R.E.M

two

ARIANA'S POV

"Trash or keep?" Frankie asked, holding up a picture of Matt and I from around seven months ago.

"Trash." I shrugged, double-checking around to make sure I wasn't gonna leave anything behind.

"Ari, maybe you should just talk to him." He pointed out, going over to toss the picture. "Then he'll understand that you're just not ready for marriage."

"I'll never be ready if I'm marrying into his family. They never really liked me anyway, I was too 'unpredictable' for their son."

Frankie shook his head, chuckling, "Wow, so you're really serious about this move,"

"No shit," I said, as he stated the obvious. "We've been packing all week."

"I know that obviously but I didn't think you'd actually throw away three years with Matt so easily."

"Well, I did." I stood up, grabbing the box from inside of the kitchen, and brought it to the living room.

I looked around, realizing that this was the last time I'd ever be in this house again. After almost three years of living here on my own, I was finally saying goodbye and moving elsewhere because I'd taken a job offer.

My parents, brother, and my friends helped me with most of the packing, so it only took a week or so until I was completely done.

I was excited for this new part of my life— I was turning over a new page. I didn't have to worry about running into Matt anymore, because what would I say? I'm sorry I left you at the altar, I realized last minute I didn't wanna marry you? My family didn't give me a hard time about what happened at the wedding, but I knew that Matt and his family hated me for it.

That was one of the main reasons this move was so important to me, I needed to do things that I wanted for a change. I only said yes to his proposal because there was a lot of pressure surrounding us, his parents would always hint at us getting married, but as the wedding grew closer, they were stressing about when we were gonna have kids and whether I'd take his last name or not.

Matt was an amazing guy, he treated me well, and I did see a future with him, but I also knew that future wasn't what I wanted. In a way, we were opposites, made for two different things. He and his family wanted a stay-at-home wife and mom, I wanted to travel, and enjoy as much of life as I could before I'd have to worry about that stuff. I was only twenty-three, what was the rush?

"Are you sure this is what you wanna do, Ari?" Mom asked, coming from my old bedroom with the last of my stuff.

"Mom, relax, this'll be good for her," Frankie spoke up, leaning against the doorway.

"Yeah, I think this is what I need." I sighed, placing my hands on my hips and giving her a small smile.

She raised her eyebrow. "I assume you're going back to New York?"

"Actually, I talked to a friend of mine, and got her a decent job," Frankie explained, walking over to us both. "One of the perks of being a CEO of your own company is that you have connections. I just simply talked to one of them and turns out, his manager-friend Everett has a client, that is looking for an assistant."

"So you're gonna be an assistant for who exactly?"

"I don't know yet."

He brushed us off. "No need to worry though, we're getting that sorted out on Monday and moving you in, in a few days."

"Wait, I'm moving in before they're even home?"

"You have to get familiar with the place, don't you?" Frankie chuckled. "And they won't be back from Paris until then, so yeah,"