7 December 2018
9 days left in Operation Mistletoe


"I can't believe we're doing this," Courtney exclaimed as we got out of her car. "What if his friends are all creeps or they're just taking us out here to murder us or something. I mean where are we?"

I could see the reason behind her question, the address Harry had sent me appeared to be in the middle of nowhere. We were at least forty minutes outside of New Haven and due to the very few cars in the parking lot I thought we were the only ones willing to brave the cold. Shrugging my shoulders, I composed a message to Harry letting him know that we were here.

It wasn't more than a minute later I heard the hum of small engines as several ATVs came shooting out of the forest to the right of the parking lot. There appeared to be some kind of trail that was now covered in the snow that had started falling the night before. The leading figure jumped off of the ATV and came loping towards us pulling his helmet off in the process.

"Hey, you made it!" Came the exclamation as Harry used the arm that wasn't holding the helmet to drape over my shoulders.

"Hi," I managed to squeak out unsure how to deal with his forwardness. Turning to Courtney, I gave her a confused look which had her just smirking in return.

Harry just laughed in response dropping his helmet to extend a hand toward Courtney. "I don't think we've had the pleasure of meeting I'm Harry."

"I know," Courtney said her eyes flashing barely able to keep in her giggles, "I'm Courtney."

Harry just laughed at her comment his laughter shaking through the both of us. Settling into the circle, he turned to his friends who had left the ATVs to come join us. While he wasn't looking Courtney managed to catch my eye and mouth 'he's hot' which earned a warning shake of my head. I was pleasantly surprised to realise that for the most part, I didn't recognise anyone who had joined us.

"This is Skip, Buster, House, and Quinn they're my roommates." Harry introduced earning nods from each of them respectively.

"Oy what about me?" Came an exclamation from behind Harry as a tall, willowy girl stepped into view.

I could feel Harry tense up beside me, but instead, he just let out a kind of forced laugh. "And this is Iris, she's just kind of tagging along."

"Yeah sure." Came the snarky response as Iris settled on the other side of Harry as she punched him in the shoulder. "These idiots wouldn't know what to do without me especially since they can't even come up with original nicknames."

A kind of awkward silence fell on the group. It was palpable that there was something slightly off but being the newest member of this odd crew, I couldn't really do anything. Harry thankfully ended the awkwardness.

"Well let's get going." He stated dropping his arm from my shoulder and bending to pick up his helmet.

The sudden loss of warmth had me shivering slightly in the cold and falling snow, but as soon as Harry stood, he flashed me a smile over his shoulder.

"You coming?"

Taking the offered helmet, I slipped onto the ATV behind Harry. I could feel him tense as I slid my arms around him so I attempted to keep as loose of a grip as I could. I was very grateful that I had ignored Courtney. She'd wanted us to dress up since she claimed that this was an excuse for Harry to get the two of us alone but I was grateful to be in legging, not a skirt as I watched Courtney try to awkwardly tuck her skirt under her on the ATV behind Skip.

"You have ridden an ATV before?" Harry asked.

I just shot him an incredulous look that I knew that he couldn't see before nodding against his back. The leather of his jacket was cool and smooth against my face as he put the ATV into gear and wheeled it towards the trail. The idea of keeping my grip on Harry loose was dashed as soon as we set off down the path and the wheels kept hitting roots in the eyes jerking us back and forth. My grip was tight as my arms encompassed his waist and hands found their way into the front of his coat fisting themselves onto his t-shirt. It was then I came to a startling realisation that had my face burning against his back. Harry was ripped, his muscles tightening underneath my fingertips nothing but the material of his shirt separating my hands from his skin. It was a realisation that had me wishing that I didn't have to be in such close proximity to Harry at just that second.

To the right, I could see Courtney her eyes squeezed slightly shut as she tried to keep from falling off the pitching ATV. These trails weren't really made for the vehicles, but somehow we made it to the bottom of the hill several of the boys and Iris hooting and hollering the whole way down.

"You can let go now," Came the gently grumble of Harry's voice as he pulled the ATV to a halt, "That is unless you want to keep feeling me up."

Cheeks burning I quickly dropped my hands from Harry before sliding off of the ATV avoiding his glance. It felt like everyone's eyes were on me as Harry's voice was loud enough for the whole group to hear, especially Iris who was leaning against her ATV her gaze neutral and observant.

"I was kidding." Harry whispered into my ear directly in front of my before his fingers gently grabbed my chin turning my face up towards his, "you can cop a feel anytime you want," he joked with a wink causing me to flush even darker.

Disentangling myself from Harry and attempting to regain any of my exposure I took the few steps towards Courtney and dragging her with me I took a second to observe where exactly Harry had taken us. The trees picturesquely covered in ice had cleared onto a small field leading down into a reservoir. Snow blanketed everything, and due to the frigid temperatures, the reservoir was frozen solid. It was beautiful in the late afternoon light, and I'll admit the perfect spot for ice skating.

"So how was the ride?" Courtney gently teased from next to me.

I just sent her a scathing glance before turning back to unhook my ice skates from the back of Harry's ATV. I'd been ice skating since I'd learned to walk but my only outdoor experience was on the pond behind the family cabin, and I was excited to get the chance to skate on something a little bigger.

"You coming?" I asked Harry turning his words back on him as he chuckling grabbed his skates.

The others quickly followed suit except for Quinn who told us he wasn't up to skating and stayed planted on a bench next to the shore. They'd apparently been setting up when we'd arrived a fire prepared in a fire pit and flashlight lanterns scattered for when it gets dark.

"I'll race you?" Harry joked as he skated next to me and pointed to the next point on the shore.

"I'm in!" Came the intruding voice of Iris as she skated up on my other side a challenging look in her eyes.

Harry just shrugged before posturing to start on the rough, "On your marks, get set, go!"

The last word was rushed as Harry took off across the ice his skates sending up clouds of ice. Iris took off on par with his as I quickly fell behind not used to the rough ice. It took less than a minute for me to realise that I would never keep up instead stopping to watch the two of them skate with the bluntness of hockey players across the reservoir occasionally trying to push the other over. Harry was so preoccupied in fighting Iris it wasn't until the two of them actually reached the tree he bothered to turn around and realise that I hadn't followed them.

Even several hundred feet away I could see Harry's brow furrow as he turned to Iris to make a comment her bright hair flashing in the sun as she shook her head. Turning back towards me Harry cupped his hand around his mouth so he could project.

"Are you going to join us?" He asked.

I turned back towards the rest of the group where Courtney was engaged in some kind of game of ice tag with the rest of Harry's friends. With a shrug, I turned and skated towards Harry and Iris not bothering to move faster than a leisurely pace.

"So you decided to give up?" Harry teased once I was within easy earshot.

"I'm just not used to skating on ice this rough," I admitted skating to a stop next to him. I didn't miss the flash of emotion across Iris's face when Harry tucked me into his side as soon as I came to a stop.

"Well don't get hurt," Harry warned with a chuckle.

The three of us managed to make small talk as we skated slowly around the smooth section of ice that came from the sunlight on the point. I learned that Harry and Iris were childhood friends although Harry shut her down anytime that she tried to tell me anything about them pre-college. It was still awkward the wary looks that Iris sent Harry and me when he would send me flirting touches or would grab my hand as he passed but I had decided that I liked her. Between the jokes and the scathing looks, she sent Harry the two of them sometimes seemed more like siblings than friends. It wasn't more than half an hour before House's voice echoed loudly across the pond urging us to come back to play some game.

As we set out back across the stretch between the points, I felt a gentle tug on the end of my scarf. Turning back I saw Iris fidgeting with the fingers of her gloves looking nervous for the first time all afternoon.

"Can I talk to you for a second?" She said watching warily as Harry skated across the straight towards the rest of the group.

"Sure," I said skating slowly beside her, "what's up?"

"So I don't know how to say this. And I promise this is not me being the jealous or awkward ex or anything," Iris' words caught me off guard since not once during the conversation had any mention of the two of them dating come up.
"I mean he's a great guy, and I wouldn't stand in the way of anything, I mean he's more like my brother now, but anyways I think you should be careful with him." Iris concluded causing me to come to a halt.

"What do you mean?" I asked sending a glance at Harry who was skating like a madman after Courtney just out of earshot.

"I mean he's going through," Iris paused as if she was debating what she wanted to tell me, "a lot. And he's not really in a place for anything right now so anyways I'm not going to tell you to stay away from him, but just be sure you know what you're getting yourself into."

Notes