In Or Out

Chapter 2

Chapter 2:

I walked out of the gates towards my house and I could still feel eyes bearing into my back, just waiting for me to break down. They may think I'm weak, but I'll prove it to them that I'm definitely not as weak as they all might think. I walked out of the parking lot, with all the eyes still on me! Seriously! Do these people have nothing to do but stare at me?

"Brenlee! Stop being obnoxious!" my conscience told me.

"I just got dumped by my best friend. Don't I deserve a break?" I argued back. My conscience told me that I shouldn't be such a drama queen about it, and although I knew that it was right, I still felt terrible. When I looked up, I was in Jakes driveway, where I have gone for the past few years every day after school. I scolded myself and walked out of his driveway, but not before I saw his car pulling in. He looked like he was about to get out and say something, but stopped when I have him a death glare. As soon as I arrived home, I ran up to my room, ignoring my mom's calls for me. I buried my face into my pillow and cried. Soon my mom came up, but I didn't hear her come in. When she laid a hand on my shoulder, I flinched away. She gasped, and apologized profusely. I sighed and went back to sleep, but not without crying harder. I had horrible dreams, as usual. Right as the worst part started to come, I was awoken by my best friend Hailey, who was playing her favorite song and singing along loudly alongside my bed. I pulled my cover down from above me.

"Do me a favor and shut up, would you?" as soon as I said it, I realized that I was sweating immensely and my voice was shaking.

Hailey's face went pale. "You had that dream again, didn't you?" I nodded. She came over and started to hug me, but then realized what she was doing. She looked at me. I shook my head, and she backed away. I couldn't deal with it, at least not right now.

"So I heard rumors about you and Jake today? Are they true?" Oh Hailey, always the head of the rumor mill. I nodded, yet again. I didn't think I was ready to talk about it just quite yet. Hailey then tried to get me up, but to no avail. After about an hour or so of me being unresponsive, she checked her phone and her eyes went wide. She leaned down to me softly said,

"I'm gonna go, ok? Joey's acting up again, you know how he is." I nodded. Her 15 year old brother was always acting up, hanging with the wrong people. He constantly is coming home with drugs in his system and causing problems. Hailey wasn't usually surprised by texts about Joey, so this must have been bad. Shortly after Hailey left, my mom came up.

"Hey Lolli. Hailey told me what happened. Wanna talk about it?" I slightly smile at this. When I was little, whenever I was sad or angry, if you gave me a lollipop, I would instantly calm down. That's why, whenever I'm stressed out about something, or moping around, my mom calls me Lolli.

"There's the smile I wanted to see! Now, do you want to talk about it?"

"Only if I can have a lollipop." I joked. She pulled a strawberry lollipop out from behind her. I hungrily grabbed at it, and then popped it in my mouth.

"Best mom ever." I said, but with the lollipop in my mouth it probably sounded like "besht mo eva" she laughed.

"Why thank you!" How she understood any of that, is beyond me. I started explaining about how Jake started hanging out with Serena more, and didn't defend me when any of the kids said bad things about me. She nodded the whole time, and was about to get up and leave, but I stopped her.

"Mom, I had the dream again." She instantly had a heartbroken look on her face. She wrapped me up in a huge bear hug.

"I'm so sorry." She whispered. I just held onto her harder. She was the only one who could come near me after those dreams. Well, her and Jake, but I don't know if I'll have Jake to comfort me anymore. She eventually went downstairs to cook dinner. I kept thinking things through, but fell into a (thankfully) dreamless sleep.

When I woke up, I heard a faint tapping on my window. I opened it, to see Jake hanging from my second story window. I gaped at him. As much as I wanted to let him in, I couldn't.

"I'm gonna smash your fingers if you don't go away." I said, without a trace of humor in my voice.

"Bren, I..." he started to say urgently.

"Times up." I slammed the window down, thankfully missing his fingers. Even though he hurt me emotionally, I didn't want to actually sink to his level and hurt him physically. As I walked away from the window, I saw something in the corner of my eye. A note. I sighed and picked it up, already knowing what it was about.

Brenlee, dinners in the microwave, I was called in for a late night meeting. See you later. Love you. - Mom

My mom was getting called to these 'late night meetings' more often, and I was starting to get suspicious. Ever since my father got kicked out and left for who knows where, she has been going out more and more. I would be lying if I said I didn't suspect her being with another man.

"You really shouldn't keep a spare key under the doormat." a man's voice whispered dangerously close to my ear. I started breathing heavily.

"D... Da-"but I could never finish my sentence because at that moment, everything went black.