Once Martha was ready, a text came through from Louis:
Hey babe. R u and Martha free? I'm stuck with my baby sister 2day and need 2 take her out? I know it's not ideal but I'm missing u already :)
Sure. There's that new soft play open. I'm stuck with M for the day as well and she's been asking after u ever since u left. Her and Jasmine r friends as well. Meet u there in half an hour?
The soft play was new and packed with screaming kids. We walked through the door and the noise, harsh lightening and smell of plastic were already making me regret suggesting it. As we walked over to a table, swerving so we didn't squish a child, we sat down. Jasmine and Martha ran off hand in hand.
We sat and talked for hours. We'd only seen each other a few hours ago, but we still had plenty to talk about. Jasmine and Martha emerged asking for a drink, but I'd brought some snacks so we sat drinking cartons of juice and biscuits. Louis made the girls laugh, and played along with their imaginary games. They then began whispering, and insisted that we came in with them. I started to refuse but Louis looked at me like a sad puppy. I had three kids looking at me with wide eyes, so we moved our things and the girls took our hands as we went in. We had to be on hands and knees the whole time, looking more and more stupid as we tried to keep up with the girls who could obviously run away.
"Lou?" said Jasmine laughing as he crawled through the small tunnel to a bigger, more open area.
"Yes, Jazzy?" he said bumping his head and pulling a face, making the girls laugh even more.
"Can we play hide and seek?" she pleaded, wide eyed and smiling.
"I suppose," he said slowly "but only if Georgia is on," he laughed, grabbing the girls' hands and running away to hide.
It was getting quieter now and I stood in a corner and began to count. After a minute, I turned around, instantly hearing Louis shhh-ing the girls in whatever hiding place they had found. Since there were places big enough for us to stand up, I ran around, hoping the girls weren't clever enough to move in the opposite direction as me when I was looking. I ran past and heard a high pitched giggle, quietly turning back and shouting boo as I jumped round the corner. Martha screamed and then started laughing, insisting that she knew where everyone else was. She dragged me by my hand to the opposite end of the play area, where Jasmine was hiding behind a slide. "Found you!" screamed Martha, and they burst into firs of giggles.
"Where's Louis?" I asked, amused that he had taken the game so seriously. They giggled. "Come on, tell me!"
Jasmine made me bend down, and 'whispered'- just as loud as saying it- that he was in the ball pool. The girls ran off, and I walked slowly behind, wanting to surprise Lou. I could hear the sound of the plastic balls and the girls trying to be quiet but failing miserably. Shh's were more and more frequent, and as I came into view I saw an empty ball pit.
"Come on! You've already won!" I said, trying frantically to see where on earth they could be. "You're being a child-" but before I could finish two tiny sets of hands pushed me in. I screamed, and fell into the pool of plastic balls. I came up immediately to find Louis and the girl's high fiving. "Ready?" they said, all holding hands.
"1, 2, 3," and they jumped in, screaming. We were all laughing as they came up for breath.
"Ok, ok. You win." I said. "So, want to know what your prize is?" I said moving closer and closer to Louis until I could feel his breath on my lips. He looked at me, about to close his eyes when three plastic balls hit him in the face. His face was a look of cute confusion.
"Ok, that's it!" he said throwing a ball back at us. It was now a full on war, with coloured balls flying everywhere. I tried to run away, but striding through a ball pit was basically impossible, and Louis soon caught up with me, grabbing me from behind. I screamed and waved my hands and legs madly, but he was stupidly strong and just chucked me into the pool again. I frantically tried to grab some balls and throw them at him but he was moving backwards, throwing them playfully at the girls, and tripped, falling on me. I had just began to find my feet, but fell as soon as he was hit me. He quickly stood up and pulled me up, and when I managed to get to full height again, we were face to face, as close as before. "I still won," he said with a cheeky grin. "You are such a-" but with that his lips were on mine, soft yet deep. It was getting more intense and my knees were about to give way when a loud 'ewwww' made us break off for air. We turned round to find Jasmine and Martha staring at us. We blushed.
"Come on girls, enough excitement for today. Let's get going" said Louis, suddenly being the voice of reason before winking at me.
"Stay by the door whilst we go and get the shoes and bags," Louis told the girls. Before I went to go and pack up our things and Louis went to get the girls shoes. We met back up adn turned to where we had left the girls.
They were gone.
We shouted, and looked around the outside of the play area. I began to get a tiny bit worried, so we took our shoes off and went in again. It was darker than I remember, and there were still kids running everywhere. I was still shouting madly and kept thinking I saw one of them, only for it to be a completely different child. When I thought I had looked everywhere, I started to get really worried. "Louis!" I said, my voice breaking slightly. He came running. "You haven't got them?" I said.
"No." I could see the fear in his eyes.
"Oh my god. Where could they be? We only turned around for a minute..." he put his finger under my chin, lifting my head and looking into my eyes.
"Listen. There probably just somewhere playing a game" he put on a false smile.
"I'll look round here again, and you try the toilets. We'll find them" he said and gave me a quick kiss. I smiled and turned away, nearly running to the toilets. They're young but they weren't stupid. They wouldn't have left. I kept whispering that to myself but when they weren't in the toilets, I began to doubt it myself. Knowing Louis was inside I ran round the outside. The place was massive and still busy. Nearly on the verge of tears I looked frantically round, seeing Louis and shouting him over. "Lou, I can't find them, where are they?" I said, a tear running down my cheek.
"Babe, you need to stay strong, we'll find them," he hushed, wiping the tear away. He went over to the counter, "excuse me, have you seen two little girls around, both with brown hair, about this big," he said gesturing with his hand.
"Yeah, I think I saw them walk outside a few minutes ago," she said, going over to another customer. But that was all we needed, Louis ran outside, quickly throwing open the doors as I ran out behind him. Oh thank God, please say they're outside; please don't have left the soft play.
Running outside, we searched frantically. As we were about to round the corner I heard something. I got even quicker, shouting for Louis to follow. To my relief they were there. My heart began beating even faster, I was unable to speak. There was Jasmine. Standing at the top of the biggest slide in the playground.
"Jasmine!" Louis shouted. Making her turn around quickly at hearing her name, she began to lose balance, making her stumble, her arms flailing.
"Jasmine!" shouted Louis, running faster than I had ever seen before. She screamed as she toppled over the side, whilst Martha too started screaming and Louis rushed through the gate. I watched as she fell through the air, arms and legs waving wildly, her cried piercing my ears. Louis rushed over to the slide just in time, Jasmine landing in his arms. I rushed through the gate and picking up Martha, her head resting on my shoulder as she cried. I hurried to Louis, who was now also clutching his sister as she too cried into his shoulder. He knelt down onto the ground and put her down, pulling her back and looking at her. "Jazzy, shh, it's ok sweetie. It's ok," he hushed softly, trying to mob away her ever falling tears. "Shhh," he pulled her back into his shoulder, kissing her hair. "I was so worried, don't ever, ever do that to me again," he said, looking over to me, a look of both relief and worry on his face. I came over to him and we both put the girls down. "What on earth happened to you? We were so worried." They were both still slightly sobbing but with ragged breath Martha managed to say something almost understandable. "We were waiting for you, but you took ages so we thought that…that you had left, a-a-and we went outside, and we wanted to go on the swings and then Jas went on the slide and then Louis shouted her a-a-and she started to fall, a-a-and I'm s-s-sorry" she spluttered, starting to cry again, as Jasmine held her hand.
Louis looked to his sister "What on earth do you think you were doing Jasmine? You could have been really hurt!" he looked scary, but so sexy, his face soon softening as the girls looked at him with petrified, tear stained faces. "God we were so worried, promise me the both of you that you'll never go off on your own again."
"We promise," they whispered, sniffing back the remaining tears.
"Come on," said Louis putting out his hand for Jasmine "I think that is definitely enough excitement for one day, don't you think Jazzy?"
She nodded, taking his hand. Martha grabbed mine and Louis put his arm around my waist as we walked to the car. I put my head onto his shoulder, breathing a final sigh of relief. "It's ok now, babe," he whispered, kissing my head and squeezing me closer.