24. CIGARETTE CONVERSATIONS

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24.

He was distraught, barely paying any attention to his blonde friend who was enthusiastically talking about a girl he had seen at a party the night before.

Both Tristan and Brad were outside during lunch hour, smoking a cigarette each. Brad hadn't told Tristan about his argument from the night before with Summer since he didn't think Tristan would care that much.

He got home last night and drank all the alcohol he could find in his shitty apartment—from beer to cider to the cheapest of wines—and it didn't help that he could hear his neighbour, Charlie, getting at it with another girl.

He wanted to apologise to Summer but he didn't have the balls to do that. He couldn't swallow his pride, he would wait it out until she came to him.

"Are you even listening to me?" Tristan asks in disbelief as he notices Brad's clenched jaw and eyes that's showed he was paying no attention.

"No," Brad replies bluntly, taking a final drag of his cigarette before tossing it on the floor and standing on it to let it burn out. "What were you saying?"

"Doesn't matter now," Tristan exhales some smoke heavily as he taps his tobacco stick. What's up with you, though? You seem a bit out of it today."

Brad rolls his eyes, leaning against the wall of the university.

"You were out of it yesterday, too," Tristan narrows his eyes. "Care to explain what's going on?"

"Nothing's going on," Brad snaps in reply, causing Tristan to put his hands up in defence. With one last drag of his cigarette, Brad's blonde friend points to the door.

"Let's go inside. Looks like it's going to rain," Tristan glances up at the sky before standing on his cigarette.

Brad doesn't reply but instead pushes himself off of the wall he was leaning against and manoeuvring his way inside. They walk into the canteen, making their way swiftly over to James.

"You never come off of that thing," Brad states dryly, causing James to look up from his phone's screen.

"Good observation, Sherlock. Not my fault that I have people who actually want to talk to me."

Brad rolls his eyes. Tristan sighs as his eyes ghost the canteen, his gaze falling on Summer as she waits in the queue to get some food.

She had been running late this morning, oversleeping since she went to bed late the night prior and struggled to finally go to sleep since she was overthinking for too long. This meant she couldn't get anything prepared for her lunch and so settled on buying food from uni.

"Why don't you go get some food?" Tristan suggests to Brad. He was hoping that Summer would cheer up his friend since she usually did.

"I'm not hungry," Brad mutters, grabbing his phone and unlocking it before going on a game.

"You sure?" Tristan asks.

"Yeah. I'm sure."

"Well, can you go and get me something?" Tris continues to push Brad, causing his friend to roll his eyes and look up from his phone.

"Why don't you get it, you lazy shit?" Brad raises his eyebrows, his eyes glancing to the queue over James' shoulder.

His jaw set hard as he saw a random guy talking to Summer, winking and flirting with her. His stomach churned in anger and he was ready to curb-stomp the guy.

"What do you want to eat?" Brad turns to Tristan as he shoves his phone away and stands up.

"Surprise me," Tristan smirks in triumph as, moments later, Brad is walking over to the queue. Tristan knew he probably wasn't going to get any food anytime soon if he was meant to be relying on Brad.

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