STAY WOKE ✔︎ || A. Grande

ᴛᴡᴇɴᴛʏ-ᴛʜʀᴇᴇ

"Here you go, Briar. Let's try eating with your fork today, yeah?" Ariana asked as she cut up Briar's pancakes, Millie watching closely from afar. Ariana cuts up Briar's pancakes for her because she doesn't trust Briar with a knife yet. Briar with a knife is like a child with a gun.

Briar shook her head, disagreeing with using a fork. The girl just didn't like utensils. "Alright... I'll get you chocolate pancakes all week if you use a fork?" Ariana offered making Briars eyes widen in excitement. "All week?" Briar repeated the specific part making Ariana nod her head. "Yeah! All week!! So what do ya say, Briar? Will you use a fork?" Briar smiled and picked up her fork, nodding her head in agreement.

The girl struggled with holding it. It wasn't like a pencil so she couldn't hold it like that, and holding it in a fist just made her feel uncomfortable. She wanted those chocolate pancakes though, so she was desperate to try. Ariana saw the girl struggle and frowned at the sight. The poor girl was 24 years old and still had no idea how to hold a fork or eat with it.

Ariana stood over Briar and from behind, helped her hold the fork correctly. She then stabbed a piece of the pancake and held it up for briar to take a bite. Briar bummed at the taste of the pancake. "Good?" Ariana asked and Briar nodded. "Alright, you try by yourself now." Ariana moved to the side and both her and Millie watch Briar brutally stab the pancake and put it in her mouth. "Good job, Briar! Although , I think you stabbed the plate in the process. But that's alright, at least you got to learn how to eat with a fork."

"I get pancake all week now?" Briar asked, looking up at Ariana. Ariana tapped her chin and pretended to think. "If you eat that whole plate of pancakes, then you can have pancakes all week." "But-" "ah- no buts. Practice makes perfect, Briar. So go ahead and eat up. Look, even Bonbon is cheering you on!" Ariana pointed to BonBon. Millie looked at what Ariana was pointing at and grimaced. She never liked bugs and seeing her niece have a pet snail like fucking spongebob squarepants wasn't sitting right with her.

"Now, what is that ugly looking snail doing in my nieces room? Don't you know that those things can carry diseases?" Millie asked, weakly pointing at the snail. Ariana smiled, "well I see BonBon as an anxiety pet for Briar. Briar knows better than to throw things around when BonBon is here," Ariana began to pet BonBon's shell, "we don't want to hurt his shell, isn't that right, Briar?" Briar nodded her head as she ate another piece of her chocolate pancake. "That's the only reason why I haven't throw BonBon out yet. Ever since BonBon has been here, Briar has gotten so much better with trying to keep her calm. And her demons barely bother her anymore which is good." Ariana explained.

"Isn't there another way to keep her and her demons calm without the snail?" Millie almost whined. Ariana let out a sigh, fed up with Millie's shit. Millie was stubborn and rude. It was obvious that she didn't want any care for her niece. She wanted to do everything her way which wasn't the right way.

"Yes, there are multiple ways to keep her and her demons calm, but this is the best way for her. Different people deal with different ways of calming themselves and if a snail is whats keeping Briar calm, so be it." Ariana said, anger boiling up in her body. Millie rolled her eyes but didn't say anything. Both of them were fed up with each other and it was coming to the point where they couldn't even be in the same room as each other.

———

"You okay, baby?" Dalton asked, pulling away from the kiss him and Ariana were just sharing when he realized something was off with her. "Yeah, it's just- it's just Briar's aunt. She's making everything become so hard." Ariana said with a sigh trailing behind, "I just wish she could leave us alone and let me do what i got to do to make Briar better, but no. She's one stubborn bitch." Ariana pouted making Dalton smile a bit on amusement.

"Well, she is Briar's aunt, it only makes since that she wants to help." Dalton said with a shrug. "If that's so true, then why did she send Briar here when she could've just kept her away from the society? It just doesn't make sense to me." Ariana shrugged.

"Well, yeah, that could've happened but Millie didn't really have a choice. You see, I grew up where Briar was born and we use to get the weekly newspaper. Briar wasn't taken here willingly, she was taken here by force and was never allowed to see anyone ever again. But then Dr. Benjamin's wife came along and helped her but only for a short amount of time. After a year or two of taking care of Briar, she got killed by a demon. Everyone was scared of her until-"

"Until Courtney came along." Ariana finished and Dalton nodded his head. "Ariana, promise me that you'll never leave Briar. Like ever." Dalton said, gently grabbing and holding Ariana's hands. Ariana looked at Dalton and nodded her head, "I promise I would never leave her. Never ever ever."