Take a Chance Ch. 01

"BEN!" I'm greeted by a five year old flinging herself at my legs when I walk in the door to my aunt and uncle's house. It's still a novelty for Marie to have me here, so I pick her up and whirl her around before putting her down. The next couple hours pass quickly, as my uncle gets home and my aunt gets dinner together.

"So, how was school," my Aunt Jeanie asks me as we're filling our plates.

"Good," I mumble in between bites. "I was thinking this weekend I'd head over to Malden and buy a membership. Is that ok?"

"You're in school," Jeanie says with a shrug. "That was the deal. And it's your money. Just make sure to leave some time for the beach - Marie will be sad if you don't come with us."

That night, after Marie's been whisked away to her bath, I'm working my way through the first chapter of our Anatomy textbook when my phone buzzes. I'm lying on my bed in the spare room that's become mine for the year, and I reach over to where the phone rests on the nightstand, pulling the charger cord out of the base. When I unlock the screen, I see there's a new text from Mia.

Mia: Hows that Anatomy hmwk going? :)

Ben: Theres 12 vcb words in the first 2 pgs.

I think I'm screwed.

Mia:Lol

Your only 2 pgs in?

You didnt even get 2 the naked people on page 6?

Ben: Theres naked people on page 6?

I set my phone aside for a moment and flip forward. I see what she's talking about, though they're not exactly sexy or anything: bland paintings of naked guys and girls with different systems - cardiovascular, digestive, etc - superimposed over them.

Ben: Those are so not sexy.

Mia: Yeah, srry.

Check 542 instead.

"Five-forty-two." I flip forward, glance over the diagram of the female reproductive system (medial view) and shake my head.

Ben: Still not sexy.

Mia: What u dont like girls?

Ben: I like girls. Cross section of bladder still not sexy.

I hesitate for a moment. Am I reading this right? Is she flirting with me? This teasing about the female reproductive system - she was nice to me all day, and it certainly felt like she was flirting a couple of times. It certainly seems like it. Life's too short to hesitate. I decide to take a chance.

Ben: Id rather see a pic of u.

Mia: I bet u would lol

I wait for a moment to see if there's going to be a reply, but my phone doesn't vibrate, so I get back to reading. Or at least, trying to read. I'm working my way through the section on homeostasis when my phone buzzes again.

Mia: Call me when u finish the chapter

Ben: Ok

Interesting, I think to myself. Curious as to where she's going with this, I force my way through the rest of the chapter over the course of the next forty-five minutes. Yeah, yeah, it sounds like that's longer than it should take, but I'm filling up a notebook with every word in the text that gets bold font, and the definitions that go with them, and that takes a while, especially since I'm trying really hard to make sure that I'm going to be able to read my own handwriting when I need to go back later.

Finally, I put my phone on speaker, sit back on a pile of pillows, and call Mia.

"Hey," she says after the second ring. "You finish the chapter?"

"Yup," I say with a groan. "Doesn't mean I know what any of it means, but I finished. Took a lot of notes; hopefully I can still make sense of them tomorrow."

"Can you tell me what Biostasis is without looking at your notes," Mia asks.

"Umm..."

Mia giggles. "You said earlier that you'd rather see me."

"Yeah." I'm still a bit - not clueless, but not entirely certain either, about where this is going.

"If you can tell me what Bio-stasis is," she says cheerily, "you can face time me."

I close my eyes. "It's like..." Come one Ben, you just read this. "It's like how we can go to the beach, and it's like ninety something and sunny, but then we can also go skiing in the winter when its cold. But our bodies keep going. Like, they keep the same temperature and all. I mean, not if it's really cold out, unless you wear the right clothes or something, but..." Good job, buddy, I tell myself sarcastically.

"Sounds about right," Mia says, and then my phone displays a face time invitation. I pick the phone up and accept, trying to angle the screen to that the camera won't cut my head off at some weird angle. The picture displays Mia, wearing an over sized New England Patriots jersey, in what must be her bedroom. For a moment, I wonder what she's wearing beneath the jersey; it looks like the kind of thing some girls put on to go to sleep in.

Instead of asking her, which I know is a stupid idea, I just make a joke. "It seems like football is everywhere I go today."

"Oh, this?" Mia pinches a fold of fabric between her to fingers and lifts is a bit off her chest; the motion draws the neckline down half an inch, before she releases the jersey. "This is just for sleeping in. My dad got it for me. I don't actually watch, or anything. Anyway, your quiz isn't over yet."

I grin. "Are there more prizes if I keep getting answers right?"

"Your prize is to not bomb tomorrow's pop quiz," Mia says in mock outrage.

"You think there'll be one," I ask her, sitting up in a sudden panic.

"Totally. First reading assignment of the year? I think he wants to scare everyone. I bet you five bucks there's a pop quiz tomorrow."

"I don't think I'll take that bet," I say with a sigh.

"Cause I'd win," Mia says with a grin. "So. Question two. When a body is supine, what position is it lying in?"

"Christ, I don't know," I admit.

"I'll give you a hint." Mia swings out of view as she moves around, her phone showing a dizzying, rapid flash of the room around her before it refocuses on her face. Her hair is spread over her pillow, I see, before the view scans down over the jersey to show the rest of her body. She is stretched out on her bed, and the jersey only covers down to the middle of her hips, revealing bare legs beneath as she lies on her...

"On your back," I blurt out. "I mean, the body is laying on its back."

"Right again," Mia says, focusing her phone again on her face. "OK, question three. If a body is prone, what position is it lying in."

"Can I have a hint," I ask her, doing my best to look right into her eyes through the screen. It seems like she wants to play around, I figure, so let's tell her that's fine with me.

Mia rolls her eyes playfully. "Hold on." The phone swings around again, and then settles on a view of her back. She's lying on her belly now, and then jersey is bunched up around her legs so that I can see the bottoms of her panties. She's wearing light gray boy-shorts with a white border; the curve of her cute little ass peeks out of them where they aren't quite able to cover her body the entire way, and the word 'PINK' is written across the fabric. I swallow,my mouth gone suddenly dry, and feel myself get instantly hard. Then, with the hand that isn't holding her phone, she finishes adjusting, and the jersey is pulled down over her body, covering her up again.

"Well," she asks after a moment, and I realize I've been silent for too long.

"When you lie on your stomach," I say as calmly as I can.

"Yup!" The phone moves again as she gets up and returns to a sitting position.

"Now, what's gross anatomy?"

"I remember that one," I tell her confidently, holding up my arm and making a muscle. "That's all the things you can see from the outside, without any kind of lab equipment or cutting someone open."

"Wow," Mia says, forgetting her quizzing for a moment. "I wonder what your chest looks like." As soon as she says it, her cheeks light up in a furious blush. "I mean-"

"I'll show you mine if you show me yours," I offer calmly. Up until now, she's been the one doing the flirting, and she's succeeded in getting me worked up. I want her just as hot as I am.

Mia rolls her eyes again. "That is so not the same thing. Guys walk around topless all the time. If a girl tried that, she'd get arrested. OK, here's something you need to learn the meaning of: what's negative feedback?"

"I assume that's where you tell me no," I return in good humor. I didn't really expect to talk her out of her clothes - we've only met today, after all. But I've found that if you don't make your interest in a girl obvious every once in a while, she can get into a habit of only thinking of you as a friend, and that isn't what I want. So I need to make it plain I'm attracted to her, and I'm going to take every opportunity to do that.

"It's where the body reacts to a change to return to normal," she explains quickly.

"Like how you sweat to cool your body down."

"And positive feedback," I remember now, "Is where the body responds in such a way as to make the change keep going, or enhance it, right?" I put my phone down for a moment and pull off my t-shirt, then pick it back up again.

"That's right - what are you doing," Mia hisses into her phone as she sees my chest.

"Positive feedback," I say with a grin. "You wanted to know what my chest looked like. Here you go."

"I, I," Mia stammers for a moment before getting her thoughts together, "Put your shirt back on! What if my parents walk in!"

"Then you turn your phone off," I suggested. "Or, you could get up and go lock your door."

"I'm not going to lock my door. Then they'll really want to know what I'm doing."

"You don't ever lock your door," I wonder out loud. "That must be kind of... inconvenient. I mean, what if they walk in when you're masturbating?"

Mia's mouth dropped open, and for a second, I think she's about to hang up. "Shut up," she hissed. "What if they hear you?"

"Sorry," I tell her, but I'm really not. Like I said, make the attraction obvious. Make it sexual, so she can't ignore it. Anyway, she's the one who wanted to see me with my shirt off. And called me in her underwear. I stand up and walk across my room to my own door.

"What are you doing," her voice came from the phone.

"Locking my door."

"Why are you - ew. No."

I sit back down on my bed with a raised eyebrow. "Relax. I just want to make sure no one barges in. I'm not going to start masturbating right now, while I'm on the phone with you," I assure her. "I mean, not unless you want me to."

Mia looks back at me like a deer caught in headlights, her face flushed, her chest rising and falling deeply. I think I've got her. I reach one hand down, off the screen, and unbutton my jeans. She can see that one of my hands is now down off screen, but she can't see what it's doing.

"Go ahead," I tell her softly. "I know you want to."

She bites her lip in indecision, and that, combined with her glasses and the blush, makes her so cute that my cock twitches in my hand. Then, silently, I see her right hand sneak down off screen, and half a second later she sucks in a breath. "This is so weird," she murmurs. "We just met today."

"This is so hot," I correct her. "You're so hot. Thinking about what you're doing is turning me on so much." I slowly stroke my cock, in no hurry to cum just yet.

For a long moment, neither of us says anything. We stare at each other's faces through the phone as our hands work; my cock jerks again, and I let go of it so that I don't come yet. Instead, I start talking, trying to get her more excited, trying to drive her over the edge.

"This is so hot, Mia," I tell her, and she closes her eyes. "You're so hot, baby. I want to watch you get off. I want to hear you cum."

She draws in a shaky breath, and I can see her arm moving more rapidly. Unable to stay silent any longer, she lets out a low moan. I grab my cock again, stroking it quickly, as I watch her begin to writhe on her bed. I imagine her hips jerking beneath her hand, and I wish I could be right there with her, to hear her, to smell her, to taste her.

"That's it baby," I urge her on. "Cum for me!"

"Oh shit!" Mia's eyes fly open and her mouth forms a perfect 'o.' I jerk my cock as hard as I can, and the sound of the shuddering, high pitched gasps and squeaks coming out of her send me over the edge. With a groan, I release all over my stomach.

A moment passes while we both catch our breaths.

"I can't believe we just did that," Mia says quietly.

I smile. "That was so hot. You're amazing."

"Look, I... I have to get cleaned up and go to sleep," she says. "I'll see you in school tomorrow."

"Goodnight," I tell her, and after a moment she responds, "Goodnight" back. My phone loses its connection, and I lie there for a long moment. I'm looking forward to school tomorrow.