We wandered on in the dusk light when Janie grasped my arm and pulled me close behind a group of trees. Coming along a path up ahead was Andy, the local heartthrob. Andy was a few years older than us, tall with broad shoulders and short curly brown hair. Usually he hung out with a crowd of mates and his sniffy boxer dog. Today he was alone. We watched him silently from behind the trees.
‘Let’s scare him’ Janie whispered.
‘No’, ‘let’s just go before he sees us’.
‘Don’t be a baby, come on it’s just a laugh, remember the raw egg?’
One time he’d cracked an egg on top of my head on the way back from the youth club disco. Egg had slid down my face, all stuck in my messy blonde hair.
‘Okay, okay’, I sighed as we crept towards the little wooden bridge that ran over the stream. Crouching under there we stifled our giggles, my heart was racing, pounding in my head. When we heard his feet thud thud on the bridge above, Janie boomed out in a gruff, deep voice,
‘Who goes there?’
We jumped out a mess of teenage giggles, which soon stopped short. I saw the fear clear on his face, a flash, and then the wrath that replaced it. We turned and ran as if for the last time ever, Janie in front, then me, then him. Jumping fallen logs, our arms scraping on branches. I could hear my breath clear in my ears and Andy calling out ‘bitches’ behind us.
He caught up with me in a clearing, Janie was long gone. He was laughing as he grabbed my arms and pushed me to the ground. I struggled beneath him, feeling his weight on top of me, smelling his hot beery breath as he pinned my arms down hard. He fumbled towards the zip of my jeans with one hand and I screamed loud, I know I did, but no sound came out.
Then, he just stopped, jumped up, wiped his face and let me go.
I ran, fast, faster than before, towards home, frantically wiping the tears streaming down my face.
As I got closer to my house I saw Janie, pacing in my front garden. She shouted out,
‘What happened? You’re so slow’.
‘Nothing’, I called back, ‘I just tripped that’s all’.