I croaked, “I need to get out of here. I just want to go home.”

“We’re taking her outside so that she can get some air. This all happened pretty quickly,” Rachel explained quickly to Suzy and Veronica. “She seems to have trouble breathing.”

“Alright, alright. Leave your car. I’ll have my driver take you home,” Veronica suggested to me, clear concern etched on her face. She pulled out her phone.

I had enough wits about me to figure out that that wasn’t a good plan. “I can’t … I can’t do that,” I spit the words out somehow.

“Besides she didn’t drive here,” Katy jumped in.

No one said another word as they managed to half drag me out into the side street by the entrance to the club.

“We’ll take you home, honey,” Rachel suggested.

“No, I’ll take her,” Shane suddenly appeared from out of the shadows and walked up to us.

“She’s our friend,” Katy retorted, stepping in front of me as if to get in between me and Shane. “We should take her home.”

“She’s my friend, too,” Shane answered. “I can take her home.”

“No, Shane. Remember, it was your friend who broke her heart,” Annie jumped in, but spoke with that undertone in her voice, as if she was enjoying this drama.

As they argued, Suzy and Veronica tried to cut in, “Ladies, ladies, we’re all friends here. We all want Harley home safely, right?”

I interrupted all of them and said as loudly as I could, “Um … Shane can take me home. I need to give her something of …Aerin’s ….that… that she left in my house.”

They all turned to me. Katy and the others had let go of my arms and I was standing on my own, after I signaled to them that I had my legs under me again. I was hunched over and leaning on my arms, which I’d rested against my knees. My head was hanging and I was taking steadying breaths. From the recesses of my mind I recalled the meditation breathing techniques that a visiting yoga master had taught a bunch of us at the office six months ago. I tried to recall scenes from my life that would help me with the breathing techniques. My thoughts turned to the stars … and how I’d gazed up at them last night with Aerin.