Cara turned to look over at her best friend who was driving the SUV that was currently trudging through a heck of a snow storm, “the weather’s getting pretty bad.”
“Yeah. Radar says there’s a huge patch of bad weather right above us,” Liam replied, looking down at the iPhone in his free hand.
“Well, I say you shouldn’t even be looking at that thing while you’re driving. I would like to make it out of this alive,” Cara said, snatching his phone out of his hand so he could focus on driving.
“You act like I’ve never driven in snow, Care. We live in the UK, you know.” He scoffed out a laugh at his dramatic road trip partner.
“You act like the road is actually visible in this shit. Pay attention to what you’re doing, Payno. Seriously. Both hands on the wheel,” Cara said sternly, flapping her hand at him to get him to put his eyes back on the mess of a road in front of him.
“We’re going to be fine,” Liam chuckled amusingly as he focused his eyes on the outside line of the road, which was getting harder and harder to see through the blizzard they were currently in.
Cara felt Liam’s phone vibrate in her hand and instinct immediately brought her eyes down to look at the screen, seeing that he had a new text message.
“Chloe just sent you a text,” she said, enunciating the girls name with an air of annoyance.
Liam quickly reached out for the phone, “give it to me.”
“Not on your life, Liam. Watch the road!” Cara shrieked, keeping the phone away from him.
“Cara, what the fuck?” Liam snapped at her.
“I’m not gonna let you text and drive, dumbass. Have you read those statistics? Pssh. And in a blizzard? I don’t think so,” Cara said, tucking Liam’s phone under her leg. Liam grumbled under his breath at his best friend.
“What do you see in that priss anyway?” Cara scoffed, rolling her eyes. She really didn’t agree with her friend’s choice in women.
“What do you care?” Liam shot back at her with just as much attitude.
“She’s just… stupid. I don’t understand why you go for girls like that?” Cara asked him.
“What… completely gorgeous?” He snickered.
“Caveman,” Cara grumbled, rolling her eyes again. Liam looked over at her, giving her one long look before his eyes went back to the road ahead.
“What? Are you jealous?” He asked, purposely trying to get a rise out of her. This was how their relationship had thrived for years – the give and take of bullshit.
“Psssssh. Puh-lease, dude,” Cara said dramatically, letting out a boisterous laugh. Liam laughed out loud at her reaction.
“You are. You’re jealous,” Liam snickered, pushing it further.
“Yeah. Ohhh-kay, Payno,” Cara scoffed sarcastically, pursing her lips at him.
“You wanna ride the Payne-train, don’t you?” He laughed, teasing her more.
“Oh my god. Did you just—did you…? Remind me – why are we friends?” Cara asked, looking over at him incredulously.
“Cara wants on,” Liam teased, doing a little dance in his seat to make her even more uncomfortable.
“Christ! You’re gonna make me puke!” Cara yelped, shoving her hand into his arm. Liam’s continuous laughter only dug further under her skin, making her want to scream.
“Shut up, you shit!” Cara said, smacking him on the arm.
“Hey, if I would’ve known you wanted me all this time…” Liam trailed off to let the comment fester within her.
“DUDE! Shut. The. Fuck. Up. You’re seriously going to make me kill myself right now,” Cara growled at her so-called best friend. Liam laughed louder and harder.
“You’re a dick,” she said under her breath, scowling out the window in front of her.
Liam smirked over at her, “so, the thought of having sex with me makes you want to kill yourself and I’m the dick?”
“Are we really talking about this right now?” Cara asked as her head snapped in his direction.
“Yes. You’ve hurt my feelings, Cara Jane. You cannot fathom a reality where the two of us have—
” Liam began.
“DON’T even say it,” Cara snapped, shaking her head to immediately silence him.
“SEX, SEX, SEX!” Liam burst out, taunting her with an evil grin.
“Fuck off,” Cara grumbled, crossing her arms over her chest, turning away from him altogether. Liam couldn’t help but laugh.
He loved how rough around the edges she was. She cursed more than anyone he ever met, began or ended sentences with ‘dude’ more often than not, and acted more like a bloke sometimes than a lady, but Liam loved it all. She was his best friend since nursery school. He would never trade his childhood with her for anything. And he loved getting a rise out of her more than almost everything in the world.
“Are we almost there?” Cara asked from her side of the vehicle a little while later.
“Really?” Liam deadpanned, looking over at her momentarily.
“What?” Cara asked, furrowing her eyebrows at him.
“Can one road trip in the history of road trips ever end without a form of that question being asked?” Liam scoffed playfully.
“No. Are we there yet?” Cara asked sarcastically, narrowing her eyes at him spitefully. Liam laughed out loud and focused back on the road without answering her question.
“Seriously?” Cara asked flatly, looking over at Liam once again.
“What?” Liam asked obliviously.
“Are we friggen’ almost there yet or what?” Cara pressed and let out a little laugh.
“Does it look like I can tell if we’re almost there yet? Do you see this snow!?” Liam asked, pointing his hand forward toward the windshield.
“You aren’t going to miss the turn are you!? I don’t want to be in a car with you any longer than necessary,” Cara scoffed playfully.
Liam sent her a glare, “low blow.”
“How did I get stuck driving up with you anyway?” Cara pressed on jokingly.
“Because nobody wanted to ride with you. It’s me who’s ‘stuck’,” Liam chuckled, turning the joke back on her.
“Ha-ha. This guy with the jokes,” Cara laughed unenthusiastically, pointed her thumb over at him and rolling her eyes in the process.
“You were coming at me first,” Liam protested through a laugh.
“When are the other lads coming up?” Cara asked curiously, dropping the banter almost immediately.
“They shouldn’t be too far behind us. Maybe an hour or so. Niall had some stuff to take care of and couldn’t come up right away so the rest of the blokes stayed behind with him. My name is on the reservation for the cottage and I’m the only one with a key so that’s why we’re going now,” Liam answered, bobbing his eyebrows at her.
“They’re never going to make it,” Cara mumbled, looking out at the rapidly falling snow and treacherous mountains all around them.
What a great plan to go on a ski trip to Scotland in a blizzard.

---

When they finally pulled up into the driveway of the cottage Liam rented, all Cara could feel was relief. Her body was so tense from the horrible driving conditions and Liam’s horrible driving. Of course he did end up missing the turn and they had to double back, almost skidding into the road barrier – that had it broken, the whole SUV would have gone tumbling, not so gracefully, down the side of a mountain.
“I am just glad to be out of that damn truck with you behind the wheel,” Cara grumbled as the two of them met up at the back of the vehicle to grab their bags.
Liam scoffed with a cocky grin, “like you could drive any better.”
“I wouldn’t have almost sent us down the mountain,” she scoffed.
“Honest mistake,” he said, smirking at her.
“Yeah. Remind me to steer clear of the heady combination of you, a vehicle, a mountain and a blizzard,” Cara said, elbowing him playfully in the side.
“You’re here. In one piece, might I add. Quit complaining,” Liam said, grabbing his backpack out of the back, strapping it on him before grabbing his case of beer.
“I am praying to the God’s I survive this weekend with life and limbs,” she quipped, strapping her own backpack to her back.
“From this point on, your life is in your own hands. We all know you’re a terrible skier,” Liam laughed outright as he headed toward the cottage through the thick blankets of snow that continued to fall all around them.
“Screw off, Payno!” Cara yelled after him, slamming the back door of the SUV as she hauled in her own stash of alcohol.
Once they were tucked away inside of the building, Cara didn’t feel quite so out of control. Yet, she still felt anxious. The uncertainty of the weather conditions weighed heavily on her, and knowing the majority of her friends were still traveling up in the monster of a blizzard sat with her, wreaking havoc on her mind.
“It’s freezing in here,” Cara said, swiping her hands up and down her arms after she set down her bags.
“Seriously, Care – quit complaining. We’re in a massive cottage on vacation. If you’re cold, start a fire,” Liam said, pointing toward the fireplace.
“I wasn’t complaining. I was just saying,” Cara mumbled under her breath as she walked toward the hearth.
As Liam went to work on getting the heat running, Cara built a pretty good fire in the fireplace. She was actually pretty surprised how easy it was. She hadn’t built and started a fire since she was a kid and was kind of doubting she still had the skills to get it going. But it started blazing right away with enough kindling. Once the fire was roaring, she began wandering down the hallway to lay claim on a bedroom. First come, first serve, right?
Each room was bigger than the next, but she found a nice sized one that had a connecting bathroom with a Jacuzzi tub, and she was set.
“CARA!” She heard Liam bellow in almost a frightened tone. She took off running back down the hallway toward the main room.
Black smoke was billowing out of the fireplace as Cara stood wide-eyed watching as Liam furiously tugged at the fireplace’s flue chain.
“Liam, oh my god,” she gasped.
“It won’t open,” Liam said, looking back at her with an almost panicked look.
“I pulled it open when I started it. I’m not an idiot,” Cara immediately defended herself.
“I’m not saying you didn’t. I’m saying it’s broken and never opened in the first place,” Liam shot back at her.
“What are we going to do?” Cara asked, coughing from the clouds of smoke the fire was producing.
“We’ve gotta put it out. The flue’s broken. There’s nowhere for the smoke to go except into the cottage,” Liam said, rushing toward the kitchen. Cara followed quickly.
“We need water. Fill up these bowls,” Liam said, grabbing a couple of large mixing bowls out of the cabinet.
Once he filled his bowl in the sink he immediately rushed over to the fireplace and doused the fire with the water, which seemed to do the trick. But Cara still threw her bowlful on it for good measure.
“Does this place even have smoke alarms?” Cara asked, looking over at Liam with furrowed brows.
“Broken flue, no smoke alarms. Seems legit,” Liam said, shrugging his shoulders, making Cara laugh with his sarcastic wit.
And a second later, out of nowhere all the lights went out on them.
“And no power. Brilliant,” Liam added flatly, sarcasm rolling out with his words.
“Are you fucking KIDDING ME!?” Cara shouted, throwing her arms up in the air.
Liam and Cara just stood looking at each other for a moment through the darkness, trying to fathom what the hell they were going to do. Their predicament was overwhelming and not the least bit comical, but they both started laughing uncontrollably anyway.
“This would happen to us,” Liam laughed.
“It totally would. Just our fucking luck,” Cara laughed with him as she turned on the light on her cell phone so they could actually see.
Liam’s text tone pulled them out of their hysterics.
“Give me back my phone,” Liam said, holding out his hand.
“Not if it’s Chloe,” Cara said in the same snotty tone as before. She pulled his iPhone out of her back pocket and checked the sender.
Liam smirked at her, still holding out his hand, “jealous.”
“It’s Niall,” she said flatly, slapping the phone down in his palm, and watched as Liam quickly read the text.
“’The roads are pretty bad. Got a hotel. Terrible cell service. Be up in the morning,’” Liam read their friends text out loud.
“All of them?” Cara asked, looking wide-eyed at her best friend.
Liam looked at her like she was crazy, “well, yeah. They’re all driving up together.”
“So we’re just stuck… here… without power… without heat… left to die?” Cara asked dramatically.
“Shit,” Liam said, looking around the open space.
“What?” Cara asked, feeling the panic start to involuntarily swell in her chest.
“No heat,” Liam said, looking back into her eyes, looking slightly panicked himself.
“We’re halfway up a bleeding mountain, Liam – with NO POWER, NO HEAT, and a fireplace we can’t bloody use. We’re going to die,” Cara said dramatically.
Liam rolled his eyes at the drama queen, “we’re not going to die, Cara. Relax.”
Cara quickly looked down at her cell phone and began floating her arm around to try to gain better cell phone reception.
“Jesus Christ,” she grumbled, shaking the phone in her hand as Liam was busy doing the same thing to his.
“Seriously? No cell phone reception. Our friends are in a hotel somewhere. We’re miles away from civilization in a bloody blizzard, Liam!” Cara panicked.
“STOP TALKING!” Liam snapped, trying his best to think of a plan. Cara’s jaw snapped shut as her eyes widened, looking at her friend.
“Okay, we might die,” Liam said, letting his shoulders slump.
“LIAM!” Cara yelped, smacking his arm.
“I’m kidding,” he said unconvincingly.
“Liam, what are we going to do?” Cara whined.
“Well, hopefully they’ll get the power back on soon and the heat will come back on,” Liam said, really hoping his words would trigger their meaning.
“And if it doesn’t?” She asked, looking at him with wide eyes.
“Then we get naked,” he said seriously, looking over at her.
“LIAM!” Cara yelped again, smacking him across the chest.
“I’m serious!” Liam laughed, rubbing his chest where she hit him.
“No!” Cara protested.
“I’m serious, Cara. Body heat, alright. We get naked under a bunch of blankets and we snuggle,” he said with a smirk.
“Liam James, I am not getting naked with you, dude. You’ve already seen my boobs once in this lifetime! And frankly that was enough.”
“WHEN!?” He scoffed at her.
“When my bikini top fell off in the pool!”
“Oh Christ. When? When you were thirteen?” Liam laughed, rolling his eyes.
“Yes!” She said, crossing her arms over her chest, thinking of the memory. She was so embarrassed when it happened. So much so that she was still haunted by it today.
“Cara, that was over a decade ago,” he laughed out loud. To be honest, Liam had a few fantasies about Cara after he saw her boobs when they were kids. He’d never admit it out loud. But he did.
“Besides, they’ve sure as hell developed since then, haven’t they?” He said, poking her side right by her left boob.
“Liam!” Cara yelped, smacking his hand away.
“What?” He laughed mischievously.
“Don’t you dare,” she said, wagging her finger at him.
“What? You want to wrestle? It’ll warm us up a bit,” he laughed, bringing his shoulder down like he was about to tackle her.
“Liam James Payne!” She threatened, narrowing her eyes at him through the darkness.
Without another word, Liam charged her, picking her up swiftly at the waist and throwing her over his shoulder before tackling her onto the couch.
“I fucking hate you,” she said matter-of-factly as she swiftly went to re-doing her ponytail he just messed up.
“You love me,” he said confidently as he stood up straight and walked back toward the hallway leading to the bedrooms with his cell phone light to guide him.
“Where are you going?” She called out to him, but he didn’t answer.
“Alright. I’ll just stay here and get murdered by the fucking abominable snowman,” she mumbled under her breath.
Cara sat up straight on the couch and began fiddling with her phone again, trying to get some sort of a signal – maybe send out an S.O.S. or something.
“Okay, but seriously. Get naked,” Liam said a few minutes later, coming out to the living room carrying an armful of blankets.
“No way in hell,” Cara said, shaking her head. Liam scoffed at her, immediately dropping the pile of blankets on the floor.
“Wow, Care. You sure know how to deflate and completely stomp on a bloke’s ego,” Liam said, smirking at her as he turned on the battery-operated lantern he managed to find on his short quest through the cottage.
“Man-eater,” she said, pointing her finger back at herself as Liam set the lantern on the fireplace mantle, lighting up the room just enough for them to see each other.
“Nah. You just haven’t found the proper bloke yet,” Liam said, giving her a sideways smirk as his eyes danced up and down her body.
Cara shook her head as she kicked off her boots, “okay, seriously. Don’t give me that look right before I’m about to get naked in front of you for the first time in the fifteen years we’ve known each other, okay. That’s not working for me.”
“You’re getting naked?” Liam asked, sounding a little more excited than he had wanted to. Cara’s eyes widened as she looked back at her best friend.
“Shut it. Just lay out the blankets,” Liam said, rolling his eyes again as he took off down the hallway to get more bedding. He planned on grabbing every blanket he could find so they at least were lying on something comfortable while they froze to death.

Notes

Sorry that I'm bombarding this website with all my stories... but, ugh... I have a lot. I'm still not done posting new stories. I hope you don't mind. Let me know what you think! Vote, rate, review - please & thank you!