♡ CHAPTER TWELVE ♡
The next day was hectic.
Ariana woke up to Brandon tapping on her window at 5:30 in the morning. When she yanked the curtains out of the way to yell at him, he just tapped his watch at her and disappeared out of sight.
She brought Percy with her as they biked to the studio. Bryce didn't mind that Ariana borrowed his bike, he said that she was pretty enough to ride it or something like that.
When they arrived at the building, Keera immediately got started on vocal warm-ups, and they drank a lot of water. They got started on a few easy classical songs. And then they sang country songs, pop songs, and then rock songs. And then Keera coached Ariana on the proper posture while singing, how to cover slip-ups in lyrics, etcetera etcetera etcetera.
And then Brandon coached Ariana about what to do when this or that happens on stage, how to not be out of breath when walking around the stage while singing, and how to win the crowd.
"How do you know so much about performing?" Ariana had asked in the middle of their break.
"You'll find out soon enough," Brandon replied, smirking. Ariana groaned. That smirk is really starting to get irritating, Ariana thought. But it's still cute, some part of her added. She felt so shocked with herself that she actually thought that, that she slapped herself across the face.
Damian, Brandon and Keera all stared at her like they were debating on whether or not they should take her to the mental hospital.
"Sorry, just..." Ariana racked her brain for an excuse. "My face was starting to feel all numb, I just wanted to get the feeling into it again."
Damian nodded indifferently and went back to playing with Percy. Keera just gave her a curious look, and then turned back to whatever she was doing. Brandon just looked like he was about to blow up into a fit of laughter in any second. When he couldn't keep his snickers in, Ariana stuck her tongue out at him.
"Shut up," She said as she threw an empty water bottle at his head.
"So Ariana, have you been going to any singing classes?" Keera asked Ariana. She shook her head.
"No, I've never been to any sort of music class except this," Ariana replied. Keera seemed shocked.
"Really? You play guitar, don't you?"
"Yes, but I learned by myself,"
"You just have such a beautiful and natural singing voice that really didn't need any more improvement on that I thought you've been taking singing classes for years!" Ariana smiled.
"I haven't, but my dad loves to sing, so I got it from him," she said. Keera nodded.
"I think we're done with all the lessons, we just need you to pick the song," Keera announced. She smiled at Ariana as if expecting that she already had a song prepared.
"I-I don't really have anything in mind at the moment..." She admitted sheepishly. Keera pursed her lips and nodded.
The rest of the hour was spent suggesting songs for Ariana to sing. But she either didn't like them, didn't know them, or thought that they weren't good enough to perform against Blair.
"You know what? Maybe we should just figure it out tomorrow," Ariana suggested. They all agreed and after saying goodbye to Keera, they went outside the building.
Damian had brought his skateboard with him. And Brandon told Ariana to get on Bryce's bike and follow him since they were going somewhere she wasn't familiar with yet.
"Could you please tell me where we're going?" Ariana asked as she reluctantly got on Bryce's bike.
"No, seashell," Brandon told her for the millionth time.
"For all I know, you two are going to lead me to a creepy warehouse where you're going to chop me to pieces and make me into seashell stew!" Ariana exclaimed.
"Seashell stew? I've never heard of that," Damian thought silently.
"Seriously seashell, do you think that these faces would be capable of such crimes?" Brandon asked as he and Damian stood side-by-side and gave her their best innocent faces. They were so hilarious that no matter how hard Ariana tried to hold her laughter in, she burst out into a fit of laughter.
"Okay, okay, fine," she grumbled after she had her dose of laughter. Brandon biked in front of her while she remained behind him and Damian rode his skateboard behind her.
They went to the mystery place in silence. And Ariana was on the edge of her seat in anticipation. After a while, they arrived at a sort-of plaza. No, it was more of a park.
They were in the middle of the road. But there weren't a lot of cars. Ahead of them was a giant space of grass with a big fountain in the middle and benches surrounding it. Everything outside the grass area was pavement. Which was mostly filled with people riding their skateboards, bikes, scooters, etc.
Brandon and Damian grinned wide. They went to the grass part and sat on the rim of the fountain, their bikes and skateboard were sitting under a tree not far from them. Ariana got a handful of water and started dabbing on the back of her neck since it was a very very hot day.
"You guys come here often?" Ariana asked.
"Yeah, we loved to hang out here," Brandon replied with a smile. "I'm gonna go buy some ice cream, what flavors do you guys want?"
"Vanilla,"
"Chocolate," Damian and Ariana replied at the same time. Brandon nodded and went off while Damian and Ariana were left alone in the fountain. After an awkward moment of silence passed, Damian spoke up.
"So..." He started off. Ariana glanced at him.
"You're r-really pushing through with this sing-off thing, aren't you?" He asked.
"Well it's not like I have much of a choice,"
"Yeah, b-but... Do you really wanna do this?"
"To put it frankly, no. But as I've said, I don't have much choice,"
Damian nodded. And then a crooked smile played on his lips. "Don't worry, Blair never could stand a chance against y-you, anyway."
Ariana laughed at how wrong and cheesy that sentence was. She pushed her shoulder against Damian's shoulder as he pushed his against hers, too. Soon, it became a shoulder-shoving war. Ariana shoved Damian a little too hard and he almost fell into the fountain. When he regained his composure, he gave Ariana a playful glare and he began chasing her across the park.
"Oh don't be a sissy!" Ariana screamed at Damian as she ran across the park. In just a matter of seconds, she felt someone's arms wrap around her waist. And she was lifted off from the ground.
"Let me go!" Ariana screamed at Damian to put her down. He did, almost instantly. And Ariana didn't know why she felt just a tiny bit disappointed.
"Gotcha," He said playfully while they walked back to the fountain. Brandon was waiting for them, licking his ice cream. He grinned when he saw them.
"Hey!" He said as he handed them their ice cream. They took it gratefully and were able to finish it in between a lot of corny jokes and sarcastic laughs. The rest of the the day was spent in the park, riding and skating. At one point, Damian even tried to teach Ariana how to ride the skateboard. And she wasn't very bad at it, surprisingly.
Damian even did a few tricks for her, and then they were off towards home. They all went on the same path until Damian had to go the other way to his house, they bid him goodbye as they continued on home.
When they reached their neighborhood, Ariana was going to follow Brandon into his house to put Bryce's bike into his garage but instead, he turned to her in the middle of the gate and said in a strained voice, "bye, seashell."
He turned and Ariana was left outside his gate with a slightly baffled expression. Then she shrugged and went back into her house. Her family was having dinner in the kitchen, she could smell the heavenly scent of fried chicken.
She hurriedly joined them and stuffed herself full. Her father was telling them all about his plans for the company and for Damian.
"... He's a talented kid! And I was also thinking that maybe he could do a duet with you, Ariana," her father was saying. Ariana nearly choked on her water.
"Uhm, huh? What again?" She asked, trying to breathe properly.
"Maybe we could get you to sing with him in a song or something," her father repeated. Ariana didn't respond. For some odd reason, the thought of singing with Damian made her feel slightly... Guilty. Or torn. Like she was backstabbing a friend or something.
After they finished eating, Ariana went up to her room with Percy and Jaz. She sung a few songs, wrote a few poems, even ate some Cheetos. Until a familiar tapping sound was heard from her window. She opened it, expecting to see the smirking face of Brandon Davis. But she actually saw two figures standing in front of Brandon's window.
It was Brandon and Damian. He must have come to visit Brandon after he parted ways with us eralier, Ariana guessed. They grinned at her and waved. She waved, too. She opened her window and was surprised that the air outside was slightly windy.
"What a nice surprise," Ariana said when she leaned on her windowsill.
"Come up the roof with us," Brandon invited.
"Um, no thanks,"
"Please, seashell?" He pleaded. Ariana debated with herself. And then she stole a glance at Damian, and then she made up her mind.
"Let me go change first," she said as she shut her window and curtains and went to the bathroom to change from her dirty clothes. She changed into a gray shirt, dark green pajama pants and grabbed a dark blue jacket. She opened her window and threw a crumpled up piece of paper on Brandon's window.
His face popped up merely seconds later. "Lets go," she said. She sat on the ledge of her windowsill and then shakily stood up. She put one foot on Brandon's windowsill, worried that she might just die right then and there. But then she felt a hand grabbing her wrist, and she put her other foot on the ledge as she collapsed into Brandon's room.
She huffed. "Okay, I'm... I'm okay now," she said in between pants. They went to the other room with the rope ladder and they quickly got to climbing it. When they were on the part of the roof that they were the night before, Ariana noticed that Brandon's guitar was actually there.
Ariana's heart started to race. Thump, thump, thump. She knitted her eyebrows in confusion. She set herself down on the roof as Brandon sat on her left side and Damian sat a little farther on her right side. Damian wore a black hoodie, while Brandon hadn't changed from his attire earlier in the afternoon.
They just sat there for a while, in peace. The wind rustled Ariana's hair slightly and she closed her eyes in content. But Brandon spoke up. "Let's get this show on the road," he said. Ariana's eyes snapped open, and she didn't know what he meant.
Brandon suddenly started playing a beat that Ariana was sure she was familiar with, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it. "Everybody get up!" Brandon said. Oh! I know this song! Ariana thought.
"Hey, hey, hey," Damian backed up.
"Hey, hey, hey," Ariana joined in.
"Hey, hey, hey," They both sang.
"If you can't hear what I'm trying to say, if you can't read from the same page. Maybe I'm going deaf, maybe I'm going blind, maybe I'm out of my mind..." Brandon sang.
Damian sang the next line. "Okay now he was close, try to domesticate you. But you're an animal, baby it's in your nature. Just let me liberate you," he sang.
"Hey, hey, hey," Brandon sang in the background.
"You don't need no papers," Damian continued.
"Hey, hey, hey,"
"That man is not your maker,"
"And that's why I'ma take a good girl!" Brandon sang.
"I know you want it, I know you want it, I know you want it," Ariana sang.
"You're a good girl!"
"Can't let it get past me, you're far from plastic. Take about getting blasted," Ariana sang while snapping her fingers together.
"Hate these blurred lines!" Brandon sang with a smile.
"I know you want it, I know you want it, I know you want it," Ariana sang with an exaggerated shake of her head. Damian clapped his hands together with the beat of Ariana's finger-snapping.
"But you're a good girl!"
"The way you grab me, must wanna get nasty. Go ahead, get at me,"
"Everybody get up!" Brandon sang. The three of them were having the time of their lives, and you could tell by just looking at their faces.
"What do they make dreams for, when you get them jeans on? What do we need steam for?" Ariana sang.
"You're the hottest chick in this place!" The three of them sang in different harmonies.
"I feel so lucky," Ariana said with a teasing wink.
"Hey, hey, hey," Damian sang.
"You wanna hug me,"
"Hey, hey, hey,"
"What rhymes with hug me?"
"Hey, hey---"
"Hey!" A man's voice called from below them. "You guys are good, but people are trying to sleep! Can't you do that in the morning?!" Then he walked away, probably grumbling.
The three teens burst out laughing. Brandon put down his guitar, and Damian wiped his glasses. Ariana stared at the night sky, disappointed that there were only four stars in sight. She sighed and pulled her jacket closer.
"Why are you doing this?" She asked Brandon and Damian. Damian gave Brandon a questioning look.
"Don't worry, she has a bad habit of getting lost in her thoughts and blurting out a question related to her thoughts that we actually have no idea about and expects us to understand,"
Ariana sighed. Then she turned to them. "Why are you... Being friends with me?"
"Seashell, you have to stop asking questions like that. We're being friends with you for the same reason you're being friends with us," Brandon said.
"Because I don't have a choice?" Ariana asked somewhat teasingly.
"No," Brandon said scoldingly. "Because you're one of the few people we actually like."
Ariana smiled. "Okay," she said. Damian's phone buzzed in his pocket, and he checked to see who had messaged him. He frowned at his phone screen.
"Hey guys, I gotta go. Have a good night," and he took off. Ariana was filled with curiosity. She wanted to know why Damian was so quiet, why he stutters, why he always took off abruptly when he got a text or a phone call.
"Don't worry seashell, he just has something to deal with," Brandon reassured. But even he looked a little worried and unsure. She just nodded and hugged her knees close to her chest.
"Anyway," she sighed after a moment of silence. "It's getting late, I think I'm gonna go home now."
They went back to the hatch and climbed down the ladder just like the other night. They went to Brandon's room and Ariana climbed on his windowsill and entered her own window. When she turned back, she saw Brandon's face was a mix of different emotions.
"Goodnight," was all she said as she closed her window and her curtains and hurried to bed.
~~~Author's note~~~
Hi guys!
Once again, a MASSIVE THANK YOU for all of your reads and votes! I hope to see you guys comment, though...
Anyway, Christmas is nearing! And so is my birthday! *mini celebratory dance*
Okay guys here's the question...
Who is your favorite celebrity?
Mine would have to be Mackenzie Foy :) Okay once again, please comment, vote and fan! Bye, peace :)
-J.Q