The Boys Next Door

Chapter 1

"Ho-w did y-ouu know I was out here?" I stuttered, wiping the tears from my eyes stubbornly.

"I was catching the chickens that had escaped," I smiled at the memory. It was almost a weekly chore trying to catch those chickens. "Then I heard you crying. I don't like it when girls cry." He wrinkled his nose.

"It's nothing really." I said determined not to cry anymore.

"Ohh come on, I've never seen you cry. You're the toughest person I know, apart from me of course. Why are you out here on your own?" he rocked me gently.

"It's nothing Cole," I said sleepily. For some reason he felt warm and safe.

"Okay Steph, but you're telling me tomorrow otherwise I will tickle it out of you!" he threatened.

"Sure sure" I muttered. I had started to feel sleepy at that point. Being sat there with him had suddenly made me feel zonked of energy. I always tried to stay strong infront of my father. Like that would encourage him to change, but it never hard. I think I ended up falling asleep, there and then, outside with Cole by my side+++--. Luckily that night was a warm one otherwise we might have frozen.

The next day I did tell him, everything. Which is why he is the only one that knows my secret.

And after that night, every time my father came home drunk and violent I would seek sanctuary at the bottom of the garden and Cole would sneak out and join me. Eventually Cole and his dad built a pretty little tree house up at the end of their garden so in the autumn we would snuggle up there with bundles of pillows and blankets. It got to the point that I couldn't sleep properly without him there. I didn't feel safe. I remember when he went off to Scout camp for a week when he was 14 and each night I lay in bed for hours scared that my father would come in and start to yell at me.

When the winter months came it got far too cold for us to be sleeping in a tree house so either I would sleep round the Ryans by invitation or I would somehow sneak Cole into my house. My father would kill me if he ever found out however I think their mother, Susannah got used to the fact that I spent most nights round their house. But I think she believed that it was because my father was never home, not the fact that he abused me.

I was now 17. Tomorrow I would be going back for my last year at sixth form. I've survived for 8 years, only one more to go before I could get the hell away from my father.

I looked at the boys now.

The family had gone away for a month over the summer holidays to Australia. They had invited me but I couldn't go because I had to work most of the summer to earn money for university next year. I had missed them all terribly and as soon as they had got back yesterday I had practically jumped on them. Not in the dirty sense, just the excited, 'friends that you haven't seen in weeks' sense. Well it started off that way until I noticed how much they had changed over the summer. I guess not seeing someone for a while changes your view of them.

Cole was now 19, he was studying an engineering degree at Vinewood University. I had been sneaking looks at him whilst they played football. Since he had got back from Australia he seemed different. He was always extremely attractive but I had just never noticed before? I guess I just always thought of him as the guy best friend that would always be there for me. He had also been dating my best friend, Madison for about eight months now. Ohhh god, imagine if she found out about our sleeping arrangements?

Does that make me a bad friend?

Luckily my father had been away for the last two months on a business trip to China so I was sleeping well anyway, but he was coming back tomorrow and the long flight would no doubt make him restless and aggravated.