Chapter 6- Truth be told
Brooke hopped up and went to the door to find a curly haired man on the other side. Her eyes widened and his breath caught.
"Bro-"
That was all he got out before the door was promptly slammed in his face.
"Brooke!"
"What?"
"Can you please open the door?!" he rested his head against the door.
"Why should I?"
"Because I want to talk to you."
"Oh and you didn't want to talk to me before? What the hell is that?!"
Silence finally sounded on the other side of the door and she breathed a sigh of relief as she turned to leave, happy that he finally left her alone.
"I'm sorry," he muttered and she froze.
"What?"
"I said I was sorry Brooke," he said louder.
"For what?" she crossed her arms.
"…Can you just open the door?" he begged as he knocked on the door.
"Give me a good reason to."
"Because you're my daughter and I want to see you," he said getting frustrated.
"Yeah well in case you haven't noticed you're a little late for all that," she snapped.
"So you're not going to open the door and talk to me?"
"Wow, you catch on quick don't you?"
"Fine. This was just a waste of time," he muttered.
"You're a waste of time," she muttered back as she walked back upstairs.
"I can not believe him!"
Adam poked his head out of the kitchen to see Brooke fly through the door and sit down moodily at the kitchen table.
"Who are we talking about?"
"Him! That guy…apparently my real father. Fucking bullshit," she cursed.
"Umm…" he looked a little embarrassed.
"What?" she looked at him.
"Well…."
"Brooke! Hi, I didn't expect to see you here," Matt said as he entered the room.
"Hi Mr. McGuire," she smiled at him.
"Call me Matt. How are you holding up?"
She shrugged. "Well, I just found out that my boyfriend was my cousin and apparently you're my uncle. Sooo I'm doing as well as can be expected I guess."
"I'm sorry that I didn't tell you, either one of you. I felt it wasn't my place, if your mother wanted to tell you, she would. When we moved here we had no idea that we were living down the street from you, that was just like…a bonus."
"Well I'd be lying if I said I wasn't mad," she said simply.
"I know and I understand that. But are you welcome here anytime Brooke. Technically we're family so…"
"Yeah…"
"That's just kind of weird Dad," Adam spoke up.
"Have you talked to Gordo yet?"
"Who?"
"Gordo. Your father?"
She snorted. "Why should I? He didn't want me then, he doesn't get me now."
"You don't know the whole story here Brooke…"
She just shrugged it off as though she didn't care as he walked into the room with two bowls.
"Hey Matt-"
"What?!" she stood up suddenly.
"Hi," he said softly as he stopped short when he saw her there.
She crossed her arms and glared at him, not speaking a word.
"Come on Brooke, you need to give him a chance," Matt said quietly.
"I don't need to do anything."
"I'm not a bad guy Brooke. I was very young when you were born and your mother had just…died. I couldn't handle a little girl!"
"You could have tried," she whispered.
Gordo hung his head and a glitter caught his eye. "Where did you get that?" he asked gesturing to the ring that adorned Brooke's hand.
"What?" she asked as she covered her hand.
"That ring. Where did you get it?"
"My cousin gave it to me for my birthday, so what?" she asked.
"Umm…by cousin, she doesn't mean me!" Adam put his two cents in.
"Shut up," she called back to him and he grinned.
"…I gave that ring…to Lizzie. Well I was going to. Until…well…" he trailed off and looked at the table.
"Ok and? I'm sure that there were other rings made like this," she rolled her eyes.
"It was really expensive. I doubt that your cousin paid nine grand for a ring for your birthday."
"What are you getting at?" she asked coldly.
"What's your cousin do for a job?" he asked instead.
"Matt!! Can you call off this psycho? If you're inferring my cousin is a thief I suggest you shut your mouth," she turned to her uncle.
"Gordo, what's up?"
He sighed. "I was going to give that to your sister as an engagement ring before she drowned and I left it after the funeral."
"Wait you left this ring at a cemetery and thought no one would pick it up? You are delusional, you know that right?" she snorted.
"What's your cousin do for a job Brooke?" he asked quietly.
She shook her head, blonde locks flying. "I'm not gonna stay here just so my family can be questioned. We're good people so you can go screw yourself. Gordo," she threw that name in there as a needle to prick him.
"Brooke," Adam started as she started to walk out the door.
She cut a glance at him and he motioned upstairs to his room and she sighed and followed him.
"You really don't like him at all do you?" he asked thoughtfully as he closed the door.
"Should I?"
He shrugged. "Well it's up to you really. I might cut him a little more slack. This isn't easy for him either."
"He just thinks that he's going to waltz into my life, introduce himself as my father after seventeen years and think I'll be ok with it? That's a joke."
He just looked at her for a minute and then shook his head.
"What?"
"Nothing. It's just…really hard for me to be your cousin that's all."
She gazed at him. "I know what you mean," she said quietly as she sat down on his bed.
"I mean it's just so weird you know? This time a week and a half ago we were making out!"
"Well there's always that saying about kissing cousins," she teased.
"Oh yeah because THAT'S completely normal."
He shrugged. "We could just be different and shock people."
"Shock people. Yes," she laughed.
"Guys?" a knock sounded at the door as Matt opened it. "What's going on?"
"Nothing…"
"Brooke…we need to talk," he said after a pause.
The two teenagers looked at each other hesitantly and she got up and left the room with the older man.
"What's up?"
"I feel like I should tell you about your parents."
"My parents as in your sister and Gordo?" she raised her eyebrow.
"Yes. They knew each other back in elementary school and their other friend was Miranda-"
"Wait the Miranda that comes around here a lot?"
"The same person, she's something like a sister to me now. But they all knew each other from when they were very young and all through middle school Gordo had a huge crush on Lizzie. She was completely oblivious of course, and then high school came. Things started to spiral out of control for my sister and it…just was not pretty. She got big into drinking and partying all the sudden and kind of left Gordo out in the yard to clean up after her. I'm not sure when it happened but they got together at some point and she became pregnant with you and it did not sit well with her. She got very depressed as random people started to call her names and she was very lonely. Miranda kind of dropped out of sight after they had a fight and although she had Gordo…he was all she had. Oh…well I guess she had Kate too. But one day shortly before her due date Gordo went to their house to propose to her. What he found was…my sister…" he trailed off, getting choked up.
"You don't talk about Lizzie that much do you?" she asked gently.
He shook his head. "We weren't that close when we were younger but we got progressively closer until that happened. I know that you know that she drowned. But it's not the whole truth. What Gordo found that day was Lizzie in the bathtub. I walked in about three minutes later…"
"Wait. She was in the bathtub? Did she…drown herself?"
Matt nodded without saying a word.
"My biological mother…killed herself? When she was pregnant with me?" she asked softly.
Another wordless nod.
"And Gordo just…didn't want me or what?"
Matt sighed. "Well he named you Brooke because that was Lizzie's middle name and he wanted you to always have that part of her. He was only nineteen when all this happened and he was very scared. He didn't know the first thing about taking care of a child, especially when it was his with my sister and she wasn't there to help him. He could barely talk about you."
"Ok…"
"You do look a lot like her though. Especially after you died your hair blonde."
"So that's why Gordo freaked out when he first saw me. Me and Adam went to his music store and I asked him a question and he looked at me like he was seeing a ghost or something. I just thought he was a freak or something," she laughed a little bit.
"You took all of us by surprise, I will say that. The first I talked to Gordo in about three years was the day I met you and he told me to fuck myself. You were always a present thought…at least in my head, but I never thought I'd meet you. None of us did."
"Adam didn't know about me either."
"We didn't tell him because we thought he didn't need to know. Gordo gave you up for adoption, do you know how rare it is to find those kids?"
She shook her head. "This is just…unreal for me," she said softly. "I mean, what do I do now?"
Matt just smiled sadly at her. "That's up to you Brooke. You can do whatever you want. I love you and I'd love to have a relationship with you as would Melena and Miranda. As for you and Gordo…that's up to you. I personally think you should give him a chance. He's an ok guy and he's just as lost and confused as you are right now."
She sighed but said nothing for a second. "I'm not calling him Dad. I already have one of those."
Matt got quiet for a minute. He never expected her to warm up to Gordo instantly, much less refer to him as Dad but he realized that she had a dad…and a mother. And it wasn't the ones that she should have.
"But you, you can be my uncle," she said smiling at him.
He brought his eyes up to hers to see her smiling softly at him and wrapped his arms around his niece in a hug and didn't let go for a while.