It's days like these where Shaun just wanted to stay in bed all day. It was pouring rain, and he was in the studio with a headache worse than a hurricane, he was producing his own album, so of course, it was a difficult job.

"how about you just play that bass line with a bit more depth? It's a bit light and scratchy, you know?" Shaun told Sam, who nodded.
"You're the boss"

And he was right, Shaun was the boss, which was weird for him. Because in Short Stack, he never had a voice, or felt like he didn't. Andy thought otherwise and Bradie just didn't care, he was just sick of the fighting.

Shaun got home and felt happier, because it was date night with Brooke. He had a quick shower and put on his button up shirt with black jeans, he knew it wasn't going to be fancy. Brooke was ready before Shaun even got home. Her hair was curled and she wore a strapless white dress, one Shaun secretly loved and bought for her.

They walked along the boardwalk by the beach heading back to the car from dinner, hand in hand as the sun set. Brooke was unusually quiet, just staring out at the sea, pretending to listen at whatever Shaun was talking about.

"babe? You listening?"
"hm?" she looked at Shaun before shaking her head "yeah, you were talking about what Nathan texted you"
"...that was 20 seconds ago" Shaun bit his lip "I was talking about how the studio has a good wall so the music bounces of it nicely"
"right" Brooke grabbed a curl of her hair and played with it lightly "I'm sorry, I must've had one too many glasses of wine tonight"
"it's fine. You're lucky I'm driving tonight" he laughed, as did she.

Once they got home, Shaun got straight in bed onto his laptop, reading through twitter and talking to fans whilst Brooke got in her pj's and removed her make-up and did her nightly beauty routine. She felt frustrated at Shaun, and she couldn't tell why, well she knew why but at this moment everything was just built up frustration but she had to tell him soon, because she couldn't handle it. She sighed at herself in the mirror before walking into the bedroom.
"Brooke can you get me a drink?" Shaun asked, smiling his cute childish smile
"why can't you get it yourself?"
"because you love me" he continued to smile
"oh really? You want to test that?" she spoke with so much attitude that Shaun wasn't smiling anymore.

"what's wrong?"
"what's wrong? God, Shaun you can be so pretentious" she rolled her eyes before sitting at the end of the bed. Shaun closed his laptop.
"what—"
"I can't handle this anymore Shaun"
"handle what?" Shaun sat up, rubbing her arm up and down to console her.
"...us, you. You're not the guy I fell in love with five years ago"
Shaun dropped his hand and bit his lip. His gut had flipped over, as if he knew what was to come.
"I-I thought we sorted this out, you know, before Short Stack broke up. I thought that we were starting anew"
"yeah, and it got better for a while. But there you were again, drinking, going out. Fuck, I'd be lucky to see you some nights, it's all about you in this relationship and I kept telling myself it'd get better, that our love would get through this, and then we got a place and I confided in my friends and they kept reminding me about our house, Honey and all the money you have spent on me, as if they were all reasons to stick around, but truth is, I'd rather deal with a break up and sort that shit out between us than have to be unhappy with you for another five years—I didn't want to end up hurting you"
"and that isn't suppose to hurt?" Shaun got out of bed, walking around to face Brooke, who looked up at him with a slight smile, tears in her eyes.
"would you rather me hurt you by cheating or by telling the truth? Because we had been there before, and we know that was a terrible thing to go through"
"I can't believe you, really? How am I supposed to deal with either of those things?"
Brooke stood up, trying not to make eye contact "there you go again, your ego shouting ME, ME, ME! Jesus Christ Shaun, how do you think I feel? We've been together five years and all that kept me hanging on was what my friends told me to hold on too, plus how we were each others' firsts, how you do all that sweet romantic stuff for me, and how without me, you'd have only the friends you made from high school—but I simply can't do this, because this is a one sided relationship now...and I'm sorry"
Shaun's throat itched, tightening to hold back his dry sob that was coming directly from his heart, making him nauseous, as if his heart went up his oesophagus, ready to be thrown up to let him bleed out. It was that sort of pain, he had become co-dependent on her and there was Andy's voice at the back of his head that shouted 'I told you so'

"I-I'll be back tomorrow, mums going to pick me up. I'll be back to get my stuff after work"
"okay" Shaun spoke softly, his throat was aching, he didn't want to break down in front of her, that'd show he was weak, that he depended on her, whilst she was independent, prepared to walk out any moment.

Brooke had an overnight bag packed and sighed as she looked over at Shaun who sat on the bed, looking at his phone, she guessed he was texting someone, but he wasn't, he didn't know who to tell, she was his best friend and his lover. He felt so dark and alone inside, he was secretly playing Flappy Bird to avoid the sinking feeling he had.
"I hope you're okay just being friends...otherwise this could be a lot worse"
"how could this get any worse?" Shaun snapped at her "what's going to happen with the house, the cars and the dog? Plus whatever else was done together" his voice began to crack, so he shut up.

Brooke sighed and shrugged "house is under your name, I can always put the car under my name and continue to pay it off myself and I don't know about Honey—"
"You can have her, you've taken enough" Shaun mumbled
"Shaun—"
"I'm done, Brooke" his voice broke again, but he wasn't going to hold back "I love you so much, you had no clue. Do you know how much this hurts me? It's killing me"
"and you don't think this hurts me!? Honestly Shaun you have your head shoved way up your ass—You know what, forget it. Forget it. Forget I ever tried to be your friend. I'm taking Honey, have fun soaking in your fucking misery. I tried to let you off easy but you make it so god damn hard!" She shouted, tears falling. Shaun just looked at his phone blankly, ignorance is bliss, he reminded himself. He wanted to tell her how he gave his all to her, and never felt good enough, how he tried so hard, so much harder than she ever did. But he didn't want this to blow too much out of proportion.

"Come on Honey" she put the dog on her leash and grabbed her bag.
"will you be back tomorrow?" Shaun asked, looking at her, she wouldn't look back, not even the slightest.
"no"
And just like that, she left.

It was by this point that Shaun was just numb, he laid in bed and wondered if he should call someone, or if he'd just be wasting their time. He also realized majority of his friends were from high school or through Brooke. He wanted to call Andy, but he kept remembering how a week before they discussed breaking up the band, Andy said that he relied on her too much and had forgotten they (him and Bradie) even existed, how it's all about him and what he wants, that it's not all from being happy or an egotistical douche, it was from being with her, how he is too far deep and lost his mind. How the band was THEIR thing, and shouldn't be bringing her into the matter, and that she will leave him either way, because you can make a band work out if you have your heart 100% into it, not have it in someone else, your heart not being the only thing inside that someone else. This also caused a fight between Andy and Brooke, which ended by Andy messaging Shaun, telling him 'don't come crying to me when all falls apart, just remember that I told you so'

Now Shaun wished he had listened to Andy. Not that he regretted breaking up the band, not yet, because he wouldn't dare put that guilt and blame on Brooke, not ever. He loves her, and he doubted that he'd ever think differently.