Can You Keep A Secret?

Chapter Eighty-Three

-Brooklyn's POV-

Jack poked me with his shoe, and I grumbled and scooted away from him.

"C'mon. You can't just mope around eating ice cream and listening to sad heartbreak music for the rest of your life," He said. I set down my spoon, glaring at him.

"Why not?"

"Because it's time to go to the studio, and strawberry ice cream hardly constitutes as a breakfast." He grabbed my wrist and pulled me up. I caught the bowl right before it dropped and spilled the syrupy sweet pink stuff all over the floor, but knocked my head on the upper bunk instead.

"Ow! Look what you did!" I complained angrily. He took my meal and set it on the table before reaching up and kissing my head where I had bumped it.

"There. It's better now." He grinned.

"Don't leave the bowl there!" Sophie called out from the kitchen. Blair was off on a business trip, so she was keeping an eye on us while he was gone. I was kind of glad that he was – I wasn't looking forward to a speech of how girls only got in the way of our careers when he got back.

Andy reached down and grabbed the dirty dish, calling out "You're welcome!" on his way over to the kitchen.

Jack practically dragged me out of the flat, pulling on my arm like an over energetic puppy excited to go on a walk.

"I don't understand what the big rush is," I said, squinting as the morning light flooded my eyes.

"Because we need to get our good old Brooklyn back!" He exclaimed. "We can't have you going emo like Mikey!"

"I'm not emo!" Mikey yelled back in response.

"You have a nose ring and dyed your hair black!"

"Touché." Mikey said. I couldn't find the heart to join in on their banter – It had been approximately 41 hours, 28 minutes and 5 seconds since my happiness had probably been destroyed for life. It was clear that the only sort of future that I had ahead of me was a lonely one in which I'd grow up to own 7 dogs, who would be my only companions until the day I died.

"In you go!" Jack said, lightly shoving me into the car as if I was a little kid who was resisting going to the dentist's. I rolled my eyes and pulled out my phone, planning to plug my earbuds in and spend the entire drive with my head against the window, absorbed into songs that described how I felt, just like a sad scene in a movie.

However, my plan was ruined when Rye plucked my phone out of my hands, saying, "Nope, you're going to be social today," clearly trying to kick start my moving on. I reached out for it, but he moved it to where I could no longer reach it.

"Ugh, are you two ganging up on me?" I whined.

"Actually, all five of us are," Andy said, smirking.

"You too!?" I stared incredulously at Liv. She shrugged, trying to hide a smile.

"You guys are ridiculous," I said. "What are yous, my parents all of a sudden?"

"Yup!" Jack said happily.

"Well, I'd rather you not, mum."

"It's all for the best, son," He laughed.

"You guys are killing me!" I cried out.

"We're helping you," Mikey corrected me.

"We're helping you," I mimicked him.

"Ah, there you go! He's catching on, guys!" Mikey proclaimed as if I hadn't just been making fun of him, and the entire car burst into cheers. Andy leaned over to whisper into my ear.

"I know we make fun of you, but we really are just trying to cheer you up with this. We just want to see you smile again."

"Wait, what do you mean by 'this'?" I asked, using air quotations. "By forcing me to leave the flat and go to the studio and making fun of me relentlessly the entire time?"

"Yeah, about that..." He said, breaking into a grin.

"We're going to London!" Liv yelled out.

"Wait, what?" I queried, really confused now. "Why?"

"So you can have a day out and have fun to take your mind off of her," Rye explained. My mind strayed back to when we had planned to go to the fair together...Why did she tease me with a future that she was never even planning to let us have?

"We're not going to give up until you're happy and smiling again," Liv said, determined, before leaning over and turning up the CD that they'd put in the cat – The Backstreet Boys. "There's more where that came from. An entire car ride of 90's music, just for you. Aaaand, that's how you know that we love you."

I rolled my eyes, but there was something a little charming about how much effort they were going through just to cheer me up. Maybe there was a point to be taken from what they were saying – I could nurse a bruised heart forever, or I could show her that I was better off without her, anyways. I wasn't quite sure if I was, but maybe it wasn't her that I was really clinging onto. After all, our relationship hadn't even lasted that long. Maybe it was just the guilt that I felt after our first night, and the idea of what we could've been that made me keep holding onto something that was no longer mine.

Either way, it couldn't really hurt if I played along for the day, just to appease my friends, right? I quietly began to join in on them singing the lyrics of the song. It was low enough that only Andy noticed – but he smiled broadly and, maybe, just maybe, it made it worth it. If I didn't want to move on for me, then maybe I could do it for them instead.