Ben was glad to be sharing a room with Mike, along with another six other boys from his year. He’d hoped that they might have been able to share with Gabby and Chloe as well, but predictably the teachers had insisted on single-sex rooms.
Ben put his large rucksack down on a bed in the corner of the room, and Mike threw his own bags down on the bed next to Ben’s, loudly shouting out, “Shotgun this bed!”
Luke, a guy in Ben’s history class, sat down on his bed, and Ben noticed the familiar crackle of a waterproof sheet. Luke jumped up and stripped the covers back, “Hey look, they’ve put a plastic sheet on my bed! Do they think I’m gonna piss it or something?” he laughed, and Ben felt himself turn red all over. What if his Mum had phoned one of the teachers to tell them he wet the bed? What if the teacher had told the Youth Hostel, was that bed assigned to him? Was a teacher going to come in and announce that that was Ben’s bed, in front of everybody?
Luckily Paul, a boy Ben didn’t really know, but had seen in the common room enough to know he was popular with the girls, and a loudmouth among other boys, pulled back the covers on his bed, and announced that there was a plastic sheet on his as well. The youth hostel must have put them on every bed as a matter of course.
“Fuck, well I’m not sleeping with that thing on my bed,” Richard guffawed, and he pulled the mattress protector from his bed. Ben didn’t really like Richard, lower down the school he had been a bully, and although now he was in the sixth-form he wasn’t so obvious in his teasing he would still offer up snide comments when dealing with people, “Do they think we’re fucking babies or what?”
Once Richard had removed his sheet the other boys quickly followed suit, and Ben felt torn. He didn’t want to take it off, what if his nappy leaked? If he ruined the mattress, and the hostel had provided him with a cover to protect it, they might charge him. Or, worse, they might shame him in front of everyone. Chloe may have been sympathetic regarding his problem, but he knew not everybody would react in the same way. On the other hand, if he left it on he could just as easily be teased about that, and then he would feel forced to take it off anyway. He felt sick again, and was really beginning to wish he was back at home, it had been a stupid idea for him to come. He’d only just arrived and already his bedwetting was affecting his enjoyment.
Ben decided to ignore everyone else, in the hope that they would ignore him. If he pretended not to notice them taking the plastic sheets off of their beds, maybe they wouldn’t notice him leaving his on. And besides, Ben was still in wet jeans, and he needed to change them before they started to smell. The wet patch was fading as it had dried slightly on the bus, but they still felt damp and uncomfortable. He needed to have a shower.