Brooklyn Noelle Brankovich

Chapter Three: "That's what I call a family vacation"

I didn't talk to my parents all morning. It was too early anyway and they had way too much energy.

"Can you at least pretend to be happy? This is a family vacation and you're apart of that family," Mother scolded me, "not a lot of people have the privilege of going on these vacations, Lynn."

"Well, why don't you adopt one of them? I'm sure they'd be honored and privileged, then. Excuse me-"

Before I could rush past her, she grabbed my arm and squeezed. She lowered the volume of her voice to make a threat. "You're going to enjoy yourself on this cruise, Brooklyn. Not for me, but for your father. He needs this."

I inhaled deeply and clenched my jaw. Finally, I mustered up the courage to take my arm back and walk ahead of my uppity parents.

"What's gotten into her?" I heard Dad ask.

"It's the breakup," Mom lied to him.

Dad went "oh" and felt bad. "Lynn, there's other guys out there. You're an adult now, I'm sure you'll find someone on this cruise even," he told me, thinking that would cheer me up.

I looked at Mom to make a point, recalling the fact that I said that last night. She cut her brown eyes from me and grumbled angrily.

"I'm not trying to fall in love and I don't need y'all to play matchmaker," I snapped.

"Y'all? Oh my," Mother gasped at my Southern slang. She acts like she's too good to not always use proper English when it's not even her first language.

Dad told her to cut me some slack just before the captain approached us.

"Mr and Mrs.Brankovich, what a pleasure," he kissed up to my parents.

My mother shook his hand firmly. "The pleasure is ours, Captain."

"Nice ship, I'm sure we'll be making this our annual vacation from now on. I'm relaxed, already," Dad made conversation. He pulled me in and grinned in the man's face.

I wasn't too fond of that idea but I kept my mouth shut and turned up the music that played through my AirPod pros.

Mother let Captain Honer in on the fact that she had some expensive items she'd hate to have misplaced. So, the captain offered to put them in a safe.

"The code is 3448," he told us all in confidence. Just as he said it, two guys bumped into me.

"Oh, shit, sorry," the one with dark hair said to me.

I looked up at him with an angry face but it quickly turned into a smile when he wet his lips and apologized again before walking off with his blonde friend.

"Neanderthals," my mother spat, "you don't think they heard, do you, Michael?"

"I'm not sure, Dana, but it'll be fine. Come on, let's go find our rooms. Captain," Dad said.

My father was raised in America, but of two German parents. His mother a teacher and his father was a pediatrician.

There was a hold up on the main deck or whatever you call it. We had to stand in a line.

In front of me, there was a girl. She looked impatient with all her bags.

All of a sudden, the girl's bag ripped and her things spilled about. She seemed pissed, which is understandable, and scattered to gather her belongings.

I looked down and thought to help. It was the least I could do, I noticed her bags were cheap anyway.

"Here," I said kindly. We both stood slowly, engaging in eye contact. I furrowed my brows when I noticed she looked mad with me.

"Thanks," she roared, snatching the contents from my hands.

"Woah, I'm just trying to help," I said, throwing my arms up.

"I didn't ask for your help," she grumbled back and whipped her neck to turn away from me. What a bitch, I thought as I backed off.

At long last, we arrived to a room.

I waited for them to give me the key to my own.

Dad opened one door and Mom followed him inside.

Confused, I reluctantly trailed behind them and asked where my room was.

They were too busy holding each other in their arms to acknowledge me.

"Hello?!"

Mom groaned and glared at me.

"What's wrong, honey," asked my father who pulled me in for a side hug.

"Where's my room?" I tried to ask sweetly and batted my eyelashes.

"This is our room, we're sharing."

"Oh, Hell no!" I objected, concerning my parents by my language for the second time.

"Excuse me?!" Mother badgered, having taken offense.

"You're excused," I said quickly to her and then addressed my father, "I'm grown, you said it earlier. I can't share a room with my parents for a week!" My foot even stomped like a brat and I felt tears coming on.

"Lynn, it's not the end of the world. You can endure it for a week, it'll be fine."

"This is Hell," I sobbed.

I looked around, trying to find another bed. It was only one queen bed in the center of the room.

"Where am I even supposed to sleep? Don't tell me we're sharing that? My crib was bigger than this," I complained.

Dad looked around, confused, too. Then, he got it. He pulled a latch and a bed came down.

My face went straight and I exited the room saying "fuck that."

"-You mean to tell me there's nothing you can do," I yelled at the customer service lady. When her head shook, I scoffed and continued, "nothing? And no other rooms are available? Check again."

"Excuse me, Princess, but some of us have real problems to deal with here," the boy from before said behind me. I looked over my shoulder at him and his friend and rolled my eyes.

"Listen, lady, there's obviously been a mistake. I'm with the Brankovich family, surely there's no way we got put in such a... low class suite," I talked.

She checked the system again and kindly assured me that's the room my parents chose to pay for.

"This can't be happening," I mumbled under my breath.

I slowly turned, rubbing my temples.

The tall, tan man with shoulder length brown wavy hair caught my attention.

"What?!" I snapped at him for staring at me.

"I was just gonna say if you need somewhere to sleep, I don't mind sharing a bed-" I cut him off and his friend laughed.

"Piss off," I barked and stomped back to my room.

***

I actually decided not to go back to the room yet so I could avoid my parents as much as possible. Shit, if we were going to share a whole room we'd be together enough.

On my tour of the ship, I walked past a gift shop. I backtracked and entered, getting an idea.

"Welcome," the cashier said to me as they dealt with another customer.

"Hi," I beamed back, taking the AirPods out of my ears.

"Can I help you with something," she asked once she sent the other people out.

I declined and she smiled, walking away. Two seconds later, though, I called the thin girl back for assistance.

"Actually," I said, "where are your suitcases, like luggage? Do you sell those?"

She nodded and gladly showed me in the right direction.

I exited the shop with a feeling of satisfaction and pride.

Maybe I caught that girl in a bad mood, I thought. When I see her and give her this, she'll thank me. Hopefully I can find a friend to distract me from my parents.

Growing bored, I went to where I heard music coming from. People gathered around and joined in on the festivities. It was nice seeing so many people living, just enjoying life.

I let my hair from the neat bun atop my head and started dancing. Trying to let lose, I put the new, costly suitcase on the floor and threw my arms in the air.

After a song, the crowd clapped and I joined in. Fully opening my eyes, I looked down and realized the suitcase had been taken.

"No, no, no, no," I cried, jogging anywhere I thought I'd see it.

Finally, I saw a bellhop with it.

"Excuse me, hi. That's mine, thank you," I told him, reaching for it.

"Oh. Well I saw it had your family name and receipt, I just thought you'd want it with your safe," he replied.

"Safe? What safe?"

"The vault, code 3448? Your mother put some things in it for safe keeping-"

"Oh. No! It's a- a gift," I let him know, still wrestling the guy for it. He wouldn't let go!

From the corner of my eye I saw a girl walk by.

"It's for her!" My excitement stunned the boy enough to cause him to loosen his grip on the handle and I won over the suitcase.

She turned to look at me but snarled and kept walking.

"Hey, hey, wait up," I panted while running after her, "do you have a sec?"

She looked uninterested in whatever I had to say.

"I got something for you," I exclaimed. When she looked confused, I revealed the brand new luggage.

"Earlier your bag broke, remember? That was me who helped. You're welcome, I just thought I'd-"

"I don't need this," the girl said making me tighten my mouth.

Did I have the wrong girl, I thought at first. No, that's definitely her with the same bitchy attitude.

"Um, yeah you do, so keep it. I won't take no for an answer," I said confidently, thinking she'd come around and appreciate my kindness.

I heard her go "pfft" and she walked off, letting the suitcase fall to the floor.

My jaw dropped at her audacity.

What a bitch, I thought again.