The Beauty And The Bet

Chapter 25.

Brad's POV

I walked down the street, ignoring the bleeps of my phone in my pocket.

Why were girls so confusing?

Instead of chasing after Rose, a situation I had repeatedly doing, and going back to Tristan's. I decided to head home so I could take out the only girl that was never moody and always stayed faithful to me - my dog Jesse.

"Jess." I beckoned, falling to my knees at the sight of bounding golden retriever as I opened the door. "Come here Jess!" I repeated causing her to rush towards my open arms.

"Where have you been?" The familiar voice of my older sister Nat asked curiously as I heard footsteps ran down the staircase.

"I was at Tristan's for band practice." I explained whilst pulling faces at Jesse who seemed like the only person in the household was enjoyed my company.

"Well, dad have gone out for work." She sighed deeply. "And mum has gone out with her friends."

"What's new there." I muffled underneath my breath.

"They told me to walk Jesse but now you're here, you can take her whilst I go out to my boyfriends."

"Do you want a lift?"

"No, I'm walking." She nodded. "If either of them question where I am, say I'm at a friends."

"Why?"

"You know what they're like, they wouldn't allow me staying at a boys. Either though it's perfectly acceptable for you to bring hundreds of different girls around." She ranted. "Double standards."

"I know." I shrugged attaching the lead to Jesse's collar. "But I've got your back."

"Thanks kiddo." She beamed happily before practically skipping out of the house, heading in the opposite to where Jesse and I were going.

Usually, I would take Jesse for a long walk through the open fields. However, this evening I took her through the park where Rose and I once walked through. The sky turning grey and the lamppost shinning golden the park was quiet, apart from one family.

A mum, a dad and a daughter - roughly the age of four.

I sat on the bench opposite the family and allowed Jesse off to sniff around various trees surrounding us, whilst I admired the family.

Going to the park with parents seemed like a normal activity, although o never experienced it. Dad was always busy with work and mum was out socialising. And even the times we were all together as a family, it would be ruined by a outburst followed by raging argument.

As the family, continued to mess around together. The four year old caught my eye. She gave me a toothless grin before carrying on singing the familiar song from Frozen to her parents.

"Rose took me to this park!" She paused her song and giggled childishly.

Then, it hit me. The young girl was Charley meaning Rose had lied to me.

Charley wasn't ill. Rose wanted to leave and get away from everyone. But, why would she lie?

And to make things even worse, it began to rain.

"Sorry Jess." I sighed sympathetically.

**********

Rose's POV

All I seemed to do was cry, and cry, and cry.

I watched rain run down the windows in my bedroom. It continuously tapped off the window and made a raced down the surface, also every 10 minutes there alkalis be a loud crash of thunder - shocking my body to tense.

Knock knock knock

"Go away." I insta let groaned, curling up into a tight ball.

"Rose, it's me." My mums voice hummed. "We're back- " she paused mid sentence and all i could hear was my heavy breaths. "Are you ok, darling?"

"I'm fine." I replied back bluntly. "I need some time alone."

"It's better to talk about it, especially if you bottle it up inside."

"It's stupid!" I breathed.

"You can talk to me, your feelings aren't stupid to me." She said more sympathetic.

"Please, go back downstairs and enjoy the rest of the evening with Liam and Charley."

"No, you're crying. Im not leaving you." She reported back more firmly.

"Mum!"

"Anyway, they're gone home as I said we still needed to talk."  I stayed silent which indicated for my mum to be allowed to come in. "Are you going to tell me what's wrong?"

"It's stupid." I repeated once again.

"Problems with friends, personal problems-"

"More like problems with a boy." I instantly fell quiet.

"Rose, you didn't tell me-" she stopped and looked at me with a worried expression. "You aren't pregnant, are you?"

"No mum!" I whined. "He wouldn't even dare to come near me due to his overprotective, clingy girlfriend."

"So that's why you're upset as he's got a girlfriend."

"Yes but no." I shook my head. "I thought we had a connection, but clearly we don't."

"Was he with his girlfriend when you felt this connection?"

"No." I sighed deeply. "He gave me signals which I inferred he may like me back, I assumed from my friends and his that he felt the same way as I did-"

"Oh darling." She breathed deeply. "There's nothing much I can say, you'll just have to hope he comes to his senses-"

"He won't though, he just sees us as friends."

"Rose-" she whispered as I began to sob lightly.

"I told you it was stupid." I sighed in embarrassment. "Anyway, what did you want to tell me this morning?"

"I don't think it's the right timing to say now-"

"Tell me!"

"Liam and I are dating."