Lush Life (Tradley au)

Chapter 12- Brad's POV

I'm quickly on my feet, running though my house to try and figure out where Tristan went. I blame James entirely- it may have been me who actually kissed Tristan, but the stupid dare was James' idea in the first place. There's no sign of him downstairs, so I look upstairs in desperation. 

I hear James call up "Me and Con are gonna show ourselves out, I think you and Tristan need some space."

"Thanks!" I call back, still searching madly. After a while, it occurs to me that he might have gone outside to get away from it all. I head downstairs into the garden, and although my heart breaks when I hear loud sobbing, I'm glad that I managed to track him down. He isn't in my garden though, he's in his. There's a part of quite low fence in between our houses, which is presumably how he got over there. 

I climb over cautiously, and I hear Jess barking behind me. Carefully, I guide her over the fence too- I hope Tristan doesn't mind me bringing a dog into his garden, but to be honest that's probably the last thing he needs to worry about right now. He's sitting up against the wall with his knees to his chest, bawling his eyes out. 

"Tris..." I say quietly, walking over to him.

He doesn't even look up. "Go away Bradley." he says, wiping his eyes roughly, although it doesn't stop the flow of tears. He's never called me Bradley before, so something must be wrong. Jess walks over to him and licks his forehead. I have to stop myself from giggling, as that would be rude. 

Tristan finally looks up. "What are you doing here? And why did you bring your dog?"

"I came to see if you were alright." I say. "And I brought Jess because I thought you could use a cuddle. There's nothing quite as comforting as hugging a dog when you're sad."

Tristan stretches out, and Jess makes the most of the opportunity by sitting on him just like she did a few days ago. He buries his face in her fur and says, although it's slightly muffled, "Why did you kiss me?"

I sigh. "James dared me. And you didn't say no."

"Not saying no isn't the same as saying yes." he says quietly.

"You nodded when I asked if it was ok." I point out. "There was nothing stopping you from saying no if you weren't cool with it, which I'm guessing you weren't."

"I thought you'd be weird about it." Tristan says, his face still buried in Jess' fur. "I'd never kissed anyone before, I was worried you'd freak out."

"Why would I do that?" I ask, my heart breaking even more at his sad voice. 

He shrug. "I don't know. I'm sorry."

"It's ok." I smile, wanting him to do the same. I put my hand under his chin to raise it, and I then say "Come on, smile for me." He looks at me properly, and manages a small smile. In response, I wrap an arm around his shoulders, pulling him into a hug. We just sit there for a while, two teenage boys cuddling with a golden retriever who doesn't know how big she is. 

After a while, I reach to wipe a single tear off Tristan's cheek before saying to him "Do you want to go back to mine now? Con and James left, they said we needed some space."

Tristan nods. "I'd like that." We head back over the fence, Jess in tow, and soon enough were snuggled up on my bed together, our arms wrapped around each other's waists. There's a comfortable silence until Tristan says "I'm sorry for freaking out. You're a really good friend."

"Thank you Trissy." I say sleepily, that almost immediately panic in case he thinks I'm weird- I've never called him Trissy before. I feel him laugh lightly, then I add "Night Tris, love you." I'm suddenly so tired that I barely know what I'm saying. 

I feel a light kiss being pressed to my forehead, then Tristan says "Love you too Brad, night." I snuggle closer to him so my head is buried in his chest, and I slowly begin to drift off to sleep. It's been a long, emotional night, and more than anything else, we both just need to sleep. It'll all look better in the morning.

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I wasn't sure where I wanted this to go, but hopefully it was ok. I've had a weird day today, I was meant to be horseriding this morning but I finally gave it up- it wasn't worth the stress and it was making me miserable. My mum is 'disappointed' and 'angry' because I am apparently wasting opportunities that I'm lucky to have. I know I'm lucky, but it just wasn't fun anymore, I don't see why I should put myself through that.

In other news, my sister downloaded neko atsume for me and I've named all my cats (so far) after band members 🐱