road ☯ l.t

chapter 3

"Where are we going?"

"Jesus, Lori. This is the fifth time you've asked me." Louis said, briefly looking at Lorena before focusing on the road again.

"Because you refuse to answer me!" she exclaimed.

We were inside Louis' car, heading to, according to Louis, the best restaurant in London, but he did not tell us the name of the place and that is the reason why he and Lorena have been bickering for the past half hour.

"If I tell you, will you stop being a bitch?" Louis said, clearly tired of having to listen his step sister insult him.

"Yes,"

"We're going to have dinner at Violet's." he looked at me through the rearview mirror, smiling. "It's awesome. I eat there everytime I come here."

"Oh, it's the same place your dad took us that time?" Lorena excitedly asked, a happy expression taking over her features.

Louis nodded. They continued to talk about their memories in London until we reached our destiny, and even though I felt out of place, it was nice to hear they talk about their family with so much happiness.

"Can you take a picture of us?" Lorena asked me when we were already in front of Violet's, after having to walk a lot because there wasn't a parking space near the restaurant. I nodded, smiling. "Thanks!"

They hugged each other, one of Louis' arms around Lorena's waist. When I pressed the button to take the photo, Louis spotted something and didn't look at the camera.

"Let me see," Lorena excitedly said, standing by my side so she could see the photo. She took my phone in her hands, a mix of disappointment and anger on her face. "Louis!"

"What?" he asked, confused. 

"Nothing," she sighed, handing me my phone. "Thanks, Clove."

"No problem."

We entered in the restaurant, the ambient was cozy and had a touch of sophistication. A waitress led us to a wooden table with a comfortable dark red sofa around it.

"Do you like it?" Louis asked.

"Yes," I answered, looking around one more time. With my eyes focused on Louis again, I continued, "it's amazing. But I have one question."

"Shoot."

"Is their food also amazing?" I raised my eyebrows.

"Yes! They serve these-" Lorena was interrupted by a couple, that were sitting next to us, telling her to stop yelling. She showed them her middle finger, leaned a little on my direction and continued to talk, this time whispering. "They serve these amazing raviolis with mushroom and ricotta, and they taste like heaven."

"Agreed," Louis said. "Now, Clove. Tell us more about you."

"Why?" I asked.

"Because we're going to spend a lot of days with you, we need to know who you are. You could be a serial killer for all I know." 

He was right. I was making them spend their money with me, they were blindly trusting me. They had the right to know who I was.

"If you want, we can start saying things about us," Lorena suggested. "Like, Louis had a crush on me when we were fourteen."

"Did not!" he exclaimed, wide eyed.

"Don't deny," Lorena rolled her eyes. "even mom and your dad knew."

I chuckled, then stopped when Louis shot me a glare. "What?"

"Stop laughing, it's not funny." he said. "I bet you have some love disasters too, Clove."

"What about Lorena?" I asked, trying to scape from telling them about my relationships.

"She doesn't have just some love disasters, basically all her relationships finished badly." 

I thought Lorena was going to deny it, but she just shrugged and said, "He's right."

They were staring at me, smirking and waiting for me to say something. My life was full of disasters, however the love ones were the worst. 

Sighing, I asked, "What do you want to know?"

"Have you ever kissed a girl?" Louis raised his eyebrows, a cheeky look on his face.

"I even dated one," I had never told anyone about that, it felt good to be finally able to. They didn't seem surprised.

"Well, that's hot." Louis commented, making Lorena and I laugh. 

The rest of the night was filled with laughs, funny stories and a terrific italian food. But then the subject family was brought up, even though I tried to avoid it so much.

"We're from this small town called Doncaster. Lovely place. Our family have lived there since ever, so it was a shock when we decided to leave, but happily our parents took it well." Lorena smiled. "And you?"

"New york, born and raised," I tried to sound cheerfull. "My family has a publishing company there."

"Oh, how it's called?"

"You know David Horan?" they nodded. I took a deep breath, "Well, he is my father."

"You're kidding, right?" Louis asked, thinking I was lying to them.

"Unfortunately, no." I took off the case of my phone, grasping my ID. I always left it there, in case I needed it. "Here."

"Clove Horan Loveless. She's not kidding," Lorena said to Louis, giving me my ID back. 

"He's like, one of the richest mens in the world!" Louis said, too excitedly for my taste. After he saw the glare I was shooting him he stopped. "Sorry."

"Yes, he is and that's why I left home." I explained, remembering the day I decided to leave and the huge fight I had with my parents. "They wanted me to be like them, scratch that, they were forcing me to be exactly like them. I'm just twenty-one years old and they had already planned a wedding for me, for God's sake!"

I tried to contain the tears, however before I knew they were already rolling down my cheeks.

"Since I was a kid my dream is to work with art, so I came here," I had already told them more than I should, so why not tell them everything. "But I've been in England for only a few weeks and been robbed, homeless, almost got shoot and the list goes on and on. It makes me think that... I should just go home and beg for my family's forgiveness."

"Don't worry, we're going to help you." Lorena said, reaching my hand and holding it.

"You are?" I asked, ceasing to believe that they would use their time to help me.

"Of course we are!" Louis smiled. "Now, who wants panna cotta? Because I'm seriously craving one."

i'll edit this later, because i wrote this in like forty minutes. i really wanted to update this story today (:

MERRY CHRISTMAS, HOPE YOU'RE HAVING A GOOD ONE!