Abbey POV
“MUM, MUUUUUUUM” I scream from the top of my lungs, and I can hear her running up the stairs with dad following her.
“What happened? Are you hurt?” she says almost breathless as she opens my bedroom door. Dad stops right behind her with his hand on his chest, trying to catch his breath.
“You’re getting old, dad”, I say jokingly, and he gives me a stern look that breaks as soon as I offer him one of my biggest smiles.
“What happened?” Dad asks, “Why were you screaming the house down?” he keeps asks as they both take a couple of steps into my room.
“I got into Oxford University”, I say, and mum starts to cry immediately as dad walks to me with open arms, and I hug him tightly.
“Oh baby, I am so proud of you”, dad says, kissing the top of my head. He is a lot taller than me. I am just a little bit taller than mum, a couple of inches, but that still makes dad tower over me.
“Mum?” I let out, and she hugs us both.
“My baby is going to university”, she says, and I laugh as he plants about six or seven kisses all over my face.
“Okay, mum, that needs to stop. I am not a child anymore”, I say, and she giggles.
“You will always be my baby”, she tells me, and I smile.
I have the best parents in the world. Alice and Devin Hardy, I’ve never seen a couple so attached to each other as my parents are. We live in Italy since before I was born. I am bilingual, and I have been studying my ass off to get into Oxford University, and this was my time. Last year I wasn’t accepted but this year it happened, I have just turned eighteen, and I am going to England for the first time. For some odd reason, mum and dad never took me to London, we have been all over the world, I have even travelled to Spain, Portugal and even south America with my friends but I have never been to England, now all of that is about to change. I am going to Oxford University, and my parents are moving back to our cottage house in England. I will be living by myself for the first time ever, and I honestly can’t wait.
Dad is retiring next year, he says he has everything under control, and he has someone he trusts running his small empire. I am not following his footsteps or mums. I am going to study Psychology. It’s always been a passion of mine, and hell, they support my decisions.
Tomorrow is the day I am finally moving to the small flat that I will be sharing with two other girls I met online through the university website. I saw that a double room was for renting in their house, and after dad asked his friends to get a background check on them and their family, they allowed me to move in. They wanted to buy me my own flat, but I asked them not to.
I don’t want to be known as the rich girl, I’ve always been the rich girl in school, and everyone knew who I was. It will be nice to just be another new girl in the university without calling attention to myself.
Mum is getting stressed with me moving out, and dad is trying to make sure that mum is okay with men leaving, but I know he is struggling as much as she is. You see I am a daddy’s girl, and I am not ashamed to admit it. My mum says she’s never seen anyone like us, it is like we think the same way and we behave the same way. She says that luckily I look like her otherwise, I would be dad’s younger self.
The move to England is hard on mum, I still don’t know what happened that made mum never want to come back here, but I know that dad is quite happy to be back, he says he’s tired of speaking Italian, he misses his pints and going to the pub. Could you get any more British than that? We have been organising everything to the move for weeks now, and tomorrow we are flying to London and then we will be going straight to Oxford where mum and dad will be staying in a hotel while I get myself settled.
I know I am a grown woman, but I like having them around, and I know I am going to miss them desperately. We have plans to go to London to see my grandparents after we arrive, after all, it is only Wednesday today, and school only starts on Tuesday.
The flight to England is quiet and feels really nice to actually just chill. These last few days have been stressful getting everything ready and saying goodbye to my friends, I obviously promised I would go visit, but they think I will forget about them as soon as I land myself a prince Harry. Idiots. I roll my eyes at the thought of having a boyfriend, I had a serious boyfriend for three years, and once he found out I was coming to Oxford, he cheated on me and decided he couldn’t do long distances. Well, he can fuck off then if he thinks I am going to cry around for him.
I take a photo of the view of London before we land, and I post on my social media straight away, and I receive around twenty comments from my friends wishing me good luck. I smile at the comments, and I get my things ready to get into the SUV waiting for us outside the private jet.
The drive to Oxford takes a few hours, especially because mum made us stop in the shop on the way there so she could get me some essentials like milk, tea, coffee, biscuits. What can I say? The woman knows me well.
As I open the door to my flat, I see two girls sitting on the settee, and they both look back at the door, one of them has really long back hair, and she has round brown eyes. She is the first to stand up and walk to me, giving me a big hug. “Hi, you must be Abbey, I’m Roxy”, she says, and I smile.
“Hey”, I say, and the other girl walks to us. She has short blonde hair and piercing green eyes, “Hey, I’m Penelope”, she says, offering me a hug. They both pull me into the flat, and mum and dad walk behind me, pulling some of the luggage in.
“Hello”, mum says, and the girls look at her, and Roxie covers her mouth with her hand silencing a gasp. Her eyes go wide opened, and she looks between me and mum like a lunatic.
“God, you two look so much alike”, she says, and I smile. Dad hugs mum from her waist, pulling her close to him, “Good, at least she’s got the good looks:”, dad says, and mum laughs, slapping his arm.
“You guys are embarrassing”, I say, and the girls laugh, introducing themselves to my parents that are now making themselves way too comfortable in a house that is not theirs. Mum walks to the kitchen, placing all the shopping she’s made in the cupboards while I apologise to my new flatmates. Dad walks around the house inspecting everything and deciding it needs some refurbishing.
I try and remind him he doesn’t own the house, but he shakes me off straight away. The girls were quite excited about everything that dad wants to do to the flat, and I just roll my eyes. He has a way with all my friends that I will never understand. Once mum and dad leave me alone to unpack because they want to buy some furniture essentials for the house, the girls pull me to the settee, and I sit in the middle of them.
“Your dad is a fox”, Roxie says, and I gag. They both start laughing, and I warn her that mum gets pretty territorial when it comes to my dad. I even tell her the story of one of my history teachers that thought that dad was a single dad and kept trying to catch his attention, and mum got her fired. They both laugh and help me take my things to my small double bedroom. I look around, and there’s not a lot there, so I do understand mum’s need to get furniture, I bet she is buying me a better bed and some rubs, some curtains, well she is going to bio crazy and redecorate the entire place.
I put my clothes in the small wardrobe in my bedroom and I grab my book. I walk to the kitchen to make a cup of tea but the girls have some people over. I am already in leggings and an oversize t-shirt with my hair up in a bun.
“Hey, Abbey, these are our friends, Curtis and Ken”, Roxie says.
“Hi, pleasure”, I let out and Ken walks to me with a smile plastered on his face, "we are playing monopoly, wanna join?”, he asks and I nod my head. He takes my hand and pulls me to the dining room table where we all sit around and start playing.
Not long after the doorbell rings and Roxie stands up.
“Pizza is here”, she shouts from the door and Curtis stands up to help her bring the pizzas to the table and when they come back there’s more pizzas than we will be able to eat. Or so I thought.
Henry POVSummer has been boring as hell. I have spent it in London, but the weather has been terrible. I decided I would go to Spain for two weeks but only went for a weekend because mum needed me. Dad has spent his entire time working as usual, and my brother spent more time with my mother than he did at home. You see, my parents got divorced five years ago. Mum met a guy that gave her the attention she deserved and dumped my dad. I honestly don’t blame her. He was a dick towards her, and she deserved to be loved, something he never did.I don’t think the man is capable of love at all; I know he loves my brother and me, but besides us, he loves himself and his money; he loves his job and freedom. The guy is a player, and because I am the son of Harry Payne, everyone expects me to be like him. The difference between us is that I actually care about school work. Don’t get me wrong, I like to have fun and have my bit of fun with the la
Abbey POVMum and dad just left to go home, don’t get me wrong, I love spending time with them, but they can be a little embarrassing, they have no boundaries, and they have no sense of leaving me alone to enjoy my time before class start.“There’s a party today. Do you want to go?” Roxie asks and I nod my head, why not, it’s been a while that uses been to a party, the last one was in Milan. I went with Francesca and Mario. We partied for forty wight hours and then we got the jet back home.“Where is it?”, I ask, and Roxie tells me that it is at some rich boy house. Apparently she likes to be well connected and only hangs at rich people’s places, great.One hour before the party, Roxie walks into my bedroom, and she is wearing a black silky dress that hugs all her curves, she looks me up and dow
Henry POVI am running late for my first class, I guess having a random one night stand wasn’t a good idea on a school night. Yeah she was hot and she took my mind away from the blue eyes that kept invading my mind. I had to hook up with this girl because I couldn’t keep the girl away from my mind, it was the first time a girl said no to me, I didn’t even get the chance to introduce myself that she turned me down. I slide out of the bed grabbing my clothes that are scattered around the floor and I grab her knickers by mistake. I smile at myself taking a mental note about how sexy that girl is, what was her name again? I can’t remember, I put my t-shirt on and she hugs me from behind. Her hands going up and down my stomach and reaching for the button of my jeans.“Are you sure you have to go?”, what’s her name asks
Abbey POV As I sit in class I can’t make myself focus. My heart is beating fast, and I can’t help myself to stop smiling. What is going on with me? Freaking hell Abbey, what the hell is wrong with you? He is just a stuck up asshole. Why are you allowing yourself to think about him. I shake my head, and I try to focus on the class, but I honestly can’t. I start doodling on my notebook while the professor starts talking. “Miss Hardy?” I hear someone say, and I lift my head looking at the professor. Shit. “Oh, sorry”, I let out, and everyone turns around looking at me. I feel my cheeks getting hot. Fuck you, Henry. I think to myself. “If you think that this class is not important, maybe you should give your place to someone that actually wants to learn?” the professor says, and I dig myself down on my chair. Shit, already being scolded in my first class. “I’m sorry”, I let out.
Henry POV Tonight the biggest party of the year is taking place at one of my dad’s restaurants. Every year we throw a welcome to Oxford party and it’s always insane, we always use the back room in one of his restaurants. Everyone enjoys and has become sort of a tradition. I am not looking forward to it. I don’t even know if the invite got to Abbey. I sent the invite this morning just after her first class when she disappeared on me, and then it didn’t help that I was hugging my cousin in the corridor. I bet Abbey thought she was some random hook up. I take a deep breath as I get out of the shower. I put on my black ripped jeans and a grey t-shirt. I pull my hair back and I look at myself in the mirror, I offer myself a big smile and I grab my leather jacket. Alex and Richie are already wait
Abbey POV I walk back to Roxy that is now near the bar talking to a guy. I walk behind her and whisper in her ear that I’m calling an Uber and going home. She asks me if I want her to come with me but I tell her no, she’s having fun and she might even end up having some sex, I tell her that I will send her my live location and she agrees. I call my Uber and I go outside once it arrives. As I am about to open the door Henry appears next to me. “Where are you going?”, he asks and I look at him feeling self conscious for the first time. He’s looking so sexy, sweat dripping from his hair as he holds his jacket on his left hand and hold the car door with his right hand. “Going home”, I tell him and he nods his head opening the door for me, I get in the car waiting for him to slam the door on my face but he tells me to scoot over, I do as he tells me and he sits next to me. I look at him but he closes the door and tells the driver he can st
Henry POV It’s been two days since the party and Alex and Richie keep annoying me saying that I am losing my touch with the Ladies, all because I didn’t get to bring Abbey home, or get her to go on a date with me, I don’t know why it hurt me so much for her to reject me. As I got home from dropping her off all I could think was her, her beautiful blue eyes and her long dark hair, I wish I could grab her hair while I kiss her, I close my eyes and I take a deep breath trying to remember myself of her scent, how good she smells and how I wish I was next to her right now. “Mr Payne, care to share what’s on your mind?”, The professor says and I open my eyes looking at him. I shake my head and apologise for the distraction and try to focus again on what he is saying. I look at my phone that is resting on top of the small desk and it vibrates as soon as my eyes meet the screen. I pick it up op
Abbey POV Once we reach the restaurant I am pleasantly surprised by what I see, it is a small and quiet Italian restaurant, it has the red and white table cloths and the beautiful wine glasses on the table. There’s candles lit up on each table creating a cozy atmosphere. “It’s beautiful here”, I let out “Wait until you try the food”, Henry says as he pulls the chair for me to sit. I take my place and he walks to the other side of the table and takes his seat. He is wearing dark blue jeans and a light blue button up shirt. It matches his eyes and I can’t believe how sexy he looks. He passes his hand through his hair pulling it back as we reaches for the menu passing it to me. I thank him and I decide I am going for the mushroom risotto. It’s my favourite. Hopefully they will cook it properly.