best kind of bad something » l.s.

part one

The wind whistled softly, a worn metal gate swinging open slowly as Louis crept past it, snickering under his breath while his two best friends, Niall and Zayn, followed behind. Louis clutched the red plastic bottle in his hand, making his way through the well-kept backyard, eyes focused on the pool ahead. He chanced a glance over at the house looming beside them, noting once more that all the lights were off, and the Hastings were fast asleep. They seemed the type to head to bed promptly at ten and wake up at the ass crack of dawn. Louis would never understand the upper-middle class in his town ̶ ever. They were obnoxious and uppity. Who needed such a huge house with a giant backyard full of ugly flowers and a perfectly mowed, green lawn? Literally no one. It was a waste of resources.

"You wanna hurry the fuck up, Lou?" Zayn asked as he stuck a cigarette between his lips. "I'm fucking hungry."

"No one asked you to tag along," Louis glared at him, stopping in front of the pool. It was true, Louis wouldn't have minded if Zayn just stayed back at his place. Jay would have made him something or given him last night's leftovers. But Zayn never liked staying at Louis' place alone for too long because one of Louis' pesky sisters would find him and have heart eyes while they tried flirting with him. Zayn was really fucking hot and he considered it to be both a blessing and a curse.

While Louis uncapped the red bottle, trying to get the plastic off the cover, Niall looked around the place and sipped his beer. The fucker decided to grab some from the convenience store on the way over and made Louis pay, promising he'd pay him back, but Louis knew that was an empty promise. Niall was never good at saving his money because he always spent it as soon as he got it. He even splurged tonight for the expensive beer with the glass bottle instead of a cheap can. But there was never any record-keeping between the three when it came to money. They were all broke and sometimes one of them needed to cop for the other. At some point, their debt would be paid off one way or another, so what was the point?

Once he finally got the red bottle open, he grinned over at the boys before tipping the bottle over into the pool. The dye spread, dissolving, and slowly turning the clear water a bright red.

"Holy shit," Zayn laughed. "It really does look like blood. Could totally be a murder scene."

"This is brilliant," Niall cackled along. "This'll teach fucking Hastings to never fuck with us again."

Louis' icy blue eyes glinted, watching the water soak up the last of the dye, and nodded slowly at what Niall said. Kevin Hastings was one of the town's most bigoted, homophobic mother fuckers ever. He'd never liked Louis ̶ never liked his friends either ̶ and always made sure they knew. Whenever Louis ran into him around town, he'd sneer or mutter fag under his breath. And Louis genuinely ignored it at first, but it wasn't until Hastings split the tires of his car (it was really actually his mother's car and Jay was furious about it, blaming Louis as usual) that Louis got seriously pissed. That jerk-off had no right doing that even if Niall had made out with his daughter, Ava. It wasn't like Niall forced himself on Ava. They were starting to become a thing, in fact. Niall really liked her, from what he told the boys, but he and Ava got caught in Ava's room the other night. So, by association, Hastings retaliated on Louis, and well ̶ Louis was going to fucking retaliate back.

"Fuck, I wish we could see the look on the bastard's face when he finds this," Niall muttered.

Louis sighed wistfully. "Would be amazing, wouldn't it? Bet his face is gonna go all red like this water and look like it'll pop off his pumpkin-shaped body."

Niall laughed again, throwing his head back in glee and accidentally letting his fingers slip on the beer bottle in his hand. Louis and Zayn's eyes widened and they both tried reaching for the bottle at the same time, but neither were fast enough. It smashed down on the concrete beside the pool, making a loud noise in the otherwise quiet block. For a moment all three of them held their breaths, the noise of the glass breaking still echoing in their ears.