Jul 31, 2025
Dear August, tell me that there's light At the end of all this starless night Dear August, please don't let me fall Cause I don't know where this road is headed anymore [x]
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Dear August, tell me that there's light At the end of all this starless night Dear August, please don't let me fall Cause I don't know where this road is headed anymore [x]
dear august (bradley bradshaw pt. 4)
part one / part two / part three / part four / part five
Summary: You and Bradley have been best friends since college and when he was stationed in North Island, you were thrilled that he would be back in your life. When things start to sour with Bradley’s girlfriend and she breaks things off, Bradley comes to you for drunken comfort. What happens when an accidental hookup brings along an unexpected positive pregnancy test threatens the state of your friendship?
Tropes: friends to lovers, unexpected pregnancy, unrequited feelings
Word Count: 1500
Over the next days, you were able to stay distracted as you finished up the school year. Filling your days with snotty little shits and final projects, it was an easy way to keep your mind from the lack of texts from your best friend. Your best friend of which, you’d slept with in a drunken stupor after his girlfriend had broken up with him.
You hadn’t heard much from Bradley in the days after you slept together other than invitations to join the group at the Hard Deck after the school day ended. You were too concerned by what that meant, to return to the place when you two had fallen into each other’s arms and so you stayed away. He didn’t come looking for you, didn’t show up in the parking lot to drag you to join him so you’d figured it was a simmering effect.
He was, however, scheduled to come in on the last day of the school year to deliver some ice cream on behalf of the Navy and read a few stories but when you glanced up at the knock on the classroom door only to find Bob smiling sheepishly, you figured that something was wrong. Bob read and scooped out ice cream with you while he shared what had occurred for Bradley’s disappearance.
“He wanted to come,” Bob tries to share between scoops of ice cream and spurts of whipped cream for each kid. “Got stuck doing some extra maintenance on his plane ahead of our mission next week.”
“Mission next week?” you asked, eyes flittering up from your position of sprinkles duty. A frown fixated on your lips as you took in the information. You hadn’t heard about any mission, not from Jake or Bradley for that matter. And Jake had been keeping you company after everything that had happened.
“It’s a short two month stint,” Bob drops the scooper into the water and wipes his hands on his khakis. “Rooster didn’t tell you?”
“No…”
“I’m sure he was planning to,” Bob offers, glancing over at the giggling kids lost in their own world. What it must feel like to be them again, careless and without understanding of the world yet. “Why don’t you come with me to the Hard Deck after for our bonfire. I’m sure Bradley would love to see you.”
You weren’t sure you felt entirely welcomed or that Bradley would want you there after the radio silence on his part, but you went regardless. Wrapped up in a denim jacket and floral dress, you looked beautiful as you final roll up to the lot. Tugging your jacket closer to yourself, you grab the beach blanket from the back of your car and making your way over to where your friends were setting up the large pile of wood along the skirts of sand.
“Dukes,” Jake shouts, looking up with a wide grin when he sees you crossing the spans of the beach. You smile back, moving more quickly as he pulls you into his arms tightly. “How was last day?” he asks as he places you back onto the pale sands and tugging you the rest of the way to the bonfire.
“It was great Jakey,” you share, eyes locking with Bradley’s as he looks up from dropping another bundle down onto the pit. “Bob came for the ice cream social. Heard about this big mission coming up…” you trailed off, glancing back at Jake as Bradley adjusted his sunglasses atop his head and starting to move toward you.
“Oh Dukes, I’m not…”
“Dais, what are you doing here?” Bradley’s voice rasps as he finally makes it to where you are standing. Your shoulders sink slightly, a twisted look crossing your features.
“Bob invited me,” you share, arm staying snug around Jake’s waist as you clear your throat, “After the Ice Cream Social today.” Bradley’s face falls at your words and you feel vindicated somehow. How was he going to ask what you were doing here after all this time? After the time that you spent getting to know each other’s bodies in a drunken haze? Like you were long lost strangers.
“I’m,” he wipes a hand over his face and sighs, “I’m so sorry for that. I got caught up with my jet ahead of this thing and-,”
“Yeah, Bob told me about that,” you nod, feeling suddenly exposed out on the beach in front of someone you’d known your whole life. “You two must’ve let it slip your minds.” Jake’s fingertips brush along your hipbone in comfort.
“I won’t be on that mission actually Dukes,” Jake murmurs, “Just Rooster here.” You turn back to Rooster at Jake’s words and nod slightly. He stares back at you, an unreadable look on his face as his mouth lines tightly. You don’t end up spending most of the evening with Rooster, sticking to Jake’s side while laughing and taking sips of beer with Phoenix.
“He’s been totally a mess since the two of them broke up, you know,” Nat shares as you both stare across the fire at Bradley playing football along the lapping waves of water with Fanboy.
“I wouldn’t know,” you reply, taking another sip again of your beer as you settle down further into the sand, sliding your foot through the grains and then scooping it up with your toes. “It’s not like he’s even messaged me since we-,” you stop yourself, scoffing before placing your bottle down onto the ground. “Whatever.”
“It’s not whatever,” Nat shakes her head, her hand coming up to wrap around your shoulder. “He’s just being an idiot right now.” You nod slowly, watching your best friend laughing and joking around as the sun starts to set in the distance. At some point, you grow tired both from the long day of keeping the kids at bay until Summer arrived and of Bradley ignoring your existence.
Jake, at some point during the evening, had settled down beside you and had been humming along to the country music blaring from the radio. “I think I’m going to get going,” you told Jake lightly, placing your tempt along his shoulder as a yawn rolled through you.
“Oh, come on,” Jake grumbles as you stretch and stand. “Stay a little longer.” Across the way, you catch eyes with Bradley and stand slowly.
“Have a good night, everyone,” you call, hugging Nat, Bob and then Jake before catching eyes with Bradley one last time. He does nothing to rise up and say goodbye, so you nod and turn to head back to your car. You’re just at the steps to the parking lot when you hear a deep voice behind you.
“Need a ride?” you turn around, staring down at your best friend for the top step. It’s the first time in a long time that you feel like you can look at him. His hair is tousled, perfect blond under the bright parking lot lights. Fuck him for looking so good. He’s pouting, his full lips flush under his mustache. “Please? I feel like I barely got a chance to catch up.”
“And whose fault is that?” you sass, eyebrow raised as you roll your eyes. Your hip rests against the railing of the stairs as he climbs them to meet you. Bradley holds his hands up in defeat.
“It’s fully mine,” he stifles a laugh and glances down at his feet. “But lemme make it up to you, please?”
You take a slow breath, wrapping your arms around your elbows and pursing your lips. “Fine.” The ride home is quiet, peaceful. It’s something you haven’t felt in quite a few weeks, finally happy to feel a bit normal with Bradley again. You make small talk together, talking about each other’s days while he pulls up to the front of your house.
“Well, thank you for the ride,” you say in the quiet of the bronco as he pulls to a stop. You unbuckle your seatbelt slowly before grabbing your purse and pulling the door open. “Stay safe on your trip alright?” you lean over and press a gentle kiss to his cheek.
“Goodnight, Dais,” he murmurs and watches as you leave.
It’s only three weeks later he leaves for his secret mission that you start to get sick. Your stomach turns at the slightest thing…a waft of salty sea through the windows of the Hard Deck while you’re having lunch with Penny or fried Haddock while going to dinner with Jake one night on the pier. At the drop of a dime, you lose your lunch and empty the contents of your stomach into the closest bin.
“I’m worried about you,” Jake mumbles, rubbing your back on one early morning as you lose your breakfast from the smell of cooked eggs. “Should we go to the ER?” An eery thought washes through you, the sudden realization of a horror.
“Jake…I think we might need to run to the closest CVS,” you mumble, whipping your mouth and leaning back against the wall. “I think I need to buy a pregnancy test.”
Noah Cyrus + morning/light/sun as hope
"Again" / “Dear August” / “The Worst of You” / "Noah (Stand Still) / “Everybody Needs Someone”
Bonus subversions under the cut:
Dear August, tell me that there's light At the end of all this starless night
Dear August by PJ Harding and Noah Cyrus
