When He's Gone

Chapter 9: Missing Piece

I sit on my bed and sigh, "day one accomplished Brooklyn". I pull out my mac book and open up to my emails, nothing. I click to create a new one and begin typing about my day; the guy in the hall, the poster, the events in the art room. I realize that I might make him feel bad about not being here and I instantly press the backspace until the blank screen is staring back at me. I can't do this to him.

I manage to zone out only to jump when my phone starts ringing. It's Natalie.

I scramble to get myself together and take off down the stairs. I go to fly out the door when Renee stops me in my tracks. "Alexia where do you think you're going?" I tell her I have something important to do and Richard interrupts by asking me what's possibly more important than my heap of homework, motioning towards my overflowing backpack. I tell him Natalie needs me and I don't wait around to hear his response.

I get to Brooklyn's house and my stomach is queasy. I walk in without knocking and find Natalie sitting on the couch staring at a photo album on her lap with tear stained cheeks. I sit down beside her and offer my hand to her like how she did for me in the airport and car. I embrace her in a hug and she pushes my hair behind my ear and gives me a small smile. She is so beautiful and so strong, I want to be half the woman she is.

She begins telling me all the stories behind each picture in the album. I am instantly intrigued as I've seen each picture a million times but never had a narrated explanation of the memories.

Natalie raised Brooklyn on her own after his dad passed away when he was less than two years old. All she ever wanted was to be the best mother she could be and provide Brooklyn with the love he deserved.

"I just wish he knew how much he has changed my life" she says while gently closing the album. "I wish you knew how much you've changed his life... and mine" I mumble.

Natalie gets up and turns on the coffee machine, "two milk two sugar?" I nod and tell her I need to use the bathroom while running up the stairs. While upstairs I catch a glimpse of Brooklyn's bedroom. I walk over and slowly push open the door. Memories instantly smack me in the face. It was only a few days ago when we were cuddling while I completely crushed him at Mario Kart but it feels like it's been forever. I walk over and start looking at the drawings on his wall. Brooklyn is very artistic and drawing is a stress reliever for him. I notice there is a few new ones scattered on his desk so I check them out. My heart sinks when I see myself looking back at me through the ink, he was sketching us. I turn around and Natalie is standing in the door way holding both her cup of coffee and mine. She tells me he was going to give that to me before he left but didn't have enough time to finish it.  She motions for me to sit beside her on his bed and I do, placing my head on her shoulder. It is so silent I swore you could hear our tears drop slowly onto Brookyn's black bedsheets. "You were his missing puzzle piece."

I completely break down almost instantly at the sound of that phrase. That's our thing. We always say how we were the missing pieces to each other's puzzle and it just so happens that my piece is missing again.