February Flash tale #2 - "Smashed"

Memories Nightclub

Charterhouse Street, London

The two young women sit in the green room of the club. There’s a rhythmic pulse of dance music coming from down the corridor. It’s like getting ready to go on stage, thinks Robin, sitting on a vanity stool and looking at her face in the mirror.

“What does it taste like?” Kira asks.

Robin swirls the cocktail glass and takes a sip. The beverage manages to be syrupy and sparkling at the same time. She makes a face.

Kira bats her friend on the arm playfully. “Drink up! We’ve only just got started.”

The birthday girl takes another sip. “I don’t want to go crazy.”

“It’s your twenty-first. Big night! You’re always so controlled, got a chance to let go for once.”

“I don’t want to get smashed.”

Kira makes a face of her own. “Don’t be basic. Besides, I’ll take care of you.” She waves her hands. “See? I won’t drink tonight.” She looks at Robin with innocent eyes. “You can trust me.”

Robin huffs. “Fine.” She tips back the glass and finishes the cocktail. “Bleh,” she says, sticking out her tongue. “I’m all sticky.”

“Good girl,” says Robin, taking the glass. “Now, we gotta get you ready for your party guests. Pretty much everybody’s coming, Rob.” She winks. “Who knew you were so popular?”

Robbin shrugs. “So, you ready to do my makeup?”

“About that,” says Kira, sitting on the stool beside her. “This isn’t really a makeup kind of deal.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Kira smiles. “We’re going for a…fresh look tonight.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means what it means!” She puts a hand on Robin’s leg. “Do you feel it yet?”

Robin looks down. “Feel wh-“ She blinks slowly, and the sways on her stool. She would quite easily topple to the ground if her friend didn’t put a steadying arm around her.

“There you go,” Kira says brightly. Sweetly. “There you go!”

Robin blinks stupidly at her friend. Kira’s tone has changed in a heartbeat. She sounds just like she does when she’s talking to her little sister.

There you go….there she goes where?

“Okay,” says Kira, and now she’s crouching in front of Robin, staring into her eyes.

“What…whatcha doin’?” Robin asks. She feels tired. No, she feels exhausted.

No.

She feels as though she’s just been woken up from a nap, and she’s not happy about it.

“What’s the best birthday you forgot you ever had?”

“Huh?” Robin frowns at her friend’s face. “Wasss…wass thah sposed…”

Kira reaches and cups Robin’s face in her hands. “You don’t remember your first birthday, and that’s such a shame!”

Again with the tone, the coddling, patronizing tone.

Robin tries to pull away. She doesn’t like the voice, or the way Kira is staring at her, but Kira keeps hold.

“The best birthday was your first one,” Kira announces, as if telling the start of a bedtime story. Robin imagines herself lying down in bed, cuddling her old teddy bear. She imagines drifting off to sleep.

“There you go,” says Kira indulgently. “I can see it in your eyes, your pupils are tiny, just like they said.”

Who is they? Robin would like to ask, if she could form the words, if her lips weren’t on strike.

Kira smiles. “You look kinda grumpy, but don’t worry. It’s going to feel amazing.”

What is? Another unasked question.

Everything is for a baby, but adult sized. Including the smash cake.

“Your first birthday is a mystery,” says Kira, continuing her story. “There are no photos, and your parents…well, we know they weren’t big on celebrating. No parties, no cake, and I remember when we met back at Bute House Prep, you thought all of that was normal, but it wasn’t. You were supposed to have presents, and dance, and have cake.” Kira nods. “You were just a little girl!”

All of that’s true. But it’s too late to fix. Robin is twenty-one years old, time to leave her broken childhood behind.

Kira moves behind Robin and unzips her dress. “Uppies,” she says, prompting Robin to stand up, and then she pulls off the black dress, leaving Robin in her underwear.

Robin at her reflection. She’s about to have a costume change, apparently, but she never got a copy of the script. She hasn’t had a chance to read her lines. And what on earth will happen at the end?

“Heyyyy,” she mumbles, crossing her chest with her arms.

It’s no use. Kira has no trouble removing Robin’s bra and panties, leaving the birthday girl in her birthday suit.

Kira nods with satisfaction. “I promised you a birthday to remember. And you’ll definitely remember tonight, because we’re going to take lots of pictures. And Brian’s going to do a livestream.”

Robin shakes her head, and the room spins around her. “Noh Bine,” she mutters. The stupid boyfriend, the surely ex-boyfriend, who keeps sticking around even when she’s at her worst, just like Kira, just like the rest of them.

Kira grins. “Did you hear that?”

Robin stares at her own reflection. She has no time for hearing, she’s far more curious as to why she’s completely naked.

“The music, silly!”

Robin blinks. The faint beat from down the corridor has changed. Something slower. Pondering. Robin sniffs. If she strains to hear, she can just about make out…No, it can’t be that. The music sounds like a…

She shakes her head. And she smiles. Because everything’s so silly.

“There you go,” says Kira. She produces new underwear for Robin, fastening it around her hips with sticky tabs.

Robin gapes at her crotch. She pokes at the padded evidence. “Thassa…thass…” She frowns. No, she tries. She manages to twist her lips sulkily, the briefest of pouts – because her friend is being mean, dressing her up like this. Her friend is being so…

And the Robin blushes. It doesn’t feel bad, the warmth in her face. In fact, nothing feels bad. In this moment, Robin is quite sure that nothing will feel bad ever again.

She pokes at her new underwear with one hand and finds her other hand creeping up to her head. She twirls her hair between her fingers. “Godda nah-pee,” she manages, and she produces a slow-witted giggle.

“You do!” Kira agrees. “Baby girl got her nappy on!” Like before, she looks deeply into Robin’s eyes, but this time she reports, “And now your pupils are all big.” She grins. “Feeling no pain now, I’m almost jealous.”

No pain? Robin attempts consider the idea and fails. Hasn’t life always felt this way? She beams, puts her arms around her friend. “I love you,” she tries to say. Ah wuh yoo.

“I know, baby, feeling’s mutual. Now, let’s get your top on.”

The final piece of Robin’s outfit is a T-shirt, soft white cotton decorated with a pink balloon. Kira helpfully reads out the lettering. “It says ‘one’ and ‘Robin’.”

And that’s silly. Robin’s not a baby. She giggles. All of this is so silly! She stretches out her hands and spins around. She’s not dizzy anymore, and she’s certainly not grumpy.

“Ready to go to your party?” asks Kira in her sweet, coddling tone. “Everyone can’t wait to see you!”

Robin nods. She’ll say yes to anything right now. She’s a party animal, albeit one that waddles like a toddler in her thick diaper.

She takes Kira’s hand, and they leave the green room and head towards the source of the nursery rhyme music.

“You’re going to love the decorations,” says Kira, “the room’s decked out just like it’s for a baby’s first birthday, but everything’s really big, and so you’ll feel all cute and small. Even the smash cake is giant.” It’s Kira’s turn to giggle. “You’re gonna make such a mess!”

Even in her addled state, Robin manages to pout. She doesn’t like making a mess. She doesn’t like to lose control.

“So,” Kira continues, “some people have their party completely sober, which is wild. But I know what a clean freak you are, so I ordered what they call the blush-free option.” They stop at a pair of swing-doors.

Kira takes both of her friend’s hands in her own. “Nothing embarrassing,” she says sweetly. “Just fun. The party you should have had, twenty years ago.” She gives Robin’s hands a gentle squeeze. “Ready to have fun?”

Robin nods. She has no idea what’s going on, and yet she’s ready for anything. She puts her thumb into her mouth and feels even better, and they go though the doors to a chorus of cheers and hugs.

Robin dances with Brian to the silly, bouncy music.

She babbles politely at the compliments she gets about her special birthday clothes.

She poses wonderfully for all the pictures and the livestream.

And then, when she’s hungry, the party guests sing Happy Birthday, Robin makes a wish, and then she makes the messiest, most magnificent job of devouring her smash cake.

THE END

Robin wonders why a baby's smash cake has been ordered for her 21st birthday - Sebtomato