your body is a weapon → brad simpson | ✓

seventy one

Much to my surprise, Aiden hasn't approached Brad and I since he arrived. It's not that it bothered me, I was just expecting Aiden to have split us apart for the night.

Currently, Brad and I are sat at the bar with Tristan and James. While James was downing shots and Tristan was slowly sipping on his beer, Brad and I remained sober as we drank a milkshake each.

"You need to stop drinking so much," I frown at James who orders another round of shots for himself. "It's not good for you."

"I'll be fine," James assures me, hiccuping. "I'm just living my life while I can. Soon enough I'm going to be having kids and a wife and I'll have to get a proper job."

"Being my sidebitch isn't a proper job?" Brad teases James who flips his middle finger. I smile at the two boys.

"I'm serious," James sighs. "I'm gonna be thirty and working in an office for the rest of my life so that I can pay for my kids to go to uni."

"That's sweet, but I can't relate," Tris chuckles. "I'm not having kids when I'm older. I treasure my sleep too much to worry about having a kid."

"You'll change your mind," I say to Tristan. "When you meet the right person you'll want to have kids, I bet."

"I won't," Tristan assures me. "And if I consider having kids, I give you permission to beat me up."

"I don't need your permission to do that," James says before taking his shots. "I'll beat you up whenever I want, you lanky shit."

"You're drunk half of the time," Tristan rolls his eyes. "You don't stand a chance against me, even if I am skinny."

The two boys start bickering and I look over to Brad who has a small smile on his face as he looks at me.

"What are you smiling at?"

He snaps out of his trance quickly, his smile still plastered on his porcelain face. "I wasn't smiling about anything in particularly. I was just happy."

"I'm glad that you're happy," I smile, my hand brushing over his. I know I shouldn't really hold his hand, but I want to.

In that moment, Den bustles over to the bar ad gives the bartender some orders. He nods and starts making some more drinks.

"Hey, flower," Den smiles at me. "How are you doing?"

"I'm good," I reply. "Is everything alright tonight?"

"It's going amazing," Den nods. "We've had loads of sales and we've been handing out loyalty cards. Plus people are really interested in buying a share so I think there won't be an end to the diner for a long time."

"That's great!" I gush. "The last thing I want is for the diner to shut down."

"It's all thanks to you and Aiden that this is possible," Den reminds me. "I'm forever grateful."

At the mention of Aiden's name, I remember he's meant to be my fiancé. My hand moves off of Brad's quickly and I look around the diner for him.

"Where is Aiden?" I ask Den. "I haven't seen him much tonight."

"I asked him to grab some stuff for the kitchen from the storage room," Den says. "You need to talk to him?"

"Yeah," I nod. "I'll talk to you in a bit."

Den nods and moves to talk to the bartender again who had served James some more shots. I roll my eyes at my friend.

"I'm gonna go find Aiden," I tell Brad, standing up from the barstool. "Stay here, I'll find you afterwards."