Piano Man (Tradley au)

Chapter 5- Tristan's POV

A/n- there's domestic violence in this which might be upsetting

I haven't seen Brad for a while, and I miss him. I think it's the fact that he's so nice, whereas my boyfriend has pretty much been ignoring me. Maybe he's angry at me, but I don't know what I've done. In a weird way, I'd rather we just had a fight so we could at least get it all out in the open. I hate being ignored, which is ironic given how shy I am.

I'm sitting thinking to myself when Corey storms in. He's clearly angry about something, but I don't know what and I don't really want to ask. It's not that I'm afraid to, it's more that while I'd like to know what's happening, I'm not in the mood for a huge screaming fight. We have enough of them already, and they usually end with me crying, which I really don't want.

Eventually, I say "Are you going to talk to me or not?" then wince. That came out a bit more aggressively than I'd intended, and Corey is not going to be impressed. 

"Why should I?" he says. "You seemed quite happy to ignore me on Saturday, even when I kept trying to get hold of you."

Oh, so that's what this is about. Corey is good at holding grudges, no wonder he's barely spoken to me for the last couple of days. "I told you I was out." I say. "Does it matter where?"

"It does if you were with someone else." he snaps. "I saw that new guy on your phone."

"You mean Brad?" I ask, confused. "He's a friend of mine. I met him on Saturday, yeah."

"If you're just friends then why do you have a stupid nickname for him?" Corey asks angrily. 

"It was a joke, it's nothing serious!" I protest. "It's what he put his name in as, he has one for me too!" I probably shouldn't have said that, as it'll piss Corey off even more.

"Sounds like there's something going on there." he spits. At this point, we're both standing up yelling in each other's faces, which is exactly what I didn't want to happen. We continue with our screaming match, and it just gets worse and worse. I can feel tears welling up, just as they always do. I shouldn't have to deal with this, but I do, and I still can't cope with it. 

Corey glares at me. "Why are you crying? You're pathetic." He's right, I am, but I can't make the tears go away. I have to bite my bottom lip to stop it from trembling, and Corey notices. "What the hell is wrong with you?"

I don't reply at first, but I eventually choke out "I hate this. Why are you accusing me of something I haven't even done?"

"You have done it though." he retorts. "And you've treated me badly."

I can't stop my shocked face. "You think I've treated you badly? If anything it's the other way around. What's your issue?"

"My issue is having a boyfriend who has no respect for me!" he yells.

I lose it. "Yeah, and my issue is that my boyfriend appears to hate me and needs to get his facts straight if he thinks he's being treated badly. You have no idea!" Corey responds by raising his hand and slapping me around the face, hitting me so hard that it actually makes me a bit dizzy. He's hit me before, but never this hard. I'd tried so hard to hold the tears back, but they soon start to fall. 

Corey looks confused, but he completely understands what he's done. He opens his mouth to say something, but I cut him off. "Don't fucking touch me. Get out." It's normally him ordering me around, so maybe it's the shock that actually causes him to do it. I breathe a sigh of relief when I hear the door slam, and I both lock it and put the chain on so he can't come back. 

I think my body is running on autopilot as I'm almost too shocked to do anything, but soon the reality gets me. I put a hand to my cheek and wince as I almost feel the mark there. My eyes fill with a fresh wave of tears, and I curl up into a ball on the floor, pulling my knees up to my chest. I try to slow my breathing, but a deep sob breaks though and I soon give up and start to bawl.

I don't know how long I cry for, but I know it doesn't make me feel better. Telling someone would help, but I don't know who. Ironically, the first person who comes to mind is the one who inadvertently caused all this- Brad. I pick up my phone and scroll through my contacts until I find him, then briefly pause until I think 'fuck it, I need to do this' and call him.

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Poor Trissy 😭 Though please let me know if you liked this, I love reading comments :)

I went to see the boys on Tuesday and it was really good, even though me and my mum thought we had seated tickets but they were standing 😂 It was still fun though. And my signed album bundle came on Friday, so I'm happy 🎉