Lush Life (Tradley au)

Chapter 20- Brad's POV

I wake up to find myself tucked in bed with a teddy in my arms, like a small child. It takes me a second to figure out what the hell is going on, but then I spot a piece of paper on my beside table. Sure enough, it has Tristan's messy handwriting explaining why I'm in bed after he took care of me yesterday. The note reads 'I put you in bed and looked after you because I love you very much and I care about you. You needed to sleep. Call me if you want to later. Love Tristan xxx'. 

I smile to myself at the sweet gesture, and decide to have some breakfast before possibly taking Tristan up on his suggestion of calling. I feel much, much better than yesterday, when I couldn't keep anything down, not even water. I head downstairs to find my mum in the kitchen drinking tea. 

"Hello my lovely." she smiles, kissing my forehead. "I heard you were ill yesterday. I'm sorry I wasn't with you."

"It's ok." I smile. "Tristan came to sit with me. And besides, I'm a big boy. I can look after myself."

"Maybe," my mum says, laughing. "But you'll always be my baby." I roll my eyes, but laugh. As I eat my breakfast, I tell my mum about my lack of plan. She seems to agree that not doing much is a good idea, and that I should take it easy. In the end, I settle for bringing Jess into the garden and sunning myself for a bit. When I go outside, I see Tristan stood in his garden hanging out the washing. He's also shirtless, which is sensible in this heat. 

"Hey!" I call. 

Tristan turns around and smiles at me. "Morning sleepy." he says, smirking. "How are you today?" 

"Much better actually." I huff, pretending to be annoyed at his teasing. 

Tristan laughs. "Good. Want me to come and sit with you?" 

I nod. "If you want. I mean, you're clearly desperate to see me." I try my hardest not to blush at my shameless flirting.

Thankfully, Tristan is far too busy flirting himself to notice. "And who can blame me?" he asks breezily as he climbs over the fence. We sit in the sun, just watching the clouds. After a while, Tristan points to one. "That one looks like Jess."

I lean down to put my hands over my dog's ears. "You've offended her." I inform him. "That looks like a blob, not a dog." We continue seeing what we can in the clouds- I spot a guitar and a fish, and Tristan sees a tree and a bird. 

"I don't know what that says about my personality." he wonders out loud.

"Well," I offer, "You're very tall, and I guess you're kind of a free spirit." Tristan doesn't reply, but he does laugh. We sit in a comfortable silence for a while- I'm hoping to tan, but Tristan is so pale that I don't think he can- he's like a vampire. 

After a while, he breaks the silence by saying "My mum was asking me if there were any boys I liked." 

"And what did you tell her?" I ask, curiously yet hopefully. "Has someone caught your eye?"

This time, it's Tristan's turn to blush. "You sound like my grandma. But yeah, there is someone I like." I'm surprised to feel a pang in my heart at that. In cliche movies, this is where he'd declare his love for me, but this is real life. Wait, why am I thinking that? Tristan either doesn't notice how flustered I am or ignores it, as he continues. "But I didn't tell her who."

"What's he like?" I ask, sitting upright. 

Tristan blushes again. "Well, he's funny and kind and I get along with him really well. And he's super cute. But I don't know how he feels about me."

There's so much I want to ask, but I'm honesty likely to cry if the answers turn out to not be what I want to hear. Instead, I say "Whoever he is, he's lucky. You're wonderful, anyone would be lucky to have you." 

He smiles, although he looks slightly awkward. "Thank you." he says, but with a slight tone to his voice. I don't want to pry too much, so I drop the subject. However, I keep thinking about it. Who is this guy? Do I know him? Is he really that nice? But I have to fight the burning question that I want to ask- is it me?

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I wrote this quote quickly, so sorry if its rubbish. But I have to say, I quite liked it 😉 Also, 20 chapters, WHAT. But it's going to be going for a while, I have no idea what I'm doing 😂

I'm hella stressed because I'm getting my GCSE results tomorrow *wail of despair* but as they're changing and going to be harder next year, loads of schools entered year 10s early and the exam boards responded by making the grade boundaries super high 😭 I'm soooo screwed, please wish me luck!

Let me know if you enjoyed this!