Hello Brooklyn

Brooklyn studied the coffee table her feet were resting on, deep in thought.

Alex walked down the stairs, catching sight of the dark-haired girl almost instantly. "Hello Brooklyn," he said in a cheerful voice as he walked into the living room to the love seat. He plopped his body down and turned to her after studying the television that was set on mute. "What's going on?"

She finally pulled her eyes up to study the boy sitting across the room. "You're mad at Zack, aren't you?"

Alex froze, his body tensing as he sat cross legged. "What? N-No I'm not. Why would you say something like that?"

She studied his dark eyes, her blue orbs serious. "You leave every time Zack comes here. What happened between the two of you?"

"Nothing happened between us. It's just a coincidence that he comes over whenever I leave."

"You are a terrible liar, Alexander," she stated pulling her eyes back to her toes.

There was silence as Alex studied the girl. She looked lost in thought once again.

After their moment, he had predicted things to be awkward but he had guessed wrong. Everything went back to the way it had been before.

He could never predict how Brooklyn was going to react to things and strangely, he liked that about her. He wasn’t particularly fond of her blazing ignorance, but beggars can’t be choosers.

“Why do you care?” Alex rolled his eyes to the right, and kept his gaze from hitting Brooklyn’s confused expression. She glanced up at the boy and let a rush of frustration pass through her clenched teeth.

“Did I say I did? I just don’t like being in the dark about things.” It was a perfect excuse from her perspective. She couldn’t let him know that she wanted to know everything about him, because he interested her to no avail. Everything about him enticed her. His past, his situation, and even his eyes. They were shutters to her, the first pair of eyes she couldn’t see right past to the soul.

“It was just a fight, okay? We had a misunderstanding before I died, and it just... pisses me off.” Alex crossed his arms over his chest, finally looking at Brooklyn.

“Well… what was it about?” Curiosity always got the better of her in the case of Alex Gaskarth.

“If you must know… a girl.”

“Oh.” She suddenly felt insecure. The last time she felt this small was when her parents didn’t show up to her fifth grade class concert. “I’m sorry I asked.”

“I know what you’re thinking…” Alex crossed the room to sit on the couch, causing Brooklyn to scoot more the opposite side a few inches. “It was never like that with her. She was just a simple fuck. Zack loved her, but I was already drunk from the tequila so I yelled at him. He threw a punch and never cared that I died. He didn’t even go to my funeral.” The emerald-eyed girl scoffed and kept her eyes on the bright television screen.

“Whatever.” If Alex was desperate enough to screw a girl Zack loved, who said he wouldn’t screw her over too? She started to feel stupid for ever thinking Alex cared the slightest bit about her, “Does that make me your hostess whore?”

“I knew you would do that.” Bitterly, Alex stood up and stomped up the staircase into the bathroom.

How could a simple ‘Hello’ lead to an argument to quickly?

&&&

Later on in the night, Alex found he was left alone in the house, with no clue as to where Brooklyn had gone. He searched the kitchen and the backyard, but nothing. He was kind of sad that she had just left, but he didn’t blame her.

Brooklyn had gone to the bar. She wanted to forget about the asshole waiting at her house, but no matter how many drinks she had she just couldn’t let him go. Like an idiot, she walked the path to not her house, but to where she knew Jack was staying. It just happened to be Zack’s house.

It was three in the morning and she didn’t hesitate to ring the doorbell six times, protruding her bottom lip and bobbing her head from left to right, “Open up!”

Zack was the one to unlock the deadbolt and show Brooklyn to his living room. He was angry out of exhaustion, “Why are you here?”

“Where’s Jack? I miss him.”

“Jack’s sleeping, Brooklyn.” A yawn or two provided Zack with the want to crawl into his bed and leave the girl to her alcohol-induced stupidity. “What do you want?”

“I have a collection of seahorses at my parents’ house, did you know that?”

“That’s wonderful. Did Alex make you do this?”

“Alex? Alex…” Innocent Brooklyn’s face turned sour at the name. Her last double shot of whiskey had withered Alex into nothing. Why did Zack have to bring him up again? “What happened to the girl, Zack? The girl you loved.” Her voice became a whisper.

Zack’s face turned into a crumpled mess compared to his composure. Brooklyn had hit a nerve. “She went away.”

“Where’d she go Zacky-pie?” Obviously drunk, the girl still had to pry.

“She went to Alabama after Alex died. She couldn’t handle it.” Tears started streaming down Zack’s smooth cheeks.

“Did she love him?”

“No. She wasn’t upset that Alex was gone. He used her far too much. She couldn’t handle me. I missed him.”

“But you didn’t go to his funeral though…” Brooklyn was confused. For being this cut up over the death of his friend, wouldn’t he want to pay his last respects for the rock star?

“How do you know that?” Zack stood up from the couch and stared at her, confused.

“He told me Zack. He’s alive.” What a stupid thing to say.

“Get out! Get out of my house!” Brooklyn was surprised that Jack wasn’t downstairs already with all the commotion that was happening, “I said out!”

“I’m sorry.” With one last look at Zack, Brooklyn left the house. The morning dew was cold on her knees as she tripped, trying to get away from the situation as fast as possible. She had already started to sober up.

Zack missed Alex…