Innocently Taken

eleven

over the last four months, there were changes with mac and ariana. mac broke his sobriety and ariana had enough of it. they broke up but we're still co-parenting frank. ariana was now engaged to pete, a comedian that she worked with on saturday night live.

today was the day of aretha franklins funeral, which was supposed to be a day of celebration. unfortunately for ariana, it didn't go that way. the second the bishop was finished talking and she managed to step away, she hurriedly made her way down the side of the pews instead of through the middle so no more attention was on her.

as she passed the row joan and pete were in, she covered her mouth as she gagged and started running the rest of the way out of the room and towards the bathroom. as she was vomiting she heard the door open and immediately recognized the sound of the shoes as her mother.

"baby," joan said as she opened the stall door, holding her daughters ponytail back.

between coughing, gagging and vomiting, it took ariana a few minutes to calm down and finish before she was able to catch her breath.

"are you okay?" pete asked from behind joan, frank resting on his hip.

"i was just molested by a bishop in front of an entire church and nobody tried to help me even after i tried to get away from him and he pulled me back," ariana's voice rasped as she stood up and walked out of the stall. "yeah, i'm fucking fantastic."

"what are you talking about?"

"he was pawing at my boob the entire time. maybe you couldn't see it from the back, but he straight up fucking groped me in front of everybody," she said as she rinsed her mouth out.

the door opened and all three of them looked over to see jennifer, who immediately made her way to ariana and hugged her. "are you okay? did he do anything else?"

"no," her voice cracked. "i can't believe he thought he would get away with that. i'm gonna have his head on my mantle."

"he won't get away with it baby," jennifer said as she kissed her head. "i'm so sorry. i was trying to make my way up from the other side but by the time i got close enough y'all were done and you split."

"i had to throw up, i didn't wanna do it all over the front row."

"no man should make a woman physically sick like that. i'm so sorry he hurt you."

"he will be too."

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"people are fucking ridiculous," ariana muttered as she rested her back against the arm of the couch in their hotel room while she nursed frank.

"what about?" joan asked.

"ariana grandes dress was too short, ariana grande had bill clintons attention with her mini skirt, ariana grande had an interesting fashion choice at aretha franklins funeral. how about ariana grande was publicly molested and humiliated by a leader of god that deserves to burn in hell?"

"people are blind."

there was a knock at the door and pete walked to it to open it. "hi, can i help you?" he asked.

"i'm sean," sean said as he held his hand out to shake. "friend of ariana's. i just came by to see how she was."

pete shook his hand. "ari, you up to visitors?"

"who is it?" ariana asked.

"sean."

"sure."

"come on in," pete said as he stepped away.

sean walked in and made his way to ariana, sitting on the edge of the couch. "are you okay?"

ariana nodded, running her hand through franks red hair. "yeah. humiliated. but i'm alright i guess."

"i'm sorry you went through that."

"i'm fine."

"i'm glad. how's the little guy?"

"good. growing. he's four months."

"getting big. he sure is a handsome fella."

ariana smiled. "thanks. he's my little love," she said as frank stopped eating and grunted as he tried to sit up. sean looked away while ariana fixed her shirt.

"i'm decent, you can look now," ariana said.

"didn't really have to look away, it's nothing he hasn't seen," pete said.

"shut up," she said. "he's being respectful. something some men need to learn."

"i really am sorry that happened today," sean said. "he's a poor excuse of a man. he no longer has my respect."

"all anyone cared about was my fucking dress," she said as she sat up a little. "and of course it's my fault."

"it's not. your dress was fine. it was long enough."

"not to them."

"you looked great," he said. "look, i'm gonna get going. i just wanted to see if you were okay."

"i will be. thank you."

"you keep your momma safe," he said as he ruffled franks hair.

"he will. won't you booger?" she said as she kissed the baby's cheek.

"y'all have a nice night. it was nice to meet you," he said as he shook pete's hand again. "momma, it was nice to see you again," he said hugging joan.

"it was nice to see you too sean," joan said. "be safe on the way home."

"i will. y'all take care."

as sean left, ariana sighed. playing with franks sock that was starting to fall off of his foot.

"well he's a catch, i think you should marry him," pete joked.