your body is a weapon → brad simpson | ✓

twenty seven

When the first of December ended up coming around this year, I was beyond excited to buy presents for my dad and Brad. This was the first year since my mum left that I knew my dad was going to be over for Christmas.

"Need some help putting your decorations up?" I ask Brad over the phone once I'd finished putting up my Christmas tree. It's not as fun by yourself but I was used to it by now.

"I'm meant to be at the tracks this weekend," Brad says apologetically. "Maybe you can come over on Monday night?"

"But then it's the third," I whine. "Decorations have to be up on the first, it's an unspoken rule."

"No it's not," Brad argues and I hear shuffling on the side of the phone. "I'm sorry, Jamie, but can you not wait until Monday?"

"If I have to," I collapse on my bed. "I'll just sit here at home. . . all alone with nothing to do. . . while your decorations stay in their box. . ."

"Jamie, don't do this," he says sternly. "Don't make me feel bad. I really need to go to the tracks today."

I don't reply. He doesn't say anything. There's nothing but silence shared between us for a moment.

Sometimes when I want to go to Den's Diner after school, I would always bribe or beg him into taking me and most times he'll end up taking me. It goes both ways since sometimes he'll ask me to hang out with him at his house and I'll usually agree after much persuasion.

I didn't think my skills would go to the extent of managing to get Brad from going to the tracks, but it seems I'm successful as he finally lets out a sigh.

"The boys aren't going to be happy," Brad says. "But I'll come and pick you up in twenty minutes, alright? You can explain to them why we're not going to be fifty grand up this week."

"Thank you!" I grin down my phone and we bid goodbyes before I change into some more appropriate clothes. I couldn't believe I was hanging out with Brad at his house on a weekend.

He doesn't like me going to the tracks with him, especially on a Sunday, so I haven't been since the first time. Sometimes, Tristan would FaceTime me while Brad races but other than that, I hadn't really seen the tracks since.

Brad arrives a couple of minutes early and he lets himself in—he always does when he comes to pick me up from school and I'm running late or he gets here early, I told him to.

"Hurry up," he says, glancing at the watch on his wrist and I roll my eyes as I shove on my shoes. He hands me my coat and we walk down to his car after I've locked the door.

I was surprised that he's skipping going to the tracks just to see me for the day, especially considering that's how he gets his money to pay for his house, his car and everything else. He wasn't annoyed with me that I had convinced him to have the day off—if anything I bet he's please that he gets to just be normal for one day.

When we arrive at his house, James, Connor and Tristan are all stood outside with their arms folded, unimpressed.

"Where've you been?" Tristan asks as Brad gets out of the car first. Tristan was walking down the path from their front door. "We have been waiting her for ten minutes, only to see you've gone out!"

I get out of the car, digging my hands into my coat.

"Jamie!" James grins as he follows behind Tristan, pushing past him to embrace me in a hug. I laugh as he lifts me up and spins me around.

"Put her down, James," Brad rolls his eyes and James does as he's told, setting me down between himself and Brad. "We're not going to the tracks today—,"

"What?!"

"Jamie is gonna decorate our house for Christmas," Brad continues. "And she'll need some help from me, maybe even you guys."

"Jamie," Connor turns to me. "No offence or anything, but why the fuck did you have to do this today? We have to go to the tracks today, we can't afford to lose fifty thousand."

"Because it's a rule that we have to decorate for Christmas on the first day of December," I smile at him, and I hear Brad chuckle under his breath.

"It's no big deal guys," Brad says, and James nods enthusiastically. I think he's excited to have the day off and decorate the house.

"Whatever," Connor sighs. "I'm still gonna go and make some bets on the other races. We can't afford to get no money this weekend."

"We'll join you," Tristan says, dragging James to their cars. They climb in and pull off of the drive, James waving his hand out the window to us.

"Are they annoyed at me?" I ask, tearing my gaze off of their cars and back to Brad who locks his car.

"They're annoyed at me," he assures me. "And even if they were annoyed at you, they won't say anything to you because they know I'd rip their heads off."

I nod slowly, following Brad up to the front door with our arms linked. With one hand, he swiftly unlocks the door and opens it up, letting me go through first.

We spend an hour getting all the decorations from the top floor down to the bottom floor to begin decorating. While Brad sets up the tree in his lounge, I hang lights on the stairs and pin up stars to dangle from the ceiling.

"It's ready!" Brad calls and I quickly move into the living room to see a green tree ready to be decorated. Brad had some white and red baubles to use and we start from the bottom upwards.

"Stop putting white ones next to each other," I scold him. I think he's doing it on purpose now. "I told you already that it goes red and then white. Not white, white, white, red. Dumbass."

Brad smirks playfully at me. "So does it go red, white, white, white?"

"Oh my god," I mumble, shaking my head and he chuckles from beside me. I change around his baubles so that it's in the right order before getting one of my own.

I reach up to put the red one on the tree, not managing to quite reach it and I let out a sigh before trying again.

"Need some help?" Brad asks. There was Christmas music playing faintly in the background. I nod and hand him the bauble and he puts it up for me. "Guess it must suck being small?"

"You're not exactly tall yourself," I scowl at him and he smiles, amused.

"But I'm taller than you," he says. "By like, five inches." I scowl at him, and watch him finally put the baubles on in the right order.

We wrap tinsel carefully around the lights we'd already put on to the tree and then we just had the star to put on. He turns to me with a smile, tilting his head.

"Want some help getting up there to put the star on the top?" He asks, handing me the silver star. I smile and nod and he tells me to get on to his back. Once I'm high enough, I put the star on to the top.

"All finished!" I say. "Now we use the other tinsel to wrap around everything!" Brad lets out a groan.

Once we've finished—and by finished, I mean we've gone through ten boxes of decorations and used them all—we sit on the sofa, exhausted.

"Thanks for turning my house into a real life Christmas movie," Brad says, about to reach for his glass of water but I wrapped tinsel around that, too. He rolls his eyes.

"It's okay," I smile, sitting next to him. He had his arm over my shoulder and I rest my head against him comfortably. "Thanks for letting me decorate your house."

"It was nice to have the day away from the tracks," he admits. "I don't ever rest from the tracks, it's so consuming sometimes."

"I bet it is," I comment, looking at the tv as he turns over channels to find something good to watch. "But you should let yourself rest sometimes, it's not healthy to be doing something so often, especially when it's so draining."

"I'll keep that in mind."

edited.