Love & War | Brad Simpson ✔️

27. "Relationship purgatory?"

"You're assuming I'm talking about you" he grins, "I was actually talking about marrying Brittany"

I give him a deadpanned stare, "well, more fool you"

I make my way behind the counter, ignoring Brittany as I do, and pick myself out a slice of cake, before turning to Brad who is waiting by the entrance to the back of the counter.

"What do you want?"

"I want you, Ella" he sighs dramatically, before getting down on one knee and grabbing my hand in between his, "marry me?"

I stare at him blankly and sigh loudly, before pulling my hand out of his, "you can have the chocolate one"

"Fine, your loss" he says in a mock-annoyed tone.

Soon after and we arrive at my mum's house. It's quiet because everybody's either at work or school. I show Brad where there is a box of clothes in Tris's room filled with spare clothes and leave him to it whilst I find a couple of boxes with some of my spare clothes and other stuff in my old room. They've been shoved at the back of the wardrobe behind all of Brittany's things.

I sit down on my bedroom floor and have a good rummage through the boxes. I find an old pair of leggings and a large battered flannel shirt that I stole from Tris once, along with some spare underwear.

I'm just buttoning the shirt up when I hear a voice from the door way.

"What do you think?"

I glance up from my seat on the floor and see Brad stood in the doorway. He's still wearing the same jeans but he's now wearing one of Tris's old t-shirts that is oversized on Tris. It's swamping Brad.

"Nice dress" I snicker.

"I look good, right?" He smirks, leaning against the door frame like he's posing for a photoshoot.

"You look like a child who's stole his dad's clothes" I mutter as I turn away and start shoving stray clothes back into the two boxes.

"Better?"

I turn my head to see that Brad is now stood shirtless in the doorway, with a smirk sat across his face and Tris's shirt in his hand.

Yes. Much better. Much, much better. Please, never wear a shirt ever again.

"I guess" is what I actually say as I shrug casually and start to shove one of the boxes back into its place at the back of the wardrobe.

"I guess you've gotten used to me not wearing a shirt so it doesn't affect you anymore" I hear him say from behind me as he walks into the room.

"It didn't affect me in the first place" I lie.

"Of course it didn't" I hear him say with a smirk in his voice but I just ignore him as I mess about with fitting the box back into its place. When I'm finally done and shift my body around, I see that Brad has sat down on my floor and is flicking through an old photo album that was in the other box. He still doesn't have a shirt on and I let my eyes linger on his biceps for a few moments than I really should.

"Is this you?" He asks me as he points to a photo. I shuffle over to the spot next to him and have a look at the photo. It's one of Tris and I at the beach on holiday, me aged around five. I've buried the whole of Tris's body underneath the sand and I'm sat on top of him looking very proud of myself.

"Yeah" I smile at the memory, "Tris bet me his rare Pokemon card that I wouldn't be able to bury his whole body in the sand"