"That's nice, dear," said my Mother," I'm glad you've met one of your friends" "Mum, he thinks I'm a boy! I need to change in case he comes here with Taran," I said urgently. "You don't need to change, Celyn," my Mum responded, a little dreamily," that bikini looks lovely on you" "Mum," I said slowly and deliberately," Ceri still thinks I'm a boy and BOYS DON'T WEAR BIKINIS" The Price To Pay - Vol. 2.02 - Appearances by Alys

"Hey Taran!" yelled Ceri, as my school friend rapidly approached my sister and myself.

I stood still, unsure what to do, how could I explain my bikini and boobs to someone who still thought I was a boy?'

"Quick Celyn," said Taran, "go back to the caravan and change, I'll pretend you're someone I met in the queue. Now go!"

I walked quickly away in the opposite direction to the approach of my school friend, before circling back towards where my parents were, to fetch the key to our accommodation. If I had felt exposed walking with my sister, minutes earlier, the experience of moving along the busy beach, very scantily dressed was much worse. Every time I looked up I seemed to be under male review from every direction. I determined to avoid eye contact and look ahead.

Too late I noticed a group of boys, a little older than me, camped across the route I was taking. They had obviously been working through two 24-packs of lager throughout the afternoon and early evening, from the piles of empty cans littering the sand.

"Hey, darling, wanna drink?" asked the most overweight of the group, in a slurred voice, his rapidly reddening skin the evidence of his lack of concern of the dangers of skin cancer, " come here, we're having fun"

I shook my head and moved away to avoid any more interaction. I felt a strong hand grab my foot. I tried to pull myself loose, but the grip was too strong for me to move my leg away.

"Hey, not so fast," said one of my erstwhile friend's inebriated companions, " Brian only asked you if you wanted a drink, no need to be the ice cold bitch"

"Come on love, give us a hug," said the drunken Brian, as he reached for my hand to pull me down towards him.

One of the other lads, who wasn't comatose, whistled and commented, " nice tits"

I was paralysed with fear and unsure what to do. I had never had to relate, as a girl, to strange boys before. At that moment I felt very vulnerable and cursed my Mother for making me wear the bikini.

The touch of Brian's fingers on my hand snapped me out of my inaction. I used my spare foot to firstly stamp down on the hand holding me and then to kick some sand into the face of my assailant. His natural reaction to rub the irritant out of his eyes released me and, before he could regain his hold, I was running as fast as I could away from the drunken youths.

In their stupor I was twenty yards away before the youths realised what had happened. I heard them shouting after me as I put more distance between us

Ignoring the mad bouncing of my chest I ran the rest of the way back to the safety of my family location on the beach. My Mother was sitting reading a magazine while my Father was obviously having an evening swim from the evidence of the tidy pile of clothes on his beach chair.

"Quick Mum," I said, breathlessly, as I arrived, " I need the key to the caravan to change"

"What's up, Celyn?" asked my Mother, after raising her eyes from her magazine, "why were you running, Celyn, was someone chasing you?"

"Taran and I saw Ceri from school, I had to run to get away, I need the key Mum!" I said, looking quickly around in case my sister and my school friend were coming in our direction.

"That's nice, dear," said my Mother," I'm glad you've met one of your friends"

"Mum, he thinks I'm a boy! I need to change in case he comes here with Taran," I said urgently.

"You don't need to change, Celyn," my Mum responded, a little dreamily," that bikini looks lovely on you"

"Mum," I said slowly and deliberately," Ceri still thinks I'm a boy and BOYS DON'T WEAR BIKINIS"

"No need to get upset now, Celyn," replied my Mother.

"Mum, if you don't give me the key now.....," I said loudly, pausing to think of a consequence that would bother her, " ...I'm going to take this bikini off and run around naked!"

"OK, OK, if you must make a mountain out of a molehill, here's the key," she responded, taking it out of her handbag and handing it to me.

I slipped my dress back on and after grabbing the key ran off to change.

Half an hour later I walked back to where my Mum, Dad, Taran and Ceri were sitting, feeling much more relaxed in my boyish clothes, with my hair tied back and hidden by a baseball cap.

"Ah, Celyn, you're back," said my Dad, " look who Taran bumped into on the beach"

"Hi Ceri," I said, walking over to sit with Ceri and my sister, " I didn't know you were coming down to Dinbych-Y-Pysgod * for the weekend"

"Hey Celyn, it was a last minute decision by Mum and Dad, how's your back?" Ceri asked.

"My back?" I responded, not knowing what he was referring to.

Ceri gave me me a strange look," Yes, I thought....."

"It's OK, Celyn," interrupted my sister, winking at me, " I told Ceri about you burning yourself in the sun this afternoon and having to get changed"

"Oh yes, I'd forgotten, the after sun lotion has worked wonders, I'd almost forgotten, thanks for asking, Ceri," I said, trying to recover from my error.

By this time we were all feeling hungry so, after packing our beach things away, we decided to walk into the town to find something to eat. My parents decided on a pub meal but Taran and myself said that we'd prefer fish and chips so they went into Tafarn Y Pysgotwr ** while we relieved them of some ten pound notes and walked towards the nearest takeaway.

Taran strode into the shop while Ceri and I were a little behind as he entertained me with stories of incidents in school since I had been away.

"You should have seen Branwen's face when Franklinstein poured the maggots out of the jar," said Ceri, smiling with the memory," I thought she was going to puke there and then on the class table, she went every shade of green"

"Poor Branwen...." I started to respond. Suddenly I was pushed to one side by someone coming out of the off-licence carrying a multi-pack of lager.

"Out of my way," snarled a drunken, familiar voice. My baseball cap fell off, letting my shoulder length hair fall down.

"Hey watch where you're going," I said looking up to see who had bumped into me.

It was the boy who had grabbed my foot on the beach!

"Why should I?" he said belligerently, staring aggressively into my face.

"Hey Frankie, she's not worth the hassle," shouted another familiar voice.

I looked in the direction of the other person to see Brian sitting on a wall on the edge of the beach, some twenty metres away.

"She? Had they recognised me?," I pondered.

I watched as Frankie walked over to his mate. They stood there for a little while, in animated conversation, staring at me the same time.

"You OK?" asked Ceri.

"Yes thanks, I don't know how idiots like that get away with buying booze here, they are obviously underage," I responded," come on Ceri, it looks like Taran has got our fish and chips, I'm starving"

A few minutes we were sitting on the same sea wall that was now lacking in unpleasant drunken chavs***

"Nice chips," I remarked as I tucked into my meal.

"Nothing like fish and chips at the seaside, " responded Taran.

"You know there was one thing that was odd about those chavs," remarked Ceri, who had been unusually quiet for a few minutes.

"What's that?" I asked.

"Didn't you notice?" he asked.

"Notice what?" I inquired, although I had a good idea what had caught Ceri's attention.

"I'm surprised you didn't say anything," Ceri continued.

"What are you surprised about, Ceri?" I asked, trying to sound a little exasperated at his obtuseness, even though I knew where the conversation was going.

"Put us out of our misery, Ceri," said Taran," we don't know what you're talking about"

"It was pretty clear, Celyn, the one by the wall referred to you as a girl!" Ceri responded.

"I didn't notice, Ceri, I was just feeling angry about the bastard who almost pushed me over, I didn't pay attention to his mate," I lied.

"Must be Celyn's hair, sometimes it looks a little girly," interjected Taran, mischievously.

"No, it doesn't Taran, " I responded, trying to sound aggrieved even while my mind was beginning to spin with the complications of my situation. I was a girl who used to be a boy who was dressing as a boy and denying that I could possibly look like a girl!

We finished our meal in silence. Taran decided that she would go back to with my parents, who had just come out of the pub, while I decided to explore the town with Ceri.

An hour later I said goodnight to Ceri, at his caravan, and started on my way back to the site where I was staying. It felt the the cool evening air on my face as I walked briskly through the narrow streets of the resort. It was nearly eleven in the evening as I hurried back to our caravan.

I turned a corner into a side street, on the edge of the caravan site, when I stopped still. A few metres in front of me were the five boys that I bumped into earlier. I stood and stared at them, standing by the sea wall again, passing cans of lager around.

I stepped back into the shadow, but too late, I had been seen.

"Hey look who it isn't," said Brain," it's the girlie"

"and all alone too," said Frankie.

I turned and ran.

I heard the sound of pursuit.

"Let's get her!", shouted another of the gang.

I ran for my life, away from the main tourist streets. After ten minutes of dodging down side streets and alleys I stopped to look around for any signs of pursuit. I breathed a sigh of relief since I seemed to have lost the pursuit.

My respite was brief as I realised that the group of youths had spread out and had surrounded me on all sides. I moved into a dark, narrow lane, but it was a dead end, there was no way out.

I turned to look at the pursuit which had stopped about twenty metres away.

I backed up against the wall of a terraced house

"No way to go now, bitch," Brian," I think we're going to have some fun with you now"

I was trapped.

* Tenby

** The Fisherman's Inn
*** Chavs = louts