As she lied on her back in the darkened room, staring hopelessly at the ceiling, Brooke tried and failed to remember a time when she had felt this lost and afraid. Even the well-known warmth of the soft fluffy comforter she buried herself under failed to bring her comfort.
Her mother, Jade, who had been kneeling by her side for some time now, let her tears fall freely, unable to speak. Though, if she had been able to do so, there would be no words for her to convey. Nothing she could say could make up for the pain they were both feeling. Nothing she could say could allow them to press ‘rewind’ and prevent the tragedy that had just been bestowed upon them.
Brooke gave her mother’s hand a tight squeeze, as if to say “We’ll get through this somehow.” She longed to find the right words to say to ease her mother‘s pain, but given that she herself was about to give in to the tears that had been welling up in her eyes, the task seemed an impossible one, and she allowed the silence to seep into the room. They sat in somber stillness, each wondering how this could even be possible, how the day had turned into such a nightmare.
Just eighteen minutes earlier, Brooke had been lying in the same position, smiling and laughing, as her friend Cherise filled her in on a conversation she’d had with their other friend Melissa. Brooke had been just about to tell her own story, when she heard the house phone ringing obnoxiously. She thought it was a little odd, because their house phone rarely ever rang. Anyone who wished to reach her called her cell phone, and anyone who wished to reach Jade called her cell phone. To have the house phone ringing, especially at this hour, was strange, and Brooke wondered who the caller could possibly be.
The ringing stopped, and her mother’s muffled voice came from the living room, instantly drowning out her thoughts. Shortly, she heard the receiver click and the soft pitter-patter of her mother’s feet approaching her bedroom door. She mumbled a quick goodbye to Cherise and set her phone on the nightstand, just before her mother knocked, opened the door, and let herself in, all in one motion without so much as uttering a word.
And that’s when it all happened. That’s when Brooke’s day went from incredible to unbearable. That’s when she began to feel her entire world unravel, like empty promises that were bound to be broken. That’s when she lost her faith in the fairness of the world, like an innocent child loses his faith in Santa Claus.
What her mother told her then would change everything. Her hopes, her thoughts, her dreams, and even herself. The reality of what the late night phone call had brought spilled out of Jade’s mouth in a slur of words, each one taking a small piece of Brooke’s heart down with it.
It was then, that Brooke truly lost herself. It was then, that Brooke’s soul became a shattered one.
