Friday, December 16th

97.)

Blossom and I didn't leave for the beach house until late Friday evening. I had to stay a little late at work and Blossom was doing some sorority thing. Most of the drive up was about those two things.

"We'll have to go to the post office tomorrow," Blossom pouted. "Our onesies arrived."

"I want to pay you back for that," I told her. "I get my first check next week."

"Oh right, you have a job now. My little girl's growing up so fast~"

Blossom feigned a sniffle, pretended to rub her eye.

"I hope you're being paid a proper amount, 'cause my little princess doesn't work for what the government thinks minimum wage ought to be."

I rolled my eyes, but a touch of heat found its way to my cheeks. Little princess... not even my mom had called me that before.

"I'm working for my aunt. Not my real aunt, but someone I grew up with so I call her my aunt. My mom has a few friends like that."

"That's so wholesome - I wonder if that's a Single Mom thing. I have some Single Dad things. What kind of work are you doing?"

"Transcribing podcasts and stuff. To be honest though, it's mostly just content checking. It's not a big deal, and I get free coffee."

I'd done the math a dozen times. After taxes, 15 bucks an hour was closer to 11. At 20 hours a week, that's 220 dollars a week. Almost a thousand dollars a month! It was great for someone who had absolutely no expenses. Well, except maybe diapers.

"What was with your sorority thing? Still planning for the winter?"

"Mhm and it's exhausting. We do a lot of community work in the winter, like soup kitchens, knitting blankets, that kind of feel-good stuff. So we need to organize and coordinate all those projects ahead of time, figure out who wants to be involved, that kinda stuff."

"Sounds thrilling." Imagine doing work and not getting paid for it.

As we got closer to the beach house, it started to snow. It was the first snow of the season. Technically, it snowed the other night, but none of it stuck to the ground. I didn't count that.

"Pretty," I said, watching each crystalline flake melting against the windshield. It was too dark outside to see much else. This part of the highway didn't have street lamps. It had a soft feeling, a calm winter energy.

"Isn't it? When I was little - like when I was awkward and had braces and no friends - I used to sneak out on snow days and jump around in the snow in bare feet and try to get my entire head covered in snowflakes. I've always loved the snow, even though I'm such a sunbunny now."

"I think I just like the changing of seasons. I always love snow and winter and stuff when it comes, but by February I'm ready for spring."

I sunk back into the chair and watched the heat dissolve the flakes on the windshield. It was almost meditative.

"What's your favorite thing about each season, cupcake?"

Clearly Blossom was feeling wistful, and she was really opening up a lot about herself with these questions.

"I'm not sure," I said. "I guess just the changing of things. Snow, sun, rain. Flowers blooming, leaves falling. I'm not really afraid of change like a lot of people, I guess. Probably because I'm into diapers." That was a dumb joke.

Blossom laughed, and her laugh was genuine.

"Well I'm pretty into changing diapers too, so I guess that makes sense."

There was a normalcy that had sprung up over going to the beach house together. It no longer felt like a taboo or a secret thing, but more like... going home for the weekend. It was nice.

We arrived later than either of us wanted to. The long drive made us sleepy and tired and the cold darkness of the ocean pulled me into a sense of ending. It felt like the day was over already. Even when we were inside and the heat was turned on, I felt slow and quiet.

"So, onesies tomorrow," I said to Blossom.

"I'm so excited, cupcake. I've never worn a onesie before, and I'd look at all those models online wearing them and they look really attractive. I hope my butt looks good in a onesie..."

"Your butt looks good in everything," I said offhandedly. It wasn't a joke either. For someone so tall and so lanky, she sure had some chubbiness in the places it mattered. Ya know, hourglass and all that.

"You sleepy?" Blossom asked.

"Sleepy isn't the right word," I sighed. "I feel lethargic."

"We can have a quiet night."

"Quiet night... that sounds good."

"Maybe we could cuddle on the sofa, watch some TV, fall asleep without a care in the world?" Blossom pitched with a reassuring smile. "You can even pick what we watch."

"Maybe more Good Place." Bluey was a good contender, but for once I wasn't feeling very baby. I had only slept three hours last night, then I worked eight hours, and sometimes Littleness felt like it took a lot of energy. Tonight I didn't have much energy to give.

"Perfect. I would watch Kristen Bell in anything, she's so fucking hot."

Honestly, Blossom had mostly only spent the time they had together talking about how diapers and baby stuff were hot; hearing her call something else hot was less common. Maybe this was part of her commitment to talk sexually less in front of Amy.

We made it through a few episodes, but we both grew too tired to talk. Finally, at the early hour of 10pm, we made our way upstairs. Blossom didn't offer to sleep with me and I didn't offer to let her, so we went our separate ways.

I stared longingly at the closet, tucked into bed. I didn't have the mindset or the energy to put on a diaper, but that didn't stop me thinking about it. Tomorrow was going to be a good day, I was sure of it.