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Chapter 68: Meeting Bound – LittleFallenPrincess ------------------------------- Samantha     Thanks Dad. Thanks for reminding me of the thing I’ve been thinking about constantly since my sister told me that she’s getting married. Look… we’ve just moved in. Maybe at a future date I will ask her. Because I’ve thought about it a lot. And I do mean a lot. From venues, to menus, to what dress I’d wear, to who I’d pick to be in my wedding party, to what ring I’d propose with… and then also the concept of not using a ring and instead using one of those eternity collars. Because oh boy do I want to collar that precious girl. But no. That’s for the future. We only just moved in, and even that felt a little too quick. Which is fine, provided that I give it a bit of time before I propose. Because I will. I know now. I’ve known it in my heart since the moment we stared into each other’s eyes, with her creeping outside the front door of Bound and me sitting at my old desk, reading a book. As soon as I saw her I knew she would impact my life massively… and that I wanted her to stay in it for the rest of it. For now I’ll just file it all in the back of my mind, because I need to make it special. Stupid romantic brain of mine.   Because right now… I have to worry about meeting her parents for the first time since… well… hospital? When we rushed there after her Dad had his heart attack. Which wasn’t the best first meeting… but hey, that’s fine, they loved me then… hopefully they love me now. And my Dad is great. So… why am I so anxious? The door to the shop opened, and in walked an older couple. “Mum! Dad!” “Hey Duckie!” her Dad called out as Chloe rushed over and greeted them in the bookshop aisle. “Oh I love what you’ve done with the place!” her Mum said, looking around at everything. “So… you live here now?” “Yeah, upstairs, with Sam.” Her parents' reaction eased my anxiety a bit, as they both smiled. I was worried they were going to put on a fake smile, but no, this was genuine, they could see the happiness on Chloe's face. Which made my heart warm, knowing I was the source of it. “We’re so happy for you both,” her Dad replied. “I knew she’d be the one to claim your heart when we met in the hospital. Where is she, anyway?” Chloe moved out of the way to reveal me, sitting at the table with my Dad, and so I waved awkwardly. “Oh hello Samantha, it’s lovely to see you again!” her Mum called over, before Chloe asked them to follow her to the table. As they both got to the table, they looked awkwardly at my Dad. So I quickly spoke up. “It’s lovely to see you both again. Sorry, let me introduce you to my Dad. He was just visiting me and then Chloe said you’d be dropping by. Dad, these are Chloe’s parents, Evelyn and Brian. Evelyn, Brian, this is my Dad, Tom.” “It’s lovely to meet you,” they all said to each other, before Brian continued, “You have a wonderful daughter.” “As do you two!” my Dad replied. “She’s an absolute delight. Couldn’t think of a couple more perfect for each other. Did you two learn of their moving in together recently too?” This made both of Chloe’s parents laugh, before they sat down at the table, with me and Chloe offering our chairs, grabbing a couple for ourselves from empty tables nearby. “We learnt this as we turned up at her old apartment…” Brian joked. “I heard! Sam has a habit of only telling me at the last minute, as does my other daughter.” “Oh, you have two?” Chloe’s Mum asked him. “Yup. Lights of my life. And the cause of my grey hairs!” he replied, laughing. Chloe’s parents laughed along with it, and I could feel them bonding really well. “Hey! I’m good!” I replied, sounding a bit too like Chloe when she’s little. “You are, you’ve always been my little angel. But you are also very forgetful and love to tell me things last minute. Remember that art project you needed to finish back in Primary school? ‘Oh Dad, I need an egg carton and an empty washing up liquid bottle and a lot of different paints’. I replied with ‘that’s not too difficult, when do you need them?’ and you replied ‘the project is due tomorrow morning’.” “She never!” Evelyn said with a huge grin on her face. I just sat back and blushed, feeling a lot like Chloe does in front of… well… everyone.   Before my Dad could recount a bunch of my embarrassing childhood antics… Chloe saved me. “So… I was wondering, when I found out Sam’s Dad was visiting… I figured why don’t we all go out for lunch together? It’d be good for us to all get to know each other more, now that Sam and I have moved in together, and I think you three will get on well.” “That sounds lovely! Will Samantha’s mother be joining us?” Chloe’s Mum asked, causing Chloe’s eyes to widen in a panic. So I quickly shot her back a glance that told her it was fine, nothing to worry about, even throwing in a little smile at her, when my Dad spoke up. “Sadly, my wife passed away many years ago. And having my hands full with my two girls, I never remarried.” Chloe’s parents looked nervously, but more in a sympathetic way, as Brian spoke first. “I’m sorry to hear that. If you don’t mind me asking…” I put my hand on Dad’s arm, indicating I’d continue for him so he doesn’t have to talk about her. “She got ill, and sadly she just couldn’t beat it. She poured her heart and soul into this bookshop, keeping it afloat for years, despite dwindling sales. When she died, my Dad left it to me,” I replied, opting to ignore how Mum was acting in the final stage of her life. I could see Chloe wanted to give me the biggest hug right now. And I wanted it so bad, but I’d only have to wait a few minutes. I also need to give my Dad a hug, because I know how much it hurts us both to talk about her. But we need to, we can’t forget about her. She was ours. She meant everything to us. So Chloe jumped up out of her chair, opting for the change of subject route. “Right, how about we head over to Craig’s for some lunch?” And as her parents smiled and nodded their heads, getting up out of their chairs, and heading out… I stood up alongside my Dad, turned around, and buried my face in his chest, giving him the biggest hug I could muster. …Then Chloe jumped in and wrapped her arms around both of us. She’s too fucking adorable.   So we got to Craig’s just after midday, after a little walk across town, chatting along the way. Brian and my Dad were quickly becoming friends, which was nice. My Dad’s been a bit of a loner since Mum died, he never really dated or anything, and he doesn’t keep in touch with his friends often. I know he said its because he ‘had his hands full’ with my sister and I, but that’s not true, it was because he was the most introverted introvert… and my Mum was one of the few people he could open up properly with and feel safe. So it was nice to see him bonding with someone finally. When we arrived at the cafe, Craig was surprised to see us, and he finally got to meet Chloe’s parents for the first time, introducing himself as one of Chloe’s friends. He got us a really nice table, and acted as our waiter for the afternoon, taking our orders, even throwing us a free slice of cake each. It was a lovely time. We chatted, we shared embarrassing stories from both mine and Chloe’s childhoods… and I prayed for an asteroid to land on us the entire time to save me from all this embarrassment. I loved it really, it was nice to feel like a proper family again… I know I have my Dad and my Sis, but we rarely get together outside of like Christmas and Dad’s birthday, it’s always one of us seeing one of the others, never all of us as a group. But with Chloe’s parents, my Dad, me and Chloe… it was nice. Honestly… I swear I’m going to get them all around for Christmas. All us… and my sister and her fiance. Maybe even Becks and Craig, because they’re basically family. I’ve wanted a big family get-together for most of my life… but we were never a big family. Now we can actually do it! Then as we got to the free cake part of the lunch, Brian brought something up that made me die a little inside. “So… I know you two broke up, which I still don’t understand because look at you both, you’re perfect for each other. I can’t think of a more perfect person to date my daughter…” “I sense there’s a but coming…” Chloe mumbled, loudly enough that everyone could hear. “But…” “There it is…” I said, giggling along with my girlfriend. “But…” Brian repeated, trying his best not to laugh along with us, trying (but failing) to keep a straight face, “You’ve been back together for a little while now… right? And even then… you were friends again for a while too, right?” “Yes…” I mumbled nervously, worrying where this was going. “So… when are you coming to clean the garage like you promised?”   I.  Died.   I nearly choked laughing. Chloe’s eyes widened in shock. And Chloe’s Dad just burst out in a hearty laugh. “Shit. Sorry. And sorry for swearing… oh god… I completely forgot!” “Don’t worry about it. It wasn’t a priority,” he replied, still laughing. “No! I’m a woman of my word! This weekend! Chloe… you and I are going to tackle that garage and finally clear it!” “I think we can manage that,” she replied. “But… do we still get the roast dinner promised?” I asked, cheekily, trying to act all innocent. “Hey if you’re promising roast dinners for a bit of cleaning… Can I throw my hat in the ring?” my Dad butted in, smiling cheekily. “The more the merrier!” Evelyn replied, smiling. “I’ll get the stuff in, you three can clear the garage, and we can have a nice family meal.” “Sounds like a plan. Again, sorry Brian. Yeah… with the whole breakup thing and then the shop and everything… I completely forgot,” I said, feeling really bad right now about letting them down for so long. “It’s okay, Samantha. Seriously. I didn’t want to bring it up, I know you both were going through a lot back then. I appreciate you helping, even if it took nearly a year.   So we had a nice lunch together, our parents got to know each other a bit, and even found some common interests, which was nice. Though they argued a bit as to who was paying for lunch, with both families offering. In the end… Chloe and I paid for it all, given that it was our idea and they couldn’t decide, so we went halfsies. And yes, that weekend we went round to Chloe’s parent’s house, my Dad included, and cleared and cleaned their garage! It took a good few hours, even with the three of us, because it wasn’t just the stuff we would’ve had to clean nearly a year ago, it’s everything that has been dumped in there since, with Brian unable to do anything about it. Dad drove us to the tip a couple of times, with Chloe and I taking turns going with him to help him unload everything from his car, the other staying behind to carry on cleaning. And by the end of the very exhausting afternoon… it was spotless. All neatly organised and mostly empty, only keeping important things we were told to keep to one side. And so we earned our dinner, which was absolutely amazing, and I know now that I need to ask Chloe to try making a roast dinner for me… because if she learnt from her Mum, she must be able to recreate this perfect meal. I dare say it… may even be better than my Dad’s. Just don’t tell him that.           ===================================================== New story just started on my subscribestar! Expect it here a month's time! Subscribers get new story 22nd April, that new story starts on here 20th May.   Also a lot of people were begging me to not let the garage from the start of the story go uncleaned, and being the lovely person I am... who am I to disappoint? 🤣       Don't forget I'm on Subscribestar! Subscribers get 2 weeks early access to chapters, and exclusive short stories (Nessa's Tale is currently the only available one). The next four chapters of my stories are posted on my Subscribestar! ======================================================== I hope everyone enjoys this chapter! Please leave likes and comments and all that fun stuff, I love reading them! If you want to read the next 4 chapters, thanks to two weeks early access to my main story and also soon-to-be exclusive access to short stories, why don't you check out my SubscribeStar!  Thank you to all my subscribers for their support over the past few years! Seriously, your support means the world to me. New chapters of my latest story every Wednesday/Sunday!  Also just a quick note: I don't mind people saving this story for personal reading. But I'd appreciate it if people didn't post it elsewhere, even if you're just suggesting it to other people. If you want to show others, please send them a link to the first page of this post. And it goes without saying, my story is not to be used in any way to create AI work. Thanks! 

But Tony, Amy and the girls understood as they were told that Valeria was extremely shy after some pleasantries were exchange Evelyn got up until her daughter into the dining room and sat her in a high chair, "This used to be your cousin's Amber and Sherry high chair when they were both little girls, so make sure to thank them after you're done eating." Evelyn told Valeria before she went to get some baby food that Tony said he had bought. 

Sink 

25. Crowded House On Thursday, Tess had mixed feelings when she came out of school. She was happy because the big list of names on the wall in the history classroom had just been updated, showing that she had finally moved out of the bottom third of the group. It seemed like studying with her cousin helped more than going over the work with her friends; but she still missed being able to spend more time with people her own age. Still, it meant that she was one step closer to getting a set of grades that her parents would really be proud of; and a tiny step closer to the qualifications that would eventually earn her a university place. The downside was Ashli Mortimer’s cheerful attempts at conversation as they walked together towards the bus stop. She was cheerful, friendly, and quite witty; although she sometimes seemed to have trouble with social conventions, like knowing when not to talk. Right now she was rambling on, telling Tess and anyone else in earshot how excited she was about a new project that they had just been assigned for maths. It was a new kind of education, to see if competing against other classes would help to motivate them to learn more. It was an interesting idea, and Tess wasn’t spectacularly bad at maths, but she found that she was still nervous about any kind of competition. She didn’t want to be letting her friends down, or competing against them, and it just seemed like a weird thing to do. But Ashli apparently couldn’t think of anything better to talk about. Before too long, they reached the bus. Tess hoped that she would have the opportunity to talk about something else now, or to sort out her own thoughts about the project before discussing it with someone so relentlessly happy. But it seemed that wasn’t going to happen, because Ashli was getting on the Palmerston bus too. Waiting for Tami, presumably, so that she could go with him back to his house today. And that reminded Tess that she still couldn’t invite her friends to visit her, at least until she had made her room a lot less humiliating. In the end Tess decided that it would be better for her self-confidence if she disembarked early. A short run would help to clear her head, even if she arrived a little later than usual. So she got out her phone, fired up the seldom-used FriendSpace app, and sent a message to Gabby seeking permission to be home a few minutes late. She didn’t say why, but got an answer soon enough. “Okay will you be back for dinner?” She typed a quick reply, and then rushed to get off the next time the bus stopped. Almost immediately the cold air made her regret it; and cutting ten minutes off the bus route, she was sure that she had probably added half and hour or more onto the walk home. But perhaps that was better than saying something she might regret later to her newest friends. It wasn’t their fault that Tess kept worrying about her school work, and it just seemed natural that any time Tami and Ashli were in the same room it turned into a public display of affection. Tess knew it was irrational to feel jealous, but she didn’t want to say something stupid and lose friends over it. Jogging through the park would be much better. Her hands were frozen when she reached the front door, but that wasn’t such a big deal. She could feel a wall of warm air striking her, and something in the oven smelled delicious already. She waved to Gabby, then headed up to her room to get changed before dinner. It was later than usual, and the sun had already set, but it seemed like her cousin’s timing was as perfect as ever. What she hadn’t expected was one more problem when she got back to her room. Long ago, she had gotten into the habit of making a folder for each project she had to do at school. She could decorate them with elaborate lettering, and recognise them instantly. It was an easy way to kickstart her confidence, and also helped her to feel more organised. It didn’t matter that they didn’t have as many handouts and written notes as they used to; a lot of their work could be submitted by email now, and projects were more likely to have presentations than written reports. She just had a shelf full of half-empty ring binders, slowly expanding to show the variety of topics she had learned. The problem now was that a new project meant a new binder, and the shelf was almost full. It wasn’t full of project folders, like the ones in her room before the move. The ones from last year had all been packed in boxes for the move, and most of those hadn’t yet been unpacked. But the shelf was still full of toys. There were teddy bears, unicorns, a cute family  of rainbow-coloured ferrets, and for some reason a set of tiny pandas whose markings included a single letter of the chest of each creature. They hadn’t been consigned to crates when Alice had moved out, she guessed, but that didn’t tell her where she could put them. There were already several on the desk, where she had moved them when she had first started unpacking all the books and papers related to her school work. And there were some on the bed as well, where she could mostly ignore them. But every time she was forced to put one there, Tess found herself wondering if her friends would consider it childish. Would they look down on her for trying to keep the plush animals tidy, instead of just throwing them in the bottom of the closet? She could have done that. She didn’t need them. But they looked almost new, and they were still cute. They had clearly been looked after by the former inhabitant of the room, and it seemed somehow rude to the imagined Alice to throw away something she had taken care to preserve. A new ferret joined its brethren on the bed. It might be a little childish, she reassured herself, but it wasn’t like there was anywhere else to put the thing. She just needed to clear a space for all her school work, and her parents had always told her that it was better to be well organised. Just because she didn’t particularly want some object in her room didn’t mean she shouldn’t find a place to put it and make sure it stayed there. Once the shelf was tidy, she could head back downstairs and join Gabby for dinner. Ffrances wasn’t around today, so there was more than enough time for the cousins to talk. They ended up watching some old sit-com for a couple of hours, and sharing stories about how their days had gone. Tess didn’t say much about what was bothering her, because she knew it was completely irrational. Gabby didn’t push her, but did her best to explain the project she was working on without mentioning any corporate secrets. It was easier for both of them to just watch the screen in front of them, and they stayed that way for a couple of hours, comfortable in each other’s presence. Eventually, Tess realised that she would still need to make a start on her new math project. She took one glass of wine up to her room with her, and focused solidly on her work for an hour and a half before getting distracted by messages from her friends on a whole variety of subjects. She knew that she should be working, but she didn’t want to be rude when it was already so hard to get to see her friends. So she chatted as much as she could, until she felt sleep quickly creeping up on her. “I need to sleep, too tired,” she mumbled the words as she tapped out a much abbreviated version on her phone. The responses she got said that just about everyone would look forward to seeing her tomorrow. She had good friends, she knew, and living so far away was just making it more obvious. She was almost tired enough to throw herself into bed and fall straight asleep now. Was it worth the effort of getting out clean pyjamas when she would be asleep in seconds anyway? But when she looked over to that corner of the room, a half-open drawer caught her attention. She could still remember what Gabby had said to her; about taking responsibility if she wanted to be treated like an adult. It had been nearly a week since she had wet her bed, but it had also been nearly a week since she’d slept through the night, and she felt that with her current energy levels the latter would be almost guaranteed. She walked slowly over to the drawer, already struggling to keep her eyes open, and pulled out a pull-up diaper. They were supposed to be for growing girls, they said. The packaging probably used some stupid euphemism like ‘night time underwear’. Girls of all ages could wear them, but in Tess’s mind they were still diapers. This one had a picture of a Disney princess on the front, of all things. How could you say they weren’t for children? “I don’t need it,” she mumbled to herself, but the words didn’t feel any happier. “It’s just to keep Gabby happy.” Then she stepped into the pull-up and tugged it up around her waist. It looked almost like real underwear, but she could feel that the seams were in different places. It was still just as embarrassing, but she told herself that it would only be for a week or two, until her cousin would accept that she didn’t really need them. It wasn’t her choice to wear something so childish, so just like the room’s decoration it didn’t say anything about her. Before long, everything would be back to normal. 26. Comfortable The alarm chirped, and Tess slowly opened her eyes. The dawn light was just beginning to pick out the engraved images on her blinds, and they weren’t really visible yet. Almost automatically, she reached down with one hand to reassure herself that she wasn’t lying on soaked sheets again. All dry; she was good. Despite all the times she had told herself that each wet morning was just a one off, and that waking up dry was still the norm, she was starting to feel a little happier when she found that it hadn’t happened today. She allowed herself a smile; she had slept well, her sheets were dry, and she had woken before the second alarm from her phone kicked in. She thought that might be a good omen for the day ahead. Sitting up in bed, she rubbed her eyes and stretched, trying to remember what day it was, and if there were any important events coming up that she might need a good omen for. She hadn’t remembered any before she heard a buzz from her phone vibrating across the desk; and she knew it would be only a few seconds before the most irritating ringtone she had been able to find came blaring out of the speakers. She threw off the covers and started to stand, and only then noticed what was different this morning. The extra weight put her slightly off balance, and it felt like her underwear was just about ready to fall down, not fitting comfortably. Tess glanced down, while her half-awoken brain slowly put the clues together. ‘So that’s what a wet diaper feels like,’ the thought crossed her mind, followed by a tidal wave of shame. How could it have taken her so long to notice? Then her alarm was playing, and she took two steps over to the desk so she could make her phone shut up. The diaper swung from her waist, not as snug as it had been the night before, until she angrily ripped it off and threw it into the little trashcan in the corner. She took a deep breath, trying to tell herself that it had just been her imagination, that nothing had happened. It hadn’t felt wet at all. It wasn’t wet, or clammy, just thicker than she remembered and a good deal heavier. There was no sign that she’d wet herself. No marks on the sheets or anything like that. She might be able to make out a bitter smell if she really concentrated, but that could easily have been her imagination. The only detail that even suggested something had happened had been the weight of the thing as she pulled it off, hitting the rest of the rubbish with a damp thud. That could just have been her imagination too; there was no way she could have wet her diaper like a little baby. She denied it all the way through putting on her school uniform for this morning. She told herself that it hadn’t happened, that she wasn’t a child, and that nobody would ever know. But when she got to the bathroom and realised that she didn’t need to pee, it became a little harder to doubt. The only positive she could bring to mind was that it would at least be harder for anyone else to realise what had happened this time. She wouldn’t be washing her sheets outside the normal schedule, and over the last few weeks she’d tried to get into the habit of emptying the bins if she noticed one was full before anyone else. Gabby said she didn’t need to, but she had always thought that it was easier to feel like an adult that way; she didn’t need someone else taking care of her, and doing all of the household chores occasionally would remind her that she was just living here, rather than under Gabby’s care. She ran downstairs and found her cousin preparing breakfast, as usual. She wondered if she looked more than usually flustered; if there was anything that would give her away if she hid her problem. But then, she couldn’t think of any reason Gabby would ask. It wasn’t her business, and she’d only said anything before when she saw the washing machine running early in the morning; which must have been a big clue. “Got big plans for the day?” she asked, as nonchalantly as she could manage. “Not much. Meeting with one of the artists about a set of posters for Claughton. Probably have at least an hour of middle managers flexing about how much power they think they have. You woke up okay this morning?” “Why wouldn’t I?” Tess reacted immediately, not even taking time to think. She couldn’t believe Gabby would pry like that, when she didn’t even have a reason to suspect. “I’m practically an adult now, I can wake up fine by myself. There’s never a problem. Why do you think anything happened?” “You seem wide awake, more lively than usual.” Gabby paused speaking while she took a bite of her fried bread. Tess was still trying to calm down, to get her racing heart under control. So after she had swallowed a bite, Gabby continued: “You know you’ve seemed to be half asleep more often than not in the morning. I was on the point of suggesting you should get to bed earlier, but then you said you weren’t sleeping so well in any case. It’s good to see you cheerful and ready to face the world today. Is there anything different that’s caused that? Or did something happen? You sound like something’s wrong.” “No, no,” Tess tried to think, and somehow the right words just came to her. She wasn’t sure if that was luck, or because she had already thought her way through conversations like this a dozen times, whenever she’d failed to say the right thing in the past. “Nothing wrong. I’ve just been… thinking about something else. How some of my friends have to hide everything from their parents, because anything they say can be twisted and used against them. It just… you asked like you thought something was wrong, and all the paranoid stories came back to the front of my mind. Sorry.” “Don’t worry about it. I’m not your dad, you know? I’ll treat you according to how you act, and as long as you clean up after yourself I won’t stick my nose in your business. Until you ask me to, of course… you already know that a lot of things go more easily with a little help.” “Yeah. I’ll ask, for sure. If I have a problem.” The topic of conversation changed again, back to movies that were due out in the next few weeks, and if there was anything Tess might like to watch the next time Ffrances felt like coming around just to veg out in front of the big screen. That was an easy conversation to navigate, and she was pretty sure that she had managed to hide her little accident for the first time since she had moved in here. That was a win.

Rinse