Four fifty-five AM. I couldn't go back to sleep.
Letting out a frustrated sigh, I tossed my phone on to the end of the bed. I got up and made my way to the bathroom, only to grab my phone in the process. Crazy.
Going through the bathroom's doorway, I hit my baby toe on the doorframe feeling an immediate shock, it was then followed by a loud bang and a sting on my forehead. Just bumped my forehead when I tried to grab my foot bending down.
Must be the karma for doing Ariana dirty last night.
I uttered a low inarticulate sound expressing the pain as I held my foot and forehead for a few minutes. "Fuck." I cursed at the universe as I felt the aching throb which came after, feeling all the bundle of special nerve endings.
I hated it, it was one of the worst pain on the planet.
I reached for the switch around on the wall next to the doorframe which I was leaning over. As soon as I successfully found it, I didn't waste a second pressing down my fingers down, turning on the bathroom lights.
I put my hair in a basic ponytail from keeping them out of my face and splashed plenty of cold water on my face. Usually, I didn't use anything else other than water to cleanse my face but since maintaining a clear visage was practically in our job description, I did this at least two weeks before the production started. I would start everyday or a few days by exfoliating my face. I felt like it really contributed to my skin feeling fresh and smooth.
Ariana did the same and would do something else afterwards. She exfoliated her skin daily and did a La Mer mask, she had been adamant about washing her face thoroughly. She tried not to fall asleep with makeup on ever but she failed all the time because life could tire anyone out just that much.
As I was rinsing my face, my phone that I had placed next to the sink, rang. Without looking at the caller ID, I grabbed the device as my thumb quickly pressed the green button accepting the call.
"Hello?" I asked the other line putting them on speaker then put my glance back to the mirror so I could continue rinsing my face using both of my hands.
"Y/N/N, will you pull up?" The unusual tone of the familiar voice was it all took for me to frown out of curiosity. "If you're not busy."
"Why would I be busy at five in the morning?" I received a chuckle as I reached for my face towel to pat my face dry. "Sure, what's wrong?"
Kehlani sighed before answering, "Pull up and I'ma tell you." This probably had something to do with the same person we were talking about.
"I'll be there."
We both said our goodbyes before hanging up. I had debated for a few minutes whether to take a shower now or later before going to Zac's but ended up taking a shower anyway. Kehlani could wait.
-
"What's u– what is that?" I asked walking closer to the woman who was sitting on a chair in her alfresco. It was still kind of dark and the only source of light was coming from the house's outdoor lights.
"It's a blunt splitter." She said almost muttered, not losing focus on the stuff in front of her, I didn't know what it was but it seemed cool. My silence led her to give me a quick glance, "It's a tool used for making marijuana blunts."
"Sick." I said acting interested as I watched her demonstrated exactly what she was saying. Honestly, I didn't care what it did but it looked rather useful.
"Yeah, all you have to do is push a fucking blunt through it, and the shit splits perfectly every time." She pushed the cigar she was going to use for her blunt through the tube. She looked up at me making sure I was watching every move. "This has a razor blade positioned on the inside that sticks out slightly on the inside of the tube." The razor blade cut the tobacco wrapper down the length of the cigar without damaging the outer leaf wrapper that held the tobacco inside the cigar.
"They're super dank too because you can use them to split a blunt no matter where you are, and they're way easier than using some shit." She added, grabbing another one in black before tossing it over which I caught smoothly. "I knew you'd want one so I got you a black one."
I smiled nodding before saying, "Thanks." as I slid the little gift into the back of my pocket.
The atmosphere fell into a comfortable silence. I was left to watch her clean up the mess she had made on the table as I had taken the seat across from her.
We turned our heads to where the sound had come from when we heard a high pitched cry. "Give me a second." She held her index finger up at my direction without giving me a quick glance running back into her house.
I chuckled fishing my phone out of my pocket. I had just realised I hadn't checked my phone once since I took a shower at home. I must already have notifications from my girlfriend.
Squirtle❤️ 5 iMessages
I smiled seeing her contact name across my screen. I unlocked my phone by using the FaceID before going straight to her messages.
Squirtle❤️: BABYYYYYYY
My smile grew even bigger appreciating her enthusiasm. It was ten minutes after the last text I had sent her, I was probably taking a shower around that time.
Squirtle❤️: why are u up so early?
Squirtle❤️: i love you n i cant wait to see you🥺
Squirtle❤️: today's so hectic. we have recorded two already but they still need polishing. hopefully we finish up soon before you go to zacs so i could join
Squirtle❤️: goodnight baby, can't wait to be with you❤️
"What got you smiling and shit?" I snapped my head up to see Kehlani smirking who had her daughter, Adeya on her left hip, her arm wrapped around her tiny body to provide support for her back.
I chuckled as my eyes then switched to the toddler who was clamping on with her little legs as she was occupied sucking her pacifier. "You tell me what got you asking me to come over at five in the morning and shit."
"Oh– okay girl, damn." She held her free hand up in defence.
"So?" When she had settled down on a comfortable seat across the table with Adeya on her lap, her face started to become serious and her eyes expressed mixed-emotions including sadness, disappointment and upset. As hard as I tried to keep a straight face, out of nowhere I began to laugh for no apparent reason. Although the other party was clearly highly upset, it seemed she had the worst possible reaction: she started laughing.
She snickered as she snatched the pacifier from Adeya's mouth before throwing it at me, "Stop laughing, dickhead!" This led her daughter to cry once again. We both looked at each other in surprise at her unexpected action.
Did she just snatch the pacifier from her kid?
"Fuck, I'm sorry, baby." I threw my head back laughing as soon as a curse word left out of her mouth. She bit her lip suppressing a laugh when she realised.
She picked her up from her lap as she stood up turning her around to face her bringing Adeya to her chest, her weight was resting on her chest and arms. "Let me just put her back to sleep."
I nodded and put my attention back to my phone as Kehlani walked back inside again. I smiled when I saw there was another notification from her again.
Squirtle❤️: hello???? are u up? why are u leaving me on read????????
Good morning, baby
Squirtle❤️: can i call you rq?🥺🥺🥺
That emoji always made me think of her pouting which I could never resist because it was one of the precious things that somehow she managed to turn it into a weakness of mine.
Without responding, I immediately pressed her name before hitting the Facetime button. It only took two rings before my beautiful girlfriend appeared on the screen who seemed to be excited to my call.
As soon as she saw me she was grinning then slowly faded and squinted her eyes scanning the familiar environment, "I'm at Lani's, she asked me to come over." I quickly explained when she was about to open her mouth. I began to stroke the back of my neck. "Sorry baby," I apologised knowing she wanted to be kept updated every minute especially when she was out working even though she would understand this one. "It seemed to be an emergency."
Her face relaxed a little bit which I was relieved for, "Oh sorry, is she okay?" She asked her eyes appearing to be concerned.
I shrugged, "I'm not quite sure, she hasn't told me anything yet." She bit her lip before raising a white cup to her mouth, covering half of her face as she took a sip. "She's putting Deya to sleep."
"I hope she is." The loud background of people talking gave me an idea they were on break considering she had an opportunity to Facetime me longer than a minute. "Did you just get there?" I nodded in agreement, disregarding the change of subjects.
"You guys on break already?"
"Yuh, some of them haven't had their breakfasts yet so we all decided to join them so everyone could go to lunch at the same time. We can't really do much at the moment if one's on break and the others are working. Time-wise, you know?"
There was a pause for a moment, there was just us staring at each other. Both the corner of our lips were starting to go upwards, smiling ear to ear like in loved high schoolers. I just realised she was wearing one of my sweaters and as much as I loved and wanted to have it back, I couldn't help but appreciate how better she looked on it than me. "You look so beautiful, baby." I genuinely stated, still appreciating her beauty. The sweater's size being huge on her, made her look cuter and cuddly.
She brought one of her arms and buried half of her face against the fabric, leaning over the screen a bit just to pull back to her seat as she giggled. "Thank you, baby."
With that, my smile grew even wider. She bit her lip to hold herself back from smiling more before speaking again, "If Frankie hadn't come over, I would never been able to sleep without you but if he hadn't I would've been sleeping in your arms."
As clingy as it sounded, it hadn't passed a day since I saw her but I wanted to hold her right now. "Why did you have to go so early though?" I said, changing the subject.
"I wanted to finish it as soon as possible to spend the rest of the day with you." Fucking butterflies, man.
Could my smile get any wider? I felt as though my cheeks were tearing apart, hurting from smiling too much, "It hasn't passed half of the day since I dropped you off, baby." I said the same thing I had told myself just then. I was trying to act cool but deep inside me I felt the same.
She then abruptly stopped and just looked at the screen with one of her brows raised, "So? Does it really have take longer for you to wanna see me?"
I let out a laugh knowing I got her. "Of course not, I'm already missing you if I'm being honest."
"If I'm being honest," She mocked, mimicking my words as well as my voice looking like that Spongebob meme, "We both know you're not being fucking honest with me the whole time, Y/N. No need to be exposing yourself."
I chuckled and didn't bother defending myself at the accusing joke, this led her to roll her eyes as she muttered, "Asshole." At some point I wished her network sucked so the screen would freeze to give me an opportunity to take a screenshot.
The sound of muffled voices interrupted our conversation, Ariana looked to her left nodding giving her full attention, someone was talking to her. She then looked back at me, "We gotta get back to work now, babe." She said pouting but stopped and rolled her eyes as if she remembered she was supposed to be mad.
I puckered my lips then made a smacking sound; giving her a kiss through the screen. "Alright. I love you and enjoy your day, baby."
She cutely giggled at what I did before doing the same, "I love you. Keep me updated, okay?" A stern face transformed her smile.
"I will." Nodding, I gave her a light smile waiting for her to end the video chat.
She quickly said, "Bye, asshole." I watched as she poked her tongue in her cheek in conjunction with a clasped hand outside the mouth moving in a back and forth motion giving me the impression of a blowjob before eventually hanging up, leaving me with mouth agape.
I was scrolling through my messages when I caught a glimpse of a text from my manager, Ray. I had one manager and an agent that represented different aspects of my career. My manager was now a dear friend and someone I had grown to love and appreciate. My agent saw me at parties and projects or performances and that was about as personal as we got. Without all of them I'd never get the work I got them on a consistent basis. I payed sometimes upwards of twenty percent of my earnings to them but without them I'd still have no earnings in my chosen field despite having both of my parents being one of the bests actor and actress.
Ray-ban: You have a meeting with the contract manager in two days.
Ray-ban: As usual, I will come with you and your lawyer, so call her to give her a heads up ASAP.
I texted him back agreeing before sliding to my lawyer's number and left a massage. It had always been better to call her up to talk clearer but considering the time, I doubted she was already awake.
"I'm back, bitch." Kehlani vocalised coming out of the sliding door and sat back on her seat. A Don Julio Blanco Tequila bottle and two shot glasses were placed on the table. Neither salt nor any lemon were seen.
"Never too early for a drink huh?" I placed one of my legs over the armrest of the chair sitting comfortably. "Now tell me what's up." I watched as she carefully poured the alcohol into each of the small glasses.
"Ima cut this short because you know I fucking hate talking about problems but it has something to do with Monét...." She paused looking at me then blinked both of her eyes rapidly.
I could tell there was some sort of hesitation in her eyes. I didn't blame her, it had always been kind of hard for her to spill her emotions out. She had been doing well recently though.
She set the bottle back on the table again, "Well, she's moved on." She said lowly, an air of melancholy surrounded her.
"What–Are you sure? It's only been like–two weeks." As far as I remembered the last time we talked about this for the first time she had already stopped talking to her for a week and it had only been a few days after that.
She shrugged looking down at the floor, her spine curved as if she was withdrawing into herself. "I–I went to her house after you came over right? I was going to talk to her, to have a confession about what I felt. I was about to pull up her driveway when I saw her by the front door with her ex, John." She bit her lip, eyes were still glued on the floor. She was obviously avoiding eye contact trying to conceal her real feelings.
I pursed my lips as a thought formed in my mind that was in opposition what was being said. I wasn't sure if I was trying to sugarcoat or be positive but I was definitely not trying to get her hopes up. "That could've been something else, Lani, unless you saw them kissing and shit." We both took our own shots almost at the same time. Drinking with an empty stomach, I was certain in a few minutes I would be holding my stomach in pain.
"That's the thing." She frowned as if she was reflecting what her reaction was back at the incident. "She was busy sticking her tongue down that motherfucker's fucking throat to even see me so I just–." She trailed off, "Just drove away."
"How come the gate was open though?" I playfully asked to lighten up the mood.
"You're stupid how the gate being open is your fucking concern not me." She said laughing while shaking her head at me, "I asked you to come over to comfort me not to investigate how the gate was open."
"I was joking. Ariana didn't mention anything though so she probably have no idea." I shrugged still trying to remember if she had mentioned anything to me about the woman.
Kehlani let out a heavy sigh letting her body to fall heavily back to her seat, "I feel so shit."
"To make you feel shittier, you both are in the wrong here, mostly you for me." I shrugged not being careful to what I was about to say, "You ghosted her–literally went Zayn on her without saying anything like– you both were building up a relationship so what did you expect her to think and do?" I questioned looking directly into her eyes but knew enough I wouldn't get any response but she laughed at the weird reference. "You didn't expect her to be waiting for your ass to come back, did you?"
Pursing her lips before answering, "I know...." She rolled her eyes knowing I was right she then leaned over the table to take another shot, "Fucking Don Julio makes me realise a lot of shit." She muttered.
"What if she felt the same way about you though?" I asked out of nowhere. They were seeing each other for a few months, it wasn't impossible for Victoria not to start feeling some type of way.
She whipped her head to my direction lookijg confused. "What?"
"She may be feeling you before you ghosted her."
She scooted closer and reached over to hit my arm playfully. What was with people being fucking violent? "Shut up. You're making me feel worse."
"Deserved." I smirked receiving a growl from the woman.
"Do you want edibles?" She stood up after I nodded in agreement. When she was about to leave, she made sure to mutter, "Asshole." making sure I heard her.
-
fuck proofreading