34.)

When we got back in the car, I was feeling a lot better. The drive home was long, so we stopped at Burger King. I was always a McDonald's kid growing up, but Burger King was on the way.

"I was really high one night and it was when Burger King got different french fries, and I thought for sure that I'd slipped into another reality because I couldn't figure out why my fries got all crinkly. It blew my mind, and I'm still not sure those fries ever actually existed."

Blossom definitely had an advantage with experiences like "I got high and X happened", but she loved to share those stories.

"Maybe you went somewhere else?" I asked, biting into one of the french fries. They weren't crinkled. "Or they had a promotion or something? That happens sometimes."

Blossom was driving as she ate. She only got a large fry and a drink. I felt like a bit of a pig getting a whole Whopper meal.

"Maybe! Or maybe I did slip into an alternate dimension, and that's the dimension where you exist and you write babysmut and I read it and love it and I wore a diaper last night and hung out with you and that my dear girl, is a dimension worth living in."

Not quite flirty. But y'know, midway there.

"I wonder if there's a dimension where I have a different kink," I thought out loud. "I bet it's something like ghosts. I can see an alt-world me having a thing for ghosts."

Blossom took her eyes off the road for a second to give me a look.

"Hey, it's a thing! I did a lot of research on stuff for Academy Works. I'm surprised you didn't know this one. Haven't you done, like, everything?"

"I don't think I've ever had sex involving ghosts before, nope! I have slept with guys and girls who are into breathplay though, and I almost died once so I would have been a ghost, does that count?"

Blossom was actually violating her spheres of influence a few different ways any time she discussed sexual, romantic, or personal conquests, because it gave Amanda a lot to work with if they ever had a falling out. But there was a big part of her, a significant part, that knew she could trust Amanda. That Mia Moore was worth putting her faith in.

"No, and that sounds terrifying..." The thought of dying during sex... maybe I was just a coward, but I wanted to stay away from anything with more than a point one percent chance of killing me.

"Sometimes it is. But I kind of feel like I got a second chance in my life. I got to be me, and I made sure to live every single day like it's a gift since then, so when someone wants to do something I usually say yes. At least the first one or two times."

It was a fundamental difference between the two of them - Blossom's default answer was yes, and Amanda's default answer was no.

"Hm... I guess that makes sense." It explained a lot about her. It made me wonder exactly when she had this brush with death. Probably after high school.

We didn't talk much about Academy Works on the way home. Honestly, I was feeling a little drained after being out for so long. We didn't make it back inside the beach house until six in the evening. The wind outside was picking up. Even for mid-October, it was cold. I longed for last weekend, when the weather was nice.

I had to carry the diapers into the house while Blossom grabbed the trunk. It wasn't a big deal because: 1. we were in the middle of nowhere, and 2. the bag they were in was a massive paper one and completely opaque. I did peek inside as Blossom was unlocking the door. Two packs: one pink, one black. I smiled a little.

It was kind of like taking supplies inside for a weekend stay at a cabin in the woods, only this cabin was on the beach and the supplies were all diapers. Blossom hefted the trunk inside, and then all the way upstairs into the spare bedroom where Amanda slept. There was a sliding door for the closet, and she wagered the trunk would fit perfectly inside.

Her engineer brain had fantastic spatial awareness, because the spot she'd chosen was perfect. She dusted her hands off and took a step back to admire her work.

"Looks good," I said, sitting on the bed. The bag of diapers were on the floor next to me, and I kept looking over at them. Then I thought of another issue, one that I didn't think to ask about last night.

"So, uh. Where do we put these when we change? Like, we can't just use the kitchen trash..." Did they have trash pickup way out here? It was kind of far from the main road.

"I guess we can put them in a black trash bag and drop the bag in a dumpster on the way home. I'm tall and leggy and stacked; nobody ever asks me what I'm doing or tries to stop me."

She didn't know for sure if that was the kind of helpful answer that Amanda was hoping for, but Blossom was definitely a logical thinker if nothing else.

"And... where will this trash bag be?" I asked, all too conspicuously. Taking the balled up diaper in my backpack home with me was not ideal. Disposing of this stuff at my house was equally, if not more dangerous.

"Well... let's figure that out. We could hang it on the towel rack in the bathroom? And we can put yours and mine from last night in there. You know in stories they never talk about how to dispose of used diapers? I just realized that."

"Yeah, it always feels like a weird topic?" The second a used diaper comes off a person, it immediately loses its appeal. "Thankfully, it never comes up in Academy Works. Why would the Candies know that stuff? And since the stories are mostly from their perspective, the problem solves itself."

"That's a good point! And you're definitely more of a Candy, so it makes sense that I'd be the one to figure out what to do with our diapers, right babes?"

Blossom made a kissy gesture with her face and then broke out in a big bright grin.

I rolled my eyes at her, but my cheeks took on some color anyway. I picked up the opaque shopping bag in my hands and held it out for Blossom.

"You should put these away," I said. Admittedly, it was an excuse. I wanted her to open the packages. I wanted to see what real adult diapers looked like. And honestly, I probably wasn't being very subtle.

"Right!"

Unceremoniously, Blossom tore open the package of the black diapers first, and took one out to hold in her hands.

"Now this is the thickness I imagined. This seems like what a Candy would wear, like what Bala would have worn in the imaginary gaslight version of her workplace they made her dream about."

I would have appreciated the Academy Works reference a little more if I wasn't so focused on the diaper in her hands. It looked big. It looked thick. I reached out with my hand.

"Lemme see," I said.

Without a word of protest or a second thought, Blossom handed the black plastic diaper to Amanda and then turned her attention to opening the package of pink ones as well. Might as well compare them, right?

"Huh..." It was at least three times as thick as the Attends I bought. Probably more. I unfolded it a little and ran my fingertips along the inside. It looked and felt a lot more like a diaper, or at least the kind of diapers you see online. The black sure was weird, though. It had a "garbage bag" kind of feel to it, especially because it was rather crinkly.

"What's Mia Moore's review on first contact?" Blossom held her out a pink one to take for comparison that she'd just liberated from its packaging, and began to pack away the remaining diapers into the trunk.

"Leagues ahead of the stuff I get from Walmart," I said, looking over the pink diaper. Now that was a good color! Very cute, but still subtle enough to be a medical diaper. I unfolded that one too and squeezed the padding together. "I think they're the same, but the pink ones are definitely bigger."

"Well that makes sense. You've been a Little longer than I have and are therefore, obviously, littler than me. So you need bigger, thicker diapers." Because obviously. Blossom lined the diapers up in the trunk, pleased with how well they fit, and stood up and back to admire her work.

"I didn't stay in my diaper all night," I teased back. "So I think we know who is littler." I folded up the diapers again and passed them to Blossom so she could put them away.

Blossom broke out in a big smile and put the remaining diapers into the trunk, clicking it shut and rolling the combination lock.

"The code is 31415," she said. "And maybe I spent all night in my diaper because you needed to change out of yours, mm?"

Well, it was my turn to be caught off guard. I knew my blush would make me seem guilty, so I defended myself.

"I changed because I had to use the bathroom," I said plainly. "You know, like an adult."

"Traditionally, the order of operations would have you use the bathroom after taking down your pants, but I know it can be confusing for a girl your age."

"I did!" My voice got a little louder than I expected and I blushed a little deeper. "I mean, I... I'm not gonna wet myself at your house. I didn't even know what to... like... what trash I was supposed to use or whatever." We really should have coordinated that better!

"Well, it's a good thing we figured that out then, isn't it? So when I hang the trash bag in the bathroom and put my diaper in it, you can go first seeing as yours was allegedly dry, so there's no reason to blush all coquettishly, is there babes?"

"It was dry," I pouted, crossing my arms. Her words were having a bigger effect on me than I expected. It was kind of like that roleplay we did, but this didn't have any lines. Before things got out of hand, I got up from the bed. I needed a change of scenery, or at least some distance between myself and that locked chest of diapers.

Blossom could have pushed me down onto the bed. She could have crawled on top of me and told me that one dry diaper doesn't make me a big girl. She could have told me that given enough incentive, she was sure I'd prove myself to be a little baby girl. She could have unlocked that chest and gotten a diaper from the stack of pink ones. She could have stripped me of my pants and changed me right there in her guest bedroom. She could have locked the bathroom doors so I had no choice but to wet myself in front of her before the night was over.

If this were a story, that's what would have happened. Instead, she let me go downstairs.

It was a pretty successful trip, all things considered. The afternoon had settled in when all was said and done, and when Blossom came down to the sofa, Amanda was already sitting there and trying to pretend like she hadn't been blushing.

"You're super cute, I hope you know that."

I rolled my eyes.

***

We made a frozen pizza and watched TV together. It was already quite late and I was half-asleep on the sofa. I didn't sleep a lot the night before and the day had been emotionally draining. We were on episode six of The Good Place - a show I had seen before and Blossom hadn't - when I closed my eyes.

I didn't think I would fall asleep; I never fall asleep watching TV, and certainly never with someone else in the room. But Blossom's sofa was really comfortable, and I had sunk down so that my head was nestled in the corner. My feet were up on the chase, as they often were, and Blossom had covered the both of us with a big blanket from her bedroom. If there was ever a perfect storm, this was it.

Truthfully, Blossom hadn't expected Amanda to conk out. But the air was still, the waves were calm, the sofa was comfortable, and the day had been exhausting. It shouldn't have been a surprise to look over and see her new friend sound asleep. Blossom had done some wild and weird things in her life, but slumber parties with the socially awkward shut-in who wrote her favorite stories?

It actually felt… normal.