As much as she didn’t want to leave the only guy she’d ever truly loved behind, Jake was right. Their presence would only cause more issues if they stayed. Therefore, she reluctantly climbed into Jake’s truck when the time eventually came and he offered her a ride home.
The whole way, Brooke said nothing. She was too busy trying to make sense of what the hell just happened. But, the more she tried, the more confused she got. At which point her stomach began to feel queasy and she was ninety-nine percent positive she was going to hurl. The second Jake’s truck came to a full stop in her driveway, Brooke wasted no time in hobbling out, wobbling her half drunk ass to her bathroom where she relinquished her frustrations out on her toilet while Jake stumbled in after her on the other side of the door.
She emerged a few moments later and crossed her legs indian style next to Jake on her bed. “I should probably call my dad.” Though, she’d been dreading it. Because along with her pleas for help, came questions and a possible grounding when he realized where she was when all this took place.
After dialing Quinn’s number, Brooke put the phone to her ear and basically poured her heart out to his voicemail, pleading with him to spare Tyler, to not only save him from himself but from the legal trouble he no doubt got himself in. After all that, all Brooke could do was wait. Last she heard, Quinn was out on a business meeting and Brooke knew that was code for a date.
“Would you—” she stopped herself, to wipe the tears under her eyes with her sleeve and bite her trembling lip. It was selfish of her to even ask, knowing full well how he felt about her and how she often took advantage of it. But, right now the last thing she could handle was being left alone. Who knows what she would get up to if that happened. “It’s okay if you can’t, I’ll understand. It’s just… I don’t know when daddy will be home and I don’t like being here alone.” The silence was deafening. Her three story mansion rarely felt like a home. “Could you stay with me tonight?” She stopped crying long enough to look up at him with soft doe eyes. “I can put on a movie and we can watch it until we fall asleep like we used to.” Before society, before hormones, before jealousy, and before high school told them they couldn’t be just friends.
While Jake was driving Brooke back home, Tyler was being ushered into a jail cell by two policemen making a mockery of the whole thing. “Pretty boy like you will have a fun time in here,” One of the officers said while the other laughed. “According to his record, he must be into that. This idiot is a repeat offender. No contacts are listed for family or relatives either.” Quinn bailed him out of many stints over the years, but his name was always left off the forms due to his reputable position as the town’s beloved mayor. The McKenzies weren’t listed either; Quinn did his best to keep them out of it knowing if they caught wind of Tyler’s penchant for trouble, he’d be kicked out.
As the cell door clinked shut and the officers walked off, Tyler sat on a cot and pressed his back against the wall, wondering how he could let himself lose his cool like that. There was something really, really wrong with him and no one ever cared enough to help him figure it out. They just labeled him a bad person and a troublemaker. If anyone actually gave a shit they would make him talk to a therapist, or put him on some type of mood stabilizer. It was the stress, the loneliness, and the sacrifices he has to make. He wanted to be normal; to have a normal person’s life, but he couldn’t. He had to take care of his sick mother, who he hasn’t seen since birth, and he had to leave Brooke behind, the only person he ever cared about. Now she was heading down a dangerous path because of him.
Meanwhile, Rhys slipped into a coma at the hospital, and the doctors were waiting for him to wake up to question him. They had part of the story from social media, but they didn’t know what started the fight and Tyler wouldn’t say. He was protecting Brooke.
“Of course I’ll stay.” Jake was a manipulative liar with no impulse control, but when it came to Brooke, he respected her. She was drunk and depressed, he wasn’t going to take advantage of the situation by slipping a hand up her shirt or tempting her into a night of comfort sex — no matter how tempting that was. Instead, he slipped beneath the covers and let her lay her head on his chest, the same way they did when they were growing up as best friends, spending countless nights in their treehouse. “Everything is going to be okay. I promise.” He whispered while stroking her hair. It was a gesture that always seemed to help. Jake got it from his mother who used to soothe Brooke to sleep on the nights her parents would fight.
