stars

thirty

Phoebe

Brooke squeezed my hand. "I haven't seen him in years, but I figured it'd be better to have him than my mom, right?" I said, panicking. She rubbed her thumb against my hand, trying to comfort me.

"It'll be fine." She said. After a while, he showed up. He looked different than when I saw him last. The most noticeable thing was his hair color. Gray was sprinkled into his messy hair. He had a slightly darker skin tone than mine, bags under his eyes, and more wrinkles. I squeezed Brooke's hand. She smiled.

"Phoebe?" I awkwardly smiled at him. "They told me you had a fractured ankle. Why didn't you call your mom?"

I rolled my eyes. "Why would I call mom? She's out of town. She'd get mad. I-"

"I was hours away, Phoebe." I looked down and apologized. He sighed, brushing his hand through his hair. "It's fine. I guess I understand, your mom is pretty... hotheaded." He looked over at Brooke, who was analyzing my father. "Who's she?"

"Brooke. She's a... friend," I replied. We sat in awkward silence for a while before he decided to talk to me.

"I didn't mean it to sound like I didn't care about you. It's just weird to hear how my kid's doing after four years only to find out they're in the hospital." He said. I shrugged. Brooke fiddled with her still wet jeans. I looked at her, smiling. "How's life with your mom?"

"Pretty bad," I told him. "It could be worse. She could be home more often. That would be bad."

"Are you just living alone?"

"Brooke lives with me," Silence. "What? I'm not technically alone." I mumbled.

For the second time since he's arrived, he sighed. Brooke looked at him, confused. She started to speak but decided against it. "Look, Phoebe," He said. I mentally prepared myself to receive a lecture. "Do you still want to live with your mom?"

"No...?" I said, unsure if that was the right answer. Personally, it was. I hate living with her. It's better because she's never here, but when she is, it's hell. I want to move out and live by myself (maybe with Brooke, of course.), but I'm only 15, almost 16. "I mean, I'd rather live with her than by myself or on the street, but-"

"You can live with me if you'd want." I looked at him, then to Brooke.

"Could... Could Brooke come with?"

"I- Sure," I smiled, and so did Brooke.

*

They gave me stitches and a boot for my ankle then shoved me out of the hospital. (Okay, I'm exaggerating. They let me go with a sticker, like a little kid.) Brooke and I walked out, following my dad. He looked aggravated. "Sorry," I said to my father.

He looked back at me. "Why?"

"I'm probably being annoying or something. I don't know." I said, looking down. Brooke was walking beside me silently. She looked at me, then at my dad.

"Phoebe, you've been quiet this whole time, how could you possibly be annoying?" He asked. I shrugged, staying silent until we got to his car. "Okay, so obviously, you're gonna have to stay at your mom's for a couple more weeks, or something. But until I can talk to the court or whoever I need to talk to to get custody of you, you're gonna have to survive. And for you, uh,"

"Brooke," Brooke said, sitting in my father's car.

"Yeah, Brooke, you'll be staying with us for a while?" He asked.

"I-" She started to talk about it, but stopped. She looked at her lap for a moment. It looked as if she had a moment of realization. I slipped my hand into hers.

"Her, uh, her parents kicked her out and she has nowhere to go but to stay with me. Sorry, but she comes with the package." I told him. He nodded, apologizing. He turned on the car and started to drive. I held Brooke's hand. "Are you okay?" I whispered to her. She shook her head, looking at me. Her eyes were wide and red, tears pooling up.

"My mother is dead, Phoebe. I... I put it off until now, but... She's gone." Brooke looked back down at her lap, tears dropping on her jeans. I heard her sniffle and saw her drag her arm against her eyes, wiping the tears away. I was so terrible at comforting people, so I just wrapped my arms around her. I rubbed my thumb against her shoulder.

"It's okay, Brooke. It'll be okay." She turned to me, leaning on my shoulder and crying quietly. I looked over to my dad who was looking through the rearview mirror at us. I smiled awkwardly. It was dark outside by now, meaning either I'd been in the hospital for hours or Brooke had been fighting for hours. I felt like it was both. My dad drove to my mother's house, dropping us off there.

"See you later girls," He said, smiling. I smiled back, holding Brooke's hand. Brooke faced the front door. I looked up at the sky once he left, frowning.

"Brooke," I said, turning to her. She looked up at me, her eyes puffy and red. "You'll be alright, okay?" She looked down. Her hair fell in her face, still slightly wet. I moved her hair out of the way, tilting her chin up to look at me gently. We locked eyes. "You know you'll be okay, right?"

Brooke shook her head. "My mom's dead, I don't know my father, Noah is in an underwater prison and he might get out. I'm gonna have these dumb black lines on me forever I have to watch Erye to make sure nothing else happens to Evian or Jamie and I'm just 14! I can't handle this, Phoebe. It's-"

"It's okay. Jamie and Evian can help. They're your friends, they'd understand." I said. Brooke nodded.

"I guess," She still looked at me. I smiled at her, staying silent. "What?" She laughed.

"I really like you," I said. She blushed. "And I wanna go on a date with you. I don't know if you need time because your last boyfriend was an abusive jerk or not. Do you?" Brooke stayed silent for a moment. She looked down, probably thinking. As much as I wanted to date her, I knew she might need time. I respected that. After a while, she looked up at me. She had a questioning look on her face. She got closer to me and I felt my face heat up.

"I really like you too," She looked at something on my face. I felt my face heat up more when I realized it was my lips. "And yeah, I may need some time to heal 'cause of Noah, but," She moved in closer, filling the gap between us. I felt her lips on mine. She was kissing me. Brooke was kissing me. I mentally freaked out for a moment, then kissed back. She pulled away after a moment. "I'll just have to trust you."

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(oh my god im so sorry it's been like, five years since i've updated. i've been very busy but guess what! this book will be ending after chapter 31! hooray, right? i might write either a sequel to this or finish spy 101 OR write a book w oliver and alex. i wanna do all but im really lazy. see y'all later and have a good day or night! <3)