Megan decided that she would talk to Ted and got the answers she sought. She absolutely had to know, no matter what the price. She waited until she had a day off from work and dropped in on him. To her surprise, he treated her coolly and with only minimal affection. They really had grown apart.
“Is this important?” he asked. “Because I’m going to see Anna later and…”
“Well then,” Megan said, grinning sardonically. “I’d HATE to keep you from your precious Anna.”
Though she meant no harm in it, she watched Ted’s face become clouded with disdain. “Maybe you’ll know what its like when you find someone.”
He was showing her he could be cruel as well as compassionate and she didn’t care for it one bit. She had planned on finding a considerate way to tell him, but his current attitude prompted her into coming right out with it.
“Maybe I have,” Megan answered him.
“Yeah?” he asked with concealed interest.
“Your friend Ron.”
She watched him grimace and felt guilt that she was taking such pleasure at his discomfort.
“Is it serious?”
Megan shrugged and tussled her hair. “I dunno. Things might be headed that way.”
“My friend and my former girlfriend,” he lamented. “This is just great. You know, when he said he had a good time with you, I thought that all you were doing was hanging out. I didn’t think it would lead to…this. But, whatever…. if it works, I’m happy for you.”
Megan smiled. Even when Ted was being a jerk, he still found a way to be nice.
“Look, Ted,” she began; trying to find a way to put into words what happened without overstating the case. “There’s a bit of a problem.”
“Is it me?” he asked.
She groaned in annoyance. “It has nothing to do with you, OK?”
He nodded and listened as Megan explained the incident. By the time she finished, his face was pale with worry.
“Oh man,” he remarked. “I thought he got over that.”
“I don’t know what it is. I know he’s not afraid of girls. He’s not bipolar, is he?”
Ted shook his head.
“So then what happened? What about this incident?”
He looked her dead in the eye, his piercing gaze hard with determination. It was the same look she saw when he was informed about Deanna’s attack on her. She hoped to never see it again.
“If I tell you this,” he cautioned. “You can’t tell anyone.”
Megan chuckled. “Who am I gonna tell? I don’t know most of your friends.”
“I’m serious, Meg.”
“Fine. Very well, Theodore, you have my word.” She knew he hated being called Theodore.
Ted cleared his throat and began. “There was this party for the soccer team. It was right after we did so well in the state tourney. I was only there for part of it, but I heard what happened later. If I had known what was going on, I would have stayed and put an end to it.”
“I’m sorry, Ted.” Megan told him sincerely. “But can you please cut the drama?”
He nodded. “A couple of the guys decided to hire a stripper….”
Her name was Babelicious Barbara. She stood a statuesque 5’9″, though she topped 6’ in heels. Her hair was golden blonde and she had the biggest set of tits that most of them had ever seen. The party had been going on about forty minutes. Just about everyone had hit the keg, but there was plenty of beer left to be had. The music was turned way up and Barbara was giving them quite a show.
The party was held in the gym that the team used for practices during the colder months and much of their equipment was stored in an adjacent room. Several young minds, fueled by the spirit of triumph, as well as a copious amount of alcohol, came up with the idea to drag a goal out of storage and tie Barbara to the posts. Seeing it as a way to make some extra money, Barbara consented. She was bound loosely with scarves and could break free at any time. It was purely for show.
As the night wore on, several of the revelers attempted to grope and fondle her. Though the credo of her profession was “look, don’t touch”, this had proven to be inevitable no matter what the circumstances. And while she did not like the feel of dozens of hands grabbing at her, she knew there would be tips to be made if she stuck around. Thus, she made a ploy to pacify the audience and help pay off her student loans.
“Touch and grab, touch and grab,” she shouted in an authoritative, mocking tone. “Like little kids in a candy store. Isn’t there a real man among you?”
The room fell silent upon hearing her challenge and the young men looked upon her with awe.
“That’s right,” she said. “I’m going to let one of you come up here and show the rest how it’s done.”
A dozen hands shot up and Barbara surveyed the room with mock-interest. “I pick,” she said, looking at one part of the room and then another. Wallets were taken out and bills held up in the air. “You.”
Her gaze had fallen upon Ron. He was on the outs with his girlfriend but they had not broken up yet. Besides, the whole spectacle made him a little uncomfortable. His peers, however, were relentless.
“You the man, Ron!”
“Go give it to her, Ron. Show HER how its done!”
“I dunno…” he began.
“Well?” Barbara taunted, writhing seductively in her bonds. “Here I am. What are you waiting for?”
Confidence fell upon him and he approached her to sounds of clapping and cheering.
“Do you have the proper tribute?” she asked in a no-frills sort of way.
He nodded and stuffed a folded bill into her g-string.
“What’s your name?” she whispered to him.
“Ron,” he quietly replied. Though it scared him to admit it, he was actually quite intimidated. Barbara was wickedly, explosively hot and the eyes of the whole team were now upon him. Not one person there had tried to talk him out of it. As uncomfortable as he was, he knew that if he walked away, he’d lose their respect forever.
“OK, Ron,” she said. “You know what to do. Just play along and your friends will be buying you drinks for a week. Don’t get cute or sleazy though, I’m warning you.”
He nodded, and, after a moment’s hesitation, placed his hands upon her body. She played her part very well, moaning loudly and shouting his name as he felt her breasts and thighs and ass. The place had gone crazy with excitement. Ron’s teammates were now passing him money to give to Barbara in hopes that the show would last.
What happened next could not easily be explained. It could have been the alcohol. It could have been the time Ron spent away from his girlfriend. It could have been the strength of Barbara’s performance or the catcalls of his peers. For whatever the reason, Ron allowed himself to forget the whole thing was just for show. He wrapped his arms around Barbara’s slender body and kissed her mouth deeply.
“That’s enough!” she chastized when she had room to breath again. Ron either didn’t hear her or didn’t want to. The music was loud and they were all shouting his name. He kissed her again, this time pressing himself close against her. Barbara tried to break free from the restraint, but she pulled too fast and the scarves tightened rather than loosened.
“You can stop now,” she repeated as he kissed her neck and massive breasts.
“Ron! Ron! Ron!” shouted one half of the room, entirely consumed in drunken revelry.
“Do it! Do it! Do it!” shouted the other half.
She repeated her request for him to stop, louder now, trying to be heard over the music. Panic set in. She could feel his hot breath upon her neck, his erection against her leg. This was not what she signed up for. Things were totally out of control. It was chaos and she was stuck in the middle of it, with her tormentor blissfully oblivious. Finally, she screamed.
The music stopped. The cheering stopped. Everything stopped…except for Ron. He was still groping and kissing her and only gradually began to slow down. Barbara screamed again and Ted finally drove through the crowd to pull him away.
“What did you do?” Ted asked. “Didn’t you hear her telling you to stop?”
Ron was dumbfounded and bewildered. He hadn’t heard her say stop. He had barely been able to hear anything except for the shouting of his name. “Everyone was cheering,” he said. “Everyone was…Christ, Ted, what the fuck did I do?”
“We called up the coach and explained what happened,” said Ted. “He was furious, but he agreed to handle it. Barbara got paid off not to say anything and we were all told to keep quiet about it. There was some talk about throwing Ron off the team, but it didn’t amount to anything. It was as much their fault for encouraging him. All of them. It was my fault too. I was outside when it started. Ron felt really bad about it and for awhile it seemed like he’d go on feeling bad about it forever. But then he got back together with his girl and things seemed like they would be OK for awhile.”
Megan was stunned. She didn’t know whether to feel sorry for him…. or be sick to her stomach.
“He seemed….” Megan began and then found herself trailing off. She couldn’t put into words what she was feeling just then.
“I thought he’d more or less recovered from it,” Ted told her. “He seemed fine. There was only one thing……”
“What, Ted?”
“Well,” Ted stammered. “A few weeks after it happened, after he had gone through days of feeling bad and was finally back to normal again, he asked me something. He asked me if I thought that, deep, down inside, she really liked it. He also asked me that if it was me up there, if they were shouting my name, would I have done the same.”
“Jesus…. what an asshole!”
“The scariest thing, Meg, was that for just a second, I found myself thinking ‘yes’.”
She glared at him with bewilderment. “You?!”
“I know,” he said bitterly. “I know. And if you want to know the truth, some of the guys in that room probably would have said yes for a lot longer than just that split second.”
“Ugh, Ted. How can you hang out with people like that?”
“You rationalize,” he explained. “Half of them aren’t even aware they have those kinds of impulses and the other half doesn’t care. Yes, it’s scary to look at the animal inside yourself, but it’s there in all of us.”
Megan’s cheeks flared up. “I am NOT…” she began and abruptly stopped. She remembered her revenge upon Deanna and how much she had enjoyed it before her conscience set in. Maybe Ted was right. Maybe there IS something like that in all of us.
“Anyway, Meg,” he said, clearing his throat. “I said Ron went back to normal, but a part of him really didn’t. His signals are all mixed up. He still gets dates, but he doesn’t have a clue about girls anymore. That’s why I thought it’d be a good idea for you guys to meet. I wanted to say to him, “Ron, buddy, here’s a nice, normal, healthy girl……the two of you can become friends.”
Megan erupted into laughter. Perhaps it was the fact that she wore a thick diaper under her shorts or perhaps it was the radical curves she’d been thrown this summer, but she wasn’t so sure that ‘nice, normal, healthy girl’ even applied to her anymore.
“It’s not funny,” Ted said sternly.
She nodded and pressed her lips together. It really wasn’t funny and she didn’t have a clue. She had taken a women’s studies class and read all about the destructive phenomenon that was rape. However, all of her knowledge came from the female perspective. She hadn’t a clue what incredible havoc it could wreak upon men.
“I don’t think you should see him again,” Ted told her quietly. “As a friend, maybe, but not like that. He’ll understand. He’s my friend too, remember, and I don’t like to judge people, but eventually he’s going to have to get help with this.”
“And I’d like to help him,” Megan replied. “But I’m scared, Ted. I don’t want to get myself in a situation that I can’t get out of.”
“Then don’t even try,” he advised.
“Well, I think I should at least let him know that I heard about what happened and that I understand.”
He shrugged and threw his hands up in the air in defeat. “Suit yourself.”
“There’s something else, Ted.”
“Yes?”
She thought of telling him of her diapers, of her needs and wants and well-guarded secret “other” life. She thought of telling him of her struggles and problems and yearnings. She came so close……and pulled away.
“Everything good I touch turns bad,” she said in parting. “And then I have to work so hard to make it good again.”
Megan lay on her stomach on the floor of her room, a sheet of white construction paper in front of her, an open box of crayons by her side. Coloring wasn’t the most stimulating activity in the world, but it pleased her. After the chaotic discoveries of the day, she longed for something simple and inoffensive. Crayons would not bite her. The worst they could do was break in her hands.
Carrie came charging into her room and Megan briefly considered telling her to leave. For once, she felt no immediate desire to help her sister out of whatever jam she was in. She had her own dilemma to deal with. Besides, she had done enough. Fortunately for her, Carrie brought good tidings.
“Hey Meg,” she greeted. “Whatcha doing?”
“Colowing,” Megan replied. “You wanna?”
Carrie giggled and shook her head. “Guess what,” she said.
Megan looked up.
“Mom’s gonna let me see Chris again. It’ll be at the movies and during daytime and we can’t sneak off anywhere, but I’m so happy. I haven’t seen him since he was grounded and there’s so much we have to talk about. Well…that I wanna talk about.”
Megan clapped.
“You’re quiet today,” Carrie noted. “By the way, Mom wants to know why you haven’t seen her about a diaper change?”
Megan shrugged.
“Well…do you need one?”
Megan shrugged again. She was enjoying this timeout from the complexities of her adult life. Carrie would get the message eventually and either join in or leave her alone.
“I see what’s going on,” Carrie remarked. “Well, if you aren’t gonna go to Mom, then I’ll just have to do it myself.”
Megan smiled at her. Normally, she would never even consider letting her younger sister have any power over her. However, at that moment she could care less. Besides, as Carrie was constantly being ordered around by either her or their parents, it might do her some good to hand her the reigns for a little while.
Carrie checked Megan’s diaper and pronounced her wet. “You knew you were wet all along, didn’t you?”
Megan nodded, grinning sheepishly.
“Bad girl,” Carrie reprimanded, giving her a few gentle swats over the thick padding of her diaper. “I suppose you want me to change you now?”
Again, Megan nodded.
“I will,” Carrie told her. “But you have to ask Stephen for permission first.”
She nearly balked at this, but quickly reconsidered. What the hell, she thought as she approached her brother’s room.
“What the….” Stephen began, surprised to see his sister standing in the doorway watching him curiously.
“Can I have my diaper changed please?” she asked in her sweetest, most innocent-sounding voice. “Carrie says I have to ask you first. We’re playing a game.”
He looked dumbfounded at first but eventually gave a nod of recognition. “OK,” he said. “But you have to do one thing first.”
She nodded and turned around when he asked her two. He then gave her a hard swat against her diapered backside. Stephen grinned, confident that he had done some damage. Megan, however, would not even give him as much as an “ow.”
“Better luck next time,” she told him as she waddled away for a change.
“Hey Josh,” Megan said at work the next day. “I need a price check on a pair of gloves.”
He stared vacantly at the light fixture and gave her not even a hint of recognition.
“Josh?”
“I’m sorry,” he said, snapping back to reality. “My vacation is finally coming up and I suppose I’m a bit scatterbrained.”
“Don’t let Vern catch you,” she teased.
“Yes, well, with all do respect to our erstwhile employer, he can kiss my ass. I, for one, cannot wait to get out of here.”
Raul and Natalie applauded his impassioned speech and Megan smiled. Josh had always seemed so efficient, so pleasant and so focused. It was a relief to know that he was human after all.
“While I’m gone,” he said to them. “There will be a few night shifts available. Are either of you interested?”
Megan and Natalie exchanged glances. “You want it?” Megan asked.
“I can use the money,” she replied. “But if you want them, they’re yours.”
“I’ll have to think about it.”
She worked solidly through to her lunch break, adjourned, and found a place to eat. After changing in the bathroom and getting herself a sandwich, she checked her phone for messages. There was a one from Sabrina asking her what she’d been up to, one from Jess asking her if she’d made any progress and one from Ron. It was the last that caught her attention.
“Hey, Meg, it’s Ron. Sorry about the other day. I heard Ted told you, so now you know what happened. Listen, anyway…I’m gonna be coming down to visit the T-man Friday night. We might go bowling again. If you’d like to come along, that’d be cool. I was thinking (pause) that maybe there’s something you wanna say to me that you don’t wanna be alone when you say it. So this way people will be around. Hell, I could be wrong. And if you don’t wanna come, that’s cool too. No hard feelings.”
Megan sighed and put her hands on her head in frustration. This guy was supposed to be a solution, not the cause of more problems. Besides, she was already offered more hours to work. Then again, was she lying when she expressed a desire to help him? She knew if she said nothing and just let things dissolve, she would regret it. And yet the prospect of delving deeper made her just a little bit afraid.
A.)“I’ll take Friday night,” she told Natalie when she returned to work. It was a shame about Ron, but the timing just wasn’t right. Besides, it was money in her pocket.
B.)“You can have Friday night,” she told Natalie. She didn’t know what would come out of it, but at the very least she wouldn’t be terribly bored. The same could not be said of a late shift at Bledsoe’s.