Chasing Ghosts | Natasha Romanoff

Chapter 120: But daddy, I love her

The air slowly escaped from her lungs. Brooklyn had to be avoiding the topic on purpose, right? ''No, just thinking about who people will be going as.'' She wasn't, but she needed to distract Brooklyn from poking, and it worked like a charm.

''Oh, I got some information for you then!'' The blonde enthusiastically tapped on her phone, scrolling up in a chat. Maya relaxed, ready to receive the gossip as Brooklyn turned her body more towards her. But when she opened her mouth, a loud gasp came out instead. ''Oh, my god.''

''What?'' Maya frowned, attempting to throw a glance at her phone.

''Oh, my god.'' Brooklyn started to frantically type. It could be a good or bad kind of shock, it was hard to tell. Maya was on edge.

''What?''

''Aaron and Stacey went together.'' She said it like someone's car burned down, or like some celebrity accidentally posted nude pictures of themselves, but Maya's head remained embarrassingly empty.

"Is that shocking?" She asked carefully, shrinking when Brooklyn looked up at her.

"They broke up last month."

"Did they?"

A laugh sounded in the car. Brooklyn always thought Maya's obliviousness to gossip was cute. When it came to knowing people, and knowing who was dating who, she knew next to nothing. It just didn't matter to her. She didn't care. But Brooklyn was in the middle of it all, so she often rambled to Maya about people she didn't know.

Apparently, Aaron and Stacey had history. Brooklyn did not shut up about their story the rest of the drive, until Maya found a spot for her Mustang close enough to the party.

~~~~

Brooklyn promised Maya that she was only a little tipsy. Granted, she did get very hyper sometimes when the atmosphere was electric, but she moved around so chaotically that with her tight hold on Maya's arm, they both nearly tumbled to the ground.

More than half an hour ago, she decided to call it a night, collecting Maya from the corner she'd sat herself down in. But making their way out of the full house took extremely long because Brooklyn knew everyone, and everyone knew her. Every step they set, another person drew her in for an enthusiastic, drunken goodbye, which would never end if she didn't make it end. Which she didn't often do because the drama or gossip was so good.

Having a popular girlfriend was fun, but Maya's social battery was empty. It had been six hours of conversation with people she barely knew, loud music pounding in her head, and inhaling the smell of alcohol and cigarettes. On top of that, it was Halloween, so some jackasses with Ghostface masks kept trying to scare everyone. She was constantly on edge and jumped when somebody screamed.

But the more parties Brooklyn dragged her to, the more she crept out of her shell and started to enjoy them. This one in particular, she minded less than the others. Seeing everyone's costume was fun, and the vibes around Halloween were good overall. But Brooklyn had to hurry up now or she was leaving her here.

''Lyn.'' Maya lightly tugged on her arm to grab her attention. Some girl whose name she forgot had been keeping her girlfriend hostage for the past ten minutes with juicy gossip about someone else whose face she'd forgotten. ''We gotta go. I already texted your dad we were on our way.''

Brooklyn sobered up. ''Right. Let's go.''

Finally, finally, she said goodbye to her friend. Maya forced her towards the front door, not letting her stop another time despite the temptations. It was freezing outside, but she ignored it and kept pushing her girlfriend away from the booming music and the joy of friends, and towards her baby blue car, parked right underneath a streetlight.