Love & War | Brad Simpson ✔️

24. "And the words were on my lips, that you've never looked so beautiful"

"Looks like you're sat in the back seat with Brad" Joe tells me as he loads bags into the back of the van, ready for the gig this afternoon.

I swear to fucking god that Brad somehow manages to do this shit on purpose to wind me up. And I'm not in the best of moods anyway because I woke up to discover that the hell that is my period had returned for another week. Stomach cramps are bad enough without Brad's company.

I give Joe a deadpanned glare.

"Have fun" he grins, giving me a friendly pat on the shoulder as he shuts the boot and makes his way around to the side door of the van. I huff and follow him, climbing into the van before Joe slides the door shut behind me. I clamber to the back of the van and fall into the seat next to Brad. I can feel his eyes on me but I just ignore him and pull my iPod from my pocket.

"Ella, you look thrilled to be sat next to Brad" James pipes up from the seat in front of me. I look up to see him grinning at me.

"It's alright, Ella" Brad chirps from beside me, "if you get bored, you can always make out with me to pass the time"

James laughs at that, obviously not realising that Brad isn't joking because to everyone else in the van, Brad and me making out would be less likely than a zombie apocalypse.

"Don't think Tris would be too happy, would he?" James snorts as he shifts back around in his seat and starts a conversation with Connor.

No James, he probably wouldn't; that's why we haven't told anybody that we made out.

I plug my headphones into my iPod and quickly pull them over my head before Brad can try and start a conversation with me. Apparently, my headphones do not deter him because he starts one anyway.

"What are you gonna listen to?" I hear him ask, his voice only slightly muffled by my headphones but I don't respond and act like the headphones are blocking out his voice even though they aren't.

"Ella, I know you can hear me" he says and even though it's muffled,  I can hear the smirk in his voice, "you haven't started listening to anything yet"

I internally smack him on the head but externally start scrolling through the songs on my iPod.

"Can I choose for you?" He asks. I'm so close to shoving my iPod up one of his bloody nostrils. He curls one of his hands around the iPod and another around one of my hands and tries to gently tug the iPod away. I grip my hands tightly around it as he fails to pull it from me.

"Oh come on, Ella" he whines, before twisting and leaning towards me until his face is in my line of vision and that stupid grin is plastered across his face.

"Fuck off" I mutter, pushing his face away. He just laughs heartily,

"You make me laugh, Ella" he hums.

"I'll make you cry in a minute if you carry on" I shoot back but his smile only gets wider.

"Can someone keep an eye on Ella and Brad please?" I hear Joe call from the front passenger seat, "I'd like Brad to be alive when we get to the venue"

"If he keeps trying to steal my iPod, I can guarantee he will die before we get there" I call back in a flat tone.

"Brad, stop trying to steal her iPod"