Brie sprung forward, eyes open. “I don’t even care!” She squealed, pointing first to Jinny, then to the hallway. “Jus’ get that nasty shit away from me!”
Jinny wasted no time correcting Brie’s language; instead she sprang up, and sped off to the bathroom. Slamming and locking the door, she trembled as she pranced to the toilet and lifted the lid. Squirming, she hiked up the dress and tore at the tapes. One, two, done; the first diaper fell to the ground. A spasm hit her as she ripped at the second diaper, nearly causing her to lose control. In her haste, she fumbled, and could only manage to remove one of the tapes; but that was enough. With a light crinkle, the second clean diaper hit the ground. She kicked it across the room as she landed on the seat.
She had done it.
As relief swept over her, and the adrenaline from her rush subsided; she began to gather her thoughts. Her motive was clear from the beginning; prove that Brie couldn’t handle baby-sitting. Jinny couldn’t deny the oddity of her choice; using diapers was not part of the original plan. No, diapers were Brie’s idea, just like her claim to responsibility, the one that started the bet in the first place. But Jinny had turned it around; using Brie’s own suggestions to prove her point.
But was there more to it than that? Jinny questioned what had driven her to accept, and even use the diapers. She stared across the room, where the crinkly garment lay, unable to answer the question in full. She couldn’t decide whether she had just been caught up in the moment, or whether she had secretly enjoyed it. While she could admit that there was a certain comfort to wearing diapers, there was something else; some unknown force that drove her to use them. An uneasy feeling of being used fell upon her.
She pushed these worries from her mind as she rose.
Discarding the party dress, she retrieved her clothes. Her next course of action was to reclaim her position as the babysitter. Brie had lost the bet, but that wasn’t the main issue; Jinny couldn’t ignore the fact that an eight year-old had used swear words, four times, to be exact. Brie needed to be disciplined; but Jinny didn’t want to turn this into a night of bitter resentment and anger. On top of that, with the bet won, she couldn’t let Brie stay up late, or reward her in any way.
“That’s great, punishment and an early bedtime; I’m sure she’ll just love that.” Jinny mumbled to herself as she deposited the diapers in the trash.
Jinny worried that the youngster would hate her; and because of that, any future ‘sitting’ would be a nightmare. Perhaps there was a way to balance it out. She quickly devised a plan that she hoped would make it clear to Brie that she wasn’t being punished for anything other than swearing.
From the bathroom door, Jinny could see no sign of Brie; though her view of the living room was severely limited. Quietly, she crept, first into Mr. Macabe’s room, where she collected a movie. Next, she went to Brie’s bedroom. Going straight for the closet, it didn’t take her long to find what she was looking for. Directly in front of her was a white plastic package with a large pink stripe across the middle. ‘Count: 26’ and ‘X-Large’ were emblazoned in bold, pink font, at the bottom corners of the package. The top was torn open, with about half of the diapers missing; three of which Jinny had just recently worn. Grabbing one, she made her way out to the living room.
Hiding both items behind her back, she emerged slowly from the hall. To her surprise, she saw Brie standing at the far end of the room, facing the corner.
“What are you doing, Brie?” She asked, genuinely confused.
“I’m in time out.” Brie didn’t move.
Not forgetting her plan she used this convenience to walk quickly into the kitchen, only questioning Brie further once she was safely around the corner. “Why?”
“I’m a bad babysitter.” Brie mumbled dejectedly.