All My Mother's Rules

Chapter 18: Confrontation

"What did you think of your first sleepover?" Samantha asked as I took a seat next to her on the bus.

"I think I'm still in need of some sleep," I replied, trying to stifle a yawn.

I didn't succeed, causing Desi and Samantha both to take a turn yawning as well.

"Stop, that's contagious," Samantha said.

"Sorry. Can't help it. I'm so tired."

"I thought you'd gotten a decent amount of sleep Saturday night," Samantha said.

"I slept," I lied, having not gotten any sleep that night, "but I woke up a lot because I wasn't used to being on the floor in a sleeping bag."

I thought Samantha looked at me a little nervously after that remark. Was she concerned I'd seen her go up to Tommy's room?

"I'm sure you'll get used to it," Desi said. "After all, it was the first time you'd spent the night away from home. I bet you'll sleep like a baby next time."

I hope not. My experience sleeping like a baby - wet pull-up and bed and all – wasn't exactly pleasant last night.

"Yeah," Samantha added. "We should definitely start planning for another sleepover."

I wasn't sure of the best way to respond to that. With Mom now partly aware of my bladder issues, I wasn't certain she'd approve of a sleepover, or, if she did approve, what she might say to Samantha's mom. And, if Mom approved, I wasn't sure I wanted to go to another sleepover anyway. Even if I could manage my bladder problems and keep my friends from discovering that issue, I realized that I hadn't enjoyed the sleepover nearly as much as I had expected to. But I couldn't bring myself to admit that to them.

"Yeah," I replied. "But it might be awhile. Mom wasn't happy with how tired I was after it."

Thankfully, they let the topic of another sleepover drop, and we all drifted off into a tired Monday-morning silence on the remainder of the ride to school. The bus made good time today. We arrived at school with twenty minutes to spare before our first class began.

I knew it was almost certainly my imagination, but the nighttime pull-up I had on felt so much more noticeable than the ones I had been taking from my sister. This was the first time I'd had it on beneath my jeans. I hadn't thought that the outline of the pull-up was visible under my clothes when I had checked in the mirror this morning, but I couldn't help but feel anxious as I made my way to the bathroom.

I didn't consider mom's threat to keep me in pull-ups to be an idle one. If she were to find out that I had wet one of them, there was no doubt in my mind that she would re-set the seven-day clock for how long I had to keep them dry before I could go back to wearing panties. Before I'd left for school, mom had told me she'd count the dry pull-ups that I brought back, so there wasn't any way I could wet any of them without her finding out.

I had no idea what was been going wrong with my body, but until I could figure that out, the odds of going a week without wetting myself simply weren't possible. Wearing Emilia's pull-ups instead of the nighttime ones was even a riskier proposition than before. First, I now must deal with the fact that I knew those pull-ups weren't going to work one hundred percent of the time. That made sense, since even though I could still fit in my sister's pull-ups they were really made for toddlers, not teenagers.

The other problem was that was that Mom discovering me using Emilia's pull-ups now would be so much worse than before, because she would surely see the use of my sister's pull-ups as an attempt to circumvent her rules. But I had made up my mind. The chance to get mom off my back about the accidents was worth the risk of mom finding out about me using Emilia's pull-ups.