TrailRunner 171 Posted September 16, 2021 Popular Post Share Posted September 16, 2021 (edited) Zoe pressed her forehead against the car window, rolled her eyes, and let out a sigh. Her family's minivan, packed to the brim with luggage, coolers, and beach gear, sped down the highway. The sun beating through the window competing with the arctic breeze from the air conditioning made her feel both too hot and too cold at the same time. It was by the far the most miserable she'd ever felt going on a vacation. The miseries had been mounting by the month, the week, the day, and now by the minute. She drew in a breath and held it, tightening her core and pulling her hips inward. She flexed one thigh and then the other, then back and forth again, ping-ponging quicker and quicker until she abruptly stopped. The tension in her bladder started rising two states ago and it was getting to the point where Zoe could only turn her focus elsewhere for a few seconds before the urge to pee interrupted again. Still, she thought, returning her breath to a normal cadence, any more bouncing of her legs and the whole car would know the situation. It was just something else to deal with, a perfectly logical continuation of the story of 2020. For starters, the last three months of her senior year of high school took place entirely online, a situation that students and teachers alike each hated. Zoe had also spent the winter planning the perfect weekend for her 18th birthday. It had taken weeks to get her parents to agree to let her go down to the shore with her friends for a Friday and Saturday night, only winning them over by agreeing to also have the conservative backyard party her folks preferred on Sunday with relatives and neighbors. Instead her birthday weekend turned into... well, any other weekend stuck inside with her parents and her siblings, except with a cheap grocery store cake. Her mother always, always made a cake from scratch for each and every one of their birthdays. But the grocery stores were completely sold out of flour, sugar, and vanilla as everyone decided to take up baking during quarantine. 17 birthdays for Zoe, 15 for Paige, and 13 for Chase. That was 44 birthdays, 44 freshly-baked cakes. Her brother had even gotten his in just under the wire, turning 13 in February before everything changed. 44 in a row, but Zoe's 18th birthday had broken the streak. Instead of the perfect birthday weekend there was no trip to the shore, a Zoom call with her friends that hardly took the place of a true celebration, and a mediocre cake to boot. She turned her gaze from out the window over toward Paige, who was busy scrolling through her Instagram feed. This trip surely wasn't what she pictured for her 16th birthday -- there'd be no Sweet 16 party, and she'd also be limited to Zoom calls from friends -- but they were on their way to a fancy-schmancy beach house, plus she'd be getting a proper cake. The car was loaded up with coolers full of enough food to last them the week plus an entire bag of baking essentials to start a new cake streak. Zoe pulled out her phone and tried to distract herself, but none of her friends posted anything interesting in the fifteen minutes since she'd last looked. With a bored sigh, she pulled her right leg up onto the seat and pressed her heel against her left thigh. As her body adjusted to the new sensation her desire for a bathroom dissipated, but only for a fleeting moment. The heaviness in her abdomen soon returned, lingering no matter where she moved her leg. "Are we stopping anytime soon? Like for gas?" she decided to ask. The second question came out as an almost involuntary deflection. She wasn't worried they wouldn't stop if she said she had to pee. Zoe was far too familiar with their "old fashioned" or "strict" ways -- the way she'd describe it would depend on how forgiving she felt at the moment -- but they wouldn't make her sit there with a full bladder and hold it in for no good reason. No, it was more that she just didn't know like anybody knowing her business. That old trope about girls always going to the bathroom together? Zoe hated that. And if the girl insisted on sitting in the next stall over and talking the whole way through? Even worse. She didn't understand how anyone could actually relieve themselves under those circumstances but it happened often enough that she internalized that her pee shyness as the outlier. To her friends she was absent-minded, always leaving her bag behind when in truth she did it purposefully so that she could "remember" a few minutes later and pee in peace. Her friend Ally always joked that she needed to handcuff it to her wrist, taking it so far as buying her a toy pair as a gag gift. Oh right, another misery: Last summer she let Ally talk her into signing up for one of those extreme obstacle course mud races. Like the A and Z at the beginning of their names, Ally and Zoe seemed like they couldn't be more different. Ally lived for sports, and when regular high school track and charity 5K runs stopped exciting her, she delved into the mud runs. Zoe, on the other hand, hated sports. She didn't hate the idea. It's just that her family adhered a little too closely to the old sexist tropes and so she grew up in the kitchen with her mother and not playing catch with her dad. By the time she sought to fix this it was too late, she was too far behind. Gym class was routinely a nightmare and the one time she felt bold enough to step outside of her comfort zone ended in disaster: the sixth grade basketball tryouts, the one sport she thought her natural height advtantage might make up for the fact she could count on her fingers the number of times she'd shot a basketball in her life. Rather than seeing her as a future star who just needed to be molded, the coach not-so-subtly mentioned that the school play was also holding auditions and the yearbook committee was always looking for new members, too. And so that was the beginning and end of her athletic career. Ally had been persistent, though, and with an eye toward getting in shape before she started college, Zoe agreed to sign up with her. She went with Ally to the track, to the gym, to the park, working all through the winter to get ready for the race in May. All that time spent being miserable on long runs and short sprints, getting herself in the best shape of her life -- okay, that wasn't saying much -- only to feel even more miserable when the race got canceled. Her weight bounced back up more than a few pounds while there was practically nothing to do but sit inside and eat. Her height helped to disguise it and even at her heaviest only the select few bitchiest girls at school would call her fat. Still, she felt a lot better trying on clothes after her winter of working out than she ever had before. As she felt the waistband of her purple leggings pressing firmly against her skin she lamented the loss of progress and wished wished she'd worn one of her older, roomier pairs. And of course Zoe recognized that none of these were truly miserable circumstances. Everyone she knew was healthy. Her family hadn't lost any income and wasn't facing eviction. A canceled race, no school graduation, and store-bought cake were not the worst things in the world. They were the minor inconveniences that most everybody was dealing with given the pandemic. But in a way that was its own brand of misery: Feeling bad because these exciting things were getting wiped out, and then feeling bad about feeling bad because, actually, things weren't so bad. Zoe hadn't come to any grand conclusions about this emotional conflict other than that the world is complicated. "Wasn't planning on stopping for a while. still got almost a half-tank," her dad replied to her question, and Zoe's head returned from the clouds back into the car. Her swelling bladder counted as a legit concern, she decided, and being stuck in a car needing to relieve herself qualified her to feel slightly miserable. But she also didn't feel much like pressing the issue, putting the whole trip on pause just for her. She felt used to this sort of discomfort, waiting for the right moment to pee. Irrational? Sure, she was aware of that. Ally had no problem announcing to a group full of strangers that she had to pee. She told stories about dashing just off the cross-country course to relieve herself. Zoe didn't even feel comfortable making the request around her own family. Were she still at home she would have gotten up and gone a while ago, but here she was trapped in her seat. Even the best car seat loses comfort a few hours in, doubly so with a full bladder. So she pressed her knees together and closed her eyes softly, as if she could simply relax away the building pressure. Then her sister spoke up. "Well, can we?" Paige asked. "My foot's falling asleep and I have to pee." Sure, Zoe thought, of course she had no issues with bringing it up either. But it was all the better that she did. Their dad bounced his head from side to side, doing the sort of Dad Math that road trips demand. Along with sealing in the juices and keeping a tidy lawn, making good time on a car ride is one of the pillars of fatherhood. He settled on a course of action. "All right, we'll get to the bridge at the end of this road and make a stop there," he said. "Nicer bathrooms than these gas stations I bet, and a pretty nice view, too." An ETA would have been nice, Zoe thought. She could pull her phone back out and punch it in on her GPS but it didn't sound like it would be too long a time. If someone had complained that they were hungry then he might have told them to remember to pack a protein bar next time and kept on driving, but Paige had said she needed a bathroom and he wouldn't ignore that. Zoe scooted back in the seat so that she could lean forward slightly to help with the urge. She glanced at Paige, who hadn't even registered their dad's response and was right back to her phone. Zoe wondered if she actually needed to go or if she was just bored. The car rolled by a few more gas stations and Zoe had to agree they didn't look very appealing. Even as she started feeling the urge all the way down to her toes, where she flexed one set and then the other, she didn't feel too bad about skipping these places. She doubted they were taking extra cleaning measures because of the pandemic, mostly because "extra" implies there was some amount of cleaning going on to begin with. Signs started to appear on the roadside about the upcoming bridge. 6 miles... 4 miles... 2 miles... Zoe started to already feel some measure of relief being so close. Mental relief, anyway. The signs clued her bladder into the sense that she'd be able to go soon and went into overdrive the way it does when you're dying for a pee and a toilet is near. So she had to really concentrate, really squeeze down all those muscles, while reminding herself that her body was just playing a trick on her. The open road began to stack up with some traffic, a fact Zoe remained unaware of as her attention was focused inward. She was ready to be relaxed again, to sit in the car and zone out, to not calculate each movement of her legs. At the moment she had her feet off to the right side and knees pushed together over the left. Then the car hit a bump, threw off her delicate balance, and sent the urge to pee up a few notches. So she swung her feet and knees in the opposite direction. The car slowed from 60 mph, down to 40, then 25, slow enough for Zoe to take note. Her internal clock told her they should be there by now but instead the car would lurch forward, brake, lurch forward, brake, dragging along but never coming to a complete stop. The motion of the car distressed her bladder all the more, the liquid inside drifting back and forth and causing new nerves to send signals of despair to her brain. Her dad shifted the car into the left lane and Zoe watched as the right line grinded to a stop. "Looks like everyone's getting off there for some reason," her dad said. "You good to wait until we get across, Paige? There's another spot just like this on the other side of the bridge." "Uh, yeah, sure," Paige answered. Zoe glanced over and noticed her sister shift her position after answering. I guess she isn't just bored, Zoe thought. Still, she could sense that Paige wasn't as far down the path as she was. Zoe groaned internally as the cycle continued: she had to pee, so thoughts of sitting on a toilet and letting it all go filled her mind... but those thoughts only intensified the urge. The car rolled on, slowly now that the road converged into one lane over the bridge. Zoe looked out at the bay glistening in the sunlight, a pretty sight were it not for the fact that endless water was the last thing she wanted to focus on right now. Two things became quickly apparent: first of all, this wasn't the sort of bridge she expected. She couldn't see the other side, the road stretching as far as she could see, even looking like it disappeared at one point. Secondly, all those people exiting at the north end of the bridge seemed to know something her dad didn't because the car soon came to a complete stop with only brake lights ahead. "Why aren't we moving?" her brother asked from the middle seat. "I don't know, bud," her dad replied from the front. He turned to their mom. "Hun, can you check the GPS? It's usually not this bad this far away from the tunnel." Then he clicked off the air conditioning and rolled down the front windows, filling the minivan with the scent of the water. "Pretty cool view though, right?" he asked the rest of the car. "I always loved this part when we came this way when I was a kid. It starts as this bridge, then turns into a tunnel, then back into a bridge! Really cool, right?" Zoe had no interest in the view. She sat up stiff in her seat in the back row and pulled up her phone, worried. She remembered the name of the bridge from the road signs and punched it in, pulling up the Wikipedia page. She felt her eyes start to bulge out of their sockets when she read the first sentence. The Chesapeake Bay Bridge–Tunnel (CBBT) is a 17.6-mile (28.3 km) bridge–tunnel crossing at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, the Hampton Roads harbor, and nearby mouths of the James and Elizabeth rivers in the U.S. state of Virginia. 17.6 miles! She pulled both of her feet up onto the seat and pressed her knees together. Even if they were going 60 mph, it would take them 17 minutes to make it all the way across. And they were decidedly NOT going 60 mph. Every time they got even a little bit of speed they'd immediately have to slow down, often to a total stop. She wiped away a little bit of sweat that had started to form over her eyes and went to open her Maps app to see how long this was going to take, but her mom got there first. "Slowdown on your route," she read from her phone's screen. "Red, red, red..." she narrated as she scrolled to trace the line on the map indicating heavy traffic. "Oh, it looks like it doesn't turn blue again until we're through the tunnel." Zoe groaned, aloud this time, and tilted her head back in frustration. She could feel her stomach growing tight, the weightiness of her full bladder pushing against her other organs. She was used to a small level of discomfort that came with her preference for privacy, but she was willing to give that up when she needed to go like this. It's one thing to put it off ten more minutes in class rather than ask for a hall pass or to hold out until her sister or brother asked to stop. It was another thing to be stuck on this bridge, inching along, without the option of a bathroom no matter how willing she was to admit it. Her groan and her feet on the seat caught the attention of her sister next to her. Zoe turned her head slightly, then quickly turned away before making eye contact. Too late. "Wishing we would've stopped before the bridge?" Paige asked with a tiny grin. She had of course noticed her sister's slightly odd toilet habits over the years. She found it curious more than anything else and didn't bring it up much, but every now and then it was fun to poke at her older sister. Zoe gave a non-committal shrug, but the way she dropped her feet back to the floor in an effort to look unconcerned told Paige all she needed to know. "Yeah, me too," Paige said. "But at least I don't have to go like this." She lifted her own feet and mimicked an exaggerated version of Zoe's old position. Their father saw in the rearview mirror and half-turned. "You okay back there, Paige? If I knew it was going to be like this I would've stopped back at the bathrooms before the bridge." "Oh, I'll be okay until we stop," Paige replied, shifting back to normal. "Zoe's the one who really needs to go." Zoe felt her cheeks heat up, getting drawn into precisely the kind of conversation she hated. "I'm fine, too," she said quickly, but she could tell with her core tightening to keep a hold on her swollen bladder that she didn't sound as non-chalant as her sister. "Well you could have asked at any time and we would've stopped," her mom said. "Now you're just going to have to hold it. Brake lights!!" She pointed ahead frantically. Zoe's dad quickly jammed the brake pedal to bring the van to a stop. Zoe clenched her jaw as she lurched foward, the seatbelt pressing hard against her waist. She let out an audible groan. The persistently growing dull ache, was turning more acute by the minute. Her bladder was no longer asking for relief, it was practically begging for it. She tried to draw in some deep breaths and relax as they got moving again, but it felt like there wasn't even room inside her for her lungs to expand anymore. Just an ocean of pee inside her, stretching the walls of her bladder ever further. She had felt the nerves down there tingling before but now it felt like they were on fire. She lifted her right leg over her left, pressing her thighs together and curling up her toes inside her sneakers. Her need to pee was becoming a full-body concern. The traffic moved -- slowly, but they were moving -- and Zoe stared out the window at some boats on the water in the distance, but her concentration was broken again and again by the pounding going on inside of her. Zoe noticed the van coming up on a portion of the shoulder of the road widen with a sign marked "Emergency Pull Off." Two cars were parked there and as they passed by Zoe wondered if either was stopped for the kind of emergency she was experiencing. Her mind recoiled at the idea of having to pee on the side of the road. Or maybe, she realized with creeping dread, it was because that scenario was starting to become a possibility. She really, really needed to pee and this bridge seemed to go on forever. Before she could start rehearsing in her head a way to ask about it, she firmly reminded herself that emergencies were what little kids had, not girls her age. She uncrossed and re-crossed her legs, careful not to turn her head and make eye contact with Paige because Zoe sensed how unnatural the movement must have looked. But everything needed to be done delicately, she thought, to maintain order and balance within herself. It felt like one wrong move was going to make her burst. Out the front of the window she spotted a sign over the road: TUNNEL 1 MILE AHEAD. She let out a long exhale. That's when the traffic would really start moving again and even that would be a win. It was the slow crawl of traffic that was the torture, the knowledge that if things were moving normally they'd already be back on the road after a stop. But instead her urgently-needed toilet break was just Out There in the future, delayed for no good reason. Zoe couldn't sit up straight anymore without a searing reminder in her abdomen, so she leaned forward slightly up against the tension of the seatbelt, her legs still firmly crossed. She could see the flashing lights from a siren as her family's van finally arrived near the incident that holding everybody up. They slowed one final time to pass narrowly by the police car and the broken-down car it was trying to assist, hood open. "Finally," her dad said as he hit the gas. "Shouldn't be too much longer from here," he announced to the rest of the car. They reached the tunnel and Zoe took advantage of the dimmer light to press her hand between her thighs, to finally push back against the immense pressure. Her chest still felt tight but she cherished the moment of relief until the pounding of her overfull bladder returned all too soon. The tunnel ramped up and daylight filled the van again. They were back above the water, zipping along now. Zoe released her hand from between her thighs. She closed her eyes, imagining a superpower where she could simply wish away the demanding impusle. But with a thumping wave of pressure, her body reminded her she was merely human. All that pee stored inside of her was going to have to go somewhere, and soon. Zoe started to remember the one time her toilet shyness had almost gotten her into serious trouble: freshman year, gym class. She'd been held up by a teacher in her biology class and rushed to get changed so she could pee before going out to the softball field. But a group of older girls were around the toilets and so she decided to wait until after and use the bathroom closer to her next class which she'd found to be less crowded. And so she did, successfully making it through a softball game without once fielding or throwing a ball. Walking back toward the school she felt her need to pee was about as bad as she would let it get and that maybe she'd use the toilet in the changing room anyway. That's when the fire alarms went off. Her class stopped outside while the rest of the school emptied out. Zoe waited, waited, waited for the fire drill to end and to be let back in, growing more and more desperate. Word got around that this wasn't a fire drill. Someone said there was a fire in the cafeteria. Someone else said that wasn't true and someone must've just pulled the alarm. She didn't care about the particulars, she was just interested in getting to a toilet. It took almost all of the next class period, 45 minutes, for a fire truck to finally show up. That was 45 minutes of standing around, no distractions, just an ache that got worse and worse until her legs were bouncing and... In the van, she stopped daydreaming to realize that her legs were bouncing right now. This was getting to be worse than that day. Plus she had seen a couple of guys and at least one girl dash into the woods adjacent to the school. It was quite apparent why, and while the thought of half the school seeing her make that trek to relieve herself horrified her, she had just started to consider it when the fire marshal gave the all-clear, the bells rang, and students were let back in. She made a beeline for the stalls and practically melted with relief as she sat down. At least that day there was another option, as much as she detested it. Now they were on a one-lane bridge with no shoulder. She had to pee so bad and her only choice was to wait, to hold it all back. She thought she was having déjà vu when she looked out the front and saw a sign: TUNNEL 1 MILE AHEAD "There's another tunnel?!" she asked, her exasperation getting the best of her. "Yes, but we're almost there," her mother replied. "Look, you can see the main land over there. Just keep holding it, okay?" Zoe bit down hard on her lip, partially from embarrassment and partially because she needed somewhere to direct her increasingly nervous energy. For a brief moment her body was able to focus on that sensation, but the throbbing need to pee quickly interceded and washed back over her. They dipped down into the second tunnel and this time Zoe bent forward and buried both hands between her legs, shoving them against her pee hole. God, I have to pee SO bad, she thought to herself. Her cheeks were hot and there were beads of sweat on her forehead and along the waistband of her leggings, but she felt goosebumps pop up on her arms and a cold shiver ran through her. The car emerged and Paige looked over to see her sister in dire need of relief. She'd certainly never seen Zoe like this, and come to think of it, she couldn't really remember anyone looking quite so desperate. Well, except for maybe Kinsley, their 3 year old cousin who was just starting to master potty training the last time they'd seen her. Paige stifled a smile at the thought of Zoe being reminded to use the potty and turned away. Zoe pulled her hands out and pushed against the seat with stiff arms. Some parts of her body were growing numb but the searing anguish was only becoming more acute. She uncrossed her legs and almost immediately they started to jiggle wildly up and down. With a great effort she managed to reduce it to a quiver, but she had to pee so, SO bad that she was losing control over herself. She pushed her butt back down against the seat, still bent over in agony. Her heart seemed to jump up into her throat as the van slowed again. Zoe looked up, terrified of more traffic, but saw the tollbooth instead. Her legs started dancing all on their own again. She had to pee worse than she'd ever had to in her entire life, but she had made it over the bridge. She didn't even bother to try and stop her bouncing thighs. She was SO close. The van rolled off the exit ramp and into a parking lot. Zoe was singularly focused on holding back the ocean of pee inside of her and stem the ever-rising tide. They slipped into a parking space and she undid her seatbelt. With the fabric no longer digging into her waist she sensed a brief reprieve from the pressure, but that disappeared as soon as she darted out the side door. A roaring spasm shocked her body and she had no choice but to quickly grab herself to prevent an eruption. Her mom stepped out of the front passenger door just in time to see. "For God's sake, Zoe, keep it together," she said disapprovingly. Sure, the traffic was terrible and she was looking forward to relieving herself too but she couldn't quite believe her oldest daughter had let it get this bad. "I'm going to go get some food for the rest of the drive while you and your sister run off to the bathroom. What about you, Chase, are you hungry or do you need to pee first, too?" Zoe didn't wait around for her brother's answer and instead started beelining it toward the building with the bathrooms. Paige followed behind while her parents and brother went toward the building on the opposite side of the parking lot. Every step seemed to magnify the pressure tenfold. She could only manage the shortest of breaths as the the weight of all that pee pushing down was becoming completely unbearable. She was DYING to get to a toilet. Her vulva was pounding with a tension she wouldn't have been able to imagine if she weren't living through it. She made it halfway there before glancing over at her sister and noticing something on her wrist. Oh, FUCK. She froze. "Oh god I forgot my mask...! Oh god PLEASE let me borrow yours and go and you can get mine from the car, please!" She pleaded. "Come on, I have to pee, too." Paige protested. "Not this bad, I swear to God, PLEASE!" Zoe was doubled over. "I'm seriously about to pee in my pants, I can't go all the way back to the car, please!" Paige gave a sigh and pulled her mask off her wrist and handed it to Zoe, who grabbed it and took off like a relay racer. "Thank you thank you thank you!" She called as she took off once again, while Paige turned around to track down her parents to get the keys. Zoe came up to the building, slipped on her mask and pranced through the doors, looking around frantically. To the left was a bank of what used to be pay phone; to the right she saw the sign for the restrooms. She passed by the men's room, sheepishly looking at the ground to avoid the stares she knew she was getting. There was no hiding it, her jagged walk a telltale sign of her frantic desperation. She rounded the corner and nearly burst into tears. There was a line down the hallway of nearly 20 women. No, no, NO! She had made it all this way, waited and waited, held it and held it. There was no way she was going to be able to make it through a line this long. She collapsed her weight against the wall and dug her hand into her crotch again. She HAD to hold it, she thought to herself. There was no other choice. The line had hardly moved by the time Paige caught up. "Jesus, this line sucks," Paige said. "I guess a lot of people really needed to go after all that traffic." "You seriously have NO idea how bad I have to go right now," Zoe said nervously. "I can't even, like, I can't even think right now, I have to PEE!" She was keeping her legs stiff, muscles clenched, but they were getting wobbly all on their own, exhausted from the task of holding back so much pee. Paige pulled her phone out of her pocket. "Hey, mom just texted." She paused. "Here, look!" She added with some giddiness. It took Zoe a second to be able to focus her eyes on the screen. She read: "Almost no line for the family bathroom over here." "Should we go?" Paige asked. Zoe looked helplessly at the line in front of her. "I don't even know if I can move without peeing..." "Come on, this line is going to take forever. You can make it," Paige said. Zoe pushed her weight off the wall and her knees buckled. She gave the line more look. "Fuhhhhhh-" Another spasm caused her to shiver. "Fine, okay, let's go." Zoe honestly wasn't sure she could take another five steps without losing control but somehow she managed to stumble back outside the building. Her bladder was screaming in agony, desperate beyond belief to push out a torrent of hot pee. She had to pause and grab herself yet again, a split-second away from a drop escaping. "You could just pee between cars," Paige offered, slightly impressed that Zoe had managed to make it even this long. Zoe felt more than ready for that. She wasn't sure where her bathroom anxiety went. She wasn't even sure if two plus two equaled four. Right now the only thing she was absolutely certain about was that she was at her absolute limit and needed to pee RIGHT NOW. "Oh wait," Paige said. "There's like, cops all around." Zoe let out a loud, embittered sigh. Wave after wave of pressure was engulfing her body as she came closer and closer to gushing pee into her underwear. With actual tears filling her eyes, she started across the parking lot. She could barely lift her feet off the ground, nearly dragging them the entire way. Paige opened up the door and Zoe hopped inside. Her gaze immediately found the bathroom. A mother was exiting with her toddler son and another went in. There was only one other person on line, a young mother with a baby in a carrier strapped in and a diaper bag in her hand. Zoe managed to shuffle her way over and stood behind them. She wiped her eyes dry and then grabbed herself with both hands, launching into a full-on peepee dance. This was it, she was SO close but god she had to pee SO bad. Her bladder was pulsing and her heart was pounding as beneath her mask she chewed on her lower lip. Her vulva and her thighs were burning, past their breaking point and begging to give up. Her body was defeated and revolting against her, and it was only pure will was keeping Zoe from soaking her legging with pee. Her bladder was contracting, trying to squeeze it out, but by some miracle she found a way to draw it back in. Then she heard some footsteps behind her, and a voice. "This is NOT how a girl your age acts, Savannah! Do you understand me?!" Zoe turned to see a very angry-looking mother scolding a girl who looked to be about 9 or 10. Zoe could only see the girl's eyes above her mask but the sheer horror in them told the story. That and the hand wedged between her legs. Zoe couldn't bear to look at anyone else as desperate to pee as she was so she turned away, but the mother's running commentary behind them was somehow worse. "You'd better be keeping those panties dry or else you're going to be in big trouble, Savannah! Am I clear?" "Yes, mommy." "We went through this on our trip to Granny's last winter, didn't we? You're going to be in 5th grade next year but if you act like a preschooler there are going to be consesquences. I made that clear, didn't I?" "Yes." "Good. So you're going to be a good girl and keep your panties dry?" Zoe grabbed herself even harder. She couldn't imagine how Savannah must have been feeling. It was almost impossible to hold it all in as it was. She grinded her thighs together around her hand as hard as she could. If someone was lecturing her like this she was pretty certain she wouldn't be able to do it. "Yes!" The girl exclaimed, but Zoe could tell how unconfident she sounded. "Or else-" "Mom, please!" The mom ignored the protest. "Or else I'm going to have to get you some more peepee pullups. Is that what you want?" A few seconds passed. "You answer me when I ask you a question, Savannah! Do you want to wear big girl panties or peepee pullups?" Zoe half-turned and saw the mortified girl covering her face with the one hand she had free. "Big girl panties," she could just barely hear the muffled reply. Zoe gave Paige a look and titled her head toward the younger girl. She couldn't believe she was about to do this, but her heart was aching for this poor girl. Zoe balled her fists and dug her fingernails into her palms, then turned around fully. "Um, do you want to go ahead of us?" she asked. It was apparent the mother had been too caught up in her own world to notice Zoe's obvious distress. "Yes, that would be great," she replied matter-of-factly, taking Savannah's wrist and leading her in front of Zoe and Paige. Paige stared at her sister, keeled over and grabbing herself once again, in shock. The door opened and the mother with the baby carrier started toward it. The other mother stepped forward too. "Would it be too much trouble if we jumped ahead?" she asked. The mother with the carrier turned and, noticing Savannah with her legs crossed tightly, gave a sympathetic look, then pointed to the carrier. "Sorry, but no, I've really got to get my baby changed and get back on the road." With that, she went in and closed the door. "Okay, Savannah," the other mother turned back to her daughter. "Keep holding it. I better not see one single drop of pee in your undies when we go in there!" Paige turned and looked at Zoe. "What a bitch," she muttered. The mom turned and scowled and both of them, but was unable to tell who had said it. For Zoe it was beyond discomfort, beyond unpleasant, beyond misery. It was absolute torture, all that pee forcing its way down to the very tip of her vulva. She couldn't summon the might to keep her legs the least bit steady. She had to pee so bad that her ears were ringing. Every single fiber of her being was breaking down, unable to withstand the throbbing of her bladder. Her eyes welled with tears once again. She was squeezing her muscles as hard as she could but they were simply exhausted and she could feel her grip slipping. Her abs were so sore it hurt to breathe. She stood doubled over, fingers pushing hard against her pee hole, but it was feeling hopeless. The spasms were no longer coming in waves, it was more like one constant contraction that was overtaking her. Watching the girl in front of her bounce around made it even worse. Zoe regretted letting her go ahead of her. She started wondering what would happen if Savannah DID have an accident. Maybe her mom would angrily pull her aside and Zoe would get to go after all. She thought she heard Savannah gasp and looked on, wondering if she'd see a stain. But instead she just continued on fighting what Zoe knew all too well was a furious, delirious need to pee. The door once again clicked open and out came the mother with the baby carrier. Zoe looked in and this time caught a glimpse of the toilet as Savannah and her mother raced in. That sight, the idea that she was THIS close to the relief that she'd longed for, sent her mind over the edge. "I can't do it," she said, her body trembling. "I don't think I can hold it." "Yeah you can, you're so close," Paige encouraged. "No, seriously, I can't hold it! I have to pee I have to pee I have to PEEEEEEE!" Zoe's eyes filled with tears of pure torment. Her bladder throbbed so violently she felt it in her toes. A jet of hot pee shot down and even with both hands pressing back she was powerless to stop it from gushing out and saturating her underwear. "Oh god, it's coming, it's coming!" Zoe bit down on her bottom lip so hard she nearly drew blood. Her body had felt a microscopic tinge of relief and it was demanding more. It all burned with relentless force, another surge of pee shooting straight through her defenses. Her vulva was hot with tension but she could still feel the effect of the warm pee in her panties. "I can't, I can't..." she choked out in a high-pitched squeal, feeling more and more helpless. She was rapidly losing control of her body. A trickle of pee started anew and Zoe felt it grow to a full-on stream, rapidly soaking her underwear. She managed to cut it off but the urge was so overwhelming and her legs were growing so weak she had to hold one arm out for balance. Her right hand remained buried between her legs, her sweaty fingers realizing a different moisture. Paige looked to her sister with alarm. "You're so close! Keep holding, keep holding!" She stood in astonishment as another rush of pee poured out, instantly staining the front of her sister's leggings. "Oh my god, you're actually peeing your pants!" Zoe's chest shuddered with raw embarrassment. She couldn't do this. Not right here. Not right now. She rejected the very notion that she could be standing here, 18 years old, having an accident in her pants. It seemed so impossible and yet she felt another convulsion and her thighs burn with sizzling pee once again. She stumbled forward toward the bathroom door and pounded it on. "Please hurry," she whimpered. "Please hurry up!" She heard an echoey voice from inside. "-back in pullups because you can't keep your panties dry like a big girl!" Zoe moaned in agony. Her mind seemed to give up. She hadn't been able to keep her panties dry. She stepped back from the door and rocked back and forth, bent at the knees and doubled over. She had nothing left to give, no strength left. A torrential wave of scorching pee exploded from her, causing a giant stain to spread across her wide butt. Paige stood, mouth agape beneath her mask, watching her older sister lose the battle. This was making her own need to pee start to feel urgent. Another eruption of pee came and with Zoe's inner thighs and butt already drenched, droplets splashed onto the floor. Zoe's lips were trembling in horror of the real-life nightmare she was powerless to stop. Her fingers pushed against herself in abject vain. More pee burst out of her and stained the entire left thigh of her leggings in a flash. Her last defense fell and she started peeing so forcefully it stung. The volume of it all was too great for her urethra and it began to hiss as it poured out, drowning her underwear and leggings. The stain spread until hardly any of the original light purple color remained, replaced with a dark, soggy violet. She tried to clamp down but her muscles were too exhausted to respond. The stream slowed for three seconds only to erupt again, flowing all the way down her legs, dripping off her feet, and widening the puddle beneath her. She looked up, the immediately turned away. Her mom, dad, and brother were walking over with their food. She couldn't stand to make eye contact with anyone. The hissing ceased and the stinging torrent finally began to slow, but she was still wetting her pants as she turned around to see her mom. "Zoe... oh my GOD!" The bathroom door opened behind her and Paige dashed in, grabbing herself. Savannah looked up at Zoe with puffy red eyes, while her mother led her away by the wrist. "Looks like you're not the only one who needs more potty training," she said to her daughter. Zoe dropped her head, staring directly at the yellow pond she'd created. 2020. What a miserable year. I have a n idea for a Part II, but considering I started writing this over a year ago... who knows when that might come. Edited September 17, 2021 by TrailRunner (see edit history) docsteve, Joey1234, Mrgala21 and 37 others 38 2 Quote Link to comment
LifeIsStrange 1,003 Posted September 17, 2021 Share Posted September 17, 2021 pretty good. Quote Link to comment
SM15 7 Posted September 18, 2021 Share Posted September 18, 2021 Wow, that was a great story! I'd love to see a second part. Quote Link to comment
pguy69 497 Posted September 19, 2021 Share Posted September 19, 2021 This is exceptional! One of the best new stories I've read on here in years, I loved it from start to finish and would love to read more of your work if you get round to writing it! Quote Link to comment
WiiGuy86 641 Posted September 21, 2021 Share Posted September 21, 2021 This is a great Quote Link to comment
REDstoplight 61 Posted September 21, 2021 Share Posted September 21, 2021 Wow. That was a great read! I read it last night as I was going to sleep. I thought about the story all night long. I'm excited to read part 2. Quote Link to comment
Fuchsa9073 233 Posted September 22, 2021 Share Posted September 22, 2021 Excellent!!!!! Quote Link to comment
Lapis Lazuli 213 Posted September 22, 2021 Share Posted September 22, 2021 This was really cute!! Quote Link to comment
TrailRunner 171 Posted September 26, 2021 Author Share Posted September 26, 2021 Thank you everyone, I'm glad you all enjoyed it. I have... not starting writing anything else yet. But I will at some point! pguy69 1 Quote Link to comment
TrailRunner 171 Posted March 25, 2022 Author Popular Post Share Posted March 25, 2022 After all this time I finally have a new chapter. It's short but I hope you enjoy it. II They pulled into the driveway of their rental house just as the sun was beginning to set. Zoe was the first to click her setbelt off and exit the car, walking around to the back as her dad opened the trunk from up front. She grabbed a plastic bag and even though it was double-wrapped she detected the faint odor of her wet leggings and underwear inside. Zoe would've been happy to throw them away at the rest stop the same way she wanted to throw away the memory, but both lived on. At the very least, she would be the one to bring them inside and get them in the washing machine. Her bladder felt full again but she knew it really wasn't. After the torture she'd put it through earlier in the day it seemed to be broken, confused. They'd stopped for dinner right after crossing onto the Outer Banks, a small roadside spot with picnic table seating. In between placing her order and picking it up, Zoe felt a rush of desperation and booked it for the porta-potty where she sat and peed for all of about 15 seconds, if that. More than anything, that was the feeling that occupied her most on the second half of the drive. She was embarrassed, she was shocked, and from time to time her thoughts drifted to the absurdity of it all and she found it darkly funny, but most of all she felt... rattled. Let down by her body. Like she'd failed. For as bad as she'd needed to go she had made it to the stop, to the first bathroom line, then across the parking lot to the shorter second line. She'd done all of that without letting a drop loose. And then her senses overrode everything else. First the mere sight of the toilet sending those first gushes into her underwear, and then hearing the mother scold that poor girl she'd let go ahead of her had severed the last thread holding on and sent it all torrenting out. No matter how hard she tried she couldn't make it stop. The best she could do was slow it for a few seconds before the tsunami resumed. That was the part that really ate at her: that she was putting all her energy into making it stop but her leggings got wetter and wetter. And that all the agony she'd been through had been for nothing. Her good deed hadn't even saved the girl in front of her although that one seemed quite a bit smaller with no stain on her shorts. She felt content with her decision to let them cut ahead, but daydreamed about the alternate universe where her selflessness was rewarded and she'd have saved them both from having an accident. It was hard not to feel defeated by reality. All of which was to say that she knew that the small soda she'd had with dinner was not cause for her bladder to be bursting now. She threw her duffle bag over her shoulder and carried the plastic bag with her pee-soaked clothes in her hand, away from her body. She stopped at the front door, waited for her mom to punch in the door code, and entered to immediately look for the laundy room. After a few false starts she found it. She opened the bag, getting hit with the full smell of her drenched leggings and underwear before dumping them into the machine. She threw in a detergent pouch and hit start. The machine whirred into action and began whooshing as it filled with water. Zoe heard it and felt her bladder pounding and pleading for relief. She shook her head and rolled her eyes, wondering how long the simple sound of running water would cause such trouble. She knew it had to be a false alarm but that didn't make it feel any less real. She pushed her thighs together and stood in front of the machine for a moment longer, making sure it seemed to be working properly. A tremor washed over her and made her buckle at the knees. "Did you start the machine with only two things in it?" Her mom had heard the noise and came over. Zoe steeled herself, determined not to give anything away. Her mom seeing her stood frozen except for a river of pee engulfing her leggings and the ever-so-helpful "you really should have asked to go sooner" talk her was enough for several lifetimes. "Uh, yeah?" "That's wasteful, Zoe." "Mom, it... it smelled pretty bad. And there's nothing else that needs to be washed." Her mom paused. "I suppose so. I still can't believe you..." Zoe turned away before her face could turn red again. "Well maybe you should go pee now, just to be safe," her mom said. Zoe clenched her fists for a moment. She wanted to turn back and tell her mom that, no, actually, she did NOT need reminders about when to go to the bathroom and that in spite of what happened this afternoon it wasn't something she ever needed to bring up again. But the bigger urge was to get to the bathroom and pee, even if it was only for another 15 seconds. So instead she started walking away, feeling the burn in her thighs with every stop. She walked back through the kitchen and saw what she figured was the bathroom, but of course the door was closed. Of course, she thought. Somehow she was feeling utterly desperate to pee again. This wasn't as bad as at the rest stop but she was really starting to feel sick of it. Before she could think about going upstairs to look for an open bathroom, she heard the toilet flush. The sink started running and Zoe had to grab herself as she felt her bladder trying to contract and squeeze it all out of her. This is so stupid, she thought, this is all just some dumb trick my body is playing. She tried to convince herself: I don't have to pee, I don't have to pee, I don't have to pee. But her body wasn't buying it, and she still had her hand between her legs as her brother opened the door. Zoe avoided eye contact as she rushed in, lowered theseat, pulled her shorts and underwear down and sat. She let out a moan of relief as she relaxed and let a forceful stream of pee splash to the water below. She ripped off some toilet paper in anticipation of a quick trip but it just kept going and flowing. Thirty seconds passed and it was still coming out as vigorous as at the start. I guess I really did have to go, she thought. Forty five seconds, then fifty seconds and finally it began to slow to a trickle before stopping at around a minute. Zoe wiped herself and shook her head. She felt like a stranger in her own skin, like her brain was speaking one language and her body was speaking another. As she pulled up her shorts and flushed the toilet, she closed her eyes and wished that she could transport herself back to this morning, before this day had started. She opened her eyes. No luck. waterrat, StarCommand, skywalker58 and 7 others 9 1 Quote Link to comment
WiiGuy86 641 Posted March 25, 2022 Share Posted March 25, 2022 Very good! Happy to see this continued, I've revisited the first part many times, one of the best stories I've ever read. Quote Link to comment
StarCommand 123 Posted March 26, 2022 Share Posted March 26, 2022 Awesome story!!! So glad to see it continue and hope it continues more!!! Quote Link to comment
SM15 7 Posted March 26, 2022 Share Posted March 26, 2022 Another great chapter, you should definitely continue this story if you have more ideas. Quote Link to comment
Fuchsa9073 233 Posted March 26, 2022 Share Posted March 26, 2022 I was very excited to see that you continued this story! Quote Link to comment
knockonthedoor 1,210 Posted March 27, 2022 Share Posted March 27, 2022 Yay! An update! I remembered really liking this story when you first posted it and was holding out hope for a part 2. Which has started out wonderfully I might add. Great work! Quote Link to comment
TrailRunner 171 Posted March 27, 2022 Author Share Posted March 27, 2022 On 3/26/2022 at 1:03 AM, SM15 said: Another great chapter, you should definitely continue this story if you have more ideas. Thanks! I have a few ideas but I'm also open to suggestions. That way perhaps the next chapter won't take a year to write. If anyone has one they can either post here or message me directly. Quote Link to comment
WiiGuy86 641 Posted April 1, 2022 Share Posted April 1, 2022 So excited to see where this could go! Maybe Zoe will have to be more open about her need next time. Maybe they'll go out on a small boat, or on a picnic/hike StarCommand 1 Quote Link to comment
StarCommand 123 Posted April 2, 2022 Share Posted April 2, 2022 Yep, this story is great!!! Quote Link to comment
Jimmy Lang 361 Posted April 3, 2022 Share Posted April 3, 2022 So excellent to get this realistic follow-up to Zoe's misadventure. You are one of our best writers here and it would be great to read more of you! knockonthedoor 1 Quote Link to comment
REDstoplight 61 Posted April 3, 2022 Share Posted April 3, 2022 This was another great addition. I am excited to see what happens next since her bladder is already weakened! Quote Link to comment
TrailRunner 171 Posted April 8, 2022 Author Popular Post Share Posted April 8, 2022 Here it is, part 3. I'm happy with how it turned out and had a lot of fun writing it. Comments and suggestions are welcomed and encouraged! They help provide motivation and a spark of creativity when the words aren't flowing easily. Enjoy 🙂 *** Erin Crosby pulled into the parking space a few minutes early. Enough time to freshen up just a bit. She flipped open the vanity mirror. Two cups of coffee earlier took care of the bags under her eyes and even into her forties her face retained much of the youthful sheen. That was a bit at odds with the gray hairs she was spotting more of each day amongst the light brown. Her hairdresser closed during the early days of the pandemic and she'd gotten used to her hair without highlights. She preferred to keep it shorter but without a cut it now swept against her shoulders. She ran a brush through it to tame the waviness best she could, then dabbed on a light layer of foundation and pulled out her mascara but paused. She needed to be set up outside shortly and wanted to grab another cup for the meeting first. Erin went in and took a look around the bakery. This is what she wanted. The shop couldn't have been much bigger than the one she ran back home but the layout was organized, purposeful. The line flowed well and the employees didn't seem cramped behind the counter. The signage was clear and aesthetically pleasing. And most importantly there was a true coffee bar with plenty of bells and whistles. She ordered a cup and admired the store's features while it was made. The one thing she didn't see was a bathroom. She hadn't even purposefully been looking, but it was a natural reaction to her growing need from the two mugs she'd drank before coming here. The lack of a facility wasn't a shock: her shop back home had only a tiny bathroom for use by employees and the rare customer with no choice but to shyly inquire. She checked her watch: 7:58. Even if her urge to pee had been great enough to ask, then she might be a minute or two late. Not a good look. It wasn't that urgent anyway. Her coffee was ready about thirty seconds later and she took it outside, lowered her mask and took a sip. Ahhhhhh. She took a seat at a table outside, adjusting the chair so the glint off the ocean didn't shine directly in her hazel eyes. She smoothed her black sleeveless blouse and tugged at her gray pants while most other patrons were either already in their swimsuits for the day or still in their pajamas. Business casual at the beach was a tricky look, especially since Erin was used to working in jeans. The pants fit tighter than she'd remembered, stretching taut around her thighs and butt. "Erin?" She perked her head up and then stood up to greet the older woman, who was half a foot shorter than her but carried herself confidently. Erin was privileged enough to take her family here for a week; this other woman looked privileged enough to spend the whole summer. Guess that's why I'm asking her for money and not the other way around, Erin thought. The woman held out her hand, then drew it back. "Sorry," she said. "I never know how to greet people these days, you know? No handshake, but you're okay with masks off?" "Yeah, sounds good," Erin replied with a smile. "Thanks so much for meeting me, Mrs. Delhagen." "Oh, please, Cheryl is fine." She motioned for both to sit. "I'm glad you could take some time out of your vacation." Erin sat and crossed her legs to quell the sloshing about in the her bladder. "I've got three teenagers who love to sleep. I'll probably be back before any of them even wake up." They each chuckled. "So," Cheryl started. "Howard told me a bit about you and your plans for opening up a new shop but we mostly ended up talking about the old days back in New York. So maybe start from the beginning?" "Of course," Erin said. She took another long sip of her latte and cleared her throat. "So I started working at his shop when I was 15 doing, like, the rolling and the boiling and the baking of the bagels. After a while he started trusting me to mix the batches, too. So I worked there in high school and then in summers during college doing all that and running the register, whatever he needed." "And you liked it and decided to stay on?" "Well, after I graduated I went to work at an accounting firm and I hated it. The only good thing was I met my husband there. He can sit at a computer all day and play with numbers but it wasn't for me. So I quit and Howard hired me back at the bagel shop again... temporarily, I thought, but I was really happy there and then I got engaged and married and started our family and I never felt like I wanted to do anything else." Erin raised her cup to her mouth again and took a big sip, uncrossing her legs and then re-crossing with the left one on top. The two mugs she'd drank at home were running through her, and this would be sure to follow. Cheryl nodded, and Erin continued. "So, like, five or six years ago Howard started taking more time away from the shop and I was basically running it. Overseeing everything, hiring some new people, plus still getting there at 4:00 to roll the bagels if I needed to. Then three years ago he wanted to sell it and retire. He really wanted me and my husband to buy it. We were sort of on the fence with the money but he found a way to give us a pretty good deal and make it work, so... we went for it." "And your husband also works there now, then?" "Not in the shop, no. He just does the accounting. So the LLC is both of us, but I'm the one managing the day-to-day operations." "I see. So walk me through what you've done since taking over." "Oh, lots!" Erin said. "Well, I kept the bagel recipe the same -- that was a stipulation of Howard's but I would have done that anyway. But I expanded the menu a bit to include some pastries... some recipes I made with my mom growing up, some newer ones. It's the same as the bagels, always made fresh with high-quality ingredients. I, uh, changed the name, too," she added. She swallowed and sat up in her seat, studying Cheryl's face. Her bladder twinged as it continued to fill up and the caffeine worked its magic. "Oh?" "Yeah. Everything up there is Howard's Bagels or Cramer's Bagels or whatever... I wanted something a little more, uh, unique. So we're now The So-So Dough Co. It's silly, I know, but it sticks in people's heads and helps us stand out a little bit more, I think. The whole point is it's better than just 'so-so.' Plus we don't only do bagels now." Her eyes widened and a few butterflies frolicked in her stomach as she looked up. This was the wildcard of the investment pitch. She hoped Cheryl wouldn't think that she was trying to throw out her old friend's legacy by removing his name or anything like that. Cheryl wrinkled her brow and rocked her head side to side, chewing it over, which left Erin to deal with the rising tide inside her. She reached for her coffee out of anxiety and downed the last gulp even as she was thinking that was the last thing she needed. Her need to pee was becoming something she couldn't ignore. Finally Cheryl spoke. "You know, I love it," she said, and beamed at Erin. "One thing I look for when making these investments is someone who makes it their own, you know? Like this place..." she gestured to the shop they were sitting outside. "Five years ago it was a little dirty roadside shack. But this couple was retiring from Vermont and they'd always dreamed of running a bakery and they had a vision that called to me to help make it come to life. If I wanted same-old I could just franchise an Auntie Anne's, you know? But this place..." "It's wonderful." "It really is, and it's because they... have you had the iced maple latte?" "No," Erin said. "Oh, you've got to try it. Hold on." Cheryl pushed her chair back, stood up, and headed inside. Erin sighed and lifted her butt off the chair to tug at her pants again. She wished they didn't cling so tightly as the discomfort of her swelling bladder persisted. Her mind jumped back to yesterday and the memory of her daughter Zoe growing more and more desperate in the back seat as they inched through the traffic. The possibility that Zoe wouldn't be able to hold it never crossed Erin's mind until the moment she walked up on her in the line for the bathroom sending a flood of hot pee into her purple leggings and out onto the floor. Aside from the occasional violent sneeze or coughing fit that shook a few drops loose, Erin couldn't fathom something like that happening. Even on those days in the shop when she was stuck baking the bagels and running the register while her bladder howled, when the line of customers never ended and she couldn't take a toilet break, on the days when all of that was happening and she was teaching some ditzy teenager how to work the kettle, stuck staring at the giant vat of water while a roaring ocean of pee inside her begged for relief... she always found a way to hold it. Erin wasn't bursting at the seams like that now but her coffee and caffeine addiction had its drawbacks. One cup was mandatory for her to even wake up, and she'd drank the second one to be sure she was sharp for this informal investment meeting. Those had filled her bladder and created this pressure between her thighs that was now constant and stronger by the minute. Plus the one she'd had here and now... Cheryl put another cup down on the table, a size larger than the empty one Erin had already finished. "You have to try this," Cheryl said, sipping on her own. Erin hesitated for just a second. It was the first law of holes: If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging. And if you're in a meeting and you have to pee, stop drinking coffee. Cheryl was looking on expectedly, though, so Erin lifted it up and took a swig. "Oh wow, that's really good!" It wasn't fake enthusiasm, the iced coffee really was that good. And it helped cool down her rising body temperature from all the holding. "Right? And you'd never expect it, you know? Like a delicious maple latte here in North Carolina of all places. They get the real Vermont syrup delivered down here and everything. So anyway, this is the sort of thing I prefer to invest in and it seems like you think the same way, which I love. Of course, there are other considerations. How has business been with the pandemic?" Erin kept sipping on the coffee in spite of her need. She uncrossed her thighs but kept her ankles interlaced and pushed her knees together. "Well, obviously, not great at first. Business was way down with people not going into the office but we tried to be creative. Like we started selling batches of pizza dough and, like, the idea is since you're stuck inside you can do that as a family thing instead of just ordering a pie. I've been pretty active on our Facebook page promoting stuff like that." Cheryl nodded her head. "And that's been enough to stay afloat?" "We also got a loan which helped with payroll. But last month was really good for us. I think we've got families who would've sent their kids to a summer camp and now suddenly have them home needing breakfast every day. Before the pandemic we mostly got people on their way to work. Since then though I've been trying to bring in other groups." Erin reached for her coffee again and polished it off. The iced coffee was more refreshing than she'd expected and went down quickly. The twinge in her bladder had grown into more of an aching, stubbornly swelling with all she'd drank. "And you think the time is right for a second location?" "I do," Erin replied, stopping for a moment to unclench her jaw. "It's something we were ready for back in the winter before this all happened and the last month or two have shown it's still feasible. I actually brought..." Erin made sure to keep her thighs pinched together as she leaned over to open her bag and pull out a folder. "...these with me." "Finances? Oh, I don't need to look at those now," Cheryl replied with a polite smile. "I figured this first meeting we'd just get to know each other and see if it's a good fit." She finished her own cup of coffee and set it down. "Say, I've got all this caffeine about to hit me, do you want to finish this up with a walk along the water?" She pushed her chair back and stood up. Erin stood up too and winced almost -- but not entirely -- imperceptibly as the weight of her bladder shifted inside and made her tense up. She took a quick glance at her watch, then back at the shop. "Unless you've got to go? I know you're on vacation." "Oh, no, no, it's not a problem," Erin said. It sure seemed like Cheryl was taking a liking to her and her plans, and she was thinking this little stroll might seal the deal, or at least get the ball rolling for good. She was starting to really need to pee, though, bad enough that it was eating into her focus. But Cheryl had heard her quick assurance and already started walking toward the path along the beach, away from the bakery. Just gonna have to treat it like one of those crazy days in the shop and push through it, Erin thought. She quickly found the slow pace of the walk maddening. When she needed to pee like this, sitting in one spot was manageable. Bouncing around like a pinball doing a million things wasn't too awful, either. But Erin found Cheryl's leasurely, meandering pace to be troublesome. Her bladder was pushing out against her skin and down against her urethra and there was nothing she could do to be rid of the feeling. What was she going to do, tell this 60 year old woman to pick up the pace? "So do your kids work with you there?" Cheryl asked. "No... my oldest one, Zoe, she likes baking too but the hours aren't so great. Looking back I don't know how I pulled off working there and then going to school afterwards. But she works at this ice cream place nearby in the evenings and nights. And Paige, my next oldest, we're celebrating her 16th birthday on Wednesday this week, actually. So maybe in the fall she'll look for something." The waves crashing against the shore not far from her wasn't helping Erin's situation. She really regretted that maple latte which hadn't even started hitting her bladder yet. She knew this was going to get worse quickly. She did her best to focus on the conversation with Cheryl, a perfectly pleasant woman who she'd ordinarily be happy to chat with forever. But the longer it went on the more she had to pee, pushing past discomfort and bordering on trouble. Talking about her business plan was distracting but only to a certain extent. Each step seemed to increase the urge and made it that much harder to push out of her head. She daydreamed about being in her swimsuit and walking into the water where she could let it all out. That thought only made it worse. By the time they turned back Erin felt her bladder bulging, that fourth cup now relentlessly filling it up. She did her best to maintain her composure and attitude but it was taking real work. While the waves rolled in gently, the tide was rising inside her much more rapidly, and holding all her pee back was becoming into a real battle. They talked about possible locations for the new shop. Cheryl was happy with her return on investment from this bakery at the beach and encouraged Erin to consider something like that up north. "If you're all about widening your range and selling, you know, all this stuff besides bagels then I think you should look at it," Cheryl said. "Families are on vacation and they'll want coffee, trust me, and their hotel or rental won't always have the right stuff." Erin nodded in agreement. She looked off, hopeful that that were close to returning to the shop where maybe she'd be able to run in and pee. She felt like she was filled up to her limit, well past the point she'd ordinarily seek relief. "One thing we could do," Erin began, then stopped. The impulse she was feeling, the taut stretching of her distressed bladder, was messing with her focus and she was about to spit out an idea that popped into her head three second ago. But now Cheryl was looking at her to continue. "The towns we were talking about are like half New Yorkers and half Philadelphians. So it could be like this mix, New York style bagels and Philadelphia style soft pretzels. And of course a pork roll, egg, and cheese for the New Jerseyians." "You call it pork roll? Our deal's off, then," Cheryl said before cracking a smile. "It'll always be Taylor Ham to me." Erin laughed politely but even that jittered her bladder and made her cut the laugh short. An honest-to-god giggling fit might've been too much to handle. The more they spoke the clearer the picture became in Erin's head. She'd only dabbled in making soft pretzels but was sure she could pull it off. She really could be the spot for all types of dough. She'd mastered bagel dough and pastry dough, and the pizza dough experiment was going well. Pretzel dough? Why not. Cookie dough? Let's get crazy. Erin always liked being sociable but was finding the version of her that badly needed a bathroom break was a real chatterbox. She kept throwing ideas out and Cheryl seemed to be eating them up. The only thing holding back her unbridled enthusiasm was the demand of bladder, which was now throbbing, so full of pee it was messing with her balance just a little bit and throwing off her stride. Each time she stopped and Cheryl spoke Erin was gritting her teeth and making a great effort not to reveal her growing emergency. At long last, the shop came back into view. It felt like this had all gone really well but it was getting harder to think about anything other than her aching desire. "Well, I think this was great," Cheryl said. The two had returned to the parking lot and she started walking Erin to her car. "I am definitely interested in helping you open your new location. I'll give you my number and we'll get into the weeds on everything, but you can count me in." Erin looked longily back toward the bakery. Couldn't she just pop in, ask to use the bathroom, she thought. It was a little awkward when a customer in her shop asked, but she would always let them back to use it. Of course, with COVID it'd be more awkward... And Cheryl was wrapping it up, it'd be weird to follow her back inside, right? She heard the alarm bells from her bladder loud and clear, but the triple awkwardness was too much. So instead she forced a smile. "That sounds great! Thank you so much, Mrs. Delh, uh, Cheryl." A sharp pang pulsed from her bladder and distracted her momentarily. Maybe I should just go here after all. She looked over at the building again. "No problem," Cheryl replied. She noticed Erin glancing over. "Is there anything else? I know you're probably ready to get back and start your vacation," she said with a smile. "Um, no, I guess that's it. Talk to you soon!" She opened the door to the car and slid in, keeping the tension of her pelvic muscles tight the whole time. Erin started the car and pulled out of the spot. As she waited for the cross-traffic to stop so she could get onto the road, she took a quick glimpse both ways and then in the rearview mirror where she saw Cheryl heading inside the shop, well out of earshot. "God DAMN I have to pee!" she exclaimed. The stinging was as sharp as ever but it felt good to verbalize the main thought in her head from the past twenty minutes. Now it was the only thought. At least she no longer had to pretend to be professional about it, so she pushed down over top of her gray pants. "Ohhhhhmmmm," she moaned, finally turning onto the road. Relief was a ten minute drive up the road. She pulled her phone out of her purse when she got to a red light and saw she had a text from her husband. The light turned green before she could read it, and she decided against trying to craft a response or calling him. Holding in a morning's worth of pee that was pleading to get out already made her a distracted driver. No need to make it worse. Her left knee stayed glued to her right as she drove, her left foot tapping ceaselessly on the floorboard while her right foot gingerly worked the pedals. Beads of sweat dotted her brow and she gripped the steering wheel as hard as she could with both hands, stiffening every fiber she could. Her bladder felt so, so heavy in her abdomen, filled to the very brim with pee that she longed to release. Zoe's accident popped into her head again and the mental image of her daughter peeing her pants sent a spasm through Erin's body that made her shove a hand between legs to control. I can't end up like that, she thought, I have to hold it. It wasn't just her aching pee hole that throbbed. She felt her clit growing hard even though she was quite certain that nothing about this aroused her. But her nerves were firing and her blood was pumping and practically setting her pussy on fire. The pangs of pressure from her bladder were relentless, pulsating like a second heart inside her. The traffic light in the distance turned from green to yellow. Erin sped up to try and beat it but she was too far away and had to hit the brake instead. She watched the cross-traffic go by and willed the light to change again. "Fuck, fuck, hurry UP!" she said out loud as her thighs bounced together. She let out a long breath through her pursed lips as it finally turned and she was moving again. She went back to the death grip on the steering wheel, taking out all her frantic energy on the leather. "Come onnnn, hold it, hold it, hold it!" she mumbled to herself. She started recognizing familiar features. There's that tree, there's that kayak rental spot, there's that ugly house. The thrashing was worse than ever but she'd made it to her turn, about a minute from the house. Erin had to pee SO bad she couldn't sit up straight, instead hunching over the steering wheel. "Almost there... I can hold it, I can hold it," she squeaked out. Erin transported her mind back home, back to her bagel shop on one of those days she never had a chance for a bathroom break and she'd held it all morning long. She didn't think she'd ever been quite this desperate before but at least today she didn't have to put on a cheery, perky face for that final customer as her bladder roared for relief. This drive down the road was that final customer, she imagined, and she was free to scrunch her face and lean over. Free to shove a hand between her jiggling legs and push back against the piercing anguish, to hold her monsoon of pee inside for just a little longer. The houses passed by in a blur until she reached theirs and zipped into the driveway. She unclipped her seat belt and snatched her phone from the cupholder. Her bag on the passenger seat could wait. "Oh my GOD!" she wailed as she stepped out, still hunched over. It felt like her bladder was so full, so swollen that it had its own gravitation pull and that if she tried to stand up straight it would all explode out of her. Erin stumbled up the walkway to the door. Her ears grew hot with embarrassment that her husband and kids might see her like this but she couldn't even feign composure. Her gait and her posture were a dead giveaway that she was dying to pee and that it had to be NOW. "Oh shit, shit!" she said under her breath as she got to the door and stopped, bouncing at the knees. She stuck her butt out, enveloped tightly by her gray pants. Once more she buried her hand between her legs as the first drops of her pent-up pee inched closer and closer to spurting out. "What the fuck is the code?" She'd entered it the night before when they arrived but promptly forgotten it. There was a key, too, but they hadn't attached it to the car keys. She frantically thought back. It started with an 8 I think? And there was a 2, and a 1? Two 8s? She lifted her index finger from the stone cold grip of her phone and typed it in: 8821. Nothing happened. She grinded her thighs together and bounced them like she was running in place. She tried again: 8821, this time hitting the pound key. The pad blinked back red. "Oh come ON!" she howled, and then pounded on the door. "Hey, it's me! Can someone come get the door?" She listened for movement, for any sliver of hope that the entrance might open. "Hello?!?!?" She knocked harder, louder. "Come ohhhhnnnnnn," she whined in exasperation. "I really REALLY have to pee!" Erin started panicking as the door didn't budge. Her body was raging in rebellion, trying to override her desperate measures to hold back the flood. Her legs bounced violently, starting to give way to the strain. She tried the number pad again, fingers shaking. 8221#? Red. 8211#? Red. 8812#? Red. "Oh, fuck, mnnnnnrrrrrrnnnnngghhh!" Erin let out a long groan of frustration. Her chest was almost as tight as her grip between her thighs. She pounded on the door one last time and then unlocked her phone. Her hand was shaking but she didn't dare pull the other away from her pee hole to steady it. "Siri... call Kevin," she choked out. She put it on speaker and listened to it ring. And ring. And ring. "Pick up pick up pick UP! Where ARE you?" She asked out loud to nobody. His voicemail recording started and Erin smashed End Call so hard she almost dropped the phone. She was prancing around on the porch, completely unable to stand even a little bit still. She was still bent at the knees and the waist. She felt the walls of her bladder expanding by the second, bulging out over the waist of her pants. "Keep holding it, keep holding it.... Siri, call Zoe." She had to keep trying. Ring. Ring. Ring. No answer. Erin looked up to the sky. "Are you KIDDING me?" she pleaded to the sun. She took a few short breaths. "Come on, Erin, I'm not going to pee in my pants," she told herself. But she was feeling less sure of that as the seconds ticked by. She leaned against the railing of the porch for support, pulling her left hand from between her legs and quickly replacing it with her right. Her bladder screamed for a reprieve. It wasn't simply ready to open up and send the hot yellow pee out, it was actively squeezing it out, nearly overwhelming her poor, tired urethra. "Siri..." Erin couldn't even unclench her teeth. "Call Paige." Surely somebody had to have their phone with them. She pictured them all together in the rec room, TV too loud to hear her knocking but mere seconds from opening the door. "Hey mom, what's up?" her daughter answered. Thank God. "Uh, hey Paige... Um, where are you all?" Her voice was strained and just the slightest bit shaky. A pulse ran through her bladder and made her nearly leap into the air. "We went for a walk on the beach... Dad said he texed you. Where are you?" "Where am I? I'm on the front porch trying to get inside!" Erin exclaimed. "What's the code for the lock?" "Uhhh, I don't know," Paige responded. Erin heard her voice in the background, away from the phone. "Mom's at the house, what's the code for the door?" Excruciating seconds of silence followed. Somebody better know or I'm not going to be able to hold it, Erin thought. "Mom?" Paige's voice was back on the phone. "Yeah, we don't know it. We just brought the key with us and it's in the e-mail from the host but Dad didn't bring his phone." Erin's jaw dropped and actual tears blurred her eyes. That couldn't be real. She'd held it valiantly through the meeting, through the drive home, and here on the porch. She had to pee SO bad and the bathroom was just on the other side of the door but there was no way in. Her chest shivered with the realization that she'd have to keep holding it, and the creeping dread that she'd already given it her all and that she was going to wind up like Zoe and have a complete, sopping wet pee accident in her pants. "Mom?" "How far away are you?" Erin was frenetic. "We're on our way back, like 5 or 10 minutes maybe? Are you okay?" "Can you just please hurry up? I really need to use the bathroom, okay?" "Yeah, alright, see you soon." Paige ended the call. "Ohhhhhhh my GOD I have to peeeeeeeeEEEEEEEE!!" Erin cried, the filter between her mind and her mouth just about gone. She managed to push away from the railing and back to the door, heels bouncing furiously up and down. 8211#. 1288#. 8212#. Red, red, red. Erin wished she'd done a better job of conveying her urgency to Paige but she kept trying to reject the prospect that she was stuck here on the verge of unleashing a torrent of warm pee into her panties. Not even 18 hours ago she'd seen her oldest daughter reach her breaking point and pee herself in the middle of a rest stop. All the feelings Erin had of disbelief and incredulity were melting away, replaced with the horror that she might burst any second and wet herself, too. She felt her pee hole open for just an instant and doubled over. It felt like something had come out but she wasn't positive. Or maybe she just didn't want to accept it. She set her phone down and balled both fists to thrust between her legs. "Pleeeeease hold it in!" She was bargaining with her own body now. Her heart was racing, pumping blood from head to toe. With all the attention on keeping the last shred of defense against a waterfall in place the rest of her body seemed to do whatever it pleased. Her nipples hardened and showed through her bra and her top, not that she had the capacity to notice. "Hurry up, hurry the fuck up," she whispered, leaning against the door to hold her up. Her legs were exhausted from the strain. She tried the keypad again: 8112#. This time it lit up red and stayed solid. Erin tried pushing a few buttons but nothing happened. She was locked out from even trying again. Her heel was clattering up and down wholly out of her command. Her skin stretched out where the bladder pushed against it. It burned like a fireball inside, twitching and trembling while it begged for mercy against Erin's desperate hold. Her urethra wilted again under the tension and this time there was no mistaking the sizzling surge of pee into her underwear. "Ohhhhhh fuck!" Erin moaned, half from the tiny morsel of relief and half from the embarrassment of wetting herself. Her damp underwear clung to her vulva which teased her, begged her to open up again and ease the burning torment. "I can hold it, I can hold it ... please let me hold it!" she continued to coach herself even as another inescapable contraction hit her and sent a new rush of pee splashing into her panties. Erin looked down. Her underwear felt saturated but so far her pants remained a single shade of gray. She'd failed at holding all that pee in but maybe she could at least keep those from getting wet. She heard a click and looked up to see the door opening. Instinctively, she stood up straight. There was no way she was going to be able hide just how desperate she was but at least she could look somewhat dignified in front of her family. Her bladder protested the move and tried to forcefully send another stream out. Erin managed to stop it... mostly. She could feel a slow drip-drip-drip of pee coming out. She made eye contact with Zoe, who had opened the door. In a split second her eyes told Zoe the story that could've filled a novel. If anyone understood, it was her. Zoe stepped to the side and Erin shuffled inside, dripping pee into her underwear with every step. By the time she was in the main hallway the drips had turned to spurts and as she entered the bathroom it turned into a full-fledged stream. A stain suddenly appeared from between her legs. Erin could only stumble toward the toilet. The stream was growing hotter and more vigorous and she was utterly powerless to stop the mighty raging river of pee that was rushing out. She hooked her fingers in her waistband and pulled down her pants and underwear in one motion, falling back onto the toilet with no interruption to the stream. "Ohhhhhhhh my god," Erin moaned with relief as it splashed loudly against the porcelain beneath her. She had never peed a torrent like this, splashing all over her pussy. The feeling of relief was euphoric. Her skin tingled. She closed her eyes and reveled in the sensation of finally letting it all go. She didn't open them until the stream began to come to a stop. Now she had to face reality and inspect the damage. She looked down and saw that her underwear were virtually drenched, wet from midway up the front all the way around to the backside. She lifted them up near her knees to inspect the pants. They'd fared better but right at the seams there was an obvious stain, the fabric turned a darker gray in the size of a softball and almost perfectly symmetrical on each leg. She wiped herself dry and thought for a moment. Zoe might have seen her at the apex of her desperation but nobody knew that Erin Crosby, 43 years old, wife and mother, had peed in her pants. And nobody needed to know. She pulled her underwear up, shuddering for a blink as the wet spot, now lukewarm, clung against the lips of her pussy. Then she pulled her pants up and studied herself in the mirror. She tried bunching up the fabric between her legs, and walked back and forth. If she was careful and took small steps she felt confident she could avoid detection. She started to leave but took one final glance back in the mirror. The reflection in the mirror looked back, the only face who'd ever know that Erin hadn't been able to hold it. *** This chapter was inspired by a suggestion from a reader. If you have an idea for a future chapter, I'd love to hear it! My inbox is always open or you can post here. And of course all comments are welcome -- it's always nice to know people are reading (and enjoying). Or maybe you hate it, that's fine too! Let me know what I can do better. Thanks! -TR orangelion, kenn, Manticore and 6 others 8 1 Quote Link to comment
WiiGuy86 641 Posted April 9, 2022 Share Posted April 9, 2022 This was a fantastic direction to take this in! Thanks for continuing it, for one of my favorite series ever! Excited to see where it goes next - if Zoe ends up in trouble again it will be interesting to see how Erin handles the situation after her close call, or maybe they'll both have to go... waterrat 1 Quote Link to comment
SM15 7 Posted April 10, 2022 Share Posted April 10, 2022 Another great chapter, this is one of my favorite series on here. I hope you continue this series. WiiGuy86 1 Quote Link to comment
Jimmy Lang 361 Posted April 11, 2022 Share Posted April 11, 2022 Wow! I can't believe it is going to keep going! Fantastic work again WiiGuy86 1 Quote Link to comment
Guest Posted April 12, 2022 Share Posted April 12, 2022 The writing and storytelling in these are so good!! Quote Link to comment
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