Chapter Twenty-Seven
Although the window blinds made a valiant effort to keep the morning light out of the girls’ bedroom, they were ultimately unsuccessful. Diffuse sunlight coated every surface in view of the window, including the face of the alarm clock on which a just recently awakened Erin was attempting to make out the numbers. Her eyes were still adjusting to being awake, and she considered fishing for her glasses, but she soon managed to see through the sun’s glare and her own slightly blurry vision well enough to determine that it was just after eight in the morning.
As she moved further into consciousness, she came to discover she felt very warm and clammy. Was she wet? A quick focus of her attention on her bladder informed her that she didn’t need to pee, and her heart sunk mildly as she realized she hadn’t kept her diaper dry overnight. Yet, this feeling of wetness was distributed all over her. So her soggy diaper wasn’t the only source of her clamminess; she was also sweating profusely.
A tickling sensation in her throat elicited a yawn, and she realized her throat was very dry. As she closed her mouth, she also felt a slight gag reflex. This served to shock her awake; moving around slightly in bed, she realized she felt very nauseous. The girl didn’t need to pee, but she still had a pressing reason to get to the toilet; if she didn’t move now, she was in danger of delivering last night’s dinner to the bedroom floor.
She wiped her sweaty forehead with the back of her arm and climbed out from under her covers, trying to suppress the urge to vomit for as long as she could. In her hurry to get out of bed, she almost tripped over her sheets. She recovered her balance, but managed to have land a foot on the ground with a thud, which seemed rather loud in the otherwise-quiet room. Hailey stirred.
I probably just woke her up, Erin thought with regret. She felt bad for doing so, but she realized she’d feel even worse if she got sick on the bedroom floor, so she pressed on towards the bathroom. She’d apologize to Hailey later.
Her guts were churning as she made her way down the hallway. She clenched her lips shut as tightly as she could; not that it would hold much back, but at least it would delay the inevitable a little bit, and right now it felt like every moment would count.
She stumbled into the bathroom, not bothering to close the door, and kneeled down in front of the toilet while simultaneously lifting the lid and the seat. She just barely had time to pull her hair out of her face before she lost the contents of her stomach.
Erin didn’t really feel any better; the only difference was that her mouth now tasted awful, and the aroma from what she’d just sent into the toilet bowl was beginning to assault her nostrils. She felt herself gag again; no more came out, but she felt like she could vomit again at any moment. She didn’t dare move her face away from the toilet.
And yet, she realized that her body wanted to empty itself in more ways than one. She could suddenly feel an immense pressure in her backside; a pressure she didn’t dare release, although it felt like her body didn’t have long before it gave her no choice in the matter.
She considered her options. She was right in front of the toilet, and she knew she could get up on it in time, but she ran the risk of needing to throw up while she was sitting, and the bathroom’s trash can was not in reach. On the other hand, she was wearing her diaper, and it was already wet, so she’d need to change it soon anyway. She really didn’t want to use it for that purpose; it was bad enough that it was wet, and she loathed the feeling of being messy. But she didn’t want to throw up all over the Summers’ bathroom floor; the vomit would go everywhere. A messy diaper, while extremely gross to her, would at least be self-contained and marginally easier to clean up.
She still held out as long as she could, but at the tail end of another wave of nausea, she felt the pressure begin to lessen as the seat of her diaper began to fill with what felt like an extremely messy accident.
Erin absolutely hated the mushy feeling, but she couldn’t do anything about it at this point; she still didn’t dare move her mouth from its post over the toilet bowl. She could only pray that her diaper had managed to hold; what she’d released felt big and soft enough that it was possible it might not have.
Hailey entered the room a few minutes later; apparently Erin had been right in assuming she’d awakened her. Hailey immediately ascertained the reason for Erin’s position, and immediately stood behind her cousin, taking over the job of holding the girl’s hair back.
It didn’t take her long to notice the aroma from Erin’s laden diaper. “I’m not going to be mad at you, but did you make your diaper messy?”
Erin couldn’t deny it, although she didn’t really see any reason to not let Hailey know anyway. But she didn’t feel like it would be a good idea to speak, so she simply gave a subtle nod.
Hailey nodded as well, even though Erin couldn’t see it. She’d suspected as much, and she also knew how much Erin detested sitting in a mess. The poor girl probably felt awful right now, sitting in a full diaper and apparently still needing to be sick.
“As soon as you’re well enough to be away from the toilet for a little while,” Hailey said, “I’ll get you out of that diaper and all cleaned up.”
Erin didn’t want Hailey to feel obligated to do that, but she completely honestly felt much too sick to want to do it herself. Hailey could take care of her, Hailey probably even wanted to take care of her, even with how disgusting as she was right now. And Erin couldn’t think of any time she’d wanted Hailey’s help as much as she did now. She nodded, indicating her acceptance of the pending assistance, and promising herself that she’d find some way of repaying her cousin when she felt better.
“Okay,” Hailey said, “I’m going to go down to the kitchen and get you a large bowl so you’ve got something to throw up in when you do leave the toilet. Do you think you’ll be okay alone for a minute?” She handed Erin’s hair back to her as the sick girl nodded yet again.
Hailey bounded down the stairs and began rummaging around through the kitchen cabinets for a mixing bowl, barely noticing her mother sitting at the breakfast table until the woman asked her what she was doing.
“Erin’s feeling sick,” she said, finally pulling a bowl out of the cupboard. “She’s in the upstairs bathroom now, keeping her head over the toilet.”
Hailey began to head back upstairs; her mother followed, wanting to check on her niece. The two of them entered the bathroom.
“How are you doing, Erin?” asked Sue, already guessing the answer.
Erin decided to risk speech. “Not well,” she whispered. “I still feel like I have to be sick, and, um…”
Hailey finished for her. “And she had a little bit of a messy accident,” Hailey told her mother.
“I see,” said Sue. “Well, when we get a chance, I’ll clean that up,” she offered.
“Hailey already offered,” Erin rasped. “I’d rather she did it.”
Sue looked at Hailey, who was mildly blushing, but still looked proud of herself. “It’s my responsibility,” said Sue. “I don’t want Hailey to catch what you have.”
“Mom, I’ll be fine,” said Hailey. “I’ve already been sleeping in the same room as her; if whatever she has is contagious, I’ve probably already caught it. She wants my help, and I’ll give it to her.”
Sue looked like she wasn’t entirely convinced that she wanted to expose her daughter to Erin’s clean-up, but Hailey seemed determined, and it was what Erin wanted after all. “Well,” she finally conceded, “just be careful, and make sure to wash your hands really well when you’re done, with soap and hot water, okay? No need to expose yourself more than necessary.”
“Of course,” Hailey said.
Sue gave her niece a kiss on the top of the head and turned around. “I’ll be downstairs if either of you need me,” she said, walking out of the bathroom door.
“Your mom’s probably right,” whispered Erin. “You probably don’t want to stay around me more than you have to, or you might get sick yourself.”
“I’ll stay with you until you’re well enough that I can change you,” replied Hailey. “After that, I can bring you to bed, and I’ll leave you alone to rest… although of course I’ll check up on you once in a while, and I’m sure my mom will too.”
“Fine,” whispered Erin, before gagging again and releasing another torrent from her mouth.
Fifteen minutes passed before Erin felt confident enough to move her head away from the toilet. She still didn’t feel completely better, but she desperately wanted to get the mess off of her skin.
Hailey noticed her motion. “Are you ready for a change?” she asked.
Erin nodded.
“Okay. Lay down on the bathroom floor,” Hailey said, pointing to a rug. “I’ll go get a new diaper real quick and then we can clean you up.”
“Another diaper?” asked Erin.
“Yeah. You’re sick, and that means you should probably be resting, and if you fall asleep…”
Erin nodded. She couldn’t guarantee that she wouldn’t wet again, and she owed it to her cousin and aunt to avoid getting everything soaked if she did.
Hailey quickly retrieved a new diaper and some wipes. Although Erin was very messy, her diaper had managed to keep everything in, and she soon found herself being led back to bed with a clean diaper around her waist.
“I’ll be checking on you,” said Hailey. “But you should probably try to get some rest now.” She shut the bedroom door behind her and went to gather up the messy pull-up from the bathroom floor.
She placed the diaper in the bathroom trash and tied up the bag, setting it on the ground beside her as she got a new bag from under the sink and placed it in the can. With as bad as it smelled, there was no way she could put this diaper in the usual bedroom pail; this one would have to go straight outside.
Erin was probably very glad to have this off of her, Hailey realized. She knew that Erin would never mess herself voluntarily, so this must have been an accident, and was probably related to her being sick. Not that she could fault Erin for having an accident, of course; after all, she wished she could do the same thing on purpose.
As she walked through the house, a thought occurred to her. The messy diaper she was now carrying outside was Erin’s, but her mother would have no way to know who any future messy diapers belonged to.
Hailey suppressed a smile. She could do it on purpose. Her mother probably wouldn’t find another mess to be unexpected; after all, Erin was sick. So Hailey could soil a diaper as well, and her mother would have no reason to believe the additional dirty diaper in the garbage bin was hers.
Her thoughts drifted to the diaper currently between her legs. She doubted she’d be able to use this one for her mess; after all, she’d only be keeping it on until she took a shower, which probably wouldn’t be much longer. She doubted she’d need to defecate enough before that to make a satisfying “accident.” But she could always change back into one later on under the pretense of checking on Erin. A little bit of straining, and she’d be ready to change, bringing down a soiled diaper that her mother would believe belonged to her cousin.
She’d have to get Erin’s approval, of course. She doubted Erin would refuse, though. With a guilty twang, she realized that she could probably ask Erin for anything right about now; Erin would feel so indebted for the change Hailey had just performed that she couldn’t possibly deny Hailey anything.
By mid afternoon, Hailey could feel her colon was becoming full. She could certainly wait a few more hours before going — in fact, she was reasonably certain she could get by with waiting overnight if she had to — but she knew that she was capable of having a satisfying bowel movement now, and she didn’t know how much longer Erin would be sick.
She hoped it wouldn’t be long. As nice as this opportunity was for her, she really didn’t like seeing Erin suffer like this. She grabbed a cup from the kitchen cabinet and filled it with some Sprite from the fridge; her mother had always given her the citrus soda when she had an upset stomach, and Erin was probably thirsty by now.
Other than a brief interruption for lunch that Sue had brought in, Erin had been somewhere between asleep and awake for most of the day. She couldn’t get comfortable enough to sleep properly, as she had to constantly pull up and down her covers to compensate for the temperature differences that kept sweeping over her body.
The soup and crackers that had made up her lunch lay on her nightstand, mostly uneaten, but the glass that had accompanied the meal was empty. As much as she didn’t feel like eating, her throat had been dry all day. She had wanted more to drink, but not quite badly enough that it was worth getting out of bed, and she’d remembered hoping her aunt and cousin would come in and give her a refill.
She felt mildly confused, though, as she realized she couldn’t remember what she’d been thinking for the last few minutes. She glanced over at the clock, and determined she’d lost an hour and a half.
I guess I actually did manage to fall asleep, she thought. But then…
She instinctively checked her diaper and realized that she was a little bit damp. Great, I got to wake up wet twice in one day.
Looking up, she determined what had awakened her: a silhouette, whose size betrayed its owner as Hailey, was standing in the doorway. “How are you doing?” her cousin asked.
Erin sat upright slowly, testing how she felt. “Still tired, still sweaty, but at least I don’t feel like I’m in imminent danger of throwing up anymore. But I’m a little wet,” she admitted.
“Would you like some help changing?”
More than anything at that moment, Erin knew she wanted Hailey to assist her, and she wasn’t feeling well enough to insist on doing it herself. “I guess so,” she admitted, a slight twinge of embarrassment in her voice.
Hailey turned around and immediately began removing the covers and Erin’s clothes as necessary to get to the girl’s diaper. “Don’t be ashamed,” she reassured her cousin. “I’m sure you won’t mind another diaper?”
Erin nodded her approval. She’d already used the last two she’d been wearing, and she still felt worn out, even after her nap. If she did actually manage to fall asleep again this afternoon, she’d certainly want to be sure to be wearing one.
As Hailey wiped Erin down, she decided to pose her question. “I have a favor to ask of you as well.”
Erin nodded again; she had no plans to disagree — not that she was in a position right now to disagree if she’d wanted to. Of course, she’d do what Hailey needed, but she hoped it would be something that wouldn’t be too much trouble for her in her current state of sickness. “What do you need?”
“Well… I need to poop, and you’ve already had a messy accident today, so my parents would be expecting it…”
Erin immediately saw where Hailey was going. “So you want to use your diaper, and you think she’ll believe it was me if she finds it after you throw it away.”
Hailey blushed. “Only with your permission, of course. I don’t want her thinking you had another accident if that’s not what you want.”
“No,” said Erin, “That’s fine.” She shifted her weight slightly to make it easier for Hailey to put a fresh garment on her and put her nightclothes back into place. “I’ll say it was me if it comes down to that.”
Hailey gave Erin a hug, careful not to touch any of Erin’s bare skin with the hands she’d just used to change a diaper. “Thanks. I can, um, do that now, then?”
“Yes,” said Erin. “Go ahead.”
Hailey put Erin’s wet diaper in the pail and washed her hands with a second wipe. She retrieved another diaper from their stash, putting it on and pulling her pants on over it. She then squatted down beside her bed as Erin watched with mild interest. It didn’t take much effort for Hailey to get started, and her body quickly finished, stretching the diaper tight with what felt to Hailey like a reasonably large amount of mostly solid waste.
“Did you finish?” asked Erin, watching Hailey stand up.
“Yes,” Hailey said. “It feels great… thanks for letting me do this.”
It really did feel great to her, too. There was just something very comforting to her about feeling that warmth filling her diaper. She sat down on the edge of her bed, feeling it flatten under her, and had to bite her lip to keep from gasping.
“How long do you think you’ll wait before changing?” asked Erin, her voice croaking.
“Probably a couple more minutes,” admitted Hailey. “Unless the smell’s bothering you? I can change now.”
“No, no, it’s okay,” assured Erin. Certainly, the smell wasn’t something she’d actively seek out, but it was tolerable, and she couldn’t cut Hailey’s fun short, especially after all Hailey had done for her today.
They heard a knock on the door, and Hailey froze.
There was only one person that knock could be, Hailey realized. Her mother was the only other person home, and she wanted to come in the room where her daughter was wearing a messy diaper. There was no way she wouldn’t notice the smell, but would she know which girl it was coming from? Realistically, her mother would have more reason to assume that it was Erin’s diaper, given her previous accident earlier. But if her mother insisted on cleaning Erin up, and found out that Erin was clean, it would be pretty obvious who was actually the source of the odor.
Well, she’d just have to make sure to absolutely insist that she was the one to change Erin. She still didn’t like the risks, though. At least she’d put her pants back on over the diaper, but she’d never worn a diaper under these pants before, and wasn’t certain that her diaper would be hidden. She wasn’t supposed to be wearing a diaper right now! Her mother was probably going to find out…
“Don’t come in,” she heard Erin say. “I… had another accident, and Hailey’s changing me.”
“Okay,” they heard from the other side of the door. “I’ll come back in a few minutes, then?”
“Yes, that’s fine,” announced Erin.
Hailey was both relieved and impressed. Erin had found a way to keep her aunt out of the room, and she’d managed to lace her voice with just the right amount of guilt to successfully feign embarrassment. Apparently Sue was convinced, at least.
She looked Erin in the eye and mouthed a quick thank you. She quickly went to work on cleaning herself up.
Sue returned to the bedroom door just in time to see her daughter come out, holding a trash bag full of diapers that she’d apparently just taken out of the diaper pail. A familiar aroma wafted from it, indicating that one of the diapers was holding more than urine.
“Thanks for cleaning your cousin up,” said Sue. “You’ve been a great help today.”
Hailey nodded. “I’d better go take this outside before it stinks up the house, though,” she said, not trusting herself to speak much longer without somehow slipping up and giving away what she’d done. Sue nodded, allowing her daughter to continue towards the stairs as she went into the bedroom to comfort Erin.
“I know you must not be feeling that great, but I just wanted to reiterate that you shouldn’t worry about your accidents. You’re sick, and I know that having a mess like that must feel bad, but we’re here to take care of you.” She leaned over and gave Erin a hug.
Erin leaned into her aunt; she couldn’t deny that the physical contact felt good. But she felt a bit guilty that lying to her aunt led to being rewarded, even if the lie was to help Hailey out.
Well, it wasn’t a complete lie… she had just had an accident; it just wasn’t messy like she’d implied. And Hailey had been changing her, just not at the instant she’d responded. So she’d more bent the truth than outright lied.
Still, it had been necessary to help Hailey out. She’d promised Hailey earlier that she’d take the fall for accidents if required, and her cousin had even asked her in advance this time. Lying wasn’t desirable, but if it was necessary to keep her word with the best person she’d ever met, then she really had no choice. To her, Hailey was more important than anything else.