pretty little liar // brad simpson

fifteen

BRAD

She looked so beautiful, the outline of her against the light streaming in from the bathroom as she slipped into her pijamas after she washed up for bed. Her hair was tangled, but still hung in the loose curls it was in during dinner as we drank wine and my family fell just as head over heels for her as I had.

Now they slept peacefully down the hall, unknowing of the way that everything was falling to bits just two doors down. Oblivious - and fortunately more naive than I.

"You're home." I said stupidly, as if I hadn't just laid in bed for hours reciting exactly what I had intended to say when Spencer came back into our bedroom in the middle of the night.

She gasped, pressing her hand to her heart and presumably trying to slow her racing heart. "You gave me such a fright, Bradley."

I pushed myself up into a sitting position, all of the words I'd spent hours practicing in my mind ging to waste as soon as Spencer had walked through the front door, and I'd heard the clink of the keys on the hook. "What are you doing still up?"

"I should've been worried about you, doesn't that sound reasonable? When you disappear for hours late in the night?" I responded a bit sharply, and Spencer's eyebrows drew together in the dark. She stepped over to the side of the bed and turned her lamp on, wrapping her arms protectively around herself.

"Should've?" She repeated, her tone questioning.

"You have your location shared with me, you know?" I said suddenly, pulling my phone off the charger beside the bed. "I was worried when it was suddenly half past midnight and you were still gone without a trace, but then I remembered that you'd shared your location when you got lost a bit ago, remember that?"

Spencer didn't respond, instead she sat down on the edge of the bed and tucked her legs underneath herself. "You don't understand."

"Yes, I do." I snapped, slamming my phone sharply down on the end table and making Spencer jump at the sudden noise. "You were at Tristan's, and you didn't even have the decency to tell me about it this time around, as if that went well last time you tried to keep it from me."

"Bradley, you really don't understand!" Spencer repeated, reaching towards me. I snapped my arm away from her, shoving the covers off of my legs and standing up, squaring my shoulders.

"Explain it to me." I challenged, staring hard at her dimly lit expression that looked more troubled than anything. She wasn't going to tell me the truth, even after all this time - she was still nothing but a little liar, and I'd been fooled the entire time.

Spencer didn't respond, her silence speaking for itself.

"Get out of my house." I muttered coldly, turning on my heel and walking to the closet to grab her suitcase. "Take your things and get out of my sight."

"Brad-"

"Get out!" I shouted, throwing the empty suitcase across the floor. Spencer flinched, her eyes falling to the floor instead of looking at me again. "I mean it, I want you out."

"Why are you so mad?" Spencer asked, standing and finally looking up to meet my eyes.

"You lied to me, you're sleeping with my best friend! And I forgave you, I understood and I forgave you when you were honest with me, and I believed you wouldn't lie to me again!" I argued, throwing open the top drawer of the dresser and scooping all of its contents out and into the suitcase. "And I was a bloody idiot and you haven't stopped, you're still a lying, cheating bitch!"

Spencer's face looked like she'd been slapped, and she fell silent. Quietly, she walked towards the dresser and pushed the top drawer closed. Then, she opened the second one and started neatly placing her things in the suitcase.

"If that's what you think." Spencer said faintly, packing her clothes down softly so as much would fit as possible.

"Don't act as if you've done nothing wrong." I growled, slamming the empty drawer shut when she was done taking her things out.

"I haven't!" Spencer screeched, standing up furiously, her hands clenched into fists. "I've done nothing wrong!"

"You cheated on me!" I raged, so loud that I was sure I'd stirred the family next door, breaking their slumber and inviting them into my misery.

"No I didn't!" Spencer shouted right back. Her face was firm, but her voice fell into a loud whisper filled with venom. "You act as if you've forgotten that this is my job, Brad. I'm not dating you, I'm earning money to look pretty in front of a camera. I'm a model, and actress. I am not your girlfriend."

Her words stung, but they reaffirmed exactly what my breaking heart had been confirming since the day I met Spencer. "I want you gone."

"And I want you to listen to me." Spencer retorted, crossing her arms tightly.

"The stage is all yours." I shot back spitefully.

Spencer took a few deep breaths. "I'm not sleeping with Tristan, not since we talked before. He needed me - for something real, and it's not my place to talk to you about his private matters. But I shouldn't have to defend myself and my actions when they were in good faith." She said firmly, taking a deep breath.

"Good faith my as-"

"I'm not done." Spencer hissed, raising her eyebrows at me sharply.

I nodded, crossing my own arms back and clenching all of my muscles tightly. "You're upset because you think I broke your trust - but if I had your trust, you'd believe that I'm telling you the truth."

"I don't believe you." My voice was barely above a whisper.

Spencer's face fell, if only for a second. "Then you have no right to be upset with me."

I nodded, understanding her point - but my heart couldn't feel the way she was telling me to be the truth. It felt like all of the pieces of my being were being destroyed one at a time, and there was absolutely nothing left to be felt, nothing with meaning.

"Do you want me to leave?" Spencer asked, breaking the long minute of tense silence, her nails digging into her arms where they were tightly crossed.

I had no idea what to say. My heart wanted her here, wanted her to hold me and tell me that things would be okay. But my brain... it told me just the opposite - that she was poisoning my life, that she was nothing but a pretty little liar who was going to torture me and make me go insane the more I let myself fall for her.

I licked my lips, glancing away from the wall and into Spencer's eyes.

"Give me one good reason to let you stay."