Hello!!  Big shout out to Kate, H and Lou for being so lovely with reviewing the whole time … am sorry I’m behind in reviewing myself … I am evil! 

Anyway, just an apology for this chapter, am not overly keen on it … and am not overly keen on the fic really … but am going to plod on cos I wouldn’t want to just leave it!  Hopefully it’ll get better one day!! xxx

 

Chapter 28

 

The large man continued down the road, keeping a careful watch on the girl in front of him.  He was dressed head to toe in black and blended in perfectly with the night around him.

 

Any minute now he was going to attack, and I was determined that I wouldn’t be watching it.

 

I considered picking up the cushion next to me to cover my eyes, but realised that this would be far too obvious, so instead tried to fix my eyes on the area just below the television, that way it made it look like I was watching the film, when in actual fact I was daydreaming.

 

This was the worst thing about sleepovers, the other girls always insisted on watching horror films, and I couldn’t understand them.  I’ve always been a wuss, and I knew that if I saw any of it I wouldn’t be able to sleep that night and would probably spend the next month convinced I was being stalked by a man with a giant axe.

 

Instead I chose to pretend to watch the film and instead think about Ben.   I wanted nothing more than to be with him right now, maybe if he was here I’d even be able to watch the film, I don’t think I could ever be scared of anything if he was sat next to me, he only had to touch me and I felt so safe and perfect. 

 

“How fab was that?” a voice suddenly piped up from next to me.

 

I glanced up to the screen and with relief noticed that the end credits were flashing before me.

 

“Was pretty good,” I said, being far too weak to confess I hadn’t seen much of it.

 

“Loved the bit where the bloke got his hand chopped off,” Jemma grinned and Rena dissolved into giggles, I tried to force myself to laugh, although I could never understand why scary films were funny.

 

Standing up I picked up my sleeping bag and proceeded out of the patio doors.  Tonight we would be sleeping in a huge tent in the garden, it was perfect weather for it and was much cooler than sleeping inside.  Jemma’s older brother was in the army and so we always used his tent when we had the chance, it was large enough to sleep at least 10 men and so was a perfect hangout for three teenage girls.

 

I threw my sleeping bag down on the patch of grass near the centre tent pole, I always settled myself down in the same place, wasn’t really sure why considering that if there was a lightning storm I would surely be the first to frazzle and if I turned over suddenly in my sleep would probably knock myself out.

 

Jemma and Rena had both thrown their sleeping bags either side of me and were now sat on top of them, still giggling over the film.

 

“Will someone do my nails?” I suddenly asked, wanting to change the topic of conversation from the film I hadn’t even watched.

 

“Oooooooooooooh!” Jemma squealed, immediately heading towards me with a bottle of bright pink varnish.

 

I smiled at her, she was fantastic at girlie things, I knew that by the end of the night I’d have cool nails, a different hairstyle and some weird combination of eye shadow smudged on my eyelids.

 

“And I have brought something special to accompany the nail painting,” Rena chipped in, and reaching out into her bag pulled out a large bottle of vodka.

 

I smiled at her, looked like this sleepover was going to get a bit mad, whenever Rena brought the vodka out you never knew what would happen.  If only the Populars could see us now, they’d soon realise that we aren’t as square as they think we are.

 

“We got anything to drink with it?” I asked

 

“Nope,” she grinned in reply, “we are doing shots”

 

And reaching into her bag she pulled out three eggcups.

 

“Sorry, didn’t have any shot glasses,” she confessed.

 

I laughed at her as I took an eggcup full of vodka and quickly swigged it.  The alcohol was so strong it made me wince slightly – tasted a little bit like I’d just swallowed a cap full of nit lotion.

 

I was thankful when Jemma finished my nails a few minutes later, I wasn’t sure she would be able to paint them properly after drinking 3 egg cups of straight vodka.  I was one ahead of her and I wasn’t really feeling terribly with it, the room had started swaying slightly and I couldn’t stand up without my knees trying to buckle beneath me.

 

“You can’t walk!” Rena sniggered, as she watched me try to move across the tent to put the nail varnish back in Jemma’s bag.

 

“OK, I’m a lightweight,” I confessed sitting straight back down and trying to cool my face that was hot with alcohol flush.

 

“Right, time for truth or dare,” Jemma called out, taking another eggcup full of drink and propping herself up on her knees.

 

“Jemma, truth or dare?” Rena called out quickly, eager to get out of having to answer a question herself.

 

“Dare,” Jemma replied cautiously.

 

I burst into life, sniggering quietly to myself, “you have to run out in the street in your underwear.”

 

As soon as the sentence left my mouth, the sensible part of my brain was telling me how childish I was, but the part that had been taken over by alcohol thought that the whole idea was hilarious.  I giggled to myself as Jemma took her clothes off and ran out of the tent towards the back gate.  She returned several moments later with mud all up her legs but grinning.

 

“OK, Rena’s turn,” she prompted.

 

“Dare”

 

As the queen of dares, I came up with the next one and made her run next door and shout obscenities through the next door neighbours letter box.

 

Then came my turn.

 

“Truth or dare?” Rena smiled.

 

I was never going to pick dare, I hated dares with a passion, they always made me do something really embarrassing and then would tease me about it for ever more, truth was always a much more sensible option.

 

“Truth.”

 

“Are you still a virgin?”

 

I winced at the question, why did the questions always have to be so bloody personal?

 

“No,” I confess quietly, wondering why I honoured the rules of truth and dare so much? I should have just told them to mind their own and done the stupid dare.

 

“Ooooooooh, was it Simon?” Jemma piped up.

 

I shook my head, “I cheated on him,” I mumbled quietly.

 

“You did what?” Rena screeched.

 

“You heard,” I replied, “right, Jemma truth or dare?”

 

They both continued to stare at me, and I knew that the game was over, I had just confessed something big and they wouldn’t leave me alone until I had come out and said what they wanted to know.

 

“Why didn’t you tell us?” Rena asked

 

“I’m sorry,” I replied, regretting it more than ever before now, I had always known that I should have told them.

 

“Who was it?”

 

“Doesn’t matter,” I said quietly, still not wanting to confess my biggest secret.

 

“Are you still seeing this other person?” Jemma asked.

 

I nodded, not able to stop the huge smile that had spread across my face.

 

“You’re really into him aren’t you?” Rena, leaped up with excitement.

 

“Wow, Kim has lost her virginity to a sexy stranger,” Jemma breathed, “how come my life isn’t that interesting.”

 

“I never said he was sexy,” I argued.

 

“Well is he?”

 

“Completely,” I confessed, “he is amazing.”

 

The girls exchanged glances.

 

“Can’t you tell us who it is?” Jemma asked.

 

I thought for a moment.  May be now was the time to come clean, I had always meant to, and I couldn’t keep it to myself for much longer, I was going to go mad.

 

I made a decision.

 

“You mustn’t tell anyone else, nothing goes beyond this tent.”

 

They both promised on their lives and I took a deep breath.

 

“It’s Ben”

 

They looked at me blankly for a moment.

 

“Ben,” I repeated

 

“You shagged Ben Adams?” Jemma suddenly screeched.

 

I nodded and they both looked at me with open mouths.

 

“Was it good?”

 

I laughed and grinned knowingly at her and they both squealed and came over to hug me.  Relief flooded over me, they weren’t jealous of me and they weren’t angry, they were happy for me.  I knew then that I had made a mistake in not telling them before.

 

“I always knew you were into him,” Jemma said happily.

 

“But I wasn’t,” I insisted, “I hated him.”

 

“No one could hate someone that much,” Rena smiled, “we knew you were meant to be together.”

 

I smiled.

 

“I love him.”

 

There I had done it – I had told my friends that I was in love with Ben Adams, things would be better now, soon everyone would know and we could be together properly.