Three Weeks in '98: You Never Forget Your First Time. Do You?

On the Monday following Dave’s disappearance I arrived home from school to find Jim and Nigel standing laughing quietly between themselves. They immediately headed my way and I was told what was going on.

‘Dave thinks he’s got a girl pregnant.’

WHAT!

This threw me somewhat given that (a) I was fairly certain that my 15 year old best friend was a virgin, and (b) I had not been out of his company for at least over a week and probably long before that as far as going out went. The only time I hadn’t been with him was… and it hit me.

It amuses me now to think that at sixteen years old we all believed that a girl would know she was pregnant after just two days, but then we didn’t really believe it; David did.

Nigel, Jim and I went over to my house trying not to laugh at our friends panic. Our stifled laughter was silenced completely when David walked in and sat down. He was chalk white and looked completely drained, it was a shame really but we didn’t see it that way at the time.

Dave explained that during his disappearance, which he had very few memories of, he had apparently ‘lost his innocence’ round the back of the community centre with some girl. He had got this information from his sister along with the news that they hadn’t used any protection. This lack of protection equated in Dave’s mind to an imminent bundle of joy. Even now Dave is still fearful of lacking protection and has been known to purchase the £ 25 morning after pill given even the slightest threat of fatherhood.

Now as I say, none of us really believed that this girl would really be pregnant, so like the good friends we were, we tried to reassure David of what we were sure was fact and that he would have nothing to worry about. He wouldn’t hear any of it, and after a long time of uncomfortable silence Nigel asked something along the lines of ‘what you going to call it?’ Dave stormed out as we all laughed, shouting profanities at us as he went. We really were shady bastards now that I think about it.

Of course the girl was not pregnant and Dave had been reassured by Sparkie (who had been ‘doing the deed’ for over a year at that time and therefore was an expert) that there was no possible way she could have know at that time. There were also doubts to girl’s claims between her friends.

To this day David has no clue whether or not that was the 'magical night' that he left his childhood behind and became a man.