Ben woke up feeling disorientated, and it took him a few moments to realise he was on the coach, on his way to London. He shifted in his seat to get comfortable, and froze as the familiar cold and damp clamminess of his wet boxers sticking to his skin hit him. He had wet himself, here, on the coach, in front of everyone. What was he going to do? He looked down at his jeans, hoping the wet spot would be small. He was dismayed to see that it covered almost the entire front of his jeans, the top part of his legs wet also. And he could feel from the dampness of his underwear that there was a large wet spot beneath him. Why had he had to drink three glasses of the orange juice? Just because the refills were free, he should have known better.
Ben didn’t know what to do, there was nothing he could do here on the coach. He had a hoodie, but it was in the overhead compartment, if he stood up to get it the wet-patch would be obvious to everyone, including Laura. There was nothing he could do until the coach stopped at the next service station, and everyone else got off the coach. He didn’t know how long that would be, but he knew if he made it obvious he had woken up then Chloe, who thankfully was turned away from him so that she could talk to Mike and Gabby, would turn to face him, and see his jeans. All he could think to do was place his hands in his lap, to cover as much of the wetness as possible, and pretend to still be asleep.
As Ben sat with his head facing the window, and his eyes shut as if he were asleep he was unable to stop himself from crying. He felt so stupid, sitting here in his wet trousers, bawling his eyes out like a toddler. He tried to keep the noise of his crying down low, but every now and then he couldn’t help but let out a large sniff, sob or hiccup.
“Ben?” he heard Chloe whisper in his ear, placing her hand on his arm. Ben’s tears instantly stopped, and his body tensed up, afraid of what was coming next. He continued to pretend to be asleep, even though he knew it was futile, Chloe knew he was awake, he wouldn’t be crying if he were asleep. And if she was looking in his direction it would only be a matter of time before she found out the reason for herself.
“Are you okay? What’s wrong? Do you feel sick after all that br…” she trailed off, and Ben knew she had noticed his wet trousers. He let out a loud sob, unable to conceal it.
Chloe squeezed his arm, “Hey, don’t worry,” she said soothingly, “Don’t be upset, I don’t like to see you cry.”
Ben felt Chloe stand up beside him, and his face flushed red as his thoughts raced with images of her announcing his predicament to everyone on the coach, he imagined everyone staring at him, and then laughing, he imagined Laura nudging her friends, pointing and giggling. And what would his teachers say? He just hoped Chloe would be a good friend to him, he couldn’t imagine her telling everybody his secret. But then he didn’t suppose she would have been able to imagine him wetting his pants on the coach before now.
Ben waited to see if she was going to say anything, and was relieved when after a short while Chloe sat back down. He felt her place something in his lap, and glanced down to see it was his hoodie.
“Here,” she said quietly, “If you tie this round your waist when you get up no-one will notice.” She put her hand over his and stroked it gently with her thumb, “Let’s just pretend it didn’t happen now, ‘kay?”
Ben wiped the tears from his eyes and looked at Chloe sheepishly, she smiled at him before taking her hand away from his, and turning back to Mike and Gabby.