Free Bad Girls by Brooke Stern

rejected me I thought it was because I wasn’t thin enough or sexy enough. If they made ridiculous demands – like I drop out of law school – I did what they said. I’ve finally grown out of it, but I still seem to have issues with authority.’
    We laughed again, even though it was sort of sad.
    â€˜I can assure you that I’m not God, though I’ve been accused of making ridiculous demands.’
    â€˜At least you’re up front about it.’
    â€˜I make ridiculous demands down back, too.’
    Like I said, Pete wasn’t that funny, but I gave him credit for trying. We both had to leave for work, so we kissed goodbye like a normal couple and headed in our separate directions.
    I hadn’t given up the hope that I might avert a spanking until I lost the third of my three jobs in a single day. At that point I realized I was certainly in for it. I didn’t remember reading any specific punishment for getting fired three times in a day, but I was pretty sure it would be pretty bad. Having been late, bitchy, petulant and attitudinal with everyone else that day, I found that I couldn’t turn it off. It was a throwback to my bulimic days, when I would start with a bite of ice cream or a handful of potato chips and end up unable to stop myself before I’d finished off the bag or the pint. I couldn’t stop being bad, arriving late back at Pete’s even though I could have arrived on time, failing to do the chores that were on my daily to-do list even though I had plenty of time to do them, and adding a few additional misdemeanors to my accumulation of transgressions.
    I was under the mistaken impression that it wouldn’t really make a difference. I had fucked up. I was going to get a spanking. What use was there in trying? Was I ever wrong?
    Purging after a binge was pretty nasty no matter the size of the binge. Throwing up was throwing up; it didn’t really matter how crazy I’d gotten. Spankings, however, are another story. The spanking I would have gotten for losing one job was but a fraction of the spanking I got for losing three, and the supplements I got for my attitude and other failures made certain that I would never go on a bad binge like that again. From that day on I would always be on my best behavior after a spanking offense, knowing it was essential not to make it worse. Every little bit of behavior, whether good or bad, made a difference come spanking time. How I wished I didn’t have to learn that lesson the hard way.
    It began with the looks of disappointment and the flipping pages in the punishment document to find the appropriate punishment while I waited, panties unceremoniously lowered around my ankles and hands behind my back holding my skirt up. Then, after hearing what I had in store for me but without any frame of reference to know what it would be like, I had to go off to the bathroom and perform the cleanliness inspection on myself. Even alone I was utterly humiliated to be reaching back and spreading my cheeks so I could peer between my legs and inspect myself for god-knows-what. Who the hell was he to make me do this? I thought about leaving, but I knew I wouldn’t. Something needed to put a stop to behavior that even I knew was ridiculous. I had been out-of-control like this plenty of times before and nothing I tried ever worked. If this could put a stop to it, it would be worth it no matter how much it hurt.
    That was easy for me to say before I knew how much it hurt. During the punishment I wasn’t so sure. Afterwards, though, I felt new and cleansed. It was a lot worse than the nuns ever did, but it made me feel so much better. First, Pete gave me a warm-up spanking of prescribed length. I’d always thought the idea of a warm-up spanking was one of the most ridiculous things I’d ever heard. I had no way of knowing how much it actually helped. At the time it just added to my embarrassment by making me wait