The Virgin and the Bushwalk

Alice thought she should have seen the omens and turned back earlier. She had arrived for the bushwalk in the handsome team leader Matt's car, along with Emily, another young woman like herself. Well, a university student like herself, but a taller, skinnier, more normal one. So far, so good. But then the team leader received a message from a group of three young men saying that one of them was sick and they would not be coming. Probably hung-over more like! So the group of eight was down to five before they even started.

At the starting point they met Rosie, a friend of Emily's, and Toby, a tall, skinny guy in a Star Trek t-shirt, who had each come in their own cars from different places. So there they were, two guys and three girls, ready to walk four hours or so through mountain bushland to stay overnight in a mountain cabin together. Already three of the possible guys that Alice had imagined flirting with had pulled out, leaving only the hunky Matt, who was probably out of her league and whom Emily and Rosie would probably monopolise, and the weird-looking Toby. It looked like she'd have to rely on female company on this trip.

Never mind, she thought. The main idea behind her new interest in bushwalking was to get fit and maybe take a few pounds off her tummy. Not that she was fat, exactly, but she was a bit short and she had wide shoulders and hips, which made her look fatter than she was. She did have a bit of a tummy, it was true, but she also had a nice waist which gave her something of an hourglass figure, especially from behind. But being short and broad-shouldered somehow made it easy for boys to overlook her, and at the age of 20 and in her third year of university, Alice was still a virgin. Not that she wasn't interested in boys, but most boys seemed interested in thin willowy girls and Alice, being naturally shy, didn't seem to be able to find a boy interested in her.

She had nice-sized breasts, which would look big on a smaller girl, but which boys did not notice on her for some reason, unless she wore a very low cut top, which she was loath to do as it attracted the wrong type of idiot. She would look at herself naked in the mirror sometimes, and she liked the way her breasts stood out like long cylinders, pointing slightly down and to each side, with quite long thick nipples that looked just right for some boy to suck on. Alice could easily hold her breasts up to her mouth and suck on her own nipples, and she knew how good they felt, with their rubbery softness which felt so nice on your lips. If only some nice boy was interested, she'd be happy to show him how delightful her breasts were.

Her hair was dark brown and wavy, and she'd had it cut in a long bob so that it hung just above her shoulders. Her face was roundish with big brown eyes framed by dark eyebrows. Her friends often told her what nice eyes she had. If only there was some boy who would look closely enough at her to appreciate them. Her mouth was a little large but her lips were full and she painted them with a different colour lipstick each day, much to the amusement of her girlfriends, who equated each colour to a mood they attributed to her. The only part of her face that she was not fond of was her nose, which she found too large, and which she would change if she could.

So they set out, down the first hill and across a shallow creek to another hill on the other side. Alice walked with the girls for a while, and they seemed quite nice. Emily was also studying Architecture at another university, so she and Alice chatted about subjects and lecturers for a while. But then she noticed that Matt had stopped talking to Toby and caught up with him to chat a little. He had a lovely deep voice, and was happy to tell her how he was a mathematics teacher and played in a local amateur football team and liked to kayak as well as bushwalk. It was all going fine until he excused himself to go and check on the girls behind them, leaving Alice to walk by herself for a bit. As she listened to the girls chatting to Matt and giggling, she determined to enjoy the chance to be out in nature getting some exercise.

At least this group allowed her to spend time with other young people. She had joined another group where everyone was older, and where she had been referred to as 'our little roly-poly young thing' and even as 'the little chubby girl over there'! She had quickly determined to both lose some weight and never walk with that group again. Her legs were not actually that short. They were in proportion with her body, but her body was on the short side. She knew that her thighs were quite large, but they were strong and she was quite fast for her size. She had played hockey at school, but had been concentrating on her studies since she had been at Uni, so hiking was a good option to keep fit, as well as cycling which she did most days.

She would have loved to have a boyfriend, as she was starting to feel left out as her friends paired up with boys at Uni, or surprisingly with a girl in one case. She would like to know what sex feels like, as her girlfriends had given her mixed reports. She had begun to understand that some boys, even nice boys, could be bad at it, while other boys, even stupid boys, could be very good. It made things very confusing. Sometimes she would look at certain boys and feel a faint aching in her pussy. But she didn't seem to be able to get any of the boys who made her feel like this take much interest in her. She would just think about them when she was back in her room, and put her hand between her legs and touch herself while she thought about them. She would wet her fingers in her pussy juice and tease her little clitoris until she was panting, and then plunge her fingers inside herself, imagining that it was the boy's hard cock, full of desire for her. She gave herself lovely deep orgasms like this, though she was somewhat embarrassed about how much she liked them.

A couple of months back, she had bought herself a smooth purple vibrator, which she hid in the back of her panties drawer. She never would have thought of getting such a shocking thing, but one day a group of her friends had dragged her into a sex shop to laugh at all the strange items on display there. Alice had been shocked at the variety of dildos and vibrators on display, and by the huge size of many of them. She knew she would never be able to fit some of the thick ones in her pussy, as she knew that, despite her wide hips and big thighs, and despite her pussy being quite wide on the outside, wide enough so that a triangle of light showed between the top of her legs even when they were together, that her vagina was quite tight, and she could only just squeeze two fingers up inside her. She knew that other girls could fit three or more inside them, but she knew she was smaller. This made her a bit apprehensive about whether she would be big enough to fit a boy's penis inside her.

Well, over the next few weeks, the thought of all those dildos and vibrators keep coming back to her, and eventually her curiosity got the better of her. She went all red-faced back to the sex shop, checking that no-one saw her go in, and picked out her little purple vibrator. She took it home and experimented, learning to tease her clitoris to orgasm, and to insert it gently (or later roughly) into her vagina to let it shake her insides until she was groaning in ecstasy. She called her new toy Patrick, and after a stressful day, looked forward to a nice time with Patrick before sleep. In this way, she was able to keep her desire at bay, but she also yearned for a boyfriend to love her and admire her and lust for her, with whom she could go out to cafes and beaches and dances and who would take care of her.

After almost an hour, the group stopped for a break on top of a hill with nice views over the valley to the hills opposite. After ten minutes of water and snacks and chat, they set off down a steep rocky ridge. It was here that she suddenly heard a cry behind her, and turned to see Rosie lying face down beside the track. She had slipped and taken skin off her leg and hands. She had twisted her ankle, and after a few attempts declared she could not continue. So the group held a conference where it was decided that Emily would go back with Rosie and drive her home in Rosie's car. It was then that Matt volunteered to help Rosie get back to the cars.

Alice assumed that the hike was over and they would all head home. But Toby was keen to continue, and Matt assured Alice that he would quickly catch them up after taking the girls back to their car. This was the second bad omen that Alice should have listened to. Though her instinct was to stop her hike and return home with the girls, she somehow wanted to believe that Matt could quickly catch them up and she could talk to him some more, and spend the night in the hut with him (and Toby too obviously). If she had thought about it more rationally for a few seconds, she should have realised that they were at least an hour from the cars, or maybe more depending on how fast Rosie could hobble, and that it would take Matt at least two hours to get back to this point, by which time she and Toby would be two hours further on. In other words, it was quite unlikely that Matt would be able to catch them up before they reached the hut.

So instead, with a heavy heart she watched Rosie hobble back the way they had come, assisted by Matt and Emily. When they had disappeared from sight, she turned to look at her companion for the rest of the hike.

'So just us two then,' Toby blurted nervously. He was obviously keen to get going, so she nodded and set off along the path again. She walked behind him for a while, watching his tall skinny frame swaying from side to side, as he took his long stick-insect-like steps. Then she thought that she should attempt to get to know him a little, just in case he was more interesting than he seemed.

'So, Toby, what do you do?' she asked, despite realising how banal the question sounded.

'I..I.. I write apps,' Toby stuttered. 'Or at least bits.. bits of apps. I'm still learning. I want to write computer games really, but apps make me some money while I'm trying to develop something bigger.'

That was a bit of a dead-end for Alice. She knew nothing about programming, and was not really into computer games. It all seemed like a bit of a waste of good reading time for her, though some of her girlfriends claimed to like playing games. Alice suspected that they only played the games to meet some of the hundreds of guys who were gamers.

She tried again. 'Do you read?' she inquired hopefully.

Toby thought about the question for a minute. 'These days I'm mainly reading graphic novels. You know ... Watchmen, Hellboy, Sin City, that sort of thing. And of course all the old Marvel ones.' His voice trailed off as he watched for some sign of recognition or agreement from Alice.

But Alice was stumped. She'd never heard of these stories. She read good literature, and occasionally some escapist romance. She'd hoped to find some interest they had in common to talk about, but was drawing a big blank.

She asked him what music he liked. Her taste was a mixture of retro 70s singer-songwriters, 80s post-punk bands, and some more modern alt-folk singers. Toby on the other hand was enthusiastic about a number of retro-metal bands, which he tried to explain to Alice, though he was amazed that she'd never heard of most of his favourites.

And so it continued, almost every topic leading to mutual incomprehension: he liked video games, she liked watching tennis; he liked sci-fi films and action movies, she liked foreign films and British rom-coms; his favourite food was pizza, hers was marsala dosa. It was only hiking in nature and a mutual loathing of football that gave them some common ground. They eventually fell into silence and trekked on along the lovely path, seemingly intent on enjoying their natural surroundings. Alice prayed that Matt would soon catch them up, to give her a bit of natural conversation.

After two more hours walking along the picturesque mountain path with frequent views over the valley, they came to a lookout and noticed dark clouds approaching from the south. They hurried on, as the clouds gathered overhead, causing the day to become ominous and gloomy. Then they felt the rain falling, at first in light drops, but soon in a steady downpour. Alice cursed herself for not bringing a rain jacket. The morning had seemed so sunny and she had just crammed her sleeping bags and some spare clothes into her backpack, along with some olive oil and pasta and some vegetables as her contribution to the dinner. The rain became heavier and heavier, and soon she was soaked to the skin. She put her head down and pushed onward along the increasingly muddy track, following in Toby's footsteps. She noticed that he had not put on a rain jacket either, and was already totally soaked like her.

At last they rounded a bend in the track and saw a little wooden hut ahead of them, with a cute covered veranda in front. At last, she sighed. She would be able to dry off, put on dry clothes and start a fire to get warm. Toby turned back to look at her and grinned, as water ran in rivulets off his hat and onto his soaked T-shirt. They hurried the last few dozen metres onto the veranda, glad to be out of the constant downpour. They dumped their sodden backpacks onto the veranda floor, and opened the rough wooden door, going into the gloom within. Inside the hut was spacious, but spartan, with benches and a couple of sinks on the left, a large wooden table and a dozen or so chairs on the right, and a large raised platform at the back with piles of foam mattresses to sleep on. There was also a large fireplace, and a wood stove between the table and the sleeping platform.

It all looked a bit uninviting in the afternoon gloom with rain pounding on the tin roof above. Alice shivered, cold in her clinging wet clothes. It was time to get them off and change into something dry and warm. She looked down at her blouse, and was shocked to see the outline of her breasts clearly visible in the clinging material. Even worse, her frozen nipples were jutting out and looked huge. No wonder Toby had been giving her furtive glances for the last twenty minutes. Her cheeks reddened and she quickly retrieved her backpack from the veranda, wondering where she would find the privacy to change into dry things in this open empty space.

But to her horror, when she opened the backpack, all her clothes were soaking wet. This cheap backpack, which had been fine on previous sunny day-walks, had failed when she needed it most. She pulled one piece of sodden clothing after another from the useless bag, and wrung them out over the sink, before hanging them on the backs of some of the chairs. She would have to dry them out when they got the fire going. Unfortunately things got even worse. The bottom of her backpack was a pool of water, with all her food, and more importantly her only box of matches soaking. She hoped that Toby had a dry box as she emptied the matches onto a bench to dry out. Her heart sunk even further as she pulled her sleeping bag from the backpack. It was full of water and would take forever to dry. The water must have soaked through the seams of the carry bag around it.

Tears were falling down her face now. She had wanted to appear strong and in control in front of this strange guy. She would have to depend on him for something dry until Matt arrived. Her mind turned to Matt. What a nice handsome guy he was. She would have liked to have been stuck in this hut with him, rather than strange Toby. Maybe they would still be able to sleep together when it gets dark, Matt holding her in his strong arms and keeping her warm, and licking her breasts and spreading her legs for his big (but not too big she hoped) cock to plunge inside her and fuck her all night! These thoughts helped her fight back the tears as she hung her sleeping bag over a chair and watched the water drip from it onto the floor.

She looked around to see what Toby was up to, hoping that he would at least prove to be a man and solve her problems by lighting a fire and lending her something dry to wear and cover her so-visible breasts.

But she soon saw that Toby had his own problems. Like her, he had stuffed some clothes into his rucksack in the morning and taken off, and now he had his own pile of sodden clothes and wet comics. Only his sleeping bag was dry, having been covered in an extra garbage bag. And to compound their problems, he had forgotten to bring any matches at all.

Things looked dismal to Alice, as she looked around in the gloomy light of the afternoon. On further inspection, things only got worse. The cabin had no electricity, but she found a few candles in a square tin under the bench. If they could dry out the matches by the time it got dark, they would have some light. Their next problem was that the firewood box next to the fireplace was empty, apart from one thick log. The previous occupants must have forgotten to replenish the box from the stack beside the cabin. Toby made several trips to retrieve several pieces from the stack outside, but they were all soaking wet, and there were hardly any thin pieces to start the fire once it all dried out. Even when Matt arrived with dry matches, they would probably have trouble lighting any of these big wet logs.

They both checked their phones, but there was no signal this far from the city. They would just have to wait for Matt's arrival. Perhaps he would have some ideas, or at least some dry clothes for them to change into. Alice was getting very cold in her wet clothes, and she could see Toby, who seemed to be all skin and bones without any spare fat on him, shivering. Although the hut was dry and kept the wind out, it was cooling rapidly in the autumn late afternoon. She sat with her arms wrapped around her chest, partly to keep warm, and partly to cover the obviousness of her breasts in the wet material. Although they had been in the hut for well over an hour, her clothes had not dried at all. If she had been able to take them off and wring the water out of them when she arrived, they might have been drier by now from her body heat, but she had not wanted to strip down in front of Toby, and it seemed like he must have felt the same. Instead they sat shivering and occasionally checking outside for a sight of Matt.

At last it became too much for Alice. She knew that the hut would soon become colder as night set in, and that they would be foolish to just sit there in wet clothes all night when there was one dry sleeping bag that they could use.

'Toby, we have to do something to keep warm!' she blurted out at last. 'I'm bloody freezing, and Matt's not here, and it'll be dark soon. What are we going to do?'

Toby nodded as he shivered. 'I don't know,' he mumbled. 'My sleeping bag is still dry, and it unzips so that we could both fit under it.' His voice trailed off, as he seemed embarrassed to continue with his thought, which both of them had been thinking about for a while, which was that the only way they could both possibly warm up and stay warm during the fast-approaching night was to sleep huddled together under the one draughty sleeping bag.

It was left up to Alice to state the obvious. 'We have to face it. We'll have to both get under the sleeping bag and,' she paused for a moment, 'hug each other to try to warm up.'

There was a moment of silence, as if they were both relieved that the only obvious solution had at last been stated, and that they would be able to start to get warm, even if it meant hugging a total stranger of the opposite sex all night. Toby nodded and smiled and shyly ran his eyes over Alice's body, as if trying to conceal his excitement about being able to hug the curves he could see through Alice's clinging shirt and shorts.