Living on Love

twenty four

"mama!" stella whined, pulling away from ariana.

"knock it off," she said as she ran a wipe over stella's face.

"stop!" stella said as she smacked ariana's arm.

ariana slapped stella's hand. "i'll beat your fucking ass, stop it joan."

"mama," chelsea said, pulling herself up next to ariana.

"sissy. i'm not your mom."

"might as well be," frankie said as he walked into the living room.

"bubba!" stella said.

"he's not your bubba, that's uncle," ariana said. "he's mommy and chelsea's bubba."

"my bubba."

"no. uncle."

"bubba!"

"your bubba is right there," she said, pointing to malcolm. "and right there, those are your bubbas," she said as she pointed to wilder.

"mommy, when will we see nonna again?" junior asked.

"whenever she comes home."

"where is she?"

"she's in florida. my nonna is sick remember? nonna had to go take care of her."

"babe!" mac called out. "moms on the phone, you need to come take this."

"tell her i'll call her back."

"you need to take this. frankie's gonna wanna be in here too."

ariana let out a small breath and got up from the couch with frankie's help before they made their way to the kitchen, taking the phone from mac and putting it on speaker. "hi mommy."

"hi baby," joan said. "is frankie with you?"

"hi mommy," frankie said.

"i need to talk to you guys."

"is everything okay?"

"not really. nonna isn't doing well. you guys need to get down here. she was put on machines and they aren't helping."

ariana and frankie looked at each other for a few seconds as tears collected in their eyes.

"are you saying we have to say goodbye?" ariana's voice cracked.

"yeah, baby..."

ariana let out a sob, covering her mouth.

"you need to get down here as soon as possible. they're gonna keep her on life support until you get here and so you can love on her."

"we'll be there by tonight," frankie said.

"i need to call nicki," ariana said as her voice cracked. "we'll see you soon."

"i love you guys."

"love you too," frankie and ariana said.

as soon as the call ended ariana picked her phone up, dialing nicki's number.

"why do you need to call nicki?" frankie asked.

"do either of us have a jet? she does."

"hello?" nicki asked.

"i need to borrow your jet. my nonna is on life support i have to get to florida asap."

"i'm so sorry sis... are you okay?"

"i'll be fine i just need to borrow your jet."

"i'll get it to lax. drive safe."

"i will. thank you so much."

"anytime."

ariana hung up and sniffled. "she's sending the jet to lax. we need to get packed."