✏️ Under One Roof

8. Two Mornings

Author's Note: I was really expecting some more comments on the previous chapter... not sure what everybody's expecting to happen here. But hopefully it won't disappoint. What did you think of the way I handled this?

This bonus chapter is dedicated to Darklord. Thank you for your support!

Tegan moaned, half asleep and still not quite aware enough to find words. Her hand extended out from under the covers, reaching vaguely in the direction of her alarm clock before she realised that the alarm wasn't going off yet. The sun wasn't up either, and when she pulled the covers down from her face so that she could see the clock, she was dismayed to discover that it was barely after five in the morning. So what had woken her?

She knew the answer as soon as she thought of the question. There was no mistaking the clammy sheets clinging to her skin, or a certain sharp smell in the air. She had wet the bed. But how? That hadn't happened to her for at least ten years now, and it wasn't like she'd been drinking excessively. The timing was terrible as well; she'd played the prank with the bowl of water on Ness again last night, and there was no way the adults would believe it was a coincidence if both of them wet the bed on the same night. Heck, there was no way Tegan could think about it and not get suspicious. But as wakefulness returned, she remembered that she hadn't actually succeeded last night. Ness had been awake when she strolled into his room, and had been a little weirded out by her attempts to humiliate him. They'd talked a bit, and she'd promised him that she wasn't going to do the trick with the water tonight. It had been weird, but she didn't think that he'd suspected her.

Maybe that was a good thing? But on the other hand, it meant that she was the only one dealing with this problem. Her dad wouldn't laugh, she was sure, but she didn't know about Logan. And if Ness saw her sheets in this state, he would have everything he needed to make her life hell going forward. She didn't understand what had happened; whether it had been the wine or just some crazy coincidence, but she was sure that she needed to keep him from finding out about this, no matter what the cost.

She got out of bed and rushed through throwing on some clean clothes. And then she had pee-soaked pyjamas and sheets to deal with. She stripped the bed as quietly as she could manage, grateful in a way that she'd woken early enough to ensure that nobody else was awake. While she did it, she found herself looking for any sign that someone else had been in here. Her hand wasn't wet, so she didn't think that Ness had come up with the same prank she'd tried on him. But then, how would she know? She was sure that it wouldn't have been too hard for him to hide any trace of his presence. But if he'd done something like that, it raised more questions than it answered.

Why would he have done something so cruel? That was the big question on her mind as she carried a bundle of bedding down the stairs. Had he thought that she had something humiliating to hold over him and decided to make it a level playing field again? Or could he have figured out what she had done and decided to respond in kind? She really didn't know which was more likely, but she didn't like either of the ideas. She didn't think she'd been anything like obvious enough to put the idea in his head, had she?

She loaded the washing machine, but the thoughts were still buzzing around in her head, not quite giving her any peace to complete the task. And she needed all her wits about her today, because the washing machine had been here when they moved in; it was new to her, and she'd never used it before. She didn't know where the instructions for it were either. She would just have to guess about the meanings of all the slightly worn symbols on the control panel, and the mass of LCD icons that she could barely make out on the display.

One thing she was certain of, though, was that Ness hadn't simply poured a bowl of water on her. All her sheets smelled strongly of pee, and the puddle had only been beneath her; it hadn't soaked all the way through to the top of the duvet. If he had a part in this, he'd been a lot luckier than she had. For a moment, she actually wondered if he would have peed on her. The thought almost made her sick; and yet she could easily imagine a boy going that far in a quest to humiliate her. But she dismissed the thought just as quickly, when she realised that there was no sign of pressure from her bladder. That was unusual when waking up, and enough confirmation to convince her that the stains on her bedding were all hers. She still had to tell herself that Ness had some part in it; but then why would the wet hand trick have worked on her but not on him? She didn't know what the difference could have been, but she was sure that she would need to look into it a little more. There was no way she would let any boy be in a position to humiliate her like that.