Helping Palak

Author's note: First story ever! This is more like a personal fantasy assigned with words, and might be a little too long and slow for some people's taste. It is a work of fiction. All characters are 18 years of age or above. Feedbacks are welcomed. Enjoy.

*****

Deep in one of the remotest parts of the Brazilian Amazon rainforests, a boy looks up longingly at an airplane. A backpack slung on his shoulders, he's surrounded by thick vegetation on all sides, mostly wild species of various trees and plants he knows nothing about. The high humidity causing his clothes to stick to his body with perspiration.

"Hey, c'mon! We need to reach the camp before it gets dark", a girl's voice called out from somewhere behind him.

'Goodbye, civilization..' he thinks, looks down, turns around and resumes the long walk following behind his friend.

-

12 hours earlier

I woke up with a start, surprised at how I had fallen asleep in the first place.

It was a total of 34 hours of travel from IGI airport, New Delhi to Eduardo Gomes airport, Manaus via a connecting flight at Frankfurt and I had spent majority of it sleeping, and yet here I was, tired and dozing off in the waiting area outside terminal #1, which was apparently empty at this hour of early morning, except for me and a Chinese family who were sitting on the far left side of the hall.

The young Chinese girl turned towards me and upon noticing me looking, smiled and gave a wave. Blushing, I looked down and that's when I felt someone tap on my right shoulder.

Instinctively I turned and saw... no one. Perplexed I said, "Man I'm so fucking tired, and for what!?"

Shaking my head I turned to look at the cute Chinese girl again.

"For me!" suddenly a head appeared in my line of sight from behind me and really close to my face. I jumped back from my seat and stood, tripping over my luggage and barely managing to stay balanced.

I saw the Chinese family looking towards me with curious faces, the cute girl was trying and failing to stifle back her laughter.

Embarrassed, I looked towards the new person who herself was doubled up laughing.

It was my best friend Palak, on whose request I was right now standing at an airport halfway around the world away from the comforts of home.

"What the hell was that for!!?" I asked.

Controlling her laughter she took a deep breath, climbed over the front row of seats, walked towards me, threw her arms around my neck and hugged me tight. "Oh I've missed you too, buddy. You looked like you could use some waking up"

Slowly I put my arms around her and hugged her back. I'm 5' 6" and she was practically the same height as me, I sniffed in her hair which was open and smelled nicely of some conditioner I was glad I didn't recognize. As I held her I also realized her form had broadened considerably since I last saw her a year ago.

She broke contact and held me by shoulders at arm's length. She looked me up and down and said "Dude, will you ever stop being skinny?"

I shook my head and said "55 KGs is not that skinny and I'm not even the slightest health-conscious, you know that. Speaking of which, will you ever stop growing? How much weight have you put on this past year?"

She put her hands on her waist and said pridefully "Way ahead of you buddy, I'm almost 70 KGs now"

She was wearing royal-blue colored sneakers and denim shorts with an egg-yolk colored tank top, both of which seemed a size too tight and left nothing to the imagination. My eyes roamed over her figure from bottom to top, her bare legs increased in width constantly up to her wide thighs with a sudden but curvy exponential increase at her much wider hips, followed surprisingly by a relatively straight belly. As my eyes travelled further up to her broad rack, her chest heaved with a sigh and she crossed her arms with a sly smile and said "30GG, in case you're wondering"

I looked up at her face with glazed eyes and said "um, what?"

"40-28-38, those are my measurements, or were a few months ago, I've grown a bit since. Add it to your perverted database", she said slightly shaking her head. Her straight dark hair fell up to her breasts, her top didn't reveal any amount of cleavage though. On top of all that, she wore geek glasses which I was sure were just for show.

I crossed my hands and said "You bet I will. But I'm confused as to which category should I file this information in. An aspiring glamour model or the web-journalist I used to know?"

She rolled her eyes and said "very funny"

"But seriously, you look completely different than I remember! What brought on this transition?" I asked.

She raised her palms defensively and said "Can't help it man, I just try to keep fit while my weight keeps increasing, especially my busts"

"Yeah, I can see that" I said, nodding and widening my eyes for effect. "Now, I just traveled to other side of the planet simply because you asked me to, care to tell me why am I here?" I asked.

She suddenly got into a hurried mode, took my trolley bag and started rolling it towards exit and continued, "I'll tell you everything on the way, I promise. But right now we need to hurry!"

I got my backpack and ran to walk at her side.

"Lucy Vixen", I said after a while, looking at my phone.

Palak turned to look at my phone and said "who's that?"

I continued reading a profile from Boobpedia, "Lucy Collet or Lucy Vixen as she's more popularly known, is a glamour model herself. I follow her on Instagram and Twitter and your cup size reminded me of one of her posts about her bra-size measuring to be 32GGs, so I looked her up. You two have the exact same measurements, your weights are in a similar range, same skin tone. She's a redhead though, and doesn't wears fake glasses. Here, look at her pictures, she mostly does lingerie and topless shoots" I told her giving her my phone.

"Huh" she said while scrolling and tapping, "Interesting...". We had come to halt right before escalators. After a while she said "She's hot, dude! One might argue that below the neck we are strikingly similar but I don't know for sure" she looked at me and handed me back my phone "I always get the top view, I'll let you be the judge" she smiled and winked at me.

I raised my eyebrows as I took in her tease while she went on to descend through the escalators. I followed behind her.

I observed her frame from behind. In spite of her weight revelation, she was not too chubby but enough to be called desirably luscious. I caught myself staring at the curves of her buttocks and her long exposed legs and my mouth went dry.

'Man, when did she became a babe!?' I wondered. I had never seen her focusing at all on her looks. And not just physically, she seemed a lot more confident now. Much seemed to have changed about her since the last year.

I noticed a couple of guys ogling at her while ascending from the opposite escalator. I gave them a stern hard-eyed stare, but they didn't even noticed me.

I walked beside her as we entered the parking lot. She guided me towards a blue colored rented mini-car. She opened the back door and hauled the trolley inside, bending in the process and giving me now a more apparent view of her magnificent butts.

I wondered if she did that on purpose.

I shook my head. Not possible. We had drawn that line years ago for the sake of our friendship. Maybe she has gotten more easy-going these days.

She turned and got over to the driver's side and climbed inside. I threw my backpack with the rest of my luggage in the back and got inside beside her.

"I told you to pack lightly duffer, what did you brought two bags for!?" She asked.

"This IS me packing light..." I said with a shrug.

She rolled her eyes as she started the ignition and we exited the airport. It was still a little dark outside, with dawn just starting to break.

As we raced downhill on a rather empty road with thick forest cover on the right side and open grassland on the left, I looked over at her. Since the windows were down, the cool breeze was swooping in her face, her hair freely flowing back. I looked down at the curve of her bodacious rack and how they heaved up and down with each breath. I saw how goosebumps appeared on her bare arms and thighs with cold gusts of wind. I looked up at her slender lips and how she pursed them randomly. I looked at her, and how she appeared so different, so desirable.

I quickly looked away, at the trees flying by. I knew my line of thinking was asking for trouble. I'd simply complicate the matters. You see, I usually kept to myself, didn't hang out much because I wasn't really good at socializing or expressing myself. I was the "good friend" you'd remember when you'd need some help. Yet I hated refusing or being rude to people when they'd ask. And I had a past with her. Out of all my friendships, I valued this one the most. I cared for her. I liked her.

Deep in my thoughts, it was then I noticed a road-sign thanking for visiting the city and announcing the beginning of a "protected area". I read the last words out loud, and added, "Whoa, why are we going away from the city and into the forest!?"

"Coz I'm not staying in the city" she mumbled.

I stared at her for a second before saying, "...so then where? Aren't you on a vacation at Manaus?"

She looked at me briefly, bit her lower lip and began "I'm not exactly on a vacation, I'm working. It just...feels like a vacation", after a pause she added with an apologetic face, "I'm living deep in the forest with an ancient tribe, and so will you".

What!? I was at a loss for words, I simply stared at her. She noticed and said pointedly "look, it'll actually be good for you, I promise. Look at you, you need a little holiday yourself. Some time away from that digital life"

"Sweetie, that's not even the point. I'm here because you said you needed me. But I don't see how am I going to help you live in a tribe. Why are you living in an "ancient" tribe in the first place!?" I said making quote gesture with hands.

She took a deep breath and added "Actually you're not going to help me live there per se. I've already been living there for the past two months. You are just going to act as my um how to put this-research partner" she quickly looked outside her window.

I squinted and said "wait a minute, didn't you already had a research partner? That web developer, what's his name again...Narendra?"

She said with an exasperated expression "ew! His name is Nilesh. And actually I've been looking for the right moment to tell you this—" she looked at me and continued, "We're together, me and him. We started going out almost ten months ago. He was on the trip with me too but now he's not!" Suddenly her mood seemed to sadden.

I put my hand on her bare shoulder to which she reacted with an instinctive twitch. She's a web-journalist and they work for a popular blog. I asked her, "Hey what's the matter? You can tell me, you know"

She exhaled and said "what's there to tell, he bailed on me at the right fucking moment. We've been travelling around the world, studying and collecting stories of various tribes but just as we reached the last and the most important one, he bailed. We had a fight, he packed and took the first flight home. At first I thought I could do it alone but now I'm desperately in the need of a male partner. One whom I can trust" she looked at me through an affectionate smile.

I smiled back and squeezed her shoulder and said "Alright, I'm here now. Besides, a vacation with a hottie, that's like my dream come true!"

She hit me on the thigh as I started laughing and she continued driving.

I sat back and thought what I had just learned. 'She has a boyfriend'

--

After three long hours of driving since we had left the airport, we finally reached a small motel where-to my utter surprise-the road also ended. We were in the middle of the forest cover. The sun had fully risen now and the climate was starting to get even more humid than before.

I asked gesturing around "Hey is this it? Looks less like a tribal place and more like a trekking point."

"What. No! Not even close, dude. We're only like halfway there.

"You'll get freshened up, take a shower and rest for a few hours to get rid of jet lag after which you'll join me for a meal and then we'll begin walking deeper into the forest, for another 3 to 4 hours" she said pointing at the forest on the opposite side of the motel.

I nodded, "Yes ma'am!"

Then she said "You hear that?"

I listened carefully, except for some chirping birds and wind swooping through tree-tops, it was peacefully calm.

"What? I don't hear anything!" I said.

"Exactly" she winked and walked towards the door.

I smiled and took my luggage and followed her inside.

She had already rented a room for herself for last couple of months, apparently the whole motel was empty except for the Indian couple who were the owners. I realized that the Native American Indians had absolutely no similarity to us Asian Indians. I got to choose any of the three available rooms, and I chose the one beside Palak's.

We reached our rooms, she said "see you later then! Rest properly" smiled and went inside her room.

I stared at her room's closed door before going inside mine. I took the shower in a daze, all the time thinking about Palak, and how today she had appeared so different than I remembered her. Cold water ran down my face as my brain digested the facts I had learned so far: three days ago Palak had called me in the middle of the night and told me she was in Manaus, Brazil and urgently needed me to come meet her and promised to give details later, I had taken a flight the very next day and arrived here to find out that my friend is now a bombshell who is living with some tribe people doing god knows what, and on the top of that she was seeing someone, which was the only thing that bugged me, not even the part that I still didn't knew what I was supposed to do in a tribe with her.

We had been friends since high school but as we entered college our friendship deepened, our conversations became detailed. Eventually we started sharing intimate thoughts and over a gradual period of time we realized we liked each other. But immature as we were, we couldn't bring our relation out of texts to talks, we never got physically intimate either and things got weird at some point, mistakes were made and we ended our brief fling. We decided to stay friends because that's what at least we were good at, put the past behind us and moved on.

For me, the feelings stayed, I just didn't knew how to stop liking her.

And here we were, seven years later, staying on each other's side through good and bad. But the latest revelation made me unsure if I really should continue to be her baggage.

I came out of the shower and shook my head to clear it of swirling negative thoughts, I was already here and might as well just go with it. Moreover my body was rejecting to move anymore. I simply threw the towel on the floor and sprawled naked on the bed and fell asleep before even my head hit the pillow.

I slept hard and long, until a distant voice woke me. I opened my eyes to see Palak hovering over my face, hands on her hips, she said, "You've slept for 5 hours. Its meal time. Cmon, gettup!" She drummed my chest with her palms and added, "And do take care of that before the meal. Seriously, what were you dreaming dude!"

At first I simply stared at her, confused, but then she giggled and looked towards my lower body. "Shit!" I recovered and quickly put the pillow over my raging hard-on. She giggled again, turned to exit the room, then turned her head back and added with a wink "apparently I'm not the only one of us with a good package!" And then she was gone.

Quickly I ran into the bathroom and again took a long cold shower. I felt like had been dreaming about her but couldn't bring myself to jack off to her thoughts. It just seemed wrong, always had. The temptation was too great though. I mean, it's not every day your lifelong crush admires your dick size. So I took a cold long shower until the throbbing erection shrunk to a semi, then I dressed and went to find Palak waiting at a table. A mischievous smile plastered over her face.

I sat down and gave her a look, hoping she'd understand I didn't want to talk about it, she did. We ordered healthy food: salad, boiled eggs and some kind of mixed-fruit smoothie, I got a cheeseburger too as she told me it would be a while when I'll be able to eat junk food again.

I asked her "So, tell me about your work. And my role too if possible."

She talked in between bites and I tried to keep my eyes trained on her face. Tried. And failed. My eyes would eventually wander to her chest. Though her cleavage was covered, the form of her prominent breasts was quite obvious in that tight tank top. I began to wonder whether she was actively enjoying the attention she was getting from my eyes.

She began "Well, I'm working on a new project titled 'Uncontacted Tribes: The Last Free People on Earth and How Can We Protect Them' And for that I've travelled around the world for the past year, collecting data and studying about various tribes, their daily lives, their beliefs, their languages, their internal governing systems, their rituals, you get the gist. The Native Indian tribes of the Brazilian Amazon are the last stage of my endeavor and not just any tribe, these are the Kawahiva. One of the most isolated tribes in the amazon basin. They've never been documented before, they have a strict policy of not sharing anything about themselves to outsiders. But our friends here-" she gestured toward the motel owners "-were actually a part of that tribe before they decided to live a separate life on their own. They run this motel for the tourists who come to trek through the jungle, though no one really goes that deep into the forest as we would. They taught me about the tribe and their language after which they introduced me to the leader with their own approval of trust. They still have contact with the tribe, provide them with supplies, medicinal treatment if needed, and blankets for the harsh winter. The tribe is living under the threat of illegal wood-traffickers and loggers even though this is a declared protected part of the forest. Hopefully my research journal will also catch the attention of government into saving the forest and hence the tribe and its unique traditions"

She smiled at the couple and continued "So I was simply to become a part of the tribe and learn as much as I could. I started living there and have gathered almost everything about them. There's just a couple of things left for which I need your help"

I raised my eyebrows at her as I munched the salad and said with a full mouth "So where do I come in?"

She blushed a little for some reason and said, talking to her salad "It's better you find that out after we reach there" then she looked up and added "It's better that way, trust me"

"mmm-hmmm, okay let's do it then!" I said and gave her a reassuring smile. Her face lit up, genuine happiness and excitement reflecting on her face, she said "I just can't thank you enough dude, for all you're doing"

"Oh come on now, you know I'd help you through anything!" I said smiling "and moreover, I do honestly need a break from the daily monotonous routine. God, its suffocating sometimes."

"Exactly!" she smiled and continued finishing her salad. As I finished my own, I observed her face, she was again deep in thought. Perhaps thinking about putting her research together. And as I looked I realized, this is the perfect woman right here! Beautiful and attractive, smart and hard-working, hot as it can get and most importantly a good person throughout.