Chapter X

Sam was cleaning my room - taking care of the laundry, fixing my bed - when I tugged on her dress. I was having trouble forming words. Everything I said felt wrong. Everything I did felt wrong. A horrible ache in my chest was overwhelming my thoughts. But I could tug on her dress. She looked at me with confusion, but she was a smart girl. She picked up on things fast. I was upset. "I'll draw you a bath," she told me with a smile, and went into my en suite.

This was truly surreal, Sam knew that - she was living in some fantasy world for rich people where she was a maid and her best friend was, for one reason or another, her personal princess to take care of. But dream-like or not, Natalie was her best friend and that meant taking care of her. "Bubbles?"

I nodded my head. Sam poured some liquid under the faucet, which turned into mounds of fluffy white bubbles. She helped me undress, slipping out of my work clothes, out of my underwear, and into the tub. I paid special attention to keep my backside facing away from her, so that she couldn't see what Mr. Gladstone had done to me today. My bottom stung from the heat as I sunk into the water.

"Tough day at work today?" Sam asked, pulling a small plastic stool up to the side of the tub so she could sit, maid’s dress and all. "Did something happen?" Then, quieter. "Are we going to have to move again?"

I felt my body tense up at her final question. Would we have to move again... I shook my head. I wouldn't let that happen. "No, I... I just made a huge mistake at work." My voice was quiet, almost a whisper. "But Mr. Gladstone was very generous... I'm just upset with myself."

"Do you wanna talk about what happened? It sounds like things must have been okay if Mr. Gladstone understood, right? Maybe you're being too hard on yourself?" Which was very easy for Sam to say, because she didn't even know the half of it.

I shook my head and sunk into the bubbles. "No, it's... it's okay. I'm just glad to be home." In the bath. Warm. Safe. "And... I'm glad you're here, too." What would I even do without Sam? Since I'd agreed to let her take care of me, things had been so much easier. I hated putting those responsibilities on her, but it was her job... right?

"I'm glad you're home, too, I..." Sam paused, trailed off, fell quiet and then shook her head. "Never mind, actually. Come on, let's get your hair washed, you're going to feel so great once I do."

"No, come on. Tell me." I gave Sam a sharp look and tried to act as confident as I could. But when a girl your age starts washing your hair, it's hard to feel like the two of you are equals. So I tried another approach. "Please...?"

"Fiiiine. Fine." It was, in fact, not fine. "I was just hoping to do a movie or something with you tonight, hang out, you know? But I was shut down pretty hard by you-know-who."

I puffed out my cheeks in irritation. "Well, I want to spend time with you too! You're always working, and I had a hard day. And you're my... maid or whatever, right? You're supposed to keep me happy? Well, it would make me happy to watch a movie with you." I nodded with certainty. That logic made perfect sense. "I'm going to talk to Cora about it. She'll understand."

"Mm..." Pause. "Okay, but you can't say it's my idea or things will be awful for me. It has to be your idea, okay?" Here was Sam, all-but-begging her best friend to get permission for the two of them to hang out. What even was this place?

After Sam helped me into my pajamas - a long lace nightgown with frills along the bottom - I made my way downstairs to Cora's bedroom. Honestly, I'd never been in here before. Would Mr. Gladstone answer the door instead? I took a deep breath and knocked on the door with a shaky hand.

"Hello darling, don't you look quite a peach tonight! Did you pick that gown out yourself?" Cora went directly into compliments, into charming, making her little project blush - and Cora was very good at what she did.

"I... um. Well, Sam helped, but..." I looked down at my nightgown a little shyly and bit my lip. I tried to peek past Cora into her bedroom, but I couldn't see much more than a wall with a picture frame on it. "Um. I wanted to spend the night with Sam if that's okay. I had a really long day, with..." I felt my cheeks turn red, knowing Cora had heard the entire thing over the phone.

"With your discipline?" Cora offered, finishing up that particular sentiment for her little charge. "I'm so so sorry that you had to endure that, and I hope you don't have any other mistakes from now on, darling. That cannot have felt pleasant, not at all." But she didn't answer the question, either.

"R-right..." I knew that tomorrow I'd get another spanking. I felt uneasy about it. Would I spend ten minutes in Mr. Gladstone's office every morning? What would my coworkers think is going on? I shook the thought from my head and tried to focus on the present. "Um, so can Sam and I watch a movie tonight? It would really help me feel better..."

"I don't know if that would be appropriate, Natalie - would it be appropriate for you to have a friend over to watch a movie during your work hours?" The way that Cora put it almost made Natalie out to be an idiot, that she hadn't considered that comparison.

I crossed my arms over my chest. "She's my friend. And her job is to take care of me, right? So if I want to watch a movie, isn't it her job to watch a movie with me too? If that's what's going to make me feel better, then I would say it's her responsibility to watch a movie!"

"Well, I'm not in charge of the help directly," said the woman who directly signed their paychecks, “but I guess there'd be no harm in it from my point of view..." She then leaned in, smiling mischievously. "Just pretend to look busy if one of the other help comes around, okay? And in bed by ten."

Really? That worked? I smiled brightly and bounced on my toes. "Thank you, Cora!" With a spring in my step, I ran down the hall to the stairs, excited to have a quiet night with Sam.

"And you're sure she said it was okay?" Sam sounded skeptical, picking and tugging at the hem of her uniform dress as her best friend delivered the news. This didn't seem right, this didn't seem possible: she had the rules explained to her in a very thorough and condescending manner already!

"Absolutely. She said that you should try to look busy if any of the other maids walk by, but she's fine with it." Sam let out a little sigh of relief and I took her by the hand. There was only one TV in the entire house, in the rear lounge room on the first floor. It wasn't very big and it wasn't very fancy, but the sofa was comfortable and the lights had a dimmer switch. I signed into Netflix - as I had many times already - and passed Sam the remote. "Pick something and I'll get us drinks."

"I'm not allowed to drink when on the clock, Nat." Sam cautioned warily, but her best friend rolled her eyes and skittered off to the adjacent room. Sighing deeply, vaguely filled with dread, Sam sunk into the sofa and began to browse the Netflix selection.

One of my favorite things about this house: they had a ton of alcohol. I'd snuck sips of rum or wine over the past few weeks, and no one had ever caught me before. I reached into the back and found a white rum with a thin layer of dust on the cap. I poured half of it into two cups and slid the rest into the back of the cabinet. I topped the cups off with some soda from the fridge and stirred it with a spoon. No one would be any wiser.

"I'm going to pretend that this is just Sprite,” Sam said, knowing pretty damn well that it wasn’t. But Orange is the New Black was on the TV and despite her uniform, despite her best friends childish attire, this felt... normal. Drinks. Netflix. Chill. What's the worst that could happen?

We were two episodes into the new season when Sam put her drink down. "I'm a little tipsy," she muttered. "Good," I said with a nod. "You work too hard!" "But I'm on the clock. You can get fired for that sort of stuff." "But I'm your boss, sort of, and I say you're fine!" Of course, since I was always smaller than Sam with less of a party streak, I was already quite drunk. Plus, I'd finished my whole glass. "If you dun drink it, I'm gonna," I threatened.

"I'm sure there's a rule here that says you're not allowed to drink if you don't look old enough to drink. And in those pajamas you sure don't!" It was a slip in judgment from Sam, that kind of teasing, but she was a little inebriated and it came from a good place - whether or not it would be received that way? Sam had no idea.

I puffed out my cheeks and gave my best friend a sour glare. But it quickly dissolved into a pout. "People at work think I'm adorable." "I didn't say you weren't." "Well, I think I'm adorable too." I stuck out my tongue and Sam rolled her eyes. "I can't drink any more of this," she said in defeat and passed me the cup. I grinned brightly.

"It's going to be your own problem if you get drunk and they find out, though." Actually, Sam didn't know it yet, but it was very much going to be Sam's Problem that Natalie got drunk tonight, and there were going to be some pretty severe consequences for the nascent maid in training.

"Samantha!" Sam just about jumped out of her skin. I anxiously looked up at the head maid and took a large sip of my drink. "What are you doing?" "Um, just... cleaning up. Right, Natalie?" I nodded my head. "Yeah, she's cleaning." With that, Sam took the cup out of my hands and the one off the table and hurried off to the kitchen. I fell back into the sofa with a dizzy stare and pouted. I guess our fun night was over.