Unparalleled Beauty (girlxgirl) - S.K Works

Chapter 5: What's Done In The Dark...

"Ariel doesn't actually like you does she? Why are y'all together."

And call Ariel a punk but the second she heard that she turned right back around and went back out that door.

They clearly didn't hear her when she came in so it was easy to get back out. Taking out her car keys, she started the ignition and was on her way to...well she didn't know where but as long as it wasn't that apartment. After driving for about 15 minutes, Ariel realized that Zaierra isn't stupid and will find a way to get Makena to admit the truth. She is absolutely ruthless when it comes to her friends and although Ariel wouldn't mind seeing Makena get her ass beat, she had to think about Zaierra possibly telling Jada.

So she made a U-turn and drove back home as quickly as she could without getting pulled over. She parked the car at their building,  bolted back up those stairs as if her life depended on it, which it sorta did, and burst through the door and went into the living room.

And she seemed to be too late because there Makena was on the floor, crying while looking a hot mess and Zaierra was no where to be seen.

Ariel was half tempted to leave and go to Zaierra's house to beg her not to say anything but her selflessness led her to slowly walk over to Makena. "What happened to you?" She grabbed her arm to help her get up off the floor and sit on the couch.

They sat in silence for a couple minutes allowing Makena to calm her sobs. "S-she knows" Ariel has to play along so no one knows that she heard some of the conversation already. "Makena" Ariel starts out gently "who knows what?"

"Zaierra, she" Makena paused, wincing before starting up again. "She wouldn't stop hitting me until I told her the truth. She said she already knew but wanted to hear me say it." 

As much as Ariel wanted to have sympathy for Makena right now, she couldn't. She started thinking of everything they have been through. Things that she won't even name. The times she's felt violated and out of control in the presence of Makena. She actually wants to whoop Makena's ass too. Probably should've stayed and jumped her with Zaierra.

A small smile played on Ariel's lips but quickly vanished when Makena looked at her. She feigned being sad for her sake. "Makena, let's get you cleaned up okay? And then we can talk about it." And for the rest of the day she took care of Makena and made her feel like she actually cared. Ariel was ready to finally leave Makena but first she had to figure out a way to get those damn audio recordings from her.

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In all the years that Ariel has known Makena, that girl has never once gotten sick or been in a vulnerable position and Ariel would be lying if she said she didn't want to take advantage of this right now. Maybe leave her to suffer on her own. But once again Ariel didn't have the heart to treat someone that way.

Instead she took care of her for the rest of the night and got up bright and early to go to Zaierra. When Ariel pulled up, she ended up sitting outside for almost an hour contemplating on what she was meant to say. She doesn't know exactly what was said yesterday between Makena and Zaierra so she has to be careful about what she asks.

She finally gets out of the car to knock on Zaierra's door. When the door is answered, it's completely silent. Zaierra is staring Ariel down, she holds eye contact as long as she can before she casts her eyes down. Ariel hears a sigh and sees Zaierra's feet move over, inviting her inside.

She walks inside and goes straight to the living room, head bowed the whole time. She doesn't even sit, prepared for the worst. "Ariel, I can't believe that—" Zaierra starts before she's cut off.

"I'm so sorry." Ariel sniffles out as tears raced down her cheeks, lips trembling. "I had no idea it would go on this long." She said frantically. "I swear I thought it would last a year at most and she just kept it going on and on and then I finally realized that I'd never be able to get out of this mess that I've created."

"And I know that this is probably a lot for me to ask after lying to y'all for so long but please don't tell Jada anything, I'll tell her myself." Ariel finally lifts her head up and looks in Zaierra's eyes. She can clearly see that she's contemplating whether or not to tell Jada anyways. And that leads to Ariel doing something that she never thought she would do. Something that Zaierra never thought she would do either.

Ariel drops to her knees, begging. Zaierra snatched her up so fast and sat her down on the couch. "It's that serious? It's so serious that your willing to leave your pride behind and beg like that?" Zaierra asks, not masking her emotions anymore and looking worried. "Okay fine, I won't tell her but we all know that saying, 'What's done in the dark'...."

-

Ariel ended up not going into work for the rest of the week to take care of Makena, an idea that Zaierra was not fond of at all, which led to  Jada having to do a lot of work. Ariel helped out with what she could for home but it's only so much she could do. She mostly sent emails and didn't speak to Jada at all, which was upsetting.

This week for Jada basically went like this. On Monday she called back the participates from the auditions that got into the company and had them take these personality tests conducted by Zaierra. On Tuesday she grouped them off based off their personalities, talents, and who can help who in different aspects. Meaning that anyone who had a leader type personality were all put in different groups so that no one would clash. On Wednesday, she helped out with the living situations since all trainees are to live in the housing provided by the label. And on Thursday she arranged for the trainees who are minors that would rather be homeschooled (or company schooled) to enroll into classes with the company teachers.

Today is now Friday and the only thing Jada had to do today was inform the trainees that there will be group and individual assessments in a month to see how far everyone has gotten.

As you can see Jada barely had time to breathe this week and she's happy to finally have a break from everything. She didn't even have time to question Ariel about why she stayed home for an entire week. Now that she has time she attempts to call Ariel 3 times before giving up and just going to ask Zaierra if she knows anything.

When she reaches Zaierra's office, she doesn't even knock and just barges in. Zaierra and the trainee in her office jumps from the sound of the door being slammed open. Jada goes to apologize for not knocking and forgetting that the trainees had to meet with the counselor today but she gets cut off by the trainee saying hello and leaving the room quickly.

But that trainee wasn't just any trainee, it's the one that Ariel and Jada had their eyes on during the auditions, Christa.

"Uh my bad for just barging in like that." Jada says as she moves closer to Zaierra's desk. Finally able to get a good look at her face and it's red? "Zaierra? Are you okay you're face is—."

"I'm fine, and it's fine no need to apologize." Zaierra coughs "So to what do I owe the pleasure of seeing you at work my dear friend?"

"I was wondering if you had a chance to talk to Ariel anytime this week? She hasn't been answering my calls and it's weird that she took off without saying anything to me."

"Yeah I actually did talk to her, she's fine just taking care of that girlfriend of hers because she's a bit sick." Zaierra says with a slight smirk that Jada luckily didn't see.

"She took off work? For her girlfriend that has never took off work when Ariel is sick? That's a bit weird don't you think?."

"I mean yeah but—"

They continue talking to each other completely unaware of the person on the other side of the door listening in on their conversation.

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