Hello Brooklyn

Brooklyn stood in her bathroom and studied her reflection. Her once glowing skin was now pallor and her waves of dark brown hair was frizzed from running her fingers through the locks so many times. Dark circles sat beneath her now dulled, emerald eyes. She pinched her chapped lips together before glancing to the pill bottle sitting on the marble counter top.

It stared at her, as if it was set there just to harass her.

Jack was worried about her; she could tell from the phone calls which she was ignoring until further notice.

She felt the cool, familiar fingers touch her neck before she saw Alex himself. "Hello Brooklyn." She smiled softly against her will before she pinched her eyes shut and forced her mind to find some sort of distraction. That's what her doctor had recommended she should do when she had another hallucination.

Time. The ocean- so pretty. I want to g- Mother. Yes, call mother sometime. Jack too. He needs t-

"Brookie?" Alex's voice interrupted her jumbling thoughts. She placed her hands over her ears, forcing her eyes to stay shut.

Although those simple actions stopped her from seeing and hearing him, she could still feel his cold hands on her.

There was no distraction great enough to pull her from the feel of his arm wrapping around her waist.

"Stop!" she cried, though she didn't want him to.

As soon as she opened her eyes, his hands disappeared from her body. Spinning around, Alex was no where in sight.

Her hands ran down her face in despair. She was crazy. Crazy! It was hard to accept that fact.

Her mother's face flashed in her mind as did Rian's, Zack's and Jack's. They were all holding that same, stupid expression of concern.

Turning back, she hesitantly reached for the orange prescription bottle. Before she had a chance to think about her decision, she unscrewed the lid and took a tablet out before dry-swallowing it.

She felt some sort of regret run through her moments later but with one last sigh, she put the bottle in the medicine cabinet and walked the halls of her home. She stopped at the guest room, the one place she hardly ever looked in, and pushed open the door.

The bed across the room was unmade, telling her that someone had been sleeping in it. Clothes- which were folded- sat on the chair just waiting to be put away. The faint scent of Jack's body wash gave the mystery of it all away.

He had been living with her. It didn't seem possible.

Tears sprung into her eyes and before she was too overwhelmed by it all, she took a small step out of his room, shutting the door behind her. It was only a matter of time before Jack moved back in, she was sure of it.

&&&

Brooklyn perched on the ledge of the bay window in her room. Her fingers rested easily on the cool glass as she studied the empty yard below.

The little bit of sun peeking out from behind the smoky-gray clouds reflected off of the top of a vaguely familiar car as it pulled into her driveway. She watched uncaring as Jack stepped out of the passenger's side and pulled a duffel bag from the backseat.

Just as she had been anticipating, Jack was returning from his short stay at Zack's place.

The buff boy who had been giving his friend a place to stay climbed out from behind the wheel and glanced at the house with no particular motion on his face.

The skunk-haired boy's mouth started moving, obviously speaking to his friend.

They conversed for a few brief moments before Zack climbed back into his car and Jack walked up to the front door.

Brooklyn watched as the shiny, silver car backed onto the street before disappearing behind the row of maples that lined the road.

"Brookie?" Jack said from across the room.

She just blinked, her lips still molded into a frown.

"Brookie?" he repeated, as if he couldn't think of anything else to say.

"Please just leave me alone," she whispered. Her voice was so quiet she wasn't sure if he had heard her.

There was a long moment of silence between the two of them before he sighed in defeat. She could feel his brown eyes on her but she refused to look at him.

"I'm sorry," he said before taking a step out of her bedroom doorway. He studied her a moment longer before turning and walking to his room down the hallway.