the roommate → brad simpson | ✓

ten - "you need therapy"

Brad stays close to me as people stumble home, probably from the same party as I came from. I was less drunk and instead more curious now. As we walk down the street, I feel my feet give way and be quickly moves to stabilise me before I fall on the floor.

"How much did you drink?"

"I don't fucking know," I snap before sighing. Thomas was right, I was rude, Brad was just trying to help. "Sorry."

"Stop apologising, you're scaring me," he jokes as he lets go of me. "We're almost there now, you'll be able to sit down."

I nod and we walk in silence now. Neither of us knew what to say. I think he knew not to pry and ask questions which while I was thankful for, I wish he'd say something because the silence was feeding my overthinking.

We reach a barbed fence and he pauses, trying to listen out for electricity passing through before climbing through the fence with ease.

"Climb through. It's safe."

"And illegal, by the looks of it."

He holds out his hand for me to take and I roll my eyes, climbing through the fence without his help. He chuckles at me as I stumble past him, only to realise that I didn't know where we were headed. Currently, we were along the outskirts of a forest.

"Before you ask, I'm not gonna kill you," he chuckles as he walks by my side. I roll my eyes with a small laugh. It was strange to see this joking side of him, where he was shooting snide comments at me and I'm not arguing back with him. "We're almost there."

I purse my lips and stay silent, knowing it's a waste of his time and my time if I ask where we're going because he'll just tell me to be patient again.

After five more minutes of walking, we find ourselves in a small patch of grass further inside the forest. The grass was fresh and green and Brad sits down on the grass.

He looks up as he realises I didn't copy his movements, "you can sit down, too, you know?"

I nod and sit down next to him, looking around the forest. It was difficult to see anything since the only light was from the stars and moon above us, shining down on us.

"I come here sometimes when you're out of class," he says after a few moments of silence and I snap my head over to him. "My friends are great to hang out with but they just want to get high. My mate deals marijuana and I do it whenever I'm with them. Sometimes it's exhausting because I feel so shit afterwards, so instead I come here for a break. To study sometimes."

"Why'd you bring me here then? It seems like a personal place."

"I come here when I need a break, and it looked like you needed a break," he shrugs, playing with some grass in his fingers that he'd pulled out of the soil. "Do you mind if I ask what happened?"

I bite my lip and look nervously away from him. He was being nice but telling him could totally backfire and he could use it against me in an argument. However, telling someone what was on my mind was probably going to relieve a bunch of stress that I had pent up inside.

"You remember that guy I had sex with the other day?" I ask and he nods. "I'd liked him for so long. He was one of those stupid high school crushes, and even though he was a dick to me I still wanted to be something with him because I thought he would treat me like a queen. Turns out he used me to get to my best friend. So I lost my best friend and a guy that thought liked me back in the same night."

He doesn't say anything. There's nothing you can say, really. Instead I sigh and continue.

"I caught them kissing at the party tonight," I explain. "He called me fat and rude and she didn't do anything to defend me. I guess that's what hurt the most, that she didn't have my back after me having hers for years."

He nods slowly, "I'm not used to drama, but they both seem like arseholes. Not as much of an arsehole as you, but an arsehole none the less."

"Woah, woah, woah," I put my hands up to stop him from continuing. "You used arsehole too many times in one sentence for me to process anything you just said."

"Funny," he laughs dryly. "I was trying to be nice, but I see how it is. You just throw it back into my face."

"You we're trying to be nice by insulting me?" I scoff and he lightly barges his shoulder into mine with a laugh.

"That's besides the point," he shakes his head. "I'm trying to make you feel better about yourself because you're not that bad when you're being a raging bitch."

"I appreciate the effort."

We fall into a comfortable silence as we just sit down on the grass together. It was strange for us to be getting along and I knew he was only doing it to make me feel better. Tomorrow, we would be back at each other's throats, no doubt.

"How about we play twenty questions?" He asks randomly and I laugh, shaking my head. "I'm serious. You're my roommate and I know nothing about you."

"Well, I know you're an arse that gets high with his friends," I counter. "Besides, there's nothing interesting about me."

"I'm sure there is," he disagrees. "What's your favourite colour?"

"Yellow," I reply instantly. "Yours?"

"Red, I guess," he shrugs. "I don't really have one. Uh. . . One place you'd like to go on holiday?"

"London," I laugh. "I know it's like two hours from here but I've never been. I wanna be a tourist and go on the London Eye and take pictures at Madame Tussaud's."

He nods slowly.

"What football team do you support?"

"Newcastle," he replies. "I was born in Newcastle but grew up in Sutton. Do you support anyone?"

"Manchester United," I say. "You need therapy—you seriously support Newcastle? That's so gross."

"Shut up," he laughs, and we bounce questions back and forth for a while until we decide it's time to go back. The sky was turning from jet black to a navy blue and we knew soon the sun would be coming up.

"We should get going soon," I sigh as I rest my head on his shoulder. I had sobered up considerably while we sat and conversed. His palms were pressed against the grass while he leant back.

"Yeah," he agrees. I feel his eyes bearing down into the side of my head and I manage to find the courage to look up at him. He sharply intakes his breath, giving me a tight smile.

"Is something on my face?"

He chuckles, "no. I was just waiting for you to move off of me."

Sure. I roll my eyes and move myself away from him, standing up and brushing dirt off of my hands. He stands up moment later and gives me another smile, facing me.

Our chests were almost touching, and I had my head looking up into his eyes. There was something different about them, and I couldn't put my finger on it. Mostly because it was an emotion and partly because I was still tipsy from my drinks.

"I appreciate you bringing me here tonight," I tell him. "It was a nice gesture, especially from a rude arsehole."

He laughs.

"And tomorrow we're going to go back to hating each other," I conclude. "Since we're being nice to each other now, I thought I'd say thank you."

"In that case, you're welcome."

I feel his breath fanning my face as he moves closer. I was surprised by his movements and I freeze in place. His eyes were flickering constantly and quickly between my eyes and my lips and soon his own lips are brushing against mine.

I'm not sure if I move closer towards him because I wanted to know what it was like to kiss him or because I was drunk, but as soon as I move my face to close the gap, he sighs and closes his eyes, moving away from me.

"We should go."

I nod sharply, noticing the frantic beating of my heart in my chest as disappointment and relief wash through me.

unedited.