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and I guessed it would take more than sixteen-year-old Abigail Robbins to tame him, but she was determined to give it a go. Johnny came from the south coast but was living with Samuel while he studied at university in Bath. Their families went way back, apparently.
    ‘So don’t let me down, Ellie. It’ll be a laugh anyway,’ Abi said.
    ‘I suppose so,’ I replied. ‘It’s not like there’s anyone else I really like at the moment.’
    ‘Cool. So that’s sorted then.’
    Things being what they were, two weeks before the event, Johnny and Samuel asked us if we would like to accompany them to the Prom. Abi was ecstatic. I’d never seen her so completely smitten and it was the first time she’d been flustered by anything or anyone.
    My parents were far from happy with Johnny’s interest in me. If I’m truthful, neither was I. He was five years older than me and I thought he would expect more than I wanted to give. He was very rich, very intelligent and had just finished his third year at Uni, studying Chemical Engineering. He was handsome, but not in a heart-stopping way, and he seemed nice, but something harder glinted behind his smile.
    The only reason my parents didn ’ t forbid me from seeing him, was because he came round to see them, to charm them and reassure them I would be safe in his company. Also, my wise mother knew that if she imposed a ban, it would only make him more attractive to me.
    Samuel worked for his father, who owned Bletchley ’ s, a long-established Prestige Car Showroom on the A38. Consequently, Abi and Samuel arrived at the Prom in style, with Samuel behind the wheel of a jaw-droppingly cool Maybach Exelero. Johnny ’ s ride was far from shabby. He called round to my house in his own Aston Martin - a silver V8 Vantage. Despite my indifference to cars in general, I couldn’t help but be seduced by this low-slung beauty.
    The evening exuded glamour and sophistication. We’d persuaded the teacher in charge that holding it in the school sports hall would be just too sad, and so they’d hired out a local nightclub for the event.
    The four of us sat upstairs on the balcony above the heaving dance floor. Abi and I wore psychedelic mini dresses and zip up boots. And we had poker-straight sixties-style hair. We knew we looked good, but that still didn’t help me to relax, as most of the time I felt completely out of my depth conversation-wise.
    Samuel shouted above the noise of the music. ‘Yeah man, I was completely wasted and I told her to ...’ He held his hand in front of his face and mouthed something to Johnny.’
    ‘Sam,’ Johnny shook his head, ‘you are one sick little puppy.’
    Abigail ran her hands up and down Samuel’s thigh, while she kissed his neck and nibbled his ear. He virtually ignored her and carried on bragging to Johnny about this girl and that girl, this car and that car. I wouldn’t have put up with it, but Abi didn’t seem to care. She seemed relaxed and happy, gazing adoringly at him all evening.
    I think Johnny sensed they weren’t quite hitting my wavelength, and he nudged Sam.
    ‘Hey, Sammy, tone it down a bit. I don’t think Eleanor and Abi are interested in your list of conquests.’
    ‘Whatever, mate, whatever.’
    By this time, I ’ d already decided I would much rather have spent the evening having a laugh with my friends, than trying to act grown-up around someone I wasn ’ t even really attracted to. As soon as I realised I didn ’ t actually fancy him, I relaxed. And then Johnny just seemed more of a temporary inconvenience than the scary grown man I ’ d been trying to impress all night.
    Before the end of the evening, Sam and Abi disappeared off somewhere. She ’ d hinted earlier she might sleep with him that night. She ’ d said you were duty bound to sleep with someone on Prom Night, stressing this in a fake American accent. She said she liked the clichéd kitschness of it.
    She ’ d already lost her virginity a year earlier and, at