The Gas Station

A shiver runs down Emily's back as soon as the door to Stephanie's house falls into its lock behind her. Her mind runs wild, fabricating ideas of what may happen to her. Slowly, she stumbles down the driveway to Stephanie's car, her legs getting weaker with every step as her heart threatens to jump out of her chest, it's pounding so fast. Relief overcomes Emily as she reaches the cabrio, as it offers a hold other than her unreliable legs and a sense of safety and privacy, and she is going to miss it dearly soon enough.

Stephanie starts to explain where they are going to go while pulling out of the driveway, but Emily barely registers any of it, her heart is pumping in her ears, and she's emptily staring ahead as her mind is in a trance, blending out everything around her. She has never felt like that before. Usually, when she has been exposed, it comes as a surprise, and she just goes into panic mode, trying to find a way out of it or following her friends' suggestions, assuming they had her best interests in mind. This time it's different. This time, she knows that it's coming, and the anticipation is worse than anything she ever felt before, because now she has the chance to imagine all of her worst nightmares, getting lost nude, laughed at, photographed, mocked, constrained, or even possibly molested. All sense and logic are out the window as her fantasies run rampant.

Eventually, the car stops unbeknownst to Emily until she is shaken out of a trance. After a confused look around, she realizes that they are at a gas station, and Stephanie ushers her in to pay. "Don't forget to add a little jump to your step, if you flash the clerk, he might give us a bit of a discount," she says with a wink as she shoves Emily out of the car. Emily, still a little dizzy, instinctively starts to walk into the gas station and towards the register. Doing so, she hurries so much that her skirt flares up multiple times and more often than would be unavoidable if she would just walk normally to the excitement of the young clerk as he gets an unobstructed view of Emily behind as she hastily turns around after paying and rushes back to the safety of the car.

Inside the car, she is greeted by Stephanie and her expectant grin. "So? How was it? I think I could see the guy's disbelief from here. He went wide-eyed as soon as you turned around. You probably mooned him good."

Only then does Emily remember the length of her skirt and the purpose of their adventure. She had gotten so caught up in her own world that she forgot what they were doing, to begin with. The sudden realization of what just happened drives the color into her cheeks, as she sheepishly takes glimpses at the cashier, while she tries to submerge into her seat.