✅ The Last New Start [NaNoWriMo2021]

107. The Token Adult

A bonus chapter dedicated to Eladon today; I hope you (and everyone) enjoy it. Is this how you were expecting the scene to go?

It was hard to believe how slowly the next couple of weeks went past. Tess and Spike might have done a few more things that might seem like a date, if you looked at them through the right lens. Like going shopping together, and buying each other little presents. Tess did occasionally wish that the guy she was closest to would respond to some primordial urge by pulling her close and holding her as tight as he could, but she was content once she accepted that it wasn't going to happen. Closeness didn't have to mean physically touching; and she was pretty sure they already had the important things. They had gone together to Malarkey & Sons a few times, and Isaac had said that they looked like a cute couple, leaving both to blush and stammer incoherently. But it was clear now that anyone who knew them could see there was something there, even if they weren't sure what it was.

Tess got occasional messages from the clinic to confirm that blood tests had ruled out one reason or another for Tess's problem. Slowly, the solutions were narrowing down on a psychological cause, or on an exotic parasite that the less-advanced equipment at the clinic couldn't detect. Tess was willing to dismiss anything mental now,because she no longer had anything real to worry about. The only thing worrying her besides the bedwetting itself had been her cousin's bizarre behaviour and attempts to treat her like a little kid. All things she was on top of now.

But this morning in particular, Tess was nervous from the moment she woke up. She immediately felt different because she wasn't wearing a diaper, and the room that greeted her eyes wasn't decorated in the usual riot of pinks and yellows. Today was the day; a very important day. She didn't want the slightest trace of childish thought to invade her mind, so she had chosen to sleep in the spare room for once. It was something she had done a few times now, in an effort to distance herself from the childish decor of Gabby's nursery. But she had found out pretty quickly that the small room made it awkward and inconvenient to get cleaned up if she woke up wet, and a lot more hassle to change the sheets when her diaper leaked. It was usually easier to sleep in the nursery, and to wear the adult-baby diapers which at least seemed to be reliable.

Today was different. It was an important day, and one for which she wanted to have all her wits about her. She wasn't diapered at all, and the night before she had asked Ffrances to tell her not to have an accident. Even Gabby hadn't insisted on treating her like a child last night. Tess had been sure that her cousin would talk to her like a baby in the morning; she always seemed to treat Tess as more of a child if she slept in the other room, maybe because she was trying to compensate for the change on some level. But today was fine; Gabby wasn't even awake when Tess and Ffrances left the house.

The school bus wouldn't come for another half hour yet. A big part of Tess's current anxiety, and the reason she was munching on a salmon rocket bagel in the car, was that they needed to be at school early. Tess was a little surprised that they didn't stop at Pine Ridge to pick up Spike, but Ffrances explained that he had wanted to check on his siblings. Even if the option was always open to him, he would only stay in Ffrances's office when he really didn't feel safe at home, and only when he was confident that his absence wouldn't cause more problems for his siblings.

They met at the school gates. Spike was just standing there, waiting in silence, and Tess gasped when she saw him. It was clear to see how serious this was for him, and how much it was bothering him. Tess gasped when she saw him; it was something she had never expected. She knew him as the guy who always had the answers; the mature and responsible one who could fix anything. But like this, he looked so vulnerable that she couldn't believe it was the same person. She half expected him to start crying if it didn't go well, and that made her even more determined to ensure that everything went perfectly today.