Ariana's POV:
I got back from the meeting mentally exhausted, I just wanted to lay down and take a nap, hopefully forget today happened. As much as I tried, it wasn't possible for me to have a day to myself. I laid down, ready to sleep when the door to my bedroom opened.
"Can you have an adult conversation without ignoring me? Last night was unnecessary Ariana, I can't believe you would just blatantly ignore me?" His voice raised higher the more he spoke until he was eventually yelling at me.
I closed my eyes with a heavy sigh, "I don't want to do this right now Dalton, can this please wait until later? I'm so tired." I begged, listening to him scoff before slamming the door behind him.
I sat up, hoping he had taken the sign, but he stood his ground, wanting to 'resolve' things immediately.
"What Dalton? I didn't mean to ignore you last night, but I told you that I wouldn't be able to talk to you for a majority of the evening. It's not like I planned to be too busy to be with you the entire night, but I talked to you as much as I could." I explained, "I don't know what you wanted me to do? I was a part of the event."
He shook his head with a smirk, "Bullshit Ariana, you're a liar."
I became defensive, I hate being called a liar when I'm telling the truth, "I'm being honest with you, I literally explained all of this to you before. I'm sorry for ignoring you, it wasn't my intention to do that."
"Okay Ariana," He said sarcastically, "Using your makeup brand as a cover up to go out and--." He stopped himself, looking at me with disgust.
"My makeup brand? So, you're upset that Nevaeh got signed? I had no choice in that, I was against it in the first place but got out voted, it's not my fault." Something in him turned, the face he made sent shivers down my spine, I was terrified.
Taking a step closer, he attempted to make me fear him, wanting to seem more powerful as he stared me down, "What? Why the fuck would you let her sign? It's your brand, do something about it."
"I can't." I replied, quickly shot down by him.
"You need to fix it, or do you still want her? Go ahead, leave me Ariana. I'll sleep in the living room tonight, I'm sick of your shit." He headed toward the door, opening it with his back turned to me, "I'm serious Ariana, fix this." He slammed the door after him, leaving me alone.
Feeling petty, I connected my phone to the house speakers and played 'pete davidson', texting Courtney to pull up so I can spend the night with her. I packed myself a bag while the song played, waiting for my best friend.
About 10 minutes passed before I heard the speakers from Courtney's car blaring outside. I raced down with my bag, listening to Dalton start another argument with me for leaving and not wanting to be here for the time being. It became a part of our routine.
We had spent the rest of the night talking over wine, I ended up getting drunk and falling asleep, not forgetting to set my alarms for the REM Beauty photoshoot that was scheduled for tomorrow. I woke up the next morning and got ready, putting on some eyeliner and light makeup before heading over with the help of Courtney.
I walked on the set, my anxiety kicking in when I realized Nevaeh was standing not too far from me. I didn't want to approach her since we hadn't talked in a while, the talk when the power went out being the most recent. I stared from afar, my heartbeat speeding up when we made eye contact, exchanging small and awkward smiles with each other.
She glanced around the room for a moment then made her way to me.
"Hey."
"Hi." I replied, "I seen you modeling, you look good. I appreciate you taking the offer, it means a lot." She nodded, playing with her fingertips out of clear nervousness.
"I was actually against it at first," She admitted with a sigh to follow, "Victoria was the one who convinced honestly, I heard who it was for and said 'No' immediately." I turned to face her; my eyebrows raised as shock took over.
I shrugged, "I didn't want you to do it either, I was the only one who voted against it."
She looked at me with a small smirk, tilting her head slightly.
"You didn't want to work with me?"
I rolled my eyes and we laughed together.
"How's your relationship with her?" I asked, wanting to make small talk so things didn't dry out and become awkward between us again. I wanted to talk to her.
She didn't respond immediately, instead gave me an emotionless expression, "I don't think that's a good idea to talk about my current relationship with my ex-something." I scoffed from beside her, "I'm demoted to 'ex-something' now? You act like we never dated Nevaeh."
"When we were dating you acted like we weren't official Ariana." She fired back with a quickness.
Although I wanted to make a comment against her, I decided against it, wanting to keep things somewhat civil between us, "I'm gonna let that comment slide."
We laughed things out, silence taking over as we waited for Nevaeh's group to go again.
I waited for a few moments, looking around to see if I was needed before I started another conversation with Nevaeh, "If you're worried about hurting my feelings, you won't. I can handle you talking about your girlfriend, it doesn't bother me." I reassured her, hoping that would give her the little push needed to open up to me again.
"Talk about it over lunch? I want to catch up with you."
Nevaeh crossed her arms, looking away from me before speaking, "Alright, lunch it is."
I looked away from her as well, not wanting her to see the smile I had grown or the blush that crept up onto my cheeks from her answer. She still had an effect on me that I wasn't ready for her to know about again, as if it wasn't obvious.
The photoshoot lasted a few hours, they didn't want to tire out the models, so they spread it across the rest of the week. I had brought up that idea to management after realizing I needed an excuse to see her more often and this would be the perfect one.
Nevaeh drove us to a vegan spot about 15 minutes away from the set, she had offered to pay for our meals, but I insisted on buying them since she drove us. We sat at a table far away from the others, sitting across from each other.
She began to talk about her relationship with Victoria, highlighting the ups consistently. I gripped my drink, the hold growing tighter around the plastic the more she talked about her girlfriend. It wasn't until the cold water covered my hand that I realized I broke the cup.
"Oh wow." She pointed out with a slight chuckle, making my cheeks grow red with embarrassment as the water fell to cover the table.
I stood up quickly, as did she. She went for napkins and I excused myself to the bathroom.
Nevaeh's POV:
I cleaned up the mess on the table and got her another drink, filling the new cup with ice water for her. I sat back down, my eyes moving to stare at the bathroom door, awaiting her arrival. As much as I don't want to admit it, I enjoyed her company and I've missed her. It's been weird not having her around me constantly to bug me.
I know I shouldn't feel this way, but I do. A part of me will always want Ariana despite trying to convince myself it's not true. I didn't want to hurt Victoria and I wasn't being honest with myself. I guess I was too deep in my own thoughts that I hadn't noticed Ariana return from the bathroom.
"You okay?" She asked, breaking the silence.
I nodded, "Just thinking is all."
"What about?"
"I feel like I'm forcing myself to want Victoria in ways that I don't, at least not anymore." I said absentmindedly as I picked through my food. I looked up, realizing what I had said only to find Ariana with a concerned look on her face, asking me to elaborate, so I did.
"Things with Victoria aren't what they used to be, I'm in like a weird place with her. As of recently, the affection she gives me doesn't feel right in a way. I guess I'm confused on how I feel about her." I explained, watching Ariana smile subtly but it vanished as soon as I noticed.
"I seen that, you're probably ecstatic about hearing that from me."
She shook her head, "I'm not happy to hear that Neveah, I just want you to be happy whether you want to realize that or not."
I sighed, "I'm thinking about taking a break between us, I think we need one because it isn't fair to her that I'm unsure how I feel, but it also isn't fair to me because I'm living a lie?" I rambled.
"How are things between you and Dalton though?" I asked, taking a bite of my food.
I watched as she rolled her eyes, "We argued last night, three times." She paused to move her food around with her fork before continuing, "Over you actually." I raised an eyebrow and Ariana immediately went to clarify, "Not all of them were over you, just one of them. He started arguing with me over the event and then I slipped up and mentioning you caused another argument."
We talked for a while more, eventually finishing our food and I dropped her off at home. I hesitated on walking her to her door or letting her stay in my car for a while longer to talk, I didn't want to hurt Victoria's feelings in case she found out. I waited until she shut the door behind her to drive off and head home.
Victoria was leaving tonight so I rushed home, I wanted to have a talk with her before she left. I was nervous but I knew things needed to be laid out on the table.
"Hi baby." She greeted as soon as I walked in, receiving a smile in return as she approached me.
I looked around, noticing her bags were already packed and waiting by the door.
"I want to talk to you; can we sit down?" I asked and she nodded, worry and concern spreading across her face as we headed to the living room. We each took a seat on the sofa, our knees touching as we turned to face each other.
"What's going on?"
"I um--" I let out a deep breath, not knowing how to begin this conversation.
"I'll start then I guess, I have something I wanted to tell you and today confirmed that. I want a break, I don't think you take us seriously and it's become more obvious to me as time passes." She said sadly, tears building up in her eyes.
My head hung low as she continued, "You've been acting weird with me Nevaeh and I just want you to be happy. If that isn't with me I would rather you let me know, I need you to tell me these things instead of bottling them up and expecting me to be able to read your mind."
"I'm giving you a week break," Her left hand moved to caress my back, rubbing up and down my spine in a calming manner. "You are free to do whatever you want as long as you figure out your feelings, I want an answer from you by the time I come back, either you want to be with me and you're going to put effort into us and take us seriously or we're breaking up."
I stayed silent, nodding in shame.
She stood up and kissed the top of my head, grabbing her things from beside the door and leaving.
-
back to back updates of Stuck With U in 2024 is wild 🤭
-kissland- don't ever doubt me again