The Best of Us

twenty

NOTE!
slight change to the updates! chapter twenty will now be split into twenty and twenty-one due to the length. I thought it would be good to publish this now while I continue to write and edit twenty-one (which will take longer).

therefore, this chapter will feature Bradley. the next chapter will feature Thomas and their Dad. since it's Bradley's birthday, I thought today was a good occasion to post :')

thank you for your understanding! i hope you enjoy <3

DECEMBER

THANKSGIVING CAME AND went in a blur. Dad left to spend the weekend with some of his family and Thomas and I accepted another annual invitation (politely rejected by Dad) from Mom's younger brother, Jem.

He was younger than Mom but their faces were frighteningly the same. His hair was darker than hers but they had the same pale green eyes and narrow, pointed noses and the same rosy mouths and slender faces. He was still younger than she had been when she died and he didn't have any kids. He wasn't married either but he did have a fiancée a few years younger than he was, a dark-haired, pretty-faced physiotherapist named Nicole, who spent Thanksgiving weekend with us.

It passed dishearteningly fast as our time with Jem often did. He was an easygoing guy that Dad sometimes disapproved of because he bought us extravagant presents when we were kids and told us a lot of 'college experimentation' stories when we became teenagers.

That didn't matter to Thomas or me. We adored him.

We spent the break slouched in front of the TV, watching movies and football and whatever TV show Nicole felt like binge-watching for the night. Jem, Nicole and I ate our body weights in warm, home-cooked meals and endless desserts. Thomas, who didn't eat quite as much as the rest of us, still ate a lot more than he had in a long time which pleased and soothed me, especially since he was starting to gain back the weight he'd lost and mentioned coming to the gym with me when we got home like he used to before he moved back in.

I was glad, too, to be able to spend time with him. The three of us had gone to the airport together but Dad's flight had been before ours so we spent some extra time hanging around before we had to board.

We spent most of our flight watching Nightcrawler and 22 Jump Street (having seen 21 in the movies together when it was released) but I still enjoyed the time we had and I was glad to have a seat next to him, even if we spent the remainder of the flight sleeping and quietly sharing snacks or bickering about the available space.

Whenever we stayed at Jem's, usually only a couple of times a year, Thomas and I had to share a room. He lived in what was technically a three-bedroom house but they used one of the rooms for storage so Thomas and I shared a double bed for a few nights.

Falling asleep beside him could be accomplished in seconds or not accomplished at all because he either went all night without making any sounds or movement- so deep in sleep that he sometimes didn't wake up for hours until after I did- or he didn't sleep at all and spent hours tossing and turning, moving his pillow around, climbing out of bed to get glasses water and constantly checking his phone.

Thankfully, Thanksgiving passed easily for him and he spent the days avoiding his routine of nocturnal sleep and spent the nights sleeping soundly. Though he claimed that I sometimes stole most of his space or robbed the bed covers or turned around too much (once, he grumbled during breakfast that I'd hit him in the face with the back of my hand) I didn't believe him. He slept so deeply that I don't think he would've noticed if I dropped a boulder on top of him. Anyway, Bradley never complained about sleeping beside me, even if that wasn't an argument I verbalised.