Alex’s Adventures in a Land of Wonder

Downtown

 © Nick B May 2007

Alex is a normal young lad and when the opportunity presents itself, he wants to be there. Trouble is, things don't always go the way we would like them to do they?

---

Thanks once again to my trusty Kris for taking the time out to cast an eye over this before I plonked it up here. It's not nearly as steamy as the last one, but life's not always like that is it?

Disclaimer:
Any similarity to persons living or dead is really unfortunate. This is fiction, you don't think I was really that lucky do you?

---

Ever since that episode in Sharon’s bedroom, I had hoped for a repeat or something, but the rest of the holiday went past without so much as a word - typical.

I still had Becky’s panties and every now and again, well alright, any time I had the chance, I would get them out and look at them, feel them; occasionally putting them against my cheek and before you wonder, I washed them out in the bathroom the day after I wore them home — you don’t think I’m that gross do you? I may be a teenage boy, but, oh never mind — heathens!

As much as I told myself it was wrong to do so, I did put them on again. It had been about three weeks since that night with the girls and I found myself waking up in the middle of the night after a particularly erotic dream…

“You’re wearing my panties again aren’t you?” whispered Becky in my ear. I couldn’t answer. I was embarrassed for not only having worn them home, but for having taken it upon myself to wear them again.

“Hmm.” she purred. “You feel so good in them.” She ran her hand up my leg from my knee and brushed across my thingy, through the satin material.

She started to kiss my neck, rubbing me through her panties in earnest and I was starting to squirm — raising my hips to increase the pressure. My breath was short and spasmodic as much of the time I was holding it and consequently, letting it go in “whooshes”.

“You like them too, don’t you?” she asked, patting my, now hard, thingy gently, making me almost leave the bed.

“Yes.” I whispered hoarsely.

“I like you in them.” she said. “I like it when you get all girly. It makes me wet just thinking about it.”

“Good God!” I thought. “She’s unreal. What have I got myself into?”

“Will you dress up again for me?” she asked and out of the corner of my eye, I could see a mischievous smirk playing across her sweet lips.

“Yes. YES. Oh fuck me YES!!” I yelled as she chuckled, still stroking me through the soft, smooth fabric and I was going wild. Shit, I would have done anything for her at that precise moment.

She started to kiss me leaving my lips all too soon and working her way down my neck to my chest where she paid particular attention to my nips. The feeling was heavenly. I could feel them get all big — well as big as they get and I felt the dark skin around them get crinkly and ever-so sensitive as she alternated between one side and the other, biting them and then blowing on them and oh God, I never wanted this to stop.

Willy was almost painful; standing to attention, constrained beneath the satin fabric of its panty prison; pulsating with every beat of my heart, which meant going like a jack-hammer, drumming a military tattoo on my belly. She made her way further down my chest, leaving my nipples and heading slowly towards my, er, her panties.

I reached down to push them down my hips and expose myself to her, but try as I might, I couldn’t. I don’t know why, I just couldn’t get them to budge and every second, she was getting closer.

“Doesn’t he like me?” she asked sounding rather hurt.

“I, um, I, er, that is…” I could feel the moment fading; disappearing into the ether and like a soap-bubble bursting into myriad oil-slick droplets that fell like a mist of tiny rainbows, Becky faded and I opened my eyes…

…to be met with the silence and darkness of my room.

Breathing hard and feeling the small beads of sweat on my brow, I quickly reached down to my groin to feel only skin, oh and one or two of the half-dozen hairs I had growing there.

“Bloody-hell!” I muttered, my thingy still twitching; the memories of the dream still there in the forefront of my mind.

I reached under the corner of the mattress and retrieved the panties, feeling their softness once again and with trembling hands, I shuffled about until I could get my feet through the legs and pull them up snugly around my nether regions, feeling the momentary coolness as they encased my still throbbing Willy.

Closing my eyes, I started to run my hands down from my nipples - my still engorged and very sensitive nipples, down my chest, over my stomach and onwards towards the softness of Becky’s panties.

I tried to go back to that moment in that dream, but I conked-out instead, falling asleep with my thumb just inside the waist of the panties, while my fingers drew small circles on the fabric as the last few moments of the dream replayed over and over in my head.

“ALEX!!”

“Hmm?” I answered dreamily, expecting to see my sweet Becky looking down at me; her smile, her blonde curls cascading like a golden waterfall over her face, those piercing blue eyes…

“Mum?” I almost screeched, sitting bolt upright and blinking rapidly, looking round to see where Becky had gone. “What are you doing here?”

“This is my house and you are my son.” she said with aplomb. “And my son’s about to be late for school if he doesn’t get his arse into gear - pronto!” She turned to leave my bedroom.

“Shit!” I said under my breath and threw the covers off as I swung my legs out of the bed.

About two thirds of the way round, I suddenly felt the gentle caress of a pair of satin panties against my arse and froze, trying to back-track and pull the covers back up all in one movement.

“Well, what are you waiting for?” asked mum, turning back quickly as if to catch me trying to catch just a few more moments of snoozing. Did she see my panties?

“I, er, I, oh mum, it’s a bit embarrassing.” I said, going red at the thought.

Mum knew I slept naked and despite her having nursed me from day one, I was still unwilling in the extreme to appear naked before her.

“Ah. Yes.” she said nodding. “Say no more.” and she left the room, smiling broadly and chuckling to herself.

At school during those three weeks, the boy that was causing trouble for me was out. He’d apparently had an accident fooling around in the street outside his house and whilst I wasn’t pleased for his injuries, I was happy not to be his scapegoat.

This fact had also been noticed by the school. A great many things had ceased since he had been absent, not least of which was my getting into trouble.

“It seems we may have misinterpreted some things, young man.” said the head and proceeded to apologise for having assumed that I was the trouble-maker, though he did add that he hoped that he wasn’t in error this time.

I assured him he wasn’t and walked out of his office feeling like a whole world of weight had been lifted from my shoulders. Perhaps now, mum wouldn’t insist on keeping me quite so close and let me go out now and again.

---

“No.” she said when I asked. “We’re going round to Ronnie’s this morning and I want some help.”

“Aw muuuuum!”

“I don’t know what your problem is. You won’t need to be there all day so you can go out afterwards.”

“Cool! Thanks mum.” I said and after breakfast, we walked the few hundred yards round to Ronnie’s.

I was helping, getting stuff ready for Ronnie and mum to go to a function and wound up carrying boxes and boxes out to the back of a hire van. The weather was warm and although it wasn’t bright sunny beach-type weather, it was hot enough for me to sweat cobs.

What also made it more difficult was the fact that Sharon and the girls came back from whatever they had been doing and sat drinking tea or coffee in the kitchen. Sharon, Colleen and Judy basically ignored me, but Becky made a point of looking at me every time I picked something up or put something down and she had a way of making my pulse rate go up even without the cardio-vascular work I was doing.

I moved the lot by the way; all of it. Miraculously, mum and Ronnie managed to find other things to do that didn’t involve setting one foot outside of the house, or strangely, lifting anything either, while I traipsed back and forth with boxes of this and that. Still, they had a long, hard day ahead and Ronnie gave me a tenner for my help before they left.

“So what are you up to?” asked Sharon as I got a cola from the fridge.

“Nothing much. I thought I’d go take a wander round the town to see what’s happening. I haven’t been out for weeks.”

“It’ll be a bit special then?” she asked.

“I don’t know about special, but I do think I’ve earned it!”

“Well, we’re going down town too. Do you want to come along?” I thought about it for a few seconds and then agreed. I figured that if they wanted to do girly stuff, I could go do my own thing.

“You’ll have to take a shower first and put on a clean t-shirt or something. You stink.”

Way to go Sharon! She really knew how to make someone feel like a complete arse in one short sentence. I sniffed my under-arms and unfortunately had to agree.

“Oh alright.” I said and started out of the door.

“Where are you going?” she asked with an arched eyebrow, making me feel as though I had just stolen a sweet or something.

“To take a shower and change. I won’t be long.” I returned.

“You can shower here. I can find you a t-shirt.”

“Okay.” I said and shrugging at something that sounded so reasonable, I trotted off into the bathroom, locking the door behind me.

Ten minutes later.

“OY!” I shouted. “Where’re my fucking clothes?”

I should have thought before agreeing to take that sodding shower. Especially after last time those girls had anything to do with clothing and me in the same sentence… You know what happened, but after three weeks and nothing, I just didn’t think.

I grabbed a towel and padded into the bedroom, stopping to look at the lock, which to all intents and purposes, was still locked, but the door opened and closed perfectly easily.

“Aha!” I thought. “That explains a lot.”

All four girls were sniggering and began laughing like drains when I appeared.

“This isn’t funny.” I said. “Now where are my clothes?” Sharon shrugged and I knew I wasn’t going to get anything out of her, well nothing of mine anyway.

“I said I’d get you a t-shirt. I thought you might like all clean clothes instead.” she said with a look of complete innocence.

“You want to be careful or that halo is going to slip and trip you up something rotten.” I said, still huddled in the towel.

”Don’t you want to see what we’ve got for you?”

“I’d rather just have my clothes back if it’s all the same.”

“Oh no. We’re not going through that again are we? Haven’t you learnt?”

“Alright then, have it your way.” I said, took a deep breath and with an exaggerated note of resignation, said “What have you got for me to wear?”

“That’s better.” said Sharon and produced a whole outfit, if as I was about to find out, you could call it whole as my eyes widened, roaming over the offered garments.

A crop-top was the first item to be shown. It was white with a pastel flower motif on the front. Trouble was I could see even without putting it on, it was only just going to fall below my own breast area and if I was to poke it out further, i.e., by wearing a stuffed bra, it wouldn’t even reach that far.

Next was a bra, but this time it was a little more ornate than the last, a lacy pastel lilac number that matched the motif, with matching panties.

Lastly a skirt that made me gasp in horror. It was so short that I didn’t even know whether is would cover my arse, let alone anything else.

“Will that cover me?” I asked, suddenly very nervous indeed.

“Don’t know, but there’s only one way to find out eh?”

“You’re mad if you think I’m wearing that.”

“Now, now. There’s no need to be like that. We just want you to look your best to go into town.”

“Best?” I asked. “Are you sure?”

“Of course. Would we do anything to hurt you?”

“Hmm. Perhaps not physically, but you don’t mind the humiliation do you?”

“It’s no more than you deserve.”

What kind of statement was that?

I may be a pain-in-the-arse teenage boy, but to my knowledge, I’d never done anything to them, or more specifically, Sharon, to warrant this kind of treatment. My mind raced through the implications of what was happening and despite the knowledge that sex was out of the question if I didn’t go along with them, I couldn’t go through with this.

Last time was fun. It stayed between the five of us and no-one got hurt, but taking this outside into the big wide world was something I didn’t have in me to do — especially dressed in that gear.

“I’m sorry, no. I can’t do this.” I said and left the room.

Surprisingly, it wasn’t Becky that came out to see if I was alright, but Colleen.

“Are you alright?”

“Not really.” I said, sitting on the side of the bath, the towel pulled tightly around me.

“She doesn’t mean any harm you know.”

“Really. Well how about just asking me if I would mind dressing like that.”

“Would you agree?”

“No. Of course not!” I said, wondering just what kind of a question that was anyway.

“Well there you go.”

“Pardon?”

“Didn’t you enjoy last time?”

“Well, yeah, but that was just us.” I said. “I thought it was just a bit of fun and really, it had little or nothing to do with dressing up in the end.”

“So what makes you think this isn’t just a bit of fun or that you’re going to enjoy this time any less?” she asked.

“Because you want me — a boy,” I stressed ‘boy’ to make the point. “To go into town with you in that… that bunch of almost clothes looking like a little tramp.” I was starting to lose it.

“Alright, I’ll have a word with her. Perhaps she’ll put something a little less revealing together.”

“Can’t I just have my clothes back?”

There was no answer and I could feel the little teardrop as it ran down over my cheek. I couldn’t believe I was getting so upset over a silly prank, but silly or not, I was still being expected to go out as a girl when quite clearly I wasn’t one.

“Alright. You can come in now.”

I reluctantly wandered into the bedroom where the skimpies had been replaced by some slightly less revealing clothes.

“Alright ‘little miss prim’. Try these.” said Sharon with a note of sarcasm and annoyance in her voice. I couldn’t believe how she was getting so arsy. I was the one who was going to have to parade myself round town looking like a girl and if she didn’t like it, why couldn’t she just give me my stuff back and let me go my own way?

She brought out a plain blue t-shirt and the underwear was the same, but the skirt had been replaced by another slightly longer one, which was much better, although I was still reluctant to go for it. Yes I enjoyed last time, but this meant facing the world as a girl and I didn’t like it. I didn’t like it at all.

I grabbed the bundle of clothes and headed for the bathroom. I didn’t have anything to stuff the bra with, but the panties fitted alright. It was a strange sensation — the lace I mean. It looked really nice, but the feel of it wasn’t nearly as nice as the satin.

Before too long, I was dressed and the short skirt didn’t look too bad. If I looked at myself from the side, I could almost tell myself that it was actually a pair of shorts.

That faded as soon as I took a step though as without tights and with the ninety-percent-air panties, I got a very odd — though not entirely unpleasant sensation around the jewels.

“There she is!” said Judy and all the girls clambered over the bed and gathered round me.

“What about shoes?”

“Don’t worry, I’ve got that all under control.” said Sharon with a smirk, lifting the t-shirt and stuffing a stocking or something into each of the bra cups.

I now had tits — sort of.

Off she went again and returned with a pair of what I can only describe as stilts. “Here, put these on.”

Last time, the shoes were a bit big. I wondered whether ‘big’ would have been an apt description of these too. At least if they were, I would have an excuse for something more my style — like trainers; yup, trainers would be good.

“Can you walk in these?” Sharon asked after helping me on with them. I stood up — after a fashion.

“Never mind walk, can I stand may have been a better question. Do I get oxygen with these? The air’s definitely rarer up here.” They laughed and I took my first tentative steps straight towards the floor.

“I think she’s going to need to practice.” said Colleen.

What was it with the “she’s” all over the place. I was still a male, or I was last time I looked, but as I stood up, I caught a glimpse in the mirror and well, from the chest down, male didn’t come into it.

I carried on trying to walk and after one or two pointers, I actually managed four whole steps without kissing the carpet.

“I don’t know that these are a good idea.” I said.

“Nonsense!” said Sharon. “I wore my first pair out of the shop.”

Oh bugger. Now I was for it.

I sat on the bed and once again, the girls gathered; all except Becky.

“Her hair’s wet. Perhaps we can do something with it.” said one.

“Bags I do the makeup.” said another and once again, I felt all control vaporise.

Colleen, Judy and Sharon fussed around me and as I looked in the mirror, I could see Becky. Why wasn’t she joining in? Last time, if it hadn’t been for her, I would probably got really annoyed and then scared — alright, more scared, as Sharon wasn’t one to be messed with and I was quite a bit smaller than her.

Soon though, I was sporting a new hairstyle which I thought would have been alright but for the fact that I wasn’t a girl and as far as the makeup was concerned, well that did its usual job of covering up the last vestiges of maleness as once again, I didn’t look like who I was, or rather, I wasn’t what I looked like.

Sharon, Colleen and Judy rushed the bathroom and began sprucing up and primping.

“You’re not happy, Becky?”

“I didn’t want them to do this.”

“There was nothing you could do; not on your own anyway.”

“No, but I could have done something.”

“Don’t worry about it. If necessary, I can give them the slip when we’re out.”

---

Walking becomes easier if you’re being woman-handled along the road. I found that by concentrating hard and not thinking too much about how far above the pavement I really was, I could just about manage it, but I was stumped when they all ran for the bus into town and I was still trying desperately to keep up a steady, but fairly slow walk.

“Come on!” they called and I did my level best to up the pace as the bus waited by the kerb.

We all went to our seats and I sat down, my feet already starting a petition to ban these shoes and, conscious of the fact that I was in a short skirt, tried to sit with my legs clamped so tightly together I think walnuts would have winced.

The bus jerked and bounced its way along the road and the little old man who sat opposite got an eye full as the bus driver hit the brakes and I rolled slightly sideways (as the others did too) and I opened my legs, displaying my panties.

“You’re going to have to watch out for that.” said Judy quietly and I turned a shade of crimson.

“Thanks for the warning.”

If getting on the bus was hard, getting off was something else entirely. I tried my best, but ended up making a complete pig’s ear of it as people looked on grinning.

“Remind me not to listen to you ever again.” I said to any of the girls who could hear me above their laughter.

We wandered along at an easy pace, which was good, because it allowed me to get the hang of the ridiculously high heels I was wearing. Now I know why they’re called ‘killer heels’ and hats off to those who mastered them. I was improving though.

The girls stopped regularly to look in shop windows and I think I was spending so much time concentrating on staying upright, that I completely failed to notice anyone else around. I suppose the shoes had to be good for something.

Anyway, in my attempt to look nonchalant and like I always wore shoes like these, I didn’t notice Jocelyn Tanner coming towards us.

“Alex?” she said and tapped me on the shoulder.

I turned and there she was. One of those girls at school that every boy was hoping to get to go out with and none of them succeeded — though a few of them had lied.

“Oh, I’m terribly sorry. I thought you were someone else.” she said as I turned to face her. I smiled and she smiled back. Becky came over moments later.

“Hands off. She’s mine.”

Jocelyn blinked as Becky gave me a full-on tonsil tickling kiss that I’m surprised didn’t cause a traffic pile-up.

“I wasn’t… I mean… I’m sorry. You just look so much like someone I know at school.”

“Yeah, well it isn’t her.” said Becky spitefully and I felt sorry for Jocelyn, who had no idea what was going on and Becky’s sudden change of behaviour made me wince.

Jocelyn looked hurt and shocked, but retained a dignified stance. Looking directly at me, she said, “Tell your brother I’ll see him at school.” and with that, she turned and carried on up the road.

“Brother?” said Becky. “I didn’t know you had a brother.”

“I don’t. Anyway, there was no need to be like that.” I admonished. “She was just trying to be friendly.”

“Yeah. Friendly straight into your knickers!” she retorted.

That was the last straw. Becky or not, I wasn’t going to stand for this. Not one of the girls had seemed to take any notice of me for three weeks and then the first time they see me again, I’m treated like some sort of plaything. I know there are men out there that would give their eye-teeth for a chance like this, indeed, would probably be willing to kill for the chance that I got just a few weeks ago, but there’s a limit to how much leading round by my di, er nose, I was prepared to put up with.

What annoyed me more than anything was that Becky wasn’t prepared to say anything about what Sharon had planned, if it even was Sharon, but the moment that someone else so much as said a single word to me, there she was, claws out and spitefulness at maximum.

“If you’re going to be like that, you can do it on your own.” I said and turned to walk away.

“Hey! I didn’t mean it.”

“Yeah well, don’t you think I’ve had enough of this for one day? First you steal my clothes and now you’re stopping me talking to anyone. Is there anything else, handcuffs maybe? A leash perhaps?”

“Good ideas all.” she said. “But wait till we get home.”

“It’s not funny anymore, Becky. I’ve had enough and I don’t want to play. I didn’t want to play in the first place, but your control-freak buddies gave me no choice. Maybe if I’d had some support from you, it would have been easier to take, but no. You just sat there and did nothing. If you want to fuck about with someone’s life, someone’s head, find some other sorry wanker to do it with. I’ve had it with all of you.”

With that I turned and walked away.

Half of me was hoping to hear Becky’s voice saying “don’t go.” but it didn’t happen. I got about twenty yards down the road, thought “sod this” and took the shoes off. I walked the rest of the way carrying them.

True, I probably missed out on some great sex, but only if I was prepared to put up with all the piss-arsing around. Somehow, it didn’t seem like the price was worth the prize.

I thought that out of all of them, Becky was different, but then what did I know? I certainly didn’t think I would find myself wandering down the main road, miles from home in a skirt and matching bra and panty set, with a pair of ludicrously high heeled stilettos in my hand.

“Excuse me.” said a voice. I thought it was just another voice in a busy town, but it seemed to follow me.

“Excuse me.” it said again followed by a touch on the shoulder. I spun round and was about to give the owner a right bollocking when who should I see but Jocelyn.

“Oh, hi. I didn’t realise it was you. You startled me.” I said. She smiled and looked up and down the road.

“Where’s your girlfriend?”

“She’s not my girlfriend.” I said in an almost defensive/aggressive sort of way. “I’m so sorry. She had no right to say or do what she did and I felt really awful when you left.”

“My fault.” she said. “I thought you were someone else. Obviously I was wrong.”

I so wanted to confess, there and then, just get it the hell out of my system, into the open and have done with it. It wasn’t that I trusted Jocelyn any more than any of the other girls, but there was something about the way she controlled herself when Becky went off on one that told me that she was different.

I just wanted this to be over. I felt very stupid having allowed myself to be manipulated, to allow the sex ‘carrot’ to be dangled in front of my face and to actually let them dictate to me that I should play along to the letter in order that if they were feeling like it, I might get that reward at the end, however, it would have more than likely been not.

“Is Alex your brother?” she asked as we wandered back along the road.

“Er, no.” I said, wondering if it was the time to tell the truth.

“He looks very like you. Not as cute though.”

Oh dear. I could feel this all starting to spiral down the drain again.

“You think I’m cute?”

“A bit skinny maybe, but…” she looked down at her feet and mumbled something, just as a bus thundered past, its air brakes hissing.

I didn’t get that last bit, but I didn’t need to hear it to know that it was positive. Her slight flush and the fact that she couldn’t look at me and say it sort of pointed in that direction.

I don’t know whether it was just observational — I mean girls seem to be able to admit when another girl is pretty, unlike men, who couldn’t possibly comment on whether another man is good looking or a bag of spanners most of the time. On the other hand, was it because she actually liked what she saw? That was something else altogether.

I took my life into my hands and assumed the best.

“You’re not so bad yourself.” I said and the blush that elicited almost produced egg-frying heat.

“I, er, um, have to go now.” she said doing that fidgeting thing and going all girly.

“It was nice talking to you.” I said and smiled; which just seemed to make her squirm all over the place and blush even more.

Then she took my breath away by kissing me full on the mouth and running away.

I stood there, my fingers going to my lips and a blush forming on my face too. I couldn’t believe it.

I’d just kissed, er, been kissed by Jocelyn Tanner.

No-one would believe it, but well, it was true and my heart was pounding like it was about to burst out of my chest.

Somehow, my appearance melted out of my head now I had something else to focus on. I veritably skipped home, which didn’t occur to me that that was what I was doing.

When I got to my home, I realised my problems were just beginning.

---

It was about a three mile walk back to my house and I didn’t feel any of it. I was so elated when I got to talk to Jocelyn and on another planet after that simple kiss.

I stopped at the front door of my house suddenly realising I had no key. In fact, all my stuff; my money, my keys — everything was at Ronnie’s, wherever Sharon had decided to stash it.

“Oh for fuck’s sake!” I said and stood there like a complete idiot for some time, just staring at the door, trying to work out whether there was a way in without breaking anything.

No.

Mum was pretty hot on locking up and the place was shut tighter than a duck’s bum - watertight!

I went back round to Ronnie’s, but the girls hadn’t returned and even if they had, they weren’t answering the door.

I was in real trouble now.

I sat on the step, toying with the idea of waiting for the girls, but I had no idea whether they were going to come back sooner or later — or at all.

Ages passed and I was getting more and more despondent as I realised that the only way I was going to get back into my house before midnight at least was in one of two ways: either a) I wait for the girls, but they may already be in and knowing them, could be up to anything, which would explain why the door wasn’t being answered or b) I could go to the function and get a key from mum.

I know which I preferred — waiting for the girls, but who knew when they were due back?

I waited some more and still there was no sign of Sharon or the rest of the girls.

---

It was a long walk to the function, which took me away from the main road and any likelihood of being spotted by Sharon or her friends. With each step, the weight of what I was doing, the way I looked as I was doing it and what was the likely reaction upon arrival got greater and greater.

I was all in and my feet were pretty sore after having trudged the whole way in bare feet. I looked at the place where the function was being held and decided to smarten myself up, though all that entailed was putting the shoes on again.

A man was standing at the entrance.

“You’re very late. Do you have a ticket?” he asked.

“Ticket? Er, no, I’m here to see my mum. She’s doing the food I think with Ronnie?”

“Oh, May and Ron. Why didn’t you say? Wait there.”

I stood outside, my heart thumping louder and louder in my chest as I waited for the moment when mum would say “What the hell do you think you’re playing at?”

Sitting on the step, I waited as in due course, the man arrived.

“Here she is.” I stood up hearing this, my back to both mum and the man on the door.

“I don’t know…” mum began, just as I turned and her eyes went wide.

“I’m so sorry mum.” I said. “I haven’t got my key and I can’t get in.”

She stood there looking at me like I was something off Mars or something. Can’t say as I blame her, but there I was and I could feel tears starting to well up.

“Come in quickly.” she said and hustled me inside.

Skirting round the edge of the function room, I could see Ronnie at the end behind a table, serving food to a line of people.

“In here quickly.” said mum. I followed her into a large store-room and she folded her arms. I knew this was it. All my birthday treats were about to disappear and I think that would last until my late sixties.

“I can explain…” I said, but surprise is not an adequate word here; total shock, might more aptly cover it as she opened her arms and sobbing like the girl I appeared, I got the best hug I have ever had.

“Hey.” she said quietly. “Your makeup will go everywhere.” She took out a tissue to blot the tears without doing massive damage to my mascara or eyeliner.

“I didn’t want to do it, but Sharon made me wear these instead… It was all supposed to be a joke, but…” It was hard to tell and I felt a complete arsehole for ratting them out, but in this case, it was no more than they deserved this time.

“It’s alright.” she said. “You’re safe and while you’re here, you can make yourself useful.”

Not fin…