Apples Read Free Page A

the bottle kicked in. For a second I forgot we were in the Empire – everything got a bit vibrant and I laughed in the girls’ faces. Before you knew it the rush was over, and I passed the poppers back to Jenni all shaky. We spent the next twenty minutes enjoying it Hard on the balcony, keeping very surreptitious sniffing it up. I got the bottle back from Rach, nearly dropping the dinky lid as I came up again. It was like a half-minute of joy and glazing over then back to normal. The third time, I couldn’t stop touching the banister with the wood sensation going through me, and I knew I was staring into space with a dossed grin on my face but I was enjoying myself. We were killing ourselves. Then our heads started throbbing, and we decided to go downstairs to laugh at the lights. I ended up with the poppers in my handbag, weaving my way around all the lovely people.
    Time felt like a rollercoaster, a really fun one. You could tell we were all yearning for the poppers again but me and my girls formed a circle somewhere on the stage, and we danced like angels coming down from heaven. If only we’d scored some ecstasy – poppers were amazing and disappointing. We were all up and down but it was so funny – Rach and Debbie stomped on needlepoints and Gracie nearly boinged out of the white dress. It was heating up, and I started to feel sweaty as loads of men gathered around again. Occasionally I said sorry when I bumped bums into someone else, but it always happened to be a horny lad who tried to grope me straight after. For a breather we kept going to the loo for more Hard, me and Debbie taking it up really fast then charging back to the dancefloor in the hope it lasted. All we ended up doing was smiling in everyone’s way.
    This is Ben; he used to babysit us, Gracie said to me when we got back. At first I thought she’d pulled the fine specimen – he was older than us, with a scruffy sort of haircut and a very nice jawline. He was quite the honeypot.
    Hi, how’s it going, I said, trying to play it cool but staying up close and personal so Rachel or Jenni couldn’t get a look-in. They both had Bacardis (not sure if they were from Breezer Person again), crushed in one spot surrounded by boys’ heads. I stuck my dimples out, then accidentally-on-purpose touched Ben’s sides and he was saying, Are you having a good night? You look dead familiar. Are you same age as Grace?
    Nah, I’m like eighteen, I said, and I lied. It’d probably put him off if I seemed like a little baby, or maybe it’d turn him on but he didn’t seem the type. I was only fifteen. He bared loads of teeth and told me he was twenty-two, which was partly scary but when we started dancing together I felt so grown-up. I didn’t go in for the kill straight away – I kept a good distance from his lips even though our bodies were pushed right up, and I tried to feel for that thing in his jeans on my skirt but I couldn’t tell. He was a good dancer – we had a laugh spinning each other about and being daft, and I was glad Gracie had the other girls to boogie with so she didn’t feel isolated. I said something corny to Ben, then that thing happened where your faces hang for a bit in the air then drift together – it’s called a kiss. And you could tell from the dancing and tonguing he’d be ace in the sack. I figured I’d take him back – the poppers told me that. He kept coming in and out for snogs, but I kept the secret to myself.
    Ben’s lips were strawberry bootlaces. I got the impression there hadn’t been much action in Ben’s life recently since he was so dirty with me, but he could’ve been wrecked and all that. Eventually he was quite the gentleman and got us both a drink. We squirmed through bodies bopping and I pecked my friend Ste’s cheek, asking him how he was quickly before me and Ben made it to the bar. He was okay I think. In the queue Benjamin asked me where I lived and what I did – I mentioned something about Beechwood