Escapade - Larry Stylinson (Re-write)

XXX - My Fair Lady

Liam nodded slowly, and Louis tapped his fingers on the jar of frogs. He smiled, blue eyes glistening.

"I don't know or care for how much their mum knows about them. She might know everything, or close to nothing. What I am certain of, is that she knows something. The children from Rosewood Gardens are bad people. All of them."

***

The evening went on, and Louis did his nightime routine just as always. He brushed his teeth for two minutes, played with various fidget toys until half-eight exactly, and cuddled up to his parents on the sofa while watching a film until nine. After that, he went up to his room—by which time, he'd usually have a shower and put his pyjamas on for bed. Today, however, he went upstairs and put on his shoes. He snuck into Liam's room and took a black hooded jacket from the drawer, and the keys to his lamborghini from the bedside table. Once in his own bedroom, he opened the drawer of toilet roll tubes and found the small torch that he liked to hide in them. It only half-worked, which was half more than Harry said so Louis was still quite happy.

He flicked it on, watched the shadows of his fingers on the wall when he wiggled them in front of the light, before running to jump on the bed.

Louis came from a large family with many siblings, and many talents. He had seven sisters, of which the second eldest had a skill for engineering. To Louis' amazement, she'd managed to tweak his tape recorder into speaking when spoken to. This came in handy when Louis was fast asleep on a school morning, and his mother would call for him. The tape, that he'd recorded himself, would reply with "Yes!" and a few moments later, "Maybe!"

Louis sat on the edge of his bed, and pressed the button.

"Louis?" he said,
"Yes!" the tape recorder replied,
"Are you in bed?"
"Maybe!"
"Goodnight then. I'll see you tomorrow."

Louis wound the tape back to the beginning and laughed to himself.

A set of footsteps walked past his door and cast a shadow over the carpet. They went in the direction of Liam's room, then back to pause at the top of the stairs. Louis could tell by the sound alone that they were his brother's, as all of the women treaded lightly and there were only three other options—Louis himself, his father, and his brother. Liam was the one who rattled the floor with how much weight he slammed into the ground with each step.

Louis unlocked his door and stepped out. Liam stood at the top of the stairs looking rather puzzled.

"Have you seen the keys to my Lambo?"
"No." Louis said.
"I've lost them."
"I can see that."

Liam stood puzzled for a few more minutes. "Ah, good thing I have two cars then, isn't it?"

Louis smiled at him as the man made his way down the stairs, grumbling to himself.

He continued to smile as he walked back to his room and locked the door. As he made his way to the balcony, the polite smile turned into one of duper's delight. He took the lamborghini keys from hes pocket and tossed them on his bed before shutting the balcony doors behind him.

Louis climbed down the vines and dropped behind the rosemary bushes. The front door slammed shut as he reached the corner of the wall, and Liam walked out to his 4X4, carrying Harry's parcel under his arm.

He was on the phone to his girlfriend, and in the darkness of the driveway, never noticed Louis follow him and jump into the trailer of the car.

The engine rumbled and Louis tucked himself behind a set of crates full of old DVDs and broken records. He had a balaclava around his neck, that he pulled over his nose and mouth, and a black baseball cap that he covered his hair with. Even if you were to look, you'd not see the boy sitting the trailer of his brother's 4X4. The only thing that gave him away was the subtle stimming to calm his nerves and comfort him from the idea that he'd gone out for the first time in years without his Burberry coat.