ℝ𝕚𝕘𝕙𝕥 ℕ𝕖𝕩𝕥 𝔻𝕠𝕠𝕣.

ℂ𝕙𝕒𝕡𝕥𝕖𝕣 𝟚𝟞

•It's my fault•

Boca Raton, Florida
Thursday

"Mom I'm fine I swear. You and Frankie need to enjoy this night without me, I'm just doing homework anyways so you don't have to worry."

"Are you sure?"

She stood still at the door of my room.

"Yes, I'm sure. Plus I really don't think I want to go out right now with this whole paparazzi mess going on, I'm still trying to get used to the fact that the world is watching my every move now like I'm under some microscope."

She shrugs in response to what I had said making a face that let me know that she didn't feel like she could do much about it.

"This is what you signed up for Ariana, you have to expect that you'd be getting some type of attention being in the industry that you're in."

"I guess you have a point, but it's still a bit odd to me that people literally get paid to take unsolicited pictures of people just trying to go about their normal lives."

My mom shrugs once again.

"That's how it's gonna be if you're really serious about pursuing this specific career Ari, but we'll do whatever we can in cooperation with the label looking to sign you so that we can get this situation under control to some degree."

"Alright. I'm serious though, I'll be fine here tonight just you two go out and have a good time."

She moves from the doorway and walks over to me pulling me up from my desk chair and embracing me in a hug.

I'm not gonna lie, it kinda scared me because my mom was hugging me like it was the last time she'd see me.

"Stay out of trouble okay, and we'll be sure to bring you something back."

She said to me once we pulled away and I nodded in an okay.

"Bye mom." She turns on her heel going to leave my room.

"Frankie, let's go!"

I could only shake my head smiling through it though as she called for my brother, well more like yelled for him.

She had left my door open a tad unfortunately, so I was forced to get up and go close it a few moments later.

I was only stopped in what I was doing when Frankie stopped the door from closing with his foot.

Looking up at him, he didn't say anything only looking at me which frustrated me some because I was just trying to have a quiet night but he was making things that much harder for me.

"What Frankie? Mom's waiting for you."

He nods in understanding.

"I know. I couldn't resist telling you what I know though."

Rolling my eyes, I opened the door a little further so that I could see what he had to say.

"What is it that you know?"

He didn't step all the way into my room, instead he just simply remained in the doorway as my mom had done previously when she was in here.

"You kissed Carlos."

My eyes widened in surprise at how he knew that cause I know I didn't tell him.

In fact I didn't tell anybody, most of the people who found out went to our school and probably heard it from someone else who had witnessed the fight because India had so loudly told everyone there to hear it.

"Who told you that?"

He shrugs.

"I follow that India girl on Twitter, she said something about it. She made a not so subtle dig at you for it too."

Of course, why didn't I think she'd run to social media with what happened.

That's what everybody does nowadays, not that I can say too much though cause I do the same thing sometimes.

"Oh my god." Running a hand through my hair, I sat on the edge of my bed.

"I told you you still had feelings for him." I rolled my eyes at that as he smiled. "Does Bryson know though?"

I shook my head at that.

"No he doesn't know actually, but he'll find out eventually."

He shakes his head hearing that.

"Well you better tell him before the word gets around cause I don't think he would like the fact that other people found out before him even though other people have."

He turns walking away leaving me perplexed with the situation.

I didn't even have a chance to say anything back before he left my room, but then again what else was there to say.

I just closed the door and a minute later I heard the front door open and close letting me know that Frankie had finally joined my mom outside so they could leave.

I returned to my desk to try and get started on this math homework that I had to do so I could turn it in once I returned to school next week.

As of right now though, I was being forced to trudge and suffer through this math homework that my teacher assigned.

_____

I was just about finished with the first set of work I was supposed to do.

It took me a good minute cause I didn't really understand some of the concepts, but I had called Victoria about it who is actually really good at math.

She had explained pretty much everything to me and I was thankful for that because I was able to finish the work that I had for that day.

Once I had done that, I figured that I'd take a shower since it was starting to get late.

Frankie texted me after I had gotten out saying that they were gonna be out a little later than promised cause they were going to see a movie.

I didn't mind it, that just meant that I was gonna have the house to myself a little longer.

Walking over to my window taking my hair down and letting my curly tresses rest on my shoulders, I inched a bit closer to the sill seeing Carlos's light in his room cut on.

He must've just gotten home.

His curtains were open some so I could see him.

I could see that he didn't look happy.

I haven't talked to him since the fight.

To be fair though, I completely ignored him after the fact.

It's not that I didn't want to talk to him, I just didn't want to escalate the situation even further.

It's clear that I miss him though, and honestly it scared me just seeing how quickly our friendship has broken down over these past few months.

Thinking it over for a short amount of time, I picked up my phone going over to my bed and laying down flat on my back before sending a quick text to Carlos.

I asked him if he was alright in the message that I had sent.

I waited around for a few minutes without getting a response back.

I didn't overreact to that cause I'm not the type to sit around upset because someone didn't text me back immediately.

It was a good ten minutes of me just sitting around scrolling through my socials before I went back to text him again.

He hadn't responded and I just wanted to know if he was okay.

Did I do something wrong?

I just kept the message simple cause there was no need to go all in if he hadn't even answered the first one.

I gave it a few minutes, and because he kept his read receipts on for me I saw immediately when he had read my messages.

The text bubble had come up and disappeared a few times.

My only guess is that he doesn't want to say the wrong thing to me.

CJ🥰: Leave me alone Ariana

That took me by surprise to be honest, I didn't think that he'd react to me that way and yet here we are.

Putting all stops to this confusing texting that we had going, I pulled a big no when it comes to simply texting somebody.

I called him.

Of course, he doesn't answer the first time which didn't deter me in the slightest, the second time though which was an immediate call back then and only then did he pick up the phone.

He probably didn't want me blowing it up, because I had a tendency to do that.

"What do you want? I'm in the middle of something, I don't have time for games."

I rolled my eyes at his response before going to speak.

"I don't know what's gotten into you today, but I simply just asked if you were okay and clearly it seems like you have more problems than I thought."

He let out a sarcastic laugh letting me know just how unamused at this he seemed to be.

"Oh I didn't realize I was having problems Ariana, no it just occurred to me that all of my problems seem to arrive when I get around you."

I went to speak again but he kept going.

"It's funny really, because you seem to be the biggest problem of all the ones that I'm having at the moment. Probably why I have so many of them now."

"What did I do to you!? I'm asking you this again because I'm lost, I need you to say exactly that to me."

He hesitates for a second, I can tell but he presses on.

"Well for starters, you were a big reason why India and I broke up, everybody at that damn school is against me now because of what happened between you two when they found out it was over me, and on top of that the most annoying thing that I have to deal with right now is you."

"You've constantly strung me along, playing this stupid game that you seem to like to play with me while I'm in a relationship no less. The shit is confusing and honestly, I wish that day between you and I at the beach never happened because I was never getting anywhere with you considering the circumstances and you and I knew that."

Damn, I feel guilty.

No other way for me to feel though.

Sighing, I turned over onto my stomach to get a bit more comfortable.

"I'm sorry Carlos I know it was my fault, but my intentions weren't to string you along even though that's exactly what I did. Trust me if I can take back what I did and what happened then I would but obviously I can't."

"Look, I know I did some stupid shit when it came to your relationship with India but I didn't mean all of that. I was just caught up in the jealousy that I possessed, and I let that get the better of me and my actions."

This was the first and only time I was gonna admit this to him.

"Jealous, why would you be jealous when you're the one who broke up with me? Plus you're in a whole relationship with another guy, my ex best friend no less."

"I never wanted to breakup with you, that was the issue. It was just something that had to be done because you and I were at two different stages in our life at the time, I was thinking big and you didn't seem to care about anything, so I had to make a choice for myself and clearly me doing that helped the both of us at the end of the day."

"Whatever."

He's acting like this now for what reason?

"I just didn't like the fact that you seemed to be fine with completely letting go of the feelings you had for me while at same time transferring those feelings you have to another girl. It killed me to see you two together, but I didn't show it at least not to you and then I had to act like the friend India saw me to be at the time when I knew that it was driving me crazy."

"That doesn't excuse anything you did, and it also doesn't excuse the fact that you're still with Bryson even with feelings you claim to still have for me. Hence why I say you were stringing me along whether I was in a relationship or not and that's not cool."

He's not wrong, but then again when was I ever truly right in anything?

"I know, I know but I have a solution to the problem. I'm gonna breakup with Bryson tomorrow, plus I think he's been cheating on me anyways even before you and I kissed so it won't be a huge issue for me."

"How do you expect me to believe that you'll actually do that, and the feelings you claim to have for me how do I know that you're telling the truth and not just saying that?"

"Well for starters, I've been wanting to breakup with Bryson for a little while now because he's just not the same person he was when we first started dating and he's just not you. As for my feelings towards you, I can't exactly tell you that. I think I'd rather show you just how true they are."

"Can you come over?"

The phone line goes silent for a second, so I wasn't sure what his response would be.

Coincidentally enough, the doorbell to my house rung making me roll my eyes wondering who it could be.

So I made my way down the stairs still holding the phone to my ear waiting for Carlos to say something, anything really.

Once I reached the door and I pulled it open I stood there a bit surprised seeing him on the other side.

Only then does he hang up the phone making me take my phone from my ear.

It's no wonder he took so long to say something.

"I'm here now, so show me."

He had a challenging look in his eyes that could easily be matched by my own in the moment.

I didn't say anything to him cause no words were really required.

I simply pulled him inside wanting to match his energy almost immediately before closing it behind us.

I've done a lot of things that were wrong.

This was the closest to doing something right that I've ever gotten...

_____

Imma just leave it off right there👀

Sorry for the lack of updates you guys, this one just became a little longer than I expected and I have like a really bad head cold that's driving me insane.

I'm getting a little better though so we shall see about that.

Anyways though I hope you enjoyed, more updates coming soon.

What do you think is gonna happen next?

What do you think could of been done differently in this part, or what is something that you wished would have happened here?

Don't be a ghost reader. Let me know in the comments, and don't forget to vote.