Hello Brooklyn

Brooklyn nestled deeper into the pillows, her head clear despite the lack of motivation to get up.

She froze when she felt arms snake around her and with fright clenching her heart, she turned slowly to come face-to-face with a sleeping Jack Barakat.

Though she knew him and she had an indescribable trust in the male, the tightness in her chest didn't lessen.

Alex had been there just the night before. She remembered so clearly the feel of the stubble growing over his jaw and the firm kiss they'd shared. The last thing she remembered was Alex forcing the both of them to stop and tucking her into bed once again, his arms wrapping around her in a comforting manner.

Now, staring at Jack, Brooklyn found herself completely and utterly confused. She could only assume what had happened last night and the situation her mind had conjured up was enough to shatter the tiny bit of sanity she held from seeing Alex's angelic face.

She carefully lifted Jack's arm from her waist and touched her feet to the cool floorboards, walking quietly out of her room.

When she reached the bottom of the stairs, Brooklyn looked around contemplating what to do.

She felt as if she was a girl leaving after a one-night stand though she knew for a fact that she and Jack hadn't had sex.

The girl certainly didn't want to stick around and try to act like everything that had happened the night before was okay but she didn't want to leave either. This was her home and if anyone should leave, it should be Jack. He was the one invading her space, and she wondered now if he was somehow triggering her 'hallucinations' as everyone seemed to call them.

When her fear overpowered every other emotion running through her she snagged a jacket from a hook mounted on the wall and shrugged it onto her shoulders, uncaring if it was hers or not.

Picking up her car keys, she went for a drive trying to find a place to be. Sadly, she found herself unneeded anywhere. She didn't have a job; her grandfather had left her a large inheritance that she could support herself on and school was certainly not her thing.

Brooklyn didn't lack work ethic. She didn't mind working at all, actually. She had worked in various fast food industries before she'd received her inheritance.

She wasn't sure what suddenly possessed her to want a job, even if it wasn't the greatest one in the world, but she stopped at the nearest restaurant her eyes saw and asked for an application.

So with a cup of coffee and with a pen the nice waitress had given her to use, she sat at the counter filling out the form she had been given. She knew, without a doubt that Jack would disapprove but this was her decision; she needed a reason to get out of that house.

Just as she handed in her application and paid for her cup of coffee, she heard a soft, "Brooklyn?"

She turned to see a very, very familiar boy standing there, a large coat hugging him. His nose was red from the cold day outside. "Rian?" she asked.

He grinned. "Yeah. What are you doing here?"

"Oh, you know... Just getting some coffee," she stated, pulling the hat she had tossed over her hair further down on her head.

"How are you doing?"

I'm doing terrible, horribly. I'm crazy... she thought but settled with, "Good. I haven't seen you in a while."

"Yeah, I've been really busy."

Little did she know that as Jack was trying to help get some of Brooklyn's sanity back, Rian was trying to help Zack keep his.

The boy was an utter mess with the entire situation at hand. He was finally grieving his friend's death, just as she was. All the emotions he'd been repressing since that fateful night of Alex's death were now resurfacing and to see the muscular boy, one of the better composed friends, losing it was unsettling to Rian.

Brooklyn smiled softly at him. The feeling of her lips turning upward was so foreign to her that it only stayed for a couple seconds before her lips fell into the ever-present frown she was becoming known for having.

Rian smiled too, flashing his perfect teeth. "Do you want to sit down with me and have some breakfast? You must be going stir-crazy being in that house all the time..."

She studied him, wondering if having breakfast with Rian would be okay. She wasn't sure if she trusted him- any of Jack's friends for that matter.

With them around, she felt vulnerable. They all knew that she was sick, that she wasn't right, that she was crazy, and she constantly felt like she had to keep her guard up.

"I don't bite. I promise," he said with a grin.

She thought it over for a few more seconds before reluctantly nodding her head in agreement. "Okay."

He hooked his arm through hers, guiding her to a booth in the corner of the tiny restaurant. Rian slipped his coat off and set it on the leather seat beside him before looking to her. "Are you going to take your coat off?"

She shook her head, fidgeting with her hat again. "No, I'm cold."

He just nodded, the look on his face telling her that he didn't think anything of it. The simple fact that he treated her like she was average made her smile softly once again.

Something within Brooklyn clicked and allowed her to hold an easy conversation with the boy over a stack of pancakes.

For the first time in a long time, she felt like she was making a true friend as they hugged before they went to their own cars at separate ends of the parking lot.