BrookLyn's Journey (7 page)

BrookLyn
smiled back.
Gabriella
was beautiful and beyond sweet but did
she
really want this?
She
was eighteen
years
old and this would be
her
first relationship.
It was really out of her league and literally the furthest thing from her mind when she had asked to go to the party.

Gabriella stretched and leaned in.
“How’s my pretty girl this morning?”
She
kiss
ed BrookLyn’s
brow with her soft full lips.

Gabriella certainly knew what to say. S
weet words rolled off of her lips like butter. She looked directly
at BrookLyn
with
eyes
that always managed to
intrigue her.
BrookLyn
looked away
.
“I’m feeling okay. I just have to call my house.”

Gabriella passed
her
the house phone.

“Thanks
.
”
BrookLyn
stared at the phone as if it
were
the enemy.

“Anytime, Sweets
.
”
S
he smiled
,
got
off the bed
,
and went
into the bathroom.

BrookLyn
dialed
her
house number slowly
, and she
felt
the flight of
nervous butterflies in
her
stomach.
She
didn’t want to get into trouble
,
but it was too late for that.
Her
parents were never logical
. T
his would be seen as
BrookLyn’s
fault. In
he
r house
her
parents were never at fault
—
they ruled the roost.

“Hello
.
”
Her
mother answer
ed
on the first ring.

Round one.
“It’s me.”

“Where are you?”
Her tone was
the
familiar
harsh and dismissive
one that BrookLyn knew best. She also
knew her
mother’s
lips w
ould be
pressed tightly together on the receiver. She’d seen her mother’s anger enough to imagine it without seeing her face.

“My key wouldn’t work.”

“That’s not what I asked you, girl. Now,
I said,
where are you?”

“I’m at Gabriella’s house
—
Tiffany’s cousin from church. I called, rang the bell
and
banged as loud as I could on the door
. I probably woke up
the entire neighborhood.
” She sighed loudly.
“
I couldn’t get my keys to work.
” BrookLyn repeated it as if it would change anything. It wouldn’t.

“Your father
, him
change the locks.
”
She almost yelled
this which only served to confirm
the amount
of
trouble
BrookLyn
was in.

Was she serious?
Of course she was
. N
othing in life was funny to her.

“
H
im
worked a double shift
.
I would’ve heard you if you called or knocked.”

“Okay, but
you didn’t.
”
BrookLyn
fought
to keep anger out of her voice, but it was hard. She
did
to try and get in.
She
did
call. Either her mother
really
never heard her, or she just wanted BrookLyn to suffer.
“Why did he change the locks?”
She nervously chewed her fingernails
,
paying close attention to the ones she
’d
already
g
nawed at.
It didn’t make
her worry less but it was a distraction
.

“He is allowed to do that, huh?”

“Of course, but
—”

Her mother
mumbled something
under her breath in her stern island tongue
that
BrookLyn
couldn’t clearly comprehend
, but she
knew it wasn’t good.

“I
t isn’t my fault I couldn’t get in.”
She slightly raised her voice.

“Why are you at Gabriella’s house instead of Tiffany’s? We don’t know her parents.”

You don’t know Tiffany’s either.

BrookLyn
wasn’t going to explain all of that.
Her mother
was on a roll
.
“Tiffany is here too and this is where we stayed.”
Was my life going to become full of lies?
Probably
.

“Are you on your way home?”
Her mother’s short tone had a ring of disgust underneath.

They change the locks. They didn’t answer
the door
,
or
the
phone
.
It ma
kes
sense to be mad at me in
your
dark, distorted world.
You should have been expecting me, Mother.

“Yes
.
”
BrookLyn
managed to get the word out,
truly annoyed
but not surprised
that
she was the one
being blamed for this.
I
t would take time for Max to show up to give
her
a ride home
,
but
she
didn’t mention that.
I’m
already in trouble
,
so
what does
it matter how long
it takes?

At the end of this year
BrookLyn
would finally
be away from their prison. Graduation couldn’t come fast enough.
That
was the gateway to
her
escape.
She
was so jealous of
her
sisters
and her
brother Peyton
because they
’d managed to escape.
He
’d
left two years ago
,
on the first plane
out, to
attend Florida A & M University in Tallahassee.
Her
sisters fled to North Carolina
to
go to school in Chapel Hill.

If
BrookLyn
was jealous of anyone it was definitely them
—
their rank in the family, and their newly found freedom.
Her
rank as the baby of the family
left her taking her parents’ anger all by herself. She didn’t blame them
.
She would’ve left too. She
’d always be
the youngest,
but
BrookLyn
wouldn’t always be in that house.
Her time would come.

All three of
her siblings
had
accepted their
high school
diplomas,
had
walked across the stage
,
glanced
toward BrookLyn
with th
at
look of silent joy across their faces, and left.
She hadn’t
seen them since.
They’d
talk
ed on the phone
periodically but that
was
it.
She missed them—not just because they left her to deal with her parents.

She kept her
grades high because
she didn’t
want anything stopping
her
escape from that madhouse
.
Everyone always sa
id
how wonderful
her
parents
were, but u
nless you live with someone you have no idea who they really are behind closed doors.
Her
father should’ve been an actor because he play
ed
the good guy
part
so well.
Her
mother is afraid of him and always
took
it
out on
the kids
. The problem
was
that the
kids
ha
d
dwindled down to
just BrookLyn, who always believed that her mother
enforce
d
h
er father’s
rules
to
ensure her safety.

I just want out.
Maybe hooking up with a girl will get me just that
.

***

“What did she say?”
Gabriella had come out of the bathroom.

BrookLyn rolled her eyes and huffed.
“She just asked me if I was on my way home and hung up. She doesn’t believe I tried to get in. I knew she wouldn’t
.
You catch a glimpse of her sweetness at church but I know who she is at home. That woman is the devil.”

“No way
.
”
Gabriella looked astonished.

That’s why
BrookLyn
never told anyone. They wouldn’t believe that Mr. and Mrs. Perfect weren’t
actually
perfect.

“My parents suck
.” BrookLyn flopped onto the bed.
“
They changed the locks
. That’s why I couldn’t get in. They didn’t even
tell me
,
but it’s
all
my fault. I’ll be grounded
...
maybe worse.”
BrookLyn
didn’t share what the
worse
was.

“It’ll work out. I’m sure they’ll realize they were wrong.”

“
You don’t understand,
Gabriella
.
They’re never wrong
. E
ven when they are
.
”

BrookLyn
sat quietly for a few minutes
wondering how her entire life changed so much in one night. Had her father planned this when he had agreed to let her go out? It wasn’t like he needed a reason to beat on her. It didn’t make any sense.
She closed her eyes.

“So, are you going to be my girlfriend or what?”
Gabriella
asked
suddenly.

BrookLyn’s eyes popped open to the sight of Gabriella’s Cheshire-cat grin.
“Right now, all I want to do is get this morning breath taken care of. Do you have an extra toothbrush?”

“There’s a brand new one with your name on it
over on the counter.
”
She
smiled
,
calming
BrookLyn’s
angry heart down.

“Thanks
.
”
BrookLyn
walk
ed
past
Gabriella and
into the bathroom.

After
BrookLyn
brushed
her
teeth
,
she stopped and
stared at
her
self in the mirror
.
What
am
I doing over here when I ha
ve
to go back to the house that I hate
?
I
can’t get
comfortable here with Gabriella
.
She looked at the toothbrush in her hand.
T
his
i
s
n’t
my home
.
I wo
n’t
be able to see her when she want
s,
if I want to see her. My father r
uns
my life and everything in it.
I
s this a chance I
’m
willing to take?
I
s
it
fair to her?