Page 26 of What If We Break?
Dad nodded. “I know.”
“You know?” It shouldn’t have surprised me, yet it did.
“Brooke, if you’re not with Reece, you’re hanging around Emory and me all day, every day. For you to spend your entire day in your room is odd, and him not staying over the night before your birthday was even more concerning,” he said, then took a sip from his drink. “Also, Reece called that day to tell me.”
“He did?!” Why would he do that? “We agreed not to tell anyone because?—”
“Because you’re afraid it’s going to ruin Colin and my friendship, I know, Brookie.” He cocked his head at me, eyebrows raised in a judgy-dad way.
“It’s scary,” I whispered to myself, but he heard it. “What if one day Reece and Ireallybreak up and… and it’s not on good terms? Dad, I know you’ll always side with me, and Colin would stand with Reece. There’s no way that wouldn’t cause some sort of feud between the two of you.”
“Brooke,” he sighed, his features softening. “That’s not something for you to worry about, okay? And you and Reece aren’t going to break up, you know that.”
“We might. We already did once.” I sure hoped it wouldn’t happen again, though.
“For fourteen hours.”
“We’re constantly fighting.”
“Because you care,” he argued back.
“No, because of stupid things.” I tried to get up, but when Dad noticed that I was having a hard time, he was quick to stand beside me, holding me up. “He gets mad at me for not terminating my skating contract with Erik all the time.”
Dad sighed, but it wasn’t the kind of sigh I expected. It sounded more like he was upset withme, not my boyfriend.
“What?” I asked.
“Can you really blame him, Brooke?” he asked in return. “You believe Erik purposefully dropped you, and he does it at least once a week. You’re complaining about your skating partner more than you’re saying good things about him. Of course Reece wants you to end the partnership with someone who’s actively harming you.”
“I guess…”
11
BROOKLYN
“So, what do you think I should do?” I asked, ending my ramble about how much I hated attending Juilliard.
Grey and Luan both took a deep breath, probably glad I finally stopped talking, though Grey should’ve been used to someone talking his ears off without giving him a chance to speak.
Grey was my dad’s best friend, and growing up, I used to spend a lot of time with him when Dad and Emory had places to be where I couldn’t go. I had the option to stay with Colin or Aaron as well, but Grey was my first choice, always.
He might’ve been my father’s age and best friend since college, but I was pretty sure Grey wasmybest friend more than he was my dad’s.
“Do you want something to drink?” Grey asked instead of answering my question. He got off the sofa, making his way over to their open kitchen. “You have the choice between water and… well, water. If I let you touch Luan’s apple juice, we’re both dead.”
Luan snickered, but nodded nonetheless. “I’ll make an exception for you.”
“I don’t want a drink. I want to know what to do!” Iturned to Luan, hoping for a more straightforward answer. I didn’t get one.
“Fine. It was a one-time offer, though.” Luan shrugged.
Grey poured himself a glass of water and then returned to the living room. Despite fearing neither of them was going to actually give me some advice, I kept on hoping for it.
In theory, I knew it was my decision to make. I knew I had to figure out whether or not I wanted to transfer to a different college, stick out the last two years, or quit altogether. Reece would’ve helped me talk through it, but part of me feared he would’ve just advertised St. Trewery to me instead of thinking rationally. I was going to talk to him anyway, of course, but I needed someone else’s opinion first, someone who was a bit older than Reece and me, a bit wiser.
When Grey finally opened his mouth to speak, he was cut off by his daughter running into the living room. “DADS!”
They both turned their attention to Sage almost immediately. My problem wasn’t half as important as their daughter, so I guess I was going to have to wait and keep on hoping for some advice in a few minutes.
