FATE

67. The Balcony

BROOKE

"Oh my God, baby", Mandy says, "I'm so sorry, are you okay? How you feeling?"

Opening up to Drew yesterday made me feel somewhat better so this morning, I decided to tell Mandy and Carmen about the breakup.

"I'm fine", I take a deep breath, "as fine as I can be"

"I'm going to kill Jonah", she frowns.

I miss Mandy and seeing her through the screen of my laptop makes me miss her more. Her hair is cut into tiny parts and they're all braided. The long-twisted braids fall past her glowing face. Carmen is right next to her- silent and I know she's worried.

"I don't think that would be the right thing to do", I say to Mandy.

"Of course, you don't. It's not going to stop me though", she says.

I turn to Carmen, "what's wrong?"

She blinks, "nothing. I'm sorry", she says, "are you sure you're okay?"

"Yeah, I am", I say, "are you?"

"You think Hailee is going to do the same thing to Carmen?", Mandy asks.

"Mandy no", I say quickly, "Hailee wouldn't just do that"

I know that's why Carmen is so worried and I don't want her to be even more worried.

"I won't be surprised anyway", Carmen looks away, "she has been ignoring me for a long while now"

The three of us stay quiet for a short while.

"Hey, so anything from Blake?", Carmen asks.

I shake my head.

"I miss you", she pouts, "one of you needs to come here quickly. I don't know if I can take it any longer"

"I'll be back about three weeks before school starts", Mandy says, "I hope you're back by then too Brooke"

"I hope so too"

There's a knock at my door.

"I have to go. I'll talk to you guys later", I say.

"Okay bye!", Mandy waves.

"Bye Brooke", Carmen says.

I hang up and close the laptop. Then I face the door, "it's open"

The door swings open and mom walks in slowly. She's dressed casually in a dark pink sundress and brown sandals. Her hair is combed and curled and her face is made up.

"You look nice", I force a smile at her.

"Thank you honey", she smiles happily and sits next to me.

She glances around the room and nods in a satisfactory manner. I spent the night cleaning and organizing my room, even though it wasn't dirty. When I finished, it was already dawn so I stayed up and stared at pictures of Jonah on his Instagram page. No new posts since the day we went on the hike and he hasn't unfollowed me either so I don't know if that's a good sign or not.

"Phil and I are going out soon", mom say, "to the park. I was wondering if you would like to come with us"

She's trying this family bonding thing again.

"I don't think- "

"Are you still mad at me?", she asks.

"Kind of"

She sighs, "Brooke, I'm sorry but you know I had good reasons for wanting you here", she says, "you've lived in Seattle before, I'm sure you can give it another chance"