BrookLyn's Journey (31 page)

BrookLyn
had no clue what was going to happen
once
she
left,
but
she
had to go.
She
climbed out of
her
window onto the tree branch and cl
ambered
down
, unskillfully,
getting as close to the ground as
she
could
before
jump
ing. Still, she managed to twist her
ankle when
she
hit the ground.

BrookLyn grunted and bent down to rub her ankle. But
a twisted ankle would be the least of
her
worries.
She could
hear
her
mother calling
her name
as
she
gathered
her
things
off
the ground
.

As BrookLyn sprinted down the block, she
wondered how fast
her mother would
call him
once
she realized
BrookLyn
was gone.
Probably
before
she
got around the corner. She
imagined her mother
as she searched the house
, imagined the look
on her face
—the absolute shock
that
BrookLyn had
finally
done
something that she
, herself,
was too afraid to do.
Her thoughts were so vivid she could almost
hear
her
say, “Girl
?
G
irl
!
W
here are you?”

No more thoughts of her mother. BrookLyn
wanted the wind at
her
back
,
and it was
, so she
ran down the block trying hard not to hurt
her
ankle
again.
As soon as she reached it, she
jumped into Gabby’s
waiting
car. She looked at
her
with a sad face
,
but it was a warm
and welcoming
face
too
.

“I’m sorry,” Gabby said.

“
Why?
It’s not your fault.”

“
I know, but
I’m sorry
for not rescuing you soon enough.”

“Gabby,
I’m still alive,
this
is
soon enough.” It was.
BrookLyn
had no idea where
she
’d end up. She
didn’t know if
she
’d stay at Gabby’s
and she
had no idea how any of this would turn out, but
she
had to get away from there to figure it out.
She just
couldn’t take
it
any
more.

Gabby drove and BrookLyn
leaned
her
head on the headrest and
didn’t fight the
tears
when they wanted to
roll down
her
face.
There were
no words left
to say.

Chapter
Eleven

W
hen they
arrived
outside
Gabby’s house
, BrookLyn
felt like
she
had been beaten lifeless
,
although
she
hadn’t been touched
—
at least not
tonight
.
She
felt like she
may have
finally gone to
that emotional
place that
there was no coming back from.
She felt like
a volcano that had never erupted
, building for that
first
explosion.
It was better that
she had
removed
her
self from their world
,
because they wreaked too much havoc in
hers.

“You ever see that show on TV where people are fine one minute and then get so upset they kill somebody?”
BrookLyn
asked
.

“Yes.”

“I’ve become that person. I can’t take any
more
, Gabby
. I’m not saying that I would’ve hurt them
,
or myself
,
I just felt like something
really
bad was going to happen
.
”

“I know
.
”

“How do you know? How would you know
, huh
? You could never know
!
You
r
parents didn’t abuse you.”
She screamed
at Gabby,
not meaning to hurt her
, but she couldn’t hold it in any longer
.

“I know pain, Sweets. It may be a different type of pain
,
but
it
is
still
pain
.
”

BrookLyn rolled her eyes at herself.
Why
am I
upset with Gabby again
?
Why
am
I
doing this?
I have
nowhere else to go
.
She shook her head silently.
BrookLyn
, just shut yourself up, girl.

She thought of
Gabby as
sort of her
superhero
,
in a sense. She
had
opened
BrookLyn’s
eyes to
the way she
deserved
to be treated
and
had
saved
her
from th
ose
monsters
. Gabby
was not the one that
deserve
d
to take BrookLyn’s years of pent
-
up wrath.
No, the ones who deserved it would unfortunately never receive it.

“Let’s just go in the house
.
”
Gabby
opened the car door
and got out
.

“Sorry.”

“No need.”

“There’s a great need. Sometimes my anger goes to the people who don’t deserve it.”

“I know.”

“You know that you don’t deserve it,
right?”
BrookLyn
asked.

“I’m trying my best not to take it personally
.
”

“I really am sorry.”

“I know
that too
.” She kissed
BrookLyn
, grabbed
the bags out of the trunk
and walked
her
up the steps.

Gabby put the key into the front door and let
BrookLyn
walk in first.

BrookLyn
stepped into what would be her new home and the fear hit her hard. She wouldn’t
let go of
Gabby’s
hand.
She
didn’t want to
.
Oh my God.
What have I done now?

“Hold on a second. I’m gonna grab some drinks from the kitchen to take upstairs with us.”
Gabby extracted herself from BrookLyn’s grip.

She
shifted her heavy
book bag on
her
shoulder
.
BrookLyn
still had some homework to do
, but she
wasn’t
going to worry about
doing it tonight
s
ince
she
was
planning to stay
home from school
.
Home
work. Home
?
I
s this
really
my new home?

“Yes, if you want it to be
.
” Gabby whisper
ed
into
BrookLyn’s
ear.

BrookLyn startled a bit,
not realizing
that
Gabby
had returned from the kitchen.

“There you go again, huh?”
She
blew
her
nose.

“Aunt Jenna can do it too. Not sur
e if I mentioned that before.”

“Tonight might not be a good night to read
my
mind.”

“I will do my best
.
”

They
walked up
the stairs
slower than
they
had th
at
first time. Th
at time, BrookLyn
carried
physical
pain, this time her
burden
was emotional
.
This feels worse
.
She
wished Gabby could carry
that
instead
of her bags—
the emotional baggage
was
much
heavier
.

Lost in
her
thoughts
, she missed what Gabby
had
said to her. She hadn’t heard
her talking
but she did notice
the silence once she stopped.
“I wonder what they’re doing.
”
She
wasn’t sure if
her
father would come looking for
her,
but
she
knew if he did,
her
life would be over.
“
At least I know he
won’t call the cops
.
He
doesn’t like people in his business
—”

BrookLyn clutched at her stomach.
“
Oh, Gabby
!
I feel so sick
.
”

“I’m sorry
.
” Gabby hugg
ed her close.

BrookLyn pushed away and
dart
ed
off
.
“I’m going to be sick
!
”

Gabby
followed her
into the bathroom and rubbed
her
back.

BrookLyn’s
ball of confusion exploded
and
she
threw up. A few days ago
her
focus was on escaping
her
house
after
graduation.
She’d
had no intentions of leaving so abruptly.

Gabby sat down
beside her
on the bathtub as
she
threw up again.
BrookLyn’s mind was in turmoil to rival that of her stomach.
How w
ill
my life play out now?
She
was knocked off
her
course.
The
plans that
she
had laid out in crayon on
her
first day in kindergarten
had
been changed.
What
am
I really going to do? Being here with Gabby
is
good for now
...
but what
’s
next?

BrookLyn
was
a mess.
All
she
could do in between vomiting was cry.
She
wanted to run but this was the only safe place for
her
.
She
stood
,
look
ing
into Gabby’s lost eyes
,
and she
could see her
pain in there.
My pain ha
s
become hers.