Maturity - Chapter 1 (Patreon)

The start of a new short story series, commissioned by an anonymous Patron.

Claire had never felt more grown-up; of course, technically, she never had been, either, but even beyond her being a day older than she had been ever before, the way everything was coming together seemed so adult, and so lucky.

She was nineteen, and just starting her freshman year of college, and, until now, she'd been, honestly, pretty worried about it. She had the usual fears about moving away from home, and wondering if she was smart enough... Her biggest fear, however, was the idea of having a roommate. She'd always been an only child, so she wasn't used to sharing. More importantly, she'd also always been a bedwetter, off and on, and she'd had no doubt that the stress of starting at a new school would put her into an 'on' period - which she'd certainly been right about.

The last thing she wanted was for a whole dorm to discover her secret, and the only way she could think of to avoid that was to find herself an apartment instead, but the university's rules said that freshman had to live on campus. For a while, she was considering taking a room in the dorm and then renting an apartment as well and actually living there, though when she brought it up to her parents, they told her they weren't paying for both, and that rules were rules, so she was going to have to live in the dorm after all.

And then fate had smiled upon her, and a water main had burst in the freshman dorm, damaging several rooms. With nowhere else to put them, the school went about finding another solution, and, because she'd already asked them about living elsewhere, she'd been one of the first they'd approached to see if she might want to try alternate arrangements... Obviously, she'd said yes, and now she was getting what she wanted. She in college, she was going to be living in an apartment, on her own... Other than the roommate the college had assigned her, but, still, she was going to have her own bedroom, and that was all that mattered. Plus, since she was going to be living off-campus, the college had decided it would be best to assign her an older roommate, a senior, and that felt very cool.

It was all coming together perfectly... College was intimidating, yes, although not as different from high school as she'd been expecting. And her roommate, Cassidy, was nice enough, tolerating being stuck with a freshman. She was starting to make friends, too, despite being afraid to invite people over to her place too late, for fear that they'd come across evidence of her problem.

She thought she'd hidden it all pretty well this time, so she was working up to trying to overcome that, to becoming more of a social butterfly. Maybe Cassidy could help... She was studying psychology, after all, though she was usually busy, working as a nanny on top of her classes, so she might not have time to assist Claire with conquering her fears.

The fact that Cassidy was always doing something made it hard to really get to know her; it also made it easier to keep her bedwetting hidden, which was a good thing. She didn't have a ton of experience with that, since her parents knew, and she had no siblings, and had been too scared to risk sleepovers. She sometimes got careless and left her Pull-Ups lying around her room if she had to get to an early class in a hurry, but if Cassidy was rarely around, how would she know?

So, even with her bedwetting coming back, Claire was feeling very grown-up as she woke up in her own apartment, yawning and stretching, rolling over to peek at her phone and see that she could get a few more minutes of sleep, happy to be away from her parents who likely would have made her get up already...

"Claire!" Cassidy pounded on the bedroom door, making the younger girl jump, her heart pounding, knowing Cassidy was right outside while she was lying there in bed in a soggy Pull-Up. "I'm going to the store this afternoon! Do we need any groceries?"

"H-Huh?" Claire was too sleepy to process that, and still not used to thinking that way. She'd get lunch in the cafeteria on campus, and sometimes, if she was studying, she'd eat supper there, too, but they did have a kitchen, so they could cook for themselves. Her mother had always worried about all that, however, so she'd never had to keep track of what they had on hand, or had run out of. That was a part of being a grown-up, she supposed. "I-I think..."

"What was that?" Cassidy asked loudly. "Hold on, I'm coming in."

"Wh-What?!" Claire squeaked, hands clutching around her covers, yanking them up. "N-No, you can't..!"

Before she could finish the sentence, she watched in horror as her door opened. She squirmed, cheeks burning... And another warmth starting to spread as well from the anxiety of being in the same room as Cassidy in a pair of wet Pull-Ups. To her horror, she could feel the liquid dribbling into her already drenched pants, and then begin to overflow, to leak out onto the sheets beneath her, making her wish she'd listened to her mother's advice and put her plastic sheet down... But she'd been afraid Cassidy would notice.

"Not up yet?" Cassidy chirped. "That's all right... Now, what do you think we need?" Claire couldn't bring herself to speak, or do anything as she wriggled in bed, shaking her head as she saw the older girl coming closer, trying to warn her away, wanting her nowhere near her... And then she saw the girl's nose twitch. "Is something wrong, Claire?" Claire shook her head again, more vehemently. "Are you sure?" Cassidy raised an eyebrow. "I'm a nanny, you know... And I'd recognize that smell anywhere..."

Cassidy grabbed the covers, yanking them easily out of Claire's grip, revealing the whole, humiliating truth. Claire whimpered, brain churning to come up with an excuse, an explanation. "Claire!" Cassidy scolded. "I am very disappointed in you, young lady! Look at this mess!" The next thing Claire knew, she was being hauled over the other girl's lap, legs kicking in fear and disbelief.

"Ow!" she gasped as Cassidy swatted her hard on the bottom. "Wh-What are you doing?!"

"What do you think?" Cassidy rolled her eyes. "I'm giving you a spanking! It isn't bad enough I deal with a bunch of rich kids whose parents are too busy to potty train them correctly... Now I live with one, too!"

"N-No!" Claire shook her head, squealing as she got another slap across the backside. "I-I'm not..!"

"Obviously you know you have this issue," Cassidy lectured, continuing to spank the girl as she spoke, "and you didn't warn me about it, or prepare to deal with it properly... You don't seem any more mature than my other charges to me."

And so, Claire, the grown-up college girl who got to live in her own apartment, was spanked until she cried, then dressed up by her older roommate, put into some silly skirtalls with a flowered skirt that seemed more suited for a four year old, with a matching hair bow... And a pair of locking plastic pants over her Pull-Up.

"I don't have time to deal with all of this right now," Cassidy told her. "Come to room 423 in the psych building and I'll change you then... No earlier than noon."

"B-But..." Claire protested, only to be pushed out the door, sniffling and rubbing her sore bottom, hearing her trainers crinkling beneath her skirt as she trudged towards class, feeling more immature than she had in a very, very long time.