Published: February 26th 2025, 3:45:06 am
Weren’t our parents supposed to get back in the evening? Not that I would know; Kate still had my phone, so any text(s) about their schedule shifting over the last few days would have only been seen by her.
What now? Before, I had been more worried about the inevitable embarrassment of our cousins learning my real age. Now? After constantly acting like a bubbly tween and having to deal with an inordinate amount of accidents in my diapers, it had been quite some time since I had thought about what would happen at the end of the weekend. Did they know? Aunt Miranda did, and it seemed unlikely that she would keep something like that to herself. I had absolutely no idea what to expect, when our parents knew the mature Annelise who looked and behaved nothing like the current version of myself strapped into a car seat.
“They’re back!” Kate exclaimed, “Excited to see Mommy and Daddy, little sis?”
I hadn’t called them that since I was much younger. As usual, Kate continued treating me like a little girl when I was supposed to be ‘twelve.’ And, though I cringed at the childish terms, I instinctively gave a weak smile and said, “Like, totally.”
With the minivan partially in the way, Luna just parked on the other side of the driveway instead of going back into the garage. Kate hopped out of the car and circled around to help me out of the car seat, not acting any differently than any of the other times she had done so. Was she not nervous about our parents being here? It certainly didn’t seem like it.
“This way, Annie.” She took my hand and guided me to follow our cousins who were walking towards the front door.
Similar to the hike, I had to balance keeping up with awkwardly walking in full diapers. Maybe that was why Kate wasn’t worried. I didn’t exactly have a lot of credibility in my current state.
“We’re back!” Lilah announced as she stepped into the house. Aunt Miranda called back that they were in the living room. The twins headed in that direction, where I could hear them greeting our parents for the first time. When Kate and I had been dropped off, we were the only ones who came inside due to the rather tight schedule of the work trip that doubled as a visit for the two of us.
It wasn’t until Kate and I were about to turn the corner that I tensed up and stopped in my tracks. “Wait!” I said, belatedly being hit by the reality of what was about to happen. They couldn’t see me like this. I needed to be wearing my actual clothes, clean underwear, and get my daily enhancements back in order. Since I was sixteen or so, not even my parents had seen me without my hair and make-up perfectly done.
“God, you’re such a brat,” Kate scoffed. Not breaking her stride in the slightest, she gave my arm a firm tug and dragged me into the room full of parents.
Just like that, I was face to face with both families, save for Uncle Rob who was out running errands or playing more golf or whatever. Of course, I was more focused on those that were present.
Before I could say or do anything, Kate smiled and let go of my hand. “Hey! How was the conference?!” Bounding up to our parents, both of whom were already standing from hugging the twins, Kate threw her arms around our mother and settled right into her usual ‘perfect angel’ routine.
I could sense something was already off when I was getting looks that were somewhere between concerned and judgmental. Though Kate was good at getting whatever she wanted when it came to pretty much every adult, I was the one with the good grades and the promising future from an academic standpoint. And, aside from Kate being able to push my buttons in various contexts, I was generally the more mature girl between the two of us.
As if the energy in the room wasn’t daunting enough already, Aunt Miranda said to our cousins, “Hey, girls? Can we have a minute with Kate and Annie? They’ll join you upstairs in a few minutes.”
“Sure!” Luna said, “Or, downstairs? We were thinking about playing a game.”
“That works, too,” our aunt said.
Once the twins left the room and could be heard descending the stairs down the hall, our mother said, “Okay. Annelise, are you wearing diapers?”
“It’s not like that!” I blurted out. It was refreshing to hear my real name, but that wasn’t nearly enough after everything I had gone through over the course of the weekend. “I mean, Kate dared me- And, then I had to, like-” I cut myself a couple times, trying to think of the best way to summarize the events between the car ride the other day and now. It was all such a blur, and it was also difficult to stand up for myself when my diapers weren’t even clean at the moment.
“Annie is wearing diapers,” Kate said, answering more directly, “Actually, I should probably go change her, if you don’t mind waiting. She pooped herself on the hike, after insisting we leave all the supplies here.”
“Annelise. Is that true?” our mother asked. It wasn’t clear which part she was referring to, not that it made much of a difference.
“Like, no! I mean, I told them I had to go. Kate just-” How had it happened again? I did speak up for myself, but I didn’t know how to deal with the diaper pins, and there wasn’t time, and- None of those excuses would sound good, so I just stared at the floor and muttered, “I don’t need diapers . . . ”
“Says the girl who hasn’t made it to the toilet once all weekend,” Kate said, in case our parents hadn’t heard that detail yet. “Come on, sis. Let’s get you into fresh diapers, and then we can talk with the grown-ups.”