bad idea

Chapter 56

Ariana's Pov

"So, it definitely has been a while," Victoria chuckled, just as we took our orders and the waiter walked away. "What's been going on?"

"Well, I did start seeing someone," Alexa mentioned smoothly, almost slipping past us all.

"Who?!"

"Relax." She blushed. "His name is Sean—"

I raised my eyebrow suspiciously. "-wait, the same Sean Anderson who's conveniently helping you house shop?"

"You didn't let me finish, but yes, Sean is in real estate. And before you say it, we started seeing each other after the fact."

"Bullshit." Courtney rolled her eyes with a smile.

Alexa shrugged. "I plead the fifth, and neither of you can judge with how secret you were with your relationships."

"Because I got pregnant." Victoria added, "Wait, are you—"

"-hell no, we all know the next to be is Ariana."

I cocked my head back as if they were wrong. "Married? Maybe, but kids? Absolutely not."

"But you want kids though." Courtney pointed out.

Alexa shook her head, "Maybe Kai doesn't."

"We do but like, not while bombs, buildings, and stuff are exploding, now is definitely not the time."

"While we're on the subject, to be honest, your brother being all jealous and shit, was probably the biggest plot twist of this all," Alexa said, toying with the straw of her drink.

"Good thing he's dead." Courtney shrugged, with a small laugh.

"Courtney," Victoria scolded, rolling her eyes. "That's still Ari's brother, be nice."

I shrugged, sitting up in my seat, "Honestly, I'm not even that sad about it, I mean how much of our relationship did he truly fake? I just don't get how no one noticed it, how I didn't notice it. But we're just glad we don't have to deal with it anymore."

Alexa shook her head in disbelief. "Was it weird when Kai told you about it all after?"

"We actually kinda saw him fall out of the window from where we were standing, we just didn't know it was Frankie at the time, so when she told me everything, it wasn't weird, I was just like, damn."

"To be honest, I kinda suspected he was jealous of you, after that whole Lucy thing."

"Hell, he probably ran 'The Page'."

"Nah, Kai said he was adamant about it not being him, so we're back to square one," Victoria added.

"Well, whoever it was, let's just be happy they gave that whole thing a break."

"For now, you know it always comes back." Courtney sighed, taking a bite of her croissant.

About an hour later, once we paid and left to outside the restaurant, Alexa was the first to go, saying her goodbyes. She'd have to go babysit her nephew soon and she wanted to get there early.

While Alexa pulled off, Courtney decided that she wanted a shake to go, so we all went back inside and ended up getting shakes as well. She got vanilla, I wanted chocolate, and Victoria got a strawberry one with bananas. And instead of leaving right away, the three of us sat inside Victoria's car, in the parking lot of the café, and since I had dibs on shotgun, Courtney was stuck sitting in Hazel's car seat.

She kept the conversation going though, talking about having the annual trip to Hawaii once again. I shifted in the backseat as Victoria stayed silent while Courtney spoke.  I knew that Kai and a lot of our friends would be opposed to it, so I was unsure if we were even gonna go this year. But Kai knew about the contract now and so that was enough for her to force herself to go, which I didn't want and she knew that. I just hoped that my friends wouldn't hear about it, because I didn't need the extra pressure, while it was putting me and my girlfriend in an awkward place.

The words played on my tongue before I finally decided to say it, interrupting Courtney. "-Do you guys trust Lauren?"

Victoria looked back at me, raising her eyebrow. "Jauregui? I mean Kai always trusted her so I never really thought about it, why?"

"She's just always been really weird, I know she doesn't like me but it's like... I don't know, something about her is off."

"You know, she was the first person to run after Kai once you separated, that already kinda makes her suspicious." My girlfriend's sister shrugged. "Think about it, if you were Lauren and she was you, you'd be pissed that Kai and her reunited. That isn't something you'd just let go of, especially considering she's liked her since high school."

"True, plus Frankie literally just proved that you can literally be betrayed by anyone now, so maybe Lauren is hiding something," Courtney shrugged, taking a sip of her shake. "I'm happy to be the one to do some digging, that way Kai won't know about it."

I shook my head, with a sigh, "Lauren does the digging for her though, she'll find out before Kai does."

"Let's take it a step further," Victoria suggested, pulling out her phone. "Who knows Lauren better almost than Kai does?"

"Zayn?"

"He'll most likely tell Lauren what we're doing, think deeper."

"Camila?"

She smirked, flipping her phone to reveal a certain Vives woman. "And Lucy,"

"Lucy?" Courtney blurted. "Where the fuck even is Lucy?"

"Are you sure we should ask her? They've been friends for years, you think she'll give her up?"

"She's been laying low, but I do know someone who knows something," Victoria explained with a shrug. "If the right person asks, everyone will talk."

"Okay, and the right person is?"

"Courtney," I said simply. "Once news breaks that Frankie was the one to shoot Madison, of course, she won't trust me. If Victoria does, then she'll probably tell Kai, so Courtney is our best shot."

Courtney shook her head. "Not exactly, she'll know I'm poking around for you."

"This might sound crazy," Victoria smirked, pulling out her phone. "But... what about Madison? We're all old friends and she'll do anything for our girl."

"Okay, so what exactly is the plan here and how can I help?"

"Saturday everyone's supposed to be coming over to our house for dinner I think, Courtney, you, and Cole should go meet Madison then. I know he'll be down to help since we'll tell him about Lauren and he'll want to protect Kai. While you're out, during the dinner, Alexa and John can stall and keep Lauren away from Kai, meanwhile, you and me can do some digging and see if Kai and Zayn will tell me anything about the night with Frankie that can help."

"Okay, works for me," She smiled, clasping her hands together.