STAY WOKE ✔︎ || A. Grande

ғɪғᴛᴇᴇɴ

Zachary and Ariana shook hands while smiling at each other. "It's very nice to meet you. I heard that you are the doctor of Briar?" He questions making me nod my head, "yes, I have also heard a bit from you. Briar told me not too long ago that you and her use to be really good friends." Zachary nods his head. "May I ask what had happened to you two?"

Zachary sighed, "May we go take a walk while I'm explaining? It's better to have two things on my mind at once. This is a very sensitive topic for me." Ariana nodded her head, "of course!"

Zachary opened the door and led Ariana outside. They began to walk on the sidewalk of the field. Ariana waited patiently for Zachary to tell his side of the story. It was best if a sensitive topic like this came up at the right time. Zachary let out a deep breath and began to speak,

"I had just gotten home from France when my father told me that my mother, Clarissa, passed away. It was devastating to know such a thing, my mother was my best friend, and was always on board with what I was doing. I asked my father the cause of death and he refused to tell me, so I went to Briar's room and that's when I saw the medical staking out a body bag that I knew was my mother. I left as soon as I came, I knew that it wasn't her fault and just her demons, but I knew that I couldn't look at Briar or else I would blame everything on her."

Ariana frowned at hearing that. She let Zachary continue.

"Briar is like a little sister to me. I would do anything for her, but a part of her killed my mother. And I will never forgive that part of her."

"I one-hundred percent understand you, Zachary. But avoiding her will only make her demons worse. You were one of the things that calmed her demons down. Her demons love you along with her, herself. If you just give her a chance, I promise that she won't kill you." Zachary sighed. He hasn't seen Briar in a long while but he also didn't want to see Briar. In the end, however, he nodded his head and let out a small, "I'll do it," Ariana smiled and leaded him to Briar's room.

———

"Briar? You have a visitor, hun." Briar didn't once look up from the toy she was currently playing with. Ariana sighed and gently took the toy from Briar making her whine out. "I don't want to hear it. When you have visitors, you accompany them. Plus, I think you may like this visitor!" Ariana said excitedly.

She opened the door all the way and told Zachary to come in. Zachary cautiously came in. The room didn't look the way it was when his mother was around. It looked worse. The walls were dirty and stoned and the floor looked nothing but uncomfortable. He looked over to the desk and frowned ever more when he saw the moldy wood. No wonder Briar chose the floor over the desk. It looked disgusting.

Zachary kneeled in front of Briar and pulled out a tiny soldier from his pocket. "I don't know if you still play with toys, but I got you this little soldier guy. Hold on, I think I got more." Zachary continued to dig in his pocket. Briar looked up and her eyes immediately widened in surprise and happiness. Ariana was in the distance, smiling at the sight.

"ZACH!" Briar jumped onto Zachary making him fall to the floor and let out a laugh. He hugged Briar and Briar hugged back. She was glad that she could get the two friends back together. She figured that Briar would be a lot more happy if her best friend were here. Now she just had to get Zachary to stay. If Zachary could stay for a little while, then she could go deeper into her investigation about Briar's father, Daniel.

Ariana decided to leave the two alone. It was best if they caught up with each other. As for her, she decided to go to the dorms and work on the case of Daniel.

———

Ariana walked into Briar's dorm around 11:00pm to see if Briar was asleep or not. To her surprise, Briar was actually not in bed. She was sitting on the floor drawing in her notebook. Ariana smiled and sat down beside Briar. She thought Briar was going to move, but she didn't. She was happy to know that.

Briar looked up from her notebook and looked at Ariana. "Ariana?" She whispered out in a raspy voice. Ariana gave Briar a small smile and nodded her head for confirmation that she could continue.

It took briar a couple of seconds to say what she wanted to say. Ariana continued to wait patiently for her to say what she wanted to say.

"How do you make friends?"