𝐇𝐔𝐒𝐇, 𝐋𝐈𝐓𝐓𝐋𝐄 𝐋𝐈𝐀𝐑 | 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐲 𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐥𝐞 𝐥𝐢𝐚𝐫𝐬 [on hold]

𝐭𝐰𝐨

𝐓𝐖𝐎||𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐋𝐀𝐒𝐓 𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐖

     THE MONTHS FOLLOWING Alison's funeral had been complete and utter shit. When Brooklyn got home, her mother had yelled at her, taken her credit cards, yelled at her some more, then grounded her. After that, her friends suddenly started dropping like flies, leaving her out of everything they did until she took the hint that she no longer meant anything to them. On top of that, Ezra stopped checking up on her and when she tried to contact him, he never answered, leaving her to question what she did wrong.

Now, Brooklyn was a sixteen year old teen with no friends, no credit cards, way below passing grades, and anger issues which is why she was quietly sat on the back of the school bus with her earbuds in her ears like she did everyday. Each time the bus went over a speed bump, she groaned when her body came into contact with her seat again. She had her music playing as loud as it could go in order to drown out the loud noises of the other passengers. In her hands lay a sheet of white paper given to her by the principal which needed to be signed by her mother. Brooklyn had gotten into a bit of trouble during school and now she would be paying for it with a big fat expulsion. It wasn't like she cared or anything. Once her mother saw the form, she'd have a cow or two then send Brooklyn off to a private school. For good this time.

When the school bus came to a screeching stop in front of her large house, she sighed heavily. After seeing her mother standing outside with her arms crossed over her chest, she knew she'd be in for a rude awakening. She gathered her things and begrudgingly made her way down the aisle.

"Have a nice day, Brooklyn," Tomás, the bus driver, spoke as she reached the stairs.

"I doubt it," she mumbled. She smiled at Tomás before making her way down the stairs, ignoring the loud whispers from the people she went to school with.

"Bye, Brook! Enjoy your vacation," a girl named Marissa spoke teasingly. Marissa Hemingsway, a girl Brooklyn had been feuding with since the third grade after Marissa poured and entire bottle of glue over Brooklyn's head. The Hemingsway girl was actually the cause of Brooklyn's expulsion. Since Brooklyn stepped foot on the school grounds that morning, Marissa had been antagonizing her and the Fitzgerald girl was already in a horrible mood. Not wanting to create any chaos, Brooklyn asked Marissa to leave her alone, but Marissa continued pushing and pushing until Brooklyn snapped.

"Y'know, Marissa," Brooklyn started as she stopped walking down the stairs to face the girl in the first seat, "all that concealer you have on is doing absolutely nothing for that black eye. It may hide the bruising but it won't hide the size. But look on the bright side, the amount of swelling matches your ego."

"Go to hell, Fitzgerald."

Brooklyn placed a fake smile on her face as she leaned closer toward Melissa. "I'll be waiting for you. Kisses." Marissa watched Brooklyn walk off of the bus and toward her mother with a scowl on her face. She brought her hand up to her bruised and swollen eye and winced in pain before turning to face her friend that she was sharing a seat with.

"Is it that bad?" Marissa asked. Her friend scrunched her face up as she nodded, the look on her face being enough for the Hemingsway girl to know that her eye was really as bad as Brooklyn said it was.

"Brooklyn-May Fitzgerald!" Brooklyn's mother exclaimed as her daughter made her way up the drive way.

"Dianne Fitzgerald!" Brooklyn mocked as she made her way past her mother and into the house. Her mother stomped her foot, the sound of her heeled shoe making a noise against the concrete, before she quickly followed after her daughter who had dropped her backpack onto a stool near the bar top.

"What is wrong with you? Do I need to have you tested or-or evaluated? Is there something I'm doing wrong?"

"Where do I start?" Brooklyn muttered to herself as she leaned against the kitchen counter, her attention on the screen of her phone. Here mother sighed heavily before snatching the phone out of he daughters hand. "Hey!"

"This is your fifth strike this month. I got the principal to give you more chances but you just had to screw this up for us, didn't you? What's wrong with you?" Dianne stood in front of her daughter with a scowl on her face and her hand on her hip.

"'Us'? I didn't ask you to kiss ass with my principal, okay! You decided to enroll me in an all girls school, you decided to pay Mr. Garrison off, and you decided what I'm going to do with my life after I graduate. I had nothing to do with any decision that's been made about my life for the past three years!"

"Because you're a delinquent, Brooklyn! No matter what I do you find a way to ruin everything. No matter what I say, you do the opposite. If I let you make your own choices, you'd probably end up in a ditch or under a bridge."

Brooklyn scoffed as she stared at her mother with a look of disbelief on her face. "Good to know how highly you think of me, mother. You haven't considered a single thing that I want to do with my life."

"That's not true and you know it," Dianne argued.

"Oh, forgive me. You have considered what I want. You considered that everything I've wanted was incorrect. Your way or the homeless way, isn't that right, mom? Guess what, I'd pick being homeless over living with someone as narcissist and manipulative as you."

Dianne raised her hand as if she were going to strike Brooklyn across the face but stopped and groaned in frustration. She threw her arms in the air angrily and let them fall to her sides. "This is it, this is the last straw. I've had it up to here with you, Brooklyn! I'm—I can't do this anymore. I'm sending you away."

"We've been through this before and look where we ended up. Why don't you just call that judge friend of yours, get the emancipation forms, and let me sign them. I'll be out of your hair for good."

"I made some calls while you were at school and my decision is final. Go upstairs and pack, you leave tomorrow morning." Brooklyn rolled her eyes but pushed her body off of the counter. Dianne watched her daughter with a set jaw as she walked up the stairs to her room. Brooklyn was a pain in her ass and emancipation was something that she often considered, but if it meant that she had to give up being the controlling person that she was, then there was no way in hell.