The Time Bubble Box Set 2, стр. 29
The décor was shabby with faded, nicotine-stained wallpaperthat had been there since before the smoking ban over a decade earlier. Thechoice of beers was small and expensive, and you had to pay £2 just to get in.None of that stopped the dubious clientele flooding in there after midnightevery Friday and Saturday when it was open until 3am.
Amazingly, despite the slump in the pub trade in the earlytwenty-first century and other pubs getting late licences, it had survivedright until the end of the 2020s when the Black Winter came. After that, Mariodisappeared and was never heard of again.
By the time the group had reached Mario’s, the field hadbeen reduced from eight to five runners. One had gone to the toilet in The RedLion and never come back, while another was last seen vomiting in an estateagent’s shop doorway.
The third absentee had announced that he’d had enough andjoined the queue for the kebab van, much to the disgust of Dan who shoutedabuse at him all the way past the taxi rank.
This left just Dan, Ryan, Ben, Charlie and Josh to tacklethe final hurdle.
“This is it!” exclaimed Charlie, as they stood in line topay their £2 to a bored and grumpy, middle-aged woman with dyed purple hair.She was sitting on a stool outside the front door smoking a cigarette. “We’vemade it to Mayfair.”
“And it’s hard to imagine a place less classy than the realMayfair than this dump,” said Josh.
“I’m smoking a Mayfair, does that help?” said the heavilymade-up woman, taking their £2 coins and dropping them into an empty ice creamtub. She didn’t seem remotely bothered by Josh’s blatant insult of her place ofemployment, but then she probably agreed. She wasn’t exactly oozing happinessfrom every pore.
“It’s a pretty tenuous connection but it’ll do,” saidCharlie.
There were few people inside, enough to count on one hand,but that was par for the course for this time of night. It may have been quietin terms of customers, but in terms of noise it certainly wasn’t, as there washardcore drum ’n’ bass music pounding out.
The dance floor area at the back of the pub was akaleidoscope of flashing red, blue and green disco lights. In the booth behind,an enthusiastic, dreadlocked young DJ wearing headphones he never used waspretending to scratch over a pair of non-existent decks which were in reality alaptop.
Quite who he thought he was impressing was anyone’s guess ashe had no audience. This would all change in a couple of hours when the dirtyand cracked wooden dance floor would be crowded with revellers who would danceto anything in their inebriated state.
The five survivors of the Monopoly board challenge would belong gone by then. They had just had one pint to go after which they could allgo home. It was now only twenty-five minutes to midnight which was when Joshwas scheduled to return to his own time.
All he had to do was finish this last pint, even though hisbody was telling him he didn’t want it. This body was going to have a terriblehangover in the morning but luckily, he wouldn’t be around to suffer it.
Finishing his last pint was about to become the least of hisworries. Still standing at the bar with the others as the barmaid pulled theirpints, he was suddenly almost knocked over by someone barging into him frombehind. Was Dan trying to knock him over again? He really wanted to swing forthat idiot.
But he soon realised it wasn’t Dan, but a new problem.Before he could turn around, his vision was impaired by a pair of sweaty handsthat had been unceremoniously clamped over his eyes.
“Guess who?” came a familiar voice from behind.
“Lauren,” he replied, wondering what sort of mischief shehad in mind, as if he couldn’t guess.
“Right first time,” she said, removing her hands, enablinghim to turn around to see her cheeky grin, framed as ever by her cute bob ofblack hair. She had a flirtatious and lustful look in her eye, one he knew onlytoo well.
Next to him Kaylee had flung her arms around Charlie and waskissing him. He wasn’t going to get any help distracting Lauren from those two,the way they were engrossed in each other.
Although Josh felt uncomfortable in Lauren’s proximity, hewas able to derive a degree of further satisfaction from the miserable look onDan’s face. He had hated it when Josh and Charlie had got together with Laurenand Kaylee, and had been intensely jealous ever since.
The youthful Lauren before him twirled her hair playfullybetween her fingers, leaned forwards and said brazenly, “I’m feeling so hotright now. How about you take me into the toilets and bang me senseless?”
Josh wasn’t shocked by this at all: it was par for thecourse where Lauren was concerned. He had fond memories of various encounterswith her when they were young in risqué public places. However, he had nodesire to relive one of them now. He would have to try and stall her.
“There’s plenty of time for that,” he said. “How about adrink first?”
“I’m horny now,” she insisted. “Come on.” She grabbed hishand and began trying to lead him away from the bar. He glanced up at the clockover the bar to see it was still well over ten minutes until midnight.
“Hey, where do you think you’re going?” protested Dan. “Itold you I wanted to see you finish every pint.”
Remarkably, it looked as if Josh’s arch nemesis may havecome to his rescue, but Lauren wasn’t to be dissuaded.
“He’s coming to give me one in the toilets,” retortedLauren. “Got a problem with that?”
“Actually, Lauren,” said Josh, desperate to fend off herattentions, “I had better finish this pint first. We all agreed that we had tofinish by midnight. Can’t you hang on until then?”
“You’ve got more than enough time,” said Lauren, glancing upat the clock. “This isn’t going to take long – not the way I’m feeling. You’llbe back here with time to spare.”
She simply wasn’t taking no for