Ben allowed his mind to wander as he slowly ate his cornflakes, before Amanda and Laura’s conversation brought his mind back down to earth.
“Oh my god, well you don’t want to know what I saw in the bin this morning!” Amanda exclaimed, “I’ve got my period, and well, I was using the bin, and there was actually a nappy in it!”
Laura looked confused, “So? There’s probably a baby staying here or something.”
Amanda shook her head, “No, not a baby’s nappy. An adult one!”
Laura wrinkled her nose, “Eugh, that’s gross. This is supposed to be a youth hostel, and they’ve probably got incontinent old men staying here.”
Amanda giggled, “Yeah, but think about it. The bathrooms on our floor, they’re only for people on our floor. And we’ve got all the bedrooms on our floor! The boys have three rooms, the girls have three, and the teachers have two, right?”
“Is there anyone sharing with the teachers?” Laura asked.
“Nope! Didn’t you hear, that’s what they were arguing about with the lady when we got here. They think they’re too good to share with strangers or something. It’s basically just our school staying on our floor.”
“And only our school using the bathrooms on it, eewww!” Laura squealed, “You mean someone’s still in nappies, that’s disgusting.”
Ben looked down at his cereal, his face was the colour of beetroot, he couldn’t look at the girls or he was sure his face would give away his secret, that the nappy was his. He felt so stupid for just putting it in the bin, he should have tried to hide it under some other rubbish, or even better he should have gone to a bathroom on another floor to take it off, one none of his classmates were going to use.
“I bet it’s Mrs Holden’s,” Laura giggled, “She’s ancient.”
“Heheh, or Mr Allen’s, can you imagine! They’ll be down in a minute, we can see who has the biggest ass.” Amanda grinned.
“What do you think Ben?” Laura asked.
“What?” Ben asked, acting oblivious.
“Whose do you think the nappy was?”
“Oh, erm, I don’t know, I guess it could, I mean maybe it,” he stumbled over his words, “It could have been left by the people here before us.”
“I don’t think so,” Amanda said, “It wasn’t there last night. Someone’s got a secret.” She said in a sing song face, making Laura giggle, “It’s almost certainly Mrs Holden though, that’s why she made all that fuss about not sharing with anyone.”
“No wonder she stinks,” Laura joked, “I’m glad I don’t have to be in her room anyway.”
Ben had finished his breakfast, and half of him wanted to get up and flee, he felt so ashamed as he sat listening to the girl he’d liked for over five years laugh and joke about his problem. Of course she didn’t know the nappy was his, and he was sure if she did she’d be nothing but understanding. A small part of him was even tempted to tell her as he imagined the kind words she might say to him, but then the rest of him, the sensible part of him, knew that she was just as likely to turn around and laugh at him if he told her the truth.
And as embarrassing as it was to sit and listen to her laughing at adults who needed to wear nappies, half of him wanted to stay and listen, to stay and make sure that they didn’t suggest it was his, and that if they did he was there to stick up for himself. Not that he thought they’d have any reason to think it was his, but he was paranoid about these things.
