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It starts as a drunken proposition between friends.
They sit around Carlos’ flat, sipping cheap wine and listening to one of Brianne’s playlists that she swore had the perfect ambience for the situation. Evan is slumped across one of the sofa’s, his own glass nearly falling from his hands. “How easy do you think a heist is?”
They engaged in these sorts of trivial questions from time to time. It had been a good way to break the ice when they all first met. Lola was the first to present a question – something stupid about what bread they would all be. They spiraled from there, some more serious, some more delirious. Typically, the more they drank, the more interesting the questions got.
Carlos, who sits on the ground beside the sofa, plucks Evan’s glass from his hand. “It can’t be that hard, no?”
Vienna swirls her wine. “When was the last time you heard of a heist happening?”
Brianne lets out a laugh. Her face is flush from the alcohol. She stopped drinking half an hour ago, but she hasn’t come down at all. “That was like, a hundred years ago. Nobody does that anymore.”
Evan furrows his brow. “That’s not what I’m asking though.” He sits up and places his glass on the coffee table. “I’m asking if you think it’d be easy.”
The room goes quiet for a moment. Brianne looks down at her lap, lips forming a small pout. She shrugs. “I think it would be.”
Everyone turns to look at her. Carlos coughs. “¿En serio?”
Brianne shrugs. “You would just need the right place.”
Evan leans forward and places a hand on Carlos’ shoulder so he doesn’t fall off the sofa. Later, he’ll think this was all just the alcohol getting to his head, that there was no way they should have gone through with something so absurd. In the moment, he gets caught up with the thrill of the theft. A smile graces his lips. “Where would you hit?”
Vienna stands and sinks into the seat next to Brianne. “I say somewhere grand.”
“That would attract too much attention,” Lola juts in. She’s the only one drinking beer, holding the can like it was a crown jewel.
“Isn’t that half the fun?” Vienna tossed her hair over her shoulder. “If you steal from somewhere small, nobody knows about it, nobody cares. You have to pick somewhere important.”
“Like a museum.” Carlos calls out from his spot on the ground.
Evan swallows as he looks down at the other, mouth going dry. There’s a pink dusting over Carlo’s cheeks. He looks up at Evan with a tiger's-eye gaze. Evan’s breath gets caught in his chest. “Exactly.” The word comes out like a whisper.
The song changes, something slow and melodic.
“The Met,” Brianne says with wide eyes.
Vienna juts in, “The Vatican.”
“Why not the Louvre?" Lola downs the rest of her beer and places the empty can on the coffee table. “Go big or go home, right?”
Evan snaps his fingers. “Yes! That’s perfect.” His heart hammers in his chest. He can already imagine the entire thing. They could pilfer something historical, something like the Mona Lisa – it wouldn’t be the first time the painting was stolen. Evan leans back in his seat. No, not the Mona Lisa, that wouldn’t be original anymore. They would need something different, still showy, but different.
As the night drags on, the group breaks apart. The girls stagger out of the flat, Lola still rambling on about all the things they could pluck from the Louvre’s hallways. She’s already determined she could distract the cards with a simple conversation; Evan wouldn’t doubt it.
Evan’s sobered up enough. His wineglass is still half full.
Carlos has moved around the flat like it’s his own – practically it is, halfway at least. He’s over more than enough to owe Evan a bit of rent. He sits on the counter as Evan gathers up glasses to put into the sink and cans to toss into the rubbish. “You really think we could do it?” The question cuts through the quiet the two of them formed. “Hm?” Evan hums.
Carlos toys with the tab of one of Lola’s empty cans. “Complete a heist, Ev.”
Evan has to turn his back so the other didn’t see him suck in a breath at the nickname. Carlos, for all his intelligence, can never seem to notice what he does to those around him. It takes a moment for him to compose himself, less he causes a scene. He takes a glass from the sink and begins to wash it. It's good to do something with his hands, something to distract him to how close Carlos is. “I do.”
The most insane thing is that he does. As a full group, they’ve only known each other for a few months, Lola being the latest to join. He’s known Carlos for about a year now, Vienna and Brianne for nearly the same amount of time. But Evan trusts the group more than he trusts anyone else. He never expected that he’d find “his people” in university, thought that was all some sort of joke, but nevertheless it happened. Evan couldn’t be happier.
Carlos nudges Evan’s thigh with his foot, white sock a stark contrast to Evan’s dark trousers. “Are you already scheming, cabrón?”
Evan lets out a huff of a laugh and stares down at the glass in his hand. Water streams over his hands in warm rivers. “No.” He isn’t, not really, but there’s a back part of his mind that can’t help but come up with fantastical ideas. It must have been his writing courses getting to him. He looks up.
There’s a glint in Evan’s eye, a challenge Evan wants to meet. “I’m not.”
Carlos covers his mouth as he laughs.
Evan wishes he wouldn’t. He adores the way the corners of his mouth quirk up, the way his teeth shine.
“No, you definitely are. You want to hear a secret?” He leans in.
The sound of the water pouring goes quiet in the background. Carlos is close, even closer now, and Evan nearly drops the glass. He swallows. “What is it?”
Carlos’ lips ghost over the shell of his ear. His breath is hot on Evan’s skin. “I think we could too.” He reclines back, dopey grin back on his face.
Evan can’t match his ease, though he wants to, wants to pull the cleancut cover back over his body, but he can’t. Carlos does that to him. He places the glass into the drying rack and shuts the water off. His hands shake. “Should we do it then?”
Carlos smirks. “You tell me?”
Evan can already feel the handcuffs on his wrists, but the allure is too strong. A heist sounds like quite the adventure.