The Bodyguard // h.s (Hariana)

22// birthday

One week later...

Ariana Grande

After a slow and agonizing week, Harry and Rose came to take me home from the hospital. I decided not to tell them about my birthday. It isn't something I normally celebrate anyways. Not since my parents died.

Instead, I begged for the breakfast bagel Rose had given me as we walked through the bakery doors. "Oh, Harry actually made that." My head turns to him in surprise.

"Really? You can cook?"

"Quite well, actually." He said. "Wait here." After a few minutes of clanging in the back, I stand, impatient.

I walk into the kitchen with my crutches. I'm surprised to see so many assortments of food colouring on the table. What was going on in here?

Harry's eyes follow mine. "Your bagel is ready." He said, cleaning off the counter.

"Did a rainbow blow up in here?"

"No, it was nothing." I frown, not believing him. "Just a wasted... thing. It was nothing." His sigh slightly concerns me but I don't push.

I've been meaning to catch some alone time with him, to tell him how I feel. However, my courage is always just short of enough. "So, do you want to catch a play tonight?" I ask. "I saw an ad for one on our car ride home."

"Sure, I'll ask Rose."

"Well, I was hoping it could be just us." Harry's eyebrow raises. My lips form into a thin line as I wait for his response.

"Yeah. Sure."

"Okay." I try not to sound excited. "I'll meet you there? Chase asked me to meet up with him."

"Sounds like a plan. See you at 6?" I nod.

—-

"I'm so sorry about everything, Ariana." Chase apologizes for the fifth time.

"It's okay! It was an accident. You couldn't have predicted this. And it was my own fault. So if you want to make it up to me for something you didn't do-just pay for my coffee." He laughs.

"You're different than any girl I've ever met." I shrug my shoulders. "I'm serious! Then again, women back home are quite traditional."

"So when are you going back home?" Chase sighs. "What's wrong?"

"I'm not really allowed to go home until I finish what I came for. And for some reason, I can't bring myself to finish the task."

"Chase.." My head tilts at his cryptic words.

"I don't want to lie to you anymore." My arms cross as I wait slowly. "I'm not a businessman. I'm not even from the United States originally."

"Wait.. What are you saying?" The night I met Chase, he told me that his life was not going well.

"I came to Hidden Falls to rediscover humanity, I suppose." I nodded in agreement. "And then I find Ariana Grande, sitting alone at a bar."

"Please don't talk business with me. I also came to get away from that world."

"Fine. Let's not talk business. Let's just talk." And so we did. And I found a lot in common with him.

"I've never told you my full name." He lifts up his shirt, revealing a tattoo on his hipbone. The letter V. "I'm Chase Torian." It takes me a second to put together all the puzzle pieces. I would recognize that last name anywhere.