Dangerous | b.w.s

84

I reluctantly wake up to the feeling of soft strokes in my hair and further nuzzle myself into Brad's chest. My neck aches and my face feels numb but I don't mind if I get repaid by this warm feeling of being in his arms. I swallow hard, my dry throat making it incredibly difficult. I cough and realise why my throat hurts, the memories of last night flashing through my mind. Those pictures. All those nights. Everyone knows.

"Babe?" Brad's soft voice vibrates against my ear, making me roll off of his chest and onto the bed. "How are you feeling?" He asks me, watching me carefully from my side.

"Awful." I croak and rub my throat due to the pain. I really did cry myself dry last night, how embarrassing.

"Let me get you some water." Brad insists before getting out of the bed and disappearing from the bedroom.

I sit up and rest my head against the headboard as I think over everything. I feel weighed down, like there's so much emotion pushing against my chest but I can't sort through it all. I can't seem to process the fact that Tristan did this, he's my best friend.

Brad walks back into the bedroom with a small glass of water in his left hand and sits on the edge of the bed as he passes it to me. I gratefully take it from him and gulp it down, the cool liquid soothing my throat until the glass is empty and resting on the side table.

"Are you feeling better?" He asks me, looking nervous and concerned all in one.

"No." I sigh and look down at my hands as they fiddle with each other.

"Do you want to talk about it?" He asks, lifting his legs up and crossing them on the bed as he turns to face me.

I try to distract myself with how uncharacteristically cute he looks right now with his messy hair and puffy eyes, but all I can think about is how he will react when I tell him everything. I don't know if I can cope on my own now that my only friend at school has betrayed me.

"Not really..." I trail off and feel the lump begin to form in my throat. "I can't-I can't believe Tris..." I choke up and stop talking as tears form in my eyes.

Brad instantly reaches forwards and pulls me to his chest as I let the tears fall. I don't sob this time, I sniffle and let the tears fall by themselves as Brad holds me tight against his chest and rubs my back.

"I warned you, I knew he was fucking up to something. That son of a bitch is lucky I didn't kill him." I can sense the anger in his voice as he talks about Tristan but it just makes me cry even more.

All this time, Brad was right. He's been warning me for so long but...I just thought he was jealous. I never through Tris could do something like this.

"Hey." Brad softly says as he pulls me away from his chest and holds my face with a hand on each cheek, staring into my eyes with so much emotion it falters me for a second. "He's not worth it. Remember what I told you before? You don't cry over guys like that." He references what he once told me about Tate. "He doesn't deserve your tears."

"He was my best friend." I sniffle, my tears beginning to stop now as I stare into Brad's eyes with my bloodshot pair.

"I know." He sympathetically smiles.

I look down as Brad rubs my cheekbone with his thumb softly and I realise I'm so lucky to have him here right now. I wouldn't be able to deal with this alone. That's if he decides to stay.

"Why didn't you tell me?" He softly asks and I look up to him.

I didn't want to talk about this. I didn't want to tell Brad about how I used to be. I was hoping it would all stay in the past.