BrookLyn's Journey (39 page)

BrookLyn groaned and rolled over on the bed. “
Get out of my head!
I never said I was going to kill myself, Gabby. I didn’t even
think
it
.
”

“I don’t have to go and pick up my car today. I’ll go tomorrow,”
Gabby
said.

BrookLyn shook her head.
“No, you want your car. Don’t worry about me.”

“All I ever do is worry about you, BrookLyn. I don’t want anything to happen to you.”

“I’ll be fine.”

“Well, I’m going to have Max come and hang out while I’m gone.”

She flipped onto her back.
“I don’t need a babysitter, Gabby.”

“No, you don’t. I just need you to be safe. So, either I go and Max stays
,
or I go tomorrow.”

“I don’t need a babysitter. Sometimes I just talk,
or think,
Gabby. I have no intentions on harming myself. I’ll be in this bed
a
sleep when you get back. I’m tired. I promise I’ll be fine.”

“I’ll run and get my car and Max will hangout downstairs.”

“Fine, Gabby. Call Max to babysit me.”
She
turned back over.
She
wasn’t mad at
Gabby
.
BrookLyn was
in disarray
and she was just worried about
her
.
Her
parents
had
created many opportunities for
her
to feel like killing
her
self and
she
never did.
She wasn’t
going to do it now either.

Gabby leaned in and kissed
her
on
the
forehead.
BrookLyn
closed
her
eyes
. She
was drained.

Gabby g
ot up
and grab
bed
a blanket to cover
her
up.
She
was drifting off before
Gabby even
left the room.

“Love you,”
BrookLyn mumbled,
pulling the blanket up under
her
chin.

“I love you too
.
”
Gabby shut the door quietly behind her.

***

BrookLyn fell
a
sleep holding ont
o Gabby’s
leftover
warmth.
She wanted
her
,
but embraced her scent instead.
C
olors and loud music
filled her dreams
. Within seconds,
she
was dancing in the wind with rainbows following behind
her
.
She
saw Gabby’s
happi
ness
come through and reached out to grab it. As
she
did, Shante hovered over
her
.

Sh
ante
smirked
and snatched Gabby’s smile out of the air. “She doesn’t love you anymore
,
little girl. She never did. She loves me. Go back where you belong and leave us alone,” she screamed.

BrookLyn’s
mouth fell open in shock.

T
ears
streamed
down
her
face as
she
called out for Gabby.
BrookLyn
couldn’t force
her
self awake
.
L
ost and afraid
, she
didn’t recognize anyone. All of the smiling faces that surrounded
her
before Shante showed up were now blank. All of the bright colors that
had been
float
ing
around disappeared. Only gray remained.

The loud music stopped
,
giving way only to the sound of
her
voice
,
repeatedly call
ing
out for Gabby
,
but she didn’t come.
BrookLyn
roamed and roamed. The clouds came out where the rainbows
had been
.
She
was being smothered by darkness.
She
screamed out for Gabby again.
She
cried harder and yelled louder
. S
he never cam
e.

Chapter
Sixteen

Lost deep i
n her dream, BrookLyn
tried to wake
her
self up.
She
walked and walked as
she
tried to find
her
way out of the darkness.
Why wouldn’t
Gabby answer
her?
As
she
wandered
,
she
kept calling out her name.
D
eeper
and deeper
into the darkness
she called
,
to no avail.

BrookLyn
started to cry as
fear enveloped her.
She
wanted
out.
She
wanted to smell
Gabby’s
sweetness and hold onto the rainbows that
had
appeared when she was around.

She
had to find Gabby. She
’d
promised to keep
her
safe.
She
needed her.
All at once, BrookLyn
turn
ed
over in bed
, sleepily
realiz
ing
that
she
was shaking.

“Wake up
,
BrookLyn.”

Am I
awake or dreaming
?
She
rubbed
her
eyes, squinted
,
and saw Max standing over
her.
Her
shirt was soaking wet from sweat.

BrookLyn struggled
to catch
her
breath and wake up fully.
“Is Gabby here?”

“No, she isn’t back yet. I heard you calling her name over and over so I came upstairs.”

“You heard me from downstairs?”

“Yes, I heard you. I’ve been trying to wake you up for the last ten minutes. You were almost on the floor. I think you were running
.
”
He
lean
ed
on the door.
“You can’t let Shante show up in your dreams. It’s bad enough she snatched some power out of your real life. Don’t let her take all of your peace.”

“I don’t know what to do. I really don’t
.
”

“Well, being that you can’t find peace in your sleep
,
you better figure something out soon,” Max said. He stood near the door looking down on
her
. His long curls hung to his shoulders. He was extremely handsome and
she
noticed for the first time that his eyes were similar to Gabby’s.

BrookLyn
didn’t know what to say. He was right. Shante was taking over every aspect of
her
life
, and she
wanted
it
back.

“I think I just heard Ga
bby
pull up,” Max said.

“What time is it?”

“It’s almost nine o’clock,” he said
,
glancing at one of the biggest diamond watches
BrookLyn
had ever seen.

“Are you serious?”
BrookLyn couldn’t believe
that
she
had slept so long
. There was no way she’d
go back to sleep tonight.

“I guess you needed the rest
.
” Max turned to walk out of the room.

“I know it didn’t take this long for Gabby to pick up her car.”

Max didn’t reply but had a guilty look on his face as he looked back.

“What else did she do, Max?”

“I don’t know. She just asked
me
to come over.”

He
was lying.
BrookLyn
didn’t feel comfortable calling him on it because he
’d
always looked out for
her
.
But she
couldn’t help
her
self
.
“Whatever,”
she
said getting out of bed. “Cousins lie for cousins.”

He didn’t say anything. He shrugged his shoulders and walked down the hall.

My fight
i
sn’t with him. It
’s
with Gabby and the rest of my world
.

W
hatever
Gabby
was doing had to do with Shante
.
BrookLyn
could feel it.
She
washed
her
face
in the bathroom
,
and when she
came out
she
heard Max and Gabby talking.
She
tried to listen but could only hear them mumbling.
Gabby
was definitely up to something.

“I thought we didn’t keep secrets, Gabby
.
”
BrookLyn
walk
ed pas
t
her
into the living room.

“We don’t,” she replied.

“Oh, we tell lies instead?”

“No, we don’t.”

“I think you told a few tonight.”

Max stood looking uncomfortably at
them
. Then he said, “I’m going home. My job here is done.”

“Thanks,” Gabby said
,
looking at Max.

“No worries
,
cousin. BrookLyn, remember what I said, don’t let her have your peace too.”

BrookLyn
didn’t respond.

Max looked at
her
then turned and left
,
closing the door lightly
.

She
walked pas
t
Gabby
again,
into the kitchen.
She
wanted something to drink.
She
didn’t want to argue with
Gabby,
but
she
hated being lied to.
Her
entire life with
her
parents was based on lies.

She
poured
her
drink
and
it overflowed onto the counter.
She wiped up the mess as she heard the rest of the soda in her cup fizzing.
Gabby came into the kitchen
,
standing
behind
her
. She was flipping through the mail.

BrookLyn
didn’t say anything
, just
reached into the refrigerator
for the
jelly
and
then
grabbed the peanut butter
out of the cabinet
.
She
was hungry
, and
annoyed.
She slammed the bread down on the counter.

“Did you eat?”
s
he
asked Gabby
,
interrupting
the
silence.

“No, I figured I’d grab something now.”

Gabby put the mail down and came up behind
BrookLyn again
as
she
spread the peanut butter on
her
bread. She wrapped her arms around
her
waist.
H
er warmth couldn’t bypass
BrookLyn’s
anger.
Gabby
was lying and
BrookLyn
had to say something about it.