your body is a weapon → brad simpson | ✓

sixty

I wake up the next day at eight in the morning to an empty bed. Aiden left a note on my side of the bed for when I wake up, explaining that he had to disappear and do some stuff with the gang today.

I had an hour before my personal trainer would be here and in the meantime, I ate and got changed into some gym wear. I didn't see the point in showering since I'll just be sweaty and gross after.

When the doorbell rings, I go to answer it. Unlocking the door and swinging it open, I'm surprised to see a head of disheveled blonde hair.

"James? What are you doing here?"

"Aiden said he wanted me to be your personal trainer," he says. He didn't sound as bubbly as usual, and it even brought my mood down. "And I agreed."

"Okay," I nod, stepping to the side so he could come in. "Where are we doing it?"

"We're gonna do some laps around the back garden and warm up first," he says. "I assume you need to be eased into it before I start giving you weights and stuff."

I nod, closing the front door and following him out to the back garden. It brings back many memories, the most vivid one being the time that I fainted in front of Brad and Aiden.

We start off running slow, absorbed in silence as I try and keep my pulse steady and my breathing calm. It was underwhelming how quiet James was considering he's usually such a bubbly person. I can only imagine that it's because he knows about Aiden and I, and isn't happy about it.

After we've finished running, we do some stretches and some workouts such as squats and ski sits. One minute into a ski sit, I let out a small sigh. The uncomfortable silence was suffocating.

"So, how've you been?" I ask, looking over to James. He was unsurprisingly good at these, and he was leaning against the wall casually.

He glances over to me and shrugs. "I've been okay, I guess. You?"

"I've been better," I mutter and I don't think he quite catches it. "Haven't seen you in a while, though. I just wanted to make sure you're fine."

"I'm not the one you should be checking up on," he frowns at me slightly and I can't lie that his words pang at my chest.

"I know," I purse my lips for a moment. "I just want to let Brad cool down before I try and talk to him again."

"Not a bad move, but I think he's struggling more because you haven't reached out to him," James says. My eyebrows furrow. "If you were to have reached out to him, he would've known you cared, that you wanted to sort things out. But you haven't and he thinks you don't care for him."

He couldn't be further from the truth. "Of course I care for Brad, I always will. You weren't there James, you didn't see the hurt and the anger in his eyes when he spoke to me. He told me he never wanted to speak to me again, and I knew he needed time to cool off."

"He wouldn't mean that," James shakes his head. "Brad loves you, everyone knows that, including yourself. You getting engaged to Aiden all of a sudden broke him, Jamie. He said it in the heat of the moment."

"I guess," I sigh. "I just wanted to know he's calm and ready to talk to me before I tried anything, I didn't want to make it worse between us."

"I understand that," James nods. "What I don't understand is why you decided to get engaged to a guy you met only a few weeks before."

Right, James doesn't know Aiden and I were best friends until a few years ago. I decide not to correct him on that detail since it's not important.