I just stood there staring.
“What am I going to do?” Jane repeated “It hasn’t even been twenty-four hours and look at me!”

She gestured towards the sodden diaper.
That was the problem. I WAS looking at her and seemingly struck speechless.

“Peter!”

I snapped out of it.

“Sorry, I was just umm… I was just trying to think of a solution” I said fumbling for words.

Never, never had I thought I would see best friend in a diaper today and certainly not a WET diaper!

“I know” I suggested, gathering my thoughts “Just change. Put on a dry one, we’ll throw the wet one out. She’ll never know!”

“That won’t work.” Jane sighed “Mom already warned me that she knew EXACTLY how many Goodnites were in the pack to start with. I’m supposed to take this one off and give it to her before I go to bed tonight and then she’ll give me a new one. And I have to do the same thing in the morning. That way she will know if I have wet any of them.”

“I see, well that is a problem” I replied.

“I just don’t know what to do. She’s going to be furious with me. I mean I haven’t even made it a whole day!”

Jane suddenly seemed to realize she had been standing in front of me this whole time in just a t-shirt and a wet Goodnite. Her face turned crimson and she grabbed a towel and wrapped it around herself.

With a sigh of defeat she said, “Look I’m just going to have to bite the bullet on this one. I’m just going to change and tell my mom the truth. With any luck I’ll still get out of these things before graduation.”

“Can you go up to my room and get me a dry one?” Jane asked.

“Sure, hold on.” I told her.

I made my way up to Jane’s room, a place I had only been one time before. Jane was not supposed to have friends over when her mom was not home, especially not boys. She was MOST DEFINITELY not supposed to have them in her room. For that reason we usually kept our visits to the living room and kitchen.

I opened the door to Jane’s room and looked around. It was very tidy. I knew her mom insisted she keep it this way (it was one Jane’s favorite thing’s to complain about). I spotted the pack of Goodnites underneath the nightstand beside Jane’s bed. I walked over and knelt down on the floor to pull one out. As I stood back up I placed one hand on the bed. That’s when I heard, and felt, a crinkle. Now, I’ve told you all about Jane’s past ‘issues’, but what I haven’t told you was that I have had my own. I too was a bedwetter as a child and actually had a few night time accidents well up into my teen years. So I KNEW what that sound was. Jane had a plastic sheet on her bed! Was it because of her recent accident? Or was it just a leftover from her bedwetting days? It could just be for allergies I reasoned (that was the excuse I had once used when a friend discovered my plastic sheet). At any rate I couldn’t ask Jane about it, not now at least. I took the Goodnite and went back downstairs. On the way down I had an idea.

Jane had shut the bathroom door so I knocked and she opened it just a crack. I passed the Goodnite through to her and talked to her through the crack.

“I might have a way for you to get out of this.” I told her.

“What is it?” Jane left the door cracked as she talked to me.

I took all my strength to not try to peek through the crack and spy on her changing.

“What if…” I started “What if I go to the store and buy a pack of Goodnites? Then we could replace this one with one from the new pack.”

“That could work” Jane sounded relieved “And I’ll have more in case this happens again. But you don’t have to pay for them, let me get you some money.”

“No, it’s fine” I insisted “I’ll get them”

“You are so sweet” Jane said as she stepped out of the bathroom in the new, dry Goodnite.

“I just have to figure out what to do with this one.” She had pulled the bag from the bathroom waste can. From the weight of it the wet diaper was clearly inside.

“Give it to me, I’ll take care of it” I told her.

“I owe you one Chris. I know I’ve said this like a thousand times today but you really are a good friend!”

With that she handed me the bag and kissed me on the cheek.

But once again, we’re just friends.