“Erin? Erin!”
Erin snapped back to reality as she heard Hailey’s voice. “Yeah?”
“You zoned out for a while there. Are you okay?”
Erin was glad that Hailey had interrupted her bad memories, but she knew that she was still sitting in a messy diaper, which frustrated her. “I’m okay, I was just thinking, but…”
Hailey followed Erin’s eyes as Erin glanced down between her legs. “You couldn’t hold it, I assume?”
Erin nodded solemnly. I must not have been out for very long, she realized. If I was, Hailey and Uncle Martin would have already smelled what I did.
“Don’t worry about it. It’s not your fault.” Hailey pushed the backpack and trash bag onto the floor and buckled herself into the center seat. She put an arm around Erin’s shoulder and pulled her in for a hug. Erin gladly accepted the gesture and said nothing.
The air in the car soon became malodorous, and Martin responded by rolling down the windows. They were finally beginning to pick up speed again, so the air rushing into the car provided a bit of noise, but the night was warm enough that the girls didn’t feel particularly chilled. Erin was thankful.
Martin finally spoke up. “We can try to find a restaurant or something with a bathroom to get you cleaned up, but it’s late enough that most places will be closed, and we’re not really that far from home. Do you think you can wait for a change until then?”
Erin wasn’t particularly thrilled about staying in her mess any longer than she had to, but she didn’t want to make Martin go way out of his way just to find her a bathroom that was open. “I’ll be okay.”
“You sure?”
“Yeah.”
Martin realized she was probably trying not to be difficult, but he didn’t push the point this time. To be honest, in the time it would take to find an open restaurant, they could probably be home.
The remainder of the trip was uneventful. The girls climbed out of the car, Erin involuntarily shuddering as her diaper’s cargo shifted.
Martin wasn’t quite sure how to handle the situation. “Erin, do you need me to help you get cleaned up? Or are you too old for that? I guess I could go wake up your Aunt if you’d prefer that…”
Hailey realized that her father was embarrassed about having to ask his niece how she wanted her diaper changed, and she decided to save him the trouble. “Maybe it would be better if I did it. Come with me, Erin.”
“Don’t forget to take the diapers out to the outside trash bin when you’re done,” Martin reminded the girls. “You don’t want that smell in your room.”
Martin was relieved as Hailey grabbed Erin by the arm and led her upstairs. He would have been perfectly willing to help his niece if she needed it, of course, but helping a girl her age in that manner would have been awkward.
Erin, meanwhile, was trying to convince Hailey that Hailey didn’t need to feel obligated to help. “I’m disgusting, and I made the mess, so it’s my responsibility to clean it up. I couldn’t make you do that.”
She really didn’t want to clean this up herself, and she honestly wouldn’t mind being helped by Hailey; she trusted Hailey enough for such a private matter. But there was no way that Hailey should be forced to do something she herself didn’t want to do.
Hailey herself wasn’t particularly thrilled about cleaning a mess, but she couldn’t let Erin feel this bad. “Erin, if you don’t want help, I can see two reasons why: either you feel that this is something you’d rather handle privately, or you don’t want to force me to help you against my will. If it’s the first one, then I perfectly understand, and I’ll leave you to clean up in peace. But if it’s the second one, you already know that I’m willing to do anything to help you, including this, and this is no time for you to do something you don’t want just because you’re worried about me. So just be honest with me: which is it?”
Hailey’s good at this, thought Erin. Communication was a game, and Hailey was an expert. “It’s the second one,” she admitted.
“I thought so. Let’s get you cleaned up.”
Hailey didn’t have a whole lot of experience dealing with messes, but she managed to get Erin acceptably clean. Hailey didn’t find the task itself too horrid, but she did feel mildly embarrassed to be cleaning an area that really only Erin herself should be touching.
Erin also got the feeling that what they were doing was unusual at their ages, but if she was going to have anybody else clean her up, she was glad it was Hailey. She could trust Hailey. Really, it was kind of nice to not have to worry about getting herself clean, and it was especially nice that she wasn’t being punished for being unclean. Erin still hated messing herself, but at least as far as the messing accidents she could remember went, this one was at least the most pleasant of several unpleasant situations.
“Don’t put me in a new diaper yet,” requested Erin as Hailey finished up. “I think I’d like to go take a shower.”
“Sounds good,” replied Hailey as Erin pulled her shorts back up over her bare bottom. “I’ll empty the diaper bin while you’re in the shower.”
“Before you do that… do you need a change? I could at least return the favor…”
“Hmm?” The question surprised Hailey. In her desire to make sure Erin was comfortable, she’d forgotten about her own need to urinate.
Erin blushed as she spoke. “It’s just… you said this morning that you might use the diaper when we got home, and we’re home now, and you haven’t used a toilet since just before we left the park. So I figured you might have already gone just recently.”
“Oh no,” Hailey said, “I’m dry. I thought it would be in poor taste to wet my diaper when you’d just had a real accident, and a bad one at that.”
“Really, it wouldn’t bother me,” said Erin. “How’s that any different from you wetting on purpose after I wake up wet?”
Hailey hadn’t really thought of that. “I guess…”
“You’re always complaining that I think too much of others, but you’re doing the same thing if you’re not doing what you want to do just because you’re scared of me being offended. Besides,” Erin admitted, “you just helped me get changed. I’d really like to return the favor. If you want that, of course!”
“You’re sure you’re okay with that?”
“Yes! I’ll tell you what, how about I go take a shower, and if you want to use your diaper, you can. And if you want me to change you when I get back from the shower, I’ll do that too.”
“This means a lot to you, doesn’t it?”
“I’m in your debt for today, and for how much you’ve helped me since I got here. I’d really like the chance to pay you back.”
Erin went off to the shower, pajamas and clean diaper in hand, leaving Hailey alone in her bedroom.
Well, if Erin doesn’t mind, then there’s no good reason for me not to do it, realized Hailey. As much as she’d wanted to help Erin, though, she had to admit that she’d never actually considered the thought of Erin changing her.
Erin had said she wanted to return the favor, and technically if she was going to return the favor fully that would mean Hailey would have to have a messy diaper. Hailey hadn’t had a bowel movement since the previous day, so she was sure she could soil if she tried, but that would be a mean thing to do to Erin. Plus, if she soiled now, she’d have to wait until after Erin got done in the shower and changed her before she could empty the diaper bin. Wetting’s enough for me, thought Hailey. I’ll go empty this bin now, and when I get back, I’ll wet my diaper and let Erin help me get out of it. She placed Erin’s soiled diaper into the bin and proceeded to take the bag of diapers to the outside trash can.
When she returned to her bedroom, Hailey shut the door and sat on the edge of the bed. The urine flow started with minimal prompting, and soon Hailey had a diaper in need of a change.
This is going to be odd having someone else do this for me, Hailey realized. It had been several years since she’d been young enough for her mother to help her clean up after an “accident,” and it just hadn’t seemed weird at that age. But this was her twelfth birthday, and twelve-year-olds didn’t often have accidents, let alone have someone else clean them up.
Of course, she wasn’t a normal twelve-year-old, and she got the feeling that Erin wasn’t either. Erin wasn’t the one with the weird desires that made her want to have accidents on purpose, but she did seem to have a lot more under her surface than she was willing to admit.
Erin entered the room, having managed to make her normally efficient showers even shorter. “I didn’t wash my hair or anything,” she admitted, “I’d rather do that all tomorrow morning. I just made sure that the dirty areas were fully clean. Now, did you decide to let me change you?”
“Yeah, if you want to,” said Hailey.
Erin got a diaper out of the backpack, and grabbed the box of wipes that had been used on her change earlier. She had Hailey lay down on her bed and proceeded to change her.
Hailey inadvertently shivered as Erin’s cold hands wiped her off her private areas. It was kind of cool that Erin was willing to help her with her secret desires, but it was still somewhat odd having someone almost the same age as her doing something so private. Having Erin help her would be nice on occasion, but Hailey realized that she should change herself the majority of the time. Having her cousin’s blessing for using her diaper was enough; she didn’t need to make Erin change her as well.
“All finished,” announced Erin.
“Thanks. That was pretty cool of you,” admitted Hailey.
“Any time you need it, just ask,” requested Erin. “As I said, I owe you.”
Erin went back to the bathroom to wash her hands as Hailey put on her pajamas. Soon enough both girls were ready for bed, and Hailey flipped off the lights.
“Oh, Hailey?” asked Erin as she and her cousin climbed under their respective covers.
“Yes?”
“Happy birthday.”