Reckless

Josh.

"Come on!"

I followed closely behind Louisa. When she'd mentioned her LA, I had in mind a nice coffee place, maybe a cupcake shop or a nice building rooftop. But instead, I found myself scaling the side of a large mountain.

"Are we even allowed up here?!" I asked as a branch nearly whacked me in the face.

Louisa looked up back at me and rolled her eyes. "We're almost there. Don't be a pussy."

I stopped for a second, a bit stunned at her vocabulary. There had been several things about tonight that'd stunned me. Yet, none of them were bad. Louisa was surprisingly easy to get along with. She wasn't prissy and she wasn't a bitch. She was a bloody good time.

Suddenly, Louisa stopped and I could tell she was smiling as she walked straight forward, no long walking up the mountain. A sigh of relief flew over me as I followed.

But as I caught up to her, I stopped again.

"This," Louisa paused, grabbing my wrist and pulling me further forward, "is LA."

I wasn't sure what to look at. Below me was everything: the strips, the buildings, even little blinking lights. People looked like dots and cars looked like toys. I stepped forward, turning back to Louisa who had a smug grin on her face.

"This is amazing," I said breathlessly. "Where are we?"

Louisa pointed behind her, and that's when I saw it. A giant sign reading "HOLLYWOOD", and Louisa smiling beside it like this was no big deal.

"My dad knew a guy." Louisa said, taking off her heels and sitting down. "I used to come up here all the time with him. Isn't it the best?"

I laughed, sitting down beside her. "Uh, I'd say yes."

"Well I'm glad. I like it here better than a club, no offense." Louisa smiled over at me. It was pretty dark up here, only the lights shining from the city and the stars made us able to see. But I could still see her bright smile and the way her eyes kind of sparkled when she laughed. Louisa was something else.

"Do you still come up here with your dad?" I asked.

Louie shook her head softly. "Nah, he passed away a few years back."

Now I felt like a fucking idiot. "Shit, I'm sorry."

"No worries," She smiled, "he was sick and we kind of knew it was coming. Plus, I'm pretty sure my parents would have divorced had he not gotten sick when he did, blah blah blah, sorry. Boring rich people problems."

I laughed. "No, it's um," I paused, looking at my feet, then out at the strip below us, then back at Louie, "my parents are divorced."

"Doesn't it just fucking suck?"

"Accurate," I laughed, meeting her eyes, "but at the same time, the fighting sucked more. It's better to be out of that."

Louisa nodded. "Agreed. But it just sucks to think like, at one point they liked each other enough to get married. Like where the fuck did that feeling go? And then it makes me feel like, well shit, if it can happen to them-"

"It can happen to me." I finished her sentence, as I'd thought the same thing before. "It's not going to happen to you, Louie. Trust me."

She hit my arm lightly. "And why is that?"

"Because you're you." I said, still looking at her. "Me on the other hand-"

"Not a prayer in the world can help your ass."

I gave her a face. "Hey now!"

"Kidding." She laughed. "No, you've got nothing to worry about. You and your British charm in a place like this? I'm surprised you're even here with me right now and not fucking some girl, Franceschi."

I laughed, turning to meet her sly grin as she laid back on the grass. Her hair sprawled around her face as she closed to her eyes tightly, I laid down beside her and took my own breath of air.

"I'm kind of fresh out of a relationship."

Louisa opened her eyes and looked over at me with a cheeky smile. "Ah, I see. Go on?"

I rolled my eyes. "She cheated."

"Ouch."

"Tell me about it." I looked up at the sky. "But it wasn't the first time. We've been on and off since I we met in secondary school, and I don't know. It's dumb."

Louisa was silent for a moment before turning to meet my eyes. "No, I get it. She was what you knew. Going back to her was easy."

"But it was the pussy way out." I finished her thought, and pulled away from her gaze. "I feel like our relationship has run it's course, ya know? Like I don't even get inspired by her for songs anymore."

"She sounds like a bitch, Franceschi."

I looked back over at her. "Maybe you're right."

"I think you've known me long enough to know that I'm always right."

All I could do was laugh as I looked over at Louisa. Some of the things I'd been telling her I hadn't told some of my closest friends. She was one of those people that made you want to spill out everything: Louie was easy to be around. She had that presence that you could thrive on, like you wanted her to be around for as long as possible.

And right now, I had the strange urge to close the inches between us and kiss her.

But suddenly, a bright light shone from the forest where we'd come up from. Louisa's eyes widened as I looked at her, scared shitless.

"Hey, whose up there!"

Louisa grabbed my wrist, looking into my eyes as she yelled: "RUN!"

Without a second thought, Louisa had pulled me to my feet and we were running down the mountain from the opposite side. I didn't know what death felt like, but I was pretty sure it was something like this. I had the adrenaline of a runner and enough fear to fuel me for a year, but I was oddly content.

"WHERE ARE WE GOING?" I yelled.

Louisa kept running, our hands intertwined, as we began to hear cars in the distance. "This way!"

She pulled me off to the side, where we began to see the headlights of cars and some lights from the city. As we reached flat land, finally, we appeared to be on the back road of some short of highway.

"Holy shit," Louisa turned to me, a smile on her face as she panted and through herself onto the grass.

I tried to catch my breath, leaning down on my knees. "I fucking hate you."

"Don't hate me because you're fat."

"You're" pant "a" pant "twat."

Louisa laughed, slowly sitting up and walking into the street to hail a cab as I continued to catch my breath. She bounced back quickly for someone who had just ran at the speed of light down a tall mountain without shoes.

As a cab pulled to the side, Louisa walked over to me and grabbed my hand. "I'm kidding. Now get into the cab, chubs."

"I hate you." I whispered as I followed, a smile on my face. When we got into the cab, Louisa gave the driver directions to her place.

"Sorry," she said, turning to me, "I just don't know when Meredith will be home, and I don't want her to-"

I nodded. "No worries love, I get it."

Louisa smiled back at me as we began to drive. I looked away for a moment, but I could still feel her eyes burning into my skin.

"Thank you for tonight though Josh. I don't um," She paused as I turned back as if she was trying to find the right words. I found it adorable. "I don't get to do this much."

"What? Have fun?"

She thought for a moment before laughing with me. "More or less."

I smiled, nodding back at her as we fell silent. I had no idea what time it was or where the lads were, hell I had no idea if they knew where I was right now, but I didn't really care. I hadn't had this much fun in a long time. When I thought about it, maybe this was what I needed.

We pulled down a road with more high scale buildings and apartments, and Louisa gathered herself. Of course she lived here. The cab pulled over at stopped.

She turned to me, a smile still on her face as she gripped the door of the cab. "See you, Josh."

"See you." I said because I had no idea what else to say. She began to get out of the cab, pausing for a moment as her feet hit the pavement and she stood up. "Louie?"

She paused again, just as she was about to close the door. Her face poked back in and she looked at me with a smile. "Franny?"

"I had fun too."

Louie nodded. "Good bye, Josh."

The door closed, and I let my eyes close after giving the cab directions to my hair hotel. I let out a long breath and allowed the night to completely sink in. This was what I needed. At first I wanted to call it a distraction, but it wasn't that. This night felt more like a beginning.

When I got to the hotel, none of the lads were back yet and it was nearly 2 AM. Typical. I sighed and grabbed my notebook, taking my usual seat outside on the balcony and putting the pen to the paper, waiting for the words to flow.

But this time, I didn't have to wait very long. Without a seconds thought came the words:

If I could save you, then you could save me too.