Lush Life (Tradley au)

Chapter 5- Tristan's POV

I stretch out as I wake up, filling all the space in my bed. It was odd sleeping alone, as the night before I'd shared a bed with a cute boy when we were both drunk. Yesterday me and Brad agreed that it was nothing, but it meant a lot to me- he's nice and I like him. Plus he looked after me and rubbed my back when I puked yesterday morning (let's just say that I don't hold alcohol well in large quantities). 

I finally manage to pull myself out of bed, and even though it's the summer I try and make some sort of plan as I don't want to waste all my time. In the end, I settle for taking my breakfast out into the garden, to see if Brad's there more than anything else. I sneakily look over the fence to see if he's there, but unfortunately I have no luck. I wait for a bit longer whilst I drink my orange juice, but he still doesn't emerge, although his bedroom light is on. 

I eventually decide to go into town to try and explore a bit. I shout to my mum to let her know where I'm going, and as I walk out the gate I find myself stopping outside Brad's house. 'I wonder what he's doing.' I think to myself, then mentally slap myself for being weird. As I'm standing in the street like a lemon, his front door opens and out he walks.

"Tris? What are you doing?" he asks.

"Oh, um." I stutter. "I was just, er, thinking."

Brad laughs. "Or stalking me. Where are you going?"

"I was going to go into town." I say awkwardly, but Brad's face lights up.

"So was I!" he exclaims. "Should we go together?"

I'm secretly thrilled, but I try not to show it so he doesn't think I'm totally weird. "Sure, why not?" As we walk together, Brad tells me about all the places in town- the clothes shops, restaurants, the cinema and so on. Where I used to live was quite boring, so this will be an interesting change. Soon enough, we're in the town centre, and I try not to look so stupidly amazed by all the hustle and bustle. 

"Shall we start in the music store?" Brad asks, pointing to a shop with a whole load of guitars in the window. I nod eagerly and follow him inside, where there's indie music blaring. I look around slowly, gazing at all the instruments. 

Brad points out a shiny black guitar. "That one's nice, isn't it?"

I shrug. "I wouldn't really know to be honest, I'm much more of a drums person. But it does look nice."

"This is for you then, kid." I hear a voice come from behind me, and I turn around to see a man with a tag reading 'MANAGER' on his shirt pointing at a huge drumkit.

"That's awesome." I say, slightly shocked. As well as the beautiful drumkit, there's loads of oyher cool stuff, I've certainly never been in a shop like this before. Eventually, me and Brad manage to drag ourselves out of the shop, thanking the manager as we leave. We spend the rest of the afternoon trying on clothes in several different shops, some silly and some stylish, but neither of us actually buys anything. 

After a while, we find ourselves at a small corner table in a small cafe overlooking the park. "It's nice round here." I comment, and Brad laughs.

"This part is. There's some really horrible bits though. Trust me, you don't want to be going around there." 

I nod in agreement. "I think most places are like that to be honest." We carry on our conversation until Brad suddenly freezes. 

"Are you ok?" I ask.

He waits a minute before answering. "Can we get out of here? I'll explain when we get out." I nod, letting him grab my hand and lead me out the cafe. It feels wrong to ask, so I restrain myself and instead focus on the feeling of us holding hands. 

Eventually, when we're nearer home than we are to town, he says "Sorry for freaking out. That was my ex, I haven't seen him since he cheated on me."

-------

Ooh, cliffhanger (of sorts). Please vote and comment, it makes me so happy (and I'm a needy bitch, sorry). Also sorry for lack of update last week (if anyone even reads this lol) as I was tired, wattpad was broken and ugh.

I have no more exams left 🎉 but equally my future's been screwed up by us voting out of the eu. But the government decided that we're too young and stupid to have a say for our own lives. And now loads of lowkey racist old people are telling me to 'get over it'. Um, no, fuck off, I'm allowed to be upset at you ruining the rest of my life 😡 *rant over*