Chapter 7 Brooke
SEVEN
Brooke
JJ’s car looked like it had been driven straight out of a showroom instead of the ten-year plus daily driver it seemed to be.
There wasn’t a speck of dust on the dashboard.
No food wrappers or random crap in the foot well.
A single rainbow pendant dangled from the rearview mirror, the only personalised item in the front.
A gnawing ache started in Brooke’s lower belly. Yes, she was using JJ to get away—run away—but JJ had been so excited at her idea to be a tour guide, surely it wasn’t technically using her by that standard? JJ had wanted this as much as she had.
They’d pulled into The Wharf for dinner.
The delay wasn’t great, but Brooke would take night driving over rush hour any day.
She’d learned long ago not to hold tight to schedules and plans.
Going with the flow was key to successful travel.
Plus, travelling in the dark felt more adventurous, more alive.
Like most of her bus trips in Southeast Asia and Europe, overnight travel was what all the cool kids did to get from place to place.
They ended up at the same table where they’d had drinks three weeks ago.
Tonight was schnitzel night, and if there was one thing Brooke had missed from her hometown, it was the schnitties.
Not that she’d admit that to JJ. So, doing her best to hide her eagerness, Brooke sat with JJ as they waited for their meals.
It was nice to see her out of overalls and in casual clothes. Though her outfit was still as polished as her personality—squeaky clean Vans with fitted dark pants and a long-sleeved white shirt. JJ’s fingers drummed on the table. She straightened the salt and pepper shakers next.
“Sorry again for making us late.” JJ set out her cutlery, nudging the knife until it was just so.
“You already apologised on the phone and when you picked me up. No big deal, we’re on our way.”
“The food’s taking a while.” JJ’s knee bounced against the table, making it vibrate.
“We ordered like, five minutes ago.” Jeez. This probably wasn’t going to be the first thing to go wrong. Was JJ going to be like this every time things went slightly off-track? “It’s not a race to get there. If we’re half an hour late, we’re half an hour late.”
Brooke never understood why people lived their lives in such a rush. Always keen to get to the next thing or they’d fail some big imaginary goal in the sky. It was a painful way to live. Much easier to accept things as they were and adjust as needed.
Their meals were out no less than five minutes later.
Almost no words were exchanged during their dinner. JJ was focused on her food. Neat cuts. One mouthful after the other.
Brooke took one huge decadent bite. Okay, that was way too much to fit in her mouth, but it had been so long since she’d had a good Aussie style schnitzel.
She chewed, cheeks filled to the brim. The chicken had the perfect crispy coating, and the pepper sauce had her mouth zinging.
She darted her tongue out to try and catch the errant drip on her chin.
Missed it. She wiped it off with her hand instead.
JJ's eyes were on her mouth. She passed her a napkin, nose upturned. “Hate it when I get the gravy everywhere.”
Brooke had no feeling on the matter. The succulent chicken and crunchy coating held all her attention. It went down one way or the other. She took the napkin though and wiped at the mess.
Even with JJ’s mess-free eating, she still finished before Brooke and bounced out of her chair before Brooke had even swallowed her last mouthful.
“Let’s get this show on the road,” JJ said, keys swinging in her hand as they returned to the car.
The further out of Adelaide they drove, the more the pressure eased in Brooke’s chest, lungs lighter.
Being at Hayley’s, Brooke was like a caged animal, lashing out at anything that came near.
Here, on the road again, she was free. Just Brooke.
It was the most human she’d felt since stepping off that plane onto home soil.
It may not be far, but it was better than being holed up in her room avoiding her sister and her past.
She stretched back in her seat and glanced at JJ.
Both hands were at ten and two on the steering wheel, face tight as they zoomed along the expressway.
Whenever they were wedged between a couple of road trains, JJ sat up straighter and gripped the steering wheel.
Compared to some of the situations Brooke had been in, Australian roads were bliss.
She tried to imagine JJ driving along some of the single-lane-wide cliffside roads she’d been on through parts of Asia and even in Scotland. She smiled.
Yeah, nah.
“I can’t believe we’re actually doing this,” JJ said on a clear stretch with no cars around them. Giant powerlines whipped past overhead. “Feels surreal.”
“Feels like we’re just on the outskirts of Adelaide to me,” Brooke said.
They passed a home centre and a row of fast-food restaurants.
“Oh shut up. You’ll be begging to see more of SA by the end of this.”
“There's nothing you can do that’ll change my mind. We’re like oil and water—I’m not meant to mix with this place.”
“Mhmm.” JJ grinned anyway, brown eyes flashing to Brooke.
That smile. JJ’s cockiness was as grating as it was charming. Like she knew with all confidence that she’d win this argument.
Game on painter girl. Game. On.
Her dislike for this place had been decades in the making. Some random trip wasn’t going to change that. This state just wasn’t for her. Adelaide was a rest stop.
Brooke adjusted her seat back a little. Buildings gave way to flat plains of what looked like dirt. Rows and rows of dirt. Some had rows of seedlings, but otherwise the fields were brown vacant fields of earth. How thrilling.
Brooke propped her elbow up on the door. “So, painting, hey? How’d you get into that?”
“Originally, I wanted to get into woodwork back in high school. I never liked science or maths. Hands-on stuff was more interesting. Doing things.” JJ checked her mirrors and changed lanes.
“My first work experience place fell through, and I ended up scrambling until I landed a job with a renovating mob instead. They did a bit of everything, and I found myself up scaffolding, learning to fill and sand cracks on this old 1900s place. By the time I got around to handling a paint roller and finishing those first walls, I was hooked. The transformation was”—she let out a low whistle.
“After that, I signed up for TAFE, did my apprenticeship, and went out on my own as soon as I could.”
Brooke couldn’t imagine jumping into a career and business so whole-heartedly. She’d never found that drive or nudge toward a particular occupation.
“Sounds like it was meant to be.”
She played with the bracelets on her arm, twisting the charms between her fingers. More barren land whizzed past. Her eyes slid to JJ who pulled up her sleeves, one at a time, highlighting those painter muscles again.
“Do you go to the gym?” Brooke blurted out. That was meant to be an inside question, Brooke! She shrunk in her seat and focused back on her bracelets.
JJ frowned and let out a chuckle. “No?”
“Ah, perks of the job then.”
“What do you mean?”
“Your arms. They’re all, you know, beefy.
Not beefy. Strong.” She needed to shut up.
What was wrong with her? She usually excelled at chit-chat with new people.
“I mean I wish I had those kinds of arms from hefting my backpack around everywhere, but these are pretty sad.” She waved her sad arm in the air for effect.
JJ laughed. “There’s nothing wrong with your arms. They’re just normal. And trust me, the pain you go through to get these muscles isn’t fun. Painting can be pretty hard on the body. That’s one thing I’m looking forward to with the trip—a complete break from all that.”
They lapsed into comfortable silence. JJ’s music played on low, a pleasant hum in the background.
It was nice to just sit, watching the world flash by, even if it was just another row of dirt.
Rumination had become such a large part of Brooke’s day-to-day since being back, but constantly replaying all that old crap on a loop only ramped up her stress.
Maybe Hayley had picked up on that energy too with how spiky they’d grown around each other?
This space away was good. Necessary. Not that Brooke would actually enjoy travelling around South Australia—she looked forward to proving JJ wrong on that front.
With any hope, JJ would be so bored after a few days, she’d be begging Brooke to revise their plans.
Brooke could shoot them off to Indonesia instead.
“I’ve never been glamping,” JJ commented out of the blue.
“Figured. You said you hadn’t travelled much since you were a kid, and glamping wasn’t really a thing when we were young.”
Brooke’s nose wrinkled. “You make us sound so old.”
“Well, I mean we’re not twenty-one anymore.”
“How old are you?” JJ asked.
“Rude.” Brooke folded her arms, lips curving into a small smile.
JJ shot a quick look her way.
Brooke caved. “I’m twenty-nine.”
“Jeez. Still in your twenties.”
“Yep. You? Thirty-seven?” She had to be a little older.
JJ scoffed. “All right, now I’m offended. I’m only thirty-five.”
Brooke shrugged. “Close enough.”
A large flock of corellas flew overhead, their screeching cutting into the car’s interior.
They’d hardly talked about themselves in the lead up to the trip, all their focus on planning and holiday discussions.
It wasn’t necessary information at the time.
But with another four hours’ drive ahead, Brooke found herself curious about the painter she was travelling with.
“Is JJ your real name? Or short for…”
“Jade.” She spoke her name like that of a villain and scrunched up her face. “Full name Jade Johnson—hence, JJ.”
“Got it.” Not a fan of her first name.
“What about you, ‘Brooke not Bee’?”
Damn curiosity. She couldn’t keep her mouth shut. It was fun to ask the questions—not have them lobbed back.
“I prefer leaving old nicknames in the past.” There. Boundaries established. “What’s the weirdest thing that’s ever happened to you?” she asked next. Anything to get them away from personal topics.
“Dunno.” JJ drummed her fingers on the wheel. “Going on this trip with the random woman sitting next to me is pretty up there.”
Brooke just shook her head, biting down on a smile.
From Adelaide to Hawker, they ended up chatting non-stop, pegging each other with questions the entire time. Childhood or family topics were avoided, and for that, Brooke was thankful. With so many travel tales, there were plenty of stories to keep JJ entertained.
“Are you serious?” JJ asked after the latest re-telling. “They’re not going to put you on a bus like that.”
Brooke laughed. “I’m serious! I was squished up the front, sitting in the aisle for six hours straight by the driver with another ten people on the floor behind me. So enjoy the room in this car.”
“Now I can never travel to Vietnam,” JJ replied, pulling into the Hawker servo so they could get out and stretch their legs. This stop was on the main turn off to get to their accommodation for the night.
“Then I won’t tell you about the time we had so many cockroaches on the bus, I lost count at thirty.”
JJ jerked the handbrake on. “That”—JJ turned off the car with a shudder—“is disgusting.”
Brooke released her seatbelt. “Nah, it’s amazing. Those kinds of stories just make the trip even more memorable.”
Every tale had her yearning to step back on a plane and get back overseas. One day.
For now, Adelaide would have to do.