All My Mother's Rules

Chapter 54: The Contest

All the doors to the mall had been propped open, and employees with bright neon vests over their uniforms stood to the side as the crowd squeezed its way through the entrance before dispersing throughout the mall.

I grabbed hold of Lisa's hand as the crowd squeezed together as everyone attempted to cram through the doors. It wouldn't do to get separated at this point. The cramped, chaotic entrance to the mall reminded me of an hourglass, and we were stuck right in the middle of it all.

This was Lisa's first Black Friday experience, but she had come prepared. Lisa had her uncle take her to the mall a couple of days ago to scout out the best route to the store, along with where the items she wanted would be once inside. I was vaguely familiar with the layout of the mall, but in my still slightly sleep-deprived state, I probably couldn't have pointed out the fastest way to get to our destination.

Samantha and Desi were already a dozen feet ahead of us in the crowd. They had no compunctions against pushing and jostling their way to the front.

Everything got easier once we were through the main entrance and the crowd thinned now that there was more room to spread out. Our group split in two at the first intersection. Samantha and Desi went right, headed to a beauty store, while Lisa and I went in the opposite direction.

I had learned my lesson from attempting to jog in a wet pull-up last weekend and settled for a quick walking pace next to Lisa, even if that meant allowing some sprinting shoppers to get ahead of us. I was beginning to regret not applying a more thorough layer of baby powder this morning, but I had been worried the scent would stand out in the car ride to the mall.

There were only about two dozen people in front of us by the time we got in line in front of the game store. While the lights were on inside, the metal grate in front of the entrance remained closed, forcing us to line up in the mall hallway.

We were at least inside and away from the wind for the final thirty minutes. We needed to wait until all the stores opened.

"You have your list still?" I asked.

"Of course." Lisa pulled out two identical scraps of paper and handed one to me with a list of seven video games on it. "I'll start from the top and you can work your way up from the bottom."

We both had agreed the other day that the video games were more likely to sell out faster than the gaming mouse, so I had offered to help Lisa look for her items first to beat the initial rush of the crowd.

I was keenly aware of the additional accident I had while we were waiting in line for the store to open. It technically was an accident because I had been trying to practice holding my bladder as much as possible again. I wasn't as successful as earlier this morning, as this time I made it only forty-five minutes between needing to pee.

That iced coffee was doing me absolutely no favors.

That made me wonder about how Lisa was holding up. Her coffee had been about fifty percent larger than mine, and the ones Samantha and Desi got had been even larger than that. The fact that Lisa hadn't shown any concern either about needing to use the restroom made me certain she had a diaper on.

With about fifteen minutes to go before the store opened, I made it my goal to not have any further accidents in the diaper. I would take a break after this first store to use the restroom and get changed into a pull-up so I could resume working on my toilet training for real.

After what seemed like forever, an employee already inside the store began to open the front gate, but motioned with his hand for us to stand back, keeping an eye on his watch for another thirty seconds before waving the crowd in.