Pressure | m.h

C H A P T E R 7 - You Call This Nice?

M A T T Y

"Open your head... Take a glass... Don't be scared; I'm right here," Lillian's soft voice echoed in the car, her voice slightly hoarse due to the smoke she'd been inhaling and the fact that she'd been singing almost nonstop for the past hour. "Even thouggghhh, you don't knooww. Trust me girl. You wanna be... Higghhh for this."

Georgey was laughing at her song choice, his unlit cigarette hanging between his lips with an arm out of the car window as he drove us through a country town, the sky full of colour as the sun disappeared behind the horizon. Soon enough Lily's soothing singing faded into nothing before she soon started to hum yet another song from her supposed favourite artist – The Weeknd.

"I only call you when it's half past five the only time that I be by your side. I only love it when you touch me and not feel me when I'm fucked up that's the real me when I'm fucked up that's the real me..."

"She should definitely be our backup singer once our band gets famous," Georgey commented with a grin.

I shoved my fingers through my hair and glanced at him, and then at Lily who still lay sideways across the backseat leisurely, eyes closed and her fingers clasped atop her stomach still covered only by my T-shirt which looked huge on her. Her feet up against the window - still singing, of course.

"Once our band gets famous," I echoed thoughtfully, quite liking the idea but knowing for a fact that it would never, not in a million years, happen – what with the vicious gang that was after us, the police force which was always looking for reasons to lock me up, and the fact that right now, at any point of the day, I could get locked up for the fact that I've currently kidnapped one of my childhood best friends.

"Sure, man. It's gonna happen one day."

I worked my jaw around a little, trying to get some feeling into my face since it was a little numb from the substance I'd smoked hours ago. "In another world, maybe. But now? In this life? Hell no."

Georgey gave me a side long look before turning back to the road as he turned down a street and parked in front of a dodgy looking motel. "Well, if all goes to plan and Lil's father isn't as much of an asshole as she makes him out to be – maybe it will happen. Maybe we can move to England, get an accent, recruit a few people and then get famous."

"Clear our names up in the process," I muttered knowing that what he was saying wasn't entirely out of reach if only we got the right amount of money.

But considering my past it was like hoping to see a pig grow fucking angel wings and fly to space.

"A new country – a new, clean slate."

Somewhere during our conversation Lily's singing had stopped but since I wasn't paying attention the second I heard her voice I was more than a little startled and unnerved by the fact that she'd caught me off guard.

"How much money are you planning to pinch off my father, exactly?" she asked, her voice much louder and closer than ever and making me realise that she was now sitting up and leaning between the two front seats, her hair brushing against my shoulder slightly.

"A few hundred thousands?" she asked to no one in particular, still completely out of it. "A million?" she was grinning now and I didn't know whether to laugh or shove her back so she got out of my personal space, but the decision is made for me because the second the car is stopped she is up and out and bounding away from us.

"Fuck," George hissed under his breath, quick to jump out after the hyperactive blondie.

I sighed and got out, stretching slowly to work out the muscles and tension in my body before I made my way over to where Georgey held a giggling Lillian around the waist, her back against his front.