“Ah, home sweet home,” Brooke commented as she, Becca, Alyssa, Erin, and Katelin walked into the beach house.
“Yeah, whatever,” Katelin muttered. “Can I have my old room back or is someone already in it?”
“I’m in it,” Becca answered, almost apologetically.
“Figures,” Katelin mumbled, starting up the stairs. “Which room can I have?”
“Ang’s room is empty,” Brooke told her. Katelin nodded and disappeared up the stairs.
“Well, she hates me,” Becca pointed out, collapsing on the couch in the living room.
Brooke shrugged. “Not necessarily. She hates Nick and this whole situation. I don’t think that she expected to ever see him again. At least not this soon. You weren’t there when everything happened, Bec. The girl was so in love with him. I’ve never seen someone so completely crushed when she found out about the bet. And the fact that everyone seemed to know about it.”
“But Nick was hurt too,” Becca remarked. “It’s almost as if no one realizes that he lost something too.”
“We understand it,” Brooke replied. “But it’s his own fault. He should’ve come clean to begin with or not have made such a stupid bet in the first place. After everything that happened between the two of them, she was devastated when she found out. I mean, she lost her virginity to him. And that was a huge step for her in the first place. She told him things that she had never told anyone before. Not even Ang.”
They were interrupted by an angry voice coming from the doorway. “I’d appreciate it if you guys would stop talking about my love life, or lack thereof, behind my back.”
“I…I’m sorry Kate,” Brooke stuttered.
“Whatever,” Katelin sighed. “I’m gonna go take a walk on the beach. I’ll be back later.”
“Alright. Are you going over Bri’s later with the rest of us?” Brooke asked.
Katelin shrugged. “I don’t know. If I’m not back when you guys are ready, just go without me.”
**** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****
Howie knocked on Christine’s door, holding a bouquet of flowers. Christine threw open the door, took one look at the flowers in his hand, and burst into tears. “Chris, baby, what’s wrong?” he asked, completely not expecting that reaction. He took her in his arms and led her inside and over to the couch. “What’s the matter, baby?”
Christine wiped her eyes as she got her sobs under control. “It’s my father. He…he has cancer.”
Howie’s eyes widened. “What?” All too quickly, memories of his late sister came flooding back and his eyes began to water.
“He has lung cancer,” she answered, finally. “Well, at least we think that he does. He has a tumor in his lung pushing on his esophagus. He hasn’t had a biopsy yet. But there’s no doubt in my mind that it’s cancerous. The man has smoked for forty years now. How could it not be cancerous?”
“What does this all mean, Chris?” Howie questioned, quietly.
Christine looked up into the eyes of her fiance, her eyes bright with unshed tears. “He’s dying, Howie. His health will just start to quickly deteriorate. The doctor said, assuming that it’s cancerous, he’ll probably have about three weeks.”
Howie pulled her into his arms and rocked her as she sobbed. Once she quieted down, she pulled away. “Would you mind if we delayed the wedding? There’s not much more I can do right now. I really need to focus all of my time and energy on my father.”
“Of course, honey,” Howie nodded. “Take all of the time that you need. I’ll always wait for you.”
“Thank you,” Christine said, a very small smile playing on her lips. “Also, I’m going to Connecticut. I’m leaving tomorrow. I’m sorry it’s such short notice but I want to spend as much time as possible with him.”
“I understand,” Howie told her, although he would miss her terribly. He was leaving to go on tour in a week and he wanted to spend as much time as possible with her. But that was not what was important right now. “Just remember that I love you, Christine.”
Christine smiled. “There’s no way I would ever forget. I love you too.”
***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****
“Hey,” Becca said to Nick as she wrapped her arms around his waist. He pulled her close and looked around to see who she came with. Becca noticed and pulled away. “She’s not here, Nick.” She shook her head sadly at him and walked away.
Nick groaned inwardly and went after her. “Bec, come here…”
“Hey baby,” Brooke purred in Kevin’s ear. Kevin jumped, startled, and turned around to glare at her. Brooke eyed him questioningly. “What’s going on, Kev?You’ve been acting weird for days now. What did I do?”
“Not here, Brooke,” he growled.
“Well, then where?!” she exclaimed, impatiently. “What the hell is going on? What did I do to make you so angry with me?!”
Kevin grabbed her hand and pulled her towards the front of the house. “We’re going for a walk,” he commanded. “Come on.”
“Yo Bri! Where’s the rum?” Ang called from inside the house.
“You probably drank it all!” Brian yelled back, laughing.
“Very funny!” Everyone heard Ang yell from inside.
“Do you think Ang is a little over-excessive when it comes to alcohol?” Krista whispered, leaning over towards AJ, Becca, and Nick.
“You just think so because you haven’t been able to drink in months,” AJ answered.
“I’m serious, AJ,” Krista rolled her eyes at him. “I mean it’s fine to get drunk at a party or at a club once in a while. But Ang gets completely bombed every single time we get together like this. I mean, she had to be taken to the hospital that one time, for Christ’s sake.”
“Are you kidding?” Becca wondered. “What happened?” she asked, turning towards Nick.
He shrugged. “I don’t know. I wasn’t there.”
“You weren’t?” AJ questioned, trying to remember. “I thought we all were out together that night. Where were you?”
“I wasn’t there,” Nick answered, firmly, attempting to get AJ to drop it. He knew exactly what night they were talking about and exactly what he had done instead of joining everyone else. It was something he didn’t want brought up for his own sake and for Becca’s. She was already insecure enough about their relationship, especially with Katelin back. He didn’t want to make it any worse. He was going to do everything he could to put Katelin Taylor out of his head and out of his heart, again, for his own sake and for Becca’s.
“Where are we going?” Brooke asked as she and Kevin walked down Brian’s street. They silence was beginning to un-nerve her. Kevin hadn’t said a word since they left the house.
“A playground,” he answered, not looking at her. “It’s not too much farther.” About five minutes later, they reached the playground in Brian’s gated neighborhood. It was basically deserted, with it being close to eight o’clock at night already. Kevin lead her over to a picnic bench and they sat down.
“Now will you tell me what’s going on?” she asked, resting her hands on the table.
Kevin took a deep breath as he stared into her eyes. As mad as he was at her, he was totally in love with her and couldn’t understand why she was stealing from him. “What did you need it for?” he asked, finally.
Brooke pretended as if she didn’t know what he was talking about. “Need what for?” Inside she was freaking out. She couldn’t understand how he figured out that it was her. She knew that he would notice it was missing. Anyone would have. But she had been so careful. It could have been a mistake with the bank. So how the hell did he know that it was her?
“Damnit Brooke!” Kevin exclaimed, slamming his hands down on the table. Brooke flinched. She could see an unfamiliar look in his usually warm eyes. One of hurt, anger, and betrayal. The realization that she had caused made her immediately burst into tears, wanting nothing more than to tell him everything and have this enormous weight lifted off of her chest. Then Alex wouldn’t have anything to hold over her head anymore. If Kevin knew the truth, he couldn’t force her to give him the money.
Kevin was shocked. He expected her to deny it, lie, whatever it took to get out of it. He even expected her to turn it against him into an issue about trust. Why wouldn’t he trust her? He didn’t expect her to start sobbing. He attempted to reach out for her. To comfort her. But he stopped himself knowing that he wanted answers from her.
“I’m sorry!” Brooke cried. “I’m so sorry! I had no idea it would come down to me stealing from you.”
“Why the hell did you do it Brooke? Why would you steal money from me? What kind of trouble are you in?” He yelled.
Brooke calmed down a little bit and then took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I might as well tell you from the beginning,” she told him while Kevin listened intently. “My parents abandoned me when I was a baby. I’ve been in and out of foster homes my entire life. I could never seem to stay in a real home for more than a few months, it seems. When I was a freshman in high school, I was put with a family in Long Island. They were in their forties and didn’t have any kids, so they treated me like a princess. I mean, I was spoiled. Well, my foster father died a year later. He was in a really bad car accident. My mother was devastated. So was I. They were the only real parents I had ever known.” Brooke paused and took a deep, shaky breath, the pain of everything returning. She had vowed never to tell anyone what had happened and here she was spilling her guts. Kevin would most certainly be ashamed of her after she was finished.
“Anyway,” she continued. “It was just me and my mom for awhile. We were there for each other. And then she met Jason. Jason was perfect. He had everything. Money, power, respect, everything. My mom fell hook, line, and sinker for him. In a way, so did I. Not like in love with him or anything. But he was perfect. A perfect father. It didn’t start until at least six months after they started seeing each other. My mom would come home from dates with him with bruises. She tried to hide them, but I saw some of them anyway. They were never on her face. He was really good about that. Right before I graduated from high school, he showed up at our house one night. He was looking for my mom. She was working late and I told him that and tried to shut the door in his face but he came in anyway. He was acting funny. I don’t know if he was drunk or what. He…he started. God, I can’t even say it.” The tears poured faster and faster down her face and it dawned on Kevin what she was about to tell him. He felt his stomach turn. No matter what she had done to him, he still loved her and this was not something he wanted to hear.
“He raped me,” she whispered, squeezing her eyes shut. She willed the tears to stop but they continued sliding down her cheeks. Kevin reached out for her but she quickly recovered, wiping her eyes. “I didn’t tell my mom. I was so embarrassed. I didn’t know if she’d even believe me. I was convinced that she wouldn’t, so, right after graduation, I packed a bag and ran away. Straight to New York City. Well, when you’re eighteen years old, I guess you don’t realize that living on your own is not all it’s cracked up to be. I went from an upscale neighborhood in Long Island to a shitty slum in the city. That was when I met Alex. He told me I was beautiful. That I could be a star. Stupidly, I listened to him. Before I realized what was happening, it was too late. Alex said that becoming famous or whatever, everyone had to pay their dues. Which meant doing things that I never thought that I would have. It started just a few times a week. He’d find me a guy, I’d go, I’d make a few extra bucks, and then I’d go home. But then it just escalated. I started making so much money that I didn’t want to stop. I couldn’t stop. The more I did it, the more I was able to charge. I mean, I was getting rich businessmen, actors, whatever. Any ounce of self-respect that I had was gone.” Brooke stopped and looked at Kevin. He was staring at her with a blank expression on his face.
“Say something,” Brooke pleaded quietly. “Anything.” Kevin tried to open his mouth but nothing came out. Tears slid down her cheeks before she could stop them. “Yell, scream, tell me what a whore I am. But please don’t sit there and look at me like that.”
Kevin took a deep breath. “Then what happened?”
She looked at him, surprised. After all she had just told him, he wanted to hear more. “Okay,” Brooke said slowly. “A certain percentage of what I made went to Alex. It was his fee for putting up with me, he said. I never had to do anything else for him, if you know what I mean. I just had to give him some of what I made. I owed him money every two weeks. Well, one day I went back to Old Brookville to check up on my mom. It had been over a year since I had seen her. I went to see her but I couldn’t bring myself to face her. I felt like I had deserted her. Well, after that I made a decision. I went back to New York and kept up with what I was doing for another year. You wouldn’t believe how much money I had actually made. But I told Alex that I had made less, so I wouldn’t have to give him as much. As soon as I saved up enough money, I left. Went back to Long Island and to my mom with all of the extra money I’d made. Thank god I never told Alex my real name. He would’ve found me in no time. With the extra money my mom and I had we were able to get out of where we lived and away from Jason. We moved into New York and I nice apartment where I went to dancing school. I’ve been doing that ever since. Until I got this job and the rest is history.”
“So, then, Alex is the same Alex I met in Italy?” Kevin finally asked.
Brooke nodded. “I don’t know how he found me, Kev. Especially after all of this time. He blackmailed me. Telling me that I owed him all of this money. He charged interest on everything, making it almost thirty thousand dollars.“I didn’t know what else to do.” She began to cry again. “He told me he’d tell you everything if I didn’t get him his money.”
“And you fell for it?” Kevin suddenly yelled, angrily. “God damnit, Brooke! If you had just told me the truth in the first place, he wouldn’t have had anything to hold over your head at all!”
“I’m sorry,” Brooke whispered, tears steadily falling down her face. “I was scared. I didn’t know what else to do. I was too afraid you’d be ashamed of me.”
Kevin sat in silence as Brooke quietly cried. He wasn’t sure what to do. He was shocked, to say the least, about everything she had told him. He didn’t want to say that he was ashamed of her. But deep down inside, he felt that he was. He felt horrible but he couldn’t help it. “How much more do you owe him?” He finally asked.
“A thousand dollars,” Brooke answered, looking down.
“I’ll get you the money,” he told her. Brooke jumped up, wanting nothing more than to wrap her arms around him. Kevin held his hands up in defense. “But this, you and me, is over.” Disbelief covered Brooke’s face and she was about to protest when Kevin cut her off. “I don’t trust you anymore, Brooke. You lied to me and you stole from me. I’ll get you the money, but I don’t want anything else to do with you that isn’t completely professional.”
Brooke stood up and angrily threw the necklace that he gave her at him. “I don’t want your damn money, Kevin. That’s not why I told you any of this. And for the record, all I ever wanted was you.” She turned around and stormed away, leaving a speechless Kevin staring at her retreating back.