I stepped out of the clammy airport and felt the cool London breeze on my face. I shivered. The weather here was very different to the weather back home in Australia. It started to rain so Mum and I quickly ushered a cab and drove to our new apartment. Once we pulled up outside, the cab driver helped us unload our luggage. The elevator wasn't working which meant we would have to haul all the boxes up the stairs. Great.
"Jaida darling," Mum said, "I'm just going upstairs to unlock the apartment. You'll be ok with the boxes yeah? Alright, I'll just meet you up there!" Typical Mum. She always leaves when things get hard. That's the reason we moved here to London. My dad's girlfriend Brittany is pregnant and straight away Mum decides to pack up and leave. Coincidence? I think not. Mum just can't deal with stuff like that so she just avoids the whole situation.
I sighed and started moving our stuff. It was hard lifting all the boxes, and not to mention completely boring. So I grabbed my iPod out of my Lonsdale backpack and pressed play. As usual, I was listening to my iPod full blast so I didn't hear the approaching footsteps in the stairwell. Being my clumsy self I lost grip on the boxes and luggage and they all fell to the floor. I bent down to pick them up when I noticed someone else doing the same. I looked up and found myself staring into a pair of brown eyes. The person started saying something but because of my iPod I couldn't hear anything.
"Huh?" I said pulling my earphones out.
"I said, Hi! I'm Liam. I live in apartment 13." Wow. I never knew British accents were so cute.
"Apartment 13, unlucky man, unlucky." He stared at my quizzically. "Sorry I'm really superstitious. Oh I'm Jaida by the way. I'm in apartment 15." I extended my hand and he shook it.
"Well, I'll see you round neighbour," he said as he handed me back my boxes and luggage and continued to head down the stairs.
"What took you so long?" Mum asked as I finally arrived at our apartment with all my bags.
"Just met the neighbour," I explained.
"Oh! Were they nice?"
"Yeah, he's alright I guess."
"Ohhhhh. So it's a boy. How old is he? Was he cute? Details please!" she shouted like a schoolgirl.
"Whoa. Mum. Please. Just chill for a sec. Well he's British, he's name is Liam and he lives in apartment 13. And that's about it."
"What colour were his eyes? Does he have abs? What did he say? What's his hair like?"
"Mum, sometimes I seriously wonder who the child is in this relationship," I said, slightly fed up. "Now I'm going out to get some food from Waitrose, do you want anything in particular?" But before she had time to answer, I'd taken her wallet and was out of the door. Walking down the hallway, I made my way to the stairwell where once again I met Liam.
"Is this going to be our meeting place then?" I joked.
"Huh? Sorry?" he asked confused.
"I'm Jaida, your neighbour. We met here before, so I made a joke about us always meeting here. I'm sorry it must be my Australian humour," I explained.
"Oh!" he laughed. "Sorry, I was just a bit, you know, out of it. So you're from Australia are you?"
"Yeah, the south coast to be exact," I sighed, thinking about home for the first time since we'd left.
"Cool. I've never been to Australia before, I've always wanted to go but recently I've just had... other commitments..."
"Oh... Well if you get the chance you should go. It's a fantastic country. It's always really warm, we have the best beaches and everyone's really nice, unless you go out to the hardcore suburbs. People out there can get a bit rough you know... Oh crap! I'm rambling again!" I slapped my forehead with my palm. "Anyway, I'm just going to pop down to the shops so I guess I'll just see you round!" I waved and continued down the stairs. I smiled. I think I may have just made my first friend.
