Fractured

Chapter 21

However though, this time when I walked into the house, the first thing I noticed wasn't how amazing and overly done his house was.  It was the little girl sitting on the couch this time.  And she didn't look happy.

Brooke;s face held scowling eyes and lips.  Her blue eyes were on the floor in anger and her lips were pursed tightly.  I understood why though.  She was wearing a stocking hat that only lets the  ends of her bright blonde hair to be seen on her shoulders and cascading down from there.  She was wearing a matching pink puffy jacket meant for the cold winter outside and not where she was sitting on the couch pouting.  With bright pink ski pants and little black snow boots over her small feet, gloves on her hands from where she was crossing her arms,  I couldn't help but smile at the cute sight.  It also narrowed down what we were doing quite a bit.

Upon me entering, her eyes lifted to mine and showed excitement.  She smiled up at me but remembered she was mad so she continued to pout, which made me try to stifle my laugh at the sight.  Poor kid though.  All dressed up and ready to go and stuck sweating inside still because nobody else apparently was ready to go quite yet.  And yeah, I figured we were going somewhere if she was dressed to the max to face the cold outside.

"Hello Brooke," I smiled, kicking off my boots but leaving on my coat, figuring we would be leaving soon, wherever it is we are going.

She gave an over dramatic sigh before answering me.  "Hi Albany...."

"What's wrong?" I asked as I sat next to her on the couch.  Mike stood across from us, smirking down at his granddaughter.

"I'm the only one that is ready!  Nobody else is ready so I'm just sitting here and sweating because I'm so hot!"

I looked up to Mike for explanation and he squinted his eyes down to her.  "Brooke, remember what I said, doll?"

"Yes..." she groaned, scowling again.  "It's only daddy's fault and nobody else's... he needs to hurry his butt up," she said in outrage, making Mike and I chuckle. I was about to question them over what this was.  After all, I still didn't know!  But a couple minutes later Francis walked in the room , finally ready I guess, and when his eyes reached mine through his thick frames, they lit up in more excitement at seeing I was here.  I noticed he was wearing something similar to Mike - just comfy and warm clothes. 

"Hey, Albany," he smiled.  "Ready to have some fun?" He crossed his arms as he stood in front of us on the couch, giving me a genuine smile that I could only admire. 

"Yeah.  And I'm guessing it has something to do with us freezing outside?"

"You bet!" he said, looking down to his angry daughter on the couch beside me.  Taking a few steps over to her, he knelt down on the floor in front of us and faced her pouting little face.  "Brooke...?"

"What?" she mumbled. 

"I don't know why you are so upset here... it's Albany that was holding us up because it took so long for her to get here," he said, not breaking that serious face as he spoke with her, completely serious. "So now we can go," he smiled.

Brooke looked hopeful where as I was tempted to smack the back of her fathers head.  "Really?"

"Yep," he said, standing up and heading towards the door with his dad to grab their coats.  I still had one question.

"Does anyone want to tell me what the hell we are doing?"

***

"I will kill you if I die," I threatened the overly excited father at my side.  Brooke beside him didn't seem to have an issue, surprisingly.  It wasn't like I was scared folks so get that dumb thought out of your head.  But it was my first time doing this and that fact alone was dangerous.  The fact that we were doing it over a pond and not at an actual ice arena didn't help my chances.