“Are you completely out of your mind!” Deevya explodes in disbelief. “We’ve got to get back to the party which is four blocks away and there’s no way you can run on that ankle. Why didn’t you say you could get a lift home with someone else?!”

Actually this really is too much. I burst into tears.

“Hey, everybody chill, it’s going to be fine,” says Nomusa, as cool, calm and collected as ever, and gives me a hug. “Shame, Hope.”

“Sorry,” says Deevya, “I’m just worried about you.”

“It’s not going to be fine,” I wail, pools of mascara dripping down my cheeks, “my mom will completely freak out if I’m not at the party when she gets there.” 

“Ok, well there’s no time to waste then,” says Deevya, in a softer voice this time. “Simon, you look like you’re pretty fit. Do you think you’re up to carrying Hope four blocks at a run in under ten minutes?”

He looks a little taken aback, but to his credit he rises to the challenge after only the briefest of hesitations.

“No problem at all.” 

And with that he picks me up with his strong arms and holds me against his broad chest.

“Put your arms around my neck,” he says to me. “And you girls lead the way,” he says to Deevya and Nomusa.  

“Mind if I come along?” says Lindi. “I can’t really go back into the club to find my friends, and I think I’d feel a bit afraid to hide out here by myself in the dark.”

“Sure. If Hope’s mother doesn’t kill us all when we get there it might actually be a cool party,” smiles Nomusa.

I tuck my face in up against Simon’s neck as he runs, biting my lip against the jarring pain in my ankle. His aftershave smells incredible though. I decide to just concentrate on slowly breathing it in and out of my nostrils. I think I may be losing the plot completely, but hey, cut me some slack, I’m injured you know.

Deevya chooses a back route that avoids the entrance to the club, but we look down Clarke Road as we cross it and see dozens of police vans parked outside Nigiro, their blue lights flashing.

It’s a reality check. And as it sinks home I feel shocked at the situation we’ve let ourselves get into. Going to Nigiro had seemed like an exciting idea, but we’d broken the law. And whichever way you look at it, that has serious consequences. 

Glenwood is really dark at night and as Simon gallantly carries me across the suburb along Lena Ahrens Road I feel so guilty, and really scared too. What if someone has spotted us? What if the police come after us?

“Hey!” a male voice shouts behind us. “What’s going on!? Where are you going?”

WHAT DO YOU THINK: Do you think it’s a serious offence to go into an over 18 club when you’re not old enough?