I Won't Let You Close Enough to Hurt Me

Chapter 13

     Brooke quickly glanced down at her phone to see that it was only 9:50. "Hi mom, you're here a little earlier than I thought you would be," Brooke said as she backed away from Nick and go up on the couch.

     "Well, it's a school night and I wanted to make sure that you were home by 10:00. Was I interrupting something?" Kelly questioned.

     "No, you weren't," Brooke quickly responded. "Well I guess we should leave now. Bye Nick."

     Brooke grabbed her mom's arm and lead her out to the car. When they got in, she turned on the radio right away in hopes that her mom would understand that she didn't want to talk about what just happened.

     Kelly turned of the radio instantly. "We can put it back on in a minute, Brookie. I want to talk."

     Brooke sighed. This was the last thing that she wanted to talk about with her mom. "Are you mad?" she asked quietly.

     "No. I'm a little surprised, because I didn't think that you liked Nick. But you're growing up, and even though I don't like it, these things happen," Kelly said calmly.

     "I'm not sure I even like Nick. I don't know why that happened," Brooke told her mom.

     Kelly raised her eyebrows. "Well I don't think that you should be kissing him if you don't like him."

     "Mom, we barely even kissed. Can we just drop this?" Brooke begged. Kelly gave her daughter a look of concern, but kept quiet for the rest of the drive home.

     When they arrived home, they walked into a house full of tears and yelling.

     "But dad, why can't I go?" Paige sobbed.

     "You're only 11, you don't need to be dating. There's plenty of time for that when you get older. Besides, do you think Josh wants you to go out with one of his friends?" Randy scolded.

     Paige shook her head as she started crying even harder. The second she saw that her mom was in the room, Paige ran up and threw her arms around her. Kelly hugged her tightly and rubbed her back. "May I ask what's going on in here?"

     "Oh, Paige just wants to go to the movies with Josh's friend Thomas on Thursday and I told her no. She is way too young to be dating. Besides, Josh isn't comfortable with her dating one of his friends," Randy responded.

     "Brooke, why don't you take Paige upstairs. I need to talk to your dad for a few minutes," Kelly instructed. Brooke nodded and walked over to the staircase with her sister. Instead of going to their rooms, they sat on the stairs to listen to their parents' discussion.

     "You know Randy, Brooke went on her first date when she was in the 6th grade. We can't just change the rules for Paige," they heard Kelly say.

     There was a long pause. "You're right. I know you're right. I just can't believe that she's growing up so fast. All the kids are. Brooke has already been in a serious relationship. That's so hard for me to accept," Randy sighed.

     "I know, it's strange for me too. And when I picked Brooke up from Nick's house tonight, they were kissing," Kelly said. Brooke's face turned bright red, and Paige giggled. She definitely did not want her dad to know that.

     "But we can't stop them from growing up," their mom continued. "So I think we should let Paige go. It's not like she has school the next morning; we're leaving for the competition Friday."

     "Alright. I guess that would be okay," Randy admitted.

     Paige's face lit up, and the girls ran up to her room. Brooke threw her arms around her sister. She was so happy for Paige; she was going on her first date.

     After Brooke and Paige had their mini-celebration, Brooke went across the hall to her room and climbed into bed. She had a long day ahead of her tomorrow.