Amanda Burns

Text etched across the surface of the page reads:
 

All those coach journeys and nights out. Making up names for strangers in shops and bars, on buses and dancefloors. Secrets from your teenage lives – police rides, ambulance rides, joyrides. The places you talked about going but never did. The 'what's your mum done now' conversations. The 'this is all that's left of the rum' mornings. Songs you can now only sing those made up words to. The we've been best friends since school introductions.

When he broke your heart I never said a word to him because I knew that way I could hurt him more.

Parties, camping trips, exams, learning a few words to get by, the last bus out of town, how we got our bruises, the time the house was surrounded, the time we went into her attic, the time we fooled your mum, the time you stuck your hand up in the Q&A.