She's No Longer With The Band

Eight.

Aubrey's Point of View:

"Aubrey," Brady said while walking up to me and pulling out his phone from his back pocket. "Check this out,"

He flipped his phone to me and began smiling as I stared at the screen on his phone, feeling rather perplexed over what he was trying to show me. It was only a few seconds later until I realized that the guys had been nominated for seven MTV music awards, the most they've ever been nominated for at an award show.

"Wow!" I exclaimed, smiling brightly as I looked up at Brady who genuinely looked happier than ever. "That's incredible, congratulations," I nudged him lightly as he slid his phone back into his back pocket.

"I know," He replied while shaking his head with a smile of disbelief. "Thank you," He said before then glancing around the beautiful scenery, still beaming.

We're at a beach right now, and we're going out for drinks after. Alec, Dennis, and Andrew, are far ahead of us, looking out into the sea as the waves crash softly. It's quite peaceful right now, but we have some business to take care of later as well. No rest really, ever.

He cleared his throat and leaned against the railing, looking out into the sea. "I spoke to Nate a couple of weeks ago," He said as my eyes popped out of my head.

I nodded. "Yeah when we bumped into him, right?"

Brady looked his lips and avoided eye contact, still staring out at the ocean. "No," He replied and then scratched the back of his head. "Before that,"

What???

"You," I paused before snickering and closing my eyes out of disbelief. "What?" I shook my head with pinched brows and a more than perplexed expression.

This caused him to grin lightly.

He raked a hand over his hair and nodded. "Yeah, I visited him, gave him some crutches," He shrugged like this was more than casual as I swallowed down the lump in my throat. "Brendan asked me to,"

"To visit or to give him the crutches?" I shook my head.

"Visit," He nodded confidently. "The crutches were my own little thing,"

So that's how he learned to walk again.

I pressed my lips into a thin line and swallowed, nodding in pretending to understand as his eyes scanned my face, trying to gauge my expression. My teeth were grinding against each other as I stayed staring forwards at the sea, partly wishing it would swallow me while partly curious about how their entire conversation went.

He grinned gently, cocking his head down at me while squinting his eyes. "I can hear you thinking," He began as I swallowed and let the salty breeze coat my cheeks.

I let out a small sigh and shook my head. "No," I replied curtly. "It's just every time I hear the name Nate a murderous energy takes over me," I continued as Brady began chuckling and swung his arm around my shoulders playfully.

"He did lie to you," He shrugged, pointing out the obvious. "Fuck they all did," He continued while shaking his head and peering out at the water. "But I think they got what they deserved now, don't you?" He questioned as I bit down on my tongue and looked up at him with narrowed eyes.

I couldn't exactly read him all that well right now, but I had a suspicious feeling taking over my body. "But I think they got what they deserved now, don't you?" That sounds like he's done with this revenge scheme on them. It sounds like he doesn't care to hurt Nate anymore than he needs to... it sounds like he's over the entire thing.

But fuck, I'm far from over this whole stupid scheme.

In fact, I've kind of just begun.

Yes, it's been over two years or whatever. Yes, I've had some time to process the additional trauma from Nate, along with all my other trauma, but I didn't just heal this time. No, not at all. I mean christ, it couldn't just be that simple and that easy this time. He broke me, he quite literally broke me.