Without Merit: What Happened at the Lake House? (2/4) 6/10/22

[Bel George]

Great story so far.

[direking]

I like the idea of the diaper being an 'ABDL' diaper instead of a generic drug-store diaper as I originally intended. It really fits into the psychological warfare against Adam, which is a theme for the story. A fun adult diaper also makes it more realistic, I purposely avoid height and weight, diaper sizes, to get around people pulling out the measuring tape and applying it to the believability of the narrative.

As far as realism goes, this story is a sci-fi story at its roots. Although the fantastic hasn't made much of an appearance yet, it shows up 'in spades' as it goes along. There's an ongoing conflict between influence and inspiration, but I don't want to give too much more away. 

Thanks for compliments! The gaslighting and victim blaming is only going to get more intense as the story progresses, and Adam is going to have to figure this all out before its too late.

Thanks for reading.

 

10
 
The oak table in the breakfast room was the center of his world for the entire morning. Adam sat at the table in the sailor suit with the boy shorts underneath serving as regular underwear. This was close to a normal outfit so he should have felt grateful, yet he wasn’t. His day wasn’t getting any better, especially since he had to do whatever Miss Katie wanted.
 
Finger painting. That’s what she had him doing now as part of the arts and crafts checklist. Adam made an extensive outdoor scene with a red flower, a blue flower, a green tree, and a yellow sun. He thought it was childish, but it kept his mind off what happened in the bathroom. He couldn’t get the smell of the fresh scent of baby powder out of his nose. It followed him everywhere, he even stooped to sniff his shorts when Katie wasn’t looking. It was there, too.
 
The diaper left a residual aura around him, and it wasn’t just the baby powder smell that hung around. He thought he heard a crinkle sound every time he moved. He also had the urge to use the bathroom, like all the time, now afraid of having ‘another’ accident even though he never really had the first one. That was Charity’s fault, speaking of the cheerleader, where was she? Marisa was nowhere to be found either.
 
At least he liked the drink that she made, some kind of cherry flavored water concoction, a lone bright spot of a morning consisting of just him and Katie, the kitchen table, and the lame G2W checklist.

After the diaper fiasco, they started off the day knocking out ‘feeding’ as she fed him a bowl of Cheerios. She literally fed him with a spoon while he wore a bib and drank out of a sippy cup. Adam fought the good fight, came up with good reasons why he shouldn’t have to pretend to be a toddler just to do a checklist, but Katie needed only one great reason why he had to — she had a picture of him wearing a diaper and sucking his thumb on her phone. She used the picture like a magic wand to rid herself of any pesky resistance, and it worked every time.
 
Also, there was the threat of more diapers which came from the pink pack of pull-ups that sat in the middle of the table. These had to belong to Marisa’s cousin, they were pink and princess-y, the side of the package featuring a smiling little girl proudly presenting her pull-up to the world. He had nicknamed her ‘Princess Tinkles’, and frequently cursed her under his breath all morning, especially the way she seemed to follow him with her shifty toddler eyes. Adam also felt that he sat in its shadow, however physically impossible that may be.
 
He was just about finished with his work of art when he heard Charity come down the stairs. The cheerleader’s hair was a mess and her pajamas were disheveled, it looked like she had as rough a night as he had a rough morning.
 
“Hey Charity!” Adam cheerfully greeted her with a little more enthusiasm than he intended.
 
He wondered if things had changed between them. Should he have said ‘Good Morning’ or ‘What’s up’? He didn’t know what to say to her, or where they even stood relationship-wise. Adam even wondered if it was appropriate to kiss her on the cheek like he’d seen couples do in movies. All of that seemed absurd since his childlike hands were covered in paint.
 
Charity took one look at him and stifled a laugh as she closed in on the table, shaking a bottle of strawberry breakfast drink she pulled from the refrigerator.
 
“What are you working on, Popeye?”
 
“Popeye?” He asked.
 
“Popeye the sailor man, you know — he lived in a garbage can,” Charity sang.
 
“No, I don’t know.”
 
“Forget it, it was a stupid joke about your sailor suit, but you’re too young to get it,”Charity explained. “Why on earth are you finger painting? Is this something Katie is making you do for her checklist-thingy?”
 
“Something like that,” Adam sighed.
 
The cheerleader picked up the white piece of paper and held it up to her sleepy eyes. She squinted at it and shook her head as she slid it back in front of him.
 
“You do realize that you can always tell her ‘N-O’. You’re a big kid, you don’t have to do what she tells you.”
 
Adam wished that he really could tell her that he didn’t want to be her ‘guinea pig’, but that ship had sailed sometime this morning. He’d have to stomach being her charge a little longer.
 
“I’m not sure I really can. It’s kinda complicated.”
 
“Complicated?” Charity asked, suddenly coming alert and awake. “I like the sound of complicated, it sounds like something sexy that I should know about.”
 
The backdoor opened and they both stopped to see who came in. Katie walked into the kitchen with a green water pitcher and began to fill it in the sink.
 
“Adam, are you planning on keeping our secret?” asked Miss Katie.
 
“Secret? Now I really need to know what’s going on. Don’t worry Adam, I’ll find a way to pry it out of you when Miss Goody-Goody isn’t around. Where’s Marisa?”
 
“She just got back from an impromptu nature walk after Adam wet the bed,” Katie answered.
 
“Katie! Why did you tell her that?” Adam grimaced.
 
Katie turned off the water faucet and pulled the full pitcher out of the sink. Then she gave Adam one of those looks, the kind he’d been getting all weekend. The ones that he hated. The ones that said, ‘Come on, you’re better than this’.
 
“Adam, she was going to find out eventually. Marisa and I have already discussed it, she feels bad about how she reacted, and she’s outside washing your clothes and bedsheets since this place doesn’t have a washer or dryer. Listen, I think that Marisa is trying to start over, so it would be best if you just gave her a little more time.”
 
He’d given her time, and she still wasn’t available for him. He still needed her to call her mom and get his clothes back, it felt more dire than ever. Adam also just wanted to talk to her, like normal talk — not bedsheet talk. He felt a pang in his heart as he watched Marisa through the window, tying up a clothesline between a pair of tall skinny trees.
 
“Did you finish your arts and crafts?” Miss Katie asked as she too came over to the table.
 
Adam gave her an affirmative nod and backed away from the table to show off his work. She smiled, clapped his back, and said something about putting it on the refrigerator. Then she cleaned his hands with a wet wipe while Charity just watched with her sleepy eyes, with no witty comments just the occasional yawn. Katie said that he was finished for the morning, and she returned outside with the water pitcher.

Adam remained at the table, butt firmly in chair as he stared at his friend outside.

Marisa was beautiful. The morning light turned her hair into slightly curling golden strands, flittering them about in the gentle breeze. She wore a grey sports bra and black yoga pants and stood on her toes to reach the line with a clothespin. There was something motherly about the way she was washing his clothes, also God-awfully embarrassing, but motherly just the same.
 
Marisa hung up his Pokémon shirt from the night before, it looked to be clean from the mud. His shorts were next, and then came his underwear. Adam slid further down into the chair as he watched her handle his boxer briefs. Oh, jeez.
 
The pajamas were next on the line, the turquoise shirt and pants shimmered when the sunlight caught the cupcake’s glitter accents. Lastly, came the pink bedsheet, there was a large discolored spot on them that was not there before. Adam knew that for a fact.
 
“Wait a second!” he yelled as he stood from the chair.
 
He watched Katie and Marisa discuss something outside, they both laughed. That stain didn’t come from him, and now everyone who saw it would think he was some sort of bed wetter. Charity watched the same thing he did, captivated by the discolored pink sheet as it flapped in the breeze.
 
Charity took a long sip from her shake before slamming it to the table.
 
“Alright Adam, we need to have another talk. Last night you absolutely wrecked your clothes in the mud, then you wet the bed in your sleep. Do you think this place is some sort of Frat house? That’s some college level of craziness that I didn’t know you had in you.”
 
“I didn’t wet the bed in my sleep,” Adam insisted. He wanted to tell her it was her fault but decided to stay on her good side. No one would believe him now that the ‘official’ story had changed, and only he knew what really happened.
 
She motioned towards the pack of pull-ups on the table. “What’s up with the diapers?”
 
He didn’t say anything. There was nothing but embarrassment if they walked down that road, he’d prefer if they didn’t take a step at all. Charity mistook his silence as permission to ask about it again.
 
“Did they put those there because you wet the bed like some sort of threat?” Charity asked.
 
“I don’t want to talk about it,” Adam answered quietly.
 
“That’s messed up! How could they — I mean, why would they do that?”
 
“Can we change the subject?” Adam interrupted.
 
Charity halted mid-outrage, quietly scoffed during the silence, and drank more of her breakfast before making a smacking sound with her lips. She tapped her fingers against the table in the name of boredom, then abruptly stopped. Adam could tell she was up to no good as she leaned in close to his ear, her raspy breath raised the hairs on his neck, sending down a jolt of electricity that shook him from his somber mood.
 
“Did you do what I asked you last night? You know, in the shower.”
 
Adam nodded. He liked having her that close, so intimate being only a few tantalizing inches from her lips, her touch, and not being able to kiss or feel her. It was the same feeling he got when he first rode rollercoasters with Jeremy back when they were kids, the end of the build up as they reached the crest of the hill, the split second before the wild terror when gravity performed its magic. Adam remained still as she breathed on him, unwilling to move.
 
“Why don’t you show me?” Charity purred.
 
“Here? — Like right now?”
 
“There’s no time like the present. Shut up and show me.”
 
Adam slowly stood up from his chair and turned his hips towards her, he looked outside the window for the other two girls, and they weren’t there. He watched the back door and listened for the front door, his hands shook at his waist.
 
“What if someone comes in on us?”
 
“Then you better hurry,” Charity chided, “they could get here any second.”
 
Go with the flow — whatever happens, happens. He pulled down his white shorts and undies to his knees, his pounding heart became a rapid fire drum, it was nerve racking and exhilarating at the same time. He proudly stood as she calmly sat and got an eyeful. For once, when it came to sex, Charity was quiet. She leisurely finished the last of her drink while Adam kept waiting for her to say something, anything. Maybe even give him permission to pull his pants back up.
 
Charity slowly pushed herself out of her chair. Adam watched helplessly as she still did nothing, said nothing. He needed validation, a single confirmation that he did one thing right that morning. She gave him one last go over before walking away, casually mentioning over her shoulder, “Don’t you like the way it makes it look bigger?”
 
His morning suddenly got much better.

[Pierry Louys]

Oh my that some things interesting here heheheh poor Adam he gonna never know what gonna hit him hehhejehe

[D503]

Fed with a bib! Ruh roh. And I love the big stain on the sheet. The mind games are legion.

[direking]

11
 
The lake house was surrounded by tall, skinny trees that shaded and sheltered, adding to the feeling of isolation. Adam enjoyed the isolation as much as the wildlife. There were countless singing birds in the trees, he spotted a number of squirrels rocketing up tree trunks and flying between the branches making entire trees shake from impact. 

This private world was hidden from reality, where it was just him, the birds and the squirrels. The density of the woods also assured him that no one would see him in his sailor suit. 
 
He listened to the sounds of nature as he meandered through the trees, sipping the drink that Katie made for him. The cherry flavored water tasted so good that the water bottle was nearly empty within minutes of his 'expedition'.
 
This all reminded him of his younger days, when the world could be best described as a playground. Where he and his friends would explore and discover. That's when everything made sense, before puberty brought in the confusion with the coming hormonal tide of adulthood.
 
Adam also noticed that it was his first time to really be alone, a perfect opportunity to appreciate the nature of the woods and the lake. He stepped carefully through the fallen trunks and branches, navigated between the bushes and brambles, carefully spotting patches of mud with a keen eye. Marisa would kill him if he got his sailor suit dirty. Unlike him, she loved this thing.
 
He watched the boats in the distance coasting along the lake, safely hidden away between the branches, under the cover of the woods, so that no one would see what he wore, like his childishness was a secret only he could keep.
 
“Adam? Adaam?” Marisa called out from the house. He was just a few hundred feet away and she couldn’t see him at all.
 
He snuck out of the trees, smiling ear to ear as he trudged from the woods. Marisa waited where the land was less wild, where the tall grass met the treeline.
 
“There you are, I’ve been looking for you all over,” Marisa said. She didn’t sound too concerned however, she probably hadn’t actually been looking for him all over.
 
“Yeah, I was just walking around," Adam shrugged.
 
“Well, you’ve been out here for almost two hours, that’s a lot of walking around.”
 
Two hours? No way. He could have sworn it was fifteen to twenty minutes, thirty minutes at the most.
 
“You’d better not get that costume dirty, I’m probably going to have to dry clean it now.”
 
Adam shrugged again. 

He didn't care about her thoughts on the sailor suit, not as much as he probably should have. He had to wear the damn costume, but he could go anywhere he pleased. The woods offered a sanctuary where he wasn't under their thumb. A place where he could clear his head, and he liked that, he needed that.
 
“Katie told me that you were a big help with her G2W checklist this morning," Marisa continued. "I know we got off on the wrong foot this morning, but I’m proud of you for pulling yourself together and keeping your promise.”
 
“Marisa, I’m sorry about this morn—“
 
She held out her hands and closed her eyes, a placating gesture that stopped him from finishing.
 
“That’s already in the past, I want to keep it there. I should be the one apologizing, I said some really terrible things about you that I truly regret. I didn’t mean any of those things, I said them anyways — I’m just sorry for everything. Could you find it in your heart to forgive me?”
 
“I knew you didn’t mean any of it,” Adam lied, but doing so made him feel very uncomfortable.
 
Marisa held her arms out for a hug, and Adam quickly accepted it. The two of them lingered together, safe in each others' arms, the entire morning fading away with every second. 

Adam took a deep breath. 

He smelled her hair, her shampoo, a hint of her strawberry body wash. He also smelled baby powder again, and he hoped the scent didn't come from him, or that it was strong enough for Marisa to notice. He couldn't bear the thought of her knowing about Katie and the diaper betrayal in the bathroom. He closed his eyes, trying to get the thought out of his head. 

Marisa was slightly taller than him, his head slipped between her breasts. When he realized this, he pulled away, repositioned himself so he woudn't be using her bosom as a pillow. He wanted no more awkwardness between them.
 
“How can I make it up to you?” Marisa rubbed his head after the long hug ended.
 
“You could call your mom to come back with my bag so I could dress normal again.”
 
“Why would I want to do that? — you look super cute right now,” she joked.
 
Adam fake-laughed as she jostled him by his shoulders, treating him as the kid brother again. He was used to it. However, he wasn't joking at all about calling her mom. He needed his clothes back, and she was the only chance of that happening.
 
“Seriously, I haven’t been able to get a hold of her all day,” Marisa explained. “I’ve called and texted, she must be distracted by something.”
 
Alejandro. Ms. Hartmann was distracted by Alejandro. Tan hands covered in lotion, sliding up and down her back, there was no need to check her phone — her husband might be calling. No, Lindsey was right where she wanted, and he suddenly doubted that he’d get his clothes back today.
 
“I see..” Adam trailed off. By far this was the most disappointing news all day.
 
“I can always try again after we go swimming,” Marisa suggested.
 
“Great, I’d love to go swimming.”
 
Adam felt excited about the prospect of getting in the water, having been teased by the big blue shimmering lake for the entire morning while he was stuck finger painting at the kitchen table. He needed to do something fun again, this morning was a drag. 

However, he watched her expression sour at his idea and expected the bad news before she said anything.
 
“Adam, you can’t come with us. You don’t have a swimsuit, and we're also looking forward to a bit of girl time. I’m sorry if that makes you feel left out."
 
“That’s okay, I guess," Adam conceded. "I’m having fun exploring around here. There’s a lot of cool things to do — like exploring."
 
His hands found his pockets and carved themselves a little home, he rocked his hips back and forth, tugging at the inner lining of his shorts. Marisa had a way to do that to him, just happy to make her happy, everything else shifted to something secondary, his own wants and needs became has-beens and never-weres. When he was with Marisa, all he wanted to do was make her smile, he lived for her subtle reactions that gave him life.
 
They both smiled at each other, then they both laughed. At the same time.
 
"I like that you're having fun in the woods, you're like a big kid sometimes. That probably has its ups and downs, but I can always count on you to brighten my day," Marisa said. "This isn't the way you expected this weekend to turn out, right?"
 
Adam shook his head. Marisa leaned in closer as if to reveal a secret.
 
Marisa whispered, "Is that really a bad thing?"
 
No, it wasn’t. Especially when he was with her, alone in the woods, no one there but them. They were close enough to kiss, and Adam knew it wouldn’t be right to try to kiss her then and there. Except he didn’t want to care whether it was wrong or right, he just wanted to take his chance. Right there, when they were alone under the canopy of forest. Why did he think like that? They weren't together in any way relationship-wise, he couldn't even count her as one of his friends just the day before. Still, they were alone, and she hugged him. Adam needed another deep-thinking shower session to figure this out.
 
"So is he going skinny dipping with us?" Charity interrupted. 
 
The cheerleader was already in a skimpy red bikini that looked held together by dental floss, a few strands of yarn, and a tenacious bit of kite string. Her blonde hair was tied in a ponytail, her sunglasses dark and square. Charity blew out a large pink bubble, popping the gum in her mouth. It really added to the ‘I know I’m sexy, but I don’t care’ look. She had a pair of towels slung across her arms, one for laying out in the sun, and the other to dry herself if she did, in fact, swim. If she did, who'd be able to see how good she looked in a bathing suit? 
 
Charity exclaimed, "I'm ready to go hit the water, move your big butt, Marisa."
 
Adam said goodbye to one girl and hello to another. The two of them watched Marisa disappear back into the house. Charity popping her gum between her teeth the whole time.
 
"Wanna see something cool?"
 
And the way she asked, he'd be a fool not to say yes.
 
"Yeah." Adam wasn't a complete fool.
 
She passed over her two towels into his waiting hands, and he wondered what she was going to do next. Charity wiggled something jingly and metallic like a keychain, or a bike chain, it took him a second to see that she held up a pair of handcuffs. They probably weren't the kind police used to shackle up perps like on tv, most likely they came from some sort of cheap sex shop. The thought of that made something within him stir. The same part of him that brought him to his knees the night before.
 
"They're trick handcuffs, pretty kinky stuff, huh?" Charity's wicked grin returned. "Wanna see how they work?”
 
The handcuffs dangled from her finger, harmlessly shimmering and swaying in the sunlight. Yet something stopped Adam from grabbing them, they reeked of danger, but they were a delightful temptation. Too much like a cheese in a mouse trap. He licked his lips, his hand slowly reaching for the cuffs against his will. Without thinking further, he quickly snatched them from her fingers. He spun them in his hands, grinning now that the balance of power had shifted his way.
 
"Well, aren't you going to put them on me?" Charity purred.
 
Adam grabbed at her wrist to slap the cuffs on her, but she quickly pulled away.
 
"Not like that, silly!" Charity admonished him as she turned around with her wrists already crossed together behind her back. "This is the way you make someone wear handcuffs. Put them on like this, and they won't be able to stop you from doing whatever you want to them — so put them on me, and do whatever you want to me.”
 
Who was Adam to argue with her? When an attractive girl tells you to slap a pair of handcuffs on her, you do as you're told. He'd seen enough police dramas to know how to do it, there was a satisfying clicking sound as he wrapped them around her wrists. He stepped back to assess his power over her, his hands shook, but he wanted to look tough to Charity. Out of the three girls, she was the last one left that didn't think that he needed to be in diapers.
 
"Now you have me right where you want me, what are you going to do to me?" Charity pouted and batted her eyes.
 
She moved into his personal space, her chest almost pressed against his, she popped her gum in his face. Her sunglasses were a distorted mirror, he saw his reflection -- he looked like a young boy in a sailor suit, especially with the flustered, confused, wide-eyed expression on his face. He was out of his element every time he was with Charity, but it was something he enjoyed to the fullest.
 
"You said you've been bad?" Adam asked with his voice quivering.
 
"Super bad, I've been the baddest girl that's ever been bad. You have no idea how many bad things I've done, or I will do. I'm totally the biggest, baddest — Adam, you snooze and you lose."
 
She brought her newly freed hands out from behind her back, the handcuffs again dangling from her fingers side to side like a set of fuzzy dice on a car's rear view mirror. Dang, she got out of those things pretty fast. He'd at least expected her to struggle for more than ten seconds before she broke free. These had to be super easy cuffs to escape from.
 
"Any cheerleader that's been to camp knows her way in and out of trick handcuffs,” Charity explained. “The older girls have a tendency to cuff the younger ones, in various states of undress, to just about anything. For us it's not just a safety thing, it's a way of life.”
 
"I had no idea that you learned to be an escape artist at cheer camp," Adam joked.
 
“As far as kink goes, that's just the tip of the iceberg, kiddo.”
 
"Well, I've got to go inside and use the restroom." Adam started walking back to the house, leaving his brain to deal with this blatant sexuality. "You guys have fun swimming, don't let any sharks bite you or anything."
 
She stopped him. He didn't know how. One second he's walking to the house, the next she's pressing the gum fresh from her mouth into his palm. It was wet and warm, totally weird that she used him as a chewed gum dispenser. On the inside, Adam was disgusted, he fought the urge to drop the gum or throw it into the woods. However, he didn't. He just awaited her instructions like a robot.
 
What did she want with him?
 
She grabbed the water bottle and shook it, smiling when she found it empty. Charity peeled the gum from his palm, stuck it to the side of the water bottle, and tossed it back at the house where it fell harmlessly a few feet from the back door. She pulled down her opaque sunglasses, peering over the frames, and her dancing green eyes made Adam squirm.
 
Charity asked, "Want to see something really cool?"
 
Adam was just enough of a fool to say yes.
 
He followed her through the woods, Charity was much better at dodging the brambles and thorns than him; and she had to be, a string bikini and a pair of flip flops were hardly the right outfit for woodland exploration. Neither were the short shorts of his sailor suit. 

Adam asked where they were going, but Charity didn't answer as she snaked between the trees to wherever they were heading. Until she finally stopped, looked around like she was exactly where she wanted to be. Adam only saw a group of bushes and a few small trees, no different than the rest of the twenty or thirty feet that they walked.
 
"What's so special about this?" Adam gasped.
 
Charity pointed back towards the lake house. Adam followed her finger to an upstairs window. The curtains were drawn back so he could see inside the room, it was the upstairs primary bed room, where Marisa was sleeping. Where she would be undressing — as Adam found out as his friend walked by the window topless. He’d just seen Marisa naked.
 
Her naked form was more akin to a Greek goddess than he expected; her bust was perfect, to a teenage boy like him, most busts were, but Marisa was painstakingly beautiful, the kind that deserved to be preserved in an art museum, the kind where people would just stop and stare in amazement. Like Adam was doing right now.
 
Charity slapped his shoulders with both hands in congratulating fashion.
 
"Man, we had great timing. She's got a great pair of boobs, doesn't she? Marisa told me about this spot, when we were younger and snuck around a lot more, we'd pretend that we were spies, or whatever. Wait, you've got a piece of drool coming from the side of your mouth -- right there."
 
Adam wiped his mouth, there was no drool, but there could have been. He remained fixated on the window, waiting for a second chance to see her. His brain shifted into neutral.
 
"It's a lot easier to see in there if you lean against this tree," Charity explained as she tapped a skinny tree with the side of her hand.
 
Adam moved to the tree, leaned against it, wrapping his hands around the trunk to brace himself as he looked up to the window just waiting for his second chance. This felt wrong, and perverted, and weird but that was the way things were with Charity. She was all of that and everything in between. Adam felt compelled to do her every whim, even when he knew it was wrong to spy on Marisa as she undressed. He hugged the tree tighter, needing to see more.
 
That’s when he heard the tell-tale ratcheting sound of the handcuffs as they wrapped around his wrists. Adam tried pulling his hands away from the tree, but they didn’t budge. She handcuffed him to the tree!
 
Charity had betrayed him. It was clearly a prank, the way she made her hasty get away, giggling and scurrying back to the lake house told him that much. But was she planning on coming back?
 
Adam helplessly watched her sprinting through the bushes and trees, she was already almost back to the house.
 
“Hey, I don’t know how to get out of these things!” Adam yelled.
 
“How’d you think we learned back at cheer camp?” Charity shouted back as she disappeared from his sight.
 
Adam laughed and pulled, but the joke became less funny when he realized that she wasn’t coming back for him. That’s when the panic set in, he grabbed at the metal rings around his wrist, trying to pry them away with the tips of his fingers. Then he tried twisting his wrists in every awful and painful angle he could manage, that didn’t help either. So he cussed at the handcuffs. When he realized that nothing he did worked, he began to call for help, yelling and screaming alone in the woods. No one heard him, no one came to help. His legs began to shake, wobbling back and forth, and he could barely keep his feet to the ground, pressing and moving. 
 
Adam didn’t know how long he was out there, but his screaming turned into pleading. 

Then he felt something else, the need to pee.
 
He didn’t know whether it was the threat of diapers that made him need to go all morning, but the need was there and it was intense. He crossed his legs as he fiddled with the handcuffs, hoping beyond hope he could find the trick. He felt around the edges looking for a latch, a niche in metal to slide. It had to be simple, Charity was able to get out in seconds, did she have a key?
 
When things got a little more desperate, he ran the chain against the trunk back and forth like a dull buzz saw. His only reward was a few broken pieces of bark and a half dozen wood chips. This would take all night for him to break free. 

So he started working on his shorts, trying to pull them off with his hands, but that didn’t work either. His fingers were too short to reach around the tree, and he needed to go so bad he could barely function.
 
The twinge on his bladder grew sharp, too painful to hold in. Still he tried, he would not be wetting himself, that was not going to happen. He kept telling himself that he wouldn’t, even as he did. It first came out in a little dribble, he tightened his legs together, making it come to a painful stop. It wasn’t too wet — he felt relieved, it wasn’t too wet at all. Then another spurt trickled down his leg. The boy shorts now felt wet, but when he tried to stop a second time, he found that he could not. Adam spread his legs in a squatting stance as he relieved himself all over himself. He was still crying when he finished.
 
Adam fell to the ground at the base of the tree, it was all over now. His shorts were saturated, sticking to his legs and dribbling down into his shoes. He pressed his face into the tree trunk, too ashamed of having a real accident to even open his eyes. His hands went limp, the cuffs slid down to his fingers, and maybe by sheer luck, his finger pressed against the right spot at the right time, and the handcuffs tumbled harmlessly to the ground, he was now freed. But all of that frustration made him cry more.
 
The key was to relax.

[Bel George]

Tricked into nappies.  Haha.

I can imagine his shame and embarrasment when he gets back to the house. Maybe Marisa's mum will be there to find him in hs wet clothes?

I'm looking forward to the next chapter.

[D503]

Nice. Maybe he'll try to dive into the water with the costume to hide his shame and get a spanking for it.

[direking]

12
 
It didn’t matter how it looked anymore.
 
Adam stumbled out from the woods, breaking through the brush, snapping twigs in his wake while sobbing uncontrollably. His hobbling gait was hampered by the wet shorts that stuck to his thighs in a shambling walk of shame towards the house. There was no attempt to hide anything that happened, he was too upset to scheme or plan. He messed up, it wasn’t his fault, but deep down he knew that the consequences would eventually come for him.
 
No, not eventually, immediately.
 
The impending consequences would come down as fast as a hound on a wounded rabbit.
 
It was Katie who saw him first, instantly panicking and calling for the others. Soon Marisa and Charity were there, too.
 
At first he tried to explain between sobs and sniffles what had happened. The girls muttered things between themselves, all three noticed his wet outfit. No one hugged him. They just stared as he broke down in front of them, he tried explaining himself, his wet pants, he said something about Charity and a pair of handcuffs.
 
“I just — I just don’t know what happened,” Adam sobbed. "I don't do this — I don't have accidents! It was just — I was tied to a tree, and I needed to use the restroom — and —and she wouldn't let me. Then I called for help, I screamed and no one came. Then I tried to stop it but I couldn't, I couldn't stop it at all."
 
There was no end to the gibberish and nonsense that poured out from his mouth, Adam knew it wasn’t their fault that they couldn't understand him. He didn't understand himself, but the words kept coming like the tears in uncontrolled emotional bursts. He desperately wanted to explain himself, his wet clothes, but the fact remained that he wanted — no, he needed them to understand him. But it didn't seem like much of a chance for that today.
 
“We need to get him in clean clothes,” Katie said when he finally slowed down.
 
Marisa crossed her arms and glared at him.“We are out of clean clothes, he's pissed through them already.”
 
Katie pulled the towel from her body and wrapped it around Adam, patting him down in a futile attempt to clean him up. She looked to be the only one interested in helping him. It made her grade A babysitter material.
 
“We can worry about that later, this is what happens when you guys — this isn’t right and you know it!”
 
“How was I supposed to know that he’d wet his pants like a big baby?” Charity didn’t look too interested in claiming any responsibility for her prank.
 
“You handcuffed him to a tree!” Katie pointed at Charity who smartly backed off from the angry black belt.
 
“It was just a joke!”
 
“That’s what you keep saying, that it’s all a joke, but it’s messing him up,” Katie pleaded to the other two girls. “Look at him! He’s falling apart right in front of us.”
 
His brain idled. Every part of Adam that told him what to do or how to think shut down as the girls argued about him like he wasn't even there. The fact was that he wasn't truly there, he was a pair of eyes and ears to see and hear everything everyone else thought of him. There was no desire to actually care or do anything about what they said. His clothes were cold and wet despite standing in the hot springtime sun, he would have shivered if he felt anything besides numbness from head to toe.
 
Marisa addressed the other girls.
 
“Katie, I think it would be best if you calmed down and thought about the big picture here. We were all having a good time, and we shouldn’t let Charity’s mistake throw off our weekend plans. You wanted to babysit him, now here’s your chance.”
 
Adam waited for the girls to finish talking about him, his head held low under the cumbersome yoke of dejection and shame. In Marisa's eyes, he needed to be babysat. He was a problem, someone you should've never invited, someone who deserved to be locked away in his room with his Pokémon cards. If he was back home and out of the way, they wouldn't know any better. This weekend sucked, and it was getting suckier by the minute. Hopefully, wetting his pants was the suckiest it would get, but there were still a couple more days here. Anything could happen.
 
Katie grabbed his hand.
 
“Come on, Adam. Let’s go back inside and get you all cleaned up.”
 
“You’re also going to need to put him in something that’s going to help him stay dry,” Marisa continued.
 
“That’ll mean —“ Katie objected.
 
“Yes. I will talk with Charity here about how we will treat my guests with more respect," Marisa commanded. "You can think of another way of getting back at her because you’re still the queen. I’m sure Charity wants to apologize before you two get cleaned up.”
 
Marisa kicked her friend in the foot, triggering an apology from Charity. The blonde cheerleader reiterated her look of disgust at Marisa and Katie. Also at Adam, which he noticed. She certainly didn’t look like she wanted to apologize.
 
“I’m sorry that I didn’t know that you didn’t know how to get out of the handcuffs.”
 
Adam didn't care to accept her apology, even if that was what was expected of him. There was a hidden layer of sarcasm just beneath the skin of the ‘sorry’, at least that’s how it felt to Adam. The Charity he had come to know was brash and unapologetic to the max. Still, it did feel nice to hear that from her, although he doubted the candidness of the whole thing.
 
Katie eventually pulled him from the other two girls and into the house, somehow his body found a way to follow her even if he felt dead inside.
 
They were back in the bathroom, and he was under the whim of Miss Katie, again. The day seemed to run in a circle, always falling back into the care of his babysitter, getting cleaned up, and finding himself in an even more embarrassing outfit.
 
"Adam, I'm going to need to get some things from downstairs, you're going to want to get into the bathtub and clean off. I'll let you know when I'm back."
 
Adam nodded. It seemed simple enough, time to clean up and get in some fresh clothes. He wondered what he'd wear now, he'd messed up every outfit that he had at this house. If only he still had his bag, this all would've never been a big deal. No clothes that were for toddlers, no threats of diapers, there would be some semblance of normalcy. He missed normalcy now more than ever, he wished that he never accepted the invitation. All of this was just a cosmic joke being played on him at his expense, why of all days did he have an accident? He hadn't had one since grade school, where the kindly nurse was able to solve the problem by sending him back to class in a new pair of shorts.
 
He eased into the hot water of the NASA bathtub, he fiddled with a few of the settings and a pair of jets came alive at his feet. The rapid fire bubbly sensation on his toes helped him relax and reflect. Adam needed to think about his mood.
 
Animosity was the word that came to mind, like it was some quiet and patient form of anger. 
 
He didn't know its exact target, it was hard to see the forest from the trees with the three girls. There was Marisa who invited him to this place, there was Katie who humiliated him in the bathroom, and there was Charity who handcuffed him to a tree after luring him into the woods. Each girl was guilty of something in their own right, he didn't know what they were planning, but he knew that there was some kind of insidious conspiracy afoot, that there was more around here than met the untrained eye. He was right to be nervous about getting into the SUV, he should've just turned around, these girls were evil. Okay, no, they weren't evil. They were manipulative. If these girls were modern art, they would be shape shifting and color changing, smoothly flowing from benevolence to malevolence depending on who was watching. He'd have to keep his eyes open if he planned on figuring them out. Maybe he was becoming paranoid. Maybe it was his nerves that made him have an accident. Charity did tell him to ‘go with the flow’; however, he doubted she meant peeing down his leg.
 
"I'm not going to do anything childish anymore, no more of that —" he whispered to himself. He purposely left out certain words like girl's pajamas, sailor suit, pull-ups and the coup de grace, diapers.
 
There was a tap at the door, it was probably Katie. There were no grape candy bubbles to cover up his nakedness in the bathtub, so he turned on a few more jets, and the tub roared to life, sounding almost ready to take off. Katie came in with his freshly cleaned Pikachu shirt and khaki shorts from the night before and something else. A pink pull-up. One of the ones from the kitchen table that had been looking him in the eye all morning. Adam should have seen it coming, but it still shocked him. At least this time he didn't flounder onto the floor like he did that morning, like a weakling. Damn, he was weak.
 
"It looks like you're enjoying yourself having all that big bathtub to yourself," Katie said while trying to lighten the mood with a smile, it kinda worked. Kinda.
 
"Are you going to make me wear a pull-up?" Adam asked. He went straight to the point, there was no need for nicety anymore.
 
"That's what I'm here to talk about.” Katie sat on the edge of the tub, careful not to stare at his nudity or anything like that. She was no longer in 'revenge mode', she was back to being nice. It made Adam wonder what her revenge mode was about anyways.
 
"I've talked with Marisa, and she thinks it's best if you wear some sort of 'protection' since you've been struggling with accidents lately."
 
Adam wasn't surprised at all; it figured that the girl he trusted the most would be behind putting him into a pull-up. The hostess with the mostess did little to stand up for him during the morning's misunderstanding. Marisa wouldn't be the one in his corner now. She would be the bad cop, and that would make Katie Nguyen the good cop. Girls were modern art after all.
 
"I don't usually have accidents, as I said before, I don't know what's going on."
 
Katie ran her fingers in the bathtub, skimming the top of the water wistfully, trying to appear like she was thinking, but Adam knew she already made a decision, or a decision was made for her, before she came into the room.
 
"Adam, it's not unusual for kids to regress while they're away from home. It's --"
 
"I'm not a kid," Adam interjected. His jaw set and his teeth clenched.
 
"I know, I shouldn't have called you that. Let me rephrase this, it's not unusual for people to regress if they're nervous or anxious, even downright confused. I've noticed that you've been that way ever since Friday, and I'm concerned that you're allowing your negative emotions to take a physical toll. When people are in distress they do strange and different things that they would never do normally. Would you agree with me that you've been anxious, nervous, or confused?"
 
He was all of those things, it still didn't mean that he'd wet the bed or his pants. How should he go about answering this? He didn’t know.
 
"What if I was? Would that change anything? We both know that wouldn’t stop you from making me wear that.”
 
"I don't think you're thinking clearly. It's just thicker underwear, not a death sentence."
 
Katie held up the pull up for him to see, it was plastic and pink, covered in princess crap like the rest of his weekend, nothing but pink and princesses. Yet, he found himself falling deeper and deeper into the rabbit hole by the hour.
 
“It’s humiliating, that’s something that little girls need to wear,” Adam scoffed. "Why is everyone trying to treat me like a little girl? What's going on with that?"
 
“That’s the only pull-ups we have, your only other option is a diaper. If it makes you feel better, the diapers are for little boys."
 
“That’s not my only two options and you know it.” He spat out his words like they had a bad taste. Nothing about this was right, and he wanted her to know that.
 
“Adam, I think you need to see this from our perspective," Katie argued with the pull up held prominently in her hand. "You’ve had multiple accidents in one day, and you blamed them on someone else. At what point do you actually take responsibility for your actions? Everything is everyone else's fault. It’s not like I don’t care, it’s —"
 
“You totally don't care, you’ve been blackmailing me all morning to do your stupid checklist!” He shouted.
 
“Don’t you dare interrupt me again, I'm trying to do something nice for you!"
 
"You've been super nice so far, keep it up, you're making me feel great."
 
"It might be best if you shut your mouth, right now."
 
The bathtub jets rumbled as they argued. Adam looked into Katie's eyes, he didn't normally make eye contact. It was time for him to see what she meant, see into her soul, not just hear her words. Words were malleable, twisted and easily turned, but faces almost always told the truth. That was the first thing he noticed when she betrayed him in the bathroom this morning — the change in her face. However, that 'evil' Katie was nowhere to be seen. That being said, there was no way he was getting into those pull-ups, that was far too degrading. He thought about all the lines that he drew in the sand, how he was forced to give in or 'cross them' at their whims. He would not be wearing a pull-up after this bath. He took a deep breath and sank underneath the churning jets.
 
It was louder under the water, and that made everything disappear. He chose to stay down there, even as the air left his mouth, adding to the bubbles and chaos below the surface. 
 
He closed his eyes to remain there forever in the confines of his watery sarcophagus.
 
His animosity was down in the depths with him, in the water beneath the jets, his anger took control. That coiled spring, that burning chest, Adam could barely contain himself. His fuse was cut so short that it wouldn’t take much of anything for him to blow up at these girls. Maybe tell them what he really thought of them, actually stand up for himself for once.
 
He felt a pair of hands wrap around his forearms, tugging him out whether he wanted it or not.
 
Katie pulled him out from the water by his wrists and freed him from the watery death trap, and he didn't like her decision at all. Even as he gasped for fresh air, even if his face was pink from staying under too long, even if she was looking out for his safety. He wanted to stay under the water, where there was no Katie, no Marisa, no Charity, and no princess pink pull-up. She put an end to that fantasy.
 
He screamed, "Get your hands off me you stupid bitch!"
 
Adam didn't realize he said it, he found out what came from his mouth at the same time she did. Her hands were still tight around his wrists, her mouth hung open, her eyes focusing on him again, like an eagle with prey between its claws. The anger was ever present on her face, it radiated from her eyes, settling in her jaw as she gritted her teeth. She had this creepy crease in her forehead that terrified him into quick submission. He hated that he said what he said, they were words he immediately wanted back, but words didn't work that way. Kind of like wetting his pants, you don't get to take that back either.
 
Marisa was at the door. "What did he say to you?"
 
"I think we both heard him call me a stupid bitch," Katie said. Her robotic voice cold and distant. "Well, Adam, good luck getting through the rest of this weekend without my help. You want to act like a child so much, maybe you do deserve to be treated like one."
 
"Please, I didn't mean it that way," Adam tried explaining himself.
 
"I'm sure you meant to call me a bitch in the nicest way possible. Marisa, this idiot was trying to drown himself in your bathtub, so how does he thank me when I save his life? You heard him. What are your thoughts?"
 
Marisa already had her hands at her hips, ready to lecture him like a mom. 

“I … think you should do what you think is best. As far as Adam, I am more disappointed with him now than I was this morning. I thought we'd gotten to the other side of this childish behavior, obviously I was wrong."
 
"I'm sorry, if that helps." Adam tried apologizing.
 
But Marisa wasn’t done lecturing him, reading him his rights, and sentencing him without remorse.
 
"I think we're well past the point of sorry, and you're going to have to be punished for your language. A pacifier would do wonders, don't you think?  A little time without words should help you pick the right ones. Also, let's put his shorts aside, until he proves that he isn't going to wet himself again, we're going to have to do pants checks. And Adam, you're not going to fight us about anything. That'll be the best way to prove that you're sorry."
 
"Are you sure this is the best way to approach this?" Katie asked Marisa.
 
"Of course it is. I hope you're not getting any cold feet. He did call you a 'stupid bitch', and he was the one who wet his pants. He's got to learn that there are consequences for his actions.”

“Yeah, but these are extreme consequences,” Katie exclaimed.

“You're starting to get a little soft, Katie. Help him into his pull-up and you can take the rest of the afternoon off, Adam may need a more firm approach if he keeps acting this way."
 
He gulped. Katie drained the tub and turned off the jets. No one cared if Adam was naked anymore. Any respect for his modesty became a thing of the past. He covered himself with his hands as got out of the tub, but Marisa slapped his hands away. He became a ragdoll as he was pulled around and roughly dried, his shirt forcibly pulled down over his head. Katie prepped the pull-up by spreading her hands between the pink elastic leg holes, then she looked at Adam expectantly. One foot went in, then the other. She pulled it up to his waist, it made a loud snapping sound against his freshly cleaned butt. Katie patted the back of his pull-up covered bottom, admiring her handy work for a moment before standing up to head out the door.
 
"You better keep these dry,” Marisa threatened, “we won't hesitate to pop a diaper on you if you can’t even manage that.”
 
The way she glowered at him made Adam feel smaller in her presence, like there was an invisible, insatiable wraith hidden just behind her eyes. Her look just oozed with anticipation, just waiting for the next opportunity for him to mess up.

[Pierry Louys]

Great chapter 

[HelloIam]

Just an appreciative comment passing through

[direking]

Thanks for the comments and thanks for reading!

13
 
Adam crinkled when he walked.
 
The pink pull-up felt like a vice around his manhood, it lacked spaces in the wrong places, and gave him an uncomfortable wedgie and an air-tight melvin at the same time. A girl’s pull-up just wasn’t designed for his age and anatomy in mind, which only added to the humiliation.
 
So did the tiny pink rainbow on the front, all of the sparkly looking nonsense, the pastel colored butterflies and twinkling tiaras seemingly everywhere else. This was everything 'Princess Tinkles' would have loved to wear, had 'Princess Tinkles' existed outside of his imagination. Adam tried peeling the pull-up from his crotch from both leg holes, then he tried tugging from the waist, no relief there either. There was nothing he could do to make himself feel more comfortable except adjust.  
 
In his opinion, this kind of discipline was a little egregious without shorts, and that was just a part of the punishment he would have to endure, but that wasn’t all of it.
 
At the bottom of the stairs was a second humiliation. Marisa held aloft a pink pacifier, plastic nipple facing out, like a venomous, crouching cobra that awaited him as he descended one crinkly step at a time.
 
“This will help you learn to watch your language,” Marisa chided as she plopped the pacifier between his lips. “Keep it in your mouth until one of us says you can take it out. You’re already on thin ice, I don’t think you’d want to test us anymore today.”
 
He nodded. And suckled.
 
The pacifier felt familiar in his mouth, he guessed that it was the same one that Charity had him suck when they were having fun the previous night. Funny how quick things had changed, the soother didn’t feel nearly as welcome this time around. 

He didn’t stop to ask how long he was supposed to keep this thing in his mouth. There was a hint that this was temporary, so he decided to hide away inside the pink nightmare room until his ‘talking privileges’ were returned. His wisest move at this point would be to avoid all three girls. None of them could be trusted.
 
Inside the pink room, on the pink bed, he watched the bedazzled pink ceiling fan spin around, counting the seconds until freedom which eventually turned into minutes, which felt like an eternity. After a short while, he expected a knock on the door, but it never came.
 
“This is ridiculous.”

Adam pulled the paci out of his mouth then nervously stared at the door to the living room, then popped it back in when he thought he heard footsteps just outside. He wasn’t brave enough to be caught without it between his lips. Oh, jeez.
 
There was no use in just waiting around all night. He found himself wandering about the room, eventually stopping in front of a bookshelf, looking for the least childish book to read. He found one that had more words than pictures, it even had chapters, so he brought it back to the bed and began to read. It was a mystery involving teenage babysitters and a stolen cat, it wasn’t exactly bad, and it grew on him with every turned page.
 
And that made him think. Everything started to grow on him, like the booster seat, the pink room, even the pink pull-up became something to ignore, all easily forgotten with the most basic distraction. His cheeks warmed when he thought about how all of the girls had seen him naked, Katie and Marisa in the bathroom upstairs, and Charity when she visited him last night. They were taking advantage of him, making him play along with their games.
 
He grew angrier as he came to conclusion after conclusion until a stabbing heat began to burn in his chest. Adam grabbed the waistline of the pull-up, fully expecting to rip the damn thing off of him. But he didn't. One question kept him from doing so — what would happen next? For one thing, he would be naked. Also, they’d still be mad at him, and he’d probably fall further down the rabbit hole. 

The girls made it very clear that there were diapers, they made it a point of emphasis every single time they chastised him. That there were diapers that fit him, and they seemed ready and willing to back up their threats, his pull-up being Exhibit A.
 
‘Go with the flow’ meant accepting the consequences because they were unavoidable at this point. The girls wanted him to get angry and throw a tantrum, he wouldn’t let them play with his emotions. Charity told him the only way to move forward was to ‘own’ his mistakes. He would not be manipulated anymore. He patted the front of HIS pull up, soon to be replaced by HIS underwear when everything went back to normal. Adam picked up the book, laughed about the pacifier in his mouth, and began to read where he left off. Someone needed to find out who stole that cat.
 
He'd finished the first book, and had moved onto the second one in the series, when the door to the room cracked open.
 
It looked like it was Charity’s turn to bother him.
 
Adam pretended not to see her in the doorway, just laying in bed, nonchalantly turning pages, his heart beating faster as she watched him pretend to read.
 
"We're about to order some pizza, since I'm super nice and everything, I thought you'd want a say-so when it came to toppings.” 

The cheerleader leaned into the partly open doorway, her lower half still obscured by the door.
 
He tried to answer her and found that he still had the pacifier between his lips. What an idiot! It was in his mouth the whole time she was watching him! He pulled it out with a loud pop, tossing it away across the room. All of this didn't go unnoticed by Charity, who quietly smirked in the doorway. His face felt on fire, and he grabbed at the blanket to make doubly sure his pull-up didn't show.
 
"Don't worry, I already heard about what you said, you can’t say I didn’t warn you about being too wild for this place." Charity sarcastically chastised him with a wagging finger. “Honestly, I think Katie was more insulted by the 'stupid' part rather than the 'bitch' part — she works really hard for her grades."
 
“Well, I meant it.” Adam pouted.
 
“I’m sure you did, Mr. Tough Guy.” Charity made a petulant, scrunched face that reminded him of his stupid role in the stupid play. “Anyways, back to pizza. What do you want?”
 
"Honestly, I’m surprised there’s a pizza place that comes to the middle of nowhere,” Adam said.
 
"There’s a place that delivers out here, only because Mrs. Hartmann is a generous tipper. Like I'm going to have to be tonight."
 
Adam cocked his head to the side. "What's that supposed to mean?"
 
Charity pushed open the door to reveal what she was wearing. A gaudy black bathrobe with a sparkling fringe, a flimsy thing that stopped around mid thigh. The lingerie of his grandmother’s generation, but he lost his breath when he saw a hint of what she wore underneath. When a pair of matching black bra and a hint of frilly panties snuck into view. 

His mouth dropped open, he couldn’t help it. The ensemble was meant to be a humiliation, like his pull-up and pacifier, but the result was far from its original intentions. Adam wanted to say something snide, mock her like she incessantly mocked him. But he couldn’t. She stirred something in him that was primal, like manly caveman thoughts that made his brain think manly caveman things. At the same time, he was terribly intimidated by the blonde cheerleader.

Being a teenager can be weird, especially if you're wearing a pull-up.
 
"You didn't know? It figures. You’ve been hiding in here almost all afternoon.” Charity spoke as she paid undue attention to her nails.

“Turns out I’m being punished for playing my 'handcuff prank' on poor, little you. Queen Katie decided that I was to greet the delivery man in my underwear. Marisa also thought it was a good idea, they told me to hang out in my skivvies until the pizza gets here."
 
"Oh, jeez.”
 
Adam managed to laugh as he looked her over, he couldn't help it. Charity did look great, but she was evil — he shouldn't be looking, laughing or enjoying her presence. However, Charity was as ridiculous as she was sexy.
 
"That's not all of it. I'm supposed to pay for the pizza with my hands cuffed behind my back," Charity explained then crossed her wrists behind her back. "Well, at least I didn't paint myself into a corner like you did. Potty mouth."
 
“I didn’t paint myself anywhere,” Adam corrected as he put the book down. “Also, I’m an adult, I get to say whatever I please.”
 
“Are you sure about that?” Charity asked.
 
“Sure about what?”
 
“Are you sure that you’re an adult?” Charity slid into the room softly closing the door behind her back. “Something tells me that you’re not dressed like one.”
 
She was talking about his pull-up.
 
Suddenly, Adam had no idea what to say. Should he deny it, or acknowledge it? Maybe play it off as a practical joke? He didn’t have much time to act because the cheerleader had that weird look on her face again.
 
Charity became a hungry house cat, crawling on all fours onto the bed, nuzzling up next to him as he cringed under the blanket, desperately trying to keep his pull-up away from her prying eyes. Adam promised himself that he would not to be manipulated even as she snuggled close to him, even if she was warm, soft, and oh so inviting, he'd stay strong and keep her at bay. The pink comforter was the only barrier between her and his pull-up, he held it like a forcefield over his body, the last line of defense. When she tried to grab it from him, he held firm.
 
Disappointed, Charity moved on to a different tactic. She pressed her palms against his face, her hands were soft and warm, her touch relaxing and disarming, only the slightest of pressure as she rubbed his forehead, his cheeks, then down his neck. She applied a bit of pressure over the blanket as she moved further and further down, softly pressing his chest, his stomach, his hips. Then she pressed both hands onto the blanket that covered his pull-up, giggling at the tiniest of crinkles from his disposable underwear.
 
“Show me. If you don’t pull down that blanket, I will.”
 
“But I —" Adam protested, making the mistake of letting his grip slip.
 
She was faster than him, and able to rip off the covering blanket before he could grip it tight enough to keep to his chest. Adam was helpless as the last line of defense was sent down to his ankles. Too late, he thought in the split second that the blanket flew down his body. That he was too late, now she'd laugh at him.
 
He expected her to say mean things like 'You look like a baby', or 'Don't you hate the way it makes it look smaller?' Charity was always quick with a catty comment, she had a funny way of expressing her opinions, but when he was clearly in a childish pull-up she had nothing to say. At least she didn’t immediately outright ridicule him. He didn’t know how well he would be able to take that.
 
A puzzled and inquisitive look came about her, like a kid testing a new food. She tried to touch the pull-up with an extended index finger, Adam grabbed her wrist and stopped her. She put on a mocking pouty face, but again he held firm until she gave up, retracting the offending finger back into her fist.
 
Charity tousled his hair. "I must say you look pretty cute."
 
"Shut up!"
 
"Come on, you act like cute is a bad thing."
 
"It is! I'm tired of being cute!" Adam exclaimed. "You can stop looking at me that way, like right now!"
 
"I'm looking at you like what?" Charity grinned a devious grin. “Like you're a tasty piece of candy? You’re so sugary sweet, that I have to get a taste. Just an itty bitty nibble, maybe on your ear or neck. I’d bet that’s where you’re sweetest.”
 
He tried to pull away, but he was trapped beneath her.
 
“Come on, don’t be like that,” Charity hungrily chastised him. “Half of the school would love to have me look at them the way I'm looking at you. The other half are just lying to themselves."
 
"Stay away from me, I'm warning you — I'm going to scream!"
 
"Oh, I hope so."
 
Oh, jeez! Adam scrambled around looking for pillows to cover himself up with, why had he kicked them so far away the night before? He settled on a stuffed teddy that was practically bedside, slamming it down over his pull-up even though it did little to hide or protect anything. Charity cast the stuffy aside as she pulled herself atop him, licking her lips like he was Fancy Feast. 

What was her deal? 

There was nothing masculine or sexy about wearing toddler pre-panties, he felt like he was a crinkling joke. Suddenly, Adam wished he had died in the NASA bathtub. 

Why couldn’t she just let him be?

Charity pinned him to the bed, her mouth dangerously close to his, her hands on either side of his head, their legs wrapped together. His body again betrayed him, he went flat, his face paled, and he waited for her to do whatever she wanted with him. Not just waiting, yearning for it. Wanting and waiting and anticipating and dreading at the same time. Charity pulled away from him, maintaining her straddling position, but allowing her hips to rest onto his stomach.
 
"No, I'm serious. You can worry about how this looks all night long or you could actually listen to my advice: Own it."
 
"I've tried your advice," Adam squirmed under her, trying to adjust himself away from the pelvic to pelvic contact.“Just look where it’s gotten me, I’ve been going with the flow all weekend and I’m miserable, angry and I've never felt so alone in my life.”
 
“That’s because you haven’t been properly rewarded,” Charity explained. “Now hold still while I get a taste of you.”
 
She ran her wet tongue up his cheek and nibbled on his ear. Adam moaned. Her lips worked their way up and down his neck, he pulled at the bedsheets and bit his lip to keep from moaning more. Charity kissed him harder, and he wanted to fight, but she worked his cheeks, ears, neck, and the top of his chest as she kept him pinned to the bed.
 
“Just seeing you like this does something to me, I can’t explain it. It makes me want to play with you so bad that it hurts, I’m just burning to play with you. It’s like I’m on fire.”
 
Adam gulped. He was happy for the reprieve from smooching when she talked, but her words were possessive and naughty. It didn’t exactly cool him off.
 
“I want you to be my toy. I’ll treat you right, make you feel good, and I’ll give you the most wonderful, mind blowing orgasms. But at the same time, I’m a bad girl who also likes to break her toys, ride them into the ground, make them beg for mercy. It’s not my fault I love to play so much.”
 
The fabric of her panties felt divine against his erection as it peeked out of the pull up. He was ever so sensitive to her gyrations and thrusts. Charity locked his hands within hers, and began rocking back and forth as she arched her back, pulling upright over him. Adam found himself matching her rhythm as he pressed himself into her, she put his hands on her hips, guiding him to the right spot at the right time. He bucked against her as she went back to kissing his neck and pulling at his ears with her teeth. Adam found that his newfound resolve was much weaker than he expected, but he cared little for resistance, more into the sensation of her every move. 
 
“Then you’re going to have to do everything I say — all night. We're going to get wild, and you're going to let loose." Charity whispered between kisses and moans, the words came out hot and heavy, up and down his neck.
 
“I can’t —“, Adam panted.
 
“No, you will. You’re going to do everything I want, that’s because deep down inside you want to be my toy. Just admit it already.”
 
“I’m not your toy,” Adam grunted.
 
“Oh really? That means you’d like to stop playing, then? Something hard tells me that you don’t.” 

Charity playfully wiggled her hips, seductively sliding up and down against him. She wasn’t wrong — he loved what she was doing to him.
 
Still, Adam was done, and tightened his grip around her hips bringing the dry humping to a disappointing end. He watched her expression shift as she looked into his eyes, trying to figure out what she did wrong. It was he that changed, not her.

Charity pulled herself off of him, leaving behind a lingering aura of resignation that hung in the air like too much perfume. Did Adam do the right thing? It was hard standing up for himself, and the other thing was hard, too. Yet, he felt kind of proud of himself.
 
“I guess it’s settled then, I’m going to have to break you before I play with you,” she casually threatened him like she was ordering a cup of coffee.
 
Then she turned to leave, retying the skimpy robe to her waist as she made her exit.
 
“I like pepperoni,” Adam mentioned as she walked out the door. He returned to his book like she was the slightest of distractions.
 
Charity smiled and blew him a kiss as she left, showing off just how little his rejection bothered her. It made him wonder what ‘breaking him’ entailed, and just how much it was going to hurt.

[D503]

Phew ? 

I thought he might have gotten corner time for his antics but instead it was pacifier punishment - very apt.

I loved the lingerie "punishment" mind games - must have take all his willpower not to have kept going (into his pull-up). 

Can't wait for more.

[Bel George]

The way these 3 girls keep making the boy mad, step by step, once being very nice, then being very strict, then being very seductive.  
I wonder what else is in store for him.

[direking]

Thanks for reading. 

14
 
There were three conversations with the three girls before things got weird and the whole weekend fell apart.
 
They had tried playing old board games around the kitchen table, the cardboard boxes had paint peeling from corners, mismatching dice, and most were missing pieces. Still, they cobbled together whatever they could find, but nothing really grabbed their interest, each game lasting a few minutes before they gave up and moved onto greener pastures.
 
It was odd how quick the wild day was in the past. The other girls didn't talk about the day's craziness, so it left Adam’s mind as well. No one asked about his pull-up, they didn’t remind him about the pacifier that was left in the pink room as well. All was usual and normal even if nothing actually was, like a teenage boy in a girl’s pull-up.
 
However, something was different between them at the oak table, simple conflicts over breaches of stupid rules turned into shouting matches, the usual inside jokes and friendly ribbing suddenly had teeth, and they shared the space in silence more and more as they played. Eventually, they gave up on board games, separating and doing their own things around the tiny house.
 
Adam found Katie making drinks in the kitchen.
 
“Do you have any more of that cherry stuff?” Adam rested on the granite countertop like he owned the place.
 
Katie stopped what she was doing and crossed her arms.
 
“Are you sure you want that? I don’t want you to wet your pants again.”
 
“It’s totally different since I’m inside and close to the restroom, unless Charity plans to tie me to a tree again.” He expected her to laugh, but she didn’t.
 
Instead, she went about completing his order without saying another word, catching tumbling cubes that fell from the refrigerator door before activating an invisible water sprocket with a touch of a button.
 
Katie had an annoyed look about her, like a person at a bus stop or waiting for a free table at their favorite restaurant. One hand held the cup, the other firmly attached to her hip, and she tapped her foot on the wood floor in a spat of anxious energy. Something was bothering her, but Adam couldn't find the right word for what gave it away. 

Nervousness, or trepidation, that's a good word. Katie appeared extremely trepidatious. The way she looked made Adam want to ask her what was wrong; at the same time, he didn’t exactly want to pry. She was a tough cookie, and he didn't dare trigger another visit from Miss Katie.
 
"Adam, I just want to say I'm sorry for cornering you upstairs. I — I wasn’t feeling like myself, and I don’t — don’t know what happened." Katie struggled to force out the words, so Adam helped her.
 
"I know. It was just a prank that went too far. I'm sorry about calling you a 'stupid bitch', I guess a morning filled with G2W checklists would do that to you."
 
The icy honor student seemed to melt a little, but she still looked so nervous and uncharacteristically unsure.
 
“Be careful, Adam,” she whispered conspiratorially. “We’re not joking about the diapers. Next time you, you know, tinkle yourself, I have to change you with wipes and stuff. It says so in my G2W book. I didn’t expect to have to do any of that this weekend.”
 
Yikes. His active imagination kicked in again, a vision of him naked, spread eagle on the floor as she forcibly cleaned between his legs with a wet wipe. The daydream aided by a flurry of memories that rushed down from the upstairs bathroom, where she pinned him to the floor and ripped away the pink towel. Next came the diaper, the one with the rattles, teddy bears, and baby blocks. How had she managed to fit him into that?
 
“I promise you that it won’t happen again,” Adam replied with a huff.
 
“It better not, because these girls have a tendency of going too far. I know I’m not exactly perfect, but something about tonight worries me.”
 
The look she gave reminded him of the ones his mom gave him when he wanted to stay out late on a school night. A message sent and received with a pair of eyes, ‘watch where you’re going because there's danger ahead’.
 
She snatched a small red bottle of cherry flavored something from a nearby cabinet and began squeezing out the syrupy substance a few drops at a time. Then she slowly shook around the cup as the water turned a dull red, the same color as the faux cherry flavor. Katie handed him the red plastic cup and he took it gladly, but she still gripped the cup as he tried to pull it away.
 
“Remember to take care of yourself because I don’t want to have to change your diapers.” Katie gave him a playful slug to the shoulder as he parted.
 
The thought itself was ridiculous enough, but her warning rang true. He thought about that as he walked into the living room. How had his life gotten so ridiculous in such a short amount of time?
 
Inside the living room, Charity pranced around the couches to the sounds of music from her earbuds. A party of one and still having a good time. She was still wearing that black slinky robe and still wearing a scowl on her pretty face when she saw him.
 
There was a sense of awkwardness between them now, Adam felt it at least. A cold shoulder from the girl who burned hot the entire weekend. Even as they brushed past each other when crossing paths, there were no longer lingering touches or inappropriate remarks. Not even a smile.

That’s what he thought about on the couch, long after she was gone. He crumpled himself into a ball in the corner of the aged sofa, lost again in a daydream. This time his active imagination conjured up something more pleasant that involved a certain blonde cheerleader with her pink lips.
 
“Are you nervous that your wetness indicator is going to give you away?” Charity asked.
 
She startled him out of his reverie as he was just about to get to the best part.
 
"My what?" Adam looked around confused.
 
“You’re covering your crotch with a throw pillow, are you trying to hide something?”
 
Adam followed her accusatory finger down to the pillow that magically appeared over his junk. He exposed his pull-up to Charity when he pulled it away.
 
“I didn’t know there was one,” Adam said.
 
He quickly checked his crotch to make sure nothing gave him away, even giving the plastic thing a tiny poke to make sure he wasn't wet. Adam didn't even know what would give it away, anyways. Just wearing a pull-up made him a little paranoid.
 
“Yeah, you’re not going to want those flowers to fade.” Charity didn’t have to pretend to be nice anymore, especially after he rebuffed her advances. “You’ve already peed yourself once, do it again in a pull-up, and see what happens to you.”
 
Whatever. Adam rolled his eyes. He was tired of hearing how he was going to wet his pants, or have another accident, or anything else these girls warned him about. This entire weekend was warnings and threats, pink and pull-ups. He didn't care to hear about it any longer.
 
“Don’t roll your eyes at me,” she chastised him. “It’s totally disrespectful, and you're doing it all wrong."
 
“How am I doing it wrong?” he asked.
 
“You don’t look annoyed when you do it that way. It makes you look like you’re doing something you love, like taking a bite out of your favorite ice cream, or when someone goes down on you.”
 
Charity twice raised her eyebrows as if to say 'hubba hubba', at least that's what Adam thought she meant.
 
"So do you not like me or something? Did I do anything wrong?"
 
"It's not that, it's just that you guys are acting all strange," Adam explained as he covered himself back up with the pillow. "I’m having a hard time figuring you out.”
 
“Figuring me out? I’m not a riddle, Adam. I am what you see, there isn’t any mystery or conspiracy about who I am. You, on the other hand.”
 
“What about me?” he asked.
 
Without so much as a warning, Charity smoothly slid next to him on the couch. Which would have probably been more innocent had she not been wearing what she was wearing. Her bathrobe fell slightly open, revealing slim parcels of normally covered skin, just obscene enough to make him nervous. 

She formed the shape of a man with a hand, a pair of fingers turned into legs that walked up his arm, climbed over his shoulder, and softly tickled his neck. Adam flinched and giggled, he was awfully ticklish. This made Charity smile and try for a different spot on his neck, but he was prepared this time. There wasn't a single laugh or flinch from her invading fingers. 

Stoicism in practice is not laughing when tickled. 

Charity let out an audible sigh when she saw that the game was up, which made Adam feel relieved. If she tickled him too much he might wet his pants.
 
“I’m just trying to figure you out, kiddo. We had such a good time last night, and you show me that you groomed yourself like a good little boy, so that made me think you were into me. Suddenly, you kick me out of bed like I was yesterday’s skank. What’s a girl gotta do to get a little consistency out of you?”
 
Adam shrugged. “I don’t know.”
 
“Do you still want me to visit you tonight, maybe fulfill my end of the bargain?”
 
There she was being all sultry again, Charity was good at that. She switched from playful kitty to sex kitten in a split second, the way she carried herself completely changed. 

It brought out the color in her cheeks, her eyelashes grew longer, she had a special way of swaying her hips. Well, she was sitting on the couch this time so there wasn't any 'sway' to sway him. Yet her eyes, her smile, the way the robe revealed her breasts as she leaned into him were all bundled together in a calculated move to get him to say 'yes'.
 
Adam just let all of it soak in, her ways seemed so obvious when you weren’t spellbound so easily. 

The truth was he didn't want to be under her thumb anymore. So why didn't he just say so? Because part of him recognized that he was a pawn in her little game and loved being pushed around the board. 

There was no shame in being weak to her relentless advances, he was human after all. On the other hand, so was she. He could get what he wanted out of her just as quickly as she could manipulate him. Adam did shave himself so she would visit later, and he deserved a little treat after dark.
 
“Well, do you?” the temptress asked a second time.
 
"Um. Yeah, I'd like that," Adam answered.
 
"So it's a date then, you and me in the pink room after everyone else falls asleep."
 
This didn't make him feel better, he'd never felt so weak in his life. The only thing more embarrassing than his pink pull-up was his lack of integrity, or whatever kept a man from being a plaything. He imagined a fortifying edifice, with strong walls and tall towers to keep conniving women at bay. That's probably the way it was for other men. His was a paper house. Its foundations built on the lamest of origami, its folds wouldn't hold at even the slightest hint of pressure. 

They were still talking, he could still correct it and say it was all a misunderstanding, but that would be a lie. It had been on his mind all day, and he'd been looking forward to his reward ever since he shaved himself in the shower that morning. Which wasn't that bad of a look down there. However, it was starting to get kinda itchy, and he had scratched himself through the pull up a few times when no one was looking.
 
That’s when the doorbell rang.
 
“Hold that thought, that's probably the pizza dude which means it's showtime!” Charity said as she ripped off the flimsy robe. “Also hold this, too.”
 
The silk robe fluttered through the air for a brief moment before softly landing on his face. Adam was quick to pull it away, and got an eyeful of Charity in matching black bra and panties swaying her way to the front door whilst fastening the handcuffs behind her back, and gleefully giggling with excitement while on her way.
 
The scene that would play out at the front door was just out of his sight. Adam could immediately hear the surprise in the guy’s voice, the pizza delivery ‘dude’ sounded about an octave higher like he was wearing tight pants. The guy also sounded around their age which should have added to Charity's humiliation, but she didn't sound too embarrassed.
 
The cheerleader seemed happy to giggle and play as the two talked to each other, Adam wished he could hear what they were saying. He leaned closer to the door from the couch as if a few inches would make up the distance from where he sat and the doorway across the house. It didn't. All he could do was sit and hear all of the giggling and more giggling. 

Who was this pizza dude, and where did he get off being a comedian? 

If Adam had to listen to her giggle any longer, he'd have get up and punch him in the face. The faceless threat at the front door needed to back off. He had no idea why, but he needed them to stop. However, Charity kept laughing louder and louder. She sounded so happy to finally talk to another boy besides Adam.
 
When couldn’t stand it any longer, Adam covered his ears and stumbled back into the pink room.
 
It had to be at least a few minutes later, he'd gone back to reading and hiding from the other girls. He didn't even notice Marisa in the doorway until she said something.
 
“Whatcha doing in here?” Marisa asked.
 
Adam didn’t give an answer. He didn’t want to admit he was feeling bored, slightly homesick, or that he wanted to finish the second babysitter book. However, she caught him before he could close it and stash it away like drug paraphernalia in a glove box.
 
“I used to love those books when I was little!” Marisa exclaimed.
 
She rushed over to him on the bed, bouncing onto the mattress next to him, ripping the book from his hands all in the same motion. Marisa smiled as she flipped through the pages, skimming over the front and back cover as childhood memories came back to her.
 
“A long time ago, I loved the idea of being a babysitter. You get to borrow the cute babies, but you don’t have to keep them. It’s pretty appealing the more I think about it.”
 
“What’s so appealing about babies?” Adam asked as he carefully covered his pull-up with the blanket again. “You have to feed them, and care for them and —”
 
“ — Change their diapers?” Marisa completed the sentence for him. “It all depends on who’s diapers you have to change.”
 
Adam looked back at her, his face scrunched tight.
 
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
 
“When you care a lot about someone it’s easier to do things for them that you normally wouldn’t do for other people. Yeah, changing dirty diapers can be gross, but there’s also a sense of bonding when caring for someone who needs it more than anything. Why are you looking at me like I’m a weirdo?”
 
Adam laughed at her like she told a joke, she couldn’t be serious. They both brushed it off.
 
Marisa silently and softly played with his chest with her fingers. Her other hand found a home at the top of his head and began massaging his scalp the same way. Adam felt his body go limp as a warm, relaxing sensation emanated from his heart, flowing through him, debilitating him with every ripple. 

He tried to pry himself away but found that Marisa had other plans. She wrapped him up with her arms and legs until they were conjoined from head to toe. They became a pair of inseparable body pillows. She began to rock him back and forth in a motion similar to a cradle, his head resting in the nook of her arm, her breast pressed against his cheek. Adam had no idea where to put his hands.
 
“Is something wrong?” Marisa asked. “You feel tense.”
 
Adam never felt so tense and relaxed at the same time, she was nerve racking and endearing, panic inducing and terribly comfortable. 

They were friends, but he knew there was a crush developing, or had it always been there like a well kept secret. A secret so strong that even he didn't truly know about it. He also knew that he'd fantasized about her, everyone at school did. The cafeteria table was ground zero for stories about how good she looked in what she wore, how you could see down her shirt or up her skirt.

When he was in her arms all of that seemed to dissipate away, especially since she was treating him this way. Marisa wasn't in his arms as some kind of girlfriend, he was in her arms as something else. Like a child.
 
“I still don’t get it, what’s with you girls and your hyperactive maternal instinct?” Adam asked.
 
There was a brief moment of quiet reflection, where Adam almost regretted asking the question, expecting her to get mad at him and make him suck the pacifier again. But she surprised him when she began to laugh. He could feel the laugh come from deep in her belly, like a seismic disturbance that sprang from beneath her skin. What he said wasn’t funny, and she wasn’t laughing like he told a joke. It was like his words were irrelevant, not important enough to take seriously, just enough to listen and laugh at.
 
“No, I’m being serious. Why did you guys put me in a pull-up? Why do you keep trying to baby me?”
 
She shushed him by threshing her tongue methodically from behind her teeth. A natural sound, all babies recognize it. He couldn’t help but comply, even if he knew he was being treated like a child.
 
“Just be sweet, that’s all I want from you. You just need to stay sweet, Adam.” Marisa whispered as she stroked him.
 
It was hard not to stay sweet from the way her fingers ran up and down his scalp, making him forget his anger, and soothing his unease. Adam melted and sank into her embrace, becoming a living puddle on the pink bed. Her body was soft and warm, he could faintly hear her heartbeat under her breast. Moments passed, minutes passed. There was a want, or a need, to stay this way; but he felt Marisa stir, ready to get up and move onto more important matters like her cool friends, her beautiful lake house, or reality itself.
 
“I have two things to say before I go,” Marisa said as they decoupled, “and I need to know that you’re willing to hear them.”
 
Adam nodded, his eyes still closed in a state of bliss. He didn’t want this to end.
 
“The first thing you need to understand is that WE didn’t put you in a pull up, YOU did. We didn’t mess my old pajamas, ruin a costume that I cared about, and we didn’t call Katie a ‘stupid bitch’. That’s all on you, Adam. You need to take responsibility for your actions instead of blaming us for the consequences.”
 
His blissful state ended abruptly, his eyes opened wide, and his mouth did the same. How could she think this was all his fault? They were the ones mistreating him, he was the victim here. Surely, she knew that. 

What was happening to him this weekend was beyond unfair, but typical to how life treated him unfairly. Adam didn't ask to be short, or childlike, but there were still imaginary lines he drew in the sand. The lines that stood between him and — and diapers, that line was as thick as he could make it. To accuse him of being the cause of this childish treatment was almost as unfair as the childish treatment itself. Someone ought to tell her that, the thought made him so angry that he began to shake.
 
Shush. Shush.
 
His rising fury slightly quieted once again by Marisa's well-casted spell. Although deep inside he was seething, the word 'animosity' now embossed in searing flames.
 
He asked, “What’s the second thing?”
 
"Eventually you're going to have to admit something, that you actually love the way we're treating you. That you desire our attention so much that you'd do almost anything we want. I'm not telling you this because I want to control you or anything. Far from it. I want you to admit to yourself that you're enjoying this weekend, and this little getaway will keep getting better and better."
 
"That's pretty ridiculous, Marissa! I'm not ..." but he trailed off.
 
She was right, and he was lost in space, drifting away like a rogue satellite, he came to that realization as soon as she left the room. Somewhere, deep inside, beneath the churning pit that made him want to disappear, was a sickening feeling that she was right. 

Of course, Adam craved the attention and needed recognition because he was a human being, even the most forgotten of wallflowers yearn for sunlight. However, Marisa didn't mean that he was enjoying wearing a pull-up or sucking a pacifier, or was she?
 
Adam didn’t have a mirror, but if he did, he’d have noticed his eyes glowing a bright baby blue.

[Pierry Louys]

Good chapter they are leading Adam to babyhood like a pro rsrs 

[D503]

Laughing, shushing and cuddling him while he's in his pullup. Beautiful. And who can pass up a BJ? (I'm wondering if the suprenatural elements are starting to manifest now).

[direking]

Thanks for reading. I love the comments, I'm saving my responses until the end. It's hard not to play spoiler for your own story, especially as things start getting weird.

 

15
 
It didn’t take long for the girls to plow through the pizza, their small frames didn’t do them justice when it came to putting away food.
 
The darkness outside was kept at bay by the large floor to ceiling windows that faced the lake. Nightfall made the house feel smaller, more compact, maybe even slightly confining.
 
They'd spent a good amount of time as a close knit group, and the seams that kept them together had begun to fray around the edges. The slight annoyances had become too much to bear, he had felt it during the board games, but it was painfully obvious while they ate, even for someone as emphatically insulated as Adam.
 
As for him, his blood was boiling over. He had to listen to Charity talk about how cute the pizza guy was, how he had a cool car, and how she ended up not having to pay for anything.
 
Also, how they exchanged phone numbers.
 
All of this fueled his already deep seated anger towards this dude that he'd never met, and Adam thought about what he'd do to him as he ripped through slice after slice of pizza. Although, he couldn't tell whether she was saying all of this to provoke him or prove to Katie and Marisa just how untouchable she really was to their games and pranks.
 
“So what are we doing tonight?” Katie asked with a mouthful of crust.
 
It looked like she did have flaws after all; but beyond her bad manners, she did ask a good question, what was going to happen next?
 
All eyes turned towards Marisa at the head of the table. The hostess held up a hand as she finished chewing her food. An expert move that simultaneously showed off her politeness and the control over the flow of the conversation. She was an actress, impeccably prim and proper, and it made sense that she would be in charge tonight.
 
“I thought we'd play a game of truth or dare,” Marisa said as she looked around the table.
 
“Really? That’s cliche as heck," Charity snapped as she pushed away her plate of discarded pizza crusts. "If that's how we're going to play tonight, we might as well do each other’s nails, talk about boys, and finish it all off with a friendly pillow fight. Or we can go to bed early since we have such a big day tomorrow. My goodness, Mars, I had no idea you could be so boring.”
 
“Charity, you should know that truth or dare is only as boring as you make it. When we play tonight, anything goes." Marisa gave her friend a knowing look.
 
The way the two of them blushed and giggled together gave Adam cause to be nervous, or trepidatious. The two BFFs spoke a different language between them, one that only they understood, and Adam saw red flags everywhere. So did Katie. The blackbelt followed the two other girls with her quick darting eyes and had stopped munching on pizza mid-chew.
 
“What if we don’t want to play?” Katie asked without masking the concern in her voice.
 
“I’ve brought just the thing for that, let's just call it an extra motivator. I'm sure you've heard of the carrot or the stick, this is kind of both at the same time. At cheerleading camp they called it the spirit stick, if you don't play fair, you have to take a seat."
 
Adam didn't have a clue what she was talking about, but he could feel the collective palpitations rise between all of them. Charity radiated with excitement, Katie simmered in consternation, and Marisa basked in the power of being in charge.

He had reason to be wary, the language shared between Mars and Chars looked to be rife with double meaning, and the master manipulators had already tricked the pants off of him and put him in a pull-up.
 
Katie was also a guilty party, even if she was turning green like a seasick pirate. The honor student looked around the table hoping to find a friendly, agreeable face, but came away disappointed. Adam didn’t know what she expected, he held no power at this point, and he was just going along for the ride. Maybe he should tell her to just ‘go with the flow’. 
 
“The spirit stick is an ancient cheerleader tradition, tonight’s going to get good.” Charity sang to herself as she did a little shimmy in her seat.
 
“What’s the spirit stick?” Adam asked.
 
“It’s a back massager, the wand type we girls know and love,” Charity answered.
 
“What’s so special about a back massager?” None of this made sense to him.
 
Marisa covered her mouth and laughed, Charity blew him a kiss.
 
“OMG you’re so precious, Adam. You really aren’t corrupted at all. Stay cute, kiddo.”
 
“Don’t you guys think that this goes a little too far?” Katie interrupted.
 
It didn't look like anyone else thought it was going too far, almost the opposite. The party train had tooted its last horn before departure, and Katie had to decide whether she was boarding or plan to be left back at the station. Charity excitedly rubbed her hands together, her enthusiasm was contagious, and made Adam a little excited about playing the age-old sleepover game despite his own reservations. Katie Nguyen was on her own and out of her element, and Adam knew the feeling all too well.
 
"Marisa, I want to up the stakes tonight,” Charity said as she dabbed a napkin to her chin. “That's not going to happen until these two lighten up, which should take two or three drinks for Katie, and about a sippy cup and a half for our bouncing baby boy."
 
"I'm not a baby," Adam objected.
 
"Quiet kid, the grown ups are talking," Charity countered.
 
Was she talking about drinking? Charity couldn’t be serious about breaking out the alcohol, they were all underage after all. Also, that would be stealing from Mrs. Hartmann. Which was besides the point because she probably wouldn’t care if they drank her booze and burned the house down as long as Marisa had a good time.
 
There was a very good chance that everything would escalate tonight. That was easy enough to discern from the mood in the room, there was a newfound tension driving a wedge within the group.
 
Somewhere in this cabin sat an inert powderkeg, and a drunken game of truth or dare could be just enough to strike an igniting flame.
 
Adam wanted to hide away and let the dust settle. Just thinking about everything chilled him, but not in the good, relaxing way. Anxiety came in the form of an icy flurry that coiled and crawled up his bare legs, leaving behind goosebumps in its path, it was enough to make him shiver in his seat. He may have felt cold, but things were just now heating up at the table.
 
Charity asked, “Where does your mom keep the booze?”
 
“We are not drinking alcohol, Charity!” Katie protested.
 
“Why not?”
 
“We are under age and it’s against the law!”
 
“What are you, a cop or something?” Charity looked over to Marisa for support or guidance. None came.
 
“No, I’m still the queen, and you have to do what I say.”
 
“The queen, huh?” Charity pretended to consider her words. “I don’t recall caring if you were the queen.”
 
Watching the two of them argue was like seeing black clouds circle in the sky; any friendly smiles, casual conversation, or polite pretense were now long gone, caught up in the gathering storm of a girl-fight. Adam was about to find out what happens when an immovable honor student meets an unshakable slut. 
 
Charity struck first.
 
“Honey, I'm going to break this down for you the best way possible. The queen game was sooo yesterday. We were nice enough to give you a chance to have some fun, but now that's all said and done. It's time that the real 'fun' girls take back control of this shin-dig, you're too boring to call the shots.”

“Don’t call me honey, bitch,” Katie fired back. “You’re starting to piss me off with your condescension, and I'm getting sick of hearing your stupid mouth say stupid things.”
 
Charity brought her hands into the air like a gladiator looking for a street fight. “Say when, sugar-tits.”
 
Adam almost choked on the pizza he still had in his mouth. They sure looked like they were about to come to blows, his money was on Katie, if anyone were to take bets. Miss Katie was now on deck, the Banner to Hulk transformation completed as evidenced by her pointed shoulders and creased forehead, even in the way she leaned over the table like she was about to pounce.

Surely, Marisa was going to step in and put a stop to her friends tearing each other apart. Surely.
 
“Charity, I’m not going to waste my time fighting you, I don't want to have to sweep up the pieces when I'm done."
 
Katie looked ready to throw a punch, and Adam shrank in his seat to stave away oncoming collateral damage.
 
“Girl, your problem is that you're wound up too tight and desperately need a release. Maybe a few minutes on ye olde spirit stick would be nice for you to let out some steam. When was the last time you frigged yourself? I'm just saying that you sound all backed up."
 
“You know, Charity, that's none of your business. Not everyone needs to get laid every five minutes like you do. If you opened a book half as many times as you open your legs, you'd actually learn something for once and not have to flirt your way into a passing grade every time ye olde report card comes out."
 
The cheerleader wasn’t phased at all by the attack on her academics.
 
“Did I strike a nerve? You’re turning all angry and red, which doesn’t do your Shrek face any favors. You know, that's probably the reason you're still a virgin, you scare everyone away anytime anyone wants to have some fun. You have some serious anger issues Katie, and we should sort them out before you die a shriveled old maid." 
 
“I don’t have to take this crap!” Katie yelled as she stood from her seat. “This weekend was a terrible idea from the start, and I have no idea why I agreed to be a part of this stupid thing in the first place.”
 
“You agreed because you didn’t want to be left out!” Marisa boomed from the head of the table. “When you said you were onboard that meant for the whole weekend, not for whenever you want to check out or take a break. I suggest you reflect on your role here before you do anything you will regret.”
 
Marisa looked between the quarreling girls.
 
“As far as you are concerned, Charity, I'm sure you can find more productive ways of getting your point across without belittling one of my friends. And I don't care who started it because I just finished it. Both of you go upstairs, we need to have ourselves a girl meeting before this gets even more out of hand.”
 
That shut both girls up, and they had very little to say to each other as they skulked away from the table and up the stairs with their tails tucked between their legs.

The room suddenly felt empty and quiet, and for the first time since this afternoon he was alone with Marisa. This was a perfect opportunity to speak to Marisa directly, Adam finally had his chance to plead for more clothes.
 
“Marisa, can I get something to wear over my pull-up? I’m starting to get cold.”
 
The empty pizza boxes that she stacked seemed to be more important than his question. Marisa had to have heard him, he knew his voice came through loud and clear. So he asked again.
 
“Can I please get some shorts?” Adam begged.
 
"Take the first dare."
 
He wasn’t expecting a cryptic answer, he could have settled for a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’.
 
“Excuse me? I didn’t hear you right."
 
“Yeah, you did." Marisa answered with finality.
 
Then she slipped away without any more explanation.
 
Adam caught up to her before she got to the stairs and grabbed her arm. Marisa just winked at him, and he felt all of his muscles fail him one by one, until he had to let her go.

Once again he was helpless as she slowly ascended the stairs, up to where all the secrets lay. He wanted to ask another question. Adam was full of questions that never came out. What did she mean by taking the first dare? Would that give him his clothes back?

Also, why didn't he ask if he could just take the pull-up off?

Adam knew he was an idiot, sometimes he just needed confirmation.
 
 
........................................
 
 
Around thirty minutes later they were gathered in the living room. At Marisa's direction, they had turned off all of the lights, and turned on the gas lit fireplace instead. The intimate space that they shared was an orange glow, and beyond the couches was only darkness, the kitchen and stairs were victims to a black void beyond perception.

They sat in a semi-circle on the couches facing each other, two nervous teens rounded out by two excited ones. Marisa was clearly the queen without the crown, all eyes were on her lounging on the throne with the massager laid across her lap like a royal scepter. 
 
It really was some sort of back massager. Adam recognized it from late night infomercials, but he wondered why Katie recoiled away like Marisa held up a snake. Adam still didn't know what that was all about, but it probably had something to do with sex, he was capable of following the breadcrumbs to arrive at that conclusion. 
 
“Alright, let’s lay some ground rules. In order to make it more fair, we're going to split into two teams: Chars and Katie vs Adam and me. This way the shy kids actually have a chance to play, and the fun girls can give a little more positive reinforcement."
 
Adam felt his heart lurch when he found out that he was on Marisa's team; despite everything that had happened between them, he liked the idea that he'd get to spend more time with her. At the same time, it also meant that he could let her down. He'd find a way to disappoint her just like he'd been doing all weekend. Adam didn't know if there was a way to 'win' truth or dare, but now he really wanted to try.
 
Marisa winked at him.
 
“Adam, we’re totally going to win.”
 
He answered, “Totally.”
 
“Now is the time to say if you want out,” Charity said with a serious tone. "When we move forward, we move forward together. That means facing the consequences." 
 
The room got awfully silent, awfully quickly. Adam heard himself swallow, it sounded super loud in his head, so did the rushing sounds of his shuffling feet against the nice rug that covered the ground between the couches. It didn't take much self reflection to see how nervous he was about playing this game.

Then again, he could get up and just walk away, but he kept choosing to play along with these girls and their manipulations, their lake houses, and their pink pull-ups and pink pacifiers. Maybe Marisa was right about him. Maybe he was addicted to the thrill, their sunlight was a drug to him now. It was all totally different from what he knew, Pokémon cards and video games, and that made him feel afraid and alive for the first time in a long time.
 
Katie slouched on the couch directly across from him. The two exchanged a grimace that made him wonder if they were suffering the same fate, in too deep to climb out, and their only hope was that they didn't dig any deeper. At least she wasn't wearing any diapers. Katie cradled a drink in her shaking hands.

The black belt couldn't punch or kick her way out of this one, the invisible enemy known as peer pressure wasn't easy to overpower. Katie swiftly brought the cup to her lips and took a long swig, breaking the awkward silence as she doubled over gagging and coughing while the other two girls laughed at her expense.
 
Charity forcefully patted her back. "Simmer down there, Katie. It's going to be a long night, let's try to stay awake for all of it.”
 
Adam wondered if he'd have the same reaction, his own drink only a few feet away, but he let the threatening sippy cup just sit there like a gargoyle or menacing statue. Yes, he had qualms about the alcohol, but he also wasn't happy about the vessel in which it came. This long running practical joke of de-aging him had lost its luster, sticking around for too long like an out of state relative.
 
"Hey Adam, truth or dare?"
 
Charity had turned her cat-like eyes towards him, he had a hard time coming to grips with the way she kind of looked like an evil witch with a hidden poisoned apple. The room was full of creepy glares, Marisa watched him with bated breath like he was the subject of a science experiment. Her eyes fixated on him and his silly cup.
 
Adam's first thought was to say 'truth'; he didn't like the thought of physically being at the whims of Charity, especially since she looked like she harbored bad intentions in the firelight. Then again, Marisa promised that he'd get shorts to cover up his childish disposable underwear if he took the first 'dare'. He had wanted regular clothes all weekend, he'd waited for hours to cover this thing up, ever since he called Kate 'a stupid bitch'. Which was still worth it by the way. This was about Marisa, not him.
 
So he answered the way Marisa wanted him to answer: “Dare.”
 
There was something in the way that Charity smiled that made him feel like he said the wrong thing. The regret hit him almost immediately, shorts weren’t worth whatever she had planned for him.
 
"Since your potty training has been kind of questionable, you probably need some more practice holding it, so I dare you to not use the potty for the rest of the night."
 
“My potty training isn’t — that’s ridiculous that you would think that way,” Adam argued.
 
He looked towards his teammate for any intervention, but Marisa didn't seem to object. Katie just drank more, and Charity stared him down like a jungle cat deep in the brush.
 
“If it’s so ridiculous then it should be an easy dare. Lucky you.”
 
“Fine, I’ll go without using the restroom.”
 
“No, you have to say that you’re not using the ‘potty’, not the ‘restroom’. My dare was pretty specific about that.”
 
“I can go without using the potty for as long as it takes, are you happy now?” Adam made a mocking squinty face at Charity.
 
The cheerleader returned the look, playfully batting her eyes at him.
 
“I’m ecstatic. Now it’s your turn, Marisa.”
 
Now that his dare was fully accepted and written in stone he could relax. Honestly, Adam didn’t think the dare was that bad. There were worse things he could have had to do, like stick his hand in fire.
 
“Marisa, when can I get some shorts?” Adam whispered to his teammate.
 
“Not right now, we’re in the middle of a game.”
 
Adam sank back into the couch, it looked like he’d have to wait a little longer, again. Charity was right, truth or dare was boring.
 
“Hey Katie,” Marisa asked, “truth or dare?”
 
“Me?”
 
“Is there another Katie playing truth or dare?” The actress pretended to look around the room wide-eyed and confused. “There isn’t a hidden side of you I should worry about, right?”
 
Katie spiraled from uncomfortable to downright nervous. Trepidation wasn’t a good word after all, panic better described the way she shuffled on her couch cushion. The spotlight wasn’t her comfort zone, a sick part of him loved to see Katie squirm. Adam should have felt bad, but she deserved to be on the other end of intimidation for once.
 
Marisa giggled. “What do you think about when you masturbate?”
 
The Asian girl suddenly became stone faced and sullen, her sunken tired eyes revealed fresh tears forming in their corners. Too far, Adam thought to himself, this had all gone too far. He watched the moment in which trepidation became betrayal, but he didn’t know what Marisa had done to betray her friend.
 
Katie replied, “I’m not answering that.”
 
Charity reminded her. “You have to, them’s the rules.”
 
“I didn’t agree to this, this was supposed to be all about Adam. Not me.”
 
“What’s she mean by that?” Adam asked.
 
Marisa scowled at her friend.
 
“Katie, we had an agreement, and we even reaffirmed that agreement upstairs just minutes ago, do you remember the consequences of breaking said agreement?"
 
“Our agreement had nothing to do with this stupid game.” Katie downed a big gulp of liquid courage. “When are you going to stop bossing us around, Marisa?”
 
Oh, jeez. Adam watched the lit match tumble towards the metaphorical powder keg.
 
Charity practically leapt into the space between them both hands raised like she was directing traffic.
 
“Katie didn't mean anything by that, Mars. The alcohol is making her all light headed.”
 
“Then what did she mean?” Marisa glowered.
 
Katie didn’t add anything to the conversation, allowing the gloomy silence to speak for her.
 
“You’re always so full of yourself, Katie,” Marisa snapped. “Little Miss Perfect with perfect grades, even if they come at the expense of your precious integrity. I don’t know how, but I caught her making a teacher change her grades, she isn’t as high and mighty as she’d like everyone to think.”
 
“You know that’s not the reason I’m mad, you promised you wouldn’t say anything!” Katie screamed.
 
“Just like you promised to keep our agreement, now you know how it feels, maybe next time you’ll —”
 
“There won’t be a next time, I’m tired of you two being so freaking cruel, bumbling along just to make him do — stuff. If that means betraying your stupid pact, I don’t care. Adam deserves better.” 
 
“Someone needs to tell me what she’s talking about!” Adam raised his voice, it sounded a little whiny, but none of the girls were paying him any attention.
 
“Shut up, Adam!” Marisa spat. “We’re trying to have a talk here, and you keep running your mouth.”
 
Adam got up from the couch, but so did the other girls, each one stepping into each other, raising their voices, pointing fingers, each starting unfinished arguments between them. Adam needed to know what she meant about this ‘agreement’, or ‘pact’, and what it had to do with him. Their voices overlapped each other until all of them recognized the futility of having eight different arguments between only four people. They quieted after the quick explosion, glaring at each other as the fire roared behind them in the dark room.
 
“Well, maybe it’s time that you treat Adam the way he deserves.” Katie shot a quick glance at the honey haired girl. “Treat him, Marisa.”
 
The actress took a step back, then turned towards Adam. The fire reflected in her eyes, Adam just watched and waited for what would come next.  
 
Charity gave the pair of them a mischievous look, then a killer smile.
 
“Marisa, I dare you to take Adam upstairs and play a lovely game of seven minutes in heaven while I get a little girl time with my teammate here.”
 
“What is seven minutes in heaven?" Adam looked to Marisa for answers.
 
They locked eyes in the dark. She grinned.
 
"Follow me and find out."
 
Marisa quickly dragged him from the living room, not slowing when he demanded to know where they were heading, and not stopping when he stubbed his toe on the couch or banged his knee on the third stair.
 
Downstairs, the other two girls were animated in conversation, their movements casting long shadows in the soft orange glow.
 
It wasn’t until he tripped over something on the landing did he realize that they were going into Marisa’s room. No, they were heading into the upstairs bathroom. He already had a pair of bad experiences in there and wasn't in the mood to just mosey inside. He dug his heels into the floor, it did little to slow them, the only fruits of his resistance were the pair of perpendicular squiggling lines left behind in the shag carpet.
 
But there they were, face to face in a romantic bathroom, and ready for a small slice of heaven. She was there to treat him. Thankfully, the toilet was just out of sight.
 
“Hey.”
 
“Hey.”
 
They both looked at each other, into each other, the space between them only a few inches, an impossibly close distance. Marisa pulled a strand of caramel colored hair from her face, sliding the curly lock behind her ear. Damn, she was pretty. It was hard to get over that fact, especially when she was right in front of him, and smiling the way that she smiled; a wanting, knowing smirk, that did as much to give away her intentions as saying them out loud.
 
Adam just knew she wanted to kiss him.
 
This was his chance so he took it. Adam closed his eyes, stood on his tip-toes, and leaned close to her with his lips slightly parted, only to meet her raised hand as she stopped him.

[Pierry Louys]

Oh my things gets interesting!!! Really curious to see what gonna happen next 

[D503]

? so good!

[direking]

16
 
"I'm sorry Adam, but I just don't see you that way."
 
He was frozen and helpless to the nightmare that played out before him, a front row seat to his heart being ripped from his chest.

Later in life, this vision would play in his head right before he fell asleep, maybe even as he laid next to his wife of forty years. Just another one of his mistakes to feed his anxiety, and another reason to never accept an invitation to go anywhere with three of the hottest girls of his grade.
 
Adam didn't cry. There were lips trembling, eyes fluttering, and his chest simultaneously burned out while feeling sucked away into infinite black space. Still, he didn't cry, which had to count for something.
 
"Well, how do you see me?" Adam asked after he cleared throat.
 
"I see you as you, Adam. I can't explain my feelings for you, it's not as easy to define as you'd want or like. Just please don't turn this into something else, please don't stop being cute. I need you to stay cute, stay small, and stay mine. Stay mine. Stay cute. Stay small. Stay mine."
 
Adam didn’t understand. “Excuse me?”
 
“Stay cute. Stay small. Stay mine.”
 
Marisa’s eyes were glazed over, her expression blank and empty like a washed away soul.
 
“Stay cute. Stay small. Stay mine.”
 
Great, now his crush has turned into a broken record. She looked kind of zoned out, very much not like herself.
 
"Are you okay?" Adam tentatively asked.
 
"Yeah, I'm fine. Why do you ask?" She managed a guarded, unsure smile back at him.
 
Marisa didn’t look fine, the lights were on but nobody was home. She looked around the room to get her bearings for a few seconds before settling back into something more like herself.
 
"You kind of zoned out there, you had me worried." Adam felt his pulse return to normal.
 
"No, I'm good, what were we talking about again?"
 
She had to be joking, right? He could tell that she wasn't. Marisa didn't look like she remembered him trying to kiss her, or anything about ‘seven minutes in heaven’. Maybe there was an opportunity to side-step the breach of friendship to get to the otherside of this conversation with their relationship unblemished, but Adam was too stupid to figure that out.
 
"We were talking about how you see me."
 
"I see you as you, Adam," she answered wistfully. "I can't explain my feelings for you. I mean, I see you as you. How you're soft and sweet, precious and needing. You need so much that I can give you. Adam, I see you as you."
 
It was happening again! Adam reached out to her, but she quickly brushed his hands aside. Marisa gave up on their conversation and started rummaging through a cabinet under the sink. All Adam could do was watch. Her mechanical movements were 'janky' like the Scooby Doo word. Without a care for the mess she was making, she tossed aside various cases of old makeup, tile cleaning wipes and sprays, a pair of hardened sponges, and a plastic bag labeled Tampax, its contents a willful mystery to him.
 
Marisa finally stopped when she found what she was looking for: a tall white bottle of baby powder.
 
Her hands slightly shook as she twisted the lid and a fresh puff of powder sprang out and floated in the perfumed air. Marisa sucked it all in, loudly moaning like it was the best thing she'd ever done in her life. She squeezed the bottle again and again until the room was fragrant with the overpowering scent of talcum.
 
“Um, what do you plan on doing with that?” Adam asked. He had to, things were turning up baby for him again. Strangely enough.
 
She flashed him a weird smile. “Don’t you love the smell of baby powder?”
 
The question was rhetorical, but Adam found himself wanting to answer. Why? Why is everyone so obsessed with baby stuff? There had to be an answer, all he had to do was ask out loud. They’d tell him the truth, right? He already doubted that they would, he could barely hold that fantasy for a few seconds.

Something was definitely wrong here, and he was stuck in the middle of all the craziness, just a boy seeking normalcy in the midst of a clown show.
 
“What’s so special about baby powder?”
 
He needed to know.
 
“There is something about this scent that drives women crazy, I know I'm not the only one. Honestly, I think it reminds us of babies. Sweet, cute, and cuddly little things that need to be squeezed and loved. Just breathing it in does something to me, it makes me so — ”
 
Marisa leaned into him, the baby powder now inches from his nose, her lips now centimeters from his ear. Her hot breath pounded against his ear drums, almost as loud as his own heartbeat.
 
“— It makes me so horny. Come on, see if it does the same thing to you.”
 
The way she invited him sounded so innocent, it was just a can of baby powder and not arsenic. Against his will, he did, but he didn't like the smell at all. It reminded him of this morning with Miss Katie. At this point, Adam’s worry for his friend eclipsed his concern for his own well being, she was all over the map in just a matter of seconds, banishing him to the friend zone while talking about how horny she got from inhaling baby powder.
 
"Babies are just the greatest.” Marisa clasped her hands together and brought them to her cheek. “They're so sweet, and precious, and they need my attention and care."
 
“I’m not sure you’re okay. Should I get Charity and Katie from downstairs?”
 
“I feel fine. More than fine, like great or something.”
 
She nervously sniffed the can of baby powder like an abused substance, and Marisa was never nervous. She could sing on stage out of tune and blame the music for being wrong, she was always confident and steadfast. This Marisa in front of him was none of these things. She stared off in the distance and rubbed her arms against herself like she was cold.
 
It was off-putting to watch her twist in the wind like a discarded marionette, her wires were crossed and her tangled strings seemed at the whims of who knows what. It was like Twitch-plays Marisa Hartmann, and all of her buttons seemed to be pressed at once. The chaotic mix of uncharacteristic behaviour scared the hell out of him. Adam was a nervous wreck, the feeling in the room was wrong.
 
“This isn’t like you at all, why are you acting so weird? I don’t like you like this.”
 
“I’m having a hard time trying to figure you out, Adam." 
 
Marisa placed the powder back atop the counter before crossing her arms and scowling at him.
 
"One minute I think you’re into this thing, the next you play hard to get. You're hot then cold, sweet then sour, and I'm just trying to help you see who you are, just tell me that you're into this, I need to know.”
 
That’s what this all was, miscommunication.
 
This would be where he could set the record straight. A good one on one talk with Marisa would put this all behind him. They’d probably laugh about it later, if she still considered him a friend. The next few minutes would probably forever change the way they saw each other, no pressure or anything.
 
“I have no idea what you’re talking about. What thing would I be into?”
 
“I thought that you liked being babied,” Marisa explained.
 
Adam could feel the blush blossom on his cheeks, a confusing mix of righteous anger and childish embarrassment turning his face red.
 
“Wha- I mean, really? What made you think that way?”
 
“I don’t really know, but maybe the fact that you’re wearing a pull-up, you sucked a pacifier all afternoon, and you wet your pants twice today. It’s like you’re begging for it.”
 
"I know that’s how it looks. But, listen. It isn’t like that at all."
 
“Then what is it ‘like’?”
 
“I don’t know!” Adam shouted loud enough that the room seemed to shake.
 
There wasn’t anything truly wrong about what she said, it was the truth. Well, maybe from her perspective. However, that wasn’t the entire story, and Adam would have to explain that to her, but his words would fail him as always.
 
His version read completely differently. It told of an entire day of unfortunate happenstance, an unbelievable series of events, where he was a victim of undue consequences which came without merit. A day in which his fate heeded no other master besides chaos and humiliation, which came by the buttload.
 
Adam tried hard not to sound wounded.

"I shouldn't have to explain myself to you, I thought you knew me better before you invited me here."
 
"That's why we're having this conversation, because I might know you better than you know yourself. Have you thought about that before flipping your lid at me?" Marisa pointed at him with an accusatory index finger. "Are you denying that you've been putting out signals?"
 
"Of course I am!"
 
“What about what just happened between us downstairs? You loved our little snuggle session, didn’t you? You don't have to deny it anymore, you're free to tell me the truth. I'm capable of supporting you any way that you need.”

Adam swallowed hard.
 
“I'm a good babysitter, too.” Marisa pointed to her chest with her thumb. “Probably much better than Katie. She can't mother you like I can, remember 'A Mother Knows Best', I was your mom, not her. I was there for you everyday after school for weeks, didn't you like that?”
 
“I did but that’s not — what’s going on? I know I’m not making any sense, but neither are you. I'm trying to tell you that I don't want to be your baby, I want to be your friend.” Adam tried explaining away her weirdness.
 
“You think you could settle on being just friends after this weekend? You literally just tried to kiss me just a few seconds ago. We're not ever going to go back to being friends because you look at me like I walk on water, I'm not blind or stupid.”
 
He felt his heart fall again, deep into the cavern in his chest. She totally remembered his ‘kissing fail’ after all.
 
“Adam, you don't like me as a friend because you want something more, and I'd love to be something more for you. Just admit you like me in that way, and we can move forward together."
 
“Yeah, I like you but not in the way that you think I do. Wait a minute, how do you think I like you?”
 
Adam tried looking for meaning in his own words, attempting to navigate the dangerous ground between friendship and romance with both eyes closed. It was a skinny tight rope between bliss and pain. His acute social anxiety proved to be both the blindfold and the long drop if took a bad step.
 
None of this was going as planned. Adam didn't plan on admitting that he had feelings for her, but he wasn't even sure there were feelings there before she invited him to this stupid lake house.

A few minutes ago, Marisa looked all gung ho with heaving breasts and batty eyelashes, dragging him upstairs for '7 minutes of heaven' only to treat him to something akin to hell. She was the one who forced him up here in the first place. Teenage love was too confusing.
 
Marisa pointed to a seemingly banal spot of tile next to the NASA bathtub.
 
”Is this where she did it?”
 
Immediately, he knew that she was talking about, Katie and the diaper. Adam felt a flash of anger, and a sudden chill from being betrayed. He shivered. The white hot heat that came with his anger was replaced by the sinking, sucking feeling of ineptitude. The churning pit that pulled at his heart and trampled his lungs. He wanted to evaporate into the air and become the invisible man.
 
“Don’t you dare deny it,” Marisa warned. “I couldn’t believe it when Katie told me what happened this morning after you splooged your pajamas, and she said that you practically begged her to put you in a diaper.”
 
“That’s not what happened! She attacked me and pinned me down, I tried to fight back.”
 
“That’s not what the picture says,” Marisa replied matter of factly.
 
“She showed you the picture?”
 
“Aha! So you don’t deny that there’s a picture of you sucking your thumb and asking for a diaper change.”
 
“That’s not true!” Adam exclaimed.
 
“I don’t take Katie for a liar, and I freaking dare you to call her one to her face. You on the other hand, you haven’t been entirely truthful. For example, what were you doing out in the woods when you wet your pants?”
 
There was no way she could know what he and Charity were doing out there. Marisa didn’t really have psychic powers even if she was sometimes like Professor X. Then again, maybe Charity told her or something. Maybe the cheerleader spilled the beans, and Marisa already knew everything. He should come clean.
 
Adam gulped. “I can explain.”
 
“The problem is that you’re always talking about how you’re going to do something, but never actually telling the truth.”
 
“I was spying on you,” Adam interrupted.
 
It wasn’t the effect that he expected his words to have; Marisa broke out in a fit of laughter, and at first, Adam felt slightly relieved even if it meant admitting to betraying her trust. 
 
However, the tension in his neck and shoulder returned as she continued laughing maniacally long after a normal person would stop.

Marisa roughly rubbed her face with both hands, scrambling her usual perfect complexion until her face turned red and splotchy, and her features became even more distorted. She looked like she was pulling herself together at the same time tearing herself apart. 
 
It was disturbing to watch, Adam had to fight not to close his eyes.
 
“Finally, the first honest thing to come out of your mouth today," Marisa spat venom as she tightly clenched both fists, Adam could’ve sworn he heard the knuckles pop from the pressure. That and her accusing and argumentative tone made him take a step away. "Now you can really tell me the truth, you don’t have to deny it anymore. I’ve been in theatre my whole life, there are a lot of people into really ‘different’ things. It’s no big deal if you’re one of them.”
 
“You’re not mad at me for spying on you?” Adam asked.
 
“Of course I’m mad at you, but I’m more mad at the fact that you keep avoiding my question. Do you want to be a baby?”
 
“No, I don’t want to be a baby,” he answered with a sense of finality.
 
There was still a rational part of him that thought he shouldn’t have had to say it at all.
 
“Alright, I can live with that,” Marisa continued. “However, you spied on me, and I’m not sure I can let that slide so easily. When was the last time you were properly spanked?”
 
“Excuse me?”
 
“See, you keep acting like a child! You keep pretending that you’re not listening, but you heard me. You’ve been a naughty little boy, Adam. Don’t you think it’s fair that you’re punished?”
 
“I’m not a naughty boy! I’m an adult, why can’t you see that?”
 
He backed away but was too slow.
 
Marisa grabbed at him, purchasing a grip on the crook of his elbow before he could move away.
 
“Get off me!” he screamed.
 
“I should’ve done this a long time ago, you naughty little brats can’t take a hint!”
 
Marisa slammed him over the counter with almost superhuman strength, knocking the air out of him. How was she so strong? He felt a rattling sensation in his chest as she twisted his arm behind his back, immobilizing him as he fought to breathe. Adam couldn’t say ‘stop’ or ‘no’. His view of the pearly white countertop was framed by dark fog and punctuated by colorful floating stars.
 
There was little doubt about it now. This wasn’t her. Marisa flattened her hand into a weapon and raised it over her head, Adam knew exactly where it was landing, but there was little he could do to stop the first blow.
 
Pop! The sound of flesh striking the plastic backed pull-up filled the air. A good part of her hand hit the back of his upper thigh sending a flare of pain down his leg. Adam couldn’t cry out. He tried shifting and sliding down the counter to get out of her range, toppling the bottle of baby powder, snowy drifts of talcum cascaded everywhere.
 
Marisa rubbed him into the newly created mess, his right side of his face now covered in white powder. He coughed and choked as the second spank came in harder than the first. This time it hit more of his pull-up than the back of his thigh, punctuating the chaos with a resounding thud.
 
Then came another, and another, alternating strikes as the pace quickened with each blow. Pop! Thud! Pop! Pop!
 
Of course it hurt. Adam winced and recoiled, and fought against the way she had him pinned. He was unable to pull away from her warpath, but the good news was he could now get oxygen with shaky rattling gasps between the oncoming hits. The air fed him strength and energy, powerful endorphins pumped through his body.
 
It was enough for him to wrestle free from her grip.
 
Adam leapt away, just out of reach, finding himself balanced precariously atop the NASA bathtub. He scanned the surroundings, but found himself staring at Marisa.
 
This new creature was not Marisa, just a replacement wearing her face like a body snatcher.

Her entire posture was changed and twisted, more animalistic, hunched shoulders, curved back, knees bent and fingers extended like talons. She was breathing heavily through teeth tightly clenched. But, it was her menacing face that scared him the most, her eyes totally empty except for malice.
 
Where was she? That's all he could think about. Not, what's wrong with her? This wasn't his friend, it was something else altogether. Marisa was in a far off place, far from this bathroom, just like Adam needed to be.
 
“You better get down from there, mister! You have until the count of three, or I’m going to pull you down. One!”
 
The situation was getting desperate, and he looked around the room for something to push her away, or even knock her out. No one would blame him for defending himself.
 
“Two!”
 
There was the shower in the corner, there was the door behind Marisa. It was hopeless, he had to go through her. Without much thought, he grabbed something next to him and threw it at her as hard as he could. 
 
“Three!”
 
The purple bottle of tear-free shampoo collided with the side of her head with a loud THUNK. Marissa shook her head, and had to take a step back and re-evaluate her prey.
 
That was when he noticed her glowing red eyes in the mirror.
 
That was impossible, eyes don’t glow like that. He rubbed his face with his hands and did a double check. To his horror, they were still red. And still glowing. In her reflection, there were tiny red beacons where her pupils should be. They didn't shine like a flashlight, whatever glow they emitted was dull and listless like the light of an old coffee maker or TV remote. It reminded him of the little light on an analog alarm clock from 1978 that his mom had. It was something old and something weird, but it was the problem with Marisa, and Adam knew it.
 
“Marisa, what’s wrong with your eyes!”
 
He shouted as he pointed towards the mirror.
 
She spun around, instantly freezing when met by her reflection. The world stood still as Marisa just stopped and stared deep into the mirror. The look of madness slowly being replaced by confusion. Her face paled and pallid, turning white now that red color was fading, she looked around the room like she’d never been there before.

An uneasy quiet settled between them for a few long seconds. Adam took all of it inside of him, not fully understanding what had just happened, not knowing where to begin to fix this disaster.
 
"Adam, I don't know what came over me," Marisa tried explaining. “What happened? Did I hurt you?”
 
Adam was having none of it, he rubbed his throbbing behind, it really hurt something awful. He wasn’t sure what to think anymore, somehow unsure that all of this just happened. The weird rejection, the baby powder, and the spanking that followed, it all happened too fast for him to process. Then there were the red eyes. He needed to be alone.
 
He warned, “I'm going to go to my room, don't try to stop me."

“Adam, please,” Marisa begged.
 
Then he pushed by her towards the door, and she didn't try to stop him.

He stormed through her bedroom and onto the landing, the living room sat empty, the fire still burned in the fireplace. Nothing out here indicated that anything went horribly wrong. Adam ran his hands through his hair. Why did everything have to be so confusing?
 
All of this confusion made him feel cold and heavy. His heart felt heavy in his chest, the air felt too cold to breathe. It made his feet feel heavy, like really heavy. The oddest sensation came over him, icy cold pin-pricks up and down his body like his feet and his hands were falling asleep. At first they tingled just a bit, then the heaviness settled into his muscles, tendons, and bones.

Adam struggled to walk, falling to the floor, he began to crawl towards the stairs. Unable to think or do anything besides move. The sickly feeling crawled up his thighs and slid down to his elbows as he inched to the guest room on his hands and knees.
 
The only way he could move was by crawling.
 
He crawled past the door to the guest room which was now closed. Adam could hear a buzzing sound like an electric beehive sat a few feet away. He also heard hushed voices. It sounded like someone was inside, if he could stand and knock he could cry for help. However, even he knew that was impossible. There was still that strange buzzing sound; it was odd, different, but less important than getting away.
 
Something told him to keep crawling, to keep moving away from the danger. A survival instinct that was more attuned with nature than he was. So he did. All the way to the edge of the stairs, he grabbed at the railing to sling himself down to the first floor. That's when things went dark.

[Pierry Louys]

Wow that was intense 

[kerry]

OK, this has now entered the Twilight Zone for real! ? I like it!

[Mugi]

This story just took a sharp turn and became ABDL horror ? I like it!

[direking]

Thanks for the comments. I don’t know if I’d go as far as calling it ‘horror’, it’s more of a weird, sci-fi mystery. But I’m glad you guys like it.
 

17

The pink bedazzled ceiling fan spun in slow motion above him, the tiny jewels glued along the edge of the blades brightly glowed with captured ambient neon light. He was in the pink room, on the pink bed, and under pink covers, but the familiar was strangely unfamiliar.
 
Overall, it was mostly dark like normal, but a new neon glow emanated from somewhere, or multiple somewheres, inside the room.
 
Adam searched for its source with blurry eyes and yawning mouth. To his surprise, it came from seemingly random objects like a stuffed unicorn, a small box on top of the dresser, certain books in the bookshelf, and the same neon glow snuck out from beneath the closed door to the living room and closet as well. A colorful display danced along the walls and gave the room a swimming feeling somewhat like being inside of an old lava lamp. It came with a floating, bobbing sensation that took some getting used to as he reoriented himself in the bed.
 
The crowned poster on the wall spelled out in bold, glowing letters ‘keep calm and stay diapered’; Adam was pretty sure it didn’t say that before.
 
A bright light shot out from the corner where the costume trunk lay, blinding him with its sudden intensity. It took him a moment to shake it off, but when he sat up, he saw a little girl there.

She looked about the size of a toddler, as given by her diminutive body in a tiny yellow sundress and oversized diaper, and she played in front of the costume box which sat wide open before her. Colorful lights pulsed from inside the trunk; greens, purples, reds, yellows ebbed and flowed without coordination or any pattern at all. The box was weird, but so was the girl.
 
When did Marisa’s baby cousin get here?
 
Adam rationalized that she must have shown up after he fell asleep. He must have crawled down the stairs and into bed after that incident with Marisa. His memory was fuzzy about all of it. Probably because a part of him didn’t want to remember her glowing eyes, or the way she changed into someone else in front of him. Adam didn’t want to consider the idea that Marisa's change would be permanent, or would change the way they were together forever.

Something was wrong with this house, his friends, or both.
 
He watched the girl from the soft embrace of the pink fluffy bed as she pulled various toy dolls from inside the treasure trunk. She stopped for a brief moment, then squatted in a bow legged stance before giving her entire body a wiggle. He was pretty sure he’d just watched her pee herself, that’s probably what the diaper was all about. He decided that he should make his presence known before she did something worse, like a boom boom.
 
“Um. Hey, you must be Marisa’s baby cousin. My name is Adam, when did you get here?”
 
“Hi, Adam! Want to come play with me?” she answered with a refreshingly cheerful voice.
 
The mysterious girl didn’t pull her attention from the doll collection and the pile of doll clothes on the floor around her. She softly hummed to herself as she rocked back and forth, delicately dressing different dolls before putting them at feet.
 
Where had he heard that song before? The strange melody was haunting in a way, even if it came from this pint sized troubadour.
 
Adam stood up from the bed and rubbed his eyes, gave himself a one over. He had on the pajamas he packed, Pikachu featured prominently on his shirt and pajama pants. Also, he wore regular underwear. Finally, all of this madness was over.
 
He felt a little silly sitting down to play with her, but only a little.
 
Adam asked, “So, what are we doing?”
 
She gave him a strange look as if she had to explain the obvious to him.
 
“We’re playing dress-up dollies, pick a doll and dress them the way you want.”
 
Adam couldn’t get over how the girl looked like the spitting image of a tiny Marisa. A younger version with intense radiant eyes, hints of caramel color in her hair, and screamed of ‘high maintenance’. At the same time, he couldn’t shake the fact that she also had an uncanny resemblance to ‘Princess Tinkles’ the pull-up model. Maybe she was both at the same time, or neither, all toddlers look similar when he thought about it.
 
Adam asked, “Which doll is mine?”
 
The little girl pointed to a little boy doll with shaggy brown hair wearing a Pikachu shirt with a pink diaper-looking thing wrapped around its waist.

Adam picked up the doll, stared into its fully lifeless blue eyes, and concluded that it was made of nothing but plastic and glue. That’s what his analytical left side of his brain said, that this was nothing but a plastic doll in a Pikachu shirt and a pink diaper. However, the creative right side of his brain whispered that it was something far more significant.
 
He tried to remove the diaper from the doll, but it wouldn’t budge.
 
“Why can’t I take this off?” He looked to the toddler next to him for an answer.
 
The girl pulled the doll from his hands and looked it over before clicking her tongue.
 
“Oh, it’s almost too late for him,” she answered, “he needs his diaper now.”
 
Her little voice was soft and sweet, confident and assured with its simplicity. It made sense that it was too late, Adam knew as much after she handed the doll back to him. He looked around at the discarded doll clothing strewn about their play space for something to cover the boy doll’s diaper. He ran his hands through the small stack of clothes, there wasn’t a single pair of shorts in the world.

All he could find were more questions. That’s all he had in his head, all he held in his hands. Nothing but unanswered questions.
 
Adam asked, “How do you know that he needs his diaper?”
 
“You can easily see these things when you’ve been around as long as I have; but for you, you’re going to need a mirror, or a photograph. They have a tendency to make people reveal themselves for who they really are.”
 
“I don’t understand.”
 
“There are other ways, but the most convincing is a mirror or photograph. You should know, you’ve seen it for yourself.”
 
Adam hesitated. He remembered something about Marisa in the mirror upstairs. Her eyes. How did this little girl know about mirrors? Her comment about 'photographs' made her suspect as well. That word was way too old for her, just like the rest of her vocabulary.

Just who was this girl?
 
Adam asked, “Can I ask you another question?”
 
“You just did,” she answered frankly.
 
He stopped and shot daggers at her, but she just giggled. She had played him with a bad dad joke, but somehow he knew she had answers. Maybe this clever toddler could shine some light on what the heck was going on.
 
Adam went to open his mouth, but the girl beat him to it.
 
“You want to know what happened in the bathroom, don’t you? I’m not sure you’ll like the answer, do you still want me to tell you?”
 
Adam nodded. “Please, tell me what happened to Marisa.”
 
“Alright, can’t say that I didn’t warn you.” The little girl cleared her throat as she picked up a pair of different girl dolls, evaluating both them under her keen eyes. “Marisa likes to pretend, always pretending to be someone she’s not. Maybe someone else was pretending to be her, or something like her.”

Someone else? That would support his quickly thought up body-snatcher theory. But it opened up a lot of other theories as well.
 
“Someone else? What are you implying?”
 
“Exactly what you think I’m implying. How do you like your dollhouse, Adam?”
 
Dollhouse? Just like the terribly unclear, extremely lack of helpful warnings he saw on the billboard and in the ad in the magazine. He had almost forgotten about them. Of course they would have their part in this turn of events. Then Adam put two and two together.

He jumped to his knees. “You’re the one who sent those messages!”

She sighed the cutest little sigh. “The ones you ignored.”

“In my defense, they were pretty vague,” Adam complained as he returned to a sitting position.
 
“Oh, that sucks. I bet now you wished you paid them more attention.” She put her baby hands on her hips to mock him.

“Hey, I’m trying to understand all of this, but it’s all so confusing,” Adam fretted.
 
“You asked a question and I answered it, what do you want me to do, tell you everything?”
 
“Um. Yes.”
 
“I’m afraid I can’t do that, Adam. The more I say the worse it will get for you. I’m already breaking their rules and putting myself in danger trying to protect you.”

“Protect me from what?”

“Do I need to spell it out for you?” The girl had a hint of teenage sarcasm in her baby voice. “You ask too many questions when you should be listening, but what do I know, I’m just a toddler.”
 
“You sure don’t talk like any toddler I know,”Adam laughed as he put his doll back with the others.
 
“How many toddlers do you know?”
 
“Not many, I guess.”
 
She returned a cute smile that made him want to pinch her cheeks, but his curiosity was piqued, and he needed to know more. So when she curled her little fingers, and made a come hither motion as if to reveal a precious secret, Adam made sure to lean in as close as he could.

“We both know that I’m not really a toddler,” she whispered. “I just look like one. In fact, I’m probably not even real.”

Adam pulled away and shook his head. “I have no idea what’s happening. I mean, how can you be so sure that she was under the control of someone else?”
 
“It’s just a lucky guess,” she joked, “or am I reading your mind like Professor X?”
 
This girl was getting creepier by the moment. She was definitely not a baby cousin. He watched her manipulate a blonde cheerleader doll in her hands and made it sit among a group of others around a table in some sort of miniaturized tea party.
 
The toddler guru was still perfecting the party scene when she asked, “What if I told you there was something that made Marisa act the way she did?”
 
She raised her eyebrow again, putting emphasis on the fact that her question was more of an answer than a question.
 
“Like some alien Entity? Like a body snatcher?” Adam asked.

“Entity… hmmm.”
 
The toddler girl slowly nodded and went back to humming a different haunting tune, one he didn’t recognize. More dollies came out of the multi-colored plasma soup inside the trunk, and the tea party went back inside as a group. It all disappeared into the neon abyss.

Adam felt unsure about everything, he looked around the room, cradled his chest with his arms.
 
“I can tell you’re scared, Adam. Turns out ‘going with the flow’ doesn’t put you in control of anything, does it?”
 
Whatever happens, happens. Just go with the flow. He'd put himself into this mess, and he'd have to find a way to get out. The fact did cross his mind that he didn't know what mess he'd put himself into, or he didn't have a single plan to get out, or what that even meant at this point. The nameless girl had a way pointing out the obvious, even if he was oblivious to the fact.
 
“Well, I wouldn’t know much about that,” Adam asserted as he scratched his head. “Come on. You're just a little kid, how do you know all of these things?"
 
“I’m the baby that never grows up, and I’ve been here awhile, you’re the one that’s a newbie around these parts, but you know it as well as I do, you’re in deep trouble, mister.”
 
She wagged the cutest little finger at him.
 
The idea that he was in dreamspace filtered in at this point. It would explain the slow spinning fan, the ambient neon light, the fact that he was wearing normal clothes and not the outfit that his three captors tricked him into wearing.
 
Adam asked, "Is this a dream?"
 
The girl giggled and wiggled, she seemed delighted in his realization.
 
"Do you think that it matters? It didn't for me."

Adam sighed. The girl dodged questions like a politician.
 
"Listen, Adam,” she scolded him. “I wouldn't worry as much about me as I would about fixing you. I'm just a dream after all, I will disappear as soon as you wake up. You’re the one that’s going to have to deal with the consequences.”
 
“I guess you’re right.” Adam rubbed his hands up and down his pants leg, trying to make everything feel more real. He thought about the real world and the events of the lake house. “But how do I go about fixing this?”
 
“Only when you reveal people for who they really are will you be able to bring them back. It’s really up to the person themselves, but no change can come without an understanding. It’s up to you to make the changes needed to avoid needing changes. You know the type I'm talking about."
 
Diaper changes. He knew it as soon as she said it. The boy doll needed his diapers, the one who looked like him 'needed' them. There had to be a way to reverse the course of the weekend, and turn things back to normal. Then there was that ‘Entity’ thing, and there was also Marisa.
 
“What about my friend, Marisa? Is she going to be okay?”
 
“I don’t know if I’d call her a friend, but she will be fine. As long as you have what it takes to stand up for yourself.”
 
“So, we’re screwed then,” Adam mused. It was good run, but it looked like his life was over.  
 
“You still have time to figure that out, and I hope you do, for your sake. We’d better hurry and get you back, the longer you stay here, the worse it will be for both you and me. I’ve already risked enough just sending you those warnings, they noticed.”
 
The girl held his doll in her tiny hands, like an ancient idol, or a cherished keepsake. He noticed a twinkle in her eye that he hadn’t before. A sparkle of intelligence, of caring, empathy, and understanding. Also, a tiny pink glow.
 
“I like you, Adam. I wish you the best, but if I stick around any longer they’re going to find me. I don’t want that to happen, I was in their hands for long enough.” 
 
His time was almost up, but he had so many more questions. 
 
Unfortunately, the air in the room had already begun to change, like it became tight and stale, preparing to get sucked away by a cosmic vacuum attached to the room. A deafening white noise filled the air, its volume painful and disorienting. A tornado of toys, books, and stuffies started swirling around the room. It formed a strange ring that circled them, they were safe where they sat in the middle of the chaos. Adam assumed that things on the ground would stay there, but the room had other plans, lifting the bed from the floor, and adding it the circling flotsam and jetsam.

This reality was quickly spinning around the drain, soon to be gone forever. Adam began to panic, but the little girl barely noticed the strange sensation of the world coming to an end.
 
“Do you have any more advice?” He was almost yelling over the escalating noise of the room that was about to pop.
 
“Pay attention to time.” She put his doll back into the box. Strong winds ripped at her hair, but she remained calm as ever with her toys. “Time is always constant but will sometimes feel relative. It’s important to pay attention to how much you miss as much as how much you notice.”
 
Adam shook his head. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
 
“You’ll know when you experience it.”
 
He screamed over the gathering maelstrom. “But I don’t understand!”
 
“Bye-bye Adam, it was fun. I hope I don't see you again."
 
The fan above them shook in the ceiling, spinning fast enough to shatter the air like a helicopter, the chopping sound was too loud to hear anything else and made the ambient neon light swim. The room circled in a whirlpool for just a moment longer, and he watched her smile fade as it all became a string of colorful lights that quickly disappeared.

[direking]

18
 
He wasn’t alone in the pink room, that was the first thing he noticed. The second, the not-so-subtle rummaging sounds that came from behind the closet door.
 
Everything felt sweaty hot and clammy cold, and it all hurt. It was too painful to open his eyes, too painful to twist his neck, even wiggling his fingers sent shockwaves through him. It was all pain. A pain whose cause was as unknown as its duration uncertain. His fat, bloated tongue squatted inside his desert of a mouth, it probably would hurt to talk, the noise of his inner monologue gave him a headache.
 
Despite the pain, there was a renewed sense of clarity now that he was on the real bed inside the real pink room; the one without the trippy neon glow, the slow motion fan, or the frightfully wise toddler with a doll addiction.
 
Reality hurts, that's what is most real about it.
 
The room was pitch black except for a sliver of light that snuck out from beneath the shut closet door. There were more noises from inside, the clanging of colliding hangers and even louder rustling of the plastic wrappers that protected the clothes. He was certain someone was in the closet, just who was it?
 
His question was quickly answered as the door flew open.
 
Charity posed dramatically in an undersized cheerleading costume, a sexy silhouette that was mostly a shadow amidst the blinding bright light.
 
The uniform didn't exactly fit, she was far too curvy for her clothing, but it didn't exactly look bad on her either. Her midriff was fully exposed, her C-cups runneth over the tight top, and the tiny skirt barely covered her panties. Charity looked amused to see that Adam was awake, she leaned against the door frame and brought a bottle of whatever to her lips and grinned a funny little grin.
 
"Hey kiddo, how'd you enjoy your nap?"
 
His lips stuck together for a moment and he let out a weak cough, but that didn’t stop him from asking, “What in the world are you wearing?”
 
“Just one of Marisa’s old uniforms, way back in the JV days when she was still a part of the squad.” Charity twirled in a circle making the short skirt flare. “How do I look?”
 
Adam had to admit to himself that she did look good, but that wasn’t as forefront on his mind as it should’ve been. He had no idea what was going on, he had questions, his body hurt and he was confused. This time by something more than just girls, by time and space itself.
 
"What time is it?" His voice sounded like it belonged to a frog.
 
"Time for your reward, silly!"
 
The cheerleader swaggered and sashayed his direction, her hips moved from side to side like a metronome, finally coming to a stop at the edge of the bed. Then she lifted the bottle and chugged it down before tossing it across the room. Adam prayed that the thing wasn't glass and wouldn't shatter everywhere.
 
It wasn't and it didn't, but now Charity was in his personal space again. He had too much of a headache to put up with her, but it looked like he had little choice as she climbed on top and straddled him. Adam just laid there paralyzed, if he stayed still enough she would get the message, right? It didn't look like it. She kissed down his neck like earlier that afternoon. Her breath smelled strongly of strawberries and something else, something that was sickly sweet and permeating everything. Just like the taste in his arid mouth.
 
As soon as she started, she stopped, and rose up from his waist.
 
"Try to remember that you want this, I'm not into dead fish, kiddo. Would it kill you to at least act more excited?"
 
Adam didn’t say any words, he just moaned or grunted in some sort of response. He wasn't even sure what to say in this situation so he reverted back to the caveman talk that got him here in the first place.
 
Charity snuck a hand under the covers, fishing its way between his legs, and into his pull-up covered no-no zone. She teased with her touch. Her hand crawled down his stomach, then skipped up his thigh, and she squeezed his pull up with a pair of fingers. Which felt tight and cold. Damp. Soggy. He actually felt soggy, he'd never felt that way before. Soggy and sticky.
 
Actually, he had felt that way before, earlier that day he felt it twice, but it felt so foreign to him it was hard to remember the feeling.

Adam had wet himself again, and that just wasn't like him at all. He was making a habit of this, and it reminded him of what the girl said to him in his dream, how he'd need changes if he didn't make changes. 

He groaned. 

It made sense that he'd had an accident, it figured into the delightful equation, the culmination of a terrible day, and the exclamation point on an equally disturbing night.
 
“Why do I feel like crap?” he asked as he futilely pulled her arm away from his soggy crotch, she knew what she knew already.
 
“You’re probably a bit hung over, you went a little too wild again, and chugging down that sippy cup probably didn’t do you any favors.”
 
“What do you mean I chugged it down? I didn’t even touch the thing, I went straight to bed after Marisa and I — ”
 
He didn’t remember after ‘Marisa and I —‘ it was impossible to finish the sentence let alone the thought. There was a weird neon interlude between the past and present. What was going on here?
 
“Slow down there, cowboy. You’re missing a few pieces of the puzzle after your smoochfest with Mars, so let me help you out. The two of you came downstairs holding hands like a pair of blushing newly weds. We hung out for like another hour before we had to call it an early night after the newbies ‘nervous’ drank themselves into an early bedtime. I just got done checking in on Katie, who’s in a lot worse shape than you.”
 
“I don’t remember that at all!” Adam exclaimed so loud that it hurt his head.
 
“Dude, relax. Simmer down. We’ve all been there, buddy. I’m not going to pretend to lecture you on the wild nights and regretful mornings thing, I’m not your mom. Even though I’d say I’d make a good one.”
 
Adam rubbed his aching temples with both hands, the sides of his head were having a competition for attention, screaming out in pain and dampening every thought he had. Charity would have to spell things out if she wanted him to understand.
 
Adam stopped and raised a concerned eyebrow. “What do you mean by ‘good one’?”
 
“You know, someone to take care of you. I feel like we share a special connection, you and I. You’re a cool kid, you deserve better than Katie or Marisa.”
 
Great, now Charity was acting strange, too. However, there was little he could do about it. She was already on top of him, and he wasn’t feeling the best, and he wasn’t even sure if she was ‘corrupted’ like Marisa. There were no mirrors or ‘photographs’ in sight, he’d have to consider that she was crazy; which was easy because Charity was always kinda crazy. A sexy crazy, but still crazy.
 
“Alright, um... So why are you in my room?” Adam wondered aloud.
 
“I’m just checking in on you, do you want me to leave or something? I thought we could have a little fun, but I can make like a banana if that’s what you want.”
 
Make like a banana? And split. Like his splitting headache.
 
“I don’t feel good enough to have any ‘fun’," Adam complained with tightly shut eyes. "I've never been hungover before, when is it supposed to go away?"
 
“I’ve found that it helps to have someone take care of you, speeds up the recovery time, and gets you back to normal faster.”
 
There didn’t seem to be any normal right now, even the idea of any normalcy sounded pretty silly at this point, but if back to normal meant getting rid of this skull-crushing headache, he was all for it. He needed her help, he didn't want to lay there and just hope that everything would feel better; however, it was a risk asking her for anything, she could be under the same spell as Marisa. He had to assume that she was normal, he'd have to find out one way or another.
 
“Can you take care of me, or something?” Adam asked.
 
The request sounded innocent in his head, almost too innocent, but he felt the danger as soon as the words came from his mouth. Charity happily bounced on top of him, his belly squished and sloshed under her weight. It was less fun to be the horse in horsey, but that's what was happening here.
 
“You really mean it? I mean, of course I’m the one to see you through. You just wait here until I get some things first, I'll be back in a jiffy."
 
Charity scrambled off of him and practically skipped out the door.
 
Adam wondered if he did the right thing asking for her help, he licked his dry lips and covered his face with both of his arms. Why couldn't he remember anything? It sorta made sense to forget since he was supposedly drinking, but he figured that blackout drunk meant recalling bits and pieces of a wild night; there was nothing in his head besides a giant black space and a visit to a crazy dream world with neon lights.
 
There had to be something that he could do to jog his memory, maybe ask more questions, or maybe it'd come back to him later. It bothered him more than it should, it bothered him alot.
 
In time he had to wait, he didn’t know what to do with himself. He crossed his arms against his chest, then he slid them behind his head, then he leaned to his side and propped his aching head on a bent elbow. How does a guy wait for a girl to come ‘take care of him’? Adam at least wanted to look cool or whatever, this was Charity after all. The cloudiness faded away with each passing moment. He’d settled on crossing his arms behind his head by the time Charity returned, the ‘imaginary hammock lounging, laid-back look’ won out.
 
Charity had barely finished knocking before she barged into the room. Adam wondered why she bothered to knock if she was going inside anyways, but that was besides the point. What was on the point was what she carried inside.
 
There was a colorful bag slung over her shoulder, the size of a fat tote, like the kind environmentalists bring to the grocery store. However, this bag was thicker, made of different materials and zippers and designs all over it, Adam couldn't quite make out the entire thing in the darkness. As she got closer, the designs became clearer, it was covered in multicolored butterflies, like a good LSD trip. If he didn’t know any better, it kind of looked like a diaper bag. Charity carefully slid it to the floor, just out of his sight, as she knelt beside his bed.
 
Adam pointed in the direction of the offending bag. “What’s that?”
 
“A bag, what do you think it is?”
 
“What kind of bag is it?”
 
“A bag of stuff to take care of you,” Charity answered with a hint of frustration. “Listen, are you going to let me help you, or are we going to play twenty questions for the rest of the night? I can go my merry way, and you can be barfing in a bucket all day tomorrow. My advice is to hydrate up now, and start your recovery before the nausea gets out of hand. So do you want my help or not?”
 
“I do but …”
 
“I don’t care about any butts except yours,” Charity interrupted.
 
That was nice to know. Adam eased back into the bed as she worked her way through a pair of zippers. He didn’t dare look at the thing, it was a diaper bag. That was certain. What was uncertain was where it came from, and if it was for him like the package of diapers that were meant as a joke. No one was laughing now, especially Adam.
 
Charity offered him a plastic bottle.
 
“Here, drink this, it will help a whole lot.”
 
He looked at the bottle, Pedialyte. He quickly snatched it from her hands and brought it to his lips. Charity was nice enough to already have taken the lid off. He sipped at it, unsure of how much this would anger his grumpy stomach. It was berry flavored, sweet and sticky like the taste in his mouth, but he almost instantly felt much better. She gave him three small pills which he assumed was for the headache which he was happy to take without hesitation.
 
Charity hesitated, squarely stopped in her tracks.
 
“We’re going to need to talk about the next part. But first, I want you to promise to not get angry.”
 
He wasn’t going to promise anything. He was going to sip the Pedialyte until he felt good enough to fall asleep. That's all he wanted, to feel better and be left alone, but what he wanted seemed less and less important as time went on, any relief from degradations he had suffered would be on pause as well. However, it felt like it was almost time for a final one, even if he held out all weekend and avoided the seemingly 'empty threats', it was still coming, and Adam was certain there was more in that bag that had his name on it.
 
“We’re going to need to take off that soggy pull-up and replace it with something else. Before you get all huffy, you’d better stop to hear me out. Are you listening?"
 
Adam nodded. Here it was.
 
"So, just as a precaution, I've brought you some diapers to change into. How do you feel about that?"
 
Miserable, that's how he felt about it.
 
"What about the pull-ups?" Adam protested as he sat up on the bed.
 
“Those are locked away in Marisa’s room," Charity explained. "I could wake her up and get in there, but would you want her to know you had a fourth accident today?”
 
“A fourth?”
 
"That's right, you don't remember truth or dare.” Charity tapped a ponderous index finger against her chin. “At the end of the game, you totally stood up and yelled something like 'watch this', and you peed yourself in front of everyone. We were all dying laughing until your pull-up leaked. You don't have any stage fright at all, my dude."
 
“That’s impossible! I’d never do that!”
 
Adam was horrified about what he supposedly did. This wasn’t fair; this wasn’t like him at all. He’d never stand up and proudly pee in front of these girls, he would find a corner or something to hide his accident. Wait a minute, it was that line of thought that got him into this trouble to begin with, he was not a pants wetter until this weekend. There had to be a way to prove this to the other girls, to set the record straight and reverse the course; to make the changes to avoid needing changes.
 
"Don't you think it's kind of a big leap there?" Adam fought for control. "I mean, jumping from pull-ups to diapers is —"
 
"— I think it's normal when people have accidents, like you've had accidents. Is that your best argument? That you're not having these accidents, especially when I saw you have one with my own eyes and cleaned up your pee from the rug. Fingers crossed that baby won't stain."
 
"I just don't remember," Adam muttered to himself.
 
"You remember the other ones, like wetting the bed last night and the accident out in the woods. That would be enough for most people to beg for pants protection. You're so hung up on not remembering that you're not seeing what's really going on. Face it kid, you blacked out. It happens to the best of us, no need to feel down on yourself."
 
He had to see around this, find a reason for why things were going wrong. If he knew for a fact that he didn’t drink anything before he passed out, then his black out didn’t come from the alcohol but from something else.
 
This was perplexing.
 
He wanted to take a shower, those helped him think, but he didn’t want to say anything to Charity. There was more to unraveling this mystery, and she was firmly planted in the 'no man's land' of the ‘trust war’ right now.
 
“What’s it going to be?” Charity waited for his response after giving the ultimatum.
 
“I don’t want to wear diapers,” Adam protested.
 
“I know you feel all embarrassed and everything, like this is some sort of big deal; but let’s face it, it’s not a big deal. It’s only you and me, no one else will know about this. And I mean NO ONE. I know how to keep a secret. Besides, I can make this easier for you to adjust if you want me to, you'll find I can be persuasive and fun at the same time."
 
"I'm not going to wear — I don't need them," Adam pouted.
 
"Kiddo, when are you going to just listen? At what point do you quiet yourself, silence all of that doubt and contempt for women, and just realize that we're trying to do what is best for you? Not us, you! Do you actually think we planned on putting you in diapers, having to wash your sheets and clothes, and wipe your little bottom? No. So what is keeping you from doing what we ask? I'd like to know."
 
The silence in the room was deafening, thankfully his headache was waning away. Just like he was. He didn’t have an answer.
 
There comes a time when the fight just gives out. It requires no explanation or reason, like when the legs are too tired to take another step they stop walking, no matter how much you will them to move. The paper house that was his integrity, or whatever a man has that doesn't make him a toy, the paper house folded and fell without a final word. In conventional warfare, surrender comes in the form of a white flag; for Adam, it came in the form of a white diaper. Except it wasn’t just white, it had pastel designs all over it, although they were currently invisible in the dark, but the white diaper practically glowed in her hands.
 
Adam didn't say anything. He'd already said all he wanted to say on the matter, 'no diapers' meant 'no diapers'. This wasn't worth arguing about any longer, even the idea that he could change himself into a diaper wouldn't fly. He knew that already.
 
His passivity would have to become his ace in the hole. Adam debated internally about how much further he could extend the leash, stringing out the attack on his adulthood until they gave up. There was no end in sight, and he knew that he would have to give in before they gave up.
 
Still, there was the desire to fight back, but he would have to understand how to fight first. Who or what were they? If he could believe his dream, there was something beyond just the girls at play. Something secret and sinister. He'd have to find that out. The next would be to counter them/it/whatever. Adam would plan. He would give in, then plan, and as Charity peeled away the blankets covering him, he already plotted his escape. He would lie, wait, pretend, then strike.
 
Adam looked deep into her eyes, there wasn't a hint of red glow there, but real life was hardly a mirror, there was no reflection to help him understand. He reluctantly gave her permission to diaper him with a curt nod. He'd come to the end of his line, too tired to fight any longer.
 
"I can't believe that I'm going to put you in diapers first," Charity whispered excitedly to herself.
 
Yeah, she wasn't actually the first, Charity probably didn't know about Katie and the after the bath fiasco. Or maybe she did, because Marisa knew enough about what happened so it wasn't exactly a secret. Yet, Marisa only knew the lies that Katie told her, or did Katie tell her lies at all? Maybe Marisa made up everything about that, and if she was lying to him then, she'd be lying to him in the future.
 
A torrent of betrayals played out in his mind, he welcomed the distraction from the diapering he was about to receive.
 
Charity took a firm grip around his ankles, then pulled him sideways until he was perpendicular to the bed, the cheerleader kneeled down at his feet. When he was in position she went through the bag again. Out came a plastic package of wet wipes with HUGGIES spelled out in red all caps, he'd now graduated to name brands. Last but not least, was a familiar small bottle of baby oil.
 
She slightly hesitated before she hooked her finger inside the damp pull-up and ripped it away after a couple of pulls. She'd already seen his naked balls before, and it didn't phase her at all to see them again. The air was filled with the sounds of ripping plastic, opening of various packages, and of his heavy breathing.
 
Charity warned, "This might feel kind of cold." 
 
The wipe was cold. She started wiping up his inner thighs, Adam couldn't help but squirm from the sensation. The next wipe went across his recently shaved pubic area, then swept down over him which was ticklish and made him feel good and clean. 

Charity gave him a cheeky look, and grabbed another from the package and wrapped it around his now hardening dick. Adam tried to think of anything or everything that would stop him from getting aroused, it didn't work before and it didn't work now. Charity cleaned, squeezed, and tightened her grip around him. She was enjoying this immensely.
 
"I'm going to need you to lift your butt, grab your knees and spread'em, kiddo."
 
Lost in his thoughts on how to resist, Adam played along. He pulled his legs up and aside, his butt was now in her sight. Adam thought it would help to close his eyes, like it would make this all go away, like a toddler playing peek-a-boo with the universe.
 
There were a few more wipes, but they were much like the first, cold and clean but refreshing, if a crotch could feel refreshed.
 
This diapering was different than with Katie, that was a joke, a prank, teenage hijinks that went a tad bit too far. The diaper now in the hand of Charity was altogether a whole nother beast. It was something that he needed, as was confirmed by diaper Yoda in the dreamscape.
 
Adam was the doll, and the doll became Adam.
 
All metaphorical in a sense, easy enough to dismiss in reality, but here he was in the midst of a diaper change for wetting his pull-up. An equally cold wipe crawled up his cracked unceremoniously, the violation caused his whole body to tighten and pull away, much to the amusement of Charity. What was she expecting to clean from there? Oh, Jeez.
 
"You've been such a trooper, Adam," she said as she discarded all of the used wipes off camera. "You're probably going to like this more than the wipes."
 
Adam almost immediately recognized the smell of baby oil. The bottle made a blurbing sound as Charity squirted a massive dollap into one palm and began rubbing her hands together like she was warming over a campfire. He looked up at her as she rubbed through his no-no zone, he reacted the way he did before. There was no denying that it felt good, great even.
 
Although the circumstances weren't his idea of arousing, Adam was aroused, which also made Charity smile. The cat finally had the canary in front of her, she comically licked her lips like in the Saturday morning cartoons he watched when he was little.
 
"Now for the diaper."
 
It took her a few tries to get it facing the right way, the plastic backed pants protector rustled in her hands before she unleashed its true form with a loud pop. He had to help her put it on him, he scrambled and pulled his hips off the bed as it closed in on its approach, the diaper slid under him without much fuss.
 
Charity had to lean over him to tape him, he got a nice view of her rack as she did, and was honestly unapologetic about the whole thing. RIP, RIP, tape down and tape down. The cheerleader smoothly ran her hand over the front of the diaper, then gave it a playful shake.
 
This entire time Adam expected a visit from the churning pit inside of him, but it never came. The same could be said about the burning heat in his chest, the fire that came alive when he got angry now seemed long burned out. The burning word 'animosity' was replaced by ‘acceptance’ spelled out in Times New Roman. He was numb to all of it, and that made him feel ashamed, but not enough to blot out the numbness.
 
"Now let's have some fun, little one." Charity ran a finger down his cheek, then curled it under his chin.
 
Adam knew that he was hers at that point, there was no denying it any longer. He would bend and break for her all night if she wanted. Something inside told him that he should have felt differently about this, he promised himself that he would not give in, but he crossed so many lines that he drew in the sand.
 
All of it was numb.
 
His fighting soul was entirely cold and calloused, dazed and deadened, a gum chewed too long that had now lost its flavor. Even his headache was completely gone. As he looked at her, and she looked back at him like he was a new toy, an understanding developed inside his mind.
 
Finally, something made him feel alive.