

"Ariana's not fucking proposi—oh my god, you are, aren't you?" Courtney yelled, earning a scold from Victoria considering it was still very early.

"I've been thinking about it like crazy, especially with everything going on and I know this is what I wanna do," I explained, my best friends listening intuitively.

"Are you sure?" My girlfriend's sister asked, the car had been silent a while before that. "Can I ask you something?" and I nodded, "Do you think she's ready?"

"What do you mean?"

"She's never really talked about marriage after the Kehlani thing and I'm sure with all of the Lucy stuff being brought up, she's probably starting to grieve again. And what about you, if Mac was still alive would it still have been Kai? I mean, how long have you really loved her?"