FATE

17. Twenty-One Questions

BROOKE

"Hey", Blake says as he walks out of the apartment.

I tighten my crossed arms and frown at him, "I've been standing here for close to half an hour"

"I'm sorry", he says, forcing a grin, "I overslept and I had to rush, you know"

"You look tired", I can tell by the look in his eyes and the growing beard on his face that he hasn't been taking good care of himself.

"That's because I am. The new job is taking quite the toll on me". We begin to walk towards the elevator.

"Yeah, I can see that. We don't even hang out any more like we used to before we moved here", we get into the elevator. It closes and begins to move down.

He flings the tie in his hand around his neck and begins to knot it skillfully. He's gotten better and I don't have to do it for him anymore. I hardly see him anymore which makes me miss how life was before the move to Boston, move.

But I think I understand better why the move as necessary now. We had to.

We needed to.

"I know Brooke", he turns to me and his eyes soften. "I'm so sorry"

"It's fine"

We walk out of the elevator and then out of the building. There is silence between us and we get closer to the car. Blake walks quickly towards the driver's side and opens the car. We get in, slamming the doors closed.

He starts the car, pulling out of the driveway. "Okay, how about this?"

"What?", I ask.

"I'm free on Saturday so if you want, we can go see a movie or something"

"Really?!", My voice is filled with excitement.

"Yeah. I don't really know where we can go do that here but I'm sure we'll find a place", he looks ahead thoughtfully.

"I'll ask my friends from school", I beam.

"Good", he turns to smile at me.

I hope Saturday's movie time really gives us enough time to bond again.

***

"There's a really good place in Brookline Avenue. You and your brother could go there and I could tag along too. He's really cute"

"Shut up Mandy", Carmen says and Mandy shoots her a glare which makes me chuckle.

"Thanks Mandy but I just want to bond with my brother again. I feel like we've lost the connection we had before the move"; I say before sighing heavily.

"Don't think too much about its Brooke. I'm sure he's just really busy working and he misses you as much as you miss him", Mandy says as she holds my shoulder lovingly.

"And just look up some good places and know what movies they have. That's why you have the internet", Carmen says and I nod.

We walk towards the class we're having math in. The bell rang a couple of minutes ago but there's a lot of noise coming from the classroom.

"What the hell?", Carmen exclaims as we walk into the rowdy class.

"Where's the teacher?", I ask rhetorically.

"He called in sick! -", a blonde boy who hears me says, "and there's no substitute!", He yells, throwing his arms in the air and the class cheers in response.

"I can't stay here", Carmen says as the blonde boy sits on his desk and talks loudly to his buddies.

"Me neither. We could just go start early at the library. We were supposed to go after math anyway", Mandy says.