Love Yourself (JB+AG)

[1]

Ariana

Monday, 4:46 pm

"I'm home!" His voice travels throughout the house, causing me to mentally groan.

"Ariana, where are you hiding, doll?"

I hate that nickname. Especially coming from him.

"I'm right here, Derrick." I say quietly, looking at my feet.

"What did I tell you about that, doll?" Derrick asks, lifting my chin with his finger.

"I'm sorry. How was work?"

"It's Monday. Same as usual." He walks past me, and into the kitchen.

"How's dinner going, Nicole?" Derrick asks the cook.

I hear her chirpy voice respond to him quietly as I watch out the window. There were moving vans here all day, but I had yet to actually see anyone move in.

"Ariana!" Derrick yells.

I flinch, walking quickly into the kitchen.

"Yes, Derrick?"

"Did you look into a job like I told you, doll?"

"Yes, Derrick." I nod.

"Find anything?"

"Not really."

"Well, you better hurry up because I will not have you living off of my money and sitting at home all day while I work." He says.

"Okay, Derrick." I roll my eyes as he turns his attention to something in the news paper and I go back to looking out the window.

As Derrick opens his mouth to say something, the doorbell rings.

"Well? What are you standing there for? Go answer the door." Derrick says.

I fight the urge to roll my eyes again before walking to the door. I unlock it and open it, almost fainting at the sight of the hot piece of man in front of me.

"Uh, hello." He says, smirking.

I almost cock my head to the side, then realize that my mouth was half open and I was basically drooling.

"Oh, uh, h-hi." I stutter.

"I'm Justin. Justin Bieber. I just moved in across the street."

"Yeah. I've been wondering who that was. I'm Ariana."

"Nice to meet you, Ariana. That's a very pretty name, by the way."

"Thank you." I blush.

"It looks like you're married." He says, gesturing to the ring on my finger.

"Is your husband home?"

"Yes, I'll get him. Stay here." He nods as I walk into the kitchen.

"Derrick, there's a new neighbor here to meet you. His names Justin." He looks up, an unamused look on his face.

He sighs before following me to the door.

"Hello, I'm Derrick. You must be Justin." Justin nods and they shake hands.

"Yes, that's me."

"It's nice to have some young neighbors around here. The other ones, I guess, are old." Derrick says, causing all of us to laugh.

"Yeah. I'm just walking around meeting all the neighbors. But, I've got more neighbors to meet and unpacking to do. It was very nice meeting both of you." Justin says.

"You too, Justin." I say.

"I've gotta go check on something. Nice meeting you." Derrick says.

They shake hands again before Derrick walks away.

"You can visit anytime." I tell him.

Justin nods, winking at me before walking away. I suck on my bottom lip, closing the door.

I sigh, regaining my composure before walking into the kitchen.

"Ariana, why the hell would you make me talk to him? You know I don't talk to people I don't know." Derrick yells ad soon as I walk in.

"You're the one who told me to go answer the door. He just wanted to meet you! It's not my fault you have to be an asshole all the time!"

The room is dead silent. Even Nicole has stopped moving around the kitchen to see what's going to happen next.

"What did you just say to me?" Derrick stands up, and being a whole half a foot taller than me, he towers over me.

I seem to have lost my voice, and when I open my mouth to talk, nothing comes out.

"You bitch!" He slaps me straight across my face then leaves the room.

"Ariana!" Nicole gasps.

She drops whatever she was holding and runs to me.

"Are you okay?" She removes my hand from my cheek.

I'm not able to say anything, as I'm still recovering from the stinging pain in my cheek. Tears roll down my face and Nicole wraps her arms around me.

"Come on, Ariana." She takes me to a bathroom, where I see the cut on my cheek.

Nicole cleans it, making sure the bleeding has stopped before telling me she has to return to the kitchen.

"Thank you, Nicole." I whisper.

She nods before leaving the bathroom. I turn the light off and make my way to the guest bedroom. I lay down in the bed, letting the tears fall freely.

Tuesday, 2:32 am

The sound of laughter wakes me up, and I sit up immediately.

"You thought you could get away from me, doll?" Derrick says.

I could tell he was drunk, because he was wobbling and his words were slurred.

"Go away, Derrick." I say.

"I don't think you wanna talk to me like that again, doll." He laughs again, stumbling over to the bed.

"Derrick, please." I whisper.

"Please what, doll?"

"Leave me alone." Tears start falling from my eyes as he sits on the edge of the bed.

He looks at me, stroking the cheek that he had slapped just a couple hours ago.

"Don't cry, doll." He says.

"Derrick, please. Stop." He pushes me down on the bed, lowering his lips onto mine.

Tuesday, 8:56 am

I'm finally able to breathe when I hear the door close. I hadn't been able to sleep since Derrick left the guest room, but now that he had left the house, I felt safer.

Nicole knocks on the door softly and I nod, giving her permission to come in.

She sits beside me on the bed, wrapping her arm around my shoulders.

"I'm sorry, Ariana." She whispers.

"Are you okay?"

I shrug. My legs were really sore and and my cheek was hurting, but other than that, I was fine.

"Yeah."

"I don't think you are, Ariana. Why don't you leave him?" She says.

"You ask me that all the time."

"And you always give me the same answer. 'He'll stop. I know he will'. But he never stops, does he?"

I let tears fall down my face and she stands up to leave.

"If you're smart, you'll leave him. I'm going grocery shopping." She says before walking out.

I wait for her to leave before making my way into the bathroom. I open the medicine cabinet and grab a bottle of pills, downing two of them right as the doorbell rings.