Chapter 80

I wake up practically lying on top of Conor. Last night was literally so good. After watching Home Alone, Angela started blasting music and me, Eleanor and Anna were just dancing. We stayed together all night and it was just good to spend so much time with them all. Although I do wonder why I’m up at 9am considering how late we all went to bed. The excitement of it being Christmas Eve has probably woke me up.

It’s Christmas Eve, oh my god.

I roll off Conor and scroll through my phone, seeing I have a text from Eleanor.

From - Eleanor: are you awake?x

To - Eleanor: I am now x

From - Eleanor: Come to Anna’s room :)x

I frown and roll out of bed, tip toeing into Anna’s room so I’m careful not to wake anyone up. I slowly open her bedroom door and see Eleanor and Anna sat in her bed on the laptop. I slept in Conor’s last night and El slept in Anna’s. Angela’s sat on the end of the bed on the phone to somebody so I step inside the room and slowly close the door so I’m not interrupting her conversation. I smile at them all and sit on a chair in Anna’s room. I look around and I’m glad to see that her fairy lights are on. It makes the room look so much more... alive.

“Ok, yep, I’ll see you then. Bye!” Angela ends the call and looks at me. “Sorry about that” she chuckles.

“It’s fine” I smile, shaking my head slightly.

“I was just on the phone to the salon and seeing as we’re all awake, I was thinking of going to the salon now so you can spend the rest of the day outside in the snow” she suggests and I gasp. I remember that it’s snowing outside so it takes everything in me not to run to Anna’s bedroom window mid-conversation.

“Sounds good” I hold in my squeal but I struggle to hide the huge smile spread across my face.

“Well if you want, I’ll drop you and Eleanor off at yours and you can get ready and then we’ll go”

“Okay” I nod. “We’ll only be about fifteen minutes” I shrug.

“Yeah” Eleanor agrees with me.

“That’s fine, we have to be at the salon at ten ish so just make sure you’re ready before then” she nods.

“Ok, I’ll go and get changed now then” I rise from my seat and quietly make my way back into Conor’s room. I quickly change into my clothes from yesterday and tie my hair up with the hair tie around my wrist.

“Oh and Lucy?” Angela whispers, popping her head through the door. “If you want, bring all your Christmas presents so you can take them back to yours”

“Ok” I smile. I grab everything I bought yesterday and drag it out of my room. I’m surprised Conor hasn’t even woken up yet. I’m not exactly being quiet.

I meet everyone downstairs and we all head towards the front door. Anna runs outside and just falls in the foot deep fresh, white snow that no one has stepped on. Me and Eleanor mimic her actions. This is so amazing. I roll up a ball and throw it at the back of Eleanor’s head.

“Hey!” she pouts and I feel something cold hit the back of my head. I turn around in shock and see Anna stood there smirking.

“Save this for later!” Angela steps in. “We have half an hour to be at the salon”

We all moan and drag ourselves to the car. I can’t wait for later though. I’m not even going to come out of the snow.

We arrive at my house and go to the car boot to get all of our presents out.

“Aren’t you coming in?” I ask when I see Angela getting back into the car after helping us get our stuff out.

“No, I’ll wait here” she nods.

“No, come inside! I’m sure my Mum would love to see you” I giggle.

“Are you sure?”

“Positive” I nod. She laughs and gets back out of the car with Anna. We walk towards my house and I knock a few times before my Mum answers the door.

“Wow” she frowns, stepping aside so all mine and Eleanor’s bags don’t knock her out.

“Mum, you've met Angela before” I nod at Angela. Mum rode Angela to the hospital that time Conor's Dad hit her. That feels like ages ago but it was only last month.

“Hi! How are you doing?” Mum laughs, shifting her gaze off mine and Eleanor’s bags and giving Angela a hug.

“I'm great thanks!” Angela laughs.

“Angela’s taking us to get our nails done in a second so me and Eleanor are just going to get ready” I smile.

“Aw, that’s kind of you” I hear Mum say before me, Eleanor and Anna all run up to my room.

I quickly change into some fresh clothes, consisting of some leggings and an oversized top. I don’t feel like I need to dress up to get my nails done and to build an igloo. I find one of Conor's hoodies in my room so I put that on and take off yesterday’s make-up. I run to the bathroom and wash my face before applying a small amount of mascara. I redo my pony tail and brush my teeth, popping some chewing gum in my mouth afterwards.

I jog downstairs and see Mum, Lauren and Angela having a good chat while drinking a cup of tea. I sit on the stairs and start to tie my shoe lace when Eleanor and Anna come down. Once we’ve put our shoes on, we join everyone in the kitchen and talk amongst ourselves.

“Right, are we ready?” Angela turns to us and we all nod. “Oh and is it alright if they come back to mine after this?”

“We’re going to build and igloo” I add and Mum stares at me as if I’ve got 3 heads. Lauren mirrors her action and Angela just laughs, understanding what I said.

“Um, yeah that’s fine” Mum frowns.

“Ok, bye!” I cheer, walking out of the front door with Eleanor following behind. I resist the temptation to play in the snow for a few minutes, and just get in the car with Anna and El.

We all walk into the empty salon and ring a bell at the desk for attention. A woman in her mid twenties comes to the desk with a huge smile plastered on her face.

“Hi, Angela?” she smiles, opening a large book.

“Yep” Angela smiles.

“Okay, if you’d all like to take a seat” she walks away from the desk and points at the seats at the back of the room. In front of each seat is a small table and another chair facing the other seat. In no time, four young ladies walk out of the back room and take a seat in front of us all.

The woman doing my nails has long blonde hair and bright blue eyes. She’s smiling widely at me, making me feel more welcome.

“Hi, how are you?” she smiles again, adjusting in her seat slightly.

“I’m fine thank you, how are you?”

“Yeah, I’m good” she giggles, making me smile. The rest of the girls I came with are having their own conversation with the people doing their nails. I push the sleeves of Conor's hoodie and place my hands on the table in between me and the employee. “So is there anything in particular that you would like?”

“I haven’t really thought about it. I don’t want anything too dramatic though. Something simple” I nod and she frowns, obviously thinking of some ideas while she files my nail.

“How about a sparkly tip or something?” she suggests. “That’s kind of Christmassy”

“Yeah, sounds good” I nod. She knows what she’s doing so I trust her with what nails she’s going to give me.

“So what are you getting for Christmas?”

“Probably just clothes. I’ve not asked for anything” I laugh.

“It’s like that when you get older though” she laughs dryly, concentrating on filing my nails. “Do you have any plans for Christmas?”

“I have no idea. We usually decide on the day” I shrug.

“You’re so organised” she rolls her eyes playfully, making me laugh. “So are we going for a sparkly tip then?”

“Yep” I nod confidently.

“Would you rather a square or round tip?” she asks while rummaging through the drawer beside her.

“Square please”

“Okie dokie. I’m Lidia by the way”

“Lucy” I smile, nodding slightly.

She starts sizing my nails and eventually glues the clear nails onto my fingers before cutting them down to a normal length.

“What colour sparkles?” she smiles, showing me all the colours I can pick.

“Hmmm” I tap my chin, looking at the colours. There must be every single colour of the rainbow in there but I decide to go for something simple. “Silver please”

“Great” she closes the draw and starts applying the silver sparkles to my nails. My phone starts vibrating in my pocket and I moan in frustration. I manage to squeeze it out of my pocket and answer it before it goes onto answer phone.

“Hello?” I breathe making Lidia laugh quietly.

“Lucy, where the fuck are you all?” Conor panics down the phone.

“We’re at the salon” I roll my eyes when Lidia looks up at me. She smirks and returns to doing my nails.

“Oh right” he breathes. “They’re at the salon” he shouts.

“Ooooh” I hear Jack drag.

“When will you be home?”

“I don’t know, an hour?” I shrug, taking a guess.

“An hour!? Fuck, Lucy. I don’t think I can manage that long” he moans.

“Manage what?”

“I’m starving” he moans again. These boys need to learn how to feed themselves.

“Go and make some toast or something”

“Tell Mum to bring us back McDonalds” he gasps.

“No Conor! That’s rude!” I object. No way am I asking his Mum to buy him McDonalds.

“Fine, I’ll text her myself. Honestly Lucy, you’re useless” he sighs.

“Shut up, I’m going”

“Wait!” he shouts.

“What?”

“Love you”

I sigh, “Love you too”

“Good girl” he chuckles.

“Whatever, see you” I laugh, ending the call.

“Who was that?” Lidia winks, catching onto when I said ‘love you’.

“My boyfriend” I chuckle. “He can’t feed himself”

“You live together?” she gasps. “I thought you were like, sixteen or something”

“No, his Mum’s brought me here which is why no one’s at his house” I nod over to Angela.

“Oh right!”

“And I’m fifteen” I add.

“I was close!” she makes me laugh again. “So how long have you been dating? I-if you don’t mind me asking”

“No, I don’t mind!” I assure her and she relaxes slightly. “About four months”

“Aw” she squeals. “I wish I had a boyfriend” she rolls her eyes and sulks, jokingly.

“I’m surprised you don’t, you’re stunning” I compliment her. I’m not lying, she’s so pretty.

“Aw thank you!” she smiles shyly and gestures for me to switch hands.

Lidia finished my nails about half an hour later so I sit and talk to her while the rest of the girls get theirs done. My nails are just a simple, silver glittery tip and I absolutely adore them. I’ve had my nails done in the past but they’ve never looked this good.

Angela’s the last person out of us all to finish and when she does, we pay the girls and leave the shop. We get into the car and just show each other all our nails. Anna didn’t get acrylics but they painted her nails a pastel pink colour and designed a Christmas hat on her index finger and a Santa coat on her ring finger. They’re so cute.

Angela got all black acrylic nails and her ring finger is the only one painted glittery silver. Eleanor got a gradient purple glittery colour which look absolutely amazing.

“They all look so nice” I smile, looking at all our nails.

“I know” everyone agrees. We stop talking and start to set off in the car so I decide to text Conor in advance.

To - Conor: on our way x

As soon as we get back to Conor’s house, after stopping off at McDonalds, Anna immediately runs into the living room to meet the boys and she shows them her nails.

“Ooo very nice” Conor says enthusiastically, glancing once at her nails then back to the TV. Anna rolls her eyes and shows Jack.

“They’re so cute” he coos, making me smile. At least he’s actually showing interest. Instead of showing Conor, I just sit down next to him and watch the TV. Angela hands him and Jack their McDonalds and they starts to dig in. We all already had ours in the car.

“Aren’t you going to show me yours?” he smirks as soon as I get comfortable on the sofa and don’t make any attempt to show them him.

“Why? You’re not interested” I tut.

“I am, come on just show me” he pouts. I roll my eyes and put my hands in front of him.

“Cool” he nods, looking up at me and laughing when he see’s my eyebrow is raised. “Come on, how do you expect me to react?”

I shrug, “I don’t know”

"You're wearing my hoodie" he points out.

"Yeah, you left it at mine" I turn to him and he smirks.

“Do you wanna go outside?” he asks when he finishes his meal.

“Yeah!” I gasp, sitting up in excitement.

“Let me get dressed” he chuckles and I see that he’s only wearing some tracky bottoms and his usual black top. He jumps up from his spot on the sofa and jogs upstairs.

“Are we going out?” Jack asks and I nod. “I’ll get dressed” he chuckles, repeating Conor’s actions. Anna runs upstairs too leaving me and Eleanor on our own in the living room.

“El, we still need to wrap all the presents” I laugh lightly, remembering all the presents we bought.

“Fuck, yeah” she gasps and lets out a small irritated moan afterwards.

“We’ll just do it tonight” I shrug and she nods.

“I got you both some gloves” Anna steps into the living room holding 3 balls of gloves.

“Shotgun the purple ones!” Eleanor calls out so Anna throws them at her.

“I’m having the pink ones Lucy, so you can have blue” she throws me the blue ones and I shrug, stretching them over my hands.

“Ready” Conor calls from outside of the room. We all stand up in sync and meet them in the hallway to their front door. I put on my shoes and we all wait for Anna to tie her shoes.

“Right, let’s go” Jack cheers and I start laughing. It would be sensible to wear wellies right now...

“We’re going to the park. It’s sick when it snows” Conor says as soon as the door shuts. “Lucy, are you wearing converse?” he frowns.

“Yeah” I shrug. “So is Eleanor”

“Shall we stop at yours on the way so you can wear something more um, suitable?”

“You’re one to talk. You’re wearing trainers” I frown, looking down to his feet.

“These shoes do wonders!” he smirks. “We’re still stopping at yours”

“Ok, whatever” I roll my eyes.

After me and Eleanor change into some wellies and put on a coat, we get to the park and it’s literally empty. A man passed with his dog earlier but apart from that, no one is here except the five of us.

“We have to go up here” Jack laughs, running up the huge hill. We all follow him and when we get to the top, he lies on his belly and slides all the way down, screaming the whole way.

“I want a go!” Anna gasps, sitting on her bum and sliding down. I start laughing as Eleanor copies Anna.

“Your turn” Conor nods at the hill. I sit on my bum and slide down, hearing him behind me the whole way.

“Oh my god” I laugh, standing up from the floor. My bum is soaked but that’s the least of my worries right now. I look to the top of the hill and see Jack and Anna sliding down on their feet. How the fuck?

“Jack!” Conor calls from a few feet away from me. I turn my head and see him holding up a squared piece of wood.

“Ah sick” Jack laughs running over. I frown in confusion and watch the two of them push it up the hill.

“Anna come here” Conor starts laughing. Anna walks over to them and they say a few things to her before she sits down on the wood and push her down the hill, wetting themselves at the outcome.

“THAT WAS AMAZING” she screams, grabbing the plank of wood and running up the hill.

“I want a go” I say to El and start running up the hill with her. When it’s my ‘turn’ I sit on the wood with my legs crossed and they both spin me while pushing me down.

I scream in excitement and fear because they’ve spun me so fast. Before I reach the bottom of the hill, I fall off the wood and roll down the hill. I hear Jack burst out laughing and I hear someone else coming down the hill. The fall didn’t hurt, I’m just too shocked to move at the moment. I slowly sit up and I feel someone’s hand rest on my shoulder.

“Are you alright, babe?” Conor stifles a laugh and I raise an eyebrow at him.

“You spun me!” I pout.

“I know baby, I’m sorry” he smirks, pulling me in for a hug.

“You’re lucky it’s Christmas Eve and I’m in a good mood” I point my finger at him in an attempt of sounding threatening.

“Why? What would happen if you weren’t in a good mood?”

“You don’t want to know” I frown, rising from the ground while he laughs.

I walk back up the hill as Eleanor gets thrown down on the plank of wood and laugh as she falls off it halfway through. We continue doing this for a good half hour until we nearly pass out from walking up the steep hill too much, and just decide to make snow angels... well, me, Anna and Eleanor do. The boys just kind of watch.

“Can we go home now?” Jack moans and Conor just chuckles.

“Come on, it looks fun” Conor lies in the snow and moves his arms and legs up and down.

“I’m ashamed of you, Conor” Jack sighs, shaking his head. We all stand up and look at the results. I start to laugh as I look at them all in a line, Conor’s being huge. I take a picture on my phone before we decide to go home and build a snowman.

“Start here” Conor stops in his tracks and starts to roll a small ball. “It’ll be huge by the time we get back to mine”

He starts to roll the snowball forward and it gradually gets bigger as the rest of the group just take baby steps back to his house. When we get to his house, the ball of snow that was once the size of a tennis ball is now probably the size of a large workout ball.

“Wow” I gasp as he continues to roll it up and down his drive to make it much bigger.

“Let’s make its head” Anna starts to roll up a ball and pushes it past the gate I once flew over and into the back garden where Conor taught me how to play football, I had my first kiss and I told Conor I thought he was perfect and I really liked him. Cute garden...

When we decide the head and body is big enough, we put the head onto the body and look up at it. It’s probably twice the size of Anna. Maybe a little bit taller than Conor.

“It’s huge” Eleanor gasps, saying what I was thinking.

“We still need stones and stuff” Jack frowns. He hasn’t helped build this snowman in any way.

“Go and get some then” I tell him and he gasps.

“Why do I have to?”

“Because you haven’t done anything! Now go” I shoo him away.

“Come with me then” he grabs my arm and drags me back to the front of the house. In the middle of his huge ‘American’ driveway, there’s a circle thing like an empty waterfall. Inside it is just filled with stones.

“Was this supposed to be a fountain or something?” I ask, sitting on the edge of it and picking out decent sized black stones. You can barely tell what colour they are because of all the snow piled on it but we’re doing a decent job.

“I think so. Mum preferred it like this though” he shrugs, concentrating on his colours.

“Oh right” I nod. His house is ginormous as it is and with a fountain in the front of it, wow. It would look like a fucking celebrity lives here.

He laughs, “Me and Conor used to burry ourselves in here when we were younger and hide from no one in particular”

I start laughing and he just smirks at me.

“Are you alright?” I frown. He seems a bit off since we came back from the park.

He sighs, “Yeah, I’m fine”

“Jack, you can tell me”

“I don’t know, just one of them moods” he shrugs and I raise an eyebrow. I know he’s lying, I can read him like a book. “I miss Dad. Like, he was such a shit Dad and Christmas won’t be better with him or anything but he was alright when we were younger. He’d take us out all the time and was fun at one point. It’s just hit me really that he’s gone for good”

“Well, you never know. He might come back” I frown sympathetically. I don’t really know what to say seeing as I’ve never been through this before.

“I feel bad on Anna, you know? No matter what, she loved him and she sometimes asks me about him but I feel weird talking about it. I never know what to say to her because I’m just as confused as she is about this situation”

“Have you spoken to your Mum about it?”

“Na” he shrugs. “I don’t like bringing it up. I just want to forget about him and not make a big deal about it but he’s my Dad. How can I forget my Dad?”

“You don’t need to forget him. He changed so much since you were little Jack, you need to understand that. Just try and move on and have a good time. Come on, we’re going to Sweden in eight days, it’s Christmas tomorrow and we’re building a snowman right now. I mean, how many times do you get to do that?” I smile.

“Lucy, I do this every year with Anna” he starts laughing. “And I’m a man. Men don’t build snowmen”

“Conor’s building one” I start laughing.

“Conor’s not a man” he shakes his head, smirking slightly.

“Yeah, yeah” I roll my eyes. “Are you alright then?”

“Yeah” he shrugs. “Men like me don’t sulk”

“Give it a rest” I chuckle and he leans forward to give me a hug that lasts for ages. I’m not complaining though, his hugs are amazing.

“Let’s go, they’ll be waiting for their stones” he rolls his eyes when we pull away. I follow him into the back garden and see Eleanor wrapping a scarf around the snowman’s neck, and Anna and Conor just stood there watching her.

“We got stones” I break the silence and Anna gasps, running over to us. I pour them into her hand and Jack does the same, and we watch her and Eleanor create eyes and a mouth. They then trail a few stones down its body for buttons. “So all you need now is a nose and some arms”

“Here” Angela walks out of the back door holding out a carrot to us. “It looks amazing” she laughs as Eleanor takes the carrot off her and passes it to Anna. “Needs some arms though”

“Got them” Jack walks over to us holding two sticks.

“Wow you actually participated in something!” Eleanor says sarcastically, clapping a few times after.

“Hey, I got some stones” he pouts.

“Men don’t pout” I wink at him and he rolls his eyes.

“Perfect!” Angela smiles at the completed snowman. It looks amazing!

“Not yet! One second” Anna runs inside the house. We talk amongst ourselves for a bit until she comes back outside with some red gloves and a snapback. She puts a glove on each ‘arm’ and throws the snapback on its head.

“Hey, that’s mine!” Conor moans. “And it’s supposed to go like this” he shakes his head, reaching up and turning the snapback to the left slightly.

“Now it’s perfect” his Mum laughs.

“This is the best one we’ve ever made” Jack laughs.

“And you didn’t even help” Anna scoffs making us laugh. I get my phone out of my pocket and take a picture of the snowman.

“Anyway, I’ve made some drinks for you all so come inside” Angela says, making her way back into the house.