31 Days of Christmas | ✓

8: Eight Minutes Late

Wednesday: December 8th, 2015

I had dressed too lightly again. For some reason, I never got this quite right. You'd think it was my first time in England. As my body shivered from the cold, and my breath blew visible, and my teeth chattered, I checked my phone again for the time.

He was already five minutes late.

I know, I know. 'Zara, five minutes isn't that long. Give him a chance. It might just be crazy traffic.' Shut up. He pissed me off and now here I am, on the eight day of Christmas, cold and bitter.

As the minutes ticked on, I had concluded I would leave if it got to ten minutes past. Because surely at that point he was just clearly having a laugh. If I was still standing here past then, who knows what might happen. He'd probably turn up with a gaggle of our old school friends to point and giggle at me.

'Look at Zara,' they would say, 'she fell for it again.'

I had almost really pushed myself into a deep hole of doubting Jasper's intentions when finally the boy in question appeared in my line of sight, jogging towards me.

"Sorry," he panted when he stopped a few steps away from me. Doubling over, he caught his breath for a moment before saying, "My tube broke down between stations and I was caught on it, so I couldn't find another way. And I had no reception to text you."

As his gaze met mine, genuine worry and remorse emanating from him, I muttered a, "Whatever," and turned on my heel, expecting him to just tag along behind me. And he did.

We grabbed our tickets and then navigated our way through the masses towards the sign up desk.

"If we have to come here every afternoon for the next twelve days," I started, "Isn't this going to add up?" It was five pounds at least for an afternoon ticket.

Jasper shrugged. "The prize money will still outweigh the cost."

"Yeah but... what if we don't win?"

He came to a stop, a deadpan expression washing over his face.

"What?" I asked, pausing in step and turning to look at him.

"What happened to the overly competitive Zara I knew from childhood? She'd always believe we'd win everything." He was trying to be lighthearted when he said it, but unfortunately I couldn't carry his mood.

"I'm not the person you once knew, Jasper. And you're not the boy I used to know either," I said, voicing the harsh truth both of us needed to admit.

All light in his eyes blew away with the breeze that caused the hairs on my neck to stand up. And just like that, we were walking again in the direction of the booth. Only this time in silence.

∘◦ ❈ ◦∘

Just like last time, it took half an hour to get to the front of the queue. And every minute of it we spent in silence. He was busy playing a game on his phone, and I was trying to look anywhere but at him.