Rooftop

9.

"Morning Columbia."

"Morning," I tell Brad as I sit down next to him on the sand as I eat my bagel. He offers me a flask, but I shake my head and hand it back to him. I've only been sitting here for a few minutes and it's already incredibly awkward to see him again. Yesterday definitely made things weird. And while, he may be a little bit correct, I really don't feel like trying to change that habit now, as it has done a great job of protecting me from heart break, or any lost friends. And while the cons might be slightly higher than the pros of living like that, it still works for me. And so I will continue. And he's not even completely right. I could have more friends if I really thought that they were worth it, or a boyfriend if boys were actually interested in me.

"Do you want to go to Tony's to get a pizza?" He asks me. I nod and we get up to leave, making sure to stand at least two feet away from each other, which helps to relive the tension caused by last night. We walk the next couple of blocks, making polite small talk, enough to break the silence, but not enough to actually say anything.

Once we get to Tony' they seat us practically immediately because there weren't many other people in it. Our waiter comes over to us and introduces himself as Eddie. I don't really look at him until I have finished reading through my menu, and decided what I want.

"Could I have a slice of the Margherita pizza and some water?" He writes it down and Brad orders a Hawaiian pizza with a milkshake.

"How long have you two been together?" Eddie asks us, after writing down our orders.

"Oh, no. We're just friends." I tell him and smile. I've just now looked at him and notice that he's actually really good looking. He has a little bit of acne here and there, which can be expected because he doesn't look much more than a year older than us, and he has really pretty blue eyes and brown hair that is a little bit lighter than mine, and looks really good on him. He smiles back and bends down to grab our menus then leaves.

"He's really into you," Brad tells me but I quickly dismiss the thought. There's no way that he could have already figured that out, even if Eddie was interested in me. He comes back a few minutes later with our drinks and sets them down for us, smiling at me in the process. I smile back and he leaves again.

"You could cut the sexual tension between you two with a knife."

"Oh shut up. You don't know what you're talking about."

"Oh but I do."

"No one is this annoying, you must be doing something wrong."

"Or something very right."

"Whatever. I'm not into Eddie. I just met him." I start sipping on my water, trying to ignore this conversation. He comes back with the pizza and gives us the check. After we finish eating, Brad picks up the check then hands it to me. I roll my eyes at first, because I really don't want to pay for it, but then I look at the message written on the receipt and it's telling me to write my number and it's signed by Eddie. I throw some cash onto it, and use the pen that came with the check, to write down my phone number but I change the last two digits, making it inaccurate.

We walk out the door, and Brad is looking at me. "That wasn't your number. Your phone number ends in a three not a five."

"I don't know what you're talking about." I start speeding up so that I'm walking in front of him, and he starts quickening his pace so that he's right behind me.

"Why'd you give him the wrong number. You were into him, and he was obviously into you. You two could have gotten together. You know, actually had a relationship." He looks like he's about to continue talking but I cut him off.

"Relationships lead to breakups." He drops the subject and we keep on walking, but I notice that he doesn't seem to be able to walk in a straight line very well.

"Brad, touch your finger to your nose." He tries to and is able to do it a few times out of his attempts, but his is obviously not sober.

"When were you drinking?" I almost yell at him, but catch myself in time, so that no one else knows hears us.

"At the restaurant."

"When?"

"I brought in a flask of whiskey and put some into my lemonade."

"You can't drink in public." We arrive at his house and I'm pretty sure he expects me to just go home, but I keep on following him up to his room. "Why were you drinking?"

"Because I wanted to." I'm just now starting to realize how drunk he is, and decide that he can't be this way this early on in the day so I ask him where he keeps his bread, and bring some slices back up, because I think that it might help him out. But I honestly don't know if it will actually help him.

"Seriously, why are you drinking?"

"Today would have been my dad's birthday."

"Oh. I'm so sorry." I feel a little bit bad about not noticing that anything was wrong with him today. I should have paid so much more attention to him.

"I don't know why you're so sorry. It's the guy who killed him's fault. He's the one who should be saying sorry. He's the one who should be trying to make it up to me. Not you."

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SHOUTOUT TO THE 12.5% OF MY READERS FROM MALAYSIA! YOU GUYS ROCK!

(p.s. yes I know that this chapter is really not great, and pretty short, but I was having an exteme case of writers block when writing it. I swear that it'll get better after I edit it, and the next chapters are also much better. I might post another one today, just so ya know.)