brooks & hale ✔️

brooks

twenty ;
b r o o k s

BROOKS DIDN'T KNOW WHY he wasted his time scrolling through Facebook, which was just filled with all the exciting things other people did that he didn't have an interesting enough life for. Carl Hextall went skydiving yesterday. Janet McDavid baked a cake for her best friend's birthday. Elsie Bishop had gotten a new puppy, and as wary as Brooks was of dogs, there was no denying it was adorable.

He sighed and rolled over onto his back on the bed. Facebook was boring, but it was an excuse not to do his homework which he really couldn't be bothered to look at. It was probably the first time he'd put work off for so long, but he simply could not find the motivation or willpower that was usually always there. Good grades = good university = good life. That was the mantra he stuck with when life got tough, and it mostly worked.

Mostly.

Unwittingly, his gaze was drawn back to the screen, and more specifically, to a name. Hale Ryves, along with the little green blob that declared him online. Brooks tipped his head back to stare upside down at Hale's face, tiny in the little box of his profile picture, but still his face in all it's handsome glory. It would be so easy to message him. One click away...and say what?

Hi, Friday was fun, let's do it again - minus the part where we argued because that sucked. A lot. Also, do you hate me? Because that would suck too.

Brooks groaned and tugged at his hair. Even his hypothetical message was getting too rambley and weird, and it was all in his head. He was distracted from his internal struggles when a message popped up on his screen. He rolled back onto his front, expecting it to be Calla or Hassan, and blinked when he saw it was neither of them.

bellamy :
hey xx can't wait 2 see u at dinner at mine tonight! ❤️❤️

It took all of two seconds for Brooks to process that, and when he did, he groaned again. He buried his face in his duvet and wondered what terrible thing he'd done for karma to drop him in this mess. He'd completely forgotten about his arrangement with Bellamy, what with being distracted by Hale and what happened on Friday, and that also meant he'd forgotten to think up some excuse not to go.

He could still bail out, claiming he had the flu or some other life threatening illness. But all he'd be doing was delay the inevitable, that being a painful conversation where he had to figure out how to nicely but firmly let Bellamy know that nothing was ever going to happen between them, and he wasn't interested. He'd hoped persistently avoiding and ignoring her would get the message across without unnecessary hurt, but that was clearly not working.

He'd go to dinner. He'd be nice enough to Mr and Mrs Moore. Then, at the end of the night, he'd come clean and have the dreaded conversation. Bellamy could hate him, but that was just collateral damage at this point.

He replied letting her know he'd be there soon, excluding any kisses or love hearts to avoid further misunderstandings, and had a new obstacle to face now. He usually got the train to her place but it was a Sunday, and train times were dodgy on Sundays. Brooks didn't have any other way of making it to Bellamy's house, seeing as he couldn't drive yet and didn't even own a car.

That meant there was only one thing left to do.

Adam was lounging in the movie room, which was basically just a less formal version of their living room built into the basement. The living room was only ever used when his parents had visitors over, and they wanted to display their wealth through all the fancy, expensive items in there. Adam was watching some kind of action film, the screen filled with explosions and gunfire, and he didn't even glance up at Brooks' entrance.