winter's weather ~fransykes~

2000

Needles to say, I hadn't talked to Oliver since the swimming "incident" last year. Normally in between my visits to France, we would FaceTime and text almost every day. This year though, we didn't text at all part from sending each other a simple message on each other's birthdays.

I feel like I've messed up big time. I've ruined our entire friendship, I can already tell. It was now New Years Eve and I had yet to have seen Oli. To be quite honest, i think he's avoiding me. Sometimes when I pull back my curtains, I catch glimpses of him in his house but he never looks back at me.

I'm currently sat inside, laying on my bed as I played some stupid game on my phone. I can hear the noise of the New Year's Eve party happening downstairs through the open window; semi loud music playing and the choir of adults chatting about their lives. One part of me wanted to go down there and have fun, but the bigger part of me wanted to stay in my room and bask in my own misery until I died of sadness.

Okay maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration, but you get my point.

I head something, like a small tapping noise or something. I rolled over onto my front, not thinking much of the noise until it came again, and again, and again. I groaned in annoyance, looking out of the window, only to find Oli stood below it with a pile of small rocks in his hand. I guess that explains the tapping sound, he was throwing stones at my window.

I rolled my eyes at his over dramatic gesture, looking down at him on the street as he looked up at me. He had his hood up over his hair, which was covering the majority of his eyes. He was wearing a blue denim jacket over a black hoodie, with equally as dark jeans and trainers to match. Wow, when did he suddenly become this edgy?

"What do you want?" I called down onto the street below. Even from up here I could still make out the smirk he had on his face.

"You." He shouted back, making my eyes go wide slightly.

"What?" I yelled back, not sure if my mind was playing tricks on me or not.

"Get down here you idiot." He yelled back, making me roll my eyes once again and mutter "rude" under my breath before doing what he told me too and getting off my bed to go downstairs. I grabbed a jacket on the way, realising how cold it was outside today.

I slipped on some shoes before walking out of the house and around to the side garden where I knew Oli would be.

"What took you so long?" He asked, making he scoff.

"What took me so long? I've been waiting for you to talk to me for the last 2 weeks." I whined.

"Yeah and now I'm here." He said, smirking. "And you're going to come with me somewhere tonight."

"Oh yeah? What if I don't want to?" I smirked back, giving him a smug look that he returned.

"You will want to, trust me." He laughed but I didn't really understand why that was so funny. He began to walk across the drive, making me follow behind him like a lost puppy. I had absolutely no idea where we were going, but I didn't really care as long as I was with him.

We walked across the lake side and eventually ended up at a forest. The trees were covered in snow, giving the whole place a winter wonderland kind of vibe. It was pitch black, so dark in fact that Oli had to use a flashlight to navigate his way around. I followed behind him blindly, having absolutely no clue where we were.

We eventually reached a tree with a ladder attached to it, making Oli stop in his tracks. I looked at it cautiously, wondering if the ladder was safe or not. Oli obviously didn't share my concern, as he started climbing the ladder immediately. I, of course, followed behind him until finally the ladder ended and we emerged into a small, wooden treehouse.

It was near empty inside, with nothing but some lanterns and blankets along with a manky looking mattress. It smelt like wood and candles, along with the surprising smell of vanilla.

"Where are we?" I asked, breaking the silence that had consumed us the entire walk.

"My treehouse from when I was a kid, my dad built it me after Tom was born because I was angry at them for having another child." He shrugged.

"Why have you never taken me here before?" I asked, wondering why he kept this place a secret from me for so long. This place would have been such a cool place for us to hang out when we were kids.

"I don't know, I guess I liked having this place as my little secret." He shrugged again. I guess I could understand that.

"So why are we here now?" I asked again, hating how annoying I was probably being right now asking all these tedious questions.

"Because I wanted to know that we were completely alone before I did this." He said, making me furrow my eyebrows in confusion.

"Do wha-"

I was cut off my his lips suddenly on mine, his hands both suddenly in my hair. I was surprised at first, standing there completely still with my eyes wide open. But then I realised what he was doing, and everything afterwards became like second nature. I closed my eyes, parting my lips to kiss him back.

We broke away from each other, looking at each other in shock. He looked terrified for my reaction, and I probably looked terrified for his too.

"I'm sorry Josh, I-I shouldn't have done that, I just t-thought..." he stuttered, turning around to face away from me, blushing bright red.

"No! No! I liked it, I-I'm just surprised, I didn't realise you liked me like that." I blushed.

"Yeah...ever since I dated Gabe I realised how much I actually liked you. I though that if I dated someone else then it would help me get over you, but it only made me realise that no one else makes me feel the way you do."

"I don't know what to say." I whispered bashfully, not sure how to take all that information. This was like a dream come true for me, never in a million years did I ever think Oli would actually like me back.

"Then don't say anything." He replied, grabbing my face and pulling me in for another kiss, this one much longer than the last.

"Happy New year Josh." He whispered into my ear, making me look down at my watch to see that it was actually bang on midnight. I couldn't have though of a better way to enter the new year.