Can You Keep A Secret?

Chapter Fifty-Seven

           

-Brooklyn's POV-

            My breath was coming out shaky and ragged, and I thought, for sure, that this couldn't be happening to me. I looked down at my phone and the recent texts I'd exchanged with Jack.

When will you be here?

I'm not coming

What do you mean?

Hasn't Blair told you yet??

Told me what

Told me what??

Jack?

Ask Blair

            And now I didn't know what to say. There were no words to express how I was feeling. I wanted to scream, to break something, get some revenge on the world for doing this to me. I wanted to run, wear myself out until every part of my body hurt just as much as my heart did. I wanted to board a plane to Ireland and force him to come back.

            I did none of those things, just sucked in the air. It was too hot out again, the type of heat that seeps into you and makes everything uncomfortable, but anything was preferable than having to stay into of the flat. It was all too apparent that he wasn't there, and everything reminded me of him.

            I couldn't wrap my head around why he would possibly do something like this – Was it easy for him to throw away everything that we had, just like that, without even leaving any means of explanation. Maybe it just never meant that much to him in the first place, although I could've sworn that the bond we'd all had was real.

            Then again, I'd thought that Andy wanted to live and wouldn't do something as big as that, so I guess that I didn't know much at all.

            I leaned my back against the building, chest heaving. I let out a sob, unable to keep it anymore – The world spun around me. I thought of Andy collapsing, of how Mikey ran up to Liv that day, of the day that I met Jack in the airport for the first time, of the moment we stepped onto the Wembley stage, of the feeling of the milkshake dripping down my head. I remembered that time we'd all gotten ill when we were on tour, and I'd woken up in the middle of the night, unable to breathe, certain that I would die.

            I felt like that again now – A dizzying mix of everything all at once. My hands trembled as I pulled my phone out again. Rye had messaged me, asking if I was okay and if I wanted someone to come out, or if I'd prefer to be alone.

            I ignored it, instead choosing to dial Stacey's number instead. Suddenly, all that I wanted was to be able to hear her voice again. Maybe, for a moment, she would be able to transport me to another time. Back to when we were kids, and she made me a daisy chain and rested it in my hair. Pushing each other on the swings. Her sneaker resting on the other, her bubble gum popping, her bracelet still resting on my wrist...The moment in her bedroom when we joined and were closer than I had ever been with another person.

            I dialed her number, and it rang and rang, but she never picked up.