The Girl Who Wanted to Wear Diapers

Chapter 20: Only One Step Remains

Friday night was pizza night, and it sucked as I wasn't even being allowed to have any pop.

Mom, Dad, and Grace each had a full glass of ice-cold root beer to go along with their pizza dinner. Even Jackson got a small glass of pop, albeit with a bunch of ice, so there wasn't actually that much for him to drink. Like I had been at his age, he could get a little too hyper if he had too many sugary drinks. Any time he was given pop, my parents made sure it was of the uncaffeinated variety.

But I was the exception. I had a glass of water. Not even tea or juice. Both of those alternatives had been vetoed by Dad because they contained sugar. And it wasn't even a big glass of water at that. I hoped this practice of limiting my fluids wouldn't be so strict once my parents surrendered to buying me pull-ups. I took the tiniest of sips from the glass of water before taking another bite of my pizza.

I was making as much of an effort as possible to ration out the sips of water as I tried to finish my two slices of pizza. The last thing I needed was to finish the water before I had finished eating my pizza. That would leave my mouth parched for the remainder of the evening, as Mom had strongly implied that I wasn't going to be allowed to have any more refills.

How many more times was I going to have to fake wetting the bed before they realized that this all was pointless?

I stared down at my slice of sausage and pepperoni pizza as we sat in the living room and ate our meal on the couch. I didn't feel all that hungry at the moment, even though I hadn't had anything to eat since lunch at school. Pizza just wasn't as appetizing without a sugary, caffeinated drink to wash it down.

We were about twenty minutes into the movie my parents had chosen for tonight. The only good thing was that Jackson was at least old enough to be allowed to watch some PG movies, so we had something on to watch during dinner that was at least entertaining. The movie of choice tonight was "Spy Kids."

I would have preferred to watch one of the Harry Potter movies, but Jackson still wasn't old enough to start watching them, according to my parents, so that would have to wait for a time when he wasn't around. It had been a lot easier in the few years when he had been too young to care about what was going on the TV. For now, I mostly had to stick with the books to get my magic fix.

Now everything that came on during the day had to be vetted to ensure that it was age appropriate for him. I knew Grace had her own shows that she watched on her computer in her room, but I didn't have access to my own Netflix account like she did.

At least this was a movie I hadn't seen before. We often got stuck watching a Pixar movie that I'd seen with Jackson a half-dozen times or more.

A line of dialogue from one of the parents in the movie caught my attention. The two adults – who were secretly spies – were expressing concerns about how their two kids were holding up without them.

"They can take care of themselves," the mom said.

"They are still in diapers," the dad said.

"Only one wears diapers. And only at night. It's no big deal," the mom said.

Jackson burst out laughing at that line of dialogue.

I did my best to continue focusing straight ahead at the TV. This was so embarrassing. Yes, having my parents see another reference to diapers being used for bedwetting could be helpful in my quest to get them to purchase those pull-ups, but it felt so awkward to have the possibility displayed right on the TV in front of everyone, especially as Grace was also aware of my bedwetting.

"That's silly," Jackson said. "Why aren't they potty trained already?"

Grace, who was sitting closer to the TV on the same couch as me, turned back in my direction. From how red her face was, it was clear I wasn't alone in being quite embarrassed by the scene in this movie.