BrookLyn's Journey (10 page)

“
Don’t worry.
We can figure it out.
Maybe we’ll sneak me in. I don’t know. I just know I need to see you again.
And i
f
you
take a chance
, I promise you will have fun. And you won’t get in trouble.
I won’t let you.
”

“I have never
done anything
without asking
,
but I know they’ll say no
, so
what’s the
point
.”
She frowned
. H
er
parents’
didn’t want her to enjoy life
, and s
he usually didn’t. She just existed.

“There’s always a first time.”

“So
,
when should I be ready?”

“Just be ready
.
I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

BrookLyn’s
mother was calling
her
name
.
“All right, well, my mother is calling me.
She’ll probably come up if I don’t answer her.
”

“Okay. Call me if you need me. I’ll just be home preparing for our date.”

D
ate?
Her
friends all went out on dates with boys.
Is it
even
called that when it is between two girls?
Why d
o
I always have to be the different
one
?
She
was the only one that was a virgin and the only one
going on a date with
another girl. What would
her
friends think?
Did it matter
?

“Okay
.
T
hanks again for the phone
.
I
gotta go.
”

“I’d give you the world. I miss you already
.
”
Gabby
hung
up.

BrookLyn
missed
Gabby
too.
She quickly
put the phone on vibrate
,
opened
the
closet door and tossed
the
phone in a shoebox
.
Then she
took her
new
hat out of the back of
her
jeans and tossed it in the box too.
BrookLyn
centered herself
to deal with
her
mo
ther,
whose
big feet
she could hear
flopping loudly as she made her way
down the hall.

“Yes?”
BrookLyn
open
ed
her
door
just
seconds before
her mother
burst
in
.
She really
wasn’t in the mood
.
She
spent
her
days as the perfect little daughter when inside
she
hated her
mother
.
The woman
had no voice in th
eir
house and that made
BrookLyn
angry. Her
mother’s
voice was supposed to keep
her
safe. It didn’t.
Her
father
made all the decisions even if they were wrong.
BrookLyn
knew
her mother
lived in fear
too,
because she never stood up for herself either. That didn’t lessen
her
anger.

“I thought I heard you talking in here?”
Her mother
peek
ed
around
her,
looking for a
body that belonged to the
voice she thought she heard
her
talking to.

“No, I was looking at my homework. I was reading it aloud
.
”
BrookLyn
point
ed
to a closed spiral notebook
,
which
she
had never used
,
hoping
her mother
didn’t feel the need to open it.
Her
lies were starting to stack up.

BrookLyn’s
mother pushed
her
aside
,
walking
all the way
into
her
room.
Her mother
did this a few times a week
, for no real reason
,
because before last night,
she
had no secrets. School and church were
her
life
, and they
would
never
stop being a part of
it.
A
s much as
she
missed Gabby
right now,
she
knew that
she
would
n’t
be
her
only focus.
BrookLyn
couldn’t be a
bad girl
because
she didn’t
like getting into trouble
, but she
definitely thought things would be different
now
.

She
rolled her eyes behind her mother’s back as she watched
her
walk around
her
bed
room looking for something to be different. There never was
,
only
today
there was a change, but it
was within
her
.
Her mother
could look all she wanted and she wouldn’t find it. Eventually it
might
surface
,
but not today.

Her
mother didn’t say anything
. S
he just
looked at
BrookLyn
then
smiled
.
She
walked away holding her disappointment in her empty hands as she swayed down the hallway.

God, I hate you, Mother
. I know I’m not
supposed to feel that way.
You’re
my mother and
you
gave birth to me
,
but that
doesn’t
mean
you
have
complete power over my life.

For now she did
, though
. Earlier
,
BrookLyn
had
felt as if the
sun
was
shining bright on a different side of the street. On that sunny side of the block,
her
heart danced with Gabby
’s
—
she
could see in color
. N
o one was going to put
her
back on the
dark
side where
she
used to live.

“BrookLyn?”
h
er mother called down the hallway.

“Yes.” She stood in the door wondering what was next. She didn’t want to deal with her
mother
anymore.
To her surprise, her mother offered
unexpected
solace for the weekend.

“
You made me forget what I came to say.
We going out of
town when him gets home. Aunt Meely fell ill.
But don’t you be getting no big ideas. We get somebody to watch over you here.
”

“When are you coming home?”
She only cared so she could have a fun weekend.

“W
e coming home w
hen we get back, huh?”

BrookLyn
nodded without
uttering
another word
while she tried
not to dance around
excitedly.

Her mother left
again,
and BrookLyn
went into
her
closet
to get
the phone out of
her
shoebox
and
put it in
her
pocket.
She
peeked into the hallway to see where
her
mother had gone
.
Not
see
ing
her
, she
assumed she was in her bedroom or downstairs.
BrookLyn
went into the bathroom
,
closed the door
,
and pulled out
the
phone
.

“Hello?”
Gabby
answered on the first ring
.

“
I have an update.”

“
What’s up?”

“
My parents won’t be home this weekend.”

“
Will you be home alone?
”

“
No. They don’t trust me.
Ms. Cora will be over, I’m sure.”

“Ah, you have a babysitter,” Gabby joked.

“She’s
just
the one on duty when the parent
s
are off.
But at least she trusts me enough that I should be able to
sneak away for a while. She always goes to bed early. She’s older than dirt, I think.
”
BrookLyn
was excited and nervous about the weekend. At least she’d be doing something different.
“
But listen, Gabby.
If I come
,
I have to
be back before my paren
ts are
,
and in time to get some
sleep before
school on Monday.”

“I know. I know how much you like learning.” She mocked BrookLyn.

“School is my ticket out of here. It’s the only way that I’ll get away from them. Once I finish high school it’s off to college.”

“Damn, you got your whole life planned out
.
”

“Don’t you?”
BrookLyn
thought everyone did.

“Well yeah
,
but your stuff is down to the minute.”

“If you lived in this house, yours would be too.
”
BrookLyn
hushed herself, thinking she
heard footsteps in the hallway.
She
sat up
and tuned her ears toward the door.

“I’m sure. Well, let’s talk about it
later
. I’d tell you I love you but you already know that.”

What?
How
can
she love me when she barely kn
ows
me?
BrookLyn
di
dn’t
love
Gabby,
but
she
did like her
a lot
.
Her heart fluttered all the same. She
made
her
feel good.
She never felt good.
W
hat next
?
She was strangely excited
to find out
.

“
I have to go
.
”

“
Okay.
I miss you like crazy. I’ll come and get you
soon
,
and
I’ll hold you tight all night long
.
”

“Bye, Gabby
.
”

“I’ll see you later
, Sweets
.”

BrookLyn
stood in the bathroom
giggling at the thought
of
seeing Gabby tonight
.
She had slept so peacefully
the night before.
I wish I could sleep so soundly every night.
Was it just because she was
doing something
forbidden, something to defy
her
captors
?
Or was it
something
more?