In case you think it was love at first sight it wasn’t. The first thing I thought was ‘Greasy wog’, because that’s what he looked like with his gold chain with a gold horn thing on it. I had been warned by Mum to stay away from greasy wogs because they were always looking for ‘skip’ girls that were supposedly sluts.

We were barely away from Sunshine station when Vincenzo started on me, saying, ‘What’s your name?’ and ‘Where’re you going?’ and ‘How old are you?’ and ‘Where are your parents?’

I knew I wasn’t supposed to talk to him but I told him that my parents were separated and probably getting divorced, which was about as dramatic a thing as I could think to say to anyone.

Vincenzo, who anyway I always just called Vincent, made this sad face and he said, ‘Oh, that’s bad, that’s bad,’ and he was shaking his head and took a cigarette from his packet and put it in his mouth, still shaking his head. Then suddenly he asked if I wanted one. I didn’t smoke so that was my first cigarette, and it wasn’t like you see on the movies with me coughing, it just made my head spin.

We talked all the way in to Spencer Street station, where Mrs Halfpenny’s daughter – I can’t even remember her name – was standing waiting for me like Miss Goody-Two-Shoes, and all through the movie I was thinking about how Vincent had said, ‘I’m going to be waiting for you when you get out.’

I was shaking when I came out, expecting to see him there, but he wasn’t at the cinema and my stomach just sank. I walked back to Spencer Street station with Mrs Halfpenny’s daughter just going on and on about the movie. But then when the train pulled up he was suddenly there, saying, ‘Bet you thought I wasn’t coming.’

I made like I didn’t care but when he sat right next to me in the compartment and our legs were touching I didn’t move away, and after about ten minutes he put his cigarette out and went to kiss me. I jerked my head away from him so fast that I cracked it on the window, and Vincent said, ‘What’s the matter? Don’t you want anyone to see you kissing a wog or something?’

I said, ‘That’s got nothing to do with it,’ and Vincent said, ‘Then maybe you’re frigid.’ I didn’t want to be frigid so when he said, ‘Get off the train at my stop, come on, I won’t rape you,’ I said okay and we got off.

He had his car parked at the station, and it wasn’t like driving in your parents’ car, it had one of those smelly Christmas tree things, and the steering wheel was covered with sheepskin. We drove for about ten minutes and then we pulled up into the drive of this house, and Vincent went around the back and let me into what he said was his bungalow.