Let Me Love You | A.G

XXIX

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"I'm serious, Jayce. I can't do it with you right now. Not like this," She picks up her phone, scrolling through it for a second, "We can talk more about this later tonight, okay?"

"Tonight? We live in the same fucking house, Ariana," I say with clear frustration laced in my voice.

"I have somewhere to be. Just wait here until I get back," I watched in defeat as she gathered her things and walked out the door, leaving me to my thoughts.

I must've sat there thinking for a long time because when I looked up, it was pitch black outside aside from a couple streetlights.

Deciding not to let the situation bother me any longer, I go downstairs to see her mother sitting on the couch in the living room.

"Please tell me what's going on with your daughter," I sigh as I sat on the couch next to Joan.

"What do you mean?" She furrows her brows, pausing the television in front of her, "Is she alright?"

"Nah, she's good but our relationship isn't," I told her.

Just then, the door opens and shuts as we both hear heels clicking against the hardwood floor. Out of instinct, we both turn around to see Ariana texting on her phone, not sparring us a glance as she walks up the stairs.

I turn back around in my seat, rolling my eyes, "That's what I mean. She's been acting strange."

"Maybe you should talk to her about it," She suggests. I shake my head in response.

"I've tried that. All she did was just walk out on me, only saying she had something to do," I told her.

"Do you think it's because of what you said yesterday?" She questions.

"Probably, but she really started acting different once I mentioned that I spoke with Lauren earlier today," I said truthfully.

"Ever consider that she's probably just jealous that you went to go see someone else while you two were on bad terms?" Fuck, maybe she's right.

I place my head in my hands in frustration, "Yeah, you're most likely right about that."

"Go talk to her again and actually make her listen this time. She tends to take things to heart sometimes. All she needs is reassurance," Joan tells me with a small smile as she urges me to leave.

Following her advice, I quickly got up and marched my way up the stairs to Ariana's room, knocking softly.

The door swings open after a few moments, "What do you want, Jay?"

"Can I talk to you now or do you have somewhere else to go?" I asked sarcastically.

Rolling her eyes, she tries to close the door on me but I pushed my way inside instead.

"You never give up, do you?" She sighs as she sat on her bed. I did the same, making sure to face her as I spoke.

"Not when it comes to things that can easily be fixed," I pause, taking my opportunity to check out her appearance, "Why are you all dressed up?"

Her breath hitches a little as she takes a look for herself, "I told you I went out today."

"And where might that have been?" I raised an eyebrow, crossing my arms.

She lets out a deep sigh, "I went out to grab a couple things from the store and I... I bumped into Pete from high school."

"So you're telling me you got all dressed up to go to the store? Cut the bullshit Ariana," I rolled my eyes at how unbelievable her story was.

"No, that was earlier this morning," She takes a brief moment before continuing, "He uh—He asked me if I wanted to meet him later tonight for dinner and I... I said yes."

I chuckled bitterly as she watched in horror, waiting for me to respond, "So, you're telling me that you went on a whole date while I spent most of my night wondering how to fix us?"

Slowly backing away from her, I didn't even give her a chance to defend herself any further as I was walking away from her bedroom door, soon leaving the house entirely.

And the thing is... she didn't even attempt to stop me.

I shook my head rid of my thoughts, deciding to drive all the way to Phil's house so I could see Malcolm. At this point, he was the only one who could keep me from exploding.

"Woah there Wreak-it-Ralph, what the hell happened?" Mac questioned from the couch as I stomped through the front door.

"That girl," I pointed behind me to no one in particular, "Drives me fucking insane."

Mac chuckles in amusement, "Come sit and tell me all about it brother."

I accepted his offer hesitantly, sitting next to the younger boy and letting out every thought I've ever had that night.

"And you know the craziest part? She went out with Pete fucking Davidson," I run my hands over my face in frustration, "She never even liked Pete in high school!"

"Sounds like she's just acting out. Trust me, she used to do the same thing to me when—fuck, I said too much," He accidentally admitted which made me raise an eyebrow.

"You guys dated," I said almost to myself as I nodded my head in confirmation, "And as your best friend and adoptive sibling, you never thought to tell me?"

Mac puts his head down in defeat, "Listen Jay, I never meant for it to happen. It just... did, you know? She was so guilty that she couldn't even gather up the courage to call you in prison, even after we broke up."

I sat in silence for a while as my head connected the dots, deciding to ask any question I could spit out first, "Why did you guys break up?"

"She found me passed out in my room one day. She told me that it took paramedics several times to try to revive me. I had died overnight and was literal inches away from staying that way. Safe to say, a couple days after my overdose, she told me she couldn't handle a scare like that again especially after the Manhattan bombings—" I cut him off quickly.

"What bombings?" I say curiously as I was never made aware of much that happened with Ariana while I was in prison.

He lowers his head, picking the skin around his fingernails, "I really think you should ask Ari about this. Clearly there's still a lot she's keeping from you."

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A/N: I'm back once again! Sorry for the mini hiatus everyone. I'm gonna try my hardest in the next week or so to have this book completely finished so I can work on other projects for y'all. Thank you to everyone for being so patient with me.