Girls Out Late Read Online Free PDF

aren’t here or they’d hoot with laughter. We’ve left the kids on the swings far behind. We’re over by the trees where it’s really dark.
    “Oh, Ellie,” says Russell.
    This is obviously a signal for another kiss. I’m ready this time, my head tilted so that my glasses don’t get in the way. I love the way he kisses. Dan and I used to kiss but it was just silly awkward kids’ stuff. This is real and adult and exciting.
    This is getting too real and adult and exciting. His hand is wandering over my shoulders toward my front.
    “Russell, don’t.”
    “Please. Just . . .
please.
”
    His hand is stroking the wool of Eggs’s jumper insistently. I love the way it feels. It’s not like it’s anything too terrible. I don’t want him to think me totally uptight and pathetic. So shall I just let him go this far?
    Oh my God, I’ve suddenly remembered the tissues! The ones I stuffed down each bra cup so I wouldn’t show too much in the tight sweater. I’ll die if he finds himself with a handful of paper tissue.
    “Please, Russell. No, come on, I
have
to get home.” I push him away very firmly.
    “Ellie!”
    “I mean it. What’s the time?”
    He looks at his watch. “Oh dear, I can’t see the face in the dark.”
    “Russell,
please
!”
    “OK, OK. It’s only just gone eleven.”
    “
What?
You’re kidding!”
    “Ten past.”
    “Oh my God, what am I going to do?”
    “Hey, hey, don’t panic. Look, it’s really not late at all. Ellie! Wait for me.”
    “I’ve got to run.”
    “Well, I’ll run with you. I’ll take you right home. I’ll explain to your folks that it’s all my fault.”
    “And you’ll say what? That we went for a walk in the park and started kissing and lost all sense of time?”
    “Well,
some
thing along those lines.”
    “To my
dad
?”
    “Is he a really fierce old-fashioned kind of
father
dad?” said Russell. “Maybe I won’t come
all
the way home with you.”
    “Don’t, then! Look, you go off back to Pembridge Park. It’s going to take you ages. I don’t even know if there’s a bus at this time.”
    “So I’ll take a taxi. No problem. And I was
joking,
Ellie. Of course I’m not going to let you go haring off on your own. I just wish you wouldn’t walk so quickly. I can’t keep up with you. I’m useless at running.”
    “So am I!” I have to slow a little because my heart is pounding and I can hardly breathe and sweat is trickling down my back. Oh God, please let my deodorant keep working, please please please. Don’t let him think of me as
Smelly
Ellie.
    “So you’re not a sporty girl. Not jolly hockey sticks?”
    “I
hate
hockey. Mags and Nadine and I still do our best to slope off sharpish whenever there’s a match.” I take a huge gasping breath. “I’m going to have to start running again, Russell. That’s quarter past striking. How did it get so
late
?”
    “You were in amazing company, that’s how,” said Russell. “Hey, will your dad be seriously cross, Ellie?”
    I don’t know! I’ve never really been out late like this before. I didn’t ever go out on proper dates with Dan—and
no
dad would worry about what I was getting up to with Dan anyway. Dan had total nerd written right through him, like a stick of seaside rock. He used to turn peppermint pink whenever he came up close to me. If he’d ever kissed me like Russell he’d have gone magenta and exploded. Like the girl’s head in
Girls Out
Late.
And I’m a girl out later than late and Dad and Anna must be seriously worried. They’ll worry even more if I tell them the absolute truth. Right, I’ll spin them a little story. I’ll say I went back to Nadine’s and she showed me her favorite horror video,
Girls Out Late,
and it was so compulsive we just couldn’t stop watching and lost all track of time. It’s not really a lie. I
have
watched part of
Girls Out Late
at Nadine’s. They’ll understand. They’ll be cross, of course. They’ll wonder why I didn’t phone. OK, OK,