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BRADLEY PICKED UP HIS PHONE ABOUT A THOUSAND TIMES, but he never quite sent the text or made it to the call button. He felt like shit the way he'd left things with Kristen.
He felt a little relief when the Top Gun groupchat had started to blare, noticing plans to meet at the Hard Deck that night. Kristen had replied an astounding "yes" so he did too. They weren't meeting for another hour or two, so he was stuck in his thoughts for longer.
He couldn't quite figure out why, but he found himself driving to Pete Mitchell's house. Bradley didn't know where else to go, and he just needed to vent... get his head straight.
The second he rung the doorbell he'd regretted it, his sneakers squeaking on the porch as he tried to run back to his car. But Pete had already opened the door.
"Bradley?"
"Uh, yeah. Um. Pete, you got a second?" Bradley softened his voice, Maverick looking up trying to hide his smile as he ushered Bradley in his doorway.
"Everything okay Bradley?"
"It's fine, I just," Bradley chewed his gums as he tried to spit out his words, "I don't have my dad or my mom to talk about this stuff and I lost you a while ago. I could use some of that cheesy dad advice kind of stuff."
If Maverick wasn't already smiling on the inside, he was thinking he'd won the lottery by now. He placed his hand on Bradley's shoulder, "I always told you I'd be here for you, lay it on me."
"I fucked up with Kristen-"
"What's new?" He giggled, though Bradley shot him a deathly look, "Okay, okay. I'm out of practice, give me a second."
"Pete?"
"Yeah, Roost?"
"I just have this fear that every time she gets in that jet I'm gonna lose her," He gulped, "I felt the same about you growing up. It's hypocritical I know-"
"But you feel like you have no control," Maverick took the words out of his mouth, "I battled with that after I lost Goose, too. That's where trust comes in, Bradley. I mean, not to toot our own horns but we're pretty good at what we do."
Bradley could see Maverick was trying to lighten the mood, but he was already far down a saddened night, "The thought of her head hitting that canopy when she ejected. God, I don't know what the fuck I would've done Mav."
"Did you tell her that?"
"Not in those words," He gulped, "I don't want her to stress about me being stressed. It's stupid anyways, and I know that. I just don't know how to stop it. And to make it worse, I had a fucking freak out about the fact that we're going back to long distance. Like no shit? What the hell did I expect?"
"Cut yourself a break," Maverick sighed, "You're in your honeymoon phase, you guys want to eat sleep and breathe eachother. It doesn't change the fact you want a future together in the end though."
