He's the One (21 page)

‘I haven’t got a credit card any more, if you remember. Zac got his PA to cut it up in front of me. Can you imagine how humiliated I felt?’

That wiped the smile off her mom’s face. ‘I know. I was going to buy you some clothes, as a treat.’

Brooke shrugged. ‘Maybe.’ She meant, No fucking way. Her mom couldn’t buy her approval. The way Brooke felt right now, all the money and all the designer clothes in the world couldn’t buy her approval.

Liberty had sold Brooke’s cherished cherry red convertible just before they left LA. She claimed to have put the money into a savings account for Brooke for when she was older, and said that she wouldn’t need a car in the UK. She had bought herself one, though – a flash stick-shift BMW which Brooke had no idea how to drive, having always driven automatics. So here she had a choice between walking or riding a bike. God, if her friends could see her now, she reflected as she pushed the second-hand mountain bike out of the gate and on to the private road. She hadn’t had her hair done for over three weeks when usually she had it done every week, nor had she had a manicure. She must look such a wreck. She put on her black Ray-Ban Wayfarers – she had a pair in every colour – and began pedalling. She was too gloomy to take in the glorious view of the sea, the beach and the brightly painted beach huts. And the sun was actually shining. Brooke didn’t care. It might as well be raining.

She arrived at her gran’s still feeling as if the world
was against her. Not even the sight of Nina’s bright pink-painted house with its window boxes full of even pinker geraniums could cheer her up. It stood out in the red brick Edwardian terrace and absolutely summed up her gran’s extrovert character.

‘Is it still that bad?’ Nina asked when she opened the door and registered her granddaughter’s miserable expression. Brooke had poured her heart out to her yesterday about how much she was missing LA and her friends and Rosa, who had been a part of her life for so many years.

‘Worse. So much worse,’ Brooke muttered, pushing her bike inside and leaning it against a wall in the hallway. She followed Nina into the sunny kitchen.

‘What do you want to drink? I don’t have any of your decaff skinny Mocha-frigging-ccinos or ’erbal tea or whatever it is you drink in the States. It’s a choice between builder’s tea or instant coffee. Or there might be some Diet Coke.’

‘Have you got any mineral water?’

Nina gestured at the sink. ‘There’s an unlimited supply of tap water.’

Gross! Brooke wasn’t drinking that; everyone knew it was polluted. Full of fuck knows what! Did her gran have a death wish or something?

‘I’ll have Diet Coke, please.’

They settled on deckchairs outside in the tiny south-facing garden. Nina was in her late-fifties and looked great for her age. She dyed her hair a vivid auburn, liked wearing tunics and leggings – the brighter the better – and lashings of black eyeliner. She was always tanned from spending so much time outside, cycling or walking by the sea or working in her garden. She’d had a tattoo of a mermaid put on her shoulder when she turned fifty as she had always wanted one, and was
considering getting another on her back. It was fair to say that she was a bit of a hippy and a free spirit. She had just ended a six-month relationship because she found the guy too boring.

‘I mean, I like gardening programmes, but I don’t want to stay in
every
single night and watch them!’ she had told Brooke. ‘He never wanted to go anywhere and this was after only six months – we should have still been in the honeymoon phase, not vegetating in front of the TV. I want to go out and have fun. The deal breaker was when he didn’t want to come to Glastonbury with me.’

She was the coolest gran Brooke knew.

‘So when do you start college?’ Nina asked her.

Brooke grimaced. ‘Next week. I don’t see the point. I want to audition for drama school – at least that would be one good thing about living here. But, typically, Mom won’t let me yet. She still says I need to get some qualifications first. Big yawn and a total waste of time.’

‘She’s right on that score. There are plenty of out-of-work actors. You need something to fall back on.’

‘Oh, and that’s not all. She’s got me a job working at some crappiola Italian restaurant on Saturday nights, the same one she used to work in. She says that I need to learn the value of money, that I’ve become too spoiled. I’ve got to go there tomorrow to have some induction training. Like, how hard is it to wait tables?’

This had caused a massive row between Brooke and Liberty, who had revealed that her daughter would no longer have her own personal credit card. From now on she would get a monthly allowance of £150 and that was it. Back in LA that didn’t even cover the cost of having Brooke’s hair done!

Nina raised her eyebrows. ‘That’s something else I agree with Liberty on. You were becoming a little bit of
an LA princess, expecting to have whatever you wanted, whenever you wanted it. It’s not attractive, sweet pea. You have to work for things. You’ll appreciate them more if you do. And it would be good for you to mix with some real people – not all those LA types who only care about money and looks and being seen in the right places.’

‘Aren’t you going to say it will make me a better person?’ Brooke said sarcastically. She could really do without the character assassination right now, especially from her gran who was supposed to be on her side.

‘Yes, I think it probably will,’ Nina said cheerfully, not rising to the bait.

‘Well, it sucks being here. I love LA … it’s my home. And then there’s the whole deal of my real dad living in the UK and not even wanting to know me. Plus I haven’t got any friends. Being here is doing my head in. I literally have nothing to look forward to. Nothing at all.’ Brooke could feel her eyes fill with tears of self-pity. Again. That’s all she seemed to have done since arriving here, got angry then cried. Pathetic.

‘You’ll make some friends. And your dad is a loser, don’t waste any time on him,’ Nina said gently. ‘You and your mum can have a great life here and I’m thrilled to have you back, even though you haven’t stopped moaning! I missed you so much when you left. Those annual visits never made up for not having you living around the corner.’

‘You’re the only good thing about being here, Nina,’ Brooke muttered, trying to hold back the tears.

Nina reached out for her hand and squeezed it.

‘And your mum had to get away from Zac. He was completely controlling her life. Wanted her to sign up for another series, when she didn’t want to. He was even pressurising her to have surgery, for God’s sake
– as if she needed it! He wanted to turn her into a clone of every other actress out there. Liberty only stayed with him for so long because she wanted to give you a good start in life. She’s always put you first in all the decisions she’s ever taken. You’ve no idea of the sacrifices she’s made for you.’

Nina certainly knew how to guilt trip her … Brooke was starting to feel bad about the barrage of negative comments she had been directing at her mom.

‘Anyway, I’m sure that you’ll soon feel settled here and then you’ll wonder what you ever saw in LA,’ Nina continued.

Her gran was sweet, but deluded.

Back home, Liberty was in a great mood as her best friend Em had come over. Even though Brooke still felt as if the world was against her, she really liked Em, who was full of energy and always optimistic. She had returned to Brighton three years ago after living in Australia for over ten years, and that experience seemed to have added to the ‘can do’ vibe she always gave off. The two women were on the verandah, which looked out across the sea, watching the sunset. They had cracked open a bottle of champagne and already seemed a little drunk. Maybe it wasn’t the first bottle of champagne … Hmm, and her mom had given Brooke a hard time about smoking a spliff. The word ‘hypocrite’ sprang to mind. But because Em was there, she wouldn’t say anything … just yet.

‘Brooke! How fantastic to see you. My God, you look so grown-up!’ Em declared, getting up and giving her a big hug.

‘Well, you haven’t seen me for over two years, so yeah, I’m sure I have changed.’

‘You look beautiful, doesn’t she, Libs?’

‘She does.’ Liberty smiled at her daughter.

‘I can’t believe that you had a daughter who is naturally blonde when you have such dark hair.’

‘Well, my dad had blond hair, if you remember,’ Brooke muttered. ‘Not that I do as I’ve only ever seen him about three times.’

‘His loss,’ Liberty said quietly.

‘But Brooke has your wonderful green eyes. The boys at college won’t know what’s hit them when she arrives,’ Em declared. ‘They’ll be like bees round a honeypot.’

‘Well, they can look but not touch, I’m totally off boys.’ Brooke sat down on one of the chairs and tucked her long legs up under her. She felt more relaxed with Em there, less inclined to be the spiky and sarcastic teenager, who stormed up to her room and slammed the door shut on her mom.

‘Oh? That’s news to me,’ Liberty replied. ‘I thought you were still in touch with Christian and that’s why you were so mad at me for moving. I was going to suggest you ask him over.’

Her mom really was trying to make things up to her if she was prepared to do that … Brooke had been far too angry to confide in her in LA about the break up.

‘No, I dumped him. Well, actually, he dumped me before I got chance to dump him. He was cheating on me with Taylor.’

She wasn’t prepared to go into the full sordid details. Even so, she still hadn’t been able to resist checking up on him on Facebook, and it looked like he and Taylor were still going strong. He’d posted up pictures of her posing on the bonnet of his new jeep in a leopard-print bikini. The temptation to post a message that she looked like a ho had been almost overwhelming, but somehow Brooke had resisted.

‘Bastard!’ Em declared. ‘How dare he do that to you? What a scumbag tosser!’

‘Yep, he’s all of those. I don’t know what I ever saw in him.’

‘I bet he was a good-looking bad boy,’ Em continued. ‘We’ve all been there, haven’t we?’

When Liberty didn’t say anything, Em tactfully changed the subject and then Brooke asked to see pictures of her children. Em had three: a six-year-old daughter, four-year-old son and eight-month-old baby girl. ‘God knows, I love them more than anything else in the world, but it’s good to have some time out,’ she said, draining her glass and filling it up with more champagne. ‘Noah had better have got them off to sleep when I get back – honestly, they can twist him round their little fingers! I dread to think what will happen when they’re teenagers.’

‘They’re lucky to have each other,’ Brooke said wistfully, clicking through the images on Em’s mobile. She had always,
always
wanted a brother or sister. As an only child, she’d had her mom’s undivided attention when she was there, but it could be intensely lonely at times, especially when Liberty was away working. When she was little Brooke had even invented an imaginary sister called Lucy, to keep her company. She would get Rosa to set out an extra plate for her at dinner, and whenever they did any baking she would always make a special cake for Lucy. When her mom had found out she had seemed really upset.

‘Zac never wanted to have children of his own,’ Liberty said. ‘But who knows? Maybe I’ll meet someone else and have a baby.’

It was Brooke’s turn to be surprised by her mom, and when Liberty saw the look on her daughter’s face she said defensively, ‘I’m not that old!’

‘It’s not that. I didn’t even know you wanted to have another baby?’

‘I always did. Just not with Zac.’

Em raised her glass. ‘Well, there’s life in the old girl yet, I’m sure. D’you want a glass of champagne, Brooke? I think we should have a toast to new beginnings. It’s so brilliant to have you both back in Brighton.’

Liberty poured her daughter a small glass, and handed it to her.

‘Cheers,’ they all said in unison, clinking glasses.

As they seemed to have got on so much better tonight, after Em left Brooke decided to take a chance and ask her mom if she
really
had to work at the Italian restaurant. Liberty’s reply was not at all what Brooke had wanted to hear.

‘Yes, honestly, honey, I think it would be good for you to earn some money while you’re at college. And I promise it won’t be as bad as you think. You’ll probably meet lots of people your own age – it’ll be fun.’

‘You’ve got a seriously weird idea of fun!’ Brooke retorted. ‘You told me you hated waiting tables, so why are you making me do it? You’re being so mean! Isn’t it enough that you drag me away from the place I love? Do you have to make me suffer doing some menial job as well? How much more of this do you think I can take? It’s mental cruelty!’

When Liberty didn’t reply, Brooke stormed upstairs and slammed the door on her mom. She stayed up in her room until ten when hunger drove her back downstairs. She made herself a peanut butter sandwich, which she knew wasn’t healthy but by then she was too hungry to care. She was still hungry after that so ended up scoffing two of the fairy cakes Em had brought round and only just
stopped herself from tucking into a third. Fuck! Now on top of everything else she was going to end up fat! And it would be all her mom’s fault.

Her mood was no better the following day, getting ready for her induction at the restaurant. An Italian restaurant of all places, and she didn’t even eat pasta! Once in a blue moon she might allow herself pizza, but that was it. She tried to avoid all carbs. Ugh! She so didn’t want this job, she griped to herself as she rummaged through her suitcases – she still hadn’t bothered to unpack – trying to decide what to wear. Maybe if she wore a completely outrageous outfit the manager would refuse to hire her … Then again, her mom would probably only find her something even worse to do and get her a job at some fast-food hellhole, which didn’t bear thinking about.

In the end Brooke went for a pair of tiny denim shorts and a white shirt that she tied around her waist, showing off her flat brown stomach, and the white Converse that emphasised her bronzed legs. Though as the sun had barely showed itself since she had moved over here, she’d better book herself in for a spray tan soon. She had never been pale in her life, and as far as Brooke was concerned that was not an option for her. She was all about the sun-kissed, blonde beach-babe look.