High Heels & Pink Glitter (the heavily edited version)

Speedy Gonzalez

Ryan's day hadn't gone exactly as planned—he hadn't anticipated meeting Mark for starters—but he found himself laughing and joking in McDonald's as he and Erin divided veggie dippers, fries, mozzarella sticks and a veggie burger, all disappointment about his father if not banished, certainly displaced.

Erin scooped up the mayonnaise splatter next to the fries and stuck her finger in her mouth, pulling it out super-slowly. Ryan gulped. God, almost everything she did set his pulse racing.

"D'you want to... come back to my house...? My mum's out. And my stepdad. And Ross."

Oh, and oh. The blood did its thing of rushing straight to his face and neck. It wasn't as if he had no idea of what 'it' looked like. Over the past few years, he'd watched his fair share of porn. He knew where the various body parts went, but it all seemed like a convoluted dance. To waltz, rhumba or cha-cha-cha properly, you had to know the choreography.

He nodded, not trusting himself to speak. They could stick with the basics. He knew where to put his fingers, and it was likely Erin could curl hers around his cock.

One thing for definite though. They needed to get out of McDonald's NOW.

"Yeah, c'mon then," he stood up, admiring the confidence he faked. "Though there better no' be in any gherkins in your house. I dinnae want tae walk into your kitchen and be assaulted by jars o' them, all falling off the shelves!"

Erin giggled, no longer the sixteen-year-old seductress but a child delighted by a long-running joke. "Ha!" she said, grasping his hand. "We eat gherkins for breakfast, lunch and dinner! So, there are tonnes of them in the cupboards. We have them on toast, in ice-cream, with cakes, everything!"

The jokiness relaxed him enough to make a move on her once they were outside. He dropped her hand and wrapped his arm around her shoulders, pulling her in super-tight. That same freezing of the environment around him that had occurred when they were in Boots kicked in.

The traffic noise died away. The guy begging outside McDonald's froze in place as he turned around, holding a paper cup with the bottom covered in small change. A girl spun around to face her friends, a finger pointing at one and her mouth wide open in exclamation.

None of it he noticed, only aware of Erin. The coconut scent of her shampoo, the tickle of her hair on his neck, the feel of her breasts pressed against his chest, and the whisper of her breath on his cheek.

He closed his eyes, leant in and kissed her. Strawberry lip gloss. The warmth of lips parting beneath his. the meeting of tongues that set his body tingling all over, the concentration of every bit of him into his mouth and the warmth that radiated out from his chest down to his groin.

Did people jeer as they passed? Was there a middle-aged woman, buttoned up in a bright orange raincoat, who muttered, "Honestly! Public displays of affections are the pits!" Did a blonde-haired guy in his early thirties elbow his companion as they headed for Cineworld, cup his hands around his mouth and exclaim, "Oi, get a room, for fuck's sake!", prompting the middle-aged woman to tut some more, "Language!"

Erin broke away, giggling once more. "C'mon, c'mon!" and they raced off, charging towards Central Station.

The train arrived on time, and it took fifteen minutes to reach the leafy suburbs where Erin lived. Ryan wasn't in the mood to take in his surroundings, but he did notice the detached homes with conservatories, and the driveways with two to three cars. Tugging his hand, Erin led him past the houses to smart, yellow sandstone three-storey flats with big bay windows, cars parked on either side of the street.

"Here," she remarked, slotting a key into the Yale lock outside one of the shared entrances. Her flat was at the top of the stairs, and they raced up, Ryan matching Erin's two steps at a time. At the top, she turned to him, sparkly-eyed and breathless, her hair loosened from the claw clip that fastened it to the back of her head, foreshadowing what was to come.