24.)

"Helloooooooo~"

Blossom called out as she stepped into the living room of the beach house, hands loaded down with paper bags of Indian food. She kicked the door closed behind her with one foot, and then walked to the kitchen island to put the food down. She'd seen the car out front - the one she presumed belonged to, or was being borrowed by, Amanda, so she figured she was here. Probably upstairs. Blossom listened for a callback, a "I'll be right down" or something of the sort, but dead silence hung in the air. So Blossom kicked off her sandals and went upstairs to look for Mia. Amanda. Amandia? Amy? Oh, Amy was cute.

A knock at the door roused me. I had been writing for hours, and I just stopped for a moment to close my eyes. I hadn't been sleeping great recently, and being Little always made me feel so comfortable. It took me a second to remember where I was - what I was wearing - and it was about one second longer than Blossom had patience. She opened the door to the bedroom and I immediately tugged the blanket up to my neck. My laptop toppled off my lap, slammed shut, and slid to the floor with a hopefully-not-too-destructive clamor.

"Oh no! Your computer!"

Blossom rushed over to the bedside and picked up the fallen device, looking at it from a couple different angles for damage before offering it apologetically back to Amanda.

"I didn't mean to startle you, I hope your computer is okay…"

"I-it's fine..." I had the covers pulled tightly to my neck and my face felt hot. Everything felt a little far away, like I wasn't fully awake. "You can just put it down wherever... I'll be right down."

"Okaaayyyy, I got Indian for dinner. I didn't know what you liked with spice and stuff so I got a few things. Anything you don't like, I'll eat."

There was a pause for a moment and Blossom bit her lip because all the pieces were starting to add up. Flushed cheeks. Blanket pulled up tight like she was hiding something. Surprise and tension when Blossom had entered the room; she wasn't an idiot. So with a careful thought of deliberation, she casually dropped her conclusion.

"You can leave your diaper on when you come down~"

And she winked playfully and turned to leave the room.

"I... I'm not...!"

Blossom left and I sat dumbfounded on the bed. When I was sure she was gone, I lowered the blanket and rubbed my eyes. Ugh, I couldn't believe she walked in like that...

Then I remembered my laptop. I hurried to the edge of the bed and grabbed it from where Blossom set it down, opening it up. The screen... turned on. No cracks. I typed in my password. Academy A came up first thing. I let out a deep sigh of relief and hit save.

If it had broken, I don't know what I would have done. I didn't have money to get it fixed. I'd probably have to get Blossom to do it... it was her fault anyway! Walking into the room like that... or maybe she would use it against me.

"Sure, I'll fix your laptop. I know how important your story is for you. All you have to do is one thing for me..."

And then my mind transitioned into the line she told me in real life.

"You can leave your diaper on when you come down."

People don't say that, Blossom! That's something you say in stories!

I'd never been in the same room as someone else when I was wearing a diaper, and now she wanted me to go walk around in one? Of course not! Obviously the answer was to get changed. Obviously I was supposed to just pretend none of this ever happened.

But the way she smiled... it was like out of a story, it really was. The smirk. The knowing glances. I bit my lip. I couldn't...

She didn't tell me to leave it on! She said 'you can leave it on'. Right? Yeah, for sure. I remember that. It wasn't a demand. If I didn't wear it downstairs, she wouldn't even push the issue.

But she knew. We both knew she knew. I could lie and pretend, but we both knew. And she'd seen me. Sure, she hadn't seen... it. But she wasn't going to see it anyway! I was going to put on pants!

So what was the big deal?

The big deal was walking around in front of my high school bully in a diaper!

But she's not my high school bully anymore. She knew my name. She looked it up. She wanted to be friends.

Just for Academy Works.

But so what? Wasn't that cool? Having someone that wanted to read my stuff? Who roleplayed a scene from my own stories with me? And someone who knew... someone who understood...

Or was it a game? A trick?

No, the needle of reason had tilted the other way. She was going too far for this to just be a way to humiliate me.

So then what was I supposed to do? Change. Obviously change.

Or...

I knew I'd regret it. Of course I would! But fine, so what. She humiliates me. She takes pictures or something and shows her friends. Everyone calls me a pedophile or something. So what? So I drop out of school and live with my mom for the rest of my life.

Unless someone tells my mom.

...ouch. That one hurt. I pulled my knees to my chest and closed my eyes. I felt kind of sick. I hadn't eaten anything since cereal. My eyes stung with sleep and tears.

I wanted to... I wanted to go down there and just be normal and cute and maybe have someone actually say something nice about me and maybe I'd actually believe it!

I fumbled around in my jeans pocket until I found my phone. Two missed calls, both from Blossom. A few hours ago. Fifteen minutes ago. I wiped the tears from my eyes and opened up my texts with her.

>>It's not what you think

Delete.

>>I'm sorry I didn't thi

Delete.

My hands were shaking.

>>I'm scared??

Send.

>>Oh baby girl I am so sorry 😦 I can only imagine how scary it must be. I closed the blinds and locked the door once I got downstairs. Is there anything else I can do to help you to be less scared?

Blossom was sitting on the sofa when she sent that, and she'd spent the past few minutes agonizing in her head over why she'd been so bold. Obviously she'd been so bold because she was Blossom and she wasn't shy and she was really good at getting what she wanted, or rather at making people want to give her what she wanted. But this wasn't an 'I'll flash you my tits if you let me in kind of moment'; no amount of tall-leggy-blonde-cheerleader-with-big-boob charm could help this situation.

Could it?

She thought about that for a moment and eyed her phone. Maybe she should be flirtier. When people flirted with Blossom, it always made her feel more confident and attractive, right?

>>I feel stupid

I was trying to stop my hands from shaking. She was being so nice. She wasn't trying to hurt me or anything! So why was I acting like this? People go to those munches and parties or whatever all the time. People take pictures of themselves in diapers for Twitter! Why was I such a fucking coward?

>>I bet you look cute as can be, I have been thinking about you ever since I got downstairs and I bet the reality is even cuter than what my mind can come up with! ❤️

>>You are my ambassador to this, so you should grab your pompoms, take a deep breath, and come downstairs with your best cheer smile on!

>>I don't cheer

Her metaphor hadn't gone over my head, despite the misattributed audience. She had never even worn a diaper. But somehow, that felt worse. She had never even worn a diaper, and I was supposed to go down there in front of her like this? But my mind kept jumping back to that first sentence. Cute as can be. I would just disappoint her...

>>I will cheer for you when you get to the top of the staircase. I do not have my uniform, but I will cheer for you in support and encouragement!

Blossom began going through rhyming words in her head to see if she could pull together a line or two to chant for Amanda when she came down; she was pretty good at this stuff. Amy Amy Amy, she's cute and smart and that's not all, Mia Mia Mia, she's grown-up but she's also small. Something like that? Hmm.

>>No please dont

Just the thought of someone drawing that much attention to me... I felt queasy. This was a bad idea. Why was I texting her? I should change...

>>Okay, no cheers this time! 🥰 Listen I think you are super super cute and there is nowhere else I would rather be right now than here with you. So get your cute and crinkly booty down here because if your dinner goes cold I might just have to assume you don't know how to eat and will have to feed you~

Was that too much? Too forward? But it sounded like a story trope, so Blossom gambled on the praise, encouragement, and a little wish fulfillment to do the trick.

I bit my lip and read the message at least a dozen times before replying. It sounded like something out of a story, like a speech one of S&P's 'best friend characters' would give. I knew Blossom wasn't my best friend, but...

>>I dunno...

>>Come on, food smells amazing!

Radical confidence!

Maybe I just needed her to talk about something else other than the diaper. Maybe I just needed to remember there was something other than my clothes and impending humiliation. There was food, and I was hungry...

I didn't send another text back, and I came downstairs in my ordinary clothes: a t-shirt, jeans, and a light jacket. But if Blossom was particularly preceptive, she may have noticed that I wouldn't make eye contact with her. Or she may have heard the slight rustling of plastic coming from my direction.

Blossom was already unpacking the Indian food on the kitchen island, where two adjacent stools were pulled up to the bar. I stepped cautiously up to one and sat down, trying to be as inconspicuous as possible, which was a surefire way to be extremely conspicuous.

Oh Amanda was absolutely wearing a diaper, and Blossom was so into it! But it was like knowing which presents were which on her birthday and having to pretend like she didn't know - thankfully, Blossom was pretty good at performing. So her smiles were pretty standard Blossom smiles, and Blossom focused mostly on the food and explaining what she'd gotten for the two of them. But every time she got the chance, she'd sneak glances at Amanda, because… well… the whole thing was kind of hot, okay?

I liked Indian food. Rice and curries and bread; what's not to like? But the anxiety of what I was wearing really spoiled the meal. It wasn't until halfway through eating when Blossom brought up a topic that was actually more interesting than what I was wearing.

"So how did writing go?"

"Oh, uh... pretty good. I feel like I'm finally getting somewhere." What I meant was: I had finished another chapter. That seemed kind of trivial to me, but Blossom was beaming.

"I'm so fucking proud of you, Amy!" As far as Blossom could remember, that was the first time she'd called Amanda by that diminutive. "Writer's block is the worst. Are you happy with the chapter?"

"Uh... I think so?" Amy? Nobody had called me Amy before. When I was a kid, I got Mandy a lot. I liked it because it rhymed with "candy", but when kids in middle school started calling me Manly instead I hard switched back to Amanda. "I have a friend I send my chapters to and she gives them a look. I was going to do that when... well. You happened."

I tried not to think about it. I knew I brought it up, but that's just how I am sometimes. Self-destructive. I quickly changed the subject.

"Anyway, if she approves it I'm going to post it tonight. I think I've kept people waiting long enough."

"Babes, that's fan-fricking-tactic!"

"It's a really good chapter," I said, maybe to reassure myself more than to reassure Blossom.

"I wanna read it!" Blossom was almost bouncing in her chair; she looked like a little kid.

"You can read it when I put it online," I said, taking another bite of naan.

"Nooooo! You're gonna make me wait?" The taller girl batted her eyelashes and she was really good at doing an eyelash bat. "But what if, what iiiiifffff you let me read it and you can watch me react live? Yeah?"

"I can watch you do that anyway," I said flatly. "At least wait until my friend gets back to me, okay? I want it to be impressive..."

"You want to impress me?" Blossom smirked.

I didn't know how to answer that. Of course I did, but truthfully, I wanted to impress everyone. I just wanted to be good at something.

"Do you want the rest of my curry?" I asked, deflecting her question. "I'm kinda full."

"Put it in the fridge for later. We've got all weekend and Indian makes great leftovers."

Blossom would have offered to do it, and she still might, but she wanted to create an opportunity for Amanda to get up off her stool and walk around. While a part of Blossom felt bad for objectifying Amy, she really couldn't help herself.

I didn't think twice about it until I was two steps to the fridge. The bulk between my legs made me freeze in place, just for a second, but the crinkling was another problem. It wasn't that loud, but it was loud enough. There was no way Blossom didn't know... but she wasn't saying anything. Maybe it was best to keep it that way.

I put the curry and extra naan in the fridge and stood awkwardly by the counter.

"It baffles me how you don't look at yourself in the mirror every morning and just fawn over how cute you are, Amy. But I get it; we're our own worst critics, after all, aren't we?"

Blossom leaned over the counter with a happy smile on her face. How do you say to someone 'I'd love to see you in a diaper' without it sounding weird? There wasn't a way, was there?

"Thanks... I guess..." I didn't believe her, but I didn't know what else to say. I felt awkward. Things didn't feel this awkward last time. Was it because of the diaper thing? Or was it because of her walking in on me earlier, or the texts? I just wanted it to be easier... like last time. Maybe I messed things up worse than I thought when I called her out for not knowing my name.

Amanda was clearly on edge. Blossom wasn't sure the best way to fix that, but she had thought to bring a backup plan with her this time.

"You've been really good at being vulnerable and stuff, and I was thinking this past week if there was anything I could do to… I don't know, level the playing field, maybe?"

This was where Blossom would give her new friend an opportunity to suggest something, or else she'd fall back on her initial planned idea: the photo album on the backseat of her car. From her vacation to Arizona, when she was in middle school.

"You don't have to level anything," I said honestly. But I didn't want to tell her what I was thinking: that the playing field was already so off balance that I was afraid of tilting it any further. She was a rich girl who had a beach house. She was in a sorority. She really shouldn't have been spending any time with me.

"I know I don't have to. I don't have to do anything. But… I want to. I think it'll help! And it'll probably diffuse some tension too. Will you trust me?" Blossom held out her hand for Amy's. It was like that scene out of Aladdin.

Trust her... last week's Amanda sure wouldn't have. Last week Amanda wasn't even here. I was Mia then. But this week? I dunno. Even if I didn't trust her, I wanted to try.

I put my hand in hers. She led me away from the counter, which was both a wonderful and horrible experience. Being led around by the hand with the thickness of a diaper between your legs? It was a feeling I can't put into words, a feeling that is probably very different for a lot of people. But for me, it was an amazing feeling. However, the crinkling, the reminder that Blossom knew what I was wearing, made my heart race in a bad way.

Finally, Blossom sat me down on the sofa and left the room. I exhaled sharply and put my head in my hands. What was I doing here...?