BrookLyn's Journey Read Online Free

he forcefully pushed the off button , wishing she had a regular, non-cordless phone so she could slam it down instead .
    She snapped out of her little world and noticed Gabriella rummaging through her neatly filled dresser drawers. She laid a pair of Victoria Secret shorts and a matching t-shirt on the bed. BrookLyn assumed they were for her .
    Gabriella began undressing as she nodd ed toward the clothes on the bed. “Th ose are for you,” she said .
    “Thank you . ” BrookLyn smiled , feeling uncomfortabl e, trying not to stare at Gabriella’s perfect body while she undressed and put on her black gym shorts. The only girls she had seen naked before were her sisters. In gym they didn’t have to wear uniforms so they didn’t have to change for class. BrookLyn forced her eyes away.
    Gabriella was taller than BrookLyn and she played sports , so her body was firm and her arms were muscular but feminine. Looking at her gave BrookLyn a warm feeling that she didn’t understand.
    As she turned away , she caught a glimpse of a tattoo written in cursive on the right side of Gabriella’s back , causing her to look closer . It said The one I will love forever , and it had a blank ribbon wrapped around a heart —there was no name . I s she waiting to add one ?
    BrookLyn put the phone on the bed and grabbed the clothes . She quickly went into the bathroom to change , forcing her self to stop staring at Gabriella . She was becoming more and more nervous about spending the night out , and about spending the night here .
    She barely knew Gabriella , yet she kept feeling something deep within her each time they were close . She hadn’t ever noticed it in church , but tonight something was different.
    BrookLyn dressed and folded her own clothes into a neat pile . She laid them on the toilet and looked at her self in the mirror. “Breathe,” she reminded herself , but her thumping heart chose to ignore her desire to relax . She took a few more deep breaths, grabbed her clothes and went back into Gabriella’s bedroom.
    “You okay? ” asked Gabriella. “ You look a little pale . ”
    “I’m just stressed that I couldn’t get in. Th ere’s going to be trouble.”
    “Even though you left a message?” How could Gabriella understand? No one outside of their family knew Brook L yn’s father like they did.
    “My father will erupt . ” BrookLyn didn’t know how else to put it. When her father got angry, it just spilled over onto everyone else, but mostly her, now that she was the last one left at home.
    “Maybe not,” Gabby said softly.
    She shook her head. “You don’t know my father . ” BrookLyn had already determined that she ’d be grounded until graduation , even if they listened to her message.
    Her parents blame d their strictness on their own upbringing in the West Indies. They thought that American kids have it too easy. Her parents told her many stories about what was done to them as kids. They were made to stand in the corner facing the wall for hours, or forced to kneel down on grains of rice until they were told to get up. Although her life wasn’t great , at least, she supposed, it was better than they had it .
    “Do you want to watch TV?”
    “Sure,” she said. “ I can’t fall a sleep. ”
    “We can watch videos.”
    “I don’t get to watch them at home. My dad says the rappers have no respect for women calling them the B-word all the time. He hates the way the girls dress in the videos and the rappers with their boxers hanging out, showing off big cars, drugs, and money . ” BrookLyn’s father never let her do anything. If it were up to him she would be a little kid forever stuck in his house. That wasn’t her plan.
    “Parents think they know all , but they don’t. ”
    “Mine think they know everything , for sure.”
    “ Although ... I must agree, those women in this video are almost naked . ” Gabriella giggled and point ed to the half - dressed girls shaking their butts in the