“But in some ways he’s already broken me. If you could’ve seen Brooke’s face…”
“Fuck,” whispers Nick, shaking his head.
“And the asshole is like, ‘Brooke I’m so sorry for what this sniveling loser has done to you…’ like he’s going to comfort her from my freaky exploitation and abuse.”
“Mother fucker,” Dani gasps. “You’ve got to fight this Nathan!”
“I will,” I say with determination. “What choice do I have? If he wins and steals B-Girl I don’t think I’ll survive it.”
“What’s Brooke say about it?” Nick asks concerned.
“I haven’t been able to talk to her yet. They must still be talking to her.”
“Talking? You mean breaking her down,” throws in Dani.
“And I’ve called her several times but her phone’s still off. Morgan’s on alert to call me as soon as she’s out of there. I just need a chance to explain everything to her.” My head falls. “I need her.”
“I know, man…I know,” Nick says. “She loves you. No matter how bad it looks right now, she’ll come around.”
“I hope you’re right,” I say, trying not to crumble inside. “I know Mojo is going to keep messing with her, and that kills me.”
“The mother fucker needs a message,” Dani announces cryptically.
Nick lights up. “What we talked about earlier?”
“Yes, yes. Let’s go see my brother after we leave here. This will be right up his alley.”
“You’re a genius,” Nick says with admiration. “The army is building as we speak. It will be epic.”
“I know,” she acknowledges. “And together we will rock this thing.”
“What are you talking about?” I ask warily. “What are you going to do?”
“Nothing you need to know,” Dani informs me.
“You guys…seriously, I don’t want you getting into trouble on my account.”
“It’s not just you, Nathan; although of course your situation has inspired us. This is for all the artists and creative people that get fucked over by the suits. This is for all of us.”
“Okay, just be careful,” I implore. “I can’t take anymore guilt right now. If you lost your jobs too, I don’t think I could handle it.”
“We are super-sleuths, we are ninjas,” she hisses. “By tomorrow…”
“Honey, realistically we’re thinking the day-after-tomorrow…”
“By the day after tomorrow,” she continues, “Mojo will see his future with the very people that make his worthless ass look good, and believe me, Nathan, it won’t be bright.”
After Nick and Dani leave I call my Dad and give him the bad news. As if it wasn’t horrible enough to tell him about Arnold stealing B-Girl, my humiliation is complete in having to describe Brooke and my conference room antics. He asks about Brooke, and I explain that I haven’t talked to her yet, that I’m not sure how she feels about me after the big reveal. With a heavy heart I finally tell him about her lack of response when I called out to her before she left the meeting.
I’m grateful he doesn’t lecture me, just remains quiet as I try to rationalize my reckless stupidity. When I’m done, he offers to call Walter on my behalf. I can sense how worried he is about me when not even a single calculation or deduction is worked into his quiet words.
Only moments after we hang up, my phone rings. I answer it so quickly I don’t even check my screen for who it is.
I hear the cries first and my heart clenches. My fingers tighten over my cell phone.
“Brooke?” I gasp.
“No…Mor…gan,” she stutters.
“Are you alright, Morgan? What’s happened?” I ask worry flooding through me. Our tough friend has cracked. This is bad.
She takes a deep ragged breath. “Everything’s fucked, isn’t it Nathan?” she asks.
“Yes,” I admit solemnly.
“Brooke’s gone,” she offers. “She left and I have a feeling she isn’t coming back.” She starts to cry again, and I feel sick with worry for her and for me.
“Where are you?” I ask. “Do you need me to come get you?” I have to get to Brooke, but I need to take care of Morgan too.
“No, I need to stay here and watch the fort for Brooke just in case. They just came and took her computer.”
“Fuck.” This is really happening.
“What did you mean, Morgan…when you said she’s gone?”
“She gave me her phone and said she was going to disappear for a while. She told me that she considered me a cherished friend. And that she was going to miss me.” She starts crying again.
Why would she give Morgan her phone before she even called me back? Did she even get my message?
“Disappear? What did she mean, ‘disappear’?”
“I’m not sure. I’ve never seen her like that. She was crying. She looked awful and scared… like she was about to walk through fire.”
“Brooke…” I whisper.
“There was something about them being able to track her with her phone.”
Oh my, God. My Brooke’s scared, really scared. I have to get to her. But in the same moment I realize that without her phone, I have no way to reach her, to find her. She’s lost to me too. “Did she tell you where she’s going?” I ask.
“No, she said I couldn’t know, but that she would contact me on my cell phone as soon as she could.”
It’s not like Brooke to be paranoid. This is freaking me out. “Do you have any idea, where she would go?”
“Not really…” Morgan sniffs, then continues, “…because from the sound of it, she won’t go somewhere obvious like her friend, Jenn’s. It sounds like she doesn’t want to be found.”
It also doesn’t sound like she’s coming to me and that realization kills me. She knows I’d do anything for her, but I’m not the one she wants right now.
Still on the phone, I stand up and grab my car keys. I’m halfway to my car before I realize that I didn’t even close my front door. I force myself to sit on my front step, realizing that I have to calm down and focus. I can’t drive in this state or I’ll be unsafe to others. I take a deep breath.
“Okay, Morgan, let me think for a minute. Let’s go back a few steps. How long was she in HR?”
“Well, over an hour,” she says calming down once she hears I’m trying to stay calm.
“And then?”
“She came back here white as a ghost and really agitated. She told me to get that head lawyer from legal, Ruiz on the phone. Then she went in her office and closed the door.”
“Okay, so she talked to the lawyer…” I prompt.
“And then after a few minutes I see her extension’s light on my phone go off. So I wait a bit, and when she doesn’t come out I knock on the door. She doesn’t answer, so I crack the door to peek in.”
“And?” I ask anxiously.
“Damn, Nathan, she was curled over her desk with her face down, sobbing…just sobbing. Oh, God. It was awful. So I let myself in, closing the door behind me. I went to her, but I wasn’t sure what to say, what to do…so I just offered her a bunch of Kleenex.”
“Did she say anything?”
“She just kept chanting, ‘it’s my fault…because of me…he’s ruined.’”
“Ruined?” I feel like I just got punched in the stomach. I know she’s talking about me.
“I’m so sorry, Nathan. What did they do to you?”
“Arnold’s stolen my comic book and taken ownership.”
“Fuck…no! I knew it was something really bad. I knew he’d get revenge somehow for Brooke falling in love with you.”
“Yes, I knew he would too. I just never dreamed it would be this.”
“Well, that would explain what she said next. She told me to tell you that she was going to do everything she could to stop it. That she couldn’t face you again until she fixed this somehow.”
“Did she say how she was going to fix it?”
“No, I couldn’t even tell if she had a plan, or if she was just rambling in despair.”
“Did she say anything else?”
There’s a long pause.
“What, Morgan?”
“Shit, Nathan, I don’t want to tell you this…”
“I need to know everything. Please.”