Ben's Day Ch. 06

Ben had the strangest sensation, like waking up from a dream about waking up from a dream—but he had woke up ten minutes ago. He felt a strange tingling pain at the back of his skull, but after a few moments it subsided.

"Are you sure you packed everything?" Vic asked before yawning mightily, closing the driver's side door with a heavy enough slam to shake the snow off the window, "Your laptop? Your wallet? Your toothbrush?"

Ben's eyes were wide, his breath panicked as everything came back to him. He had just watched Ashling—and the whole hotel room around them—evaporate, layer by gruesome layer. He clamped his eyes shut, shuddering.

"Ben? Are you ok Babe?" Vic asked, putting a hand on his shoulder, but Ben pulled away from her touch without thinking.

"I...I..." he floundered, still processing the horrors burned into his mind, "I'll be fine. I think I'm just getting a...a migraine or something."

It was a clumsy lie.

"Oh babe! I'm sorry! Are you sure you still need to go?"

Ben nodded. It had gotten to the point where he was hardly even thinking of Vic as a person anymore. Not only had she cheated on him more times than he could care to count, but with the loop resetting with him in the car with her, saying the same things every time, she was starting to seem more like a piece of the scenery—or like some non-player character in a video game who always mutters the same line when your character walks by them.

"Yeah. Yeah we should get going. I have some ibuprofen I'll be ok," he said, committing to the lie and reaching for his bag as he thought about what to do.

"We should make a stop first, by the way," he said after taking an ibuprofen just for show, "There's a reward for this lost cat and I think I know where it is."

"What?"

This time, Ben found the picture of Jafar he had taken the loop before, and sent it to Salma before they even got to the right street, and when she called him back he knew just what to say. He managed to keep Vic's questions at bay again, milking his fake migraine for as much as it was worth until Salma showed up in her BMW and he stepped out and pointed out the cat to her. Just like she had before, Salma managed to lure the exotic creature into her arms with a fistful of treats, and Ben was soon back in the car with the reward, brushing off Vic's questions while she drove him to the bus station. Once there, he managed to extricate himself from her even faster that before, rushing out into the cold to stand in line at the bus.

Once in his seat, Ben fished his phone out of his pocket, put in some earbuds, and then opened up the folder with all of the files from the previous loops. He tapped on "L0005," scrolling past photos, call and text logs...everything, until he found the video Ashling had started recording at 3:59 AM. He huddled against the window, holding the phone at an angle so that no one else might see it, and tapped the play button.

At first, seeing Ashling, her glowing grin, hearing her sexy Irish lilt, made his chest swell—until, as expected, things changed. He watched as the recording went from a cute little message from Ashling to her future self to some kind of horror movie as the world dissolved into nothing, pixel by pixel, and then the video ended. Ben shuddered, tucking his phone away as the bus pulled out onto the street, and tried to get some sleep.

Unfortunately, sleep was hard to come by after revisiting that scene, and he ended up spending the next few hours catching only scant minutes of unconsciousness as he wrestled with his own mind, trying to get the troubling images out of his head. When the morning light finally came and the bus finally made it's first stop, Ben had managed to snag what probably amounted to a grand total of five minutes of uncomfortable sleep.

Just as expected, Ashling was boarding the bus again, bundled up in her winter gear as always. Ben caught himself shooting her a familiar smile as she approached, quickly looking down to his phone as he realized his mistake, hoping that it wouldn't put her off too much to have a stranger give her such a look.

"Pardon me, is this seat taken, like?"

"No...uh...go ahead," Ben answered.

Everything happened as expected: she stripped off her winter gear, the pushy man in aisle behind her knocked her into him, then she apologized, introduced herself, and their little conversation got rolling again. Ben knew it would happen this way, but now, having this conversation for the third time it felt...wrong. Soulless. He knew the questions she was going to ask...knew the answers she would give...but she had no idea who he was. Meeting her, and going through the ritual of their first conversation, was already starting to feel stale, almost creepy. He caught himself tapping his fingers against his leg impatiently more that a few times, waiting for her to finish some anecdote that he had already heard. He managed to steer their conversation to some new areas now and again, but she would gravitate back towards familiar ones pretty quickly.

Still, despite his lack of enthusiasm, the two hours on the bus passed full of flirty laughs and touches from Ashling. Ben was excited for their relationship to move forward, thinking that once he had won her over, he might try showing her the video—or at least the first part of it—and see what she would believe. Besides, despite the fact that he had had no shortage of sex the last time through the loop, it seemed his libido was reset just as much as everything else, and sitting next to her, having her flirt with him and touch him, was arousing even if the emotional connection they had shared had staled with repetition.

They got off the bus together, Ben helping her with her things as he had before. Ben stopped walking shortly after entering, remembering that the day before they had paused so Ashling could pull on her snow pants, but Ashling didn't stop, instead looking back at him and gesturing for him to follow; intrigued by this sudden change, he took a few hurried steps to catch up to her.

"Don't you need to put your stuff on again before we head out?"

"Not yet...just trust me, like," she said, pausing to look around before heading down a hallway that curved past several more bus gates, all empty, with signs pointing passengers to other gates on account of construction.

The hallway passed a couple of neglected looking vending machines and then turned sharply one last time, ending at a single gate with another sign explaining that it was closed due to construction.

"Uh...what are we doing here?"

Ashling was flushed. She looked around a bit nervously, peeking her head back around the corner, and then closed her eyes, took a slow breath, gathering her courage, nodding to herself.

"Ok...look," she said, opening her eyes and fixing him with them, smiling nervously, "this is going to sound a bit crazy but...no, you no what? You probably don't care, and I don't care if some random guy thinks I'm a slut, like."

She slung her bag off her back, dropping on the floor next to her. Ben raised an eyebrow.

"All you need to know is that some guy cheated on me. And I want to get back at him, like. With you."

Ben froze. He knew that, but why were things playing out so differently? Why had she led him into this abandoned corner of the bus station?

"I know I bored you on the bus...I saw you tapping your fingers, sighing, whatever. But I also know you didn't mind getting an eyeful of me when a gave you the chance either, like—and I'm not looking for a good date or nothin' anyway, and you're enough of a ride to make Ian jealous, so here's the deal..."

She took a few steps towards him, putting a hand flat on his chest and pushing. He took a step back, flattening against the wall.

"You can stop pretending to care about my family or my dogs, like. All you need to do is hold my phone and take a video for my ex," she said, pressing her phone into his hand while sliding her hand down his chest to his groin to squeeze his bulge, "I'll suck you off right here, do a little performance to make him jealous—maybe even a little more—and then we can go our separate ways, like. What d'you think?"

Ben's cock pulsed against the pressure from her hand. His heart was pounding, his breaths slow and ragged. He understood, now, what had happened: there had been no spark this time, not for either of them, but she had told him the last time around that she had stepped onto that bus looking for someone for this very purpose. Only this time, whatever special connection the two of them had had never happened for either of them, and she just wanted to get things over with. It was sad, but then again, he was horny as all hell—doubly so because of the public nature of their little corner hide-away—and the idea of feeling her mouth on him again was not something he was going to refuse. He looked at the phone in his hand, flashed her a hungry grin, and nodded, tapping the screen to start recording. Ashling's shoulders quivered for a moment, and then she stepped back, giving Ben the chance to get her whole body in the shot.

"Ian," she spat the name, smiling an angry smile directly into the camera, "remember me? the girl you feckin' kicked to the curb for some scrawny, flat-chested goblin-looking bitch because you were embarrassed to be with me?"

Ashling gestured at her body with one hand, cheating just a bit to the side so show off her ample curves both in front and behind, covered only by her tight athletic leggings and the black tank top that was clinging to her tantalizingly.

"Well! Take a good look at what you left behind, like. You could've had me, making every dirty little wish you had come true. Hell, I'd've even let you bring another girl home to share you if you'd asked nice!"

Ashling stopped to take a couple heaving breaths. Her face, neck and the tops of her breasts, all speckled with freckles, were flushed red now. She shook her head.

"But you'll never have me again. You'll be stuck with that snaggle-toothed whore while I fuck whoever I want...Say 'hi,' Ben."

Ben hesitated for a moment, then shrugged.

"Hi."

"This," she continued into the camera with a furious smirk, "Is Ben. I met him on the bus a couple hours ago...and you're going to watch me suck him off like I never did for you and you're little rat-dick!"

She took a few steps forward, kneeling fast in front of Ben, and grabbed at his jeans, undoing his belt and pulling down his pants and boxer briefs in one angry yank. Ben angled the camera to follow her, catching the moment his erection popped free and bounced against her chin. She smiled. The cool air of the bus station was bracing—but the heat of his arousal, of her breath on him, was more than enough to fight it off.

"It's bigger than yours," she said, her eyes lazily sliding back up to the camera as she wrapped one hand around the base of his cock.

She pointed his cock up and buried her nose against his balls, taking an exaggerated sniff.

"He smells better too, like."

She angled his cock back down, breathing a hot breath against him, her big hazel eyes devouring the pulsing length of him before darting back up to the camera.

"Let's see how he tastes!"

She stuck out her tongue hungrily and pressed it flat against the tip of his cock, swirling it around in one slow swirl, almost laughing before pulling back and licking him base to head in one long slurp, smacking her lips dramatically for the camera.

"Mmmm. Better than I expected. Yours as always so rank Ian! Ben's is a fecking treat, like!"

She licked him again, angling the head of his cock up at the camera as she started at his balls and slid her tongue up the shaft to the head, slurping up a squeeze of pre come like a bit of melted ice cream, smiling again for Ian as she swallowed it.

Ben heard the footsteps of someone around the corner, and his heart pounded with so much fear and anticipation and arousal that he was sure the phone was picking up the sound. He breathed a shaky breath, reaching a free hand down to encourage her,, pushing his fingers through her hair until they were reaching behind her head, pulling her face towards him.

Ashling laughed and opened her mouth wide, sticking her tongue out, and let him pull her onto him, eyes still locked with the camera as her mouth engulfed his length. He felt the tip of his cock prod against the fleshy back of her throat before she closed her lips around him. He pushed her just a little further, thrusting into her mouth, before releasing the pressure and letting her back off of him, which she did slowly, massaging him with her tongue and sucking her cheeks in the whole way, until his cock finally popped out of her mouth with a wet sound.

"The website says we're supposed to go to Gate 313...but all of these look like they're closed..." he heard a woman's voice say as the footsteps grew closer; he looked up at the gate in front of them and saw the number: 313.

Ashling, too engrossed in her own performance, didn't seem to hear the voices, instead grinning a sloppy grin at the phone in Ben's hand as a mix of pre come and spit dangled from her lips.

"This here is a real cock, Ian—a wavin worth my feckin' time, like," she said, her grin widening as she pumped one hand up and down his slippery length, using her other hand to wipe the come from her lips and then lick it off of her hand, moaning in pleasure, "and his come is feckin' candy, like. I need more."

Ben almost dropped the phone as she gulped his cock down again in one go, taking him to the hilt and then bobbing back and forth with enthusiasm, her eyes still staring up at the little camera, the suction of her lips making loud, wet sounds each time she pulled back. Ben's eyes flicked up to the nearby corner, and sure enough, two women had just turned the corner and were staring at the sordid scene, eyes wide. They both looked like they were in their early twenties—a tall, gangly black girl with a shaved head and a short blonde white woman with a pixie cut, both dressed like college students. They seemed transfixed by the sight of Ashling going down on him, but he just grinned a wild grin at them before turning his attention back to the Irish vixen who was slurping all over his cock.

"Fuck yes..." he moaned, his free hand grabbing the back of her head again, encouraging her frantic bobbing, "fuck, Ashling, you're amazing..."

Her tongue was swirling wildly around him now as he stabbed into the back of her throat again and again and again, inching him towards orgasm, until he felt a surge of pleasure arc through his body like an electric shock. He dropped Ashling's phone, which clattered to the floor face down beneath them, the camera pointing strait up at the underside of his cock as is disappeared again and again into Ashling's mouth. She smiled at him, closing her eyes and redoubled her speed, and he started to unload into her mouth, splattering the back of her throat as his hips shuddered while she diligently bobbed away. Ben moaned in absolute ecstacy

"What the fuck?" the little blonde college girl exclaimed, and Ashling's eyes went wide at the realization that they were being watched by more than just her phone.

She popped his still-spurting cock from her mouth and turned to see the two college girls staring at them. Ben shot another rope of come against the side of her neck, and then a final spurt onto her chest as she made a mortified sound, noticing that the black girl was making her own recording with her phone while giggling behind the blonde girl, whose mouth was wide, trying to find the right words to say.

"Ohmygod shite! fock! shite!" Ashling said, flushing with embarrassment as she grabbed her phone from the floor to stop it recording, wiping the spit and come from her mouth on the inside of her arm as she stood, shooting Ben a horrified look, then looking back at the girls, and then fleeing past them down the hall.

Ben, less concerned with the consequences of his actions given his particular circumstances, smiled at the two girls as he slowly put away his twitching, freshly-sucked cock, giving them a quick, friendly nod, like he might give an acquaintence from across a crowded street before walking past them after Ashling.

"Have a nice day," he said as he passed them, the little blonde girl still sputtering, looking for words, the black girl barely containing giggles as she continued to film him walk away.

Ben found the nearest women's restroom in the bustling station, asking a nearby Janitor if he saw a woman of her description run into it while pressing a twenty dollar bill into the man's hand. The man gave him a disapproving look, but nodded and took the bill, so Ben leaned against the wall outside to wait for her, taking out his phone while he waited, seeing the usual text from Tomm, he responded.

T Hey you in the city yet?

B Yeah just got off the bus a bit ago

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

Ben thought for a moment, considering what to say to Tomm this time, what his plans should be this time around, when his phone buzzed again, receiving a text from Vic, followed by two more in quick succession:

V Hey babe you make it to the city yet? I hope your head is feeling better!

V That whole thing with that cat this morning was crazy! How did you do know where it was?

Ben was about to respond when he saw Ashling storm past him out of the restroom, not even noticing him as she followed signs for the exit to the station. Ben shook his head as he jogged after Ashling, turning off notifications from Vic as he did so to avoid her interrupting anything.

"Ashling! Ashling wait just one second, please!"

She turned, her face flushed with embarrassment, shaking her head.

"Don't follow me, like. I...I made a horrible mistake and now those girls..."

"Ashling...can I please just...talk to you? A little? I'm not asking for...for more...of that...I just need to tell you something else and..."

"Ben," she sighed, letting him catch up so that she could speak under her breath, "you're a cute ride with a nice smile, but we both know you're not interested in me for more than sex, and I'm starting to think I've just made the biggest mistake of my life back there so I'm not exactly in the mood to play around anymore—"

"It's not just that. It's...it's more complicated. Look I'll...I'll buy you lunch, or coffee, or whatever...I'll pay you just to let me sit down and talk to you for like fifteen minutes."

She narrowed her eyes at him.

"Ben this is starting to sound creepy, like. If you need to tell me something, tell me it now and then let me get on with my life hoping that girl doesn't post that fecking video."

Ben took a breath.

"You don't need to worry about the video. I made her delete it," he lied, feeling a pang of regret as he did so, "but weren't you going to send your video—"

"—Yeah...to Ian, like, not to the fecking world. He's a cheating prick but he wouldn't post it. The whole point is to embarrass him! I said his name and was shit-talking him the whole time, he wouldn't want that online!"

Ben had a few questions about her logic there, but he decided to let them slide.

"Ok. Ok. All I want to do is show you something on my phone, and then I'll happily leave you alone, ok? Hell, I'll give you money for a cab or lunch or dinner or whatever if you just let me show you this. It's got you in it."

She paused at that.

"You mean like, one of my workout videos? You're a fecking fan or something?"