pretty little liar // brad simpson

twenty one

SPENCER

It was officially my first photo shoot of the year - it'd been quite a slow year for my career, but here I was in a chair getting my makeup done, only a robe covering my bikini-clad body. "We're going to contour your legs and abs once we are done with your makeup and hair, alright?" Steven asked.

I nodded, looking at the artist out of the corner of my eye. He was a cool guy, covered in tattoos and with gages in his ears and a septum ring, but his makeup was exquisite and he had a perfectly cropped haircut. He had even got music playing in his studio on the set, a playlist of cool pop songs that were easy to hum to while Steven concentrated hard. 

Suddenly, the song faded out and a new one came on - and I felt my face pulling into an excited grin as my leg began to bounce. "Steven, this is my boyfriend's band!" I burst out, making him give a little jump of surprise.

"The Vamps?" He asked, looking surprised. I bobbed my head furiously, my smile spreading so much my cheeks hurt.

"Brad - my boyfriend - that's him singing." I bragged, sitting back in my chair and clutching the arm rests as the hair stylist began wrapping my hair around a curling wand.

Steven smiled, bobbing his head to the beat as he continued to dust my face with bronzer. "He's really talented! I saw something about you two on the Daily Mail Snapchat, I didn't realize you were the girl with him. I could've sworn the girl on there this morning was blonde."

"This morning?" I asked, my smile faltering. "I was at a friend's house last night, I wasn't with him this morning."

Steven's eyes widened just for a moment and he shrugged, although it wasn't convincing. "Maybe they were photos from yesterday."

"Brad and I stayed in all day yesterday. We didn't leave the house even once." I informed him flatly. My eyes landed on my iPhone sitting on the vanity, and I snatched it up, clicking into the Snapchat app and scrolling through the stories until I  landed on Daily Mail.

My thumb tapped the screen furiously until I saw a story titled. "Vamp in Broad Daylight." My heart sank as I saw Brad's familiar shoulders and curly mop of hair pictured from behind as his hand hovered over the back of a short blonde girl. I slid up, reading another one of the Daily Mail's bummy stories about who she could be, and where I was while this happened. Their speculations made my blood boil, but seeing that photo of Brad with his hand so low on her back was about to make steam shoot out my ears.

I screenshotted the story, sending it in a text to my boyfriend with the short word, "seriously??" at the bottom. Pushing hard on the power button, I shut off my phone and sat silently as my makeup was finished up, before finally sauntering to the studio with a grimace etched into my features.

"Spencer! Beautiful!" The photographer, Josef, grinned, opening his arms for a hug and a kiss. I smiled as best I could, kissing his cheek back and wrapping my arms around the older man's middle. "We have Finn here, you two are obviously modelling for American Eagle's summer launch, so I expect lots of fun in the sun together, okay?"

"Absolutely, Josef." I nodded, giving him my most dazzling smile and approaching the set, where a muscular guy with curly brown hair was leaning against the hood of a rustic car. My heart was pounding - I felt guilty and I hadn't even done a thing.

But I wanted to retaliate, so badly. I wanted Brad to see me with another man's hand on my back, his lips near my ear, my smile bright and sincere. I wanted him to feel how that hurt. I wanted him to know how I hurt.

"Hi, I'm Spencer." I smiled lightly, sucking in a confident breath and shaking my thoughts out of my head. "Ready to do this?"