My Only 1 (Njomziana)

10

No. This can't be happening. WHERE THE FUCK IS SHE?

I looked back, turning to Julia for help, but I was met with an empty driveway. She just...left me here. 

Ariana's dogs were hysterical on the other side of the door, but there was still no sign of their owner. The only other way to get into the house was from the garage. I flipped open the garage door keypad and punched in the password. Agonizingly slowly, the overhead door lifted open, and I almost ran into it in my rush to get inside.

The garage wasn't empty like I'd expected. Ariana's car was inside. I let out a sigh of relief, but that relief didn't last. What if something happened to her inside the house? Why else would she have ignored both my calls and the door?

The door in the garage leading to the actual house is usually left unlocked, and I twisted the doorknob and pushed it open, then tiptoed into the house. I had hoped that the dogs wouldn't notice me coming in, as it took forever to pry them off, but there was no such luck. Immediately, Toulouse appeared and pounced on me, scratching my bare legs in the process.

"Ow, Toulouse, get off." I tried to push him away, but the clicking of untrimmed nails against the wooden floor told me that the rest of the dogs were not far behind. I let out a groan of frustration just as they burst into the room, and I rolled my eyes, trying to navigate through the ocean of dogs while also trying not to step on any of them(Ari would kill me). 

After finally getting the dogs to calm down, I raced to the stairs and snuck upstairs, almost falling flat on my face because Myron and Lafayette insisted on following me up the narrow stairwell. When I finally reached the top, I poked my head into Ariana's room, but there was no one there. 

"Ariana?" I shouted, willing her to magically appear in front of me. "Ariana are you here? Please answer me this isn't fucking funny."

I peeked into every room upstairs until I got to the end of the hallway, but there was still no sign of Ariana. There was only one room I haven't checked: my room. Half expecting to find her dead body sprawled across the ground, I entered my room and-

"Oh," I said out loud. I would've missed it if I hadn't looked carefully, but there was someone sound asleep under the covers of my bed, only the steady rising and falling of their body proving that they were still alive. They had a pillow over their head, but I was certain that it was Ariana. Who else would it be?

I lifted the pillow from her head, and sure enough, it was Ariana, her eyes closed, as beautiful as always. Her makeup was streaked and smudged, making the bottom of her pillow a mess. 

"Wake up, wake up," I shook her vigorously, throwing the covers off of her. Her eyes shot open and she stared at me for a moment, confused.

"You came back?" She looked at me as though I were a fairy that had appeared out of thin air

"I thought you were dead," I rolled my eyes. I went through all that trouble and panic, just for her to be sleeping? I'm glad she's safe though. "I called you like 20 times, and I personally came here and rang your doorbell. You could've just answered the door, confirmed that you were still alive, and went right back to sleep. But no, YOU HAD TO MAKE ME COME INSIDE LOOKING FOR YOU."

"I'm sorry, I didn't hear..." She looked intimidated, almost scared, slightly shifting away from me. I sat down on the edge of my bed, not knowing what to say to her next. For a few minutes, we just sat there, with Ariana awkwardly trying to occupy herself by singing softly to Myron, and me staring off to space, wondering how the fuck I got to this point in my life. I desperately wanted to forgive Ariana, I really did. But how could she justify cheating on me with our friend? No, I couldn't forgive her just yet. I needed more time.