Love Has Never Been Easy: A Bradley Will Simpson Fanfic (Sequel to AOY)

Chapter 16.

Brad’s POV

I wait for three rings and then the line is picked up, a familiar voice drifts through the receiver, “Hello?”

“James? It’s Brad!” I reply.

“Brad!? How are you? I haven’t heard from you in ages!” That was true, I haven’t been keeping in touch with Tristan or James recently, I’ve just been... preoccupied.

“I’m doing well, I’m just over at Abby’s house,” I reply looking down at the Ibanez AW54CE sitting in my lap and I run my fingers down the strings.

“How is she?”

“I think she’s doing alright. Hey mate,” I say, pausing to make sure James gets the next part of my request.

“Yeah?”

“What if I asked you if you could and Tristan and possibly even Connor could come over here for a couple of weeks. I have an idea for a song and I think it would be awesome if you all could help me out on it. It’s a song for Abby but Christmas is coming up soon and maybe you might want to use it sometime as well? It could be a little gift for the fans that have been around for awhile and maybe even—”

“Woah Brad, slow down. I don’t even know if we have the time right now, we’ve been touring a lot recently and we’ve hardly had time to see our families. Just hang on, let me ask Joe,” Over the phone I can hear him cover the mouthpiece but I can still hear his muffled voice, “Joe? Joooe?—Yeah I’m in the kitchen!” Theres a loud bump as James sets the phone down and I can’t hear him anymore. I don’t know why, but the news that they’ve been touring pisses me off. I know I should be feeling happy for them, but it’s hard when you know that it could have been you touring and recording and doing amazing things. I hear footsteps and the sound of the phone being picked up and then James is back, “Brad?”

“Yeah, I’m still here,” I reply trying my best to sound not pissed off.

“So I just talked to Joe, and he said that we do have a week and four days that we could with you in two weeks. That puts us at uhh,” James pauses.

“December third is when you would arrive,” I fill in.

“Yeah, does that sound like it could work?” James asks, it’s as if he’s all business now, not the James I knew.

“Yeah, that perfect. Thanks James, it means a lot.”

“No problem, anything for an old friend,” the use of ‘old friend’ struck a chord with me and I felt sick. James continued, “Oh and Brad?”

“Yeah?” I ask my voice intoxicated with melancholia.

“It’s not just going to be Tristan, Connor and I coming.”

“What do you mean?”

“We found a new lead singer his name is Will. We just thought we needed one because we also needed a guy that could play both piano and guitar and Will kind of just stumbled into our path. I hope you don’t mind. I mean you’d still probably be singing the lead vocals on this song for Abby, but yeah,” James sounded uncomfortable, like he knew I was internally screaming profanities.

I swallowed my anger and replied, “Yeah, that’s no problem. See you in two weeks!” And with that I hung up on him. “Fuck,” I swear to myself under my breath. I don’t know why this whole situation was making me so angry but it was, and I needed to calm down. I turned to my left and spot a pillow, perfect. I then begin to punch this poor pillow, expelling my anger through violence on something that could not feel pain. I felt pain, I felt raw emotion that blinded me and made me want to cry. I wanted to hit someone so much and the image of me punching James would not leave my mind.

I only stopped when I heard Abby’s voice, “Bradley?” I halted my attack on her pillow and looked up at her, I could feel the marks where tears were previously running down my face and I hated myself for acting like such a bitch in front of her, and even at all. She approached me and sat down beside me on the couch. She brings her hand up and wipes away the moisture of my tears, “what’s happened?” Her voice is drenched with concern and her eyes are wide, the green iris becoming larger and her pupil smaller.

“They replaced me,” is all I can muster.

“Who?”

“James and Tristan. After they found Connor they also found a new lead singer, Will,” I say, I can feel myself getting angry again but this time I try to control it. I don’t want to let Abby see me worse than I already am.

“Bradley, I know it must be difficult to see your band move on, but you need to realize that it was bound to happen. Whether it be James starting an entirely new band, or adding on some more members to replace the one that left they couldn’t just give up on the project that they started a year ago,” she pulled me into her and I wrapped my arms around her torso. Her hair was damp from her shower and she smelt like shampoo.

“It just isn’t fair. That could’ve been me touring, recording, making friends in high places and then I had to move and mess it all up,” I say, still holding on to her frail figure.

She pulls away and looks me dead in the eye, “Brad, life is not fair. If you really were meant to be living the dream, you would be. But shit happens and you have to move on from it. Be happy for your friends, they’re going to achieve great things and you will too, just maybe not with ‘The Vamps.’ I don’t want to make this about me at all so I’m not going to say the cliched line of ‘if you never have moved we would never have met’ because that’s stupid. Bradley, you were made for a life outside of The Vamps, go and make it the best life ever, please.”I am taking away by her motivational speech of the sort. What she said was true and quite honestly made me feel a whole lot better. She was right, I can achieve great things without James and Tristan and without being in that band.

“To be honest with you they—and by they I mean James, Tristan, Connor and Will—are coming here for a week and a half in December to help me with this song. I just called James and that’s how I found out,” I said. i was not about to ruin Abigail’s gift for her so I made sure to choose my words carefully.

“Oh really? That’s great! Can I see what you’ve written so far?” She asks reaching out to grab the piece of paper I had set on the coffee table.

I quickly reach out and grab it before she could, “Nope, it’s not ready yet, you’re going to have to wait for it to be finished.”

“Brad, you know I hate surprises,” she says a serious expression worn on her face.

“Who said anything about a surprise? You’ll know when I want you to know,” I reply kissing her, “You ready to go?”

“Yeah lets go.” She says while throwing her dufflebag over her shoulder and we step out again into the frigid winter air.