I exhaled a deep breath of relief when I couldn’t find any traces of my shame. And then I pulled the sheets back up over my head again.

I heard someone walk out of one of the rooms and I tried to pretend I was asleep. I wasn’t ready to see Jamie. When I heard a tap turn on in the kitchen and a couple of minutes later a kettle boil, I peeked out to see that it was Jamie’s mum.

Crap, I thought. I wonder if she’s going to dob me in to Dad and Caitlin?

A few minutes later she said, ‘Phoebe,’ and when I looked up she was coming towards me with a cup of tea and some toast. ‘It’s chamomile tea. It’ll soothe your stomach. You need to drink lots of water as well.’

She handed me the tea and toast and went and got me a huge glass of water. After she placed it down on the coffee table, she grabbed her own mug of tea then sat in a chair beside me. She smiled as she watched me drink my tea. ‘First hangover?’

I nodded.

‘Just make sure you don’t get used to them,’ she said. I thought about Mum and wondered how on earth she could cope with hangover after hangover. No wonder she was so miserable.

I took another sip of my tea and then I asked, ‘Are you going to tell my parents about this?’

‘No,’ she said. ‘I just want to make sure you’re okay.’

I put down my cup of tea and swallowed down some water instead. ‘My head is killing me, but I think I’m okay.’

‘I made you drink a whole lot of water when we got you home. I hope it helped a little.’

‘I don’t remember,’ I said, feeling embarrassed.

Jamie’s mum took a sip of her tea. ‘I’ve seen you at basketball training. I’m Lydia.’

‘Nice to meet you,’ I said, ‘and I’m sorry about this.’

‘It’s all part of growing up,’ she replied. ‘Like I said, I hope you don’t make a habit of it. You’ve recently moved here, right?’

‘Yeah, not long before school started.’

‘And how do you like it?’

‘It’s okay, I guess, but I miss my old school and my best friends.’

‘Why did you move?’ Lydia asked.

‘Dad wanted to live with his girlfriend.’

‘That makes sense,’ she said with a smile. ‘And what about your mum?’

I picked up the cup of tea again and took another sip.

‘Sorry, I don’t mean to be nosy,’ Lydia said. ‘It’s because you’re a friend of Jamie’s and I guess I like to know Jamie’s friends too.’