Meridian (Ariana/You)

Chapter 14

"Why are you a ninja? I never friggin' hear you come in!" she paused and then resumed "Well, I was thinking..." she started off but paused yet again mid thought. She looked through my hoodies and sweaters. "I would really like to keep one of those for a bit if I can?" I raised my eyebrows in confusion.

"Sure, sorry I didn't know you were feeling cold otherwise I would have offered you one sooner." I got the hoodie off the shelf and handed it to her.

"I'm not cold. I just want something of yours. You know, to keep you close." That was cheesy, but it went straight to my heart.

"Oh." Was all I could say. She looked at me worriedly but reassured her with a smile.

"Of course you can have it. Just look after it for me, it's my favorite hoodie." She quickly wrapped her arms around me while still latching on to the hoodie I had given her.
Her warmth against me just instantly gave me goose bumps.

"Now go get ready and put some clothes on, you're distracting me a lot looking like that." She said while walking out of my bedroom.

Did she just...?

I shook off my thoughts and grabbed some comfortable and decent set of clothes and headed to the shower.

A few minutes later, I walked out of the shower to see Joan measuring my apartment and some of my old worn out things placed in the entrance, seeming to be ready to throw out.

"If we have the time today after the studio, we are definitely heading to a furniture shop and getting you brand new things." Joan said

I certainly did not have the cash right now to be able to afford new furniture. I cleared my throat, a bit embarrassed, and both looked my direction.

"Hum, I still need to save up a bit more to be able to afford anything. So just let me know what you got rid of and I'll make a list." I look down, still feeling embarrassed having this discussion about my financial situation.

"Nonsense. A girl that protects and makes my daughter happy is family. You really must be freezing in this apartment; I will make sure my PA gets someone to come and have a look at that heating for you otherwise we'll arrange for it to be replaced." Joan said coming over to me and pulling me into a tight hug. I saw Ariana smile at the sight of her mom hugging me.

"Nonna also wants to meet you at some point dear, so a trip to New York is in order whenever you can get some time off!" Joan added.

Everything that had been happening for the past couple of days felt so unreal. It felt as if I would wake up from this wonderful dream and back into my dull life.

"If you're ready, come on let's go. You don't want to get on Scooter's bad side. Been telling Ariana to drop his ass and record label for years and make her own instead, but my daughter is just as stubborn as my dad was so there's no knocking sense into this girl." She said leading me out of my apartment with her arms around my shoulders. "I hope you're ready to live with that."

"I'm right behind you, mom." Ariana's soft voice was heard from behind me.

'Live with that' – I had so many questions but instead I just managed to lock my apartment door and follow Ariana and Joan downstairs.

Three black-tinted window vans were waiting in front of my apartment. I'm 100% sure that this would attract the attention of all the nosy neighbours and would probably be the talk of the neighbourhood soon.

The cars were very luxurious inside. I had never seen anything like this before. The van we got into had swivel seats so I was sat next to Joan and Ariana was in front of me. She gave me a reassuring smile.

"We can go to the studio now, Alan." Joan said to the driver.

Ariana got a Starbucks bag from the seat next to her and handed me a drink and a sandwich.

"Thought you would be hungry. I hope what I got you is okay."

This girl was just the sweetest ever. So genuinely caring. My heart just could not cope.

I reached out and started to eat what she had gotten me, it was just a simple sandwich but it was nice. I was actually starving so this was much appreciated.

"Thank you, seriously." I said through some bites as Joan and Ariana were sipping on their drinks.

"I didn't know food made you this grateful." Ariana laughed and Joan smiled.

"Food is everything. Food is the way to my heart." I said before taking a bite of my sandwich.

"I'll remember that." Ariana said softly at my last sentence while smiling at me. She then became stiff a bit and glanced towards her mom, afraid she had revealed something compromising.

"Oh please. For Heaven's sake Ariana. I'm your mother. I made you. You think I didn't figure it all out? I even made references earlier, but guess both of you were too smitten with each other to hear it."

I definitely had heard them.

"You both are not the most discrete with your whispering and innuendos either. I love Frankie the way he is, and I love you the way you are too, Ariana. Who you fall in love with has no importance to me. I just want you to be happy and see you being treated right." Joan was looking at Ariana and turned to look at me at the last comment, giving me a sort of warning. She then turned her gaze back out the window as we continued the rest of the journey in silence.

We reached the studio a few minutes later. I had never gone into a studio so I was looking forward to see the process of recording.
Being a big fan of music, studios had always been somewhere I had wanted to see. And now it was happening, with one of the world's biggest pop stars.

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A/N: Sorry to have kept you with an update on this book.
I've been really thinking a lot about which direction I want to take this story in so had to rewrite some bits of the story after and hope you will be happy with where it's going :D

Thank you for the nearly 7k read, it's crazy! You're all the best :D