ARIANNA

I open my eyes once again and feel a great pain in my abdomen. I moan out in pain as I try to sit up. “Arianna!” I hear his voice yell out in concern as he jumps up from the chair to check on me.

“Go away!” I demand as I gasp in pain.

“No, I’m here for you,” he states with arrogance.

“Why are you really here, James?” I ask with pure annoyance.

“For you, like I said.”

“Well unless you’re here to share information on Rich then leave.” I demand again.

“Woah, Sweetheart. What’s gotten your panties in a wad?” he asks with his hand up in a surrender style.

“Nothing” I simply answer.

“You lie. Remember I know you better than that.”

“I know and there lies our, or really my, problem.” I tell him which leads to a lost look on his face.

“I’m sorry, can you share more details?”

“Justin doesn’t want to be with me anymore.” I inform him.

The smile that forms on his face makes me want to jump up and hit him but I try to keep myself calm. “Good. That pansy pretty boy has caused us enough trouble.”

“Fuck off, James.”

“Back to James huh?” He smirks.

“Yes, mental lapse due to blood loss and six bullets in my body. For your information, Just has not caused us any more trouble than we get ourselves into. I created this problem with Rich long before Justin came into the picture.” I feel my control slipping as my anger continues to boil.

“That may be true but if it weren’t for your infatuation with the newest kid in town, you would have been more concentrated and would have kept yourself out of here!” He exclaims motioning around the hospital room.

I roll my eyes. “Infatuation? New kid? Just so you know, this is more than just some infatuation. I care about Justin. He’s not just some ‘new kid’ either. He’s not you!” I exclaim back and I hear the machines start to go crazy again but I take deep breaths to calm myself back down before the nurses storm in again.

“You ok? You’re supposed to be resting.” the voice points out, coming from through the doorway.

It is Justin and I cannot help but feel thankful even through my anger. “I’m tired of resting. That’s all I do in this God forsaken place.” I grumble.

“Is this a bad time? Do I need to come back?” Justin is worried.

“No, please, stay.” I answer and then turn to James. “You can leave now.” I tell him pointedly.

James groans and leaves. Justin sits down in the chair, and I try to move more towards him, but the pain will not allow it. My gasp caught his attention, and he stands back up. I am worried that he is going to leave again until he just shift and moves to sit on the bed and pulling my hands into his lap.

“Where’s Chase and Tabbetha? They told me they were going to stay with you?”

“They were here until I demanded they go and have some alone time. I don’t need them to fuss over me. I really don’t need anyone fussing over me.” I tell him.

“How are you feeling?” He  asks as if he ignores the statement I just made. “Any pain? I heard the machines –“

“I’m fine.” I cut him off. “James just knows how to press my buttons. How are you?” I ask referring to his ‘James issue.’

He sighs to himself as he fidgets with our hands. “I’m sorry. I never should have assumed…I guess I just get jealous. He shares something with you I never could.” He admits to me. I go to deny this, but he stops me. “I’ll never be apart of this so-called business of yours, and I’ll never truly completely understand, but it is something he does with you. He gets all the inner workings. I know it’s the same for you and my work but I hope that one day I can share all of that with you and you will be apart of my world in a sense. I know this really can’t work with yours. It is like when you know someone has a fantastic secret and you want to know really bad but at the same time you know the secret will hurt to hear.” He explains to me.

I do understand what he is saying. I want to share his world like he wants to share mine and like he pointed out, mine can not be shared with him. “I’m so sorry, Justin. I never mean to hurt you. We haven’t been together for very long but I’ve come to care for you a lot. I don’t want you to feel left out or anything. I keep you out for your own sake.” I tell him and he nods a small understanding. “What if I promise to talk to you a little more about my job – not too much detail for you sake – and I agree to go to one of those popular celebrity gatherings with you?” I offer.

He looks up at me, and I see his eyes light up and a real smile appears on his face. It is a small one but real none the less. “I’d like that and if we see it doesn’t work out then we can go back to this but at least we tried.” He tells me and I just nod.

James will be furious because my face in the public eye will cause a ton of problems for all of us in this business. Justin and I sit around and talk about a lot of things. He even almost seems eager to hear about my past life.

“So I talk to my mom pretty much everyday and even multiple times a day on some. I talk to the rest of my family about once a week or at the very least every other week. What about your family? I never hear you talk about your parents.” He starts and I look away from him.

“I had to distance myself. They blame James. They saw and still see James as that type of bad boy you date in high school that makes that good girl rebel against her parents.” I explain not really wanting to look at him. “Except mine went beyond that. After school, I moved here and as time went on our contact got less and less until its practically nonexistent. They may blame James but it really isn’t him. I made the choice because I feel like being close to me only brings them more danger. I do keep tabs on them from afar, making sure they’re still ok and happy and well taken care of.” I feel my eyes start to water.

“I miss them so much but this is for the better. They’ve moved on from me.” I can tell Justin is silent for not really knowing what to say and I’m a bit thankful for that.

After a minute or so, he asks “do you have any siblings?”

“Yeah, I have an older brother and a younger sister.” I answer.

He can tell his is touchy but I know he wants to know so I keep talking. “You say you keep people away to keep them safe. What about Chase and Tabbetha?”

I chuckle a bit. “I really had no choice with those two is my honest answer. Tabbetha was a classmate who became a good friend and when class ended, she kept calling and wanting to hang out. She made it very difficult to ignore and avoid her as your can tell. She ended up calling me one day and telling me of some financial problems she was facing and I felt bad so I let her move in, rent free, for a short time. It was supposed to be short because I couldn’t let her know me and my business.” I pause a bit trying to figure out how to finish.

JUSTIN

I can tell this is hard for her. The sad look on her face makes me w ant to stop her but I cannot help but feel she needs this more than me.

“The girl is nosy.” She laughs more to herself as she looks up at me. I nod as a way of encouragement. “I gave her rules but she refused to follow them, of course. She snooped the house which isn’t much of a deal but then she snooped my garage. She found a couple of cars which wouldn’t have mattered except they were rare expensive ones and a couple of bikes.

She met James who I was ‘dating’ at the time. My hours were crazy at work and so on. She questioned and questioned and I ignored and avoided. She finally got the hint and stopped. It wasn’t long before she met Chase and they became close fast.

She was distracted away from me until Chase came over and spotted my Lamborghini and Ferrari both in the drive because James was there and we were about to leave and drop them off at the mansion. The questions start up again from both. Then one day they thought it a bright idea to question James.” She stops again and rolls her eyes. “As you can see James is pretty blunt and straight forward and has no problem being harsh. They annoyed him enough to where he pulled a gun on them to tell them to shut the hell up, causing me to pull mine on him.

At this point I had to share some information with them and strangely enough, like you, they didn’t run. Scary enough, Chase found it to be a little cool.” She finishes with a sigh of relief.

“Wow. She he’s an ass to all huh?” I attempt a joke to ease her stress. She laughs a small bit. “You need to rest. I appreciate you sharing with me but I think that’s enough for now.” I tell her and for the fact that she didn’t argue me, I know she is exhausted.

I hit the button that allows a small amount of pain killers into her IV and just held her hand, and I softly hum until she falls asleep.