The Watch – Part 119:

‘You know, I don’t think I’ve consumed this much pizza in such a short period of time before,’ Amy said as she enthusiastically tucked into her twelfth piece of pepperoni pizza. ‘I’m not complaining or anything, just pointing it out.’

We didn’t fancy watching anything. We just wanted to relax our minds and have a casual conversation. ‘All this time travel stuff makes you really hungry,’ she said through a mouthful.

‘There was this one time…’

‘At band camp,’ Amy said smoothly.

I looked at her silently with an expression saying, ‘really?’

‘Sorry,’ she chuckled, ‘couldn’t resist.’

‘Anyway,’ I continued, ‘there was this one time when me and Tom were home alone together for two days, and all we had for dinner and tea was pizza.’

‘And what did you have for breakfast?’ Amy through another mouthful.

‘Last night’s pizza,’ I said casually, taking a chunk out of my slice.

‘I’m surprised you didn’t eat all the pizza the night before,’ Amy said.

‘Oh, there was a lot of pizza,’ I emphasised. ‘That was when I discovered that there really is such a thing as too much pizza.’

‘I’ve yet to discover that,’ Amy popped in the last part of her slice into her mouth just before picking up another.

‘I’m surprised you didn’t get bored of it, but then again, how is that possible.’

‘It isn’t,’ I said after swallowing the last bit of my first piece and picking up my twelfth.

‘So, I know this is probably something that we can figure out later on,’ Amy began, ‘but I’m just curious as to what we do with that video Oliver took back in Mistley and how we are supposed to upload it to the internet before we see it?’

‘Oh yeah, the video,’ I said in that tone which told Amy I had completely forgotten we even had a video. ‘I guess there is just one simple solution,’ I shrugged casually.

‘What’s that?’

‘Going back in time and upload it then.’

‘Of course,’ Amy said face-palming herself and smearing a small amount of grease, cheese, tomato sauce on her forehead, as she couldn’t believe she didn’t think of that answer before. ‘And that’s the sign that I really do need a lie down now.’

‘I wouldn’t miss the opportunity to grab some sleep myself,’ I said, finishing my twelfth. I was reaching for my thirteenth when my body actively started to protest against the amount of pizza it had in its stomach. I wasn’t necessarily feeling unwell; it was more of a warning sign, signalling that if I continued, I would make myself sick. When I officially stopped eating and lent back against the cushions on the sofa did I really feel just how much I had eaten. I don’t think I would be able to move for some time.

‘It’s going to be rather quiet for a while until we figure out what we’re going to do next, isn’t it?’ Amy pointed out.

‘I’m sure there’s something we can do together. I can give Tom a call and we can go and hang out with him if you like,’ I suggested.

‘I’d like that. We can break away from all of this science-fiction stuff for a while and focus on the ordinary.’

‘I wouldn’t mind getting my hands dirty doing an everyday activity for a change.’

I burped long and loudly. Amy’s eyebrows rose with surprise.

‘Woah,’ I exclaimed. ‘I’m not even sorry for that, that was impressive even for me.’

Amy struggled to keep herself together and started laughing.

‘That was absolutely disgusting, but you were so casual about it afterwards,’ she explained. She finished her final slice and copied my posture by leaning against the cushions as well.

‘Yep, I’m done,’ she said, patting her stomach with a job-well-done smile. ‘Oh, hang on,’ she said, and then she let loose a burp that rivalled mine.

‘And since you didn’t apologise for yours, I’m not apologising for mine. To be honest, it felt good actually,’ she added as if that was a small achievement.

‘Fair enough,’ I said accepting the tie.

‘I don’t think I can move. I may be here for some time.’ Amy did look tired.

‘I know what you mean,’ I agreed.

We just sat on the sofa, letting our bodies process the tonne of pizza we had just consumed.

‘You have to admit though,’ I said, turning my head to look at Amy. That movement was all I could manage. Her head flopped to one side as she focused on what I wanted to say.

‘What?’

‘That it was fun,’ I smiled.

‘Oh, totally,’ Amy agreed. ‘I haven’t had that much fun since a group of us went paintballing.

‘I didn’t know you were into paintballing,’ I said not hiding my surprise.

‘I’ve only been the once. There was a group of six, including me. I liked how we had to think tactfully in order to disperse our members so that we could overpower the enemy team, only to have them jump out at us from behind and take the lot of us out simultaneously. It really was a thrilling experience. How about you. Do you like paintballing?’

‘I’ve never thought about it, to be honest,’ I admitted.

‘Is that your way of saying that you never fancied mingling with that kind of atmosphere and getting shot with a load of paintballs in the crotch,’ Amy said deadpanned.

‘Yeah,’ I admitted straight away without trying to be so blunt.

‘I think it would do you good to get out there and have a go at it. You can’t say you don’t like it if you’ve never done it before,’ Amy persuaded.

‘True,’ I said thoughtfully, not denying the logic behind that.

‘Has Tom gone paintballing before?’ Amy asked.

‘Twice.’

‘And he has tried to tempt you into going twice.’

‘Um…’

‘That’s a yes,’ Amy said not backing down. ‘So how about it then. You, me, Tom and probably someone else to make up the numbers, going paintballing. It’ll be fun.’ She looked at me with those eyes – those beautiful, pressurising eyes that I had no choice but to say yes to.

I hesitated with my answer, allowing Amy to strengthen her persuasive attack. She didn’t soften the next assault, instead hitting me with everything she had.

‘Oh, alright then,’ I gave in, ‘let’s do it. You, me, Tom, and someone else to make up the numbers, going paintballing.’

‘That’s the spirit,’ Amy said, smiling with excitement.

Besides I have defeated an army of robots – some of them the size of a skyscraper –  I’ve stopped a few skyscrapers from smashing into the Earth with the objective of obliterating it to smithereens; a half a day of paintballing can’t be that bad, can it?

‘Do you want to crash here for the night instead of walking back?’ I asked, moving on

‘As much as I believe a good walk to my house would help me digest the pizza, I’m just so tired I might drop half way; if you don’t mind, that is?’ she added with a superb transition.

‘I wouldn’t have suggested it if I did,’ I answered casually.

‘Good point.’

Amy leant over and spontaneously hugged me.

‘What’s this for?’ I said, accepting the hug.

‘For being smart,’ she said retracting.

‘You were just as, if not smarter than I,’ I said.

‘Yeah, well, hug me back then,’ she said.’ Good logic, and so I did.

TO BE CONTINUED...