He Gave My Room to Her, So I Took My Life Back novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: Brunch Is Live

Brooke walks into the family's livestreamed brunch with her own code, takes her bedroom back in front of the camera and makes them say whose house it is, then finds Tori's edited clip online and a summons from her principal.

At ten the next morning, I let myself into my own house with my own code.

The Prescotts were at the kitchen island, live on camera, eating brunch.

Tori held the phone on a little tripod.

Brent stood at the stove with a spatula.

Kendra sat on a stool in my cardigan, and Colby leaned beside her with a mug that said Real Family.

The counter was covered in pastries.

I had paid for the party the night before, and I had paid for these too.

"Brooke," Colby said, and his voice went warm for the camera. "There she is. Everybody say hi."

On the phone's screen the comments were scrolling.

Someone had typed: "Is that the girlfriend who got lost?"

Behind me, my friend from school came in with a folding hand truck and two empty suitcases.

She is the school nurse, she is five feet tall, and she had given me her spare bed for the night.

"Morning," she said to the room. "I'm just here to carry."

Colby's smile didn't move. "We can talk about last night after brunch. Not on the air."

"We're already on the air," I said.

I walked past the island and up the stairs.

Colby came after me. "Brooke. Don't do this in front of people."

"You did it in front of people," I said.

The primary bedroom smelled of someone else's perfume.

The orange cat lay on my pillow.

My sheets were folded in a trash bag by the closet.

Someone had stuffed the bag behind Kendra's gray suitcases.

I stripped the bed down to the mattress, and my eyes started to burn.

"Brooke," Kendra said from the doorway.

She had followed us up, soft-footed, with her hands pressed together.

"I'm so sorry. I told Colby it was too much."

"Did you tell him before you unpacked, or after?" I asked.

She flinched, and I felt a small, ugly satisfaction.

"Take whatever you need, honey," she said. "I'll move right now."

She picked up the cat and went out into the hall.

I sneezed three times in a row.

The nurse stood in the doorway with the hand truck. "Want me to start with the vanity?"

"The vanity and the suitcases," I said. "The suitcases go to the guest room."

Brent appeared at the top of the stairs.

He was a big man, and he took up the whole hall.

"Nobody's moving anything," he said. "You walked out on us. You don't get to come back and rearrange the house."

"Brent, I own this house."

"Colby owns this house."

"We both do," I said. "Half each. My name is on the deed, and the mortgage, and last night's bar tab."

His jaw worked.

He stepped toward the bedroom door and put a hand on the frame.

Tori had followed him up with the phone held out in front of her.

"Keep filming," I told her. "I want everyone to see this."

She hesitated, and her thumb stayed on the button.

"Brent," I said, loud enough for the phone, "you're standing in my bedroom doorway and blocking a co-owner of this house."

"If you don't move, I call the police and tell them exactly that."

Nobody on the stairs said a word.

Brent looked at Tori, and Tori looked at the phone.

Slowly he took his hand off the frame and stepped back.

The nurse wheeled Kendra's first suitcase down the hall without being asked.

I carried the second one myself.

Kendra stood in the guest room with the cat in her arms and tears in her eyes.

She didn't argue, and she didn't say one word against me.

"I just want everyone to be happy," she said.

"Then the guest room should be fine," I said.

When I came back down, Colby was standing in the middle of the kitchen, red in the face.

"You're seriously doing this," he said. "After everything my family has done for you."

"I'm going to ask you something," I said. "I've never been allowed to."

He stared at me.

"What's the address of this house?"

Nobody answered.

On the island, the phone kept filling up with comments.

"Real family doesn't need to ask," I said. "So I'm asking. Whose house is this?"

"Ours," Colby said through his teeth.

"Then I'm keeping my half," I said.

I took my coffee machine from the counter and carried it up the stairs, past the camera.

By noon the nurse had gone home, my sheets were back on the bed, and I sat on the mattress with an allergy pill and a box of tissues.

Through the open door I could hear the three Prescotts whispering in the kitchen.

My phone buzzed on the pillow.

Tori had posted the video.

She had cut it down to forty seconds.

It showed me shouting at a crying woman in a doorway and a man shut out of his own hallway.

The caption said: "Our family tried so hard to love her."

The cut hadn't kept one second of what I'd said.

Underneath, someone had written: "She sounds unstable."

Then an email came in from the principal of my middle school.

"A parent has raised a concern about a video. Please see me at 7:30 on Monday."

← Chapter 1 · All chapters · Chapter 3 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend