Snow

Chapter One

When the doorbell rang, I heaved myself off of the sofa to answer the front door. "Heya honey." I heard a voice yell, and I grinned widely as I recognised it. Laura.

The door swung open and I flung myself at her, laughing as she gave an 'oomph' at my weight. I grinned and kissed her cheek before leading her inside. "What are you doing here?" I asked, smiling wide as she sat on the sofa. My flatmates came running down to greet her, introducing themselves and slowly going back to their own things.

"I missed you so I figured I'd visit. Surprise!" I just laughed, shaking my head and lying back on the sofa.

"I missed you too. God, I miss England." I told her, my smile dropping into a frown. She rolled her eyes, poking my side and telling me to cheer up. "You're right. Come on, L, let's go somewhere."

*

It turned out L was dying to go shopping in LA, and had literally hundreds of pounds stashed in her purse ready to spend. I rolled my eyes when she flashed her cash at me. "Honey, you need dollars." I told her, laughing as her face grew serious. "Don't worry, we'll drop by the post office and get it converted before we go into town." I said, accidentally falling back into the way I spoke back home.

"Sounds good, Leighla. Let's gooo..." She grabbed my arm and dragged me over to my car. "I'm driving." I protested, knowing that she'd never driven in America before, and she flipped me off, getting in. She then realised that she'd gotten in the wrong seat, where the driver's seat was usually in English cars, and I laughed and slipped behind the wheel.

We visited every other shop there was, following the habits we'd had back in out local City Centre back in England. I'd moved down to LA for university, but L had stayed back to go to the local. She'd wanted to stay close to home as her mum was in hospital. She was okay now, but L still worried about her constantly.

My parents hadn't wanted me to move so far away, protesting with the same argument repeatedly: 'You're still young, you need your parents'. The truth was, I kinda did. But I knew if I didn't leave then, it'd be a hell of a long time until I did. And so, I moved to California, sharing a flat with a few other students, and got myself a job.

I knew for a fact that my moving away was the best thing I could've done at that point. It's not that I didn't love my family, I did, it's just that the house was so crowded. I had four siblings, and my older brother, who was just 24, was married with kids. My parents had wanted him to marry young, and had picked out someone they thought was 'appropriate'. But, that wasn't the life I wanted.

I didn't want my life to be planned and decided by my parents, I wanted to make it up as I went along. It was my life, and I believed that I should get to decide what was done with it. I knew my parents only wanted the best for me, and I loved them both dearly for that, but I wanted to have my own life. To make my own life.

And so, here I was in LA.

*

Half an hour into our shopping trip, it started to snow. Like, seriously heavy snowing to the point where we had to leave immediately and I struggled to drive us back to the flat. When we got there, Sasha had already put plated of dinner on the table, even though it was my turn to cook. "I figured you'd be back late." She said, shooting me a smile and taking her seat. I sat in my usual chair and L took the seat next to me. Within moments, everyone but Laura started to eat, but she just pushed the food around her plate.

I tried not to watch her, but a few times she caught me looking. Whenever she did, she'd stick a pea or something in her mouth to try and make it look like she was eating. I sighed, pushing my plate away from me and standing up to leave the room. "I'll be back in a minute." I told them, heading into the bathroom.