You drive me round the bend - l.s

Chapter 1

"So I was like, fuck no, I won't drink down this watered down swill when I can get a finely matured glass of whiskey instead, yeah? And do you know what he said to me? Do you?" Louis snorted into his headset, waited for his best mate's obligatory "What?" as he raced up the curve of the LA mountain, wind blowing through his hair and a lit cigarette between his fingers. "He called me a stuck up prick. Can you believe it?"

"Glad I didn't go then. Sounds like a bore," Zayn answered.

"You should be." March was on the precipice of slipping into April and the sun was starting to turn blistering hot again as it beat down on the tar stretching ahead and the newly shined hood of his brand new Aston Martin. "You didn't miss anything. The music was shit. Poor pickings too. I didn't even pull anyone."

"Well, you're—" Zayn's voice cut out momentarily, "you don't anyway."

"Wait, what? Shit. Hold on a sec."

The road up ahead was empty. Louis took one last drag and flicked the cigarette onto the road before reaching down to unplug his phone and yanking the headset off, tossing it carelessly to the seat beside him.

"Fucking mountain with its shitty fucking signal."

He could vaguely hear Zayn's voice through the earpiece and rolled his eyes as he looked down on his phone, because couldn't he wait one bloody second?

As he rounded the corner and glanced up, he froze, phone halfway up to his ear.

****

Harry drummed his fingers on the steering wheel, singing Madonna's Like a Virgin at the top of his lungs. The AC was broken and the stuffy air made his vest stick to his sweaty back, so he rolled down the window of his car even though he knew it always got jammed and pulling it back up would take effort. Well, the effort of charming Liam into fixing it for him (once again), but still. Effort. When the wind finally burst in through the crack at the top of the window and hit his overheated face, he groaned and turned his face towards the source. Well worth some metaphorical arse licking. Fuck, it was so bloody hot.

He zoomed down the mountain, singing, "Gonna give you all my love, boy. My fear is fading fast."

It wasn't until he veered around the corner that a silver bullet of a car appeared seemingly out of nowhere, coming straight at him at a speed well over the limit, a boy with a phone in his hand sitting behind the wheel.

'Been saving it all for you 'cause only love can last,' blared out of the shitty speakers. Harry's eyes went wide, his grip on the steering wheel turning his knuckles bone white as he jerked the wheel to the side, because if he didn't, that boy was going to fly right off the mountain.

'You're so fine' barely drowned out by his own deafening scream was the last thing he heard before they collided.

****

"Louis? Louis!" The phone flew out of his hand as he yanked the wheel to the side to avoid collision, realising too late that he was not on a bloody highway but on a mountain with a drop so high, he would—he was going to die.

He squeezed his eyes shut and felt the impact of smashing into something so hard it knocked the breath out of his lungs.

He wasn't dead. Numb all over, heart hammering against his ribcage so hard he was waiting for it to jump out of his throat and splatter in his lap, but... he wasn't flying. Was still on solid ground, shaking so much his grip kept sliding off the wheel and his teeth clattered. His ears still rang with the tinny sound of metal smashing into metal.