Learning to Be Billy Ch. 4

Isabel was left standing in her family room with her three friends, a tear-streaked face, a stuffy nose, a warm bottom sticky with diaper cream, and wearing a diaper at least one and maybe two sizes too big for her.

Emma hadn’t said a word since the drama started, and she still said nothing, sitting on the sofa looking awkward. Lily and Harper, on the other hand, were on their feet and hugging Isabel the moment Mrs. Klein turned the corner and was out of sight, setting off another round of crying for Isabel.

“I’m sorry,” she said to her friends.

“Don’t be sorry,” Lily replied.

“We’re sorry,” Harper added. “We won’t tell anyone, right, everyone?”

“Right.”

“Emma,” Harper said with a heavy hint and a touch of menace.

“What? O, yeah, no. I won’t tell anyone.”

“Here,” Lily said, guiding her friend to the couch as though she were unsteady on her feet.

Harper picked the container of wipes up off the floor and took a couple out, handing them to Lily. She put the diapering supplies back into the basket and folded the changing mat, putting it all back under the side table before sitting down on the other side of Isabel.

“Please stop crying, Bella,” Lily said softly. “We all love you, and everything is going to be okay. You’ll see. Look up for me.” Isabel lifted her face, and Lily used the baby wipes to wipe the tear streaks from her cheeks. “Your poor eyes are so red and puffy.”

“Everything really will be okay,” Harper soothed her. “We’ll all help make sure you’re out of diapers again by the time we go back to school. And what your mom said about babysitters, we’ll be your babysitters. That way no one had to know.”

“Yeah,” Lily concurred. She scooted as close as she could to Isabel, putting her hands around Isabel’s arm to hold her close and resting her head on her shoulder. Harper snuggled in close on the other side.

Silence settled on the room. Isabel’s shock was wearing off; the embrace of her friends, and the warmth of their friendship. She began to relax.

Then it hit her again. “O. My. GAWD! I am so humiliated. What just … And she … And you saw … ”

“Hey hey hey hey, calm down,” Lily tried to calm her friend.

“Don’t be humiliated,” Harper emphasized.

“I got spanked! Over my Mom’s knee! On my bare butt! In front of you all! And I cried! I cried like, like … like Billy! O my gawd!”

“So?” Harper said, “it’s not a big deal.”

“How can you say that? Nobody our age gets spanked.”

Harper turned crimson and made the decision to sacrifice some pride for the sake of her friend. “Um, actually …” The confession caught everyone’s attention; even Isabel calmed down. “Remember last summer when I said I got grounded for coming home drunk, and I said I couldn’t go to that concert cuz I was grounded for a month?”

“Yeah.”

“And remember how I was only grounded for two weeks and got to go to the concert?”

Lily asked, “You got out of your grounding by getting spanked instead?”

With a chagrinned smile and shrug, Harper confessed, “Basically.”

“Wait,” Isabel interjected. “Your birthday is in July … You got spanked when you were nineteen?”

“Y-yeah. I, uh, never stopped getting spanked, actually, except for a like a year. Mom and Dad stopped, but I hated getting grounded and stuff. Mom said I could have a choice.”

Lily pondered for a moment. “That’s somehow … cute in a way.”

“It’s not cute! It hurts!”

“I know that part, silly. I meant you wanting to be spanked instead of grounded.”

“Shut up,” Harper said playfully.

“I’m picturing you over your parents’ knee last July,” Lily teased back.

“It’s just Mom; Dad doesn’t even know. And you’re so gay.”

“Yep. Ever since that drag queen story hour. Before that I was only gay, but after, so gay.”

“But,” Isabel said tentatively, “I mean, not like that, right? Like …” She couldn’t bring herself to say the word ‘me.’ “Like Billy?”

“You mean over Mom’s knee? Yeah. And not to burst your bubble, but you got a little kid spanking. One spank for each year with her hand? You’re a little wimp, crying and carrying on the way you did. I’d get extra for struggling like that.”

“I’m not a wimp! I just haven’t been spanked in a long time. But that makes me feel a little better, knowing you still get it,” Isabel said. “Sorry … But at least you don’t get spanked anymore.”

“Well, actually, Mom reminded me it’s not off the table when I got home. I, uh, snapped at my little brother about something, and Mom gave me some warning spanks out of the blue as soon as he was out of ear shot … Like, five of them … Right before I came over today.”

“Awww. See? You’re not the only one with a pink butt.”

“As if,” Harper said. “It’s not pink at all. It was just a little attitude adjuster.”

“I won’t tell,” Isabel said dejectedly.

“I think all our secrets are safe in this group,” Lily said.

“But … O my gawd, I can’t believe I’m wearing a diaper. And you guys saw me get diapered right on the floor. Right next to Billy like we’re … And I have to …”

“Uh, hello,” Lily said. “Earth to Isabel?”

“That’s different,” Isabel responded. “That was just bedwetting. Lots of kids wet the bed.”

“Not til thirteen they don’t.”

“But we never saw you get diapered.”

“But you knew I was wearing them at every sleep over … And during that ride to my family’s lake house each summer. And you guys never made fun of me, and we’re not going to make fun of you. In fact, you know how I said I wore diapers cuz they’re cheaper than Goodnites? It’s cuz I flooded the bed so much that the pull-ups weren’t enough.”

“O. At least you grew out of it.”

“Kinda sorta,” Lily said, clearly more amused than embarrassed. “I grew out of it except when I drink too much, apparently. I even started wearing Goodnites to bed after partying this semester.”

“And now they don’t leak,” Harper asked out of curiosity.

“O no; they do. I just don’t want to buy diapers. It’s hard enough to hide pull-ups from my roommate.”

“The one you have a crush on,” Harper teased.

“I only have the one roommate,” Lily verbally blushed and smiled.

“Who you have a crush on.”

There was a pause in the conversation. Harper turned to Emma. “Are you still with us? You haven’t made a peep in almost an hour.”

“Yeah. I’m just …”

“Something wrong?”

“No … No.”

Lily asked, “Have an embarrassing story to tell?”

“Um, I don’t think so.”

“Really,” Lily said pointedly. Suppressed laughter crept into tone. “Really? Ya sure?”

“What,” Harper asked, excited to learn what Lily knew and Emma didn’t want to tell.

“She doesn’t have to tell,” Isabel said. That was gracious of her considering what she and Emma knew that Lily and Harper didn’t.

“Fine,” Lily said, though she was chomping at the bit to spill her friend’s secret.

Cara came bouncing back down the stairs. “Make room for me,” she said and squeezed herself between Lily and Isabel. “You okay?”

“Mhmm. I’ll be fine. Thank you, all of you.”

“Well, if we’re in need of a silver lining, you’re all getting better Christmas presents from me.”

“Why?”

“Your mom is paying me extra to watch you whenever I’m watching Billy.”

“You’re …”

“Your babysitter in-chief. Sorry,” Cara apologized. “Know it’s not exactly awesome fun times, but your mom did say you’d get to know what it’s like to be Billy. Billy has babysitters. Besides, better me than some stranger, right?”

“Actually,” Isabel scoffed, “I’m not so sure about that.” She wouldn’t have to look a stranger in the eye ever again once it was over, plus she wasn’t sure how having her friends as babysitters would change their relationships.

“At least you know I won’t tell anyone. You just be a good little girl, and we’ll have nothing but fun,” Cara kidded her, reaching over to give her tummy the same kind of tickle she gave Billy, getting a titter out of her friend. “What did you do with the diapers anyway? Your mom wants them back in his diaper bag.”

“In another bag. I’ll get ‘em in a minute.”

Lily thought she knew which bag; she was smiling ear to ear at Emma. “Tell it yourself, or I’m gonna.” If Emma and Isabel had given in to childish, not-very-nice impulses in taking the diapers in the first place, this was Lily’s turn. She felt bad about pressuring her friend, but they had all shared something embarrassing.

“When,” Emma started, “um, when I would sleep over at Lily’s, um when we were kids … I would, uh, sometimes, wear, uh, a diaper too.”

“Like, in sympathy,” Isabel asked.

“‘Curiosity’ is what she told my mom, though how someone can be curious every single time ….” She let the implication hang there a moment. “Mom just started assuming Emma always wanted to be diapered when she slept over and didn’t even wait for Emma to ask. Heck, she was diapered earlier than I was. I think Emma was seriously disappointed when I learned to stay dry at night. I told Mom I didn’t know what happened to my old diapers when I dried up, but I’m pretty sure I know.”

Isabel rapidly turned from Lily to Emma, Emma to Lily, Lily to Emma and froze, shooting daggers straight from her eyes. Fine, if I have to be like Billy, then I’ma tattle like Billy.

“MOM! STEALING BILLY’S DIAPERS WAS EMMA’S IDEA AND THEY’RE IN HER BAG CUZ SHE LIKES WEARING DIAPERS!”