"I'm freezing!" George moaned as we all stacked up logs in a circular pile in the middle of our tents. The sun was already starting to set and we were trying to create a fire to warm us up.
"Camping in the middle of winter probably wasn't the best of our ideas" Lucy giggled, snuggling up to George as he wrapped his arms around her to keep warm.
Me and Josh rolled our eyes at the two of them and stacked the last of the logs onto the pile. Josh took out some matches and began trying to get the fire going, after a few attempts he managed to spark it and the fire roared up from the logs. We all huddled close to the fire and were extremely grateful for the warmth that radiated off of it.
"I swear it's cold enough to snow" I murmured, looking up at the cloud filled sky as I opened up a bag of marshmallows.
"That's what I'm worried about" Josh said nervously, taking the bag from me and placing one of the marshmallows on the stick, holding it out to the fire.
"We will be fine. Snow hasn't been forecast" George assured us. I looked over and noticed that Lucy was sat in front of George and he had his arms wrapped around her waist whilst she leant back into him.
I looked at Josh out of the corner of my eye and sighed, I wanted more than anything to cuddle up to him right now.
"You ok" Josh asked me, noticing my heavy sigh.
I looked over to him and nodded, trying my best to force out a smile, "I'm fine".
He raised his eyebrow and shook his head at me, "I can tell when you are lying" he giggled. I rolled my eyes and looked down at the ground, involuntarily shivering as the wind swept past us.
I noticed out of the corner of my eye that Josh stood up, I kept my eyes on the ground and felt him move closer towards me, sitting down on the ground behind me like George was sat with Lucy.
I felt my body stiffen at his close proximity and kept on reminding myself we were just friends.
Then I felt him shuffle closer to me and wrap his arms around my waist, pulling me closer towards his body without saying a word. My body immediately relaxed at his familiar touch and I let out a big breath I hadn't realised I had been holding. I heard him chuckle quietly behind me and I leant back into his warm chest, letting my eyes close as he held me.
"I have missed this" he whispered in my ear, sending goose bumps all over my skin.
"So have I" I replied quietly, "but we are just friends" I reminded myself out loud.
His lips gently grazed the skin on my neck and his warm breath made me shiver, "maybe for now we don't have to be labelled" he whispered.
I couldn't seem to be able to speak so instead I nodded slowly, holding his arms around me and opening my eyes to see Lucy and George looking at us. I stiffened as Lucy raised her eyebrow and I knew Josh felt my change in mood.
"We are just keeping warm" he called over to them both and I giggled as Lucy rolled her eyes and George grinned at us.
"If you say so" George replied, shaking his head and laughing.
It was then that I felt a small droplet of water hit my cheek, followed by many more around us. I looked around me and realised it wasn't rain, it was snow. Heavy snow.
"Oh no" I groaned, holding my hand out to catch some snowflakes.
We all looked up at the sky as the snowflakes got bigger and I looked down to see they were already settling on the ground.
"What are we going to do?" Lucy asked, looking around with a worried expression on her face.
I shook my head and we all stayed silent for a few minutes, just watching it fall around us. It would have been beautiful if we weren't having to camp out in it tonight.
As I was about to suggest packing everything back into the car and finding a hotel for the night, the snow stopped as quickly as it had begun and we all breathed a sigh of relief.
"That was strange" Josh laughed, tightening his hold around me as we relaxed again.
"So, when are we handing out Christmas presents" Lucy exclaimed eagerly, jumping up before we had even answered and running to the car.
"I guess we are doing it now" I giggled, starting to feel nervous about Josh's reaction to the present I had made him. I was starting to feel a bit stupid about doing it, and wished I had just brought him a general gift.
We had placed the presents in separate bags and George headed over to the car with Lucy to help her take the presents out of the car. They soon carried them back and sorted them out so we each had our presents in front of us from each other.
"Who wants to open first then?" Josh asked excitedly.
"I will open my one from Lily" Lucy said, reaching over to her pile and taking out the present from me.
"You and George should open them together" I smiled, "you will understand why when you open them" I assured them as they looked at me confused.
They unwrapped their presents quickly and both held the beanies up in amusement. One said 'forever' and the other said 'yours'.
"They go together!" I giggled, smiling as they put them on. "And it doesn't matter what way round you wear them, it can either say forever yours, or it will say yours forever" I added.
"They are perfect" Lucy smiled, running over and hugging me.
"Thank you, Lily" George added, wrapping his arm around Lucy as she sat back down next to him.
We continued to open our presents and I laughed as I opened my gift from George. It was a small monkey key ring and a giant bar of chocolate.
"Sorry, I'm really bad with presents" he giggled.
"No, they are great" I laughed, opening up the chocolate straight away and taking a bite.
Then Josh handed me my present from him. It was a small cube which had been wrapped perfectly with a little bow on top. I took off the wrapping paper and saw it was a little box. I gently took off the lid and a huge smile appeared on my face as I saw what was inside.
It was a beautiful silver chain necklace with a little love heart hanging off of it. "I love it, Josh. Thank you" I smiled up at him.
"Turn it over" he instructed, a big grin on his face. I turned back to the necklace and took hold of the small love heart charm, turning it over gently in my hands and holding it up to read the inscribed writing on the back;
My best friend.
My love.
Yours always,
Josh x
Tears pricked at my eyes at the simple words and I leant up to plant a small kiss on Josh's cheek, knowing if I tried to speak, my voice would crack and the tears would fall down my face.
His huge smile made me giggle and I passed him his present from me without saying anything. My cheeks blushed out of nervousness and I prayed he would like it. His present for me had been so amazing, I just hoped he liked his just as much.
He quickly took the wrapping paper off of the scrapbook and his eyes widened as he saw the cover, "Memory book" he breathed, running his hand over the cover and turning to look at me with a huge smile on his face.
"I'm sorry if you don't like it. I remembered you saying how much you liked my scrapbook so I thought I would start one for you. It's nowhere near as amazing as the present you got me, I'm sorry, I..."
"Wait, Lily, I love it, It's amazing and I haven't even opened it yet" he interrupted me, giggling as he lifted up my chin to meet my eyes. I blushed and looked back down at the book, encouraging him to open it.
He slowly began flicking through the pages and I saw his smile widen as he looked at every picture, every memory I had wrote down. I even saw his eyes glisten in the moonlight as he read over my recollection of every memory I had of the two of us together, starting from right at the beginning of the holiday when I first met him.
"I love being able to read all the thoughts you had about us" he murmured quietly as he turned another page.
"I thought it would be easier than ever having to tell you how I felt. So I thought I would write it down instead" I told him quietly.
"It's perfect" he replied, smiling as he saw the picture of the two of us in front of the yacht on holiday.
"That was perfect" I giggled, pointing to the picture.
"That night was pretty amazing" he winked at me, making me blush as he chuckled softly.
He carried on looking through the book and laughed at all the little things I had kept; the receipt from our first proper 'date' back at home, the starbucks cup cover when Josh had said his name was 'Monroe', the ticket for the zoo, and even all our multiple cinema tickets.
When he finally turned the last page he looked over at me in amazement, "I can't believe you made me this, It's the most thoughtful present I could have ever imagined or wished for".
"You like it then?" I asked, wanting to be sure I had made the right decision in making him this for a present.
"I love it" he replied, kissing me gently on the cheek and wrapping his arms around me to give me a hug.
I hadn't even realised that Lucy and George had gone from where they were sat and I looked around to see the small outline of them walking over to the herd of horses in the distance. It was almost pitch black now, with just the light from the fire illuminating our tents.
I yawned involuntarily and suddenly realised how tired I was. Driving always made me feel sleepy and now all I felt like doing was going to sleep.
Josh noticed and released me from his grasp, letting me stand up and stretch.
"I think I'm going to sleep" I said to him, watching as he stood up with me.
"Goodnight, Lily" he smiled.
"Night" I replied, walking into his outstretched arms for a warm hug.
I reluctantly let go and headed into the tent I was going to share with Lucy. George and Josh were going to be sharing the one next to us.
I rearranged the sleeping bag multiple times but could not get comfortable on the ground. As well as the uncomfortable bedding, I was freezing. I tried to wrap myself in as much fabric as possible but it was not helping in any way.
I laid shivering and before I knew what I was doing, I was standing up and heading out of the tent. I looked over to see George and Lucy still stood with the horses, and walked quietly over to Josh and George's tent.
I tentatively unzipped the opening and peered inside. Josh was laid with his arms behind his head and he opened his eyes as he heard me enter.
"I...Umm... I was cold" I stuttered, not really knowing why I had decided to come over to his tent. His warm smile relaxed me and he patted the ground next to him.
"You can come and sleep next to me, I will keep you warm" he said softly. I smiled and knelt down inside the tent, zipping the opening shut and crawling over to his side. I laid down next to him and he wrapped his arms around me, pulling me close to him as I rested my head on his warm chest.
My body completely relaxed and his warmth engulfed me. My eyes suddenly felt really heavy and I drifted off to sleep to the sound of his gentle breathing and the steady rise and fall of his chest.