Art Deco ▷ Ned Leeds | ✓

15 - GET USED TO THIS

"Oh! Bea is playing on Friday, you should go to her concert!" Liz said, walking down the stairs, and Brooke took a moment out of her internal fight with her father to share a look with him at Liz's tone of voice when talking about her friend.

"I mean, I don't know..." Brooke said carefully, but Liz was speaking again.

"Don't worry, it's really lowbrow, they usually just open for the other local bands, and she knows about you, so you can hang out after their show, her and her friends are really sweet, and it's pretty cool, Matty knows Flash and Sabine knows Michelle, and they're both in your grade. Trust me, it'll be fun," Liz said, grabbing a banana for the road, and Brooke knew that when Liz really fought for something, there was no use trying to fight her.

"Okay, I'll go see the concert," Brooke relented, smiling when Liz squealed and cheered, the both of them heading to the door where Flash was waiting on the other side, honking his horn to let them know he was waiting.

"Hey, pumpkin," Adrian called out, causing Brooke to stop on their steps, Liz looking back from where she was about to cross the street to Flash, watching the scene closely. The man gave his youngest daughter a small smile. "Have a good day at school."

Brooke raised her eyebrows, but smiled back, nodding. "Thanks, dad."

Her father loved his family. That was all that she could certainly say about him. She wished that it could be enough.

º º º

She was sitting with Ned during lunch, as the boy informed her that Peter was in rather hot water for shirking his work and responsibilities at school for reasons Ned couldn't expand upon, but seemed to be valid if his tone was any indication.

"He's just really focused on his Stark Internship, and I'm happy for him, really, but...you know, we never hang out anymore, I miss him," Ned explained, trailing off as he thought, his hand stilling from where he was designing the recording device for Brooke.

The boy had approached her during break with a slew of ideas, as they had been texting over the weekend about what they wanted to do about Brooke's problem, and she was more than happy to settle on a recording device, though she felt rather uncomfortable about the entire thing, especially when she thought about the consequences of getting caught.

Now it was lunch and Ned was starting to flesh out his plans, working on graph paper alongside Brooke who was working on the plans for her paintings, sitting side-by-side in the empty band room, as all the band kids went out onto the field to practice and eat during lunch.

"I'm sorry, that must really suck," she said, looking up from where she was trying to come up with phrases to write on the person she was going to paint, "But he does still hang out with you, right?"

"Yeah, totally," Ned said, nodding, "Yeah, we've been hanging out after school, though I guess that's for his internship...but it's still fun and we sit together at lunch and watch—" he paused, choking slightly as he stared at her before going back to his own work, clearing his throat.

Brooke didn't need to ask him, she knew what he meant. "It's okay, you can say it, I get you have a crush on Liz."

"Oh, I don't," he said, shaking his head wildly, "I mean, she's really great, but Peter's more into her. But he kind of stopped at one point because of his girlfriend and I don't know...what about you, who do you like?"

Brooke shrugged, glancing over to where Ned was writing notes in the margins to himself, raising her eyebrows at his drawing; for all he said he wasn't good at art, he knew how to sketch.

"I don't really know a lot of the kids in our class," she admitted, "And I don't really talk to anyone else outside of school..." The more she spoke to Ned, the more she realized she was rather lonely, and had been for some time; no wonder she sought out Liz, her sister was the only other person in her age group she had in her vicinity.