Whole Lot More

Chapter Forty Four

Chapter Forty Four

Suitcases upon suitcases haphazardly lay on her bedroom floor. Clothes hung out the sides of them half in and half out. But she didn't care.

Lucky sat in the doorway looking after her. He had been extra protective the last few days, almost as if he knew that she was beyond that breaking point.

It had been exactly thirty six and a half hours since that phone call with her mother. For thirty six of those hours she had lay in bed with her dog and cried until she couldn't cry anymore. Finally rousing simply because she knew her parents would be there soon and would be expecting her to be packed up and ready to go back home with them.

She had gotten to a point where she didn't even feel she could take care of herself, let alone her dog or her apartment or anything else in her life. She had to let her parents take over for her.

Who would have thought at her age that she would be moving back with her parents?

But honestly, at this point what did she have left besides her dog and her parents and a lonely apartment that she wanted nothing to do with?

She had her friends, but she could not find any comfort in that or in them at this point. She was too far gone for even her closest friends to help bring her back.

So she decided to pack up her things and go back to New York. To leave the only home she had known for years and all the memories that were associated with it and go back to some place where there were only good memories.

Because all her memories associated with Boston at the moment were painful.

She had not heard back from the Police yet, but they had her cell phone number and could call her if they needed to speak to her. She had called to let them know she was leaving town, and that anything that needed to be done in person could be done by Tara.

The front door to her apartment opened, and her mother and father walked in the door, "Brynne?"

"In here Mom!"

As her parents walked into her bedroom, Brynne closed the last of her suitcases up and stood in the middle of her room looking around.

Her mother came up and gave Brynne a hug, "How are you sweetie?" Brynne just shrugged. What did you tell your mother when you were numb? Numb with grief, pain, sadness. She could continue to list the emotions, but it wasn't going to get her anywhere. She was just numb.

"Are you ready to go?" her father asked.

"Yes Daddy."

"Are these all your bags?" She nodded. "I'll carry them down to the car then."

After her father left the room, her mother looked at her, "Are you going to be okay sweetie?"

"It's hard to say," Brynne sighed, "Everything I've ever known is now gone. And so is everything I ever wanted. How do you start over when you've already started over so many times and all you've ever gotten is hurt?"

Her mother didn't answer. She didn't know. And neither did Brynne. They walked out of her room and to the door to her apartment, Lucky trailing behind them, somber as ever.

It was time for a new start. Again.

Brynne didn't even look back as they walked out of her apartment forever.

*

Two days later and she was finally beginning to settle in at her parents' house. Her bags were all unpacked and put away and Lucky was out in the yard loving the freedom he had being in the country as opposed to city life.

If anyone was taking this move better, it was Lucky.

Brynne on the other hand was just surviving, just showing enough interest in what she thought her parents wanted her to in order to keep them off her back.

She was just making it through day after day.

"Brynne!" Amy Matthews yelled from downstairs.

"Yes Mom?"

"Lunch is ready sweetheart."

"I think I'm going to pass on lunch at the moment and take a nap, Mom."

"Are you sure?" her mother asked.

"Yeah, I'm just tired right now." Brynne closed the door to her 'room', it felt weird to be sleeping in the room she had slept in since she was a little girl. She had thought that maybe it would bring her some comfort, but it was apparent nothing would be bringing her comfort ever again.

She curled up in her bed like she was a little girl again, and let her bottled up emotions overflow and the blackness overtake her.

*

The chair was cold beneath her bare legs, but she couldn't even tell; she was so caught up in the fact that they had finally managed to get a night out.

She smiled at him across the table and her smile grew when he smiled right back at you.

"I love you, Brynne."

Frowning Brynne said, "I love you too. You know that. What's gotten into you tonight? You're kind of acting weird."

He chuckled nervously, grabbing her hands in his over the table, "I just wanted to make sure that you know that, that's all."

"O-okay," she laughed, "Well, I know it. And the feeling is reciprocated, trust me."

"That's good to know. Especially now."

"Especially now? What?" She gasped when he dropped to one knee next to the table in front of her, and grabbed her hand.

"Brynne, I have loved you since the first day I met you. I always knew that we would end up together no matter what you or anyone else thought. It was going to happen because I wanted it to happen, and when you set your heart and mind to something, with perseverance it will happen. The best thing that ever happened to me was loving you, and having you love me back was just that much sweeter. You would make me the happiest man in the world if you would agree to be mine for the rest of our lives. Brynne, will you marry me?"

Brynne brushed the tears out of her eyes and nodded her head, "Yes, yes! I would love to marry you! I love you! I want to be with you for the rest of our lives!"

The entire restaurant broke out into clapping, laughter and cheers; neither of them having noticed that all attention was on them.

Brynne gasped, trying to draw in air through her tortured and painful sobs. The tears were streaming down her face, and even in sleep she was being haunted by what would never be.

*