23 Accelerated Plans Intermission

Bokuboy

I walked out of the alley and around the building towards the revellers and put a weary look on my face. No one really noticed me until I was almost all the way across the street and a pretty blonde girl turned and gave me a huge smile.

“Ask and you shall receive!” She said and her two friends laughed.

“Huh?” I responded brilliantly, which made them laugh more.

She waved me over to their table and stood to put her bare arm over my shoulders, despite the dirt and dust on my t-shirt. “My friend here just finished saying she loves the feeling of calluses rubbed across her nipples and then you appeared wearing construction gear!”

“Oh, god.” The brunette friend said and covered her eyes with a hand. “He's just a kid.”

“Someone answered your prayers, so don't look a gift horse in the mouth.” The other friend said and took a drink. “Maybe he's a virgin and you'll knock that off your bucket list, too.”

“Please, shut up.” The brunette said with a groan.

“Hey, if you don't want him, maybe I'll claim him.” The blonde with her arm over my shoulders said and gave me another huge smile. “Show us your hands.”

I had no reason to object and lifted my hands up and turned them over to show the palms. I actually did have hard calluses on them after using the sledgehammer so much earlier. They would heal up some by the morning.

“Oh.” The brunette whispered and her face flushed red.

“What's that from?” The blonde with her arm over my shoulders asked.

“Sledgehammer. I used it to smash apart concrete slabs to pull out steel rebar.” I said and lowered my hands to the table where two cell phones had been left. “The smaller two foot wide chunks I move by hand.”

The brunette looked flustered and took several quick shallow breaths.

The third friend looked interested now. “You must have some muscles on you from doing that.”

“Yeah! Give us a flex!” The blonde moved her arm off of my shoulders and sat down again.

“Sure.” I said and did a double arm curl. My muscles were popping pretty well after the workout I had and from the strength tests with the cured weblines.

“Damn!” “Fuck!” “Very nice!” The three of them said at once.

I wasn't surprised that it was the brunette that had cursed. I was what she had asked for, apparently. I sat down on the fourth chair at the table and smiled at her.

“I... I'm not...” The brunette started and gave me a sheepish look. “I can't have sex with a kid.”

“That's okay. I'd like to get to know someone before going that far with them.” I said and she nodded. “I'll just go down on you and eat you out instead.”

All three women froze and stared at me with wide eyes. They didn't notice me taking one of the phones and I started typing a text that I had memorized.

“Ex... ex... excuse me?” The brunette asked with a voice that was barely above a whisper.

“I'm really good at oral sex and I've had a lot of practice.” I said to their shocked faces and kept typing. “I might not swallow when you orgasm, unless you taste good. Then I'm all for it.”

“You... you... are you serious?” The blonde next to me asked in a similar voice.

“Of course. I wouldn't offer if I wasn't.” I said and finished the text. I clicked send and smiled again. “I won't even ask for you to do anything in return.”

“Oh, god!” The brunette gasped and then blushed as she squirmed in her seat. “I'll be right back.”

We watched as she hopped up and practically ran inside the bar, probably to go to the bathroom to check her underwear. I slipped the cell phone back to where it had been on the table and my spider-sense hadn't gone off once, which meant that no one had noticed.

“Damn, kid.” The other blonde said. “Just... damn.”

“I hope that wasn't too forward of me.” I said and they both gave me surprised looks. “I'll take that as a yes.”

The blonde next to me barked a laugh, then she laughed for about fifteen seconds before the brunette came back to the table and carefully sat down.

“Is everything okay?” The other blonde asked.

“It's fine.” The brunette said and looked at me. “Do you offer... that... to everyone you meet?”

“No, only to someone that I felt deserved it.” I said and her eyebrows raised up. “The other girl comforted me when she didn't have to and I wanted to thank her.” I had to grin. “I thanked her a lot.”

The blonde next to me laughed again. “Beck, if you don't accept, I'm going to hate you for the rest of your life for passing this up!”

The brunette gave me another sheepish look and shook her head.

I stood up and walked around the table and she looked up at me like I was going to attack her or something. I gave her a warm smile and she relaxed. “I applaud your moral fortitude. Most women would have jumped at the chance, no matter how old I really was.”

Beck opened her mouth slightly and blushed. “I'm tempted. Very, very, tempted.”

“Then I'm sorry about this.” I said and cupped the sides of her face and made sure to scrape my fingers across her skin roughly as I leaned down. I kissed her like I had kissed Liz, showing her that I liked her, and did it for about five seconds before I broke it and stood up straight. “Enjoy the rest of your night.”

The stunned looks on all three of their faces was worth kissing a random woman that I had just met. I walked over to the corner of the building and ducked into the alleyway, then I ran as fast as I could to the end and jumped up onto the back of the building and crawled up to hide in the shadows out of sight.

Three sets of heels clattered on the street and the three women stood at the end of the alley as they stared into the darkness.

The first blonde took out her cell phone and used it like a flashlight. “I definitely hate you.” She said and laughed. “You let the little pervert get away!”

“I... I'm sorry, I...” Beck stopped talking and touched her lips with her fingertips. “If he can kiss like that...”

“We just lost the opportunity of a lifetime.” The second blonde said. “A teenager that we could have groomed to be the best and most selfless lover we've ever had.”

“I'm sorry.” Beck said again.

“Damn your moral fortitude.” The first blonde joked and hugged her. “We better go back. You both left your phones on the table. We need to check our drinks for tampering or just get new ones.”

Her friends nodded and the three of them left the alley.

I chuckled and climbed up the building the rest of the way to the roof, dressed in my dark clothing once more and added the ski mask, then I started my journey across the city to go home. I was very tempted to try my web shooters and successfully refrained from doing so. I wouldn't push things too much, because I still had a bit of time before things really started happening.

I also had a plain brown box full of new equipment to pick up tomorrow after school.

*

Liz sat in her bedroom and stared at her cell phone. She had Peter's... no, Ben's... picture on her screen. She debated hitting the call button as she went over what had happened earlier that day. She had let her own paranoia influence her and her friends had convinced her that it was a good idea to make sure that Ben wouldn't go behind her back and play with her friends like he had played with Isabelle.

Val was the most outgoing of all of them, so she was chosen as the lure, because of what Ben had said to her about what he would do to her if he wasn't so focused on Liz, mainly that he would have already had his fingers inside of her. That was a bit too much of a challenge for her to ignore, considering that Val was the most vocal of her friends and had quickly told them all about their conversation.

Liz sighed as she remembered what Ben had said about the trick they had tried to do to him as a test. He told them to go screw themselves. She knew she definitely messed up when she heard that. She had majorly messed up, because he had publicly broken up with Isabelle before making a play for her, which meant he was giving up a lot to try for her affection. It hadn't really seemed real, though.

Ben had flirted with a few of Liz's friends, quite blatantly, and the things Sarah had told her in private about the hugs and the shared looks, made Liz pretty nervous about committing to the new version of the boy she had secretly liked for months. Even her friends didn't know that she liked the shy boy that Peter had been... and now he was Ben. A completely different person wearing Peter's skin.

Liz sighed and turned her phone off. There was no way he was going to answer her call, not after giving her an ultimatum for lunchtime tomorrow. She had no idea what she was going to tell him, either. His words about making something up was a good idea, because the truth was that she actually liked Peter before he became Ben and wanted to know if he was still Peter inside, even though she liked Ben, too.

It was very confusing for her and she resolved to ask her mother about the whole thing again and to ask what she could do to fix things, because she had no idea how she could. Val had called her and told her about what happened after the phone was turned off, and it was not good. Not good at all.

Ben had told Val that it was 'nice knowing her', really sent home how much Liz had screwed up. She just hoped that her mother had some good advice for her in the morning, because she really needed it.

It was just too bad that her father had told her mother to not help her and that she had to deal with it on her own. That conversation was not going to go well at all.

*

May pretended to be asleep once more when Ben came into the apartment. She had done it a few times, just to see how he would react, and she had been surprised every time. He always treated her with tender loving care and he never groped her, tried to open her robe, or even ogled her when she had worn something a little naughty and left her robe open a little.

He also never reacted negatively to whatever she mumbled, no matter what it was. The last time, she had admitted that she loved him and the only thing he did was thank her and kissed her cheek as he tucked her into bed. It was so sweet and so endearing that she felt even more love for him... and she didn't know what she was going to do about him staying out so late every night during the week.

It was because May knew exactly when he left work, thanks to Doris letting her know how well Ben was doing at the job that her husband trusted him with. She wanted to ask him what he was doing for those extra few hours, because she was concerned about him and wondered if he was a secret criminal or was doing drugs or something, no matter how ridiculous those thoughts were.

May kept her eyes closed as Ben lightly chuckled at the sight of her sprawled out on the couch. He always went upstairs and showered before he came back to get her, which she always appreciated. Not that she minded if he had scooped her up into his arms while he was dusty and sweaty. She loved him and a little dirt didn't bother her at all. He just smelled so much better when clean.

She listened to his steps as he crept up the stairs and then the bathroom door lightly clicked as it was shut. The sound of the water running let her know she could open her eyes and she never did. It could be a trick to try and trick her to see if she was awake, so she stayed where she was and kept her breaths nice and even.

May heard him come down the stairs for her and she mentally prepared herself to say something embarrassing again, then his strong arms gently picked her up and cradled her. She couldn't stop herself as she cuddled in automatically and let out a little sigh of contentment.

“I swear, you're getting cuter every night.” Ben barely breathed the words, they were spoken so softly.

May almost let out a giggle at his statement, because being called cute could have been an insult after being called beautiful, if she ever thought along those lines. She knew a compliment when she heard one, so she accepted it in the spirit it was given, with caring and love.

“Miss you so much.” May mumbled and rubbed her cheek on his chest.

“I really miss you, too.” Ben whispered back. “Only eating breakfast and supper with you every day isn't enough time for me to enjoy such a beautiful woman's company properly.”

May tried to not react to that, even though it made her chest feel tight. If their financial situation wasn't so strained, they could both relax a bit and spending time as a family again would be the first thing she would do. Taking a few shifts off occasionally wouldn't be a problem and they could spend more time together.

“Don't worry, though. I've got a few plans in my head that should give us a bit more breathing room and neither of us will have to work so hard to earn a living.” Ben said and placed her in her bed and then tucked the blanket over her shoulder.

“Ben...” May whispered and reached out for his hand. She opened her eyes slightly to see his happy face.

Ben took her hand and held on. “I've got to file some patents before I can move ahead with some of my ideas. It's going to be a pain in the ass, because I'll probably have to get a loan to pay for them, then I'll have to work that much harder to pay it off.”

“Ben...”

“It's okay. Growing pains are always worth it in the end.” Ben said and kissed her forehead. “Goodnight and I'll have some nice bacon and egg bagel sandwiches for you to bring to work.”

May couldn't stop her smile. “You're spoiling me.”

Ben smiled back. “How many orders do you want filled?”

“Four, please. Even Doris asked me when you were making them next.”

Ben chuckled. “Consider it done. I'll make enough for the office people at school, too.”

“You're doing too much.” May said and opened her eyes all the way.

“Too much? I'm barely getting started.” Ben said and smiled. “Try and get some sleep. Thursdays usually suck.”

May laughed softly. “You have my permission to drop geometry class if you want.”

“No, I've abused Mary's good nature to much already. I'll stick with it until the end of the school year.” Ben said and smiled crookedly. “Or I'll skip it. I do have a permanent hall pass and a class excuse.”

May shook her head. “Don't half-ass it, Mr. Parker. We both know you can't slack off now.”

Ben nodded and kissed her cheek before he left her bedroom.

May stared at the door and sighed. She had suspected he had bigger plans than working for a salvage company. Now she had confirmation that Ben wanted to patent something, several somethings, and she wasn't sure what to make of that. Would he start his own business? Add it to Adrian's? Work for a while before setting off on his own?

She closed her eyes and let her mind drift off to sleep, with visions of money falling from the sky and her and Ben being happy as a family. She had completely forgotten to ask what he did every night.