Shared Spaces. phan

6.

Since the day I moved to London there had never been any snow. It wasn't like I minded, it had rarely ever snowed back home so I wasn't attached to such weather.

Today was different though. The white blanket covered not only the capital city but also the whole country, delivering a pleasant surprise to everyone just in time for Christmas. The news was apparently so bloody exciting that Florence took it upon herself to wake me up with annoying Christmas songs at eight in the morning. On a day off work I liked to sleep in till noon, but that, it seemed, was not happening.

"He sees you when you're sleeping, he knows when you're awake." She hummed the song behind the doors after banging on it for the last five minutes.

I wanted to shout at her but my mind wasn't fully awake yet. I pried my eyes open to see the white scenery of the London skyline outside my windows. It was just powdering yesterday, now the whole city was covered in thick snow. The room temperature had dropped a few degrees as well so I wrapped my long body in a fluffy blanket and made my way downstairs.

"Merry Christmas Eve Dan!" Sophia greeted me from the kitchen. Everyone - including her - was already fully dressed and eating breakfast in silence. An off-day was usually also a wearing-pj's-the-whole-day-day, but apparently that was different today, as well.

Then it hit me. They were all leaving to visit their families. I quickly recognised Beth and Sophia's two suitcases near the front door. I hadn't even noticed before that the two girls were wearing their coats and boots and eating their breakfast faster than usual.

"You two, you're leaving already?" I asked, going to sit with them at the breakfast bar. Beth nodded, scraping the remaining porridge from the bottom of the bowl.

"That's why we made Flo wake you up, we wanted to say goodbye." Sophia said before surprising me with a quick, one armed hug. I hugged her back and surprisingly the quickened beating of my heart didn't occur.

Beth followed after, her long brown curls tickling my chin. In contrast to Soph, she looked like a mess and probably also didn't want to wake up this early. After she pulled away she ruffled my hair and gave me the typical, smug smile of hers.

"I really won't miss you!" She said in an exaggerated voice.

"I won't either, love. Stay away till New Year's please." I snapped back with the same amount of sarcasm.

"You wish, we have to spend New Year's Eve together. After all, who's gonna give you a midnight kiss?" she winked and I fake gagged, motioning my finger down my throat.

"Sorry to interrupt you two but we have to go. Happy Christmas guys!" Sophia pulled Beth away from me and they both headed to the front door. We all responded with 'happy Christmases' and returned to whatever we were doing. In my case it was preparing breakfast.

The lack of constant whistling and the fact that we still had milk in the fridge made me realise someone was missing. I looked behind my back at Florence sat at her preferred place on the sofa and Garrett on his leather chair.

"Where's Phil?"

"He's still at work." Garrett answered.

"On Christmas Eve?"

"Yeah, he said the company is on a tight schedule or something. He probably won't be here till the afternoon." I nodded and joined her on the armrest for a second with my bowl of cookie crisps (I could wait for another year to develop healthy eating habits).

Florence and Garrett had been acting very strangely lately. They seemed all cold and uptight and avoided any interactions with the three of us which was weird. Especially from Garrett who was so bubbly and usually didn't know how to shut up. Sophia and I had talked about it for a minute when we were washing the dishes alone. She has noticed it too. Apparently she overheard them alone laughing and making jokes, but the moment she stepped into the room they stopped and went back to being silent.