When Maddie woke up on the morning of the 17th of July, she didn't feel any older despite now having a whole new number with which to describe herself. Then again, she had somewhat ruined that by referring to her age as 'almost twenty-one' for the past couple of months.

For several long seconds, she stared up at the ceiling fan and the twitching light she had forgotten to switch off before she had fallen asleep. It blinked above her, the bulb sputtering in its last leg of life, as though sending her a desperate help signal in morse code. Outside, the sun peeped its weary head out from behind a cloud, a thick band of yellow light seeping into Maddie's room and illuminating the peaceful particles of dust in the air that floated with no agenda. Just like Maddie. She had no plan for the day; she was just going to see what took her fancy.

That is, until she unplugged her phone from its charger on her bedside table, with the intention of checking the time, but instead she was faced with a series of Facebook notifications. Her newsfeed was already stuffed with well-wishers, some of whom she hadn't spoken to in years, but there were also a few new messages in her inbox. Letting out a gargantuan yawn, she stretched one arm up and opened her messenger app to see that all of the new messages were from Peter and without thinking, she opened them.

Maddie was certain she felt her heart stop. Then all of a sudden it sped up, beating twice as fast until she wasn't sure she could keep up. She lay pinned to her bed, weighted down beneath Peter's words. Perhaps it was the bluntness that shocked her, she thought, and when she lifted her phone to double check the messages, she realised her hand was shaking. Propelling herself to a sitting position sent blood rushing to her already spinning head and for a moment her eyes swam as she steadied herself. Whaddaya say? What did that even mean?

She knew Peter. She knew that once it hit midnight, marking the beginning of his birthday, he would have his first drink with his friends: there had been a time when they'd shared that celebration. Then he would drink a little more until his inhibitions began to back down. Though he never lost control of his spelling, his emotions tended to let loose after a few pints and judging by the time stamps of each message, he had stayed true to form. Celebratory was followed by cockiness, which led to inevitable sentimentality. More than once, Maddie had been forced to help a drunk and dozy Peter into a bed, his laden body draped around hers like a cloak.

She closed her eyes and raised her hands to her temples, massaging her forehead before she stood and padded over to her dresser. It was a mess inside, her socks and underwear mixed up with leggings and tank tops, so it took a few minutes to put together a half decent outfit and as she dressed, her head was elsewhere. One thing she knew about Peter was that no matter how soppy he could get once he started to drink, he never told a lie.

*

Her dad was already up: she could hear the muffled sounds of him going about his daily life downstairs and once she had managed to clear her head, she joined him in the kitchen.

"Morning, birthday girl," Jung-min said before he looked up from the page of the newspaper he was reading. He folded it shut and stood to hug Maddie, kissing her cheek. "You know, this time twenty-one years ago, I was holding you for the first time." He gave her a smile as he took his seat again, and Maddie sat opposite him. "Your mother and I had been cooped up in that room for almost two days, and then there you were." Shaking his head, he let out a long sigh. "I wouldn't have believed it then, but time flies."

"It really does," Maddie said, at once recalling that night in the restaurant five years ago, when she hadn't in a million years thought that Peter was serious about his napkin pact, and yet here he was, cashing it in. But was he? She couldn't be one hundred percent sure; maybe it was one of those things he had said in the heat of the moment. Maybe, like her, his friends knew. Maybe they had egged him on. But he wouldn't say it if he didn't mean it, she told herself, automatically frowning as she mulled it over. Posy would know.

"What's going on in there, ttal?" Jung-min tapped his skull, ripping her back into reality. "You're looking very solemn."

Seven years in her secondary school's drama club came rushing back to her and she executed a brilliant but not over-the-top smile. "I'm just thinking," she said, the words squeezing past the hundreds of distractions that cluttered her mind.

"Any thoughts about what you want to do today? It's your day, Mads."

There were lots of things Maddie wanted to do. There was plenty she needed to do, too. Deciphering Peter's message was one of those things, but not exactly something she could involve her father in when the last thing she wanted to do was explain to him that she had made such an agreement when she was sixteen. Instead, she shrugged.

"Nothing really," she said. "I might go and see Posy though, if that's ok?"

Jung-min glanced at her. "Why wouldn't that be ok? Of course you can see Posy. You're an adult, Mads. You can do whatever you want." He chuckled to himself and sipped his orange juice. "Now, I know you don't like to make a fuss but I have something for you."

Maddie tried to control the wince that instantly twinged her face. Birthdays had never really been her thing, hating to be placed right at the centre of attention and watched like a zoo animal as she opened gifts. Her father had eventually learnt that after her thirteenth birthday, when she had got through to him that she preferred a meal out or tickets for a show than the fanfare that came with a birthday. Every year since had been spent either out with her friends or in with her father.

"Don't worry," Jung-min said when he caught her expression. "It's just something small. No pressure. I can't give you nothing on your twenty-first, ttal. It's a big year."

A warm wave of gratitude washed through Maddie, accompanied by a sense of appreciation for her father that she knew she didn't vocalise nearly enough. "Thanks, Dad," she murmured, taking the small envelope he passed her and fingering the edges before she opened it with her nail and pulled out the card inside. When she opened it, a slip of paper fell out and she unfolded it to reveal a cheque for two thousand one hundred pounds. Her jaw dropped and her eyes widened, and she scanned it to ensure she had read it right.

"Dad ... what's this for?"

Jung-min smiled. "Just a token," he said. "I know it's not much in the grand scheme of things but it's something, just a boost if you want to take a year out."

Maddie stared in disbelief. She had wanted to take a break from education before she embarked on her masters degree, but money was an ongoing issue. The part-time job she had managed to hold onto for the duration of her three year degree had gone some way to boost her bank, and a combination of frugality and the generosity of her student grant and loan had given her a safety net that she knew she would have to dip into. Now, not so much.

"Wow," she said, lost for words. It was hard to elicit such a reaction from her given her stance towards birthdays, and gift-giving ceremonies in general, but now she was speechless. Disposable income was a rare luxury in the Hyun household but the two of them had settled into a pattern of thrift and appreciation two decades ago, and a little always went a long way.

"Twenty-one hundred for twenty-one years," Jung-min explained. "Just make sure you put it somewhere safe."

"Thank you, Dad. I don't know what to say," Maddie said, staring at the cheque as though it might spontaneously combust in her hand, and she looked up at her father. He held up his hands as though surrendering.

"You needn't say anything, ttal. Just be glad you're an only child, else your boost would have been more of a nudge." The lines around his eyes creased when he smiled, dark eyes glistening, and Maddie joined him on his side of the table to wrap her arms around his shoulders. He kissed her head and she held on for an extra couple of seconds before releasing her father and returning to her seat.

For a moment, she was so floored by the information rushing into and around her head that she was able to forget about her Peter quagmire but as soon as she began to eat and she and her father slipped into a comfortable silence, her quandary returned and her heart seized up. She needed to see Posy.

*

*

Maddie switched her phone to Do Not Disturb and zipped it into the pocket of her handbag, throwing her travel bag onto the backseat of her car. Any time there was a chance she could end up stranded somewhere, or if she planned to stay the night away from home, she made sure there was a bag of spare clothes and necessities in her car. She had been caught out before, forcing her to borrow a pair of Peter's boxers that she still had somewhere.

"Will you be back tonight?" Jung-min asked as Maddie pulled on a hoodie in the hallway. Despite being the height of summer, there was a slight chill in the morning air. As she she zipped it up, she slipped her feet into a pair of brown oxfords that had become the shoe equivalent of a best friend - always reliable; always there for her - and pursed her lips.

"I'm not sure." She pulled her hair over one shoulder and tightened the strap of her watch. Driving wasn't something she liked to do a lot, and though Posy's house was less than an hour's drive away, she didn't fancy doing the journey twice in one day. "I don't think so," she amended, thinking it through. "Do you mind?"

"Of course not, ttal. Have a good time with Posy, ok?"

Maddie almost laughed at the way her father still said her friend's name, pronouncing the s more like a c than the z that everyone else used. "I will," she said, kissing her father's cheek once she was ready. "Love you, appa. Don't go too crazy without me."

Jung-min smiled a wistful smile and folded his arms. "I won't," he said, and with that, Maddie left.

*

For a Sunday morning, the roads were fairly busy and once Maddie finally made it onto the motorway, she sat in a traffic jam. An accident two junctions ahead had closed all but one lane and cars trickled forward slower than a snail as the site was cleared. Maddie sighed and leant her head back, relaxing her hands on the wheel and turning up her music. She tended to get her recommendations from her housemates, with various playlists titled with their name and a number - Nick was the king of her library with six playlists that had successfully made their way into her phone - and she was struck with the realisation that they weren't her housemates anymore. A chill snaked out from the base of her neck and she clenched her teeth. Only one week into the life of a graduate, she wasn't sure she liked the look of it.

Forty-five minutes passed before Maddie had even crawled a third of the way to Posy's house. If she'd taken the country route, more B roads than As, she would almost be there by now but she hated the twisting route. Twisting was better than static, though, and she stared at the trail of red brake lights ahead of her for another minute before she took out her phone and dialed Posy's number.

"How's my favourite birthday girl?" Posy asked in place of a conventional greeting. "You're not driving, are you? Because I know you have the concentration of a flea so if you're driving, you hang up right now."

"I'm stuck in traffic," Maddie said. She ran a hand through her hair, a few strands catching on the clasp of her watch. "I just checked Google Maps and it says it's still gonna be an hour from here." She let out a long sigh. "How about we meet for brunch somewhere? I can probably be in town in about forty-five minutes."

"Ok, I'll see you at Chai Again at ten," Posy said. If a decision ever needed making, she was the one to go to: there was no humming and hawing with her, just a definitive choice. To someone like Maddie who struggled to be definitive about anything, it meant a lot. She smiled to herself and felt her shoulders relax.

"Thanks, Posy. You're a star," she said. Posy let out a wry chuckle on the other end of the phone before wishing Maddie a safe journey, and then she was gone. As though she had cast a spell, the sea of red lights faded and the traffic began to move a little more freely. Maddie's car juddered into first gear and inhaling deeply, she set off again.

*

Chai Again was exactly the kind of place that Maddie loved. From the cheesy name to the vibrant decor and the mustachioed waiters to the Californian surfer vibe, she adored everything about it, except its location. Ten minutes from Posy's house, it was almost an hour from her own. Her own town had no more than a series of big-brand coffee shops and two chain pubs, the only independent eaterie being a questionable diner that she was sure had once given her a funny tummy.

After parking at the top of a multi-storey car park, the only level with any space, Maddie trotted down five flights of stairs and her feet navigated her to the cafe on autopilot, outside which Posy was standing in a lime green playsuit that accentuated her plunging cleavage and the hip to waist ratio that Maddie couldn't help but admire. In typical Posy jaunt, she had paired the dress with a red sunhat and a pair of lace-ups so white they had to be brand new. A bulging yellow tote hung from her shoulder and dropped to her elbow when she spotted Maddie and flung out her arms.

"Mads!" she cried, engulfing Maddie in a suffocating hug. Despite being at least two or three inches shorter than her friend, Posy had the kind of presence that filled a room, her five feet and contested inch hardly containing her character. "How's your birthday going?"

"It's good," Maddie said, aware of the cheque burning a hole in her purse, but perhaps even more aware of the messages burning a hole in her phone: messages she had read, and that Peter would know she had read, but failed to reply to. "I have a bit of an urgent situation on my hands though. We should go in."

Despair laced with concern flashed across Posy's face, and she followed Maddie into the brightly lit cafe. The walls were dotted with frames that surrounded paint splatters of different heights and sizes, and all of the baristas wore white t-shirts with a whole host of multicoloured badges and patches.

Once they had ordered a couple of the cafe's notorious brunches and were seated at a distressed wooden table with a vase of bright, fake flowers between them, Posy clasped her hands and leant across the table.

"What's going on?" she asked, her voice low and steady. "You kinda freaked me out this morning. Something's happened."

Without a word, Maddie took out her phone and loaded up the messages that Peter had sent her within the first hour of her birthday. Posy read them, and then read them again, and her expression was completely unreadable. She put the phone down and inhaled slowly before letting the breath out even slower.

"Ok," she said. "Wow."

"You think he means it?"

Posy bit her lip. "I don't know."

"And what's he apologising for? For asking, or for us not being in touch so much?" Maddie let out an exasperated sigh. "I don't know what to do."

"Well, there's one very simple question you have to ask yourself." Posy pushed the phone back across the table and pulled her iced tea closer, pushing the paper umbrella to the side and sipping it through one of the three neon straws she'd been given.

"Which is...? What?"

Posy shrugged one shoulder and put her drink down. "Do you want to?"

Maddie hesitated, and a smug smile took over Posy's features.

"There's your answer," she murmured. The clink of ice against glass as she stirred her drink was the only sound between them, and Maddie's shoulders sank. The conversation abated when their food arrived, two full and steaming plates set down before them, and she paused with her cutlery in her hand.

"So what do I do?"

"Say yes," Posy said, as if it was that simple. "Worst case scenario, he backs down and you can say you were calling his bluff. If he means it, on the other hand, then you get to sleep with a guy I'm guessing you've liked for, like, ten years."

"I don't know."

"But you do like him, right?" Posy frowned and sliced into a poached egg that oozed orange yolk into the holes of her crumpet. Maddie did the same, dipping a chunk of avocado into the egg.

"I used to. When we were younger. But that's, like, three years ago." She shrugged and shook her head. "I hardly even know him anymore."

"So now's the perfect time to start. Just send him a message, ok? He's probably going crazy thinking you're avoiding him."

Maddie took her phone from the middle of the table and her fingers worked of their own accord, hitting send before she could change her mind. Her hands began to shake and she almost dropped the phone in her food, a mix of fear and elation bubbling within. Posy tipped her head to one side and took the phone, still open to the conversation.

A smile bloomed on Posy's lips before she asked, "Why Wednesday?"

"Dad's away then," she said. She forced a shaking smile onto her face. Three days. What would happen then, she had no idea: Peter might not even show up. He probably wouldn't even be the same Peter she had made the pact with. While she liked to think she was essentially the same person, she knew how much could change after five years: she wasn't a naive teen anymore. She was aware of the deal she had made, and she was aware of the consequences, her head full of things she hadn't understood when she was sixteen, but beneath the mountain of nerves and questions, a flutter of excitement prevailed.

Her phone buzzed again, Peter's response filling the screen, and Maddie and Posy just stared.

+ - + - +

and so it begins! first of all, thank you for 7,000 reads! that's insane. how're you liking maddie / posy / peter so far? what do you think will happen next? I love reading your comments so don't hesitate to leave them below! as for today's graphic, something a little more mature by justlyd for the little fiend that is maddie...

remember, if you want to make any sort of graphic for this story, please send it to me so i can add it to a chapter! this chapter is dedicated  to symptomatic_ for her kind comments on previous chapters!