Stuck Between My Arch Enemy and My Best Friend

Stuck Between My Arch Enemy and My Best Friend - Chapter Three: Home Sweet Home

With such a charming father like hers, there are really only two logical options. Either Brook uses him as a an excuse, blames her father for giving up on her so completely, takes up drugs, and literally throws her life down the drain. Or, she learns from him, identifies whats wrong in the world, and chooses to never ever make the same choices he did and still does.

Which is very much what she consciously chose to do.

Of course, her mum wasn't much better, in the scheme of things. Her mum used her husbands foul behaviour as a get out of jail card, and once out, she never came back. In the process, she completely abandoned her only daughter.

She was twelve when she realise that hating both your parents was kind of pathetic, despite how horrible they had been. She decided on liking her mum, cause clearly she had a brain: after all, she did ditch her dad. And that was an undoubtably smart move...

But it leaved her with a problem that she had been unable to fix. She was living in a life of luxury, in the most amazing place, attending a fantastic school, with cool friends, and an unbelievable best friend, and yet she had no family. Nothing at all. She was always alone. There was no Mum or Dad. She never saw her mother, only received an odd call at random intervals throughout the year, and her Dad refuses to be referred to as that: it was Father, or Sir.

Although the loneliness, the lack of connection with her own family, occasionally catches up with Brook, she never allows herself to dwell on it too much. Instead, she pushes forward, goes on a slight shopping spree, buys a new wardrobe, avoids her empty house for a few days, and then slides right back into her normal routine.

Just as she had pushed all thoughts of her family right to the very back of her mind, she heard the faint echo of a door opening and closing: the familiar sound of someone entering her house. Very surprised to have someone joining her this evening, she bounced down the hallway to greet them.

"Father?" She called out as she approached. Despite the fact that the two of them didn't get along, what so ever, she was still happy to have someone else home for a change. The happiness, however, seeped away the moment she entered the foyer, and saw the man standing before her. With his pressed suit, and slicked back hair, he was the perfect representation of a well paid sleazy man. And he was the family Lawyer.

She refers to him as Sir Lawyer. Apparently, he does have a name, but for as long as she has known him, he has spoken down to Brook, implying that she was just a little girl who needed to learn her place. As a reasonable young lady, she responded by calling him Sir Lawyer; which in her mind was the perfect blend of respect and sarcasm. He only really pops into her life when her family was in a crisis; which of course, meant she had definitely gotten use to his condescending nature of the years.

"Mam," he said gruffly as he noticed her hovering on the edges of the room. She was as equally confused by his formality, as she was of him actually accepting her existence. Brook watched him fumble a little with the folders in his hands, unsure of what more to do.

"Not to be rude, Sir, but what exactly are you doing in my house?" He looked unsure on how to answer that, and fumbled around some more with those folders. Then Sir Lawyer straitened his shoulders and face Brook directly.

"I'm sorry to tell you this..." Brook's throat caught slightly, and her heart began to pound. It wasn't what the words he had chosen to say to start off the conversation, but how he said it. He literally sounded very sorry. The thought worried her tremendously.

"Ummmm.. Sir? Whatever the problem is, maybe you should wait till my dad gets home..."

"Well... That's the problem... Do you remember, all those years ago, when your father started to gamble?"

"Yes. I remember," said, with a little frustration in her voice, "If you insist on telling a tale, instead of starting at the very beginning of my life story, I am okay for you to just start at the truth. We can move forward from there."

He took a deep breath.

"Brooklyn. Your father won't be coming back here. He has gambled away ever single cent to his name. He has been placed in Rehab, and will remain there for the foreseeable future."

Brook stood there, staring at the lawyer, and did the only thing logical to her. She laughed.

"You're kidding right?"

"Not even a little bit. Brooklyn, he gambled away this house. Everything you own, or have known... It is all about to be taken away."

Her gut slowly fell, almost until it was scraping the floor. Sir Lawyer was not lying to her. He walked over to where she stood, frozen in mortification, and said three simple words to her. It was those three words that would repeat in her head for months...

"It's all over..."