Lush Life (Tradley au)

Chapter 6- Tristan's POV

Brad doesn't talk much on the way home, so it feels a bit awkward. I genuinely had no idea that his ex cheated on him, but I have to say I did wonder why Brad still had a picture of him up. No wonder he looked so awkward at seeing him. 

When we get to Brad's house, he turns to me and takes my hand. "Can you come and sit with me?" I nod, as I love spending time with him, and he looks like he could seriously use a hug after that revelation. We head upstairs, and as he sits on his bed he goes to look at the picture of Josh he has on the wall. 

"Why do you still have that?" I ask, and he shrugs.

"It doesn't feel right to get rid of it." he replies quietly, almost like he's embarrassed. "I couldn't bring myself to throw it away. I know I should, but..." He trails off and I look over to see that his eyes are full of tears. I hate it when people cry in front of me, and I never know what to do. I shift closer to him and put an arm around his shoulders. He sniffles, but doesn't actually say anything.

After sitting like that for a while, I ask him "Do you want to tell me about it?" as I move my arm from around him. 

He shakes his head, but reaches out to grab my arm. "Can you just hold me for a bit?" he whispers. In response, I wrap both my arms around him and pull him into a hug. I cradle him like a baby for a while, and that's when I start to feel a damp patch growing on my shirt. I look down to see Brad crying softly into my shoulder, and the fact that he's clearly trying to hide it is completely heartbreaking.

"Hey." I whisper. "It's ok, you can cry on me if you want to." He doesn't reply, but I know he heard as he buries his face further into my chest and starts to cry properly. I've never had someone cry on me before, and I haven't known Brad for that long so I have no idea what to do. In the end, I settle for rubbing his back gently and slowly rocking him back and forth as he cries. I instinctively kiss his forehead, and I feel him cling to me as my shirt gets soaked with tears. 

After a while, he sits up and wipes his eyes, looking embarrassed. "I'm sorry." he says awkwardly. "I had that bottled up for a while, and I think I needed to get it out." I nod, smiling sympathetically- I'm a big believer in the benefits of having a good cry, and it certainly seems like Brad needed one. 

He slowly starts explaining what happened. "I saw Josh in town kissing someone who wasn't me, and he got really angry and dumped me after I sent James to confront him."

I giggle. "Why did you send James?"

"I thought he'd be more intimidating." Brad says in a very matter of fact way. "He's bigger than me."

"Well," I say. "To be fair, most things are bigger than you. You're very small and adorable." Brad pours, but I can tell he's smiling really as I go to wipe a tear off his cheek, then reach out to run a hand through his hair.

He stands up and takes my hand in his again. "Come and watch a movie with me, I need cuddling." I'm quite a tactile, cuddly person anyway so I'm more than happy to oblige. 

As we sit on the sofa watching Pitch Perfect together with him wrapped in my arms, he says "Thank you for listening to me cry. I don't normally tell people that much, but you were so chill about it." I just kiss his forehead again. Soon enough, I hear his breathing begin to even out and I look down to see that Brad's fallen asleep pretty much curled up in my lap. He looks so cute and peaceful, I can't bring myself to pick him up and carry him to bed, so I sit with him absent mindedly stroking his curls. 

I lean down to kiss his forehead to him and whisper "Goodnight Brad, sweet dreams." to him, even though I know he can't hear me. Part of me thinks it's weird that I'm cuddling a boy that I've only known for about a week, but in the end I give up worrying as I drift off with Brad spark out in my arms.

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Normally I update this on Wednesdays and Saturdays, but I couldn't because of prom (which was wonderful 💃🏻) so this is kind of late. Oh well. 

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