that away over some lad.’
‘Thank you, Mr Jones, and can you keep my name out of it, please?’
Nodding his head, Mr Jones excused himself and went back inside the staff room.
Roaring with uncontrollable laughter, Angela and Chloe ran down the corridor and out through the school gates.
After her earlier reluctance to set foot inside Barry’s house, Stephanie Crouch was now completely at ease and thoroughly enjoying herself.
‘You look so pretty today, babe,’ Barry stated, as he lit them both a cigarette and topped Steph’s drink up.
Stephanie grinned. She had worn the red off-the-shoulder sweatshirt that Barry had bought her at Roman Road Market. Teamed with tight faded jeans, big hoop earrings and the make-up she’d applied in the alleyway earlier, Steph was quite happy with the finished result.
‘Weren’t it funny climbing over them fences earlier? What about when you got your foot caught?’ she said, giggling.
Barry raised his eyebrows. He’d felt a right wilf when he had taken a tumble in front of his girlfriend, but could now see the funny side.
‘So, why don’t you like cider? Have you just never liked the taste?’ Steph asked, when Barry cracked open another can of lager.
‘I used to like it, but got pissed on it at a mate’s party when I first started drinking. Ill for days, I was, and the taste of it now just makes me feel sick,’ Barry admitted.
‘You big girl’s blouse,’ Steph said, chuckling.
‘What did you call me?’ Barry joked, clambering on top of Steph and pinning her arms to the dirt-stained carpet.
‘Get off me,’ Steph snapped, pretending to be angry.
Barry silenced her by snogging her passionately. This was the first time they had ever kissed where he had been lying on top of her, and he immediately felt himself becoming aroused.
Stephanie responded to the sweet taste of his gentle mouth but, as soon as she felt the hardness of his penis poking into her thigh, she froze. Stephanie had been quite a late starter with boys compared to her sister and some of the other girls in her year at school. Apart from Barry, she had only ever kissed two others properly, and she had never gone any further than that.
‘You OK?’ Barry asked.
‘Yeah. Can I put some more music on now? The record’s stopped,’ Steph replied, desperate to get away from the feel of her boyfriend’s rock-hard penis. Part of her wanted to see it and touch it, but she would be far too nervous to do so in case she did something wrong.
‘I’m just going a toilet,’ Barry said, as he bolted out of the room like a racehorse. His hard-on was sticking out like a flagpole in his loose-fitting tracksuit bottoms and he was embarrassed to let Stephanie see it in all its glory. He could tell how edgy and inexperienced she was, and even though he had been sexually active for the past year or so himself, he didn’t want to put his new girlfriend under any pressure, or make her feel uncomfortable in any way.
Stephanie sorted through Barry’s record collection. She had noticed the big bulge in his tracksuit bottoms when he had darted out of the room and was relieved to see it had disappeared on his return.
‘Can I put some Spandau Ballet on?’ she asked him.
Barry nodded and lit up another two cigarettes. ‘Tell me more about your family, Steph. I’ve heard you mention your aunt lives with you, but I haven’t seen her yet. Is she your mum’s sister?’
Stephanie sat on the sofa next to Barry and felt contented as she snuggled up against his chest. She told him all about Linda and made him laugh over her love for alcohol and some of the hilarious stunts she had pulled. ‘I think my mum worries about our Lin more than she does about me and me sister. No wonder she’s started to find grey hairs on her head.’
Barry chuckled. ‘She sounds a right case, your aunt. I’ll have to meet her one day – you know, when me and you are out in the open.’
‘I reckon my mum will still be wanting me to be single when I’m twenty-one. Does my head in, she does,’ Steph joked.
‘You shouldn’t be too hard on your mum. She only worries because she cares about you and she loves you. My mum has never worried about me or my sister. She just tends to think about herself.’
‘So, what’s this new boyfriend of your mum’s like, then? Whereabouts they gone on holiday?’
‘His name’s Jake and he’s short, old and loaded. He’s taken her to Spain, but I dunno whereabouts, she didn’t say.’
‘So, has she gone for a week? Or two?’ Steph asked.
‘Supposedly a week, but you never know with my muvver. About two years back she was seeing this geezer called Quiet John. They called him that ’cause he was a right loudmouth bastard. He took her to Spain an’ all. She left me and me sister indoors in our old house on our own. She only left us a score for food and then didn’t come back for a month. She fell in love with a waiter while she was out there, dumped Quiet John and stayed out there on her own for three weeks.’
‘Oh my God! What did you and your sister do? Did you go and live with your dad, or what?’ Steph asked, appalled. All of a sudden her own mother seemed like the best in the world.
‘Me dad was in nick at the time, but me and Chantelle got by. We both had to go out thieving just to make ends meet and a few of our old neighbours cooked us dinners and stuff. We couldn’t tell ’em where mum actually was, though. Me and Chantelle were worried that they’d tell the Old Bill and we’d get put in care. Mum weren’t that popular in Bethnal Green either, you see. The neighbours would have loved to have seen her banged up for abandoning us. They all liked me and me sister, though. I think they felt sorry for the pair of us.’
‘Poor you,’ Stephanie said, wrapping her arms around her boyfriend’s neck.
As Spandau Ballet’s ‘True’ started to play, Barry stood up, grabbed Steph’s hands and pulled her off the sofa. ‘Let’s have our first dance together, shall we?’ he said, laughing.
Stephanie grinned when Barry began singing the words to her. ‘You’ve got a great voice and I really love this record,’ she whispered in his ear.
Barry stared intently into his girlfriend’s eyes. ‘And I really love you, Steph. One day, me and you will get married and, when we are, we’ll dance to this as the first song at our wedding. Deal?’
Feeling a happiness inside her heart that she had never felt in her life before, Stephanie was stunned. Unable to answer Barry’s question because her voice seemed to have deserted her, she smiled and nodded at the same time. For the first time in her young life, Stephanie Crouch was completely and hopelessly in love.
Pamela Crouch’s right hand shook like she had a bad case of the DTs as she put the phone back on its receiver. ‘Oh, Cath. I’m at my wits’ end, I really am,’ she shouted, as her friend let herself in the house.
‘Whatever’s the matter? Is it Lin? Have they taken her back into the hospital again?’ Cath asked, alarmed.
‘No,
