Being a Girl Read Online Free PDF Page A

have to be a nuclear scientist to know why.
    â€˜I knew this would happen,’ I said.
    â€˜How did you?’ she demanded.
    â€˜Because something like this always happens.’
    â€˜I thought you wanted to have some fun.’
    â€˜This wasn’t what I had in mind when we left.’
    â€˜I did,’ she said, and looked back at me with a scornful expression. ‘You’re such a virgin, Milly.’
    I took a deep breath. She had made her point. It was only a breakdown, after all. We had set out in search of adventure, and this was where it all began.
    Binky slammed the lid shut and tried the car once more. Nothing. She slipped her arms into her Afghan coat and pulled her big woolly hat over her eyes.
    â€˜Are you ready?’
    â€˜For anything,’ I said, and she smiled.
    We glanced back along the lane, but couldn’t remember having passed any houses for ages and it was too boring to retrace our steps. I zipped myself into my sensible parka and we set out in the direction we’d been going. We had our mobile phones but weren’t sure who to call.
    Further along the lane, we saw a building in the middle of a field. It had started to rain again and we were afraid the storm was returning. ‘Come on,’ Binky said, and she was already climbing the wall. I did have a faint hope that it was a farmhouse where an old lady with her hair rolled into a bun would be busy making scones, but it turned out to be a stone barn, the doors securely bolted. The sky had darkened and the rain was getting heavier. We walked around the outside of the building, but the windows were small and too high to reach.
    â€˜What are we going to do?’ I said, as Binky vanished around the corner.
    She came back carrying an enormous rock and loomed over the new padlock.
    â€˜Don’t,’ I screamed.
    But it was too late. She brought it down cleanly on the hasp and as the silver lock sprang open she turned to me with a look of wonder in her green eyes. We were standing close and Binky did something totally unexpected: she leaned forward and pressed her lips playfully to mine. It wasn’t a snog, just a peck, but she had never done anything like that before. Her lips were soft but firm and left a sweet taste that lingered on my senses.
    â€˜That’s disgusting,’ I said.
    â€˜Liar,’ she shot back.
    I pulled the door open and we shared the thrill of entering the unknown. The barn was dry with bales of hay stored in steps around the walls. Binky in one swift movement sprinted the length of the barn, vaulted a pile of bales stacked three high and landed perfectly, feet together. Binky was a good gymnast and had never quite seen the point of team games like hockey and lacrosse where the praise was shared. I clapped my hands and, as Binky caught her breath, we stood there in silence, not quite sure what to do. The slate-grey sky was lit by golden streaks of lightning and the sound of the rain running off the roof reminded me that I had not been to the bathroom since the motorway services.
    â€˜I’m dying to use the loo,’ I said.
    â€˜Me too.’
    Binky grinned. She was turning the breakdown into an escapade, and that old sense of fun came back to me as we squatted down on our private bales of hay.
    I peed for ages.
    â€˜Wow, I needed that,’ I gasped.
    â€˜So I see,’ she screamed, and it was totally embarrassing because she was standing there staring at meas I was still peeing. ‘Look at the steam. Or is that Scotch mist?’
    She spoke with a Scottish accent, and while we erupted in fits of giggles, the shock of a flashlight shining on me before I could pull up my jeans came as such a surprise I tripped and fell back in the hay. Binky laughed as she wriggled into her flares and we turned, blinded by the light.
    â€˜What have we here then, some vagrants?’
    It was a man’s voice, the tone stern but melodic, his rrrs rolling poetically. The