"Lou, I have every bad feeling about tonight," Birdie murmured into my brothers ear once we were seated at the back of the bus. Her wide brown eyes flicked between us both, face paper white under the fluorescents.
"Hey now, DeWitt doesn't do dealings with wildcards," Lou assured her, kissing the girl above each eyebrow before drawing back to meet her worried gaze, "If he's sent us to meet these guys then it's all good."
They continued to talk in whispers for the rest of the bus ride, but I tuned them out, instead focusing my attention on the view of Eastbourne that flashed past the window. We were walking into this on the assumption of whether or not a drug-lord still felt he owed our mother a debt. Despite wanting to trust Lou when he said it'd all be fine, a part of me couldn't shake the feeling that Birdie was right.
Although it would have been a gruellingly long walk, it was still only a short ride to the McDonalds at the centre of town. Lou kissed Birdie goodbye, cupping her delicate face in one of his hands before motioning for me to follow him as he stood, pulling the cord to signal he wanted to disembark. I tried not to fall over as the bus rolled to a stop, hot on my brother's heels as he strode down the aisle and jumped out onto the street. Turning, he mock-bowed to the bus driver before marching off across the shadowy McDonalds carpark, lit by a single streetlamp.
"We're to wait here under the lamp so they can check it's us before approaching, then we go 'round back for business," Lou instructed, despite having outlined the plan to me several times previously. He was nervous, I could tell, and his nerves only managed to feed the growing fear that ate away at the lining of my stomach.
"Lou, do you think it's safe to do this deal?" I whispered, looking across the dark parking lot with growing trepidation, "I mean last time..." I trailed off when his mouth twisted in discomfort as I brought up last week's events, the light directly above us catching silvery in the eyelashes of his downcast gaze.
For what seemed a long time we stood like that, with only the sounds of the nearby traffic and the scraping of the night wind pulling dried winter leaves across the concrete. I watched the comings and goings of the McDonalds itself through the brightly lit windows, scanning for the possible DeWitt contacts. Lou watched the road, grey eyes flicking to follow the cars as they flashed past. It was the most normal thing I felt we had done in days; this tag-team surveillance before a deal. Despite how strange I knew the feeling was, I couldn't help but feel in my element as I noted a trio of teenage boys exiting the fast food outlet, arms laden with grease-spotted paper bags, quickly sketching them in my mind before storing the image away. Their beaten up sedan backfired as they revved it hard to pull out of the carpark, causing me to jump back in fright.
"You should've brought your daft duck along to cuddle so ya didn't get scared," Lou teased, sounding decidedly more chipper now that I had supplied him with a distraction from the impending deal.
"It's Daffy Duck ya doaty bastard," I huffed in response, rolling my eyes at his gloating expression as I fell for the bait. The boy had been teasing me repeatedly about the plush toy ever since our first day, despite the fact he seemed to like it even more than I did; using it to act out scenes from his day to birdie and I, as well as leaving it in strange locations for me to find, the latest of which had been sitting on the caravan toilet with an open magazine balanced on it's gangly orange legs.
"Aye, but it just looks so daft with that big open mouth an' empty eyes," Lou explained, before adding in a snigger, "Looks a bit like that dopey radge they got me workin with."
I instinctively opened my mouth to snap a fierce reply in 2D's defence before I managed to stop myself, clamping it back closed with a wince. Lou smirked in response, knowing he was close to getting a reaction. Lowering his voice, he tried again for the punchline.
YOU ARE READING
The Trapeze Swinger
Fanfiction"Him. 2D. I could see him even now, his goofy grin while holding the water gun like a hunting rifle, lining me down the sight. His hands ruffling my hair, one eye closed in a squint as if sizing me up, as if looking into the sun." The year is 2003...
