Louis' POV
I woke up feeling a bit lonely, and confused about where I was. I sat up and rubbed my eyes, realising I was in my old bedroom at home, and Liam had apparently woken up already. The curtain was blown up by the wind that came into the room through the open window, probably Liam's work, and carried girly giggles with it. I could hear Phoebe and Daisy laugh and yell, probably playing in the garden. I grabbed the curtain to open it and was surprised by the chilly wind that hit my chest as I leaned out of the window, finding my sisters and Liam in the garden, talking and laughing together.
"Liaaaaaam, come and push us on the swings!" Daisy exclaimed as she scrambled to her feet and ran to the swingset in the back of the garden. I smiled at the sight downstairs and took a quick shower before getting dressed in red capris and a blue Tshirt. Mum was singing along to the radio in the kitchen when I walked in, finishing her famous humus while a colourful tajine was on the stove. I grabbed a piece of bread from the basket before I kissed her goodmorning.
"Don't ruin your appetite Louis, I made your favourite for lunch." she smiled as she put away the spices she'd used, tasting the humus with her pink. "Hmmm. Perfect. Liam's in the garden with the girls, if you want to join them."
"Chicken tajine with apricots? Yum. Do you need any help mum?"
"No, I'm finished here, it'll be done in about an hour. I'm gonna go and finish some ironing, so you can go out if you like." I kissed her on the cheeck en did as she told me, but not before I made some iced tea for all of us.
I walked out and put the can and the glasses on the garden table and looked around to see where everyone was. Lottie and Fizz both laid spread out on the sunbeds, soaking up the sun in their bikinis while they read a book or a magazine. I shoved both of them to the side so I could lay down in the middle, my arms around my sisters shoulders while I watched Liam try to give the twins equal amounts of attention while pushing them on the swings. He really was good with kids, the girls obviously loved them and kept on giggling as he joked around or tickled them. I lowered my sunglasses and a smile was plastered on my face the entire time, until the three of them came to a halt in their game of tag, right in front of me, each holding a nerf gun. Where did they come from all of a sudden? Craptidoo.
"Hey hey, no water here, Lottie's reading a library book!" I quickly shouted before they could aim properly.
"Oh I'll be happy to go inside and help mum with lunch so my book is out of the way Lou, don't you worry." Lottie added in a sly voice. I lifted my sunglasses and shot daggers at her, but she just smiled kindly before she picked up her glass of iced tea and went inside, followed shortly by Fizz, who didn't even made the effort to hide her evil grin. Nice. An evil grin was exactly what was on the faces of Liam, Daisy and Phoebe. He crouched down and whispered something in their ear, which made me even more worried, but I took the opportunity to scramble to the edge of the sunbeds and try to run as fast and as far away from them as I could. Too bad Liam's stamina outdid mine any time, and I swear he was a leopard in a previous life, he was faster than lightning. Or almost, at least, so it didn't take him more than ten seconds to catch up with me and tackle me to the ground. I tried to fight him off for a few minutes, throwing him off my back as I crawled a few feet forward, but he would soon launch himself back at me and drag me down, so in the end I just gave up and let him turn me to my back.
Liam's POV
He kept trying to escape, but it was useless. I was faster and stronger than him, although the work in the bakery had given him quite some strenght, so it was not too hard to pin him down beneath me. He panted as I turned him to his back and I felt an evil grin cross my face as I pinned his arms next to his head.
"Gotcha." his sunglasses had fallen off somewhere in the chasing around the garden and his bright blue eyes found mine, his chest still heaving as I straddled him. I suddenly realised the position we were in, and how hot he looked like that and I felt a blush creeping up my cheeks as a flicker of lust passed through his eyes. I gulped and was about to lower my lips down to his when I registered the sound of running feet and giggles approaching us. Right, we were in the garden, at his home, and his sisters were around. Maybe we'd better keep the PDA down a little.
I grinned at Daisy and Phoebe (and no, I still couldn't tell who was who and they gladly took advantage of that by switching shirts all the time) as they reached us, nerf guns ready to attack. "Go ahead ladies, your prey is ready to be shot." In a matter of seconds, Louis was completely soaked, his hair dripping and his blue shirt clinging to his body. Not that I complained, of course. The girls ran off laughing as soon as they emptied their water tanks, leaving me and Louis at the back of the garden again, hidden from the front by a couple of flower beds and the large tree that was in the middle of the garden. I felt a hot blush take over my neck and face as I looked down at him, still pinned to the ground, and let go of his hands to run my own through my hair, trying to think of something else than the big lump of hotness between my legs.
Bad decision, obviously, because before I knew it I was the one lying on the grass, hands pinned down to the ground while he rubbed his soaking wet hair all over my face and pressed his chest down on mine, causing my shirt to end up as wet as his. I should've known he'd want revenge, and he got it all too easily by just looking as hot as he did. His cheshire cat grin came into view when he was satisfied with how wet I was, and he let go of my hands, locking his behind my neck.
"I suppose I brought this upon myself." I grumbled, but he could easily tell I wasn't mad as I struggled not to smile.
"Absolutely. But babe, if it's any consolation, you'd win a wet T-shirt contest any day." he winked before he pressed a quick kiss on my lips and stood up, shaking his hair so water droplets flew through the air around us. I stood up next to him and looked down at my now see through white shirt and wrung the front to get as much water out of it as possible. He grabbed my hand and said we'd better get inside to dry and change as lunch was about to be ready, taking off his shirt as soon as we reached the back door. I followed his example and took off mine as well before we went inside to find a towel, once again blushing as we passed Lottie and Fizz who were openly checking us out, well me, since Louis was their brother and that would've been a bit creepy.
Louis' POV
The few shirts that were left in my wardrobe were all on the smaller side, I obviously had grown a bit since I had left home, and especially for Liam, who's chest was a bit broader than mine, they were a little too tight. He ended up wearing one of my once oversized band shirts that were still clinging to his torso nicely while I wore an old stripey shirt that only just came to the waistband of my pants. I followed Liam back to the kitchen where my mum was trying to get my sisters to set the table. I smirked at them and took the plates myself, putting them on the table together with the cutlery and some napkins, leaving some space for the tajine to be put in the middle. Everyone followed the somewhat sweet scent of the food as soon as my mum brought it to the table, and soon enough the entire family was silent while munching on their chicken. I shot a playful glare at Lottie when she made every effort to sit next to Liam. A minute before she had called me over to whisper in my ear that my boyfriend was really, really hot, especially shirtless.
Liam was the first to speak up once his plate was nearly cleaned out. "Hmm Jay that was delicious. It's easy to tell where Louis learned to cook." he said while cleaning his mouth from sauce remnants.
"Thanks Liam, but actually Louis was the one to hand me this recipe from his cooking class at school. It's his favourite, if I'm still right." mum smiled as she put down her knife and fork.
"What? And yet you never made it for us? Shame on you Tommo." Liam said as he playfully slapped my arm, making me drop my fork. I just glared at him and continued eating, nothing would disturb this moment between me and my chicken tajine. Nothing. So I decided to ignore all the banter going on around the table until I finished my second serving and got up to take the plates to the kitchen, bringing back the leftovers of yesterday's cake.
"What are everyone's plans?" mum asked, putting her cup of tea back down while she broke a small piece of her cake.
"I think we'll be driving back soon, so we'll be home before it gets dark." Liam answered and I noticed how Lottie's face fell, when first she'd wanted to say something.
"Oh. I'd hoped you guys would want to come to the lake with us." she muttered, looking down into her cup. I looked over at Liam, who just shrugged, and said I was the one who had to work tomorrow, so I had to decide if we'd stay for a couple more hours. Great, that resulted on four of the cutest puppy faces of all times. Thanks a lot, boyfriend.
Of course I couldn't resist them and agreed to come to the lake with them, besides, it would probably be fun as well, and I didn't need to worry about seeing old schoolmates as everyone over 16 thought the lake was for "babies or families" and therefor uncool. Mum found us both some swimming trunks (don't ask me where, I still think she has a secret stash of all kinds of stuff, she always comes up with things you didn't think she'd have) and promised to make us some sandwiches for the road, telling us to bring the Tomlinson sisters back by 6pm.
The four of them somehow managed to get into the back of Harry's car, although Daisy's and Fizz's face looked somewhat squished against the side windows, but nobody complained, so we drove off, singing along to some cheesy CD Lottie had handed me earlier. It took us about 15 minutes to reach the parking lot, that was pretty empty, much to my surprise as it was warm and sunny.
Since it was quiet, we easily found a spot on the small beach that surrounded the lake, and as soon as everyone had tossed their clothes aside, we ran into the water, splashing around and playing with the balls and airbeds we'd brought. I was floating around on one of the airbeds, soaking up the sun and enjoying the warmth of it on my skin, the faint noises of Liam, Fizz and the twins somewhere to my right when I felt a tug at the airbed, near my head. I shot up, startled and almost fell off but managed to grip the sides, cursing at a guilty looking Lottie who was floating besides me.
"Oops. Sorry Lou, I justed wanted to manoevre myself next to you." she muttered with a small smile, biting her bottom lip.
"It's fine." I smiled back, getting comfortable again as I adjusted my sunglasses. "What's up? Looking forward to going back to school soon?"
"Ugh, shut up about school. Summer's too much fun to be able to look forward to that. I, uhm, I was actually wondering about something Lou?"
I turned my head to look at her and nodded at her to go on.
"What uh, what actually happened? I mean, why did you leave? Mum never told us properly, just that you were being stupid and she asked you to leave."
I was a bit shocked by her question. Of course it made sense that mum wouldn't have told them the whole story, since Lottie was only twelve when I left home, but I hadn't expected that they knew nothing. Especially when mum always was so obviously overprotective of the girls and my presence with them. I sighed and jumped of the airbed. I needed some more time to think about what I'd tell Lottie, so I said I'd tell her when we were on the beach rather than floating around with who knows who listening in. We both dried off, and I postponed the story even more by offering her an ice cream, but there was nothing left to do except tell her when we came back to our towels and sat down.
"I'm really not proud of it Lots, but I'll tell you, I think you have a right to know, but please, please don't tell Fizz or the twins. I'll tell Fizz if she asks, but the twins shouldn't know, they're too small and I don't think they really question why I was gone." I said, crossing my legs as I turned to face her, one hand holding my ice cream cone and the other playing with the sand between my ankles. Lottie frowned, apparently surprised by the serious tone I used but nodded, so I told her how I had started using drugs in my senior year, how it had gotten out of hand and down to the point where I got addicted and screwed up everything and everyone around me, so mum had asked me to leave, to protect the girls.
"But, you don't do drugs anymore now, do you Lou?" she asked when I had stopped talking.
I smiled and shook my head. "No, no, I've been clean for almost 10 months now. Liam found me one day, in the snow, and if he wouldn't have had pity and the courage to take me in, I'd have probably frozen to death. But he did, and then we fell in love. And ever since, it's all sunshine, lollypops and rainbows." I smiled broadly.
"And unicorns?" Lottie asked cheekily.
"Yeah sure, unicorns all over the place. Haven't you seen the news report about the unicorns in London?" I chuckled and ran a hand through her hair, realising how much I loved my sister, and even more now that she didn't judge me for what I told her.
"Is it hard?"
"What?"
"To stay clean? I mean, that's what they always show on TV and stuff, that you keep craving the drugs."
I thought about it for a second before I replied. "It's not easy. And sometimes I really yearn for the feeling you get from a shot. Because, I'm not going to lie, it's a great feeling, otherwise people wouldn't get addicted, but then I look around me and see what I've achieved in those couple of months of not using, who my boyfriend and my friends are, and that reminds me that I don't want to go back."
"Well, I'm glad to have you back. We missed our big brother." She said softly, smiling down at her feet.
"And I missed my sisters. I really did." I pulled her onto my lap and hugged her tight before we went to get the others out of the water so they could have an ice cream too before Liam and I had to take them home.
Liam slept almost the entire drive back to London. He told me I should wake him up halfway so he could take over, but I decided to give him a break since my sisters worn him out pretty badly, so I only woke him up when we arrived at the parking lot around the corner. It was much chillier in London than it had been in Doncaster, so we were shivering a bit in our too small shirts and shorts as we hurried our way back to the flat.
I was dead tired as well, so we didn't exchange more than a few words before we fell asleep, but I smiled widely as Liam told me he absolutely adored my family and kissed him goodnight.
Hello hello!!! It's a bit of a filler chapter where nothing much happens, but I seriously have a bad case of writers block on this story. I have some drama planned, but now I'm doubting if I should let it happen or not, gah.
Anyway, to make up for the crappiness of the chapter, at least it arrived early. Wooptidoo. Let's just hope next week narcotics bring me some inspiration. Or you. You bring me inspiration! Tell me what you want for LiLo to happen and maybe your idea will make it into the story... dun dun dun!
Lots of luuuuuurv!