Piano Man (Tradley au)

Chapter 7- Brad's POV

Tristan looks so scared and I wish I could help him, but I have no idea what to do. His abusive boyfriend is hammering on the door, and he knows we're here. "Ok." I say, trying not to show my panic. "Should we just let him in and try to get around him?"

"No." says Tristan, surprisingly firmly given how much he's shaking. "This whole fight was about you, it'll be so much worse if he finds out you're here."

"About me..." I begin, but Tristan cuts me off.

"Long story, I'll tell you later." He pauses. "I'm so scared."

"What do you want me to do then?" I snap, then wince as that was way harsher than I intended. Tristan's eyes fill with tears, and I instantly feel guilty. "Sorry," I apologise. "I didn't mean to snap, I panicked."

"It's ok." he whispers. "But I don't know what to do."

I bite my lip before saying "Ok. Go and grab a bag and put all your important stuff in. We're safe for now, he can't get in." All this time, Corey is banging on the door, and for a second I think Tristan is going to ignore me. But he grabs his backpack and runs off. I need to get him out of here, at least in the short term. Maybe we can fix all this, but right now he needs somewhere safe to go.

He comes back about 5 minutes later. "I got money and my keys and and my phone and some clothes and my books."

"Your books." I smile, even though this situation is the opposite of funny. But that's such a Tristan thing to do. Corey starts shouting again, which seems to shock Tristan back into the reality of what's going on. "It's now or never." I say.

He bites his lip, then goes to unlock the door. "What do you think you're doing?" snarls Corey.

"Going." says Tristan bravely, but with a trembling voice. 

"Where to?" Corey demands.

"I don't know." Tristan says quietly. "Just out."

"Good luck with that." Corey drawls, and I'm surprised to see him step aside. This is much easier than I thought it would be. Tristan grabs my hand and drags me out the door. I see Corey's mouth open like he's about to say something, but Tristan lets go of me and slams the door in his face. 

"That was scary." I comment. "But easier than I thought."

Tristan doesn't reply to that, but he does say "Where are we going?"

"Back to my place." I say. "If that's ok."

He nods. "Anywhere but here." I try to talk to him a bit more, but I get the impression that he doesn't really want to. That's fair enough, maybe he's in too much shock. I feel bad just leaving him to his feelings though, so I reach out to take his hand. My heart breaks when I feel how much it's trembling, so I give it a gentle squeeze. I'm not surprised he's scared though- I only saw Corey briefly and that was bad enough, God knows what it must be like to have to deal with that all the time. 

Tristan doesn't say much, but I know he's grateful as he doesn't once let go of my hand. Instead, he just lets me lead him along, almost like a child. When we reach my building, I gesture to the stairs. "Just up there."

Suddenly, Tristan says "I was so scared." I don't know what made him speak now- maybe he's acknowledged that we're well away from Corey. 

"Did that happen a lot?" I ask gently.

Tristan shakes his head. "He used to hit me quite a lot, but he didn't really just leave me like that." 

"It's ok." I say, smiling at him. "You're safe now." The moment we get inside and take our shoes off, I notice Tristan's eyes swimming with tears, and my heart breaks all over again. I drag him over to the couch and put my arms around him. "It's ok." I repeat. "You're safe now." That seems to flip a switch in him, and he almost instantly starts sobbing again.

I thought he'd done all his crying for one day, but clearly not. I hug him again like I did earlier, rubbing his back as he bawls into my shoulder. It's horrible seeing him cry, so I try and do whatever I can to help. After a while, he stops crying and looks like he's about to apologise. "Don't." I say, smiling. "You've had a long day and need some sleep. We can talk about all this tomorrow, but right now, guest room's all yours."

He smiles gratefully and heads off. His room is next to mine and hopefully that'll bring him some comfort, God knows he needs it. After about 10 minutes, during which I do some furious tidying up to try and make my flat look more presentable, I decide to head to bed. On my way, I look in on Tristan and smile when I see him curled up fast asleep. I go over to him and press a kiss to his forehead. "Sweet dreams uh Tristan, sleep tight."

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This was a bit rushed at the end, but I still liked it ☺️ Vote and comment if you did too! Also I love the idea of Brad looking after Tristan.

There won't be an update next week as I'm on holiday with no wifi, but there will be afterwards, I promise!