Caroline sighed. ‘I know, Pheebs, and that’s the problem. He’s good-looking, and can be nice. If something isn’t done about this, he’s going to keep doing it to other girls.’

‘Can your brother talk to him?’

‘Yeah, but that’s not going to do much. It needs to come from someone who he’s really going to feel embarrassed that they know.’ She looked thoughtful. ‘Who do you reckon he’d hate knowing about it?’

If Dad knew about what had happened, he would probably never let me go to a party again. Dad had always talked to me about one day being interested in people and falling in love, and he was always trying to remind me of good qualities to look for in people. But if he knew I’d got into the mess I was in, he might doubt my judgement, like I was doubting it. I didn’t know how I could get it so wrong straight up. I thought about Caroline’s question some more. ‘I reckon he’d die of shame if his mum knew.’

‘His mum is cool. You’re right, she’d be having none of Trent’s creepy behaviour.’

I thought about Trent’s mum. The tattoo I saw on her arm when I went to her cafe with Caitlin. I thought about the way my mum would defend me no matter what I did.

‘She might not believe me,’ I told Caitlin.

Caroline put her hand on my shoulder. ‘There’s you and someone else that I know that he’s done this to. I can speak with them, and see if they would back you up if they need to.’

‘I don’t know,’ I said, feeling nervous and scared about it all.

‘You need to rest up and have a think about it. But I do hope that you decide to talk to his mum. He needs to be stopped.’

CHAPTER 13

CHAPTER 13

Mid-March arrived before I knew it. A hundred and one things passed through my mind as I approached the stadium to get ready to play my first basketball game of the season.

I checked my phone to see if Dad and Caitlin had arrived in Aotearoa safely. I thought they would have contacted me by now.

But at least there was a message from Mum: