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it wanted one. The square was deserted apart from a group of five teenage Goths squashed
onto a bench. They snarled at us as we approached. Actually, it was more of a harmless
giggle, but a snarl seemed to suit their image better.
'Yo, dudes,' said Ben, trying to be cool, 'do you know of anywhere in town we could
stay tonight... for free?'
They all smirked at each other. Sorry, I mean growled. They all growled at each other.
'No. Why? Are you tramps?' asked one of them.
'No. We're cycling to Scotland and we're not allowed to spend any money,' said Ben.
'That's messed up, man,' said one of Goths.
'Yeah man, totally,' said Ben, sounding totally uncool.
'Can we stay with any of you guys?' I asked hesitantly.
'Nah, man, my pad is too small,' said the head Goth.
'Youmeanyourmumwouldn'tletyou,'saidoneofthegirls.'Youdon'thaveyourown
pad.'
'Yeah, whatever. Nor does none of you.'
'Alright, homies. Keep it real. Word to your mothers,' said Ben, turning to leave. As he
did, he caught his leg on the pedal of The Horse and stumbled a few feet before becoming
entangled in the bike's frame and falling head-over-heels onto the cobbled pavement. Just
seconds before, he had tried to be all 'down with the kids' with a group of teenagers and
then, right in front of them, he had managed to spectacularly fall whilst pushing his bike
along a pavement. As Ben lay crumpled in a heap with his bike on top of him, I looked
on, unable to breathe as I was laughing so hard. The Goths howled with laughter. I mean
literally howled. Like werewolves. At the moon. That's what Goths do, right?
'Alright, cheers for helping me out,' said Ben sarcastically when he was back on his
feet.
'Sorry, I couldn't breathe.'
'Yeah, well I'll remember that. Quick, let's get out of here.'
The Cross Keys Hotel was an imposing building that stands on the corner of the main
crossroads in the town.
Ian the manager was unable to offer us a bed for the night, but said that we were wel-
come to pitch a tent in the car park, if we could find one. He also offered us a pizza each if
we came back later.
About20metresdowntheroad,aladywascleaningherfrontwindows.Thehousefron-
ted directly onto the street so we had to walk around her to pass.
'Excuse me,' said Ben, 'this is going to sound like a really strange question, but I don't
suppose you have a tent that we could borrow for the night?'
'You want to borrow a tent?' she asked.
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