Aurora (#1)

f o u r

"How much did you guys hear?" Felicity sighed wearily as we approached her.

"Nothing." Jess squeaked.

"Enough." I said.

"Sorry about June. She's just jealous that I'm talking to you guys. Anyways lets go." She ended cheerily. I smiled and followed her to the car. I guess I wasn't surprised she had a nice car, but in New York it's a pain to drive anywhere because you'd get stuck in traffic. That was one thing that I liked about New York. The crazy traffic. There would be traffic at all hours of the day, all year long, every single season.

Our school was in the richer area of Manhattan so by default the students who attended were rich too, unless they were scholarship kids. Felicity turned on the radio to a local channel. "I love this song!" Jess cried out.

"Me too!" Felicity chimed in. I just sat there in the back seat awkwardly smiling, masking the creeping fear that was choking my throat. I didn't really listen to mainstream music, because good songs are ruined when they are too overplayed.

I've never seen a diamond in the flesh

I cut my teeth on wedding rings in the movies

And I'm not proud of my address,

In a torn-up town, no postcode envy

But every song's like gold teeth, grey goose, trippin' in the bathroom

Blood stains, ball gowns, trashin' the hotel room,

We don't care, we're driving Cadillacs in our dreams.

"This song is amazing don't you think Rori?" Felicity asked me, her eyes sparkling with enthusiasm.

"It's not bad." I shrug. It's true, it wasn't too bad, but I couldn't focus on anything else except my breathing. My hands was were curled up into balls so tightly that my knuckles had turned white. I closed my eyes but it didn't help, I could feel the panic attack surfacing but I had to keep it inside.

"So Rori? Is that short for something?" Felicity asked.

I hesitated. "No. My parents wanted a boy so they named me Rori." I shrugged, lying through my teeth.

"So where do you stay then in New York?" Jess asked.

"I'm not sure, all I know so that it's downtown Manhattan." I felt bad for lying to my friends, but I wasn't ready to tell them the truth. They laughed together.

"We should show you around Manhattan!" Felicity cried.

"That would be nice." I gave her a fake smile at her genuine caring attitude. I felt guilty for acting like that but I couldn't bring myself to tell them the truth.

"We should take her to Bloomingdales, and..." I tuned their chatter out as I tried to focus on the moving surroundings outside my window. The city rush and the impressive skyscrapers passed us in a blur as each person blended into one. I was kind of glad they were absorbed in their own conversation because then they couldn't see me breaking down in front of them.

Soon we were driving into a private car park and the natural light was extinguished. Felicity drove down to the third basement floor before throwing her automatic into park. Both Jess and Felicity jumped out while, I took my time making sure I wouldn't trip over my own two feet. I took a deep breath when I stood on the firm ground. I had never felt so frightened in a car before but I was glad I could finally breathe.

"Hurry up Ror," Felicity urged as they stood near the elevators.

"I'm coming!" I called out shakily as I jogged over to them. The elevator was really fancy considering it was just to take us from the car park up to the main reception. It was massive, fitting probably a hundred of me in there. Okay so I exaggerated a bit but it was really big. Felicity and Jess chattered away about some new fashion designs or something like that, I wasn't paying attention.