*ABBIE'S POV*
Today was the day my life changed. We moved from London in England to Melbourne in Australia. A completely fresh start. I was leaving the few friends I had behind and moving to the other side of the world. My mum thought it'd be best for me and my sister twin sister Jess as I had been bullied at my school. It made me self harm a lot, and I'd thought about suicide. Now that i'd finished school wasn't as bad. I had a therapist at school, but that just made everyone think I was a complete freak. This was what I needed, I guess, I just wasn't too sure about it. I'd always wanted to move to Australia, but I never thought it'd happen. Now it was happening, I wasn't sure that I wanted to go.
We got into the house, and it was huge. I must admit it looked amazing. The weather for starters was so much nicer than British weather. It seemed that I wouldn't be needing my jeans and my jumpers here much, that's for sure. We unpacked the things we could, and looked around the house, picking which bedrooms we wanted. They all had an en suite and a walk-in wardrobe. I wondered how mum had afforded this huge place.
We still needed to order most of the cutlery and the sofa and a table etc., as we couldn't afford to ship it all here. All we had was a coffee machine which my mum definitely couldn't part with, some beanbags and a TV which was delivered here today.
"Abbie and Jess, why don't you go and introduce yourselves to the next door neighbours and ask for some milk? I really fancy a coffee after all this travelling." Mum asked.
"Let me go and get changed first," I said to her.
"Me too," Jess agreed.
I was only in some trackies and a t-shirt, and I had no make-up on and my hair was up terribly, and Jess was the same. Once I'd changed into shorts and a vest top and put my hair in a bun, we trooped to next doors front door.
We knocked on the door, and waited for them to answer. When the door finally opened, the best sight that I could've imagined was stood in front of me. A tanned boy in some shorts with defined muscles, a couple of tattoos, a lip ring, a small dot on his nose and a beautiful six-pack opened the door. He was absolutely beautiful.
"Hello," he said. He had a fabulous Australian accent that made my heart melt. "One minute." He told us as he closed the door a little. I looked at jess, and her reaction was similar to mine. "Jai, Beau, sexy girls at our door!" He shouted inside. Of course, me and Jess were identical twins.
"There's more? Oh well, I have dibs on him!" I whispered as Jess shook her head and giggled.
The door opened once again, and in front of us stood the boy that was standing there previously and two more. One looked exactly like him, minus the lip ring, he had shorter hair and instead of the dot on his nose, he had two under his eye. The other had shorter hair with a fringe, a tanned body and the most beautiful smile.
"I'm Jai." The one with the two dots under his eye said.
"I'm Luke, Jai's twin. I'm the oldest out of the two in case you were wondering." He winked. Jess looked at me. I was the oldest out of us two, as well.
"And I'm Beau. Them two shit heads are my younger brothers. Surely you'd want the more mature D..." He said biting his lip. Damn.
"Nah... They want mine. I'm sure you do anyway," Jai said pointing to my sister. She blushed.
"I'm Abbie." I told them. "This is Jess.. She's my twin."
"What brings you here?" Luke asked. "I've never seen you around here before."
"We've just moved here." Jess said, finding her tongue at last.
"We're living next door you to at the moment." I explained. "My mum wanted to know if you guys had any milk, as we haven't had the chance to go shopping yet."
"Sure we have, you can have some of my milk if you like?" Luke joked. I liked these boys, they had my sort of sense of humour.
"Is that your way of flirting?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Yes. Now come on in, and we'll get you that milk." We entered the house. It was a similar size and a similar lay out downstairs. Luke gave jess the milk.
"Anything else you need?" Jai asked.
"No, thanks." Jess said.
"Hey, how about you boys come round tonight? Bring your mum and dad! Mums bound to go shopping soon, so we can have a BBQ, to get to know you!" I suggested.
"No dad, just a mum. But sure, what time?" Beau asked.
"Sorry. What time do you usually eat?" Jess asked.
"Half seven ish."
"How about you come at six? Then we can drink a bit before having the food."
"Sure, we'll be there. By the way? What's both of your numbers?" Luke asked. We put our numbers into their phones, and they'd promise they'd text us as soon as we left.
"Bye then boys, cya later!" I said carrying the milk next door. We got in and I put the milk in the fridge. I looked out into the back garden which I hadn't yet looked out and saw to my astonishment a huge garden with a built in swimming pool in it. It wasn't just any old swimming pool, it was HUGE!
"WOAHHH MUM?! How come you didn't tell us about this?" I squealed. "I'm going to get my bikini on!" Me and Jess ran upstairs and slid on our bikinis. I grabbed my phone from on my bed and picked it up, seeing three texts on it.
'Hey Abbie! Looking forward to tonight! Beau x'
'Yooo Ab! It's Jai x'
'Hey beautiful. Guess who? Really excited for tonight. Can't wait! x'
The last text made my heart flutter. I texted Beau saying 'me too. Cya then x' and I texted Jai back 'hey Jai x'. For Luke, I wasn't quite sure how to reply. I decided to say 'hey you. Me too:-)x' I sent them off and then ran downstairs, phone in hand and sat on the edge of the pool, dangling my feet into the water. Jess was sitting next to me doing the same and Mum was laying on a sun lounger reading a magazine she brought at the airport.
"Mum, the boys next door are lovely. They live with their mum. We invited them and their mum round tonight for some drinks and a BBQ, is that okay? I figured you were gonna go shopping later anyway." I said hopefully.
"Yah that's fine. Ask them to bring their own drinks too, okay?" She said getting up from the sun lounger. "I'm gonna go shopping now. You know where the spare keys are. I won't be long, just a couple of hours."
"Okay, bye mum! Love you!" I said as my phone vibrated.
'I see you... May i say that bikini looks mighty fine on you! Xx' a text from Luke read.
I looked up to his house, and he was there looking out of the window, biting his lip. I put back, 'You know, anyone would mistake you for a pedophile, right? Could you boys please bring your own drinks please, oh and remember your swimming stuff. X' I put my phone down by the side of the pool, and slipped in.
--
*THREE HOURS LATER*
Mum was backs from shopping and we'd got the barbecue out ready to be used. It was six o'clock and we were expecting the boys to be here any moment now. We had decided to plug in mums MacBook to a set of speakers I had brought in my luggage, and we were playing the songs off of MTV quite quietly through the speakers into the back garden. We'd also put all of the alcohol in a bucket filled with cold water and ice, ready to be drank. Whilst mum was out doing the shopping, she'd brought some cutlery and cups and little bits and bobs, and we'd have to go out shopping tomorrow for a sofa, beds, a table and chairs and much more. Mum had decided she wanted to get the kitchen re-decorated as well as the downstairs bathroom. This was going to cost a lot.
Eventually, the boys and their mum had turned up. We greeted their mum Gina. She seemed so lovely. We all got our drinks, the boys having beer, me have WKD and Jess having Smirnoff Ice even though the twins and ourselves were not aloud to drink alcohol, Beau was. Jai and Jess went off to the pool with Beau, so that left me and Luke alone.
"What would you like to do then?" I asked Luke, sipping at my drink.
"I dunno, you decide." He replied.
"I could always show you round the house?" I suggested.
"Sure, why not? I led him round most of the empty rooms. We only had mattresses in our rooms at the moment, as the people before decided to take everything they could with them. They didn't leave a chest of draws behind, nothing. Mum has to buy all of it. Eventually we got to my room. I sat down on the mattress, Luke sitting next to me.
"Sorry for the lack of furniture, they previous owners didn't leave anything. Mums having to buy all of it, so until it turns up we're stuck like this." I explained.
"Don't worry Abbie," he said linking his hand into mine. "Abbie, you're beautiful, d'ya know that?"
I blushed furiously. "Thank you Luke. You're rather beautiful too." I grinned, and he started ticking me. I rolled over onto my back and kicked my legs into the air in attempt to combat Luke's arms and my top fell up. He stopped automatically and sat looking at my stomach. I stopped smiling and I realised straight away that he'd seen.
"Why?" He asked. I knew what he meant straight away. "Why, Abbie?" his eyes were full of sympathy but I didn't want it.
A tear leaked from my eye, and he rubbed it away. "Just so you know I trust you so much already and this is the only reason I'm telling you this now." I paused, giving myself time to catch my breath. "I got bullied whilst I was at school. They told me I was fat, ugly, worthless, stupid, pathetic and that I should go die in a hole. It hurt. I cut, and the longer it went on, the more serious it grew. Jess found out, and she couldn't keep it a secret. She told mum, and then the school found out, and then I had to have a therapist. People found out, and then they all thought I was a freak. Mum decided it would be best to have a new start, that's why she chose here. It was far away and this is nothing like England here." I said, biting back the tears. I'd never confided anyone in this information before, apart from mum or Jess. No one at all. I didn't have any friends back home not really, at least not ones I told stuff to.
Luke rubbed the scars gently with his thumb before placing gentle kisses down them. "Baby, you don't need to. Not any more. I know it must've been hard for you, but please promise me you won't do it again. I'm always here for you. I always will be, forever. You can trust me, I promise I'll be here, rain or shine. You're so much more special than that. You don't need to. Whenever you feel like it, tell me, and I'll help you, okay?" He assured me.
"Okay," I whispered, feeling as small as my voice was.
We sat for a few minutes in silence, and it felt good. Luke was the first person that hadn't took the piss out of me because of what I did. Everyone else laughed and called me names, but he was different. It'd only been less than a day but I felt a strong friendship was going to be built.
"Luke?" I broke the silence.
"Mhmm?" he said looking up at me.
"I can't wear my bikini. They'll laugh."
"My family? No! Abbie, I promise you they won't laugh. They're not like that. but you don't have to if you feel uncomfortable. Don't make yourself uncomfortable, but just remember they're not like the people you used to know."
I decided to wear my bikini and try to boost my confidence. I went to put it on but then I realised he was still here. "Privacy, please." I laughed as he pouted. "Out." He walked out of the room sulking. I slipped it on and we joined the others outside, splashing around in the swimming pool, and having a great night, completely forgetting what happened earlier.