Ben rushed back to his bedroom and quickly got into bed, relieved that nobody had noticed his padded posterior. Luke switched the light off, and Ben settled down to go to sleep. However, the light has only been off a few moments before Richard started complaining, “What’s that noise?”
Ben lay still, he always tossed and turned as he tried to get to sleep, and after eighteen years he was used to the noise the plastic sheet made beneath him, but of course the other boys in the room probably weren’t. And he was wearing the nappy as well, was he disturbing the others?
“Did one of you leave the baby sheet on your bed?” Nathan, one of Richard’s friends, sneered.
Ben didn’t say anything, he couldn’t believe this. It was just one thing after another. All he wanted was to relax, go to sleep, and get this week over with as quickly as possible.
“Who is it?” Richard asked, “Take it off.” No one replied, “I said, whose is it?”
“It’s mine,” Ben said quietly, “I’ll do it in the morning. I can’t be bothered now.”
“I’m not lying here listening to that all night,” Richard complained, “It’ll only take you two minutes to take off.”
“Yeah,” agreed Nathan, “Unless of course you need it, little baby going to wet his bed?”
The other boys in the room sniggered, “Bedwetting Ben!” one of them laughed.
“Shut-up!” Ben shouted, his voice cracking as he tried to stop himself from breaking down, “Of course I don’t need it. I just can’t be bothered to take it off right now, I just want to go to sleep.”
“Aww, bedwetting Ben wants to go to sleep…”
“For fucks sake guys, leave him alone,” Mike spoke up, “Shut up and go to sleep, all of you.”
“I can’t sleep with that noise all night.” Richard complained.
“What noise?” Mike asked, Ben was lying still, and so the noise had stopped, “It’s fine now, so can’t we all get some sleep?”