Bradley had returned from his long afternoon at work feeling exhausted, after dinner he'd slumped up the stairs, trying to quickly get to bed without any confrontation. As he neared the door however, he heard a crashing sound coming from his dorm. What was going on? He pressed his ear against the door and listened to the crashing and heavy breathing of someone within. His mind wandered, questioning who would be throwing things in the dorm. The answer hit him quickly though. From the actions inside and all the evidence, he concluded that it was Barry. He had the highest motives out of all of the boys. Going against his better judgement, he slowly pushed the door open.
Frenzied, Barry spun around to see him. His face was red with anger but the tear stains suggested that he was upset not angry. Had he had a panic attack? There was no way that Barry would cry willingly... "What?! What do you want?!" Barry shouted, quickly smearing his tear stained cheeks. Bradley slowly came through the door and closed it softly behind him. Reassuring himself internally that he would be okay.
"A-Are you okay?" Bradley asked quietly, causing Barry to run a hand through his hair, obviously tense because of his pent up emotions. Bradley slowly came over to him, being careful were he stepped as the room was now a complete mess and some of the furniture had splinters sticking out of them. The pieces of wood that had snapped off the various pieces of furniture, had also scattered across the floor making it difficult to reach Barry. He was in the eye of the storm... almost...
"What do you fucking want Bradley?!" He demanded, losing his patience at him. Bradley hesitated and stayed in the spot he was standing in, debating wether or not to dare to come closer to him. Barry paced in his little safe circle in the center of the room.
"This is about RB isn't it..." Bradley started, testing Barry's reaction before continuing any further. Barry sighed and slumped down on his bed, probably the only one which didn't have either furniture or scraps of wood in it... "You knew this was going to happen eventually..." Bradley continued, taking the opportunity to step into another gap. He stared at Gary's bed. It was by far the most smashed of all of them.
"I don't understand why she's resisting me... It wasn't a problem before and now she's really pushing my tolerance!" Barry admitted, curling his hand into a fist and suddenly hitting the bed in anger. Bradley jumped at Barry's sudden outburst. He hadn't, in all honesty, expected Barry to actually open up to him.
"Well, she's starting to want independence. She's growing up. You know that. She's not 'little RB' anymore..." Bradley reasoned, using what he'd overheard in the conversation between his parents to his benefit. Barry looked up at him solemnly, clearly having calmed down again.
"I know that." Barry muttered, clasping his hands together and leaning down on his knees. Bradley pushed a little further, managing to get into Barry's 'safe' area of the room. He sat down on the floor and looked up at him expectantly. "It seems like yesterday that I was encouraging her to not be a mute..." he mumbled, flopping down on the bed behind him.
"You knew the day would come when she wanted to leave the group and find herself. You've been calling it since year 6!" Bradley joked, trying to lighten the mood slightly. Barry smirked.
"Gabrielle owes me £5." He agreed. Rainbow had always felt like an outsider in the group, it was only natural that she'd want to make friends and find somewhere that she was appreciated. But Barry didn't want her to leave. That was why he threatened anyone who came closer to her. It had always worked... up until now. His face clouded in thought and Bradley scurried up on the bed next to him.
"Besides... If this guy is resisting YOU then he must really like her right?" Bradley reasoned, trying to get Barry to see this predicament from another angle. Barry's face contorted into anger.
"I hate that guy. He gives me a weird feeling. I don't think Rainbow would be safe with him. He just isn't what he seems..." Barry ranted, sitting up and curling his hand into a fist again. Bradley moved away from him slightly, feeling awkward sitting that close to his best friend.
"Don't you think you're being slightly bias?" Bradley asked. Barry shot him a look. He was really serious about this. The only other person that Barry had said had given him a 'weird feeling' was Rainbow's less than perfect mother. So if he had a 'weird feeling' about this guy, he would believe him.
"I know what I'm going to do." Barry suddenly grinned, after a couple of minutes. Bradley looked up at him worriedly. "She's either part of this group or not. And I'm going to find out which." Barry announced, grinning with his mischievous energy. But it wasn't just that. He was hurt by RB's so called 'betrayal'. So he was going to hurt her... The only question that remained was, mentally, emotionally or physically?
"You shouldn't do this, you need to accept that she's curious! If you don't the only difference will be that when she goes off, she won't come back!" Bradley hurriedly argued. Trying to get Barry to realise his previous mistakes and atone for them. Barry frowned and glared at him.
"She's not leaving. Then she won't have to come back." He challenged, grinning. "Now clean up this mess idiot!" He insisted, making Bradley sigh worriedly and roll his eyes at Barry's request.