your body is a weapon → brad simpson | ✓

sixty six

"Where are you going?" Aiden's voice echoes through the entrance hall as my hand comes in contact with the door handle.

I close my eyes and exhale heavily. I thought I had managed to escape without seeing him today.

Turning around and removing my hand off of the door handle, I smile tightly at Aiden as he walks down the left side of his stairs. He was wearing his work outfit—a white button up and some trousers—and he had a frown etched on his face.

I adjust the bag strap on my shoulder. "I'm going to go to sixth form today, if that's okay."

"Of course it is," he says, pursing his lips. "Shall I take you there or have you ordered a taxi?"

"I was gonna try the bus routes," I admit.

"Let me take you today," Aiden says, grabbing a coat as he walks closer towards me. "Plus, none of the buses drop off near your school."

I stop myself from sighing really heavily, and instead nod. "Alright."

He smiles at me as we walk towards the garage and we climb into his Aston Martin. The car was silent as we pull out of his driveway and down the road.

"How was Luna on Friday?" Aiden asks. He hadn't been in all weekend, he said he was too busy with work, plus we haven't been speaking anyway.

"She was okay," I shrug.

"That's good," Aiden nods. "I haven't really seen her in a while."

"She's been busy at the diner anyway," I tell him. "Though it's struggling, not enough customers or consistency in sales."

"Oh, is that so?" Aiden asks, his eyebrows furrowing. "Do they know why?"

"Most people don't go to that side of town since there was a stabbing across the road last year," I say, my eyes on him.

"Ah, I remember that one," he nods slowly. "I can look into it, if you want. Try and find a way for people to go there, maybe a fundraiser or something. If not, I'll take a share of the business to keep them afloat and then they can manage it still."

"You'd do that?"

"Jamie, you're forgetting that we grew up together and spent a lot of our childhood there," he says, turning to look at me as we reach a set of red traffic lights. "Of course I'd do that. I'll look into it today for you, let you know what's going to happen with it after school."

"Okay," I nod, hiding back a smile. It was generous of Aiden to help them out.

The drive to school was pretty quiet and when we get there, I quickly bid goodbye and get out of the car in a frenzy to find Brad, who was supposed to be waiting for me just inside the front doors.

When I spot him, a grin spreads on to my face as he pushes himself off of the wall. "Hey."

"Hey," he smiles. I want to wrap my arms around him and never let him go, but I'm not allowed to because I'm still engaged to Aiden. "You okay?"

"I'm fine," I say, looking over his face. I'm not surprised to see a cut on his lip. "Are you?"

"I'm a lot better now," he says, his eyes flickering down to my hands. "You know how hard I want to kiss your fucking face off right now?"

My cheeks burn red at his words.

"But I won't," he says, sighing. I walk beside him in the hallway, our arms brushing against each other due to our proximity.

I could feel eyes burning into us. I felt like Bella from Twilight, being stared at for being next to such a handsome man. We had been away from school for over two months, no doubt it's a surprise that we're here all of a sudden.

"Exams are next month," I say sadly. It's the beginning of April which means that it's not long until school finishes.

"Are they?" Brad asks.

"Yeah."

"I haven't done any schoolwork since January, I think I might fail."

"I did some of it," I laugh. "Mostly because I'm so bored all of the time."

"I hate that you're alone when you're at home," he sighs. "It was okay before, with you not seeing your dad, because I could come over and keep you company. Now I can't, I can only ring you when you're alone."

"I'm sorry," I sigh out, and we turn the corner. My tutor room is at the end of this corridor which means I won't see Brad until I leave for first period.

"It's not your fault," he assures me quickly, a small smile on his face. "Like I said, we'll figure this out. I'll find a way to get you out of that marriage—,"

He's interrupted as someone cuts in front of us, and we stop in our tracks. His eyes lift from me and we simultaneously look up to see who it is.

"Brad," Frankie purrs out, a hand running over his chest. "Haven't seen you in a while, how about we carry on where we finished?"

He pushes her hand off of him, unimpressed. "Just because I hooked up with you a few weeks ago, doesn't mean that I want to now."

My heart hurts at the statement, although I'm not surprised. I saw them almost having sex in a bathroom once, it's not a new revelation that they've probably had sex multiple times.

"You sure?" She asks, trying her best to flirt and she wasn't doing a half bad job of it. If it was any other guy, I feel as though she'd have gotten what she wanted. "We can leave Jamie here and go somewhere else."

"Frankie, I think I'd rather stay with Jamie," he says, his hand reaching out to grab mine and our fingers lace together. We shouldn't be doing this, not with the chance of one of Aiden's goons seeing us.

"Really?" Frankie frowns, stepping back. "If you want Jamie, then why did you hook up with me?"

He shrugs. "It doesn't matter. Can you go now? I'm not hooking up with you again."

She scoffs at Brad. "Fine." She turns on her heels and walks away, a breath of relief escaping my mouth.

Brad drops his hand from mine as he remembers he's holding it again. "Sorry, I know shouldn't have but I don't think she'd have gotten the hint to leave otherwise."

"It's fine," I nod as we continue walking. The warning bell had gone so we had to get to tutor anyway.

We make it to my classroom door and he turns to look down at me. "I'll be out here waiting for you, just like I always used to."

"Do you even go to tutor?"

"No, I'd much rather wait for you to get out instead," he smiles. "I'll see you afterwards."

"Yeah," I nod and I want to reach up and kiss him but I have to restrain myself. You're engaged, I remind myself.

Instead, I settle for wrapping my arms around him and pulling him in for a hug. I shouldn't, I know I shouldn't, but friends hug all of the time.

He takes not even a second to wrap his arms around my torso, holding me close to his body. He rests his chin on the top of my head.

"You should probably go in before you get a late mark," he says after a few moments of just embracing each other. I sigh and move my head off of his chest.

"I'll talk to you afterwards," I smile, brushing some hair from off of his forehead. "Try not to get too bored."

"I won't," he smiles, before I pull away from his warm hold and make my way into the classroom, flashing the teacher a smile.

I know it's going to be painfully difficult trying not to do anything with Brad at school that could get us in Aiden's bad books.

edited.