Shannon Ch. 03 - The Driver

"She's fucking around on me." He said.

He spoke as we were sitting, so I just sighed and stared at the Xbox screen trying to think rapidly how to get out of this one. My inaction seemed to incense Nick even further.

"Come on then, let's have it," He spat, "how long has it been going on between you two? How long have you been fucking behind my back?"

I could have laughed with the sheer relief I felt in that moment, but I guessed that he would have probably socked me one. Nick was a lot shorter than me, with fair hair, but he was sinewy, and a hard nut.

"Nick, I'm sorry you're going through this, but I am not the one fucking Shannon." I said calmly.

His eyes narrowed. He didn't seem to believe me, which was fair. The injustice of it all was that, of course, I hadn't laid a finger on her perfect flesh. I began to wonder if what we had actually been up to together was somehow worse than fucking.

"You sent her money," He accused, "via PayPal. And she has that fucking app. Wickr. I know what people use that for. I wasn't born yesterday. I can't get into it but I got a fair idea of what's going on in there."

A pang returned to my chest.

"Go on, get your phone out, lad," He demanded, "and I'll put fifty fucking quid down that you've got that app installed and Shan's on your contacts."

I unlocked my Wickr app and showed him the screen, emboldened by the fact Shannon had set the message lifespan on our communications to 6 hours. He seemed almost disappointed at the empty chat screen. By his reaction, he couldn't have known her username, much to my relief.

"And the money?"

I sighed.

"It's a surprise, a birthday thing for Rachel. Shannon is organising it in secret, that's probably why she hasn't mentioned anything to you, I guess."

He looked at me suspiciously.

"Mate, you've sent Shan the best part of £250 in the last month or so," He sniggered out of anxiousness, "I mean, what the fuck kinda surprise costs that much? Rach's birthday is in November isn't it? Long way off to be organising that."

I crossed my legs, as casually as I could.

"Vegas," I said. I have no idea why, it just came out.

"Vegas?"

"Yeah, Las Vegas," I clarified, "Rachel's always wanted to go, and I know the two of them were trying to put something together for the summer, so I thought y'know, why don't they go to Vegas? I'll pay for Rachel's half, as and when I can, out of my wages, and when there's enough money Shan could book it for them."

Nick looked at me, his blue eyes seemingly full of defeat. The lie was so ridiculous I suspected that it was beginning to work.

"This doesn't make any sense," He sighed, head in hands, "why on earth wouldn't she mention this to me?"

"I'm sorry but I don't know, Nick," I offered almost in consolation, "but, I think we got off on the wrong foot here. Can I get you a beer or something?"

He almost looked like he was going to accept the offer, but his senses seemed to wash over him, and he leapt to his feet.

"So you're not fucking her," He declared, "I suppose I believe that much. But, there's something weird about you, mate. You don't add up, and I don't like it. You can stop sending Shannon money right the fuck now. I'll get her to send back what you've given so far. Don't speak to her, and stay the fuck away from her. Forever. You so much as look at her and I'll break your goddamn neck."

Nick stormed from the living room, sending the door flailing wide and crashing against the wall. The front door to the house slammed behind him a few seconds later. As relieved as I was to have somehow avoided a beating at the hands of Shannon's livid and scorned boyfriend, I was filled with anxiety about what would happen next. How long would it be before my lies were unravelled?

I whipped out my phone and messaged her immediately.

"Nick was just here. He knows about the money. He thinks we are fucking each other. Told him this wasn't true but he still thinks you are cheating on him. I told him the money I sent you was for a surprise holiday for you and Rach. He knows you have this app too. We need to stop this now."

I sat on my sofa staring at the TV for so long that the Xbox went to sleep and I was just sat in front of the blue hue of the disconnected screen.

My phone buzzed.

"Lol ofc I'm fuckin someone else. I'm a princess, I take wat I want. Nick knows this. He just can't deal wit it. Can't believ he thinks it's u tho Lmao - ur pathetic. I hope he didn't frighten u too much! :'D X"

The "crying with laughter" emoji tacked at the end of the message boiled my blood. I gawped at the phone in disbelief. It buzzed again.

"And I will decide when we stop this, thnk u very much."

I actually laughed.

I responded: "Are you on fucking drugs?"

Buzz buzz.

"U have fkd this up properly u kno that, right? Don't u fkn dare talk 2 me like that again. I'll sort this mess wit Nick + unless u want me 2 tell Rach everyfin u will do exactly as I say, u disgustin panty sniffin lil freak. Now fuck off + stop messaging me. I'll txt YOU when I need to. Prick."

*

For a week or so after, things were quiet. I hadn't heard a peep from either Shannon or Nick. I'd tried to weedle information out of Rach; to find out if Shan and Nick had broken up. I was looking for any breadcrumbs that would give me an idea of what would come next. The panties stopped arriving in the mail, and I had received no more messages on Wickr.

Roll around to day nine after Nick's visit. There's a knock at the door. Rachel is at work and I'm watching asinine daytime TV. I answer the door promptly, thinking it'll be the postman or something. Its Shannon.

"Hi," She said, "can I come in?"

Without waiting for a response, she waltzed right on past me into the living room. I locked the door and jogged after her.

She was wearing a beaten green hoodie and black hot pants. Her long tan legs ended in open flip flop sandals, and her unpainted toes stared up at me. She had on no make up, and her lush blonde hair was tied back in a pony tail. Over her shoulder was a sports bag.

"Nick's little chat with you has messed up a lot of stuff for me," She explained.

I almost laughed at her audacity.

"That'll explain why you've stopped sending me underwear, or asking me for money," I declared bitterly. Despite Nick's threatening promise, I'd never gotten my money back.

"Shut up you little perv, and listen to me," She spat.

A fire surged in my chest. We were alone. The urge to grab her by the throat and throw her out the door was enormous. But I stood there, doing nothing, saying nothing. Then, out of nowhere, there was a stirring in my jeans...

"There'll be no more panties," She explained, "it was fun money when it lasted but Nick is watching me like a hawk. Anyway, this is about more than that. Everything is all fucked up now, thanks to you, so you are going to help me."

"Help you?"

"Yes," She confirmed, "yes you are. You see, Nick is loyal and caring and loving, and one day we will marry and have children. He is the love of my life, the light of my world. He dotes on me and looks after me. I'm his princess."

She gestured with her hand for me to look at her body, and she did a little shift back and forth from one heel to the other in the way she was standing.

"But, here's the problem. Look at me. My body is wasted on a loyal dog like him. I need to be ravished. I need a bad boy in my life."

I stared at her, mouth agape. She was so fucking full of herself. How could a single person be so out of touch with how they are perceived? Maybe I was the one that was out of touch.

"I've been seeing Big Mike for a few months now, do you know Big Mike? Mike Maloney."

"I don't," I said.

"Good, I suppose." She replied. "I'm telling you all this out of necessity. Lovely Nick has put a tracker on my car. He doesn't know that I know about it, but my brother is a mechanic. Luckily, I had my breaks changed a few days ago and he pointed it out."

I could see what was coming before she'd said it.

"So here's what is going to happen," She continued, "I'm going to drive here once a week, when Rach is in work, and then you are going to drive me to Big Mike's. If you refuse I leak all of our messages, same deal as before. It's all rather simple really, and quite genius don't you think? Nick thinks I'm visiting my friend, you get to pay off your perverted debt to me, and I get fucked how I deserve. Everyone is a winner."

I pinched the bridge of my nose.

"And how long do you think we could keep that up for before someone finds out?" I asked.

Shannon looked annoyed.

"As long as I can, not that I see how you have any choice in the matter." She replied defiantly.

"This is a stupid idea," I decided, sitting on the sofa. It was hard to take my eyes off her tanned legs and feet now that I was more level with them.

Shannon giggled.

"And sending you panties through the mail wasn't? Taking my underwear off for you in this very living room, that wasn't stupid? Where's the fun without the risk? How long had you been jerking off with girls clothes before I caught you?"

"That was different," I explained, "nobody was supposed to find out."

"But they did," She smirked, "and now I've got myself a pathetic little worm to play with."

I sighed heavily.

"I'm not stupid." She admitted. "This is sure to blow up in my face; if Nick has a tracker on my car that will only be the start of it. But I plan to have as much fun as I can - when I can. Let me worry about what happens afterwards. Now are you going to drive me to my hook up or do I have some emails to send?"

*

I locked the front door to the house and then we piled out the back, and silently got into my car. It felt like we were in a spy movie or something. It should have felt like I was her pimp driving her to customers, I thought as I started the engine, but then I realised if that was the case then I'd probably not be feeling so powerless.

Shannon said nothing, although she did manage a brief look of disgust at the interior of my Ford. After we'd gotten out of my town and onto the motorway I had to ask her where on earth it was that I was supposed to be taking her. It was as if she was so goddamm arrogant that she assumed I'd know where to go; like her booty call was the only thing that mattered in the entire world.

"You need to tell me where we're going," I said, looking into the rear view mirror.

She dead-eyed me for a few moments, almost as if now that it was actually coming down to it, she was reluctant to reveal her secrets.

"Do you know the Sleepwell Lodge?" She asked.

It was, of course, a sleazy motel that was on my commute to work. I drove past it several times a week. I'd never look at its cracked paint exterior the same after this, though.

"The only choice for the traveller on a budget?" I said, mimicking one of the lodge's terrible radio ads. She didn't dignify me with a response.

After about ten minutes or so, I pulled the car into the parking lot of the Sleepwell Lodge and looked for a free bay. Being the middle of the afternoon on a weekday, there was plenty of them about. As I turned off the engine, Shannon produced a cheap plastic-backed pocket mirror and a stick of pink lip gloss, which she started to apply in thick layers to her plump lips.

"Couldn't you have done that when I was driving?" I asked.

She giggled.

"You've clearly never tried to put on make up in a moving car." She said carefully as she dabbed at her lips.

She smacked her lips, and the clicking sounds of her putting away her mirror and make up came from the back of the car.

"Don't worry, I won't keep you, I just needed a bit of gloss. It's pointless wearing a ton of makeup just to get dicked down; this isn't a first date, but Mike likes me to wear gloss if I'm going to suck his cock."

The harshness of the dirty words and how effortlessly they fell out of her pretty mouth initially shocked me. Only weeks ago, Shannon was, to me, nothing more than the quiet and insanely hot best friend of my own lady. Despite how I had lusted over her and her clothes, there was always a kind of innocence to her that was now entirely broken; now that I could see behind the curtain and had revealed the real her.

"I shouldn't be too long." She said, opening the car door.

I watched her bum wiggle as she shuffled across the parking lot and disappeared into the hotel's reception.

*

I'd browsed the internet, read the news and checked my social media accounts before she re-emerged out of the lobby. If I had to guess, half hour to forty minutes had passed. She fell into the back seat with a great sigh. She crossed her bare legs and pulled a packet of cigarettes out of her bag.

"Can I smoke in here?" She asked me.

"Knock yourself out, just crack the window." I replied, starting the engine.

As I reversed out of the bay, our eyes caught in the rear view mirror. I watched as she blew smoke out the side of her mouth and out of the window.

"I didn't know you smoked?" I asked, putting the car into first gear and pulling off.

She took another drag.

"Only after I've been fucked." She explained. She almost looked proud of herself.

I indicated left and pulled out into the flow of traffic.

"Why have you gotta talk like that? 'Fucked'? 'Dicked down'?"

She laughed.

"Oh I'm sorry, is it not ladylike?"

I shook my head.

"Its pointless beating around the bush, don't you think?" She asked. "Especially when we are both neck deep now in these little secrets of ours? You drive me here so I can get pounded by my lover boy, and I will keep your dirty panty sniffing fetish to myself. Why sugar coat it? That's what's going on, right?"

She took a deep drag.

"Me and Nick, we make love," she continued, "because we love each other. Mike though, Mike fucks me. Hard. Deep. What we just did in that hotel room was not out of love. It was crude, and it was dirty. I was dominated, used, and completely satisfied. Do you have any idea how hard that is for me to achieve? I'm glowing right now."

She threw the cigarette out of the window.

Shannon seemed quite pleased with her little speech so I left it at that, driving the rest of the way home in silence. Soon enough, I pulled up around the back of my house. We got out of the car and went into the house. I was unlocking the front door for her to walk out innocently to her own car when she stopped walking and leaned against my hallway wall.

"It'll be the same deal for the same time next week," She said, "Mike and I have agreed its the best time to meet."

"Thanks for checking with me," I said sarcastically.

"You don't get an opinion on this unless I say you do, understand?" She wagged her finger at me. "Both Nick and Rachel are in work at this time, think about it! We have an entire afternoon to play with once a week, the same time every week. It's perfect, really."

She had the audacity to kiss me on the cheek as she hopped out the front door with a spring in her step.

*

And so it went on. The week after, and then the week after that, I chauffeured Shannon to her hook ups with Mike. I never saw Mike, as the deed always took place at the run down Sleepwell Motel, and it always ended with her coming back to the car beaming and relaxed, and then smoking a cigarette out of my back window. The second week had been during a heatwave and as she got into the car, I noticed that she stank of sex. It was a deep, primal smell that lasted only a few seconds before she lit up her cigarette.

Things had almost seemed to return to some semblance of normalcy, the chauffeuring aside. Without the worry of random packages appearing or time sensitive demands coming through via the anonymous chat app, driving Shannon to her secret affair was a much easier way for me to pay off my "debt" to her. I'd even decided to carefully get rid of most of the panties that she had sent me, except for the emerald green silk ones - those I couldn't bring myself to part with.

The fifth week, she showed up in full make up and a gorgeous short dress of cream and magnolia. It was smart, and pretty, but also rather casual. Rich white girl casual, that was. On her feet she wore strappy flats, where the straps snaked up her legs, about half way up the shins. Her toes were painted a muted lilac, and matched her finger nails.

"What's the occasion?" I asked, locking the front door behind her and patting my pockets looking for my car keys.

"Me and Nick are going for dinner and drinks afterwards." She explained.

I snickered.

"What?" She asked.

"Well, aren't you going to need to shower or something first?"

She smiled wickedly, but did not respond.

We got into the car as usual. She seemed preoccupied on her phone for the first half of the journey, so I had the radio on and my arm resting in the space created by the open driver's window. I could have been a taxi driver and she could have been any old pretty girl I'd just picked up as a fare.

"Y'know," She said out of the blue, prompting me to turn the volume of the music down, "we've been using the money you sent me for the panties to pay for the hotel over the last few weeks."

A hatred burned inside me. I'd put the money and the whole blackmail episode out of my mind; subconsciously boxing it off like it never happened and contenting myself instead by being her driver, which was much cheaper and less stressful.

"I wondered how Nick hadn't kicked off about that," I said darkly, "he promised me my money back."

"Oh, as far as he knows, you had it all back," She laughed, "but, I just gave it all to Big Mike for booking the hotel rooms."

"I'm glad you got some use out of the rest of the money then." I spat.

"Don't be like that," She said, almost soothingly, "we could hardly have you driving me to Mike's apartment, we had to be extra careful."

I sighed.

"You've not always been hooking up in manky hotels then?"

She giggled.

"Absolutely not," She confirmed, "but, I have to admit that it has been a lot of fun, sneaking to Rach's house and having her perv of a boyfriend drive me to get fucked on the side in a sleazy motorway hotel, watching him eye fuck me as he drives me to my date."

She winked at me. My heart leapt.

"I haven't been eye fucking you!" I protested.

Had I? I figured I'd been too annoyed or nervous about the whole situation to really appreciate her body during the drives but I was starting to second guess myself.

Something else she had just said clicked with me, and I back tracked.

"Hang on," I said, "it's 'been' fun? As in, past tense?"

"He catches on fast, this one!" She mewed, doing a fake little clap.

I pulled off the motorway and into the Sleepwell parking lot.

"So this is the last time I'm going to be ferrying you around like this?" I asked, trying not to sound too hopeful.

"Probably," She said, "and as I was saying just now, about the money, you've essentially paid for all of this with your filthy panties habit. And, not to mention, you've enabled me by driving me here every week. You're as big a part of this now as me or Mike. So, we had a discussion last week, and have decided to end the affair."

I stopped the vehicle and turned off the engine.

"You're serious?" I asked. "Its over between you and Mike?"

"Oh, absolutely not," She smirked, "I said the affair was over, not me and Mike. You'll either be pleased or gutted to know though, that me and you are over. Consider your debt paid, you little perv. Me and Mike just need one more thing from you, and that's it, you never have to speak to me again. Imagine that? You're free to rifle through some other girl's underwear."

My mind went immediately to dark places. There had to be a sting at the end of this.