Artists Town-a FREE TO READ coming of age tale (SAMPLE ONLY)

No-one's ever hit anyone for me before

The security guard—a man who looked as if he could pick up Katrina and break her in two—began to take the sweets from Katrina's hand.

She responded by punching him in the stomach. His eyes widened comically, and he let out an "Oof", dropping the sweets he'd managed to take from Katrina and doubling up.

"Right!" the manager bellowed, stepping in between the security guard and Katrina. "That's enough! I'm calling the police now to charge you with assault and theft."

"No!" Daisy shouted, her mind finally pulling itself out of the swamp it had sunk into. "No! Not theft. I'm..."

The effort of talking exhausted her. She held out her left arm with its Medic Alert bracelet.

Katrina folded her arms. "My friend's got diabetes. Her blood sugar level was low, so she needed sugar, and she didn't have any on her. I got her some sweets because otherwise, she would have fainted and DIED."

It was a bit of an exaggeration, but the manager's expression softened, and he held out a hand to Daisy.

"Oh, oh...well. Let's get you into the back office and get you something to drink. Johnny, can you get some more sweets for the young lady? No charge, of course!"

Daisy grasped his hand and pulled herself up slowly. Katrina smirked at the security guard, who glowered back at her.

Woolworth's back office was a small, windowless room strewn with paper. The manager pressed two cups of tea on them, plenty more cola bottles and a promise that there was no harm done to the security guard. One wee lassie could hardly hurt a big, beefy guard, could she?

Daisy wolfed down too many sweets, the sugary coating of them sticking to her lips. The manager wrapped up the remaining cola bottles and handed them over, telling the girls to take care of themselves.

Outside the front of the shop, Daisy burst into laughter, the effort of it causing her to double up, hands on thighs.

"I can't believe you punched that security! You nutter," she stuttered, the words coming out in fits and bursts. Then, "No-one's ever hit anyone for me before."

Katrina smiled at that.

"Shall I give Kippy a call?" She pointed at their bikes. "Mebbe you shouldn't cycle back. Kippy can bring the work van. We can put the bikes in there."

Daisy agreed, relieved at the prospect of not having to cycle back but dismayed at the thought of Kippy seeing her. She could feel sweat drying on her body, and she knew her face was scarlet.

Katrina must have seen something in her face. She held out a powder compact and a lip gloss. "Here you go. Put a bit of this on."

"Where did you get that?" Daisy asked. The makeup looked suspiciously new, packaging still in place.

Taking her bike from where it lay against the wall, Katrina looked back at her and grinned.

"I nicked them when I took the sweets."

And with that, she pointed at the other bike. "C'mon. I'll phone Kippy at his work."

"You stole my bike."

It was an accusation, but a friendly one. Kippy had picked them up at the park by the loch twenty minutes after Katrina called him from the public phone box just outside the park. Daisy wasn't sure how he'd gotten away with it. It was the middle of the day, after all, but the van had driven into the car park, horn honking loudly and startling the pensioners and small children playing nearby.

Kippy, Katrina told her, was an apprentice. He worked for McCallum's Painting & Decorating, a small Kirkinwall firm. The boss let him drive the work's van, even though he was yet to sit his driving test.

Throwing open the door, Kippy jumped out. Daisy silently thanked Katrina for her makeup stealing tricks. Kippy looked...amazing. Even dressed in overalls liberally coated with splashes of paint, those big blue eyes and the tall lankiness of him was beautiful. She felt her belly tighten, and she pushed her lips together hoping the gloss made them look inviting.

"Sorry... I, er..." She wished for wit and quick thinking. "It's a great bike!" Sadly, the wish went unanswered.

"I said it was okay for Daisy to borrow it," Katrina said, wheeling the two bikes over to the van. "You don't need your bike when you're working."

"How come you're too lazy to bike back then?" Kippy took the bikes from Katrina and loaded them into the back of the van which was already chock full of ladders, tins of paint, rollers and trays.

"Daisy had an incident," Katrina announced solemnly, once the bikes were safely squashed into the van and the back doors closed. Daisy turned, shushing her. Sweating buckets and collapsing in a Woolworth's store was hardly glamorous.

Katrina poked her tongue out at her. "Well, you did." She turned back to Kippy. "She's got diabetes and she wasnae feeling very well. I didn't think she should cycle back."

Kippy glanced at Daisy. "Are you okay now?"

"Yes, thank you. Katrina punched a security guard who was trying to arrest us," Daisy threw in. The 'arrest' thing was maybe an exaggeration, but Katrina's over-dramatics were catching.

Kippy shook his head at that but then grinned. "What did you dae that for?"

"I had to get sweeties into this one's gob quickly, so I helped myself to the pick and mix. The security guard tried to take them off me. Accused me of stealing."

Katrina's voice had gone up at that in fake outrage.

"To be fair," Daisy said. "He wasn't wrong there."

Kippy shook his head again. His younger cousin's appalling behaviour probably wasn't news to him. He wrenched open the door to the passenger side of the van and told them to get in.

Katrina insisted Daisy sit in the middle. The van didn't have enough room for three people up front, and Kippy's arm touched hers every time he changed gear. She wasn't a driver herself, but Daisy thought he shifted them more often than he needed too.

She angled herself slightly so that the arm came into contact with her breast and hoped that he noticed her nipples had hardened. The delicate brush of arm to nipple sent powerful messages to her groin.

"You're driving Miss Daisy," Katrina said, "so watch your driving."

Again, Daisy was no expert, but Kippy drove very fast, and he took the corners at a dizzying speed, the van almost tilting on its side as they sailed around them. If the nipple brushing hadn't distracted her, she might have found herself screaming.

They were back in Kirkinwall ten minutes later. "The party's an all-nighter," Kippy said as he dropped them off. "And there'll be gear there."

"Good," Katrina said, jumping out her side. "We'll be there. Once we've figured out how to get Miss Daisy in."

"Oh, it'll be fine. My mum and dad will be totally cool with it," Daisy said, breezily, dismayed that Kippy might think she was the sort of girl who needed to ask her parents if she could go to a party, even if it were true.

And what was gear anyway? Painting gear? Tools? Instinct warned her to keep her mouth shut. It was probably an uncool question.

The van drove off, and Katrina nudged her. "No, they won't be. We'll just no' tell them, okay?"

AUTHOR'S NOTE - thanks for reading so far. If you like what you've read for free, you can buy the book directly from me by scanning the QR code on the image below.