𝙶𝚑𝚘𝚜𝚝 𝙶𝚒𝚛𝚕 & 𝙳𝚊𝚕𝚕𝚊𝚜 𝚆𝚒𝚗𝚜𝚝𝚘𝚗

𝙲𝙷𝙰𝙿𝚃𝙴𝚁 𝟷𝟿

"Umm, I have something to tell you." Steve fiddled with the buttons on his shirt. "It's about uhh you."

"Alright! Spit it out Randle," Brooklyn looked at him with a very bored facial expression. Her loose strands of hair falling back onto her face.

"You know Randy? The boy you scared outta here that one day."

"Oh yeah." She smiled as she reminisced on the memory.

"Well his friend, Cherry's
ex-boyfriend, Bob, he kinda came looking for you. Said he had a question. Soda told him to leave, but he wouldn't. He told us to uhh tell ya he wants to take you on a date." Steve spat out like it was a foul taste in his mouth.

"You look worried," Brooklyn said with her bored-tired look, a look of no care.

"He's bad news. Johnny and Pony almost killed him a year ago. He was drowning Pony, if it weren't for Cherry he'd be dead. I can't tell ya what to do but I don't like the thought of you hanging out with him." Brooklyn glanced up from her lap at Steve, his muddy brown eyes blazing holes into her face. He's never serious so this is weird.

He brushed a finger over the scar on Brooklyn's face from saving Pony a while back. "Was it Bob who did that?" She asked him curious, she never really knew.

"Curly hair, khakis, and a fancy shirt? Tall, and annoying?"

"Yep. That Randy kid was part of it too." She popped the P irritated. "You don't need to worry, I ain't gonna befriend him or even date em'."

Steve smiled at her response and went back to work, asking for her assistance every so often on holding something or handing him a tool.

"You alright?" Soda asked walking into the garage to see Steve under a car while Brooke zoned out in the rolling chair. When she didn't respond he called her name.

"Hmm?" She snapped out of her daze. "How long were you standing there?"

"Long enough to know something is on your mind." He sat in a chair near her.

"If it's Bob I told ya not to worry, Brooke. You are a Winston! You could easily bash his head into a brick wall!" Steve commented still under the blue tee bird.

"No, it's nothin'."

"Brooke, come on, we can help ya." Soda put a hand on her shoulder and she slouched, avoiding eye contact.

"On the way here, I's walkin' from that bar Dal lives at. Man I thought I was free, safe, but I saw that red truck parked outside the diner. Man, they already tried to kill me once." She put her hands to her face frustrated.

"Who are they?" Steve asked now sliding out from under the car.

"I'm tellin' ya because your kind of friends but you ain't tell no one, man only Dal knows, okay?" The two boys nodded, Steve sat by Soda and Brook's feet.

———

Brooklyn had been friends with a boy named Mack since kindergarten when he was in second grade. They were like siblings, always goofing around and getting in trouble at school. You barely ever saw one without the other.

They always thought it was cool how they were named after New York cities. Brooklyn obviously Brooklyn NY, then Mack is named after Commack, a place on long island.

Brooklyn had always thought of him as a brother but when she was eleven and Mack was thirteen he would always encourage her to do dangerous things, not the stupid stunts they did in school. He tried to get her to smoke, or drink. She refused but he started to threaten her.

She never took a drag or drink. He would punch her and then say he'd tell the whole school something bad about her if she said a peep about a thing he did to her.

At the age of twelve she still hadn't told anyone, everyone assumed they were the same pair that they were in elementary.

Mack forced her to be his girlfriend. Had his whole gang of friends corner her and he would push her into the wall until she was bleeding and almost unconscious.

She reluctantly agreed. He'd still hit her, that's where all the scars came from.

After Dallas left when he turned fourteen, two weeks before she turned thirteen, thing's got worse. He would be more violent knowing there was no chance she could peep a word to her brother.

She never told Dal anything but he figured it out with all the injuries.

Brooklyn ran away a few months after her birthday, constantly moving from state to state because somehow Mack wanted to get revenge and could always find her.

———

"Alright, the red truck is an old ex-I mean friend's. He wants to umm see me again but I don't want to see umm him- uhh them." Brooklyn didn't go into detail. They didn't need to know the full story.

"Why'd they shoot ya, huh?" Steve looked at her knowing she was hiding something.

"Uhh, it's complicated." She scratched the back of her neck, revealing a scar on her wrist.

Steve and Soda have noticed the scar before when she handed them something or would be fixing a part and her sleeve would be slightly rolled up. They just never really questioned it knowing she is secretive as it is.

"I'm going to close shop, it's time anyways." She awkwardly stood up but Soda pushed her back down.

"No need to." He shrugged. "I already did."

"I'm uh gonna go to Buck's."