Ariana Grande's POV
My arms instinctively wrapped my lover around his neck. I could not help myself but to smile when I heard him say "Hi, baby." With a light chuckle in the tone of his voice.
His hand landed on my waist once I pulled away from the warm embrace to turn around, and introduce him to Y/n.
However, she was too occupied with Victoria and my brother, Frankie. My gaze landed on her face which was signaling the environment is too overwhelming for her and she is feeling uncomfortable.
I remembered her words. Crowds or bigger groups of people make her feel uneasy and anxious. An idea occurred in my mind.
I clasped my hands together, causing everyone to look at me.
"Thank you so much for coming folks, but let's settle down a bit, please. You can go to the living room and wait for me there." I waved my hands that direction and gave a short glance at Y/n. Her eyes were glued to the floor and I twisted my mouth to the side.
"Actually.." I paused. "Y/n, could you please come with me to the kitchen and help me prepare some snacks?" Her cold gaze fixated on me once our eyes met and my lips curled back into straight line.
She then nodded, and with hands in her pockets, Y/n made her way towards me.
I turned around on my heels and led the latter to my kitchen.
"..There should be a bottle with coconut milk in the fridge. Mind passing it to me?" I asked Y/n, as I was standing on my tippy toes, trying to reach for multiple cups for everyone.
I held onto the edge of the kitchen counter to support my balance and before I could react in any way, an extra hand was above mine.
My head snapped to the side to see what is going on and my eyes landed on Y/n's face. She wasn't looking at me, as she was taking cups one by one, trying not to drop them.
A wide smile appeared on my face. "Thank you. That was sweet of you." I thanked with my hand placed over my heart. Y/n nodded, yet her face still wasn't showing any signs of happier emotion.
"There were two bottles, actually. The other one is like.. half empty." Y/n spoke up in a lower tone in her voice, observing both of the bottles. I smirked.
"Half empty, or half full?"
She gave me a confused look and I could not help myself but to giggle. "I can tell you are a pessimist, aren't you?" My hands reached for the bottles to take them away from her hands.
"Uh.." A confused exhale came out of her and she shook her head.
Y/n helped me with getting some crackers, cookies and chips, and although it took only a while to prepare everything, she seemed much more relaxed than before. It made me smile.
She took a sip of her drink and let out a quiet hum. "Aren't you rich enough to get like.. a kitchen that is built according to your height?"
I spun around with my jaw on the floor. A gasp brushed over my lips. "Are you mocking me?" I faked being offended by her words.
"No. Was just sayin' " Y/n shrugged her shoulders, completely unbothered. I gently shoved her arm and chuckled. "Fuck you, Spieler."
A weak smile tugged in the corner of her lips, but quickly faded away. We both looked the same direction and spotted another companion.
I made my way to Dalton and kissed him on his lips. "Y/n, this is my boyfriend - Dalton Gomez." I introduced the latter to my lover once I pulled away and turned around.
"Dalton, this Y/n. A friend of Courtney and mine. She's the gamer we've been talking about a lot."
"Hey." Y/n gave him a weak wave and so did Dalton. The atmosphere was kinda tense, but I tried to turn down this thought of mine.
"Baby, can you help us with the drinks?" I politely asked the tallest person in the room and he nodded with smile.
I gently grabbed Y/n's hand and followed Dalton who left the kitchen first. She did not seem to mind my grip on her wrist, according to her relaxed expression.
I looked into her eyes that were, once again, nervously shifting around the room, and I could tell she was not anxious this time. More like shy or embarrassed.
"Let's go." I demanded with soft voice and the latter nodded in response.
Everyone was already comfortably sitting on my spacious couch and chattering with each other about random stuff, that I did not really catch on.
"There's my little sis!" Frankie squealed out in excitement and I giggled. I watched Dalton place down the tray with drinks, but quickly turned around when I registered Y/n's warm hand laced out of my grip.
Y/n sat down next to Frankie, on the spot that he eagerly patted, and leaned her body against the back of the couch.
Dalton made himself comfortable in an armchair and I followed him. Right after I sat down on his lap, facing my friends, his strong hands slid up to my waist.
I peeked at him over my shoulder and kissed the tip of his nose, which he reacted to with a grin.
My glance shifted back to check up on Y/N, who was already having a conversation with Hale. Their facial expressions seemed serious, so I deducted they must've been talking about something very interesting.
Her and Hale nodded their head here and there, yet I still could not figure out what were they talking about.
Victoria snapped me out of my staring trance and I smiled at her, showing my dimples. Dalton's hands slipped away from my waist, however I barely paid any attention to it, as I was too occupied with Victoria talking about her new possible album, that might be titled 'Jaguar'.
After a while of us talking, and me ocassionally peeking at Y/n, I turned around to snuggle up closer to my lover, who was not so much interested into having a conversation with me.
I smiled at him, but he, clearly, had a better time texting someone over his phone - the wide smile on his lips convinced me about it.
"Who are you texting with?" I embraced my arm around his neck to smooch him on the cheek, however he did not respond.
"Just.. somebody from work." His eyes met with mine when he sighed out and turned off the phone. "They sold this house and she wanted to let me know about the great info." Dalton reassured me.
I proudly smiled at him. "Can you show me a picture?" My gaze was piercing him through and he noticed that, but his only reaction was a simple 'no.'
"I don't have a picture of it right now, because it wasn't my deal." Dalton explained and I nodded that I understand. Hale called out my name which caught my attention and I turned around again.
"Ari, do you have a PC mouse?" His question caught me off guard, but I immediately began trying to remember if I have this item somewhere in the house. "We want to see Y/n in action." Frankie's husband added and playfully bumped her arm. I nodded and got up from Dalton's lap to rush to my bedroom.
I came back to the living room after some time and informed them that I only found a wireless one. "Even better. Thanks." Y/n stated, reaching for the mouse, which I handed her.
Y/n was already setting up something on Hale's laptop, so I simply sat down next to her on the couch and watched the process.
"You should be able to connect it with the TV now." Hale told the latter and she hummed, while setting simple earbuds in her ears. I grabbed the remote to turn the TV on.
Hale's head lifted up to check the TV screen and back at the laptop, as he was trying to figure how to share screens. Once he found the solution, he cheered.
"Great! You can sign in now. I won't peek." He chuckled and Y/n simply nodded. Her eyes were focused on the screen, as she typed in her username and password.
She let out a sigh and cracked her joints, which caused them to pop a wave of loud noises. "Oh shoot." I gasped in shock and laughed. Y/n did not respond to it in any way, and went back to work.
"Any songs you would like to hear?" She asked us after she opened an OSU! website. "Surprise us." Victoria made herself comfortable on the floor and watched the wide screen in front of her.
The latter only nodded her head and booted on the final app.
"Welcome to OSU!" Said male voice in the app once the game started, and we all looked the same direction. The TV was hypnotizing us.
Y/n was scrolling through a very long list of songs, and each one of them had this silver 'X' next to it.
"What does the X mean?" I asked and looked at her. "Full combo with multiple modes. And no accuracy errors." She simply replied.
'Oh..' Echoed in my own mind.
"Wait, so.." Frankie leaned in closer to the gamer and she turned her head at him.
"..Each map has a different rating and difficulty, right?" He asked curiously. She nodded. "Yep."
"What's the highest difficulty you've reached so far?" Victoria murmured out from across the room. We could barely see her.
The player thought for a second. "I think like ten point thirty stars."
The number already frightened me, but I dared myself to ask another question. "..and what is the highest difficulty?"
She thought for a while again and seemed uncertain about her answer. "Humanly playable - probably around eleven or twelve stars. I don't think there are harder maps." She scoffed and looked upset about it, which amused me.
"You are crazy." Hale replied and Y/n twisted her mouth to the side. "Show us what you've got, player." Frankie patted her shoulder and smirked at me as he emphasized the nickname. I rolled my eyes at him and leaned back against the couch.
***
A song started playing, and it caught our attention. Y/n's eyes were already glued on the laptop screen and her hand was on the keyboard.
At first, the melody was slow - and so were the circles. Her accuracy was with no errors so far and the combo score was getting higher with every press.
Speaking of that, I registered she was only using the 'X' and 'Y' buttons.
Before I could react in any possible way, the song got extremely fast. The tempo of circles followed the rhythm and the latter's fingers danced on her keyboard smoothly, more than I could imagine.
"Oh my.." Victoria let out a shocked gasp, as she stared at the screen with widened eyes.
I reacted in the same way, and so did Hale with Frankie.
My gaze was hypnotizing the television. I did not even notice Dalton was gone, but that did not matter to me at the moment.
Instead, my glance flicked at the girl's hand and at what speed her two fingers moved. It sent chills down my body and I felt a lump forming in my throat.
"How the fuck-" Hale threw his hands in shock, while staring at the screen. "Her accuracy is still perfect. That's just.." Frankie followed his words.
"..inhuman." Hale whispered to finish the sentence.
Y/n finished the song in less than two minutes and we all turned our heads with opened mouth at her.
"What." She monotonously asked, taking the earbuds out of her ears.
"You are fucking insane, Spieler." Victoria began clapping and we all joined her. Y/n seemed uncomfortable about our praise, as she looked away. Her unbothered attitude made me smirk though.
"It was a piece of cake."
Y/n showed us some more maps in the next following hour and explained how the tournaments work. It was impressive in multiple ways.
She proved us she most definitely has 'an ear for music' and perfect focus ability. I could not stop smiling at her and she must have noticed it, because her eyes tried to avoid any contact with me.
I checked the time and announced it's time to order some food. Everyone agreed, except for Dalton, who returned in the middle of our discussion. He seemed upset about something.
"Baby, is everything alright?" I followed him to the hallway. He shook his head and sighed.
"Aaron just called me and it seems like I will need to leave for a couple of days.." His arms pulled me into a tight hug, however I only stood there like paralyzed. His words echoed in my head and I felt lightheaded.
"Oh.." Came out of my mouth. "..When is he expecting you to leave?" I asked, wrapping my arms around his waist to hug him back.
Dalton scoffed after he pulled away and his thumb caressed my cheek. "I will have to drive to the headquarters now and get more information." He scoffed in guilt. I gave him a weak smile and hugged him again.
I've been understanding of my lovers job since the very beginning and I knew I can not put pressure on him, so I simply nodded.
"Alright.." I sighed, leaning against the wall, and watched him put his sneakers on.
"I will call you once we are done, okay?" Dalton opened the door and I agreed, although I knew he is not going to do it.
He never does, after all.
To be continued..
Hello folks! I hope you enjoyed this extra chapter, as an excuse for my longer absence :)
Don't forget to vote and comment <3
- Tea xx
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@ Tearexik