• coffee ~ todd anderson •

chapter 4

that evening, briony was alone in her room doing her homework when she heard a knock at her door. "it's open!" she called out. her eyes still glued to her work scanning over her history essay and checking for any mistakes.

"hey, you coming?" she turned to see neil peering his head into the room door. she looked at her wrist watch to see it was already seven o'clock and realised todd wasn't back -from wherever he was- yet. "but todd said-" she replied before being cut off. "todd, shmodd. come on! i asked him earlier and he said he wants to do his study work alone or something." he hurried. briony checked the time again. "well, alright then. i'll be there in five." she smiled reluctantly as he left.

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they were all sitting by the table in the study room. briony had given up on helping charlie with trig since cameron was so keen on helping instead of a "woman doing work only men do". so she decided to work on the radio pitts and meeks were making.

everyone at the table stopped working when they heard the door close to see knox resting his back against it looking thoughtfully at the ceiling. "how was dinner?" charlie asked. after a few seconds of him still in thought, he finally answered. "huh?" briony scoffed as charlie repeated himself.

"terrible, awful." knox answered sitting down and hunched over the table. "what? what happened?" knox' frown slowly turned upwards into a smirk.

"tonight.. i met the most beautiful girl i've ever seen in my entire life." the boys chuckled at his expression as briony got up and sat beside him. "are you crazy what's wrong with that?" she laughed. "she's practically engaged" he replied looking at each of them. "to chet... danburry."

they all sighed. "that's too bad" said pitts lowering his head. "too bad? it's a tragedy. a girl this beautiful in love with such a jerk." he replied, his tone of voice getting angrier so briony put her hand on his shoulder. "all the good ones go for jerks, you know that" briony laughed at pitts' comment. "aww pittsie!" she teased as she poked his sides. he yelped in response as the boys laughed.

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briony opened the door to her dorm room to see todd sitting at his desk with wet hair and a towel around his neck. when he noticed her standing there, blushing from seeing him in his current state, he quickly got up from his chair, took the towel off and threw it in the wash basket. chuckling, she walked over to her bed and sat.

"um, todd" he nodded still flushed. "i'm about to take a shower and i haven't yet so i was wondering. um because i can't take showers with the boys of course, could you, i guess block the door when i do use the showers?" his eyes turned wide and his cheeks beamed a bright pink wondering why she thought he was good enough to trust with such a personal task. "oh um, yeah s-sure."

before he could even have a think about the situation, he felt a comfortable warmth across his chest. as he looked down he realised she had cuddled up against him with her head laying on his chest and her arms wrapped gently around his torso.

"thank you todd, you don't know how grateful i am for this" todd was froze in place. she pulled away and said "i haven't been able to shower here yet. i must stink! apologies if i do" she giggled as he was still stood frozen in shock.

he couldn't remember the last time he experienced the feeling of a genuine hug.

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the next morning, briony went to the coffee shop down the road again for the same order as yesterday. this time when she was getting ready, she really did wake todd. he groaned, tossing and turning in his bed trying to find a way to get back to sleep as she was rattling around in their mini bathroom.

she really enjoyed her first time at the coffee shop so she decided it would be her go-to hang-out spot. this was where she could read as many books as she wanted due to there being a gigantic bookshelf when you enter the large archway away from the seating area.

she sat by the seat next to the window and drank her coffee while reading a novel called 'giovanni's room' (yes, this is a gay book. briony loves the gays lol).

while reading her book, she started analysing each sip of her coffee. she loved how smooth the coffee was to swallow and when it touched her lips she wiggled as she felt the warmth trickle down to her toes. as she wrapped her elegant fingers around the coffee cup gently, she felt at home. coffee and books is what she lived for.

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she beamed as she realised english was her first class this morning. "what's got you so happy this morning?" pitts smirked as they were walking through the halls with meeks.

"we have english first period! why wouldn't i be happy? mr. keating is so interesting, i love when teachers are like that. it just makes me get more involved in the class." she shrugged, grinning from ear to ear. meeks and pitts looked at each other in confusion. "he's alright so far, i guess." meeks said sarcastically through his teeth as pitts snorted at his response.

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"gentlemen and lady, open your texts to page twenty-one of the introduction." said mr. keating tiredly. "mr. perry, will you read the opening paragraph of the preface entitled understanding poetry." neil pushed his reading glasses up his nose before reading aloud, "understanding poetry by dr. j evans pritchard, phd." neil looked up at mr. keating already looking bored before continuing.

briony and the rest of the class found themselves dozing off and paying more attention to the teacher outside the window eating his apple by the courtyard. most of the students in the room's attention drew back to the class when they noticed mr. keating starting to draw a graph on the board. some of them copied it down and some of them brought their attention back to the teacher outside.

"excrement." mr. keating added abruptly. the class looked up at him in shock. "that's what i think of mr. j evans pritchard. we're not laying pipe, we're talking about poetry." the class were frozen with their attention still stuck on mr. keating.

"now i want you to rip out that page." the class became quieter than it already was, if possible. "go on. rip it out!" he exclaimed as some of the students started to laugh in disbelief.

then all that was heard was a loud rip from the back of the class. they all turned around to see a smirking briony with the ripped page raised above her head. "thank you, ms. perry!" the class laughed and mr. keating added, "tell you what, don't just rip out that page, rip out the entire introduction. i want it gone!"

the classroom was filled with sounds of rips, tears and flying paper balls travelling across it. suddenly there was a loud bang as the door to the classroom swung open.

in stumbled mr. mcallister. "what the hell is going on here?" he choked. everyone went quiet. "i don't hear enough rips!" mr. keating walked back into the room with a bin in hand as he stopped in his tracks when he finally noticed mr. mcallister. "mr. keating" he cleared his throat before adding "i'm sorry i didn't know you were here." mr. keating shrugged and replied joyfully "i am." scattered giggles were heard from the class. "ah, so you are" he replied awkwardly. "excuse me." mr. mcallister, embarrassed, left the class quickly.

"well" mr. keating clapped his hands before picking up the bin again, "keep ripping then!"

hii!! ok so i'm rly sorry that took so long to make. i've started school again and i'm in a pretty big year for exams so i'm trying to focus more on school than writing rn. i'm pretty sure i'll have a chapter done once at the end of each week but i'll try to make them during the week too :) hope you enjoyed this one! sorry it's a bit shit lol <3