annabelle | hemmings

[12]

"You look like a fucking tomato." Calum laughed, smirking when Michael scowled and shoved him in the shoulder. "It's a good look, Mike. You're glowing."

"Shut up, why the hell didn't you wake me?" Michael groaned, looking down and examining his sunburnt arms.

"I was sleeping too! It's not my fault you don't tan." Calum smirked, pushing his sunglasses back down his nose and smirking to himself. "Luke used this thing called sunblock, obviously you haven't heard of it."

"Fuck you."

"Shut up, you look cute." Naomi murmured, sleepily rubbing at her eyes as she leant into Michael's shoulder and pulled him to lay back down on the towel they were sitting on. Luke giggled under his breath at the way that Ashton faked a gag before laying back down and pushing his sunglasses over his eyes.

"We should get ice cream or something. Ice cream sounds good." Michael murmured, his breath fanning out across Naomi's face as she nodded and moved closer into his side, resting her head on his shoulder.

Annabelle was laying with her hair fanned out across the blanket beneath her, her fingers playing with the bracelets that lined Luke's wrist. "Which one's your favourite?" She murmured, turning on her side and propping herself up on one elbow to look at him.

"This one." He smirked, reaching out and bopping the tip of her nose with a laugh.

"You're cheesy and gross." She giggled, shoving his shoulder and rolling over to lay her head on his stomach.

"I could get used to this, Belle." He sighed, his fingers gently entangling in her hair as he shielded his eyes from the bright sun above. He could smell the sea and the salt in the air, he could feel the warm sand through the soft blanket beneath the two of them.

"Me too." She whispered, hooking her pinky finger in his and nuzzling her face against the soft cotton of his shirt.

///

It'd been three months since Annabelle had returned to Melbourne and she could already feel herself becoming tired of the town that she used to call home. The beaches were exactly the same as they had been when she was growing up, white sand, hot sun, booming with tourists.

Even though the buildings had grown they were still all relatively the same. Cafés, bookstores, vintage clothes shops, lawyers offices, high schools.

She spent her days sleeping in and making out with Luke and driving down town to the ice cream store that she liked and sunbathing on the balcony of her small apartment. Her parents were wealthy, living in Sydney and so she had no need for a job. Even though she got one at a dingy diner to pass the time.

For the time being, Luke was the only reason that she was still there. Luke and Naomi.

She'd been thinking of going back to London to visit friends from her past but the fact that she'd just packed up and returned to Melbourne without letting any of them know was going to lead to an awkward conversation that she wanted to avoid.

Maybe New Zealand. Or Ireland, she'd never been to Ireland.

"What are you thinking about?" She was snapped out of her daze when Luke nudged her in the side, sitting up from his slumped position on the sofa next to her to meet her eyes. "You okay?"

"Yeah, just daydreaming." She smirked, looking up to see that he'd paused the television in front of them. "Do you ever think of leaving?"

"Leaving what?" He replied, furrowing his eyebrows and sitting the remote down next to him.

"Melbourne."