Five Smiles

Chapter 5: Nowhere With Noah

Chapter 5

    “It’s so pretty here.”  Brooklynn said with a sigh.  They had been sitting at the dock for nearly an hour.

“So you’ve said a few times...”  Noah sat with his arms loosely around his knees.

“Thanks Noah,”  She turned to him with a half smile.

“For what?  Ditching school with you?”  He guessed.

“No, getting drunk and roped to a tree.”  Laughed Brooklynn.  Noah shoved his shoulder into hers.

“Yeah, yeah, so funny.”  He shook his head.  

“How’d you get drunk anyway?”  She had never found that out.

“My dad must have sneaked something into the coffee this morning.  I had like...six cups.”  Brooklynn’s eyes widened as she suppressed another laugh.

“And he just watched you?”  Brooklynn let out a snort.

“He probably figured I knew.”  Noah shrugged.

“Probably?  Is this something that happens often raccoon?”  She tried to smooth out the smile on her face, but it was stuck like a piece of tape.  

“Haha. Hilarious.”  Noah glared at Brooklynn.  “At least my family doesn’t own a boot camp in their home.”  He raised an eyebrow.  Brooklynn face suddenly became serious.  Did he say something wrong?  Brooklynn turned her body sideways so her back was leaning against his shoulder.

“Kind of seems like that sometimes doesn’t it?”  Her voice was soft.  What was he suppose to say to that?  She sighed before she continued.  “I had a sister.”  Noah looked down to see her eyes glazed over staring blankly over the water.

“You did?”  She took in a breath.

“Yeah,”  She answered letting it out.  “She died in a car accident when she was sixteen.”  She looked up at him before adjusting her position.

“How old were you?”  Noah was curious for once.

“Non-existent.  Once she died, my mom well...dealt with death her own way.”  She explained vaguely.

“What do you mean?”  Noah looped his arm around her shoulder as she leaned her head on his.

“She got pregnant right after the funeral.”  She gulped before continuing.  “And when she found out it was a boy, she...got rid of it.”  Noah didn’t know what to say.  “It was a little harder, but she managed to get pregnant with me shortly after.”  Her eyes were filled with tears.  

“Hm.”  Noah let out as he was still contemplating an response.

“She raised me to be exactly like my sister.  Straight A student, neat and organized.  She hasn’t quite gotten me to join the cheer squad yet.”  She wiped her eyes.

“Is that why you were so upset the other night?”  Noah was putting together the pieces.

“Yeah,”  She softly replied.  After a short length of silence, Noah had finally come up with a reasonable response.

“You know, I know it’s bad what happened.  But, I can’t help think that if those things didn’t happen you wouldn’t be here with me right now.”  She looked up to meet his gaze with a small smile.

“Yeah, I guess you’re right.  You know it’s not even the fact that she wanted to have another baby after my sister died.  It’s that she killed another because it wasn’t like the first.”  Brooklynn decided to just say it like it was.  “I mean, it’s not like she couldn’t have had me if she had kept him.”  She pointed out.  “I could have had a brother...”  Her voice trailed off.

     Noah didn’t respond.  The Winters family was more messed up than he could have ever imagined.  The more he thought about it the more he wondered how Brooklynn put up with it.  He was almost...thankful for his dad.  His dad had never forced him to do anything he didn’t want too.  Mostly due to that fact that he was hardly ever there...but still.  A question suddenly popped into Noah’s head.  

"Brooklynn?”  Noah nudged her slightly.

“Yeah?”  

“What was your sister’s name?”  He felt Brooklynn tense up before turning towards him.  

“Brooke.  It was Brooke.”  Noah’s stomach dropped.  It all made sense now.  

________________________

     Noah and Brooklynn lightened up the conversation with talk about movies and music until they were both back to laughing.

“You’ve never seen Star Trek?  Even the new one with that guy that girls love?”  Noah gaped at Brooklynn.

“Sorry?  I mean my dad’s really busy all the time and well my mom’s not exactly first in line to see a sci-fi movie.”  Defended Brooklynn.

“Disgrace.”  Was all Noah said shaking his head.  Brooklynn let her mouth fall open as she pushed him on the shoulder. 

They spent the rest of the evening taking turns asking each other questions.

“My mom it going to kill me.”  Brooklynn sang as she laid back lettting her hair cover the dock.  

“We should probably get you home.”  Noah suggested.

“Nah, I’m already dead.  Might as well make it last.”  Noah laid down beside her.  They watched in silence as the sun slowly disappeared.  

     By the time Noah dropped Brooklynn off at her house it was already 8:30, and she had missed dinner.  Brooklynn slowly opened the door and slipped off her shoes in her usual routine.  She had gotten half way up the stairs...

“Brooke.  Where were you?”  Her mom stood motionless at the bottom of the stairs with her arms crossed.

“Out.”  She replied blankly.  She didn’t even bother to correct her mother.

“I received a call from the school.  Apparently you didn’t bother to show up for school today.”  Brooklynn slowly walked down the stairs to meet her mom. “You know you can’t expect to get on the cheer squad if you...”

“Stop it! Why would even consider that an option?  I haven’t taken a gymnastics class since I was 12!”  Brooklynn had refused to go once she had found out about her sister.  

“You were very talented Brooke.”  Her mother said forcefully.

“No!  I wasn’t!  Brooke was!”  She turned to storm up the stairs.  Her mother stayed silent at the bottom.

“That boy’s no good for you Brooke.  He’s going nowhere.”  She stopped but didn’t turn around.

“Then I’ll go nowhere with him.”  She said before continuing up the stairs.