All My Mother's Rules

Chapter 62: None of Your Business

The argument resumed in hushed tones the second we closed the door to Samantha's bedroom.

Samantha's parents and younger siblings were all downstairs, but the topic was sensitive enough that all four of us knew better than to raise our voices, even in the privacy of Samantha's bedroom.

"I don't see why you are insisting on keeping your bladder issues a secret," Lisa said to me. "I'm not saying you need to be going around in a pull-up. But better to have it mentioned beforehand so you don't have to sneak around trying to change or dispose of your pull-ups."

When we had been planning the get-together, I had been insistent that Samantha hold off on telling her mom about any of my bladder issues. My friends all thought that it was best to let her know, just in case of any leaks and to make it so I didn't have to sneak around to deal with any changes.

Lisa's problems weren't a secret to Samantha's family. I didn't know how that had happened, whether Lisa had mentioned that issue to Samantha's mom or Samantha herself had let it slip, but either way, her secret at least was out.

I was trying to find any excuse I could think of that they would go along with to prevent the same from happening to me. Our moms did chat occasionally, and this was just the thing that couldn't ever come up in a conversation between them.

"It's not that I don't trust your mom, Samantha. Your younger brother is too much of a blabbermouth to keep any kind of secret."

"He wouldn't do it," Samantha said, in defense of her nine-year-old brother, Tommy. "Besides, who would he tell anyway?"

"Doesn't Tommy still wear pull-ups for wetting the bed?" Desi asked. "Not like he'd want to be tattling on someone with a similar condition."

I glanced over at Samantha to gauge her reaction. I was the only one of her friends who was secretly aware that she was responsible for her younger brother's bedwetting.

"Oh, not anymore," Samantha said casually. "He outgrew it a month back. Don't think he's worn a pull-up to bed for at least a couple of weeks."

At least Samantha had given up on tormenting her brother now that Lisa was her go-between for getting diapers.

"You do know that you don't need to be ashamed about your condition," Lisa said to me.

"It's not that," I said. "It's just, like, it isn't anyone else's business what type of underwear I have on. Can we just agree to keep this on a need-to-know basis?"

"Fine," Lisa said. "But if it does come out, you're on your own for needing to explain it."

We had initially retreated to Samantha's bedroom to escape from her annoying younger brother. Samantha's dad was taking Tommy out bowling in about ten minutes, which would leave us with a lot more privacy to do what we wanted while Samantha's mom looked after three-year-old Lilian.

Since it wasn't a school day, I was back to my normal outfit of jeans and a jacket, which perfectly obscured the new pull-up I was wearing beneath.

Mom had taken Emilia out to get a haircut this morning. I had taken the opportunity of being left home alone to bike over to a pharmacy to purchase some additional pull-ups. I grabbed one package of the peach-colored ones that I had grown to like over the past month. I noticed the same brand also had a design that came in black that was advertised as being low-rise. That sounded intriguing, so I purchased a package of those as well.

These low-rise pull-ups had the same soft feel as the peach ones, but, unlike the peach-colored ones, they managed to stay below the top of my jeans. I would need to test out their absorbency over the next couple of weeks, but when school started again after Christmas break, these might be my go-to if I ever got back to wearing jeans to school instead of dresses.