Page 40 of Tessa

Tessa frowned. Dax and Beau hadn’t said anything like that, just rushed her out the door. But to be fair, since she was still living with Baze and the others, they already had that rule.

“I think it’s funny,” Jilly finally spoke up. “And harmless. And it doesn’t matter if I don’t have a Daddy. Someday I might. And I wanna do it.”

Tessa grabbed her roommate’s hand and stepped forward. “Yes. Let’s do it.”

Not wanting to be the only hold out, Jade finally gave in. “Okay. I guess it’s just a little harmless fun.”

“That’s the spirit!” Luna cried. “Okay. Let’s see. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven.” She counted as she passed them out, handing a small paper to each of them. “Let’s go in the bathroom.”

They all piled into the bathroom that wasn’t ever meant to accommodate seven people and squeezed in front of the mirror.

“How do we do this?” Tessa asked. She hadn’t ever used one that she could recall.

“It’s super easy. You peel off the plastic, then put the tattoo facedown on your skin, hold a damp cloth over it and count to twenty. Then you remove the cloth and peel off the paper and ta-da!”

“I’m not sure I can reach too good.” Tessa worried. “What if I mess it up or it looks funny?”

“That’s why we aren’t gonna do our own. You can pair with Ellie, Jilly with Jade and Mariah, Margo and I will help each other.”

Tessa giggled again at the mental image of them tattooing each other’s butts.

“I’ll go first!” Margo, who was not shy, bent over, pulled down her leggings and pull-up and mooned them all, sticking her butt out in front of Luna’s face.

“Eww! Margo! Hold on! I’m not even ready!”

Margo just giggled and wiggled her butt while Luna grabbed a washcloth and ran it under the faucet, carefully wringing out most of the water before continuing.

“Okay.” She stepped up behind Margo, tattoo in hand and carefully examined her canvas. “I’m thinking right here.” She jabbed her finger into Margo’s bottom, a soft fleshy spot at the top of her right butt cheek.

Margo just stood with her butt out and her hand on her knees waiting, as the rest of them looked on with fascinated interest.

Location chosen, Luna carefully peeled the plastic off and pressed the tattoo facedown onto Margo’s freckled bottom, quickly covering the paper with the damp cloth.

“One two, three….”

Luna counted out loud to twenty, gave the cloth a few taps, and threw it across the small room into the sink. The paper stuck to Margo’s bottom. Tessa held her breath.

When Luna peeled away the paper, she saw that the tattoo had worked perfectly, leaving a flawless heart shape across the top of Margo’s butt cheek, with “Daddy’s” written in fancy scroll right below it.

“Oooh,” everyone awwed. Tessa had to admit it looked pretty damn good.

“Me next!” Luna hollered, pulling down her pajama bottoms, and waiting for Margo.

It took a lot longer than it should have to do seven temporary tattoos, and when they finished Jilly’s, the last one, it was nearly eleven.

Eleven o’clock at night. Seven girls in a crowded bathroom with their butts hanging out, air-drying so their tattoos wouldn’t smudge when they pulled their diapers up. What a picture they would have made, Tessa thought with a smile. She was glad her Daddies had insisted she come. She wouldn’t have wanted to miss this hilariousness. Just hearing about it the next day wouldn’t have been the same and she’d have gotten a major case of FOMO.

“I think we are all dry,” Luna finally said, just as Tessa started to feel she was going to fall over from the awkward stance she was holding. Her thighs and calves were starting to ache from the perpetual state of squat.

“Oh thank god,” she muttered, straightening and carefully pulling her pull-up over her bottom.

Each of the girls did the same, filing one by one out of the bathroom and into the room Tessa and Jilly shared. The floor around their beds was covered with sleeping bags and pillow piles. Stuffed animals cluttered each makeshift bed.

“What’s next?” Mariah asked eagerly.

Jilly frowned. “It’s almost eleven. I think we all better get our jammies on and think of something quiet to do.”

“Yeah.” Tessa yawned. “I’m getting sleepy anyway. I never stay up this late.”