Midnight Memories

t w e n t y // o n e

"Before it get's better
The darkness grows bigger
Because the person you'd die for
Is now pulling the trigger." - Anonymous

"Louis." Ash stood up, going over to shake his hand. "Thanks for coming."

"It's my pleasure." Louis nodded. "It's for a good cause, right?"

Jet stood up too, holding out a hand. "So you're the infamous Louis Tomlinson."

"In the flesh and blood." Louis cracked a smile. "And you must be Jet Vanderbilt. You've made quite a name for yourself over in Europe."

Jet smirked. "What can I say? Too much money and too little sense."

"I hear it's the opposite for your brother." Louis said seriously.

Jet nodded solemnly. "That's what we're here to talk about."

Louis sat down next to me on the couch, and I suddenly felt all tingly inside. He looked so much like the old Louis, it was like seeing a ghost. I was still in shock.

"Well, when I heard Sloane Rooney was in town, I had to admit, I was scared. There's no way I could face off with him on my own." Louis began. "But with you guys, I really feel as if we may have a chance."

Ash nodded. "We all have a vendetta against them. That gives us motivation. But how exactly do we go about this?"

Jet pulled a crumpled piece of paper and a pen out of the pocket of his jeans. "We need a game plan."

He wrote down all of our names, then drew a grid. "Alright. Let's start off with Stella. Her job is obvious. The double agent." He scribbled something in the square by my name.

"Louis," He continued. "You're the key to this whole operation. Rooney wants you dead."

Louis sighed. "Yeah, he does. But there's a lot of people who want him dead, most of all John Avery."

I couldn't help but gasp. "But I thought Avery was-"

"Dead?" He cut me off. "Yeah, me too. We all did. But my dealer here happened to let slip Ryder didn't actually kill him that night at the warehouse. He was wearing a bulletproof vest. Just like Ryder, he's been in hiding."

Louis had just dropped a major bomb. "So what does this mean?" I asked.

"I'm going to go talk to him. He's out in the Hamptons, not too far away. I know we have an incredibly shady past, but maybe I can convince him to help us out."

"Alright." Jet nodded, scribbling again on the piece of paper. "Asher?"

"Derrick's my best friend." Ash said. "I'm pretty sure i'm the only person in this room he trusts fully. I can make sure he doesn't catch on to us."

"Okay," More scribbling. "And i'm the insider. I've got the information and the sources to take Derrick down."

There was a ding, followed by the noise of high heels clacking on marble. "I'm home!" Astoria's soft spoken voice trilled.

Jet stuffed the piece of paper back in his pocket. Ash tried his best to look natural, failing epically. I plastered a smile onto my face right as Tori made her way into the living room.

"Hi everyone!" She set bags full of food onto the table. "I got sushi."

As usual, she was dressed impeccably in a snow white winter coat, black tights, and high heeled booties. For a second, I wished that I could trade places with her, if even for a day. Not because she was dating my brother, obviously, but because she had it all figured out. She always looked perfect, acted perfectly, and spent her days shopping, eating lunch with her famous friends, and occasionally making appearances on the Real Housewives of New York. Meanwhile, I pretty much always looked like I had just rolled out of bed these days and all my friends and I did was plan wars against gangsters and drug lords.