6.) A New Rule

I'd learned a few things that day. One, most kids at college didn't care what I wore. Not a single person asked about the pacifier other than Meg. Two, no one could see or hear Bailey as she followed me around all day. I didn't understand that, since she was clearly visible to Meg the other night. And three, the effects Bailey was having on me were a lot more dire than I'd feared. Already, I'd leaked through the diaper and little drops of shame trickled down my tights.

"I think you sat in something?" That came from a girl in Pippy's class named Genie; she was sweet and punky with green hair and enough metal in her face that she would always have trouble with the TSA. But her tone was cute and she sounded almost apologetic when she approached Pippy outside the lecture hall. "Your bums all wet, I mean. That dress is really cute and it would suck if it was ruined 'cuz some assbutt left Coke on the chair."

"R-right... yeah..."

"Tell her the truth,” Bailey said. “That your diaper leaked. That you're a little girl."

"I'm not a little girl!" Genie stared at me with shock, totally taken aback. I felt my cheeks burn as I looked down at the pacifier around my neck. "I... I gotta go," I muttered, heading home and leaving Genie alone and confused.

"Shame. You're ashamed. You're ashamed of me, I knew that you were. I own you, I possess you, I'm everything to you and you offer only shame in return." I didn't like to taunt her, but at the same time, each little bit of resistance only sunk her deeper into my enthrallment.

“Just leave me alone!”

She wanted me to leave? Hm. I wondered how that comment would sit with her if I actually did..

* * * * *

I went to the club that night, but she wasn't there. The next day at school, she wasn’t following me around either. I had two more comments on my pacifier and I had to start going home for diaper changes mid-day to keep from leaking. The weekend came and went, but every night at the bar, Bailey didn't show up. Had I hurt her feelings? What did I do wrong? I told her to leave me alone... had she taken me seriously? I couldn't stop thinking about her...

I sucked quietly on the pacifier in my room, staring at the sodden diaper with profound humiliation. I did that, I reminded myself. I couldn't help it. Bailey was sapping my maturity and I couldn't stop her. Tears dripped down my cheeks. It was so easy to cry nowadays. I just wanted her to give it all back... I wanted my maturity back! But more than that, I wanted her. She was like a drug...

"I'm gonna be out tonight," Meg spoke from the doorway to her best friends room. "Maybe until like... maybe two? I've got a date, isn't that cool? Maybe we can double date one day." Fat chance, though, Meg mused, because Bailey was creepy as shit.

I ran up to Meg and wrapped my arms around her, pushing my face into her neck. I couldn't stop crying. I missed Bailey so much. I missed everything about her. And I felt so guilty for feeling ashamed of her today. I didn't know who else to turn to... I didn't know what else to do.

Whatever Meg was expecting, it definitely wasn't that; Pippy wasn't the kind of handsy, overly affectionate friend, or well… she hadn't been. Things were definitely different now. Pippy wept into her neck and all Meg could really do was to cuddle her gently in her arms. "Hey now, what's all this about?"

"I miss her! I miss her and I'm so mad at her, and I just wanna cuddle up in her arms, but she keeps treating me like..." I blushed furiously and shook my head. I couldn't explain any of this. The feelings were so contradicting. I kept demanding she treat me like an adult, but all I wanted was for her to treat me like her property. Like I belonged to her. She owned me. This was all her stupid fault...

"What's she keep treating you like?" Meg didn't actually need an answer though, because she kinda already knew. "I mean if she's treating you some certain way and you don't like it, then tell her; but if you do like it, maybe you should just enjoy it? I don't know Pippy; I know you get in your own way a lot. Remember when you wanted to be a cheerleader but you told yourself how you shouldn't, and then you know what happened? You never even tried out."

I looked up at Meg with wet eyes and shook my head, wiping my face with my sleeves. How was I supposed to explain it? How could I tell her the truth? The extent of what Bailey was doing to me? I couldn't. I could only do one thing. I lifted up my nightie and flashed my best friend the diaper I had only recently changed into. I couldn't make eye contact...

Well. Huh. That was weird. In retrospect, it shouldn't have been quite such a surprise, given the bizarre interests that Bailey seemed to have, or at least the influence over her best friend. But this wasn't just 'haha wear this to embarrass you prank' material; this was planned. This was a crisp, colorful, perfectly practiced tapes diaper with the scent of baby powder. Meg didn't really know what to say to that. "Wow."

"She keeps doing this, and I'm so angry at her, but I just... I..." I blushed furiously and shook my head. Even thinking about saying it was so humiliating! But it was true, wasn't it...? "I... I like it. I like how she treats me. No one has ever treated me so... so special. But when I see her and I just wanna start fights! Why am I doing that?!"

There was a lot to process here, but Meg knew enough about her best friend to offer something up: "It's the cheerleader thing all over again. You're into this pervy thing she introduced you to. You like it, but you think you shouldn't like it, so you're causing trouble and dying on a hill you don't even believe in.” Meg didn’t like Bailey at all, but she wanted her best friend to be happy.

"I'm still mad at her," I said flatly, like her speech hadn't helped me at all. It did. It meant a lot that she was so understanding and willing to help. But the idea of just "letting her do whatever she wanted" didn't sit with me. Like I had to be mad. Like it was my only choice. Wasn't it? She took my freedom. She took my maturity. Of course I was mad! Even if I was happy, I was still mad. Right?

"Then be mad at her. Break up with her. Or shout at her. Or tell her that you're not a little baby and you're not going to wear diapers. I don't know dude, you do you. But just remember that you're always getting in your own fucking way. You might never have talked to her at all if you didn’t go with me to the club. And how much would that have sucked? You're your own worst enemy." Meg kissed her best friend on the forehead. "So be pissy, just be sure what you're pissy about. I gotta go.”

Meg went on her date and I sat quietly in the house. I worried that showing her my diaper might have sparked the memory of us on the rooftop, when I wet myself, when Bailey drank my blood. But it seemed Bailey’s secret was still safe, even if mine was out in the open.

* * * * *

Here’s the thing: I had other thralls. She didn't have another me. Her attitude, her bratty resilience; it was cute, it was charming, it was fun. But it didn't satisfy me the same way that blind devotion did, and I needed a little of the latter if I was going to continue to work on Pippy's former. So I gave her a few days - I went out of town, to parties with some other thralls I had, and I left Pippy time to stew in her resistance. By the time I got back - four days later - I knew that even with her obstinance, my reappearance would be potent. She was walking home from the club, sucking her pacifier, when I stepped out of the alley.

"Where the hell have you been?!" I tore the pacifier from my lips and stormed up to her with frustration all over my face. "You can't just leave me like that, you asshole! You can't just bite me and change me and abandon me!” This was the time when any other girl would break down crying and apologize. But although tears dripped down my cheeks, I wasn't apologizing. I was starting another fight. And Bailey was just... bewildered by that.

"Are you done?" Done with her tantrum, I meant. My crossed arms showed that I wasn't impressed by her or by this behavior. She was burning red and I was looking for pink. "If I didn't know better, Pippy, I'd say that you were the Mistress, the Mommy, the Owner of pretty little thralls, and not the baby doll in a soaking wet diaper, aching for a kiss and release, begging to be taught her next new trick."

Her words stung. They tugged at a part deep inside my chest. I looked up at her with a nervous frown and I felt a blush take over my cheeks. Stupid woman and her stupid words... "I'm not your toy. You can't just walk into my life and walk out, you jerk!" Bailey wasn't used to this kind of resistance.

"No, that's true. I could just leave forever, leave you knowing that the last time you ever felt the joy of my kiss was years and years ago, leave you empty and needing, lacking, wanting. I could leaving you a spoiled doll without an owner.” I could see the way the words cut at her, though, and I realized something... I didn't want to do that to her. And it pissed me off that I didn't want to, because right now she deserved it. I sighed. "Yet a part of me finds your resistance, your resilience... charming. It won't last forever, but while it's here I admit a certain... interest."

She took a step toward me and I took a step back. I didn't know it at the time, but no one had done that before. After four days without her, I should have been running into her arms. But I wasn't. My emotions were more important - or at least as important - as her. She saw that. "What do you mean... interest? What's charming?"

"You should be completely enthralled by now. You should be unable to move, you should need my contact, my touch, my presence, my approval. More than eating, more than sleeping, more than breathing, you should need me. And you don't." Well, I'm sure she did, but her stubbornness was still winning out. "You're wearing diapers full time, you wear your pacifier everywhere. When I want you to take the next step you will. But all that is active. Passively, you shouldn't be able to stop thinking of me."

I thought about her all the time. Literally all the time. It was devastating. The more I thought of her, the more childish I became. The more maturity I gave up. Already, I had lost complete control of my bladder. I could hardly tell when I wet anymore. Diapers were necessary. They were for her. But she didn't know that. I liked that she didn't know all the things I did for her. I wanted them to be a secret. So I grinned. "Looks like I beat you at your own game, huh?"

"Or you wrote a new rule." I smirked and put my hand on her cheek. I didn't use it to get my way, I didn't use this to manipulate her - I put my teeth to her neck and I gave her what might have been the longest kiss I'd ever given someone. I drank from her, I absorbed her, I fed on her defiance and her brattiness, and I gave her euphoria as a reward for the new rule she'd made. Her following my will was inevitable, obvious, but the taste of her blood when we went so long between feedings, flavored with her stubborn reluctance to obey... it was intoxicating, too. For the first time, I could have it both ways.