The Book of Brooke

Chapter 8

I'm left shaken after my interaction with Blackjack and his goons, but I can't dwell on it. My favourite show is coming on soon, and so I pour myself a bowl of salt and vinegar potato chips and a glass of warm milk, my favourite foods combined, and turn on the TV. I navigate through the television guide and put on the next episode of Riverdale, munching down on my chips.

In this episode, Archie and his friends are fighting space aliens while singing songs from the hit broadway musical Wicked. As Betty belts out the notes to "defying gravity", she begins to float up in the beam of light coming from the bottom of the alien spacecraft as the extraterrestrials join their slimy fingers together, holding hands and singing backup vocals for Betty.

I begin to sing along, but I can't keep up with the change of lyrics that the show's writers have put on and the gaps in between verses as they cut to the other characters. Betty's evil secret identical twin sister Hetty is on the ground, or maybe that's the real Betty. I can't tell because they're identical and all. Archie is making out with Kevin, finally realizing his closeted bisexuality and Veronica is married.

When the episode ends I put away my bowl and my glass and rinse them out in the sink before putting them in the dishwasher. By this time, the sun has already gone down and it's getting dark. It's gotten cooler in my apartment too, it always does during this time of the day.

I keep telling my landlord that he needs to keep the temperature the same all day or else I can't sleep without shivering in bed, but he insists that turning the thermostat off at night helps keep rent down and I can't afford any higher rent right now.

I close my curtains before changing, I don't want any pervs or creeps looking at me from the street below while I'm undressed, but I can't help but notice the parked car on the street across from my own. It's a shiny black SUV, like those ones that rich old men have in the movies. Those ones that come with a driver and champagne in the backseat. That kind of car. The back windows are tinted too dark to see through, but the front seat is visible enough to make out a big, burly man in the front seat wearing a black suit. He's balding, trying to cover it up with shaving his head, but a stubble has begun to grow everywhere on his scalp except for the top.

Blackjack's goon.

I can tell already. He's still watching me. Even though he's not in my apartment anymore, he's still outside my apartment. I grow uneasy knowing that there's someone outside watching me, waiting for me, but I lock my front door and my bedroom door too before falling asleep.

*

When I wake up it's already bright outside. The sunlight breaks through the crack between the two curtains and shines a thin line of light across my face. My eyes open and my blue orbs suck in my surroundings.

My room is so familiar to me that I can't imagine waking up anywhere else. I hate hotels for that reason. It feels too alien, too unfamiliar. I can't sleep anywhere other than my own bed, or at least not soundly.

I spring up and out of the sheets and put on my outfit for the day. I have to work at the Cohens' place today and so I put on some work appropriate attire. I pick out a pair of stretchy short jean shorts, a white tank top, and a blue-green oversized flannel shirt. I pair it with white socks and blue converse that match the blue of my blue eyes.

I step outside of my apartment with confidence, my hips swinging and my chest out so that I can show Blackjack and his goons that he doesn't scare me.

I have to take the bus because of my lack of a car, and so I'm a bit worried that Blackjack's men will follow me there, but it makes me less worried knowing that if they kill me on the bus, there would be witnesses.

Thankfully, I make it to the Cohens' house alive and in one piece. I'm not sure if they even followed me.

"Brooke! You're here?" Mrs. Cohen says with a question in her voice as she walks out the door. She looks just as stunning as always and I feel undressed and insecure next to her.

"Yeah, I have a shift today, don't I?" I ask.

"Yes, you do. But didn't Jacob tell you? You don't start until lunch today. Jacob's still home, he doesn't have to work until later on today."

"Oh." I say. "No, nobody told me."

"I'll have a talk with Jacob about that, he's always forgetting things like this." She lets out a slight laugh that makes me wonder why Jacob would ever want to cheat on her.

"I should probably be going then, I guess." I say.

"Oh nonsense! You taking the bus all the way here to go back to your place just to come back anyways? No, no. I can't let you spend half the day just commuting." She says. "You can stay in the house, spend some time with Jacob and Mikey. You're only a couple of hours early anyways."

"Oh I wouldn't want to be a bother, Mrs. Cohen."

"It's fine, Brooke. Bonding time is important between a babysitter and a kid. Mikey's really starting to warm up to you in a way that I haven't seen him do with too many people. I think he really likes you."

"Well, in that case I guess I could stay. I wouldn't want to put any distance between me and Mikey, after all."

"Great! Just let Jacob know. He's probably in the backyard with Mikey." Mrs. Cohen leaves, stepping into her shiny car and with that I step into the house of the too-nice woman whose husband I sucked off in her bedroom.