Hey guys! I know I said this would be up a LONG time ago, and I know it is way overdue at this point, but... better late than never? I hope.

For anyone who doesn't follow me on tumblr or is just unaware of what this is... I'll tell you. This story is about Brad's side of Who You Are, and - as much as I hate to say this - you probably won't want to read this if you haven't read Who You Are. This story is going to be ten chapters long, and the writing style will be a TEENSY bit different than usual, but I hope you guys can get over that *smiley face*

Alright, I think you've had enough of me for one day lol. Here's what you've been (hopefully) waiting for!

Enjoy!

Disclaimer: All credit goes respectfully to whoever it belongs to. (aka not me)

Today is the first day of the rest of your life.

Brad rolled his eyes at the text message and hauled himself out of bed slowly. His best friend Camille was always trying to lift his spirits—even when it was completely unnecessary. Although, he couldn't say it was completely unnecessary today.

Today was the first day of Brad's senior year at Alicante and he couldn't help but feel a little sad about it. Sure, he wanted to graduate and go live on his own, but there was another part of him that was afraid of the new life that he would soon be forced to begin. He wasn't sure if he was ready to leave all of this behind—not yet.

And then there was Alec. He didn't know what he would do without Alec.

Brad showered quickly and slipped into his uniform, knowing that Camille would be by his room soon to make sure he was 'awake and inspired' this morning. Ever since Brad had come out to Camille, she had constantly been feeding him positive energy and trying to make him feel better about himself. He hadn't expected that from her when he initially told her, but he was grateful for it. No one else on the earth besides Camille and the few boys he had hooked up with over the years knew that he was gay. He was planning on keeping it that way until high school was finished. He just couldn't afford the risks that would come with coming out while he was still in high school. He knew his parents would kick him out when he told them, so it was obvious to him that he had to wait until he was at college and they could no longer control him. It wasn't even a question.

"Knock, knock."

Brad blinked to clear his head and turned to see Camille slip into his room, looking up at him with expectant eyes.

"Well?" she said.

"Very inspirational." he replied. "Probably the best text I've ever received in my life."

Camille rolled her eyes and cracked a smile. "How was practice yesterday?"

"It was good," Brad said. "Just like it always is."

"Just asking," Camille said. Brad couldn't help himself from being mildly annoyed every time Camille brought up soccer practice since the only reason she ever did was to find out if he was going to talk to Alec about how he felt—which he was not—so there was really no point.

"Was Alec there?" she continued.

"Yes, just like he always is. He is on the team, you know." Brad said, slowing his words as if he were speaking to a child, which, sometimes he thought he was.

"Don't be a dick." Camille said, sitting down on his bed and crossing her legs in one fluid motion. "I was just wondering if you had a certain conversation with him that you promised you would have weeks ago."

"Everything got kind of hectic," Brad defended. "And I did not promise that."

"I said you had to talk to him or get over him. You wanted to talk to him. That means you actually have to do it, Brad."

Brad rolled his eyes. "I don't have to do everything you say."

"You're right. It's better to pine after him for the fourth year in a row, yet again saying nothing that could possibly clue him in besides the occasional longing stare." Camille said. "You've totally got it covered."

"I do not do that. I totally flirted with him last time we went for pizza!"

"Bullshit. Sitting next to someone doesn't count as flirting. Especially when the whole team is there."

Brad frowned, staring at Camille for a long moment. "Well…"

"Well, nothing. Talk to him." she said, her eyes softening. "It's for your own good, Brad. You can't go on with him the way you are. It's not healthy."

"I know." Brad said. "I just… there's no one better, so what else am I supposed to do?"

"Talk to him." she urged. "Alec's a good guy. If he doesn't return the feelings, I really don't think anything will change between you two."

"Maybe," Brad said. He glanced at his phone in search of some way to change the topic. "Shouldn't we get going?"

Camille rolled her eyes, obviously aware of what Brad was trying to do. "Fine. But you better talk to Alec soon."

"I will." he promised.

Camille grabbed his arm before he opened the door. "Don't look so hopeless. Talk to Alec doesn't mean go and end your friendship with Alec. For all you know, he could be gay. I mean, he's never dated anyone ever and he's gone to this school for like three years. Unless he's asexual…"

"Not helping." Brad said.

Camille laughed. "I'm just saying."

The two of them made their way down to the main building on campus and the atmosphere of the hallways was incredible. All around there were friends reuniting and laughing together and it made Brad smile. He and the rest of the team had already had their reuniting moment a few weeks ago and it had been just the same. Brad had talked to Alec a few times while they were apart in the weeks before soccer practice picked up again, but it hadn't been enough to dilute the ache that was permanently set in his chest.

Seeing Val and Jon again hadn't been what Brad was hoping for, mostly because he sometimes forgot that they were asses when he was away from them for a long period of time, only to see them again and remember. They were alright—usually—but he still preferred Camille and Alec.

The rest of the team was a lot better, and throughout the end of the summer, Brad found himself getting closer with Damien and Raphael. Damien seemed to be really into the party scene, but that was alright with Brad. He usually didn't love going to parties, but he liked them enough that he would go if someone asked him to. Damien asked a lot.

Brad consistently tried to get Alec to come along with him, but he almost never did. He wasn't really into the whole 'drink until you drop' thing, but Brad couldn't blame him after everything that had happened freshman year. Brad didn't like thinking about it, but he was almost positive that everything that happened freshman year was what made him latch onto Alec so tightly. He had helped Alec get through that year and escape from the clutches of depression and loneliness that he so often claimed was going to consume him. Brad was the only other person besides Isabelle that had helped Alec deal with his panic attacks. Having been there for him when no one else was had left its mark on Brad. He wasn't sure whether or not it had been the same for Alec, but it had changed Brad. He hoped that he could make Alec see that.

Brad heard the bell ring, signaling that it was time for class to start, and he darted down the hall in search of his first class. The day passed quickly, and he didn't get to talk to Alec until after school was out, but he didn't mind much because Camille was in almost every class he had.

Practice went well, and since they had a game in a few days, everyone on the team (and a few extras) went out for pizza at their usual place. Brad was elated when Alec chose to sit next to him, and even more elated when Alec didn't shrug Brad's arm off his shoulder.

"Are we going to practice again before the game?" Brad asked as everyone made their way out of the pizzeria. Brad had made sure not to slide out of his seat until he and Alec were the last team members remaining in the building so he could flirt with Alec without being noticed. Take that, Camille.

"Unless Coach was planning on canceling…"

"No, I meant you and me."

"Oh," Alec said. "If you want to, then of course we can."

"Awesome," Brad said, sliding out of the booth. Brad had to clench his fist to stop himself from catching Alec's hand as he walked past him and toward the door. God, he had it bad.

"Did you see how Raphael and Damien were playing?" Alec said as they walked toward the parking lot. "They're practically a tag team!"

"They'll probably be the next 'Brad and Alec' when we graduate," Brad said, grinning when Alec's cheeks pinked.

"Probably," Alec said. Brad could see Jace and Isabelle in the distance, and he knew that if he didn't act now it would be too late.

"Alec?"

Alec stopped in his tracks and turned toward him, his eyes warm and inviting as Brad stared into them.

Aaaaaaand he couldn't do it. No fucking way.

"I better get going," Brad said, mentally kicking himself in the balls several times for being too much of a chicken to tell Alec how he felt. Without thinking, he pulled Alec into a hug and darted toward his car without looking back. He didn't even want to know what Alec was thinking right now. He wasn't sure if he had ever hugged him before—okay, he hadn't, and he was quite aware of the fact—and he prayed to god that Alec didn't think he was being creepy.

So much for that plan.

The next few days were perfectly fine and Alec hadn't seemed to have thought about the hug or the arm around his shoulders at all. Sometimes during practice, Brad would let his hand linger for a moment when no one was looking, or during school, he would chat with Brad in the hallway and it almost seemed like Alec might actually feel the same way that Brad did. Maybe. Possibly. Hopefully.

Either way, Brad was kind of pissed that he didn't have lunch with Alec this year. From what Brad had been hearing, Alec had been sitting with some red haired scholarship kid and her nerd friend, but he didn't know anything more than that. Although, even that was odd. Alec almost never sat with people he didn't know—hell, he barely talked to people he didn't know, so it did strike Brad as a bit odd that Alec was all the sudden spending his entire hour of lunch sitting with strangers when there were plenty of other guys from the soccer team that had lunch with Alec.

Usually, Brad would have been worried about seeing Alec at some point in the day, thinking out ways to hang out with Alec alone without actually asking, but today he had bigger things on his mind.

Brad's parents had been spending a lot of time away from home throughout the summer, but Brad had just assumed that would stop once the school year started. But the thing was… it hadn't stopped. Brad hadn't actually seen his parents in three weeks, which, you know, wouldn't have bothered him under normal circumstances… but these were no normal circumstances.

His parents had spent almost their entire summer at some kind of religious camp where they had—in Brad's opinion—joined some kind of weird cult that had them decorating the house with weird New Age shit that he didn't want anything to do with. Last time he had seen them they had brought home a box of garlic for the housekeeper to put up to protect the house from demons, but Brad just thought they were losing it. And as far as he could tell, so did the housekeeper. At this point, the only reason Brad wanted to see his parents was to make sure they didn't need to be locked up or put in straight-jackets or something.

Brad was extremely grateful for Camille in times like this. Camille's mother was always going through some kind of weird phase, so Camille knew first-hand how to handle crazy ass parents.

"You have to ignore it, honestly," Camille said while the two of them walked down the sidewalk. "Parents are fucking mental sometimes, so you just have to let it pass."

"I don't know… Carrie seemed pretty freaked out."

"Pshhh, housekeepers are freaked out by everything."

"Camille, you've met Carrie. Does she honestly seem like the kind of woman to warn me about something when it's not necessary? Especially when it's a warning about my parents?"

"She knows you're gay," Camille said softly. "She was probably just trying to warn you that you shouldn't plan on coming out to them while they're shoving garlic up their asses."

"Maybe," he said kicking a rock into the grass. "I don't know. I'm starting to think I'll never be able to come out to them."

"Aw, Brad, yes you will. You just have to give it time."

Brad sighed dramatically.

"You know," Camille said. "There's something I haven't told you."

"What?" Brad said, still staring at the ground.

"I should have told you a long time ago, but I guess… now is the right time."

Brad stopped walking and looked up at her. "Camille, what are you talking about?"

"You came out to me and I accepted you, so I think I should be able to feel safe coming out to you."

Brad's jaw dropped as he waited for Camille to utter the same two words that he said to her all those years ago.

"I'm a shopaholic."

Brad narrowed his eyes and elbowed her before striding away in attempt to keep her from seeing the smile on his face. Camille burst into laughter the second he turned his back, so Brad knew his attempts to conceal his amusement were fruitless.

"Fuck you," he said, turning around and letting a laugh escape his lips.

"Are you offering?" she wheezed between her giggles.

Brad rolled his eyes, stuck his middle finger up at her, and then started walking back toward the dorms.

This was going to be one hell of a year.

Let me know if you all liked it! I have the second chapter written already (yes, this story is what is causing the Who You Are updates to be so slow hehe sorry), and I'll put it up sometime this week (hopefully).

Let me know what you guys think about Brad and this story! I love you all! Please review - I need feedback! *Smiley face*

-Hannah xx