Christmas Coffee: Mini Fiction | Part One

 

Hola guys! This is a little different to what I usually post, and it's a three part festive fiction. I thought it would add something different to my blog and as I wanted to write more, why not share it with you all? I hope you enjoy it, and if you like it and the other two parts (I'll post the second part Friday!), please comment and I'll do a little fictional post once a month. Enjoy. :)

 

--

 

As I sip my warm gingerbread latte and feel the warmth and flavour of the syrup come through to my senses, I gaze out of the window. Snow billows down and swarms amongst agitated shoppers (what Scrooges), heaving bags of presumably Christmas presents, as they fight their way along the pavement. I sigh contently. It's just the start of the festive season, with the fairy lights, trees, Christmas music and most importantly spending time with family and friends. "Come on!" my best friend Laura says, as I drink the last bits of the coffee. "I need to get my family their presents." she says as she lugs her bag over her shoulder and rushes toward the exit of Starbucks. There's always one niggling question every year... Since when was Christmas supposed to be rushed?

-- Part One --

The Beginning

Beep! Beep! comes the shrill sound of my alarm. I stifle a yawn as I roll in bed under my lovely thick winter duvet. The 1st of December has come at last and I can finally decorate my room with fairy lights and tinsel, I think sleepily. Wait. I can finally decorate my room! Energy suddenly surges through me as I sit up in a flash and look around my room, mentally sorting out where I'm going to put my tree and all the new decorations I got last weekend.

Slipping out of bed I grab the outfit I planned for today (quite excitedly in fact) and go into the bathroom. I wash myself with the wonderfully cute little Snow Fairy shower gel I got from Lush and freshen up my hair. Today will be good, no fantastic. I then grab the box of my Christmas stuff in the hallway and drag it into my room, and open it to see what treasures were hiding all year until being discovered again. 

I lay out the baubles, tinsel, lights and pull the tree out, but first I need a coffee. A few minutes later, I'm back and sipping a Dolce Gusto coffee which I made with my favourite machine. (You've got to love a machine that can make vanilla latte macchiatos in your kitchen to be honest.) Now I can begin as I pull out the branches of the tree, re-arrange them and open the new pack of baubles I was planning to cram in with my current ones. Just then, my Mum pops her head. "Hello dear, what are you up to?"

"Just putting up my decs." I reply.

"They look very nice." She comments. "When are you leaving for London to meet Laura?"

That's the other exciting thing about today, me and my best friend Laura are going up to London to Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park to celebrate the official start of the festive season. Even though the commercials decided it started the day after Halloween.

"About 11." I reply glancing at the clock which shows half nine. My Mum nods and disappears presumably to start preparing the signature home-made lasagne that she does for me and my Dad every month. Sadly, I'll be missing out on that today.

An hour later I'm done, and I only have half an hour left to get ready. But looking around, my room is looking more festive than ever, with fairy lights draped over the dressing table which features a little penguin with a Santa hat. I've also put out my new Yankee candles which I lit while I was decorating the tree. And I have to say, my tree looks rather colourful with the green, red and gold baubles all jostling together. After admiring my work, I open my wardrobe, grab my uggs and yank them on. I also stuff my bag with my purse, phone, camera and make-up bag - because you don't know when you're going to need to sanitise or reapply lipstick. Saying bye to Mum I leave to meet Laura by the town's underground station and get there at quarter past.

"God finally Hannah!" Laura exclaims as she shivers in her puffy coat and uggs. "I nearly was on my way to become an ice berg, and let me tell you that wouldn't have been a good look." She darts a glance towards the cafe next to the station and I follow her eyes. There's a couple of guys sitting at a table outside laughing about something, they're kind of good looking in an average jeans-and-trainers-with-a-load-of-gel-in-the-hair kind of way.

"Come on let's go" I say shaking my head, and we both head into the station. When we get onto the escalators, she starts babbling about how her Geography teacher won't give her an extension on the coursework deadline, which is kind of her fault as she never did any work for a month when the first draft was due anyway. Even on the tube, she carries on...

"...And I swear if I don't pass this then I'm screwed for the final grade..."

When we finally get to Marble Arch she quietens down and I can finally ask what we plan to do at the event.

"Well, there's the ice rink and the giant wheel, and ooh there's the market and the bars! We have to go to the bars!"

"Can we just stick to the safe ones?" I say as I wince at the thought of ice blades and the feel of the cold ice when you topple down after multiple fails. And please don't get me started on the bars, it's like making sure a dog doesn't run away when it's off the lead with Laura. Not that Laura's a dog, but you don't know when she's just going to disappear and never come out again and you have to hunt her down. (Luckily I've never resorted to a search party as she's usually easy enough to find)

"Fine, but let me just have one drink please? It's Christmas..." she pleads with me.

"Not for another three weeks, but fine, but only one." I sigh, it's like having a younger best friend rather than a 17 year old. (Again, nothing wrong with that!)

By the time it's one o'clock, we've been to the Ice Kingdom, on the Giant Wheel and are just about going through the cute kitschy Christmas Markets. The Ice Kingdom was fun, we saw loads of beautiful sculptures but it was so so cold. Minus eight in fact which should be illegal, but the staff insisted it was for the authentic effect when Laura complained at the end. The Giant Wheel was much calmer as there weren't any excited kids, but if there were, you couldn't hear them. Ahh, twenty long minutes of looking out over Winter Wonderland, which was the perfect opportunity to take out my camera and start snapping hehe.

"Oh my god, look at this one! And this!" Laura cries as she rushes over to a stall and breaks my train of thought. She holds up two dainty purses which have been embroidered beautifully, and they look so cute and unique that Laura falls in love with them, buys them both and gives me one. I happily place it in my bag and decide it's big enough to turn into a camera case which will hold my camera.

As we wander around, we both manage to pick up a few pieces which would be good for friends or ourselves. By the time we finish looking around the market, I manage to collect a jewellery holder, a couple of mood rings, some vintage tins which will look amazing in my refurbished room in the new year, and a cute notebook to keep me organised in the future.

"Wow, I got so much, this market is amazing!" Laura exclaims as she tries to stuff a jewellery box into her already full bag.

"Yeah" I agree as I help her. "Let's go to the fair next, I heard they have a new rollercoaster." I say trying to divert her away from the bars.

"Mmm yeah, but we should go to the bars first." Fail.

"But we could get Starbucks after and have fun at the fair, just forget about the bars. Isn't caffeine better anyway?" Laura looks at me and sees my pleading expression, she sighs and nods slowly as if accepting her fate. It's easy to convince her when she's already having a good time.

"Ok, have your way but next year?" she asks. I nod and she looks a little happier, and after her bag is sorted we link arms and go off to the fair.

As soon as we arrive at the fair, I start to rush over to the new rollercoaster. It's so big and as a carriage of people rush past screaming their lungs out, I feel a shiver of excitement run through me. That's one of the things I love about Winter Wonderland, you don't need to go in the evening to see the lights, what you can do there takes over your excitement during the day anyway.

When the previous ride is over, Laura and I pay with our tokens and clamber into the carriage. Laura grins at me and the carriage starts to move as I grin back. Then the ride gets faster and soon we're both screaming and being thrown to the left, to the right and then drop down. By the time it's over, we jump out and run down the runway laughing.

"Oh my god that was so fast!" Laura laughs. "Let's go on another one!"

She then drags me around the fair, going on all kinds of rides until all our tokens run out. Feeling exhilarated and buzzing, we decide it's time to go get a Starbucks to finish off the day.

 

It's quite chilly now, I think as we enter Starbucks. It's 4pm already and there's just a few business people milling around and typing efficiently on their Apple Macs and sipping a coffee. I make a bee line to the cozy sofas by the window and plonk my stuff down.

"Do you want to order?" Laura asks.

"Yeah sure, what do you want?"

"A nice medium Toffee Nut Latte for me and a gingerbread slice." she says looking flushed in the face with a grin as she hands me the money.

"Cool."

I go over to the barista and order Laura's drink and get myself a Honey and Almond hot chocolate and a gingerbread slice.

"Do you want extra syrup for free with both drinks? There's not many people here and it looks like you and your friend had a good time." she asks. I look at her name tag, her name's Becky.

"Yeah why not? And we did, we went to Winter Wonderland" I reply happily.

"Ah, that sounds nice, I planning to go there soon" Becky comments as she makes the drinks, she then squirts on the cream and layers on the syrup. She hands the mugs and bags of cake over, taking them I say thanks. "No problem, enjoy!"

I carry them over and hand Laura her drink. What a day it's been, and it was the perfect start to Christmas. It's kind of a tradition we go to Winter Wonderland every year on the first weekend of December, and luckily this year it was right at the start. Perfect.

I sheepishly take a photo of my drink and cake for my Instagram, Laura notices and shakes her head with a light laugh. We stay there for an extra hour and chat about what's going on and what we're planning for the Christmas holidays. Sipping my hot chocolate and feeling all toast and warm, I really don't want to leave, and anyway it closes at 9pm doesn't it?

But I can tell Laura's finished and ready to leave as she puts her mug towards the end of the table, quickly throws the bag in the bin and sighs contently. I finish my drink and sort out my things.

"Ready to go? It's about half five and I need to get home to babysit my little cousin soon."

"Sure" I reply, and we get up to leave. I wave to Becky and say thanks again for the extra syrup, she smiles and waves back.

By the time we get back to our station, Laura hugs me and says goodbye. "We have to go shopping next week. Want to pop to the shops?"

"Of course!" I exclaim. I love shopping especially at Christmas and I have so many ideas for gifts. The best part is the wrapping and the actual giving, I love seeing the reaction of my friends and family opening my presents.

"Ok, I'll text you later" Laura replies, we hug again and go our separate ways.

 

I get home a few minutes later, and Mum asks how my day was. "It was amazing, and we did so much" And I fill her in on the details. Mum nods and looks really happy that I had a good time. I then say good night and head up to my room.

I switch on the fairy lights and light my Christmas Cookie candle, ahh bliss. My room looks even better in the evenings as the lights shine brighter and it just looks prettier. I grab my festive read and snuggle down with my throw. My phone beeps and I pick it up, it's Laura:

 

 

Hey Han, meet at my house around 10

on Wednesday, and then head to town?

Laura xx

 

I smile to myself, this year's Christmas is going to get better and I just can't wait! I think as I pick up my book, and oblivious of the time, read late into the evening.

 

 -- End of Part One --

 

♡