Chapter 46

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The next day, we’d all agreed to actually go to the slopes to do some skiing. It was a very slow start in the morning since it was so cold and all everyone wanted to do was stay in bed but once we’d gotten up, we got dressed in lightning speed and shot out of our rooms.

“Breakfast everyone!” Liam said brightly.

“Why have you gotta be so loud, Liam?” Harry complained, still half asleep. Alexis laughed beside him.

“What’s for breakfast Liam?” Niall said. Suddenly all traces of sleep was erased from his face at the mention of food. We all laughed. “What?” he asked, scratching his head. I rolled my eyes and linked my arm through his, leading him to the buffet table in the dining hall.

We all piled our plates high with toast, sausages, egg, beans and jam. Once we all got settled on our designated table, we dug into the delicious food. No one spoke, we were all too busy filling up our mouths. When we decided that we were bursting, we headed back out and to the reception area to get our skis so we can get started.

“Lads, I’m taking Lucy on the lower slopes. I’ll catch ya later,” Niall waved dismissively at the rest of the group. He took my hand and led me a different way to the rest of them.

“Are you sure about this? I mean, you can go and have fun with the rest of them, I don’t want to be a burden,” I said, unsure.

He squeezed my hand. “Don’t Luc,” he said warningly. “I want to ski with you. Especially since it’s your first time.” Then he led me to a more populated platform and I figured that this was where we were going to start.

“If you say so,” I sighed.

“Come over here, I’ll put your skis on you.” He pulled me along to a nearby seat and sat me down. Then he bent down and secured both skis to my feet. I giggled, feeling like a kid.

“Thanks baby.”

“You’re welcome, love,” he said, tightening up his own. “Now let’s go!”

I laughed. “So how exactly do I get started?” I was slipping around, so I gripped Niall’s arm tightly.

“Well you have to let go of me, first of all. Keep your legs shoulder width apart and make sure your knees don’t touch. Stand as normally as you can on the skis, coz they’ll do all the work for you. Keep your skis forward and parallel and once you’re ready to go, use both your poles to push yourself, do it gently. This is barely even a slope and it’s like 50 meters long, don’t be scared, you’re not gonna fall.” He said all this calmly and slowly so I understood every word.

I nodded and flashed him a big smile. “Just stay somewhere near, knowing me I’ll probably fall within the first second.”

He laughed. “I will. You ready?” I nodded again. “Have fun, baby.”

Then without any warning, he took his arm away from me and then I was on my own. I was glad to say that I could at least stand by myself and I let out a giggle. Then I focused myself, bent my knees slightly, adjusted myself and used the poles to push me off, just like he instructed me to do. I just let myself slide down and as soon as I started, my skis were coming to a stop. He was right, it wasn’t even a proper slop but it was good to get used to first.

“Yay! Well done, Luc! Wanna try again?” He asked, sliding down gracefully beside me.

I laughed and nodded. For several minutes, I did weird things in my skis just to get used to the feel of them. Niall made me try over and over again, just going down that little slope and then he started teaching me how to control my speed and stop when I’m skiing down a proper slope. I made sure that I was listening to him and understood his instructions.

“Alright, I think got that,” I said, gripping his arm.

“Ok then, do you want to go up a steeper slope?”

I nodded and so up we went, to the next slope and I was keen to try out his new instructions. This slope was considerably steeper than the first and I was slightly nervous, nonetheless, I tried it anyway. I let Niall’s arms go and I felt myself sliding down the hill. My brain went into panic mode and for a few moments my skis were going ballistic under me. “Relax.” Niall’s voice played inside my head. I took a huge breath and tried to calm myself.

My heart was pounding a million miles an hour and I felt my palms sweating inside my gloves. I bent my knees and did what Niall’s voice told me to do. I suddenly felt myself slowing down and I let out a huge breath. Apparently, I celebrated a little too early because the front of my skis got caught in each other and I was suddenly falling towards the ground. My butt hit the cold snow and my palms dug in deeply. “Oof!” Luckily, I was already on flat ground so there was no danger of sliding around downhill.

“You ok, Luc?” Niall asked, crouching down beside me.

I let out a shaky laugh and nodded my head. “I’m all good. Gee, that was definitely something.”

He laughed and stood up straight, offering me his hand. I took it in mine and raised myself up but my skis were too slippery and I pulled Niall down to the snow with me. We both howled with laughter at my clumsiness.

“I’m sorry, Niall,” I said through my fits of giggles.

“It’s alright love. Come on.” This time, he pulled me up and made sure I was steady on my feet before letting me go. “You did really well, baby. Let’s try again.”

I couldn’t help but grin madly at him because I was so happy that he was being so patient with me. He never got angry or irritated, he just helped me back up and told me to try again. After a few hours of learning and practising control, he called up Liam and we made our way up to where they all were.

It’s been such a good day and I think we all had our fair share of embarrassing tumbles. It was nearly dark before we all decided to head back inside and get settled for the night. However, before we were able to go back to our rooms, we had to ski down the steepest slope. There was an alternative where I could simply just get on a seat and it would take me down but I found no excitement in that whatsoever.

“Last one down pays for dinner!” Louis shouted.

We all laughed and positioned ourselves in a straight line. “On three,” Liam began. “Three..” My heart pounded wildly in my chest. “Two..” Am I insane? I’m a beginner and I’m racing down the biggest hill with all of these maniacs. “One..” Yes, I am insane. I pushed down hard on my poles and let myself go sliding down. I gained more and more speed and the wind whipped past, biting bitterly on my cold, exposed cheeks. I didn’t dare to turn my head to look at anyone else, I just slid down, as fast as I could.

The flat ground loomed ahead and I began positioning myself to slow down. Gradually, I did and finally, I came to a standstill. I looked around and saw that I was the first to reach the bottom, followed very, very closely by Liam and Louis and then the rest of them came in a huge group, except for Harry who came last.

I let out a huge laugh, glad that I was still alive and then we all started laughing. “Guess it’s your treat, Haz,” Louis said, patting his shoulder.

“Come on then, you lot. Let’s go eat.” He chuckled and reached for Alexis’s hand. We all made our way back to the reception and returned our skis then we headed to a small restaurant nearby.

“Thanks for today, Nialler. I loved it,” I whispered to him.

“My pleasure, love. I had great fun watching you fall,” he said jokingly. I gasped and slapped his arm and chuckled in return. “Just kiddin’, love.” Then he bent down and kissed me on the lips. 

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