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Friday, November 6 (cont.)

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     After their game of Twister, the girls had decided to get ready for bed. It wasn’t even 8 o’clock yet, but they’d wanted to at least put on their pajamas. Marcus still felt comfortable wearing his day clothes for the time being though, so he checked up on his emails in the living room while everyone else got changed.

     “You can come in now!” Jessie yelled from down the hallway, and he looked up to see her door swing open. 

     “That’s OK honey, you guys should have some girl time to yourselves,” he shouted back, returning to his phone.

     “Daaaaddyyyyyyy,” she called out, “just c’mere!” Marcus sighed and put down his phone. I would’ve expected a bunch of teenage girls to wanna spend some time hanging out without someone like me around, he thought, walking down the hallway. Maybe she needs something though?

     “What’s up?” he asked, peeking in through her doorway. Paris and Veronica were sitting on the floor, and he saw that his daughter had changed into a black sports bra and satin pajama shorts, also black, and was lazily sprawled out on her bed browsing through Twitter on her phone. She’d put on socks too, since her feet were starting to get cold. His face contorted in a mixture of surprise and confusion, “How many times have you changed today?” First she had wore her regular clothes to school, and then had been in her volleyball uniform for practice, and then changed back to her regular clothes, and then put on yoga pants for the Twister game before changing into this. “I figured you would’ve just gone to bed with what you’d been wearing.”

     “What, my yoga pants?” she asked, and he nodded. “They aren’t pajamas; I can’t sleep in those.”

     “Aren’t you always going on about how comfy they are to wear all the time?”

     “Yeah,” she laughed, “but that doesn’t make them good for sleeping in.”

     “If you say so.” He sighed, resigning that he just didn’t know enough about what girls wore and that she’d know better on the subject than him. “So, why’d you want me to come in?”

     “Because! You’re part of the gang now, Daddy!” She bit her lip excitedly and patted the area next to her on her bed, inviting him to sit down with them. “You don’t have to hide away the whole night.”

     He reluctantly made his way over to his daughter’s bed. “I watched TV with you guys, filmed some TikToks, and played Twister. I wouldn’t say that qualifies as ‘hiding the whole night.’” He obviously liked spending time with Jessie, but it wasn’t one-on-one, father/daughter time when her friends were around. But I guess I don’t really have anything better to do anyways, he thought as he took a seat on her bed. I should probably spend as much time with her while I still can though, in a few years she’s gonna be itching for independence and won’t be so inviting all the time.

     Paris spoke up next, “Why aren’t you wearing your pajamas Mr. Tilden?” Her nighttime outfit consisted of a purple middle school band t-shirt and a pair of shorts that were so short, it didn’t look like she was was wearing any pants at all since they were covered by the t-shirt. And Veronica had on a spaghetti strap top with red and black checkered sweat pants.

     Marcus shrugged in response to Paris’ question, “I usually don’t change until right before bed.” 

     Their conversation had given Veronica an idea. He didn’t see it, but she looked him up and down, wondering if she’d be able to pull her idea off. “Hey Jessie, do you keep your old clothes that you grow out of? Like from when you were younger?” Jessie looked over at Veronica, then thought about what she’d asked. “Or Mr. Tilden, maybe you kept some of them. Like the kind of stuff you keep to remember her by when she’s old and moves out. My parents did that for me and my siblings, I dunno if other families do that kind of thing though.”

     Jessie scratched her neck. “I think so. Don’t we keep that kinda stuff in the garage?” she asked, turning to her dad.

     He nodded, both of them completely oblivious and unsuspecting of what Veronica might be up to. “Yeah, it’s in one of the upper cupboards, on the right side. You might need to use the step stool to reach it.”

     “Ooooh! I’ll go see if I can find it,” she exclaimed with a smile, hopping off her bed and dashing out to see if she could go find it.

     “What makes you ask?” Paris inquired as they waited for her to return.

     “I was just curious if other people did it or if it was just like a unique thing that my family did. I didn’t expect her to show me, but if she wants to…” She shrugged, pretending she was indifferent. Veronica wasn’t entirely lying—she was curious, and her parents did do that with her and her siblings. But she had hoped that Jessie would want to bring out her past life’s souvenirs. 

     “Yeah, my mom and dad do the same thing,” Paris said. “I think it’s pretty common actually, parents like that kinda stuff, right?” They turned to Marcus, the only parent in the room.

     He nodded, “I never saw any point in getting rid of it, and it’s always nice to bring back memories of when Jessie was just a kid whenever I look at that kind of stuff.”

     They heard the door to the garage open again, and the flurry of foot steps as Jessie came running back to her room. She was carrying a box in her hands, and she set it down on the ground so everyone could see inside as she knelt down beside it. “There were actually a few boxes, but since I could only carry one I picked the oldest stuff,” she said, and pulled out some of the items on top. On top was the mobile for her crib, with pink and white plush animals that hung from it when she picked it up.

     “Awwww, that’s kinda cute,” Paris said, and Marcus smiled at seeing the girls sift through Jessie’s old baby memorabilia. He got off her bed and went over to stand next to Jessie, looking down into the box as she pulled out more stuff. 

     “It looks like it’s mostly clothes and toys,” Jessie commented, pulling out some alphabet books, a farm animal puzzle, and a cute summer dress with cartoon dolphins and beach balls on it.

     “This stuff is adorable,” Veronica remarked, genuinely smiling. Just because she had a plan in the back of her mind didn’t mean that she didn’t still think her friend’s baby things were cute. Jessie blushed, vaguely remembering bits and pieces of her early childhood.

     But then at the bottom of the box was a large ziplock bag with ‘EMERGENCY’ written on it. “Oh yeah, I remember that,” Marcus said. “I used to always keep that in the car.” Inside was a first-aid kit, a miniature blanket, some sunscreen, a small pack of wipes, and a few diapers. Veronica unzipped the bag, and pulled out the diapers with gleaming eyes. 

     “Do those even still work?” Paris asked with a laugh. 

     “Well they’re not food, I don’t see why they wouldn’t,” Marcus answered, but wondered the same thing. 

     Veronica held them up, and then her eyes shifted to Marcus who was standing on the other side of the box, and her eyes went wide. “Wait, I wonder if they’d fit you Mr. Tilden! You’re probably pretty close to the same size Jessie was when she was a baby.” 

     Marcus’ smile faltered and his face went pale, but Jessie grinned at the notion and grabbed one of the diapers from the bag. She turned to her dad and thrust the diaper against his pelvis to see how it compared. “Oh my God, I think it might actually fit you Daddy.”

     Marcus shook his head and started to back away. “I don’t think I like where you guys are headed with this,” he said, laughing nervously. 

     “Oh come on,” Jessie said, scooting forward and tilting her head endearingly. “Obviously we’re not gonna make you take all your clothes off, we just wanna see if it fits you. It’ll be cute,” she encouraged.

     “We should give him some privacy so he can change,” Veronica offered, and stood up to head out of the room, with Jessie agreeing following suit. 

     Paris was a bit uneasy about the whole thing given how reluctant Mr. Tilden had seemed. “Are you sure you wanna do it?” she asked him quietly. “You don’t have to, you know.” He was grateful for Paris’ endless kindness, but at the same time he felt as if she spoke to him like an adult comforting a kid, when he was the adult and she was supposed to be the kid.

     He sighed and smiled at her, but decided that maybe it wouldn’t actually be that bad. “It’s fine Paris, I know they’re just trying to have fun. Thank you for asking though,” he added, putting his hand on her shoulder. She faintly returned his smile, thinking that the whole idea was weird and taking his side more than her friends. But ultimately, as long as he said he was fine with it, she didn’t feel like they were peer pressuring him to do anything, so she stood up and joined the other two girls outside in the hallway, shutting the door behind her.

     Well first off, Marcus thought to himself as he began to take off his pants, I am not taking off my underwear. I don’t need my dick touching that thing, and just cuz I’m gonna wear it for a few minutes doesn’t mean I’ll be using it. That’d be a line he wouldn’t cross, no matter what anyone said. But he knew it’d never come to that, Jessie was old enough and smart enough to know that that was too far. Standing in Jessie’s room in his underwear, but with his shirt still on, he looked over at one of the diapers and held it up. As much as he hated to admit it, it definitely looked like it would fit him. He turned it around in his hands, inspecting it from a few angles to try and figure out which end was supposed to be the front—it had been so long since Jessie was a baby herself. I think the more padded side is supposed to be for the butt, he realized, and turned it so that that end was facing down and the thinner strip was facing up. Then with a deep breath, he reached around with one of his arms as he slipped the bottom through his legs, grabbing it from behind and pulling it up. So he had one hand holding the front of the diaper up, and his other hand was holding the back of it up. But no way to tape the straps at the side to bind the whole thing together. “Shit…” he muttered. Should I call the whole thing off?

     Just then, there was a knock on the bedroom door. “Daddy? Is everything OK in there, are you having trouble?”

     “Yeah, it’s just a little harder to do myself than I was expecting, but I’ll figure it out. Don’t let everyone back in yet.” 

     The door slowly inched open, and Jessie’s head snuck through. “It’s just me,” she assured him, not letting anyone else get a look inside. She saw him struggling to hold the diaper up with his elbows so that his hands would be free to strap the sides, and decided he wouldn’t be able to do it alone. “Here, lemme help you,” she said softly, squeezing through the door to keep it from opening too far before firmly closing it behind her again.

     “Jessie, I don’t need your help,” her dad persisted, but they both knew that wasn’t true. She calmly knelt down in front of her dad and took hold of the straps at the side, but his shirt kept getting in the way.

     “Well first, we should just take this off,” she murmured, grabbing the hem of his shirt instead and lifting it up to try and take it off of him. 

     “Jessie, wait, there’s no need for that,” he said, refusing to lift his arms. “I don’t think I should be shirtless around your friends anyways.”

     “If you were a girl and we were all boys, I could see your point. But there’s nothing weird about a guy being shirtless. It’s not like you haven’t gone to the pool with me and Paris a hundred times before anyways.” Marcus knew she kind of had a point, so he relented and lifted his arms above his head so his daughter could pull his shirt off. But you and Paris don’t look at me the same way Veronica does, he thought. It’s her that I’m worried about. With his shirt off now, she instructed him to hold the back of the diaper up and she’d hold up the front with one hand so that her other could attach the strap. She easily taped the left side together; all he’d needed was three hands instead of two. With a satisfying pat on it a few times, she fastened the right side as well, before cautiously pulling her hands away and leaning back, inspecting her work. “OK, let go now,” she told him, and he lifted his hands just like she did. He could tell from the bright smile appearing on her face (and the fact that the diaper wasn’t falling down) that it was a success, and Marcus looked down at himself, feeling ridiculous with how heavy and baggy the diaper was. He didn’t like how the center of the garment forced his legs apart so he couldn’t stand normally, and the extra padding at the back readjusted his center of gravity. “You guys can come in now!” Jessie yelled, and Veronica immediately burst through the door, with Paris slowly following in after her.

     “Oh my God, he’s adorable!” Veronica exclaimed, her eyes lighting up at the sight of the shrunken man wrapped up in nothing but a diaper. It really was a perfect fit for the two and a half foot Marcus. At first glance, he looked like a baby waddling around, until the leanness of his limbs and definition of his face made it clear that he was in fact an adult man and not a pudgy toddler. Her gaze quickly diverted to his chest, and she unconsciously bit her lip, admiring her crush’s shirtless torso. He didn’t work out enough to have a clear-cut six pack, but he was still clearly fit, and her new knowledge of what he looked like underneath his shirt only made him seem hotter in her eyes. Putting him into a diaper hadn’t actually been her original plan, but it still worked to get him shirtless which was what she’d wanted all along. Although the juxtaposition of the infantile swaddling around his man parts were more of a buzzkill than she was expecting. 

     “OK, so it clearly fits,” Marcus said, “you guys all got to see me wear it. Now can I take it off? I’m getting kind of cold without anything else on.” Jessie turned back to the assortment of clothing strewn out on the ground, and picked up a pink onesie sleepsuit.

     “Here! You can put this on,” she giggled, and scampered over behind him to help him put it on. He felt her right up against his back, her arms coming around the sides of him, as she laid out the footies to the costume in front of him. “Left leg up,” she murmured softly, her head hovering over his shoulder, and he hesitantly complied with her directions and inserted his foot into the left leg hole of the outfit. “Now the riiiiight,” she cooed, and he stepped forward into the other hole. “And the arms.” His hands entered the onesie’s sleeves, and with his limbs in place she eagerly zipped up the back of the outfit, contentedly patting it several times before scurrying back around with the others to check him out from the front. “That’s perfect!” she laughed, finding the depiction of her shrunken father in her baby girl outfit to be funnier than anything she’d seen in weeks. 

     “How old were you when that was yours?” asked Paris, trying to stifle a giggle at how funny Mr. Tilden looked in his daughter’s pajamas. “Like 3 or 4 years old?”

     “Not even half that, all this stuff was labeled 0 to 2 years!” Jessie exclaimed, giddily snatching her height and weight chart from the box. “My dad’s 2’7, which is 31 inches, and this says here at my 18 month milestone I was… 24 pounds and 32 inches.” Her head snapped up as the others gasped. “You’re not even as tall as I was at a year-and-a-half, Daddy!” She burst out laughing again, almost falling backwards onto the floor as Marcus waddled his way over to her mirror to get a look at himself. She crawled up behind him as the other girls walked over to look at him in the mirror too, as Jessie placed her hands on her dad’s shoulders, her head still several inches above his own even when she was on her knees. “You’re at the size that babies are when they’re not even measured in years yet,” she told him as he looked at how ridiculous he looked in his daughter’s old baby outfit, his diaper still wrapped around his loins inside. “Imagine what I looked like when I was a year and a half old, that was over a decade ago, I obviously don’t even remember,” she continued. “So tiny and with thin hair and a cute smile, and baby fat everywhere. Probably barely able to walk on my own. But even at that size I still would’ve been a giant compared to you!”

     “Not a giant, you just would’ve been taller is all,” he mumbled, and she rolled her eyes but continued giggling.

     “Same difference, the point is I would’ve been bigger!” She reached her fingers up against his armpits and started tickling him. “Coochie-coochie-coo, Daddy!” she teased, continuing to dance her fingertips under his arms, and he couldn’t fight his body’s reflexes that caused a smile to form on his face. “There you go, you should be laughing along with us, lighten up.” She ruffled the hair on his head and turned back around to the box as he wondered if maybe Jessie was right, maybe he should just be having fun along with her. He had to admit, if he was full-sized and it was someone else in his position, he probably would’ve thought it was funny for them too. Jessie spun back around. “Okay, open wide Daddy,” she cooed, and lightly grabbed ahold of his chin so she could pull it down without waiting for him to do it for her. With everyone staring at him in the mirror, he watched as his daughter inserted her old pacifier into his mouth and pushed his chin closed again around it. All three of the girls, including Paris, broke out into a new round of laughter at seeing the man with his daughter’s old binky in his mouth, suckling at the same rubber nipple that she used to when she was an infant.

     Shaking his head and feeling like they’d all gone too far, he ripped the pacifier out and turning around to face them again. “Alright, I can put up with some of your guys’ games but that was too much,” he frowned, indignantly throwing the pacifier back with the other stuff.

     “Awwww, looks like wittle baby is cwanky today,” Veronica mockingly pouted with a layer of baby-talk applied over her words. She took a few steps towards Marcus, and he backed up as the giant girl approached, scared of whatever unknown idea she inevitably plan. Unused to trying to walk with a diaper on, he stumbled backwards, falling onto his butt and rolling onto his back from the momentum. Seizing the opportunity, Veronica quickly knelt down and rushed her hand forward. His mouth was already open in surprise, and she quickly stuck her thumb into it. “Do you need a new pacifier?” she teased, wriggling her thumb around in his mouth. Veronica’s finger was more than twice as big as one of his own thumbs, so his jaw got pushed open almost all the way as she slid her thumb inside as if it was a new binky for the older man to suck on.

     “Hey, you might choke him!” Paris warned, rushing over and gently pulling Veronica off of her friend’s dad. 

     “Okay, okay, I was just messing around,” Veronica said, holding her hands up in surrender as Marcus got back onto his feet. “I didn’t choke you, right Mr. Tilden?” she asked. “I was just goofing off.”

     He wearily scratched his back, feeling uncomfortable from having her thumb stuck down his mouth. But he half-expected her to pull something worse. “It’s fine, let’s just move on.”

     “I think that’s a great idea,” Jessie nodded with approval, and tossed all of her old baby stuff back into the box. “I think you’re kinda cute wearing the onesie, and I bet it’s pretty cozy,” she told her dad with a smile, “so I’ll leave it out and put everything else away.” At least I got them to not make me keep the pacifier, he thought begrudgingly, and watched as Jessie skipped out of the room to return her baby items while leaving her dad to keep wearing her toddler-sized jumper.

*    *    *    *    *    *

     After cooling down, the four of them continued to spend time in Jessie’s room, mostly talking about school, boys (and girls), movies, and whatever else came to their mind. Marcus wasn’t interested in half of it, but with Jessie’s arm around him, it was clear that she wanted him to be a part of their little group. So he stayed, chiming in every now and then with his own comments and questions, getting to know the other girls a bit better. Learning so much about Veronica really started to humanize her in Marcus’ eyes, as he learned more about her personality, family, and background. Becoming more to him than just the unnervingly large 12 year old who cornered him in her room a few weeks ago.

     “I still can’t get over how funny you look in my old onesie,” Jessie mentioned, turning to her dad, who rolled his eyes but was feeling less agitated than earlier. “It’s kinda baggy on you since you’re not as chubby as a baby,” she said, lightly poking him in the gut, “but it looks pretty snug. I’m actually kinda jealous honestly, maybe you should get me an adult onesie for Christmas.”

     “Ohhh yeah,” Veronica agreed, “I have a grown-up one that I wear from time to time, they’re kinda underrated.” They were all quiet for a moment, admiring the baby-fied Marcus, before Paris spoke up. 

     “It was kinda cute when you were tickling him earlier,” she said, remembering when Jessie had gotten him to smile when he was checking himself out in the mirror.

     “Yeah it kinda was,” Jessie murmured in agreement, eying her dad’s armpits again, before quickly shoving her fingers under them and tickling him again and causing him to start laughing as he pinched his arms close to try and get her to stop.

     “You guys are so sweet together,” Veronica laughed as she watched the two of them, apparently having been infected by the laughter without even being touched.

     “Here Paris, help me get him,” Jessie giggled excitedly, effortlessly picking her dad up by his arms and swooping him off her bed, laying him out onto the floor. His eyes went wide as he realized how easily his daughter was able to handle him, and that he wouldn’t be able to fight back whatever tickle assault she was undoubtedly about to unleash on him. “Go on, stand on his arms and I’ll get his legs!” she encouraged, forcing his arms apart as Paris ran forward with a giddy smile to help her friend. And then as soon as his limbs were out, all she had to do was step forward and stand on his arms. And at the same time, Jessie took it upon herself to sit on her dad’s legs. So while Marcus’ legs were smothered by his daughter’s big butt, his little one-inch wrists also got smushed by Paris’ cushy flat feet, rendering him completely immovable.

     “I don’t think this is totally fair,” he complained, as Jessie leaned forward with her splayed fingers, wiggling them in a taunting manner as they neared closer to his armpits.

     “You always tickled me when I was a kid,” she reminded him. “And it’s just tickling, right? It’s not like it hurts or anything. If it was fine for you to tickle me when I was a kid, there shouldn’t be anything wrong with me tickling you as an adult!” With that, her hands leapt towards his arms and began prodding and poking right underneath them. He couldn’t help himself, as he burst out in a fit of laughter, unable to contain his automatic reaction. His body convulsed and squirmed from the infantile torment delivered at the hands of his daughter, but with both her and Paris making sure he was unable to go anywhere, his efforts proved useless. Veronica sat idly by, watching with a grin on her face, thinking that it was cute how much fun Jessie and her dad seemed to be having.

     “OK, OK, I get it,” he laughed, his face red as his head tossed and turned. “You can stop now,” he pleaded, but Jessie began moving down his body instead, tickling at his sides and on his stomach as well.

     “Veronica, come help me out here,” she said excitedly, and her friend wasted no time in shuffling over beside the shrunken man and joining in. Marcus hadn’t been tickled since he was a kid, and even then he’d never been subjected to two peoples’ hands at the same time. A new, stronger bout of laughter filled Jessie’s bedroom as his body convulsed in a new wave of spasms from a tickling experience unlike any he’d ever experienced in his life. The two teenage girls were determined to make him laugh harder than he ever had before, with Paris looked down triumphantly at the giggling man who lay at her legs. 

     Finally, Jessie retracted her arms and motioned for Veronica to do the same, climbing off his legs along with Paris and restoring his freedom. Even with his body free now, he still lay for a few moments on the ground, panting from the experience before sitting up on his elbows. The ordeal had only lasted a minute, but it had felt like one of the longest minutes of his life, and he’d wriggled around so much that his body was starting to heat up inside Jessie’s thick onesie. He took in several deep breaths, raising his eyebrows at Jessie. “Geez, you guys go all out,” he said.

     “I’m surprised you could even feel it that bad underneath the pajamas,” Jessie said, and Marcus nodded in agreement.

     “Yeah, me too.” The four of them sat in silence for a moment, as Jessie studied Marcus scheming expression.

     His daughter scoffed, “It looks like you’re trying to think of a way to get me back.” She crossed her arms defiantly and sat against her bed.

     “Well I think it’s only fair to try and get payback of some kind,” he admitted. “But since I’m not all that big anymore, I’d only be able to pull it off with the help of your friends.” He glanced at Paris and Veronica, hoping they’d get the hint. With a giddy smile at playing both sides, Paris sprung onto Jessie’s bed behind her and grabbed her arms, lifting her hands up behind her head. At the same time, Veronica hopped over and sat on Jessie’s outstretched legs. With a surprised giggle, Jessie tried to buck her way out of her captor’s binds, and it took significantly more strength and effort from the other girls to keep her down. But they were able to manage her, and Marcus walked over to Jessie with his splayed, wiggling fingers held out menacingly in front of him like how she had done to him.

     “Wait, hold on a— AHHH, HAHAHAHAHA!” she squealed, as Marcus cut her off by digging his tiny hands into her armpits and began tickling her back. He almost got scared off by how much the giant girl was resisting, trying to whip her legs and arms out from those that bound them. But Veronica and Paris did their part, allowing Marcus to tickle his daughter back in retribution from just how mercilessly her own hands had teased him before. And there were several advantages that he actually had in doling out his payback. For one, because she was wearing a sports bra, her armpits were barren and not covered like his had been. Secondly, the fact that his fingers were extra tiny made the stimulation all the more worse and impactful for her. But most importantly at all, having raised Jessie for the past 13 years had given him a hundred opportunities to already tickle her, so he knew exactly where and how to dig into her sides, where to prod and brush with his fingertips, to make her laugh the hardest. “Stop, Daddy STOP!” she pleaded, despite laugh so loud that Marcus wondered if the neighbors might hear. Tears began to form in her eyes, something she hadn’t even been able to muster out of her dad. Just when Marcus began to wonder if he could tantalize her any further, her arms ripped free from Paris’ clutches, and she shoved Veronica off her legs to free herself. Looking shocked, and a little bit scared, Marcus immediately stopped and took a step backwards. Before he could go anywhere though, Jessie had pounced on top of him once again and toppled him over. Then she straddled his hips to keep him from going anywhere. “Now it’s time for my payback to your payback,” she told him, and turned around so her back was facing him, while keeping her butt planted on Marcus to keep him from going anywhere.

     “So, I’ll forgive you guys for siding with the enemy if you can help me come up with a way to get him back,” she told her friends, crossing her arms and looking at the two of them while keeping her dad trapped beneath her.

     Paris hesitated, “How many times is this gonna go back and forth?”

     “Well he was only able to get me back because you guys helped him!” Jessie insisted.

     “We should just call it even,” Marcus announced calmly, unable to see them with Jessie’s back in the way. “We both each got each other, so—mmmm, mm-mm, mmmmph!“ Jessie had scooted back even further so that her wide hips were seated right on top of his chest, and had reached her hand out behind her to muffle her dad’s mouth without even needing to look back. The entirety of her hand was easily able to cover his little face, from several inches below his chin until her fingers wrapped all the way around the top of his head and the sides of his face. Her palm pressed forcefully against his mouth, and while his voice could still be heard, it was unintelligible since she kept him from saying anything specific.

     “So, we already tried tickling him,” Jessie continued, “but we need something that’ll really kick it up a notch and show him who’s boss. So, any ideas?” Marcus continued trying to mumble through his daughter’s hand, but her strong grip kept him from getting a word out without her even needing to pay him any further attention. The three teens looked at each other, but Paris was the one to break the silence.

     “Well, when me and my brother were younger,” she slowly started to say, as Veronica and Jessie paid her close attention, “we used to fight all the time. I mean, we still fight, but like it’s not as bad. Anyways, a couple years ago, when our parents were both gone, I caught him playing on his Switch after school when he was supposed to be grounded. I guess he found out where our mom hid it or something. Anyways, he said he was super sorry or whatever and please not to tell our parents, but he’d just spilled mustard all over my clothes on ‘accident’ a few days earlier, so I wanted to make him do something in return.”

     “Ooooh, Paris has a secret side to her,” Jessie gasped teasingly, and Paris blushed at the comment. She tried to be a good person, and she generally was, but her brother had tendencies to get on her nerves more than anyone else she knew. So she’d slipped up her goody-little-two-shoes act with him a few times. Even Marcus had stopped trying to argue with them, and was silent as he listened to the young girl’s story.

     “Anyways, we had just been watching some kind of medieval, like, king and queen show on TV around that time, where they always make like peasants kiss the hand of the queen or whatever. And since Jack would always comment on how my feet smell bad, well… I basically made him get down and kiss my feet like I was a queen.” She smiled timidly at the memory, pulling her legs in to her chest and scrunching her toes as she remembered that day. “I barely even thought it was that big of a deal, but he was so embarrassed and I guess it ended up being pretty humiliating.” Veronica’s eyes sparkled with inspiration from hearing the nicest girl in their class reveal a secret that nobody else had known until now. Paris buried her face in her hands, “Oh my God, I can’t believe I just told you guys that. We can’t do that on your dad though, I changed my mind.”

     But it was too late; everyone in the room had already heard her story. “AH! I can’t just un-hear that, Paris,” Jessie said, but her smile gave away that she wasn’t at all disappointed. “And unless you can come up with something better, we have to go with that now. Being treated like queens, what’s so bad about that? You were right, it’s not a super big deal, they’re just little kisses and they’re not like inappropriate ones or anything. Like we obviously shouldn’t choose anything too mean or weird or anything. But it’s also juuuuust funny enough to actually be like, fun, and a good idea.” Veronica sure seemed to be into the plan, and Paris didn’t want to risk suggesting anything further, since she was already starting to feel regret at having mentioned it. “Hear that, Daddy?” Jessie said, turning to address her father for the first time since sitting on him. “Just a couple kisses on a couple feet to say you’re sorry, and then we can call it a truce. Or I can go find that pacifier again, maybe we can rock you off to sleep for the night and swaddle you up in a crib. After tickling you back, again, of course.” She lifted her hand off his mouth, giving him the freedom to speak once more. He rolled his eyes as the three pairs of giant eyes gazed down at him, awaiting his decision.

     “Fine,” he decided, giving in to their idea. I wasn’t even the one to start it, Jessie was, she just jumped me. But then he recalled her bringing up all the times he’d tickled her as a child. Or maybe I really was the one to start it. Frankly, it didn’t matter whether this punishment of his was deserved or not, since he’d agreed to do it anyways. A bit humiliating, sure, but it wasn’t anything compared to the idea of being treated like a literal baby some more. Satisfied to hear her dad agree to her demands, Jessie got off his chest and took a seat over by her friends. “Alright, let’s just get it over with,” he sighed, shaking his head and chuckling at the absurdity of it all. He turned towards Jessie, but she raised her eyebrows and held up a hand to keep him from going through with it.

     “Wait, you’re not starting with me,” she told him.

     “Huh?” he asked, confused. “What do you mean ‘starting?’”

     “It was Paris’ idea, so you should do her first. Then Veronica, and then me.”

     “I thought it was just gonna be you!” he retorted.

     “What do you think I meant when I said ‘a couple kisses’ Daddy? They’re on my side now, so you have to pay your respects to each of us.” Marcus groaned at his own foolishness; I thought I was just agreeing to kiss Jessie’s feet since she’s the only one I tickled. But all three of them is a different story. It still beat the pacifier-route though. 

     “Fine, fine,” he grumbled, and turned to face Paris, who was looking even more nervous than he was. She was already barefoot, and was sitting huddled with her knees to her chest and her arms wrapped around her legs, so her feet were flat on the ground out in front of her. Her toes were painted a bright pink that contrasted with her dark colored skin, and he got down on his hands and knees in front of them, like a kind of pushup position over her feet. Even Paris, the shortest of the trio, still had large feet when compared to Marcus’ shrunken stature, but he tried not to think about that as his head slowly leaned down while the other girls watched. Finally, with his lips puckered enough so that nobody could claim he wasn’t really trying, he pressed his mouth against the top of her foot, held it for a solid second against her cool, soft skin, and then pushed his way back up. “Do I have to do both?” he asked.

     “Might as well,” he heard Jessie say, and he rolled his eyes for even bothering to ask. He lowered his head back down to Paris’ foot and planted another solid kiss on top of her other one, a soft smooching sound escaping from his lips after he broke off contact a second time. Standing back up, he avoided eye contact with Paris, not expecting to feel as awkward as he did now. He’d known the young girl since she was a child, and now he’d just kissed her feet like she was some kind of royalty. Paris couldn’t look at him either, and shuffled backwards from the semicircle now that her role was finished.

     Marcus turned to face Veronica now, who was beaming down at him after having just witnessed the older man kiss her classmate’s feet. She never would’ve expected the night to get as exciting as it was now. And Jessie appeared to be elated too, half-expecting her dad to take the ‘mature’ route and just bow out for the night. But she was glad that he was keeping up with their games and continuing to hang out with them, even if her and her friends got a little weird. “One down, two go go,” she reminded him. At least it’s going by pretty fast, Marcus thought. It’s not painful or gross or anything, just embarrassing. I can handle this.

     But Veronica was about to challenge that thought. “I think I want you to do a little something extra,” she told him, smirking down at the little man as she crossed her arms. “Just kissing my feet would be too easy. Or at least too similar, I want you to do something different for me.” Marcus was unsurprised to hear Veronica say that, but the least he could do was at least see what she’d propose. “I think instead, you should kiss me… on the lips!” She closed her eyes, puckered her mouth up, and extended her neck forward while trying to keep herself from laughing. Marcus’ face paled, and Jessie playfully shoved her friend with a giggle, knowing she was just joking.

     “Shut up, you’re so embarrassing,” Jessie laughed, but nervously glanced at her dad.

     “OK OK OK, I’m just joking,” Veronica said, readjusting herself. “But I do want you to do something different for me, as long as it’s cool with Jessie.”

     Jessie rolled her eyes, “Yeah, just don’t ask for anything weird again like that. Just keep it to your feet or something.”

     Veronica nodded, “Fine, then I have an idea that you can stay standing for. And you only have to do it once.” She lifted her foot off the ground, the sole still facing downwards, and declared, “I think you should suck on my toe, Mr. Tilden.” Marcus’ mouth dropped in surprise; unlike her first joke of a suggestion, he could tell she was serious about this one, but it was a far step up from just giving them a kiss like he’d done with Paris. He looked over to his daughter, who merely shrugged, not thinking it was that big of a deal. 

     “I’ve had to do that before, twice actually. Both because of Truth or Dare. Once to Molly Porter over the summer, and another time with Peter Donaldson in 5th grade.” Her face crinkled up in disgust at the memory. “They were like, just starting to get hairy, and his toenails were dirty and he hadn’t cut them in weeks.” Veronica made a pretend hurling sound and fell over in exasperation.

     “Ewww…” Paris murmured, agreeing with the other girls at how gross the idea was.

     “Yeah, exactly,” Jessie nodded, eying her friends’ reactions. “So if I could go through that, you can definitely handle it too Daddy,” she said, turning to Marcus. With a story like that, she’s practically guilt-tripping me into doing it now, he thought, as Veronica sat back up and lifted her foot into position again. She wrinkled her plump, tan toes, painted with a red nail polish, and inched her foot closer to his face.

     “I dunno if you even know who Peter Donaldson is,” Veronica told Marcus, “but I can literally promise you that sucking one of my toes is nothing compared to what Jessie probably went through. Jessie nodded in agreement, her expression still wry as she remembered that afternoon.

     He held his hands up defensively, “Alright, I’ll do it, don’t worry.” He looked dead ahead at Veronica’s big toe, the rest of the world blurring out as he mentally prepared himself to stick it in his mouth. Because of his size, he’d have to open his jaw all the way just to fit it in. So with a deep breath, he opened his mouth, stepped forward, and wrapped his lips around the appendage, fully inserting the 12 year old girl’s toe deep into his little mouth. Veronica squealed with excitement as she felt his saliva start to coat her skin. His tongue had nowhere to hide considering how much space the toe took up, and the girl wiggled it up and down, forcing Marcus to get an involuntary taste. Even the tip of her nail scratched against the roof of his little mouth, and her second toe brushed against his outer cheek. Realizing that her toe had a decent amount of leverage from its position within the man’s mouth, Veronica wondered if she’d be able to lift him up, so she slowly started to raise her foot. Marcus’ eyes bulged as he was forced onto the tips of his toes, straining to keep them on the floor, until they left the ground entirely as the young girl successfully lifted his shrunken body off the floor with just the strength of her toe. Before she could go any higher, Marcus grabbed her foot and pushed it away, unsliding his mouth from around her toe and landing back on the ground. Everyone else in the room laughed, even Paris a little bit, as Marcus took a deep breath and was thankful he’d been able to stop her from lifting him any further. A little bit of his spit still clung to the middle schooler’s toe, and a tiny dollop dripped down off the appendage and onto the carpet, reminding Veronica to clean herself off. She rubbed the tip of her foot into the carpet to get rid of the saliva, but bit her lip with excitement from having been able to pull it off, even if only for a moment.

     “See? That didn’t look that hard either,” Jessie said proudly. “Just one left,” she said, lifting her hands up to her chin and framing her face as she grinned like she was posing for a photo. “And you definitely can’t just kiss my feet after what you did for Veronica, that’d be like a downgrade. Since it was actually me you tickle-tortured, you should obviously give me the most pampering of all.” Marcus took a deep breath and sighed.

     “Alright, what does the final queen request?” he asked, half-sarcastically maintaining the theme of Paris’ original suggestion.

     “Hmmmmm. Bigger than kissing my feet, and bigger than sucking my toe…” She definitely seemed to be enjoying herself, tantalizing Marcus as she deliberated over the possibilities. “I think there’s only one way to up the ante,” she said with a smirk, and as soon as she said that, looking at him, he immediately knew what she was about to suggest.

     “I want you to lick my feet, Daddy.” 

     Paris gasped and Veronica fought back a giggle, while Marcus’ heart dropped. “You’ve come so far, you’re almost at the finish line,” Jessie continued. “If you do this, then we can call it a truce. And maybe go watch a movie, actually, I’m kinda tired of hanging out in here. Otherwise you owe me at least one selfie with you and the binky. I mean honestly you were just too cute Daddy, you used to take pictures with me all the time and then when you finally have something worth actually taking a photo of, you wanna bail?”

     “Hey hey hey,” he cautioned, not wanting his daughter to change her mind. “I’ll… do the licking, OK? And then the truce.” Jessie nodded contentedly, and extended her legs out in front of her. She was still wearing socks, since her feet had been cold. “Uh… do you want me to do it with your socks on or something?”

     She raised an eyebrow and shook her head, “No, that’s why I pushed my feet towards you, so you could take them off.” He rolled his eyes again, She’s really gonna make me do everything? Grabbing the top of her socks with one hand, and the tip of her left sock with the other hand, he pulled on the first bit until he got it past her heels, and then tugged upwards to unsheathe the treasure inside. He flung it aside, and then did the same with her other sock. With her feet barren now, he got onto his hands and knees again as she wrinkled her feet in anticipation. “Make sure to go aaaaaall the way from the heel to the toes, just in case you weren’t aware. And hurry up, my feet are already starting to get cold,” she said, and he heard Veronica stifle another giggle off to the side. The other girl was clearly enjoying seeing the banter between Jessie and her dad. 

     Marcus got low enough to the ground that his chin was almost touching the floor, and he gazed up at the two giant feet resting in front of him. The only time he’d been this close to them before was when she rested them on his face a few days ago, and he was still taken aback by their size. From his perspective, his daughter’s feet seemed to be several feet tall, making them even more intimidating. And since she hadn’t showered yet today, but still had volleyball practice, he could already smell the somewhat sour aroma that wafted from her soles and into his nose. It just made him want to get the whole thing over with quicker, so he didn’t bother wasting any more time. Sticking his tongue out carefully, he pressed it delicately against Jessie’s heel, almost as if he was scared to do so. The 13-year-old’s skin was warm here, and was noticeably pinker than the rest of her foot. Proceeding with his task though, he pushed himself upwards, his little, slobbery muscle coating the surface of his young daughter’s foot and taking in its flavor. It was salty, obviously, but he could taste a hint of her body wash too, a thought that he hated to have. He wished his mind could just be empty through the ordeal, but instead it was running especially fast as he continued with the degrading task. By the time he reached the middle of her foot, her skin was pale again, almost ghostly so, and her tremendous sole took up the entirety of his vision thanks to how close his face was. But his tongue continued upwards, and he could tell it was starting to dry out from leaving behind a long trail of his saliva. Almost done now, he reached the ball of her foot; the taste was saltiest here, and he tried not to think about the hours of hot, sweaty practice she had earlier that day, or the fact that she hadn’t showered since. Finally he reached the end, trailing his tongue over the bridge of her toes before ending on their tips, just like she’d instructed. In the final moments, he looked upwards, his tongue still on his daughter’s feet, and blushed as he saw her gazing down at him with a victorious smile on her face. The fact that he had kneeled down to reach her feet, still supported by his hands on either side, made him feel like he really, truly was kneeling before a queen, and he remembered his dream from last night where his daughter had once again visited him as a kind of ethereal angel. But it was over now, and he pulled his tongue back into his mouth, as Jessie opened her mouth for the last time. “Now the other one.”

     I’m so, so close to being done, he told himself, not bothering to argue. He didn’t want to kneel on the ground again though; that had been humiliating enough. So he grabbed her ankle and lifted it up, her foot cutting off their view of each other once more, and lowered his head to her heel. Once more he pressed his tongue against her smooth skin, and started to trace it upwards along the contours of her foot. Just a few short months ago, he never would have been able to imagine the situation he was in, but here was, licking his daughter’s foot while her friends sat around and watched them. Around the ball of Jessie’s second foot, Marcus ran into a piece of sock lint that he hadn’t even noticed that was there before, but it was too late now, and the tiny remnant of her gym sock settled onto the top of his taste buds. Finally about to reach the end of her foot, the end of his task for her, and ultimately the end of being teased by these middle schoolers altogether, his tongue made its way into the crevice under her toes. But having her dad’s little tongue in such a spot tickled Jessie, and she squirmed around uncomfortably, with a wrinkled smile on her face. “Euuughh, that tickles,” she said, before yelping as he touched a particularly sensitive spot. Her toes reflexively clamped down to squash the foreign intruder, but that meant squeezing Marcus’ tongue in the process. For a quick moment, his tongue was squeezed by his daughter’s toes, pressing their sweaty, salty tang into his mouth, before she quickly let go. “Shit, sorry, I didn’t mean to do that,” she apologized, and Marcus hastily retreated, letting her foot fall back down to the carpet. 

     “There, so I’m done now, right?” he asked, and Jessie nodded with a gigantic smile on her face.

     “Yeah, that was a good job,” she said. “We’re now officially truced.” The craziness of it all was finally over; he felt like Jessie had treated him like her little brother, even though he was supposed to be her father. But at least it didn’t matter now. He’d always wanted to spend more time with his daughter, and it seemed like this was the price he’d had to pay, putting up with her quirky behavior with her friends sometimes. 

     “So…” Veronica said, and the two Tildens turned to see what she had to say about the matter. “How did it taste to lick your daughter’s feet?” Marcus shook his head and turned away, as Jessie rolled her eyes, scrubbing her wet soles against the carpet to dry them of her dad’s saliva and put her socks back on. But he couldn’t shake the question from his mind, as best as he might try to ignore Veronica. The evening had escalated far quicker than he ever would have expected. In the span of only 5 minutes, he’d kissed the feet of a girl he’d known since she was a child, sucked the toe of her 12 year old classmate, and fully licked the soles of his own young daughter. The slow realization set in that for the rest of his life, he’d never be able to forget what had happened tonight.