Published: August 27th 2024, 3:44:26 pm
Telling Noelle right away made perfect sense in theory.
Stalling wouldn’t get me anywhere and, even if I could somehow keep this from Noelle long enough to come up with a plan, Paige or one of her friends could easily throw me under the bus before I could execute it. I also wanted to shower as soon as humanly possible. The only way out of this literal mess was to take full responsibility, as Noelle would never believe the truth in regards to Paige’s role in the recent ‘accident.’
“She has plenty of work to do,” Noelle affirmed, “Your binder is in the kitchen, Miley. Let’s keep that as a productive space for both of us.”
I had to say it. There was no other way. Except Paige was right there, and I still vividly remembered how humiliating it was for her to witness me being spanked over Noelle’s knee. I could at least wait until Paige went back upstairs. Anything to keep her from getting even more satisfaction at my expense.
Noelle got up and led the way to the kitchen. To my chagrin, Paige came with me as I followed. Was she going to stick around until I told Noelle? There hadn’t been a lot of specifics regarding any of this, outside of Paige giving me the choice to speak up or not right away. She could probably guess that I was hesitating due to her presence; maybe she was just lingering to see if I’d start working on Miley’s summer assignments in full diapers.
The gross damage the real Miley already did was bad enough; sitting down would only make things worse. Every minute I stalled would also make Noelle judge me for not telling her sooner. Taking a deep breath, knowing it was now or never, I blurted out, “I had another accident.”
Paige scoffed. “You what? Again?”
“You’re not serious,” Noelle flatly said.
I had already been hesitant to blame Paige due to how every previous attempt to do so had backfired on me. Now I definitely couldn’t, since she was reacting as if it was the first she was hearing of this. “I’m sorry,” I mumbled. What else could I say?
“Are you?” Noelle asked, “This is becoming a pattern, Miley. Was this actually an accident . . . ?”
The suggestion was just as stunning as last time. Why would anyone do this to herself on purpose?! Maybe I didn’t understand because I was a girl who generally behaved and followed the rules. Still, I wasn’t sure the Miley upstairs would do something this extreme just to rebel against the punishment of wearing pull-ups that Noelle had enforced this morning after the overnight accident.
Then again, the ‘truth’ wasn’t much better. Even if I was the age Noelle believed me to be, there was no explaining this.
“It just- it just happened,” I flushed. That actually was the truth. Once I had squatted and started going along with Paige’s nonsense, my body had taken over to the point where I couldn’t stop the inevitable. “I mean-” I glanced towards Paige. She was normally good at keeping a straight face in front of Noelle. Not right now; I caught the hint of a smirk that was no doubt meant just for me, considering Miley’s babysitter was more focused on me at the moment. Between the frustration and non-stop embarrassment of being mistaken for the rebellious teenager upstairs, something in me finally snapped. “You know what? Yes. I did it on purpose. I’m not Miley. I don’t need pull-ups, or a babysitter for that matter. Enough is enough!”
I knew it was a ridiculous way to take my destiny into my own hands. But I also couldn’t bear the idea of Noelle thinking I somehow had that kind of accident in the middle of the day without being able to make it to the bathroom. She obviously wouldn’t believe that Paige had made me do it, so I impulsively chose to go along with the idea that I had done so out of spite.
The look of surprise on Paige’s face was satisfying, though Noelle’s expression didn’t change in the slightest. “And at the park earlier?”
That’s all it took for my resolve to fade slightly. This was completely unfamiliar territory, as I was both too old and too mature to think like I was the girl who needed a babysitter who specialized in dealing with particularly troublesome charges. Then again, I did wet myself on purpose, albeit at Ruby’s insistence. Once again wishing Paige wasn’t right there, I doubled down and said, “Yes. Ruby and I thought it would be funny.”
Unlike my sister, I wasn’t a very good liar. Mostly since I told the truth most of the time. I wasn’t sure how I was going to come across now that I was making stuff like this up intentionally, rather than being a ‘compulsive liar’ who only fit the label because Noelle was biased against me no matter what I said.
Now that I was committing to this, maybe I could remove Ruby from the equation by suggesting that she and I were in it together.
Noelle simply kept questioning me. “And last night?”
“Yes!” I insisted. She had asked me as much earlier when I woke up with wet sheets, so hopefully she would believe it in retrospect. “If you’re going to treat me like a little girl, then I’m going to act like one.” It was such a bratty thing to say. I had just tried and failed so many times to act like eighteen year old Alyssa, and Noelle always perceived it as me behaving in response to her doing her job. If I couldn’t blame Paige for all of this, perhaps I could show Noelle what it’s like when a girl my age is intentionally immature. In the back of my head, I knew the logic didn’t completely track, but all my previous ideas hadn’t worked out. I had to try something.
With an annoyed sigh, Noelle said, “Paige? You said Miley was wetting the bed a few months ago?”
“Uh huh,” Paige nodded, “Pretty regularly.” Apparently she had already recovered from me taking a different approach to my current situation.
“In your opinion, do you think she was doing it for attention, or in response to something she didn’t like?”
“Definitely not. She tried to keep it a secret, though it didn’t take long to catch her. Miley, doing her own laundry, first thing in the morning? Pretty suspicious.”
“Okay,” Noelle said, “If this is on purpose, Miley, I’m not sure what you’re trying to achieve. Do you plan on wetting yourself for the rest of the weekend? Because I really don’t see how that helps you, unless this is your way of showing me that you don’t take the pull-up thing seriously. Or that you’re not actually a well behaved girl.”
I didn’t have an answer for that. This conversation hadn’t been planned, which meant I had no long term goal in mind. I just didn’t want Noelle to think I was a girl who couldn’t make it to the bathroom in the middle of the afternoon.
Going on, she said, “Well, if you don’t mind wet pull-ups, why don’t you sit down and get started on your homework? We can get you cleaned up after an assignment or two. Paige, could I trouble you to run an errand for me?”