Cheap Thrills

"Fuck," I screamed loudly. "This is the last time we ever see each other," I said.

"No problem," he snapped. "I have another slut in development."

"Aren't you married?" I asked. "It sounds like you're the slut."

"Yeah," he said. "But I admit it. I embrace it and it has nothing to do with your pathetic life. See you in the morning. You don't need to wear any panties. They'll be coming off soon enough." And he hung up.

"What are we..." began Becky. I hung up on her too. I blamed Becky for a lot of what had happened. If she hadn't been so hot to trot with Ronnie and hadn't begged me to go with her, I wouldn't be in the trouble I'm in."

I looked up and saw my sister staring at me like I was an insect. She looked like I was something that should be scraped off of her shoe.

"So you did screw that guy in the park?" she said, shaking her head. "And you're going to do it again? You're an even worse whore than I thought. You don't deserve him."

"I'm not a whore, Julie," I spat. "I'm a human being and I made a mistake. I like excitement. It's like a drug for me. I loved riding those roller coasters. And Greg is not perfect. If he'd gotten on that coaster with me instead of babysitting you, none of this would have happened. And where is he all the fucking time. He's always working and leaving me bored and..."

"You must be the stupidest bitch ever," she laughed. "Greg rode the fucking roller coasters with you all day," she said. "Didn't you notice how sick he was getting? You followed him into the men's bathroom to get him to go on that last ride with you. He wasn't in there peeing, Penny. Greg has severe acrophobia. He's deathly afraid of heights. He rode those things with you all fucking day long because he loves you that much. Did you actually want to see him puking his guts out just so you could ride one more ride that's supposed to be for enjoyment and also supposed to be for kids?"

"I didn't know that," I said. "I'd never do anything to hurt Greg. I can't believe he did that for me. Why didn't he say something?"

"Because Greg isn't perfect," she said. "I don't think he's very secure when it comes to you. He sees you as something really special and he doesn't want you to think he was weak or something. And as far as him working so much," she said. "He's trying to make sure that he has a great job right out of college so the two of you don't have to struggle like so many young couples do."

"Bullshit Julie," I spat. "I don't mind Greg working at his summer internship. But he works way more hours than the rest of the interns do. Steve only works twenty hours a week. He and Melissa have time to go to the beach with us all the time."

"Steve probably won't have a job with the company when he graduates like Greg will," she said. "And..."

"And what, bitch," I snapped. "You know something about my boyfriend that you're not telling me. You want him, don't you?"

"Penny, I'm dating Greg's brother, remember," she said softly. "And even if I did want Greg, you're my sister. I wouldn't ever do that to you. One of us has morals."

"Then what are you hiding?" I snapped. "Julie, I can't take this...I'll"

"Greg is working all of these hours because he's trying to pay for the two carat engagement ring he bought you. Almost every penny he's made this summer is going for your ring, stupid. Are you happy now?" and she walked out of the room leaving me feeling even worse.

The next few hours seemed to drag as I waited for Greg to call me. I called him and left several messages but he never picked up the phone or returned my calls. That was a first in our relationship. Usually, even if Greg and I were upset with each other, he'd return my calls. I felt lonely and empty at that moment and I realized what a stupid thing I'd done. I knew that sooner or later, Greg and I would talk and I had to make sure there were no copies of that tape around. It was like Becky had said. I might be able to get Greg to forgive me for this. But if the tape was around and anyone saw it or told him about it, or Lord forbid, if he ever saw it himself, I'd have no hope.

I weighed all of my options and even if I decided to come clean with him and hope for his forgiveness and in time for us to get past this, I needed the tape destroyed. Greg might take a while to get over this, but he loves me so as soon as it all blows over, we'll be okay. I would spend the rest of my life making things up to him. Nothing like this would ever happen again. I had to work towards that dream of us I always see in my mind. But, if he ever saw that tape, there'd be no chance.

No man would ever forgive a woman that he watched beg someone else to fuck her under any circumstances. If we both stayed in this same town for the rest of our lives, Greg would never speak to me. Our siblings could marry each other and he wouldn't even speak to me at their wedding. I had no choice.

Greg never called me that night. That was another first. Greg always called me even before we were together. When we were just friends, he called me so much that my mother begged me to go out with him so he'd stop trying so hard. If someone told him a joke, he'd call me and tell it to me; even if it wasn't funny. He's always been so eager to share his life with me. I'm such a fool.

I headed for the park at around noon. I'd told Brett to be there at twelve thirty and not a moment before. I wanted to make sure that he couldn't sneak any of his friends into the area to take any kind of pictures or video.

He came alone and he smiled at me as he walked up. This time, I walked further back into the woods with him so we wouldn't be seen unless someone came driving down the road. There was little chance of that. Most people who picnicked in the park got there early and if they weren't there probably wouldn't show up. If they went to the park after work they wouldn't get there until after three or so, which gave me more time than I needed to get this over with.

I held out my hand and he put the phone into it. It was a different iPhone than the one from the day before. Mr. Sneaky must've had more than one phone. I had Brett take off his clothes so I could make sure he wasn't carrying any kind of recording device or camera.

I'd picked our location at random to make sure he hadn't arranged for cameras to be placed there ahead of time.

"Okay, do it," I said.

"Do what?" he asked.

"Rape me," I said. He got nervous.

"This isn't rape," he said. "Just like yesterday wasn't. I asked you for a blow job. You gave me one and we both got turned on by the thought of people watching. You told me to fuck you."

"Whatever," I said. "This time, it's blackmail pure and simple just like yesterday was. I don't want to have sex with you. You aren't physically forcing it, but you're coercing me into doing something I don't want to do."

"No," he said shaking his head. "There's no force here and there is no coercion. You want something that I have. I set a price. You agreed. Fuck this I'm leaving. Give me my phone."

"Okay, Brett," I said. I just wanted that nightmare to end so I could wipe that mistake out of my memory and go on with my life. I could just see that ring on my finger. My mom only had a one carat diamond in her ring and it was spectacular. "Let's just do this and get it over with."

He smiled and reached for me. "I really wish this hadn't gotten this ugly," he said. "We're really alike. We both like excitement. We could have arranged this so that your boyfriend never found out and never got hurt."

"This should never have started," I said. "It was a mistake from the beginning. You kept conning me into doing what you wanted. You dared me into paying for your ride on the coaster. Then you waited until I was excited and vulnerable and you groped me during the ride. You saw how excited I was and you fingered me until I couldn't say no. But that wasn't enough for you. You blackmailed me into giving you a blow job yesterday so my boyfriend wouldn't find out and then got me excited all over again. You knew the thrill of doing it in public would make me lose control and do something I shouldn't have done. We could never be ANYTHING together because I don't even like you. You just trick me into doing things that I'd never do for you otherwise, so let's get this settled."

He just looked at me. "Oh yeah, I forgot," I said looking at him. "You're like a vampire. I have to give you permission first. Okay, it's not rape. You can fuck me. Get it over with." I bent forward and spread my legs. He tried to push his dick into me but I was so dry that nothing happened."

"Come on," he whined. "It wasn't like this yesterday."

"Yesterday, I was stupid," I said. "I wasn't acting like a grown woman. I let the excitement and the nastiness of what happened control me. I wasn't thinking about how much what happened would hurt the people who love me. It's like it was a game." He looked at me strangely. It was as if some of my words had sunk in.

"How do you think your wife would feel if she knew what you were doing?" I asked. His dick wilted in front of me and he looked at the ground.

"So let's get this done," I said. "I'm willing. Just go ahead and fuck me. I need to start repairing my life."

While he was waiting for an inspiration to strike, we heard the sound of motorcycle passing by. So many cars had passed by without turning that we didn't pay the biker any attention.

"Well, can you just give me a blow job?" he said. "And we'll call it even."

I got down on my knees on the grass in front of him and grabbed his shriveled dick. He really wasn't turned on at all anymore. We were both so busy concentrating on what we were doing that we hadn't realized that more than one motorcycle had passed by us or that they'd parked. In fact we didn't notice anything until we heard the voices behind us.

"I'm next," said a gruff sounding voice.

"Then me," said another. "I told you I'd seen this bitch fucking a guy here in the park yesterday. I only saw her from a distance though. I didn't know she was this cute."

"Yeah and she's got some big old titties too," said the first guy.

I was shocked. I'd never heard anyone talk about me like that, before; especially not right in front of me.

"So is she your old lady?" asked one of the bikers.

"No!" said both Brett and me at the same time.

"Good then you won't mind if we borrow her for a while, will you?" asked the bigger guy.

"Uhm...I don't..." began Brett.

"Well it's not like you have any choice," said the biker. "And I'd hate to beat your ass in front of your woman."

I started laughing at that point. "Brett is an MMA fighter," I said. "He'll tear your ass..." At that point, I heard the sound of someone crashing through the bushes and Brett was gone. He'd left his pants and even the phone that I'd sought."

I left his pants on the park bench and picked up the phone. "You don't need a phone, girl," said the bigger biker.

"I'm not really like this," I said with my voice shaking. "That asshole had a video on his phone that he was blackmailing me with to make me do this."

"Sure he was," said the other biker.

"Just look on the phone," I said. I turned the phone on and went to the page with the videos on it. Then I selected the video and pushed play. Both of the men looked at the video and started laughing."

"So he got a video of you begging him to fuck you," said the first guy.

"Big deal, where we're going there are lots of guys who are going to fuck you and you won't have to beg any of them." He grabbed me by my hand and dragged me over to his bike. I was kicking and screaming, but there was no one in the park to hear me.

Finally the guy got tired of me fighting him and just hit me. He didn't knock me out. But he knocked all of the fight out of me. I don't think I've ever been hit that hard in my life. He told me to get on the bike and I did. I'd have done anything to avoid being hit like that again. I was still so dizzy that I could barely hold on. After riding a block, he got off the bike and put me in front of him so he could hold me up.

"I didn't mean to hit you that hard," he said. "When we get to the house, we'll give you something to make you feel all nice and relaxed. We'll give you a couple of minutes for it to kick in and then you won't even mind what's going to happen. You'll probably enjoy it."

We rode to a house that was less than six blocks away from the park. I knew exactly where we were going when we got to the street. You couldn't miss it. It was a dirty run down house with about ten motorcycles parked in front of it. There were more bikes in the driveway and from what I could see, there were several more in the back, including a couple that looked like they were being worked on.

They grabbed me again and dragged me inside the house. I didn't put up very much fight but I did scream loudly that I didn't want to go. I kept screaming, hoping that a neighbor might call the police. When he cocked his fist back, I stopped screaming and he pulled me up the stairs and into the house.

He dragged me up a flight of stairs and into a bedroom with nothing but a dirty mattress on the floor and slammed the door. I was more afraid than I've ever been in my life. I was sure that they were going to kill me. He slammed the door after telling me to get comfortable.

Then I realized that he'd taken Brett's phone from me but not mine. I texted Becky, "In trouble. Bikers took me. Big house near the park. Call police. Hurry." I sent the same text to Julie.

I left my phone turned on and stuck it back in my pocket just as the door opened. "You weren't kidding Bubba. She's a cute little thing. She don't look like no whore," said another biker. This one was even bigger than the other two and had a beard that was braided into a long pony tail.

"I'm not," I screamed. "I'm not a whore. I was being blackmailed. You're going to be in so much trouble. People are going to be looking for me." He just looked at me and nodded his head. Then he gave me a bottle of beer.

"Take a swig," he smiled. "It'll make this easier for you and help you relax. Then maybe we can make a deal and tell you what you have to do to get out of this alive."

"No," I said. "I know you put something in it."

He moved so quickly I didn't even see it coming. If I thought I'd been hit hard before, it was nothing compared to this. He picked me up off of the floor like I weighed nothing and pulled my face over his to his. "Drink the fucking beer, slut," he said. I said a silent prayer that Becky or my sister would get the police and I drank the beer.

They weren't lying. Almost as soon as it hit my stomach, I started to relax and feel better. I started to feel warm all over like I had too many clothes on. I don't remember much after that.

* * * * * *

Greg

"Not bad Greg," said my boss, Bill Miller. "You did a great job on this bracket. You made it smaller so it takes up less space overall, but also made it beefier so it'll last longer. You even managed to keep the manufacturer's original hole locations. That will make installing them a piece of cake. I couldn't have asked for a better job from one of my full time engineers. I'm hoping you'll be one of them next year when you graduate."

I was really happy at that moment. I was certain that the bonus I got in this week's check would be more than enough for me to...That was as far as I got before I remembered the conversation I'd had with Jason the night before.

I'd hated talking to Jason even though we were old friends, because I knew that he was going through an incredibly rough situation. In fact, as we talked about it, I got the impression that Jason had pretty much made his mind up. He was leaving town. I knew that Becky was kind of screwed up in the head and I'd heard rumors about her. But I'd never seen her do the kinds of things that people said she did.

When I got home, as usual, I was on my phone getting ready to call Penny when I noticed that I had a voice mail. I listened to it and it was, of course, from Jason. I called him right back because he sounded really upset.

After we spoke for a few moments, I realized that the latest rumors around town were true. Becky had broken up with Jason like she had at least three or four times over the past year. The pattern was that she'd meet him and apologize to him a day or so later and everything would be fine. But this time, Jason wanted to know why and what the hell she was doing when they were broken up and he found out. He'd been heartbroken and decided to just walk away from her with his head held high.

Later on that afternoon, Becky had called him several times and he hadn't returned any of her calls. Jason works in the hardware store next door to the diner where Becky works. He decided to leave work early so he wouldn't run into her. Unfortunately, she'd decided to go in early so she could talk to him, because it wasn't like him not to return her calls.

She'd walked right up to him and started giving him some kind of bullshit story about how the way he was acting was why they'd broken up. He tried to ignore her and just walk away but she just kept talking and talking and talking. Anyone who knows Becky knows she can't shut up. Anyway, she started in on how she had no idea why he even deserved a woman like her, but she had no choice, because she loved him. And that was it. Something just snapped in Jason's brain and he just slapped the cowboy shit out of her.

He told her that she was right. He didn't deserve a woman like her. He'd treated her like a fucking princess despite the things they said about her all over town. He had loved her more than she would ever deserve and done everything he could for her. She'd repaid him by fucking some strange guy in the bushes in a public park like the whore that everyone said she was. He told her to delete his number from his phone and never call him again because they were done.

About that time, Becky started telling him how it was just a rumor like all of the others and he had to believe her. She loved him and she'd never do that to him. Whoever told him was just trying to keep them broken up.

Jason told her what she was wearing in the park before she went into the bushes. He told her what the guy she fucked looked like and what his truck looked like. He even told her who was with her. Finally, he told her that it wasn't some person trying to break them up who told him about it, he'd followed her and seen it with his own eyes.

Becky started crying and begging him to forgive her and that was when the police got there.

Then Jason told me that he was done with Becky and instead of returning to the university in the next town over that most of us went to, he was going to transfer to an out of state college and start all over with his life. He needed to get away from Becky and our town was just too small for him to make a clean break of things. He'd constantly be running into her and he needed some space.

I wished him well and told him we'd still hang out during the summers. That was when he lowered the boom on me and told me about Penny. He said that Becky had told the truth to the officer who took the report and gave her the fine, but she'd told the officer that Jason was mistaken. It hadn't been Penny that he'd seen. Jason told me that he was torn on that fact because first off, he didn't think that Penny was that kind of girl. She'd never been with Becky during the rest of Becky's episodes, but he'd been sure at the time that it was her. He told me to never trust anyone with my heart blindly because I could end up in the same boat he was in. Trust, but verify, was the exact phrase he used.

After I hung up the phone, it moved to my next voice mail message. It was from Penny. Usually, unless there was an emergency she waited for me to call her when I got done at work. She knew it was always the first thing I did. The next message was from her as well and her voice sounded anxious. By the third message, her voice was desperate and I had a bad feeling that I knew why.