Sneaking Out

When I was in third grade, my mom divorced my stepdad and we moved into a new neighborhood. It was weird to me, actually living in a neighborhood for once; the ones I was used to were filled with old people, or at least teenagers that weren't even close to my age. This neighborhood, on the other hand, was filled with kids of all ages. That is, except ones that were my age. They were either two years older or two years younger, and the fifth graders really didn't care to know me that much. It didn't bother me, though, because they were all boys anyway, and who can have sleepovers at a boy's house? I basically hung out with a first grade girl that lived a few houses down until she moved out at the beginning of the summer after third grade. It was sad for me, but since I didn't know her THAT well, I didn't take it too hard. There were plenty of other kids that lived near that I could hang out with.

In a matter of days, a new family moved into the house. A family with a mom and a dad and six kids. I figured that at least one of the kids could be close to my age and I set off to find out for myself. That evening, I found a new best friend: a girl two years younger than I named Teresa. From that point on, I had a new family with things I never had, like brothers and sisters and also a father, and one extra mom.

Anyway, that's just a little background for you. That's really not what the story is about at all. I mean, sure, I could go into detail about every little fight we had, all of the fun sleepovers and stuff, but really, none of that stuff sticks out in my mind. There's only one situation that I can remember every, and I mean EVERY, detail of. It was the night of a big concert downtown, the day after my sixteenth birthday and my first day with a license. My mom and Teresa's mom were out of town together to have a "girl's weekend out" and I was left in the hands of 6 squalling kids and Teresa's father.

"Ten o'clock, Teresa, and that's final!"

"But Da-ad," she whined, stomping her foot. We were trying to talk him into letting us stay out until at least one in the morning because the concert didn't start until eleven.

"NO, Teresa. If you keep on, I'll change the time to nine."

Teresa growled under her breath and stormed off to her room, slamming the door. I looked at her dad and kind of shrugged then trudged away. It was a funny situation, how they lived. Teresa had her own room as long as I could remember, but I don't guess it really bothered the other kids that much. It was a four bedroom house, and the boys were all piled in the same room, and the twin girls had their own room, and Teresa, a room to herself.

"Hey, you okay?" I asked, cracking the door open a little.

"Yeah," she answered and I went on inside then plopped on her bed. "Helen, we have to go to that concert... I just HAVE to see that band."

I nodded, not really wanting to give my two cents, but she looked so desperate on finding a way to go... I don't even think the idea of sneaking out even crossed her mind. So I watched her sitting there, racking her brain for some idea, pitying her for being so goody-goody that she couldn't think of the BEST way to get out of the house. Finally I said it: "Let's just sneak out, Teresa... It won't be that hard. We'll leave at 11, I'll keep my car at my house, we can walk down there, and drive off, get back in after the show, and nobody'll ever know."

"Yeah... but what if we get caught?"

"Well, can you think of a better idea?"

She averted her eyes to the floor and thought, then looked back at me. "No, I guess not. But I don't think it's a good idea... if we got caught Dad would kill us.."

I rolled my eyes. "Fine, we can just stay home," I mumbled.

"Nah.. I don't wanna. I'm just scared."

"Well if you're scared then we shouldn't go.." I began, intending to tell her WHY, but she cut me off.

"No, I wanna go."

I shrugged. "Let's go on to the mall now," I said. "We'll get back by ten and then we can say we're calling it a night and then we can leave and go to the concert."

She nodded.

We went to the mall, I driving, of course, since she was only 14, her father giving us tons of warnings before I left. Her dad was a pretty nice guy, a father figure that I never had. He was in his 30s and a military guy, towering a good 6'4 over the two of us, so those warnings showed that he meant business. Definitely no drinking, smoking, doing drugs, having sex, stealing, or starring in kiddie porn sites. The mall was really uneventful, to say the least. We just walked around and drank strawberry-banana smoothies and ate pretzels, gawking over cool outfits at different stores. Teresa found the perfect outfit to wear to the concert, a skimpy black tanktop that showed more skin than it covered up and some adorable tight jeans. We also went to the temporary tattoo place and she had a fairy painted onto her stomach that was way too expensive for me to even consider getting. But hey, if she had the money, that was her thing. I preferred buying more useful stuff, that was permant, like cds.

We headed back home around nine because that's what time the mall was closing and we really didn't have anywhere else to go except for the concert, and it didn't start until eleven. When we got there, Teresa's dad and her older brother were watching something on tv, it looked like That 70s Show, my personal favorite because of my infatuation with Ashton Kutcher, but we didn't stick around long enough to watch it. Teresa was already headed towards her room, exclaiming that she didn't feel too well and wanted to head onto bed. I figured that she couldn't get more obvious that we were going to sneak out than that. I shrugged and followed her, saying that she probably just ate too much at the mall but the guys didn't seem to really care that much.

"Geeze, Teresa, could you be more obvious?"

She blinked. "Huh?"

"I mean, being nervous and running to your room when we get here is basically just saying that you're sneaking out.."

"Oh," she said. "But really, I'm just pissed at him for not letting me go."

I shrugged and changed into my pajamas, desperately hoping that everyone was sound asleep in a couple of hours. I'd hate for us to open the window to sneak out, only to find Teresa's dad swinging the door open to tell us goodnight. That would suck, not to mention ruin our plans.

Around 10:30, her dad came in and told us goodnight, not to stay up too late, and apologized to Teresa for upsetting her earlier. She kind of accepted his apology, shrugging then rolling over to pretend like she was going to sleep. I just smiled and told him goodnight.

"Are you ready?" Teresa's shaky voice whispered in the darkness. I don't know why she chose that time to whisper, we had been talking at a normal tone for the past thirty minutes.

"Yeah, I guess," I answered, not seeing what the big deal was. She was so jumpy that it was getting kind of annoying. "You begin opening the window, QUIETLY, and I'll check to make sure no one happens to be standing in the den waiting to catch us leave."

"Could you keep it down?" she whispered.

I rolled my eyes although she couldn't see. "Fine," I whispered back. I rolled off the bed and cracked the door, peering outside in the den and hallway, seeing almost absolutely nothing, but noticing that all of the doors were shut from the small glimpse of light there was. I shut the door back as she fiddled with the window. I moved towards the lamp and flipped it on.

"HEY!" she said like she wanted to yell but not wake anyone up. "What the hell are you doing!"

"Uh, turning on the lamp," I said, then realized that we were trying to keep it quiet.

"Well turn it off!"

"Why? Nobody's going to see it. We gotta get dressed."

She scowled at me and finally got the window open. I searched around in my bag for my baggiest pair of jeans and a tiny T-shirt. I went ahead and dressed myself then brushed my hair and chewed on a piece of ice breakers gum, to take away my bad breath. I slipped my shoes on and waited for Teresa, who was moving as slowly and quietly as a snail. Bad simile, I know.

"Geeze, would you hurry up? You DO want to actually see a band play, don't you?"

She glared at me but hurried up anyway. I flipped the lamp back off and she hopped through the window with ease. I followed shortly behind, baffled for a minute about what to do with the window, and just decided to leave it open. There was such a distance between her room and the ground that we might not be able to open it when we got back home. Teresa did have her key, though, and if it came down to it, she could use it to sneak back in through the front door.

We hurried out of the yard to my house. By the time we got to my car, Teresa was full of adrenaline and nearly shouting.

"Keep it down," I ordered. "At least wait until we get out on the highway to make so much noise."

She just grinned at me and I started up the car, turning the music down because I had had it too loud, and backed out of my driveway towards downtown.

When we got on the freeway, I blared our favorite band and both of us sang along, her filled with adrenaline from doing something so "daring" and I just having fun. I wasn't exactly what you would call a BAD child, but I wasn't worried about anything. If we did get caught, the worst that could happen would be getting grounded, and that didn't really bother me that much. It wasn't like I went out that often anyway. Besides, I knew we wouldn't... what are the chances that her dad would just *happen* to go in her room and see us missing? Slim to none.

The concert was great. We jammed to the coolest local bands and flirted with hott guys all night. I could tell that Teresa was nervous as hell, and a couple of times she asked if we could go back home cause she had a bad feeling, but I told her to relax, nothing was going to happen. Naturally, she took a deep breath in and flirted with more guys.

Around two in the morning, all of the bands had played and everyone stood around talking with the bands and their friends. I saw how nervous Teresa was and decided to cut my conversation with the hott bassist short. I wanted to talk to him about everything, from song writing to college to his girlfriend, hopefully lack there of. But I just talked about how awesome his band was then insisted that I leave because I had to be home by three. He grinned at me and said he hoped to see me at the next concert. I made a note to myself that he was either single or greedy then hurried Teresa out of the door.

"Are you okay?" I asked when we got into the car.

She nodded. "Yeah, just a little tired."

"Right.." I said sarcastically. "I don't see what you're all worried about... we're not going to get caught, unless your dad randomly checks the rooms every night at 1 AM."

She smiled. "He doesn't."

I sped the entire way home, though, just because I knew her nerves were on edge, and I didn't want her having a heart attack on me or something.

It took us less than ten minutes to get home and I parked my car in my empty driveway then we walked towards her house. "Hey, Helen... was that light on when we left..?"

I looked up and noticed the porch light. WAS it on when we left? "I'm sure it was..." I murmured, knowing that she didn't believe me because even I doubted myself.

We snuck around the side of the house towards her window. I wasn't really that worried about it... I figured that maybe he just forgot to turn the light off after we got in. That is, I wasn't really worried until I heard her mutter, "oh shit."

I looked up to see the window shut. She looked at me with puppy eyes. "Relax," I whispered, feeling the full effect of her nervousness now. "I'm sure it fell or something. Window's fall down all the time. You have the key, don't you?"

"Yeah, but that's too risky. Do you think we should climb on top of each other and try to open it?"

"No, that's even more risky. We could fall and break a few bones or something." She shuddered. "Look, let's just go in through the front door." We were both basically thinking the same thing... we're fucked.

We held hands on the way back to the porch, trying to comfort each other. She was definitely more scared than I was, but her nerves were making me nearly as jumpy. The cat jumping through the bushes almost gave ME a heartattack, although it didn't phase Teresa that much at all. We climbed up the steps slowly, taking one at a time, then looking at each other and taking another. Unfortuantly, there were only four steps, so although it seemed like we were creeping towards the top, we were there in a matter of seconds. I let in a deep breath and so did she, then she inserted the key in the lock and turned. We heard the door unlock and took one final deep breath before we shoved the door open.

The house was as asleep as we left it, every door shut, every light off. I gave a sigh of relief. We were safe.

We tiptoed across the living room, still holding each other, probably more this time because I didn't want to run into anything and get us caught. We had made it this far, it would REALLY suck to get caught now. We went through the living room, then through the hallway, past her brothers' door, and took a step down entering the den, where what we saw made my heart stop. It was the computer, turned on, and a man sitting in front of it that I recognized as Teresa's father.

Her heart must have stopped, too, because we just stood there dumbfoundedly, not even trying to sneak in her room before he acknowledged our presence.

"It's about time you girls got home," he said, not even whispering, although he was using an extremely calm voice. That isn't always a good thing, though. "Go to your room," he added, rising from his seat at the desk. The den was a big square room, and when coming in from the hallway, like we were, Teresa's room was on the left, and straight ahead was her parents' room and her sisters' room, and to the right of their rooms was a tv and then if you moved over a little bit, the computer desk sat. It was at a position where you couldn't see it until you entered the den. Anyway, so Teresa and I, by this time we were panic-stricken, turned left and nearly plowed into the closed door. Her dad was not far behind us, and the thought of him following us made me a little uneasy. I really wasn't up for being yelled at tonight, and him waking everybody up, because being a military guy and all, I was sure that he could yell pretty loudly.

We hurried inside and plopped down on the bed, facing the doorway. Her father was right on our heels, swinging the door open and turning the light on, blinding me.

"Where in the hell have you been!" he asked, still seeming a bit calm, but I could tell that he wasn't calm, just trying to keep his cool. He was staring straight into Teresa's eyes and I could tell that he wanted her to answer, but I knew how nervous she was..

"We went to a movie," I lied.

He glanced at me. "A movie? At this time of night?"

He didn't buy it. "Yeah, it was a late showing at midnight and we really wanted to go." Hey, it was a dumb excuse but I was desperate for something and I knew that being downtown at a concert definitely wouldn't fly with her dad.

"Helen, you lying to me is NOT helping the situation any," he said angrily, looking back towards Teresa's downcast eyes. "Teresa! Where did you go, and I expect the truth young lady!"

Okay, so now he was deciding to use that military skill on us. I figured he'd use even more when he found out where we'd actually been..

"We went to a concert," she said in a weak almost inaudible voice.

"You went WHERE?"

"To a concert.."

There was a moment of silence and all I could hear was her dad's loud breathing and Teresa's fidgeting. "Do you realize how worried I was? I see both of you gone and I don't know if you snuck out or what. And what the hell are you wearing Teresa?"

She kept her eyes focused on the carpet below.

"Your mother and I have told you plenty of times not to wear that type of clothing and you know better than to sneak off and do that behind our back."

I rolled my eyes. "Give it a rest already. It was my idea to go to the concert in the first place... you shouldn't blame Teresa."

He shot me a look that made me instantly close my mouth. "You know, Helen, I honestly don't care that it was your idea. What I'm worried about is that you drove after state curfew, went to some concert downtown and Lord knows how much traffic there is down there, and the two of you are only 14 and 16 years old. Do you realize that you could have gotten raped or killed? You could have gotten in a wreck, or even arrested for being out past curfew. And what bothers me the most, Helen, is that you are the leader to my kids, they look up to you and adore you and want to follow in your footsteps, and what you did tonight showed me how irresponsible and immature you really are."

I tried to keep my glaring at him down to a minimum. But who the hell was he to call me irresponsible and immature? He sure as hell wasn't my father... although he was close enough...

"Teresa can make her own decisions and can think on her own, and even if it was your idea to go tonight, she could have easily turned you down." He looked back at Teresa whose eyes were still fixed on the ground. "And Teresa, I'm upset at you for sneaking out of the house AND for wearing that type of clothing. And that tattoo I see on your stomach must be one of those temporary ones that they give at the mall that we've told you plenty of times you can't have."

She didn't argue. I wanted to argue for her and tell him that it was her own money and she could spend it as she pleased. But if she didn't want to stick up for herself, I couldn't change that.

"I want you both to get into your pajamas and open the door when you're finished. Each of you is getting a pants down spanking for this stunt you pulled tonight."

My mouth dropped to the floor and he left the room. I sat there... I don't even know the words to describe how I felt. I was nervous, scared, shocked, angry. It was like my stomach was twisted into knots and I wanted to shout that he couldn't do that to me, but I knew he could and I was scared because I had never been spanked before. Well maybe once or twice as a kid, but that didn't count. I was too young to even remember that... And pants down? What was the deal with that? It must mean that this was pretty serious... I mean... gee, I'd known that spankings were given in this household, I'd even seen one once... I remembered that day so vividly... How Teresa showed disrespect towards her mother, popping off to her and throwing her dinner plate onto the floor for some unknown reason. I remembered how her mother spoke the words "wait til your father gets home" and all the kids gasped, even me, although I didn't know what it meant. I was only ten at the time, and I hadn't known them for that long... But before I knew it, Teresa's father entered the silent house. He came in, but nobody spoke, as we all knew the wrath of my best friend... or THEY knew the wrath, I just assumed that I knew what it was. And then everything after that... her mom describing the yelling and the plate crashing onto the floor... I saw Teresa with a tear trickling down her cheek staring at her feet. And her father said "is that true, Teresa?" and Teresa nodded, ashamed of herself for once. And then he announced the punishment... "A pants down spanking after dinner" and another audible gasp arose from the table. A pants down spanking was the worst of punishments... worse than hanging one of the kids upside down by their toes. Teresa had finished eating her dinner slowly, and I, too, ate slowly. For Teresa was the only person I wanted to hang around with at the house, and I didn't want to leave the room until after her spanking was over so we could go into her room and play with her doll house or something. She finished eating her last bite of spaghetti and ambled slowly towards the living room where her father sat on the couch. My head throbbed with nervousness, just waiting to see what was going to happen...

"Helen?" Teresa said softly, and I snapped back into reality. Everything in my head was happening so vividly I had forgotten that I was about to receive MY spanking...

"Yeah," I murmured, shakily standing from the bed and disposing of my pants, putting on pajama pants instead.

"Are you okay?"

I shrugged a little, trying to keep my hands from shaking so much. I looked at her. Her brown hair was fallen into her eyes, and there was three traces where tears had fallen just moments before. I didn't want to tell her how scared I was... I don't think I really had to tell her... she felt it.

"It won't be so bad," she whispered. "Have you ever been spanked before?"

I shook my head.

She hugged me tightly then moved towards the door, turning the handle. We both held our breath, just like in scary movies when they're about to open a big door and discover something important, or really scary... The door slowly opened and her dad turned around then walked inside, shutting the door back.

"Teresa, you're first."

I felt the same thing I had felt before... that same throbbing feeling of confusion and something else, I just couldn't quite put my finger on it. My heart was racing and I was having trouble breathing, something like an anxiety attack. It was moving in slow motion. I closed my eyes and opened them back again, so maybe it would help me see straighter. I was so dizzy. I stood over towards the side of the room and her dad sat on the bed. I told myself to breathe.

"Come here," he told me, pointing for me to stand next to my friend. "I need to talk with both of you before I begin." I nodded and weakly stepped towards her father, twiddling my thumbs. "Teresa, Helen... Look, I love you both... Teresa you're my daughter, and Helen, you're so close to being one you might as well be... I care about each of you so much that I couldn't bear it if something happened to either of you. This sneaking out thing... it's not a very smart idea at all. You could have had an accident or worse. Two teenagers downtown in the middle of the night is trouble waiting to happen. Older guys look at kids your age because they know you're vulnerable. I know you two think you could take care of yourselves, but if it was a big gang of guys... I know you were mad at me for telling you no about staying out so late. But I only do it to protect you. And Helen... I don't appreciate you lying to me at all. I want you both to know that the kids in this house look up to both of you as a positive influence, and if they saw that you guys snuck out of the house and got away with it, they would all think they could do the same, and somebody would end up getting hurt, more so than I'm doing right now, okay?" I nodded. "Teresa, you know we don't want you wearing that type of clothing. That basically invites guys to rape you. The tattoo thing.. well, it doesn't really bother me, it's just that we already told you that you couldn't have one, and you went and did it anyway. I know you're 14 and you feel grown up, but you're not yet, and you're still under my house and my rules. When I tell you not to do something, you will NOT do it, do you understand me?" I felt her nod next to me. "Helen, I expect you to respect me more so that you have done tonight." I, like Teresa, hung my head, staring at the carpet in shame. My heart began to pound again with the stillness that engulfed us. Finally he spoke again. "Okay, Teresa. You're first."

I took a couple of steps over and looked up as Teresa wiped her eyes. I knew if she was that scared, I may as well have fallen over with a heartattack by now... but unfortuantly, I hadn't. Teresa looked into her father's eyes.

"Pants down, Teresa," he ordered.

She slipped her fingers between the waistband of her pj pants and after looking at her father for a couple of seconds, pleading with him to change his mind, she tugged them down to her knees. All I could feel was my heart thumping and I kept telling myself to breathe, because I was finding it rather difficult to do so without telling myself. He gently pulled the limp body over his lap, positioning her to where her hands touched the floor and her bottom was raised high in the air. Without hesitating, he tugged her panties down to meet her pj pants. I took another breath in and another one out, closed my eyes and opened them, still trying to help myself see straight, then I watched, the only thing else I could do.

"Teresa, I want you to know how disappointed I am in you tonight, and I don't want you ever to do something like this again, Young Lady."

He raised his hand up high and landed the first smack on her upturned bottom, causing her to squeel a little bit. My heart began beating faster and faster. I thought about the last spanking I had witnessed as he raised his hand and crashed his hand down on her bottom again. The first spanking... short and simple... A young girl in the livingroom with her father sitting on the couch expressing his anger and disappointment to her, telling her how she better never use that tone of voice with her mother again, never throw anything in this household. She had stood twitching nervously, wishing that it wouldn't happen. He had ordered her to pull down her pants and she did so, me watching from a distance... It was over quickly, just two sharp smacks on her rear end and an admonishing voice telling her to never do something like that again...

But this... it was far, FAR worse than the other punishment. He was already working up a rhythm and Teresa was kicking furiously, her bottom a light pink color. I was hoping that he'd stop soon, because my heart was pounding so loudly that I wished I could get my punishment over with so it'd stop... pounding loudly I mean. But he didn't stop, or even let up on his smacks. He just hit her bottom in rhythm as she tried to stay brave, but it was so hard for her, I could tell. Her eyes were already beginning to tear up and her cries of "ouch" were getting louder and louder. Her kicking increased with the speed of his arm spanking her. Her bottom turned a darker pink and she was full out crying by now, kicking and pleading for her dad to stop. I wanted to cry, because I knew in a matter of seconds it would be me over her father's knee, getting the daylights spanked out of me. And who knows, it might be worse because I'm older, or because I talked back to him, drove her to the concert...

I remembered after the spanking how I found my friend in the den laughing. It was a nervous laughter, I knew... but she wouldn't play it as that. She didn't deny it hurting the least bit... Of course, I didn't ASK her if it'd hurt, I just assumed it did. She said she had a pink handprint on her rear end from those smacks.

This was more than a pink handprint... this was a fully red bottom by now. The room was filled with muffled sobs and loud smacking noises and I feared for my bottom more than ever at this point. If it could cause my friend, whom had been spanked before, to cry like this, what would it do to me?? I'd probably pass out from exhaustion of kicking and crying so much.

Finally the sounds of hand-meeting-bottom stopped and the only noise that filled the room was Teresa's loud sobbing. I imagined that her dad probably made me watch so I'd be scared shitless when it was my time. Whether that was his plan or not, it worked.

He hoisted her from his lap and held his weeping daughter in his arms. "Shhh, shhh, honey... It's okay." He rocked her back and forth for a minute, causing my anticipation to rise higher and higher. I tried not to be so nervous, but it's so hard when you know what's awaiting for you. He finally lifted Teresa up and she wiped her eyes with one hand and rubbed her bottom with the other then hobbled over to where I was, still crying.

I gulped.

"Your turn, Helen.." he said, looking into my eyes and causing my heart to skip about seven beats. I picked up one foot and put it in front of the other, not really going very far... I did that one final time and I was standing to the side of him. I fidgeted nervously with my hands as I stood there. "Pants down," he ordered. I complied, still fidgetting and heart racing more than ever. Was I really about to get spanked? I saw Teresa crying in the corner... I didn't want to do this... I was so scared.

I stood there, pants to my knees, looking at him. He didn't waste time and helped me over his lap. I imagined what I looked like in this position, probably as ridiculous as I felt. The next thing I felt was hands tugging my panties down and a hand resting on my bottom. I let out a small whine. He hand was so warm, in contrast to how my bottom felt... It was foreshadowing how my entire bottom would feel in a matter of seconds... It was just resting there, lightly, giving me the chills with every millisecond I waited that felt like hours.

"Helen, like I told Teresa, I am very disappointed in you tonight. I want to make sure that you never think about doing anything like that again." His hand lifted from my tiny bottom where it rested and I clenched my eyes close together. I knew what was coming... I had seen this just minutes before, only it wasn't me in this position, it was my best friend. I braced myself for what was to come, but all the thought that were running through my mind of how much it would hurt... NOTHING could compare to the sting when his hand collided with my bottom.

"OWWWWWW!" I cried out, not expecting it to hurt NEARLY that much. I have to be brave, I told myself. I was 16 and I needed to take my punishment like a 16 year old, not a baby.

He gave me a second to regain my composure. I was thankful for that, except it made my bottom tingle and sting like crazy and my heart still thumped loudly and I was breathing really heavily. He raised his hand again and it came crashing back down, a little lower than the first smack. I cried out again, trying to wiggle away from him, but he just tightened his grip and landed four smacks one after another. I clenched my fists and attempted to move and keep him from hitting the same spots, but it didn't work. All was futile. He landed more smacks, hitting my bottom in rhythm as he had done for Teresa. The pain was almost unbearable. I winced after each spank, by this time, not crying out as loudly, mostly to keep my dignity. After all, I WAS 16...

The spanks kept comming rapidly. He would stay in one spot for a few smacks, then move a little and concentrate in that area. After a while of doing that, he concentrated on ONLY the sitspots and when he began that I was bobbing up and down and crying out loudly again, basically telling myself "screw dignity!" He began spanking me faster, not allowing me time to breath between each one like he had been doing before. I started kicking frantically, legs and arms flailing, hoping that it would help some of the sting go away. It didn't. I finally gave up on trying to remain quiet or keep my dignity, and began bawling like a baby over his knee. It hurt so much. He wasn't showing any mercy whatsoever. I was crying so loudly and begging him to stop, apologizing every breath I could take, but he just kept on spanking me. I finally lay limply over his lap and sobbed away, exhausted from the spanking, and he knew that I was broken, because he picked my limp body up and held me in his arms, rocking me back and forth, letting me cry into his chest.

"Shhhhh, Helen... It's okay.." he said soothingly.

"I'm sorry," I muttered into his chest.

"It's okay, honey..."

I stayed like that for what seemed like a long time, allowing myself to cry and be held. I wasn't held often, and it was a nice feeling, actually seeing someone care about me for once. And I understood exactly WHY he did what he did.. not to be mean, but because he really did care about me. That's what good fathers did... they cared, unlike my dad who spent more money on alcohol than he would ever THINK about spending on me.

I was finally lifted up and I pulled my pants and panties back up.

"I love you girls," he said. He hugged us both then tucked us into bed, both of us on our stomach and all. He turned out the light and left the room, I still sobbing, although by this time, Teresa had regained her composure.

"Helen? You okay?" she whispered.

"Yeah," I whispered back. "Are you?"

"Yeah... my ass kind of hurts, though.."

I let out a tiny giggle. "Kind of??" I knew she was grinning. "Hey, I'm sorry for talking you into sneaking out... I realize now why you didn't want to do it."

"It's okay... I agreed to it."

I nodded. "Goodnight."

"Night."

I fell into a dreamless sleep that night, shortly after lying there, rubbing my bum for a few minutes. I wondered if all the other kids were up, listening in at the doorway while it happened. Siblings had a tendency to do that... listen to others get into trouble, sometimes they even made fun of them. If they heard, I never found out, because nobody ever said anything about it. I had a hard time sitting at breakfast that morning, but nobody questioned why. I wondered if Teresa was in as much pain as me...