Page 46 of Stars Like Confetti

I peeked inside, finding a single bed, recliner, changing table and mini fridge. The walls were painted an even more calming butter yellow, the lights inside soft and warm. There was even another private bathroom.

Smiling, I turned and found the only room on the right side of the hallway. It was also the only room with a closed door, and I didn't hesitate to push it open.

My jaw hit the floor.

It was a full playroom, for Littles who regressed to a point where video games and coloring books weren't enough to soothe them. Beanbags cluttered a play-carpeted floor to my right. The far side had walled off areas with clouds and moons on the doors—nap spaces. There were tables with coloring pages and crayons, recliners and chaise lounges.

There was another bar up here too, but no alcohol to be found. Soft drinks sat in a fridge, next to rows of more flavored syrups than I ever thought possible. "The Mini-Me Bar."

I took slow steps across the padded floor, taking it all in. The room overflowed with soft textures and pastel colors that quickly had my Little side taking over.

I couldn't help myself. I picked one of the plush chaise lounges, testing the cushion by bouncing on it. It absorbed my weight effortlessly, and it was easy to draw my knees up to my chest and curl up in it. My thumb drifted toward my mouth…

"Uh-oh, we've lost him."

My hand snapped away from my face. "Sorry."

"It's okay," Sophie said with a shrug. "You suck your thumb in your sleep anyway. I noticed it years ago."

I… couldn't even find it in me to argue or be embarrassed about it. Sophie wandered over to the Mini-Me bar and studied the menu. I began to imagine the place crawling with Littles and their caregivers and much like the camp, safely enjoying a space where they didn't have to worry about judgement.

"I thought this was where I'd find you."

Theo entered the room, and I tried to hide how much I felt like a teenager with his first crush. Perhaps, in a way, I was. I'd loved Theo before—before our transitions, before the trauma, and before the camp, but now? I got to love Theo in a way that was both familiar and thrilling. The recognizable taste in their kiss, yet the heart-pounding way they could get my heart racing with just a touch.

Theo slid onto the chaise behind me, letting me lay back on their chest. "What do you think?"

"It's incredible," I hushed, noting now that I was laying back that there were stars painted on the ceiling. I wondered⁠—

"It's glow in the dark paint," Theo said. "We host sleepovers a few times a year. That's how I got the idea for a summer camp."

Just when I thought Theo couldn't amaze me more, they pulled out one more stop, one more bit of information that made me fall just that much harder.

I rotated in Theo's arms, twisting to plant a kiss right to their soft cheek. "I'm so proud of you, T."

Color flooded to their cheeks, mimicking that sun-kissed glow that I'd come to love on them. "I could say the same about you."

"Don't do that," I scolded. "Don't make this about me. I've watched you make your entire life about me for the last week—I want to talk about the thing you made your entire life for the last decade. Not many people at the age of thirty can say they own their own successful nightclub."

"Wildly successful," Sophie added. I'd nearly forgotten she was there. "It's all over social media. How did you come up with the idea for it?"

Theo kissed the top of my head and stood up again, ignoring the pout I flashed at their back. "I've heard about similar places." Theo slipped an elastic off their wrist, tying their hair back and producing two plastic cups from beneath the countertop. They weren't quite sippy cups, but small enough for someone in a regressed head space to think they were. Turning to the bottles lined up behind them, Theo put two pumps of bright pink syrup into each cup, the color fading when they added Sprite to the halfway mark. "I got to visit one—The Grove—but it was a four-hour flight to get there, and as nice as it was and as friendly as the people were, it couldn't be a regular thing. I wanted something closer."

A scoop of ice, and then Theo reached into a drawer and grabbed… a plastic syringe? The hell were they going to do with that?

They flipped over another cup, this time putting blue syrup in it and filling it with a bottle of water from the fridge. They drew some of the blue water into the syringe and Sophie and I watched, astonished, as they stuck the nozzle to the bottom of the pink drinks, then slowly spiraled their way up, leaving clouds of blue behind to swirl with the pink. They continued to talk as they worked, faster now.

"This place was a nightclub when I bought it, so downstairs was easy. Charlie, one of the regulars at The Grove, actually came out here with his Little to help me truly transform this whole floor. With their help on social media, it kind of took off, and the rest is history." Theo turned around to the machine behind them—one I hadn't even seen them turn on—and poured what looked like very fine sugar into it.

"Oh, shit."

Theo didn't even correct me on my language. They just spun the pink and blue cotton candy around a small cone, then turned off the machine. The sugary webs then got unraveled onto the tops of the drinks, and Theo handed them over to us.

Baby pink and blue swirled together inside the cup. I spun it around in my hand, glancing at Theo over the rim of cotton candy. "That one's Sienna's favorite," they explained. "But it is also pure sugar so I'm sure I'm in for hell when Kaylee finds out she’s had one."

"They come here?" I asked.

Theo nodded. "All of Kaylee's Littles and Middles do. Tyler, and Jordan’s just started bartending when the tattoo shop is slow."