twenty six.

                                    

                                          
a/n — this will be a longer chapter, as it is the last before the epilogue. enjoy!
also, to clear things up; kay told ariana what she figured was going on with zariana and zay. so when you read that ariana is confused, its because zach has not confirmed, nor denied anything and ariana is uncertain.
                          
________________________________

                          
ariana.

                          
approaching the pool room, ariana spotted a security man who she assumed was dave. she nervously walked, fiddling with the strings attached to the bikini top that was in her hands.
                          
dave wasn't like the man that ariana had pictured in her mind. he was slimmer, but very muscular. he had brown disheveled hair and was playing on his phone as she planted herself before him.
                          
ariana found it weird that dave was there in the first place; but it was probably incase of emergency. there was no way the boys had reserved the whole pool room. there were other guests staying at the hotel.
                          
"hey, dave."
                          
as dave looked up from his phone, ariana noticed her friends playing in the pool through the glass door behind dave. she wondered how they didn't notice her absence, or even kay's.
                          
"ariana hood," dave's eyes widened upon realizing who the brunette was.
                          
he shifted on his two feet and dug through one of his pockets. he swiftly pulled out a yellow sticky note, similar to the one kay found only minutes before. he extended his arm to hand the small paper to ariana, who's eyebrows pulled together. she took the note from him.
                          
ariana examined the note, giving dave confused looks. she looked past him again, to see most of her friends splashing around and having a good time. but in the corner of the room she could see daniel and sierra smiling in the hot tub. ariana couldn't wait to hear about that later on.
                          
"am i not suppose to go in there?" ariana asked, pointing inside.
                          
dave stared at her for a moment.
"kay was suppose to come swimming, ariana. the instructions were on the other yellow note."
                          
ariana's face fell a bit at the thought of her boyband friends not wanting her around. the whole situation was dumb, in her opinion, and if zach came to oregon to tell her that he didn't want her, that was harsh. ariana would've rather continued being ignored almost.
                          
"you, however," dave started, once he noticed that ariana wasn't going to read the note. "have a note for a reason."
                          
to tell me that zach doesn't want me? like i need a note for that, ariana thought bitterly.
                          
"cool, thanks." ariana nodded, not bothering to smile.
                          
the brunette turned from the security man and stalked off, still holding the bathing suit. if it was for kay, then ariana would find her and make sure that kay had fun. one of them should've if the other couldn't. but ariana's mind was set; she didn't care about the contents in that damn note.
                          
the note would only hold rejection, which ariana wasn't interested in. if zach wanted to reject her, he should've been a man and done it in person, or just kept ignoring her. at this point, the young girl began to think she deserved all the lain she felt.
                          
stomping down the hall and into the lobby, ariana spotted kay almost immediately. a small group of fans huddled around her and they were taking selfies and videos. kay was smiling genuinely, as though nothing had happened at all. it made ariana curious. how could someone fake happiness so well?
                          
going up to kay was difficult, especially with the fans around. they would only ask questions, and once ariana got to kay, they started.
                          
"are you and zach dating?"
                          
"can i have a picture, ariana?"
                          
"are you and kay friends?"
                          
ariana's eyebrows pulled together at the tornado of questions, not sure which to answer, or if she should answer at all. it was such a small group of girls, one would think it was harmless, but apparently not. the girls quickly separated in two groups, those who wanted to ask ariana questions and vice versa. but ariana wiggled around them quickly.
                          
"kay, this belongs to you, not to me,"
                          
kay stared at ariana, making it clear to her that she didn't understand what ariana was doing.
                          
"dave said so." ariana continued in more of a whisper. kay furrowed her eyebrows but took the bathing suit wearily from ariana.
                          
it was funny. the bathing suit was like some sort of symbolized message. as though whoever got it, also got zach. whoever got zach won. but the girls were going back and forth, seemingly, giving zach to each other when they could've been fighting for him. if they tried hard enough, kay and ariana could easily be close friends. however ariana would only feel pain when seeing kay, and if zach picked ariana, than vice versa.
                          
murmuring a thank you, kay clasps the bikini tightly in her small hands and offers ariana a smile as she begins to walk off. the fans faces fall from smiles as she ignores them and they begin to pester ariana instead.
                          
ariana sighed heavily, not realizing how tightly she gripped the sticky note in her hand. one part of her so desperately wanted to read it. she didn't want to be sad, but what she did want was clarity. she was so sure she was being rejected that it already stung, not even having read it. and likewise, the other side of her wanted to crumple up the small paper or tear it to pieces, maybe even burn it. the less remnants, the better.
                          
so ariana listened to the part that wanted clarity. she walked from the fans whom were taking pictures, but she was ignoring, towards the elevator not too many feet away. while walking, the warm hearted girl took the piece of paper that would decide her fate and put it face up.
                          
it was time that she know the answer of the boy who constantly changed his mind.