Jessica lay in bed, smiling as she thought of the events of the previous two weeks. Since the festival, and the embarrassing bedwetting incident, things between her and Kevin were fantastic. He had asked her out on the Tuesday following the festival weekend, and Jessica had of course said yes. Jessica couldn’t believe her luck, they hadn’t properly spoken about it again, but she knew that he accepted it. She had never been able to build lasting relationships with boys before, she always broke up with her boyfriends before it became too serious, or before she allowed herself to fall for them too hard, because she knew that if it became serious there was the likelihood that he would want them to spend a night together, and Jessica was terrified by the thought of wetting the bed with someone else in it. But she knew that with Kevin she didn’t have to worry about that, of course he would never want them to spend a night together, but at least she wouldn’t have to explain to him why it couldn’t happen. It was already established, and he didn’t seem to mind.

In fact Jessica’s bedwetting seemed to interest Kevin more than it disgusted him. He had brought it up several times since Jessica had first told him about it, although Jessica was still not very comfortable with talking about it and so his attempts to start a conversation about it never went anywhere. Jessica knew that sooner or later she would have to properly talk about it again, but she wasn’t ready for that yet. She wanted to take things slowly with Kevin, she still wasn’t convinced that he had fully accepted the bedwetting, although he thought he didn’t mind she wondered if he would feel the same way when he realised it meant she wouldn’t stay at his house or share a bed with him.

Kevin and Jessica were lying on his bed, fingers intertwined, they had been together for over a month now, and Kevin was keen to move things forward.

“You could stay over tonight, if you wanted to.” He suggested to Jessica.

Jessica grew red, she had thought he understood that she wouldn’t stay over, “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“Then could I stay at yours?”

“I don’t know…” Jessica knew she would rather he stayed at her house than she stay at his, she had two single beds in her room, whilst he had just one double, but she still wasn’t sure. Of course she would be able to stay awake all night, she knew that, and it would be easy at her own house where she didn’t have to worry about moving around the house in the middle of the night. And she thought she might be ready to take their relationship a step further; having never allowed herself to get this close to a boy before she was still a virgin, and she wondered if she was ready for sex yet.

“I don’t want to push you into anything you’re not ready for,” Kevin said, “But you don’t have anything to hide from me, at least think about it.”

“Okay,” Jessica nodded.

“You mean you’ll let me stay over?”

Jessica had meant that she’d think about it, but Kevin looked so pleased that she’d said yes that she didn’t want to disappoint him. And she knew she could easily stay awake, “Okay, I’ll ask my parents if you can stay over.”

“When?” Kevin asked, “this weekend?”

“Okay,” Jessica agreed, “They might say no though. Don’t get your hopes up too much.” She knew her parents would say yes, they liked Kevin, and they had always let her older sister have boyfriends stay over, but Jessica thought she could perhaps lie to Kevin and tell him they had said no. But she didn’t really want to lie to him, and some of her thought it might be nice to have Kevin stay over. It would be nice to spend a long period of time together, she liked the late-night conversations you could have with someone when you were both lying in bed with the lights off. And she knew she could stay awake all night, perhaps having him stay over would be a nice thing.

And so the next weekend Kevin came to stay at Jessica’s house. They spent the evening lying on her bed, wrapped around each other, but not getting much past kissing. Jessica was too worried about her parents walking in to let them go further, even though they both wanted to.

“I guess I’ll be sleeping on the other bed?” Kevin asked.

“Yeah, is that okay?” Jessica checked, though she had no intention of letting him share with her.

Kevin moved closer to Jessica, holding her close. “I’d rather be here next to you, but being across the room from you is the next best thing.”

Jessica was glad he wasn’t trying to persuade her to let him sleep in her bed, he had a way of making her say yes to things when she wasn’t quite sure about them; she hated saying no to him.

“Jessica, are you okay?”

Jessica was surprised to see Kevin standing behind her, “Yeah, fine. I thought you were asleep?”

“I’m a light sleeper, I heard you get up, what are you doing down here?”

Jessica had lain in bed until she heard Kevin’s breathing turn heavy, and then she’d slipped out of bed and downstairs into the living room. She was flicking through the channels on the TV, looking to see if anything worth watching was on. “I couldn’t sleep.”

Kevin sat down on the sofa next to Jessica, moving close to her, he wrapped an arm around her, “Did you even try?”

Jessica didn’t say anything.

“This is about the bedwetting, isn’t it?” Kevin felt Jessica stiffen in his arms, he took her hand, gently stroking her fingers, “You know you don’t have to hide from me? I like you just the way you are, Jess. I don’t want you to feel like you can’t relax when I’m here. You don’t have to stay up all night,” He stroked her face gently, “Get some sleep, what happens happens, it isn’t your fault and I’m not going to judge you on it. It didn’t bother me in the tent; it’s not going to bother me now. I’ll give you your privacy in the morning. It’s not good for you to stay up all night. Come on.” He led her by the hand back upstairs and to her bedroom.

Kevin watched Jessica get back into bed, “Here, I’ll even tuck you in.” he tucked the sheets in around her, and kissed her on the forehead, “You be a good girl now and go to sleep.”

Jessica giggled, “You’re not my Dad you know!”

Kevin chuckled, “Sorry, but promise me you’ll get some sleep?”

Jessica nodded, “Okay, I promise. Thank you, Kevin.”

“That’s no problem, you ready for me to turn the light off now?”