Almost Lover

[shygirl3]

The water stopped, he heard everything she had said. Bradley opened the door, with a towel wrapped around his waist. "Of course I love you." he said frustrated. "Victoria, I have told you that. I don't just say it for the fun of it!" he ran his hand through his wet hair. He shook his head and stared at her "Did Liz tell you everything? You're probably just here out of pity." he snapped. "There's only two reasons girls have stayed as long as you have, and that's either because they never knew about my past or Liz told them and they felt bad for me. So which is it because I know that love thing is a load of bullshit." he said.


Bradley had grown up being told he was impossible to love or nobody loves him so he started believing it. He thinks everyone has a motive when they claim they love him. He clearly wasn't his usual hard, cold self at this moment. "If you really loved me you wouldn't make me relive my horrible memories." he said softly. "I need to get dressed." he muttered and went off to his bedroom.

 

[RealisticFantasy]

"What do you want from me?" She shouts after him as she gets to her feet. "I'm pouring my fucking heart out and you turn around and tell me I'm lying. Do you want me to walk away and never come back? Because I keep giving you chance after chance, trying again and again and you keep pulling this stunt. I've tried so hard and you're giving me nothing to work with. When we danced, I loved you. When you kissed me, I loved you. When I saw you with Alyssa, I loved you. And, now? I still fucking love you. What else do I need to say so you'll understand?"


She throws up her hands, exasperated. He was impossible and it was beginning to get to the point where she was just fed up. "Maybe I should just leave." She mutters to herself, turning toward his apartment door. Sure, he could say he loved her. But, what is that worth when he just walks away and calls her a liar? She was just another disappointment in the eyes of another person. Big surprise. Maybe she should've left when she could still fool herself into thinking she didn't love him.

 

[shygirl3]

His bedroom door flung open "Look at you, you're about to leave." he said. "Everyone leaves. Sure you come back, but you never stay. I need you to promise to stay, no matter what." He started walking towards her, "Victoria, I know I'm impossible. I know all my negative qualities. But no matter what I do I can't change. This is who I am." He said with a hint of desperation. He looked into her eyes and he wasn't that strong sarcastic professor. He was that damaged, hurt little boy from his past.


He shook his head, "If you want to leave, just go. Everyone else does." he turned his back and felt tightening in his chest. Bradley wasn't sure how she was going to react and he wasn't sure if he would be able to handle the rejection. Well if the rejection did come he had another bottle to help ease the blow.

 

[RealisticFantasy]

She hesitates for a moment, weighing his words. "I am not everyone else." She turns around to face him. There was another moment of hesitation before she gets down on one knee. "Granted, this would be more effective with a ring but, uh, this is my promise..." She shifts her weight awkwardly, looking up to him. "Wow, you look a lot taller from down here. Heh... um, will you marry me?" He wanted a promise and she was certain to deliver.


If he still wanted to take things slow, they certainly could. They didn't have to start planning a wedding anytime soon if he said yes. She just wanted to make it absolutely clear that her promise was really a promise that she intended to keep. He was probably going to think she was joking but she wasn't intending on taking no for an answer.

 

[shygirl3]

He turned around and looked at her, "what are you doing?" Bradley heard her proposal and stared at her confused, "that's sort of my job." he said confused. Bradley grabbed her hands, pulling her to her feet. "I know you mean well, but you were about to leave. Why should I believe you now that you're not going to leave when you were about to leave 2 minutes ago?" Bradley sighed "I'm not doubting you....but I am. Victoria, I really want this to work but I don't think it's possible to truly love me." He said letting go of her hands.


Black stared at her and he couldn't take it anymore. He pulled her into his arms and kissed her passionately. "I don't know what to do." he said softly. He rubbed his face frustrated with himself, "I'm trying Victoria, I really am." He stared at her, "Will you feel better if I told you about my past?" he asked her curiously. It was the last thing he could thing of that may make him truly believe he is loved. He sighed and sat on the couch, "I never belonged anywhere, nobody ever wanted me." he said quietly. "My biological mother was a drug addict whore, my father was probably some guy who paid her. I was abused my our landlord and the guys that would come for an adult sleepover. One night my mother overdosed and when I tried to call for help, the landlord hit me as I watch my mother die. I managed to get to the hospital it was too late to save her but they managed to spare me." He continued staring at the floor, "I was put into the system, I was an orphan from when I was 4 until I was 8. My mother now adopted me because she didn't think she could have kids so she figured she would adopt a kid so she could say she had one. She wanted one who could talk and was potty trained so I was chosen by default, then she was surprised when she got pregnant with Liz. My adoptive father never like me because I wasn't his, I wasn't the typical boy who liked sports, and they thought I was gay until they caught me kissing a girl in my bedroom when I was 20." He stood up and walked over to the kitchen.


Bradley searched through the cabinets, the bad memories were torturing him again and he needed a drink. He was tearing through the cabinets for a bottle he thought he had, but couldn't find. He slammed the cabinet shut and stared at her "this is why I didn't want to tell you! I hate feeling like...like...like a helpless little shit!" he yelled and just sat on the kitchen floor burying his face in his hands.

 

[RealisticFantasy]

She blinks, staring at him blindly for a few moments. After she recollects her thoughts, she sits next to him. "Just because I thought about leaving doesn't men I wasn't going to come back. I still trust you. I still love you. I still want to marry you and that proposal still stands. I know life is really shitty sometimes and this isn't the kind of thing you can just forget about. But, everything that's ever happened to you - good and bad - is what makes you, you. And, I love you. I'm not going to sit here and try to convince you that what happened in your childhood was good. But, look what dwelling in it has done to you. How much of your life have you spent drinking away the old memories instead of making new ones? I'm not saying it's easy. Losing your baby is hard and I can't imagine losing... everything, but you have to try to live your life."


She sighs, hugging her knees to her chest. "This changes nothing. You are still the same man I love, flaws and fears and all. You are incredibly strong, incredibly brilliant, and incredibly handsome. You're incredibly kind when you want to be. You're just overall incredibly despite what anyone else might say. It's okay to be helpless every once in a while. If I was never helpless, Whitehill might have been the last you ever saw of me."

 

[shygirl3]

He sighed and shook his head "I appreciate everything you said, but I just can't believe it." He shrugged "I guess I've just grown so accustomed to being put down that it's hard to believe someone when they're trying to build you up." his phone was ringing and Liz's name popped up on the screen, with a picture of Sophie smiling happily. He glanced at it and placed it back on the floor, he couldn't talk to her. Not now.


After the phone stopped ringing the texts started flooding in from Liz "Goddammit Bradley. Answer your phone." another one popped up "I swear if you're getting drunk..." the phone dinged again "or are you too busy doing your girlfriend?" Black glanced at the screen with each ding and read the messages. He grabbed his phone and texted her back, "Cut the shit Liz, I'm sober and it's none of your business what I'm doing with my girlfriend. Why are you calling me." She responded briefly. "Sophie's getting surgery. 1 hour." He dropped his phone, he couldn't believe it. Bradley stared out the window in complete shock, he had to go, but he couldn't. "Sophie needs surgery..." he whispered softly. He looked at Victoria "I need to be there for her, she's probably so afraid, I need to bring her favorite things, they always make her feel better." he was running around his apartment collecting some of the things she leaves there so she has stuff to play with when she comes to visit. He stopped and stared at her. The realization of the fact that he had to go to a hospital set in.


He turned towards Victoria and uttered words that he never thought he would utter to anyone ever again. "help me." he said softly to her with a hint of panic in his voice.

 

[RealisticFantasy]

Victoria gets to her feet, wrapping her arms around him in a tight embrace before kissing his cheek. "I will always be here for you. Nothing bad will happen. Sophie and you will both be just fine." She bends down to pick up his phone and hand it to him. "It's like going any place else. Just don't think about it." It had never been harder for her to give advice. How was she supposed to convince somebody to just forget everything that feared and worried about?


"Come on. Let's get some stuff for Sophie together. We can stop and get her flowers or candy or balloons. What do you think she'd like best?" She hoped trying to get him to think about something other than the hospital would calm him down. The sooner she could get to the hospital, the better. She had to give Liz a piece of her mind once she got the chance. "You can do this, Bradley. We can always leave if it's too much for you. You just have to see Sophie, though."

 

[shygirl3]

Bradley gave a slight nod. He walked over to a closet and pulled out a pink tote, he opened the lid and grabbed a stuffed monkey and coloring books with crayons. He then went over to a pantry and grabbed a bag of gummy bears. "Come on." he muttered walking towards the door. Black got in his car, waiting for Victoria to join him, and sped off to the hospital. He tried calling Liz, but didn't pick up. "Goddammit, Liz that phone is fucking attached to your hand. Pick up." he kept calling, but she wouldn't answer.


He pulled into the parking lot and found a spot. He got out of the car and quickly walked towards the doors. However, it was like there was a wall blocking him from entering, he couldn't do it. Bradley shook his head and held the things out to Victoria, "I....I can't do this. Take these to her and tell her I'll be at this door when she's all ready to come home." he said. His phone began to ring and Liz's name showed up. He answered "Now you f-" he stopped hearing yelling in the background. "She refuses to listen until you're here. Stop being so selfish." she said through gritted teeth. Bradley sighed "Liz, I'm fucking try-" she hung up on him.


He shoved his phone back into his pocket and stormed into the hospital. As he walked he felt his chest tightening, his palms getting sweaty, and he was feeling a bit nauseous, but he trekked on. He stopped in Sophie's doorway and she let out an elated shout "Uncle Bradley!" He stood there staring at her, his face pale. The sounds, smells, and sight of the hospital was beginning to be too much for him. "You don't look so good Uncle Bradley." she said softly. "I don't feel too good, Kiddo." he said monotonously. The room began to spin and he fainted. A doctor rushed over and began to tend to him as Sophie watched frightened. "Is this my fault?" she asked softly.

 

[RealisticFantasy]

Victoria watches as Bradley hits the floor and kneels next to him almost immediately. "Oh, god. I'm so sorry. This was a bad idea. Bradley? Wake up, Bradley. I will kill you if you're dead." She reaches out to shake his on unconscious body but is pulled away by a nurse. "Ma'am, please give him some--" Victoria tries to break free of the nurse's grasp. "I am not a ma'am." Remarkably, her addition to the chaos of the moment gets her hauled out into the lobby of the hospital. For the second time, she's told "Family only."


Victoria bounces and paces and sits and chats and waits and paces in the lobby, waiting on news for either Sophie or Bradley. After about twenty minutes of nothing, she decides to wander the hospital aimlessly. The worst that could happen was that she'd be sent back to the lobby. In some cruel twist of fate, she found herself outside the nursery. The window displaying a few rows of newborn babies as they come and go to see their parents, get weighed, or be tested for any noticeable ailments at birth. She sighs and press a hand to the window, unable to pull herself away from it. It was, in a way, poetic. She was so close to a child, but there was an immovable barrier between her and her goal.

 

[shygirl3]

The doctors take Sophie for her surgery as she yells for her uncle who they had sitting in a chair as they check his vitals and everything. After a bit they finally deem him back to normal. Bradley looks around "Where's Sophie? and Victoria?" he asks remembering where he was. The nurses told him that they took Sophie to her surgery and Victoria was probably somewhere in the lobby. He ventured down to the lobby looking for Victoria. He couldn't find her. He sighed and figured she probably left, the woman at the front desk watched him look around and said "are you looking for someone sir?" He turned and went to shake his head not wanting to waste her time, but decided to nod. "Uh, yeah a woman with brown hair, about this tall, probably a bit on the quiet side." The woman nodded and pointed towards a hallway "she went that way." He nodded and began to walk.


As he walked down the hallways he saw a sign that said nursery, he froze. She couldn't be down here, why would she be here? He saw through a pair of doors Victoria looking through a window. He walked towards her "window shopping?" he asked curiously with a slight smirk as he stood next to her. He found himself staring at the babies, most of them were sleeping peacefully, he thought about how cute and innocent they looked. But when one started to cry he was immediately reminded at why he was so hesitant with children. Bradley didn't think he could ever maintain his patience and anger with another life who couldn't physically tell or show him what's wrong.

 

[RealisticFantasy]

Victoria involuntarily gasps softly at the sight of him, promptly wrapping her arms around him. "Are you okay? Shouldn't you be sitting down? Why wouldn't you tell me it would be that bad? I would have never dragged you here in the first place if I had known." She inhales deeply, burying her head into his chest. The thought of losing another person that meant the world to her sent her mind reeling. She mutters, more to herself than to him, "I swear if anything like that ever happens again and I get sent to the lobby because I'm not family again..."


She pulls away from the embrace just long enough to give him a quick kiss. Bradley really did mean the world to her. What else did she have left? Her parents, though now more complacent than they had been in the past, didn't really want too much to do with her anymore. Sure, she had Charles and a few other friends. But, she didn't need Charles they way she needed Bradley. She didn't love Charles so completely, so stupidly. She had fallen for Charles so quickly and so completely that she didn't even realize it until it was nearly too late. "I love you."

 

[shygirl3]

Bradley chuckled and wrapped an arm around her "breathe, Victoria. I'm fine." He was still a bit tense from being in the hospital. "How about we just go sit outside." he suggested, holding her hand as he leads back towards the lobby and outside to a bench. Black took a breath as he walked outside, relaxing a bit. He sat down "to answer your questions, I'm fine, I'm sitting now, and I didn't think it would be that bad." He thought for a minute, running all of her questions over in his head making sure he answered them all. He did, but she had said something that needed a response. Bradley smiled at her "and I love you too."


He sighed, as he thought about Sophie. "I didn't even to get to tell her everything would be okay." he whispered. Bradley shook his head and ran his hands through his hair. "I couldn't even be there for her when she needed me." he groaned frustrated with himself. An older woman came up "Bradley." she hit his arm "You know how you are with hospitals. What the hell were you thinking." She pulled him up and into a hug. He tensed up "Ma." he groaned "stop, I'm fine. It was nothing." he said dryly. She looked over at Victoria. "Who's she?" she whispered with a smirk. He rolled his eyes, "Mother, this is Victoria. Victoria...this is my mother, Grace." His mother smiled and raised an eyebrow. She mouthed the word 'girlfriend?', he nodded and she immediately hugged Victoria. "It's nice to meet you dear!" she exclaimed happily.


Black groaned. "Ma." he snapped. She rolled her eyes and smiled at Victoria, "Oh hush. I'm talking to my future daughter in law." His jaw clenched, "Mother." he said again. She took Victoria's hand, "Come on love, let's go get a coffee. We can chat." she said with a warm smile. "Bradley, go be a dear, and get the present I got for Sophie from the car." she called back to Bradley as she walked to the hospital cafe with Victoria.

 

[RealisticFantasy]

Victoria half-waves to Bradley, confused, as she is dragged away from his side. She really just wanted to be with him at the moment and the whirlwind of excitement just gave her a headache. But, Victoria was a polite person - although Bradley would debate that fact. So, she forces a small smile as she begins to resist a little less as Grace pulls her along. "So, you're Bradley's mother? It's lovely to finally meet you. I'm sure Bradley isn't too thrilled. We both know very well how he is."


Victoria was suddenly very aware of the conditions under which her and Bradley met. It also had just occurred to her that Bradley hadn't told his parents about her and she hadn't told hers about him. What would their respective families think about her being his former student? What about the age gap? What about the whole Alyssa ordeal? Given Liz's response to the whole thing, it wasn't looking good. And, why hadn't Bradley informed his mother that he was at least dating someone? Was he embarrassed of her? Did he actually just want to call the whole thing off? She tries to convince herself that was just Bradley, that was how he was. Still, she couldn't help but feel a little nauseated at the thought.

 

[shygirl3]

Bradley stared after them dumbfounded. He walked off to go find his mother's car to get the gift she requested. Back in the cafe grace grinned at Victoria. "I'm curious about how a sweet, cute little thing like yourself fell for a brute like my Bradley?" Bradley found his mother's car and took a deep breath as he walks back into the hospital. He hands the present to a nurse telling her the room number and went off to find them before his mother before she did what she was best at, meddling too much. He found the cafe and stormed in.


Bradley walked in and stood near them. "The gift has been delivered to Sophie's room. Now if you don't mind, Victoria and I were just going." He commented distantly. "Come Victoria. " he said coolly walking towards the door. His mother frowned. "Bradley, that is not how I raised you to treat a lady. She is not your pet. You don't just tell her to follow you everywhere. If she wants to stay you let her stay." She scolded him. He turns around with a slight tinge of red in his cheeks. He shakes his head "I didn't ...that wasn't what I meant. I just..." His mother grinned as she was proud of herself for causing Bradley to blush a little. "Keep him in line, dear." She whispered "we'll do coffee another time. When the fun sucker isn't around" she said referring to Bradley. "I can hear you mother." Bradley said with a hint of annoyance. Grace smiled. "Good." He rolled his eyes and then looked at Victoria "are you coming?" He asked softly.


((Sorry about the lack of color, I'm on my phone so I can't do it.))


((Disregard^^^ I added the colors now!))


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[RealisticFantasy]

Victoria just didn't have the energy for all this excitement in one day. She had zoned out while Bradley and his mother had their exchange, snapping out of her trance at the sound of Bradley's voice. "Are you coming?" She lifts her gaze to him with a small smile. "Of course. I'd follow you to the ends of the Earth." She didn't know why she felt like adding the exaggeration, it just felt right. Maybe she felt like Bradley needed that little extra reminder that she wasn't planning on breaking his heart any time soon, if ever. Maybe the stress from the day made her feel like she didn't to cling to the things she could potentially lose. Maybe that's just how Victoria was, maybe she just loved too fast, too strongly, maybe she just fell too hard to ever recover...


At any rate, it was already said. She walks off with Bradley, offering a small wave to his mother. "Your mother is... cute." She chuckles, running a hand through her hair. "And, the hold she has on you is definitely adorable." She leans into him, relishing the moment before she has to break it. She had to ask, she had to know. "Anyway," She pauses with a sharp, soft inhale and slips her hands into her pockets, looking to the ground as they walk, "Why didn't you tell her about me? Are you embarrassed of me? Because it wouldn't be the first that someone was. I could act different around her if you'd like. I could act... more... adult-y."

 

[shygirl3]

Bradley raised an eyebrow at her response, "I'll have to remember that." he said with a light chuckle as he wraps an arm around her shoulder. He scowls a bit at her comment "she does not have a hold on me." he states, protecting his masculinity. He continued walking out of the hospital, and towards his car. As she spoke again he knew it couldn't be good. He stopped hearing what she said, he reached out and grabbed her arm, "Hey..." he said turning her towards him. "I'm not embarrassed of you. If I was embarrassed of you, I wouldn't be with you out in public." he said with a smirk trying to lighten the mood.


He sighed and gently tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, "I'm not a very open person....especially with my mother. As you can tell, she likes to meddle. I hate it. I just didn't need her screwing things up, I could do that myself." he explained. He stared at her, "you look tired. How about we had back to my place. You can nap if you'd like, and I can make us dinner." Black suggested softly.