Ronnie considered this, rubbing his chin. He still seemed unsure.
“Come on, chill…” whispered Minnie, pressing her hand up against the bulge in his jeans. “You should see the master bedroom…”
“Oh really,” Ronnie smirked, his face brightening as his lips locked against hers, and the couple’s mouths melted into a warm, wet kiss.
“Get a room!” Stella giggled, throwing a chip across the room at her father’s back.
“Na, don’t, I wanna watch,” shouted Lloyd, wiping his greasy face with the back of his sleeve.
“You’re revolting,” grumbled Flo, shaking her head in disbelief at her older brother. “That’s insect.”
“Insect?”
“Yeah, you know, when you fuck your family.”
Zach chuckled, “no, Flo, that’s incest.”
Both laughing at their children’s dinner time banter, Minnie and Ronnie broke apart and smiled.
Chapter Three
Summer, 1999
Ronnie waited patiently on the luscious green front lawn of the Walters’ residence. He stared up at the pinky-red sky, his muscular arms folded behind his head, the warm breeze pleasant on his bare skin.
About twenty minutes went by before he heard the sound of tyres against the gravel of the road, and he immediately shot up.
The huge, shiny 4x4 slowly rumbled down the road and expertly swerved up onto the front-drive. Ronnie could see that it was Julie at the wheel and that Henry was slumped up against the window in the passenger seat. He couldn’t help but laugh to himself.
Typical Henry.
Before the engine had even been switched off, the back door flew open, and out came Minnie, a huge beam stretched out across her perfect face. She almost skipped towards him and lunged forwards into his arms, wrapping herself tightly around him.
“Christ,” muttered Ross as he followed his sister out, tutting and pretending to roll his eyes. “Be sure to use a condom, kids.”
Minnie’s cheeks flushed red.
“Oh, leave them alone,” Julie scolded her son as she slammed the car door behind her. “Go on, fuck off up to your room, you little sod.”
With a final cheeky wink of an eye, Ross was striding back towards the house. Julie turned to her daughter and eyed Ronnie suspiciously.
“Back by ten, young man,” she said sternly. “But have fun,” she added, a smile playing on her lips, “you deserve it, my girl,” she said to Minnie, proudly.
A few seconds later, and the young couple were walking away down the quiet pavement; their hands gripped together as they chattered light-heartedly about just about anything and everything.
“So where is it that we’re going?” Minnie asked finally after they had been walking for about half an hour. She vaguely recognised the area, but truth be told, it was not a place that she had visited much of. It was in the opposite direction to town, and she could see country roads and vast, emerald green fields in the distance. Everything was very quiet.
But she trusted Ronnie. Ronnie could have guided her into a snake pit, and she would have followed.
“Just wait and see,” said Ronnie, planting a kiss on her forehead.
He took her towards the fields. When she complained that she didn’t want to get her sandals dirty, he hoisted her up into his arms so that her slender legs were hanging above the ground. She laughed as he carried her across the grass towards the border of dark woodland.
“The woods?” she asked suspiciously as they approached the line of towering tree trunks.
“The woods,” agreed Ronnie with a nod of confirmation.
As the ground turned from crumbly mud to a thin bed of snapping twigs, he gently put her back down and the two clasped hands once again. It was beginning to grow dark, and Minnie could hear her heart pounding as nerves began to tease the pit of her stomach.
Chapter Four
2019
Lloyd was the first to wake out of his siblings the following morning.
The four of them had passed out in the old lady’s living room after draining her entire supply of Guinness that they had found in one of the kitchen cupboards. There was vodka as well, but unfortunately, no decent mixers. Even little Flo, who was always the first to wake, was still slumped over her big sister, mouth hanging open as she drooled on Stella’s shoulder.
From what he could remember, it had been a fun night, especially given that the owner had been such a fossil. For an old bird, she had an impressive collection of movies and even a PlayStation, as well as a great selection of snacks to go along with the booze.
A sharp pain harpooned him in the back of his skull as he blinked and hauled himself up out of a plush, leather armchair. He swallowed, the back of his throat unbearably dry like cracked parchment. According to the polished grandfather clock in the corner of the room, it was just past 11 in the morning. Lloyd’s fat, hairy stomach grumbled. As always, he was hungry.
For fourteen, Lloyd was an early developer. Already he stood at just over six feet tall, weighed almost twenty stone, and had enough body hair to weave a cardigan.
The extra weight, he often found, came in extremely handy.
Shuffling down the hallway to the kitchen, the young man peered hopefully into the abandoned chicken cartons still strewn over the old lady’s dining room table and frowned when he discovered they were all empty. Disappointedly, he sighed and waddled towards the kitchen.
Everything, apart from the slapping of his feet on the tiles, was silent.
Lloyd opened up two of the cupboards and browsed the contents. It was certainly very busy in there. Hordes of tins and packages were stacked up and squashed up against the wooden walls like sardines.
Beep. Beep.
Startled, Lloyd spun around, hitting his forehead on one of the cupboard doors in the process.
“FUCK!” he spat angrily, furiously rubbing his head.
Beep. Beep.
The tinny ringing of an old mobile phone
