Saturday, January 7th

127.)

For all the joy and happiness that Blossom had gotten to experience in the year 2023 so far, she was acutely aware that life never just gave. Sometimes, life had a habit of doing some taking as well, and it looked like the karmic piper had come to get paid. She'd been laying on the sofa the next morning, listening to the faint sounds of the waves and scrolling stuff on her phone with no real intent, when she got a flurry of text messages.

From Becky.

She sat up and rubbed her eyes, focusing as though she hadn't just been looking at the very same screen anyway (such was the nature of disassociated boredom scrolling) and let out a deep sigh.

Amy wasn't awake yet, and Blossom briefly flirted with the idea that she might be able to pretend the same, but honestly that wasn't the ethical thing for her to do. She got to her feet and went to wake Amy up and give her the bad news - she'd have to drive back to the school to help Becky deal with this. Ugh...

This wasn't what Blossom wanted to spend this weekend doing.

"Hey cupcake, you awake? There was a thing at the sorority and I gotta head back for a few hours; wanna come? I could use the moral support, but it's chill if you wanna stay here."

One of the very first perks of allowing her circles to touch was that Blossom could actually make such invitations. It felt... weird. But also kinda nice.

I didn't think I would sleep, actually. When I went to bed, I was feeling dizzy and unsure. I half expected to find myself in Blossom's kitchen the next morning with a thousand cupcakes or something. But I was emotionally exhausted; I didn't have the energy for a panic attack.

Truth be told, I wasn't really sure where things stood with Blossom and me. We didn't really talk about it after that, and I think she was trying to get everything back to normal. I was also trying to get everything back to normal. She didn't even sleep with me. So when Blossom woke me up the next morning, I didn't know what was going on.

"It's not a big deal if you don't want to go," Blossom said quietly.

"Go where?"

"I have to go back to the sorority house," she said. "Just for a few hours."

"Mm..."

My sleepy brain was doing the math. If we went back home, why would we drive all the way back out here for one more night? Classes started again on Monday. It didn't make sense.

"If I stay, will you come back?" I asked, still half asleep. I didn't want our weekend together to be over, not yet.

"I intend to come back either way; if you stay, I'll come back. If you don't, we can both come back."

Notably, Blossom hadn't mentioned the nature of why she had to go back, but then again, Amy hadn't asked.

I shook my head and showed my work.

"Two hour drive, two there, two back... we wouldn't be back until late. And we have to leave in the afternoon. Doesn't add up."

Then again, Blossom would have to make the same drive either way. It was no different to her. But the practicality was different: with me here, it was an obligation for her to return. She was forced to. Was that manipulative? So I sighed and sat up, rubbing my eyes.

"Nevermind... I'll get my stuff. Just gimme a few minutes."

"Thanks for coming with me, babes. Becky is pretty level headed usually, but when it comes to this kind of thing it's a major struggle for her, so I don't wanna let her down."

Amy was right that it was going to be a long drive back and forth, but even if it wound up being too late to make it viable, Blossom wasn't entirely averse to having Amy spend the night in her room with her at the sorority. If it came to that, she'd make the offer.

It took a lot longer for me to get out of bed and get dressed than either of us expected. I was feeling fuzzy around the edges of my brain, like I hadn't gotten enough sleep. Maybe I had some bad dreams, but I didn't remember any of them.

I buckled myself into Blossom's passenger seat and set my backpack down at my feet. I had packed to go home, even though I really didn't want to. I still had one chapter of Academy A left to write, and I was hoping to finish before school started up again. Unfortunately, the whole "kissing Blossom" thing had evicted other thoughts from my mind. I rubbed my eyes and pulled out my phone. A text from Lin.

>>So are you dating?

>>I don't know??

>>We're in a relationship.

Or at least, that was the term I had settled on.

>>Sounds like dating!

>>I don't think that's the point

>>It's like one of those fancy complex math problems you see in genius movies

>>Knowing the answer isn't the important part

>>It's knowing how you got to the answer

>>We're still solving for the variables

>>Did you kiss again?

I sighed.

>>Yeah, three times.

Before bed, she kissed me once more. It wasn't like the other two, or the one on New Year's. It was fast and simple, like saying "goodnight" without speaking.

I locked my phone and let Lin's texts go unread. I'd check them later.

"So what's all this with the sorority?" I finally asked, as we were leaving the beach road.

"Oh, Becky said someone broke into the sorority house. And it's probably some frat boy thing, but it's not the right time of the year for that because they like the thrill of the possibility of being caught, and hardly anybody is there at the moment. And usually they swipe a key or something from one of the girls, because breaking windows means they have to pay for it. Becky said this seemed more random, and they took some of the gaming consoles and stuff. And Becky doesn't do well with the police or with people stealing from her, and like, this isn't her stuff, but she still feels violated by it, so I'm the good best friend who's gonna be there for her."

Blossom would much rather have spent the day breaking in some diapers, than dealing with a break-in at home, but such was life.

"Oh." I didn't know this was actually a serious matter. I felt kind of guilty trying to manipulate her into coming back to the beach house. Hell, she might be dealing with this all day!

"Wait, does this happen a lot?" I asked.

"Not a lot, but like... once a year or something. It's usually a prank."

"Jeez... no wonder you don't like keeping baby stuff at your place..." And I thought I had it rough, worrying about my mom snooping around my room. But she never did that: she respected my privacy a lot. She'd never gone into my room when I wasn't home since I turned eighteen.

"It's probably not someone from the school; a lot of the girls do volunteer work at the homeless kitchens and stuff and some people get desperate and are willing to do extreme things because it's cold and they're in a bad place in their life. The irony is that if the same guy knocked on the door and said 'Hey, I'm desperate and was gonna break in, but if you could give me a few dollars instead I really would rather not' I think any one of the girls in the house would accommodate. But pride's a heck of a thing, I guess."

Blossom had never been poor, so she could really only speak about these things referentially, and never with the gravitas of someone who's actually had to struggle for food. But she hoped that keeping her heart and mind open and compassionate went some way toward making up for her privilege.

"Breaking into a house with a dozen girls seems stupid..."

"Well, almost everyone is gone until Monday. Becky hasn't been around either. I dunno; I think we're fighting."

"Fighting?"

"Yeah, this is the first I've heard from her in a while."

I got the impression that Blossom didn't want to talk about it, so I changed the topic.

"Was anything stolen from you?" I asked.

"Not sure yet, but probably not. People break in for electronics, not pretty dresses. Even though I think my wardrobe is more expensive than most of the stuff in the house..."

Blossom hit up a drive-thru about twenty minutes from the beach house and put on some music once the two of them were on the freeway. She thought for a little while about putting on an audiobook, but remembered Amy was here with her. That did make her think, though...

"Have you ever considered audiobooks for Academy Works?"

"Ha!" I finished chewing my french fries before I answered her question with more than a scoff. "I don't think they make audio books for kink stuff."

"I swear I've heard of at least one..." Blossom mumbled, mostly to herself.

"Well, I'd need someone to record it. I'm sure not doing it."

"I'll do it!" Blossom said cheerfully.

"And when someone from high school that you bullied recognizes your voice and you fall into an ABDL trope?"

"Well, would that be so bad?" Blossom teased. "But I guess I see your point..."

"It's all in third-person," I thought aloud. "Audiobooks wouldn't be that hard. You wouldn't need a new narrator per book or anything."

"I bet we could find someone. Like, I bet there are like engineers and astronauts who are Littles, so why not a decent voice actor? I bet they exist. And I'd love to be able to listen to baby smut while I drive, because when are people most likely to be alone and have privacy?"

She paused for effect.

"When they're driving~"

"You aren't wrong." I didn't drive all that much; I didn't have my own car. I also didn't do baby stuff on my phone, so I wasn't sure how I could really listen to an audiobook anyway. But if I ever finished the series, maybe audiobooks were something to look into. I had some money now; maybe I could pay someone.

"If wanting more accessible smut was wrong, I wouldn't wanna be right anyway, cupcake~"

Blossom grinned.

"You know, I'm excited. I know I'm going home to a pissed off best friend and a house that's been broken into and blah blah blah, but I get to take you with me and that's so new. I'm excited. I'm happy~"

"Not scared?" I asked.

"Terrified," Blossom admitted with a laugh. "But what's the worst that could happen?"

"I'll tell everyone that you're a dumb little diaper baby and then your whole sorority will put you in a playpen in the living room and change you four times a day?"

"You answered that question way too quickly," Blossom said with a bit of surprise.

"Yeah," I said with a half smile and a bit of heat on my cheeks. "Sometimes I think my mind is dialed into 'how can I turn this into ABDL smut'."

"That's so hot, though. And I know I'm supposed to be all restrained with my lust and whatever, but that's just hot." And after a pause, and a little laugh to herself, Blossom added: "Besides, the living room wouldn't fit a playpen. The entryway would though, and then more people would see."

"True." I'd only been in the sorority house once, but the living room wasn't huge. But all the talk of Blossom in a diaper made me long for the beach house. Those new ABU diapers were probably waiting at the post office, and I had a baby bottle just waiting to be used. Why does nothing ever work out the way you want it to?