Coming of Age

Chapter 3
Third Degree

Chapter Description: Gabriel and his family prompt quite an interesting Saturday afternoon.

Saturday morning came, and I woke only to find myself in exactly the position I was sure had been the product of lewd dreams. The primary difference was that Gabriel’s goodnite was bulging a bit more at the crotch, and I was fairly certain the extra volume was in no part do to his own ‘size’. I started to stand from the couch and instruct him to get changed, but the cute expression he had on his face as he slept captivated me for a moment. I removed my hand from his padded butt and grabbed his hand, slowly folding each of the fingers inward, curling them into place and leaving his thumb pointing outward. I gently pushed his hand toward his mouth, finding just enough room to sneak his thumb inside and marvel at the image. Here was this boy earning his membership to the realm of teenagers just months prior wrapped in a child’s pullup nestled against my chest asleep with his thumb in his mouth.

Just as I thought he might begin to suck on his thumb, Gabriel woke, staring for a moment at his hand before removing the digit from his mouth and looking up into my eyes.

“Mornin’…” He mumbled it a bit, still groggy, yawning as a bit of sunlight hit his face. I sat up to grab my phone from my pocket, bringing him up with me and checked the time as he sat nearly naked in my lap. The time for scheduled activities to start had long past; we were supposed to be out of the door at 9 but it was already close to 10 in the morning.

“What do we do now?” he asked, looking up from his position laying against my chest.

“Well first, I think we ought to get you into some fresh clothes.”

At this point, he became aware once again of what happened last night, and I saw the scared look begin to creep back into his eyes. I sensed his worry, and replied to it before he was even able to find the words.

“Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone about your accidents. Now go get cleaned up, bud.”

He stood up from my lap and gathered his clothes and blanket in his arms. After thinking for a moment, I gave his butt a little smack as he wavered and pulled on some shorts, heading back to his floor to shower and don some ‘proper’ underwear.

* * *

And so the school year began. Orientation activities gave way to college applications for us seniors, plenty of homework for the freshman and a bit more stress for just about everyone on campus. The stress of the schoolwork made every weekend a godsend, and just about all of us made efforts to sleep in.

I though long and hard about what transpired that first night. Since then, Gabriel had told me about several accidents, although I suspected he was lying about how few there really were at night. He was extremely comfortable with me after that first night, and listened to almost everything I said. Nothing changed until the first parent’s weekend, the first weekend during which boarding students’ parents were given a designated time during which to come visit.

I for one, had suffered very little from homesickness during those first three weeks, as it was not only my fourth year at the school, but by far my busiest one. I preferred to relax with friends whenever possible and save family time for when I flew home during breaks. This weekend, however, at the tail end, I was stopped on my way to my car by an all too familiar clap on the shoulder.

Turning to see the contoured face of Gabriel’s father, I was once again forced to echo his enthusiasm as he assaulted me with booming formalities while Gabriel was doing something in his room. Eventually, he invited me to grab lunch with Gabriel’s entire family, the rest of whom I noticed were seated in the back seat of the family car, piled in just matching suitcases piled up in the car’s rear. I could spy a young girl sitting next to him whom I assumed was somewhere in the neighborhood of 9 or 10 years old, but if Gabriel’s diminutive physique was any indication, she may have been old enough to be in middle school. Curious as to some familial dynamics, I followed them in my car to lunch.

* * *

As we began to eat our food, I couldn’t help but notice that Gabriel’s mother was burning holes in me with her gaze. At first I was plenty fine responding with my own looks; she was a very well endowed woman. She was seated between her two children in our round booth just to my right, holding Gabriel’s sister against her chest as her husband and I respectfully discussed some current events.

Then, she decided to take hold of the conversation, pointedly saying, “So, Gabriel has told us you’ve been a big help in getting him acquainted with dorm life.” The layer of vitriol coating her words made me suspect she might know a bit too much, but Gabriel wasn’t distressed enough to confirm anything.

“Yes,” I replied, taking a sip of water as I did so.

“He says you’ve been especially helpful at assisting with some of his personal problems, and in…total confidence.”

I nearly did a spit take. “Y-Yes, plenty of freshman have some trouble adapting. That’s why we R.As are here, after all.”

“Of course, he’s told us all about it.”

“Well, hopefully he feels a bit better about some of his problems.”

I could feel the fire intensifying in her gaze. At this point, it really wasn’t quite clear how much she knew. I decided to bail, excusing myself to the bathroom just to escape a bit.

It wasn’t until Gabriel’s father followed me that I knew something entirely odd was going on.

He grunted before he spoke, lacking nearly all the usual zeal.

“Gabriel told us you had to help him with one of his, let’s just say ‘accidents’,” he spat out, “I wanted you to understand that we appreciate you staying silent about that.”

I had no words. I turned to face him, the only thought bursting in my head was the question of how much they knew, and if I was relatively safe or royally screwed.

“Look, I don’t know how you did it, but you somehow managed to make our boy comfortable somewhere. His mother, as I’m sure you can tell, is a bit intense with parenting. Hell, she home schooled both the kids until now, and kept them….far too close since they were born, babying the hell out of ‘em.”

I let out a sigh of relief. “Well like I said, there’s really no problem. It’s no issue staying quiet about his pull-ups. I would hate for the other kids to bully him for it.”

The gratitude they were showing was abnormal, and I really couldn’t get a read on the opinion of the mother, despite some obvious approval from Gabriel’s father. The both of them had decided to head directly home and asked that I take Gabriel back to the dorm in my car, putting the larger piece of the suitcase set into my car before I even spoke to answer. The reprieve from more than awkward parental conversation was certainly appreciated, but it wasn’t more then sixty seconds into the drive back toward the dorm that Gabriel changed the playing field, so to speak.

He turned his head leftward in the car. “I t-think I left…my backpack at the hotel last night,” he said, voice quivering just a bit.

“You think, or you know?”

He didn’t initially answer, so I pulled over to a gas station and pressed the issue. “Which hotel is it?”

He told me softly and I turned around to proceed in the complete opposite direction from which we came. About four minutes later, I spotted a Walgreens with the hotel’s sign placed just in front of it, made the turn, parked, and walked with Gabriel into the hotel, taking the key and and heading up to his family’s room. As soon as I walked in, I took notice of several things. One, there was no bag in the room. The beds were unmade and had plastic walls to block the space beneath them, and a bag was neither on the floor nor on the desk in the far corner. Two, the small trash bin, although empty, had a regular size trash bag fastened shut at the top sitting right beside it. Three, and perhaps most noticeable, was the slight smell of baby powder within the room and the slight dusting of it contrasting with the brown comforter atop the bed.

Gabriel, for his part, immediately entered the bathroom after entering the room, while I sat down at the desk and read through some emails. Some college info pages, some random request from a Brian in Michigan, a Nigerian cousin, the usual. I heard the sound of the toilet being flushed, but no sound of water rushing down the pipes, immediately followed by Gabriel yelling my name in a worried tone.

“What the hell happened?” The small bathroom was a complete mess. Gabriel was standing with his shoes partially submerged in a growing puddle from the toilet. The water was free of any…waste, but I could see several baby wipes floating near the top of the toilet bowl as water flowed outward. 


I trained my sights on Gabriel. “What did you do?”

His response was fairly simple. He had already undone his belt before I arrived, but I could see the front of his pants and briefs slowly darken as the odor of urine was added to that of the powder.