Meridian (Ariana/You)

Chapter 15

We entered into the lobby of the studio and a man with a neatly trimmed beard and a black cap was standing and waiting impatiently.

"Finally, I've been trying to reach you for ages. Let's get you into the booth straight away. You told me you had new material to finish your album. I expect a release date very soon. Pharrell has been working his ass off getting it all polished and ready. We better start getting things moving now."

I deduced this was Ariana's manager. He had hugged her and Joan but barely glanced at me. Not that I really cared.
He suddenly stopped in his train of speech, pause and finally acknowledged my presence.

"Who the hell is this." He was staring at me and referred to me as 'this' as if I couldn't hear.

"This is...my friend..Y/N. She's going to join me in the studio." Ariana explained.

"Ari, absolutely not." Scooter's response was cold. "I don't know her. She might just leak what you're working on to the public."

Now that hurt.

"Scoot, I trust her. If anything happens, which I know for a fact won't, hold me accountable." Ariana linked our arms together.

Scooter watched this and raised his eyebrow. He then sighed and turned his back to us, walking away without saying anything.
"You should be more involved in finishing this album rather than making new friends, Ariana."

"Told you he was an ass." Joan whispered to me which made me chuckle. Ariana lightly slapped my arm reminding me to behave.

"I got Pharrell in the studio already now. He nearly finished editing all of the other tracks and he informed me that he came up with some pretty cool beats to the lyrics you sent him yesterday. Let's see if any of them would match what you wrote so far. We also got some songs that were sent over to see if you would want any of those on your album, I'll send them over to you to have a listen."

"Pharrell as in Pharrell Williams?" I thought. But...

I realised I had actually said that out loud as Scooter stopped in his tracks and turned around to face me.

"You see Ariana; this is exactly why I don't want outsiders in here. This fan-girling is very off putting." He then turned his attention to me. "You better behave yourself in there and not embarrass me."

I was fuming the way this arrogant jerk was talking to me was out of line, but out of respect for Ariana I was biting my tongue so hard, not wanting to step out of line and put her in a bad position.

Ariana noticed that as I felt her grip tighten around my arm.

"Scoot! Seriously, stop. Otherwise I'm walking out of here."

He didn't say anything, and continued walking in front of us. I looked towards Ariana and smiled at her.

"I'm sorry about him. He's a bit stressed out lately." She whispered to me

"Stressed or not, the way he talks to people is not okay. But don't worry, I'll behave for now. I'm not going to do anything that would put more stress on you."

Ariana leaned in seeming as if she had wanted to kiss me, but realising this, she quickly pulled back and instead gave me a light smile.

We finally made it to the recording room. The room was full of mixing equipment and Pharrell was just sitting in front of this huge mixing and editing platform trying out new beats. There was a large couch with water and soda on the coffee table all behind him, where Joan had made her way to sit down and make herself comfortable.

Pharrell got up to greet Ariana into a big hug.

"Ariana, great to see you. You're glowing!" He said smiling and then turned to me and extended his hand.