Broken-hearted Ben

‘What’s happened?’ I demanded. The look on Chas’s face was so grim that I felt quite sick. ‘Dad hasn’t had an accident, has he?’
‘Oh, I’m sorry, Kate.’ Chas’s expression changed immediately to one of real concern. ‘No, of course he hasn’t. No, it’s nothing like as bad as that. Crikey, Kate, you’d better sit down – I’ll make you a mug of tea!’
I must have gone quite white; I was certainly feeling shaky. The events of the last few hours had been really unsettling. I sat down abruptly.
‘Tell me first, Chas,’ I said. ‘Tell me whatever it is that’s wrong.’
‘It’s just Ben,’ Chas said, dropping tea-bags into mugs. ‘He rang. He wanted to talk to you and was hoping you’d be with me. He didn’t want to catch you with your mum or mine. Really he wanted you to go back home for a bit but I said I didn’t think that would be possible.’
‘Ben?’ I squawked. My little brother Ben is, on the whole, the most laid-back, sorted individual I’ve ever met. There’s little that upsets him that a chocolate biscuit can’t put right – and he regularly talks sense to me when I’m throwing a wobbly. ‘What on earth is the matter with Ben?’ I demanded.
‘Suzie’s dumped him,’ said Chas. ‘Yes, I know – no one saw that one coming – but she has!’
‘But why?’ I was completely gob-smacked. Suzie and Ben have been an adoring item for so long that I was having difficulty taking in the news.
‘He wouldn’t tell me – he just wanted to talk to you.’
My eyebrows shot up. Ben and Chas are very close. I couldn’t see any reason why Ben would want to talk to me and not to Chas.
‘I know,’ said Chas. ‘I don’t get it either. I don’t like it – feels like it must be something really bad. You’d better ring him. But…’ Chas hesitated.
‘What?’ I said. ‘What now?’
‘Well…I guess I’d better warn you. He was crying when he rang. Really crying. Like I haven’t seen him cry since your mum had her accident.’
Mum fractured her skull in a bike accident nearly two years ago. We thought she might be going to die. That was why Ben had cried. So Chas was right. This sounded really bad. I got out my mobile.
‘I’ll go and have a bath,’ said Chas. ‘Leave you in peace for a bit, OK?’
I nodded and smiled and tried to bury the thought that however much Greg turns me on, he doesn’t understand me as well as Chas does.

‘Ben,’ I said. ‘Ben, Chas says you rang. He says…’
‘Suzie’s dumped me.’ Ben got the first two words out and then his voice cracked on the third. ‘And it’s all my fault.’ Suddenly he was sobbing down the phone, trying to tell me something but not making any sense at all.
‘Ben, Ben, calm down,’ I said. ‘Take some deep breaths. I’m not understanding a word of this.’
‘I want you to come home, Kate,’ Ben sobbed. ‘I want to talk to you. You’re a girl. You have to tell me what to do.’
‘Ben, I can’t!’ I said. ‘I’ve only just got here and I’m not on my bike! What’s going on there? Has Dad got back yet?’
‘No.’
‘Could you talk to mum?’
There was a snort. ‘No way,’ said Ben. ‘I couldn’t – honestly. Kate, I so want to talk to you – I so want you to be here.’
I sighed. There was no way I could go home. ‘Ben, just tell me what you’ve done to upset Suzie, OK? Then perhaps I can help.’
There was silence.
‘Come on, Ben – ‘fess up! You haven’t cheated on her, have you?’
‘No way.’ He sounded shocked. Then…’It’s kind of worse than that, really.’
‘Come on,’ I said. ‘Spit it out. You’ll feel better once you’ve said it.’
There was another silence and I could hear Ben breathing hard. My mind was going over all the dreadful possibilities there could be but I couldn’t believe any of them of Ben and Suzie. To be honest, Ben is pretty fit and could have the pick of half a dozen girls so the most likely scenario seemed to me to be that he’d snogged someone else for some reason – but he’d denied that.
At last Ben said something.
‘What was that?’ I said.
‘I was bragging about her,’ said Ben. ‘To some other lads.’
‘So?’ I said. ‘What’s the big deal? Anyone would if they had such a lovely girlfriend.’
‘It was what I said.’ I know Ben pretty well. I could tell from his voice that he was curled up with embarrassment.
‘Go on,’ I said.
‘I can’t say it,’ said Ben. ‘But, Kate, you know how strict Suzie is – how we can’t do anything much else but snog – well, the lads go on about it and keep asking if I’ve gone any further and keep making out I’m a loser because we haven’t so…well…so…well, I said that we had.’
‘You didn’t say you’d had sex with her!’ I was horrified. They’re both under-age. Ben could be about to be in big trouble!
‘No – of course not – I’m not saying what I did say – but the trouble is, it’s got round our year and it’s got exaggerated and well, some kid at her church heard it and told their youth leader and the youth leader told her parents and they went ballistic with Suzie – and so she’s dumped me.’
‘Have they made her dump you?’ I asked.
‘No – at least, I don’t think so. She didn’t say they had.’
I didn’t think they would have either. Suzie’s parents are pretty strict and they’re very serious about their faith – they’re members of the Salvation Army – but I didn’t think they’d try to force Suzie to dump Ben if she didn’t want to, whatever she was supposed to have done.
‘It’s because she’s so angry with me. She says that whatever she says, people will think she’s a slag now – and she can’t believe I could do that to her, just so that I look cool with my mates. She says she thought I was different but I’ve shown her that, underneath I’m just a pathetic sheep who wants to follow the flock.’ Ben’s voice broke again.
‘She actually said that?’ I said. I could believe it. It’s just the sort of slightly wacky but very mature thing Suzie would say.
‘Yes,’ Ben sobbed. ‘And she’s right. It was pathetic and I’m so, so sorry and I’ve said I am but she says it’s all very well being sorry now but how’s that going to stop people thinking she’s a slag? And even though she’s told her parents we never did what they’ve heard, how can I ever face them again? So that’s it, Kate – it’s the end and I just don’t know what I’m going to do. And Mum’s calling me ‘cos Dad’s just got back so I’m gonna have to go – but you have to think of something, Kate, because I just can’t stand feeling like this – it’s just awful.’
And then he ended the call and I stood there staring at my phone, wondering what on earth I could do to help. I felt like ringing Suzie straight away and telling her not to be so stupid – but she’s a feisty kid and I couldn’t see that going down very well. But I was convinced she couldn’t really want this. She and Ben got on so well. Unless…and I so hoped this wasn’t the case…Suzie was finding that Ben had become for her like Chas was for me – someone you really, really care about but you just don’t fancy any more. Except that right then, I suddenly had a mental picture of Chas all clean and fresh after his bath and wearing a pristine Peterson thick-pile towel round his waist and suddenly I wasn’t so sure I didn’t fancy him after all.
I shook my head. Whatever. This was no time to get distracted! I had to work out what to do!