“Ha ha! Nice.” I said to myself. “Thanks Ger, I really appreciate it!” I said, talking into the house phone.
“No problem, anytime. So anything else new with you then?”
“Yeah… That kid Josh. I need to find out something about him.”
“Anything I can do to help?” Geremy offered.
“Nah, don’t worry about it. This is something I have to do on my own.”
“Alrighty then. My dad wants me to go for dinner now. Me and AJ got something else in the works, so we will probably be busy for a while.”
“Alright then. Take it easy, and good luck. Don’t screw things up to bad!” I joked.
“We’ll try” He said, followed by a click. I pressed a button on the phone turning it off.
“TRISTIAN! DINNER! YOU TOO JACOB!” I heard my mom call. I left my dad’s office, and walked into the hallway. Jacob had been in my room, playing with some old toys I had found for him. Things like Mega Blocks, and those big plastic toy trucks, and things of that nature. I let him go down the stairs first. As we got down the stairs, I looked at the clock. “7:30…” I muttered to myself. We entered the dining room, and sat down. In front of us was some macaroni and cheese. Jacob went to start eating, but my mother, who seemed to appear out of the blue, stopped him.
“Not so fast there!” she giggles, wrapping a bib over his neck.
“Oh, sorry, almost forgot!” He apologized.
“Don’t worry about it baby.” My mom cooed. I and Jacob then started digging into our meals. I wasn’t a messy eater, but Jacob DEFINITELY was! I’m SURE that my mom was glad to have the bib on; otherwise his Spiderman shirt would have been ruined! I was enjoying my macaroni almost as much as Jacob was, but I still couldn’t get Josh out of my head. Did he want to befriend me because I was kind of popular now? Or was it something else? My mom must have picked up on my distraught though.
“Honey, is there something you want to talk about?” She asked, finishing a bowl of her own macaroni.
“Yeah, kind of. Could my friend Josh come over?” I asked.
“When?” She questioned.
“I don’t know, maybe tomorrow afternoon right after school?” I replied.
“Well, I don’t see why not. Just be sure to do your homework before I get back, otherwise you’re in big trouble mister!” She warned, chuckling a little bit. I was about to respond, just finishing my dinner, when I heard the front door open, and then clothes. I quickly got up from my seat and ran to the door, jumping and hugging my father.
“Dad! Welcome home!” I said, greeting him. He returned my hug.
“Hey Tristian. Then I felt another entity embrace both me, and my dad. “And hello to you too Jacob!” My father said with a slight chuckle. “Well aren’t you a little messy!” My dad said, releasing us from his grasp, pointing to Jacob’s bib. Jacob blushed.
“Alright you two; take a shower and then off to bed! You got school tomorrow!” He said.
“But dad!” We both whined.
“No buts! Off to the shower!” He commanded. Even when he was telling me to do stuff, he was never too stern about it. He never seemed to get that mad.
“Fine…” I said, trudging up to the bathroom. I was about to close the door when Jacob stepped into the bathroom. “Jacob, what is it?” I asked him.
“Well, I don’t know… I don’t want to be lonely… could I take a shower with you?” He asked innocently.
“Listen Jacob, I know you don’t understand it yet, but two boys aren’t really SUPPOSED to take showers together.
“Oh, alright…” He said, walking out of the bathroom. I stopped him and gave him a quick hug.
“It’s nothing personal, Jacob.” I assured him. He nodded, and ran back to the guest room. That was essentially his room, although it hadn’t really been personalized. It looked more like an adult’s room, but he didn’t seem to mind, since he spent most of his time playing in my room or downstairs anyways. I took my shirt, socks, and pants off. Next, I removed my soaked diaper. I tossed it into the trash, and then sat on the toilet, making sure that I wouldn’t have a number two accident in the shower. That would have been a disaster! I finished going, and then wiped myself clean. I turned on the shower, and once it was hot enough, I stepped in, making sure to grab a wash cloth with me when I got in. I always took long showers. Not because I over washed myself, though I always made sure to wash so that I was totally clean but rather because I always was able to think the best in the shower. The warm, running water, the sound of it splashing against the tub; and against my body. The feeling of it all. It was heaven. I relaxed, and stood, my head hanging low so that I could breathe with the water still hitting my face.
“What the hell could Josh POSSIBLY want? He never really paid ANY attention to me before!” I thought. I was sixteen now, no longer a child by any standards, but still not quite an adult. I had started school late, so I was always a year older than everyone else. That is, except Jacob; who was born the same year I was! His birthday occurred in December, so he too would have started school late. “Is it that everyone just wants to know who I am now? Is he REALLY trying to be my friend?” I questioned myself within the confides of my own mind. I soon scrubbed my body, and my hair clean with vanilla shampoo and body wash. I stepped out of the shower, grabbing a towel hanging on a rack. I dried off my hair, and then the rest of my body.
I sighed as I walked out of the bathroom to my room, where my mother was obviously getting Jacob ready for his bath. He apparently never had taken a shower before, but had only had baths. This was understandable, and as my mom told him to go wait in the bathroom, she turned to me. At this point, I knew the drill. I lied down on my bed, and simply let my mom change me. The night time diapers she had gotten were significantly thicker than the ones that I and Jacob would wear during the day. She picked out a white T-shirt, and put it on me.
“Tristian, honey, Jacob and I were talking. He says that he really would like to move into your room.” She said.
“Um, I guess so? But where is he going to sleep?” I asked.
“Well, I was thinking that we could get you two bunk beds!” She said cheerfully, tucking me in, and kissing me on my forehead.
“I guess…” I replied.
“Alright than. Sometime this week we will go out shopping for a bunk bed set!” She said. “Want a drink baby?” She cooed. I couldn’t help but blush and say yes. She returned after about 10 minutes, having gotten me a bottle of cold milk, and starting Jacob’s bath.
“Good night sweetie.” She said, closing the door as I suckled on my sweet cold milk. I fell asleep just minutes later.
(Next morning, at the bus stop)
It was another brisk February morning. Jacob was dressed now in yellow and blue clothes, very similar to the ones he had been wearing yesterday, where as I was wearing a black T-shirt, hoodie, and a pair of navy blue denim jeans. AJ and Geremy weren’t there, as expected, but the bus came never the less. Jacob and I took the seats we had the day before, so that I could talk to Josh. Josh was alone in the seat.
“Hey, sorry about yesterday. Crazy stuff happened, you know? My parents said you could come over today after school though!” I told him, giving a realistically fake smile.
“Awesome! What time”
“Right after school. I walk home, so do you want to come with?” I offered.
“Yeah, sounds great.”
(After school)
School had been busy. Work had been done, and girls gawked once again over the cuteness that was Jacob. He didn’t really get why all of the girls liked him, but he didn’t seem to care. We stood outside, waiting for Josh to show up. Just as the last bus left, I turned to Jacob.
“Maybe he went home early or something.” I said shrugging. He returned the shrug, and we started to walk off.
“WAIT!” Came a scream from behind me. I saw Josh running toward Jacob and me. He huffed and puffed and tried to catch his breath as he stopped short right in front of us.
“Sorry, I was held, back, by colonel, today!” He said between large, gasping breaths. I knew he was referring to the JROTC teacher.
“Yeah, no problem.” I said, waiting for him to catch his breath. Jacob kindly gave Josh a pat on the back.
“It’s okay Josh! Don’t worry, we’re not going to leave without ‘cha!” He smiled.
“Thanks…” He said, finally catching his breath. The walk home was nothing close to silent. Jacob continued to ask questions, but only the usual ones that one would expect a boy with the curiosity of a toddler too. The “Who, what, where, why, how” scenario was always played out by him, it seemed. But neither I, nor Josh seemed to mind this. We got home, and I opened up the door. We walked inside, and took our shoes off, and our hoodies. Josh took off his Jacket, revealing a plain blue T-shirt.
“Hey! Our shirts kind of match! Right Twi Twi?” He asked curiously.
“Ha ha, yeah, I guess so.” I replied. Josh chuckled some.
“Hey, Josh? Could you wait down here a minute? Help yourself to the TV.” I offered.
“Sure, no problem.” He said, laying his backpack down next to his sneakers. Jacob and I went upstairs and into my room. I quickly changed him, and then myself, putting our pants back on. I looked at Jacob sternly.
“Alright, now remember, behave.” I warned him. He put his right thumb up into the air.
“You can count on me Twi!” He said happily.
“You want to play with your trucks for a little while so I can go talk to Josh for a bit?” I offered. Jacob smiled and ran over to my closet, taking out a decent sized box of toy trucks. He almost immediately started playing with them, pushing them around and making his own sound effects as any child would. I left him to his game. I trudged down the stairs, my heart racing just a little. I was nervous. I walked over to the couch and sat down, watching the news that Josh had put on.
“Hey.” He said.
“Hey. Sorry about that!”
“Nah, don’t worry, it’s okay. I sort of have a baby brother too!” He replied. I froze a bit. He knew what I was doing with Jacob already. Not that it was a secret that Jacob wore diapers, but the clothing had been wearing had been masking MY diapers, so I was almost one hundred percent SURE he didn’t know I wore diapers.
“Yeah…” I replied cautiously.
“So what made you want to come over so bad?”
“Well, a couple things…”
“Like?”
“Like this.” He said, pulling out a pacifier colored in blue and yellow. “It fell out of Jacob’s pocket today at lunch, so I thought I would bring it back.
“Thanks…” I said. “Damn it, I told him to leave his baby stuff at home!” I thought to myself within my own mind.
“That, and also that I found something I think is YOURS.” He said ominously, getting up and walking over to his backpack. He opened his backpack and pulled out several sheets of paper. He came back and handed them over to me.
“TB Treat.” I read aloud. “Where did you get this?”
“Found it on the lunch room floor yesterday, when you took Jacob and ditched everyone.”
He made it sound so cold and heartless. Like I really had hurt him by it.
“So what are you going to do now? Looks like the only reason you came is just to see if it’s really mine.” I said simply.
“It is yours, and I know it, ‘Twi Twi’.” He mused as I blushed a bit from the comment. “Don’t worry about it. I have a one more thing to tell you…” He said.
“What.”
“We’ve met before online.” He giggled.
“What?!” I yelled.
“Yup. Tristian 1-1-7. IRC chat room.”
Wait… Joshy?!” I asked. He nodded.
“Oh man this is AWESOME! I had no CLUE you lived ANYWHERE near me!” I said surprised.
“Neither did I till I read your story!”
“Well, the proofreader WOULD know whose story it is; at least I hope so anyways!” I laughed. He began to laugh too.
“Yeah, I know, right?”
“So hell man, what do you want to do now? We could go upstairs and play trucks with Jacob?”
“Sounds like a plan, Twi my man!” He said, chuckling.
Josh had been a good friend of mine online for the past six months and I hadn’t even known it! Josh was a TB, but had no liking of diapers, or other baby stuff. He was most definitely a caretaker type. For the rest of the day, until five o’clock when my mom had gotten home, we played and played and played. Just Jacob, Josh, and myself. For the most part, it was enjoyable!
The next month was absolute bliss. My room had become more toddler like, and now had bunk beds! Jacob slept on the bottom, and I slept on the top bunk. We had gotten new toys and clothes every now and again. I had also been prepped to speak on the stand at the court case regarding Terri, and Nick. It was scary at first, but my dad helped me through it; with him being a lawyer and all, he knew how to approach it. Everything was quiet, and not much else happened. AJ and Ger each decided to take over their families stores, which their grandparents owned. AJ inherited a gun shop, and Ger inherited a liquor store; both conveniently placed next to each other in the mall. That is to say nothing really happened until March twenty ninth…