The Black Band (parental advisory: sexual references)

Kayleigh stepped out of the school into the brisk autumn afternoon feeling content that, apart from one of the rebellious boys snapping one of her jelly bracelets, her day had gone well. Top marks in her English essay. Her mother will be delighted. And acceptance into the school photographic club. Her father will be delighted. She fiddled with the thin multi-coloured bands round her wrist and cursed Marc Donnell for breaking her only black one.
"How can he say I owe him, when he's the one that snapped it? Boys are so lame," she muttered as a voice behind her called her name.
She spun round and saw Stewart Walton trotting across the road towards her. Her heart fluttered and her mouth went dry.
"Kayleigh, I need your help. Glad I caught you," he said breathlessly. "There's a...um...fox, in the woods that's injured. Could you give me a hand? I'm gonna get it out and...um...take it to the vet."
"Sure," she said, her parched lips grating against each other. "But we have to be careful. Sometimes injured animals are more aggressive when they're hurt than when they're not."
Stewart gave her a shaky nod and marched back across the road towards the silhouette of Hanley Woods. Kayleigh followed briskly after him. She had been in Hanley Woods a few times since she moved to the town, with her camera. It was a great place to get shots of the sunrise bleeding through the majestic Scots Pines.
"So where about is it?" Kayleigh asked as they wove between bare Chestnuts.
"Oh, it's down there, a bit," Stewart said hesitantly and gestured with a hand that it was deeper inside the woods.
As they trudged over bracken and fallen trunks Stewart never spoke a word. Kayleigh felt awkward. She was having to do all the talking and whenever she did answer him a question his answers were always terse. Did he like her at all? If he didn't why did he single out her help, there were a few other kids on the street walking home for him to ask?
But when she was deeper into the dwindling light of the woods a strange nervousness overcame her that stopped all analysis of his feelings toward her. She had no idea where it came from or why but something inside her said that what she was doing wasn't quite right. Stewart was acting strange enough, not talking to her, but every now and again he'd stop and look around.
"Do you know where you're going?" she asked.
"Yeah, its...um...over here," he said. He didn't even glance round to look at her.
"I think it must have gone, Stewart," Kayleigh said. "Look, it's getting late and dark. I think I'm just going to head back."
"No, I swear it's over here. It was all bloody and stuff," he said.
But as Kayleigh turned back two other boys sprung out from behind a couple of trees. It was Marc and David.
They were staring at her, nodding with crossed arms and malevolent grins on their faces.
Kayleigh froze as her eyes darted from Marc and David to Stewart who was staring at the ground with his hands in his pockets and the toe of his trainer scuffing the needles on the forest floor. She wanted to scream, to cry out but her head was telling her to stay calm in spite of the burgeoning terror within her.
"What do you want?" she said trying to control the quiver in her voice.
"You owe me," said Marc bluntly.
Kayleigh chose her words carefully. All too aware that she was in a delicate situation and that plucking Marc's strings in the wrong way could rile him. "I don't know what you mean. I haven't bought anything from you."
Marc laughed. "You didn't buy anything, you offered it. Now I'm here to collect."
Kayleigh frowned at him, still perplexed.
"Your bracelet, stupid," he spat. "You know what they mean. You're wearing them."
Kayleigh stared down at the thin rubber straps around her wrist.
"Black means you do everything," said Marc as he spat a phlegmy gob on the carpet of needles. "I snapped it that means you owe me sex!"
"What?" Kayleigh cried as she clutched at the buttons of her coat. Her heart was pounding so strongly she could feel it through the thick wool. "That's not why I wear them. Holly gave them to me. They were a gift. "
Marc and David burst into hysterics.
"And you thought they were being nice to you. Oh, here you are Kayleigh. You're such a nice girl. We want to be your friend," Marc cooed prancing round a sapling in as close an imitation of a girl as he could manage, "here have these bracelets."
Kayleigh swallowed the lump that rose in her throat, barely able to believe the foundations on which she built her life in Hanley were now crumbling beneath her. How could those she trusted have betrayed her so cruelly? Was she just their plaything?
"Nobody told me that's what they mean," she said coolly, keeping her crushed feelings and her body under wraps.
"Then you're stupider than you look."
"Where have you been living for the last year. The arctic?" said David. "Yellow means hug, purple means kiss, orange means love bite, and...mmm...I can't remember the others."
"If I'd known that I would never have taken them. There's no way I'd do any of that. And least of all with you," she said, hugging her coat closer to her.
"You better watch what you're saying. You're outnumbered."
"Are you part of this gang too?" Kayleigh asked, staring at Stewart.
Stewart finally looked Kayleigh in the eye. She held his gaze for what felt like an age before he flicked his eyes to look at Marc and David.
"I did what you wanted," Stewart said.
Marc dug a hand into the pocket of his jeans and pulled out a piece of paper. "Five quid. As promised," he said and handed it to David. Stewart hesitantly took it from David's hand and stuffed it into his jacket. "You can go now."
Kayleigh glanced at Stewart. If there was a sliver of decency in his body she wanted to connect to it. If there was a hope at all that he might read the desperation on her face and come to her aide she wanted to show it. But he turned from her and schlepped through the forest.
Kayleigh turned to Marc and David. "I'm not scared of you," she said shaking her head in a display of defiance.
"Doesn't bother me," said Marc as he stepped over the fallen branches towards her.
"The fact that you have to lure girls into the woods is pretty pathetic," Kayleigh said.
In spite of Marc's advancement she didn't flinch. She didn't move a muscle. Her defiance seemed to rile Marc.
"Grab her and hold her down, David," Marc said.
David rushed behind Kayleigh and before she could turn and take a swipe at him he had her arms in a lock behind her back. He was pulling on them so forcefully she could feel her shoulder blades rubbing against each other and the muscles in her arms stretch to the point of snapping.
"No, no, she screamed, get off me, don't please," she begged.
Marc grabbed her coat and tore it open. Two of the plastic buttons pinged off and ricocheted off a tree trunk. Kayleigh watched as one landed amongst a clump of withered bracken. That was all it took. The ease with which those buttons snapped from her coat mirrored Kayleigh's sudden breakdown. She could be as strong mentally as she could possibly be but without the physical strength there was no way she could defend herself. The weight of the realisation of her situation tipped her over the edge and a torrent of tears poured from her eyes.
Marc sniggered triumphantly as he shoved her to the ground.
"Told you I'd get what you owed me," he said as David leaned over her and pinned her arms to the floor making it impossible for her to move her upper body.
Before Kayleigh could kick out Marc knelt down in front of her using his legs to pin her legs down. She wanted to scream, scream at the top of her voice but all that came out was air. Her chest tightened and soon even breathing became difficult. As Marc slid his hand up her skirt Kayleigh fought as hard as she could. She writhed and struggled against the power and weight bearing down on her but her efforts were fruitless. All she could do was wish it would end quickly. But just as Marc's hand was at the top of her thigh there was a flash of colour and Marc was suddenly lying, dazed and confused at the foot of a tree beside her. David, who was so taken aback by seeing his friend in a crumpled heap didn't look up quick enough and took a wallop across his jaw. He cried out in pain as he toppled over and smacked his back onto a tree stump.
Kayleigh pulled herself up onto her elbows. Through her teary, swollen eyes she looked up and saw the outline of a boy standing over her, holding out a hand.
"Are you okay?" he said.
Kayleigh wiped her glassy eyes and soaking cheeks and saw it was Stewart.
"You came back," she whimpered.
Stewart nodded as he helped Kayleigh to her feet. "I'd never have been able to live with myself if I didn't."
"I'm glad you did."
"And I'm sorry," he said, wringing his fingers and shaking his head. "I'm really sorry. I had no idea what he was going to do. I really didn't. He told me he wanted to have a word with you."
Kayleigh could see tears in his eyes threatening to burst their banks.
"It's okay," she said, pulling her coat back over her shoulders. "I forgive you. "
Stewart dug a shaky hand into his jacket pocket and pulled out the five pound note Marc had given him and threw it on the ground.
"If you like. I'll walk you to the police station. You should report them, and me too."
Kayleigh grimaced at the moaning, fleshy lumps on the forest floor that were formerly Marc and David.
"Them, definitely. They deserve everything they get. But I can't report someone that saved me. That wouldn't be right."
Stewart offered a nervous, awkward smile. "Will you be okay?"
"I'll be fine," she said. "Tough as old boots!"