Love on London

Chapter 4: Snow Fight

….Day Two….

The guys stayed the night, Jayne and Steve went back to their flats despite the snow and hour. Jay and Nathan took the guest room next to me and Siva, Tom and Max stayed in the room closest the Spa. I woke at 8:00 much to my surprise and found the house silent, quiet and with a particular chill that spread through the house like ink on a page. I was quite contempt to stay under my thick bed duvet and watch the snow fall from down outside in a slow rhythmic fashion, but I dared my toes out first and then the rest of me followed. The wooden floor boards breached my senses along with the Islamic green walls with the diamond shapes pattern. It had vines printed on it and curled and climbed amongst the other shapes and swirls. I let myself embellish the cold for a moment, watching my breath fall in a white fog and felt the goose bumps on my arms.

 I walked over to the dressing counter and pulled open the first drawer and threw on a pair of black PJ pants that hung loosely on me, tight elastic bands at the end of the legs held it closed at joint of my knee and also low on my waist. After that I put on a bra and made sure my singlet was straight before downing a warm jacket that had a fake fur trim around the hood. I didn’t bother checking the mirror to see if my wild tangle of hair had decided to stay put today, I knew if anything I’d look more like a Viking than anything.  I opened the door to a wall of warmth. Everywhere within the house was warmed by the heat pumps situated within every guest room, the studios and lounge. If you left the one in the lounge on before you went to bed, by the time you woke up in the morning the rest of the house would be warm.

I headed down the stairs and found that the house, was in fact, dead and with no found life. I wasn’t really surprised, the guys had stayed up until 2:00 in the morning recording and Nymeria and Bingo usually didn’t wake up unless something really interesting was happening. I walked over to the kitchen and put the kettle on, turning to the front door in thought. I need to change the locks. I noticed a key on the ground by the door, the front door key, Ricky’s key. Still, he might have made spares. He might have second thoughts… I cringed at how he had mentioned getting Nymeria put down. I wouldn’t let it happen.

I pulled my hood up and quickly made a cup of tea and then went to sit on the big lazy boy arm chair in the lounge. I closed my eyes and took a heavy sip of the hot drink and felt it swarm down to my stomach and instantly warm me up. The hot water bottle at my feet also helped. After what seemed like hours of silence I heard movement from upstairs. Slowly life was awakening. I smiled at myself quickly, Play the part, be the happy character. Don’t let anyone see how upset you are, how scarred you are. I told myself those words four times, all while smiling before I store off past the steam rising off my drink. I think I must have looked like some half wild Viking beggar with a fur trimmed hood that hid a mass of red curls and my black fingerless gloves, or what my friends would call hobo gloves. I smiled when I thought of Maggie. What she wouldn’t kill to be here, I think smiling.

Maggie had been my friend since I was 10, she was my friend when I moved to Australia for High School, she was my friend when I moved to England for Uni, she was my friend, always my friend. We’d even travelled around the world with each other, did backpacking in Europe and America. Together we’d braved many a fair fight, many tears and laughs and distance that tested us. Right now she was in New Zealand working at a radio station. She loved it there and she was great at it. Maggie the brown eyed crazy girl who loved music and guys, often got self-conscious but didn’t show it. She was outrageous and the life of a party, wild and contempt to not give a shit about people who put her down. She learnt that from me.

“…And I’ve just gotten out of the shower,” came Nathans voice, “It’s been snowing and Jay’s still asleep but…” I turned my head and smiled at Nathan who had a towel around his waist and another towel around his bare shoulders as he pointed the camera in my direction, “Arria is awake!” he said.