The Broken Hearted

School's Out

May 24, 1993 

"We're out of school already Justin, can you believe it!" 

Ari looked at her best friend with delight as they shuffled across the street and turned the corner into their Central Los Angeles neighborhood. Justin frowned at her and sped up his pace to get to his house. Ari had to admit, Justin was in a really pissy mood today and she couldn't put her finger on why. I mean, she hadn't said anything smart to him today or put a note in his locker like she normally did. Ari ran up the side walk to catch her friend and stopped right in front of him with her arms out wide. 

"Rarrr! I'm a dinosaur!" She screamed 

Mrs. Jenkins turned from walked her dog and stared at the wild 16 year old. Justin did the same and stared at her, then, after a long contemplation about how he became friends with Ari in the first place, he sighed and pushed her out of the way gently. Ari was getting tired of him. She ran up in front of him and stopped him again, but this time, she put her hands on his biceps and shook him a little, well, she shook him as much as she could, being that Justin was now 5 foot 9 and as Ari would say, a mini muscle man, it was becoming alot harder to move him. 

"Justin! What's up! You've been being a little bitch all day!" 

"Did you not hear Ari?" Justin spoke, barely audible looking down at his now angry best friend. "Naomi broke up with me after school. So if you have nothing else to say to me, mom's waiting on me to get home for dinner." 

Once again, Justin brushed past her and for once in her life Ari had nothing to say. She stood there for a moment and watched Justin walk into his house then she walked to her house, confused and even more angry at herself, but even more so, Naomi. 

'I cant believe she would do something like that to Justin! I mean, I never liked Naomi, but she seemed like an okay girl, and Justin liked her, so I wasn't gonna be mean to her. And knowing Justin, he's going to be crying all day and all night. I mean, she could've waited to break up with him next year, but the last day? Yesh, thats tough.'

?Ari walked up the steps to her home and in doing so, she tripped and fell. Typical. Pulling out her keys and opening the door, she thought about how bad this summer was gonna be. 

"Thanks Naomi, thanks for ruining my best friend and my summer." Ari muttered out loud. 

"Whose Naomi?" Ari looked up to see the biggest surprise of her life, her big brother, Austin. 

"Austin!" She screamed, latching onto her big brother. "I though you were overseas!" 

"Well, I got leave so I came to see my little pumpkin head and my mama." He shined his white teeth at his little sister and walked into the kitchen. 

"You need any help mom?"  

"No son, you just go sit down and watch some T.V., dinner will be ready soon." 

"Okay, hey little sis, come sit down and talk to me."