Sometimes a little help from a friend makes all the difference in the world. Friend? Is he my friend? I don't know what we are. But today what Roy did was really someting great.

We landed in the London airport few days back. Roy, Avery and I, were staying in my London penthouse along with some workers.

Roy insisted on coming with us, when I told him not to. In secrecy, I'm glad that he came. To say I'm scared and nervous would be an understatement. I'm on the verge of getting a panic attack.

Roy and I waited in the waiting room when Avery was taken in the operation theatre. Roy held my hand and murmured soothing words.

"Your hands are cold." Roy said in a very soft voice and started rubbing my hands.

"I hope everything goes off well." I told myself. Tears were threatening to fall at anytime.

Roy looked at me with soft eyes. "Hey." He lifted up my chin with his fingers, I couldn't stare at him, not when my tears were going to fall. "Everything will be fine." A tear escaped. He wiped it with his thumb. His thumb were soft as cotton. "Baby..." he pulled me closer and I rested my head on his chest.

Baby? Did he call me baby?

"Come with me." Roy pulled me out of the hospital. I walked without uttering a word. "We will come back in an hour, anyway the operation will take more than 3 hours."

"Where are you taking me?"

"To the park."

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The park was a small one, filled with kids and their parents, some teenagers were strolling around, having ice-creams and talking away animatedly.

Roy made me sit in a white bench, infront of a small fountain and went somewhere. There was another bench on the opposite side and a pretty girl was sitting alone, wearing a white hoodie.

I don't know where was Roy so I stood up and walked near the fountain. The fountain was actually a statue of cupid. It was beautiful.

I was standing and admiring the fountain and the girl was sitting right behind me.

She was crying.

I turned around to look at the girl, she didn't look more than a 17 year old. She looked so vulnerable.

I don't know what came over me, but I took a few steps and seated myself on the bench beside me.

She moved a little as I sat beside her. I thought she will get up and go but she didn't.

No one spoke. Tears were falling from her eyes and her breathing was so fast.

I know that feeling. It's like you are being stabbed numerous times in the same place. It pains and the pain is unbearable. It feels like you're drowning and no one is there to save you. You feel like dying.

"Count your breaths." I said. The girl didn't flutter her eyebrows and just stared at the fountain, her breathing becoming irregular by seconds.

"I... I can't... breath." The girl choked on her voice.

"Take deep breaths and count them." I said rubbing her back.

She did as I told her. Her breathing became stable and she calmed down.

"Drink some water." I took out a bottle from her backpack which was lying in the ground and handed her over. She took it.

She gulped in some water. When I chose to ask. "Why are you killing yourself?"

The girl stared at me in disbelief. "I'm not." She kept her bottle immediately in her bag. "Thanks for helping. I should leave, I'm getting late."

"Hey, wait up." I smiled at her. Looking at this girl's face, something tugged in my heart. She looked at me and I saw fresh tear about to spill.

"Yes?"

"I won't tell you not to cry because tears are not evil. Infact, they teach you... they teach you not to cry for the same reason again."

The girl just kept staring at me for a few minutes. I smiled at her and she wiped her tears and came to sit beside me again.

"I think i've seen you somewhere?" The girl said.

"Maybe." I smiled. "So what's your story?"

"You're a stranger. How can I tell you about my story?"

"Because it's always easier to talk to strangers about your problems than to share it with people you love because you don't want to worry them, and with strangers you will not see them again in future. And strangers won't judge you like your loved ones." I shrugged. I don't know why I'm talking to this girl but she reminds me of myself when I was her age.

"You're strange." She commented.

"Strangers are strange."

"So I don't have any story but if you call it so then it's boring."

"Hmm. It's a guy problem or family? Oh wait, are you like this social stigma?"

She laughed at the way I sounded. Finally she laughed.

"All three it is. I've a dysfunctional family. My parents are divorced. At school I'm bullied all the time by those rich, model-like girls and today was the best..." she gave a humorless laugh. "... i got dumped by this very handsome guy whom i love madly."

"So you're killing yourself over a boy. I see." I removed her bracelets from her left hand and the cuts appeared. There was a fresh cut in a heart shape. "I would prefer making a tattoo than cutting myself."

"You don't mind me being a cutter?" She asked.

"Why would I mind? Infact, no one minds. Why you know? Because no one cares what you do to yourself except the people who love you. You are only ruining yourself."

She sighed and said, "you're right."

"I know." I smiled.

"But what should I do? I feel helpless." She said, tears falling down her cheeks. I wiped her tears.

"What's your name?"

"Avery."

"What a coincidence, my daughter's name is also Avery." I smiled. "Avery when you love yourself then people will start loving you and I believe you've taught yourself better. Your wear attitude is your actual strength. When people do not respect your presence then make them regret your absence."

"I don't even know you but you're great." She smiled and said.

"I'm not great. I also learnt from my mistakes. I wouldn't be what I'm today if my boyfriend didn't dump me 7 years back." I closed my eyes and let the tears sunk in. I opened my eyes with a smile on my face. "The point is you have to make yourself great."

"I don't know what to say." She shrugged.

"Keep this. I think you love bracelets." I smiled at her and gave her one of my bracelets which had 'HOPE' written with diamonds on it.

"Thanks. This is beautiful. But i can't take it... it's expensive and I don't even know you."

"Keep it as a gift. And as for knowing me, I'm Ashna Kapoor."

"You mean the famous fashion designer?" Her mouth fell open in shock. I chuckled.

"Yes."

"Ashna." I heard his voice. I turned around.

"Roy, where were you?" I asked. His face was blank and the ice-cream in his hand was melting. Oh God! Signs of danger!

"That's for you." He gave me the melting ice-cream and his eyes were cold. "We should get back to the hospital."

"Yeah." I replied Roy. I turned towards the girl named Avery and said, "Avery, don't kill yourself over a guy, he will bring another girl to your funeral."

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