Lisa was fed up of arguing with her friend; the argument was bad enough, but it was made all the worse by the need for them to keep their voices low to avoid being overheard by her parents.

"I told you, I'm not going to the police."

"We have to," Megan told her. "You saw the news, the old guy's still in hospital, still in a coma, and we saw who did it. We have to tell the police."

"We've been over this," Lisa said in a hoarse whisper, her ears pricked as she listened for the sound of footsteps on the stairs. "We didn't see who knocked the old guy down, so there's nothing for us to tell the police."

Megan couldn't believe the way her friend was acting. "They nearly ran us down, you know that, and the old guy was knocked down just a couple of streets away; do you really think it could have been someone else, the streets were empty apart from them." She could see her friend was about to speak and hurried on, "I know why you don't want to go to the police...you're worried your parents will find out we weren't where we said we were going to be."

"You're bloody right I am; you know what my dad'll do if he finds out where we were." Lisa's eyes darted to the door, as if she expected to find it standing open and her dad in the doorway, ready to punish her for her lies.

"You think things will be any different for me?" Megan knew she would be in just as much trouble as her friend, and hoped she could avoid it, but was prepared to face it if she had to. "What's more important, though, staying out of trouble or doing the right thing?"