Ben's Day Ch. 01

"I don't know, Juliet. You're friends with her, or at least you were. She certainly cheated on Robby with Darren, but that was a while ago."

"She kept dating him for a while after that too," Juliet said in disbelief, "do you think he knew?"

"I doubt it—but again I kept my distance. Darren was my first, so seeing him with her kinda...broke me for a few years."

"Wow Sam, I'm so sorry. If I had known Vic had done something like that to you I wouldn't have tried to drag you along when I hang out with her. I guess I probably wouldn't have wanted to hang out with her in the first place either."

There was a long pause, punctuated by a sigh from Sam.

"So," Juliet started, trying to give the conversation a cheerier turn, "What do you want to do in the city? Apart from the show tonight, we've got all afternoon today, and all day Sunday..."

Ben rolled away from the gap between their seats as their conversation meandered away from Vic. This was a lot to process—if the two of them were telling the truth, and he didn't see why they would be lying, then his girlfriend was a different person that he thought she was. It couldn't be true—but what was the alternative? Sam was lying to Juliet to get her to stop being friends with Vic? But what about what Juliet had said? And hadn't Vic said she got a text from Juliet that morning? Juliet just said that she hadn't spoken to Vic in a whole month, and Ben didn't think Juliet would lie about something like that, would she?

Ben looked at his phone, and saw that it was barely seven in the morning. He still had another four hours on this bus, and he didn't think he could sleep after everything he had just heard. He opened up his text messages on his phone and started typing something to Vic, but then stopped and erased it. What could he say? What should he say? He wasn't sure if he should be angry at her, or just suspicious, or what? Besides, it was still early, she was probably still asleep.

Feeling a little overwhelmed, Ben reached into his pocket to find his earbuds and popped them into his ears, plugging them into his phone, and putting on a playlist of thunder and rain sounds that always calmed him down and helped him sleep when he was stressed. He tried to push his concerns about Vic out of his mind and just drift away, and managed, after a few minutes, to drift back to sleep.

Ben dreamt that he was back in college—somehow in the dorm room with Vic as she bounced on Darren's cock, her heavy breasts rippling with the motion as she rode him, grinning an evil grin, holding her eyes locked with Sam's. She rode the faceless man beneath her as he reached up, clutching her bouncing breasts, and Ben was at once the man beneath her, and Sam, watching as she fucked Darren. Then someone started kissing him, and suddenly Juliet was there too, as naked as Vic, climbing on top of his chest with an eager smile on her lips, crawling up his body, dragging her nipples up his chest as she started to kiss his mouth. As Juliet started to kiss him, he reached his arms up and ran his hands up her legs, grasping her round little ass and pulling her closer to him as she wriggled on top of him. Vic had vanished, and Juliet swung around so that her ass was in his face, and started to gobble at his impossibly hard cock. She lowered herself to his mouth, and he leaned up to meet her, lapping at her vagina, sucking and tonguing her sweet little slit—but then suddenly she was gone, and Vic was standing over him, still naked, fury in her eyes, and he felt a fear wash over him.

Vic then gestured to the door and three faceless naked men came in the room, their three gigantic cocks waggling in the air. Ben tried to apologize, begged her not to do whatever it was she was going to do, but she just smiled at him and pulled each of the men closer to her. She smiled a sadistic smile and pointed at Ben. He began to shrink and shrink until he was the size of a mouse on the floor. The three faceless men were giants now, and their feet came slamming down to stomp him into nothing. Ben dodged the first two, but the third pinned his tiny leg under a foot ten times the size of his body, leaving him lame, hobbling across the dorm room floor. Vic reached down to pluck him up between two fingers, catching him by the arm, and raised him to her face—her big blue eyes both beautiful and terrible, her black curls a literal waterfall of swirling ink the size of a mountain. She smiled, opened up her big red lips, and tossed him into her mouth.

Ben woke with a start as the bus driver's voice came on over the loudspeaker, announcing that they were making a rest stop and taking on a few more passengers. He looked out the window expecting rain, but only saw the pale reflection of morning light on stale snow. Then he remembered that his headphones were still in—the stormy sounds were coming from his phone—and he promptly pulled out his earbuds. He looked down at his phone and saw that it was nine in the morning—he had been asleep for almost two hours. The specifics of his dream faded away from him quickly, but he remembered that it had been a pretty fucked up dream, and the ache in his groin told him that he had probably been hard up against his fly for quite a bit of it.

Ben's head hurt, and his mouth felt dry.

Juliet and Sam walked passed Ben's seat, but neither of them saw him as they moved along towards the exit. The rest stop was a short squat building with a huge parking lot, a small boring island in a sea of asphalt. Ben could see the exit from the on ramp for the highway in the distance, curling around and onto an overpass. Beyond that, a few lonely fast-food restaurants dotted the horizon, and further still were just snow-dusted trees for miles. Ben rifled through his backpack and pulled out his water bottle, taking a long drink before rifling some more to find the little bottle of ibuprofen he had packed himself, and took another swallow of water to wash down the maximum recommended dose in the hopes of dulling his headache. Passengers who had already been riding on the bus started to climb back in ahead of the gathering line of people spilling from the station, and Ben realized at the last second how awkward things might be if Juliet and Sam recognized him, especially if they put together that he might have heard their whole conversation earlier, and he turned away from the aisle, looking out the window intently as they passed him and sat back down in the row just behind him.

Looking out, Ben was surprised to see how many new passengers were lined up to board the bus, noting that it would nearly fill the bus. Not wanting to be discourteous—though hoping he would be left with two seats to himself anyway—he gathered his things and scooted next to the window, clearing the aisle seat next to him and leaning his forehead against the frosty window, still trying to make sense of what he had heard from Sam and Juliet.

"Pardon me, is this seat taken, like?" a muffled voice with an Irish lilt asked as a hand rested gently on his shoulder; Ben turned to shake his head and smile, finding himself face to face with a particularly well-bundled young woman, a narrow band just big enough to show some freckles, a few strands of dirty blonde hair, and two big hazel eyes the only part of her not covered in layers of winter gear.

"Oh...no, no, go ahead."

The woman stowed her bag above the seat and then bent down to rest her hands on her knees to breathe for a second.

"Sit down and let us through, lady," the man just behind her groaned; he looked like he was in his late forties, slightly balding, and was wearing a snow dusted suit and tie.

She held of one gloved hand, imploring her to wait a moment for her to catch her breath, but the man rolled his eyes and tried to shoulder past her, knocking her over in the process. She tumbled awkwardly into Ben, her heavily padded forehead hitting his with enough force that the back of his skull bounced against the glass of the window behind him painfully.

"What the hell, you gobshite!" she yelled at the man, but he ignored her, settling somewhere near the back of the bus, "Are you alright sir? I'm so sorry that I fell on you, like—I heard your head hit the glass—"

"Don't worry about it," Ben smiled, rubbing the back of his head where a bruise was surely forming, "It's only pain—and It wasn't your fault."

She waited for the rest of the passengers to walk past before she stood back up again.

"It's cold as hell out there, and hotter'n hell in here. I'll just be a sec."

She pulled off her hat and scarf, revealing a pretty, heart-shaped face with a few freckles and round rosy cheeks, framed by a chaotic mess of sandy hair. She looked young—maybe still in college, Ben wasn't sure. She smiled down to him as she tossed her garments up where she had stowed her bag.

"My name's Ashling, by the way."

Ben smiled back, "Ben."

As he said it, Ben thought he heard a faint sound behind him—the quick intake of breath as Juliet heard his voice. He had forgotten that he was trying to keep a secret.

"Well, Ben, sorry about all of this—I've been cross country skiing with some friends, and I erred on the side of overdressing, like," she said apologetically as she unzipped her big puffy winter coat and slid her arms out of it, flinging it up with everything else.

Underneath Ashling's coat she was wearing a tight black tank top, which showed off her athletic, voluptuous figure a bit more than it was probably meant to—a thin sheen of sweat glistened on every inch of her bare skin, and was making the tank top cling to her in interesting ways. As she bent forward to pull down her snow pants, her considerable cleavage wobbled in front of Ben's face before he looked away to carefully studying the seatback in front of him.

Soon Ashling had stowed all of her wintry gear, and she was down to her tank top and a pair of skin-tight black athletic leggings. She collapsed into the seat next to Ben with enthusiasm before taking a moment to pull at the straps on her tank top and bra, rearranging things for better comfort and coverage, the salty, musty scent of her sweat—not too unpleasant, but certainly noticeable—wafting across the seat.

"So...where are you coming from?" Ashling said as the bus lurched into motion again, "I'm sure my accent's a dead giveaway."

"A little town upstate—Kingsburgh," Ben answered, aware that any uncertainty Juliet and Sam might have had was out the window if they were listening at all.

"How many hours have you been cooped up in here, like?"

"I think about five? I pretty much slept straight through until we stopped here," he answered strategically, hopefully planting a plausible reason why he might not have heard Juliet and Sam's earlier conversation.

"Oh Jesus!" she said, putting a friendly hand on his arm, "my condolences, brave soldier. Sometimes I forget how big this country is! That means you woke up at what, three in the morning, like?"

"Three thirty," Ben answered, "I don't live far from the station, and pretty much just rolled out of bed and onto the bus."

Ashling laughed, and Ben wasn't sure why, but the lilting sound was intoxicating, and he couldn't help but chuckle along with her. As he did, Ben realized that he should've used that opportunity to mention Vic. He was usually pretty intentional about dropping the fact that he had a girlfriend into conversation when he met women—especially those as attractive and gregarious as Ashling—to preemptively avoid any awkwardness or leading-on, but for some reason he hand't even thought of it.

"And what are your plans in the city, Ben?" she asked, "I'm just catching a flight, but not until half eleven."

"Half eleven?"

"Eleven thirty, like," she corrected herself, pronouncing the 'thirty' like 'tar-tee.'

"Oh—yeah—sorry I should've gotten that," he shook his head, smiling; there was something particularly charming about Ashling's accent, and the way she seemed to tack the word 'like' onto the end of every other sentence with no rhyme or reason to it, "I'm going to a conference for work this afternoon—then I'm pretty much just in the city until I take a bus back tomorrow morning. My friend Tomm has an apartment in the city, I'll probably crash on his couch."

"Well...here," Ashling said after a pause and a deep breath; a gathering of courage, "can I see your phone?"

Ben started to pull his phone out absentmindedly before he paused. What was he doing? Was he just going to hand his phone to a random woman on the bus?

"Look, sorry, maybe I'm being too forward, like," Ashling said as she saw him hesitate, her face flushing, "I promise I'm not planning on stealing you phone or anything...I was just...going to give you my number in case you wanted to show me around the city?"

Ben handed Ashling his phone, and she giggled triumphantly, quickly typing a number in and handing the phone back to him with a kiss on his cheek and a light touch on his thigh.

Suddenly Ben felt a wave of guilt crushing him—sure, he had heard Juliet and Sam say things about Vic, but he had been with her for two and a half years, and she had never given him any reason to think she was cheating on him or anything like that. Hell, she had just given him the best blow job of his life less than six hours ago.

"Look Ashling—I just want to be honest with you," Ben said, squirming on the inside, "I'm in a committed relationship—and you're like, gorgeous and charming and I like you—but I just don't want to lead you on or anything."

Ashling's gregarious smile vanished, and the pink nervous blush of her cheeks turned bright red as she turned away.

"Of course—of course—I'm sorry if you thought I meant—I didn't mean that," she said, gesturing wildly, her hands shaking slightly, "you must think I'm some sort of a slut or something—I shouldn't have given you my number. I didn't—"

Ashling gestured as if she was going to take his phone back to erase her number, but then thought better of it.

"I'll just find another seat," she said, standing up in an anxious huff, gathering all of her winter gear into an awkward bundle and fleeing to a seat further down the aisle.

Ben spent the next two hours wallowing in his own guilt: seeing Ashling deflate like that had made him feel horrible—he shouldn't have handed her his phone in the first place without making things clear—and the fact that Sam and Juliet were right behind him, hearing everything that had happened, made it all that much more embarrassing. As the bus entered the city proper, their progress slowed to a tedious grind, stopping and starting again in a seemingly endless stream of traffic. When the bus finally broke free of the traffic congestion and pulled into the station, Ben was eager to get off the bus and find something to eat, some coffee to drink, and a few moments to himself to figure out what to do with himself.

Getting out of the bus without making embarassing eye contact with Ashling or the two girls sitting behind him was easier than he anticipated, and once Ben was out into the station, he took out his phone to search for the nearest decent coffeeshop. It turned out to be pretty close—only a few blocks away—and once he made it there there was practically no line. The barista at the register was a big muscly guy with a short green mohawk and a nosering who looked like he would be more at home bouncing for a punk show rather than steaming milk and brewing coffee.

"I'll take a pourover of...I dunno whatever you recommend," Ben said, pulling out his wallet.

"Sure thing," the barista replied with a cheerful nod. "I like the Guatemala—we just got it in this month. For here?"

"Yeah, thanks. One of the scones too."

"Five dollars."

Ben nodded and slid the money across the counter, and the Barista handed him a plate with a warm scone on it, and then got to work measuring out and grinding the beans.

"Take a seat, it's not busy so I'll just bring it over for you when it's done. It'll be a couple minutes."

Ben took a seat at one of the nearby tables, slinging his backpack onto the floor next to him as his phone vibrated in his pocket. He pulled the phone out to look, and saw he had a text from Tomm. He wolfed down the scone as he read it.

T Hey you in the city yet?

B Yeah just got in grabbing coffee

T Cool cool just let me know when you're done with the conference and I can meet you somewhere. Drinks?

B Sure sounds good. Should be done after 3

Soon enough Ben's coffee arrived, the barista carefully placing a ceramic cup and saucer on his table and then filling the cup with a small metal pitcher in his other hand.

"Cream and sugar are on the little counter behind you. Enjoy."

Ben nodded, waiting for a few moments for the coffee to cool before taking a sip, his phone flat on the table in front of him. He opened up he last texts from Vic, reading them absentmindedly as he tried to think of what to say to her.

B On my way home. Anything I should pick up?

V Just bring yourself babe. I miiiiiiiissssssssss youuuuuuuu

V Plus I'm excited to see how you're going to bribe me to wake up at 4am to drive you

B I need to be at the station at 4. Waking up at 3:30

V Wow you must have something EXTRA SPECIAL in mind then ;-)

Those were the last messages they had sent eachother. What next? A part of Ben just wanted to ignore everything he had heard from Juliet and Sam and act like nothing had ever happened, but he knew he couldn't do that. So what could he do? Lie to her and try to trick her into telling him something? Confront her?

As he took his first sip of coffee, Ben's phone rattled on the table.

V Hey babe you make it to the city yet?

It took Ben a few moments to respond, still not sure what to do with himself. He decided to act normal for now until he could think of something.

B Yeah just got in. Grabbing a coffee before the conference

V You're staying with Tomm right?

B Yeah on his couch

V You think his apartment is big enough that we might be able check off another fantasy from our list tonight without disturbing him ;-)?

Ben took a few moments to realize what she meant—the other night when they had talked about their respective fantasies, Vic had mentioned that she had never tried phone sex, but she had always thought it sounded kinda thrilling.

Ben's phone buzzed from a new notification, but it wasn't a text, it was a snap from Vic. He opened the image, and there she was, kneeling naked on their bathroom floor, steam from her recent shower billowing around her as she held the camera above her, looking straight up into it and winking one of her big blue eyes and smiling wickedly. Her wet hair was plastered to her head, and dropplets of water were clinging to every inch of her body. The angle made it look like he was standing above her, and she was thrusting her chest out, displaying her perfect breasts and erect nipples proudly. Down below, barely visible at this angle, he saw that her other hand was doing something between her legs.

As the image timed out and vanished from his phone, Ben thought he heard a sound behind him, and turned to see a college kid staring very intently at his laptop, trying and failing to hide a guilty smile on his lips.

B Jesus Vic you should have warned me. I think this guy behind me just saw that

Vic had never sent him anything like that before, and he had to admit that despite all of his reservations, her picture had gotten him more than a little fired up.

V Did you like the snap?

Ben shifted in his seat, trying to find a position where his erection would be a little less uncomfortable.

B Yeah it was hot

V How about the guy behind you?