Record Breakers

Chapter 13: Punching Trees

"Well it's about time," Tyler stood a few feet away with his hands on his hip and tapping his foot impatiently. Brooke and I had sprinted about half a mile to get here and were really knocked out. But still, we had to focus on the task at hand.

"Did you bring the flashlight?"

"Well no dur Ty, we wouldn't have come back if we didn't have it," I said rolling my eyes. He smacked the side of my head and went into the forest of trees.

As we ran around we made sure to leave some kind of mark that the tree was a dud. And pretty much EVERY SINGLE ONE WAS A DUD.
About 20 minutes after looking for the stupid tree, we all fell to the ground and sat there in disbelief.

"I can't believe it. I swear we've looked at every dang tree and none of them says-"

"Found it."

As soon as Tyler said it, we both jerked our heads in his direction. Brooke quickly got up and stood next to him. Once she saw the tree for herself she smiled and shook Tyler rigorously.

"I LOVE YOU TYLER WHAT WOULD WE DO WITHOUT YOU!??"

Calmly digging under the tree, Tyler replied, "Well you wouldn't be one step closer to finding the big prize." He soon dug up a big brown box. Dusting off the dirt he unlatched it open.

"It's another note, but I can't see it that well," Tyler said squinting his eyes. I motioned for him to hand it to me and he did so.

"It says: Congratulations! You've found a CLUE to the big prize! I know you thought this would be it but sadly it isn't. However you've already completed 2/3 of this quest :) The person who carved this label into the tree was an old friend of mine and is also holding a little gathering tonight. Go there using the map on the back of this paper and find the old DIPLOMA FRAME. Good luck, MP."

For about a minute or two we stood there and processed the letter.

"WHAT THE HELL DOES THAT MEAN?!"

"Brooke it means we're really close but not there yet.

"That's stupid," she whined pouting and crossed her arms.

I patted her back as she tapped her foot anxiously. Tyler decided that we should get moving to find this old friend's house.

But we soon ran into a problem.

A problem that we always tried to avoid.

So this Mathew guy had a lot of friends, but not all of them are his age. Some of them are a year older or a year younger.

And some are about 6 years older.

"I'm not going."

"Yes you are Brooke. Look you'll just have to deal. We'll go in, unseen, get the frame, and leave."

She stormed and Tyler got frustrated.

"Jade, she always does this. It's ridiculous!"

"I know but she's got stuff with her brother okay?"

"Look, it's not our fault that Mathew's friend is Bryon but she's the one who wanted the stupid prize!" I nodded and glanced at her. She was on her knees with her head against the tree. She was saying something to herself but it was inaudible to the world besides her.

I left Tyler alone to get the bikes and quietly walked over to Brooke. She looked at me with watery red eyes and immediately fell into my arms. I could feel her cry into my shoulder as I held her tighter.

"Hey it's okay."

Shakily she replied, "I don't want to see Bryon. I didn't even know he was in the city. His wife, Rachel, told me he was out of the state."

"Isn't he always out of the state?"

She paused and tried to get her finger wrapped around the idea. The idea that Bryon hadn't just left on a business trip because of "work". He had deliberately left. But who knows for what reason.

"Well," she began to choke down her tears, "I guess I should confront him now. Better time than never."

"What if Blake is there too?"

"I'll say hi to Bryon then on the way out I'll kick Blake's a$$." I chuckled at her comment. She was the only one I knew who could feel like curling up in a ball because of the struggles in life to making sarcastic jokes as if she won the lottery that day.

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"Jade." I turned and saw Tyler as if he ran a mile and saw a dead body.

Worried I asked, "What, what is it?!"

He gulped air, "Some girl man, she..she...she."

"She what?!?"

Brooke came in and smacked the backside of Tyler's head and he fell to the ground like a sack of meat. She put her hands on her hips in annoyance then looked up at me.

"Let's just say a 17 year old made him feel good in ways he had no idea was possible." After her statement she walked away like nothing and left me in this very confused and idle position to process what she had just said.

And when I did, I didn't know whether to high five Ty, or throw up next to him.

However I decided just to let him wallow in his "experience".

"Brooke wait up!" She only looked over her shoulder to see me.

"What."

"Do you even know where Byron is?"

She turned away and began to walk forward very, disciplined like.

"Yeah."

"How?"

"What?"

"If you didn't know he was in the city how did you know that he was gonna be here anyways? Or where his room might be?"

She made a quick sigh then continued her straight glare, "This is the house we grew up in. It was paid off already so he decided to just keep it. C'mon it's up stairs." As she bounced up on every other step I followed behind her, trying to catch my breath.

Soon, but not soon enough, we made it to the second floor hallway. She looked to her left then jerked her body towards the left and ran down. I sprinted to catch up with her.

As I watched her she looked, hesitant. But not the kind of hesitant that's like "Dang I haven't seen this guy in a long time" kind. It was more of a "I'm honestly scared to open this door" kind of hesitant.

Her hand hovered over the door knob and it suddenly felt quiet even though the roar of club music was behind us. She would try to pull her hand away but I could tell she knew she just had to do it. It was either now to get the prize, or later. Or maybe even never.

I wrapped her in my arms and held her tight.

"Brooke whatever happens it's okay. I'm here for you now, and forever."

"Hey can I ask you something?"

"Of course."

"Some stuff is gonna happen in about 2 weeks and I need you to go to the store and get me some tampons."

While gagging in my head I said,
"Brooke let's focus on this okay?"

She smiled and nodded, turning back to the infamous door.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

The door swung in open and it was as quiet as outer space.

I couldn't see the inside of the room but I could see a dim light emanate.

"Hey squirt! Long time, no see!"

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Hey, so it's been a while. Let me know what you think!

Earth loves you

-Rockerpeep