pretty little liar // brad simpson

twenty two

BRAD

"To be fair mate, it looks bad." Tristan offered, still peering over my shoulder at the Daily Mail screenshot Spencer had sent me. 

James leaned forward on the arm of the couch, moving into the conversation. "I mean, out of context it already looks a bit odd, but with the article they scraped together..." He trailed off, his silence filling in the words we were all thinking.

" - it looks like I'm cheating?" I filled in anyway, turning away from their eyes. Throwing my phone onto the other side of the couch, I leaned back and ran my hands through my hair.

"I can reach out and explain?" A soft feminine voice offered, and I opened my eyes and looked through the spaces in my fingers at where Sabrina was sitting on the makeup counter across from us. Her long blonde hair was hanging down and covering most of her shoulders, and she had a sincere look of concern on her young face.

I shook my head, sitting up and resting my elbows on my knees instead. "No, I should be the one to explain it all. If I ask you to do it for me, that's just cowardly, isn't it?"

Sabrina shrugged, swinging her legs a bit. It was so unreal to me to look at this girl, who was so young - she couldn't be older than eighteen, if that - and so youthful that she'd swing her legs and have such a baby face, and yet she made Spencer feel so threatened. "You could see it that way, but I still want to reach out to tell her that she has nothing to worry about. Show her I respect her and I care about her as a person."

"You don't even know her." Connor pointed out, confused.

"But she's a great friend to all of you and she loves Brad so much, isn't that reason enough to like her?" Sabrina shrugged again. I let out a sigh and let my head fall onto James' shoulder.

Tristan patted my shoulder comfortingly. "Come on, at least she confronted you about it right off the bat. That's better than ignoring you or retaliating."

I nodded, my head rubbing against James' shirt. "Want me to call Liz and ask her to go over to your place, make sure she's okay?"

I nodded once more, and James pulled his phone out of his pocket and drafted a text. "Liz is on her way over, but we're done here for the day anyway... maybe you could pick up something she likes for dinner and go home?"

Everything felt like it was falling apart around me. Spencer was a reasonable person, but I knew that she said something because she was upset, and it hurt her to see me with Sabrina on some horribly articulated media story. She felt cheated and she felt insecure, and today was supposed to be a good day, her first photo shoot... and the media had ruined that. But I couldn't just go home and apologize to Spencer for what the media did, because I gave them an avenue to make a story up about Sabrina and I.

All of this could've been avoided if I'd told her about what my plans were for the day - to meet with the boys and Sabrina about our new song. But I hadn't wanted to bring the attention to myself when this was Spencer's big day. Besides, she sometimes felt like she wasn't doing anything good with her life when I was off recording and she was just waiting for calls on jobs.

"Is it cowardly to just stay at your place tonight?" I asked James, running my hands down my face as I looked up at him.

"Yes." James and Connor answered at the same time. Sabrina and Tristan both let out loud laughs, and I released my own dejected sigh.

"You're right." I conceded, reaching out to grab my phone. "I guess I'll text and see what she wants for dinner, and if she responds then maybe that's a good sign?"

James nodded, giving me an encouraging smile, and Sabrina and Connor started picking up conversation again as he tried to teach her a Scottish accent. I sent off a text to Spencer nervously, asking if she'd prefer Chinese or Nando's takeaway.

I flipped my phone face down on my leg so I wouldn't just stare at the screen as I waited for a response, and tried to pretend that I was a part of the loud and rowdy discussion going on in the dressing room. Sabrina and Tristan both had loud voices and were talking over each other as they jokingly argued about something, and Connor had his face in his hands as he laughed while James quietly giggled against the side of the couch, his hand reaching up to tousle his hair.

Finally my phone buzzed, and I grabbed it. Stopping myself, I took a deep breath before flipping it over to see a response.

Spencie Baby: chinese.