The Painful Truth

Society...what a wonderful word, or is it? When people think of Wales they think of a small place. Where everyone knows each other and are in a tight knit community, where nothing ever happens and nobody ever does anything wrong. How very wrong these people are... Wales, I find is one of the places you can live in for a few years and notice how society crumbles so quickly and how first impressions can be so wrong. Old women gossip and shriek at teenagers for sitting on a bench wrong and having no proper morals these days, but it's only at night time where you find out how hypocritical these people are. 1

This is where my story starts... me and some of my friends had just been to berriew barn dance and the music and lights were still flashing around our heads as we thought back on everything that had happened. We were all of coarse pissed out of our heads, but even then my senses told me something bad was going to happen as I sat thinking on Andy's knee, as the bus drove us in to Spar car park. As I stumbled out of the bus clasping Andy's cold hand in mine I saw something that made my heart freeze straight away. There by the toilets looked a smug Lisa and Sam. To get you to understand this I'll have to take you back a bit though... a few months earlier when me and my friends were yet again drunk from a house party, we had done the most stupid thing in our lives. We actually stopped and talked to Lisa and Sam. To put it quickly I had to leave to go home quite early and I got rung the next day to be told that Lisa had beaten up one of my best mates Alex who was very pissed so couldn't fight back, just because apparently she was giving Lisa dirty looks (that she wasn't). In the end Alex got beaten up so badly she had to go to the police because her parents demanded it and her pretty little face was black and blue for weeks.2

So of coarse when I saw Lisa and Sam again my instincts told me to get out of there, but as they advanced I could do nothing except whisper urgently into Andy's ear that I didn't trust Lisa and we had to get out of here quick. Hollie was sprawled across the floor and though Laura tried to drag her up she couldn't get her up and Lisa by that time had come face to face with Alex. 3

"I just want to have a word with you" she said softly to Alex. "I want to explain to you that everything is alright again, come with me" she whispered as she took Alex's hand and tried to lead her around the back of the toilets where nobody could see her. I roughly grabbed Alex's hand and roughly pulled her back towards me thinking "no way is she going to get my mate". Lisa knew straight away that I would never let Alex go with her so started talking with Alex in front of us. At first she seemed nice and was just asking how Alex was and stuff but soon she became angry and started demanding for Alex to tell her why she reported her to the police. Alex pleaded with her that it was her parents that forced her to go to the police and she didn't want to really. But Lisa wouldn't accept this. As the moonlight shone brightly on her face I could see a flame in her eyes saying that she wasn't going to accept any answer she was given. I stepped in and told Lisa to back off and that it was her own fault but she shrugged me off telling me not to get involved. My heart was racing and my head was spinning as I clung on to Andy's hand for all the support I could get, but his face was still un-worried as though he didn't know what dangers this could lead to. 4

Finally Lisa backed off and started walking across to Spar as we all took a sigh of relief and relaxed for a brief second before we realised she was sprinting back to us and in a minute she had punched Alex down to the ground. I caught Alex out of instinct then leaped on to Lisa, pushing her away with all the might and told her to stop being a stupid bitch and lay off. Luckily some lads ran across and pulled her away. Some adults and old people who were passing by muttered under the breath and I could hear odd words like how teenagers were always fighting these days and how disgraceful it was, but not for once they tried to help us and to stop the fight and personally I thought the teenagers had the most morals for helping anyone in trouble. So me and my friends started walking back over to Laura's house minus Andy who had stayed with his mates so now I had Alex's hand in mine, shaking uncontrollably as I whispered to her it was okay and that we'd got rid of her and that she shouldn't worry because I was always going to be there to protect her no matter what. happened and slowly her hand stopped shaking. But I could suddenly hear a quick thumping on the concrete and as I slowly turned my head, my eyes open wide and my heart thumping, my bloody running cold-my worst fears got confirmed as I saw Lisa run full pelt at us. Her fat wobbling and her fists clamped tightly. I just stood there for a minute completely amazed at how fast she could run for a fat bitch and suddenly she was on us. I dragged Alex behind the others as they held Lisa back. Alex clung on to me, her eyes open as wide as she begged me not to let her get beaten up again-near enough in tears. I reassured her I'll protect her with all my heat, tears welling in my eyes as I saw how petrified she was. I tried to think of what to do. Though my first instinct was to stay and fight I knew that Lisa was a lot bigger than me and I'd get myself hurt if I tried. I thought slowly through the options as I watched Lisa try to get Alex snarling like an animal, her body sprawling everywhere with her eyes glinting hungrily upon us. It felt like I had been thinking about everything for hours but in reality it was only seconds before I thought of the only thing me and Alex could do...run!!!5

When we got away we took our heels from our aching feet and kept running, ignoring all the cars beeping there horns at us and all the older peoples tutting. Could they not see how terrified we looked? Alex kept on telling me she couldn't go on but my instincts told me to keep going so I told her to keep going and that we hadn't got much further to go. My mind had been taken over by something else and I felt almost possessed. Everything was blurred around me as I felt the cold, hard pavement underneath my feet. All I could think of is protecting my friend with all the power I had and to keep running like my life depended on it. Only when I got to Laura's house I suddenly remembered the others and thought how they could be in danger as well. It was torture waiting for them, but in the end after the minutes slowly ticked by and the rest of my friends came back, okay and living. Lisa had left soon after we had legged it. 6

So is this society really that close? Adults may say we have no morals and that we're the ones always getting in to fights but we are also more loyal and we help each other instead of standing around muttering about how bad we are. Like if a teenager walked past an adult in need of trouble we'd get blamed... At least me and my friends learnt never to trust adults because even when we got the police involved they have no idea what teenagers go through just to try and help overs after them. As I look back upon that night though it started off so great at the party it turned out to be one of the worse nights of my life. I just thought I should spread the word and tell anybody out there who goes on about how teenagers have no morals to look at themselves because these days teenagers have made their own community!7