England is a dramatic place, an inch of snow is powerful enough to close schools, suspend bus routes and deck countless people brave enough to venture outside. 

I was not one of those brave people, so I needed the buses to stay. 

Of course, as luck would have it, they didn't.

"You calling mum, or should I?" Aaron asked, standing beside me under the bus shelter, staring out into the unblemished, white roads.

"She won't come get us. I can hear it now, dad'll be finished at 6, he can pick you up. Do your homework, read a book." I mimicked her voice, horribly enough that it made Aaron laugh. I wasn't trying to be funny. 

"Then I hope you packed snow boots." He laughed and began walking down the hill. 

I groaned but followed him anyway. 

"So who's your secret admirer?" He asked, teasing. He nudged me with his shoulder and I frowned as deeply as the day he woke up taller than me. I also cursed him that day, and then his girlfriend was pregnant within the week. Despite the shock and horror, I felt damn powerful. 

"They wouldn't be a secret if I knew." I grumbled.

"Aw, your cheeks are red!"

"From the cold! So are yours!" I defended myself, holding my face with icy hands. 

Aaron looked back to the path we travelled down, head held high with a smirk on his lips. He'd won this fight before it began, and he knew it. There was only one correct response to that: a snowball to the back of the head.

My hands were stinging from the ice, beat red and shaking, but damn was it worth seeing his face change from startled, to horror, to anger as he shivered. "Elvis!" He shouted. "That went down my back!" 

"You should keep your nose outta my business! Or do you want a snowball to your balls?" I threatened, already preparing another snowball. 

He pushed me and started a wrestling match slowed down by the cold seeping through our bones. I tried launching the snowball at him as he grabbed some loose snow, throwing it over me. We laughed in between our yells, until… 

"What the hell are you doing?" A girl's voice called out. Samantha's voice.

Aaron turned around, brushing snow off his wet uniform. "Hey, Sam." He said in a low, not particularly happy, tone. 

She tightened her scarf and turned to the guy next to her, raising her eyebrows. "Don't hey Sam me. Seriously, what the hell were you two doing? It's -50 degrees out."

Well that's a little bit of an exaggeration but I'd rather not point that out. I had a very important promise to keep, no matter how childish she said I was being. I wouldn't utter a single word to her.

The guy next to her, however, I would. "Harvey, hey, how's…life been?" I smiled with gritted teeth trying to swallow down this feeling of awkwardness that washed over me. It got much worse when Harvey didn't say anything, only gave me a smile that was equally awkward.

"No, don't Harvey, hey him either! You two aren't 5 anymore. What if Ruby was with me and saw you doing that, Aaron? You're a role model now. A dad!" Sam went on, her angered tone fading and making way for something a little more sombre. 

Aaron took a few seconds to ponder and couldn't look her way when he said, "I'm also 15. Can I not–" He didn't get to finish. 

"If I can't, then you bloody well can't either." She said almost calmly, but venom pierced the icy air.

Aaron only grew more agitated, he shuffled with clenched fists before opening his mouth again. "I know Ruby wouldn't just stroll around the corner with you anyway. She's with my Mum!" He pointed out. 

"It's about the what ifs, Aaron. And being a role model doesn't end when people can't see you. God, I hate boys my age." She rubbed her temples, gritting her teeth.

"Rude." Harvey said, gripping his chest.

"And you're the worst of them all!" She nudged him in the ribs. "Anyway, I was on my way to your house. Ruby's coming home tonight." Sam had apparently decided.

I wanted to protest, to ask what gave her the right to backpedal on the arrangements we'd already shook on. We were supposed to have Ruby for one more night. But…that would mean talking to her.

Instead, I glanced at Aaron. He shook his head at me, only slight. Honestly, I couldn't tell what he was thinking – when it came to his daughter, he was unreadable. I assumed that was just because it was new territory: neither of us had experienced anything like this before. That's what made it so scary, sometimes, though we never talked about that part. 

A silent pause followed and the muffled insulation of the snow made it that much more awkward. Until Harvey clapped his hands, greeting me with a smile when our eyes met.

 "This was a great conversation! But Sammy was right about the cold and you two are soaked." He gestured to our dripping hair and darkened jumpers. "We'll make sure you get home without dying." He proposed, beginning the walk to our house.

"Fuck off!" Was the first thing out of my mouth. It wasn't a command, more like a colourful way to shout 'Wait!' "I am not walking home with her. Go play at the park for an hour or something."

"Do you really hate me that much?" Sammy asked, her eyes flickering back to look at me just for a second.

"Can someone tell her that I, in fact, really do." I said, brushing past her.

Sam, with hesitation, fell into step beside Aaron when she mumbled. "I'm right here."

"Unfortunately."

"Okay, no more talking!" Aaron demanded, holding his hands up. 

I furrowed my brows and shot him a look. "You want us to walk in silence?” That line made me suddenly all too aware of Harvey's presence inches away from my arm. Someone who used to be a friend closer than Jacie to me, someone who went completely silent on me. “Please don't make this more uncomfortable than it has to be!”

Aaron sighed. "Fine, I'll play some music. Just shut up." He pulled his phone out. 

We all walked home with Christmas songs playing from a shitty robotic speaker. Aaron snapped his fingers every time someone tried to speak – at that point, he was begging for a snowball to the balls.

When we got home, I took a relaxing, idiot-free shower faster than Sam could snatch Ruby away. Which was a pretty record-breaking feat, let me tell you.