Something Different

Chapter 17

Hey guys! This is unedited because I finally got the WiFi to upload this and I'm not wasting anytime. I refuse to miss a day. Seriously I refuse. Any who I hope you all enjoy and are having a great day.

Braelins POV

Growing up my dad had always mentioned that whenever I got emotional I had three phases I went through. As I rarely tended to get emotional, I never realized how true it was until right now. Phase one: Denial.

"Its not gone," i repeated for the umpteenth time as I looked in my now empty bag. Everything that had been in my bag like my wallet and books for my other classes were sprawled across the floor while i slumped against the floor, cradiling my bag like a baby up against my chest.

"Braelin, is everything okay in there?"

"Yeah."

"Are you lying?"

"Yeah."

"I'm coming in," he said before the door swung open and within a few seconds his arms were around me as he whispered it was going to be okay but was it really? Ever since I had came to this school my life had been all over the place. From dealing with Stacey's racist comments to this towns racist actions but this was just ridiculous.

"Babe don't even worry about it okay, we can get you another one," I shook my head disagreeing but he continued anyways. "We can get you another one that is so much better than that old locket."

"No."

"Trust me Braelin there are better."

"Your not listening Cameron, I don't want another one," I said shaking my head again. "Nothing can replace that locket because he gave it to me." I felt Cameron's arms stiffen around me at the word he and that's when I realized I was about to tell him about something not even Darnell knew about.

"Who gave it to you Braelin?" Cameron asked calmly and for a second I wanted to smile at how relaxed he was being but it passed.

"Michael gave it to me. He is-- was my brother. He passed away when I was 15 and his photo was in there."

"I'm so sorry, Braelin," he said hugging me a little tighter and I couldn't help the tears that started falling down my face.

"He was the funniest guy in the world, I swear. No matter what you were going through he would crack a joke and you immediately felt better."

"He sounds amazing."

"He was. But when he turned 18 he decided he wanted to go to Iraq after seeing an article about the war. He was always so brave. My mom didn't want him to go but he was determined and he went but not before he gave my mom a locket telling her on my 18th birthday to give it to me just in case... just in case he didn't make it back. He had spent so much money on it and he didn't want to give it to me until I was old enough to truly care for it and I lost it."

"Were going to find it," Cameron said squeezing my hand for reassurance and I smiled sadly. "What happened next."

"Well he went to war and wrote to us whenever he could, most the time in poetry. He absolutely loved poetry and he made me listen to him for hours and hours and I never would admit it but i secretly loved it. It's what inspired my own poetry as I grew older."

"You write poetry?" He asked shocked and I nodded slightly embarrassed that I had revealed that. Nobody knew I wrote poetry. "I'd love to hear it sometime."