The boyfriend my friends paid for - REVISED

Capter 12 - A Chat with A Friend (and With an Enemy)

Chapter 12 - A Chat with A Friend (and With an Enemy)

Dylan spent the first 10 minutes of lunch where he always did, in the queue for lunch but after that his one and only goal was to find Brooklyn and talk to her. Yesterday he felt he’d done the right thing but after his chat with Samson this morning he wasn’t sure if he had. He walked around and around the school looking for her until he realised where she’d be.

In times of upset or stress (which for her mostly came from exams these days) Brooklyn found comfort in these she knew would never let her down, her books, and the best place to find these was the school library. With its clam of having over 10,000 books this was a bookworms dream, and although she seemed very far from it to the outside world, books always held a special place in Brook’s hearts, they were the only thing that her and her dad had in common and so each time she would visit him she would take a different book and they would read and then talk about it. Her brother never read books he was more into sport and although he was extremely gifted in the academic subjects as well he always focused on sport and so  along with being his only son won the heart of their father without trying.

As Dylan walked through the creaky door to the library he spotted Brooklyn straight away, he grabbed hold of his bag and began to walk towards her, as he got closer he noticed something running down her cheek, it was a tear. “Brook? Why are you crying?” Dylan went and sat down next to her.

“Oh, it’s just this book I'm reading, It’s really sad.” Brooklyn said trying to fight back the tears.

“I'm not buying it Brook, I know you too well. Are you upset about Samson?” Dylan leaned in towards her and brushed away a tear from her cheek.

“I just don’t get why he would do that to me.” Brooklyn sobbed as she rested her head on Dylan’s chest. She carried on crying but with 3 sisters Dylan knew exactly what to do, he le he stay where she was, stroked her hair and dug in his pocket to pull her out a tissue.

“It’s o.k. Brook, he just wasn’t thinking straight, you know what boys can be like. Anyway I just came to find you to tell you that I'm really sorry for telling you before Samson did, I had no right and I feel really bad about it.” Dylan kept stoking her hair but when Brooklyn sat up suddenly he was caught unaware.

“What? I don’t care that you told me Dylan, I'm actually glad you did because who knows how long it would have carried on if you hadn’t and besides your here for me now which means more than anything.” Brooklyn said as she put her head back on Dylan’s chest and whipped away another tear. They sat there in silence until the end of lunch, Brooklyn sobbing and Dylan stroking her hair. When they bell sounded to signal the end of lunch they stood up, walked out of the now noisy library, down the steps, gave each other a hug and went the opposite ways to their tutor rooms.

~*~

Caitlin, Abi, Rachel, Laura and Hanna had spent their lunchtime where they normally did, on the playground watching the boys play football. But today there was a defiant change in the atmosphere between the girls which came to a head when Caitlin had finally had enough of acting like nothing was wrong. “Why do it Hanna? I just don’t get what part of you thought ‘oh I know what I'll do I'll make one of my best friends really happy and then rip her heart out’?” Caitlin was a usually quiet girl and if ever there was an argument she would always try and stay out of it.

Everyone was shocked but none more than Hanna who just sat there staring into space and said: “I had never intended to ‘rip out her heart’ as you said, I didn’t do that, it was up to Samson and Dylan I can’t control what they say. But you don’t think I feel bad enough already? It was a mistake I thought it would be a good idea but it wasn’t; you can’t tell me you’ve never made a mistake.” Laura noticed a tear rolling down Hanna’s cheek and so moved a little closer and put her arm around her, much to the dismay of Caitlin.

“I have made mistakes but none of them have ever resulted in my friends getting hurt! And Laura why are you comforting her, she was the one that got us into this whole mess? Do you even know where Brook is? Do you even know if she’s alright? Or have you just left her to get on with it alone?” Caitlin was now shouting at the girls and they were scared, they’d never seen her like this. Before she said anything she might regret Caitlyn stood up, took a deep breath and left the others sat on the playground wondering what on earth had gotten into her.

As she walked towards the tutor room that she shared with Brook she couldn’t help but wonder if she’d done the right thing by shouting at them all. She reached the building that housed her tutor room and noticed Brooklyn standing outside and it looked as though she had just been crying.

“Brook, you alright?” Caitlin said as she crept her arm around Brooklyn’s shoulder. When she didn’t get a reply she just carried on talking. “Look I know it’s gonna be bad but I'm here for you and you don’t need any of them really, they were just bringing you down.” They walked silently into their tutor room and sat down near the back, both of them hoping that Mrs Dawn didn’t ask them why Brooklyn had been crying, but the chances of that were very low.

Luckily the boys in their tutor room created such a disturbance that Mrs Dawn didn’t have time to take more than a glance at Brooklyn but then she realised that she had English next and although her usual homework panic wasn’t there, there was another reason for her to worry. With Dylan in a different class she would have to face Samson on her own but to make things worse Caitlin, even if she wasn’t trying to, had annoyed Abi and Rachel at lunch today so she had a feeling she would be going into this lesson totally alone.

However she wasn’t alone at all, the second she showed up outside their classroom Abi and Rachel came straight up to her and apologised. That meant that she at least had two people to talk to but she still had to spend an hour sat next to Samson. When they went to sit down Abi and Rachel did something that only best friends would do, they swapped places with Brooklyn meaning that she was now as far away from Samson as she was going to get, and although she’d rather not even be in the same room as him this was as good as it was going to get, so she dealt with it. Billy came in next and sat in his usual seat, leaving a space between him and Abi for Samson to sit, but for a while it didn’t look like he was even going to show up. Just as Brooklyn got her hopes up though there was a familiar door screech and in walked a confused looking Samson. Brooklyn got the urge to stand up and walk out but then realised that she wasn’t going to let Samson ruin her day or her GCSE’s Abi gave her a look that said ‘you have no idea how much I want to punch him right now’ and made her laugh. Abi and Rachel kept Brooklyn distracted for the whole lesson and by the end she’d almost forgotten what had happened between her and Samson but as she went to leave she felt something grab her arm. She turned around and saw Samson’s giant rugby playing hand gripping tightly round her arm.

“Samson get off me!” she said through gritted teeth but when he didn’t she was forced to try and squirm her way out.

“I'm not going to let go until you listen to me Brooklyn.” Samson said while tightening his grip on her arm.

“Well what if I never listen, then what will you do? Take me to all your lessons with you?” Brooklyn was still trying to wiggle out of Samson’s grasp but even though she knew it was impossible she didn’t want him to think she’d given up.

“Well if that’s what it takes then yes. I just want you to know that it was never my intention to hurt you, I thought us going out would make you happy.” Samson really sounded like he meant what he said but Brooklyn wasn’t buying it.

“Samson I'm not having this argument in the middle of a school corridor so let me go.” Brooklyn still wasn’t shouting at him but not because she didn’t want to, she just didn’t want to cause a scene. He realised that he wasn’t going to win and that Brooklyn was in fact right and so Samson let go of her arm and walked off to his next lesson. Brooklyn gathered up her bags and ran off to see if she could catch up with Abi and Rachel.