Sara & Laura Ch. 04 - 3:27a

Laura had awoken for the third time that night. The room was stuffy, and far too hot. She rolled over and stared, unseeing, at the bedside clock.

'3:27a'

Its red light was too bright in the dark room, and the hard edges of the LCD numbers seared themselves into her vision, leaving iridescent ghosts shimmering when she shut her eyes again. She allowed another endless moment to pass before she threw her bedsheet back and slowly pushed herself upright on exhausted, protesting arms. Laura planted her elbows on her knees and supported her head in her hands, rubbing robotically at her eyes. She groaned softly to herself. As she slowly sobered up from the confusing haze of intermittent sleep, she took stock. Sweat gathered in the small of her back and slowly worked downwards. Her scalp ached, most likely from rolling over her hair in the night and pulling on it. Most importantly, she felt like she could hardly breathe.

Laura stood up, grabbing the glass of water she kept at her bedside, and drank deep. In a moment, she had drained the entire glass, but still she felt parched. Her skin felt too tight, like it was two sizes too small. Slowly, she recalled the dreams that had chased her. In the office with Sara. Her and Sara having dinner. Her and Sara in bed.

The dreams had been nonsexual, near as she could recall, but she couldn't be sure that wasn't only because she had woken up before they could arrive at their logical conclusion. More vignettes than nocturnal stories, these kinds of dreams were becoming more and more frequent over the last two weeks. Still, despite their relatively family-friendly content, she could feel the jagged edges of emotion spilling out from them, and it was usually enough to disrupt her sleep for hours at a time. She grabbed her phone, still tethered to the wall by its charger, and opened her calendar. Nothing between late morning and late afternoon. Maybe she could slip a nap in after lunch, if she was lucky. Her quiet contemplation was interrupted by the low rolling rumble her neighbours patio door sliding open surreptitiously. Maybe some fresh air and conversation would fix her. She strode across the room in the utilitarian t-shirt and panties that served as night dress and slid open her own patio door. Cool air pooled around her ankles, languidly rising up her legs and raising goosebumps on her naked skin. The moment was marred only slightly by a faint breath of cigarette smoke.

Laura stepped out into the world, two dozen stories above the street. From this distance, the night lights of the city made it glitter and sparkle, but tonight it felt hollow.

"Hi Paul," she said quietly, not wanting to end the reverie too suddenly, "what are you doing up so late?"

Her neighbor turned to her from the other side of the balcony's glass partition and smiled, his lips and nose illuminated in a small swatch of light from the end of the lit cigarette, his eyes reflecting its orange glow as twin pinpricks.

"Early, actually," he said, taking another drag, briefly revealing more of his face as the glow intensified, then died away, "I just got up, I've a flight in a couple of hours. What are you doing up so late?" he returned.

"Insomnia, I suppose," she said, leaning on the cool metal railing of her patio. She could breathe again, and her body was thanking her for the fresh air.

"The kind where you can't fall asleep, or the kind where you can't stay asleep?"

"Can't stay asleep."

"I'm sorry to hear that," he said regretfully as he stubbed his cigarette with a fizz in the ashtray, "that's the worst kind. Something the matter?"

"No. Yes. Maybe." She murmured. Her eyes were beginning to adjust to the darkness, and she noticed a small, wry smile on Paul's rather handsome face.

"Definitive," he replied, chuckling softly. Laura felt a thin line of a smile sprout. "What seems to be the problem?"

Laura thought for a moment about dodging the question, making an excuse and going back to bed. She was certain she could do it without coming across as rude. At the same time, her thoughts on the matter were making too much of a mess in her head, and she thought that perhaps they would be less troubling if they were let out.

"Did you ever have feelings for someone you weren't supposed to?"

Paul looked out at the city thoughtfully, raised his eyebrows, and pursed his lips. "Oh sure," then grinned, "nothing illegal, right?"

Laura smiled and rolled her eyes off to one side, "no, of course not."

Paul laughed, low and musical, "yeah, sure, plenty of times. Someone special is causing sleepless night, hm?"

"So it would seem," Laura replied, "worse still, I think they feel the same way."

Pauls face was serene. "So what's the problem?"

Laura rolled the question over. Even with the unique privileges of the therapeutic program she was involved in, it still felt as though this fell in a strange ethical grey area. Sexual contact was allowed, of course, but romance was supposed to be out of the equation entirely. She was still in a position of power.

"It's hard to explain," she said finally, "it's just that..." she trailed off. She wasn't really sure what it was, if she was being honest. "I guess I think I'm too old to feel quite like this. No more weak knees and butterflies."

"Maybe," Paul said, "but at our age, who knows how many more times we'll get to feel that way."

Laura rolled her eyes inwardly at 'our age'. She didn't know Paul well, but she guess she was at least ten years older than he was, a sizably gap in life experience. Still, he was well-intentioned, if not right.

"I guess."

"And," Paul started, now sounding very far away, "who knows how long they'll last."

The sad finality of the statement sent Laura's stomach dropping 24 floors down to the street.

"You might be right," she said, feeling more and more sure he was. "So do you think I should pursue it?"

He didn't look back at her right away, smiling softly to himself and exhaling a small laugh through his nose. "I've been in and out of therapy for years. Sometimes, I need a little more help than others, sometimes I need a little guidance, you know how it is."

Laura nodded. She did know, it was her job to know.

"Every time I've encountered a tricky personal stumbling block, one that's based on my relationship with others, I mean, I ask my therapist what they think I should do. Do you know what he says to me? Each and every time?"

Laura felt like she did, but only cocked her head slightly, inviting him to continue.

"You already know what you want to do, you're just looking for someone to approve of your decision." He said, smiling and rolling his eyes.

What remained of her stomach tightened into a tangled snarl. It was an often-used phrase, and one that she knew was true more often than not. Laura said nothing.

Paull straightened up and wiped an errant flake of ash from his coat. "Well, I'm off to the airport. Let me know how it shakes out when I get back?"

"I will. Enjoy your trip, Paul." Laura responded quietly. Her neighbor's patio door rumbled shut, and she was alone again.

Alone.

How long had it been since she had shared her bed with someone? Not sex, that was a regular enough occurrence, but naked intimacy.

Too long, she thought.

She stayed out on the balcony until the sweat that clung to her had dried, and her body temperature had stabilized somewhat. A few minutes later, she retreated indoors, feeling refreshed but no less exhausted.

'3:48a'

Laura grumbled in disgust at the glacial passage of time, then trodded, defeated, to the kitchen to brew as big a pot of coffee as she could.

It was going to be a long, difficult day.

________________________________________________________

'3:27a'

"Ooohhhh fuck," Sara grumbled to herself. She had checked the time on her phone only tentatively, hoping against hope that time would have gotten away from her so she could at least justify getting up and putting this sleepless night behind her. Once again, reality was disappointing. She hadn't truly slept for more than twenty minutes at a time so far, brief moments of unconsciousness only occasionally gracing her this warm evening. The grogginess was the worst part of it, the ineffable twilight state she had to break out of each time she had awoken. She sighed low and long. Sara wasn't as alone as she would have liked. Each time she rose, her impatient member arose with her, hungry for attention.

It throbbed and ached, twitching and jumping beneath her bedsheets, a shark fin pushing up from silken waters. Sara reached beneath the sheets and gripped her enormous erection, hot to the touch and rock hard, and pushed it down, raising her legs and closing her thighs in an attempt to calm it down without release. Instead, it pressed angrily against the underside of her thighs and throbbed more. She let it fly free and it waggled happily, bouncing up and down.

Since her first time really exploring it, Sara had become quite careful about releasing the building pressure. It had become demanding, a jealous personality that would make itself known at inopportune moments if she didn't tend to it. Usually once a day was enough, but tonight it was utterly insatiable. After her first micro-dream that night, of her and Laura in session, of Laura's eyes darting down to her skirt, and what lay beneath it, that release was necessary. After the second dream, of her and Laura on a couch, lips only inches apart, the therapist's hand trailing softly up the inside of Sara's thighs, the release was urgent. After the third dream, of being sprawled out in bed, and Laura's full lips hovering teasingly above Sara's painfully erect cock, her tongue slowly creeping towards the engorged purple head, that release was an emergency.

Absentmindedly, Sara unlocked her phone and opened the messenger as she had done a thousand times before in her life. She had expected no one to be active at this time of night, naturally, but was only a little surprised to see Jessie's status set to 'online'. She pressed the power button of her phone, and the blue light of her phone vanished, plunging her into darkness, then glowing faintly to show the time.

'3:29a'

Sara rolled back, feeling utterly defeated. She was mostly certain that she wouldn't be masturbating a fourth time this evening. It seemed like an embarrassing amount.

Still, she thought, it's not like I'm getting anywhere as it is, and-

Her thought was interrupted by a low 'buzz' emanating from her phone. She started a little, surprised. The notification light on her phone flashed blue every few seconds. Tentatively, she grabbed her phone and clicked the screen on.

'Jessie

You awake? :)'

Sara grumbled. It was way too late to be texting right now. If she did respond, she'd probably be too wired to sleep again before long. The best decision would be to ignore it. She unlocked her phone and began typing.

'Yeah, can't really sleep haha' she pecked out, and clicked send. Her phone buzzed cheerfully after only a few seconds.

'Me too!' Jessie replied.

'Well actuallyt'

'Iwas jsut out with some friends and I'm a little topsy'

'Tipsy lol'

At least a little, Sara thought and smiled. Even in their limited encounters, Jessie seemed so fun and outgoing, and this seemed to tally marks in favour of that theory.

'Lol, sounds like fun' Sara replied, now less sure what her goal was in responding in the first place.

'So fun!' Jessie responded immediately, then after a moment;

'So question'

'I know you've gotyour heart set on someone'

Sara felt the blood rush to her face so fast she thought she might faint. It still wasn't something she could wrap her head around, still didn't seem to be something that was even remotely within the realm of possibility. Sara's fingers hovered above the keyboard, ready to type out some rebuttal or deflection, but none came to mind. The text messages continued to pour in.

'But like I was wondering'

'Okay so'

'You can say no and its totally cool dont even worrt'

'If you very want to hang out and like fool around'

'I would be so onto that'

'Like so much'

Sara didn't know what to say. Drunken confessions were not something she experienced often, and not something that she had the faintest idea how to respond to.

'Oh really?' she typed back lamely, unsure of what else she even could say.

Unsure if maybe that was something she wanted to do.

'Girl yes!'

'Omg'

'Omg'

Then a moment of typing, and;

'Listen dont think that thats all I want okat'

'Like say no if you want and its find'

'But I think we should hang out anyways'

'You seem really cool'

Sara was stunned. She knew it was probably the booze talking, but nobody had ever really engaged with her like this before. She had friends in high school, sure, but she didn't know anybody so fun and laid-back as Jessie, and wouldn't have expected this kind of positive attention even if she did. Tears gathered on the precipice of her eyes, unbidden. She wasn't sure why, exactly, but they were there.

'Thanks Jessie, that means a lot' She typed with quivering fingers.

'Ofcourse!'

'Okay I'm gonna try and sleep this off lol'

'I'll text you tomorrow!'

All of this was followed with a large pink heart emoji, seconds before Jessie's icon blinked from online to off.

Sara clicked the power button on her phone again and was left alone in the darkness. Was it something she could do? Was it something she wanted to do? She wasn't as sure about fooling around with Jessie, again, but the promise of a friend, a real friend and not a work friend, was so sweet to her she certainly couldn't resist that. She sat in the dark. Her cock was still hard, but seemed to have relaxed a little bit. Regardless of her downstairs neighbor, however, she was shaky and jittery from her conversation with Jessie, and tears bore tracks down her cheeks before meeting the corners of her lips. She wasn't going to sleep again tonight, that much was for sure. She looked at her phone again.

'3:48a'

She smudged the tear tracks with the back of her hand, interrupting the slowing flow. She returned her phone to its home on her bedside table and slowly stood up, stuffing her bulk into her panties as best as she could. Slowly, she plodded to the kitchen to brew as big a pot of coffee as she could.

It was going to be a long day.

~~~~~~

Sorry about the delay. I've had some personal life issues that left me unable to tend to this story for a long while now, but I have every intention to return to this story at least once or twice more now.