Snow

Chapter Fifteen

"Mum, do you mind if I stay up here this Christmas? I'll come down and visit beforehand, but I really want to spend the actual day up here, you know?" Mum sighed and I could hear how tired she was.

"Are you sure? I mean, there's plenty of space for you and whoever you want to bring down here. I'm happy to cook extra if you want to bring all of your frie-" She stopped when I didn't say anything, and I could tell she was biting her lip. It was her I'd picked the habit up from. "Oh, alright then. But, you'd better bring extra presents to make up for it."

I laughed and agreed before hanging up and nodded at the rest of them. "I'm staying down here for Christmas."

They had spent the past twenty minutes trying to convince me to stay with them for Christmas. I knew that if I went back home, I'd miss them all but I also wasn't quite sure I was ready to spend a Christmas away from my family. Eventually, they'd knocked down my defences and I'd actually started to like the idea of spending Christmas surrounded by the dorks I called my friends.

*

"Okay, I'm coming!" I yelled, pulling off my oven mitts and walking towards the door with a sigh. When I got there, I could instantly tell who it was - Jinxx and Sammi. I opened the front door with a smile I reserved especially for Christmas. "Merry Christmas, Jinxx, Sammi and the little one." I said, poking Sammi's still-flat stomach and inviting them inside.

Sammi was one month pregnant, and she had yet to start to showing. I thought her pregnancy was amazing, but Andy was just annoyed by her abrupt changes in mood. She'd yell over the smallest of things or cry whenever something small happened. I knew that she was just putting it on to annoy Andy - she'd wink over at me with a sly grin before turning back to him. But it was adorable, really, how Jinxx handled Sammi as though she was made of glass.

"Go and sit inside. I'll yell for Andy." I told them, calling Andy from the bottom of the stairs. "Batman, get your butt down here and entertain the guests, seeing as you can't do anything else." Shooting the two, or three, of them a smile, I headed back into the kitchen. "Thanks for helping out with dinner, by the way." I said to Ash as I pulled the turkey out of the oven.

Andy had asked me to move in with him just two days after I got back from tour - naturally, he'd waited for me to unpack my bags before asking, which had made me want to scream with frustration. But, of course, I'd accepted his request and here I was. To be honest, it wasn't that big of a change; I just didn't have to go back to the flat to change anymore. It was nice, not having to wonder which house I was going back to. Now I automatically knew where home was, and I was glad that it was with Andy.

Naturally, my moving in meant that the guys declared that Christmas was taking place at our house. I was declared 'The Christmas Cook' seeing as Sammi wasn't allowed off of her feet for too long - courtesy of Jinxx - and no one seemed to accept the fact that I was shit at cooking as a suitable excuse. Eventually, I'd given in and declared Ashley my 'Christmas Vice-Cook'. He'd turned up at around seven in the morning to help me prepare the food, and the three of us had bustled around in the kitchen.

The kitchen was in a complete state - there was food and flour all over the surfaces, something sticky had spilt on the floor, and there was something wet drying on the hob. I still needed to get changed, but I'd thought I had time considering we weren't due guests for another hour. Of course, Sammi and Jinxx turned up before the hosts were expecting them.

Andy had ditched the kitchen in favour of tidying the house, and himself, up. It was my turn next, but I wasn't sure whether I should trust the boys in the kitchen on their own. When Andy ran down the stairs, I fetched Sammi from the lounge. "Do you think you could supervise the kitchen whilst I run and get changed? Just make sure they don't burn anything, and don't let Andy touch the food too much." She laughed and nodded, taking a seat at the kitchen table and automatically chastising Ashley for eating food out of the pan.