Falling - A Short Story

8

Brooke Havens

I put my backpack on and unlocked my phone to ring Jordana's number.

If that bitch doesn't answer I swear I'll...

"Hey Brooke." She answered. Good girl.

"Hey, my mom just went to sleep so I'm leaving now, okay?" I whispered.

"Fine. I'm here already." She said. We exchanged goodbyes and I turned off the phone.

I was about to take a step out of my window when I realized I had forgotten an important thing for tonight.

I walked to my desk and grabbed my brother's portrait. I put it in the bag along with the other things and got back to the window before jumping out of it.

~

I rolled my eyes the minute I heard my phone ringing once again. I didn't bothered to check who was calling before answering since I was pretty sure who it was.

"Fuck, Jordana! I'm almost there hold on!" I shouted parking my car on the street.

"Erm, Brooke?". Turns out it wasn't Jordana, the voice belonged to Greg.

"Shit. Sorry Greg! I thought it was-".

"Jordana?" He guessed, cutting me off.

"Yep." I confirmed, smiling to myself.

"Yeah... So what's up? Are you going somewhere?" He asked.

"Yeah, I am. Why do you ask?". I raised an eyebrow.

"Just wondering. I have nothing to do. Kind of bored." he told me with a sigh.

"On a friday night? Don't you have a party to go to or something?" I asked, stepping out of my car.

"Not today..." He told me. Oh, I see where this is going.

I rolled my eyes. "Would you like to join us?" I invited him.

"Oh, if you insist! Where should I meet you guys?". I let out a laugh and gave him the address. I also warned him about the things we would be doing. He didn't seem to care though, so he just agreed and said he would be down in a minute.

I turned my phone off and kept going on my way to Jordana. We've been coming here for so long now that I could walk there with my eyes closed. I know this path by heart, like my favorite song.

As I got closer to Jordana, I could see she was almost done lighting the candles. I dropped my bag on the grass and sat next to her.

"Greg is joining us today." I told her as I grabbed my lighter to help her with the last candles. She stopped for a second and looked at me frowning.

"You think it's a good idea? I mean, what we do here is not even fun." She said getting back to what she was doing.

I shrugged. "I told him it would be but he insisted." 

"I wonder why." She said with a chuckle.

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked, raising an eyebrow at her.

"Oh, nothing." She said. I just rolled my eyes and decided not to waste my time asking her.

We were done with the candles when my phone rang again.

"Greg?" I answered.

"So I'm in this park... I don't exactly know where to go." He said confused.

I giggled. "It's fine. Stay where you are, Jordana is picking you up there" I told him as Jordana stood up dusting herself up.

"Fine, thanks. See you in a while." He said and hung up.

I started to form a circle with the candles. In no more then five minutes Jordana was back with a still confused looking Gregory by her side.

"Hey Greg!" I exclaimed smiling. He looked at me and smiled back as he kept looking around the place.

"Hey Brooke."

Jordana sat down again and made a sign for Greg to sit next to her. He did that as he examined the candles on the ground. I bet he must think we are into some crazy voodoo shit or something like that.

"So... What's going on?" He asked.

"You'll see. Jordana, get Tyler's picture." I told her. She got her bag and opened it, taking off her brother's portrait as I did the same with Justin's picture.

We both kissed the pictures before placing then in the middle of the circle I had formed with the candles.

I glanced at Greg, who was more confused then ever. I tried to hold a chuckle and concentrate.

"Alright, now let's hold hands." Jordana said soft and serious, while opening her arms. With one of my hands I held Jordana's and with the other one I held Greg's.

"It's your turn today, Brooke." Jordana informed me and I cleared my throat.

"Alright..." I trailed off taking a deep breath and closing my eyes. "With this ritual, I'm here to say a prayer for two amazing guys which are named Justin Havens and Tyler Hill. Both which are currently serving our country in the mean and cold war in Iraque. Please, we today ask for the safety of this two brave mans that we also have the honor to call our brothers. We ask for them to get through each day with no pain or suffer and let them return home in peace." 

"Amen." Jordana and I said in unison as I finished my speech. 

"A-men" Greg said a little later, confused.

I opened my eyes and exchange smiles with Jordana. We both looked at Greg, who still had his eyes closed. We began to laugh.

"You can open your eyes now, Greg" Jordana said as I kept laughing. He opened his eyes and eyed us serious, trying to figure things out.

"So both of you have brothers in the army?" He asked, pointing at us. We nodded together.

"We actually met because of them. Our families decided to meet each other since Tyler and Justin were great friends before joining it." I explained and he nodded. We got silent for a little while until Jordana clapped her hands together and stood up.

"Shall we?" She suggested taking of her hoddie and shoes. I got up and did the same.

"What are we doing?" Greg asked also getting up.

"Jumping on the lake." Jordana said running towards the lake and diving into it.

I looked at Greg. Who was smiling and looking at me as if we were crazy.

"Let's do this, James" I held his hand and ran with him to the edge of the lake and jumping in it as well.

~

I swimmed back to the edge and got out of the cold water. Gregory was sitting there looking ahead. I could tell she was thinking really hard. He didn't look very happy either.

"Something wrong?" I asked twisting my hair to get rid of some of the water.

"Nah, I was just wondering..." He told me still looking around.

"About what?" I kept going. He sighed.

"I think you should know why I stood you up that day." He said looking down to the floor.

"You don't need to." I assured him, reaching out for his shoulder,  touching it lightly. "I already told you it's fine."

"I want to." He said looking straight at me.

He sighed once more and ran his hand through his dark and wet hair.

"My brother, he was..." He inhaled deeply, "He was found."

I smiled widely, "Greg, that's great!".

He looked down again. "No, Brooke. They found him dead."

And with that, I froze.