“Er, OK yeah,” he said. I smiled and grabbed a forkful of my pasta and guided it to his mouth to feed him.

A bit of the pasta fell off the fork onto his jeans. “Oops, I’m so sorry!” I winced, looking at him apologetically.

“Don’t worry about it, Angel.” He smiled and brushed it off with his hand.

OK, I could make this work to my advantage! I grabbed a napkin and wiped his jeans with it. It was on his mid-thigh so I made sure to wipe just a little higher, as I looked up at him through my eyelashes. I heard him gulp noisily as a slight bulge started to appear in his jeans which he quickly covered with his arm.

“There. All done,” I flirted.

“Er…. thanks,” he muttered, closing his eyes and sighing.

I grinned triumphantly. Hah! Take that, girls! I looked around the table to see they were all staring at me. Either a shocked or angry expression was plastered on every female face. I giggled, and winked at Jessica who had turned red with annoyance.

“I’d better go. I’ve got to speak to Mrs Francis about my science project,” I said, getting up and smiling broadly.

Liam grabbed my hand and pulled me back to the seat. “What was that about?” he asked, looking slightly confused.

I shrugged and grinned at him. “Am I not allowed to be friendly to you, Liam? I mean, you are my brother’s best friend after all. You’re always hanging out at my house so I just thought I’d be civil.”

“Civil, right,” he replied, smirking at me.

I shot him a wink and got up to go to my friends. As I walked past Jessica and the cheerleaders I bent down to whisper in her ear. “Beat that,” I teased, laughing my ass off.

I grabbed Kate’s hand, making her walk a little in front of Sarah and Sean who were chatting about some art gallery that Sarah wanted to go to at the weekend. Sarah was a bit of an art freak. “Kate, I think I need to go on the pill. Do they still do the drop in family planning clinic on Rose Street after school?” I asked. She nodded in confirmation. I knew she would know, she had a little accident about a month back with a broken condom and went there for the morning after pill.

“Yeah, from four until eight,” she replied, glancing over her shoulder to make sure no one could hear us. “So, you’re going to take the plunge, huh? I think it’s great. You should definitely go on the pill. You want me to come with you?” she asked casually. I knew she meant it; she was the best friend a girl could ask for.

“I’m not ready yet, but I don’t want to get caught short or anything, I mean, it must take a while to get in your system or something. You don’t mind coming with me though? I’d really appreciate it,” I admitted, looking at her gratefully. I was a little nervous about going on my own, and I didn’t feel right asking Liam to come. It wasn’t exactly a guy thing to do.

“Of course not! You’ve been there with me loads of times.” She linked her arm through mine. “I have my car today too, so we don’t even need to walk.”

I grinned. “Thanks, Kate.” I sighed happily and we made our way to our lockers. I grabbed all the books that we needed for the afternoon, shoving them into my bag. “I just need to tell Jake that I’ll meet him at home. I’ll see you in class,” I explained, turning in the direction of Jake’s locker. I spotted Jake and Liam chatting to some of their other friends from the team. “Hey, guys,” I chirped as I got up to them. They all looked at me, I knew that some of the guys on the team liked me; it was obvious in the way that they stared at me. No one ever made a move though - that was probably Jake’s doing.

“Hi, Amber. How are you?” Casey asked, looking me over slowly.

“Good thanks, you?” I asked politely.

“All the better for seeing you,” he replied, smirking at me.

Jake punched him in the arm, making me laugh. “Dude, little sister!” he cried angrily.

“Jake, I just wanted to tell you that I won’t be coming home with you tonight. Kate needs me to go do something with her after school. I’ll just see you at home later,” I said, smiling. I could see Liam frowning looking slightly disappointed.

“Well, I’m working tonight, so it would have been Liam taking you home anyway,” Jake replied, shrugging casually.

I glanced at Liam and smiled. “Right, yeah, I forgot. Well I’m sorry I’ll miss that.” He smiled back and my heart almost stopped because he was so handsome. I turned to walk off before stopping again, an idea forming in my head. I turned back to him and looked at him, teasingly. “Oh, and by the way, Liam, the pot stands at over four thousand bucks now. That’s over two hundred girls.”

His eyes went wide. “No shit?” he asked, looking shocked, and quite frankly, a little scared. Jake was laughing his ass off, and the other boys were looking around like us three had gone crazy.

“No shit,” I confirmed, winking at Liam and walking away, giggling at his disgusted face.

After school, Kate drove us to the family planning clinic. I took a number and because I hadn’t been there before, I had to fill out a ton of forms about my personal details, current sex life and my medical history. After about an hour of waiting, I was called through to a white sterile room where a lady was waiting there for me.

“Hi, Amber. Come on in,” she said, smiled and pointed to a chair.

“Hi,” I croaked nervously, sitting down opposite her.

“You don’t have to be nervous. I’m not going to bite!” she chuckled. I smiled nervously. “So, what can I do for you today?” she asked, flipping through the forms that I’d filled in.

“Well, my boyfriend and I are getting pretty serious and are talking about having sex, so I wanted to go on the pill. Is that something I can do here, or do I need to go to my own doctor?” I asked, playing with my hands, blushing.

She smiled kindly. “You can certainly do that here. It says here that you’re a virgin,” she said, flipping through my forms again.

“Er, yeah I am.” I blushed harder, wishing the ground would open up and swallow me.

“You don’t need to be embarrassed, Amber. I think it’s great that you’re here. I see so many young girls who don’t think about going on the pill until it’s too late. It’s refreshing to have a young girl being so responsible,” she stated, patting my hand. I breathed a sigh of relief and smiled. I thought I was going to get a lecture as to why I shouldn’t be ha**ng s*x at my age and how I should be waiting. “OK, I just need to get some information, like blood pressure and weight and such. Then we can talk about which one will suit you best, alright?”

After I had done my blood pressure and weight and worked out my BMI we were both sat back down near her desk. “Right, well I recommend that you go for the combination pill. You take it every day, at the same time each day for three weeks, then you don’t take it for a week which will be when you have your period. It’s very effective and it’s what most young girls go for,” she explained, smiling.

I nodded and smiled because everything seemed to be falling into place. “That sounds good.”

She grabbed her pad and scribbled a prescription. “You can get this filled right next door. I’ve given you a three month supply so I can check how you get on. Next time, if all’s OK, then we’ll go for six months,” she explained.

“Yeah, thank you.” I smiled gratefully because she had made this so much easier on me than I thought it would be.

“So, I’ll give you a leaflet to read, but the important things to note are: you have to take it at the same time every day, and you have to take it every day apart from your week off.” She smiled and handed me the prescription. “Make sure you read the leaflet about what you do if you miss one, or if you vomit after you take it, because that can stop it working. I’ll give you some of these to keep you safe until you are into the swing of your pill, OK.” She grabbed a handful of condoms and put them in a brown bag for me.

“Oh thanks,” I mumbled, taking them gratefully.

“Well, thanks for coming in, Amber. I’ll see you in three months.” She stood up and held out her hand to me, signalling the end of the appointment.

I shook it, smiling. “Thank you.” I walked out of the door, grinning from ear to ear. Wow, that was easier than I thought!

“Hey, how’d it go?” Kate asked, getting up from her seat.

“Yeah great. I need to go fill my prescription, then I’m all set.” I linked my arm through hers, pulling her towards the door.

“Wow, I can’t believe you’re going to have sex with Liam James!” she squealed, excitedly.

“Not yet I’m not. I need to know he can wait for me. I’m not ready for that yet,” I said honestly.

“He’ll wait for you. He looks like he’s crazy about you.” Kate smiled happily and I sighed. I really hoped that was true. I filled my prescription and Kate dropped me home. Jake was still at work so I made myself sandwich and sat at the table to do my homework. Once I had finished, I glanced at the clock. It was only eight o’clock; I had another hour until Jake came home.

I grinned and grabbed my phone, dialling Liam, barely able to contain my excitement. “Hey, Angel,” he answered, sounding ridiculously happy.

“Hi. Want to come over?” I asked, chewing on my lip in excitement.

“Hell yeah. I’ll be right there,” he answered and hung up. I ran to my room to quickly check my hair. I laughed to myself when I realised that I had turned into one of those girls that thought they had to look perfect for him. I walked back to the lounge, just as he walked in the front door.

“Hi.” I grinned.

He swept me up into his arms and kissed me passionately, making my heart race and my stomach flutter. After a while he pulled back. “Hi,” he breathed, making me shiver with happiness. “So, where were you? I missed you,” he murmured, putting his face in my hair and breathing deeply.