No one bothered to ask them if they were actually sleepy, all three simply found themselves being led upstairs to Brian’s bedroom. None of them struggled this time, not after Brian winked at the girls and placed his finger to his lips. The three college friends stayed silent and behaved while their moms settled them on the carpeted floor of the room and placed well-worn baby blankies over them, slipping plush stuffed animals into their arms. Then with a flurry of forehead kisses the moms withdrew so their little ones could sleep in peace.
Alone again at last none of the trio actually went to sleep, despite the fact that they all did feel oddly drowsy. It wasn’t dark out yet, heck it was only late afternoon, but there they were lying down to go to sleep while older ‘kids’ could be heard playing outside. None of them said a word about the ridiculous situation they were in. None of them wanted to risk a mom coming back in to shush them and coddle them even more.
After five minutes of silence it was Brian who finally spoke up, though only at a low whisper. “Rach, Meg, you still awake?”
“Yes,” two voices whispered back.
Brian rolled on his side to look over at his friends, still cuddling Buddy’s soft form against his chest. Rachel was nearest to him, a stuffed white bunny in her arms, sad eyes staring back at him. Megan was beside her, but crept forward from underneath her blankie to be part of the conversation.
“This is all too weird guys. How do we get out of this?” Brian put to them.
“Why don’t we just run away now,” Megan suggested. “Our mommies aren’t here, they think we’re sleeping. We could just sneak out your window.”
Rachel rolled her eyes. “Oh yeah, three pants-wetting toddlers running barefoot down the street, one without so much as a pair of shorts to cover her pull-ups. I’m sure no one will stop us,” she muttered sarcastically.
“Well do you have a better idea?” Megan snapped back.
“This is no time to argue,” Brian reminded them. “But Rachel’s right. Even if we could change into better clothes, everything in that closet is no doubt made for a toddler and none of us has shoes. That also doesn’t change the fact that we apparently can’t control our pee-pee anymore.”