Recover

'Please don't cry'

"Hello love, nice day?"
"Yes, lovely. He took me to the shopping mall and bought me this." I showed mum the necklace and decided to keep the canal walk mine and Jamie's little secret.
"It's gorgeous, must have cost an arm and a leg!"
The phone rang and she ran off to answer it. I traipsed up to my bedroom and collapsed on the bed. Shopping and canal walking had completely worn me out. I got out my phone and texted Tiffany and Georgia who I hadn't seen  since Friday night.
Me: Sleepover at mine?
Tiffany: Sure! Be there at half six?
Me: Sounds good. See you then!
Georgia: Ok. Won't get there till seven though.
Me: Doesn't matter, we won't do anything without you.

I waited until mum had finished on the phone and asked her if it was ok. She normally allowed it so I  just casually went up to her.
"It's alright for Tiffany and Georgia to come round tonight isn't it?"
"No, actually it's not. You don't just go organising things and then expect me to be alright with it. I've hardly seen you all weekend as you've been off with that Jamie who I've only known five minutes and I thought you were going out with Ben? I've had his mum on the phone very confused. She said he told her you dumped him. Why?"
"That doesn't matter. Please just say yes, we've already sorted things out!"
"Well you will just have to unsort them, we need to sit down and talk."
"Talk about what?!"
"You and Ben. There's obviously a reason you dumped him, you were good together, and now you're all over this Jamie who you don't even really know."
"I do know him, we've been friends for ages and he's been helping through stuff with Ben."
"What stuff with Ben?"
"Oh...eh... Me dumping him and that."
"What's there to help with? Talk to me love, I know there's something you're not telling me. You've not been yourself for a while. My job is to there for you but how can I if I don't know what's wrong."
"Nothing's wrong! Just leave it. Please can Tiff and Georgia come round."
"No, not until you speak to me."
I was about to storm upstairs when someone knocked at the door.
It was Tessa, Ben's Mum. She came in and sat down on the edge of the sofa.
"Hi Julie, Beth. I'm sorry to disturb you, especially without notice but I felt it necessary to iron things out between you and Ben to eliminate any awkwardness. I'm getting alot from him about what supposedly happened and I'm worried, and I wanted to get your side of things. Would that be ok, you're not busy are you?"
"No, not at all. It would be useful to establish what happened because Beth hasn't been herself and she's not telling me anything," Mum offered Tessa a cup of tea, who declined, and directed for me to sit.
"Ok, so it all started a couple of Fridays ago, when you came to ours whilst me and Mike were away. You told your mum you wouldn't dream of doing anything at your age when I found the contreception last week, but Ben says that you slept together that night."
"Beth!" Mum turned to look at me, horrified. "Please tell me he's lying."
I felt my face burning red and I saw the room fading before me. I refocused and stuttered "N...no." I didn't know what to say. I couldn't tell them. They wouldn't believe me. It seemed to me they'd decided what had go on away without the need of my input. I just stared into my lap, blinking back the tears and hiding the embarrassment.
"How could you? You're fifteen years old. He's eighteen and You lied to me!"
I held mum's hands and tried to say I'm sorry but no words came out and she lifted her hands away from me. I started crying.
"Don't Beth, I'm just shocked. Please don't cry." She stroked my cheek.
"I'm afraid that wasn't it. Ben has been very unhelpful and spread it round the school. He shouldn't have done that so on his behalf I'm sorry. But he is apparently confused because you've been denying it to everyone. I'd understand if you were ashamed and just didn't want everyone knowing but I needed to check." Tessa shuffled over to me and kneeled on the floor beside me, holding my hands.
"My son is eighteen, he's an adult and so he should have known not to expect this kind of thing from you. Legally, it's his fault. Please tell me, if there's anything you want to say about this, even if you treat me as a friend, and not Ben's mum, you can say anything to us, can't she?" She looked at my mum and mum nodded, purposefully avoiding looking at me.
"Mum..." I was sobbing. "...I'm so sorry. I tried to get him off. I really did."
She turned round. "What?" Mum couldn't continue.
"Are you saying he forced you?" Tessa lifted my head and waited for an answer.
I nodded and collapsed into mum's arms, crying like I'd never done before. She held me and rocked me, crying too.