The Babysitter

Chapter 25
The Babysitter, Part 25

Part 25

As annoying as the parental phrases were to hear from one of Paige’s friends, I still wasn’t in a place where I could push back very easily. I had already come so far; what was a little more?

I reluctantly closed my eyes. Objectively, it didn’t change that much. Since I was already more or less at the girls’ mercy, losing my sight wouldn’t give them any more opportunities than they already had. They all knew that I wanted my ID, and I’d suffer through a decent amount of snowballing and sunk cost fallacy to get it. Of course, it was difficult to think logically when I heard a bit of movement in the darkness beyond my eyelids. I had no idea what any of them were up to, and I braced myself to snap my eyes back open if I felt or heard one of the girls getting too close to me. Just because I had sacrificed a lot didn’t mean that I would do anything for my driver’s license. 

For whatever reason, I projected the thought of one of the girls sneaking up to kiss me, which would not be okay. Probably because the five of them had played Truth or Dare in the middle of the living room at a previous sleepover Paige hosted, and that had been a dare I overheard while making dinner. Shortly afterwards, I had locked myself into my room and put on headphones, as I had not been interested in eavesdropping on their not particularly quiet game. I had never kissed a girl, nor did I plan to, and the last thing I needed was for one of Paige’s friends to spring that unwanted experience on me. 

Apparently I was too far in my own head about Violet’s directive and what it might lead to, as it ended up being far more tame than the daunting worries I had given myself. In less than a minute, Violet gave me another nudge, “Okay, Miley. You can open them again.”

I did so right away. Even under normal circumstances, I hated surprises; that went doubly for the antics these girls were capable of getting up to. 

It took me a few moments to figure out what was different. All four of them were exactly where they had been before, and there wasn’t anything new that had been added to the table. Then I noticed Annika, and the distinctly empty seat next to her. Not from Paige’s absence, but due to the fact that all my cut up lingerie was gone, as well as the bag the undergarments had been stashed in before the expensive cutting became part of the evening’s activities. 

Following my gaze, Annika crossed one leg over the other and gave me a smile. “In case you decide to whine about us to your babysitter. Trust me, you won’t find them without our help.”

Well, okay. She could have just gone upstairs and hidden my ruined bras and underwear in countless places, particularly in Paige’s room. Although that would have spared me the whole ‘close your eyes’ thing, which admittedly put me on edge. If she and Violet were trying to keep me a little bit nervous and jumpy, they had succeeded. Though I had begrudgingly accepted that the damage was done where my undergarments were involved, that didn’t mean that the girls couldn’t mess with me in other ways. 

“What’s your name, again?” Violet asked. 

As if she hadn’t repeated it enough personally, on top of the rest of them committing to the false name as well. Saying what she wanted, but without a trace of emotion in the words, I answered, “Miley.”

From across the room, Paige scoffed from the base of the stairs. “Your voice is as flat as your chest, little sis.” One of her arms was full of soda cans, and her opposite hand held a plate full of cookies and brownies. “Almost like you’re an angsty middle schooler, or something. Crazy.” Moving right past the casually rude comment, she came back over and got Annika’s help to set everything down wherever there was space around the finished board game that was still out. “Well, Miley, you’ve been a good sport tonight.” She sat back down next to the blonde and took a sip of her new drink before going on, “And while I’m sure we’d all love for you to stay and play some more games, I’m a girl of my word. I did offer a trade for your license, right?”

She did. Although simply giving me the ID would be way more fair, considering what I had already ‘traded’ to get it back. Unfortunately, that hadn’t been the deal. I had personally cut up the majority of my bras myself, just to hear what she had in mind. And now that she wasn’t stalling any more on that front, I almost didn’t want to hear the offer. Because knowing Paige, and the leverage she had on me thanks to my mistaken identity, whatever she was planning wasn’t going to be fun. 

Except I couldn’t back down. I was so close. “Yes,” I simply said. She was fishing for me to ask, and I wasn’t going to take the bait. It was a little bit petty in the grand scheme of things, but she had also had more than enough amusement at my expense. 

Her tiny sigh of annoyance proved that I was right, but she didn’t seem to dwell on it for very long. Instead, she smirked and held out her hand to Annika. 

“Already? But I was just getting used to it,” the blonde huffed, “Fine, whatever. It’s too small for me, anyway!” She reached behind her and up the back of her shirt, and I realized a second later that she was undoing her bra. Annika slipped one arm into her top; she was clearly adept at the under-the-clothes kind of stripping, as it didn’t take her very long to remove one strap and get her arm back out. Instead of mirroring the action with the other, she merely stuck the same hand into the opposite sleeve and retrieved her bra by pulling it out by the remaining strap.

Except it wasn’t Annika’s bra. She had been wearing MY bra! I instantly recognized the dark green lace, and immediately connected the dots that she must have done that on top of hiding my destroyed undergarments while my eyes were closed. Her boobs were easily a size or two larger than mine, so there’s no way my bra would comfortably fit her, but it’s also not like I had any reason to focus on her chest over the last few minutes. If she had been squished a little by the tight undergarment, I wouldn’t have noticed. 

Grinning at my shocked silence, Paige then reached into her own tank top. She procured my driver’s license from her cleavage, holding it up so I could see that it was the same one she had shoved into her bra earlier right in front of me. “It’s easy, Miley. Your bra, or your license?”

Annika held up my favorite bra by half the band, dangling it just like she had done with most of the others to showcase them to both me and the girls in the circle. I still wasn’t over the audacity of the fact that she had been wearing it, but she and Paige were already moving past that. “It’s pretty, for sure,” Annika commented, “Would be a shame to cut it up into little pieces.”

“What do you think, sis?” Paige asked, “I could cut up your license instead. I’m sure you and Noelle will have tons of fun this weekend. She’s staying until Monday morning, you know!” 

I was speechless. 

What kind of choice was this?! I had chosen my green bra over pretty much all my other bras, and gone out of my way to keep it from being ruined. And after all everything, Paige was going to make me lose it anyway? Because, as much as I hated to admit it, the answer was a no-brainer. I needed my ID. A few hours of this had been mortifying enough, but apparently Miley’s parents were out of town for the whole weekend. Noelle thought I was her, and Paige was fully backing up that mistake. That would mean two more full days of being ‘Miley,’ and having a babysitter who didn’t trust me in the slightest, unless I could figure out some way to get out of the house without Noelle catching me. The only surefire way to show her that I was Alyssa right here and now was to hand her my state issued driver’s license. If I didn’t, I was going to bed as ‘Miley’ and starting the following morning with a babysitter and a smirking sister who would enjoy every second of it. 

But my amazing bra . . . If I had been given this decision at the very beginning, it might have been easier. Losing my favorite on top of basically my entire collection, however, was a lot. 

Belatedly finding my voice, I tried to argue, “You can’t-”

“Choose, Miley. No tricks, I promise,” Paige said, “When you cut up one, you can have the other.”

“But if you don’t choose, we’re going to cut up both,” Annika added, “What do you think, Paige? Should we put a clock on her?”

“Of course! Five seconds should be plenty for little Miley. Four seconds. Three. Two . . . ”

“My driver’s license!!” I exclaimed at the last second. Literally. I hadn’t expected such an immediate pressure to make a choice, but I knew that my sister would jump at the opportunity to take away the prize I had worked so hard for. 

“What about your license, sis? Do you want to have it, or do you want to cut it up? You should really be more specific, although I guess we can only expect so much from a thirteen year old.”

Trying my best to ignore the persistent needling, I muttered, “I want my license.”

Annika gave the dangling bra a small shake, “So . . . ”

“What else do you want, Miley?” Paige asked, “You have to say it, or it doesn’t count.”

Speaking of giving her the satisfaction. Only this time, there was very little I could do to avoid it. She and Annika were still primed to permanently destroy both if I did anything but play along. So, averting my gaze from my favorite bra, I muttered, “I want to cut up my bra.” 

“Then what are you waiting for, sis?” Paige giggled, “Hop to it! Annika? Be a dear.”

“Lazy bitch. You just don’t want to get up.” Annika rolled her eyes with a small giggle of her own. Still, she did what my sister implied. After retrieving the nearby scissors, the blonde brought over both the bra and the blades so I could do the dirty work myself. Again. “Have fun!” Annika smiled, giving my head a pat before returning to her seat. 

Finally turning my attention to the dark green lace in my hands, I quietly exhaled. I was really about to do this. I was going to ruin my precious bra, all for something that was supposed to be mine to begin with.