Seth's P.O.V

"You not coming in?" Martin "Jonno" Johnson yelled from the small outside pool of his uncle's villa, where he had his arm around two different girls I was pretty sure we didn't know. Typical.

"I was going to meet Neil and Bart down at the beach", I replied.

"Okay, I'll just keep these lovely ladies company by myself then", Jonno replied, his hands wandering further and further downwards. I laughed and rolled my eyes, walking out of the garden and shutting the creaky gate behind me. Jonno always seemed to get any girl he wanted. It secretly annoyed the hell out of me. My Dad was an ex pro footballer, my brother Riley was playing for a premiership team, and how much female attention did I get? Hardly any. Not that I had anything to do with Dad these days, but still, I'd hoped he could at least do something half-helpful for me in my life by helping me score a few girls. No such bloody luck. My brother Jason had gotten more attraction than me and he was really a girl.

I cursed myself mentally for the harsh thought about Jason and carried on walking to the beach. I needed to block Jason from my mind, anyway. He was gone. My twin sister Jasmine was finally back. I hadn't yet seen her, she was still out living the high life in California while I was stuck in rainy Chester, and while she was determined never to step foot in Hollyoaks village again, I was resentful to visit her in America and risk running into Dad, Carl Costello, the man I hated more than anything. The fact that my hate for him was postponing me from seeing Jas just made me loathe him even more.

As I reached the beach I felt a large thud on my back. Turning around I saw Neil approaching me.

"Good aim huh?"

"What?" I asked him, confused.

"The beachball. Hit you right on didn't it?"

I nodded, deciding not to ask why he was throwing it in my direction in the first place. Sometimes it was just better not to ask with Neil. Bart soon joined us.

"Seth - finally woke up then mate?" He nudged me. "Wait, where's Jonno? He's not still asleep is he? Lazy fucker".

"Well he probably is in bed by now", I replied. "But not alone".

"Ah", Bart grinned. "I expect we'll get all the details later then".

"You think?" Neil asked sounding way too enthusiastic. From the weirded out look Bart and I shared he'd obviously had the same thought as me.

"So", Bart continued, trying to ignore Neil's comment, "How many girls have you two pulled so far this week?"

"Aw too many to count, man", Neil boasted unconvincingly.

"Yeah, sure", Bart replied. "What about you mate?"

"A gentleman never tells".

"Yeah well your not a fucking gentleman so we don't need to worry about that one, do we?" Bart teased. I laughed. The truth was I hadn't gone all the way with any of the girls this week, one night stands weren't really my thing, not after the events of Riley's stag do, and anyway I'd hardly been bombarded with opportunities, but I wasn't in a rush to tell them that.

"I know what it is".

"Huh?" I was slightly confused by Bart's statement.

"You haven't got with anyone because you've got some-one at home. Has Ruby come down with some sort of mental illness meaning she actually now finds you attractive?"

"Hillarious. There's no girl".

"Who've you been texting pretty much 24-7 since we got here then?" Neil laughed. "Your Mum?"

Bart and I stopped walking for a moment while Neil carried on, oblivious. Bart put a hand on my sholder.

"You alright mate?"

"I'm fine". I tried to shrug it off but he wasn't falling for it.

"Mate that was uncalled for", he called after Neil, who turned around looking confused. His facial expression then changed greatly as he realized the huge mistake he'd just made.

"Crap, mate I'm sorry".

"It's fine", I repeated, as we carried on walking. I could only vaguely hear their conversation as my mind started to wonder. I thought of Grandad, how we'd trusted him, loved him, defended him against the likes of Lynsey Nolan and her accusations against him - how if we'd listened to her, Mum would still be alive. How different things would be if Mum was still around. Jason - Jasmine - I wasn't sure how to think of her now, but she'd been Jason when she left anyway - Jason, would never have left with Dad. He would have stayed with Riley, Mum and I. When he decided he wanted to go back to being Jasmine, she could have had the support of all of us. Mum would have been thrilled. She'd never know that Jasmine was back. Seeing Jas turn into Jason had broken her heart.

For about the twentieth time that day I was once again thinking about Jasmine. I'd know it would be hard, before Jase left for California, but I had no idea just how empty I'd feel after not seeing my twin for almost a year. I'd only seen him/her - I really wasn't sure anymore - once this year, out in California when Riley and I flew out to visit, and even then we only had a day together before Dad barged in demanding to spend time with us too, and Riley and I left abruptly.

"Seth are you even listening?" Bart punched me lightly on the arm, jolting me out of my daydream. "You were completly out of it mate".

"Thinking about that girl he's got at home", Neil stated sounding very sure of himself. Bart nodded.

"Okay so if it's not Ruby who is it?"

"You wouldn't want to know", I replied.

"It's not Sinead is it?" Bart sounded partly worried and partly furious, waiting for a response. I could see the anger and hurt building up in his eyes, he clearly cared about her.

"It's not Sinead".

"Okay". Bart tried to calm himself down. "Okay", he repeated, I assumed to try and confirm it to himself. "So who is it then?"

"Trust me, you don't want to know". I was right. Obviously not in the way Bart was assuming, but I had been thinking about a girl. And the last thing Jasmine wanted was for Bart to be aweare of her return.

Luckily no more was said on the subject as a group of five incredibly good looking girls started to approach. Okay, so maybe I had to wait ages to see Jasmine, but there was nothing I could do about that right now, and right now it looked like this holiday was about to get a lot better.

Sinead's P.O.V

I was still shaking slightly when I arrived back at the hotel. Maddie and Tilly were spread out on sunloungers by the pool, Maddie wearing possibly the skimpiest bikkini I'd ever seen and sucking on her ice lolly seductivly while peering over her designer sunglasses at the eye candy, seeming to have temporarily forgotten about Callum, while Tilly was sat back reading a book. I sat on the lounger beside Maddie and tapped her lightly.

"Hey, Mads. When your done window-shopping a holiday fling I need to talk to you".

"Who says it's only window shopping?"

"Possibly Callum".

She looked shocked.

"Callum! Shit! I completly forgot about him for a moment there. I'm going to blame it on the ammount of martini's I had last night".

Tilly looked up from her book, clearly amused.

"So you can remember what you had to drink last night, just not that your in a relationship", she teased. Maddie glared at us both as we laughed.

"If you weren't having enough of a personal drama today, I would be seriously pissed off with you for that", she told me.

"Okay, well not to sound like you or anything but can we talk about me now?"

"Oh hilarious, Sinead. You know, you two make me out to be so much more self obsessed than I actually am. Even ask Callum".

"Sorry, who?" Tilly laughed. "Oh, right your boyfriend".

"Give it a rest", Maddie snapped.

"Sorry", I apologised. "It must be the ammount of martini's we had last night".

It felt good to have a laugh. So far, today had been nothing but a disaster.

"Right, let's go up to our room", Maddie sighed. "As much of a pain in the ass as your currently being, Sinead, I do want to be there for you".

I smiled as we started to walk into the hotel lobby. Even though Jasmine had refused to call Bart, I didn't really know what was going to happen next, if Bart would ever find out, whether I should tell him anyway, every possible scenario had flickered through my mind at least a hundred times, but whatever happened, I knew my friends had got my back. I was grateful - I had a feeling I was going to need them.

We settled down on the sofa in our suite, over looking the pool we'd just been at.

"Right", Tilly kicked off the conversation. "So in the resteraunt, that was Jason, but as Jasmine?"

"Yeah". I was glad they'd at least known Jason - the whole situation would have been so hard to explain to some-one with no previous idea about it. "She's gone back to being Jasmine".

"Wow", Tilly replied. "I always thought he was so sure".

"So did he. She. Aparantly it was only when the treatment started to get serious she started to have doubts. She didn't really tell me why she changed her mind. Then again we weren't talking for long. We're going to meet up some time before we go home". I turned to Tilly. "You can come if you want. I know you were good friends with Jason".

"Aren't we avoiding the main situation here?" Maddie asked. "Bart McQueen? Wasn't he in love with Jasmine?"

I nodded.

"And Jasmine was in love with Bart. She was as Jason, too. And when she was Jason, Bart was with me, and in love with Jasmine". I sighed. "It's so screwed up".

"So what's Bart going to do now she's back?" For some-one who had at one point made their sole priority splitting up Bart and I to get him to herself, Maddie looked really genuinly concerned.

"That's the thing. Jasmine doesn't want Bart to know about her. I tried to get her to, but she wouldn't. She let him go. But if Bart finds out from Seth or some-one - I assume he knows, and finds out I knew and didn't tell him - we'll be over. And if I tell him we're over too".

I tilted my head back, trying to blink back tears. I did not want to cry again today. I was on holiday.

"I just really love him, you know?"

"We know babe". Tilly put her arm around me as I got a joint hug from the two of them.

"Now I know just how Jason felt", I told them.

"What? Are you telling us you want to be a guy?" Maddie asked, looking thoroughly confused.

"No", I laughed slightly. "But I know how it feels now, to really love a guy, but know that as much as you love him and he loves you, he's better off with some-one else".

"Hey, how do you know he's better off with Jasmine? Don't put yourself down like that!" Maddie scolded.

"I know", I inhaled deeply, trying to get my head around what I was about to say, what I'd been trying to put to the back of my mind for nearly two years. "Because Jasmine Costello was the love of Bart's life. No-one can compare to her".

Jasmine's P.O.V

I picked my ringing phone up from the kitchen sideboard irritatedly. I'd been trying to ignore it for the past half hour - after today I wasn't in the mood to talk to anybody, but whoever it was just wouldn't stop ringing.

"What?"

"Ah, Jason, lovely to hear from you too". The sound of my older brother's voice after so long was almost enough to comfort me, even if the use of my old name sounded strange, especially after my conversation with Sinead earlier that day.

I still hadn't told Riley about being Jasmine again yet. Apart from the new addition of Sinead, the only people that had known me as Jason that now knew I was once again Jasmine were my Dad, because I lived with him, and Seth, because as much as I wished I could avoid the conversation, he was and always would be my twin brother, no matter what gender I was or how far apart in the world we were, and he deserved to know. Although I'd sworn him to secrecy, something he was less than happy with obliging to, I'd secretly hoped he would have told Riley. As much as it would have hurt him knowing I only told Seth, I was dreading the day I would have to explain to some-one about my being Jasmine once more. I knew that considering Riley was my brother, this was incredibly selfish of me, but that side of me wasn't strong enough to overcome my fear of telling him. Until now. Talking to Sinead had given me a burst of confidence.

"Jason, are you there?"

I'd clearly been mulling it all over for longer than I'd thought.

"Riley, hey".

"Oh, so finally you answer?"

Those words made me freeze for a moment, my heart thudding. Bart had said those exact words to me on the phone, less than twelve hours before he found out I wanted to be a boy. I treasured that night in my memory - as heartbreaking as it had been, attempting to have sex with Bart, breaking up with him, breaking his heart simulationiously, running into his bathroom to self harm while Fern blackmailed me with a sound recording of me admitting how I felt about my body, it had also been our last night together, as an official couple. As Jasmine and Bart. Earlier that night had been great. We'd eaten at Relish along with my friend Anita, Bart had rescued my confiscated phone for me by breaking into the school, I'd come back to his and annoying as Fern tagging along was, and nervewracking as it was not knowing whether or not she was going to blurt out my secret, the moments when she was out of the room and it was just me and Bart made it worth it. I remembered his expression when I told him I was ready to try again at having sex with him. His voice became much softer, his expression full of care and concern as well as happiness as he asked if I was sure - he'd never cared so much about some-one before and I could tell.

I snapped back to real time. Riley. On the phone. Expecting an answer. From Jason for Christ's sake.

"Yeah, look Riley, I need to speak to you".

I heard a door slam in the background.

"For God's sake Mercedes!" Riley yelled. "What are you doing!"

I was slightly confused at this - had Riley gotten back together with the McQueen slut or was she just storming in uninvited as she always had done?

"Look", Riley said to me. "I'm going to have to call you back".

"I'm back as Jasmine". I probably should have prepared him for it, but I didn't know how long I had until he hung up, and I needed to get the message to him before I lost the courage to do it. I held the phone hesitantly as I waited for a response, the line went silent. He must have been in shock. I glanced at my phone - the call was ended. He'd presumably hung up before hearing me. Fucking great. I threw my phone against the kitchen cupboards angrily, which I immideatly regretted when it landed on the hard kitchen floor with a thud, creating a massive crack on the screen.

I picked up the phone, breathing deeply, trying to compose myself. I caught a glimpse of my reflection through the bread bin. My light blonde hair scraped my sholders like it had done before, the very front section of my hair tucked behind my hear like I'd always had it as Jasmine. I may have been a year older but I looked almost exactly the same as the last time any-one had seen me as a girl. Sinead had thought Bart deserved to know. It was true, Bart meant to world to me, but Riley was my brother and I hadn't even told him. I was certain now that I needed to. It wasn't fair on Seth, either, having to keep such a huge secret from him. The last time he'd had to do that had been about Dad and Mercedes' affair, when Dad forced him to keep quiet. If there was one thing I was positive about, it was that as much as I loved my father, I did not want to turn into him. I shouldn't have told Seth over the phone, either. I wasn't going to make the same mistake with Riley. Screw my fears - Jasmine Costello was going back to Hollyoaks.