Love & War | Brad Simpson ✔️

48. "I am in love with your sister"

"We need to talk"

The emotions underlying Tris's voice and his facial expression are undetectable. I can't tell how angry he is and I don't know if that's worse than knowing.

"Yeah, we do," Brad says as he steps further into the kitchen. I follow behind, sitting on a stool beside him on the opposite side of the island to Tristan. It's quiet for several long moments and the thick tension lingering in the atmosphere between the three of us makes me internally and physically cringe.

"How've you been?" I ask, a sad attempt to diffuse the awkwardness.

"Fine" Tris replies, his tone flat and untelling of whatever emotion he's harbouring right now. The silence returns once more and I don't know where to look. No one knows where to look. The only sound is the constant ticking of the clock on the wall.

I honestly can't think of a situation I've been in that was this awkward.

"God's sake" I eventually groan when I can't take this atmosphere anymore, "can you just get it all out please, Tris? Just yell whatever you need to yell at us so we can yell back and then we can move on"

Tris stares at me intensely with a furious look on his face, "fine, El. I am fuming! I'm so angry that the both of you went behind my back for so long and kept something so huge from me. Do you know how embarrassing that is? How much of a mug that makes me look? Knowing that you were seeing each other behind my back for weeks"

"We're so sorry, Tris," Brad says quietly, "we honestly never intended for you to feel like that, we never intended for any of this, it just happened"

"You still could have told me! You've had weeks!" he exclaims, "I'm hurt that you have that little respect for me that you didn't think you could tell me about this, whilst we're all living under the same roof!"

"It's not that we don't have respect for you, mate" Brad says, his voice surprisingly calm in contrast to Tris's aggressive tone, "the only reason we kept it from you - at least for me anyway - was because I care too much about Ella to not wanna risk losing her, and maybe that was selfish of me - of us - but please don't think that anything that's happened between me and Ella was out of disrespect for you because it really wasn't"

I feel Brad's hand find mine under the counter and I lace my fingers between his, squeezing his hand tightly.

"Also, to be fair to Brad, he wanted to tell you earlier and the only reason we didn't was because of me" I add, "that's why we were arguing the other day, because he wanted to tell you and I didn't"

"You promised me you would tell me about your relationships!" He argues and I can't even dispute that, "and you promised that you nothing would happen with Brad. Both of you promised nothing would happen!"

"We promised you that just hours after I threatened to stab him, I really don't think either of us genuinely thought any feelings were going to involved at that point" I mumble.

"Well, it would have been nice to know when the 'feelings' did get involved" he counters.

"Even if we had have told you, you still wouldn't have been okay with it" Brad argues.

"No, I wouldn't" Tris confirms, though I'm not sure that makes me feel any better, "but I'd have appreciated that you were being honest with me and had spoken to me about it instead of going behind my back and messing around with my little sister"

"I wasn't messing around with her-" Brad starts but Tris cuts him off.

"You've been sleeping with her!" my brother scoffs, throwing me a scowl in the process.