Chapter Thirty-Seven
Thirty-Seven
Sixteen years ago
Natalie had been on her best behavior all day and hadn’t lost any of her TV time.
Natalie and Gwen sat together in a jumbo beanbag chair, watching a family sitcom that one of the attendants had turned on, but Natalie’s bladder was bursting with watered-down juice.
She held out for a commercial break and once the show cut away, Natalie rolled out of the chair.
“Have to pee. Be right back.”
“Okay,” said Gwen as Natalie sprinted into the hallway.
There were two single bathrooms off the recreation room and Natalie shoved into the first door.
It was locked and a high-pitched voice screamed, “I’m in here!
” so she bounced off the door and into the next bathroom.
As soon as she felt the door give, she knew it was unlocked and started to undo the button on her pants.
She had to be quick to finish before the show came back.
She lowered the zipper as she stepped through the doorway onto the tile floor.
She was not alone.
Declan was standing over the toilet.
“Sorry!” Natalie exclaimed, yanking her zipper back up and turning to leave.
“Hey, hey, hey!” Declan said, grabbing her attention back before her brain could catch up.
As Natalie turned back around, Declan rotated from the toilet and started peeing, his stream of piss landing on Natalie’s socks.
“Stop it!” she yelled, but as she stepped back, he stepped forward.
She turned away, but then she could feel it spraying the backs of her calves as she reached for the door.
“Just marking my territory,” he mocked.
Natalie swung around and kicked Declan right between the legs. He groaned as he bent over, but Natalie whipped the door open and ran from the bathroom. She hadn’t hesitated. It was the perfect reaction.
- - - - -
“You smell like pee,” Gwen announced as soon as Natalie plopped back onto the beanbag chair.
“Sorry, I tried to clean it.”
Gwen cringed before her face softened. “Are you okay? Did you have an accident or something?”
“What? No!” Natalie insisted. “It was Declan. He peed on me.”
“What do you mean he peed on you?”
Natalie huffed. “I mean what I said. I went into the bathroom and he was in there and he turned and peed on my feet.”
“That’s disgusting,” Gwen said.
Natalie rolled off the chair and stood up, towering over Gwen now. “I know, okay? I know it’s disgusting.”
“Calm down,” said Gwen. “I mean he’s disgusting. It’s not your fault. I didn’t mean you were disgusting.”
Natalie relaxed her shoulders. “Well, I kicked him and left before it got any worse.”
Gwen smiled. “That’s great. That’s really great.”
Natalie couldn’t help but smile.
“Now, sit back down,” Gwen instructed, and Natalie did as she was told.
They were both quiet for a few minutes, Natalie relieved to have moved on.
“You did really great,” Gwen repeated out of nowhere, past the point it made any sense to still be talking about. “But that doesn’t mean he should get away with it.”