'So what exactly do you need?' Bradley asked, grabbing a shopping cart from the stack of them lined up. He pulled it out and swivelled it in the direction of the door.
'Everything,' I shrugged. 'Couple weeks worth of stuff,' I added.
'You're going to need a lot then,' he said, making his way to the automatic doors.
'Are you saying I eat a lot?' I asked. He rolled his eyes and didn't bother replying verbally as we made our way inside.
Bradley trailed around the store after me as I threw various things into the cart. I commented that he looked like a little kid following their mother around and he glared at me before attempting to ram me with the cart. He missed and nearly hit an elderly woman.
After much apologising I grinned at Bradley and said 'I think you're taking the term 'to hit on' a bit too far, hon.'
After a good forty-five minutes we arrived at the cereal aisle and I hit a dead end.
'Damnit,' I said, placing my hands on my hips and glaring up at the many boxes. 'How can I choose out of all of these?' I asked.
'The way I do it is to try a different one every week,' Bradley shrugged. 'I haven't tried this one before,' he added, pointing out a green box with pink splashes all over it.
'No wonder why,' I snorted. 'It looks like a children's playground.' I stretched up on my tiptoes but couldn't reach it. Who the hell even bothered installing shelves this high?
'Aw, is someone too short for the shelf?' Bradley teased from behind me.
'Shut up, before I run you over with the cart,' I snapped, managing to stretch up a tiny bit higher.
'Despite the lovely view this is giving me,' Bradley said with a laugh. 'I think I may have to step in.'
'Lovely view?' I repeated. He pushed me aside and snatched the box I was reaching for with ease and tossed it into the cart.
'Done?' he asked
'Think so,' I sighed. 'Checkout time.'
Bradley lugged the cart to the front of the store again and I leaned against it as we waited in the line.
'Whenever I'm with you, we always seem to be queueing up for something,' he muttered. 'I hate packing away shopping.'
'Food shopping sucks,' I said, watching an old lady counting out her change excruciatingly slowly . 'D'you have to do the shopping in your house?' I asked.
'Of course,' he laughed. 'D'you really think Remi or my dad would go and do the shopping?' he asked with a raised eyebrow.
'I guess not,' I said with a shrug. 'You spoil Remi y'know?'
'Do I?' he asked, frowning at me.
'Of course! You cook for her, clean for her, shop for her... she's got you on a leash! Didn't she call you just the other day because she wanted you to come home and make her dinner?' I asked. We moved forward a few paces.
He frowned more. 'I didn't even notice-'
'You're her bitch!' I laughed.
A passerby tutted at my language and I saw them shaking their head as they walked away.
'I'm not her bitch!' Bradley replied, enraged.
'You are! You basically carry her around on a pedestal.'
The person in front of us left and I smiled a hello to the cashier before turning to the cart and dumping things out onto the conveyer belt.
'A pedestal? If I were to carry anyone around on one of those-' he began but cut himself off. 'I am not a bitch and I never will be,' he said firmly.
'Keep telling yourself that,' I winked. 'Man, I can't wait to see you when you're whipped.' I snorted. 'I'll have so many more jokes. I'm running dry at the moment.'
I heard Bradley mutter 'whipped' under his breath several times but otherwise he made no response.
'Okay, stop complaining and help me with this,' I said, throwing various items onto the belt at random.
'You're doing it all wrong,' Bradley grumbled. 'Heavy stuff first, then you can pack it back into the cart that way!' he said, batting my hands away.
'Jeez, okay, mom,' I replied sarcastically, holding my hands up as I stepped away and let him have at it. I heard the cashier let out a slight laugh which earned us both a glare from Bradley. 'Don't mind him,' I said happily, patting his shoulder. 'It's just his time of the month... it always is apparently.'
'Raegan!' Bradley exclaimed loudly, causing a few passers-by to stare.
I burst out laughing and found it hard to stop at the embarrassed expression on his face. I don't think I'd ever managed to truly embarrass him before. I calmed my breathing but then I caught sight of the blush on Bradley's cheeks and I started laughing again.
We finished throwing the bags in the cart and I paid up, ignoring the glare Bradley had kept directed on me.
'Not sure if pink suits you,' I teased, pinching his cheek. 'What? Too many jokes in a short space of time?'
'Way too many,' he glowered.
'Okay I'll let you rip on me a bit if you want?' I offered. 'As long as you can thing of decent insults on your own that is.' He continued to ignore me and opened up the trunk of his car. 'Can you not think of anything?' I asked him, helping him toss the bags of shopping into the back. 'And you told me you got straight A's.'
'I do get straight A's!' he exclaimed, turning towards me.
'I'm not in any of your classes so I wouldn't know,' I smiled.
'Go get rid of the cart,' he ordered me, narrowing his eyes and yanking open the driver side door.
'Yes, master,' I said, bowing slightly as I steered the cart back to the front of the store. I shoved it inside another one and my sleeve got tangled in it somehow.
'Son of a-' I muttered to myself as I attempted to unhook my sleeve from the evil metal being. After a few moments of struggling I got free and shot the cart a glare before returning to the car and jumping into the passenger's side.
'I never thought your weakness would be a shopping cart,' Bradley commented slyly as he started the engine.
I punched his arm, making him wince and he pulled out of the parking space, joining the line of other vehicles wanting to escape the parking lot. I tugged on my belt and glanced over at Bradley.
'Put yours on.'
'Let me just get out of here,' he said distractedly as he glanced in the mirror. I rolled my eyes and leaned over.
'What're you doing-' Bradley said as I made him shift his hands one at and pulled his belt on.
'Going swimming? Jeez, what does it look like I'm doing?' I asked, clicking it into place before leaning back.
'Oh,' Bradley said. 'Thanks-' he broke off and scowled as he glanced into mirror again. He pulled out of the parking lot and sped off down the road.
'What's up?' I asked, looking over at him.
'Did you see who was behind us?' Bradley asked.
'No... why?'
'It was Tommy,' he replied, pulling to a halt at a stop sign.
'Shut up,' I groaned. 'You think he's stalking me? What are the chances he'd be here?'
'I guess we can put this one down to a coincidence,' he mused. 'Third time is a pattern. Keep your eyes peeled next time you're out in public.'
He parked outside my apartment a few minutes later and we hauled the bags inside. I roped Bradley into helping me unpack the bags and put everything away.
When we were done I sighed, kicked my shoes off and collapsed onto the sofa in the living room, closing my eyes.
'It's rude to go to sleep when you have guests,' Bradley said. I felt the sofa dip beside me and something brushed against my leg. 'You're supposed to entertain me.'
'I don't think I want to know what "entertaining" you're talking about,' I said lazily.
He gave me an appreciative chuckle and leaned over to pinch my cheek.
'Great minds do think alike then,' he said.
'What fool told you that your mind was great?' I replied.
'What's with all the jibes today?' Bradley asked, putting on a mock hurt tone. 'I bet you can't be nice for the rest of the day - it's just too hard for you.'
I laughed. 'Nothing's too hard for me.'
'Did you by any chance catch the innuendo in what you just said?' Bradley asked, I could practically feel his smirk.
'Shut up,' I laughed.
'Oh yeah... that's you being unkind already. Looks like I've won... that didn't take long,' he said.
'We didn't even shake on it!' I exclaimed, opening my eyes and turning slightly to I could poke him in the side. 'And I don't even know what the bet is for, so I may not even want to do it yet!'
'Well if I win - which I will by the way - then... hmm,' he broke off.
'Well I know what I want if I win!' I said pointedly.
'And what's that?' he asked, curiously.
'I want to drive your car,' I smirked. 'Just so I can say I did.'
He shook his head. 'No-one drives my car!'
'Well that's only if you lose... which you're so confident that you're not going to do...'
He mulled it over for a second. 'Okay... but if I win no more old people jokes for a week,' he pointed out.
'What?' I groaned. 'But... that's just too hard!'
'I thought you said nothing was too hard for you,' Bradley said with a wink.
I scowled. Hmm... he didn't say I couldn't make fun of him for anything else. I've still got some material.
'Okay, okay, deal!' I agreed, turning to him and crossing my legs. I held out my right hand and waited for him to shake. His mouth tilted up on one side in a smile and he grasped my hand in his and shook.
'See, if you leave now then technically I can't be mean to you...' I said slowly.
'Was that you being mean? You won't get rid of me that easily,' he smirked, squeezing my hand in his in a threatening way. 'I'm going to make you break.'
'By break do you mean my hand?' I asked 'Because you're pretty much crushing my bones right now.'
He smiled again and released the pressure on my hand slightly. I spotted his cell phone hanging out of his pocket and pulled it out to glance at the time.
'Wow, it's nearly eight already,' I said. 'This is why shopping is a big waste of time.'
'And detention too,' Bradley added, turning to rest his back against the arm of the sofa. 'Writing lines isn't exactly the most useful thing to be doing.'
'Neither is it environmentally friendly,' I pointed out. 'I must have written four pages of that crap.'
'Your fault that we were in detention anyway,' Bradley muttered, turning my hand over in his own.
'I don't see how it's completely my fault - you could have just told your bitch of a teacher that I was just messing around,' I complained.
'Oh I did tell her... but she took the "messing around" part in a more literal way,' Bradley replied, his eye glinting slightly.
'Oh, God,' I groaned. 'You're-' I managed to catch myself in time.
'"You're"... what? I'd like you to finish that sentence... I am quite looking forward to this week with no insults,' he said with a smile. I matched him with a sweet smile of my own.
'Hey you didn't say "no insults",' I said slowly. 'You just said "old lady jokes"...'
He paused as he realised his mistake.
'You have got to be kidding me.'
'Of course I'm not,' I smirked.
'I also said that you'd have to be nice,' he pointed out. 'Any compliments you want to pay me?'
'Compli- that wasn't part of the deal!' I growled.
'Technically it is,' he said with a grin. 'I said you'd have to be nice and that doesn't just mean you stopping with the insults, it means you being kind and helpful and forward with any cute comments you'd like to bestow on me.'
'Jesus, you sound like a-' I broke off with a scowl.
'Like a what?' he challenged, raising his eyebrow.
'Like an angel,' I said sweetly, forcing on the puppy dog eyes. He burst out laughing at the save and I ended up laughing along with him.
'I admit, that was pretty good,' Bradley said with a grin. 'But not good enough... the compliments actually need to be real because I didn't mean for you to be fake-nice!'
'A real compliment that I'd have to give you?' I asked with a dramatic sigh.
'Wow, if you said what you were thinking just now you'd have lost the bet that's for sure,' Bradley said.
I sighed as I tried to think of something to say which wouldn't end up in me cringing with embarrassment. I could just tell him he was hot as hell but that would definitely mortify me. It was true, though. He didn't seem to know how good-looking he was either. His eyes were very alluring, they seemed to go on forever. They were just always full of warmth. They complimented his dark hair too-
'...are you going to stop making goo-goo eyes at me any time soon?' Bradley asked.
I blinked. 'Huh, what?'
'You were staring at me for like a whole minute,' he said, raising an eyebrow.
'All part of the niceness thing, babe,' I said with a wink. 'I had to give it some deep thought.'
'Okay, so what've you got?' he asked, seeming to physically brace himself.
'Well,' I said slowly. 'You're probably one of the nicest guys I know,' I began. I looked down to our clasped hands so I didn't have to look him in the eyes. This would be difficult enough. 'You look after your family and never complain about it. And you're also a gentleman, I guess, seeing as you always hold doors open for people-'
'Only you,' he corrected quietly. I took a breath and continued as if he hadn't spoken. The more I thought about it, the easier the words came out.
'And you're not pushy. Like with the whole... thirtieth thing - anyone else would have begged for me to tell them and they would've gone on about it for ages but you didn't and I definitely appreciate that...,' I murmured. 'And you're funny - well I find you funny - no-one else seems to understand my humour like you do,' I trailed off with a frown. His fingers had tightened on my hand.
'You're also very sensitive,' I added slowly. 'Not in like a wuss kind of way... I mean to people. You always know when something's wrong, you know? You don't bother hiding your emotions either, unlike me,' I added, poking at the couch cushion grudgingly. 'It's pretty refreshing.' I let out a sigh. 'Oh yeah, I guess I could also add that you're clearly great at football but not a typical asshole jock who can barely string a sentence together without saying the word 'dude'. And well, let's let's honest you're not the worst looking guy roaming around,' I finished with a laugh.
I waited for him to reply after my little speech but looked up a few seconds later and found that his cheeks were flushed pink for the second time today. I couldn't help but smile.
'Aw, is Bradley all embarrassed?' I said reaching up and pinching his cheek.
'I - what-' he broke off and I realised he was struggling to come up with a reply.
'See, I can be nice when I want to,' I said smugly. I released his hand and stood up. 'I'm going to get a drink,' I announced. 'Want one?'
He stood up swiftly so he was directly in front of me and dropped his hand on my shoulders so I couldn't move away.
'Did you... really mean that?' he asked with a frown.
'Well to be honest, Bradley, if you look at some of the guys in our year and stand next to them yourself ,even you can tell that you look better than-'
'No,' he said lowly, cutting me off. 'All of it.'
'Well,' I said, glancing away so I didn't have to meet his eyes. 'I wouldn't say stuff like that if I didn't mean it,' I scowled. 'But it's your fault that I said it anyway - you were practically begging for compliments-'
He laughed and shook his head.
'You really think all that of me?' he asked again. 'You must be pretty misguided to think I'm that selfless,' he murmured.
'What d'you mean?' I asked, looking up at him in confusion. 'What on earth would make you a selfish person?'
He paused for a long moment and skimmed his hands down my arms, finally resting them on my waist.
'Most people are selfish in some way or another,' he said slowly. 'I just know exactly what I want to keep for myself.' He tightened his fingers on my waist and pulled me against his chest. I slid my own arms around him as I tried to come up with a response.
'And what would that be?' I said, trying to keep my voice from breaking. His hand was trailing up and down my back and it was rather distracting.
'It would be highly selfless of me to share that thought with you, wouldn't it?' he said teasingly as I pulled my cheek away from his chest to meet his eyes.
'How many things are you being selfish about?' I asked.
'Just the one.'
'You mean two. You don't want to tell me and that's technically a selfish act so that brings your selfishness up to two,' I smiled.
'Okay two then,' he agreed, knocking his head against mine. 'But only two. You're being selfish about a secret too though,' he added.
'Two actually,' I smiled.
'Hmm, care to divulge the second?' he asked, looking down at me.
'I do not,' I said.
He could never know the second. If he knew how I felt about him then... the first secret would be so hard to admit. I couldn't let us cross that line. But it was so. Damn. Hard.
'Anything I can do to persuade you otherwise?' he asked.
'I don't think so,' I murmured.
'Really?' he breathed.
I blinked at his sudden change of tone and met his eyes again. They burned into my own and the smile on his face was long gone. He was so close.
'I - um what?' I asked, losing my train of thought. I found myself unable to tear my eyes away from his own.
He knocked his forehead against mine, gentler this time. I felt his hair tangle in my own and my breath caught. I tightened my fingers in his shirt, unable to force myself away from him. He seemed to sense the change in me and his hand slowly slid up my back, fingers resting at the nape of my neck.
'I'll share my selfishness if you share yours,' he whispered.
I managed to let out a breath and nudged my forehead away from his own so I'd at least be unable to kiss him. I pressed my face to his warm neck instead and closed my eyes, trying to regain some kind of control over the situation. I began to hear a thumping noise and wondered if I was starting to hallucinate.
'I think there's someone at your door,' Bradley said lowly. His voice was huskier than usual. I liked the sound of it.
'Surely they can wait?' I murmured.
'You can always come back afterwards,' he offered, loosening his hold on me ever so slightly.
I sighed and stepped out of his arms, grudgingly heading over to the door and yanking it open aggressively.
'Great what're you doing here?' I asked.
'That's rude,' Tommy said. 'Anyway, I wanted to borrow an egg.'
'An egg?' I blinked. 'How can you borrow an egg? It's not like you can bring the egg back is it? Not the exact egg but a different egg - that makes it taking.'
'Okay then...' he said, raising an eyebrow. 'Can I have an egg?' he asked, rewording his sentence.
'Please?' I said.
'Please,' he replied, going along with it for some reason.
'Wait here,' I said, narrowing my eyes so he wouldn't get any ideas about coming inside. I fetched an egg from the fridge and brought it back over to him.
'Here,' I said, holding it out to him. 'Don't bother bringing one back,' I added, starting to close the door.
'Why the impatience?' he smirked. 'Want to get back to your boyfriend?'
'I don't have a boyfriend,' I said, tilting my head at him.
'Mmm, tell that to him,' he said, nodding to somewhere behind me. I glanced back and saw Bradley frowning at him.
'Thanks for tailgating me earlier,' Bradley said.
'Anytime,' Tommy grinned. 'Well, thanks for the egg, I suppose. Have fun while the night is young!' he added, turning away.
I flung the door closed.
'Is it just me or is he unbearable?' I muttered.
'He is. And I'm hungry,' Bradley said. 'What's for dinner?'
'Who invited you?' I asked, rolling my eyes as I turned back to him.
'Weren't you being nice to me?' Bradley said. 'Or was that a bitchy comment I just heard...?'
'Of course not,' I said with a sweet smile.