Brooklyn (A Paul Lahote Story)

Chapter Four

"Okay! All of your clothes are packed along with your shoes and toiletries. I placed the bags and boxes next to the other stuff downstairs." Becca sighs, walking back into my room.

It's Wednesday and we leave tomorrow to a whole new world. A world that I'm not too thrilled to enter but I have no choice. I'm doing this for my dad, I'm doing this for my dad, I'm doing this for my dad...

I look up at her, taping the final box before standing up. "I can't believe I just packed my whole entire life into several different boxes... Only to open them in a new apartment." I sigh, mumbling the last part as I cross my arms, looking around the small, empty room.

Becca walks over to me, wrapping an arm around my shoulders as we both look at the room, memories flooding our minds. "We had our first sleepover here.." She sighs and I nod, tears flooding the rims of my eyes.

"And our first fight.." I giggle, remembering the stupid fight we had over who in 'Wizards of Waverly Place' was going to become the family wizard. I thought it'd be Alex but she thought it'd be Justin. Let's just say that little debate didn't end so well..

"For the record, I thought he was cute then!" She defends herself, both of us laughing.

"Don't remind me about that crush! Drew couldn't have gotten here fast enough!" I laugh, making Becca push me gently just as the boy mentioned walks in the room.

"I heard my name!" He says in a sing-song voice, making Becca roll her eyes.

Last year in May, Drew moved here from Ohio. Both his parents passed and his cool aunt took him in. Why cool? Well, she is one of the best designers in all of Brooklyn. Her name is Catherine Bernard. Both Becca and I had the pleasure to meet her AND intern for her last summer. It was one of the best summers ever!
But when Drew moved here, all of the girls were all over him. I mean, I don't blame them. He's tall and muscular, got blue eyes and dirty blond hair, a great smile and fantastic personality... He's everything a girl could ask for. And to make this better, when all of the girls were all over him, he only had his eyes on Becca. It was love at first sight.

"We were just having some girl time before you came in." She jokes, poking his broad chest.

Drew chuckles, pressing his lips against my best friends before pulling away and looks at me. "Your dad wanted me to tell you that we're all done packing downstairs."

I nod, bending down to grab the last and final box from my room. "Mind carrying this down for me?" I ask the tall boy and he nods, taking the brown box away from me.

"We'll be down in a bit." Becca says, kissing the tanned boy on the cheek before he leaves.

"I can't believe this is it.." I sigh, sniffing as tears roll down my cheeks. "I'm leaving and going to an unknown place." I shake my head. "All by myself." I whisper and Becca quickly pulls me into a hug, our arms clinging to each other like our lives depended on it.

"I'm just a phone call away. Remember that." She whispers in my ear, one of her tears hitting my bare shoulder and I nod.

"Trust me, I'll call you every chance I get."

~*~

"Can you believe it Skie? We're leaving this place.." I ask my beautiful husky sitting next to me in the middle of my room.

The blue eyed furry pup barks in reply and I look down at her, rubbing the top of her head before falling backwards to lay down.

I stare at my ceiling for what felt like forever, thinking about all of the things I'm going to miss. Visiting my moms grave when I feel alone, random conversations with Becca, the hustle and bustle of the city, running past the dance studio my mom worked in and where she taught me how to dance.

I know I've said this before but since my mom passed, I haven't been able to dance. Everyday I would go to the studio with her and stand in front of the long mirror, learning all different dance styles: tango, ballet, hip hop.. One of my favorite things to do was mix ballet and hip hop together. I liked the way it looked so elegant but complicated at the same time. Going from spinning on my toes and leaping in the air to sliding backwards and falling on my knees to flick my head only to stand back up. We would come up with dance routines together, record them and watch them only to improve the movement and the flow of things.

At the memory, I smile, remembering how sore my legs were and how bruised my feet got to break in to my ballet shoes. Only after my moms death, I threw them out and never stepped foot in the studio again. All of the dance routines and late nights being buried with her. But the videos, I couldn't bare to throw them out. Instead, I put them in a box with all of my other dance things - including my moms.

"Dani! Pizza's here!" My dad shouts downstairs and I get up, Skie following behind me.

I quickly make my way out of my empty room and down the stairs, entering the now empty living room. I stop, frozen in my place at the entry way. We're actually moving.. Reality finally hits me. I mean, I knew that we were moving but the reality of it all hasn't actually hit me yet.

Until now.

"Dani! Dani... Danielle!" My dad shouts my name repeatedly and I snap my head in his direction, eyes wide.

"Hmm?" I ask, shaking myself out of my daze.

"Pizza's on the counter. I need to run to the office very quick but I'll be back soon, okay?" He asks and I nod, smiling softly as he walks towards me to kiss my forehead before putting on his jacket, heading out the door.

I stay in my spot, Skie sitting next to me, and I examine the room. No more pictures, the furniture is all wrapped up and placed in the U-Haul out front, the aroma of burnt food coming from the oven is replaced by the smell of Lysol. He finally cleaned the oven.

You see, my mom was the cook in the family. I learned from her and knew what to do but I was too young to cook so I my dad tried cooking. The first night, he was making lasagna and it over flowed, the sauce burning on the bottom of the oven. It smelled so bad, we opened the house and stayed in a hotel for the night. Of course, my dad wanted to try again but this time it was baked potatoes and steak. Long story short, it burned again and he forgot about the steak so he nearly set the house on fire. After that, he finally stopped.

But once I was fourteen and knew how to operate the oven and stove without a problem, I started to cook. However, getting takeout all that time became a tradition for us so, I didn't cook as much. Only on weekends, when we needed a home cooked meal, I cooked. Other days, we got Chinese or pizza or anything else we wanted that night. It was just us.

But soon, it won't be just us. And I know that for a fact.

________________________________
A/N: Hello!

Hope everyone had a good week and have amazing plans for the weekend!!

I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, I worked really hard on it! I wanted you all to feel what she's feeling and what is truly going on in her head.

Like always, leave your thoughts in the comment section below - both good AND bad - and don't forget to vote! Love you guys :))))

Until next chapter,
C

P.S. Do we like the book cover or should I make a new one???