Seven Years Later...
“Daddy, stop!” Brooklyn, who is now nineteen years old, yells. She and Justin saw each other for another year and a half before he went to Europe for a group he was in called *N Sync. She heard that he was back, but now he and his family lives in Florida, and she’s the only one left. Now, she and Carlos, now seven years old, backed up against the door, while her father beats her mother. She had tried to call 911, but her father ripped out the phone cord when she picked it up. “Go, Carlos, go see Mrs. Ross next door, and call the police. Tell her what happened.” Carlos looks up at his sister with tears rolling down his face, and fear in his eyes. Brooklyn opens the door. “Go, now!” She yells. As soon as Carlos is out of the door, she closes it back. She stands there a few minutes, contemplating what to do. Brooklyn runs over to her mother and father. “Daddy, no!” Brooklyn yells, pulling his arms off of her mother and fighting him as much as she could. He drops Brooklyn’s mother, and pushes Brooklyn across the room. She slams into the wall, and falls. “Oh my God.” She says, feeling behind her body. She had fallen right next to the stairs. Brooklyn runs to her parents’ room. She takes her dad’s wallet, and takes out all the money he has in there, which totals up to about 5,000 dollars. Then, she gets her mom’s purse, and takes out the 1,000 dollars she had in there. She runs to her brother’s room, and grabs his piggy bank, then runs to her room, and takes the 100 dollars that she had. She stuffs her pockets with the money, and holds the piggy bank tightly in her arms. She starts downstairs, but runs back up to her parents’ room. She grabs the car keys, and puts them in her pocket. Brooklyn runs downstairs to see her mother, motionless on the floor, and her father still hitting the lifeless body. “Oh my God.” She says. Her dad looks up at her, and starts to come after her. “No!” She yells, and runs to the door. He catches her jacket, and starts pulling her back into the house. She drops the piggy bank into the sand, and struggles out of the jacket, and runs, grabbing the piggy bank on her way next door. Her dad runs after her. “Mrs. Ross! Mrs. Ross!” Brooklyn screams, banging at the door. The woman lets her inside and locks the door behind her. “Did you call the police?”
“Yeah.” Carlos says. “Is Mom okay?” Brooklyn looks at her brother with a sad look in her eyes. Then, she kneels down.
“Mom died.” She says. His lower lip starts to quiver. She hugs Carlos. “I guess it’s just going to be you and me, kid.” Mrs. Ross comes into the room.
“What happened?” She asks.
“Our mother just died. My dad beat her to death. Are the police coming?”
“They’re on their way, Brooklyn.” She says. “They’re on their way.”
Late that night, Brooklyn wakes up from her rest on the couch. Carlos is asleep in the guestroom. The police had gotten their father, and she doesn’t know what’s going to happen to him. Nobody knew that Brooklyn was about to make the hardest decision of her life. She gets a piece of paper, and a pen. On the paper she writes:
Mrs. Ross,
~Brooklyn
She puts the paper on the counter. She and Justin had lost touch long ago, but she knew that Mrs. Ross had to have the number to Justin’s house in Florida. She looks through her personal phone book, and sure enough she finds the address and phone number to Justin’s home in Florida. She quickly copies it down and stuffs that into her pocket with the money. The police are no longer at her house. So she opens the door, and walks inside. She starts to grab her and her little brother’s things and throws them into the Explorer that her dad once drove. After she had gotten all of her belongings and Carlos’s belongings, she got what was important to her. Like things that once belonged to her mother. She took all of the photo albums, and pictures that were around the house. Brooklyn didn’t dare forget the gift that Justin made for her for Christmas.
Brooklyn looks back at the house once, and pulls her license out of her pocket, making sure she had it. She started the car up, and backs out of the driveway, starting a new life.
Two Days Later...
“Yo, Justin!” Chris calls out to his friend, who was half-asleep. They are in the studio and had just finished up their new album. The group had just overcome a very hard lawsuit, and is worn out from it.
“What, Chris?” Justin groans.
“Your mom is on the phone and she sounds very upset.” Justin jumps up and grabs the phone from Chris.
“Hello?”
“Hey, Justin.” His mother says with tears in her voice.
“Mom, what’s wrong?”
“You’re not going to believe who’s here, sweetie.”
“Who?”
“Here, you talk to him.” Justin hears his mother say. He hears the phone being switched to different people.
“Hi, Justin.” A girl’s voice comes over the phone. A girl who he didn’t recognize at all.
“Um, hi.”
“You really don’t know who this is, do you?” The girl’s voice sounds tired and sad.
“No, I don’t.”
“It’s Brooklyn.” She says, and his eyes grow wide.
“Hold on.” He says. He covers the speaker part of the phone. “Will you guys shut up? This is Brooklyn on the phone!” He yells.
“Who’s Brooklyn?” Joey asks.
“He’ll tell you later, Joe.” JC answers.
“Brooklyn?” Justin asks. “I mean, it’s really you?”
“Yeah, it is.”
“Well, what’s wrong?”
“Justin, I need your help.”
“What happened?”
“Well, I can summarize it for you, but first I want to tell you that you were right about my dad, and I should’ve listened to you instead of my father’s lies.” Brooklyn says, her voice cracking. “My mom is dead because of my father. Yesterday night, my father beat her to death. Carlos is back in Alabama with Mrs. Ross, and I am at your house right now with over 6,000 dollars in my pockets and everything that I could fit into my dad’s car.” She says.
“Um, wow.” Justin says, walking over to a corner, running a hand through his hair. “Look, I’m going to get out there as soon as I can. I’m going to hop on a plane A.S.A.P and I’ll be there sometime tonight probably. It all depends on how fast I can get a plane ticket okay?”
“Yeah.”
“Tell my mom that I’m coming home.”
“Okay, Justin.”
“Best friends for life?”
“Best friends for life.” He hangs up the phone, and puts it in his pocket.
“You guys, I gotta go home tonight.”
“Is this something about, Brooke?” JC asks.
“As a matter of fact it is. If you guys decide to come out, come sometime tomorrow. I want to go home alone for now so I can talk to her.” Justin says, putting on his jacket.
“Where are you going?”
“I’m going to the airport.” He says. “I gotta see Brooke.”
“Um, Mrs. Lynn.” Brooklyn says, walking into the kitchen of Justin’s new home. ‘I was wondering if you knew about somewhere I can stay.” She says.
“Oh, sweetie, you’re stayin’ here with us.”
“Oh, I can’t. I don’t want to intrude.” It is now that night. Jonathan is playing video games, and Steven, Justin’s other brother, is watching him. Brooklyn had taken a shower and changed clothes.
“Brooke, you’re not intruding at all sweetie. Just move all of your stuff into one of the guest rooms.”
“Are you sure?”
“Positive.”
“Okay, then.” Brooklyn says, smiling for the first time in two days.
“I can’t believe how pretty you are. Look at you!” Brooklyn has grown a couple of inches. She is now 5’7”. She cut her hair short, and she had just grown up in general. Just then, the door opens and Justin comes through the door.
“Mom?” He says.
“There’s Justin. C’mon, I’m sure he wants to see you.” Lynn says, taking Brooklyn’s hand. “I’m right here, Justin.” Justin turns around, and his blue eyes meet Brooklyn’s hazel ones. “Hey Brooke.” He says.
“Hey Justin.” She says quietly.
“Brooklyn got here yesterday night, Justin. She’s going to be staying with us for a while, and she has to go back to Alabama to get her little brother in a few days.” Justin walks over to his mom and Brooklyn, and pulls Brooklyn into a tight hug, letting his protectiveness take over once again. Brooklyn breaks down in his arms, and starts to cry again. Justin looks at his mother sadly. “I’m going to leave you two alone.” She says, and walks out. Justin brings Brooklyn over to the couch, and sits down with her.
“It was terrible, Justin.” She says into his chest. Brooklyn pulls back, and looks away from her childhood friend, who had grown up into a young man. His curly hair is now cut shorter and dyed, and his eyes were bluer than she could remember. Brooklyn sniffs. “He just kept hitting her, and hitting her, and hitting her. He wouldn’t stop.” She says, slamming her fist into the palm of her hand as she talks. She looks back at him with tears rolling down her face. “I should’ve listened to you, Justin. You said he was just going to break our family up again with all of his lies, and he did. He did, Justin!” She exclaims.
“Shh, shh.” Justin says. “You don’t want Jon and Steve to come in here. Let’s go outside.” The two get up and go outside on the patio.
“My father broke our family apart, Justin. My mom is dead, my dad is in jail, my brother and I are separated. What’s going to happen next, Justin? Tell me?!?” Brooklyn yells with a crazed look in her eyes. “Sometimes, Justin, I sit back and think if my life is worth living anymore.”
“Don’t say that, Brooke. You’re a wonderful person.”
“How would you know that, Justin? You walked out of my life! You were not there when I needed you the most!”
“I didn’t walk out of your life. I never have and I never will!”
“See, I think I’m starting to lose all the sanity that I’ve got left to hold on to. I’m turning away my best friend. I’ve turned away everyone.” Brooklyn says, looking away again. Justin can’t remember the last time he’d seen her like this. He’s talked to Brooklyn within the period of seven years, and she sounded fine, but he knew that she could easily cover up how she was really feeling. He didn’t know what to do.
“I’m so sorry.” Justin says pulling her into a hug again.
“I should’ve listened to you.” Brooklyn says, and she starts repeating it over and over and over. Justin starts to pull away from Brooklyn, but she clutches onto him tighter. “Don’t...don’t leave me again.” She says, and begins to quietly whisper that over and over again. Justin picks her up and sits down on the patio swing. He didn’t have to worry about fans seeing him because it was too late, and too dark. He rocks the swing back and forth. A few minutes later, he looks down at Brooklyn. Her eyes were closed and her breathing had deepened. Justin brings her back into the house, and takes her upstairs into the guestroom. He takes off her shoes, and puts her down under the comforter. Right before he turns out the light, he turns and looks back at the sleeping girl.
“This is not how I remember her at all.” He thinks, and walks out.
“Daddy, stop!” Brooklyn yells, pulling her father’s arms off of her mother. She starts punching him as hard as she could. The man looks at Brooklyn, and drops the woman. He shoves Brooklyn into the wall, causing her to collapse. All of a sudden the walls and the rest of the house disappear. Brooklyn opens her eyes, and sees the figures of her mother and her father. They are drifting further and further away. She tries to yell for her mother, but nothing comes out. The figures disappear, and Carlos walks up to her.
“Where’s Mommy?” He asks, and disappears. Brooklyn stands up, and looks around. She sees the shape of a boy far off in the black space. As she walks closer towards him, color starts to appear on him, and she realizes that it’s the young Justin. He turns around.
“Brooklyn, what’s wrong?” He asks, and disappears. Brooklyn turns around, and looks around.
“Brooklyn...” A voice whispers from behind her. She turns around, but no one is there. “Brooklyn...” The voice whispers again. She turns, and is faced with her father, holding her mother’s limp body...
“Oh my God!” Brooklyn exclaims, and she sits up. She looks out of the window. It is light outside. “I have to get out of here.” She says, and jumps out of the bed. Brooklyn is literally shaking. With a shaking hand she opens door, and screams.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa. Chill out, Brooklyn.” Justin says, placing his hands on her shoulders, keeping her stable. “I was just coming up to check on you.”
“Oh my gosh, I’m so glad it’s you.” Brooklyn says, breathing deeply.
“Bad dream?” Justin asks.
“Yeah. Look, tell your mom that I say thanks for letting me stay here, but I have to go get Carlos, and we’re going to stay in a hotel- -”
“Brooklyn, you aren’t going anywhere. You and Carlos are staying right here, and you aren’t going anywhere until all this is sorted out.”
“But- -” Justin smiles. He smiles in a way that actually scares her.
“You aren’t going anywhere.”
“Why are you doing this?”
“Because I’m not letting you leave again. Last time you left you got hurt.”
“Justin, I’m not going back to my father! You’re treating me like I’m you’re daughter! Sorry to break it to you, pal, but I’m the same age as you are. You’re being way overprotective. Who are you to tell me when I can leave?”
“Brooklyn, Brooklyn, Brooklyn. Mrs. Ross called this morning, and told my mom everything- -”
“Are you about to give me an ultimatum? You haven’t been here, and I haven’t seen you for about seven years, and you’re trying to control my life? Listen to yourself, Justin! You sound really evil right now.”
“Brooklyn, you can’t leave this house. Do you want the police to take you and your brother?”
“Justin, the police can’t do anything with me. I’m legal, and I can take care of myself and my brother, and I don’t care if you’re some big time superstar now. To me, you’re just a regular person and you have no effect on me. And don’t you tell me what to do because I’m not going anywhere.” Brooklyn pushes her way out of the door. Justin watches her walk downstairs and smiles to himself.
“Like I said, you aren’t going anywhere.”
“See, this is what I was planning on doing. If you don’t mind, well, as Justin puts it you don’t, but anyway, I was going to bring my stuff up out of the car, and pack it into the guestroom. By the way, you don’t mind if Carlos and I use two guest rooms, right?” Brooklyn asks, as she sits at the dining room table with Justin’s mom.
“No, not at all. We’ll still have two left.”
“Okay, and as soon as I get our stuff settled into the rooms, I was going to go back and get him. So, could you get Justin to help me unload the car?”
“Yeah, sure. I’ll go get him now.” Lynn says, and gets up. “I’m glad you’re feeling better now, sweetie.” She says, and leaves the room.
“You think you brought enough stuff?” Justin asks, carrying a pile of clothing into the guestroom, and dropping it onto the bed.
“Yeah, I got everything, and a little bit more.” Brooklyn answers. She pulls a scarf out of the pile of clothes, and looks at it lovingly. Justin watches her.
“You really miss her, don’t you?” Brooklyn drops the scarf, and looks at Justin.
“I can’t believe she’s gone.” She says. “I’ve been having nightmares for the past three days because of it. It’s all my fault.”
“It’s not your fault at all.”
“It is, Justin. My mother always tried to take up for me. Something my father never did. The night...the night he killed Mom was over something that I wanted, but he wouldn’t allow it. My mom tried to talk some reason with him, but he turned around and slapped her. Then, he wouldn’t stop, and you know the rest.” Justin sighs heavily, and falls back onto the pile of clothes.
“It’s still not your fault. Your father made the choice, and he dug his own grave. You can’t bring this down on yourself because you’re going to sink deeper and deeper into your pit of depression until finally...boom, you’re gone.”
“Wow, since when did you become the shrink?” Brooklyn asks.
“Since I’ve been hanging out with Chris.” Justin sits up. “We still have to get the rest of the stuff out of the car. Let’s go.”
Four guys approach Justin’s doorstep, and ring the doorbell. “Hey, what’s up, y’all?” Justin asks, giving his friends a pat on the bat as they walk through the door. JC stops in front of Justin.
“Is she okay?”
“She’s...coming along, I guess.” JC and Brooklyn had also been friends once before. Of course, they weren’t as close as she and Justin were. JC is the one who had taught her how to surf, though. “She’s upstairs in the first guestroom if you wanna talk to her.” Justin says. JC smiles, and walks inside. He says hello to Justin’s mom, and then goes upstairs. He knocks on the door.
“Come in!” Brooklyn shouts, thinking it’s Justin. JC walks into the room. Brooklyn is folding up her clothes, and putting them into drawers.
“Hey Brooklyn.” He says, leaving the door open. She looks up.
“Oh my gosh, hey JC!” She exclaims, and hugs him. She backs up, and tucks a piece of hair behind her ear. “How’s it goin’?” She asks.
“I’m doing great. What about you?”
“I’m okay, but not so great.”
“Yeah, I heard about what happened. I’m really sorry.”
“You guys need to quit apologizing because you didn’t do anything at all.” Brooklyn says.
“Sorry.”
“It’s a reflex, huh?” JC looks at her strangely. “Nevermind. So, did Justin call you down here to give me one of your ‘talks’?”
“No, the guys and I flew down here because Justin basically took off yesterday after talking to you.”
“All this for me? Wow, I feel loved.”
“How long are you going to be here?”
“Um, I don’t know. Maybe a long time, but I won’t be here half of the day tomorrow. Justin is supposed to be coming with me to Alabama to pick up Carlos.”
“You left him in Alabama?” Brooklyn starts to pick up clothes on the floor.
“I panicked, and I didn’t want him to be with me until I found somewhere for us. Then, I have to start looking for jobs down here. Yeah, I’m probably gonna stay in Florida. It’s actually pretty nice down here, but I have to start saving up for a place for Carlos and I alone. I just don’t feel right using someone else’s home right now. I wasn’t even invited. But I’m just going on and on and- - Hi! You can come on in.” Brooklyn says to the other guys. They walk into the room.
“Brooke, I want you to meet Chris, Lance, and Joey.”
“Hey, I’m Brooklyn. What’s up?” She says, and shakes each one of the guys’ hands. Justin and JC switch looks. “While y’all are just standin’ around, why don’t you help me out, huh? This room is gonna get pretty cramped.” Brooklyn says. She’s acting like nothing is wrong at all when she knows that deep down inside, everything is.