Two Hundred Dollars Ch. 10

156 Dollars

Kent decided to spend Friday night lightly inebriated, thinking about what Bailey had initiated.

She wasn't the first girl to give him a hand job, but the list of those who had didn't run long. Two short relationships in high school and no opportunities since he had reached university left Bailey's peculiar actions far and above his previous experiences.

And neither of those girls had jumped into the shower with me mostly naked.

He looked up at the whiteboard, which stonily informed him of the remaining one hundred fifty six dollar debt. Bailey had burned through her debt so quickly in the last few days, she'd have no problem getting to the halfway point by Christmas. That spoke to Kent of a surprising level of enthusiasm.

Now, if I owed somebody money, I'd want to pay it back as fast as I could, too, Kent smirked, but I don't think that's what's going on here.

They had never included hand jobs as part of the deal. Bailey had explicitly intended to pay her debt off by letting him spank her. Something had changed to make her step into that shower, where he too stood naked, rather than just she and her friend.

Kent scratched his head.

He could text her, but that brought a foul taste to his mouth, a visceral burning sensation on his tongue. All of their communication for this purpose had passed through the whiteboard. Sending her a message any other way would, somehow, ruin the thing they had by breaking the rules.

We don't text or talk about this on the phone.

He couldn't imagine calling her. What could he say? Bailey sat on a bus somewhere, probably with people all around her. Her current situation didn't seem conducive to well thought out communication.

Kent sighed, finally, and loaded up an RPG on his computer.

=============================

He woke late on Saturday morning with a thoroughly refreshed level of energy.

With a determination whose source he didn't want to investigate, Kent had decided that while Bailey had developed a healthy habit of creatively surprising him since the very beginning of their joint debt-paying endeavour, he had rarely surprised her as pleasantly.

Unplugging his smart phone from its charging cable, he scrolled through until he found Laura's number with its single text's worth of history.

"U busy?" he sent.

Kent then went about the business of scaring up breakfast. He had just laid his scrambled eggs on his plate when Laura's text came back.

"srsly? 2 early for that. Lol"

Munching on his food, he wrote back, "not that. Need help w something 4 bai"

It took Laura several minutes to reply to that.

"what 4 bai?"

How should I put this?

Kent tried several different ways of putting his desires into text before he settled on one simple sentence.

"something 2 round out her wardrobe"

His phone binked at him a moment later.

"u take me shopping?"

"on a bus," he replied.

"I'll come by."

"door is unlocked," he wrote back.

The distance to her house, according to Kent's vague memories of things the girls had said, would give him just enough time to finish up, wash his dishes and brush his teeth.

=============================

Laura, he realized, must have rushed over. Although she looked properly dressed and not at all harried, she showed up ten minutes after his last text to her, tastefully dressed in fall beiges and a nicely set red beret which aesthetically matched with the rosy red flush in her cheeks.

"No skirt today?" he nodded to her pants.

"Too cold. You ready to go?" she asked.

"You know where we're going?" Kent his voice sound amused.

"White Oaks Mall," Laura told him. Her eyebrows wavered suggestively, "You're looking for like, good stuff, right?"

The tawdry tone of her voice managed to convey the goal of finding some type of intimate apparel.

"Right," he agreed.

"Well, they've got three or four of those kind of stores there," she pointed out. "And it's indoors. Doesn't get any better."

"True story."

Unsure if Carson was home or not behind his closed bedroom door, Kent locked the apartment door behind him as they left.

"The 13 will come by in five minutes," Laura said. "We can catch it if we hurry."

"Or we end up standing out in the cold?"

"For twenty more minutes, yeah," her eyes went wide with warning.

They walked briskly then, to make sure of their time.

"So," Laura led on, "what sort of things are you looking for?"

"Well," Kent paused thoughtfully, "that green skirt you lent her looked really good."

"The colour or the skirt?"

"Both, actually," he admitted, "But I was thinking more of the colour."

"Okay," Laura nodded, "so you're looking for a green...?"

Kent jogged his head back and forth hesitantly.

"Panties, maybe?" he offered.

Laura smiled, "We're headed to the right place, then."

"Yes."

"So what brought this on?" she prodded.

A long pause hung between them, as Kent considered what to tell Laura.

"I want to surprise her with something," Kent felt safe in admitting. "She -- and you -- are pretty good at surprising me."

Laura smiled and Kent realized that, all things considered, she might now expect something, at some point, too. He intentionally steered his brain away from examining why he didn't currently feel the same way about the two girls.

Seeing the bus coming, they ran to reach the stop. Since the bus driver didn't feel like a jerk that morning, he brought his vehicle to a stop and waited for them to catch up and board. Out of breath, they waved their university-mandated bus passes over the sensor and took their seats.

They chatted about anything other than underwear during the long, crowded bus ride to the mall. Laura, fortunately, had a gift for poking and prodding that lent itself easily to pleasant conversation. Kent found himself relax a bit, though a nervousness lingered at the back of his mind, knowing their destination. He'd definitely feel better walking into a lingerie store with Laura for company over going in alone.

"Alright," Laura said when the bus finally reached the end of the line. "Best bet is to hit the top floor first. The best places are up there. You might find something, put it on hold, and then keep looking. Got it?"

"You've done this before," Kent observed, following her quick pace as they entered the mall. He nodded with a respect only partially ironic, "Skillz."

"You have to understand what underwear was like in Utah," Laura rang off, a harsh glare in her eyes, directed at some distant foe.

"Sorry, what?"

Laura sighed, slowing her pace somewhat.

"Mormons," she said, "We had to wear this just awful, awful thing under our clothes."

"Really," Kent asked. "Like, all Mormons?"

"All the real ones, I guess," she said. "It's like long underwear, but baggy, and a long sleeve undershirt. They tell you it's, like, magic and holy."

Laura shivered with some distant memory.

"I convinced my parents that I needed normal panties when we left the church and came here."

"Only," Kent supposed out loud, "they didn't know what normal was?"

"Bingo," Laura's voice recalled a triumph of boldness. "So I convinced my dad to hand over some cash and let me get my own."

"Your dad?" Kent asked.

"The last thing a man wants to discuss with his daughter is her panties," Laura's voice took on a wise, sage-like quality. "It worked better than asking mom would have."

"Freedom," Kent agreed.

"Freedom starts in your own pants, it turns out," Laura emphasized. "Or under them."

Kent thought hard about that, wondering how it must have affected Laura to have a religion underneath her clothing like that.

"Your church have a thing about masturbation, too?" he wondered aloud.

Laura choked in shock, coughed twice, then stopped completely to glare at Kent who had walked ahead two paces before he noticed.

"Yes," she said. "I think every church has a thing about... that."

She started walking again, catching back up to him and directing him to the escalator.

"But, for the most part, they hammer really hard on the boys, not the girls."

"Ah," Kent said. "I guess that makes it easier on girls."

"On, uh, masturbation, yeah," Laura muttered, "and nothing else besides."

That sufficed to shut the conversation down for the ride up the escalator, while Kent considered what Laura's religious upbringing had done to her.

Obviously it hasn't killed her spirit, he glanced sideways at her, and her sexual desires seem fine, if a bit pent up.

"Over here," she announced, catching his glance and raising her eyebrow. "Best place to start."

Kent took a deep breath and followed his guide into the dimly lit lingerie shop. The owners had decorated the place into a boudoir, with black walls and a wide array of pink and red up-lights bouncing illumination off ceiling panels and merchandise.

"Okay," Laura led him over a to rack of panties. "I know you're looking for green, but just have a look at all the styles, too."

"Right," Kent stood astounded by the wide variety of styles the store offered.

He mentally thanked Laura, however, for handling things so simply and naturally, and for picking a store where the lights didn't shine too brightly. Gently moving through the offerings on the rack, he saw thonged and wide backed panties. Some used a lot of transparent or translucent fabric while others had small plastic jewels embroidered into them.

"Anything catch your eye?" Laura asked, running through the same hangers he did.

Kent shrugged, holding up a frail black number that ran transparent everywhere except the seams, "The shapes are nice."

"That is very..." Laura's eyes widened, "revealing."

"You don't have anything like that?" Kent grinned at her.

"No," she said. "I don't think I could ever fool my mother into thinking that's normal when it shows up in the laundry."

Kent murmured agreement when he put it back on the rack and, somewhat more comfortable, starting wandering around the store.

The tingling he felt in his body did not result from seeing any of these fantastic articles of clothing for the first time. Anyone who watched porn had, at some point, seen some pretty ridiculous outfits. But the fact of walking through the aisles, around the racks of frilly, lacy and otherwise sparse clothing gave it a realism that Kent had never felt before.

The price tags, on the other hand, swept most of the reality away like so much water over a cliff.

Yes, we'd like something nice. But keep your head on straight.

"Can I help you with anything?" a voice called out behind him.

He turned to see a girl, probably his age, in tight black leggings, a mid-riff baring black top and far too much makeup.

"Just having a look, thanks," he said instantly.

Sensing his discomfort, she nodded politely, "Just let me know."

Kent nodded and turned back to Laura.

"Don't worry, boy," she said, "we've got at least three other places we can go."

Not wanting to find himself abandoned, Kent let Laura lead him out of the store.

=============================

It took them over an hour to walk through the three-storey mall and visit the first three stores. While Kent found himself amazed at the wide variety of options available to him, he hadn't yet found anything that matched what he had in his mind as gift for Bailey.

"Okay," Laura declared, "We need a break. You're buying me a hot chocolate."

"I am?" Kent looked down at her in surprise.

"I'm doing you a favour today," she said. "It's the least you can do."

Kent shrugged and they took the escalator down to the lowest concourse and the food court. He ordered two hot chocolates, with cinnamon and whipping cream, and he and Laura sat down to enjoy them.

"Still no luck, huh?" she asked.

"There's nice stuff," Kent admitted, hesitating a moment and then stopping completely.

"Are you going to get her something anyway?" Laura asked. Her voice softened, "Look, you're unlikely to find the actual dead-on thing you're imagining, okay?"

"True," Kent nodded, "But I haven't seen anything I can actually imagine her wearing, you know?"

Laura sipped her hot chocolate and leaned in more closely, "What do you imagine her in, most of the time?"

Kent's eyes glossed over for a moment while he pictured all the ways he'd seen Bailey.

"If she has to wear anything," he said, "It's the white thong. That's the perfect shape."

Laura smiled, "So, thongs?"

"Yeah," Kent looked her in the eye. "The transparent ones, at least."

"Ah."

Kent took a deep breath, feeling himself stirring below a little and not needing an erection right then, tried to turn his thoughts away.

"About Thanksgiving," Laura ventured. "I'm just... curious."

"Uh-huh," Kent hid his discomfort behind a sip of hot chocolate.

"She spent the whole day... like that?"

"Yep."

Laura looked around carefully before speaking, her eyes lighting up, "So how many places did you spank her?"

"My room, her room," Kent spoke slowly, his eyes roaming around in thought, "Kitchen, the laundry room just before we left. Oh, and one in the park."

"Sorry?" Laura blinked. "Where?"

"In that park?" Kent explained. "Between our place and the grocery store? The place where I go running."

"Outside?" Laura hissed. "You spanked her outside?"

Kent waggled his eyebrows.

"Oh, you mean two on top of her jeans," she clarified.

"Nope," Kent exhaled with a hard popping sound on the 'p'.

"She pulled down her pants," Laura enunciated carefully. "Outside."

Kent nodded.

Laura sat back in her chair, shoulders dropped in shock. "I never would have..."

"I couldn't tell if it was her idea or mine," Kent narrowed his eyes as he peered into the past. "I feel like she thought I was asking her, and I thought she was offering. It was a little confusing."

"Yeah, probably," Laura discovered the bottom of her mug and turned her eyes to Kent, "you ready to finish this thing?"

"Sure," Kent finished off his mug as they stood up and he returned their tray to the cafe kiosk.

=============================

"Alright," Laura said, "this place is a bit skankier, but since you can't really describe what you're looking for, I couldn't tell where we should go."

The place, to Kent's eye, looked more like a strip joint than a store. The entryway forced customers to go around two corners, preventing people walking by in the mall from seeing anything of the store besides what lay out on the headless plastic models in the front display.

"Cold day at the mannequin factory," Kent remarked.

"Haha," Laura ignored him and led him onward. "Now if you see something..."

"That!" Kent said, pointing.

"Oh, my," Laura replied, reacting to the excitement on his face. She turned and saw what he pointed at and repeated, in a lower voice, "Oh, my."

The rack at which he pointed held a series of bra and panty sets in orange, green and yellow, but all in the same pattern. While the cut of the bra looked fairly basic, the cups had been made of a sheer material, while the straps and underwire seemed to sparkle just slightly. The panties, hanging just below the bra, matched in terms the transparency of the fabric used.

"It's not a thong," Laura said, indicating the narrow curve of the back of panties.

"It's transparent, though," Kent's eyes went wide.

"And green, which is why it's on clearance."

"Clearance?" Kent's eyes turned up to the sign above the rack. "That's good."

"Yeah," Laura snorted. "Regularly ninety bucks. Now forty-five."

"Christ," Kent whispered.

"Always with the blasphemy," she chided him. "That's a good deal, really. But you have to see if they have it in her size."

"Oh," Kent trailed off. "Oh, right."

"She's a thirty-two, A," Laura sighed and rolled her eyes, then thumped her own breastbone with her thumb. "Thirty-four, C, if you're wondering. Have you really not seen the tags on her bras?"

Kent tried to think about it when he might have handled one of Bailey's bras, but, going back over all of the spankings and other incidents, he realized he really had never had an opportunity.

"She pretty much always keeps her shirt on," Kent said, flipping through the rack and checking tags, "Except for the time with the towel."

"The towel?"

"She came out of the shower and right into my room," Kent shrugged. "Just had a towel wrapped around her."

"Oh," Laura nodded in understanding, "was that right after I, um, came by?"

Kent hummed thoughtfully, "Yeah, I think so. Why?"

Laura shrugged, then pulled out a matching green set. "Triumph, Kent."

He gently took it from her hand held it up to the light.

"No runs that I can see," Laura agreed. "Good of you to check."

Kent, who had not been checking for damage to the material, but rather sizing up the garments versus his bank account, nodded sagely.

"This is my drinking money until December," he said, biting his lip and rubbing his forehead.

"I feel confident it'll be worth it," Laura seemed unable to contain a giggle. "But it is a long way from the panties you came in for."

"Yeah," Kent's eyes widened as he looked at the clothing, still held up in the air. "But look at it."

"Yeah," Laura agreed with a nod.

"I can gift wrap it for you," a female voice chirped up from behind him.

"What's that?"

"Tissue wrap and a nice gift bag?" the salesgirl explained, "Free with any purchase over thirty dollars."

The girl, in tight leggings and a loose halter top designed to let everyone see the bra she wore, then looked at Laura.

"Although... you may want to check the size."

"It's for a friend," Laura explained. "It's the right size, don't worry."

=============================

The ride home on the bus had evoked a greater sense of conspicuousness than his visitation of all four lingerie stores put together, but he and Laura had survived that and started their walk back to the apartment in what turned was the middle of the afternoon.

"It's nice out," Laura said. "Let's walk through the park?"

"Sure," Kent shrugged, noting that the slightly warm Saturday afternoon October had offered was not in use by any other pedestrians.

Laura steered a course a little wide of his house, cutting through an easement between two apartment buildings, so they could hit the little bit of green space the southern part of the city offered.

"This is where you run?" Laura asked when they reached the gravel path circling the park.

"Yeah," Kent said, "It's a bit less than a kilometre around, so I do seven laps."

Laura's eyes scanned the forested sections in the middle of the park as they walked.

"I don't see where you could hide, though," she said suddenly.

"What?"

"Where you can Bailey could have... y'know?"

"Oh!" Kent drawled. Then he pointed off to the right, to a place ahead of them along the loop where a gravel path provided an exit. "See up there? That's where you come out of if enter the park near our house."

"Right..."

"And you cut through that stand of trees there," Kent pointed to the left, "if you want take a short cut across."

"In there?" Laura's eyes widened, "you spanked her in there?"

"Nobody was around."

"Doesn't look like much cover," Laura sounded dubious as they turned off the path and headed to Kent and Bailey's apartment.

"Oh," Laura said, as they crossed the street, "how are you going to give that to her?"

Kent jerked back as if someone had yanked his chain. "Hadn't thought about that?"

"You can leave it on her bed, maybe?"

"Her door's locked," Kent said, crestfallen. "How can I surprise her..."

"I have the key to her room," Laura said. "Just in case, y'know."