Hello everybody! Thank you so much for reading and for leaving me such lovely reviews on the last chapter. I replied to all the ones that I could, meaning the non-anonymous ones, and am now back with chapter 2 for you. I'm not feeling very confident about this one, feeling that it could have been a bit longer and that it ended a bit unnaturally but I got very stressed out while writing this due to some university stuff that came up, so I apologize immensely for that!

And again, the events in this story are true, but I sadly have nothing to do with Skins, nor do I own these characters.

Chapter 2: Potentially Lost Buses in Blizzards

We were sitting on the bus next to each other, Emily fidgeting awkwardly, poking her fingers through her knit blue hat, which she'd now taken off. I wasn't sure if she was fidgeting because she was nervous around me or because she desperately wanted a fag. I could relate on both counts.

"So what brings you to Paris?" she asked with a shy smile as she continued to look down at her hands. Definitely nervous.

"Oh you know, London Heathrow closed due to four inches of snow so Air Canada sent me here for a lovely little vacation while I waited two or so hours for the snow to melt," I replied sarcastically, my dry humour making Emily laugh. "You?"

"Pretty much the exact same thing!" She said as she shrugged. "Who would have guessed?"

I laughed, maybe a bit too loudly as people around us started to turn around and stare at us. We were still waiting for the bus to finish loading up before we drove to Euro Disney.

I looked out the window and my stomach (and smile) dropped at what I saw. The sky had turned dark and grey, and it was a total white out. Snowflakes the size of my fist were falling, and I had a horrible feeling that even if Heathrow opened up tomorrow, Charles DeGaulle would be closed.

"Right mess we're in, aren't we?" Emily asked gently beside me. I merely nodded.

"I just wanted to get home in time for Christmas, you know?" I said, the stress and worry finally getting to me and making me feel horribly sad. "Work sent me out to Toronto last minute and I couldn't get out of it. It's been two weeks since I've seen my mates or my mum. Being alone in a strange city for two weeks during the holidays wasn't easy."

I looked down at my own hands and fiddled with the strap of my purse. Emily put her hand on top of mine and squeezed gently.

"It's okay to feel scared, Naoms," she said gently. I nodded and sniffled, possibly due to the cold and possibly due to the overwhelming urge to cry my heart out. "At least we're not totally alone now. I'll keep you company."

I smiled and nodded before she removed her hand from on top of mine. We sat quietly next to each other for a little while until the bus finally pulled away from the terminal, though how the driver was able to see where she was going was a total mystery to me, what with the blizzard she was now driving in.

Emily and I settled in for the drive, she pulling out her cell phone to try to get a signal, and I pulling out a hat, scarf, and mittens to try to keep warm. I was absolutely exhausted at this point, and figured that since we were in for a bit of a drive I may as well get some shut eye. I tried to get comfortable, resting my head against the window, but the bus kept bobbing up and down and made my head knock against it uncomfortably.

"Naomi?" Emily asked in an amused voice. I looked over to see that she was trying desperately not to laugh at me. "You can always lean on me if you want to sleep."

I smiled, relieved that she had offered and saved me from potential concussion and cuddled up into her shoulder, moving the arm rest that separated us back. She was so warm and comfortable and smelled delicious. It was easy to fall asleep, leaning on her.

"Mum, don't worry, I'm fine," Emily said in a hushed voice as I slowly woke up. I didn't dare move though, I was far too comfortable. "The airline is putting us up in a hotel for the night and arranging flights for us tomorrow. I'm sharing a room with a girl named Naomi...yes, mum, a girl!... I don't know, she could be...look, I've got to go, we're pulling up to the hotel. I'll talk to you tomorrow. Goodnight."

She hung up with a huff and put the cell phone back in her bag rather aggressively. As tempted as I was to continue leaning on Emily, my neck was starting to hurt a bit and if we really were at the hotel I'd have to get up. I yawned and made a big show of sitting upright again. I looked over at Emily to see that she was smiling at me.

"Sorry, did I wake you?" She asked as I ran my fingers through my hair and trying to assess whether I'd made a total mess of it or not. I shook my head and she nodded. "I think we're either lost or almost at the hotel," she said, her voice sounding tired.

"What do you mean?" I asked, looking out the window and trying to understand what she meant.

"Well, we've been driving around in circles for about a half an hour, and I'm not sure if that means we're completely lost or the driver just can't see the bloody hotel in this blizzard," she replied as she rubbed her eyes. I nodded and continued to look out the window into the pitch black roads. The snowflakes falling were illuminated by the lights from within the bus, and they were still the size of my fist.

Emily grabbed my hand and squeezed tightly again. "I'm kind of scared, Naoms," she said quietly. I smiled at the nickname she gave me and turned to look at her.

"Me too, Em," I said as I squeezed her hand back and gave her my best reassuring smile. "But, like you said, at least we're not totally alone."

She smiled at me just as the bus driver pulled into the hotel driveway. Her eyes brightened up at the sight of the huge Easter Island-like sculptures that were dotted around the hotel and I smiled.

We got off the bus and hauled our suitcases out, which was really quite difficult considering there was already a foot of snow on the ground and rolling our suitcases was nearly impossible. I was thankful I'd worn boots on the plane at this point, but Emily had no such luck and had snow in her running shoes. She was a pretty good sport about it, squealing and laughing and trying not to let me see how she was shivering or how her teeth were chattering. Luckily we were one of the first ones in the hotel lobby and were able to get checked in right away.

We decided to put our bags up in the hotel room and possibly get changed and showered before coming back downstairs in search of fags and food. We made our way up to our room just as most of the people started flooding in from outside with their bags and started to check in. Emily smiled at me, her eyes warm and happy, probably because she knew we now had a place to sleep tonight. I had to admit it was quite a relief, a small bit of comfort when I was feeling so out of sorts. But to be honest, I'm not sure if the idea of a bed was what was truly comforting. Part of me wondered if what was really comforting was the gorgeous redhead standing next to me, pulling chunks of snow out of her running shoes and smiling as she did so.

Thank you so much for reading! Please let me know what you thought in a review :)