The Bet - Chapter 36 (Saturday – week 5 Part 6 of 8)

The Bet
by Karen Singer

Chapter 36 (Saturday – week 5 Part 6 of 8)

Mel’s next stop was a jewelry store. Chad first thought they were going to walk right past it, but suddenly Mel stopped and quickly headed straight for one of the display cabinets. Since the store didn’t seem to have too many walls on the outside, Chad carried his drink right up to the display case with her. “Gee that’s pretty,” Mel said, pointing to one of the rings in the case.
Chad looked at the ring. It had a rather large diamond in the middle of several smaller diamonds. He looked at all the rings in the case. They were all diamond rings. Wedding bands? Why would Mel be looking at wedding bands? Not knowing what else to say, he replied. “Yes. It is.”
But while Mel was busy perusing the rings in the case, Chad’s attention was caught by a slowly revolving display case on top of the main case. He walked over to it and looked inside. Earrings. Actually, very pretty earrings. He had always fantasized about getting his ears pierced and wearing such things. The thought that he could do it now made him stop and really consider it.
“What are you looking at?” Mel asked, noticing that his attention was solely on the case in front of him. She walked up next to him and looked. “Oooo. Pretty. Are you considering getting your ears pierced?”
Chad thought about it a moment more before he answered. The women at work kept telling him he needed to get them pierced. He had always fantasized about it. And now would be the perfect time – now, before he won the bet and his situation would change so that it would no longer seem… appropriate. But there was still just… something… holding him back. “I don’t know,” he admitted. “What do you think?”
Mel knew she could have easily told him to have his ears pierced and it would be a done deal. In fact, she had considered it in the past. But this one thing, she had always wanted to be his decision. Why, she didn’t know. “I think you’re the one who needs to decide.”
Chad wasn’t really glad to have the decision left all up to him. For everything else, when he had been told or forced to do something, there was always that little bit of an “excuse” that he could rely on. But this time, there would be no background excuse. She was leaving the decision all up to him.
Mel watched him. She could almost see the gears turning in his head as he thought about it. “What’s really stopping you?” she asked.
Her question seemed to change something in his head though. “I’ll do it!” he finally declared, taking the huge leap.
Mel silently wanted to applaud.
Chad looked around the jewelry store. “I don’t see a sign saying they do ear piercing here.”
Mel looked too. “I don’t either. But we can ask.” But just then something in the rotating case caught her attention. She looked closer, then quickly reached out to press the button to stop it from turning. She pointed at a pair of the earrings. “I like those! And they’d be perfect for you.”
Chad looked to see what she was pointing at. He should have known. Pink crystals – of some kind. They matched all his other jewelry. But he had to admit, they were kind of pretty. Could he see himself wearing them? He wasn’t really sure. “Um…” he stammered. “I really like them, but all the women at work have been on my case lately to start wearing other things besides the same stuff I always wear.”
That was news to Mel. “So why don’t you?”
“Because you told me I had to always wear what I’ve got now. Besides, what I’m wearing is all I’ve got.”
Mel realized that it was absolutely true. “Well, I think that you’ve grown beyond that point now,” Mel told him. “Why don’t we stop in one of the cheap costume jewelry stores and you can find yourself some new stuff. How does that sound?”
Chad considered it. “I guess it sounds fine,” he admitted. He took one last look at the pink earrings. “They are kind of pretty though.”
“So why don’t you get them?”
Chad considered it. “I wonder how much they are. I can’t see any prices on these.”
Mel smiled. “Every girl needs at least one good set of earrings.”
Since they had been standing there talking and looking at the jewelry so long, one of the saleswomen walked up to them. “May I help you?” But as soon as the words were out of her mouth, she stopped and stared at Sissy, obviously surprised to see a man dressed as a woman standing in front of her. Chad felt very self-conscious under her surprised gaze, but then, that was nothing new.
“How much are these?” Mel asked, pointing at the pink earrings.
The saleswoman recovered her senses and unlocked the case. She pulled the earrings out and opened the tiny box they were in and showed the price to Mel. Chad looked too. They were more expensive than he had thought, but really, not too bad. “I’ll take them,” he told the woman in his sissy voice. The saleswoman looked back up at Chad, further surprised, but she simply pulled the price tag off of the earrings and relocked the case they had been in. “Um…” Chad continued, “do you do ear piercing?”
The woman actually looked relieved when she replied that no, they didn’t. But there were many places in the mall that did.
“We’ll find someplace else,” Mel said. “You should have several pairs anyway.”
Chad paid for the earrings. And dumped the tiny bag he was given into one of his other bags. At least it wasn’t much to carry. As they were leaving the store, Chad had to ask, “Why were you looking at wedding rings?”
Mel just shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t know. I guess because every girl dreams of having one someday.” She looked at him slyly. “Don’t you?”
“Um… Not that kind,” he admitted. Mel just giggled.
Instead of moseying on in the direction they had been going, Mel led the way back toward a store they had bypassed earlier. Along the way, Chad finally finished his drink and was able to get rid of that big item from his hands. Now, he just needed to start leaking. But did he really want to leak while they were out shopping? No, he didn’t! But Mel didn’t seem interested in going home yet.
When they got to the store, Chad saw that it was packed with racks of inexpensive “girly” things. It was also packed with teenage girls. Mel didn’t hesitate one bit about going inside, but the moment Chad saw all the girls in there, he stopped where he was. Teenage girls and someone like him didn’t mix very well… he didn’t think so anyway.
Mel saw him hesitate. “What’s wrong?”
“Maybe we should find someplace else to look,” Chad suggested, never taking his eyes off of all the girls inside.
Mel looked around and guessed what was bothering him. “Nonsense! This is the perfect place,” she replied. But silently she was thinking that if any of the girls said anything to him, then all the better. He did like humiliation anyway.
Chad had little choice but to follow her inside. There was cheap jewelry, cheap scarves, cheap belts, hair decorations, and tons of sparkly “girly” things displayed on racks everywhere. Mel busied herself looking at several different racks of jewelry before she realized that Sissy was just following her and not looking himself. “What are you doing?” she asked. “You’re supposed to be here looking at things for you.”
Chad shrugged. “I don’t know what to look at.”
“Everything! Find things that you think you might like to wear! Find things that are fun!”
There was a nearby girlish giggle, but when Chad turned to look to see who had laughed, he couldn’t tell which girl had done it. He started looking at some long bulky necklaces on the rack next to where Mel was looking so he wouldn’t be too far from her. Most of the jewelry he was looking at seemed to be made of colorful wood, but he wasn’t really sure. He touched one that looked interesting, just to see what it was really made of.
“That will probably look real good on you,” a voice said from behind him. “Especially with that pretty bow in your hair. Chad turned around to see who had spoken just as the girl and her two friends broke out in peals of laughter. Chad’s face turned red, especially when one of them suddenly reached up and lightly flicked the bow that was clipped into his hair. The girls all laughed again as they moved on. Chad had again forgotten about the bow in his hair. Actually, he realized that he preferred it when he hadn’t remembered about it because now he was more self-conscious about the bow than ever.
“They’re right though,” Mel added from his other side. “I kind of like that one too. Good choice!” Chad hadn’t intended on buying it, but he realized that now he almost had to. He pulled the necklace down off of the rack.
“You should get several of those,” Mel added. “Then you can wear them together or separately.”
Together or separately? How was he supposed to know what to do with them? But as Mel suggested, he pulled two more of the long necklaces off of the rack and held them in his hand. They were all a little different, but in the same style. On the same rack, he found a large bracelet that kind of looked like it would go with the necklaces so he grabbed that too.
When he turned around to check where Mel was, Mel wasn’t there. He searched the store, but didn’t see her. Slightly panicked, he started toward the store’s entrance, but then he spotted her looking at things closer to the cash register. He walked up to her as if he wanted to see what she was looking at, but mostly, he wanted her protection because of all the younger girls around.
“Look at this,” Mel said as soon as she realized he was there. “They’ve got some nice starter earrings here. And, they do ear piercing!”
Chad looked around him. This looked like the last place on earth that he wanted to have it done. “I don’t think doing it here is a good idea,” he said.
Mel looked around too and again noticed all the girls in the store. “Nonsense! It will be memorable!” she replied.
Chad had no doubt of that.
Together they picked out three sets of starter earrings for Chad, then they finally found someone who was willing to help them – which turned out to be another teenage girl – who was more excited than Chad figured she should be to help them with Chad’s piercing.
Mel picked up on how excited the girl was over Chad immediately. The girl could barely control her giggling every time she looked at him. Mel recognized that maybe, if the situation presented itself, she could use the girl to help make this event even more memorable for Chad.
After they paid for everything, the girl brought out a simple wooden stool from behind the counter for Chad to sit on. “Which earrings did you want to use?” she asked.
The three sets of earrings they had picked out were lined up on the counter. Mel looked them over carefully. “I’m not sure,” she finally said. “I like them all.” She selected a pair, still in its box, and held it up to one of his ears. “What do you think?” she asked.
The girl looked. “I think they’re very pretty. They should do just fine.”
Mel selected another pair and held them up to Chad’s ear instead. “How about these?”
“They look good too,” the girl replied.
Mel quickly realized that they were drawing a small crowd. She handed the earrings she was holding to the salesgirl. “Hold these next to his other ear,” she instructed. The girl did as she requested. But instead of looking, Mel grabbed the first pair of earrings instead and held them up next to his ear on her side. Then she turned to some of the girls that were looking on. “What do you think? Which ones do you like better?” Mel was immediately rewarded with a noticeable increase of giggling from the girls who were looking on.
Chad felt so embarrassed the moment he sat down on the stool and noticed the attention he was attracting from the rest of the store’s customers. But the moment Mel asked for their opinion, his embarrassment went from bad to worse! Memorable? Yeah, this was certainly looking to be memorable! And he had no way to get away from it.
Mel heard differing opinions from the crowd of girls looking on. “Switch boxes,” she said to the salesgirl. Once the boxes were switched, Mel again asked for opinions, and once again she got the same mixed reply – amid much more giggling from the growing crowd of girls. Mel figured though that the consensus seemed to be that they liked the tiny pale blue earrings better.
“Wait!” she told everybody. “We have another pair to try too.” Mel put down the box she was holding – the blue ones that most of the crowd liked best, and picked up the third pair of earrings, the multi-colored ones. She held them up next to Chad’s ear while the salesgirl, who was now thoroughly enjoying the game, held the plain ones up to his other ear. Mel looked to the crowd, which seemed to be even bigger than it was a minute ago. “Which ones do you like best?” she asked again. This time, it was clearly the multi-colored ones.
“Okay,” Mel replied to them all. “So I take it, the plain ones are out!” There was a small chorus of “Yeahs” from the girls looking on. She handed the salesgirl the blue ones to hold up instead while she held the multi-colored ones. “Which ones?” she asked yet again to the crowd. As far as she could tell, every girl that had been in the store was now watching. Again there was some mixed opinion, but overall, Mel figured that the multi-colored ones were the crowd’s favorite. She handed the colored earrings to the salesgirl. “We’ll start him off with these,” she said.
The crowd, realizing what was about to happen didn’t disburse at all, as Mel figured they wouldn’t. She looked closely at Chad’s face. His eyes were very wide and he looked completely scared. Panicked, she realized. Perfect!
Chad didn’t know what to think. So many girls and women… mostly teenage girls, were looking right at him, watching closely at what was about to happen – to him! This was not what he had in mind when he agreed to have his ears pierced. The only thing missing here was the six-o’clock news! As the preparations got under way to pierce him, his panic didn’t abate at all, in fact, knowing that the deed was growing more and more imminent, his panic got worse with every little thing that they did.
And then the salesgirl put something hard around his earlobe. “You may feel a slight pinch,” she said, but that should be all.
A slight pinch? But before he could fully brace himself, he felt it… and at the same moment, he felt his bladder give way, flooding his already very wet diaper. He realized that he had been so preoccupied with what was happening to him, that he didn’t even realize he had to go. And as his bladder continued to empty itself out, the girl moved around toward his second ear.
He dared not move. Actually, he was too scared to even breathe! His bladder finally stopped emptying itself as she put the gun to his other earlobe. It took her a moment to get it lined up perfectly. And then came the “pinch” that she had warned him about. He almost didn’t remember it from the first ear. But he remembered it more this time. And as soon as the “pinch” ended, he felt the leaking from his diaper beginning. Ugh! Now what was he supposed to do? All these people – mostly girls – were watching him!
“There. All done,” the girl told him. Chad realized that he had been so preoccupied with his diaper beginning to leak that he hadn’t fully realized that he now had pierced ears. The girl was standing back a step, looking at him critically. “Perfect!” she declared as a few of the girls looking on began clapping.
Mel was all smiles. “They look wonderful,” she agreed. “Very pretty.” She turned to the crowd behind her. “Thank you for your help... All of you!” There were few in the crowd who outright laughed.
Very red-faced, Chad looked up at Mel. He desperately wanted to tell her about his diaper, but he couldn’t do that with everybody looking on. He decided he had to hope that nobody would notice.