Arianna grabbed my hand, leading me out to some part of the school building that looked like we shouldn't have been on.
She had lead me out to roof of the school building, which kind of made me uneasy once I realized where we were because I used to have a bad fear of heights, and still do the present day.
"Come here." she motioned with her hands for me to come over and sit by her, guessing she noticed I seemed on edge and a little scared.
I came and sat down next to her, beginning to calm down a little as I just admired the sky, my shoulders dropping a little from their original tensed state.
"you scared of heights?" Ari asked me, her eyebrows raised as the question came out of her mouth. "and don't lie."
I let out a sigh before answering her question, "Yes. If you laugh im pushin' you off this buildin."
To which she laughed anyway, her giggles eventually turning into wheezes.
"Akeke." I mocked her laugh, squinting at her.
"I'm not laughing at yo' fear of heights," she stated, lightly punching me in my arm, "I'm laughin' because you talkin bout you gone push me off the building. "
"oh, oh okay. yea, yea, oh okay!" I responded dramatically, doing a bunch of hand motions in her face.
Her laughing and wheezing suddenly came to a stop as I was no longer hearing it my ear, and then there was a comfortable silence between the two of us, before she spoke up, breaking the silence.
"mae?" I heard her call my name.
"yeah?"
"i'm sorry." she apologized, looking at me.
"sorry for what?" I asked, a little confused as to why she was apologizing to me when she hadn't done anything.
"I'm sorry about bri's ass. I don't know why she thought that shit was okay." She responded, shaking her head from side to side kind of as a gesture to show she didn't agree with brier.
"it's okay." i reassured her, "i'm more upset about dola. I don't know why she been treatin' me like that." I continued to talk, hoping that she couldn't hear the hurt tone attempting to show in my voice. "it's like since she started hanging around brier, she be tryna embarass me. and when Brier gets disrespectful with me she don't correct it, and I just kinda feel like that's wrong?"
"i- i'm sorry, am I talking too much?" I stopped mid-rant to ask, worried that I was giving arianna a headache or making her become annoyed with me.
"no, keep goin'. you straight." she nodded her head, giving me the okay to keep talking.
"and it's just kind of weird to me, cause I would never let nobody sit in my face and disrespect her like that, and i damn sure would never laugh with them. As long as we've been friends, everything we been through, and she just letting somebody else ease in and push me to the side. or that's what it feels like, anyway."
"You done?" She questioned, making eye contact with me, me nodding my head in response instead of giving a response verbally.
"Now, everything you just told me, say it again but pretend it's dola. Everything you just felt when you were talking to me, say it to dola."
So, we did that. We spent the rest of the lunch period talking, mostly her having me vent my feelings but pretending that I was speaking to dola, so I would know exactly what was gonna say and how I was gonna say it. Kind of felt like I was practicing lines for a movie or a play or something, but I was grateful for her caring enough to listen to me.
