"Sometimes bad things happen to good people." -B.M.
Brooke Massey is a senior portrayed by Imogen Poots.
✣Biography✣ tw: eating disorder and abuse
Beautiful. If there was one thing Brooke had always been, it was physically attractive. When she was a child she was ‘cute,’ as tween she was ‘pretty,’ and by the time she hit high school the adjectives used to describe her were so ‘flattering’ that they went around the bend into vulgar territory. It was something Brooke was bred for, beauty, as her parents had only settled down in Northwood to have children after two fulfilling modeling careers. There were more portraits of her parents around the house than there were family photos — it probably should have been a red flag, just like the fact that her parents didn’t sleep in the same bed, or like the time she spotted her mom kiss a woman that was supposedly her ‘friend’ in a supposedly ‘friendly’ way. It wasn’t until high school that her parents sat Brooke down and explained it to her. They loved each other, but more like best friends than life partners, and they’d made an arrangement when they’d modeled together in the city: procreate together, then act as each others’ beards. Their terms were, of course, gentler than that, but they shook Brooke harder than the harshest of terms could. Not only was hit with the fact that her parents were gay, but that they’d never loved each other the way they’d always insisted they had. If they’d lied about love and put on such a show, did that mean that all ‘happy couples’ did the same? Instead of letting the information jade her, Brooke searched for something to contradict the conclusion she’d reached. More specifically, someone.
They found each other quickly. He was a football player who’d been benched all season for a violent ‘misunderstanding,’ she was a clumsy cheerleader who was always banished to cheer in the stands. More often that not, that bench and those stands were one in the same, the two making idle chatter to pass the time over their bitterness. It wasn’t long before he suggested they ditch altogether, the two using the games as an excuse to be alone without their parents asking questions, but ultimately both kicked off their respective teams for their absences. Then getting called into the office for their absences in school. Brooke was too caught up in the relationship to realize it, but she hadn’t really spoken to her friends or family in weeks — even her meals monopolized by the older boy. He told he he loved her, he told her he wanted to be with her forever, he told her he wanted to runaway together. And when she said she didn’t want to, he informed her that he was the best she was ever going to get, because she was only smart, charming, and even beautiful enough to please him. He brainwashed her into thinking nobody else would want her and, when his words didn’t work, he let her know by force.
When Brooke’s little sister caught sight of her bruises after barging in on Brooke changing — as little siblings have the habit of doing — Brooke begged her not to tell, lying and saying she’d fallen down the stairs. Kenna somehow managed to keep it under wraps, leaving her older sister a victim to the abuse until the boy graduated (a total span of approximately a year) and broke her heart by backing down on his word about running away. She knew she should be relieved, but his voice was always there, reminding her how supposedly undesirable she was to all the other boys. Telling her to wear this, do that, stay thin. Stay thin. Stay thin. Not even her parents noticed she was withering away until she had a breakdown after school one day thinking someone had followed her home. Realizing what had been eating at their daughter, her parents sent her away for the last semester of her senior year, to the rehab center her mother had spent time in when she’d struggled with her own eating disorder. After months of care, she’s returned to Northwood to repeat/finish her senior year and reclaim her position as NWHS’ beauty queen. It’s all she can do to cross her fingers that everyone buys her story of ‘a semester abroad.’
At her lowest points, Brooke would find herself in the upstairs bathroom — as far as humanly possible from the lunchroom — with a finger down her throat. This was also, coincidentally, the location of choice for Ellis Markin to have her early afternoon smoke. The first time they both ended up there on the same day, Brooke figured Ellis would be revolted and leave the bathroom the minute she heard gagging noises. But instead the girl only put in headphones and, from then on, the two shared the bathroom during lunch hour — nothing passed between them but understanding.
Kenna Massey, little sister: Although her mess of a relationship turned Brooke into a shell of what she once was, one thing hasn’t changed, and that’s her relationship with her sister. They’d always had each others’ backs, Brooke having taught her sister what little she’d mastered of cheerleading and Kenna — much to Brooke’s shame — becoming a shoulder for Brooke to cry on.
Simon Clarke, rebound: She didn’t know it until she met him, but a foreigner is exactly what Brooke thinks she needs to get over her past fiasco of a relationship. She thinks it almost lucky, in a twisted way, that Ellis went missing and gave her the opportunity to take him on as her own exchange student.
Freya White, mentee: An arrangement set up by the school guidance counselor to be ‘therapeutic,’ Brooke’s been assigned as Freya’s ‘big sister’ for the year to help the freshman navigate high school whilst coming to terms with her mother’s death. But the truth is they do more skipping than schooling and, in all honesty, Freya’s old soul often proves wise beyond Brooke’s years, to the point where she isn’t sure who the true mentor is here.
Michael Merlot, dealer: Considering drugs were never part of the issue that landed Brooke in rehab, she’s used the loophole to cope with the habits that still threaten to resurface through means of smoking. Modeling after Ellis, she tried pot once or twice, but found that cigarettes were more her style. She didn’t want to leave this Earth, she just wanted to chill. She just as wary of Michael as she is of most guys from Northwood, but she figures a few simple business deals can’t hurt.
Ana Ivanov, acquaintance: Someone she befriended, to an extent, in rehab, Brooke was under the impression that they were both aware it was never a friendship built to last. From the few, bitter glances she’s received from Ana in the hallways, she has a feeling this wasn’t the complete understanding on both ends. Now, each day, she gets more and more anxious over the fact that someone knows her secret besides her secret — and that person isn’t on her side.
Brooke’s theme song is Skinny Love by Bon Iver and she is taken.
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