Getting snowed in at her boyfriend's house near Christmas isn't so bad for Eve - especially when she can try to beat him in a snowball fight.

I don't want to move anywhere. It's far too comfy here, lying on the sofa in Will's arms with his chin resting on my shoulder as we watch the end of Miracle on 34th Street. But as the credits begin to roll on the TV screen, Will lets out a sigh, his breath washing over my face, and his arms tighten around me, because he knows exactly what I'm about to say.

"I have to get going," I mumble regretfully. I don't want to go home. I don't even want to get up from this spot.

"Can't you stay just a little longer?" he asks, pleading. "Another half hour."

"I can't," I say, and I force myself to peel his arms away from me. "I was supposed to be home like, an hour ago."

Will chuckles and sits up, holding onto my hand as I clamber off the sofa and get to my feet. "Your parents won't be too mad though."

"Nah, they won't mind," I say, smiling. "But I should probably go now..."

Will sighs again, dropping my hand. He stands and walks over to the window, and I follow him, peeking outside as Will pulls the curtains and the blinds back so we can see out.

The snow falls thick and fast outside, almost a blizzard. The orange glow of the streetlights mingle with the paced alternation of coloured Christmas lights decorating the houses in the street, but everything seems muffled by the snow. There aren't any cars out on the roads, and if there are any a couple of streets down, it's impossible to hear them.

The thing that makes me smile most though, is seeing that in the last two hours or so since we looked out at the starting flurries of snow, there're a good few inches blocking up the roads.

"Looks like you're not going anywhere," Will says, and there's a blatantly smug note in his voice as he drops the blinds back into place.

"What, are you keeping me prisoner here now?"

He laughs and hugs me, his arms slipping around my waist. He plants a kiss on my forehead. "Well, that, and I fear for your safety, like the caring boyfriend I am."

It's my turn to laugh then, and I roll my eyes at him.

"Fine. Then I'll call my mum and tell her I'm spending the night here."

"You can stay in Chloe's old room," he says, Chloe being his older sister who's staying with her girlfriend before Christmas.

"Right." I give him a quick kiss. "Here's a plan, then. You make hot chocolate, and I'll phone my mum."

"Deal." He seals it with another kiss and heads away to the kitchen. I hear the noise of the kettle being filled and the switch of it flicking on to boil while I go to the table I put my mobile down on.

In the kitchen, I hear Will sing in a deliberately loud voice so I can hear him, "Oh, the weather outside is frightful, but the fire is so delightful, and since you've no place to go... Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!"

I laugh, and even though he can't see me I shake my head.

"Two missed calls," I say to myself when I see the notification on the screen. I tap a couple of buttons to hear the voicemail I've been left, and, of course, it's my mum.

The first message is Mum's voice saying, "Only me. I think you should think about coming home now, Eve. The snow's getting a bit heavier now."

The second message is her sounding a little bit annoyed at me, but not too short-tempered. "Eve, give me a phone call when you get this, but the snow round here is pretty heavy now. I don't know what it's like at Will's, but maybe it's best if you stay there until it's not so bad."

The electronic disjointed voice that comes with voicemail tells me the message was left over an hour ago, and I sigh, hanging up the call. If the snow was bad enough that she'd told me to stay an hour ago, there's no way she can disagree with me saying I'll stay at Will's for now because of the snow.

But, just in case she's annoyed because I didn't get home earlier and didn't answer my phone, I send her a text to let her know what's going on. And I make a point to add on to the end that I'll sleep in Chloe's old room.

By the time I've done that, Will walks back into the room with two mugs of hot chocolate. I smile at him, set my phone back down, and then race to the sofa to take the spot in the corner, just because I know Will likes to sit there since it has the best view of the TV.

I pick up the remote. "What's next? We could always watch Jingle All The Way again. Nothing like a bit of Schwarzenegger to put you in the festive mood."

Will laughs. "Hey, it's a great film, I won't hear a bad word about it. But if you want to watch it a second time, I don't mind."

I pick up the remote to flick through the channels, and settle on a Christmas special of a cartoon. Will drops into the space next to me, and I curl my legs up onto his lap, twisting my body so I can rest my head on his shoulder.

"Wait, before you get too comfortable," Will says, leaning away slightly, "pass my hot chocolate."

We watch some more TV and drink our hot chocolates, but I can't focus on much, even on what Will's saying about a German essay he has to write over the holidays. The only thing on my mind is the snow – because now I know it's out there and there's lots of it, I'm itching to get out in it.

Just thinking of throwing snowballs at Will and attempting to build a snowman – maybe sledging, if he has a sledge... It's too good an opportunity to miss.

"Will," I say, when there's a pause in conversation. "Can we go outside?"

"What, you mean, out in the snow?"

"Well, yeah. That was the point of going outside."

"But, baby, it's cold outside," he says, quoting the song, and we both laugh.

"Yes, and it's also snowing outside. I have a scarf and snow boots and stuff. And my earmuffs. Can we please, please, please go out? Just for a little bit." He's still not entirely convinced to go outside, so I say teasingly, "Only long enough for me to thrash you in a snowball fight."

That makes him sit up straight. "Oh, really? You think you can thrash me?"

I nod, smiling innocently.

A smirk tweaks at the corner of Will's mouth. "Then get your snow boots on, Eve, and prepare to lose."

I laugh in a derisive kind of way and shake my head at him as we stand up, but really it was just something to get him to come outside.

And five minutes later, when we're both bundled up and ready to brave the practically arctic temperatures in Will's back garden, we head outside.

Will's back garden is pretty big, and it's all grass. Well, it was all grass; now there's what must be about five inches of snow, all pristine and perfect and white, glittering ever so slightly. The trees lining the fence are heavy with soft white blankets of untouched snow, the flowerbed completely disappeared underneath it all, and the rooftops of the houses look like a picture of a Christmas card.

It's beautiful, it really is. This is one of the reasons I love the snow so much. But it seems such a shame to destroy it all, I think, as I step outside...

The snow crunches under my boots, and it's a satisfying sort of noise that makes me smile. The blizzard from earlier has lifted, but it's still snowing, and I tip my head right back, poking my tongue out so that the flakes land and melt on my tongue. I giggle like a little girl, and then turn around to look at Will.

He's leaning against the door with his arms crossed – although they're not completely crossed, since he's wearing two layers under a big puffy duffel coat – and he just smiles at me, looking at me. Even underneath the blue bobble hat his Gran knitted him a couple of years ago and the woolly black scarf, his cheeks are bright pink with the cold. His grey-blue eyes twinkle at me, and the smile on his face makes him look all the more wonderful.

"What?" I ask, and try to bite back a grin that wants to take over my face.

"Nothing. I just didn't know how cute you were when it snowed."

I laugh. "Well, I don't know if 'cute' is the right word... childish, maybe."

Will shrugs. "Turn around."

"Why?"

Again, he shrugs. "Just because."

I start to turn, but then I stop. "No! No, I am not falling for that!" And before he has the chance to throw a snowball at me – because I know that's what he was planning on doing – I dip down and grab a haphazard handful of snow, pounding it into some kind of misshapen ball in my hands before tossing it at him.

I aim for his face, but it hits his neck instead, right in the bare spot where his scarf doesn't cover him.

I throw a hand over my mouth, and Will freezes as snow trickles under his scarf and down his neck. Then, very slowly, he pushes the lump of snow sat in his scarf away and wipes his neck. I can't help the grin that covers my face, but when Will begins to bend down to grab some snow for himself, I stumble back.

"No! No, no, no!" I exclaim, giggling. "Will!"

The snowball hits my leg, soaking through my jeans. I throw my hands over my face to protect it and stagger back, but it's so hard to move in this snow! I scream with laughter as another snowball pounds my coat, near my waist, and then another, this time hitting my shoulder. I can hear Will laughing at me and teasing me, but I can't quite make out the words.

I want to throw a bunch of snowballs back at him, but I'm too busy trying not to get one in the face to do that.

I peek from behind my hands, just in time to see a white lump flying toward my face. Shrieking, I duck, and it just clips the side of my head as I stumble backwards, trying to get out of range, and this time I fall over.

I throw my arms out, but not soon enough. Not that it really matters, since the snow cushions my fall. I land with an oomph! and everything goes silent again for a moment.

Then another snowball hits my shin.

And Will says, "You okay, Eve?"

"Mm," I answer. I can feel the snow soaking through my jeans and the leggings I put on earlier for warmth beneath them, and my coat has risen up at the back, pulling my jumper with it, so that the snow touches my bare skin on my hips.

My hair will be ruined, and there's snow all over my face, so I know that the makeup I put on earlier will be a complete mess and a waste of time. But I laugh, and then I start to swipe my arms up and down and my legs out, my limbs like windscreen wipers on a car. I've made snow angels before, but they always suck – whenever I get up, I tread on them and they never look like they do in the movies. And I can't imagine this one will be any better, but what the hell, it's fun!

Once I finish my snow angel, I just lie there for a minute. Then I sit up and see Will watching me with a small, warm smile on his face, looking at me. I put my hand out.

"Give me a hand up?" I ask.

His arm twitches at his side, but then he chuckles and wags a finger at me instead. "Oh, no, I'm not falling for that one."

"What – oh, no, I wasn't even thinking about that!" I laugh. "I just need a hand up. But now that you mention it..."

He laughs and gives me a hand, but I don't try to pull him down into the snow beside me, I just let him help me to my feet. I dust the snow off my jeans, even though I know it's a wasted effort; they're already soaked, and my gloves are, too.

"You're soaking," Will comments. "Ready to go in yet?"

"Not yet."

He laughs, and I think once again how much I love his laugh and how handsome he looks when he smiles like that – the way his eyes twinkle and crease up a little at the corners, how he shows all his teeth when he laughs... His brown hair is dark where the snow has made it wet, and it sticks against his face where it pokes out from underneath his hat.

I lean forward all of a sudden, hands resting on his shoulders, and press my lips against his. He seems so taken aback by me suddenly jumping at him like that that he stumbles back. I haven't actually stepped forwards, so I tip off balance, leaning on Will for support – and we both collapse to the ground, with me splayed on top of him.

There's a heartbeat of shocked silence before we both start laughing. Will pulls me down for another kiss, but I don't let him pull away so soon again, drawing it out and deepening the kiss.

"What was that for?" he asks, kissing the tip of my nose – which is so cold and numb, I barely feel the kiss.

I shrug. "I don't know. Am I not allowed to kiss my boyfriend now, or something?"

He chuckles and kisses my nose again instead of answering me.

"Eve," he says after a moment or two of silence where we just smile at each other.

"Yeah?"

He kisses me softly again before murmuring, "I love you."

I smile and say, "Guess what."

"What."

"I love you too."

He chuckles and kisses me again, but this time the kiss is much longer. And I can't help but think just how romantic this is, kissing in the snow, and it makes me smile against his lips.

We somehow spend over an hour out there in the snow. I don't know how the time flew by so quickly, but one thing's for certain: when we go back inside because it's pitch black and below zero outside, I'm shaking and soaked to the bone.

Zero regrets.

I glance over my shoulder as Will locks the door up, and through the glass pane in the door I see our misshapen snowman with his grey pebble eyes and smile and nose, and our tracks in the snow make a labyrinth of patterns on the ground.

My teeth are chattering loudly, and I've got to that point where I'm so cold I'm numb and can barely feel my fingers and toes. I hug myself for warmth. I can't even feel my nose, I'm so cold.

"Can you feel your nose anyway? Like, when it's not snowing like an arctic blizzard out there?" Will says, and I realise I must have spoken that last part aloud.

"I don't know," I reply, about feeling your nose. "Can you? Huh. That's weird."

My words come out garbled and mashed together from my chattering teeth.

"You're freezing," Will tells me, stamping the snow off his Wellingtons and stepping closer to me.

"So are you," I say, because I can see him quivering as he tries to pull his gloves off.

"And whose silly idea was it to go out in the snow?" he chuckles, teasing me, and kissing the tip of my frozen nose yet again.

"It wasn't a silly idea," I insist stubbornly.

"It was pretty fun," he concedes. "But you're going to get hypothermia if you don't get out of those clothes."

"Is that your way of trying to get me into bed, William?" I raise an eyebrow. Or, at least, I try to. My eyebrows may be frozen in place and have not moved at all.

"No!" he says hastily, worrying that I'd taken him the wrong way for a moment. When I laugh through chattering teeth though, he laughs too, and I see the slight crease in his forehead smooth out. "I just... You know what I meant."

"Yeah, I'm only teasing, don't worry."

He smiles and kisses my cheek, and pulls off his gloves as I fumble with the zip on my coat. It takes at least ten minutes for us to peel off all the wet extra layers of coats and shoes and gloves and scarves. He leaves them in a heap on the doormat and hurries me upstairs so we both can change out of these soaking clothes and stop ourselves getting ill.

"I don't have any spare clothes or anything with me though," I point out as Will hands me a spare towel and face cloth from the airing cupboard.

"I'll find something for you," he says. "I'll leave them just outside the bathroom."

"Thank you."

I give him a peck on the lips and then head down the hall, my hair dripping slowly and steadily onto the carpet and my clothes sticking to me with sweat and melted snow. I love going out in the snow, but sometimes the aftermath isn't quite so great.

I must take about half an hour in the shower. I have to start out with it at barely even a mild temperature, slowly cranking up the heat to thaw myself out before I can wash my hair.

Steam fills the bathroom and clouds the mirror when I'm done, and once I've got the towel wrapped securely around me, I open the door ever so slightly and see the pile of clothes Will left me: a t-shirt, and a pair of thick joggers. The joggers are a pink berry colour, so I figure he's raided his sister's wardrobe for them. I left my things on the floor but I'd put my underwear on the radiator, not that it had been too wet anyway. Luckily, when I pick it up now, it feels dry. I breathe a small sigh of relief and slip them on before I put on Will's clothes.

I find Will back in his room. "I just threw everything in the washing machine, so you should have your jeans back in... three hours, maybe?"

I look at the clock on his bedside table, which reads in glowing green numbers 20:42, and I say, "In three hours I'll probably be too tired to change. Besides, these are comfy enough. Your sister has good taste in comfort clothes."

He laughs and closes the couple of feet of space between us to hug me, and I lean into his arms, thinking how he's warmer than any hot shower after being out in all that snow.

I pull out of the hug only slightly, enough to be able to move up on my tiptoes and tilt my face toward Will's. He smiles and brushes a piece of damp hair away from my face, and his hand lingers on my chin as we kiss. He holds me like I could break and I pull him closer to me, not wanting this perfect moment ever to end.

When we finally break the kiss, after what must be an age but doesn't feel long enough, neither of us move back. Our breath mingles and Will squeezes his arms around me a little tighter.

"Will."

"Yeah?" he murmurs.

"I love you."

He smiles and presses his lips against my cheek. "I love you more."

I let out a breath of laughter at that, because I don't think that's even possible.

Without me really even realising it, we've moved back so we're led side by side on Will's bed – which he either forgot or didn't bother to make this morning, since the sheets and the duvet are a bit of a mess. I lean back from him and smile.

He brushes hair out of my face again, smiling back at me. I love his smile, it's so adorable. It makes his grey-blue eyes glitter, and he gets this really intense sort of look in his eyes that makes me feel as though he can see all the way down to my soul.

All of a sudden, I yawn.

And it's only then that I realise just how tired I am.

Will yawns too and says in a muffled voice, "Must be catching," and I laugh. "Are you tired?"

"Mm," I answer. Snuggling up closer to Will, I bury my face in his shoulder. I know in the back of my mind that I should dry my hair because it'll flick in all sorts of directions and probably go a bit frizzy if I don't, but now I'm too comfy to move, and the state of my hair in a few hours isn't that big of a deal right now.

"You can stay in Chloe's room if you want," he says.

"Do you mind if..." I yawn again. "...if I stay here? Just to cuddle."

I can hear the smile in Will's voice when he replies, "I don't mind at all."

He moves me around a little just so he can wrap the duvet around me, and then he pulls me up close again, and I wrap my arms and a leg around him, wanting not an inch of space between us. My eyes slide shut. I want to stay awake, to talk or something, but I just can't anymore. I yawn again.

Will kisses the top of my head, and then he whispers, just as I'm about to fall asleep, "Merry Christmas, Eve."