THE GROUP OF GIRLS SAT BUNCHED around a table in the Apple Rose Grille. It was calm and the feeling of familiarity made Brooke feel slightly queasy. She hadn't even considered touching the basket of french fries in the centre of the table, tapping her fingers against the glass of coke in her hands and listening to the rattling of the ice against the rim to distract her from the impending sickness.
"Why was Jenna there?" Aria inquired, breaking the silence to discuss a topic which was upon all their minds beginning from the second the blind girl sauntered into the church. Even a year after the so-called Jenna Thing the spectacle of her and her blacked-out glasses still had the girls shaken.
"I guess she's back." Spencer huffed while she fidgetted with one of the napkins to steady her shaky hands.
Brooke could barely focus on the conversation, and she could barely take her eyes away from the empty space at the end of their old usual table at the Rosewood Grill. The space of air that was usually swirling around her blonde haired best friend—but now seemed to hold her ghost. Creating an eerie feeling around them. Like the girl was still there watching them—taunting them.
"Do you think we looked guilty?" Emily worried, her inflexion of voice making her troubled nerves all the more obvious as her fiddling with her beaded bracelet did. Although those beaded bracelets seemed to become relics that told another story about the life of Alison Dilaurentis now, they no longer felt like a gift, instead just a reminder that the blonde girl was dead.
"Why would we? We haven't done anything wrong." Aria contended and while that was true regarding Alison's death, the girls had nonetheless perpetrated some extensively illegal things—any of which they could go down for if they police found out.
"Except lie about the Jenner thing," Hannah added and Brooke instantly looked away from her sweating glass of coke and to the girls who were all looking at the blonde the same way. Brooke loathed the way that the girl had phrased it. Because on the contrary to what Alison had claimed—the Jenna thing hadn't been perpetrated by them all. It was in fact yet another scheme that Alison had lured them into.
"Technically, we didn't lie. It was Ali's idea, it was Ali's lighter and it was Ali's 'stink bomb' and we all objected to it. It should be her secret not ours." Brooke disagreed, she might have been a bitch when she was friends with the blonde, she might have done some questionable things, but she was never as bad as the beauty queen herself.
"Besides, We promised that we'd never bring up the Jenna thing again, remember?" Spencer added, sending them all a pointed stare for talking so openly about the misdoing in such an open place.
Aria furrowed her brows and looked at Spencer incredulously. "Have you found a way to forget?" Aria urged. "I still wake up sometimes in the middle of the night—" She said forcefully but her trembling voice revealed the fear behind it.
"Aria. It was an accident." Spencer whisper shouted—once again reminding herself that people were always watching and the A texts were proof of that. The mysterious sender knew all of their secrets. They needed to be as private as ever and keep a watchful eye for who might be looking. But Hannah didn't get the memo.
The blonde was nonchalantly pouring whatever was in her flask from the funeral, into the coke and ice she had ordered and it was earning her some frowns and scowls from the man sitting two tables over.
Brooke watched the confrontation between the pair, gently kicking the girl under the table. Yet even with the prompt she still didn't quite grasp the hint—only when Brooke flashed her eyes in the direction of the peering man did she put away the flask. "It's medicinal." She snapped at him, taking a sip and frowning a little at the taste.
Spencer sighed and rubbed her eyes stressfully as she watched Hanna and the man who still stared concerned at her drink. He raised his eyebrows at her but Hanna glared at him snapping, "Cramps." with a straight face. The others looked from Hannah to the man but then turned back when Emily raised another point.
"I don't get it. How does 'A' Know something about me that only Alison knew?" She asked and deep down the girls knew that they all were thinking the same thing, no matter how crazy it was. But the idea that that Allison was still alive seemed to be taunting them, laughing at them for even considering the idea.
They all knew that they some what set themselves up for what was happening—whether they knew it or not. If they hadn't committed such indecencies then A would have no ammo against them. There would be nothing to taunt them with. "Ali knew all of our secrets, but...we never knew any of hers." Aria pointed out—because of course the blonde had been smart enough to push the blame over to some one else. To cover her own tracks. To push someone else under the bus.
"I knew some." Spencer suddenly blurted and Brooke eyed her curiously. She wondered whether any of the secrets Spencer knew were the same ones she did. "So did Brooke." She added and Brooke's head shot up in surprise, no longer feeling regretful for being so open with Alison and instead angry.
"I do?" She glared, scarcely aggravated at Spencer for ratting her out like that, for not giving her the option of what she could tell the girls.
"Go on." Aria pursued when neither girl said anything for a moment—Spencer was biting her lip to stop herself from revealing anything else and Brooke had succumbed to silence—waiting for Spencer to reveal what she knew first.
"Talk," Hannah pressed as the silence continued.
"Well—" Brooke began.
"We can't." Spencer barked, quickly cutting her off before a single word could be uttered from her lips.
"Spence! No, you are not going to drop a bomb like that and then just clam up. Let her talk." Aria insisted, turning back to Brooke who was actually going to tell them something—against her better judgement.
"She'd so kill us if we told them." Spencer scowled at Brooke when she opened her mouth to talk again making the girls wonder what was so dire that they couldn't even talk about it.
"She's dead." The brunette whispered. "If you didn't want them to know them why did you call me out too?" She added and Spencer's glare wavered. For a long while she was jealous of how close Brooke and Alison had been. She didn't like not knowing everything back then. She didn't like blank spaces. And the whispers exchanged between Brooke and Allison was a space. The many arguments between the pair that she had witnessed yet never had been able to hear were blank spaces. The secrets the pair shared would forever be buried now one of them was dead.
Emily sighed and shifted awkwardly in her chair while Hannah just raised her brows and nodded in agreement. They weren't strangers to the blunt remarks that slipped from Brooke's lips. And even while she had moved out of her devil may care era—she still held the same sharpness to her tongue.
Spencer sighed and Brooke decided that was a green light to tell the girls the secrets. "Ali was seeing someone that summer." She told them, taking a sip from her Iced Coke and then stirring the straw around her glass while she let the other four contemplate what she had said. Each of their faces turning to a a different expression—none of which were good. So that was the secret she decided to go with.
"I knew she was keeping something from me." Emily huffed, before realising what she said, correcting herself. "From us."
"Well, why didn't she want us to know?" Aria asked the pair.
"He was older." Brooke shrugged. "And he had a girlfriend." She added. The girl was well aware that Alison had made some mistakes in her life—more than some—that might have even been why she was murdered. She remembered arguing with Alison night after night about the situation. But of course, the blonde only turned the argument back on her and she never spoke up about it again afterwards—which of course was Alison's ultimate decision.
"Who was it?" Emily asked.
"She never told us his name." Spencer cut in and Brooke nodded, the first thing the pair had agreed on for a while.
"That's only half a secret." Hannah wined.
"It's more than you ever got from her." Spencer snapped truthfully. Alison knew everything about the girls—almost—yet she managed to keep all her truths hidden.
"She told me a nickname." Brooke shrugged earning herself a kick from Spencer beneath the table. She didn't know why she was getting so riled up about such a small insignificant secret. But Brooke knew she knew Alison better. She knew she was more aware.
"What was it?" Aria asked hopefully.
"I can't remember." She shrugged wracking her brain for the name. Everyone was looking at her with frowns. "It was a long time ago." She defended. "I know it was something weird. I think it began with a 'B'? That's all I can remember." She told them apologetically but it was more than the others knew. It was more than anything anyone knew about anything.
"How is it Ali told us next to nothing and we told her everything?" Aria huffed.
"Because she made us feel like we were part of something special," Emily suggested.
"We were," Hannah said softly.
"I miss that." Aria sighed sadly.
"Me too," Spencer added.
"Same." Brooke huffed because although she now looked back and hated the person she used to be. The bitch. The bully. The red horned devil inside of her. She couldn't help but see the light in between the memories—granted that many of the best ones had everyone but Alison in—even if the blonde did change her in all the worst ways. She also brought to her the same people who changed her in all the best ways. If she could be thankful for anything, she could be thankful for that.
"I miss Ali." Emily sighed while she played with a beaded bracelet with her name on it. Alison had gotten them all one as a small present and she's given one to them all at the very table they were sitting at.
"I can't believe you still wear that," Hannah said just as surprised as Brooke was. She was sure that hers was buried at the bottom of an old jewellery box that was sat on her dresser, or in a junk draw with dozens of other things she wanted to keep hidden. Dozens of things she wanted to forget. She sifted through her jewellery box every day and if it was there then she did a good job of ignoring it. Acting as if it wasn't.
"Ali still wears hers." Emily said running her fingers over the beads that held it together. "Wore." She corrected.
"When Ali didn't come home that night, I knew something terrible must have happened, but there was always some part of me that imagined someday she'd just show up," Spencer admitted, too sad to look any of them in the eye.
"Yeah." Aria agreed. "I used to think that maybe she'd just run off with some guy." She added.
"She was laying on a beach somewhere." Emily sighed.
"Drinking cocktails by the pool," Brooke added with a smile, reminiscing what they wished was the truth.
"Of getting a tan in the sun with that hot lifeguard." Hannah chuckled.
"Ohh. Yeah, what was his name?" Aria asked herself and the others, trying to remember from summers before.
"Who cares," Hannah said with a smile.
"'Save me!'" Brooke mocked with an accent and they all laughed as a group for the first time in a while.
It was soon cut short when the familiar sound of a cane hitting the floor filled the restaurant and they all turned to see Jenna Marshall. Having a silent conversation with their eyes, they quickly packed up their things. Brooke and Hannah took the last sip of their drinks and Emily grabbed the last french fry before the five of them quickly and quietly walked out of the Grill and back to their homes. They all went in separate directions except for Aria and Brooke who walked together to their neighbouring houses.
"You should sleep over, tomorrow night." Aria hoped with a smile as they walked down their street. She hoped that the girl would say yes, hoping to rekindle the friendship that the pair had just over a year ago. She had always felt the closest to Brooke, always felt as if she was there for her and her family—if only she knew how true that was.
"Yeah, definitely." Brooke agreed before they both retreated into their homes. She headed straight to her bedroom, ignoring her parents calls for dinner and telling them she already ate at the grill, even though she most definitely hadn't.
✧
BROOKE ONCE AGAIN FOUND HERSELF during her free period sitting on the bleachers while she watched her brother and his teammates prepare for their next game. She was typing on her phone to a boy in her History class, desperate for some help with the answers—for obvious reasons—when someone cleared their throat from beside her. She looked up at the unknown boy who was standing over her, holding up a hand to see through the sunlight. He didn't say anything besides passing her a bright yellow sticky note and then departing just as quickly and as abruptly as he had arrived.
'Brooke Bentley, please
head to the principal office'
She looked back to ask the boy why she was wanted by Principle Hacket, only to find the space he once accompanied empty. And so with a frown she stood up from the bench, grabbing a hold of her bag and stuffing the papers scattered around her into the biggest pocket, descending from the bleachers until she reached the side of the field, using her hand to block the sun from her eyes as she searched the field for her brother.
Then she found him, stood beside the coach with his number eleven jersey. "Mase!" She shouted over to the boy, gesturing for him to meet her at the side of the pitch so she could talk to him. He came jogging over—away from his team mates—covered in sweat and with a smile on his face. "What's up?" He panted, taking off his barred helmet.
"I've been summoned by the principle, for some reason?" She sighed, showing him the sticky note between her fingertips. "But, I'm going to Arias after school, so you can go without me." She explained, briefly glancing over at said girls brother who was lingering just close enough that he could hear what the pair were saying but not so close that they could tell.
Mason smiled at his sister, he could already see the change in her. He was almost proud of himself for predicting the positive change that would come with the five friends reconnecting, but even he was surprised with how quick they had reconnected.
Of course the brotherly moment that was playing along his mind was shortly interrupted by one of his own team mates. "Hey Brooke, how'd you fancy I take you out tonight?" The voice of Jake called over the coaches whistle who was telling them all to get into formation. Mason turned from the side of the pitch to glare at the boy he called his friend, but often wondered why. The blonde ignored the boys looks and stared intently at his sister for a response.
Brooke cringed on her way off the field at his comment, turning towards him and using her hand to block the sun that was shining in her eyes she she could see where he was stood amidst the other players. "I don't." She grimaced, walking off the pitch, but not after shortly meeting eyes with Mike Montgomery who stood behind the boy in question. A bitter look on his face as he watched the exchange. The scenario almost gave her déjà vu.
✧
BROOKE WAS THE LAST TO ARRIVE IN the office, awkwardly walking through the door and individually meeting eyes with every person in the room as she silently too a seat at the end, immediately having her hand grabbed by Hannah who nervously squeezed it as they waited for the interrogation to begin.
Wilden coughed before he began, clearing his throat and turning towards the five girls who sat nervously as they waited to see why they had been called to the office so abruptly. "So let's see, you said you thought you heard her scream." Wilden reiterated what he read from Spencer's statement from a year ago, looking pointedly at the girl.
"I-I said that, yeah."
Wilden looked curiously at the girl due to the way that she said it. The look made Spencer squirm and made all the others nervously anticipate the questions they were sure to be asked soon enough. "And when you three woke up, in the barn. Alison was gone and so was Spencer." He clarified, this time turning to the other four girls.
"Yes. I woke up before them and I realised that Ali was missing, so—" Spencer began to recall.
"So you went looking for her." Wilden nodded, cutting her off as he looked down at the paper work that he was taking their statements from.
"That's what happened."
He smirked and they could all tell that he was enjoying this. He was enjoying the way he could belittle and scare five teenage girls. He enjoyed the way that they all seemed intimidated under his gaze. "I got that." He snarked. "So, what's up? Was this a slumber party or—"
"Is this an interrogation?" Brooke murmured suddenly. It was bad enough that he was looking at them as if they had done something and he knew it, but not knowing the situation that they were in only made her anxiety spike ten fold. Hanna could feel her hands shaking.
"No, just a routine follow-up" He justified smugly, quickly moving on and getting back to their so called 'follow up". Brooke nodded and glanced at Spencer who discreetly rolled her eyes at the officer. "Why did you guys fall asleep?" He then asked them, looking bitterly at them once they all shared a confused glance at the peculiar question.
"I guess we were tired." Aria snapped, angrily. She couldn't believe that they were being asked why they had fallen asleep.
"Tired? Really?" He asked as if they were lying, angering the five who knew that they were telling the truth, he just didn't believe them.
"Yes, we were tired. It happens when your body floods with melatonin that is stimulated and produced by your brain when it's dark. And the power cut out halfway through the night. I'd be happy to give you a biology lesson in the basic functions of the human body if your struggling to grasp the concept." Brooke spat, followed by a snort from Hanna and pursed lips from Spence and Aria as they tried not to smirk at the officers bewildered expression.
"Yes. Thank you, Brooke." He replied sarcastically. "Is that how you remember it, Hannah?" He asked the blonde who was picking at her pink nail polish.
"Yeah."
"Yeah. You guys were tired." He hummed.
Spencer quickly got tired of reiterating the story that they had told far too many times. "Look, we've told you everything we know, just like we did the night she went missing," She said clearly.
Wilden nodded silently, "I know. I know, and you see, the thing is, it's almost exactly what you said last year...almost like it was rehearsed." He said with narrow eyes and Brooke shifted uncomfortably under his gaze. They couldn't deter from the only story and justification they had of Alison's disappearance.
"Is that an accusation?" She scoffed.
"No, just an...observation." He said.
Aria noticed how uncomfortable they all were, how even tho Brooke was answering confidently, her face had paled and her hands shook in her lap. "As Spencer said, we've told you everything we know." Aria insisted. But he just nodded and stood up pacing as he flicked through the file he had been reading from.
"Also, I'm pretty sure if this is more than just, what did you say, a routine follow up'? You're meant to have an adult present since none of us are over the age of eighteen." Brooke added relishing in the way that the officers face dropped. "So, if that's all I'll be leaving now." She insisted, desperately, heading towards the door and quickly departing from her friends, practically running to the nearest bathroom.
✧
BROOKE'S APPETITE COMPLETELY disappeared after the so called 'routine check-up'. Her once rumbling stomach instead emitted in a gurgle as bile rose in her throat and she quickly turned from the girls and the office and to the bathroom. Only the bile in her throat never came and she was left feeling sick and sweaty on the bathroom floor as her anxiety shook her hands like a pair of maracas.
All she could think about was that night. The fashion parade in Emily's bedroom that kick started the events that followed them throughout the last year. It all started with trading tops and trinkets, and then a supposed flash of a camera caught a blonde girls eye. They narrowed as she stormed over to the window and peered out at whatever she had seen in the tree.
For a moment Brooke's eyes widened, quickly shoving the top that was half way over her chest the rest of the way down. Brooke remembered the guilt that had consumed her for so long after that night. She blamed herself more than any of the other girls had that been possible.
After all, she was sure that the camera in that tree in-fact belonged to Ian. And had the other girls known that he was a snoop with a cam corded then maybe that night wouldn't have ended the way it did. And maybe if she had been honest with them then Jenna wouldn't only ever be seen with shaded glasses.
Those plaguing thoughts were enough to let a shaky breath and a crystal tear slip from her glassy eyes. But then she had always blamed herself for it, even with the knowledge that Brooke had taken the videos from Alison in the first place. Alison had known too. And she still chose to set up the shed. She still chose to blackmail Toby into taking the blame. It wasn't entirely her fault.
✧
AFTER SCHOOL—THE REST OF WHICH Brooke had skipped and remained hidden in the toilets—herself and Aria headed back to the Montgomery household. The pair used to treasure their neighbouring houses, the sneaking into each others rooms through the windows, the covering for each other. Although, after Alison's disappearance it made for a few awkward encounters.
Brooke had always loved the Montgomery's, after being round their so often to hang out with Aria she felt rather connected to the family. She knew that Ella didn't use to be the biggest fan of her. She didn't use to be a big fan of her either. The woman was probably worried that she would lead her daughter astray, god forbid she knew about her relation to her son too. She knew that she wouldn't fall straight back into the same patterns but she hoped that Ella would see that she was no longer the same girl that she used to worry about. She sought the approval of the woman who had no matter her opinions always opened her door to Brooke.
Tonight would mark the first sleepover that the two girls had had since the year before, since Aria and her family's departure to Iceland. The two girls had decided to get takeout from the grill, Tai—the pairs favourite. "Montgomery," Aria smiled to the woman behind the counter at the restaurant, flashing her the number on the order receipt.
The pair leaned against the counter chatting as they waited for their order to be packed. "I'm starving." Brooke groaned, coincidentally at the same time as her stomach rumbled, looking over at a table near by who had their food. "What do you think that guys eating?" She asked peering towards the table.
Aria chuckled, before doing the same action. "Looks like noodles?" She hummed to which Brooke groaned again, the idea of the dinner once again making her stomach gurgle and the two girls laugh.
"So, Mr Fitz, huh?" Brooke brought the topic to light, after witnessing his obvious shock to seeing her in his class, the brunette was somewhat curious how the pair knew each other.
Immediately by the look of shock that appeared on Arias features Brooke knew that she had taken her by surprise. And it was only a lucky coincidence for the girl that Spencer had appeared at the current moment to break away from having to answer.
"Spencer!" Aria greeted the girl with a wide smile, catching the brunette off guard with her enthusiasm while Brooke snorted at the interaction and the look of shock on Spencer's face.
She looked to Brooke first who shrugged before she greeted them both, her gaze eventually landing on Aria. "I was going to email you both when I got home. How weird was that lunch?" Spencer spoke quietly, they didn't know who was lurking in the shadows anymore, who was listening to their every conversation and watching their every move.
"Email..." Brooke hummed, "That's very Hastings of you." She grinned to which Spencer rolled her eyes at the teasing, then narrowing them as she was struck by another thought.
"Speaking of, where did to run off too? I didn't see you for the rest of the day. Did Wilden call you back into his office?" She asked, a hidden panic behind her words at the chance of the man catching them off guard and getting some new information out of them. They didn't know, after all, what the others did. They might have been friends at the time but they were aware that secrets still remained hidden between them and many of which they wondered whether they linked to that night.
How had they all fallen asleep so suddenly? Where had Alison gone? Did she leave alone or did someone take her? Why had Spencer been awake before the rest of them? Did she really hear her scream? Who was Brooke Bentley texting all night?
They had so many unanswered questions that they wondered whether they would every get to the bottom of what truly happened that night. Whether they would every know all of the secrets that surrounded Alison Dilaurentis.
Brooke paused for a moment, not wanting to reiterate the heaving, panicking, emotional state she had turned into in the toilets after Wildens interrogation. "I wasn't feeling too good, so I skipped," She excused. A classic lie that neither girls believed but both brushed past anyway. "But what happened at lunch?" She asked the pair with a frown when Aria realised that she had never told her.
Spencer pulled out her phone and showed the brunette the text message.
If only she could
see how guilty
you look —A
"We got this after Jenna, basically, brought up the Jenna thing." She told the brunette who's eyes widened, immediately panic flooding her as soon as she was reminded that Jenna could spill her guts at any second that she wanted to. A reminder that story were never safe.
They fell into an awkward silence once those two words had been said. Those two looking words that could implode everything. Brooke hated awkward silences, she felt required to break it so they didn't sat lingering on it and the first thing her eyes fell on happened to be Melissa entering the restaurant with her fiancé proudly on her arm. "Is that the new fiancé?" She asked, nodding towards the couple who didn't spare Spencer a glance—Melissa didn't at least.
"Is he as uptight as Melissa?" Aria asked, taking notice of the man's boyish charm, the way that it looked like he had actually tried to impress Mr Hastings rather than acting like she supposed he usually would. He looked uncomfortable in his shirt and tie, shuffling in his seat.
"Fat chance." Brooke scoffed, not noticing that her eyes had narrowed on the older girl as she took her seat at the booth. But Spencer never had to know how much Brooke loathed her older sister.
Spencer nodded to her response, "No-ones as uptight as Melissa." She snickered, reluctantly realising that she should probably return to the drinks menu that was awaiting her response and the evening of stuck up conversation and debates over caviar and croutons. "I'd better get back." She said reluctantly plastering on phoney smile before walking back to the table.
"Bye." The two girls hummed, as she departed, turning back just in time for the woman to bring out their order, each handing over their fair share of the bill before leaving, departing with a ding from the bell on the door.
✧
THE MONTGOMERY HOUSE HADN'T changed at all, even after packing up their life into boxes and moving to Iceland and back again. It was all the same as if they had never left and it made Brooke realise just how much time had gone while they had been stuck in time, relaying the events of last year.
Sitting at the kitchen table she couldn't help but feel a knock of nostalgia, they had been here so many times before, even sitting in the same seats as they used to. A force of habit that was going to have to change at some point. They couldn't always keep leaving vacant seats for a person who was no longer in their lives. Couldn't always pick tables of six in the cafeteria when only five remained.
Even at Arias kitchen table they sat opposite each-other with the vacant seat at the end looming over them. But in the spirit of pushing past things, the two girls tried greatly to ignore it. "I saw Noel Kahn staring at you earlier today." Aria giggled taking a forkful of rice noodles from the decanter between them. "He looked pretty interested if you ask me." She grinned. Long gone we're the days that Brooke sought the attention of Noel Kahn.
Mid-bite of chicken, Brooke froze between her chews, swallowing before replying, "Brigit Woo told me he has herpes." She informed the brunette opposite her who narrowed her eyes at the rumour.
"I think Alison started that rumour." Aria then realised, adding more rice to her place while Brooke thought on it, actually recalling the memory of it happening.
Brooke hummed, "Oh yeah, it was." She nodded, scooping another mouthful of food. "Ninth grade chemistry was always fun with Mr Turpentine. I never knew someone could be greasy but bald at the same time?" She hummed in disgust, momentarily being put off by the food on her plate.
Aria rolled her eyes with a chuckle, "So, aside from the fake Herpes...do you have a thing for him?" Raising an eye brow. Brooke's was good at deflecting, also known as lying, she changed the topic so often that you would eventually forget the question you had started with. But Aria knew all her tricks and schemes.
The Bentley daughter wasn't a stranger to the smirks, crude jokes and teasing that came along with Noel Kahn's charm. She used to enjoy it, flaunting that she had the attention of what used to be the hottest guy in their year. She'd twirl her hair with a smirk, fiddling with the hem of his shirt and bat her eyelashes at him. That was before all the attention she desired became hidden behind locked doors, in the shade that the night provided, anywhere out of site so that the news of them stayed out of mind.
It was the thought of that hidden obsession that caused her cheeks to redden, giving the brunette opposite her the complete wrong idea. "Your reaction says yes." Aria hummed with a grin, standing up and grabbing two glasses from the cupboard, filling them with ice and water.
Brooke shook her head with a fond smile, enjoying that the pair could sit and chat about boys like the used to—whether the boy in question was truly worth gossiping about was most questionable. "I do not like Noel Kahn, I can promise you that." She scoffed, taking another bite of her food and a swallow of her water.
Aria falsely hummed as if she believed her "Even so, he totally likes you and I totally saw him checking you out earlier." She said with another grin causing the Bentley girl to roll her eyes. The boy had a reputation, one that Brooke no longer wanted to be associated with. She didn't want people to talk about them sneaking off at parties or to his lake house for the weekend. "Come on, I remember what you used to fancy him back in ninth grade." She giggled to which Brooke only replied that it was a long time ago. "Feelings were futile back then." She had said.
Brooke didn't realise that she should have chosen her words better until the slam of the fridge broke her away from thinking about ninth grade—but not Noel. "Oh, hey Mike. I didn't know you were home." Aria said with a smile, causing Brooke to look up from where she was stuffing her face with noodles.
The boy in question raised his eyebrows at his sister before they fell to Brooke who was smiling weakly at him. He didn't return it, sending a pang through her stomach more than she would like to admit, more than he would have hoped to cause. But then "feelings are futile" Returned to her mind and she realised that he must have heard her and assumed he was who she was referring to.
It was a mystery to her how after all this time he still had a hold of her feelings, free to do whatever he wanted with them. Break them. Snap them. Hurt them. He could do it all and she didn't know if he realised that. The expression on his face was gone to quickly back up the stairs for her to read. Leaving her to feel guilty for yet another thing she had screwed up in her life.
"Well, that was weird?" Aria laughed and the brunette hummed, still staring at the stairs that he had left up. Wishing that she could have gone after him and explained herself. Hating that she still sought his approval.
'Seems the past
isn't as buried
as you would like?'
-A
✧