Rough Draft: Twisted Ink

Ben prologue

I reached across the bed and felt cold sheets. Bolting upright, I scanned the room. Her fucking girlie bedazzled sandals and that stupid flowy shirt were gone.

"Fuck," I muttered and fell back into my pillow. I ran my hand down my face. Yesterday had been fucking amazing. Jen had taken me on a tour of my new home city. We'd done every touristy thing she knew of. We spent the day laughing and talking about straight up bullshit. I felt like we'd known each other forever.

She was the type of girl I'd sworn off. She was ultra-feminine. All girlie colors and clothes, no ink, but somehow she'd still wound up in my bed last night.

"Shit," I muttered, again.

"Dude! Are you gonna get up sometime fuckin' today!" Jack hollered through my door. He was all pissed off because Anya hadn't called him. I could understand his plight, Anya was fucking incredible. My boy was all twisted up in knots over her.

"Yeah!" I yelled back. "I'm coming."

"Let's go! We gotta open in forty five, man!" Fuck. No time to shower. Probably stank like sex. Oh, well.

Fifteen minutes later, I was dressed and ready. Jack was already out in his truck staring at his fucking phone again.

"Dude," I grunted at him. "She'll fucking call." He cut his eyes to me and tore out of the driveway. Damn, boy was fucked up over this chick. I knew the feeling. Shit, it was the reason I hauled his ass to Memphis with me. Never again. No woman was worth that bullshit.

"Saw Jen leave this morning," he smirked at me. "So? What's going on there?"

"Apparently a whole lotta fucking nothing, brother," I replied.

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah she just fucking disappeared on me."

"You gonna call her?" He cut his eyes at me again.

"I dunno. Bitch is bangin'. Fucking gorgeous tits. Funny as hell, but she's fucking high maintenance," I answered honestly.

Jack scoffed, "I feel ya, brother. I fuckin' feel ya."

*

Two months later

My phone buzzed. "Yo," I answered.

"Hey, what you up to?" Jen's voice came through.

"Not much."

"Wanna come to my place?" I knew what she was really asking. Did I want to fuck? We'd been playing this game for a month. At first I was cool being her booty call. It was a first for me. I was usually the initiator of the call, but Jen had taken the reigns and set her own rules.

The sex was great, but it was getting old. I wasn't sure what I wanted from her, but I was tired of this fucking game. It was always the same, she'd call, we'd fuck, she'd be gone or kicking me out the next morning. I was done with that shit.

"Can't. Got shit to do tonight." It was only a partial lie. Jack was at Anya's tonight, so I had plans to go prowl the bar scene.

"Oh. Ok," she sounded too perky. "Well, talk to ya later, Ben."

"Yeah, aight."

I hung up and got dressed to go out. Got on my bike and rode up to a bar close to the house. I backed the bike into a spot, and killed the engine. I glanced around the parking lot.

What the fuck? The little hybrid sitting two spots over, made me debate going in. I'd know that fucking car anywhere. Fucking bright blue, with the stupid 'I drive like a Cullen' bumper sticker.

"Damn," I whispered to myself. Fuck it. If nothing else, I knew I'd get laid tonight.

The bar was smokey and the loud throb of clashing conversations and classic rock assaulted my ears.

I ambled up to the bar and ordered a beer. I took a stool and looked around. I was in a fucking mood and knew taking my frustration with Jen out on some girl's pussy would be a temporary fix. It would be nothing but a hate fuck, I'd be pissed it wasn't Jen's tight pussy, but fuck I was over it. Time to man up and move the fuck on.

"Hey there, sexy," a high pitched voice trilled over the music. I turned to look at the source of the offensive sound. She was bleached blonde, unnaturally tanned, and had on a shirt she was calling a dress.

I jerked my chin up, "'Sup?"

"Never seen you here before," she trilled.

"Nope."

"What's your name?"

"Ben."

"Ben, don't you wanna ask my name?" She gave me a sexy smile.

"Nope," I responded with a smirk of my own.

She looked affronted. "Why not?"

"Don't need to know your name to fuck you, babe." Yeah. It was an asshole move, but it set the mood for what was going down. Sex. That's all. No strings, just fucking.

"Oh," she smiled and moved closer to me. "Anywhere, any time you want, Ben." She rubbed her hands down my chest.

I leaned in and grabbed a fist full of hair, "Bathroom. Five minutes. Go now and I'll be there," I growled in her ear. The nipples on her fake tits tightened and her breath hitched.

"Ok," she whispered.

I finished my beer and started toward the bathrooms to rendezvous with super-slut, when I stopped dead in my tracks.

Jen was sitting at a table with some other people. Correction, Jen was sitting on some motherfucker's lap at a table with other people. He had his mouth on her earlobe.

Fuck! I knew she was here. I saw her fucking car. What the hell? I turn her down and she goes to find another cock to fill her hole? I shouldn't have felt so...betrayed. She had called me. I had turned her down and went to find some other fucking pussy, but I still felt murderous. I charged toward the table.

"Ben!" Jen called and beamed. She jumped off of asshat's lap and threw her arms around me. She was obviously drunk. Asshat glared at me, I wrapped my arm possessively around Jen and glared back.

"What are you doing here?" She asked pulling away.

"Come on," I snapped.

She giggled and pulled further away. "Where are we going?"

"I'm taking you home!" I gritted out. Her smile fell and her eyes narrowed.

"I am here with friends," she clipped.

"You're drunk and you're letting some douchebag molest you in public."

"Not your fucking business, Benjamin!" She shouted. Fuck this. I grabbed her arm. "Let go," she snapped and jerked away.

"Problem?" Asshat asked.

"Walk away, motherfucker." I warned.

"What the fuck, Ben? You said you were busy? I went out, what the fuck is your problem?" Jen got between us.

"My problem?" I glared at her. "What the fuck are we doing, Jen? I'm tired of this shit! You're either with me or you're not, I'm not gonna be your fucking bed filler any more!" I shouted. Not really what I wanted to say. I wasn't sure I wanted exclusivity with Jen, but I knew I didn't like seeing some other fucker maul her.

"Fuck you!" She hissed. "We're friends, Ben. Nothing more!"

"We're not fucking friends, Jen. You wanna act like a fucking slut, fine. I'm fucking done with this shit!" I turned and walked out of the bar.

Jen 1

"Jennifer! Come on!" Anya yelled at me. I did a final adjustment to the girls and hurried to the living room.

"Ok. Ready." I huffed at my best friend. She rolled her eyes at me and walked to the door.

We were heading out for our regular Thursday night ritual. Jack and Kyle were meeting us at the bar.

"Are Deak and Raine coming?"

I asked her.

"Yeah. And Ben," she sounded nonchalant but tossed me a sideways glance.

"Fucking great," I muttered, sarcastically. Ben and I didn't get along. Everyone knew it. At one time we were cool, but then he had to go screw it up by putting a label on me. That was almost a year ago and we had said maybe four sentences to each other since.

"Be nice tonight, ok?" Anya cast me a glance.

"I'm always nice," I retorted.

"Just cut down the death glares and eye rolling. For me?" She asked.

"Fine!" I snapped.

We walked into the bar and were instantly greeted by Jack. "Hey, firecracker," he smiled, picked up his girlfriend and planted a smacking kiss on her lips. " 'Sup, Jen?" He jerked his chin up at me.

"Hey, Jack!" I smiled and gave him an awkward, one armed hug around his girlfriend, who was still in his arms. He lead the way to the table. "Hey guys," I waved at the table.

A barrage of heys came at me from the guys.

"Where's Ben?" Anya asked Jack.

He nodded his head toward the bar, "Gettin' his flirt on." I followed his line of sight. My blood turned to ice water and my mouth went dry. He was posted up on the bar, leaning his big, perfectly muscled body on his elbow and in toward yet another bleached blonde bimbo. She was giving him a flirty smile and looking at him from under her fake lashes. Slut. It applied to both of them.

He leaned in close and whispered something to her before running his knuckles down her cheek. Her face flushed and she nodded. He took her hand and helped her off her bar stool and started heading straight for the table with the hobag in tow.

"Hey, Ben," Anya jumped up and walked over to him.

"Hey, girlie," he smiled and wrapped her in one of his bear hugs. She giggled and patted his back.

"Can't breathe, Benny," she chuckled. He let go and kissed her cheek.

"Guys, this is Heather. She's gonna hang with us tonight," he announced to the table. Everyone threw out their greetings again. Everyone, except me. I just took a swig of my beer.

Heather gave a shy smile and waved. "Hi," she squeaked. Bitch.

"So? Heather?" Kyle piped up. "What do you do?"

"I'm, um, a receptionist for a, um, dentist," she whispered. At least with all the background noise it sounded like a whisper. "What do you do?" She glanced at Kyle.

"I work for Ben," Kyle answered. "Tattoo artist," he explained when she gave him a blank look. "I tattoo people," he explained further when it was obvious comprehension hadn't set in. He turned to me and gave me the what the fuck eyebrow raise. Brains. This bitch needed some.

"Oh. Are you all tattoo artists?" She smiled blankly. I couldn't help the snort that left me. Ho-bag blushed and Ben narrowed his eyes at me.

"No, babe. Me, Kyle and Jack, there, are artists," he smiled at her and tucked a piece of hair behind her ear. She blushed again and fluttered her eyes at him.

"Oh ok," she giggled and smiled at him. He leaned in and pressed a kiss on her lips and turned back to me and glared. I met his eyes and narrowed mine. Fucker.

I waved Dawn over.

"What ya need, hon?" She asked.

"Double shot, Patron," I answered. "Make it two." I glanced back at the bar. Two could play this fucking game.

When my shots came, I downed them in quick succession and climbed out of the booth. Making sure to chest rub Deak on the way out. He smiled and shook his head at me. I laughed and walked over to Anya.

"Let's go, bitch!" I hollered. "Bar ornament time." She giggled and took my hand, after giving Jack a lingering kiss.

Glen grinned at us and announced, "Ok guys! You know the rules! No touching my bar decor! You do, you're out."

I pulled Anya up on the bar top with me and started dancing. Within minutes I could feel the sheen of sweat and the thump of the bass. Anya came up behind me and we ground seductively to the frat boy version of "Crazy Bitch".

Fuck. I hated that woman. She was shaking her ass like a fucking stripper, to a song about fucking no less. She and Anya were all bump and grind, every man in the bar was drooling, including the motherfuckers at my table.

Just watching her luscious tits bounce and her round ass grind into Anya's crotch made me uncomfortably hard. Those fucking tits, I remembered fucking those tits. So soft and warm and her pink tongue licking my cockhead every time I thrusts upward.

She met my eyes from the bar top and scowled. She dropped to her knees in front of some bastard and wiggled in front of him. I grabbed the little blonde, Heather, and planted her on my lap. She must have felt my erection because she ground her backside into me. Fuck. Her ass wasn't as juicy as Jen's.

Jen caught my eye again and I pulled Heather's head back for a deep, fuck-me kiss.

Not to be outdone, Jen hopped off the bar and straddled the asshole she was jiggling for. She proceeded to give him an extremely seductive lap dance.

Anya had since hopped off the bar and headed back to the table.

"Well, lost my partner," she puffed. And perched on Jack's lap.

"That was hot, baby," Jack nuzzled her hair.

"Pffft," she scoffed. "Oh yeah. Watching Jen eye fuck a dude at the bar. Totally hot."

"I was watching you, firecracker," Jack replied, giving his girlfriend an amused grin. My boy was happier than I'd ever seen him and I was happy for him, but I admit I was more than a little jealous. I also felt relief. Anya could rip him to shreds, I was never going to feel that again. Ever.

My attention turned back to the seat the asshole had been in. It was empty. No sign of Jen or the douchebag.

"Hey!" I hollered at the table in general. "Y'all see where Jen went?" Everyone shook their heads. I caught Deak's eyes and nodded toward the empty seat. He gave me a chin jerk and got up, I plopped Heather down and followed him. I had a bad feeling in my gut.

"I'll check the bathrooms, you check outside," Deak hollered at me. I nodded and headed for the door.

It didn't take long to find her. "No. Stop," I heard Jen whine. My vision went black. "Please don't. Stop. You're hurting me!" Her voice got louder. I rounded the corner near the dumpster and saw the guy from the bar and some other motherfucker holding her against the wall.

"You're dead motherfuckers!" I shouted. All three of them looked at me. The guys loosened their hold on Jen and she jerked away and ran to me wrapping her arms around my waist and whimpering into my shoulder.

Deak and Raine, rounded the corner about the same time. Raine looked from Jen, shaking against me, to the douchebags and back. He looked at Deak and gave a nod.

The assholes started backing away only to run into Jack and Kyle. Both had murderous looks on their faces.

"Dude, she was all over it," asshole one defended.

"Yeah man, the slut wanted it," asshole two chimed in. I felt Jen give her head a shake and a small sob escaped her. I pulled her away and looked down.

"Go back inside, babe. Find Anya and wait for us," I tried to sound calm, but I knew there was venom in my words. Not at her, them. "Go on, baby. It's ok."

She whimpered and looked up at me with her wet lashes. My stomach turned. I ran a finger down her cheek and she flinched away. I was going to snap these motherfuckers' necks. She let out a sob again and took off toward the bar.

"Seriously, dude, you saw. She was rubbing all up on my shit," asshole one said again.

"I think she said 'no'," I said in a deathly calm voice. "Last I checked, that's a woman telling you to back the fuck off."

"Come on, man. Girl dancing like that, dressed like that." Asshole two growled at us. Oh. Little bitch wants to go? Done.

"I dunno, Raine, what do you think?" Deak asked.

"I'm pretty sure what she 'says' is what she means. Jack?" Raine asked.

"You fuckheads better pray," Jack said icily. "What do you think, Kyle?"

Kyle gave what could only be described as a serial killer grin. "I think it's been a while since I've had a reason to castrate a motherfucker."

"No. No, man! Look, nothing happened, we're just gonna go. Ok?" Asshole two started backing away slowly.

"No? Did you say no? I heard my girl say no, didn't stop you. Why should it stop me?" I smiled and cracked my knuckles. And then one of the cowardly shits, pissed his pants.

"Seriously?" I shook my head. "You didn't see my girl pissin' on herself when you had her backed into a corner, you disgusting fuck." And then the fun began. The growling asshole charged Raine. Mistake. He may look lanky, but he's a badass motherfucker.

Raine clothes lined the dumb fuck and wrestled him into submission. He began methodically punching the asshole In the face.

I went after piss boy and wrapped my hand around his throat. You learn to avoid punching at all cost when you make your money with your hands.

I slammed his head back into the wall over and over. I kept seeing Jen's terrified face.

I felt hands pulling me back. "Dude, enough!" Jack pled with me.

"Come on, man. Lets go check on the girls," Raine's bloody knuckles pulled me back. I turned abruptly and let the asshat fall to the ground. I stormed into the bar and looked around for Jen. She was at the table, Anya was rubbing her back. Her face was tear stained and her eyes were puffy. She was still shaking. Anya said something to her and she looked up at me. New sobs shook her.

I walked to the table and Heather stood up. Shit. "Sorry, babe," I said shaking my head at her. "Not tonight." She looked from me to the other guys walking in, nodded and walked dejectedly to the bar. Damn. She was hot. Oh well, I had a scared, stupid girl to take care of. My dick could wait.

I leaned over the table and picked Jen up from the booth. I chin jerked the guys and walked back out the door. Jen turned her face into my neck and sobbed. I didn't know what to do. Part of me wanted to yell at her for being so stupid, the other part wanted to soothe her.

I chose the latter. I sat backward on my bike and faced her. I pulled her to my chest and ran my hand up and down her back. "It's alright, Jen," I tried to calm down her sobs that were twisting my chest. "It's ok, sweetheart. You're ok."

She pulled in a stuttering breath, "I-I-I'm s-s-soooo sor-sorry," she cried.

"Hey, look at me," I touched her cheek. She met my eyes with her beautiful blue ones. "You said no, baby. I heard you. This isn't your fault ok?"

"Yes it is," she wailed. "If I hadn't gotten jealous I'd never had acted like that."

"No. Shh. Not. Your. Fault. You understand me, babe?" She nodded and buried her face into me again. Finally the sobs slowed and my brain turned to something she had said.

"Why were you jealous?" I asked.

"Oh, um..." She looked away. "Well, that girl, she was kind of...well...you deserve better than a barfly bimbo." She stared at the vacant parking lot across the street and bit her lip.

"Yeah?" I smiled with male satisfaction that she was jealous. She looked up at me. Her eyes still glassy and her lips swollen from her sobs. She was fucking gorgeous. "Are you saying I deserve someone like you, sweetheart?"

"No. Definitely better," she gave me a small smile. Well, damn. She didn't hate me after all. I couldn't stop myself. I leaned down and kissed her lightly. When I pulled back, her hands moved to my hair and pulled me back down. She pressed her lips roughly to mine and lingered. When I'd had enough of not tasting her, I licked her upper lip. She pulled back immediately and gave me a shy smile.

"Thank you, Ben. For what you did. I know we're not friends and I know you don't like me, so I really appreciate you swooping in like that." What? She climbed off of my bike and turned to walk away.

"I didn't mean it," I said out of desperation to get her to stay.

"Mean what?" She looked back at me and frowned.

"When I said we weren't friends. I was," I exhaled loudly, "fuck, Jen. I was frustrated and hurt and, damn, babe, I didn't mean it."

She smiled a sad smile and shook her head, "Yeah, you did." She walked back into the bar. With a lingering ache in my chest, I started my bike and headed home.

Jen 2

It had been almost a month since my close call with the two yuppies outside of the bar. I hadn't found it in me to go back. I was scared, sure, but mostly I was ashamed. I didn't act like that with complete strangers. I had friends with benefits, but I didn't do random hook ups and I certainly never acted like that.

And then Ben, of all people, had to be my knight in shining facial piercings? I was so humiliated. Anya had called, a lot. She wanted to make sure I was alright. I was grateful the first few times, then it made me even more embarrassed. I figured the best way I could prove I was alright was by putting on my big girl panties and going to the bar.

That's how I found myself staring into my beer bottle, wishing I were anywhere but in a booth, at my favorite bar.