Our Bruised Bodies | Bradley Bradshaw

ACT TWO - PART TEN

Cheers! Cheers!

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"I'm sorry I put you through that. I really thought they had something to say to us." Bradley muttered, before taking a sip from his beer, sitting next to Grace at their usual table at the bar, waiting for their friends for one last beer before they would have to part ways in the earliest hours in the morning.

"I don't want to think about it." Grace told him, before taking a sip from her own beer. "But it wasn't your fault." She added, as an afterthought, which had Bradley look at her, for a long moment. Memorizing everything he could, to store away for when he would miss her most.

"Grace." He addressed, but then there was commotion in the bar, announcing their friends. Only for Nat to walk over to Bradley straight away, sitting close to him the entire night, whispering among themselves and watching their friends with sad eyes, while Jake barely let go of Javy at all.

"Come on guys, cheer up a bit. This isn't a funeral." Nat then decided after mobbing around for the better part of an hour in which Grace was very interested in her beer and Jake almost sat in Javy's lap with how close they were sitting next to each other.

"Good chance that the next time we all see each other is one of our funerals." Grace muttered under her breath, causing Bradley to give her a bewildered look, wondering how that was what she was thinking about right now.

"Trace is right." Jake then decided. "One last night together, that can't be wasted with sad faces and mobbing around about things we can't change."

"Easy for you to say, you're staying with the girls." Javy then huffed, upset of being send away alone, just like Bradley, who tried his best not to show his emotions about the whole ordeal.

"And I will have an eye on them, who will have and eye on you and Rooster?" Jake shot back, to Javy's surprise. The man from Texas rarely ever showed that he did care for his friends after all, that there was a deep emotional connection and that he wanted them all looked after.

"We will manage." Bradley assured Jake, who just huffed. He didn't want to be assured that they would manage, he knew they would somehow. But he would still feel better if they would all stay together, or at least in little groups of two and three.

"We should get going. I still need to pack my stuff." Javy then pointed out which had Nat and Jake protest right away, but they all knew that he was right. Their time together was running out, it was coming to an end and new adventures were waiting for them behind the horizon, but they would have to leave this place to see what was out there, what was waiting for them.

"No, no. Come on. Stay a bit longer." Nat protested, but Bradley agreed with Javy.

"He's right. We still have to pack. It's time to go." Swallowing thickly, Jake nodded agreeing with the other men, before he got up from his chair and offered Grace his hand, who was sitting next to him, before pulling her to her feet. Javy followed and together they walked at the front, leaving Nat and Bradley to trail behind, so the two friends could talk some more, before they would have to part. Somehow it felt unfair. Grace had to part from Bradley too, but it already felt as if they've parted ways.

All there was left with Bradley was this one evening, before he would be shipped off. Grace didn't want to see anyone but Bradley, not even their friends even though she had promised to be there at the bar. They all wanted to say goodbye properly after all but that didn't mean it would hurt any less when she would have to say her goodbye to him after, hopefully in private.

She desired a conversation. She wanted Bradley to tell her how they would go on from now. She wanted him to give her directions. With half the world between them, she knew she had said she didn't want it then, but damn, she did want him anyways. This just made it so much harder. Grace was close to calling her father to plead with him to not send Bradley away, to not drive him away from her again, but she didn't. She couldn't live with herself should she do that.