Pretend // Brandon Arreaga

12- About Last Night

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Caroline awoke to the sounds of Brandon producing music at his desk. She sat up in the bed and leaned against the headboard. The events from the night flooded her mind and she instantly felt like melting into the bed mattress. Only she would turn him down in the midst of making out.

The words 'I can't cheat on him. We're still together.' kept racing through her mind. Clearly, Levi had no problem cheating on her, but she couldn't do the same. She wanted nothing more than to be able to further her and Brandon's relationship, but her morals got the better of her. The look in Brandon's eyes made her heart hurt, he looked so broken-hearted when she told him to stop and that she couldn't do it. She knew that he felt he was doing something wrong, when in fact he was doing everything right.

"Good morning." Brandon's voice chirped, drawing her back to present time. He was sitting in his office chair facing her.

"Good morning." Caroline replied, a small smile on her lips.

He turned back around and went back to working. She internally groaned and slid out of the bed. She snaked her arms over his shoulders and rested her chin on top of his head. Quietly she watched and listened to what he was doing. Even though she knew how to work all the equipment, it still seemed out of reach for her. She wasn't even sure she remembered how to produce music anymore.

"Are we good about last night?" Caroline asked him. She had a pit in her stomach because of how the night went. What was one of the best nights of her life, quickly went sour because of her morals.

Brandon hit a few keys on the keyboard before throwing his head back and looking up at her. Their lips were millimeters apart. "There isn't anything to talk about, Care. I overstepped knowing you had a boyfriend."

Caroline placed her lips on his and kissed him softly. Her thumb lightly tracing his jaw line. She had caught him off guard so he just sat there as she broke apart from him.

"Just for the record, I want to be able to have that type of physical relationship with you," Caroline sighed and spun him around so he was fully facing her. She went and sat on the edge of his bed and looked at him. "what kind of person would I be if I cheated after giving Levi so much shit for cheating on me?"

"Caroline, I know you have your reasons and when you're ready, I'll still be waiting. I'm not mad about it, seriously. I enjoyed you spending the night in my arms way more." Brandon said, cracking a smile at her.

She grabbed one of his pillows from behind her and chunked it at him. He caught it and started laughing.

"What are you even doing over there?" She asked, walking back over towards him and looking at the stuff he had done.

"It's a song I'm working on." He replied.

"Can I hear it?" She asked.

"No!" He shouted, quickly closing out the program.

"Why?" She asked, raising her eyebrows at him. He had always been one to share music clips with people.

"It's a surprise. I'll let you hear it tonight, maybe." He smirked. "But you can help me work on this one. It needs some editing."

Caroline nodded happily and listened as Brandon played the song. It was a prettymuch song that needed very little work. She paused the song and rewinded it to the chorus.

"That Z?" She asked. Brandon nodded. "Speed it up just a tad. It will completely change the song."

Brandon listened to her and sped up the chorus. Caroline listened to it and paused it again.

"I'm tryna tell you I'm sorry, should definitely be like a run to top off the chorus. Also you should add some bass to this song" Caroline chirped leaning over his shoulder.

They continued editing the song until they got a finished product that they thought the label would like. Once they had finished it was well past lunch time and Caroline was starving. Luckily, someone jerked the door open and stormed in.

"You ready to come out of hiding now? I need help cooking." Edwin said.

"You could've knocked." Brandon noted.

"Yeah, then I would've missed whatever this is?" Edwin retorted, twirling his finger in their direction.

"We were editing a song, Dipshit." Caroline chuckled, standing up straight and walking over to the bed. "But I'll come help you cook, Ed."

Edwin gave her two thumbs up and left the room. Caroline grabbed her phone and walked over to Brandon who was back to working on more songs.

"We'll have a much needed talk tonight, okay?" She said, pecking him on the cheek before walking out.

Caroline walked downstairs to find Ed and his mess in the kitchen. Nick was patting our burgers to go grill. Austin and Ansley sat outside painting something on the patio by the looks of it and Zion was no where to be found.

"Rise and shine." Nick chuckled, looking to be in a completely different mood since the last time she had saw him.

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