"Happy thanksgiving!" Elma greeted me with a smile and then hugged me.
"Thanks, Elma. Happy thanksgiving to you, too. And I hope you have fun this break!"
"Are you sure you're not going home?" She pouted and looked at me with pleading eyes. She thinks that I'm torturing myself by being alone and quote "lonely" this thanksgiving.
"Nah. I'm going to be fine, okay?" Elma's my apartment neighbor and ever since I moved here a year ago and didn't go home for the past two thanksgivings, christmas and new year, she's been adamant on bugging me into going home.
"Don't you miss home, Rose?"
"How'd you find me?" I sniffed and looked up at him. He smiled, that smile that was both hesitant and comforting.
"Well, your mom called me and told me you ran. Where else would you go? She's worried sick by the way." He sat down beside me and put my head in his shoulders.
"I just needed to go here. I was overwhelmed and I don't know. I just didn't know what to do." And as he sat there, rubbing circles on my back and me hugging him so tightly, I thought; this is exactly what I need.
"So.. your mom also told me the reason why you ran away."
"Yeah? What did she say to you? That I was going to fucking move away from here? Away from you? Away from her? That's fucking absurd if you ask me. Just so what? That I could be with my bastard of a father that felt he's been away for far too long! How many years has it been since he left?! 12 years! And how old am I? 17! 17, Brook! I barely even remember him!" I stood up and started pointing and crying. I felt betrayed like my own mother was giving me away.
Brooklyn stood up and hugged me and let me cry on his chest.
"Shh, baby. Shhh. Don't cry. We'll find a way to make this all okay, okay?" He smiled at me and embraced me even tighter as I buried my face in his chest and smelled his all too familiar cologne.
"Your mom loves you. She's doing what she thinks is the best for you. Talk to her, this might be painful for her as it to you. You're her one and only and when she lets you go to your dad, she's thinking of you and not herself. Okay? I love you so much Scar and it hurts me seeing you like this."
"I love you, too. I just don't want to go away to live with somebody else's home and leave the ones I love." The cold air of the night blew and strangely, it doesn't feel so cold.
"Scar, remember this, alright? Wherever you are in this stinking world, even when we're apart, especially when we're apart. I want you to remember that we will be each other's home. Forever. For all eternity. Truth to be told, right here just being with you and holding you in my arms feels like home." I kissed him with everything I am and everything I was and everything I will be.
"Me too. This feels like home, Brook."
And I thought on how people discover in their teenage years the difference between a house and a home. That a house is just to shelter you from the outside world and home is where your heart is safe and where you can seek comfort in your family. And maybe some, earlier or much later on discovers that home can be a person too.
"So, Rose?" Elma smiled kinda teasingly when I kind of stared longingly at something.
"Yeah. I miss home. I miss home a lot."
