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.
"And I'm a med student," the guy says to Summer as she smiles politely back at him. "So, you know, if you ever have any trouble breathing because of me, I'm sure I can help you out."
She almost cringed at his line but instead, she nods slowly, tucking some hair behind her ear. "That's very nice of you."
He flashes another grin, though it almost faltered as Brad stands next to Summer, his arm over her shoulder.
Brad's other hand reaches up to her far cheek, turning her face so she was looking at him before he kissed her plump lips slowly, surely. He basked in the feeling, having missed it despite the fact that he had kissed her lips only last night.
"Hey, babe," Brad mumbles against her lips, pulling away slowly as he bites gently on her lower lip.
Her cheeks turn red from both embarrassment of kissing Brad halfway through a conversation, but also from being flustered by Brad kissing her halfway through a conversation so unexpectedly.
"Sorry I'm late, only just got out of class," Brad says, slowly turning to face the med student. "And you must be... ?"
"I'm Austin," he mumbles out, glancing down at Summer for a moment.
"What was your name? Leaving?" Brad asks with a confused face.
"No, Austin."
"Ah, shame. Thought you said you were leaving," Brad shrugs. "But you should, Austin. I don't think either of us wants you here."
Austin scoffs before turning on his heel and marching away from the pair. Brad drops his arm from around Summer's shoulder.
"So much for only being fuck buddies," Summer mumbles and Brad curses mentally. For a moment, he had completely forgotten about their dispute the night before.
"I don't see why you're complaining," Brad replies with a shrug. Deep down, he wanted to tell her how jealous he felt, how angry he felt, that someone was flirting with her.
But that would mean he had feelings for her, and he can't admit that to himself, let alone to her face.
"Well, I wouldn't have to complain if you hadn't come here to try and save the day," Summer replies, stepping forward as the queue shuffles onwards. "He wasn't causing any harm."
Brad has caused more harm emotionally to her than Austin ever could've in the short minutes he had with her.
Brad rolls his eyes at her. "I was doing you a favour, he was no good."
"Yeah, neither are you, but you're still here."
Brad was surprised by her surge of confidence, not missing the roll of her eyes and heavy exhale.
"You know, sometimes you can be a proper brat," Brad shakes his head. "You're never happy with me, are you? I'm gonna give you something to complain about if you're not careful."
She knew what he was hinting towards and it excited her a little bit, despite the fact that she promised herself not to go running back to him so easily.
"Yeah? What are you gonna do?" She said, hiding her small smirk and watching as Brad looked down at her with a raised eyebrow.
He puts his arm back over her shoulder and pulls her close into him, his lips by her ear as his breath tickled her skin softly.
"I'll shove my cock in your mouth and see if you're still complaining then," he whispers lowly so only she could hear him. "I'll make sure I fuck you so hard that you won't be able to even mumble another word."
She bit her lip as she looks up at Brad, not wanting to show him any signs of caving in but it was almost impossible. She wanted to come undone for him right there.
He kisses her lips quickly. "Don't bite your lip, peaches. Otherwise, I won't wait until we're at your house for our plans."
Her cheeks were a deep red, and his hand creeps down to her arse, grabbing it for a brief moment and he felt himself get tight around his boxers.
Wait, he told himself. Wait another few hours and she's all yours.
"I'll see you later," he says before letting go of her and disappearing to go sit next to Tristan.
The blonde raises his eyebrows at his friend who grabs his phone out of his pocket.
"And my food?" Tristan asks. "Where is it?"
"I got distracted," Brad shrugs, glancing up at Summer who was tucking some hair behind her ear.
"I can see that," Tristan rolls his eyes. "I guess I'll let you off, just this once."
+*^*+