Unexpected Love

Chapter Eleven: Bradin...

I walked in and silently closed the door behind me. Standing by the door with my hands in my pockets, I silently wondered what to say to him but he beat me to it.

“What are you doing here Gabriella? How did you even know where I lived?” He asked raising one eyebrow while he sat down on the edge of his bed. I glanced around his room before replying. His room was actually neat for a guy’s room, he had several band posters up and over on the wall he had rows and rows of cds. I’m guessing someone really likes their music. His flat screen that hung above his dresser was softly playing Linkin Park.

“Ok well Jace was the one who gave me directions and I’m here because I wanted to know if you wanted to talk and also your best friend is also very worried about you since you won’t talk to him. You have been acting weird and I just want to know if you’re alright?”

He sighed running a hand through his hair and moving it out of his eyes. As soon as his hair moved out of his eyes I gasped. His eyes were bloodshot and it looked like he hadn’t slept and had been crying, “Oh my! What’s going on Bradin? What’s wrong?”

I walked over to the bed quickly and sat down next to him. What is wrong with him? Why does he look like he has been crying…I wonder what could be so horrible to make him this upset. He never shows weakness ever. I quietly thought as he sat there in silence staring at his wall with an unreadable expression on his face.

After a few moments of silence he threw his head in his hands and let out a sob. I turned around quickly feeling a tug on my heart as I heard him sobbing. Placing my hand on his shaking shoulder I spoke slowly and quietly, “I’m here Bradin, when you are ready to talk, I’m here. If you don’t want to talk then still, I’ll be here.”

“You wouldn’t understand. You would just make fun of me,” He mumbled through his hands. Luckily I was sitting close to him otherwise I wouldn’t have caught what he said. What is it with guys and mumbling all the time?

I turned my body to where I was completely facing him and placed my hands on his slowly pulling his hands away from his face. I set his hands down in his lap and held onto them with one hand and with the other I reached up and began wiping the tears away that were trailing down his pale cheeks.

He sighed and stood up, pacing around his room, “I guess now that you’ve just witnessed that I should tell you what’s wrong.”

I just sat there in silence, waiting for him to continue.

“When I was fifteen I met this girl in one of my classes. She was amazing. She was beautiful, kind, sincere and just all around a great person. I had feelings for her and one day after several dates I had finally asked her to be my girlfriend. She said yes, and over the next few months of our relationship I slowly found out that she had a bad home life. She was constantly being put down by her parents and older brother.  Occasionally her older brother would hit her to take out his anger. When I found out, I told her that she needed to report it to someone and get help. She refused because some part of her really did love them and thought they would change….I let it go like an idiot. Thinking that it wasn’t all that bad because she wasn’t covered in bruises, I loved her and it made me blind. I didn’t see how sad she was all the time; she hid her unhappiness well…” He trailed off, stopping in front of his computer desk and grabbing a few papers. He walked over and tossed them onto the bed next to me.

I picked up the papers just as he began talking again, “On the day of our two year anniversary she wasn’t in school so I decided to stop by her house so I could take her out somewhere special and finally tell her I love her. Her father answered the door and took one look at me and told me to leave and that she wasn’t ever to see me again.”

As he paused to press his hands to his face, trying to stop his tears, I looked down at the papers in my hand. They were newspaper articles and there was a handwritten note among them. The caption is what stood out to me and left me in shock, Teen Commits Suicide due to Depression.

I flipped through the rest of the articles looking for the name; because I remember something happening to a girl I had a few classes with. After skimming the article I found out it was indeed Sydni. I remember when that had happened. Everyone was so shocked. She had seemed so happy, and no one knew why she was depressed. I can’t believe her parents treated her like that. Not to mention, I feel so horrible for Bradin, I didn’t know he was her boyfriend. That must have been so hard for him. That’s why he’s been acting so funny this week, I looked down at the newspaper, Monday was the one year anniversary of her death.

“That next day I had to see on the news that she hung herself, and her parents had told everyone it was because she was depressed.” He slammed his fist onto his desk, eyes blazing with mixed emotions, “Syd was depressed because of them! She left me a note. It’s in with the articles I gave you. She told me that she loved me so much but even though I was the best thing to happen to her she couldn’t take it anymore and she was sorry.”

He threw himself onto his bed narrowly missing me and laid on his stomach, hiding his face in the pillow, “I’m sorry. I’m weak, I’m crying like a baby. Not very manly of me,” He barked out a laugh that sounded like a strangled cry, “That’s why I work at the soup kitchen. She and I worked there together since we started dating, every weekend. It was our way to give back to others. I still work there because I love it and because it reminds me of the good times she and I had together.”

As his mumbled voice trailed off I curled up next to him and began running my fingers through his hair as a means of comfort, “That is a horrible thing to have happen Bradin. I’m sorry that it had to happen to you of all people too…But you need to stop beating yourself up over it. There was nothing you could have done to save her and she would want you to be happy.”

For a few minutes all I could hear was his muffled sobs, the sound of it made a few tears slip out of my own eyes. I then decided that he needed someone to be here for him and I wasn’t going to leave him alone. I sent a quick text to my mom to let her know what was going on and that his parents were here and I would have his mom call her tonight to assure her I’m not going to do anything crazy but stay with Bray through the night.

“Why should I be happy? I can never open my heart up to another girl because I feel like I’m not good enough for any girl; I couldn’t even save the one girl I loved! I try to be with other girls to get over her, but I can’t. So I decided to just not care anymore so I’ll never have to let my heart get broken again.”

It pained me to hear how hopeless he sounded. I was at a loss of what to say to I just resumed running my hand through his hair and began humming a random melody. Within minutes his sobs had subsided and were replaced with deep even breaths. I slowly slid off the bed and went downstairs to talk to his mom.

His mother called mine and sorted everything out and assured my parents that nothing was going to go on if I stayed with Bradin tonight. His mom also gushed to my mom about how wonderful I was and how caring I was that I was trying to do everything I could to comfort him. After sorting that out I made my way back up to his room.

He was still lying there face down, fast asleep. I walked over to the bed and lay next to him, making sure our bodies weren’t touching so it wasn’t awkward for either of us later and I laid my hand on his and drifted off into a troubled sleep.