Chapter Twenty-Seven
Although the window blinds made a valiant effort to keep the morning light out of the girls’ bedroom, they were ultimately unsuccessful. Diffuse sunlight coated every surface in view of the window, including the face of the alarm clock on which a just recently awakened Erin was attempting to make out the numbers. Her eyes were still adjusting to being awake, and she considered fishing for her glasses, but she soon managed to see through the sun’s glare and her own slightly blurry vision well enough to determine that it was just after eight in the morning.
As she moved further into consciousness, she came to discover she felt very warm and clammy. Was she wet? A quick focus of her attention on her bladder informed her that she didn’t need to pee, and her heart sunk mildly as she realized she hadn’t kept her diaper dry overnight. Yet, this feeling of wetness was distributed all over her. So her soggy diaper wasn’t the only source of her clamminess; she was also sweating profusely.
A tickling sensation in her throat elicited a yawn, and she realized her throat was very dry. As she closed her mouth, she also felt a slight gag reflex. This served to shock her awake; moving around slightly in bed, she realized she felt very nauseous. The girl didn’t need to pee, but she still had a pressing reason to get to the toilet; if she didn’t move now, she was in danger of delivering last night’s dinner to the bedroom floor.
She wiped her sweaty forehead with the back of her arm and climbed out from under her covers, trying to suppress the urge to vomit for as long as she could. In her hurry to get out of bed, she almost tripped over her sheets. She recovered her balance, but managed to have land a foot on the ground with a thud, which seemed rather loud in the otherwise-quiet room. Hailey stirred.
I probably just woke her up, Erin thought with regret. She felt bad for doing so, but she realized she’d feel even worse if she got sick on the bedroom floor, so she pressed on towards the bathroom. She’d apologize to Hailey later.
Her guts were churning as she made her way down the hallway. She clenched her lips shut as tightly as she could; not that it would hold much back, but at least it would delay the inevitable a little bit, and right now it felt like every moment would count.
She stumbled into the bathroom, not bothering to close the door, and kneeled down in front of the toilet while simultaneously lifting the lid and the seat. She just barely had time to pull her hair out of her face before she lost the contents of her stomach.
Erin didn’t really feel any better; the only difference was that her mouth now tasted awful, and the aroma from what she’d just sent into the toilet bowl was beginning to assault her nostrils. She felt herself gag again; no more came out, but she felt like she could vomit again at any moment. She didn’t dare move her face away from the toilet.
And yet, she realized that her body wanted to empty itself in more ways than one. She could suddenly feel an immense pressure in her backside; a pressure she didn’t dare release, although it felt like her body didn’t have long before it gave her no choice in the matter.
She considered her options. She was right in front of the toilet, and she knew she could get up on it in time, but she ran the risk of needing to throw up while she was sitting, and the bathroom’s trash can was not in reach. On the other hand, she was wearing her diaper, and it was already wet, so she’d need to change it soon anyway. She really didn’t want to use it for that purpose; it was bad enough that it was wet, and she loathed the feeling of being messy. But she didn’t want to throw up all over the Summers’ bathroom floor; the vomit would go everywhere. A messy diaper, while extremely gross to her, would at least be self-contained and marginally easier to clean up.
She still held out as long as she could, but at the tail end of another wave of nausea, she felt the pressure begin to lessen as the seat of her diaper began to fill with what felt like an extremely messy accident.
Erin absolutely hated the mushy feeling, but she couldn’t do anything about it at this point; she still didn’t dare move her mouth from its post over the toilet bowl. She could only pray that her diaper had managed to hold; what she’d released felt big and soft enough that it was possible it might not have.
Hailey entered the room a few minutes later; apparently Erin had been right in assuming she’d awakened her. Hailey immediately ascertained the reason for Erin’s position, and immediately stood behind her cousin, taking over the job of holding the girl’s hair back.
It didn’t take her long to notice the aroma from Erin’s laden diaper. “I’m not going to be mad at you, but did you make your diaper messy?”
Erin couldn’t deny it, although she didn’t really see any reason to not let Hailey know anyway. But she didn’t feel like it would be a good idea to speak, so she simply gave a subtle nod.
Hailey nodded as well, even though Erin couldn’t see it. She’d suspected as much, and she also knew how much Erin detested sitting in a mess. The poor girl probably felt awful right now, sitting in a full diaper and apparently still needing to be sick.
“As soon as you’re well enough to be away from the toilet for a little while,” Hailey said, “I’ll get you out of that diaper and all cleaned up.”
Erin didn’t want Hailey to feel obligated to do that, but she completely honestly felt much too sick to want to do it herself. Hailey could take care of her, Hailey probably even wanted to take care of her, even with how disgusting as she was right now. And Erin couldn’t think of any time she’d wanted Hailey’s help as much as she did now. She nodded, indicating her acceptance of the pending assistance, and promising herself that she’d find some way of repaying her cousin when she felt better.
“Okay,” Hailey said, “I’m going to go down to the kitchen and get you a large bowl so you’ve got something to throw up in when you do leave the toilet. Do you think you’ll be okay alone for a minute?” She handed Erin’s hair back to her as the sick girl nodded yet again.
Hailey bounded down the stairs and began rummaging around through the kitchen cabinets for a mixing bowl, barely noticing her mother sitting at the breakfast table until the woman asked her what she was doing.
“Erin’s feeling sick,” she said, finally pulling a bowl out of the cupboard. “She’s in the upstairs bathroom now, keeping her head over the toilet.”
Hailey began to head back upstairs; her mother followed, wanting to check on her niece. The two of them entered the bathroom.
“How are you doing, Erin?” asked Sue, already guessing the answer.
Erin decided to risk speech. “Not well,” she whispered. “I still feel like I have to be sick, and, um…”
Hailey finished for her. “And she had a little bit of a messy accident,” Hailey told her mother.
“I see,” said Sue. “Well, when we get a chance, I’ll clean that up,” she offered.
“Hailey already offered,” Erin rasped. “I’d rather she did it.”
Sue looked at Hailey, who was mildly blushing, but still looked proud of herself. “It’s my responsibility,” said Sue. “I don’t want Hailey to catch what you have.”
“Mom, I’ll be fine,” said Hailey. “I’ve already been sleeping in the same room as her; if whatever she has is contagious, I’ve probably already caught it. She wants my help, and I’ll give it to her.”
Sue looked like she wasn’t entirely convinced that she wanted to expose her daughter to Erin’s clean-up, but Hailey seemed determined, and it was what Erin wanted after all. “Well,” she finally conceded, “just be careful, and make sure to wash your hands really well when you’re done, with soap and hot water, okay? No need to expose yourself more than necessary.”
“Of course,” Hailey said.
Sue gave her niece a kiss on the top of the head and turned around. “I’ll be downstairs if either of you need me,” she said, walking out of the bathroom door.
“Your mom’s probably right,” whispered Erin. “You probably don’t want to stay around me more than you have to, or you might get sick yourself.”
“I’ll stay with you until you’re well enough that I can change you,” replied Hailey. “After that, I can bring you to bed, and I’ll leave you alone to rest… although of course I’ll check up on you once in a while, and I’m sure my mom will too.”
“Fine,” whispered Erin, before gagging again and releasing another torrent from her mouth.
Fifteen minutes passed before Erin felt confident enough to move her head away from the toilet. She still didn’t feel completely better, but she desperately wanted to get the mess off of her skin.
Hailey noticed her motion. “Are you ready for a change?” she asked.
Erin nodded.
“Okay. Lay down on the bathroom floor,” Hailey said, pointing to a rug. “I’ll go get a new diaper real quick and then we can clean you up.”
“Another diaper?” asked Erin.
“Yeah. You’re sick, and that means you should probably be resting, and if you fall asleep…”
Erin nodded. She couldn’t guarantee that she wouldn’t wet again, and she owed it to her cousin and aunt to avoid getting everything soaked if she did.
Hailey quickly retrieved a new diaper and some wipes. Although Erin was very messy, her diaper had managed to keep everything in, and she soon found herself being led back to bed with a clean diaper around her waist.
“I’ll be checking on you,” said Hailey. “But you should probably try to get some rest now.” She shut the bedroom door behind her and went to gather up the messy pull-up from the bathroom floor.
She placed the diaper in the bathroom trash and tied up the bag, setting it on the ground beside her as she got a new bag from under the sink and placed it in the can. With as bad as it smelled, there was no way she could put this diaper in the usual bedroom pail; this one would have to go straight outside.
Erin was probably very glad to have this off of her, Hailey realized. She knew that Erin would never mess herself voluntarily, so this must have been an accident, and was probably related to her being sick. Not that she could fault Erin for having an accident, of course; after all, she wished she could do the same thing on purpose.
As she walked through the house, a thought occurred to her. The messy diaper she was now carrying outside was Erin’s, but her mother would have no way to know who any future messy diapers belonged to.
Hailey suppressed a smile. She could do it on purpose. Her mother probably wouldn’t find another mess to be unexpected; after all, Erin was sick. So Hailey could soil a diaper as well, and her mother would have no reason to believe the additional dirty diaper in the garbage bin was hers.
Her thoughts drifted to the diaper currently between her legs. She doubted she’d be able to use this one for her mess; after all, she’d only be keeping it on until she took a shower, which probably wouldn’t be much longer. She doubted she’d need to defecate enough before that to make a satisfying “accident.” But she could always change back into one later on under the pretense of checking on Erin. A little bit of straining, and she’d be ready to change, bringing down a soiled diaper that her mother would believe belonged to her cousin.
She’d have to get Erin’s approval, of course. She doubted Erin would refuse, though. With a guilty twang, she realized that she could probably ask Erin for anything right about now; Erin would feel so indebted for the change Hailey had just performed that she couldn’t possibly deny Hailey anything.