Kai's Pov
Later that night, Ariana and I were the only ones up, laying in bed with her in my arms. I was busy looking up at our ceiling, while she had been trying to sleep but hadn't made much progress.
I'd be lying if I said I wasn't nervous and hadn't been anxious all day, while I was in my head putting the pieces together. I was trying to enjoy the last bit of normality we had, with us laying together like this because I didn't know what tomorrow would hold—if I'd even get to hold her tomorrow. As much as I didn't want to believe it, I think I knew who the cause of all this had been and it shouldn't have taken me this long to realize it, but I think I just never wanted to believe the answer was right in front of my face...and I said nothing to no one. I just wanted to handle it and I was going to.
"Yeah, I'm not getting any sleep tonight," Ariana mumbled, letting out a sigh.
"I can make you some tea, maybe that would help."
"It's okay, I wanna stay up with you anyway. I know you haven't really slept since yesterday morning—" She paused, sitting her head up for a second before placing it back on my chest, almost as if she was trying to hear something, "Baby, your heart is beating so fast."
"Really?" which I didn't think anyone else could pick up on that, I thought it was just something that was in my head.
Ariana sat up, placing her hand over my heart, "God," she trailed off, causing me to sit up and remove her hand.
"I'm okay," I told her, meeting her eyes, while still holding her hand, "Can we talk?" I noticed the shift in her face like she was expecting the worse from me.
"You're not..?"
"No, no, it's something else."
"Okay," She frowned shifting in her spot.
"Remember when Kehlani and Mac died, how we were there and we just...none of us knew that would never be our last time seeing each other again. Like if we knew that it would be our last time seeing them, we would've chosen our last words to be different...I wouldn't have let her go that day and I know you would've held onto him tighter and—"
"Kai, what are you saying?"
"I don't want to let you go without ever telling you how I feel."
"What do you mean, let me go?" She frowned, searching my eyes for answers, "Baby, what's going on?"
"Nothing, it's just you never know when it'll be your last time seeing someone, so I just wanted to let you know in case I never get a chance to."
"Kai..."
"Seriously, Ariana," I said, feeling my eyes start to water, my anxiety only starting to peak, "I never thought anyone in this world could make me feel anything again and it fucking sucked, but what you do to me—how you make me feel is so much more than just a feeling, Ariana. Like you give me hope, that maybe I don't have to face my life alone every day, that I don't have to feel alone with anything because you're there. I know even if we're angry at each other or sad or even just at the top of the world, every night when the day slows down, it's just me and you, and you'll always be by my side. Even if it's just for a couple of hours and we're asleep, I have you here next to me and I can breathe, I can feel safe, and nothing else matters. There isn't a thing in this world I wouldn't do for you and you know that. But you are so much more to me than my girlfriend, I see you and I see my future wife, the mother of my kids, but I also see the Ariana I was just a door away from...the one who would come inside of my room and just listen to me play the piano, the one who I would see, asleep in my bed when I'm coming home from school, although her room is right next door," I paused, watching as she laughed although tears were streaming down her cheeks, "Ariana, I love you and I can't picture living life without you, so that's why I do everything I can to make sure you're safe and I always will."
Ariana didn't say anything immediately though, trying to wipe her tears, even though they wouldn't stop. I used my hands though, wiping them away as best as I could, while she just smiled.
"You can't just wipe my tears and you're crying too," She giggled, using her hands to wipe mine as well, while I only laughed too, "Is this you like...proposing?"
I almost chocked, not really expecting that, "I—well, I want to but I was going to after all of this cleared up and I don't have a ring yet,"
"Baby, I don't care about a ring," Ariana said, grabbing my hands.
"I know but this isn't how I wanted to propose, at like midnight after sex and some long ass rant."
"Sometimes it feels like our life will never be steady enough to just focus on us like something always gets in the way, so if midnight right now is all the time we'll have with just each other then fuck it, I'm asking you to marry me,"
"Wait," I paused, looking at her to see if she was joking, "Seriously?"
"Honest to God, knock me out,"
"Ariana, of course, I'll marry you,"
***
Around the late afternoon, Ariana was with Courtney and Victoria, while it was just me and Zayn in the house since everyone else was out too. She mentioned that they were looking around for something and had been for the past few days, which meant I wouldn't be expecting her back for a while. Plus, it was perfect that it was just Zayn and I here, so I went to tell him everything.
"So, are you sure this is the right idea?" He asked me, just as I finished up, with us both standing around the island. "You know I'd do whatever for and with you, but I just wanna make sure we're being smart about this. Obviously, all of this TPR shit was planned really well and I'm just worried about us making the wrong move and someone getting hurt."
"I know, but I'm nervous that if we let this go any further, shit will get worse,"
Zayn nodded, letting out a sigh, "You're right, but we can't afford to fuck up, no one else knows what we're doing."
"Then, we won't," I couldn't. I was making it back to my fiancée, whether the world would let me or not.
"I'll be right behind you at all times and if anything goes wrong, you stop and we leave immediately."
***
"Hey, are you ready to go?" I asked Lauren, just as she got in the car.
"Yeah, I bringing some stuff with me though, just in case," She said, closing her door and sitting it by her feet, "So where are we going?"
"Lucy's,"
"You think we'll find more evidence there?"
"Maybe, TPR stole Lucy's files from my house, what if they came back to see if they could find more,"
"But what if TPR is there, shouldn't we call for backup?"
"They won't be and we both know we've been in worse situations together."
"At least let me call Zayn—" She started to say, about to pull out her phone, when I stopped her.
"Lauren, stop," I spat, coming to a hard stop, in the middle of the road. Luckily no one was out where we were, so it was fine. "If he knew, it would break his heart," even though he already knew.
"Knew what?"
"You were the only person who knew I was leaving the house yesterday,"
"You're not seriously saying—" She paused, looking at me in disbelief, before her face dropped and she pulled a gun out from her side, "Drive."
"Lauren—"
"Drive the fucking car, Kai," Lauren spat, holding it to my side so that it wouldn't show through the windows. Although both of us knew I could take the gun from her hand, I also knew that Lauren didn't mind pulling the trigger but the bullet could land anywhere and I wasn't gonna take that risk. "Is your house empty?"
"Yes, but I don't think that's a good idea. I don't know when anyone will be back,"
"This won't take long," was all she said, before I turned the car around. I didn't say anything else, though continuing to my house while we just sat in silence. I wasn't exactly nervous, I didn't know what was gonna happen, I think I was just trying to stay focused and keep my mind clear. Zayn had my phone, while also tracking the location of my car from the van.
I was only fifteen minutes away from home, so I got there in no time, with both of us walking inside. She pointed the gun at me, instructing me to sit on the couch, while she paced around the room.
"Shit," she mumbled, pacing around in circles, before turning to me, "Aren't you going to ask why I did it?"
"It was in Lucy's notes about you,"
"This all could've been avoided," Lauren sighed, her eyes focusing on me as she stopped moving, "I loved you for years and every single time, you just looked right past me...first it was Kehlani and then Ariana broke your fucking heart and you still went back to her. Why wasn't I enough, why did you always look past me?"
"I didn't want to lose my best friend. You saw how easily I lost Kehlani and Ariana and I didn't want to lose you either, so I'm sorry but I couldn't be with you."
"Well," She laughed sarcastically, wiping the couple of tears that fell and pushed her hair back, "That doesn't matter now,"
"What do you mean?"
"Kai, I don't wanna kill you, so I'm asking you to run away with me."
"Lauren—"
"I did this for you, Kai, for you to see who everyone really was and why they didn't deserve you—Ariana doesn't deserve you, she doesn't cherish you the way that she should," Lauren explained, taking a seat next to me, and sitting her hand on my jaw and a little bit of my cheek, "I know I can treat you better than she can."
"It doesn't have to be like this, we—we can all try to move past this, okay? But Lauren, I can't."
She shook her head, getting up from her spot and so did I, hoping to reassure her into making a better choice, "Of course, you can't,"
"I love her, you can't seriously expect me to leave her,"
"No I understand, but I don't want you leaving me either," the green-eyed woman said and without a second thought, fired her gun.
I thought she missed at first until I felt something burning, touching my ribcage, only to look down and see blood on my fingers. I looked up at her once more time, before clutching my side, and letting myself fall. Where was Zayn?