A Month To Live

A Month To Live (14)

Over the next few days, the whole school got hyped for the game. By the time Thursday rolled around, you could have cut the tension in the air with a knife. I'd never really understood the excitement before but I could feel it rubbing off on me.

Remi and Tara had began making banners at Remi’s house so we could hold them up in the crowd tomorrow during the match. She'd invited us both to stay over so we could definitely finish them. Hayley had, not so politely, declined. She didn't really hang out with us girls when we were on our own. I had a sneaking suspicion that she preferred the company of the guys in our group. I hadn't worked our whether she had the hots for one of them or whether there was a different reason. Either way, I didn't care too much.

We were all spread out in the living room surrounded by jars of red paint in different shades. I'd suggested just bathing in the stuff and turning up tomorrow looking like tomatoes but Remi shot down the idea immediately and ordered me to paint the letters on a long sign she'd drawn up. I had so far painted Richmond Road on the banner and was currently finishing the word ‘runners’.

I rolled up my sleeves as I leaned over and began carefully tracing the outline of the letter 'U'.

‘BOO!’ someone shouted in my ear.

I yelled in surprise, jerking my hand across the banner. Thankfully the brush only trailed across a part where it was already painted red. I scowled and placed it down slowly before turning to glare up behind me. Bradley towered over me with a smirk.

‘I hate you so much,’ I told him in a voice which was a lot calmer than I felt.

‘No you don’t,’ he said happily, crouching down to examine the banner. ‘This is actually pretty good,’ he admitted, grudgingly. 'I'd have assumed you were a lot messier at painting.'

‘I nearly was at your freaking interruption,’ I growled, picking up the paintbrush again with renewed patience.

‘What’s life without the surprises?’ he asked with a smirk.

I resisted the urge to flick paint at him and instead dipped the brush back into the paint, beginning to trace the outline of the U again.

‘You missed a spot,’ Bradley said annoyingly.

I scowled and grabbed a spare paintbrush from the floor, shoving it in his hand roughly. It was all I could do to not punch him in the arm.

'Stop complaining and help if you’re going to whine,’ I grumbled. I heard him chuckle lowly and he dipped the clean brush into the paint. I finished the U and moved on to one of the N’s, making an effort to ignore him.

I leaned forward and painted for a moment before something wet touched my cheek. I jerked back and my hand immediately shot up to my face. When I looked down, my fingers were covered in red paint. Bradley laughed and I scowled at him before taking advantage of his momentary distraction.

I grabbed the front of his shirt and yanked him closer before wiping the end of my brush all over his cheeks and forehead.

‘That’s mean,’ he complained as he finally managed to push me off. He wiped his face with the back of his hand and I smirked.

‘Well you did it first,’ I pointed out before leaning forward and using his shirt to clean my cheek. He made a noise of protest as his white t-shirt was ruined forever.

‘Guys, we need to finish the banners before tomorrow so that they can dry overnight!’ Remi squealed from the other side of the room. ‘Stop flirting about and get on with it!’

‘That last part sounded kind of dirty,’ Bradley mused out loud.

Remi flicked her middle finger up at him and Tara laughed. I smacked him across the chest – unfortunately with the hand I was holding the still wet paint brush in. It left a great streak across his stomach and my eyes widened.