Update

More Rob and Maddy. There seemed to be some technical issues with Blogger earlier, but this seems to have been resolved.
Also, at a healthy 11,203 words with this story, in under a week. Pretty happy with that.


Rob and Maddy: 7
Tim Harvey


The two bottles of water that Maddy had made him drink had gone straight through him.
'Okay, I drank the water. Now can I go to the toilet?' Rob asked playfully. He still felt drunk, but he knew the water would help. Some more food wouldn't hurt either. He realised that he was probably drunker than he should be because he had barely eaten that day.
Maddy checked her phone, 'Okay it's four o'clock. Meet back here in ten?'
She paused and gave Rob a quizzical glance.
'What's up?' Rob asked, trying to hide his slur.
'I didn't get to go to the toilet before,' Maddy frowned.
'Well just go in the men's, seriously.' Rob gave her a comforting smile, but she still seemed concerned.
'I don't know,' she looked away.
'I'll guard the door for you, seriously it's not that bad,' Rob held his smile and she laughed.
'Fine, but you better guard the door!' She flicked her eyes up at him, giving Rob a surge of confidence that seemed to wash the alcohol away. Rob held out her hand and Maddy took it in hers. He stopped for a moment and pulled her closer to him. Her chest rose and fell with great deep breaths and she stared up into his eyes. Rob placed his other hand on her shoulder and flicked her bright red hair with his fingers.
She gently rested her free hand on his hip, and stepped closer to him.
'About earlier...' Rob began to speak, but trailed off. He hung his head and kicked at the dirt between them.
He saw Maddy rise and fall on her toes, her red converse sneakers dusty but bright. He watched her slender calves tighten as she rose up on her toes, and the image sent a tingle through his hands.
He raised his eyes and stared into her great big eager green eyes, trying to find the right words.
'Just, thanks,' he felt stupid, that was the best he could come up with?
She looked down and he felt her hand slide under his shirt and rest against the skin of his hip. She was biting her lip, but stopped as she broke into a smile. She playfully nudged his stomach with her fist before looking up at him.
'You're welcome,' she said and held their hands up between them, 'Shall we?'
'Sure,' Rob said with a smile. She playfully began to skip, swinging their arms wildly between them as they headed over to the toilets. Rob liked it, although he liked it much better when she stopped and leant against him as they walked. Pressing their arms together send warm tingles shooting through Rob, and he wondered if she felt the same way.

As their arms pressed together, Maddy wondered if Rob was feeling the same tingles rising up through her fingertips as she was. He was probably still pretty drunk thought, she thought. He seemed to be okay now, and he matched her stride without any signs of intoxication as they headed towards the men's toilets.
As usual there wasn't any line and Rob smiled down at her, 'See.'
'Whatever,' she replied, flicking him a playful look.
'I'll go in first and check if the coast is clear,' Rob said and made his way up the steps. She smiled as he poked his head through the door and scanned the toilets.
'Quick,' he whispered, and waved her over to him.
Once they were inside she picked the cleanest looking stall and closed the door. She heard him walk over to the urinals and in the silence of the empty stalls she could hear him unzip his fly.
'You're supposed to be keeping watch!' She whispered jokingly.
'You're fine,' he replied and she blocked the sound of him relieving himself out of her mind.
Unfortunately the situation was too familiar for her and she found that she couldn't go, not with Rob listening. She sat there and waited until he finished and zipped himself up. She heard him wash his hands and then saw his shoes through the bottom of the stall door.
'Don't you dare peek!' She whispered.
'Do you want me to wait outside?' He offered.
'Yes please,' she said with a sigh of relief, 'And tell anybody that comes that the place is closed for cleaning.'
'Will do,' Rob said confidently and she heard him leave.
After she was done, Maddy washed her hands and exited the toilet to see Rob chatting with a clearly drunk guy.
'All done,' she said and grabbed Rob's hand.
'Come on mate!' The guy said, clearly frustrated.
'It's all yours,' Rob said, patting him on the shoulder with a smile. The guy shrugged and headed into the toilets.
'He wasn't upset, was he?' Maddy asked.
'Eh, nothing he can't handle,' Rob said with a grin.

'Hungry?' Rob asked as they walked past the food vans again.
'Yeah,' Maddy said, 'The line for the pizza place is pretty short now.'
Rob scanned the lines and saw that they were all considerably shorter than they were at lunch time. It was nearly half past four, too early for the dinner rush.
'You're really into that pizza, aren't you?' Rob said, grinning at her.
'Well, it's the only vegetarian option here, besides the baked potatoes,' she grimaced as she mentioned the potatoes.
'I didn't know you were a vegetarian,' Rob said. Of course that was why she didn't want a hot dog.
'Yeah, and I don't like potatoes either,' she squeezed his hand and looked up at him.
'Crazy,' Rob said playfully and shook his head.
'What?' She slapped his arm gently, 'I just don't like them.'
'Well I'm interested in this pizza. But I'm getting the meat lovers slice,' Rob gave her a smile.
'That's fine, I'm getting the veg, obviously,' she returned his smile.
Maddy nudged Rob's leg with hers as they sat, eating their pizza. The line moved pretty fast and they were eating in no time.
'Want this?' Rob said, holding up a slice of pepperoni.
'Eew,' Maddy grimaced.
Rob playfully held it out to her, waving it near her face.
She held her hands up and covered her face, 'Gross.'
Rob gently touched her hand with the slice of greasy meat. She flinched and he pulled it away quickly, before she could uncover her eyes.
'Was that?' She asked, her face straight.
'Was that what?' Rob said, sliding the peperoni into his mouth and chewing.
Her eyes narrowed and she gave him a cheeky grin. Her smile faded when she looked down at her hand and saw the drops of oil on her skin, 'Oh gross, Rob.'
'What?' Rob said shrugging, throwing her a playful smile. 'Wasn't me.'
She wiped her hand with the napkin, 'Better not have been you,' she said narrowing her eyes and giving him a sultry look.

'Why not?' Rob asked, chewing on his pizza slice. Maddy loved his playful teasing, she didn't really care about the gross pizza, but she liked the look in his eyes when she played along.
'Oh, you don't want to find out!' She said.
'Find out what? I'm telling you it wasn't me,' Rob said cheekily.
'The last guy who put his meat on...' Maddy trailed off, realising what she had said. She could feel her cheeks flush.
Rob managed a light chuckle, but didn't say anything. He stared at her expectantly.
'I didn't... You know what I meant,' Maddy said, trying to regain her composure.
'Sure, you don't like guys putting their meat on you,' Rob said, bursting into a giggle. She hadn't heard him laugh before, he had a gentle soft laugh. She felt her heart beat faster as he tried to control himself.
'Oh, you're just a big kid, aren't you?' Madd said, her cheeks burning.
'Big kid,' Rob repeated emphasising the word “big.”
He was still laughing at this when Maddy felt her heart sink. She spotted a group of rowdy looking guys pounding beers from across the eating area. She didn't know what to do when she saw that James was at the centre of the group. The guys were loudly laughing, but James was just nodding to another of the guys. His face had swollen up and he looked very pissed off.
Maddy hoped that they wouldn't notice her and Rob sitting at the table. She didn't need to tell Rob about it, he was still wiping his eyes from his joke. A rush of fear flew through Maddy as she saw a security guard approach the group and get promptly thrown to the ground. The guard would have been six feet at least, but he was dwarfed by the massive guys standing around James.
Maddy put her hand over Rob's, her eyes fixed to the group of drunks.
'What?' Rob asked, looking up at Maddy.
She froze as James made eye contact with her from across the area. She saw James' lips move and the guys all stopped laughing and turned to look at the two of them.
'What is it?' Rob asked again, but Maddy was too terrified to speak.