The Ghost of You [COMPLETED]

Exclusive

You rolled over in the bed, causing Brad to wake up as your elbow dug into his ribs.

"OW!" He groaned, flinching away from you and rolling onto his front, burying his face into the pillow while you blinked yourself awake.

"Sorry." You mumbled, his arm snaking around your waist once he'd recovered, and tugging you closer.

"Lucky you're pretty." He said as he inhaled loudly, shifting onto his side. His other arm wrapped around you as your body fit into his, your head going to the space by his neck, your arms around his waist as his rested over your shoulders, your legs intertwined as you breathed in.

You both spent a few minutes almost falling asleep again, and then you felt him place a kiss to the top of your head, so you looked up at him. His gorgeous brown eyes stared down at you once he'd sleepily opened them, and he smiled, before pressing another kiss to your nose.Then he leaned down, his next kiss landing on your-

You jolted awake, disorientated for a few seconds before you groaned and threw your hands over your face.

It was the third night in a row that you'd dreamt of Brad. Of the morning after, and different variations of it. It was pissing you off.

He hadn't called you since you left. Although he had sent you a single text:

'I'm going to talk to Maggie. I don't know where it leaves us, but...you were right the whole time, she needs to know what's going on. I hope you'll talk to me soon princess x'

You ignored it, just as you'd ignored the texts and calls of Tris, Connor and James. You hated ignoring them, seeing as they had done nothing wrong, but they were asking you what happened. And you weren't in the right mindset to explain it to them yet.

You weren't in the right mindset to explain how you cheated on your boyfriend.

You were waiting for Ryan to come home, because you were going to break up with him. You couldn't think about anything else until you'd done that, because that was the only thought that your brain was repeating hauntingly in your mind, every day, every hour. Reminding you that you cheated, that he didn't deserve this, that you were a horrible person.

So, once you'd spoken to Ryan, you figured you would be able to breathe. And then you could think about responding to the guys.

Ryan was due in Birmingham in an hour. You were sat at your kitchen table staring at the clock, your leg bouncing as you watched the second hand ticking along.

Suddenly, the phone vibrated on the table.

"Hey," You answered, after you saw Ryan's name on the screen. "You alright? How far away are you?" You asked quickly, the anxiety bubbling inside you.

"Ah, about that." He replied, and your heart immediately sank. "Timeline's been extended, I was just calling to say it won't be until next week I can come down."

"Next week?!" You squeaked.

"Yeah, is that alright babe? Should be Tuesday or Wednesday I think."

You looked back at the clock. The nausea started rising into your throat. You couldn't wait another week.

"I need to break up with you." You blurted suddenly. Closing your eyes, you gripped the phone tight against your ear as there was silence on the other end.

Not the nicest way to say it.

"Say that again?" He finally asked, his voice a lot quieter, lower than usual.

"I...we need to break up. I've been thinking and-"

"It's alright babe, no hard feelings. If you're not happy then that's cool. It's not like we're in a proper relationship or anything." He added with a chuckle, but it made you frown.

"We're ....not?"

"Well no," He said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "We don't see each other enough to be in a proper relationship, to be exclusive, you know? It's just a, when I come down thing, isn't it?"

"I...no, not for me it wasn't." You argued, the anxiety and nausea you had been feeling slowly being replaced by anger as you stood from your chair and started walking into the living room. "I thought we were in a relationship Ryan, like a relationship."

"Yeah, we are. Were, I suppose. But one of those, friends with benefits relationships."

"So...have you been seeing other people?"

"I mean...like I said, I didn't think we were exclusive, so I didn't think it was a big deal."

"Right. You're right. It's no big deal. So I guess that's that. See you later then."

"Take care of yourself, yeah?"

You didn't reply. You just hung up, throwing your phone on the sofa. Breathing heavily, you stared at it, reliving the conversation you just had.

All these months, you'd been thinking that you and Ryan were on the same page, in a proper relationship, just really chilled about everything. How wrong you'd been. All the times you felt guilty about the things that happened on tour, and he was doing it all anyway?

Thinking back, you realised that you never did talk about whether you were exclusive. You didn't think you had to. Those conversations were the type of conversations you had as teenagers, not as people in your mid-20s. You didn't realise that you still needed to have a discussion on whether you were going to stop sleeping with other people.

You couldn't work out whether to be angry at him, or at yourself.

A few minutes away, Brad had been sitting in his lounge for 40 minutes, waiting for Maggie to finally turn up. She'd only just finished her tour 2 days ago, and had been visiting some friends before coming to his, which had given him the time to think. To think about how to start the conversation of him sleeping with his ex, that he wanted to give it a shot with.

Any way that he rewrote his 'speech' in his head, he sounded like an asshole. Which he had to admit he had been. He should have told Maggie ages ago about you, but he would have done a lot of things different if he had a second chance.

When the doorbell finally rang, he all but leapt off the sofa to answer it, and wrenched the door open.

"Maggie! Hey, glad you could -" He stopped himself when he noticed her face, her red eyes and trembling lips. "What's wrong?"

"Oh it's...nothing." She sniffed, unconvincingly. "I'm fine."

"What's happened?"

Then she broke down crying. Brad instinctively stepped up to her, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her into a hug. He'd only seen her cry a couple of times before, when her best friend moved to another country, and when she told him about losing her dog a few years ago. So if she was crying, there was a good reason.

He ushered her inside, sitting her on the sofa as she started to calm down.

"What's going on Maggie?" He asked softly, as she wiped her eyes.

"My sister was in a car crash." She said, with a wobbly voice. "Mum called me while I was driving."

"Shit.."

"She's at the hospital, waiting to come out of surgery Mum said. I just...I wish I was there." She started crying again, and Brad pulled her into another hug, his mind whizzing through his thoughts, comfortingly stroking her back as the tears fell.

"Well, let's go." He said after she quietened down.

"What?"

"Let's go, you need to be with your family. I'll drive." He said, already standing up to grab his shoes from the hallway.

"Brad it's okay you don't need to-"

"Come on, you need to be there with your family, and you can't drive like this. Let me take you." He replied, pulling her off the sofa. She wrapped her arms around his waist.

"Thank you." She muttered into his chest, while he exhaled.

His speech can wait for another day.