𝐆𝐎𝐎𝐃 𝐑𝐈𝐃𝐃𝐀𝐍𝐂𝐄, original story

ten, nando's

harry: You here yet?

I didn't bother typing back a reply, instead I walked over to Harry's table, ignoring the waitresses complaints about me not having a table.

I sat opposite him on the bench, "Hi,"

We had decided to meet up in hopes to see Serena and Rob's date and discuss any leads Harry had gotten earlier and just to check we were both on the same page since most things had been done over text as of late.

"They are over there," Harry's blue eyes moved to his left, and that was where I saw Serena and Rob laughing and joking.

It wouldn't shock me if this was their thirtieth date instead of first, they seemed to get along well.

Maybe I had been wrong about them and Serena's intentions had been in the right place. Maybe she was over Matt.

"Did you get anything from her in class?" I had forgotten which one he said, I think it was one of the sciences but since I had biology followed by chemistry today I had no idea.

"I got that she was going to date Rob, apparently they have been talking for a month. She said something about him and Callum falling out around then too. That would set our timeline to mean that once Rob stopping hanging out with his usual friends he also gained a new lady friend," Harry then picked up a menu, and I followed suit.

"I think I'll have... the butterfly burger," i said, before adding, "Are we getting food here?"

Harry nodded, "My treat,"

"No, no. We can pay for what we get," Callum hadn't ever offered to pay for anything for me, often I had to pay for the entire meal.

"No, it's fine, Maddie. Let me pay," I wasn't exactly going to tell him no again, i wasn't stupid.

After about what felt like five minutes, the same waitress from earlier came to our table with a pen and paper, "Hiya, what can I get you to eat today?"

"I'll have a glass of water and a butterfly burger, please," I hadn't ever been to a Nando's before, my family figured it was spicy and, well... we were your typical white people who couldn't handle the slightest bit of spice.

"And for the very handsome gentleman?" There was a hint of seduction in her voice, of which Harry seemed oblivious too.

"Three Peri-Peri wings and Diet Coke," she nodded and said something about getting our drinks before scurrying off.

Harry took my menu from me and put it to the end of the table to be collected, or maybe out of the way. "She was totally into you,"

"She wasn't," Harry reassured me, to which I raised a challenging eyebrow, he leant into the table, "Even if she were, she wasn't my type,"

"And what's your type?" I think this was the first time we had talked like human teenagers instead of detectives, and it was refreshing.

"I'm not telling you that," Harry said, before turning his smile back into the usual line that was across his face.

"Alright, so I found out from Hope that her and Will haven't been hanging out. I think her exact words were 'ew, never', or something," Harry nodded, and seemed to tense up, as though the chatting had ended and business had started.

As Mum always told me: Don't mix work and pleasure.

"Do you think she's lying?"

"It's a possibility," I said, before explaining, "She has horrible taste in men. She often lies about her crushes and such,"

"Alright, well I talked to Matt in computer science and he was saying that Will's been talking to some girl for the past couple weeks,"

"You take computer science," I asked in shock, not many people took it at GCSE level unless they needed an extra subject. Lily only took it because she 'wanted to learn how to be a hacker' she was let down when we told her that wasn't how it worked, "Your such a geek,"

"A hot geek, according to that waitress," Harry reminded me, making me chuckle.

The waitress came back with the drinks and put them down opposite us, slipping Harry a sly wink which he didn't miss this time.

"Yeah, you were right. She liked me," Harry said it in a way like he was wishing she wasn't.

"Why don't you go for it then?"

"Because my birthdays in July, and I don't want to get someone in trouble,"

"That's sweet," in our conversation, we had forgotten about Serena and Rob.

I only remembered as they were now both not at the table, but their things still were.

"Hey, I'm gonna go to the loo real quick," i said, tilting my head in the tables direction. Harry noticed the table was empty.

"Good call, I'll keep the table occupied and when you come back I can go?"

"Yeah, sounds good," i said as i stood up from my chair and walked in the direction, making a beeline for the toilets.

Once i got inside, I saw Serena was talking on the phone and sniffling. Whether she was giggling or crying it was hard too tell.

"You okay?" I asked her, to which she hung up the phone and chucked herself at me.

I patted her back, not really sure what to do.

"I... I..." she pulled back, and it was now evident she was crying. The tears left marks in her makeup, of which some had smudged on my black T-shirt, as she noticed she apologised before attempting to continue her sentence, "I didn't want to, I didn't want to,"

"Didn't want to what?" She burst into tears again, snot was dribbling from her nose, I grabbed some tissues from a nearby stall and dabbed her nose and eyes until she grabbed the tissue from me.

"Rob... he wanted us to... you know... have sex. I didn't want too," forcing girls into uncomfortable situations was text book Rob.

He had been accused of touching up four girls this year, all because he decided to get a new mindset that was actually quite crappy.

"What did he do?"

The waterworks started again, "He... he touched my thighs and tried to put his fingers in,"

I pulled her into a big hug. Serena and I hadn't ever been close, but I had known her since we sat next to each other in Year Nine in art, and she had never lied. Even if she hung around people like Hallie Owens and Rhianna Davies, even if she had gossiped a bit.

Sweet Serena who was on the netball team and always wore makeup to cover up imperfections she thought she had wouldn't lie. Not about this.