Y/N POV
Present Day – Zac Sang Interview
" 'Anyone Else' – Gotta say, I love the song. The raw emotions felt in that last bit of the song was truly gripping. But couldn't help but notice, though, that for an album that was purely inspired by heartbreak; it's interesting that you start this whole album with a love song. How did that come about?" Zac asked me.
I felt absolutely nervous going in depth with the explanation with this album but I knew this was what I was signing up for. I wondered if Ariana was watching. I knew that Zac and her had been quite good friends. Maybe he had given her the heads up? Or maybe she didn't care at all and I was just delusional.
"Well, the whole track list is actually in a specific order. I wanted for the album to follow the story of a heartbreak. The reason why it starts with a love song is because every heartbreak starts with a person being unconditionally in love with another person. This song was actually written during a time where I had been away for awhile from my partner at the time." I paused as I took a sip of my water.
"Being on tour is tough sometimes because you can go months without seeing your family or friends. Ultimately, I wrote this song and dedicated it to my partner, at that time, reminding them that no matter how many people I touch with my music, my soul unequivocally belongs to them. This song was also right before everything started to fall apart. A few months ago, I picked up this song again, and rewrote the ending, making it sound a bit sadder and filled with emotion at the end of it compared to the beginning to symbolize the beginning of things going sour. I realized when I picked the song back up, that my emotions had totally changed. The line 'I don't belong to anyone else' in the chorus starts from meaning 'I don't belong to anyone else but you', to, now, meaning 'I don't belong to anyone by myself.' It gives a sort of good introduction to the album."
Flashback – 3 years ago – American Music Awards
"Excuse me Ms Grande, I think that's Y/F/N Y/L/N's designated seat." The host said to the one and only Ariana Grande. I found myself completely star struck as I saw her looking absolutely flawless in her gorgeous outfit, her ponytail was hanging so naturally to the side of her shoulder. Her top left much to the imagination and found myself looking somewhere else while the host confronted Ariana by fear of her realising that I was staring.
My gaze wasn't detached from her that long as when I turned to look at her after the host spoke to her; she looked quite confused. She turned around to her seat as there was a small print on the seat labeled with who was supposed to sit in it. As soon as she saw it, she turned back to the host and to me, her eyes wide in shock and embarrassment.
"Oh my god. I am SO sorry." She said as two other people next to her scooted to the seat over so that my seat freed up. The host did not look impressed, but I found it quite funny.
"There we are." The host said turning to me "I hope you enjoy your night." She smiled and turned to walk away.
"I'm deadass blind, I can't read this shit." She put her hands to her mouth. "Sorry I didn't mean to swear." She looked so nervous and I don't know why. If anything, I should have been the one to be this nervous.
"Seriously, it's fine. I found it quite funny and if this host wasn't there, I probably would have taken another seat and not troubled you." I said as I sat down next to her. I was not the one to wear any of these big gala dresses so I had decided to pick a simple suit instead. I felt massively underdressed with Ariana next to me.
"She had a stick up her ass. anyways" I said, remembering how the host had given that glaring look to Ariana.
Ariana's laughter pierced through the noise from the crowd and I couldn't help but smile at her outburst. The two people next to her leaned forward to look at me.
"Y/N, nice to meet you." I said extending my hand to them, reaching across Ariana.
"Joan, Ariana's mother, nice to meet you." The woman with black short hair said to me.
"Marjorie, Ariana's grandmother. Ariana is single by the way." The older woman said to me as I found myself blushing furiously at that remark.
"Nonna! Stop!" Ariana said turning to her grandmother, as she raised her hands in a fake surrender type of way. As Ariana looked back towards the stage, Marjorie looked at me and winked. I couldn't help but smile. What a funny family.
I leaned back against my seat and as I did, Ariana leaned towards me.
"I'm really sorry about my grandmother. She doesn't know what she's talking about." I turned to look at Ariana and she too was blushing. I couldn't stop staring at her, and I don't think it bothered her as she stared at me right back, faintly smiling.
Just then the opening ceremony of the AMAs started and both of us turned our attention back to the scene. The ceremony was overall quite enjoyable. However, I did not entirely feel at ease.
"I hate these things too, always gets my anxiety up and going." I heard Ariana say close to my ears as she was leaned in close to me. This was surely not helping my own as my heart was racing very fast.
"Is it that obvious?" I laughed at her gesture of "a little bit" as her thumb and index finger were inches apart. She smiled at me as my laughing quiet down.
"You can't even sneak out otherwise the cameras are all up on you and you'll hear it the next day on TMZ that you snuck out to probably go and hook up with this random celebrity or do drugs or meet random strangers in an alley or something." Ariana said rolling her eyes; clearly frustrated at the medias.
"Wow the medias really hate you if they have fake stories of you getting dirty in an alleyway..." I laughed, amused at her quite grim fake news covers.
"You get the picture though; you've also been in this industry long enough." She said as we were both clearly not paying attention to the show.
"I'm nowhere near as targeted by paparazzi's or journalists as you are." I said, clearly reminding her that she was the all time favorite pop icon recently.
"Oh please, your songs are amazing. Plus you turned out to be the nicest and most chilled artist I have met in awhile." She said smiling. I couldn't help but notice her compliments for my music. Who knew that she listened to my songs.
"You got great taste in music I see." I joked which caused her to laugh some more and lightly shove me.
"Ms Grande, please follow us, your performance is in 30." A guy with a mic and board came up and kneeled in front of her as he said those words.
"Gotta go save the day." She said as she stood up.
"Or this whole award show at this point." I said smiling and giving her a thumbs up at her while she walked away. I couldn't help but follow her with my gaze as she slowly disappeared out of view.
I felt someone sit right next to where Ariana had just been seated. I looked to my side and saw Marjorie had taken Ariana's place.
"She's quite stunning isn't she." She said shoving her elbow in my side.
"I – I was just – looking around the room to see who there was." I tried to save my moment of starting with a lame excuse.
"I'm not stupid. You can look at my grand-daughter; I'm not giving you shit for it. I'm just happy to see you two getting a long." She winked at me. What was she doing?
Asides from the occasional teasing I got from Marjorie towards my interactions with Ariana; Joan, her and I got to talk a little bit. They too were clearly done with the ceremony.
"And now, please welcome to the stage Ariana Grande."
Joan and Marjorie quickly got up to their feet clapping very excitedly. I joined them as I stood up to clap and smiled. The lights dimmed down almost immediately.
She started singing "Side to Side" as she was stood there in these artificial sandbox with plants all around, clearly wanting the performance to be a sort of tropical feel to it. There were a lot of male dancers on the set as she was singing and dancing along with them, touching them and just swaying against them. A group of girl dancers slowly made their way on stage and all of them started to move in a form of synchronized movement.
"Close your mouth dear, you're drooling." I heard Marjorie say to me. My cheeks instantly went red and I could feel the heat from them.
She was just really stunning and the way she moved was just so sensual I couldn't help but stare. I even found myself wishing I could be one of the male dancers running his hand across her legs.
Focus.
Suddenly Nicki Minaj started rapping. At this point, the whole crowd was just dancing and I couldn't help but join Joan and Marjorie in dancing to her song.
My gaze was quickly met by Ariana's who smiled as she saw all of us dancing, or in my case, attempting to dance. She quickly turned her attention back to Nicki; who at this point had finished her verse and was joining Ariana to the front of the stage.
They then all got in line facing each other's backs and started to move back and forth in a very tight formation, nearly grinding on each other.
"Bet you wish you were in that dancing sandwich in front or in the back of Ariana, depending on how you like it uh?" Marjorie said to me. I chocked on my own spit.
"Mom!" Joan exclaimed clearly having overheard the conversation.
"I –" I actually didn't know what to say and could only stutter.
"You're really fun to tease. I like you." She said to me while smiling.
The show came to an end and Ariana was now on one of her knees with her hand around Nicki's leg looking at the crowd. Actually, looking towards us 3. She seemed so happy and so in her element. It was the most heartwarming thing to see. My heart skipped a beat when she looked over in my direction and smiled. Was she slightly blushing too?
The stage cleared and a few minutes later, a glowing Ariana led by a security team had made her way back to her seat next to me.
"I hope these two haven't given you a heard time while I was gone." She said, giving a stern look at her grandmother and mother, who were not really paying attention to Ariana at this point and were looking towards the show instead.
"You have no idea." I laughed, amused by the whole existence of Marjorie altogether.
"My grandmother has no filter. So if she gets too much, just tell me." She chuckled, knowing her grandmother full well.
"You have pretty cool women in your life." I said focusing my attention back to the show.
A few moments went by where we didn't speak to each other, but instead was listening to the show.
"Are you going back to the after-party by the way?" I heard Ariana say to me.
I turned around to look at her and hesitated. I wasn't really big on these after-parties as it involved in small talking and that's one thing I absolutely hated. Looking at her now, I saw a sort of plea in her eyes to say yes. I guess it wouldn't be all that bad to join her, plus I could get to talk to her a bit more.
"To be honest, I hate after parties." I simply stated. She suddenly seemed a bit disappointed. I decided not to let her down. "But if you ask nicely, I might consider it." I smiled at her, clearly messing with her.
"Wow. That's how it's going to be?" She said, amused and joining in. "Fine, oh might Y/N, can you please grace me with your presence at the after party?" She said in a very overly posh way.
"Well Ariana, a simple 'please join' would have been enough, but I love this eloquence. How could I possibly say no after you calling me 'mighty'?" I laughed at her bad posh accent.
"It's a date then." She smiled looking away. In the split second of her saying that she turned back to me with her eyes wide open. "I mean, not a date date, but you know, like a deal." She seemed very overly flustered and it was the cutest thing I had ever seen. I could only smile at her attempt to save herself.
"It's fine Grande, your secret about crush on me is safe with me." I continued to tease her as I wholeheartedly laughed.
"Oh my god, you're such a dork. Unbelievable." She said tapping my arm lightly, still flustered.
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A/N - Okay, so I decided to do something entirely new. I know it will probably seem very confusing at first with all these flashbacks but it's like two stories in one - the past story and the present story. I hope it's okay and not too confusing - I hope I don't confuse myself either hahaha :D