I awoke the next morning to the sound of my family banging and crashing downstairs and my father shouting my name. From the light forcing its way past my curtains I could tell it was no longer early morning. Groggily I turned to look at the clock next to my bed and groaned. I felt sore all over, like someone had pummelled me. I swallowed down the images that came instantly to mind.
It was past 10am and after a moment of confusion I remembered my sister and I had the day off from school because of a teacher training day. Unfortunately, I also remembered my parents had decided to make the most of the long weekend and take us on an overnight trip to see our grandparents.
My father shouted my name again, impatient with my inactivity, but just as I was about to start moving, there came a gentle tap at my door. It opened slowly and from around its edge came my mother's face, she was smiling kindly.
"Hello, dear." She said. "Are you feeling ok?"
"Yes, mum." I managed to reply, "I just had a hard night at the takeaway."
"Oh yes, your father mentioned you looked a bit frazzled last night when he picked you up." Concern in her voice. "Did you have lots of customers?"
I felt my cheeks go red with shame and all I could do was nod my head. Her words were only too accurate. I had had many customers last night but they had not been buying kebabs, they had been buying my body. Luckily the dim light in my room hid my shame from her.
"I'll tell you what," she said then, "Why don't you stay here and rest today? The three of us can go and see Granny and Gramps and leave you to your schoolwork."
I could not believe my luck. Was she really going to allow me to miss the boring family trip and laze around the house on my own for two days?
"That would be amazing, mum." I replied eagerly. "I can get so much work done."
"Ok." She said, "but see that you do."
"Thanks mum, I will, I promise." I replied.
She disappeared back downstairs and two seconds later I heard my sister erupt in indignation. I smiled to myself, it served her right for being such a busybody.
"When you have a job and work as hard as your sister you can miss family trips too." I heard my father say firmly. "Until then, missy, you can get your backside in the car." She soon shut up.
A few shouted goodbyes later, along with the standard request not to burn the house down, and they were gone.
I lay in my bed for another hour enjoying the quiet and slowly working up the courage to get up. When I finally did I almost went straight back to bed, my whole body seemed to ached. My shoulders, my knees, my hips, my neck, even my jaw ached. Wincing in pain I finally managed to stand up and begin shuffling towards the bathroom and its promise of a hot, soothing bath. It took me a few painful minutes to hobble, zombie-like, down the hall and it was then that I realised my aches were in all places I had exercised so much last night. My knees and shoulders where I had been on all fours for so long, my hips because I had had my legs spread so far apart and my neck and jaw from all the blowjobs I had given. I felt revolted at this sudden realisation but I also felt a jolt of guilty electricity spark between my legs.
After what seem ages I finally arrived and stood in a daze as the water slowly filled the bath. Then, with a start, I felt something on my thigh. Looking down I felt a wave of revulsion as a thick, congealed glob of grey-white goo ran down my inner thigh. I watched with sick fascination as it slid over my smooth skin. It left behind a sticky trail, not unlike a slug. I tasted bile in my mouth as this unasked-for reminder of my perverted behaviour threatened to turn my stomach.
I quickly grabbed some toilet tissue and picked the horrid thing off my leg. I was shocked at how large and firm it was - like a piece of playdoh. Revolted, I threw it in the toilet and flushed it away. I took a few deep breaths and gradually my stomach settled down. Unfortunately, it was only temporarily as, looking up, I noticed my reflection in my dad's shaving mirror. It was angled so that it caught the image of the main mirror above the basin and in it I could see my back.
What confused me, though, were all the red marks that were clearly visible over my normally clear teenage skin. As my addled brain slowly orientated my twice reflected image I realised that the marks were actually scratches. Sets of three or four parallel lines of varying lengths, each red raw scratch made by those nameless, faceless men.
I was revolted by how I had been marked by those lust crazed men but, just as I started to turn away, something else caught my attention. Across my lower back I could see what looked like some faded black letters and some small lines. Confused, I moved around so I could see them better and, after some twisting and turning, I could see the letters were a P and a M. The lines had been drawn alongside each letter but did not seem to mean anything.
I stared in confusion at the revolting mess the men had made of my back. The scratches were horrid but I could understand them. I had often seen groups of girls in the school toilets giggling as one of them showed off a scratch on her shoulder supposedly made by her boyfriend. Everyone knew what scratches down someone's back meant but what were the letters and lines?
I continued to look but twisting my aching body like that was starting to hurt. But just before I straighten up I was struck with a vague memory from my maths lessons. I felt my stomach lurch again - the lines were not just lines, they were roman numerals! And, if that was right, it meant the letters were there to represent a category. It did not take long to realise that the P must stand for pussy and the M for mouth. It was then not a huge revelation, even for my barely functioning mind, to see that the numerals must represent the number of men who had used that particular part of my body.
My nausea grew rapidly as I hurriedly counted and recounted the lines. Next to the M were nine separate lines and, even worse, next to the P there were twelve. Disbelief and shock hit me, the blood drained from my face and I felt faint. Luckily all I had to do was sag to my knees as my stomach lurched again and I heaved its contents into the toilet.
I do not know how long I was like that. My naked body shaking as I desperately clutched the toilet and heaved and heaved until my stomach was empty. Sweating and out of breath, I reached up to pull the flush but then noticed the foul gooey mess that now floated in the bottom of the bowl. I racked my mind for the last time I had eaten but after a while I had to admit to myself that I had not had a thing since well before I went to the takeaway last night. I stared down the toilet again - it was just like an oil slick floating on the ocean - only it was an oil slick that looked like it had been made with like clotted cream. I heaved again but there was nothing else to come up.
Finally my body calmed enough for me to flush the toilet and rid myself of yet another reminder of my despicable behaviour. Holding onto the basin I slowly stood up and once again twisted myself so that I could see the writing on my back. Another feeling of nausea almost forced me to my knees again but thankfully it passed.
A little more composed at last, but wary of another episode of vomiting, I forced my mind to consider the image I was seeing in the mirror dispassionately. Strangely, the first thing I realised was that the men must have used a pen with permanent ink as, despite my scrubbing in the shower the previous night, the letters and numerals, although faded, were still clearly visible. I remembered Mustafa had a box of permanent ink felt-tip pens to take the orders with and suspected one of them had been used on me too.
Only once I got this bit of irrelevant information filed away did I allow myself to consider the roman numerals. As unemotionally as I could manage, I counted each set again and then again. I then checked a third time.