HEAL ME, HELP ME, HURT ME. (Bradley Bradshaw x oc)
Chapter 2- The Boy meets the Girl.
warnings- mentions and drinking of alcohol, mentions of social anxiety, pining over a “stranger” (let me know if i missed anything!)
summary- leilani arrives at “the hard deck” for what she hopes is a night of fun, surprisingly, she finds much much more than that. with the encouragement of penny, and the feeling of being tired in an endless loop, leilani finally makes her next big move. now, her story can truly begin.
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The summers in Nevada have always been hot, muggy, and wet. That was simply the best way to put it, and is probably how a living resident (wether a few months or a few years) would choose to put it. So while walking down the street to the bar Leilani wasn’t surprised to feel that her forehead had broken out into a light sweat almost as soon as she stepped outside. Now, she was still acclimating to the weather but for the most part Virginia weather was similar, Nevada was just a bit hotter. So she just needed a bit more time to get used to the heat, since she had spent most of her residency in the air conditioned house.
Once in the parking lot of the bar, she could already hear the rowdy crowd cheering from inside after the notoriously famous bell was rung by who she could only assume to be Penny. She pulled her phone out of her back pocket to check the time, seeing it was twenty minutes later then penny had requested her to be there, which was very on brand for her. She technically could be on time if she tried, but this wasn’t something that was terribly important so she didn’t need to truly arrive at four thirty. She continued trekking through the parking lot, while simultaneously taking deep breaths to try and slow her beating heart which she could practically feel through her chest.
Upon reaching the door, she closed her eyes and took one more deep breath before swinging it open and removing the sunglasses from her face once it had shut behind her, she quickly placed them hanging in the front pocket of her jean shorts. She began taking light steps on the hardwood floor of the bar, pushing through the slightly larger crowd and sweaty bodies of men and women.
She saw a few familiar faces who smiled brightly at the sight of actually leaving the house again for what must have been the first time in months. Once in the line of sight of the opening to the back of the bar, she could easily spot penny on the opposite side walking back and forth quickly serving drinks to all of the rowdy customers. She decided she would go converse with penny first before introducing herself to anyone else, which is (honestly) something she hoped she wouldn’t have to do at all. If she was being true to herself, most of the time her social anxiety just got the best of her.
So she quickly stepped in behind the bar and walked around the alcohol rack to meet face to face with her mother. Honestly at this point, penny was her mother. She provided for her, took care of her, handled her mood swings, and she had been apart of her life since birth so she hadn’t felt any guilt calling penny the term of endearment.
She shifted closer to the tall and slender woman, “Hi mom” she practically yelled over the sounds of the jukebox, people conversing, and pool balls clattering against one other.
Penny turned towards her with a wide smile on her face, a smile that indicted she truly believed Leilani wasn’t going to show tonight but that she was entirely ecstatic that she actually did.
“Honey! You came!” Penny stated as she wrapped her arms around Leilani for a quick embrace. Leilani happily accepted and smiled into the warmth of the hug.
“Of course I came, you practically begged me” Leilani said gently hitting Pennys upper forearm before they both giggled at the lighthearted joking they had participated in since Leilani was a young girl.
“About these pilots..” Leilani spoke with a sense of hesitation, and as she spoke the word pilots penny nodded her head towards the corner of the bar where the pool table resided while she cleaned a clear glass with a white towel.
At the sight of Pennys neck arching in a particular direction, Leilani threw her gaze towards her directed movements and was met with a group of muscular men and one singular women standing around the pool table, laughing and joking with each other. Immediately her eyes scanned over the group of people, taking in the sight of all of them at once…There was one in particular, he was tall, and incredibly muscular. It seemed he was sweating but perhaps it was just the overhead lighting.
Her eyes ran up and down his body as she processed everything about him all at once, but what had stuck out to the most to the young girl was his mustache that laid under his nose and didn’t run into a beard at any point on his face. He was wearing a tropical button up shirt that sculpted his toned arms perfectly and enraptured his skin tone in an almost angelic whisper.
After a while of fawning over the man at the pool table, leilani quickly came too and saw Penny staring at her with a smirk.
“See something you like, honey?” Penny said as her shit eating smirk plastered on her face only grew.
Leilani scoffed and rolled her eyes quickly,
“Yeah so what.. he’s attractive ill give it to him” she said smirking right back at Penny.
“Well go introduce yourself..” Penny continued in an almost hopeful tone. A tone that hoped that maybe her daughter would finally break out of her confined shell that she had been stuck in for three months. A tone that penny was hoping would give Leilani that little push she needed to be herself again. Because for as long as penny had lived, she wasn’t sure she had ever seen something as heartbreaking as Leilani slipping into a void of darkness. For some reason, Leilani has always been the optimistic, happy little girl in Pennys eyes. No matter how many times she may have snapped, or how many tantrums she threw at a younger age. Penny had almost completely blocked those out, so seeing her how she was through the past few months had broken her heart. All she wanted to do was help her, help her the way a mother would help her child, help her the way Riley would have helped her if she was still alive.
“I’m scared pen” the younger girl admitted as she locked eyes with her mother.
Pennys lips tightened into each other as she made an agreeable face towards Leilani, slightly nodding her head to symbolize her understanding of Leilanis position.
“I know honey, but sometimes stepping out of boxes is the only chance you have of feeling free again. We all need you to be free again, baby.”
Somehow amongst the loud bar, and the cheers, and the overwhelming yelling customers, the two women had still been able to have a genuine conversation with each other. That had always been something Leilani admired and adored about Penny, she always knew what to say and when to say it. She was like a walking mental health book that constantly teaches people how to get their shit together. Leilani could only hope as she got older and wiser, she could turn out like Penny.
So she nodded once again.
“Okay, I’m gonna go over there and I guess just…” Leilani trailed off as she looked over at the group again, her nerves bubbling up once again. A feeling she could feel throughout her entire body that made a shiver go down her spine.
“Just be you, baby.” Penny said pulling her out of her second trance of the night.
And thats exactly what she would do. She confidently exited from behind the bar and devised a quick plan on her way over to the group, thankfully their had been an extra carrying tray on one of the ledges of a countertop, and she could only hope one of the curious pilots would ask her who she was.
So she placed the black circular tray in her right hand and completed the walk to the more hidden area of the bar, taking one final deep breath before speaking up to the group.
“Hey guys! Can I get you anything or clean any empty bottles up over here?” She said in her most attentive tone. It was the tone she had used for the entirety of being a bartender, automatically making her sound much much more approachable than her normal tone of voice was.
Immediately almost the entire group craned their necks to her, and one of the blonde men placed his pool stick against the windowsill. He took large steps as he walked closer to Leilani, and once he was in close enough proximity he reached his hand out, indicating he wanted her to shake it. She quickly tucked the tray in between her left arm and ribs as she reached out her right hand to shake the mans left.
“Call sign hangman, but you can call me Jake” he said cockily.
Remember how Leilani isn’t the type to let people get away with shit she deems inappropriate? Now she would necessarily consider this completely inappropriate.. but he was being extremely cocky, and she was never too fond of cocky people.
“Hangman?” She said before smiling widely.
He nodded as a grin spread across his face, his pearly whites shining through his thin lips.
Before leilani knew it the only women apart of the group had walked over to her right side and leaned on the pool table only a few feet in front of her, still in close enough proximity to shake hands if needed.
“Ignore him, he’s like this all the time” the unfamiliar women said as she emphasized the last three words in her statement before reaching her tan arm out to attempt to shake Leilanis hand, which she happily accepted.
“And you are?” Leilani said in an attempt to strike up conversation.
“Natasha, but you can call me Phoenix or Nat, I really don’t mind” the muscular built women said as a smile spread across her face as well, a smile that was not nearly as cocky as Jakes had been. A smile that was genuine, that allowed Leilani to smile genuinely back.
At the end of the pool table a man let out a large grunt, which caused all three of the newly introduced people to throw their heads towards the noise. Once Leilani noticed it came from the man she was practically drooling over, she took a quiet deep breath to try and control her fawning.
He spoke, and his voice was as deep and boasting as she had imagined it would be from behind the bar.
“I don’t believe we’ve met little lady” he said as he began circling the corner of the green felt table to move closer towards leilani as well. As she felt his steps practically shake the ground, she became fully aware of all the people that she was being introduced to, and were in return being introduced to her. Once in range of leilani he pulled his aviators off and placed them on the hem of the earlier observed button up shirt.
“Im Bradley, but everyone calls me rooster” he said as he reached his hand out as well to shake Leilanis hand.
As his hand enveloped around hers, her breath hitched in her throat. She had never encountered a hand that was so calloused, yet so smooth. She had never encountered a hand that was so tough, yet so gentle. A hand that could’ve possibly been sculpted by the gods, and if it was, she wouldn’t have been surprised. Not one bit.
He brought her comparably tiny hand up to his lips and kissed it quickly before smiling, and once their hands were back down on their respective sides he spoke once again.
“None of us have had the pleasure to hear yours though..”
She quickly cleared her throat, trying to recollect her thoughts after the very previous imaginative thoughts that had completely flooded her brain like a dam that was been broken merely a few moments before rooster had decided to spark up a conversation with her.
“Leilani” she spoke out quickly before smiling and trying to push down the obvious blush that she was sure was creeping along her cheeks, and probably spreading along her neck and entire face if she were to be completely honest.
“Im Leilani, no call sign unfortunately but you can call me lei” she said in a playful tone.
Throughout the group she could see different reactions to her name, all good, none bad thankfully for her and her unfortunate social anxiety nothing was screaming in her mind “GET OUT OF THERE!!!!”. She was actually kind of enjoying the company of the group, even though she hadn’t known all of their names yet.
“Thats a beautiful name” she heard the composed man say from the chair next to her. She had noticed him as well, when standing behind the bar. She had made note of how he seemed to be apart of the group but didn’t seem to be conversing or adding his two sense into any conversations at all. Other than rooster, the skinny man had been the other individual to catch her eye from across the room. He seemed to be a bit like her, and maybe she was bias and just reaching for anything that would connect her with the young pilots, but he was naturally quiet and didn’t seem very confident. She imagined back to multiple social events where she must have appeared the exact same in strangers eyes. So she alternated her body to now turn towards him, and smiled widely at him.
“And yours?” She said while raising her eyebrows to the man who might as well have been a mirror for Leilani. It was strange, really strange, because other than the obvious social anxiety that related the man to her, they had strangely similar features.
His skin was nearly the same olive skin tone as Leilanis, and in his smile she recognized the same pearly whites she had in her mouth. Maybe it was just a weird coincidence, meeting a stranger in a (not so random) bar that looks strangely similar to yourself. She shrugged it off anyways, opting out to just wait for his response.
“Just call me Bob” he said as a nervous blush crept on his face like the one she had merely a minute ago.
It was something about Bob, Leilani had known from across the bar that she was attracted to rooster, who at the time was just a handsome stranger. But with bob, there was no attraction, but for some odd reason Leilani had felt like she knew him her entire life. Well, maybe not known him for her entire life, more so, she was meant to know him for her entire life. Platonic with a capital P though, that was for sure.
She made a note to speak to Penny about the weird feeling in the pit of her stomach while talking to Bob.
“Well okay!” She said as she turned her front back towards phoenix, Jake, and rooster.
“Now that we have formally met, do you guys need anything to drink?” She said as she pulled the circular tray out of her makeshift pocket in between her arm and ribs and placed it back in her right hand, holding it properly for the first time that evening.
“I’ll just have a Budweiser, sweetheart” Jake spoke from the left side of the three, she quickly nodded her head making a mental note of the order.
Roosters boasting voice spoke up once again, and in no surprise, sent chills down Leilanis spine once again.
“We’ll just have a round of Buds for all of us, but uh while you’re there why don’t you grab yourself one and then come chill over here with us?” He managed to make the later sentence sound like a question, because the last thing he had wanted to do especially right now was scare the pretty girl away.
She nodded her head before smirking, “That sounds great, I’ll be back”
She placed her index finger and middle finger on her forehead as she loosely pulled them back down, a habit she had made in high school when she saw Penny doing it while visiting them in Virginia for a week. Penny called it “loosely saluting” and Leilani remembers the conversation as if it was yesterday. Penny explained how it was the perfect way to walk away from a conversation, and pilots usually liked to see it, so hey why not? She was attempting to make as good of an impression as possible and she walked away with her head hung high after feeling greatly accomplished by the conversations that had just been struck up with her newfound friends.
Once behind the bar once again Leilani grabbed enough beers for the group (including herself) and while she was leant over to reach the bottom cooler to grab them she felt eyes on the side of her head, so she quickly turned her head to see Penny looking at her with an adoring smile, and when their eyes locked on each others, Leilani smiled as well. She continued grabbing the beers and placing them on the circular tray she had placed on the bar a few moments earlier, and when she had completed the task she stood up and wiped her cold hands on the nearest towel.
“I see it went good..” She heard from directly behind her right ear, her neck swinging quickly to meet the voice who she automatically knew was penny by the pitch and strain she heard almost every day.
“It actually went amazing” Leilani breathed out, showing her top and bottom set of teeth when her lips broke out into an everlasting smile.
Penny had always adored when Leilani truly smiled, she had missed it greatly over the past few dark months. She noticed how Leilanis eyes would crease along the edges when she truly smiled, and how her forehead would reveal a few smile lines as well. It was honestly one of Pennys favorite features about the young girl.
“Well honey, go have fun. I’ll take care of the bar” penny continued, edging her daughter to put herself out there for the rest of the night.
as Leilani grabbed the tray in front of her she spun her body around to face penny fully, and she quickly placed a kiss on the upper apple of Pennys cheek.
“Okay but don’t hesitate to ask if you need any help, mom” and she quickly glided away from penny, she seamlessly left from behind the bar and almost floated over to the pool table area, the newfound confidence giving her a sort of brighter aura that penny was sure the entire room could see if they looked well enough.
As Leilani resurfaced in the young crowd the pilots gathered around the table she had placed the new set of cold beers on, all grabbing one and muttering slight thank you’s and such. She grabbed one herself and popped it open easily with her hands, leaving the cap on the same table she had placed the beers on.
“Wanna play a round?” Leilani heard phoenix say from across the small rectangular area, she quickly looked up and her eyes were met with phoenix’s honey like gaze.
She managed to nod as a smile ghosted her lips.
“Who’s my opponent?” Leilani said as she placed her barely drunk beer on the small table.
“Alright, teams are me and lei, and hangman and phoenix” rooster said from the windowsill he was previously leaning against.
The other three nodded in agreement , and Leilanis heart skipped a beat at the small gesture of rooster wanting to be on the same team as her. She was sure now, that fate had worked out in her favor for probably the first time in her life. She was also entirely grateful that Penny had begged for her to show tonight, because without that extra push she may not have shown at all.
Leilani spent the rest of the night with the young group, conversing, laughing, and smiling the entire time. She learned some newfound talents of the pilots (other than flying, that is), such as rooster being a magician on the piano, and bob being exceptionally well at dancing which is something she hadn’t expected at all. She also got acquainted with the other pilots, opting to call all of them by their callsigns to make it easier on everyone.
Before she had planned to leave the bar, a few of them had asked for her number (The few being phoenix and rooster of course) and she happily accepted before using the sweaty pads of her thumbs to drunkenly type in her number into their phones.
After about 5 beers though, she knew she had enough, and once she saw the time was ten thirty, she was more than ready to be home. Because as much as she did enjoy hanging out with the group, her social battery was low and she needed a good nights rest if she was going to do absolutely anything tomorrow. Luckily though, rooster had offered her a ride home once he was completely sober, and she graciously accepted.
So they rode with the windows down in his blue ford bronco down the street to Pennys home, and once arrived rooster made a point to invite Leilani to the beach day the group was having the next day. He stumbled out something along the lines of how much they enjoyed her company, and how she fit like a glove with every single one of them. The praise had made her heart flutter, especially when it was being given by Bradley Bradshaw.
As she opened the door she responded back to his kind invite, “Sounds like a wonderful plan, Bradshaw. Text me the details and ill be there”
She turned her body to smile at him once more before fully leaving his passenger seat and shutting the door behind her, she also tried her best to sway her hips as she walked into her home, hoping he was possibly looking at her leave.
He was , he stayed the entire time until she was fully inside, and once her mahogany door had closed he smiled to himself as a way to say ‘good job tonight buddy’ to himself. If he could truly pat himself on the back, he would have, right then and there. But he opted out with just a smile and a mini fist bump instead.
The pair went to bed that night hoping that tomorrow would be just as eventful as the night before them had been, and for the first time in months Leilani didn’t have reoccurring nightmares. She slept like a baby, and she thanked the universe before she dozed off for finally sending her a well needed breath of fresh air. All she ever wanted was to feel wanted, and accepted somewhere that wasn’t her family, and she felt like this was the start to a never ending story. But a good type of never ending story, a story that nobody wishes to end because it feels like a pot of warm honey mixed with sugar, a best selling story that nations around the world obsess over because it has the perfect amount of everything. So, Leilani would just have to wait and see if her story would be a best seller or not, once again letting fate play its cards however it felt needed.
