I understand this isn't completely accurate with reality etc, just roll with it xx
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Cold.
It's the first thought that crosses my mind as I wake up. While my body is warm under the covers, my face? Freezing. I find myself rather unwilling to peel the covers back and roll ( or crawl) out of bed, but a glance at my alarm clock, 8 am, means I have to, whether I want to or not.
Ugh. London. Why do you do this to me.
I've finished changing into jeans and a sweater when I hear a noise.
Knock knock knock-knock-knock
Dear God.
"Do you wanna build a snow maaaannnnnnn?" I hear Jamie sing from behind my door. Before he can continue, I open the door, grab the scruff of his sweater collar and pull him inside. "It's too cold for singing." I mumble.
Jamie skips into my room. Unlike myself, he's fully dressed in a grey sweater and jeans, complete with boots and beanie. "Feeling the chill?" He smirks.
I bat his shoulder. "What can I say, I'm Australian, and also, it's not snowing, how are we going to build a snowman?"
Jamie chuckles. "Have you looked outside yet?."
I feel my face light up. "No way."
"Way."
I cross the room and pull the curtain back to see that the ground has been covered in a layer of white.
So this is what snow looks like.
"Does that mean there's a potential snow fight on the cards?"
Jamie grins. "Hopefully. Now, are you hungry?"
As if hearing Jamie's question, my stomach growls. Jamie laughs again.
"Put some shoes on, and a hat, and we'll go to the café down the street," he says, collapsing onto my bed I'd remade only a few minutes before, destroying my previous effort.
"I hope they do large coffees." I grumble, pulling my coat on.
"The London people don't mess around with their caffeine."
"I thought the brits were famous for their tea?"
No response from Jamie on that.
So it was that, one lot of five minutes, one Jamie re-making my bed under my supervision, and one chilly walk, Jamie and I were sat in a café not unlike Gino's back home. Jamie was filling me in on today's plans, which were plans of catching a taxi to his house, eating birthday cake, and a potential snow fight.
Oh yeah, and meeting the family.
I glance down at my very steamy, very large, coffee. "Jamie, I know it's silly, but I'm still really nervous about meeting your family."
"You're right, it is very silly. This is because the only thing to be even slightly scared of it's my mother's bear hug."
"Is my life at risk?"
"Not if you stay still and embrace it. If you begin turning blue, I'll get you out of it, okay?" Jamie winks at me, and shoots me a winning smile.
I smile back. "Okie dokie."
It seems that all the pep talk in the world can't actually help you when meeting your boyfriends family for the first time, I think as my stomach twists in on itself as we pull up to Jamie's family home, and unpack our bags from the taxi.
"You ready?" Jamie asks lowly in my ear as I stare at the house. It's harmless enough, but it still felt like I was entering some sort of horror house. Was it normal to think of your boyfriend's family home as a horror house?
I find my inner panicking interrupted by Jamie nudging me towards the door, and before I know it he's knocking on the door, other arm slung around me, and we wait only one second before the door is flung open.
"Jamie!" Jamie's mother cries, and buries her son in a bear hug.
I awkwardly hang back, and am about to reach for my bag behind me when I Jamie's mother turns her attention to me.
Bear hug in 3...2...1-
"And you must be Heidi!"
Impact. I'm swallowed in the warmest hug I've ever felt.
"Hello Mrs Met-"
"Oh please, call me Anne."
"Hello Anne," I say, and I begin to fear I won't be able to say much more, it seems my lungs have emptied.
"Mum, she's turning blue. Let her go!" I hear Jamie chuckle behind me.
I'm released from the bear hug, and see that we've been accompanied by Jamie's brother Sam, who looks shockingly just like Jamie, and is taking our bags inside.
"Come inside, it's going to snow again today, you'll catch your death!" Fusses Anne as she takes Jamie by the shoulders and marches him inside. I follow.
What a lovely woman.
After exchanging pleasantries, a strict instruction to call Jamie's father David and not Mr. Metcalfe, and a satisfactory high five from Sam, Jamie ushers me upstairs to settle into the guest room, that's across the hallway from Jamie's and Sam's bedrooms. It's there that I unpack my bag into the drawers, hang up my coat, and make myself look slightly more decent.
A hear a soft knock at the door as Jamie opens the door and sticks his head in. "Want to see the room of angsty teenage Jamie?"
"So it's been preserved for years? And really, I can't see an angsty teenage Jamie in you."
"Oh he was very real," said Jamie as he lead me across the corridor to what must be his bedroom door.
Inside, I find a fairly tidy, medium sized bedroom furnished with a single bed, desk, and bed side table. All of this is fairly plain, until I look around and see the walls are covered in posters to the point where I only know the colour of the walls because just one wall had been spared from the covering of magazine paper. The posters varied in size, and displayed logos and band members ranging from bands that I'd seen on TV, to bands I didn't even know existed until this very moment.
I whistle. "Wow. And you never changed it?"
Jamie's eyes scan over the walls. "No I never did, I almost feel like it's a museum for my teenage years, plus, do you have any idea how many hours it took to cover the walls? I'm keeping it."
I laugh at this. "You make a good point, shall we go rejoin society?"
I earn a chuckle and a kiss on the forehead from Jamie, and we both go back downstairs to socialise with the rest of the family.
As it turns out, Jamie's father only went to work to drop off papers and had made an effort to be with the family again, since it was his wife's birthday and his son was staying for a few days, and so only moments after Jamie and I getting down the stairs, he arrived home. This brought on yet another onslaught of bear hugs (from which I was not exempt) and introductions. In the babble of it all, Sam disappeared to the kitchen to take out birthday cake, and soon we were all standing in a cosy-looking kitchen, singing "Happy Birthday" badly out of tune (besides Jamie, of course). Jamie and I decided to share a slice of cake between us, still slightly full from breakfast. I was leaning against the kitchen window and Jamie against the table across from me. The cloud-covered sunlight shone in his eyes, making them look completely luminescent.
"Look behind you," he said suddenly, looking out the window.
I turned, and just as I did, a flutter of white fell past the window. I whizzed back around to Jamie.
"Is it snowing again?"
Anne answered the question for me, walking over to the window to examine the snowflakes slowly making their way to earth. "It is indeed, and by the looks of it, there's a lot to more to come."
Sam spoke up. "Maybe we should watch a movie while we wait for snow to fall, and then..." He grinned at Jamie.
Jamie caught the message. "It's on."
Sam clapped his hands. "Excellent. Now, I think we should watch Sweeney Todd, what do you think if that, Jamie?"
Jamie's voice dripped with sarcasm. "Tim Burton. Love it."
[One movie (Sweeney Todd, to Jamie's dismay) later]
"EVERY MAN FOR THEMSELVES!" Cries Sam as Jamie and I followed him, running outside into Jamie's backyard, suited up for battle. And by suited, I mean I've never had this many layers on in my life and I've also never been so grateful said layers are on me, Jamie and Sam look much the same.
"You're going down Sam!" shouts Jamie as he scoops up a handful of snow and throws it, but before it collides with Sam he ducks, laughing, as he scoops some snow himself and hurls it at Jamie, who catches half of it as he spins away.
"Heidi, then," he says as he scoops another handful of snow and throws it at me this time. Icy snow collides onto the front of my coat. I hear a victory cry.
Oh it's on.
I quickly grab some snow and fling it at Jamie, who wasn't expecting my quick recovery, and snow sprays all over his face. I giggle at his betrayed expression before I begin to run as Jamie gives chase to me, a snowball in his hands - it hits the back of my legs, so I spin to face him, snow in hand.
"You can't hit me, I'm too sexy!" Protests Jamie.
I arch a brow "Is that so?"
"It is. Everyday in front of the mirror I say to myself, 'Jamie, you're the sexiest man alive.'"
"Anything else you say while you're at it?"
Jamie thinks. "Well sometimes I swap Jamie for another name..."
The brow arches higher. "And what name would that be?"
"Leo Dicaprio."
I throw my snowball at him, and keep running. I duck away behind a table set, so Jamie turns and throws his snowball at Sam, who swears and chucks snow at Jamie in revenge. I use this distraction to run out from the table set, but two arms catch my waist and pull me, until my back bumps into Jamie. Sam doesn't let up, throwing a huge snowball at me that sprays all over my face, and Jamie? He gets none of it, because I am a human shield.
Well, this human shield isn't putting up with that.
I kick Jamie just hard enough in the shins for his arms to loosen and I wiggle my way out of his hold, just in time for Jamie to become victim of an onslaught of snow from both Sam and I.
"Ahhhhhhh! I'm drowning!" He cries, falling to his knees among the powdery snow.
"Die!" Cries Sam, I'm too busy laughing to say anything but watch as Jamie, now lying on his back, looks up at me, hand reaching out to me dramatically.
"Avenge me!" He cries in a death-rattle, before making an inhuman gasping noise and slumping, tongue stuck out theatrically .
"You used me as a human shield!"
Jamie cracks an eye open. "But I'm your boyfriend!"
"I didn't know dead boyfriends could talk," I say, as I shape some snow into a ball, preparing for Sam to attack again.
"It's a talent," says Jamie.
I don't respond because as I turn to Sam I'm hit so hard with a snowball I fall over on impact, narrowly missing landing on Jamie.
Jamie chooses to resort back to the death rattle. "This is how it ends..." He gasps, grabbing my hand. "Till death do us apart..."
"You're not dying, just defeated," says Sam, reaching his hand down to help me up. "I declare myself victorious against you two, and note my mercy on ending this fight right now. You owe me."
"We owe you," I say, interrupting Jamie's protests.
Sam nods, satisfied. "Well then, let's get that bimbo inside," he points at Jamie, who is still on the ground, hand around my ankle.
Jamie chooses this time to begin singing. "Carry... me home.." Jamie begins.
"No singing, and no carrying either," I say. "You're too tall."
"Drag me then."
I take a step forward, and then drag my other leg that has Jamie attached to it. Little progress is made towards the door and the waiting Sam.
"I can't Jamie, you have to get up - you're too heavy."
Jamie scoffs, mocking offense. "Now you're calling me fat?"
"Enough of this," says Sam. "Heidi, take his arms, I'll take his legs."
We do so - Jamie purposely not being any help besides turning the doorknob - and carefully maneuver ourselves inside the house, where we collectively dump Jamie, and answer Anne's calling to hot chocolate in the kitchen.
I have my hands wrapped around a steaming mug when Jamie enters the kitchen, having taken off his coat and gloves.
"This isn't the end," he says, glaring at Sam and I.
"Whatever you say, Jimmy Jam." Sam teases.
Jamie and I spend the rest of the day driving around London - it was too cold to go exploring properly today - and Sam tagged along on Anne and David's wishes. Something told me Sam was a bit of nuisance at home and his parents were glad to have him be able to be occupied with other things outside the house with other people - even if one of them (Jamie) wasn't so happy with that situation, so the day also consisted of a fair amount of bickering.
Later, after dinner, Jamie, Sam, and I played cards in the living room, before Sam retired to his room and eventually, feeling my head slowly seem heavier, I stand up, and turn to Jamie's parents.
"I think I'm going to head off to bed, thank you for being so welcoming." I say.
"Our pleasure, Heidi, sleep well," says Anne, smiling gently.
Jamie stands up. "And being the dutiful boyfriend I am, I think I will retire also."
He gently takes me wrist, and leads me up the stairs, to the guest room door.
"Goodnight gorgeous," he says, pecking my lips.
"Goodnight Jamie." I grin, before turning and entering my room, closing the door behind me softly. I sleepily change and crawl into bed, shivering as the sheets slowly warm up with my body temperature, as I think about all the events of today. My heart squeezes happily at the thought of Jamie, Jamie smiling at me in the café, Jamie showing me his old room, Jamie laughing in the snow, Jamie patiently pointing out the land marks of London, Jamie gently leading me off to bed.
Jamie Jamie Jamie.
I'm obsessed with the silly boy, and to a serious extent, after all, here I was, all the way in London - the other side of the world - to spend time with his family. And I was loving every minute of it.
I love him. I realise with a shock. But I'm not sad, or scared. Jamie makes me feel safe, and happy, I'm not afraid to be in love with him.
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More Jeidi cuteness :)
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