Back to the Place Only You and I Share: Luke Hemmings//5SOS

Chapter 4

"Emilia!" came a woman's voice I was more than familiar with. My eyes flickered open to reveal my mum, dad and brother all standing up eagerly awaiting with luggage in hand.

"Em!" exclaimed my mum. "The next stops us, come on, get your stuff!"

My eyes winced at the brightness of the daylight coming in through the train's window opposite before adjusting and opening fully; clearly the lack of sleep I had the night before was taking its toll on me. Quickly, I took out my ear plugs and jumped up, gathering my belongings.

A minute or so later, the train pulled to a halt. The doors glided open in front of me, revealing a completely different world on the other side. All four of us looked at one another with big gleaming eyes and prominent smiles as the suspense was finally over.

This was it.

I took my first steps down onto the solid ground and inhaled deeply; you could smell the fresh ocean air from here. The familiar sight of the old-fashioned navy and white train station, glowing in all its radiance in the low early sun, surrounded me and just as I was losing myself within my own senses, it suddenly occurred to me who was waiting to pick us up at the end of the station. Grabbing our suitcases, we all impatiently scampered down the sidewalk to be greeted by Sally.

George and Luke's nan didn't look any different from the last time I saw her- in fact, she looked exactly the same with her silvery white hair cut short and her signature pair of darkened lensed glasses perched delicately on the bridge of her nose. She never did seem to age- though, she couldn't say the same about me.

"Hello stranger!" She beamed, encasing me with her arms in a tight squeeze. "My gosh, look at you, Emilia!" She let go, eyeing me up. "You're so tall and so... So beautiful! You're like a young woman!" she exclaimed.

Laughing, I replied, "How are you? It's been ages!"

"Oh I'm fine sweat pea, it's so good to see you! We've missed you all too much!" Before I had the chance to reply, I was encased in yet another squeeze of a hug. "There's someone else I know who'll be excited to see you," she uttered into my ear, letting me go and sending a wink in my direction as she greeted my parents.

Wait, what?

Having decided to brush off Sally's comment, we all piled into her car and began driving to the caravan site. 

No matter what anyone says, caravan holidays will always be the best type of holidays- especially when your grandparents, cousins, aunt and uncle stay in the caravan right next to yours. For me, the best and most cherished memories occurred in these two adjacent caravans that were owned by my grandparents. They figured it would be cheaper, in the long run, to just buy the two of them many years ago and we've stayed in them each summer ever since. In the winter, however, they let them to other holiday makers.

As nobody else from our crew had arrived yet, we quickly dropped our bags off in our caravan before Sally insisted that we went back to their apartment to see her lot.

As Sally and Peter had been best friends with my grandparents since they were merely teenagers, our two families come down every year. They used to stay in a caravan near us but after gaining some inheritance, they put it towards a summer apartment down here at Westward where George and Luke stay with their parents and grandparents. It worked out quite well; the apartment was just a brief fifteen minute walk away from the campsite.

After a car ride of the usual catch up conversation, we soon pulled up outside the familiar apartment. It was a charming apartment; the walls were made of grey cobbled stone and the back was south facing with a view of the sea that I was yet to be reunited with. 

Pulling onto the gravelled drive, I noticed that there was an unfamiliar new-looking black car parked in the driveway. It was as if Sally read my mind as seconds after she pointed out that both George and Luke passed their driving test the other month. I giggled quietly to myself at the thought of them driving; I honestly felt sorry for anyone who would ever have to endure a car journey with either one of those two klutzes behind the wheel.

"Well, here we are!" said Sally. We clambered out the vehicle and all of a sudden a nauseating feeling flushed through me, causing my stomach to dip. I hadn't seen anyone in almost a year; call me paranoid, but I felt the need to make a good first impression after all of this time. I glanced at the car window and quickly touched up my hair in the reflection as everyone made their way to the front door where a swarm of people came rushing, throwing their arms in the air embracing my family in endless hugs and 'hello's'. I went to join them when suddenly George and Luke's mum, Liz, pulled me into a tight squeeze.

"Hello you!" she gasped. "How are you, sweetie?!"

"I'm good, how are you?!

"I'm fine, lovely. I've missed you!"

"I've missed you!" I exclaimed, laughing softly as my words muffled into her bear like hug that was beginning to suffocate me.

I escaped from her motherly and warm embrace when an abrupt faint cough came from behind me. Instantly, I glanced around to find myself looking up into the icy blue eyes of a familiar-yet not so familiar- boy. His hair seemed a more golden shade of blonde in the soft early-afternoon sun rays and, quickly, my eye sight fell on a black lip ring that adorned his bottom pink lip before they began scanning over his broad frame and incredulously broad shoulders when suddenly my thoughts were interrupted by my mother's voice.

"Well are you going to say hello?!"