Romance Update

First off, apologies for no update last week, been busy with Irredeemable research.

This week's short is a bit of a prequel to the Jeff and Deb short that I posted a few weeks back, a bit of how they met. I wanted to make it more "romancy" but it ended up being a bit more "plotty," if that makes any sense. I'm doing some serious work on the updated Irredeemable so hopefully I'll be working on that next week.


I just wrote this and haven't edited it, so please disregard any mistakes.

Jeff and Deb Meet
By Tim Harvey

Deb jerked her head forward, the rush of tequila sliding down her throat, warm and dangerous, made her eyes water.
“Woo!” Sally choked and threw her fist into the air.
Deb laughed at her friend and threw an arm around her shoulder, “best night ever?”
Sally nodded, coughing. A few other girls standing at the crowded bar of the nightclub exchanged glances, smirked and stepped away from Sally.
“Fuck em,” Deb whispered to Sally, noticing they were being made fun of. Sally nodded, trying not to cough, her throat burning with the tequila. She wasn't quite sure what Deb was talking about, but she smiled and nodded anyway.
“Hey, let's sit down... somewhere.” Sally's head was spinning, she had major trouble keeping up with Deb, who could drink her under the table on most occasions.
Deb nodded and grabbed Sally by the elbow, guiding her towards a booth near the dance floor. Deb slid easily through the crowd, she was used to navigating the flood of drunken elbows and feet flying around imitating dance. Her nostrils flared with the usual overpowering scent of sweat, cologne and perfume. Among those smells, her nose caught a whiff of something very sweet, something she had been looking for.
Halting abruptly and dismissing Sally, who had walked into her back, Deb stood still and surveyed the crowd, finally landing eyes on what she was after.
“There!” She exclaimed and Sally raised her head, nodding, her eyes closed.
Deb quickly sat Sally down in the nearest booth and made her way through the crowd again, back towards the bar. She had smelt this scent only once before and was determined not to miss her chance again. Deb twisted and turned as she made her way between people, all of them seeming to sweat profusely. Her high heels stuck to the floor as she walked, the soles of her shoes glued to innumerable spilt drinks. She felt if she stood still for too long she wouldn't be able to move at all. That's how she felt about most things in her life these days, she realised. Her skirt felt too short, she also realised. Her hairstyle felt... too young. She slowed her walk through the crowd. Her focus lost, she found herself waiting for people to move, instead of sliding gracefully past them. She felt old.
You're only twenty-three, Deb, she thought. What are you talking about feeling old? But as she looked around she got the eerie feeling that everyone in the club was younger than her. Hell, that guy over there couldn't be older than sixteen, she thought.
She realised that she was still deep inside her thoughts when she noticed that she was already standing at the bar.
“Finally,” she mumbled to herself. Finally, she could get what she was after. She could see it now, perfectly poised behind the bar. She had been waiting for this for quite some time.
Deb gave her best smile to the bartender and tucked her hair behind her ear. He looked over and smiled back, quickly finishing up with his customer, he headed straight towards her.
“Hey,” she said.
“Hey,” he replied. “What'll it be?”
She had been waiting for this for so long and now it was finally happening.
“I noticed you had that new vanilla and cherry vodka. I'll take a shot of that.” She had done it.
The bartender chuckled, “that's popular stuff.” He shook his head and grabbed the perfectly poised bottle from behind the bar. It smelt just as Deb had remembered, and it tasted better than she could have imagined.
“Oh yeah, that's the stuff.” She smiled and reached for her purse to pay for the drink.
The smile faded as she realised she had thrust her purse into Sally's lap when she seated her in the booth.
“Problem?” The bartender raised an eyebrow.
Oh shit, Deb thought. You look like real idiot now, Deb. What? You must look like a real piece of trash now, Deb. Where is this coming from? She stopped the rush of negative thoughts as soon as they had started. She had never thought about herself like that before, and she didn't like it.
Deb put on her best smile and was about to explain her predicament when a tanned, smooth hand slid a twenty across the bar in front of her. The bartender gave the guy a crude look but accepted the money and disappeared.
Deb went to thank the guy for the generous act but stopped cold, it was the guy who looked as if he was sixteen. He was taller than her by quite a bit, his ashen blonde hair in medium length spikes and his skin was tanned. But he looked ridiculously young, she thought.
“Thanks, kid.” She scoffed before quickly leaving the bar.
Catching a quick glance at the boy over her shoulder as she walked back to her booth, she couldn't help but feel like a bitch when she noticed his slumped shoulders and nervous glances at the bartender. He didn't look at me though, she thought.

As she got back to the booth she gasped when she saw two guys hanging around Sally. Deb no longer felt like the oldest person in the club as she saw that one of the men was well into his thirties, and seated across from Sally. The other stood, leaning on the side of the chair, blocking Sally's ability to exit the booth. Not that Sally was in any position to make an escape, her head was in her hands and her elbows rested on the table.
“Heyyy... Deb-Bra!” Sally's eyes lit up as Deb rushed over to her.
“Hey I'm gonna get outta here, Debbb.” Sally slurred, the two men exchanged glances and chuckled.
“Yeah, okay let's go,” Deb quickly answered, her heart racing. She stood next to the table and grabbed her purse.
“Nooo, Deb. I'm... I'm going with these guys.” Sally waved her hand through the air, attempting to gesture towards the two men but instead indicating the entire club.
“No that's all right guys, I got this. Come on Sal, let's go.” Deb wanted to grab Sally but one of the men stood between them.
“No, don't worry about it Debs,” the seated man said. “We can give Sally here a ride.”
“We can give you a ride too, babe.” The other man said.
Deb took a step back from the man, just in case he went to grab her. He wouldn't want to grab you, Deb. Shut up!
“All right! Listen to me you fucking idiot. You'd better get out of here right now, or I'm calling a bouncer.” Deb stood, shaking, but with more than a hint of confidence in her voice. After all, what could they do to us in here?
The two men just laughed at her.
“Don't worry about that, Debs,” the seated man said, laughing. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a beaten leather wallet. Deb shook harder as he flicked it open and she saw his security identification sitting right above his driver's licence.
He was the fucking bouncer? Should have thought of that, Deb. Stop it, I'm thinking.
She didn't know what to do, she couldn't hurt these two huge guys. There was no way out of this. Maybe if they went with them? Maybe she could call the police once they were outside? That sounds dangerous, Deb. What else can I do?
“Fine, you win,” Deb sighed. “Let's go.”
The two men exchanged cautious glances but eventually shrugged, realising they had the upper hand. The seated man stood up and grabbed Sally's hand. Sally just raised her head and smiled, her eyes closed. The man standing near the booth started walking towards the door and that's when Deb chose to strike. She threw her arm towards the man holding Sally's hand, her fist connecting with the side of his face.
“Hey, shit.” He wasn't quite sure what happened but he let go of Sally and that was all that Deb needed. She threw her arm around Sally's waist and guided her towards the exit. The two men stood confused for a moment then carefully followed the two girls through the club.
What now, Deb? There is a taxi rank outside, if we're quick, we can get one before those creeps can make it out of the club.
Before they could get anywhere near the door Deb's ability to glide through the crowd was suddenly thwarted by a tall, awkward young guy, who had obviously not spent enough time in clubs before.
“Hey.” He looked nervously down at Deb.
“Jesus, get outta the way idiot!” She almost yelled at him.
“Wha- Oh... sorry.” He shuffled out of the way but it was too late, the two men had caught up.
“Hey thanks for finding our girlfriends buddy,” one of the men smiled at the blonde guy.
“Oh... Sure,” the guy nervously looked away and began to leave.
“Wait!” Deb screamed.
People began to move away from the five of them, not concerned with getting involved. Most people in the club didn't even hear Deb's scream over the music.
The blonde guy stared at Deb, then shifted his gaze to Sally.
“Don't worry about it buddy,” one of the men clapped the blonde youth on the shoulder and began to guide the two girls towards the exit.
“Stop.” The blonde murmured, causing the two men to pause.
“I said, don't worry about it.” One of the men said sternly, his face now inches from the blonde guy's.
“I don't think these girls want to go with you.” The blonde youth stood his ground.
Jesus, they'll kill him, Deb thought. You got him into this mess, Deb.
She stood, mouth hanging open, and watched the three men square off. Well, two men and one kid. The blonde guy was tall though, as tall as the two men. He must play a sport, Deb thought and caught herself there. This wasn't the time or place for staring at guys. You should be getting Sally out of here while they're distracted, she realised. But, she couldn't take her eyes off the three of them.
Suddenly one of the men threw a fist at the boy.
The impact caused her to jump, it looked as if there was no resistance at all. The man's arm flew and the boy's head flew back. He was on the floor before she could take a breath.
Deb wrapped her arm around Sally's waist and the two girls stared at the crumpled body of the blonde boy, lying on the ground. The crowd shuffled and there was a collective gasp, audible over the loud music. Even drunken Sally looked concerned.
Deb stood in shock as a Police Officer grabbed the man who threw the punch, and shoved him to the ground. The other man stood by, and Deb noticed he was talking to another police officer.
The man who threw the punch was being escorted away in cuffs and paramedics stood over the boy.
A woman led the two girls outside and Deb didn't let go of Sally's waist until her mother arrived to take her home.
Deb blinked and took a deep breath. The boy sat on a stretcher being wheeled past her.
Flashing blue and red lights echoed their reflections against the brick buildings of the main street in the city.
“Wait!” Deb called.
The paramedics stopped wheeling the boy and Deb ran over to him.
“What's your name?”
The boy slid the oxygen mask down, away from his mouth. His left eye was swollen closed but he managed a small, pained smile.
“Jeff. What's yours?”
“Deb.”
“Cool.”