His little complication 18+ ddlb

Chapter 6

JACK

I didn’t even know where the f**k I was when I woke up.

What greeted me was the bright rays of the sun peeking out of some quilted curtains that looked like they haven’t been changed in decades. I took a quick whiff and smelled the dusty air. It almost made me cough.

I tried to stand up but intense pain began to throb all over my body, forcing me to lie back in bed.

I stared at the ceiling. There was a fan suspended above me, whirling loudly as its blades spun like it would fall off at any second. I genuinely feared for my life at that instance.

“Hey,” a voice spoke. A familiar one. I heard it two nights ago. I may have heard it last night as well.

I turned towards it and saw him. The lanky groom. Luke Galloway. He was buttoning his shirt in front of the mirror by the dresser.

Wait.

Buttoning his shirt?

My eyes darted downwards to look at my body. I was undressed, though covered by a white blanket.

Undressed?

What the f*****g f**k happened last night?!

Luke walked towards me and began to speak. He raised his hand and showed me three fingers. “How many are these?” he asked.

“Three,” I answered dubiously. “What’s that about?”

“Good,” he remarked. “At least your vision’s back. Do you have a headache?”

“I... I think so, yeah.” I did notice some pulsating pain up there after he asked that question. “The rest of me feels like it’s been hit by a truck, though.”

“Maybe you were,” he said rather frankly. “Were you?”

“Was I?” I wasn’t sure myself.

It was only then when I began to recall what transpired after I left the club. Vinny Mac and his goons confronted me and it all went south from there. They beat the s**t outta me... and judging from how I’m feeling right now, they got me good.

“I saw you at the alley, right beside the club where you’re working,” Luke explained. “You were already in a bad shape. I didn’t know what happened before you got trashed like that.”

“Yeah, I just had a little run-in with some... uhm... muggers,” I said, a half-lie.

“Muggers?” he asked, perplexed.

“Goons, actually,” I decided to confess. “Loan sharks. I wasn’t able to... errr... fulfill my end of the bargain, so they roughed me up a bit.”

“A bit?!” he repeated incredulously. “Jesus! There’s nothing bit-ly about what they did to you, Jack.”

“Yeah, I guess they got carried away,” I belittled the situation to avoid further questioning. It didn’t work though.

“So they beat you up. Is that it then?” he wanted to know. “I mean, is it done? Whatever debt you had is now considered paid?”

“Uhm... no,” I answered. “That’s not how it works. They hammered me to teach me a lesson, and to teach the rest of their... clientele... a lesson as well - that if they... well, we... don’t pay in time, we’ll have the pay additional interest in blood.”

Luke was visibly shocked by what I revealed. These things were quite alien to him. Mine wasn’t the world he was familiar with. He sat on the bed, right next to me, seemingly weakened.

“This blows, huh?” I remarked as I, again, tried to make light of the situation.

“So your debt... it isn’t settled yet?” he queried once more.

“Nope. Not by a long shot, unfortunately. This trashing bought me another week to fulfill that obligation, though.”

“H-How much do you owe them?”

I hesitated to answer. I didn’t know if it was right to tell him. Luke was a virtual stranger, after all.

“Sixty grand,” I eventually chose to respond. He deserved an answer. He did save my life last night.

“Oh,” he muttered. “That’s a lot of money.”

“Yeah, it is.”

“You must have some really expensive... needs.” He was fishing for more personal information about me. I felt sorry that I had to disappoint him with the truth.

“Nah,” I denied. “If you’re thinking that I do drugs or gamble or compulsively buy really silly stuff from those home TV shopping channels or some other similar shit... I don’t. I came to them because I needed money for my sister’s surgery.”

“S-Surgery? Why? What happened to her?”

“Pancreas transplant. That s**t usually cost three hundred K. Got a good deal with a hospital at Kansas for half that amount. We pooled together our savings but it wasn’t enough... so I had to get the rest from somewhere else.”

“How is she now?” He sounded genuinely concerned. I found that quite heartwarming.

“Oh, she’s okay, all things considered. She’s still on dialysis, though. The transplant got her out of a really bad episode, but her kidneys are still wrecked. At least the surgery improved her quality of life, though, and maybe added a few more years for her. We’re thankful for that.”

“Is she in Hampshire too?”

“No. She’s in Nebraska with her kids. Two girls, ages three and five.”

“Married?”

“Separated.”

“That sucks.”

“I know, but she’s got a solid support group there. She’s good at making friends, you see... a skill she developed while we were growing up. We were orphaned at a young age so we had to learn how to make connections with other people.”

“I... I’m sorry to hear that.”

“About us being orphaned? Heh. Don’t be. As I’ve said, that happened when we were very, very young... a long, long time ago.”

“Well, I’m glad that you were able to help your sister, Jack,” Luke began to shift the subject, “but that debt you had to secure... what’ll happen if you won’t be able to pay it next week?”

I fell silent as I was reminded of the direness of the situation I was in.

“They’ll kill me, I guess,” I answered.

“What?!” Luke screamed.

“These people... they’re not some small time crooks,” I explained. “They may be neighborhood leeches, but they belong to a really big syndicate. And this syndicate doesn’t do business by being merciful.” Fear began to creep into me as I remembered what Vinny said... that they’d come after my sister if I’d fail to give them the money a week from now.

Luke started to breathe rapidly as if he was hyperventilating.

“You okay, dude?” I asked.

He didn’t respond to that question. Instead, he went on to inquire about the topic at hand. “So we really have to pay them next week? I mean, there’s no other way around it?”

We?

“Hey man,” I called his attention. “I really appreciate everything you’ve done for me... saving my life and all... but don’t worry about this, okay? This is my problem. I’ll try to solve it myself.”

“Oh, yeah, sure, I understand,” he briskly shot back. “Of course. I don’t mean to be intrusive. It’s just that... well... your predicament sounds really serious.”

“I’ll find a way,” I attempted to assuage his worry though I, myself, wasn’t so sure if I’d even be able to make good on those words. “Anyway,” I tried to change the subject once again, “thank you for being there, man. You saved my life. You really did. Who knows? If you weren’t there, they might be loading by carcass in a body bag just about now. If there’s anyway I can repay you-”

“There’s no need, really,” he told me.

“Well, I don’t feel comfortable owing you this much, man. If you need my help with anything, just call me, alright? You have my card. I’m just a ring away.”

“Yeah, okay,” he acknowledged with a smile.

“Alrighty then,” I remarked as I got up from bed. “Let’s bounce out of this joint and get on with the demands of our day.”

I rose up and stretched my arms, grimacing as fierce pain gripped my entire body. Still, I flexed my arms and my back, hoping that I’d be able to shake the ache away.

The blanket already fell on the floor when I remembered that I was naked underneath.

Well... not exactly naked. I was still wearing my diaper.

Oh f**k.

That might just be worse.

Immediately, I looked at Luke. He was staring at me with an expression that wasn’t exactly flippant but was, by no means, perturbed by what he was seeing. He wasn’t freaked out by my nappy.

That had me even more worried.

“Errrr... about this,” I began to say while my head was bowed to point at my groin. I wasn’t able to continue, however, as I found myself completely lost for words.

“Yes, I was wondering about that, to be honest,” he said with a timid grin.

“Well, yeah, this, right,” I mumbled my response, failing to come up with anything coherent.

“Medical issue?” he asked.

It was an opening for an excuse. I could say that it was and that would be the end of it. I wouldn’t have to be burdened by the embarrassment of having been caught wearing a diaper anymore.

But somehow, for some strange reason that was yet unknown to me, I couldn’t force myself to lie to him.

I sat down on the bed and sighed. “Luke, I’d love to say yes, it’s because of some medical reason. But the thing is, it’s not.”

“Oh, it’s not?” he stammered as he began to show signs of bewilderment.

“Yeah,” I confirmed. “This diaper... well... I don’t wear this because I have to. I just... uhm... wear this because I want to.”

“W-What do you mean?” he pleaded to know.

“Geez... this is quite difficult to explain so please forgive me,” I replied. “Remember when you were a kid and you loved playing with your G.I. Joes or Ninja Turtles or your Power Rangers?”

“No,” he surprisingly denied. “But I did like Legos.”

“Okay then. Legos. You loved Legos when you were a kid. Then you got older and you outgrew them, right?”

He just gave me a quizzical glare, seemingly puzzled by what I was trying to say.

“Well,” I continued, “that’s the deal with me and diapers. I should’ve outgrown them at some point, but I didn’t. To this day... to this very day... I still feel that I need to wear one 24/7. I just... uhm... I don’t feel complete without it.”

Luke drew his hand over his chin and began to rub the same. That got me a little anxious.

“Yeah, I guess you don’t understand,” I said. “That’s okay. I know it’s weird. You might even think it’s sick. I’m really sorry you had to see that.”

“No,” he suddenly countered. “I do understand, Jack.”

“Y-You do?” I wondered, surprised.

“Yeah. Your diaper. It’s a phase that you aren’t able to let go of. Nothing wrong there. It is what it is, right?”

“Well... uhm... yeah,” I agreed, still in shock. “You sure you’re not upset by it?” I just had to ask.

“Yes,” he reiterated with a warm smile. “And it’s not weird. Hey... look at me. I’m thirty-two and I still like my Legos.”

That made me laugh.

He laughed as well.

We proceeded to talk about other matters. We shared more details about ourselves. I told him my age, twenty-five, and he couldn’t believe it at first. He always thought that I was much older - like in my early thirties kind of older - because of the way I acted and conducted myself. That would’ve put us at around the same age, though I also told him that I thought he was way older than his actual years - around mid-forties or so. That solicited another round of laughter.

Eventually, we had to leave the motel room. I gave him my name, my real name - Jackson Summerborne - and told him that if he needed anything, anything at all, he shouldn’t hesitate to text me or to give me a call. I owed him that much.

We said our goodbyes and we proceeded to the door.

But I noticed something peculiar about him on the way out.

He looked like he was stopping himself from asking a question, one which was more consequential than the mysteries that previously surrounded my preference for diapers.

I wanted to urge him to ask away, but I didn’t.

Deep inside, I was afraid of what those questions might entail.

I still had secrets...

Secrets which I wasn’t sure I should share with him.