A Month To Live - Extras

The 20th of January

I was woken from my sleep rather abruptly by Bradley shaking me. He ignored my vocal protests and only stopped when I grumbled and sent my fist flying into his chest.

‘That was surprisingly painless coming from you,’ he commented close to my ear.

‘The next one will be full of pain, trust me,’ I muttered, rolling away from him onto my side and tugging the comforter under my chin.

‘I’ll prepare myself then,’ he replied before yanking the covers down swiftly.

‘Stop,’ I whined. ‘It’s cold! And it’s...’ I cracked my eyes open and squinted at the clock on my bedroom wall, barely able to see the hands. ‘Midnight? What the hell are you doing?’

‘Technically it’s one minute past midnight,’ Bradley said, confiscating the bedcovers over to his side as I attempted to snatch them back. ‘Stop that,’ he laughed, pinching my cheek to get rid of my scowl.

He leaned over and gave me a kiss which I sorely attempted not responding to but entirely failed. When he pulled away, he smiled and brushed my hair back.

‘Happy birthday, cutie.’

‘Thanks idiot,’ I replied, giving him another peck reluctantly. ‘Now as adorable as you are... give me back the blanket immediately!’

‘Can’t,’ Bradley said, shaking his head. ‘We have things to do.’

‘What things?’ I frowned, propping myself up on my elbow to squint at him.

‘Well, I’m in class all later today so I can’t even hang out with you until this evening,’ he said, cupping my cheek and frowning. ‘I can’t even blow it off. It’s like the second week of semester...’

‘Don’t feel bad,’ I smiled. ‘Anyway, we can hang out tonight. And it’s Saturday tomorrow, we have all weekend too.’

‘Nope, not good enough. Come on, let’s go watch some TV and think of exciting things we can do until six am. I have plans for six am. Other than that, it’s your choice.’

‘But you can’t stay up all night, you’ll be so tired tomorrow,’ I pointed out, sitting up and frowning at him. ‘We only went to bed like an hour ago! You’ll-'

‘Don’t care,’ he interrupted, pulling me towards the edge of the bed. ‘I can sleep tomorrow night. And you can nap when I leave. You have the day off anyway.’

‘But-'

‘No more arguments else I’ll throw you over my shoulder,’ Bradley warned, tugging at my hand until I allowed him to bring me into the living room.

‘It’s cold,’ I complained.

The laminate floor was indeed freezing against my bare feet. And it'd been cold all week, although not as bad as it had been around New Year’s – that was almost unbearable. It probably wasn’t even that cold, to be honest but I’d gotten used to the almost permanent heat around here so any temperature where I had to wear an actual coat, I no longer liked.

‘That’s what you get for wearing my shirt instead of warm pyjamas,’ Bradley replied, disappearing back into the bedroom briefly.

‘I get too hot sleeping by you,’ I pointed out as he returned with the comforter from my bed. ‘You’re a million degrees.’

‘Useful during these winter months then,’ he replied pushing me back onto the couch and tossing the comforter on me.

‘Hey!’ I laughed, struggling to pull it off my head.

I heard the sound of the TV turning on before Bradley threw himself down beside me and yanked the comforter down with an amused look.

‘What do you want to watch?’ he asked, sliding his arm around my shoulders and tucking me against his side.