Lush Life (Tradley au)

Chapter 14- Tristan's POV

Warning- there's mentions of domestic violence in this, please don't read it if you find it upsetting.

Me and Brad are walking along the pavement, Jess in tow. The last time we went dog walking together, Brad said that I could go with them again if I wanted, so here I am. The weather has suddenly got warm and sunny around here, and consequently Brad is sporting a horrible pair of sunglasses. 

"Do you think you look cool or something?" I ask, laughing. 

"I look fabulous, and you know it." he replies without even looking at me.

"Yeah," I say, rolling my eyes. "In your dreams." Brad elbows me, and I pretend to fall into the road.  We keep walking until we reach the forest, where we went last time. It's much less bright in here, so Brad is forced to take the 'movie star' (as he calls them) sunglasses off. Jess is tugging him along, so he gives up and let's her off her lead.

"I'm glad you've taken those ridiculous glasses off." I say as we sit down. "They don't make you look cool."

"Yes they do." Brad says firmly. "They enhance my natural beauty." I'm about to open my Mouth to reply, but we hear another voice coming through the trees. Brad sits up in horror as someone I vaguely recognise walks past, smoking and talking into a phone obnoxiously loudly. It takes me a moment to realise where I know this person from, and then it hits me- he's the one from the photo on Brad's bedroom wall. The guy swipes across the screen to end the call and stalks over to us. 

"Um, hi Josh." Brad stutters awkwardly.

Josh looks us up and down before saying "What are you doing here?"

"It's a public place." I point out. "There's no reason we wouldn't be here."

"I didn't ask you." says Josh rudely. "Who the hell are you anyway? Are you Brad's new boyfriend? He certainly moved on quickly."

"No, he isn't." says Brad firmly, although he's shaking slightly. I reach to hold his hand, but where Josh can't see. "This is Tristan. He's my best friend, he lives next door to me."

"How sweet." mocks Josh. "But you didn't answer the question. Why are you here?"

"We were walking." says Brad, looking annoyed. "Is that a problem?"

"Hey, there's no need to be rude." Josh says, pulling a face that makes me want to punch him even more than I do already.

"Fuck off Josh." Brad says, his anger visibly rising. 

"Gladly." Josh sings, turning and walking away. "Bye Bradley! And Thomas!"

"It's Tristan!" Brad shouts back, but Josh is long gone. We sit there in silence for a bit, neither of us knowing what to say, although we are still holding hands. 

After a while, Brad lets go of my hand and says "I want to go home now." I nod, and we stand up. Brad calls Jess back over, and she obediently bounds over and lets him clip her lead on remarkably easily. Brad kisses the top of her head before we walk off. 

As we walk, I say "Josh is a real twat, isn't he?"

"He is indeed." says Brad, sighing. "God knows what I ever saw in him." We walk along in silence for a while until Brad says "Tristan?" He doesn't often use my full name, it's normally 'Tris', so it must be serious. 

"Yeah?" I reply. 

"Can I tell you something I've never told anyone before?" he asks.

"Sure you can." I say, trying not to smile at how much he must trust me. 

"Josh used to hit me." he says, looking down at the floor.

"Why?" I ask, trying but failing to hide my horror.

"He said I deserved it." Brad says, still not looking up. "Mainly because I objected to him cheating on me. He blamed me for it once when we had an argument, and he kept hitting me after that. I was quite glad in a way when he dumped me, I was too terrified of him to do it myself."

We've walked into his front garden at this point, and I take him in my arms. "No one deserves to be hit, except for Josh himself." I say. "Especially not you. You're beautiful and fun and kind, and someone who is as much of a douche as Josh is doesn't deserve you, ok?"

Brad nods, hugging me tightly. "Thank you Trissy."

I smile, then ask him "Whereabouts did he hit you?" Brad indicates his left cheek, and he blushes as I lean down to kiss it softly. 

Suddenly, Brad lets go of me and runs into the house. "I have to go, my mum's calling." I think that's a lie, I didn't hear her. But why would he lie to me?..

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Sorry if this was crap, I had no inspiration and eventually came up with something based off what Abigailr5ervampette once mentioned in a comment a few chapters ago, so thank you for that or there would have been no chapter as I had literally no ideas.

I went ice skating today, and they played wake up (I was jamming, my sister judged me a bit 😂)