Tell us your memories of teenage friendships to win £100 ELEMIS voucher and a copy of WATCHING EDIE! Post by 21 September

[SorchaMumsnet]

Watching Edie by Camilla Way is a suspenseful psychological thriller which tells the story of a fateful friendship...

Before: Edie is the friend that Heather has always craved. But one night, it goes terrifyingly wrong. And what started as an innocent friendship ends in two lives being destroyed.

After: Sixteen years later, Edie is still rebuilding her life. But Heather isn’t ready to let her forget so easily. It’s no coincidence that she shows up when Edie needs her most.

Now: Someone has to pay for what happened, but who will it be? Heather or Edie?

Share your best (and worst!) memories of teenage friendships for a chance to win a copy of Watching Edie PLUS a £100 voucher from luxury skincare brand ELEMIS. Three runners-up will also win copies of the book.

This discussion is sponsored by HarperCollins Publishers and will end on 21 September

Books T&Cs apply

Spending the whole summer down at the beach, flirting with the boys on the waltzers and rubbing on the olive oil to top up our tans (pre holes in the ozone layer). Walking in the sea up to our waists to shrink our jeans, with old ladies telling us off and saying we'd suffer from arthritis when we got older. I'm old enough now to say that that just wasn't true!

We used to hang out at the local shopping centre and just around the West End shops when we were teens, trying out all the different make up samples in Superdrug and going to try on clothes in the more expensive high street shops that we never planned to buy. When we were older (but not quite old enough) we'd go to nightclubs and it was easy to get a dodgy student ID card back in those days as it was just cardboard with a photo stuck on.

When I think of my teenage friendships I think of a small group of us at a very strict girls grammar school doing everything we could to break the rules - fanatical about The Monkees, obsessed with 'boys' yet still wearing long socks and navy knickers. Fast forward 45 odd years and we are all still close friends, living different lives in different countries but still in almost daily contact through social media.

I am still best friends with my teenage best friend although we did grow apart for a bit somewhere in the middle. We bonded over our love of Eddie Vedder and rimmel black cherry lipstick and still love Eddie and make up. I remember spending the summer we left school sleeping in tents in each other's gardens, it was brilliant.

I can't think of a worst part, there must have been some but I obviously have a selective memory and all of those memories are good!

Sitting forlorn eating wine soaked jelly babies as we were sure no one would turn up to the house party we arranged. Bemoaning our complete lack of cool. Then our bemusement then delight at people actually turning up. It was an ace party

Rolling up paper around a pencil taping it with masking tape then removing the pencil and filling our new case with dried herbs. Hiding away and attempting to smoke it like a cigarette. No idea where we got the idea from we still laugh about it now!

We used to post each other letters even tho we saw each other every day! And spend hours on the phone after school as well.

Remembering going as a group to a friends house to eat chocolate and crisps--before going to track practice!

I had a very intense friend in my early teens, she would get obsessed with different boys (but never actually end up with them) and we would have to walk particular ways around our village to bump into them (after she'd worked out where they would be), have to agonise about every look, every word, every outfit they wore. The stress about what to wear to youth club when he might be there... (whomever the 'he' was this month).

Generally it would pass.

Bit by bit, I grew up, but she didn't, sadly, she still gets obsessed by different men for short periods (and if she ended up in a relationship with them, would get bored very quickly and dump them, the reality rarely lived up to her idea of them), I cut contact when one was married with DCs but she was still tunnel visioned about how he'd be perfect for her. I could not see a single way this could end well and decided I didn't have the energy for the drama, even if it was just via e-mail from the other end of the country by then.

My tightest and best group of friends belong to the 'Stokey Flem' gang, named after the village we all grew up in. My brother is 2 years older and the siblings of his friends were my friends and needless to say all our parents were friends. The gang (about 15 of us) would meet at the local pizza place in town, eat and then send the older boys off to buy the booze. Then we would walk home (about 30 mins, through dark lanes) and end up at someone's house, hoping we'd sobered up and the smell of cheap cider had disappeared! We all thought our parents were quite impressed with how grown up we were, but I expect they knew what we were up to! On New Year's Eve, we would often gate crash the parents dinner party, highly enubruiated and get them all up dancing - they were often as drunk as we were! Now, 25 years later, we are still behaving like that only the parents are now babysitting our kids whilst we celebrate each other's 40th birthdays in all corners of the world!

So many wonderful memories of intense teenage friendships - that 'us against the world' feeling!
A holiday away with a friend's extended family, who turned out to be really quite odd and vetted out postcards home in case we said anything to upset our parents about having a rubbish time!
Wandering around the village where we lived on a Friday evening, talking and laughing and checking out the local lads.
The 'in-jokes', the camaraderie and that live forever feeling, loved those friendships!

Best memories - Chatting a load of crap and flirting with the guys on the coach all the way to Switzerland on our school trip. Managing to get into clubs too young and dancing to amazing tunes like Steps 'tragedy'! Chasing a mate round the school (slowly, as we were killing ourselves laughing) in my socks as he had my shoes.

Worst memories - teen heartache...

Going out for the day on our bikes with a ghetto blaster strapped to the bike racks. We used to cycle miles with music blasting out and then stop for snacks, drinks and gossip!

Discovering everything together: music, boys, travelling and laughing all the time.

Sleep overs in a big group that included boys. Utterly platonic, everyone would leave with painted nails the next morning

Long, drawn out debates: who was better, Bon jovi or Bryan Adams? What was the better Will Smith film, Independence Day or MIB? You know, the deep stuff!

Going to Pizza Hut and pretending it was one chap's birthday just to try to make him blush (didn't work, he just sat there grinning!)

Massive sugar rushes from pints of ribena and lemonade.

The group split up when we went to college- we were all at different ones.

I fell out with my closet friend in that group and we never really got back in touch. She died when she was 26. Not contacting her to try to re-establish the friendship is one of my biggest regrets

I've been best friends with my chum since we were 4, so a good 32 years. We both got married a few years ago and were each other's bridesmaids. For her hen do, I found a letter she had written age 16 to me.

I'd got a boyfriend and had done the typical teenage thing of dropping my mates in favour of him. This letter was full of brilliant advice about how friends last forever but boyfriends don't. She was much more mature than me.

And right. She's last 31 more years than the boyfriend.

Ringing each other up to discuss what we are wearing the next day so we can match!

Hanging around the benches outside the PE block every lunchtime; it was christened the 'sad corner' after a bitchy comment from a girl in our year and became the spiritual home of me and my friends for years to come. Many very happy memories were made there, and when the school was torn down a few years ago a look us returned for just one more last sit on those hallowed benches....

I remember after hockey sitting in the changing rooms for ages sharing ghost stories & weird & wonderful happenings to family or friend of a friend. It was winter & dark outside & we started hearing strange noises & nobody wanted to leave the changing room as school was big & empty & spooky enough. A teacher barged in while we were debating what to do & we all screamed our heads off before falling in heaps giggling. The teacher even couldn't stop laughing. Such a memorable time

My friend Lisa and I at 15 would act terribly grown up to get into the cinema and watch 18 certificate films back in the early 1980s. On the way home we would be reused to fits of goggles and have our photos taken in the photo booth! Laughing until we were crying and then getting the train home where the carriages were divided into small groups per carriage where you had two long benches opposite each other.

Inevitably there would be some older boys who would get in the same carriage and we would return to trying to act sophisticated, somwtimes pretending to be French or even that we were models!

Then on the walk back home we would pass a supermarket where trolleys in those days were not under lock and key and we wouls take it in turns to get in the trolley and push each other home, all the while shrieking with laughter!

Lisa would go home first and her dad would roll his eyes at the trolley in his front garden and make us promise to take it home the next day.

Such carefree, good times full of laughter and fun!

Reduced to fits of giggles

My bestie and I pretending we could play golf so that we could meet the cute guys. We entered a competition pretending that we'd played before. Needless to say we got found out as we dug up half the golf course on our first swing.

Money was always tight when I was a teenager and all clothing other than school uniform and essentials like jeans and sweaters had to be Christmas or Birthday presents. Consequently I was always self conscious around my friends when we met outside of school for fear of 'wearing the wrong thing'. One Christmas, I was very excited to receive a pair of beige cords and a pretty shirt from Etam (this was the 1970's after all) and my so-called friend announced loudly to the gathered group "Oh Purple you can definitely go to the school disco now" - a true Cinderella moment. I had truly never realised I was such an embarrassment. Looking back, I can't believe I ever had such shallow friends!

Have the winners been announced?

Hi - I've loved reading all your memories. It's made me nostalgic for the teen years too - the ups and the downs! The competition is now closed and the winner has been notified. We will post once they get back. Thanks all for sharing!