Chapter 3
“I always knew looking back on the tears would make me laugh, but I never knew looking back on the laughs would make me cry.” Brielle said with a teary eye, as she shoved a strand of hair from Margaret's face. Her best friend.
“ I can't believe this is it, I'm leaving the only person that brought me out of the shadows."Brielle sniffed, burying her face into Margaret's hoodie.
"Brielle, please promise me you'll never forget me or replace me." Magaret said while raising up her pinky and cleaning the tears that kept escaping from her eyes with her other hand.
Brielle raised her head, looking into her eyes, she tangled their pinkies together, signifying their bond .
" I promise!" Brielle assured her.
" Facetime each other every day?. " Margaret asked softly
"I promise!"
"Call each other every 3 times a day?"
Brielle gave a heartbreaking laugh and pulled Margaret, crushing her in a bear hug. With or without these rules, we couldn't think of forgetting each other.
“I love you, best friend”, Brielle said, backing away from Margaret to go to her mom, while she moved to her mom and turned to get in the airport. Brielle stopped when Magaret recited their motto : "whether we be far or near we only listen to our hearts. "
I love you more, best friend, " Brielle whispered but loud enough that she could hear.
"Well, California, here I come."
The skies in Belfast were the same for Sean Davis, it was as toxic as he could remember, there was nothing so fun about his vacation at all, not with the deep matters on ground.
“Fresh air in California”. Raymond commented, Sean had forgotten that he was there.
“ Still the same I guess”.
“You need to loosen up Sean”
“I'm trying to, bro”.
“Let's get you checked out”
“ Thanks buddy,” Sean said out of the blue.
“Why?”
“For always being there”.
“You are the president of NexGen Holdings, I'd do anything for you “ Raymond made it clear, living true to his words.
“Hope I live up to it”
Raymond was used to his melancholic side so he made the way through, into the crowds to find the pasture for his friend.
True to Margaret's words she never let Brielle down on the gist. The phone beeped every millisecond as she informed her best friend about the other neighbours deformed goose or the little girl that never stopped screaming in the neighbourhood. She was typical and intentional about letting her on the gist as, so intentional that Mrs Christensen got irritated at her daughter for not being observant on the road as well as knowing when they arrived at the airport that would take them to California.
Brielle didn't know what the silence at the airport meant but she loved it. She appreciated this kind of silence, it hung in the air, a different kind of atmosphere. The people there all minded their business, patiently waiting for a flight or boarding the airplane. In all of these Brielle fought the urge to pull out her gadget owing to the message icons that were streaming into her phone.
“We will check out over there” Mrs Christensen pointed over to the overlapping queue. Half raising her voice to display her displeasure over Brielle’s misgivings, she queried her daughter.
“No looking over your phone, Brielle, we must be as discreet as possible “.
“Yes mummy” Brielle answered in a disgusting manner as if her mother never gives her a break or she's always against the things that give her pleasure.
In the process of trying to coordinate their luggage to the queue, Mrs Christensen bumped into another careless airport pedestrian who was holding a cup of coffee, the coffee poured over, creating a brown irregular map on the white cowl neck Mrs Christensen had on. Flushed with embarrassment, she requested Brielle to stand over the queue at least to maintain the space till she gets rid of the stains.
Hidden in worry, she didn't know when she boycotted a tall well built blonde teenager.
“ Look Miss, are you blind?”
“I'm Gabrielle”
“I'm Sean and I don't care! Everybody gets their chances here and you are trying to take mine”. Sean basically screamed and Gabrielle just stared at him like a naive little infant.
“Oh” that was the only word her socially deficient brain could offer. She felt ashamed, feeling bad for being such a menace but she was not going to apologise to this rude boy, he could have been more forgiving. Clearly he was Sean but she didn’t care either. Moving into a new town was enough trauma on its own. But being insulted by this blonde was just something her gentle self could not live with.
Startled, Mrs Christensen ordered the young boy to find his way out.
“I am just unlucky today” Sean bellowed.
“How dare you! don't you have respect for people's privacy”
“I do, ma'am, you are in the gents.” Sean answered with a wry smile displayed across his face.
“ oh no” Brielle’s mother rushed out immediately, seeing how much she had embarrassed herself.
She was out of sight and the weird guy noticed that the stressed woman left her purse in the sinker. He battled on avoiding the purse or calling her back but when his mind battles ceased, Mrs Christensen was out of sight so, avoidance won.
********* ************.
“It's warm in California,” Christensen opined turning up the lights.
“And its toxic as well”
“What did you say?” Christensen bellowed.
“Oh nothing, I said yes it's….very warm” Brielle recollected , straightening up.
“You should try to rest, you'll get started with school next week”
“Am I….”
“Don't even go there Brielle! I won't take chances”.
Brielle beheld her mother’s stone walled face and knew she had legal backings to hold her “hostage” this time.
In between scooping the cereals for supper and checking on mashed potatoes, Christensen screamed as to why she couldn't find her backpack.
“Are you okay mommy?”.
“I cannot find my backpack”.
“Did you drop it somewhere?”
“I just told you that I cannot find it”. Brielle’s mother felt threatened.
“You could put a call across to the airport, hope that will work.”
“That's brilliant “. In a split second the digitized voice floated throughout the room reassuring that the backpack will be brought soon as Brielle went upstairs to verify the current situation of the backpack.
In the room upstairs, the doorbell rang.
“It's not even up to five minutes, “ Audrey commented. In a fit of excitement to get back her backpack containing a very important document, she swung open the door. Her eyes darted towards her visitor.
Her breath tightened, her blood congealed.
“Mommy who is that?” They arrived so early” .
“Brielle run!” Mrs Christensen cried on top of her voice.