nobody | brad s.

ten

"Luke's waiting for you outside." My mom places a hand on my shoulder and lightly smiles at me.

I grab my bag off the couch and head for the front door, passing James pulling up his knee-high soccer socks. It's been about a year since everything about me I didn't know exploded in my face. A lot has changed since then too. I'm homeschooled now, James is pursuing a soccer scholarship at Michigan State, and Mom has a boyfriend. Even I have a boyfriend, to my own surprise.

If you haven't guessed already, his name is Luke. We were partnered together in therapy. I know his problems, he knows mine. I guess you could say we understand each other like no one else has.

I tug open the door to reveal my dorky, blonde-haired boyfriend unknowingly tapping his foot and chewing on the end of his sleeve. It's a terrible habit and result of his ADHD, but I think it's adorable.

I grab his hand to catch his attention and he glances up, his bright blue eyes shining, and drops his sleeve to smile at me. We start walking to the park as we do almost everyday, and I let him tell me about his crazy (and most likely exaggerated) stories. Luke always has something to talk about and I love hearing how his mind works.

Once we arrive, I sit down on the closest bench, only to receive a frown from Luke. "We sat here last time, Ella. Somewhere different, please?"

He ends up choosing the sidewalk curb, excitedly marking into the pavement with a rock. Memories of Brad doing the same thing in a gas station parking lot flash through me, but I ignore it.

Luke suddenly drops the rock and let's out a shaky breath, squeezing his eyes shut.

"Everything okay, babe?" I frown and lightly nude his side.

"T-Their noises are bothering me." He rushes out his words and points to a couple of little boys jumping up and down, yelling at a tree.

I glance over to them and push myself up from the ground, wiping the dust the got on my hands onto my jeans. As I approach them, I hear them accusingly yelling at each about making a bad throw with a frisbee.

"Your disk is stuck up there?" I ask and motion to the tree. The boys stare at me for a moment before nodding. "I'll get it for you."

I hoist myself up on the lowest branch and start making my way up. It doesn't take long for me to spot the bright red disk wedged between two little branches. I try making myself as tall as possible on my tip-toes, but the stupid frisbee is just out of reach.

"Here."

I slightly jump at the voice, someone grabbing the frisbee and reaching it lower to me. I look up and freeze at the familiar face.

"T-Tristan?"

"Good, you remember me." He lightly chuckles.

"It's been like, a year. Where have you been?"

"I'll tell you in a second, I just came back here to explain myself about the whole Brad thing."

My ears perk at the mention of my schizophrenia, "Well don't hesitate."

"I could see Brad, and interact with him and stuff because...I'm an angel." He mumbles while looking down at his hands.

"Oh my god. I'm still crazy aren't I? You're not real!" I start to climb down.

"Wait! No! I'm telling the truth, you have to believe me."

"That's something Brad would say." I snap.

"Have I ever given you a reason not to trust me? Just hear me out." Tris pleads. I stop and let out a breath, raising an eyebrow as an indicator to go on.

"Okay," he sighs, "you were my mission."

"Pardon?"

"Every angel has to earn its wings, right? To get mine, I had to help you defeat your schizophrenia." He explains.

"Why couldn't you just tell me that straight out? I probably would've been cured ages ago." I murmur and glance away.

"It's not that simple." He replies.

"Okay." I sarcastically remark.

"Anyways, it was nice seeing you again, Ella." He smiles.

"Wait-" by the time I glance back at him, he's already gone.

I sigh, gripping the frisbee and jumping down from the tree. I hand it to the little boys and make my way back to Luke. "I think we should go now, they won't be shutting up anytime soon."

He shrugs, standing up and kissing my cheek, "Whatever you say."

---

"You looked at little shaken back there. You sure you're okay?" Luke grabs a white board and marker off my desk to draw random scribbles on.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just thought I saw someone I used to know." I shrug, looking through my drawers to find a CD to play.

"It didn't cause you trouble, did it?"

My breath catches in my throat as a find a random piece of paper at the bottom of the drawer, lyrics that Brad once sang to me written across the page. The top of the page held the title "Another World", followed by a little dash mark and the name "Ella Mcvey". I shut my eyes and shake my head a little, thinking this is just another trick that my mind occasionally plays on me.

"Ella?"

"No." I quickly answer, crumbling the paper in my hands and throwing it in a trash bin. "How 'bout you pick the music this time?"

Luke unfolds his long legs from underneath him and slides off my bed to come towards me. He stares down into the drawer, holding his sleeve up to his mouth. He eventually picks an album by The Fray, opening it up and shoving it inside my CD player that is way past its date.

The two of us spend the rest of our time together cuddled against each other on my bed, singing, lazily dancing, or telling more stories while Luke plays with the bracelets around my wrist or my hair to keep himself occupied.

So that's pretty much my life now. Not so bad for a girl who used to live inside her head, huh?

And yeah, if you were wondering, I do still see Bradley. Most of my time actually, but I haven't told anyone. I'm enjoying being treated normally now and I won't let him mess that up ever again.

"Miss Ella?"

My eyes snap open and I furrow my eyebrows in confusion at my new surroundings. Luke has seemed to disappear and I find myself in a room of all white with nothing but a bed and a desk with a lamp.

At the foot of my bed, Bradley sits criss-cross-applesauce with his hands in my lap. He looks a tired mess and he weakly smiles at me. He watches the lady who just entered the room and I take notice that Bradley and I are both dressed in hospital gowns, a tiny white band clasped around one of our wrists.

The lady dressed in blue scrubs smiles at me and reaches to unbuckle leather straps around my wrists that hold me down to a small white bed. "It's time to take your pills."

The end.

no happy ending, sorry. thank you for reading. (:

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