FATE

32. The Talk

BROOKE

"Blake?"

My day has been tolerable. Not only did I not get to see Jonah a lot at school, Cheryl kept on giving me death stares during English class. Carmen has been acting weird ever since the incident in the hallway and I can tell Mandy is so close to tying her down and forcing her to talk about what is going on.

When I get back home, there are voices coming from inside the apartment and when I open the door, he's home and quite annoyingly, so is she.

"Why didn't you tell me she was here?", He spits angrily at me.

"I thought you knew and I thought she would be gone by now", I say staring at my mother.

"She didn't tell me; do you think she would even be in this house if I knew?"

This is not the way I imagined seeing Blake after weeks would be and it's all thanks to my mother.

"Children, children please", she says waving her hands at us.

Blake groans and turns to her, "get out of my house"

Her breath is hitched, "I'm your mother, you can't kick me out"

He raises an eyebrow, "watch me"

I stare at Blake. His forehead is sweaty and his hair is in messy curls. He has a stubble of beard across his chin and the sleeves on his shirt are pulled up to his elbow.

"Blake, you're stressed", I say softly.

"That is what she does to me!"

"I only came here to see Brooke", mom says, "you might have discarded the fact that I am your mother Blakey-", she still has the habit of calling him 'Blakey', "-but Brooke is my daughter too and whether you like it or not, I am her legal guardian"

"Meaning she should be under your care, right? But she's not, because you would rather take care of that bastard and his money than your own daughter"

I flinch at the rage in Blake's voice and he notices quickly. "Go inside", he says.

"No"

"Now is not the time to be stubborn Brooke"

Once again, my mom cuts in, "did Lisa tell you she has a boyfriend?"

"My name is not Lisa", I quickly say.

Blake turns to me, "w-what?"

"You didn't know, did you? She's only seventeen and she has a boyfriend already. Who knows what kind of things she could be up to?", mom says, "frankly, I think he looks like one of those bad boys"

I frown at her, "well, frankly, I don't think you have the right to judge me"

"Go inside Brooke, we'll talk later", Blake says sternly and I just nod and walk away.

My room is dark when I walk in but my hands quickly find the switch to turn it on. Blake and my mom quickly resume their conversation as soon as they hear my door shut.

"You can't keep on doing this, acting like you want to be a part of her life and going back to him", Blake says.

My mom's voice is only a murmur as I sit on my bed and take out my phone. I quickly call Jonah.

He picks up after two rings.

"Hey", I can tell by the sound of music and engine in the background that he's in Hailee's car.

"Hi", I say softly.

"Is something wrong? You sound sad", He asks, concern etched in his voice.

"No", I try to sound as normal as possible, "I'm fine. Blake is back"