Love & War | Brad Simpson ✔️

12. "Thanks Gemma"

As soon as Gemma steps off the train, she spots me within seconds and runs over to me as fast as she can whilst wheeling her small travel case behind her. She gets a few funny looks from people, especially with the loud, squeal-y noises coming from her mouth. When she reaches me, she lets go of the case and throws her arms around my body. I squeeze her back tightly.

"I missed you" she mumbles into my hair.

"I missed you too" I chuckle as she pulls away and grabs her case again, chatting animatedly to me about her train journey down here as we leave the station. When we reach Tristan's car, he gets out and gives her a quick hug before putting her case in the boot for her. The three of us then jump in the car and Tris begins to drive us back to the flat, whilst Gemma relays to me all of the gossip from our hometown that I've missed out on. Apparently, the chavvy girl from our English class is now pregnant with her second child and there is much dispute on Facebook over who the dad is.

Jeremy Kyle, eat your heart out.

"We're back" Tristan calls out as the three of us step into the flat half an hour later. Within moments, Brad appears in the doorway to the living room.

"Hi" Gemma beams, giving Brad a small wave. He raises his eyebrows, looking rather surprised. I think he was expecting her to be, well, like me.

"Hi, I'm Brad" he says, looking even more surprised as she bounds over to him and pulls him into a friendly hug. Gemma's just a friendly person in general. This is why we work so well together, because her constant cheerfulness makes up for the, er, slightly hostile vibes I have been known to give off. I don't always mean to; curse my resting bitch face.

"I know who you are" she tells him as she pulls away, "I'm Gemma" she states before adding, "and I won't stab you, by the way"

Brad and Tristan chuckle whilst I roll my eyes. Like Brad needs reminding about that.

"Well, that makes a lovely change in this flat" Brad replies, catching my eye for just a moment. I glare back at him as he turned to Tristan, "can we swap Gemma for your sister?"

I ignore that and grab Gemma's hand, pulling her away from Brad and towards my room.

"Gosh, I'm very popular today" she chuckles as I pull her into my room.

"I just don't want Brad stealing you off me" I mutter because I can imagine him befriending her mainly just to piss me off, "I wanna spend as much time with you as possible before you go home in a couple of days"

"So where are we off to tonight then?" She asks, flopping down onto my bed and lying back across it. I copy her actions and lie down next to her.

"I've bought a few bottles for pre-drinks whilst we get ready" I tell her, "and then there's a few decent bars and clubs we can go to in town, but we definitely need to go in Mint, that's the bar that Seb works in"

"Ooh, Seb" Gemma teases, rolling on her front to face me and poking me in the stomach with her finger, "I can't wait to meet this Seb"

I already told Gemma the rundown of Seb over Skype, in the hope that by telling her about the guy I'd been messaging for the past few days would stop her from pestering me about getting it on with one of my brothers band mates. It seemed to work, because she hadn't asked about mine and Brad's supposed 'sexual tension' since I'd first mentioned Seb.

"Well, he's working tonight so he said he would slip us a few drinks on the house if we go in"

She grins at they thought of free alcohol.