london boy | wroetoshaw

thirty six

For Mia and Harry, the next day was a lot busier than their first day in Manchester had been. The two left their hotel at a quarter to noon, meeting Rosie and her boyfriend at a local brunch spot to start off their day. Mia watched with raised eyebrows as Harry devoured what anyone would think was his first meal in years. Devoured wouldn't even begin to explain what he was doing, considering he practically inhaled every last crumb.

"Have you never seen him eat or something?" Rosie chuckled, taking note of the disbelief and slight disgust on Mia's face.

"No, no, of course I have." Mia shook her head whilst laughing, "I've just never seen him move so fast this early in the morning."

"I don't like whatever's going on here, I don't like it." Harry grumbled, covering his mouth full off food with his hand as he glared at the two girls, waving his other hand back and forth in the air to motion between them.

After what could only be described as a lively brunch, Rosie took the pair on a tour of her university. A tour which consisted of Mia paying attention and Harry making the occasional comment about how thankful he was that he didn't go to uni because he simply would've been unable to deal. Once they had walked through the beautiful campus, visited Rosie's flat, and stopped for some drinks the sky had already started to turn dark.

The night time sky was surprisingly clear, not a drop of rain in sight with just the starry dark sky watching over them as they walked through the streets of Manchester. There was a wintertime festival that was somewhere near the University that Rosie wanted to take them to see, and while she admitted from the start it was nothing compared to the one in London she still thought it was worth them taking a look.

Mia stood beside Rosie and watched from the side of the fence as Harry shoved his wallet into his back pocket whilst he was in front of the ticket booth. He nodded at the man behind the glass, mumbling a quick 'thank you' before grabbing onto the tickets being passed to him.

She smiled at him as he walked up to the three of them, handing everyone their own ticket before standing beside her. Rosie and her boyfriend, James, started walking ahead with Mia and Harry in toe, occasionally turning around to include them in their conversation. But whilst they headed over to the entrance, both pairs were more or less having their own separate conversations.

Though the winter festival in Manchester was nothing in comparison to London's Winter Wonderland over in Hyde Park, it was no less magical to Mia. The lights strung around everywhere, the children running up and down the roads, the ice rink in the center, and the pure joy in everyone's face. She looked around with wide eyes, feeling like a little girl as she took in the holiday spirit that was flowing through the festival.

"You a fan of the holiday's?" James asked as he turned around to look at Mia, laughing at the excitement on her face.

"Anyone who isn't a fan isn't living life right, mate." Mia said, a serious expression as she answered him.

"I didn't know you liked Christmas so much?" Harry said, a small furrow in his eyebrows as he looked down at her.

"We were always traveling when I was younger, so Christmas was the only time we'd be over in Scotland no matter what. It was our family tradition, same with Cal and Megan. We'd always celebrate the holidays together, it was just our thing." Mia explained, referring to Cal and his younger sister.

The group walked over towards the line that was besides the hut selling warm drinks, mostly because Rosie and Mia had declared they wanted hot chocolate.

"So you're Scottish? You don't really have much of a Scottish accent though?" James asked as they stood in the line, raising his eyebrows.

"That's true, your accent is a bit like Cal's." Rosie added on, referring to the mixed accent the both of them have.