Anxiety. [LT AU] I

» 03.

in the next few hours after louis' power nap, he was awoke by the doorbell chiming throughout the whole small detached house. he peered out his bedroom window, but that wasn't very good as it only showed the side of the neighbours house with another bedroom just straight ahead. louis has always liked imagining his neighbours in his head, so because for such a longtime it was a vacant building, he could pretend to be talking to them and his imaginary best friend carlson. but carlson moved away when these new neighbours showed up, and louis was pretty certain he could never see him again. now he was alone as ever. he places those fuzzy slippers on his feet and tiptoed into the landing which overlooked the staircase that lead down to the hallway, and gasped slightly when he saw vivian and steve from next door.

"hello ms tomlinson, we're your new neighbours, vivian mckenzie and steve mckenzie." the middle aged woman stuck her hand out for louis' mother to shake which she does firmly with confidence. she does the same with steve.

"pleasure to meet you both." joanna smiles at them genuinely.

"the pleasure is all ours, ms tomlinson-"

"-oh no, please call me joanna. come, come in, sorry it's slightly messy. i haven't got round the weekly clean. had to deal with work and the school my son goes to." joanna sighs lightly, massaging her temple for a split second before smiling once again. she's incredibly stressed.

"don't worry, our house is just left full of boxes. we just don't have the energy to unpack them just yet, despite arriving here three days ago. oh, what school does your son go to; how old is he?" vivian asks as if she's eager to know about louis. louis is not.

"uh, rivera academy. it's a good school, very good teachers. ah, he's sixteen going onto seventeen in two months. the oldest in his year." joanna speaks with pride and passion about her son, almost forgetting his flaws.

"oh lovely! our daughter has just enrolled there, she's sixteen as well. that's great, hopefully they can be friends. it would be so wonderful if they do, being neighbours and all is a bonus." vivian's positive speaking was droned out in joanna's head as the surname 'mckenzie' was repeating over and over in her head. it was really bugging her that she couldn't remember who's surname was that. "our ashleigh loves making new friends. she's incredibly sociable." and then it clicks in joanna's head and she almost feels sick in that moment.

"that's lovely." joanna forces the words out of her mouth, and louis' jaw drops as the confirmation of his 'enemy' now being his new neighbour. this day just keeps on getting better!!

+++

vivian and steve stay for just over an hour and a half, and for once joanna feels like she's made friends. she finds it so hard to make them and keep them because her schedule is always so jam-packed with louis in it, she just doesn't have a social life. it's quite sad to be honest. but she enjoys being with louis always.

she wouldn't give that up for the world.

she learns that the couple are from new york, born and raised, moving to london because of steve's high paid job. vivian has to look for work or else she'll be unemployed, but she's incredibly skilful and smart so that would seem highly unlikely to happen. the mckenzie's aren't overly rich in the sense that they'll flaunt their money in your face, no. they're just hard workers that deserve the money they earn.

of course as if it's natural, joanna enjoys vivian's company the most and the fact that vivian has already called joanna her 'new best friend', it makes joanna feel so happy inside. this isn't the case with louis however, who was watching events from above.

he sees this new couple as a threat. he thinks that they'll steal his mother away from him, and there will be no love for him left.

but he can't do anything about it.