Chapter Six Continued...

I finally catch up.

And no, not because she has been hit. She is standing in front of the car glaring at the driver. Her fists are clenched, and she is about to flip him the birdie. I grab her arm and half pull half drag her out of the street. The annoyed driver honks before pulling off.

Ari yanks her arm from my grasp and moves away from me. I bend over and put my hands on my knees to catch my breath. She seems barely phased and if she takes off running, I won't be able to catch her again. She doesn't run. Instead, she staggers over to an onyx glass building and slides down it, slumping into a seated position.

I sit next to her and put my head between my knees and try to calm my nerves. The shoes in my hands drop and I stare at them in disappointment. There are only three of them.

"I've lost one of your shoes!" I say angrily.

An expensive shoe. Either I'd lost the shoe on the run or had failed to pick it up. How is it I couldn't manage to hold on to a stinkin' shoe? It's silly, but I'm furious with myself. I look over at my shoulder and sigh. At least I still have the purse.

Ari starts laughing hysterically. I peer at her as if she's lost her mind. I'm not confident she hasn't. She did just run across eight lanes of traffic. Suicidal much? Of course, I'm the idiot who'd chased after her. What did that say about me?

"You're worried..." She says between gasps of laughter. "...about a shoe?"

It's ridiculous, I know. We could've died and Ari nearly did, and I'm worried about losing a pair of Manolos. I can't help but laugh at myself, but not nearly as hard as Ari. Her entire body is convulsing and shaking. The sounds she is making are hitched and followed by small gasps for air. I strain to see her in the dark.

She isn't laughing, she's crying. Tears stream down her face in big globs. I'm shocked into inaction. Ari is crying? And not a few stray escaped tears. The dim street lights glisten and reflect off streams rolling down her cheeks. Her face is drenched.

I snap out of my shock and wrap my arms around her in a tight hug. She only cries harder. She leans in closer to me and rests her head on my shoulder. Her tears soak through my dress and dampens my skin.

Ari is devastated. I don't need to ask why she'd run or why she's crying. It wasn't about the GQ guy calling her the b-word, losing an expensive shoe, a drunken-stupor cry, or even the sex list. This was bigger. She'd been trying to play tonight off as a birthday excursion; a way to flee from the problem and keep her mind off it.

It'd succeeded for a while, but it had finally caught up to her. There was no running away from this. I don't know the words to make her feel better. I've always been invisible, never in the spotlight. In my world, this problem only happened to celebrities like Taylor Swift. I don't think telling Ari to "shake-shake-shake it off" is the right move.

I try to put myself in her shoes. What if my reputation was in shatters, my integrity, and character in tatters? Perception is everything. If my peers believed me to be a whore, a slut, easy. Could I use my self-worth as a firewall to shield me from my bullies?

Ari has tons of self-worth, more than I do. She is beautiful, smart, and the most popular girl at school, and only human. How long would it take to break her? How many years had she been fighting? What are the words I'd want to hear?

"Ari, you are worth so much more than the lies they spread." Ari's pulls back from her sobs and stares at me.

I offer her a smile and continue, "You're the strongest person I've ever met and my life is better just knowing you. Don't let them break you."

I brush away some of the tears from her wet cheeks.

"They aren't worth a single one of your tears."

She doesn't say anything but stares at me through tear filled eyes. Then she slowly leans forward. My heart skips. Ari presses her lips to my lower cheek. Her lips softly graze the corner of my mouth and lingers.

I can feel the dampness of her tears on her lips. Then she pulls back and buries her head in my shoulder. I have an urge to touch where her mouth had rested.

For an idiotic second, I'd thought she was going to kiss me on the lips.

I hold her until her hysteria fades. We sit for a long time, neither of us moving. It isn't until I notice Ari has fallen asleep that I pull my phone free from her purse.

I text for back-up.

Fifteen minutes later, a truck pulls up to the curb. Cameron steps out of the cab and I motion towards him. He's still in his pajamas. The place he was staying was about fifteen minutes away, he must have jumped straight out of his bed and into his truck.

He wasn't even wearing shoes. I love this guy. He crouches down in front of me and examines my face.

"Are you okay?" He asks.

I know short chapter...it's just how it breaks up.

tbc...the last part (I promise) of Chapter Six