Little Lady Briana

Chapter 9: Diapers in the Dark

By the ninth hole, both girls' slushies were dangerously low. Briana wasn't sure why she was doing her best to hold back an accident – she'd expected to spend her birthday pleasantly damp. Instead she was fidgeting uncomfortably as Ava lined up a shot through a mass of confusing neon loops. Wetting might be a betrayal of the bet she and Ava had made, or a loss, it wasn't clear. Either way, Briana was determined to hold on for dear life.

An argument between Melody and Rosa had stalled the golfers behind Briana and Ava, and had pulled Mom away from the birthday girl to mediate. They were alone in the dark, had just become better friends, and were at the end of the golf course. All the excitement had Briana bouncing on her tiptoes – which only made the pain in her bladder worse.

"Come ON Ava, just hit the ball."

"I'm not letting you break my concentration. Nice try." Ava's gaze was really focused, but her hips were wiggling a lot more than they had been on previous holes.

"Oh, I get it." Briana folded her arms and smirked. "You can't afford another sip from your slushie."

"Hush you." Ava's squirms got worse, making Briana giggle as her guess was confirmed.

The Indian girl gave her ball a whack, sending it bouncing through the tangled lights of the final hole. Briana squinted, unsure if the ball had gone in or not. She hoped not. The only reason she'd done well on the first few holes is that she'd gotten to practice them when she and Mom had scoped the place out for her party. A lucky shot in the middle of the course had made Ava take a big drink of her slushie – but all the bet-enforced sips after that had been Briana's.

"You wouldn't have to pee so bad if you didn't keep drinking when you don't have to."

"It's tasty, okay? I – just like it." Ava grabbed her crutches and scurried off after her ball in a huff.

I hope she's not really mad at me – that's just competitiveness, right? Briana's teeth worried at her lip as she tried to line up a shot. It was no use. Between her need to potty and worrying about hurting Ava's feelings, she couldn't concentrate at all. Hoping for birthday luck was the only strategy she had left as she gave her ball a mighty whack.

"Hey!" Ava's indignant cry came out of the darkness. "You almost hit me!"

"Sorry! Did you see where it went?" Waddling forward with inward turned knees, Briana could barely see Ava moving toward a corner of the room.

"Out of bounds. Might as well finish your slushie now, I'll get the ball."

"You don't have to do that...." Briana winced, her knees buckling. The battle with her bladder was over. Bladder 1, Briana 0 – which was the normal score, but this time it bothered her a bit. As her diaper grew warm and saggy, Briana finished off her slushie with a loud slurp.

"Okay, you win. See? I drank it all." Briana looked around, but there was no response, nor movement from her friend. "Ava? Where'd you go?"

When she reached the end of the course, Briana found Ava's ball sitting in a depression near the final hole. With the glaring neon of the hole mostly behind her, she spotted her own pink ball gleaming in the corner, with Ava's shadowy figure leaning against the wall next to it. Sudden worry for her friend had Briana scrambling off the course and up to Ava, heedless of the discomfort of jogging in a wet diaper.

"Ava, are you okay? Did you hurt yourself? I would have gotten the ball, honest!"

"It's not my disability, okay?" Ava's tone was somewhere between anger and crying, there were tears shining in her eyes. "Stop trying to manage it for me."