Snowy mornings and warm smiles

It was a cold, snowy day in the centre of London. The usual hustle and bustle of the busy city was silenced by a sheet of glistening white. The surrounding universities were closed for the day due to the thick blanket of the cold substance. The two Brits sat on their windowsill, eyes alight with child-like glee. Peter and Xander, having lived in countries where it did snow, were not as impressed. However, they both loved snow and have enjoyed playing in the snow since they were children.

“It hasn’t snowed in ages!” Finnley squealed, excited pulling on his boyfriend’s arm.

“Then let’s go out and play in it, babe!” Xander matches his smaller boyfriend’s cheery tone, tugging on his coat and running to the door. They had reached the door on the other end of the flat when Finnley stopped in his tracks, nearly sending Xander flying.

“We can’t. We have to go to uni today.” The freckled boy stated matter-of-factly.

“No, we don’t.” A voice was heard from the other end of the house.

“It’s closed today, cause of the snow.” Peter continued, emerging from their living room, pyjama clad and with a plate of burnt toast in hand.

“Mine’s not.” Andrew muttered, grumpily stomping through the house, looking for his shoes. Because his university had an on-site accommodation, people were still expected to be able to get there so Andrew had to trek to the other side of London in the freezing cold. The others, however, went to a university that did not offer housing so they were allowed to stay home.

Currently, Peter was wrapped in a blanket on the sofa, watching some hockey team that Finnley and Xander had never heard of, nor did they care to find out. Finnley was in the kitchen, cooking the three of them breakfast. And Xander was busy finding his sleds and snowshoes from when he used to live in New York. He came running out of the bedroom with such force it started the other two.

“Look what I found in a box in the back of our wardrobe.” Xander said, excitedly holding up a small jar of melted snow.

“What is it?” Peter asked perplexed, muting the TV so that he could bring his attention to his friends.

“The a snowman I had built. Felix and I had competitions every year when it actually snowed. This was the first time I had won so I wanted to keep him. I thought I lost it when I moved. Thank you for finding this, Xan.” He grabbed the jar, inspecting it with a nostalgic grin. A rush of sadness washed over Finnley in that moment. He was feeling a bit homesick, having only moved away from his family a few months ago. Peter and Xander noticed the small boy’s change in countenance went to grab their coats.

“Let’s go build some snowmen then.” Peter instructed, handing Finnley his coat.

“What?” The latter asked.

“well, we know how much you miss your brother and snowman competitions, so we thought we’d do one with you.” Xander added, huge smile exposing his white teeth. Finnley nodded, silently. He took his coat, grabbed Xander’s hand and headed for the door. They lived on the 11^th floor of their block of flats so they all clambered into the metal lift. They were having a good time, talking and laughing, until they had reached the 6^th floor when the lift doors creaked open and a large woman and her three loud children came in. The lift was small enough as it is without them already there so the three teens were pressed up against the corners. Xander and Finnley remove their hand from the other’s, afraid she would say something about it being inappropriate for their children to see. Despite her not mentioning their obvious homosexual attraction towards each other, she did mention something.

“You kids should use the stairs. You’re young and capable of walking down the stairs.” Finney and Peter chose to ignore her, knowing that engaging in an argument isn’t going to achieve anything with only two more floors to go. Xander, however, was not that smart.

“Ok, boomer.” He muttered under his breath. Her face turned to pure horror and outrage upon hearing those words.

“How dare you speak to me like that? She begun. Fortunately for the three lads, the lift had reached the ground floor and they were now free of the crazy lady. Almost immediately, Finnley placed his hand back into Xander, gaining a soft smile from the latter when he did that.

Once, they had left their building they had noticed that the city seemed quiet. The busy, stressed nature that the capital was known was gone. Lulled like a crying baby listening to nursery rhymes. There was fewer cars on the road, businessmen dressed in their suits took time on their walk to work today to admire the perfectly formed icicles formed on the lampposts. It was calm. They had waked to Hyde park and saw that a lot of people had the same idea. Most of the local schools had also been closed so the park was busier than they had expected. But they didn’t mind. They had given themselves a two hour time limit to make their snowman. They did this so that Andrew was able to join them before they had finished.

Half an hour later, the boy had shown up, tired and shivering from the cold.

“Aren’t you guys cold?” He asked, burying his face in the collar of his coat. The others nodded their heads in agreement. The group had brought his attention to the three snowmen behind them.

“This is Xander’s.” Andrew replied immediately, pointing to a pile of snow with come pieces of coal that have been thrown in there. Xander nodded, giggling slightly. He was declared the winner by Andrew due to being inclusive to all types of snowman body types.

“Should we do another round so that Andy can join?” Xander asked.

“Please no, it’s freezing and I’m so tired.” Andrew groaned. The three other boys were also cold so they decided to go home. They spent the rest of the evening informing Andrew what had happened in their day and shared stories of snow days from when they were younger.

Days were better when they were snowy.