F | Girl On Fire (Station 19)

NINETEEN

'Bryn, you are never on your own. You have me, you have the guys at 19, you have Ryan, you have Alyssa.' Travis says to her. 'Don't you ever think that you have to go through anything alone.' He continues. 'It's okay not to be okay.' He brings her in for a hug and kisses the top of her head and places his chin on the top of her head. 'Don't ever forget that.' He whispers.

.

A couple of weeks has passed. The adoption process has been delayed due to Brooklyn's mental health but CPS has had no problems with Brooklyn stayed with Travis for a few days to ease her into staying with him permanently. It's the weekend of Seattle Pride. Travis has booked a section on the camping field alongside an all weekend VIP pass meaning that they get to go into the main festival grounds earlier than everyone else and they get a fast track pass for the fairground rides so that they don't have to wait in line as long. Alyssa, Brooklyn, Travis and Grant are all stood in the foyer of Travis' house making sure that they have everything. They have an hour and a half until the camping grounds open for set up and two and a half hours before the Friday night stage opens.

'Have you girls got everything?' Travis asks Brooklyn and Alyssa.

'Yeah.' They both nod.

'Then we better hit the road. All the camping stuff is already in the car, we just need to get our bags in and then we can be on our way.' Travis tells them. They all walk out to the driveway. Travis and Grant pack all of the bags into the car, whilst Alyssa and Brooklyn sit in the back of the car talking.

'It sucks that your mom and dad can't be here.' Brooklyn states.

'Meh.' Alyssa shrugs. 'I'm used to them going away often. I wish they didn't because then they can spend more time with me. I know that sounds selfish but I've barely seen them the past few months. They're either in work really early, working late or at some weekend conference. I guess that's what comes with owning your own business.'

'It's not selfish to want to spend time with your parents.' Brooklyn shakes her head. 'I'd give anything to spend time with my parents again. My mom and dad would take me everywhere when I was a child. Museums, parks, theme parks - they've missed seeing me grow up for these past five years.' Brooklyn talking about her parents comes as a shock to Alyssa since she's never spoken about them in front of her before. She sees that Brooklyn has tears in her eyes.

'Bryn-' Alyssa starts to apologise.

'It's okay.' Brooklyn says quietly. She carefully wipes the tears from her eyes as not to ruin her make-up. 'Don't worry about it.' Travis and Grant get into the car. Travis connects his phone to the aux cord and places it on the armrest. He looks back at the two girls.

'You girls ready?' Travis queries. He then notices the tears in Brooklyn's eyes. 'You okay, Bryn?'

'Yeah.' Brooklyn nods.

'Okay, well, what kind of music do you two want?' Travis asks.

'Anything.' Brooklyn grins. 'As long as its none of your crap music.'

'Hey!' Travis raises an eyebrow, attempting to sound offended. 'Taylor Swift and Imagine Dragons are not crap music.'

'Well, Panic! At The Disco and Green Day are way better and you know it.' Brooklyn smiles. 'I mean, I know I'm gay and everything but Brendon Urie is just-'

'She's not wrong there.' Grant laughs.

'He's the guy that sung that song with Taylor Swift, right?' Travis questions.

'Yes!' Alyssa, Grant and Brooklyn exclaim together.

'Okay, okay.' Travis raises his hands. 'We'll have to decide on a playlist before we get on the road.' He looks at Brooklyn and sees that her eyes are fixated on the phone. He too looks at the phone. Both Travis and Brooklyn look up at each other at the exact same time. 'First one to the phone controls the music.' Travis narrows his eyes. They both go for the phone but despite Travis being the closest, Brooklyn gets there first.'