"Brenda and Julie are coming," James said.

Benny could hardly believe his ears. It was too good to be true. They had originally planned the trip as a guys' getaway, but James decided it would be a great opportunity to put the screws to Brenda without having to worry about parental interference. The problem with that plan was she wasn't too keen on traveling across the great state of Texas with a bunch of boys, so Benny had suggested she bring her pal Julie. He hadn't really expected the idea to stick.

Trying hard to conceal his excitement, Benny casually replied, "Really? Right on. I guess it won't be a sausage fest after all. You sure they're coming?" It would be a cruel joke if they backed out last minute, but James reassured him on that front.

"Yeah, Brenda pitched it to Jules and she was all about it. They're down like James Brown."

The conversation continued for a bit before the two friends hung up, but Benny had checked out. All he could think about was Julie Huerta. She was the most stunning thing he had ever seen. Sunsets and mountains and waterfalls couldn't hold a candle. Neither could any of the girls he had seen on the internet or in the movies; photoshop, liposuction, silicon breasts, facelifts and all. Julie blew them all away.

It wasn't just the way she looked either. She had them beat in looks alone, sure, but Julie was also smart, witty, kind, down to earth, and had an awesome sense of humor. The way she moved, her cute little girlish voice, everything about her just drove Benny wild, and he would be spending an entire week with her. This was a fucking miracle. He wondered if he'd get to see her in a bikini. They would be camping on the Nueces River, after all, and there would no doubt be swimming at some point. God, he hoped she'd bring a bikini. One of the sexiest things about her was her soft, smooth tummy.

Her stomach was flat, but she was not a skinny girl. There was a healthy amount of meat on her, and although she was very athletic, her muscle definition was hidden beneath her softness. Some guys were critical of that fact, but Benny thought they were crazy. He loved her soft physique.

That night he was too excited to sleep. He did manage to stroke his cock a record thirteen times, however. He figured it was a record he'd likely break after next week.
The day of the trip Benny was like a kid on Christmas, and Mark's old van couldn't get to Julie's house soon enough. Despite James' promise that the girls were in, and despite the fact that Brenda was already in the van, her bags stowed behind the seats, Benny kept telling himself Julie would say she couldn't go when they arrived to pick her up. There was just no way he was going to be sitting next to the hottest chick in the world for the next nine hours as they trekked across the country.

But she did not disappoint, bounding out the front door with a duffle bag over her shoulder, clad in white low-rise jeans and a frayed white denim vest that stopped just short of her waist and parted at the bottom, revealing her adorable belly button, a vertical slit in her soft pudgy flesh that reminded Benny of a coin slot. Her tiny feet were attired in white high tops, and she was as beautiful as ever. The duffle bag put a slight arc in her back so her vest rode high on her perky breasts, revealing several inches of her creamy belly, which couldn't help but catch Benny's eye.

Julie stashed her bag in the back with the rest of their luggage, called out, "What's up, bitches," to James and Mark in the front seats, then climbed into the back, behind Benny and next to Brenda. She gave Brenda a hug and offered a cheerful, "Hey you," to Benny.

"Hey Julie, thanks for joining us," Benny answered, trying to sound cool but failing.

"Yeah, well, Brenda said she needed some back up against all you boys, and that's my sister from another mister right there. I couldn't leave her hanging."

Mark chimed in from the driver's seat, "James is the one that should be thanking her. You're not gonna get no ass outta this, Benito."

"How do you know Benny and I aren't gonna shack up?" Julie asked, her eyebrows raised provocatively. Benny's heart stopped dead in his chest.

"Really?" Benny and Mark asked almost in unison.

Julie giggled and pinched Benny's cheek. He almost fainted. "No silly. Not really."

"Dude, that's messed up," Mark told her. "You know the kid has a sick crush on you. Now you at least owe him second base, or flash your titties at him or somethin'. Fucking with him like that."

Benny felt all the blood in his body rush to his head and stammered, "Nuh. Nah. No I don't. You don't have to flash your titties. I mean, you know, if... Mark, you're such a douche."

Julie was still looking at him with those mesmerizing blue eyes of hers, a playful smile on her soft lips, a lock of rich brown hair dangling over her right brow, and Benny was certain he was going to die. Then she giggled again and said, "I'm sorry, Benny, I was just fucking around, didn't mean to mess with your head," then to Mark, "We gonna get on the road or sit here bullshitting all day?"

"So no titties then?" Mark asked.

"Dude, don't make me kick your fucking ass before we even get out of the driveway," Julie answered, still smiling.

"Alright, alright," Mark conceded. "I tried, Benny." He threw it in reverse and backed onto the street.

Benny was still frozen with embarrassment. How was he supposed to talk to Julie now? Hell, how was he even supposed to look at her? But his dream girl seemed to sense his unease, and she somehow made it all better.

"So, Benny, you ever been fishing before?" she asked disarmingly, as if the previous conversation never took place. After some hesitation Benny met her hypnotic gaze and saw she was completely unconcerned about spending the next seven days with a weird creepy loser who may or may not be obsessed with her. There was nothing in her expressive, lively blue eyes but kindness and good cheer. Benny felt his admiration for her grow even stronger.

"A couple times, yeah," he answered, beginning to relax. Mark and James had started their own conversation in the front seat. "There's nothing to it really, you just put the bait on the hook and throw it in the water. It's more of an excuse to drink beer while telling yourself you're doing something active". Benny added air quotations for the word active, and Julie giggled sweetly.

Brenda smiled and added, "Well, we already got an excuse to drink beer. It's our last summer together. We're gonna get fucked up."

"Bitch, it better not be our last summer together. If you don't stay in touch I will track your ass down and fucking cut you," Julie told her.

"Yeah, okay, maybe, but you know what I mean. It won't be the same, like it is now, with all of us still living at home and stuff. And college changes people."

"It might change your bitch ass, but I'm gonna be a bad ass motherfucker for life," Julie retorted, and her and Brenda both laughed at that. That was how their road trip began, and as the highway peeled away beneath them, Benny was able to loosen up and truly enjoy the company of his companions.

They were three hundred miles down the road and just outside of Sanderson, Texas when they fired up the first blunt.

"Would you let someone shoot you in the stomach for a million dollars?" Julie asked. They had been discussing inflation, and how a million dollars no longer held the same prestige it once did, when Julie decided to pop that one on them.

"Hold the fuck up," Mark announced suddenly. "Before we get into one of those debates... it's time to get lit," He produced a re-rolled Swisher and a Zippo lighter from seemingly thin air and proceeded to spark up.

"You're lighting that shit while you're driving down the highway?" Julie asked him.

"Girl, I give no fucks," he called back in between drags.

"Yeah, well, just don't kill us," Julie answered. "I have a few more fucks I'd like to give."

Mark just laughed at that and passed the blunt to James. He took his hits and handed it to Benny, who hit it and passed it to Julie. Julie said she didn't smoke, but Brenda egged her on. "Come on, Jules, give it a try. You'll like it."

Julie still balked, but when Mark called out, "Yeah, don't be a pussy, Julie, it's just weed. Cigarettes are more dangerous than that shit," she narrowed her eyes and took a drag. They all watched as she blew out a cloud of smoke, then went back for another puff, but Benny thought he was the only one who noticed the way her lush lips curved as they pursed on the tail end of the blunt, or the way she licked them when she was done, leaving them slightly moist and glistening.

The blunt was passed to Brenda, who happily took her turn, and then it rotated back to Mark. It took them nearly ten minutes to finish the thing off, and then they circled back to Julie's question.

"I'd let someone shoot me in the stomach for a million bucks," Mark boasted.

"Bullshit," Julie told him. "You wouldn't be able to deal with the pain. You'd fucking cry like a bitch."

"Maybe, but I'd still do it. Fuck it. Cry like a bitch but I'd be a rich bitch. Would you do it?"

Julie appeared to consider it for just a second, but then quickly shook her head. "I read somewhere that gunshot wounds to the abdomen are fatal like twenty-something percent of the time. That's like a one in four chance of dying, and a million bucks isn't worth shit if you're dead."

"I'd do it," Brenda said. "I'm an optimist. Seventy-five percent chance of survival, I like those odds."

"You're fucking nuts," Julie said. "What if you had to get on a plane, and there were four planes, and I told you one of them is going to explode in mid-air?" Brenda didn't reply.

"What if it was a billion dollars?" Mark asked.

Julie smiled but still shook her head, and Benny noted the way her hair brushed over her bare shoulders when she did it. "I like being alive too much, I guess. Not worth the risk."

"Hold on, you didn't say what we're being shot with. A twenty-two, a pellet gun, a fucking air soft rifle," James chimed in. "Hell, what if it's an arrow with a target tip. That wouldn't mess you up too bad. But if it's a hollow point or large caliber round, forget about it. Count me out for that shit."

"Man makes a good point," Mark confessed. "A hollow point just goes into your guts and expands, tearing everything to shreds. That shit would fuck you up." Julie grimaced and put a hand over her tummy. "The type of round makes a huge difference."

"And how close is medical attention?" Benny added, trying to capitalize on James' clever line of thought. "Are EMT's standing by? Am I in a hospital when I'm shot?"

"I like where your head is at," Julie said with a beaming smile. Benny was just beginning to feel proud of himself when she added, "It's blocking the sun," and then she burst into laughter, and Benny couldn't help but grin. It was exactly the type of quirky sense of humor he found so endearing in her. "Alright, alright, wise asses, new question," she continued. "Would you agree to go into solitary confinement for ten years for a million dollars? And before everybody starts getting smart, no internet access, no books, no TV, no outside interaction at all, just you in an empty room for ten years."

"Ok, anybody that says yes to that just isn't thinking clearly," Mark told them. "You'd literally have nothing to do but jerk off all day, and that'd get old after a day or two. Then what're you gonna do the other three thousand six hundred and forty-nine days?"

"Look at Mark, with the math skills," Benny said, impressed.

"It's not skill you 'tard, three hundred and sixty-five times ten. All you do is add a fucking zero," Mark told him.

"Except there'd be at least two leap years," Julie said. "Maybe three depending on when you went in. So if you jerked off all day the first day, you'd have at least three thousand six hundred and fifty-one days left." Julie stuck out her tongue, and Benny felt faint with lust. "Who's the wise ass now?"

"Whatever," Mark said, "it's a fucking eternity. It might as well be ten million billion bajillion days. It'd sure as fuck feel like it. You'd go insane."

"I might do it," Brenda said.

"You're outta your mind," Mark told her.

"Okay, five years," Julie said. "I might do five years. When I get out I'd still be twenty-three, and I could just travel the world and have fun. I wouldn't have to work some shit job."

"Nah, you'd be wrecked. Your mind would turn to mush in there," Mark protested. "Have you read The Jaunt?"

"The who?" Julie asked.

"The Jaunt," Mark repeated.

"The fuck is that?" Brenda asked.

"It's a story by Stephen King. People figure out how to teleport but there's a catch - the trip is instantaneous for your body, but for your mind it seems to take forever. So they have to put you to sleep before you do it, but this kid thinks it'd be cool to experience eternity, so he doesn't inhale the sleeping gas and just pretends he's asleep. He comes out the other side a raving lunatic and claws his eyes out."

"Whoa, fucking spoiler alert, dickhead," James cried out.

"Bitch, you weren't gonna read the fucking story. Shut the fuck up," Mark said, before continuing, "The point is, you spend too much time in your own head, you fucking lose it."

Julie looked thoughtful. "I wonder if people go crazy in Heaven. I mean it's basically just your consciousness for eternity, right?"

"Dude, don't get me started on Heaven. It's such a crock of shit," Mark said. "There's no fucking way. Imagine the thing you love the most. Imagine doing that shit a zillion fucking times and a zillion more times, would you still like doing it? And that wouldn't even be the beginning. I mean forever is fucking forever. Besides, you don't get to do the shit you like the most according to the Bible. You can't flick your bean or play Grand Theft Auto or watch fucking Game of Thrones. All you fucking do is praise God. If there's a Heaven everybody's going fucking insane with boredom, believe me."

"But what if we don't see time the same way we do when we die?" Julie asked.

"Bullshit cop out. Time is part of our universe, part of our stream of consciousness. If we didn't perceive time, we wouldn't be who we are, so if there's some other plane of existence where time doesn't matter or exist, and somehow our life force or some shit crosses over, whatever ends up inhabiting that place, it's not us."

"I'm not saying it doesn't exist, just that it's different when you're dead. Like maybe you don't notice it passing? Or you experience all moments at once?"

"Not sure what the fuck that even means, but that doesn't sound like time to me, and you're still changing a fundamental part of our conscious thought, so again, whatever is experiencing this Heaven bullshit, it's not us."

Julie looked concerned. "Well, if there's no Heaven, that's just another reason not to get shot in the stomach," she said, and something about the way she glanced at her tummy and pressed her hands against it right then just drove Benny mad.

"I don't think you'd go to Heaven anyway if you die gambling with your life, trying to win a million dollars," Brenda told her.

"What if you have a family member with cancer, and you're giving the million dollars to them for medical bills? Or you're donating it to charity?" Julie asked her.

"Well, okay, maybe," Brenda conceded, "but who the fuck would do that?"

Julie cackled. "Well not you, obviously, you evil bitch. But seriously, that's like a totally new question. Let's say there is no Heaven, but you're able to save the world by sacrificing your life. Like Bruce Willis in Armageddon. Would you do it?"

"Well, if you don't, you die anyway, right? I mean if you don't save the world, and the world ends, either way you're fucked. Might as well die saving everyone," Benny pointed out.

"Fuck. Alright, well let's say you can end world hunger and create lasting peace on Earth, but you hafta die."

"I would," Benny said, not sure if he really would but he figured it was the answer Julie would want to hear.

"Would you?" Julie asked.

"How selfish would you have to be not to? Every time someone died of starvation or fighting, it would be your fault. They'd be dead because you're alive. Imagine the guilt." Benny pled his case.

"Yeah, but you'd be alive. What's worse, living with constant guilt or not living at all? Like what good is world peace if as far as you're concerned there is no world? You sacrifice yourself and there's nothing left for you. How do you reconcile that?"

Benny shrugged. "So you wouldn't do it?"

"I'm not saying that," Julie answered, "It'd just be hard. I'd like to think I would, cuz I'd be a terrible person if I didn't, but it wouldn't be that easy. Like it's more than just doing the math. What if we changed the math, though? What if it was three people you had never met on the other side of the world, but if you gave up your life you would save theirs. Would you do it?"

"Jesus, Julie, why are you so philosophical and shit all of a sudden?" Mark butted in.

Julie laughed. "I'm fucking high, asshole. Remember that blunt you passed around and told me to hit?"

"Yeah, bitch, I hit that shit every damn day but it doesn't turn me into a morbid fucking wanna-be Socrates."

"Well maybe I'm just more intellectual than you."

"Fucking buzz kill is what you are. All this talk about dying," Mark retorted.

"You're the one that started talking about death," Julie said, "talking about how there's no Heaven."

"Bullshit," James told her, "you brought that shit up, remember? Asking if you can go insane in Heaven. I was just answering your fucked up question."

Julie's beautiful cheeks flushed red and she was at a loss for words. Benny didn't think he had ever seen her flustered before, but it was a good look for her. It brought so much color to her face. "Yeah, well, maybe I did," she finally managed. "I'm just trying to keep the conversation interesting. Fucking dick."

"I got a fucking dick for you," Mark told her.

"Bring it back here and I'll chop it off and you can find out if there's a fucking Heaven, puto!" Julie seemed to have regained her cool, however, because although her words were vitriolic, her perfect lips hinted at a smile and her usual joviality had returned to her voice. When James began to laugh, they were all able to join in, Julie included.