Close As Strangers

Chapter 1

The brunette slung her bag over her shoulder as her shift at the café ended, pulling her scarf tighter around her neck and her gloves on before walking out of the building and into the cold January evening. She made her way through the campus of her university in the direction of the house she had shared with her two best friends for the past year and a half, hunching over in a futile attempt to shelter from the snow that was falling heavily.

It took her twice as long to get home as it normally did, the four inches of snow on the ground making it harder to walk, meaning it was over twenty minutes later that she opened her front door and escaped into the warmth, huddling over as she reluctantly removed her coat and scarf.

"Cold, love?" asked a voice from behind her, making her turn around.

"It's coming down hard, Ash," she replied, hanging her things up. "It's freezing out there," she told him, rubbing her arms in an attempt to warm up, her work uniform leaving them bare, prompting the young man to wrap her in his arms.

"So are you," he said, holding her close and trying to warm her up. "Go put something warm on; movie night can wait another five minutes."

With that, he released her and gave her a gentle push toward the stairs so she could change. As she closed her bedroom door, Bethany smiled to herself at the thought of the young man she had left downstairs, genuinely thankful to have him in her life.

She had met him a year before when her friend Steph had brought them to the house he shared with his friends for their New Year's Eve get together. Since that night, she and Michael had been dating and the seven of them had become good friends who frequently let themselves into the others' homes with the spare keys they kept.

It was Ashton that had been the first one to find out that her boyfriend was cheating on her, and had been a big part of the reason she smiled again. All of her friends had been wonderful to her, but Ashton had taken special care of her, constantly turning up at her door unannounced for movie nights and calling her at any time of the day he thought she might need a friend.

"Hey, guys," she greeted the collection of students in her living room a while later, sitting on the floor in front of Ashton and leaning against his legs. "Thanks," she murmured as he gestured to the mug of tea in front of her, the others returning her greeting as she settled amongst them.

"Now everyone's here, we can start," said Steph from the armchair she was sharing with her boyfriend, getting up to retrieve the five pizza boxes from the oven they had been put in to keep warm.

"You should've started without me," the brunette told them as she returned and they each picked slice.

"If we had, Mikey would've eaten it all," pointed out Calum as he pressed play on the remote. "We thought you might want to eat as well. Why do you think Steph's sharing the armchair with him? It stopped him getting up and eating it before you got home."

"No comment," mumbled the redhead, one arm around his girlfriend's waist as they all went quiet to watch the Lego Movie.

Three films later, Calum was curled up fast asleep in the armchair, as were Luke and Megan on the sofa, the young woman in the blonde's arms. Michael and Steph had retreated to her room a while ago, leaving Bethany to clear away the bottles and mugs that littered the table, not wanting to disturb the dozing drummer.

As she sorted out what needed washing up and put the bottles in the recycling box, she sighed softly. Despite her long day and the now early hour, she was far from ready to sleep and put the kettle on to boil as she washed up the glasses and mugs they had used throughout the night.