I'm completely out of ideas. She's not girly, but she's not a tomboy. I can't repeat something I've already done, but I can't think of anything else. This shit is giving me heart palpitations. I only have a few hours to come up with something good; something better than I've done so far. It seems almost impossible right now.
A light bulb goes off in my head.
I'm not the brightest person when it comes to girls. Okay, I'm not bright at all when it comes to girls, so I call the one person that I know who is.
* * *
"I don't know what to do, Zayn," I say. "What type of shit do girls even like?"
"You think I know this stuff? I haven't had a real girlfriend in over two years and I like to keep it that way."
"She's not my girlfriend."
"She's a girl-friend, and it all ends up the same way. The girl causes a problem that the guy is left to deal with. This is why I don't settle down with a girl."
"That's still a completely different situation. What am I supposed to do?"
"Hey, you're lucky I'm even helping you. If you were someone else, I'd laugh in their face and say 'I told you so, mate.'"
"You're sweet. Now, what the fuck do I do?"
"Anything as good as you're looking for is expensive, and you're kind of broke."
"Just give me ideas, I don't even care about the money."
"Do something that you know she likes. Tell me you at least know that much about her."
"Well, I mean, she wants to go clubbing tonight so I said yes to that but-"
"You don't belong in a club."
"Wasn't my idea. She likes reading and music, I don't really know anything else."
"Then you're obviously not doing a very good job with this."
"Just forget it, I don't even know why I'm asking you."
"Good choice."
"You're no help. I'll see you on Monday."
I get up and walk out of Zayn's house. That was a complete waste of my time. It was now three AM, and I still had nothing.
By the time I got home, I still had nothing. By morning, I still had nothing, and now, I was kind of panicking. Maybe a little more than kind of. I'd been up all night, trying to come up with something. I even tried looking up places online, but I couldn't find anything.
It's 11:00 AM now, and Ariana is probably expecting me to call her in less than an hour. Either I had to figure something out fast, or go there with nothing. I was too busy worrying about the possibility of failing to focus on fixing the problem, so by 12:00, I still hadn't figured something out.
I waited a few more minutes for some possible inspiration, but nothing came to me. I sighed and just decided to call Ariana anyway. I didn't know what I was going to say, but I just went for it anyway.
As soon as I called her, it sent me straight to voicemail, which either meant that her phone was dead or just turned off. I shrugged it off and put my phone back on the nightstand. She probably turned off her phone on purpose so that I won't wake her up.
That thought started to seem unrealistic by 1:00; she still hasn't called me back. I try to call her again, but I get sent straight to voicemail. Something isn't right here. Is she ignoring me on purpose? Did I piss her off last night or is she having another breakdown? What if she....I can't even think that.
I wait another five minutes before walking to Ariana's house. I didn't want to drive because there was still a possibility that she could call back with an explanation, and I wanted to make sure that she didn't before showing up at her house unexpectedly.
I realize that I probably should've taken the car once her house comes into view. The front door is wide open. Ariana's mother's car is in the driveway, but there's no noise coming from the house. There are no lights on or anything. It looks empty.
I quicken my pace and run up to the porch, hesitating before walking into the house. There's a broken vase on the floor with flowers and water around it, and a picture frame is smashed on the other side of the room. I can't see which picture, because the glass is covering it.
Holy shit, was she robbed? That wouldn't make any sense, because the TV is still there and there's a laptop sitting on the coffee table. It doesn't even look like anything is missing at all. Just the vase and the picture frame. Ariana and her mum could've just walked somewhere, but the door is still wide open.
I keep walking inside, not making a sound in case somebody is in the house. There aren't any noises coming from any rooms down the hallway, so I quietly go up the stairs. Ariana's door is closed and it's silent.
The floor creaks and I hear a blood-curdling scream coming from behind me. I jump back and turn around to face Ariana's mum, who looks scared out of her mind.
"What the fuck are you doing in my house?" she screams.
"Ma'am, I can explain, I promise!"
"I'm waiting!"
I put my hands out in front of me, almost as like a symbol to stay back. I take a few more steps back just to be safe.
"Ariana and I were supposed to hang out today, and she said to call her around 12, but when I did, it sent me straight to voicemail. I tried again about an hour later and the same thing happened. I walked over here to see if everything was okay, and your front door was wide open. I just wanted to make sure you two were okay, that's honestly it."
I hear a door open and Ariana runs out.
"Mom, are you o-"
She stops when she sees me and her face hardens. I notice that her cheeks are wet and her makeup is running.
"Harry, what the hell are you doing here?" she asks.
"I can explain."
"No, you don't need to," her mother cuts in. "No harm done."
She gives me a small smile, which makes me sort of scared. This was the first time that she's looked at me with an expression that didn't make it seem like she wanted to kill me.
"It's really not a good time, though," she continues. "Everything is okay here, you should probably go back home now. Thank you for checking up on us."
"Mom, it's okay," Ariana says, nodding slightly. "I want him to stay. Please?"
Her mother hesitates for a second and sighs.
"Fine. Stay in your room though, don't come out."
Ariana walks to her room and I assume that I should follow. She closes the door behind us and turns away from me to wipe off her face.
"Are you okay?" I ask her.
"No, not really," she says lowly. "I wasn't expecting you to come here."
"Why weren't you answering your phone?"
She points to the floor by her bed, where I see her phone lying on the ground. Well, what's left of it anyway. It's broken; the pieces of it scattered around a small portion of the room.
"Oh. You did that?"
"Yes."
"Any reason why?"
"Yes."
I get the hint that she doesn't want to talk about it, so I just let it go. She just stands there and stares at the wall like she'd just been traumatized or something.
Was she in here the whole time? It didn't look like anyone was in here, but then again, the door was closed. She might've been crying.
By the way her room is right now, it looks like she had a breakdown or something along those lines. Her phone is broken on the floor, all the lights are off and the lamp is on the floor, she's crying, and there are clothes all over the place: on the bed, on the floor, over the TV. She probably smashed the vase and picture frame downstairs, too.
Out of all the times I've seen Ariana get angry, I haven't seen her physically go crazy. She's screamed at me, cried in front of me, hurt herself, and sometimes shown no emotion at all, but I've never seen her ruin anything. She's never said anything about going that crazy before, either, but I guess that anything is possible when you have as many problems as she does.
"Are you sure you don't want me to leave?" I ask.
"Please stay," she says, her voice cracking.
"Okay."
She still hasn't moved from her position in front of the wall. Now, instead of it being silent, I hear something. She's crying again. She brings her hands up to her face and wipes the tears off of her cheeks again.
"Ariana," I say.
She turns around to face me. "What?"
"Don't cry."
As if it was a trigger, she burst into tears as soon as I said it. She was crying hard. She put her face in her hands and I could see the tears dripping down her face. Almost like an instinct, I pulled her into a hug and she wrapped her arms around my back. She held onto me tight and cried into my chest.
I feel almost uncomfortable in this position. Not because I don't like it, but because I'm not really that good at comforting people. She's still crying pretty hard. Her grip on me tightens a little, like she doesn't want to let go. I'm a little bit more uncomfortable.
After a couple of minutes, her crying calms down a little bit. She holds onto me for a few more seconds before letting go and stepping away from me. She wipes off her face once more before dropping her hands to her sides.
"Thank you for that," she says. "I needed it."
"You can't fall apart again, Ariana."
She walks over to her bed and sits down without saying anything. She steps over the broken phone and moves some clothes out of the way.
"What happened in here?" I ask.
"I got angry."
"Why?"
"I don't know."
She looks down at her hands.
"Nothing happened?" I ask.
"Of course something happened, I didn't trash my room for no reason."
She laughs a little to try and pass it off as a joke, but her eyes say differently.
"What happened then?"
"Nothing important. Really, I'm okay."
She looks up at me and puts on what looks like her best fake smile, which isn't good enough. I've seen her do it enough times to know the difference between her real smile and her fake smile.
"I know you better than that," I say. "Don't you trust me?"
I remember her answer the last time I'd asked her that question: 'Trust you? I barely even know you.'
She looks me in the eyes and bites her lip before slowly nodding.
"I do trust you," she says. "I don't know why, but I trust you."
"Then you can tell me what happened."
"I was getting ready to call you. It was early, I- I think it was around 11:00. I heard a knock on the door and then I heard my mom yelling, so I went downstairs and- never mind."
"You can tell me, Ariana."
"My dad was here."
A/N: first off, short chapter, I know. I'm sorry, I needed some sort of cliffhanger and this was the best that I could do idk
ALSO, EXPLANATION FOR WHY I HAVEN'T UPDATED
I've been having some personal problems that I have to deal with. I tried making time to write, but I never really had the motivation. So here is a reminder for you to:
-STAY STRONG
-BE HAPPY
-DON'T LET ANYONE HAVE A NEGATIVE IMPACT ON YOUR LIFE
Also, thank you for the support on this story. I never expected it to do this well bc I'm a 13 year old with terrible grammar haha
That's all for now folks, vote/comment please, I love you(:
- Jules ☻♥