i'm beginning to feel like a rap dog a rap dog

please let me know if you enjoyed the chapter with a lil review

feel like this is very poorly written so apologies

On the walk back from school, Beth had wheedled the date out of her and was almost as excited as she was for it, both of them singing cheesy songs from the 80s and laughing. Maggie was practically vibrating with happiness by the time they arrived at the farm.

Hershel was checking over one of their mares when they came to the end of the long, dirt driveway and came out to greet them, smiling when Maggie wrapped him up in a bear hug. He was covered in horse hair and sweat and he fished a bandana from his back pocket to wipe his forehead before he spoke.

"Glad to see you're not moping around anymore," he said, squeezing her. "You finally sort things out with that Asian boy?"

"What?" Maggie squeaked, looking accusingly at Beth, who just shrugged apologetically.

"I'm not good at keeping secrets," she said nonchalantly. "And I told you, Daddy, he's called Glenn, not just 'the Asian boy'." She gave him a pointed look.

"At least you're not calling him Chinese." Maggie kissed Hershel's cheek, smiling. "We're going out tomorrow, to the cinema." The fact that this was the first date that either of his daughters had gone on wasn't lost on her, so she wasn't too annoyed when he hugged her to him a little tighter, eventually letting go.

He patted her shoulder and pulled Beth into a one-armed hug instead. "I want you to be happy. As long as you're happy, I'm happy." He pressed a kiss to Beth's head. "That goes for the both of you."

Maggie grinned. "He says I'm beautiful, Daddy. And I think he means it."

"He definitely means it," Beth chipped in. "Really, Daddy, he always smiles when he sees Maggie and does anything for her. He even wrote out all of his notes from classes for her. And there are like fifty pages from each class."

"Shut up," Maggie grumbled, but although her cheeks were hot she was smiling still. "I'm going to go do my chores, Daddy." She gave his arm a quick squeeze before jogging to the house, ignoring Beth's giggles and Hershel's chuckles as she told him about everything Glenn had done for Maggie.

Predictably, Tara had sent her a series of excited, fully capitalized, typo-filled texts about her date tomorrow, and Daryl, much to her surprise, had sent a congratulations and a blunt 'i'm here if u need anythin', which she could just imagine took him eons to work up the nerve to send. Lori had offered her help with what to wear, which Maggie took as a friendly comment rather than an insult about her fashion sense, and Shane had stolen Rick's phone to send a series of thinly veiled threats about how he'd make her life miserable if she upset Glenn. Which was slightly unexpected but also endeared him to her a little more; she thought all he cared about was banging Lori.

In fact, the only person who hadn't texted her was Glenn. Before she could read too much into it she sent him a quick message just asking how he was and peeled off her school clothes, throwing them into her laundry pile and shrugging on her jodhpurs. She tucked her phone into the waistband in case Glenn texted her back.

She had fed the horses and moved the cattle from one field to another when her phone buzzed against her stomach. She secured the gate and answered the call, leaning against the rusted metal bars, wiping her forehead and pushed her sweat-slick hair off her face. "Hey, Glenn."

"Hey, Maggie. You alright?"

"I'm great." She patted a cow as it wandered by her, grazing idly. "Need to exercise a couple of the horses but then I'm done with farm work. Think I'll do some homework and take a bath." That was her usual Friday routine, as long as Beth didn't need any help with her own work and took up her bath time so she had to go straight to family game night.

"Sounds like a plan. Hey, sorry for taking a while to get back to you; my sister's home and she wanted my help with something."

"Which sister?"

"Alex, one of the lawyers. She's here for the whole weekend but apparently this was so urgent that it couldn't wait." She could practically hear his eye-roll through the speakers.

"You wanna take a rain check on the date? I mean, it doesn't sound like you get to see them that often."

"Definitely not. They drive me insane and I'm not cancelling our date and quitting on you." There was a clunk and a scuffle and then she heard him swear. "Sorry. My dog tried to grab my phone."

She snorted. "Hey, Glenn?"

"Yeah?"

"You're such a dork."

"I know." There was a grin in his voice.

"I gotta go finish my chores."

"Okay."

"I'll text you later?"

"Okay."

"Are you listening to me?"

"Okay."

"I'm completely naked right now."

"Can I come over?"

"Talk to you later, Glenn."

"Bye, Maggie."

She hung up, smiling like an idiot. He was cute and she really needed to work on building up her immunity to that. She shook her head and went to exercise the horses.

"I don't know." Maggie huffed out a breath, fluttering a strand of hair that had fallen over her forehead. "I don't want to look…slutty, you know, but I want to look nice." Not that Glenn would judge her either way.

"I get you," said Lori's tinny voice through the phone. "Do you have any long tops or dresses? Like mid-thigh length?"

"Yeah, I have a couple," Maggie rifled through the wardrobe. "What are you thinking?"

"Tights and a nice top. Can't go wrong with that."

"Thanks, Lori. I owe you. Listen, I gotta go have a shower and finish getting ready, I'll talk to you later?"

"Yep, let me know how it goes!"

"Sure!" Maggie tossed her phone onto the bed and pulled out a light blue dress, holding it against herself. Suddenly every item of clothing she owned seemed unflattering and made her look like a turnip.

"You know, Glenn would still like you if you turned up wearing a potato sack," Beth said from the doorway, yawning at the end of her sentence. Her sister usually didn't get up until midday on Saturdays, but to support her sister she had set her alarm clock to ten just for that morning.

Maggie smiled. "I know." He would probably compliment her on how nice she looked as well. "But I want to make an effort." She wanted to not look like a turnip.

"Then make an effort, but stop stressing about it. Glenn's head-over-heels for you; Carl said that Rick told him that Tara showed him her texts with Glenn and he's always talking about you. In a non-creepy way," she added.

"You could help me stop stressing by doing my chores for me," Maggie grinned, giving Beth her best puppy-dog eyes. It would give her an extra hour which she didn't really need, but she was going to exploit any opportunity she had to avoid doing her errands.

Her sister rolled her own eyes but agreed, skipping off. Maggie headed to her en-suite and showered quickly, wrapping her hair up in a towel turban when she got out and letting her skin air dry as she rummaged around in her make-up drawer.

Her phone vibrated on the desk with a new text message. 'I booked two tickets for the film at 3:15. Still okay to be picked up at 2:30? x'.

Maggie replied one-handed as she hunted for a clean bra. 'Yep and thanks. Can't wait x'. She dressed quickly in her underwear and tights, and slipped on the dress after a moment's deliberation, frowning at herself in the mirror.

Glenn's text of 'Me neither. Have to admit, I'm nervous x' settled her anxiety a little as she remembered that this was a new experience for both of them.

She could do this.

At 2:30 exactly, Glenn pulled up outside the house, texting her to let her know and then knocking on the front door as well. The knock and text arrived just as she was applying her mascara, so Beth got to the door first and began gossiping with him eagerly as Maggie raced down the stairs.

Hershel was in the barn and Maggie wanted it to stay that way so he didn't give Glenn the third degree, so she shoved a squeakily protesting Beth out of the way with a hurried "thanks, love you, bye" and slammed the door behind her, running straight into Glenn. "Sorry," she mumbled, her nerves suddenly active again, aware of how their bodies were pressed right up against each other.

Glenn smiled. "You look lovely," he said quietly, with an almost reverent tone underlying his words.

She kissed him quickly, taking his hand. "Thanks – you too." She led him down the porch steps to where he'd parked. "Is this your car?"

Glenn shook his head. "Dad's. Don't have a car of my own yet."

"But you know how to drive, right?" she teased, dropping his hand so they could get into the car.

"You'll find out," Glenn said, turning the keys in the ignition and winking. Maggie pulled her seatbelt on and ran her hands through her loose hair.

"Have you seen the trailer for the film?" she asked as he started to drive up the long road leading out of the farm.

"Uh, yeah. It looks like it's either going to be great or terrible."

"That's what I thought. A horror film based around Facebook? It'll be interesting." She watched him as he drove, how he narrowed his eyes when he concentrated and smiled a little whenever she talked.

Their conversation about the film began to die down as they neared their destination, and the last few minutes were spent in a comfortable silence before her brain decided to break it for her. "You're cute," she blurted out when they were parked outside the cinema, and then slapped a hand over her mouth. Crap, did she really just say that? She was such an idiot.

Glenn just beamed at her and oh God he looked so adorable that she was caught off guard when he leant forward and kissed her, his teeth tugging on her lower lip gently and his hand tracing her jawline. She twisted her waist to sink into the kiss, gasping at how gentle but sensual Glenn was and someone with the face and personality of an angel shouldn't be able to kiss like this but she was glad he could.

She pulled back for breath reluctantly. Glenn's lips looked red, swollen, and there was a hint of a flush high on his cheeks and she really wanted to kiss him again and again because he looked beautiful like that, but at this rate they were going to miss the film and thus prime cuddling opportunity. She voiced that thought (apart from the last part because that was just embarrassing) and he laughed and agreed, brushing his knuckles against her cheek.

She melted a little bit inside at the affection in his gaze when he did that and hid her face so he wouldn't see her stupidly wide smile.

Glenn had booked them the posh chairs, it turned out, the ones that were cushioned and reclined and came with free popcorn, and Maggie was curled up on Glenn's lap with her legs flung over her own chair before thirty minutes had passed.

She had one eye watching the film and the other one hidden in his chest, her hands curled in his shirt. She could feel his breath rippling her hair and hear his faster than normal heart-rate and was sure that hers was the same, both from the film and her proximity to Glenn.

The film (despite being based around unfriending someone on social media) was good and far scarier than she had anticipated, so her snuggling close to him was a fairly even split between just because she could and genuine need for some human contact to comfort her because holy shit the film loved its jump scares.

Either way, Maggie contemplated, it was working to her advantage – she could smell pure Glenn underneath cinnamon and vanilla and he had his arms wrapped around her, holding her tight, his lips nuzzled into her hair.

The landscape was turning greener, trees becoming more densely packed together and grass growing longer as they got closer to the farm. Maggie watched it out of the window as they chatted about the film, trying to estimate how long until they got home.

"I liked the bit at that old factory, it was so atmospheric," she mused, and then recognizing the stretch of road they were on, she added, "Hey, there's a lay-by just ahead. Pull over?"

"Uh, sure." Glenn swerved into it and looked at her, expectant and confused, and this time he was the one caught unawares as she clambered onto his lap and kissed him sloppily. She leant back too far and sat on the horn, startling them both, and Glenn broke off the kiss that was mostly teeth and spit but oh so good to scrabble the key out of the ignition and then moved his seat back so she wasn't pressed up the wheel, then reignited the kiss in a slightly less messy fashion.

She didn't want to break away so she just breathed into the kiss instead, panting heavily into Glenn's mouth and whimpering when he dipped into her mouth with his tongue. She had never understood the appeal of tongues before (frankly it sounded pretty disgusting) but Glenn was working clumsy magic with his and honestly she felt like she was going to explode from the feeling and –

"Maggie!" came Beth's desperate shriek. Maggie jerked away in surprise, hitting her head on the roof of the car and groaning. A second later Beth's panicked face appeared at the passenger side window, her face colouring when she saw their position.

Glenn waved, his other hand rubbing gently at where she'd smacked her head and looked between the two sisters uncertainly.

"I heard the horn and then when you didn't come back I thought maybe you'd crashed so I came to check," Beth explained, biting her lip. "Sorry."

"No, it's…it's fine," Maggie said, dropping her forehead to Glenn's gently. He smiled at her, eyes half-closed, and murmured, "Maybe we should get back to the farm now."

Maggie nodded, slithering off his lap as gracefully as she could manage, and readjusted her slightly crinkled dress. It had ridden up when she had moved to straddle him and the last thing she needed was Daddy thinking she and Glenn had been up to no good.

"You want a ride, Beth?" Glenn asked, starting the engine up again and readjusting his seat. The blonde slid into the back gratefully.

"Thanks. Kind of puffed from running all the way up to the drive." She was silent until Glenn parked outside the house again.

Glenn got out of the car to say goodbye and hugged Beth upon her insistence, and then did the same with Maggie, kissing her on the cheek as well.

Glancing behind her when she heard crunching footsteps on the gravelly dirt, she saw Hershel heading over with a friendly smile on his face, and pulled away from Glenn a little so he could see as well. "Hey Daddy," Beth called, bouncing over and enveloping him in a hug.

Maggie sighed and turned to face Glenn with an apologetic smile. "Sorry, Daddy's a little excited that I went out on a date. Never happened before so he's being a little overprotective."

"Hey, it's sweet. My dad just told me I should be spending my time studying and I was never going to be a doctor at this rate." He didn't sound bitter about it, like he was used to being constantly put down by his parents. Maggie tried not to think too hard about the implications of that and just squeezed his hand a little tighter.

Hershel was close enough now that Maggie went to hug him, leaving Glenn standing awkwardly by himself until Beth took pity on him and skipped forward, chattering nineteen-to-the-dozen about their new bull and his beastly temper while he alternately nodded and frowned at her farm jargon.

"Daddy, this is Glenn," Maggie said when Beth finished her story, going to stand by his spare side and taking his hand again.

Glenn shook Hershel's hand and asked how he was and nodded when Hershel explained his gammy leg, and then Beth asked excitedly if they could show Glenn the farm, which Hershel said was fine and then excused himself to go sit down, so they showed Glenn the barn and the fields and they were all surprised when it turned out he had a natural affinity with horses when he calmed down Nervous Nellie with just a quick stroke, but not so much with the goats who leant into Beth's touch when she petted them but refused to let Glenn anywhere near them, much to Maggie's amusement, and she made up for it by kissing him hard while Beth gagged in the background and busied herself with the goats so she didn't have to watch.

They avoided going too near the bull because Beth had unwisely chosen a red shirt that morning, and he was already pawing at the ground and lowing when they went by his field and Maggie didn't think having a 2500-pound bull mutilating your boyfriend was the best way to end a first date no matter how much Glenn liked her.

(Later that night Hershel told Beth to find someone who would love her as much and treat her as well as Glenn would with Maggie, but that was unknown to the both of them until he said it at their wedding ten years later.)

(in case u were wondering the film i was referencing

it's Friend Request

and it's actually really good and genuinely scary and u should go see it

it's based around Facebook but yet not cringey?

anyway v good a mix of jumpscares and atmospheric creepiness

go see if u like horror films)