Freshman year, May of 2013

 

It's their freshman year when Miki finally invites Brooke over to her house. It’s for her birthday.

They've spent the past three years together so far, and Miki has never once asked Brooke to spend it with her. The girl was about to start taking it personally. They have spent the occasion together, sort of- Brooke's gone through the trouble every year on Miki's birthday to bring in a small convenience store cupcake for her and give it to her at lunch, to which Miki has accepted graciously every time; loving the attention being on her; but, lunch was as far as it ever went with them for that. Until now, Miki had never even asked Brooke to come over to her house- Miki always went over to Brooke’s. The fact that it was on Miki’s birthday made it even more special.

Miki was fourteen, she turned fifteen on this very Sunday.

"How time flies." Brooke swooned only two days before, on Friday, May third, standing next to Miki in front of their new high school lockers, hugging her bag filled with books close to her chest. Well, not exactly new anymore, it's May now.. meaning its been around ten months since they've had them.

"I know right! Soon we'll have gray hair and be using walking canes." Miki jokes sarcastically, shoving her books roughly inside of the metal box to switch them out for her next class. The chatter and movement of other kids bounced around them in the busy hall, Brooke gave a weak laugh. Miki continues, switching back to the topic at hand, "So you'll come?"

Brooke scoffs at the question as if it has personally offended her and shakes her black bangs from her eyes, "Of course." she reached over to push Miki at the girl's shoulder, her hand hits collarbone. "How could I ever turn down such an offer?"

Miki grinned, teeth shining, "Great!" she closes her locker and slings her bag over her shoulder. Brooke fixes her skirt, pushing herself off the lockers to stand straight and start walking with Miki. The high school had set uniforms, unlike middle and elementary school where you could dress as you please, although, the middle school is now requiring uniforms too. Miki was more fond of the boys uniform; not all that comfortable strolling around the teachers in a skirt. Brooke on the other hand loved it, she thought they were cute, they accentuated her curves. On the other hand, she made extra emphasis to let Miki know that the male uniform did in fact look good on her. Miki had thanked her, but said she wasn't really excited about losing her creative expression when it came to wearing what she wanted, Brooke had rolled her eyes.

"I'll meet up with you after class." Miki tells her, looking down into Brooke's green eyes; pausing for a second before bringing her hand up to pat Brooke's shoulder and give her a soft smile. The shorter girl gave one back. Just as Miki darted into her history class room the bell had rung- and Brooke swiftly made her way to P.E.

 

-

 

Sharing her last class with Miki AND Felix, was honestly a power decision on their principles side. Even though Felix was two years ahead of them, he failed this class every year and instead of being held back- he retook it. He also gets extra credit for doing it, which is unfair since he failed it so many times. Brooke finds herself wanting to switch classes; but its one of the only ones she shares with Miki, they also share homeroom and math. She often got exhausted listening to the two argue and bicker, constantly finding a way to make jabs at each other, even getting into brawls in the middle of class. Their teacher for this class, science, is a very laid back dude. Amazing, it would be; if he didn’t egg Felix and Miki on. If they weren't in the middle of anything important, he’ll tell them to duke it out right here. Hey, why don't we move the desks and chairs for a battle arena. Essentially.

 

Miki had left her second to last class early (she just asked to use the bathroom) to make it to Brooke's own before she came out. The bell rings as Miki is halfway there, so she picks up the pace- some eager kids already leaving their rooms before their teacher has even given them permission to do so. She goes through a door leading to outside and makes a right, then finds the gym and waits outside the door. It didn't take long; the door swings open- she’s lucky it opens internally or she would have gotten squished. A flood of kids swarm out. Miki grunts as she moves over, but keeps her eyes peeled wide for black hair.

"Oh Miki, hey." Brooke says in greeting, finding her first as she grabs Miki's arm gently, ushering them to start walking amongst the stampedes of other kids. Miki stares at the side of Brooke's head as they walk, a tug twitching at the corner of her lips.

"Howdy." Miki accentuates her words in a southern greeting as she locks their arms and clomps her feet unnaturally against the ground. Brooke laughs as she tries to keep their pace steady as they weave through students to get inside the building so they can go to science room. “I got more homework just now.” Miki grumbles, and Brooke laughs;

“Me too.” She replies, “We can do it together, later, after school.” Miki nods to her as they walk into class. They disconnect their arms and go to their seats. Brooke sits in front of Felix, and Miki sits to the left of Felix. Brooke was supposed to be next to Miki on her left, but they got in trouble for goofing off; and so, Miki switched with Felix who was in front of her- but he started messing with Brooke and she then had to switch with Miki. They don’t know why the teacher didn’t just move them across the room from each other, because now its worse with Miki and Felix next to each other. Brooke’s a little bitter that they don’t get in trouble for messing around as much.

Miki flops down onto her seat and lays the top of her body across her desk, her items being crushed between her torso and her thighs as she buries her head into her arms. Brooke sets her own books down on to her desk and lowers herself onto the seat while pressing her skirt against the back of her legs as she rests onto the chair. Other kids flood in and take their respected seats; chattering amongst themselves. Miki grunts as she quickly sits up, taking her homework from the night before out and putting it on the desk.

"This class is so boring." She whines out, mainly to Brooke, who turns around at the sound of her voice. The look on her face is confused but it almost looks as if she's asking if Miki is crazy, so Miki shoots her own questioning look back. Before they could get a clarification, Felix butted into their conversation;

"I don't make it interesting enough for you?" Felix asks, walking though the two of them and snatching Miki's paper as a sits down into his own seat and throwing his bag onto the floor next to his shoes. "Hey!" Miki yells,

"Five bucks!" She demands and slaps her desk, "And no, you don't, you’re the reason it’s sooo boring."

Felix scoffed at that with an eye roll. He fished some dollars bills out of his pocket, eyes glued on copying down the answers he's reading in front of him. He chucks the dollars bills at her, "Yeah, probably cause you're used to the environment of a zoo."

Brooke sighs and sinks low into her seat.

"And I bet you're used to the environment of a dog pound." Miki huffs, taking no time snatching the bills, picking up the ones that floated down to the ground. "You know, since no one actually wants you." Felix gives her the side eye, irritation flashing on his features with a dull frown, but quickly goes back down to scribbling as fast as he can before the teacher walks in.

"You should know all about that."

Miki turns back around in her seat to face inside her desk. She did know all about that. "But this isn't about me, this is about you." is all she says with a condescending tone and he laughs low in reply, he pauses his writing to look at the side of the girl's head. Her hair was covering her face from his view as she was putting the money he just threw at her into her bag.

"It's always about you though, Miki, isn't it?" He sneers and she turns to him quickly to shoot a glare. Miki grunts, turning back to the front of the room and sits still in her seat, picking at the skin around her thumb. She can see Brooke throw a size gaze back to her. It's silent, the noise of students murmuring around them, he had gone back to copying before Miki hummed and leaned back in her seat; once again getting him to look at her for a second.

"Your mother didn't seem to think so when I was giving it to her last night. " She cackles just as he finishes his delinquency, throwing her homework back into her face as the teacher walks in. Felix just rolls his eyes, glaring at her slightly in annoyance, then opens his mouth widely, about to say something loud, but shuts it mouth. He ends up sneering at her while muttering:

"You're a shit heel." Felix reaches over and takes her pen right off the side of her desk, she protests loudly in irritation; swiping her hands to try and grab it while demanding he gives it back to her. Felix doesn't. Brooke grunts as she keeps her eyes forward.

"Give it back." Miki says through her teeth, "Brooke got me that!" She exaggerates as if its the end of the world, picking the person in front of hers' water bottle right out of the side of their bag, which was hanging on the back of their seat, and then proceeds to hurl it at Felix. It bounces off, landing on the floor and the teacher interrupts them and asks what's going on- he of course gets ignored. The rest of the class starts getting ready to learn, putting their bags and phones away. They were used to this. Everyone was used to this. Brooke sighed.

"What the fuck?" Felix rubs his arm, glaring at her, "It's a fucking pen, you psycho! I was borrowing it anyways. Jesus fuck." He swears as he flings the pen at her roughly, and it jabs into her hand as she catches it with quick movements. She narrows her eyes in a sharp glare at him, and he glares back. Miki clicks her tongue in anger, turning to face forward.

"Are you done being children now?" The teacher questions with am amused expression from the front of the room as he pushes himself up to walk into the middle front of the class. He was leaning against the blackboard, watching the two of them, everyone turns their attention back to the two. Miki slides down in her seat and flops her hands on top her desk to play with the pen. Felix sits straight and neatens his papers like the jackass he is.

Class flows ever so gracefully after that.

 

-

 

Miki and Brooke are exchanging ideas about what they could do later in the day while standing outside of their lockers. Teenagers are exiting the school around them, pushing around each other like a swarm. Miki's back gets nudged with shoulders and backpacks sometimes, but she barely notices, her attention is fully absorbed by Brooke.

"So do your parents know I'll be coming?" Her green eyes flit to look at Miki in question, and Miki laughs shortly. "No, they don't need to know."

Brooke whines, "What? So I'm an uninvited guest? What if you get in trouble?"

Miki closes her locker, swinging her backpack over her shoulder and onto her back where it belongs. "You aren't uninvited, I invited you." She reminds her, and Brooke adjusts her own bag as they make their way to the front exit together.

"That doesn't count."

"Well, I live there." Miki says to her with a sullen face. Brooke catches up fully so she can look at Miki’s face, "So?" She asks. Miki looks over at her and clenches her teeth, turning her head back to view in front of the two of them as they exit the school through the doors. "So," She starts roughly,

"It does count."

With the emphasis behind her words, Brooke just drops it if she seems to be so sure, but something doesn't feel right, and it makes her skin prickle and stomach drop low. "Yeah, okay but what if they just send me packing?"

Miki sighs and sharply turns right once they are outside of the building. "You're too polite." Is her only bite and Brooke makes a startled noise when she stumbles to follow. The two end up at some outside lunch benches under a tree. It was almost like a little courtyard space; but not really. The tree's stand tall above them, bushy and in the prime of their bloom for spring.

May third, that's the date. May fifth, that's Saturday’s date; which is Miki's birthday. It's kind of fitting that the girl is born in the middle of spring. She's basically constantly blossoming, at least in Brooke's eyes. Miki always has energy and (sometimes) bright ideas. She's quick witted, and has good reflexes. And if you asked Brooke's nerdy side, she totally fits the picture of a Taurus! Stubborn as a bull.

"Miki." Brooke prompts, trying to get the girls attention as she sits down in front of the other girl on the other side of the bench, hands on the table top as she sighs. "How am I 'too polite?' I just don't want to barge in without permission. " She pauses;

"If anything, you're too weird."

Miki scoffs at that, "Am not." and leans her head in the palm of her hand, the other hand resting right across from Brooke's hand- who’s nails are panted pink, the work done by Miki who did them herself, and she stares out far across into the distance of the soccer field, clenching her teeth. Brooke doesn't pressure her, just sighs with an "Are too." She looks off into the direction Miki is looking. Miki seems mad, or on edge, or just irritated in general. Brooke hopes she didn’t do anything to upset the taller of the two.

Wind blows around them as the two sit like that for a while. Brooke aimlessly watches groups of humans leave the school, Miki scuffs her shoe a few times against the rough pavement. She sighs, her whole body slumping with the action which catches Brooke's attention. Miki looks on the verge of saying something till she sits up straight, her eyes not looking at Brooke anymore but behind her.

"'Sup." Echoes from behind the girl as she turns around in her seat to view Felix and his friend standing not far behind her as they start approaching, Miki easily recognizing him as Max from her math class. They're standing not far behind Brooke as they start making their way over. "Hey." Miki gives her greeting as she stands up, Brooke looks between them, feeling irritation prick her skin immediately.

"What do you want?" Miki grunts to Felix, giving a jerk of her head in greeting to Max; who does the same. He glares at her attitude, reaching to nudge her roughly before he gestures his head over to Max, who then grins and starts fishing into his pocket and pulls out money. Max brings his hand out, stepping forward to hand the thick bills to Miki. Brooke stands up and puts her bag back on, ignoring the exchange as Miki picks the money from his fingers and shoves it into the pocket of her uniform pants, a smirk adorning her features now as well.

"You know, for the other day."

Miki laughs, "Yeah I know, I didn't know this was who was getting it though."

Felix laughs as well, patting her on the shoulder when they start to move around her to leave. Miki spins on her heel to watch them with Brooke stepping over to stand by her side. Max waves back to the two of them, and Miki gives a peace sign. They've gotten ways away when Miki shouts out;

"I'm expecting gifts on Monday!"

Felix turns around and sticks his middle finger in the air to her; which makes her burst out into laughter. The manic tone puffs through her gasps of breath as she turns and grabs Brooke's hand. "Let's go! Sun's going down."

Brooke huffs. "I still want an answer." she stares at the crazy grin on the other face, focusing on how it makes her eyes crinkle slightly; shine brightly. Her attitude seems to have done a complete one eighty.

Miki continues trying to tug on her to pull her along, barely getting anywhere but relentlessly yanking. Brooke pushes at her in irritation, huffing as she tries to get Miki to let go. Miki whines, "You're hurting me." and Brooke rolls her eyes.

"Someone's gotta do it."

"That's rude!"

Miki eventually lets go, and Brooke takes a step back in precaution. "No one will see you, so it doesn't matter." Is the only answer Brooke gets as Miki starts walking off, leaving Brooke to once again stumble as she catches up. Brooke doesn't exactly know what she means by that, in retrospect it makes it sounds worse. It makes it sound like she got told no so she'll be sneaking Brooke in, and that's a very Miki thing to do... but she saw the tension in Miki's jaw and shoulders, so she knows not to push any further. She still sighs though. She tries to think back, but draws blank straws on what Miki's told her about her home life.

The two walk in silence for a long while. Brooke just lets Miki cool off, or at least move on from the subject. Miki grabs her bicep right above her elbow roughly and pulls her into the forest to the side of them. Brooke squeals at the sudden motion. "I know a short-cut." Miki blurts out, stringing Brooke along despite her questioning protests.

"I go this way all the time." Miki reassures her once they slow down and she slows to walk side by side with Brooke rather than a few steps ahead of her. Their arms and knuckles brush together with each pace of their legs but neither notice; or mind. Brooke's nerves are calmed a bit by Miki's words, and the beauty of all the nature around her. She loves plants, and there were tons here. There's a forest outback her aunt's house, and she sits in the outskirts of it when she just wants peace. She knows not to delve deep in though, because bears and deer and who knows lurks in the woods. Wouldn’t want to get mauled.

"What did you do for Felix?" Brooke questions carefully, flexing her hand open and reaching out to brush against tall grass. Miki shrugs, "Just a little task, got something his friend couldn't find and I happened to come across." She says it like it’s no big deal, “It was just a coincidence, worked out in the end for me, since I got money for it.”

Brooke hums, tilting her head up to look at the sunset shining through the little open cracks of leaves that are speckled around them, she smiles. There's outside buzzing around them in a silent manner, as sticks, dirt, and leaves crunch under the both of their shoes. Birds jump through branches on trees around them, the wind is calm inside the forest rather than how it was in the open.

"That's cool." Brooke breathes, clueless as she brings her head back down to look forward. She adds, "That was nice of you."

Miki smirks.

"Hey," Brooke asks suddenly, nudging Miki's arm for her attention as she watches a bunny startle off by the girl’s presence, "what animal do you think I'd be?"

Miki gives a contemplative face and then she snorts a laugh, "A pig." she says teasingly, reaching up to push at Brooke forehead with her two first fingers. Brooke scowls and knocks her hand away,

"So Rude!" The raven huffs, glaring as she feels slightly offended by the other’s words. Miki is just joking though.

Miki stalls, "Probably a horse." She says nonchalantly, as if she didn't just insult Brooke two seconds ago.

"You know," She continues, coughing into her fist as she looks off ahead, "because you're loving, and fierce. Gentle too, violent when you need to be."

"Aw... Miki that's sweet of you to say." Brooke swoons, grinning happily as she clutches her hands together.

Miki snorts, messing the girls hair up; "And cause of that time you kicked me off of the top bunk on our camp trip last year; that was definitely the buck of a horse."

Brooke flusters with a laugh, "I apologized for that!" Miki laughs with her, elbowing Brooke's elbow.

"Hey, do you really think monkey fits me?" Miki asks honestly, thinking back to the conversation in middle school, bringing her hand up to point at herself but ends up poking herself in the cheek. Brooke gives a smile at the clumsy behavior;

"Oh definitely, or a hyena."

Miki scoffs, huffing loudly and Brooke laughs again at her behavior. "Fine!" Miki shouts at her, shoving Brooke's shoulder as the girl continues to laugh, "You're an aye-aye then!"

Brooke stops laughing abruptly, confusion taking over her face; "What the hell is an 'aye-aye'?" She mocks, as she pulls her new smartphone, which she got for her birthday this year, out of the side of her bag to search it up; with the only bar she had. The pictures took a while to load with the slow data connection; but once they did Brooke chuckled.

"They're kinda cute though."

Miki groans, stomping while turning to walk away from her, "Of course you'd think so!"

 

-

 

"What's that?" Brooke yipped, wrapping her arm tighter around Miki's and grabbing it in a frightened grip.

Miki flinches from the hold and looks down at Brooke and then looks over at where she's looking. "What?" She asks annoyed, looking around and seeing nothing. "I don't see noth-"

"No, shut up, listen." Brooke grips tighter, "Do you hear that?" Miki clicks her tongue and scrunches her nose for a second, being still and silent to listen.

They had been walking for a while, Miki's pretty sure they took a wrong turn somewhere but she wasn't sure; all the tree's looked the same and she was so attention consumed with Brooke that she was kind of relying on instincts and reflexes, maybe some muscle memory, to get her home. It was getting dark, the sun no longer shone through the leaves. It wasn't completely dark, it was dusk, you could see; but you couldn't see fine detail of the distance anymore.

Miki doesn't hear anything at first, just distant road and city sounds; maybe some crickets already chirping in the distance. She raises her eyebrow at Brooke who just gives her a finger up in signal to wait a bit longer; the moment her finger went up was the moment she heard the noise. It was quiet, and weak. It sounded like a crying baby. Miki furrowed her eyebrows as she turned around from Brooke, hearing the noise in the opposite direction they were standing. Brooke's grip doesn't ease as Miki starts making her way, of course Brooke is in tow.

"What the fuck is that?" Miki asks, hearing a sharp hiss and a loud whine. Brooke shakes her head. "Let go and stay here, I’ll go find out." Miki lets the other know, reaching her hand up to yank at the girls tight fingers.

"Hey-"

"No, I'm going with you." Brooke says, her gaze is sharp and stern. The determination of not letting Miki go alone almost makes her heart swell, Miki just sighs, "Fine... stay close though."

Brooke walks close; nervous as her grip is tight around Miki's arm. Miki breathes in anticipation as they make their way quietly, listening for the best direction to go from the noise. Pushing past two big bushy weeds and plants, they see the culprit of the noise.

Brooke makes a sad, urgent noise and tugs Miki's arm. "Oh no." it comes out brokenly, her throat tight. "What do we do?" The sound of cars catch Miki's attention as she looks up the small hill ahead of them. Through all the bushery and overgrown weeds she sees a road with cars driving. A part of her is relieved, they will be able to see where they are. But the other part of her feels awful. This deer was most likely hit by a car and either flew off the side of the road from the impact or someone moved it and threw it over it.

It whines again, its body moving in an unnatural way; Brooke flinches back and looks away. "What do we do?" Brooke presses again, quietly and watery. Miki watches the animal writhe in the dirt a few feet ahead of them; the iron tang of blood hanging in the air. It was almost twisted; the way the flowers lay around the deer. It looked purposely set there, but it wasn't. This isn’t natural. The flowers around it were splattered in blood from the deer's wounds, roses smashed and saturated. If you stared close enough, you could see a broken rib piercing through it's side, the skin around it torn and a blood trail dripping down off the sides of it, dirt matted in it's brown fur. It’s leg was twisted, jutting the opposite way than it should be.

"I don't know." Miki admits with a shrug and licks her slightly parted lips.

 

All in all, Miki convinced Brooke it was best to leave it there. Brooke had protested, saying they couldn't just leave the poor thing to suffer; but Miki asked if Brooke wanted to put it out of its misery and the girl went quiet, so Miki took to getting back to the trail they were on before they walked off. For the first half of the walk Brooke kept her grip wound so tight Miki had to coax her out of it. Miki had brought her hand up to Brooke's and slowly rubbed the top of the others knuckles with her thumb. Miki kept her gaze forward and had felt Brooke shake against her for a while.

Brooke has too good of a heart, Miki suggests. Surely it was a graphic sight to see an animal like that, but come on. You see deer on the side of the road when driving all the time- one just like the one they saw, one that must have been hit by a car or truck and discarded to the side like trash.

"I'll never look at roses the same way again." Is what utters from Brooke's lips, when she finally loosens her grip; not letting go, but dropping her grasp to just have their arms lightly entangled. Their hips bump together as they walk. The sun might as well be completely gone, the light around them barely anything anymore. You can still make out the shapes of trees or bushes, and Miki has been staying on this one dirt road the entire time.

"Are we lost?" Brooke questions eventually as she looks around them, "I thought you said this was a short-cut. Just how far do you live?" She puts emphasis on the word 'short'. Sure, Brooke had never been over to the girls house, but Miki walks to and from school. She doesn’t know the exact distance, but she knows it isn’t this far. Miki scoffs in return,

"Shut up. We aren’t lost." They were, she didn't want to worry Brooke though. "We were earlier, but we aren't now." Its quite the opposite, actually. Brooke hums in suspicion, pretending to believe Miki; but it was obvious the two were lost, they'd of been at Miki's house by now, she is sure of it.

After a few more minutes of walking, there's an open area that is off of the side of a park. It's a small barbecue area with a bench, grill, and lamp post. Miki can see more of the park off in the distance, it also lets her know where they are. It's a relief on her shoulders as she convinces Brooke to stop and take a break. She protests, but does anyways. The two set their bags on the old frayed wooden picnic table, then set themselves on the bench seat. Brooke sat forward on it, facing the table; while Miki sat backwards, leaning her back against it.

"My feet hurt." Brooke complains, then turns to nudge Miki and scowl at her. Miki laughs, reaching out to push back at her.

"I didn't force you to come."

Brooke huffs at that, "Actually, you kind of did when you grabbed my wrist and dragged me into the woods."

Miki laughs more, "That sounds terrifying, who knows, maybe this is where I finally kill you?" It's asked with a crazy smirk and the wiggle of fingers in the air and Brooke smacks her hands down and away, "Don't be weird."

Miki leans back against the table, looking out into the distance while Brooke looks up above the two of them, "The sky is so pretty." She breathes next to her, a smile on her face showing her dimples. Miki could see them perfectly with the contrast of the lamp post light, it makes her smile too as she looks up.

"Yeah... you know what's more beautiful though?" Miki asks dreamily, she moves her gaze back to the girl sitting by her side and Brooke's too distracted by the sky to notice the question, "What is?" She asks spacey, not even looking over at Miki. Miki laughs through a puff of air as she looks down at the dirt in front of her, moving it with the toe of her shoe.

"You are." She says it quietly, sighing loudly right after to cover it up, Brooke's attention is grabbed by that as she looks over to Miki;

"I'm what?"

The girl didn’t even hear her or comprehend their conversation. Miki laughs at that as she looks away from Brooke's innocently confused face and stands up, Brooke's gaze follows. She smiles down at the sitting girl, who's looking up at her and gives her the biggest buck tooth grin she can manage;

"I think I could hang out with you for the rest of my life." Brooke's mouth parts and her eyes widen a little as her brows shoot up and pink dusts her cheeks, she's going to reply but Miki offers her hand instead- cutting off any words.

"Let's go now!" Miki says excited, her own face is flushed with her toothy smile. Brooke grabs her hand and stands up to join her, stepping over the bench seat to the outside of it. They grab their belonging and Miki takes off with a spring in her step with a sudden burst of energy. Brooke rolls her eyes and tell her to slow down.

Miki says 'never!' but does slow down if only for Brooke’s sake.

 

-

 

"This is your house?" Brooke asks, staring up at the big building with gaping eyes. She doesn't know what she's feeling. Excitement? Shock? Impressed? Intimidated...?

"Yep." Miki says, not understanding Brooke's reaction.

"It's huge."

Miki looks at Brooke, and then to her house. She hums a little, moving to start walking towards the front of the house. "Right?"

She leaves Brooke to splutter and is already pushing open her big front door before Brooke yells a 'wait for me!' and runs over, not wanting to be left behind. The house is two stories from what Brooke can see, maybe three. It's gray, with white trimming. It's even in a gated suburban community, which already shocked Brooke. This was rich people level neighborhood. This was close to maybe even famous people level neighborhood!

The two enter into a big open entry hall, Miki shuts the door behind them as Brooke goes to take her shoes off along side all the other shoes she notices on the floor by the entrance. There's noises coming from the room up ahead of them with it's yellow golden light on that's flitting down the hall between rooms, illuminating the entry they are in now.

"What are you doing? Don't do that."

Brooke halts her action of taking her shoes off and gives the other a weird look, "Why? Are these for decoration?" She asks sarcastically to all the readily apparent worn and used shoes on the floor in front of her.

"No." Miki says, "They aren't, come on." Brooke furrows her eyebrows as the two start heading up the stairs. The stairs are white stone with a dark blue and gold runner rug on it. The rug muffles the echo they would leave behind which each moving act. They make it upstairs and into another open living room area but Miki pulls her along, before she can even so much as gawk, down one of the hallways to the left. Last door on the right; It’s Miki's bedroom.

It's messy just like Brooke anticipated. There's the side of a tall and long dresser facing you the moment you open the door, so they walk into the room only a step to the right. She has a double sized bed pushed up against the wall across from the door, a window hanging above near end of the bed. There's a shelf tiered L- shaped desk with few decorations and figures on it; many cups and cans though. And papers; lots of papers. An electric guitar lays abandoned under one of the desk sides with an amp next to it. The other side of the desk has a chair pushed in with a PC that's covered by a pile of clothes on top- a jacket hanging off the chair as well. To the right there's an open door with sunlight flooding through to mix into the bedroom light. Brooke can see straight in and finds it's a bathroom.

Miki grabs Brooke's bag and lets the other take inventory and puts their belongings onto the floor next to her bed, taking a seat at the foot of the bed. She watches with a slight grin as Brooke looks at all her belongings.

"I can't believe you have your own bathroom! I mean, I do too, but its also the guest bathroom, and its not attached to my room, but you get what I mean!" Brooke moves her arms around excitedly in the air surrounding her, speaking fast enough to where she needs to take a gasp after she finishes her sentence. Miki snorts at her behavior.

"This place is so fancy. I haven’t even seen all of it yet. You much be rich." Brooke presumes, flopping down next to Miki with a content sigh, "Honestly, I never would have guessed."

"My dad owns a company and is a lawyer." Miki says like its nothing, laying her head back so she is be staring up at her ceiling of glow stars.

Brooke gapes at her, "You never told me that." She says, copying Miki's actions and laying beside her on the bed.

"What!" Brooke yells, startling Miki a little, "I've always wanted those!" she points to the plastic pieces that are glued to Miki's ceiling. Miki laughs with fond amusement,

"I'll get you some."

Miki does eventually get Brooke the glow decals she wants, as a gift. Brooke calls her mom and lets her know she’ll be staying at Miki’s house for the weekend and her mother’s reply comes back only a tiny bit hesitant- but tells the girls to have fun and wishes Miki an early happy birthday. Which Miki smiles at and gives an obnoxious thank you. After the phone call they fall asleep laying together on Miki’s bed, chatting away for some time before conking out. They had kicked their shoes off and the items fell messily to the floor, sleeping in their school clothes.

 

The next day, May fourth, they wake up and Miki scavenges around to find Brooke a spare, still unopened, toothbrush they have in one of the guest bathrooms. They play video games downstairs for most of the day, Miki’s parents nowhere to be seen yet- which Brooke finds oddly suspicious, but doesn’t think much of it since they came home late last night and woke up a little bit closer to the afternoon. They could be out shopping or at work or something.

Breakfast had already been made in the kitchen, packed away from earlier and sitting on the counter in containers. Miki had opened it and reheated it for them; bacon, eggs, and potatoes. Miki had poured a ton of sugary syrup on her food then offered some to her friend, which Brooke denied because there wasn’t any pancakes and gave Miki a weird look.

The girls played a dance game on the Wii, which Brooke was so excited to play on because she never has before. After, they played Super Mario for a couple hours. Then Miki pulled out Monopoly from the closet under the stairs, which Brooke wiped the floor with her at.

Even though they were downstairs for most of the day, Brooke hasn’t seen anyone else. The house had been oddly empty. Someone had to have made the breakfast though, and she supposes the house is big enough to just keep missing each other. When Brooke asks where Miki’s parents have been, the girl just replies with the word “Work.”

 

-

 

The nights well beyond expired when Brooke wakes up in the morning, before Miki, mind you.

The two had a lot of fun, they did each others nails; which when Miki went to go get the nail polish she treated it like some kind of criminal activity, so Brooke wonders if she stole it from her mom's room. Miki lets Brooke wear some of her clothes to bed since she asked Brooke to come the same day; the last second so Brooke was unprepared. It was just a pair of Miki's middle school pajamas, and Brooke insisted on wearing one of Miki's band tee's. The girls stayed up until sunrise, they played some web games on Miki’s computer, after Brooke cleaned off all the clothes from it and put them in a pile for her, and then they watched horror movies till they both passed out together sharing Miki's bed again. Neither thought anything of it.

Brooke stares down at Miki's sleeping face, who was drooling against the pillow that she had cuddled against her face. She smiles, suddenly wondering why no one came to check to see if Miki even came home on Friday. No one came to check on her yesterday, it doesn’t even feel like anyone else is here. They didn’t go back downstairs during the evening time, so Brooke assumes her parent’s have really long shifts. Strange they work on weekends though. Last night Miki just brought up a bag of chips and two sodas. Which was enough for the two girls, yes, but it was still a little strange.

 

Forgetting that Miki has her own bathroom that is conjoined in with her bedroom, Brooke leaves Miki's room in search for a bathroom. She enters the hallway outside of Miki’s room and starts opening doors. There’s a room filled with boxes, and then one of them is a closet filled with towels and linens. Brooke crosses the pajama lounge as she goes to the hallway that's right across from the one she was in. Once she gets ready to open the first door, it swings open itself; startling her into jumping back. Her heart nearly jumps out from her chest. The kid that opened the door yells, so loud, and Brooke can see inside that it's the bathroom she's been looking for.

"Who are you?!" The child screams, and Brooke's eyes bug wide. He can't be older than ten and Miki's never said anything about having siblings. Her heart starts racing as she starts fumbling her words.

"No-, Um." Brooke's eyes are wide as her tongue trips over itself, she stutters a few words and settles on yelling, "I LIVE here." The kid’s own eyes go even wider, giving her a look as if she's the crazy one.

"You live here?!" The kid asks accusingly, "I've lived here my whole life! I've never seen you."

He says 'you' like its a slur, his eyes are calculating and his dirty orange hair is perfectly styled on his head. He's wearing a uniform, probably a school uniform. Isn’t it Sunday? Brooke’s mind is racing with too many thoughts. The way he stares her down makes her take a few steps back, he walks out of the bathroom, giving Brooke a scrutinizing look.

"Are you a burglar?! Or are you just a freak?"

Brooke chokes on her own air, oh god what if he calls the police? She moves to start running back down the hallway, back into Miki's room. The kid yells after her, but she ignores him and slams Miki's door behind her, making eye contact with Miki who was standing in the middle of her room with her shirt off, in the middle of changing clothes. Miki yelps a little. She hears the kid boy, who started to call out for his mother, fade away as the kid probably ran down the stairs.

 

"I was wondering where you went! Why'd you go out there?" Miki questions, giving Brooke a weird look at how discombobulated she is. Brooke chokes on the air again at Miki’s shirtless form, who doesn’t seem to care. The redhead continues sliding the shirt she had in her hands on, pulling her crazy red hair from out of the neck hole. Her confused look turns into that of concern, “What happened? Why are you so out of breath?”

“I…” Brooke trails off, pushing herself off from the door and then notices the open bathroom door to her right. She mentally face palms and cringes as she realizes she didn’t have to go through all of that. “There was this kid, and he called me a burglar…” Brooke speaks quickly, pausing at the end of her sentence only to add on quietly, “and a freak.”

“Oh.” Miki puffs out air, “You probably ran into Flynn. That’s my brother.”

“You could have told me that!” Brooke whines, “That was the most terrifying experience of my life.”

Miki just laughs at her, which makes Brooke pout.

It turns out Miki has twin siblings; Flynn and Ena-Susie. Brooke laughs to herself internally, that would have been nice to know before she made herself look stupid… not to mention suspicious!

Eventually Miki’s mom knocks on the girl’s bedroom door after they're done getting dressed and are busying themselves with taking pictures together on their phones. She doesn’t wait for an answer as she opens the door right after her knock,

“I told you Flynn,” Camilla sighs as she looks down to the boy who is standing next to her and holding her hand, showing him the inside of the room, specifically the two girls sitting on Miki’s bed. “It’s just Miki’s friend. No one is robbing us.” She looks at the two girls with an unreadable expression. It makes Brooke’s mouth go dry when her green eyes land on her. This is it, this is when she gets in trouble for coming over.

“Especially not some teenage girl.” The woman scoffs, and Brooke can’t tell if that’s a joke or not so she laughs uncomfortably. “Now say happy birthday to your sister!”

Flynn glares at the two girls, looking mad for no good reason, “Happy birthday, Miki.” He mumbles quietly.

“Thanks kid.” Miki gives him a thumbs up and then Camilla ushers him down the hallway with nothing said to the two girls, closing the door but not fully shutting it behind her. The two teenagers can hear her telling him not to overreact and scare her like that again. Miki bursts out laughing, which makes Brooke start laughing.

“That was priceless.” Miki says eventually, pulling her head up from where it fell onto Brooke’s shoulder during their laugh attack. She wipes the water away from her eyes, snorting one last time. “Did you see his face? Did you see mom’s face? She looked so done.”

After a moment of silence of the two of them composing themselves, Brooke puts her hand on top of Miki’s, getting her full attention. She turns to Brooke and hums in question.

“Happy birthday.” Brooke says sincerely, Miki’s face breaks out into a grin, “Later we can go to the store and I’ll get you a cupcake like I do every year.”

The birthday girl cheers, “Fuck yeah! A cupcake.” and Brooke just shakes her head at the theatrics. Miki says a “best birthday ever” to herself in an excited manner, voice over dramatic and slightly pitched, to which Brooke laughs at and pushes her shoulder, then Miki pushes back, and the girls start play wrestling on Miki’s bed.

It was, in fact, one of her best birthdays ever.