Pout for me Kitten •|Jariana|•

Chapter 10: hallucinations

This date wasn't only to see if we- Tj and  I - could impress his father, but also to see if I could show him the new me.

Show him that it wasn't my fault.

It's been six years since the accident and the time has certainly done a toll on all of us.

Fixing the jewel in my hair I stared at myself in the mirror, trying to force the memories out of my head.

Trying to take deep breaths.

Trying to calm myself down.

Trying to h-

"Hey Ari."

I slowly dragged my eyes to look at the reflection in the mirror.

And there he was.

"Been a while huh?"

I could feel his presence in the room and no matter how hard i tried to believe that he was dead and this wasn't real, deep down it felt so real.

"Gosh, you haven't changed a bit."

His figure slowly go closer to the mirror, and the closer he got the more I saw.

I whipped my head around to look at him but he was gone.

I frantically began to search the room with my eyes, taking deep breaths. Shaking my head I finished putting the rest of the jewls in my hair and walked out of the room.

"What took you so long?" T.J asked and for a split second I saw his brother in him.

Shaking my head to rid the thought I laughed as I grabbed the remote from T.J's hand.

"Sorry but don't you want to impress your father?" Turning off the t.v. I walked to the front door.

"Let's gooo child."

••••••••••

As we pulled up to T.J's fathers house a wave of nervousness went over me as I realized just how real this really was. Apparently T.J was feeling the same way because even after he parked the car and turned it off, he too just sat there.

I haven't seen his father in what felt like ages, and just the thought of seeing him again after all this time makes my stomach turn with all the things I know he could say.

Imagine how T.J feels.

"So you ready?" Turning my head so that I was looking at him, he shook his head.

"No." He sighed and unbuckled. "But I really don't have a choice. Like you said it's not my date, it's his."

Richard's house was not something over the top, and that's saying a lot for a man who is normally way over the top. Richards house was actually quite small, On the outside. It looked cozy and homey. Even when I walked in I got this sense that he had little children running around the house, and a lovely wife preparing dinner.

Surprisingly it wasn't just Richard in the house. When he greeted T.J and I he walked us to the living room where we sort of just sat there, staring at one another.

We had a very brief conversation before he told us that the food was done, and took us to the dining room.

It was very... awkward. 

All you could hear was the sound of the forks touching the plate, and the sound of our breaths.

It was that quiet.

"So my father tells me you have known each other for a while now." T.J was the first to break the silence which caught me by surprise. The whole time he was tensed up and doing everything to avoid eye contact with everybody.

"Um, yeah." She slightly dabbed her mouth with her napkin and nodded. "Yeah, your father and I have known each other ever since the accident."

My head shot up as I stared at her with confusion.

"The accident that Ariana caused." Now she was staring at me. "The one that involved death."

"I didn't do it." Silence.

"Excuse me?" Her eyebrows rose in confusion as she stared at me.

I looked at T.J who was right next to me and his expression held the same as hers. I then looked at Richard who's face I couldn't really read.

He was just staring at me.

"I'm sorry I thought you said something." I apologized as I took a sip of water.

"She did." Richard slowly leaned forward, and rested his arms on the table. "Just you heard something completely different."

"Sorry Mr-"

"You know I prefer Richard." 

And after that I kept my mouth shut unless I was being talked to and I knew for sure that I wasn't hallucinating.

Towards the end of our evening Richard and his girlfriend thanked us for coming and T.J and i thanked them for allowing us to be there.

"Are you kidding me? The pleasure is all mine. Once Richard told me I was going to be meeting his son and his girlfriend I couldn't wait." Nicole, Richards girlfriend, was beaming as she explained how excited she was to meet us.

"You know all your father does is talk about his kids." She was now just talking to T.J, and he smiled.

"In a positive way I hope." It was meant as a joke but I could see that it struck something in Richard as we all laughed about it.

"Of course, especially Travis." And again, we were greeted by silence.

"Travis?" T.J asked.

"That's enough Nicole, I'll meet you inside." It was basically an order. She nodded at him and waved at us as if she was a kid and got caught doing something wrong.

"You still talk about Travis." It wasn't a question. In all honesty it was reassuring that Richard still talked about both of his boys in a positive way.

"And you still talk to Ariana." Richard was glaring at me, as if he wanted me anywhere but at the front door of his house, with his son.

"Richard I'm sorry If I seemed to have crossed a line bu-"

"You know damn well I never wanted to see you again." His anger laced through every word he said. "I don't understand how you or your mother can stand even the thought of her let alone seeing her everyday." He spat.

"Dad, calm down. We already talked about it. We worked things out." T.J explained but it seemed to only make his father angrier.

"You killed my son. That's not something I could just talk about." He shook his head and went back inside but stopped right before he closed the door.

"You did do it." Then he slammed the door.

"I'm sorry Ari." T.J reached his hand out to grab mine, but I pulled back.

"Let's just go."

*************

Hey Guys!!! Yeah I know that It's been ages since I've updated but I sort of kinda hit a block where I didn't really know what to write anymore.

This chapter sucks.

I rushed it and It's pretty obvious but I just didn't know what else to do or write.

Please heellpppp

anyways hope ya'll enjoyed this chapter, and I'll try to start updating more regularly