Chapter 1

We both grew up and lived until we were in our twenties in a typical close-knit small town of about 12,000 inhabitants. About 10 miles or so from one of England's major cities, it was the kind of place where everyone seemed to know everyone else's business. You maybe know the sort of town I mean. A kid couldn't do anything without his parents finding out from some interfering busybody or other. Any misadventures or slight misdemeanour's got back to your parents, often before you had even returned home yourself. Because it was off the beaten track slightly, yet also on a main railway line, our town was a very desirable place to live for people wanting to work in the big city but not live there. This led to house prices being way above the norm for the area and caused the problem of young locals getting married and not being able to afford a decent-sized house near their families and the friends they grew up with. That in itself created a separate problem: Splitting the town between 'locals' and newcomers who viewed living there as a stepping stone to somewhere better.

The school we were both attending when we met was one of those large, purpose-built secondary-modern establishments that had sprung up around the country in order to cater for the war-baby bulge. Intended to accommodate kids from several nearby villages, it was cold, impersonal, and full of inter-village rivalries amongst its pupils. Large class sizes meant teachers only seemed to want to bother with kids who were willing to toe-the-line and do as they were told- not suited to my inbuilt rebellious streak at all.

All in all, I grew up in a claustrophobic and lonely environment for any teenager to be a part of as I stumbled through my early years with no friends, a family that 'didn't understand' me and teachers who couldn't give a damn about me.

And I fucking hated it!...

That is, until I met Claire.

Claire was always a beauty. Slim and naturally fit, she couldn't help but draw attention from any self-respecting heterosexual male, even from her first blossoming into puberty. She had absolutely no idea at first of the affect she had on anyone who met her as she was going through her early teens. An effervescent, naturally friendly little girl who rapidly developed into a popular and beautiful young woman, everyone who ever had the joy of meeting her was totally entranced by her. Boys fell in love with her. Girls wanted to be like her, seemingly without any of the petty jealousies you would expect from others not as blessed as her. Her whole personality and general demeanour meant absolutely no-one disliked her. From her peers right up to her teachers, everyone would try to associate themselves with her, assuring she was always the centre of attention wherever she went.

Me? - I always thought I was pitching way above my weight when Claire and I got together. It was strange that she and I ever connected at all, what with being as totally different as we were. She was my first girlfriend and I was absolutely enamoured by her. Totally besotted I will freely admit. She had apparently grown tired of me just shyly ogling her from afar and, one cold and crisp autumn day, amazed me when she suddenly appeared at my side as I sat alone at school lunch time. I didn't really have any friends back then, so being alone at lunchtime was not exactly unusual at that time of my life. She just started talking to me as though we were old friends, putting this stroppy, shy youth completely at ease with her naturally friendly disposition as she proceeded to inquire why I had never asked her out. To say I was gob-smacked was to say Mount Everest is a bit of a hill in Nepal. Within half an hour, we were holding hands and walking back into school like some star-crossed lovers.

Personally, I was nothing special back then, apart from being exceptionally tall for my age that is– I was over 6 foot when I was just 14. Other than that, I was a typically 'spotty' youth, full of attitude and surliness toward my long-suffering parents and any other form of authority that 'dared' to try to limit my life. Inevitably, that obnoxiousness would lead to me being punished in one form or another and I seemed to spend my early teens either in detention, or worse, at school- corporal punishment was still allowed in schools back then- or it led to me being 'grounded for evermore' at home by my despairing parents.

Unfashionably long hair, skinny white body, heavy smoker, under-age drinker, I was the archetypal 'bad-boy' that for some inexplicable reason some so-called nice girls seem to be attracted to. In my early teens, I was perpetually in trouble. Inexorably and totally unable to back down in any shape or form, I always seemed to turn a discussion into a disagreement, a disagreement into a full-blown argument, an argument into a fight, a fight into a vendetta. You know the sort of insolent young twat I mean. You've all met them and wanted to give them a good clip round the fucking ear, no doubt.

Consequently, Claire and I became an item. We were both 15 at the time and our two sets of parents had totally opposite views on the situation. Understandably, hers were appalled and disgusted. They couldn't for one millisecond understand why their beautiful, intelligent daughter should ever want to be seen dead with an out-of-control yob like me. Her solid, conservative father hated me. Her mother? Well she was probably a little frightened of me as well as hating me, (although I always had the impression she knew what her daughter was attracted to). My parents on the other hand were delighted. They saw the lovely Claire as an influence who would help get my life on track and make me settle down, make me grow-up if you like.