just dive in [reed bishop spin-off] ✔️

twenty

— t w e n t y —

AS IT TURNED OUT, skiing was not all that easy.

Oliver and Reed were the only two who had never skied before; the Montgomery's had been coming annually for years and Clair had been quite a few times with her family before. After they'd all suited up in thermals and jackets and gloves in the morning, the other four would troop off to the blue and red pistes while Oliver and Reed were left at the gentle slopes of the green pistes. Reed had waved Oliver off when he suggested they could join the beginners classes, with a dismissive, "I'm sure we can figure it out ourselves." That resulted in the first couple of days being a lot of faffing and struggling to stay upright on the skis and Oliver laughing a little too hard when Reed spent more time face-planting the snow than actually skiing.

"Shut the fuck up," Reed growled, pushing himself to his feet for the millionth time and pointing a threatening finger at Oliver. His cheeks were flushed from the cold and snow clung to his eyelashes, only slightly paler than his hair. "Laugh one more time, I dare you. I'll shove you off the ski lift and we'll see who's laughing then."

Oliver grinned. "Wouldn't you have to get your face out of the snow for once to shove me off anything?" He ducked out of the way when Reed lobbed a snowball at him and blew him a kiss. The next snowball caught Oliver in the face but it was worth it for the expression on Reed's face.

Everyone would end up back at the chalet by late afternoon, Oliver and Reed usually earlier than the others because they gave up on falling over so much, exhausted and in need of a hot shower. The rest of the day was spent exploring the town of Val Thorens. Naturally, being who he was, Reed sought out the pool by the first day and spent at least a couple of hours doing laps. He also spent a fair amount of time in the gym, which was admittedly far nicer than their grotty school gym. Oliver often joined him for both of those activities.

Then there were the restaurants and bars, the four of them eating out for dinner with Adam's parents and usually splitting after for the rest of the evening. Sometimes the four of them headed back to chill in the hot tub, and other times they'd stay out in town for a little longer, checking out the bars. A few of the places they got away with buying drinks without getting ID'd and they made a note of them for future reference. In the bars where pints could be as expensive as twelve euros, Reed would stick with tap water or whatever the cheapest drink was. He was far more cautious with his money than the rest of them, whether it was drinks or renting out extra equipment. Luckily, most of the bars weren't too steeply priced and Adam was more than happy to buy rounds of drinks for everyone once he'd gotten a little tipsy.

"God," Clair said, tipping her head back where she was perched on one of the barstools with a groan. "My head is killing me."

"No asked you to do those jelly shots," Reed said, although he looked a little worse for wear himself and had certainly done his fair share of jelly shots last night.

It was their third day in Val Thorens and the four of them had woken up late this morning to drag themselves into the kitchen, hungover as fuck. Adam's parents had already set off for the slopes before any of them had even woken up. Last night was the biggest drinking night they'd had so far; they'd wandered into a bar just as happy hour began and Oliver had lost track of how many drinks they ordered, only knowing the thought of them this morning was turning his stomach. Clair had dragged them all up to do karaoke in front of everyone in that rather crowded bar and it had all gone to shit when Adam ordered the first round of jelly shots.

Now Adam was slumped over the breakfast bar in his barstool looking very sorry for himself, Reed was yawning into his mug of coffee, and Clair's usually perfectly styled curls were a frazzled mess around her head. Oliver could imagine he looked to be in a similar state of mess and didn't know if he was going to manage to drag himself out on the slopes at any point today.