Brooklyn wanted to blame the holiday and the Christmas spirit on her being a lot more compassionate following Holly's reaction to Aubree than she normally would have been, but it could only be partially attributed to that. As much as she wanted to act like she had no feelings and could be as cold and emotionless as she wanted, especially when it benefited her, that wasn't entirely true, especially when it came to Holly. Holly brought out contrasting sides to her, actually. On one hand, if she caught Brooklyn in the right mood, Brooklyn could be far more harsh than necessary to her. At the same time, and while Brooklyn didn't like to think about it, Holly reminded her of her sister. It wasn't so much that they were very similar in appearances or personalities, because Holly was fairly far from normal in a lot of her mannerisms, and Brooklyn's sister had been your average kid. The fact that at sixteen, Holly acted more like a seven year old was probably something that played into her reminding her of Kate, because Brooklyn had only known Kate until she was seven years old. Besides Holly just acting like a child, it was also the fact that she seemed so innocent, vulnerable and dependent that made Brooklyn feel like she deserved an exemption from really being targeted for being annoying. Sometimes it was harder for her to remember that when Holly woke her up after only two hours of sleep, coupled with a bad hangover, but it was impossible to ignore on nights like tonight, when the girl was in immeasurable emotional distress. It was saddening and surprising when nothing would console the girl, not Makayla's enthusiastic talk of what would happen tomorrow on Christmas, or even more so, when Brooklyn tried to engage with her. She felt uncomfortable even doing that, because she didn't want to act like she thought that she could make Holly feel better over Makayla, but it did surprise her when it didn't work.
Brooklyn knew that if she could tell that something was more off than normal with the young girl, than Makayla had to as well, and even though Makayla was good at putting on a brave face, it didn't take much to see through it tonight. With her conscience pushing her to do the right thing, coupled with knowing that she wasn't ready for bed yet, she decided to offer Makayla some companionship. Her sister hadn't come out of the shower yet and Brooklyn had a feeling that even when she did, Makayla wasn't going to be eager to hang out with her. So, she made her way to the cabinet that Brooklyn knew Cara stored her liquor in and poured Makayla a cranberry vodka, and then a tequila on the rocks for herself. While they sat in the kitchen and drank, their conversation remained at a surface level. She didn't press to know why her sister was here so unexpectedly, or why Holly was so distraught in her presence, partly because Brooklyn knew she wouldn't be able to offer any sort of genuine comfort if her response called for one, but also because it seemed unnecessary. By the time that there was a knock at the door, Brooklyn had already made her way through her glass of tequila, and was halfway through a vodka cranberry, so hanging out with Makayla by then, didn't seem like a strenuous task at all. In fact, for a while, she had forgotten that Makayla's sister was even there, considering that she still hadn't come out of the bathroom. Makayla didn't seem eager to answer the door, and though Brooklyn was comfortable in her seat too, it seemed necessary that someone see who was there, so she got up. "Hopefully it is Cara, so I can kick that bitch's ass," she responded with a smile that was only somewhat meant to be playful. The threat was said with no real reason behind it, because even though she still had bad feelings towards Cara over the Nick thing, they had been civil enough to live together, ever since Brooklyn confronted her about it.
Before opening the door, she asked who was on the other end. She probably would have done it anyway, just out of habit, but seeing that it was night time and neither her nor Makayla were expecting anyone, it seemed odd for someone to be knocking on the door. When the voice on the other end answered, it was easy to determine that it was Roman. Brooklyn was still surprised, because she would have expected at least a text from him if he was going to stop by, but she opened the door nonetheless. "Oooh, presents? For me? You shouldn't have, Ro!" she said, slapping him on the chest with the back of her hand. "I have a gift for you too. Well, I have a real one that I'm going to give you tomorrow, but tonight I have a glass of whatever liquor you want from Cara's stash as your Christmas Eve gift. Come sit, Makayla's here too," she insisted, already walking inside away from him. "It's just Roman," she informed Makayla, as she haeded back towards the table.