Strangers

18

It was getting really late but Heather didn’t care. Dad thought she was in bed. He and Jamie were watching football downstairs, yelling at the TV so loud that they hadn’t heard her slip out the back door. Chez was watching the same match at his place, so she hadn’t stopped there for more than a few minutes. He’d tried to get her to stay, but she’d got more self-respect than to hang around in his kitchen waiting for a quick half-time shag. She’d toyed with the idea of trying to see Tammy earlier, but she’d decided to keep her distance. If everything Jamie’s mate Joel had said was true, she’d be giving that whole family a wide berth from now on. Much of what Joel said was usually crap, but he’d been right about that Polish girl at the weekend. That Tammy was a nice enough girl, but from what she was hearing, her step-dad was a fucking nutter. Probably best to cool off a little. She’d have to give her some distance at school tomorrow.

It was a frigging pain in the arse being a teenager in Thussock. There was bugger all to do, mid-week especially. Being a girl was harder still, because girls were few and far between here. Most of the other girls on the estate stayed home most of the time, ’cause the boys here were predators, only after one thing. Having Jamie around had made it a little easier for her, but she’d had enough of all that mucking about. Chez was the only bloke she had sex with now. He was a real man (when the football wasn’t on). She’d had enough fingers and fumbles with inexperienced kids to last a lifetime.

She walked back home trying to work out if she’d ever be able to afford to learn to drive. Dad kept trying to talk her out of it, because all he thought about was the cost. He did have a point, though – driving tests and lessons cost a bloody fortune, and she’d have to go elsewhere for them because there weren’t any instructors in Thussock. And then there was the cost of a car and fuel and insurance and all the associated bills… she knew Dad was right, but there was one thing he wasn’t taking into consideration, and that was the value of her freedom. Being able to get away from Thussock whenever she wanted and go and see the few mates she was still in contact with who’d already managed to escape… now that was priceless. She’d been thinking about maybe getting a scooter. She daydreamed about it as she walked the dark streets back home.

It was raining. Just a light mist, but wet enough to soak her and dense enough to reduce her visibility. The light from each streetlamp was little more than a hazy corona, a yellow-white flower head, and the few windows illuminated from lights inside barely made any difference at all out here. Heather plunged her hands into the pockets of her quilted purple jacket and walked a little faster. Tammy said she liked this jacket. Chez bought it for her off the Internet. Tammy said some of her friends in Redditch had jackets like it and that she’d wanted one herself. It made Heather feel good knowing she’d got one up on the girl from the city.

She wasn’t that far from the estate, just near the community hall, when she heard a noise she wasn’t expecting. It sounded like animals scavenging around the bins. Wait, no… she could hear something else now. It sounded like someone crying. Not sobbing their heart out or anything like that, just a low, quiet, intermittent moan; an occasional sad sob.

‘Hello?’

No answer.

‘Is anyone there?’

There was nothing on at the community hall tonight (there was nothing on most nights), and all the lights were off save for the yellow security light over the front door and a couple of streetlamps nearby. The small car park was empty but she thought she could see something moving over by the metal wheelie-bins at the side of the building. Probably just a fox or a rat, something disgusting like that. Or was she just imagining it? She told herself to get a grip and get home, to stop freaking herself out over nothing.

‘Hello?’ she called out again, just to be sure.

Someone stood up. It was a man. What the hell was he doing hiding behind the bins? Her pulse started to race but then she relaxed slightly when she realised she recognised him, though he looked completely different out of uniform. It was one of the local police; the young, good-looking one. She didn’t know his name but they’d spoken on many occasions, usually when he was looking for Jamie or one of his dickhead mates when they’d been causing trouble. But this was different. Tonight it looked like he was the one in trouble.

‘You okay?’ she asked.

He just looked at her, didn’t say anything. Concerned, she walked across the car park to where he was standing… where he’d been hiding. Shit, was this some kind of police operation like she’d seen on TV? Had she walked into the middle of a drugs bust or something? But there was no one else around and he wasn’t trying to stop her.

‘Is something wrong?’

He nodded and beckoned for her to come closer. She saw that he had tears streaking his face, glistening in the security light. Poor love. He looked so vulnerable, so frightened… afraid almost. His uniform shirt was hanging out and his hair was all ruffled like he’d just got out of bed.

‘What’s the matter?’

‘I don’t know,’ he said.

‘Are you hurt?’

‘No.’

‘Are you in trouble?’

‘Yes.’

Bloody hell, he was lovely. His unexpected vulnerability just added to the appeal. She thought about Chez slumped in front of the TV at home with a can of lager in his hand and a fag hanging from the corner of his mouth. Why couldn’t he be more like this man? His broad, powerful shoulders, strong features, cute hair… Heather had had sex loads of times with loads of kids, but she’d never been loved, never felt protected, never had someone make her feel wanted, not even Chez… especially not Chez. She looked into the policeman’s eyes, so full of life, and dared to dream about how he might make her feel. But she was just a school kid letting her mind run away with itself. Nothing was ever going to happen between a girl like her and a man like him.

‘You okay?’ he asked, and the fact he cared enough to ask made the warmth and wanting inside her increase. She just wanted to be close to him now, to hold him and to be held.

So she wrapped her arms around him.

To her surprise, he reciprocated, holding her tight. It felt wrong, but it also felt so right.

She could feel his hands around her waist, could feel his breath on the side of her face, could smell him… She was starting to think he wanted her like she wanted him, but they couldn’t, could they? What would people say? Somehow that made her want him even more. She felt herself moisten when she saw he had an erection.

Her first time had been around the back of this building with a spotty little kid at a youth club Christmas disco a few years back. It had been freezing cold. The sex had been fast and painful, devoid of any emotion or attachment – everything her first time shouldn’t have been. Even now Chez was little better. Sure he told her he loved her and said the things he thought she wanted to hear, but it was still usually an empty fuck on his terms and for his benefit. She wasn’t particularly experienced but, right now, standing here holding the policeman like this, staring deep into his eyes, feeling his gentle hand caressing the side of her face, she felt supremely confident. She wanted to feel him inside her so very badly.

It was wrong. It was dangerous. They were out in the open. She was much younger than him and he’d get into all kinds of trouble if anyone found out… but Heather and PC Hamilton did it just the same. They stripped, then fucked fast and hard and beautifully against the wall of the Thussock community hall.