✅ A Dose of Humiliation

42. Parental Responsibility

"I think everyone's here now?" Mrs Miller announced herself as she entered the lounge. It was pretty crowded in there, but there was just about space for everyone to have a seat. Serena had started attempting to explain her fascination with the concept of punishment, although she started out by trying to reassure Marcie that all those questions about the lisp hadn't been treating her like a lab rat. Marcie's mother had appeared before the conversation could go far.

"Yes," Marcie nodded. "This is everyone."

"Very well. Now, Cecilia is staying with friends tonight, and I have enjoined the boys to stay in their room so much as possible, so I don't they should interrupt your fun. However, I would ask you to keep the noise down, especially as it becomes late, so that you won't disturb their sleep. Will you all agree that you should all be in bed well before midnight, and that there will be no noise after that? And, of course, I expect that your boyfriends will be gone before nine thirty at the latest."

She was answered by a chorus of nods and murmurs. They were giving us the space to celebrate; nobody was going to argue. Even if it seemed absurd to be going to bed so early at what was supposed to be a party. We'd had a sleepover here in the past, although not with the whole group, and based on that I was fully expecting Marcie's little brothers to be playing online games and yelling into their microphones until two or three in the morning. They had the basement room; and were pretty good at recognising when their parents were close enough to realise they were awake.

"Uh... Mrs Miller?" I asked, raising my hand a little. It was like being in school, with the strict teachers who insisted on excessive formality. "There's something I need to talk to you about. If you don't mind?" I was almost shaking when I thought about telling her the embarrassing secret of my punishment, but I forced myself to go through with it by thinking about what might happen if I didn't. I really didn't want to break any of the rules tonight.

"Well, what is it?" she asked, glaring at me as if she hoped the power of her gaze could render me silent.

"I'd rather not let everyone know," I said. "Dad said I have to tell you and one of my friends. I already told Serena, so I don't want to spoil the party with all the tedious stuff. Would you mind going somewhere else for a moment?"

She grumbled and muttered something I didn't catch under her breath, but she reluctantly let me follow her to the kitchen. Behind me, I could hear Serena trying to pick up her confession again. She told the others that I'd already guessed what she planned to tell them, which meant Elspeth wasn't worrying anymore about me feeling out of the loop.

"Okay then," Mrs Miller glared at me again when we were in private.

"I have to tell you about the results of my Punishment Pill shot," I said. "And that I'm planning to deal with it properly so it won't be a problem for you. I think Mum already told you everything really, so do we really need to do that?"

"Your father told me that you would fill me in on your problem. I feel that is entirely appropriate as a way to ensure that you take responsibility for your problems, and indirectly for the behaviours that made such punishment necessary. So you will have to tell me."

I growled under my breath. I didn't want to get into an argument now; this was supposed to be a fun night. I just needed to get through this explanation as quickly as possible.

"Fine," I answered, after a second to think. It took all my self-control to avoid getting angry, but I knew that it wouldn't help anything today. "They gave me the shot. It makes me wet the bed sometimes. If I drink before bed, mostly. I think it just affects my muscles, so it won't have any effect if my bladder is already empty. So here's the plan. At nine o'clock I'll stop drinking. No more wine, no water, no juice. That's me done for the evening. If I've still got a glass I might finish it, but it's all gone by half past. Then an hour later, I go to the bathroom. Just to make sure that all that fluid is out of my body. And while I'm there, I've got these protective underwear to put on."