It was in the midmorning break. I was spending my summer holidays working in a crappy local factory, earning some money to see me through college which I was starting in a few months time. Me and a couple of the other young guys were sitting around one of the machine, drinking tea and eating our sandwiches and chatting – mostly moaning about the sheer boredom of the job and the shitty people that worked there.
The subject turned to girls and the guys began to tell tales and brag, I just sat there and listened, wondering how much was real and how much was just bullshit.
'So, Ray, when was the last time you had it?'
Uh oh! The question was directed at me. I shifted in the machinists' chair, tried to look unflustered.
'Me? I haven't had a shag in ages, I'm absolutely dying for one to tell the truth.' I replied casually.
Now this was in fact an understatement, because at the tender age of 17, I was still a virgin, and I can still remember at that time feeling pretty desperate about the situation, wondering if it was ever going to happen for me, that I'd finally get to lose my virginity.
'Nevermind Ray.' Piped up Ricky. 'I know this bird I can set you up with. She'll shag you, Christ! She'll shag anyone!'
Well that got my attention, but all the other guys were groaning and saying bullshit and lying cunt etc. at Ricky.
I have to say that although Ricky was my best mate in the factory and we stayed friends for many years after, he was a lying and bullshitting bastard, and everyone knew that he was full of it. He usually meant no harm, he was very funny and daring, but he was a feckless type of guy, hence the mass skepticism. Still I wasn't going to miss a chance like this, although I did dread to think what this girl would look/be like. On the whole I couldn't lose, if she was another figment of his imagination the joke was on him, and if not, well maybe I would get lucky, can't say that my hopes were very high though.
'OK, Ricky, set up a meeting with her for me and we'll see.' I said to him.
'Alright mate, I'll let you know.'
The next morning Ricky came up to me as I was working.
'Watcha Ray, I've set up a meeting with Suzy, that girl I was telling you about.'
'Oh yeah?'
'Yeah, at the Wimpy in town tonight, around 8 o'clock. You going to be there?'
'Sure, I'll be there.' Wow! Suddenly I felt nervous.
'I told her all about you, she's just dying to meet you. Your well in I can tell you!' He chuckled.
Just then the foreman came over and chased Ricky off leaving me to my own excited thoughts as I continued my repetitive, mind numbing task.
That evening I picked my coolest clothes (this was the late 70's), flared jeans and faded Levis denim jacket and Dr.Marten boots. Washed and brushed my long curly hair and set off on my little motorbike into town. I parked outside the Wimpy and took off my crash helmet and went inside, pushing through the swing door. Back in those days all the Wimpy bars seemed to be run by huge Greek Cypriots, there was a bunch of them hanging around behind the counter. I scanned the tables, shoving my gloves into my helmet. With a bit of a sinking feeling I spotted Ricky. He was with a bunch of his friends from his side of town. They were from the council estate and were a wild bunch well known around town. I'd met a couple of them before and got on alright with them, so I was probably not going to be getting a kicking. I had hoped that it would just be Ricky and the girl and that he'd introduce us and get lost. I was always shy about chatting girls up, especially in front of people I was nervous of anyway!
There was about eight of them in all, Ricky, Denny (who I also knew) and some other guys, two of them with very long straight hair and two girls. I wondered which one was Suzy, they were both pretty at a casual glance.
I waved and went and got myself a coffee before joining them at their table where they were chatting noisily and drawing the evil eye from the Greeks.
'This is Ray, the guy I was telling you about.' Ricky introduced me as I arrived. I smiled and waved 'hi'.
'You know Denny, that's Craig and Calvin, Little Eric....' (He introduced the rest but I can't remember who else was there now) 'that's Kim and this is Suzy, who I told you about.' He finished giving me a suggestive wink.
I had been following his introductions around the table and as he got to Suzy our eyes met and I can still, after all these years, see her face as it was then on that evening. The first thing that struck me was these huge warm brown eyes, next the broad happy smile and the white row of teeth, the front top two just a little buck. She was so beautiful.
'Shift round so that Ray can sit down.' Said Ricky.
They moved and I fetched a chair to sit in the gap made, next to Suzy. I glanced around and Ricky turned the conversation to motorbikes, a passion of mine at the time, giving me an in to the conversation as a couple of the other guys were into bikes too. I tried not to say too much and let them fall back into their own conversation.
I nervously looked over at Craig and Calvin, these guys were brothers and had a reputation for being hard men. They were both skinny, they didn't look much, but the key to their notoriety was their recklessness and complete and utter disregard for their personal safety or the consequences of their actions. Denny was second generation Irish, very funny and a real one for drinking, I liked him, we'd met before.
All the time though I was trying to sneak little looks at the lovely Suzy sat next to me. She had tightly curled dark hair falling over her shoulders and was wearing a short coat with a fake fur collar, she kept flashing me that wonderful smile. I couldn't get over it! She had a very slim build by the look – I was knocked off balance because to be honest I was expecting a fat horrible looking girl (knowing what Ricky had pulled himself in the past) and was wondering if I was going to go through with it all just to lose my cherry, which I was so desperate to do. Now, here was this lovely girl, who frankly if I saw her in the street, I would have thought straight off that he was out of my league!
As the evening wore on Suzy coaxed me into conversation with her and I tried hard to be cool and not be a prat. She was very friendly and funny and just, well nice! After a while the guys were bored and decided that they were going off to look for some action (that meant starting some aggro somewhere). Not everyone wanted to go so the group split up, leaving me, Suzy, Ricky and Denny in the Wimpy. Kim, Suzy's friend went off to her boyfriends' house.
After another short while we decided to leave too and walked out into the street. A short discussion on what to do next ended up with Suzy inviting all of us around to her parents house for a coffee. Ricky had his bike there too so he gave Denny a lift and Suzy climbed on behind me, I felt her warm body snuggle up behind me, it felt so good, I was rigid in my jeans. Neither passenger had crash helmets so we weaved around the back streets to avoid the coppers until we got close to Suzy's and then parked the bikes in an ally (her parents didn't allow her to go on motorbikes!).