Two Love

Chapter 16

There was a sacred sense of wonder in the air as Marty arose from his Santa Claus bed at 11 a.m. Mum had drawn the curtains open while he had been sleeping; a holy white light filled his room. Rubbing the sleep out of his eyes and putting on his glasses, the weird whiteness outside his window focused into a familiar landscape of white - snow! And there was still more snow falling from the sky!

"It's SNOWING!" shouted Marty, rushing out of his room and thundering down the stairs to the dining room.

"We know, genius," said Riley, sipping on a mug of hot chocolate beside the transparent sliding doors.

"Since when do you wake up before midday?"

"Since I got a job." Marty's mouth fell open in a huge O. "I'm an elf at Santa's Grotto. Wrapping presents and all that shit."

Something in her smile told Marty that she was doing more than wrapping presents.

"Who's the girl?" he asked with a knowing smile. Riley shook her head with a growing blush.

"I met a cute elf called Meredith. I call her Merry for short because she's a literal ray of sunshine."

"That's awesome! I'm happy for you," said Marty; then, eyes returning to the winter wonderland through the window, he added: "Do you wanna have a snowball fight?"

"Sorry, I can't. I've got work soon. But you can ask your mates."

Immediately, Marty sent a message to his friends' group chat.

Marty: It's snowing! ❄️let's go have a snowball fight at the park at 12!

As the replies pinged on his phone, Marty pulled on his green wellies and put on his big green puffy coat over his 'I'm sexy and I snow it' snowman jumper.  Sure, he still had his bright blue pyjamas on, but they were so warm that he didn't want to take them off.

Now propitiously prepared, he opened the door and stepped into the wintry winds. Trees were given clothes of white snow on their bare branches; every car in sight had a duvet of snow on its roof. The roads were filled with sloshy brown ice and the perfection of the paths had been marred by footprints. Marty tried to restrict himself to walking in ready-made footprints - but some footprints were too small for him, and the bigger footprints had such a large distance between then that he almost had to do the splits to reach them. He soon resigned himself to walking normally.

When he reached the park, he spotted a tall figure with a dark grey coat and black skinny jeans. It was Everett! 

"Hey Ev!" he yelled, "I'm gonna kick your -"

OOF! A surprise snowball knocked the wind out of him.

"Ha ha!" came a voice from behind him - Marty spun round to see Jade. She was wearing a puffy purple coat. It was unzipped so he could see the 'Rude-dolf' jumper underneath.

"How are you not freezing with your coat unzipped?"

"I've been warming up with Ev. Turns out he can run really fast," said Jade, crouching down to make yet another snowball. Marty was just thinking about making a snowball to throw at her when he saw Hassan approaching from behind with a giant snowball in his hand. He threw it at her back with force, making her startle.

"What was that?" said Jade as Marty and Hassan burst out laughing. But Marty stopped laughing when he noticed Parisa. She was... beautiful. She wore a pale pink coat, light blue jeans and light brown winter boots with a bow at the back. Her long black hair was fixed in a plait that trailed down her back. But more beautiful than her clothes and her plait were her eyes and her smile - they conveyed a sense of joy that made Marty's heart melt.