.Chapter 16.

This chapter is dedicated to @_the_writers_ for commenting so much and making me laugh XD and also shipping Chradon so much! (ship name for Chris and Brad, haha so cute ^_^) Check out their book 'Take Down', it's one of a kind :) And it's three of them, not just one; isn't that awesome? :D

Enjoy the chapter! [Spoiler Alert: lots of Chrisian and Chradon moments]

****

"Alicia!" I yelled, and Al jumped in alarm when she realized that I hadn't forgiven her for bringing Julian here especially when I was angry at him.

What happened after he came is a different story.

"Chris!" she exclaimed nervously, and practically ran away as she saw the look on my face. I followed her in full speed.

"Wait, you little - AAHHH!" I shrieked as I crashed into someone.

"Watch where you're going!" Brad exclaimed, rubbing his chest, where I had apparently crashed.

"Sorry," I said sheepishly, my annoyance towards Alicia vanishing in thin air.

"It's fine," he cringed as he rubbed the sore spot.

"Did you know?!" I exclaimed happily, my heart going wild with exhilaration. "Julian just asked me out, Brad!"

Without waiting for him to answer, I went ahead and gave him a tight hug.

"Thank you, thank you so much!"

"Can't breathe here," he gasped, and I released him, suddenly feeling shy of my own actions.

But you couldn't blame me for my enthusiasm, could you?

"And I saw you both, er, patch up, by the way," Brad smiled, but it seemed a bit forced.

Though it bothered me, I shrugged it off.

"I am . . . really happy for both of you," he said, releasing his words with a deep sigh and a small smile, but once again, his smile didn't reach his eyes.

"Thanks!" I squealed again. "It was possible only because of you!"

"Nah!" he said, shrugging his shoulders and put his hands in the pockets of his jeans. "You're beautiful inside out, Chris . . . Juliet would be mental if he didn't want you again."

I stared at him in awe, my heart thundering at his words.

"T-Thanks."

"I must get going, now," Brad frowned, looking at the time. "It's late, and you have school tomorrow."

"Yes."

"Bye, take care."

They were just two words, but they implied so much more meaning.

"Hey, princess."

My heart smiled warmly as I heard a familiar voice call from behind. I turned around, and was attacked by a sweet kiss from Julian.

"I gotta go now, okay? See you in school tomorrow!"

Then his gaze fell on Brad, and Julian grinned, moving forward to shake hands with him. "Hey, man. I thought Chris was just kidding about you being here in the, uh . . . bathroom?"

"Oh yeah, I had to make a phone call," Brad said, but I saw right through his lie. "So you both are, like, together now?"

Julian's face lit up, and I felt myself smile, too. "Yup." He snaked an arm around my waist, bringing me closer to him, and kissed my forehead.

"That's great! But I must really go now."

We hummed in agreement, and with a nod towards both of us, he left.

The second he was gone, Julian turned around and came closer to me, raising my arms with his hands and then rested them on his shoulders. I automatically closed the distance between us, and interlaced my fingers with his soft hair.

"Are we taking this too fast?" I whispered in a scared voice.

"No," he whispered back with a smile, and then sighed. "Opening match of the season in a week, Chris. I'm damn nervous. What of someone has an accident? Or someone quits the team? Kyle and Drew are not solving their differences at all! And I can see that it's affecting the whole team. What if - What if we don't win and I screw up as a Captain?"

"Hey," I silenced him, "You won't. You are the best Captain, and the best player! I have faith in you; just have faith in yourself, okay? We are going to win this game."

He just smiled.

---

The entire audience rose up from their seats as the big screen displayed the words: THE SILVESTERS WIN!

The Eagles played horribly, and even they seemed to know it, because they left the football field without further ado, their heads hung low in shame.

The entire cheer leading team rushed forward to join the triumphant footballers, congratulating them, hugging them, a couple of them kissing their boyfriends; but my eyes only searched my boyfriend.

Julian's face displayed a big, bright and goofy smile; I could feel the happy vibes radiating from him from where I was standing. My heart soared with glee - we won the game!

"Did you see the last goal?!" Julian exclaimed excitedly, as the both of us ran towards each other. He picked me up from my waist and twirled me in a totally clichéd way, before grasping my lips with his, lowering me down.

Both of us were perspiring, but he looked as though he had taken a bath in sweat.

"I knew you'd kick their asses!" I said with a grin.

"And kiss your lips," he said cheekily, causing me to laugh.

"You up for a Starbucks?" he asked me.

"How about the Diner instead?" I suggested.

"Works for me. I'll go change, and we'll go celebrate our win."

"But what about my clothes?"

"You look perfect," he smiled.

"Okay," I smiled back, blushing, and went to congratulate my best friend, who gave me a hug.

"I know you didn't cheer for me but for Julian, but I'll let it pass just this time," Dan joked.

"Of course I cheered for you, too," I scoffed, playing the offended card. "You're equally important."

"Aw, I'm touched."

"Idiot," I chuckled, shaking my head. "Listen, I'm going out with Julian just now, so will you give Alicia a ride home? We drove here in my car."

"Sure," he said. "I'll tell her about you. Have fun; but don't do anything I would," he winked.

I just rolled my eyes.

"Chris!"

I turned around to see Courtney running towards me. "You're phone has been ringing non-stop in your bag. You'd better take it: might be an emergency."

I furrowed my eyes in confusion, thanked her, earned a smart slap on the shoulder for doing so, and unlocked my phone to see 3 missed calls from Sebastian and 4 from Zach.

I hastily called Zach back, jogging away from all the noise and chaos.

"Hey, sorry to disturb you, I wouldn't have called if it wasn't urgent-" Zach blabbed breathlessly, picking up after the first ring itself.

"Zach, Zach," I said, cutting him off. "Calm down and tell me what happened."

"Do you know where Bradon is?" he breathed.

"No, why would I?" I said sharply.

"I don't know, I just figured maybe you would, uh, know where he has gone."

I raised my eyebrows.

How could I know where he was? And what did Zach mean by 'gone'?

As if he read my mind through the phone, he said, "You guys seem close, so I naturally thought . . ."

"What happened?" I demanded, cutting him off. "Maybe he is just chilling out somewhere."

"No, he isn't. We were hanging out at Caleb's, when Bradon got a text or something. He read it and for some reason got angry. He wouldn't tell us what it said; just muttered something on the lines of 'fucking intolerable bitch', and shot out of the house, threatening to castrate us if we dared to come after him."

"He said that?" I said softly, rubbing my temple.

"Um, yeah."

"He might be at his house," I suggested.

"He might, but I tried the house phone; he's not picking up. But I'm damn sure he's there."

"How long had he been gone?"

"Three hours now."

"Shit," I cursed frantically, wondering where the hell this boy had gone.

"Hey, if it's not a problem, could you drop in at his house and see if he's there? I don't want to die so young."

I laughed at that. How could Zach guarantee that I wouldn't be the victim of his apparent anger?

"Of course," I said, worry settling in again. "I'll head there straight away."

"Thanks, bye. Kick his ass if you find him and tell him how worried we all were because of his reckless act."

"Leave it to me," I said grimly, and hung up.

I quickly ran wherever my legs took me, trying to find Julian. I finally located him amongst his friends.

"Julian," I panted, pulling him aside. "Something's come up, I'm sorry I can't come with you to the Diner." Saying that, I turned around quickly.

"Okay, but what happened-"

"I'll explain everything later," I called over my shoulder, as I fumbled through my bag, trying to find the car keys, half- walking, half-running at the same time.

Fuck you, Evans.

---

I sighed, as I parked my car outside Brad's huge apartment.

I had come over at his house a couple of times before, so I knew where he lived.

"Here goes nothing," I murmured, and unbuckled myself. The walk to his house was painfully slow, seeing that I wasn't expecting him to be there, nor did I know what to expect if he was there.

My hand hovered in the air as I started to ring the doorbell, but then I realized that the door wasn't locked.

The minute I stepped into the apartment, I knew that Brad was here.

A black vase lay shattered on the floor of the entrance itself. Skipping away from it, I called out, "Brad?"

No answer.

I looked around, noticing that the apartment was in a real mess: messier than what I had seen before, that is.

The couch pillows were lying askew on the floor, the feathers scattered too; and a couple of souvenirs that were originally placed beside the TV also lay broken.

"Oh, dear," I whispered.

Something bad had definitely happened here.

No, no. Think positive for the sake of your friend, Chris.

"Brad?" I called out, but was again greeted by silence.

I sighed in defeat, bent down to pick up the cushions and placed them on the sofa. Then I picked up the now useless souvenirs and tried to locate the trash can: I spotted it, and threw the pieces into it. Taking a broom from the cabinet under the sink, I sweeped away the white feathers into a corner with great difficulty.

Don't judge.

I was born in a house where you only had to breath yourself; there were servants to do the rest. I felt ashamed to think that I had never really sweeped or cleaned something with a broom.

My eyes landed on the the vase, and I cringed at the number of pieces it had separated into. This was gonna take a lot of time to clean up.

My eyes scanned the room, trying to find a plastic bag. Failing to do so, I opened the refrigerator, searching for one, and finally found it. Emptying the contents of a plastic bag, that is a cardboard box, I opened it to see it filled with chocolate éclairs.

Yum.

And why the hell would Brad keep the bag along with the box? Just the box would have sufficed.

I walked back to the living room, and bent down to retrieve the glass pieces. I tried to be as careful as I could while putting them in the plastic bag; I didn't want to cut myself.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" a hoarse voice from behind startled me, and I jumped, the piece of glass escaping from my fingers.

I hissed in pain as it sleekly cut through the skin of my finger and blood began to ooze out, forming a small balloon of blood.

"Hey," I said hopelessly.

"You-You cleaned this up?" Brad croaked, gesticulating in the direction of the living room. Frankly, he looked like shit; but somehow he still managed to look like a hot mess.

His hair was tousled, and his eyes looked bloodshot. One of his hands held a bottle of Dr. Pepper, and the other, a cigarette.

"Yeah I did, but-"

"Why?"

I stared at him in confusion. "Why what?"

"I - You should leave."

"No," my voice rang sharp through the air.

I took a cautious step towards him, and I saw his grip on the bottle tighten visibly.

"I'm not gonna leave you, here, in this state."

"Why not?" he said coldly, and I eyed the cigarette in his hand.

Don't do it, my mind warned me.

But I still continued taking small, hesitant steps towards him.

"You're a mess," I said quietly. "And a friend helps out a friend, right? You helped me out that day at my house."

"So what? You think you're obligated to help me or something?" he sneered at me, "I don't need your pity."

"No one's pitying you," I said softly, and ignored his harsh tone, knowing that something had happened to him.

"Go home Christine."

I flinched as he called my full name, and I finally reached close enough to see how horrible really he looked.

What the hell had happened to him?

I looked down at his hand yet again.

Don't do it!

I looked into Brad's eyes, and I could see curiosity and suspicion in his eyes as to what I was gonna do. Believe me, I wasn't sure myself. Bending slightly at my knees, I moved my hand to his limp one, and pulled out the cigarette slowly, bringing it to my lips, and took a drag.

"You don't need this," I whispered, blowing the smoke on his face, my eyes lost in his in a trance.

I dropped the butt on the floor and stomped on it.

Brad's gaze dropped down, and he reached forward, raising my hand slowly, a small frown forming on his face.

He raised my hand higher and brought it to his lips: and just as I thought that he would kiss it like a gentleman, he opened my palm, beginning to suck slowly at the place where I had been cut by the glass.

I flinched horribly, and he noticed.

"Does it hurt?" he asked.

"A bit."

It hurts like hell . . .

Brad chuckled all of a sudden.

"What?" I asked curiously. This guy was bipolar.

"This is a really cheesy pick-up line which I'm about to say."

"What?"

"Are you sure you're not in pain? 'Cause you're driving me insane."

****

How was it? Eh eh?

I know all of you love and ship Chradon, guys, but can you please reduce the hate you'll have been giving to Julian?

I know you don't like him as much as Brad (rather don't like him at all :P), but SHARE THE LOVE! Right? :)

[Teaser for the next update: Brad opens up to Chris about the text he received and why he got so angry.]

Thank you for reading!

-Crazy