Me-Before-You-by-Jojo-Moyes

to work out where I was. The tall hedges kept swaying, pitching towards me. I
kept going, pushing my way around corners, stumbling, ducking into openings,
trying to get away from their voices. But the exit never came. Everywhere I
turned there was just another expanse of hedge, another mocking voice.
I stumbled into an opening, briefly exultant that I was near freedom. But then
I saw I was back at the centre again, back where I had started. I reeled as I saw
them all standing there, as if they had simply been waiting for me.
‘There you go,’ one of them said, as his hand grabbed my arm. ‘I told you she
was up for it. Come on, Lou-lou, give me a kiss and I’ll show you the way out.’
His voice was soft and drawling.
‘Give us all a kiss and we’ll all show you the way out.’
Their faces were a blur.
‘I just … I just want you to –’
‘Come on, Lou. You like me, don’t you? You’ve been sitting on my lap all
evening. One kiss. How hard is that?’
I heard a snigger.
‘And you’ll show me how to get out?’ My voice sounded pathetic, even to me.
‘Just one.’ He moved closer.
I felt his mouth on mine, a hand squeezing my thigh.
He broke away, and I heard the tenor of his breathing change. ‘And now
Jake’s turn.’
I don’t know what I said then. Someone had my arm. I heard the laughter, felt
a hand in my hair, another mouth on mine, insistent, invasive, and then –
‘Will … ’
I was sobbing now, crouched over myself. ‘Will,’ I was saying his name, over
and over again, my voice ragged, emerging somewhere from my chest. I heard
him somewhere far off, beyond the hedge.
‘Louisa? Louisa, where are you? What’s the matter?’
I was in the corner, as far under the hedge as I could get. Tears blurred my
eyes, my arms wrapped tightly around me. I couldn’t get out. I would be stuck
here forever. Nobody would find me.
‘Will … ’
‘Where are – ?’
And there he was, in front of me.