All My Mother's Rules

Chapter 52: Lisa's Sleepover Part 5: The Adventure

The first ten minutes of the walk had been conducted mostly in silence, except for Lisa giving directions about which forks in the path to take. The events of the past twelve hours had been so rapid-fire that I was still contemplating all of its implications.

We were forced to walk single file as the path narrowed. I had ended up at the back of the group, with Samantha directly in front of me. I suppose that someone who had never met Samantha before might not have realized she had a diaper on, but it was completely obvious to me. Her jumper wasn't exactly loose fitting, and it hugged tightly around the outline of the diaper padding.

It felt like everything I had known about Samantha had been thrown into doubt. Her secret life as a baby was in total contrast to how she otherwise carried herself. And now here she was, completely demure, sucking on a pacifier as we walked along the trail. We had become friends on the very first day of kindergarten. Was the person I'd known in the decade since merely a façade, a cover for the Samantha I was seeing now?

If I had discovered Samantha's secret a year ago? How would I have reacted? I realized to my shame that my reaction then probably wouldn't have been kind. I hadn't known what it was like to be different. I hadn't known what it was like to need to keep an embarrassing aspect of myself hidden away, out of fear of what might happen should it be discovered.

But I knew better now, so I could act better. I decided that I didn't care that she wanted to wear diapers. It didn't make a single bit of sense to me, but it wasn't hurting anyone else.

However, I was still trying to work out Lisa's 180-degree flip on Samantha. Lisa had been so adamant about her feelings on the issue with me last week, and that had been on full display in her initial reaction to catching Samantha attempting to take her diapers.

What was it that they had discussed when they had been in the bedroom together? Whatever it was, it had resulted in Samantha not only wearing a diaper but using a pacifier and sippy cup as well, and Samantha still had the pacifier in her mouth this far into the hike.

Lisa had appeared properly chastised by Samantha's outburst about how her own diaper desires were something out of her control. Perhaps that new perspective resonated with Lisa and her own challenges with parts of her life that she had no say over. Or was there something else that was going on?

The dirt trail wound its way downhill through a sparse forest. I wasn't sure what the point of this adventure was, but it was Lisa's sleepover after all, so I didn't mind deferring to her for what activities we were to do. I was incredibly grateful for how thorough Lisa had been with the baby powder when she changed me. I would have been at serious risk of some thigh chaffing otherwise.

What I was beginning to regret was how careless I had been with the amount of orange juice I had drunk for breakfast. Had I perhaps put too much trust in the performance of this new pull-up Lisa had insisted on having me try?

I could try waiting longer, but I wasn't going to risk a leaky pull-up in front of my friends. I wasn't going to be able to pee while walking. I stopped and bent down, pretending like I just needed to ret-tie my shoelaces. I motioned for Samantha to go on ahead, saying I'd catch up in a second.

I bent down on one knee and fiddled with the laces on the shoe in front of me. Getting my bladder to release now that I had come to a stop wasn't difficult. The problem was that once I started peeing, I just kept going and going without any ability to stop. That could be a problem. I was frozen in place, sure I was about to feel urine running down the inside of my thighs as the pull-up overflowed. That would have been the result of this large accident in any of the previous pull-ups I had worn.

But Lisa's description of the pull-up's absorbency had proven to be correct. It was nearly as good as a regular diaper. I could feel how much it had swollen up between my legs, but I couldn't feel any indication of a leak.