Chapter 13

Jason woke up the day of the freshman dance feeling better than he had in weeks. For the past three days straight, he had managed to hold fast to his commitments of self-improvement. He had exercised twice, spending one day on his upper body, resting the next day, and then subsequently exhausting his lower body. The uptick of physical activity of course meant that his appetite had increased as well — Jason was quite happy to remind himself that he had eaten a full meal, three times a day, for the past three days. He rolled out of bed, pulled the scale out from under his bed with his toes, and weighed himself. 167.2.

“There we go,” he said out loud, nodding a little smugly to himself. “That’s more like it.”

He had started to gain back the weight he had lost during his weeks of floundering. And not only had he become more physically vigorous, but he had started regularly attending his classes as well, even going so far as to verbally participate in them. He had taken a quiz in his Intro to Biology class (which Eve had tested out of because of her AP scores), and even though he hadn’t quite managed an “A,” his 88 was significantly higher than the class average of 74. As icing on the academic cake, Jason had even decided to join a biology study group, which consisted of himself, Ben from down the hall, and several other people who had clearly shown, by their higher grades and eager participation in class, that they were the driven ones, the cream of the intellectual crop.

At least, that’s how Jason was choosing to see it all. In the past few days he had been almost high on the idea of rising to the occasion, meeting the challenge, stepping up to the plate, and any other vague cliche he could think of. In reality, he subconsciously knew that all of his behavior was guided by one purpose: to reassure himself that Eve was not outgrowing him, moving beyond him, or becoming too much for him. When he really thought about it, Jason was well aware that everything he was doing was purely reactionary and imitative — nothing was done because of intrinsic ambition or motivation. He was working out and eating more because he wanted to meet Eve in the middle, since that’s exactly what she was doing; he was going to class regularly, participating, and studying hard because he knew that Eve was doing the same; he had joined the biology study group because, in his mind, it served as a kind of counterbalance to all the time and effort that Eve put into her math club. So even though his behavior had the appearance of self-motivation and rigor, it was all about Eve, at its core.

But Jason just decided not to think about it that way. So what if he was doing all of this to impress Eve, to keep pace with her, to make sure that she didn’t feel like she was outgrowing him? Wasn’t it a perfectly valid thing, to want to keep her? And anyway, as his good habits formed, he would start to do all of these things for their own sake, and not to prevent the collapse of his relationship with an increasingly confident, driven, and growing young woman.

Jason’s phone buzzed on his nightstand, setting his heart aflutter. He was thrilled to see a message from Eve:

“Heya stud! Excited for the dance tonight?? Wanna get some breakfast?”

Jason felt almost too happy to receive a message like this — it showed how much things had changed, even just in the past few days. Before, it had always been Jason texting Eve, asking to do things. And she had often been busy with homework, or math club, or exercise. But now, she was the one texting him!

Jason was about to quickly reply back with an enthusiastic “Yes!!” when he suddenly caught himself. What was he doing?! Of course he wanted to get breakfast with Eve, and maybe even spend the whole day with her before the dance later that evening, but he realized with a start that he had an opportunity right here…an opportunity to show Eve that he wasn’t just sitting there, waiting for her to text him…an opportunity to show her that he was just as busy as she was, just as preoccupied with his own ambitions and interests. Her choosing to text him was the perfect chance to nonchalantly show how engaged, how serious, how adult he was.

“Aw, babe, I’d love to,” Jason replied, feeling a strange elation as his fingers typed, “But I’ve got a biology study group to go to — big test next week! I’ll hit you up later this afternoon! <3 <3”

His finger hovered for an instant over his phone, and then he sent the message. The strange exhilaration swelled within him, even as he actively pushed down the genuine sadness he felt in denying himself time with his favorite person. A flash of uncanny guilt passed through him, its immediate freshness flaring for a moment on his conscience. He had just lied to her. It was 9 in the morning. Of course there was no biology study group at this hour…on a Saturday!? And yet, this odd feeling lasted only a moment, since Eve had replied back immediately.

“Oh wow! This early? You guys are dedicated, haha. Ok, let me know when you can hang out! Can’t wait for tonight!!”

Jason’s swagger returned. So what if there wasn’t a study group happening right now? He had already set it all in motion — he would just conjure one up on the spot. He’d actually take advantage of this opportunity to study…and in the morning on the weekend, no less.

‘Keep it up, Jason, just keep it up,’ he told himself contentedly as he walked down the hall a few minutes later. He’d just knock on Ben’s door — he was usually up early, anyway. And the two of them could have an impromptu little study session.

“Yeah?” came Ben’s deep voice a moment later, after Jason knocked. It sounded a little thick with sleep, and Jason suddenly grew worried that he had woken him up.

“H-Hey Ben, it’s me, Jason! Uhh…I hope I’m not waking you up!” Jason liked Ben a lot — he was a really smart, chill, down-to-earth guy, who, because of his immense size, didn’t really have to tolerate any shit from anyone else. Jason wasn’t afraid of him by any means, but in this moment, he suddenly became a little afraid that Ben would be irritated with him for wanting to study biology so early on the weekend. He heard some shifting behind the door, and the sound of two big feet plopping down on the floor, approaching the door. Jason took a step back, his heart suddenly beating quite fast.
The door opened, and Ben filled the space the door had previously occupied — all of it. He ducked his shaggy head down a little, so he could see Jason under the doorframe, and sleepily held his big arms up, leaning them heavily on the doorframe.

“Nah, you didn’t wake me up,” said Ben, blinking his beady eyes down at Jason and giving him an almost-pained smile. “I’ve been lying in bed awake for the past couple hours.”

“Oh! Are…are you ok?” asked Jason.

“Haha! I’m fine,” chucked Ben, shaking his head self-deprecatingly. “Just had a bit too much to drink last night is all.”

“Oh…haha, well, I know how that is!” laughed Jason, staring up at the giant man. Ben was just over an entire foot taller than Jason, which meant that, even as Ben was leaning slightly in the doorway, he was still staring up at Ben’s shoulders; the top of Jason’s head didn’t even come up to his neck.
“So what’s up?” asked Ben, pivoting his great hairy head down slightly at Jason.

“Oh…uhh…well…haha, you’re probably gonna say no, since, well, yeah…but, uh, I was just…just wondering if you’d wanna join me for a little biology review? Since…you know…we have that test next week…?”

Jason suddenly felt foolish, and immediately felt like he was acting bizarrely. Ben blinked once down at him, as if confirming Jason’s perception. Then his bushy black eyebrows went up.

“This early?”

The question and tone were innocent enough, but Jason almost felt like he was being scrutinized…interrogated.

“Haha, well, I mean…it’s just that…well, I know we all did pretty well on that quiz…I mean, you and I and the rest of the group did, anyway…and I wanted to, you know…kind of keep that momentum going, right? Like…I’ve been really enjoying our sessions, and…and since the dance is tonight and all, I thought we’d…you know…earn the fun that we’re gonna have, if that makes any sense?”

As Jason had plowed on with his convoluted explanation, his face had grown increasingly hot and red. He felt like, just by standing there silently, Ben was somehow drawing the truth out of him, without having to say one word: that Jason’s decision to knock on his door and disturb him, that everything that was currently tumbling out of his mouth, was based on false pretenses. For an irrational moment, Jason suddenly feared that Ben knew that Jason had dragged him out of bed just to help live out a lie that Jason had concocted to impress his girlfriend.

But the moment passed, and already Ben’s behavior was making Jason feel better. His black beard shifted and scrunched a little at the corners of his mouth as he let out a little sighing laugh, shaking his head again in a self-deprecating way.

“Haha, well, I admire your drive, Jason, but I’m gonna have to sit this one out,” he chuckled. “Not sure I can focus enough right now.”

“Oh yeah! Oh no, I totally understand,” said Jason quickly, nodding vigorously as he relaxed back into his confident mode. He was getting a study group together, and it was totally fine if Ben was too hungover to participate. If anything, it just made Jason feel that much more on top of it.

“Sorry to disturb you!” he added. “I’ll let you get on back to bed so you can sleep it off.”

“Nah, that’s alright,” said Ben, taking a step back from the doorway so he could stretch his huge arms up, palming the ceiling easily, his elbows crooked. “I needed to get out of bed anyway — I was just being a lazy ass. I think I’m gonna get some breakfast…eggs and bacon, mmmmm....so, haha, thanks for getting me up, Jason.”

“Hehe, any time,” said Jason, waving goodbye. He suddenly wished that he had just joined Eve for breakfast — eggs and bacon sounded really nice right about now. But it didn’t matter. He would just go to the library and study by himself. It was all the same, anyway, right?

About half an hour later, Eve was sitting alone at a table for two in the dining hall, thoroughly immersed in her multivariable calculus textbook, when she realized that her eyes were a bit dry. She blinked a few times, and looked up. Just about that time, Ben was passing by her table holding a tray that was piled high to an almost absurd extent with all varieties of savory food. Eve froze, staring up at him, her mouth open just slightly. He was just…so huge! And his unkempt shagginess, his haphazard clothes, and the heavy but purposeful movement of his limbs…all of it just combined to form a picture that Eve had never seen before. She had just…never, ever been exposed to anything remotely like him in her entire life. It was like he was some kind of…animal, or something. At least, that’s how she felt, if she had thought about it. But thus far, whenever she had been around Ben, she hadn’t been doing too much thinking.

He clearly hadn’t seen her — his eyes were fixed on an empty table at the far end of the dining hall. And anyway, sitting down, she was so far beneath his line of sight that Eve wondered how he saw anything at all that was below his chest. As he passed by her, Eve unconsciously turned her head to follow him, and as a result of her doing so, her slight movement caught Ben’s eye and he glanced down. Their eyes met. Eve felt paralyzed; she couldn’t blink. Ben stopped dead in his tracks, and for half a moment neither of them moved or spoke.

But then Ben’s big bushy eyebrows went up, and his beady black eyes seemed to brighten with a slight little sheen, and a black hole was opening up in the lighter black of his beard…his mouth…and his huge gray tongue flattened out across his lower teeth as he spoke her name.
“Eve! Haha, oh wow, I didn’t even see you there!”

“Uh h-hi Ben,” said Eve, her eyes falling from his face sheepishly, coming to rest on the myriad and slapdash hills of food on his tray. “Heh! We seem to be running into each other a lot these days, huh?” said Ben, with casual friendliness.

“Hahaha, yes…yes we do!” agreed Eve, taking solace in the distraction of laughing. Before she even knew what she was doing, she was asking him: “You, uh…you wanna join me here?”

“Oh, I mean,” said Ben, glancing down at her big textbook, “I don’t wanna disturb your studies. That’s a pretty huge book you got there…uh, multivariable calculus! Wow — you’re taking that as a freshman! Damn!”

“Haha, thanks, I mean, uhh…no, no it’s no trouble at all! You’re not disturbing me,” said Eve, quickly closing her book shut and manhandling it back into her book bag with two hands as she gestured with her head. “Have a seat.”

“Well thanks!” said Ben brightly, pivoting his massive body over, placing his tray with uncanny care on the table with the huge mitts of his hairy hands, and then relaxing slowly down into one of the metal dining hall chairs. For a moment, Eve couldn’t help but just stare shamelessly at the spectacle of his gigantic body filling up the chair. He was so big that Eve couldn’t even see the chair anymore; his bulk had completely swallowed it up. As he descended into the chair, Ben let out a contented sigh as he smiled widely at Eve, and then at his food.

“Ha, wow, looks like you’ve, uh…got quite the breakfast there!” remarked Eve, feeling at once that her words sounded stupid and “small talky.” But Ben just chuckled, shaking his head a little, as if laughing at himself.

“Heh, well, this is the only way that I’m gonna overpower this hangover I’ve got. Went a bit too hard last night, unfortunately.”

“Oh…wow, yeah,” said Eve blankly. She immediately wondered what it looked like when Ben was “going hard.” An image of him raging out to the heavens next to a huge bonfire, as he ripped a thick limb off a nearby tree, suddenly popped into her mind. Her pussy was getting wet, and the oval of her labia was buzzing with electricity. How much did this man need to drink to “go hard?”

“But actually, it was your boyfriend who got me out of bed this morning!” laughed Ben, digging into a pile of what must have been six scrambled eggs, downing half of it in one bite. Some of the egg stuck a little in his beard as he chewed with his mouth open.

“What? Jason?” asked Eve, as if coming back from some kind of brief reverie.

“Haha, yeah! He knocked on my door just a little bit ago, when I was still in bed feeling sorry for myself. Guess what he wanted to do?”

“I…don’t know,” said Eve uncertainly. She did know the answer, though, didn’t she? But she was too distracted by the mental image of Ben in his bed. Did they have to make one especially for him? Or did his feet stick way off the edge?

“He wanted to…get this…study biology! Haha, can you believe it!? On a Saturday morning?!”

Ben continued shoveling food into his mouth as he spoke. The eggs were already gone, and he was now crunching into a baklava-like tower of bacon. Eve watched him eat, mesmerized. Clearly he hadn’t been taught the proper manners of how to chew, and how much to chew at once, and all the rest. His beard continued to accumulate little bits of food. But she wasn’t grossed out…not in the least.

“Oh, but of course you can believe it!” laughed Ben, downing half a glass of milk as he pointed with a thick finger to Eve’s book bag. “Here you are, on a Saturday morning, doing the same thing. Haha, you two were totally made for each other.”

“Oh…yeah?” asked Eve, still almost blankly as she stared down at her book bag, then back at Ben’s tray of food, then back at him.

“Don’t mind me, I’m just super hungry,” said Ben in a voice that was now muffled by a large muffin. “So anyway — the dance tonight! Exciting huh?”
“Yeah…yeah! Very exciting! I’ve been, uh…looking forward to it!” said Eve, recovering herself as she smiled at him. “I’ll be wearing those heels you saw me in last time!”

“Well they sure looked nice on you,” said Ben warmly, swallowing an oversized croissant. “But like I said, still a little shorter than me, haha!”

“Ha! Well you got me on that one,” replied Eve. She took what she thought was a barely-perceptible deep breath. She had this. It was starting to become a normal conversation. A thought flashed in her mind, and she made a special effort to verbalize the thought as casually as she could. “So who are you going with, Ben? Who’s the lucky lady?”

“Oh I’m gay,” he replied instantly, digging into the pyramid of grapes and melon slices at the corner of his tray.

Eve just blinked a couple times, totally thrown. He wasn’t…he couldn’t…what on earth was going on with her??

“Oh! Uh, I mean, oh wow, I…heh…geez, well…I’m…ooops! I didn’t know!” she finished, creasing her eyebrows together as she laughed at herself, begging him for help with her eyes.

“Ha! Relax, Eve — I got you there, didn’t I?” he chuckled, smirking at her through his beard.

She opened her mouth, smiling at his joke, even as she felt almost affronted that he had made her stumble around like that.

“I mean, I have had a couple gay experiences,” Ben elaborated, returning his attention to a stack of waffles that was begging not to be left out. “And they were ok…well, one of them was more than ok, haha. But on the whole I think I generally do prefer girls…women.”

“Oh ok so…you’re, uh, bisexual then?” offered Eve. She had certainly not expected this angle from him.

“Well I guess technically, yes,” said Ben, gesturing with a huge open palm as he bit into an apple, halving it instantly and sending a bubbly river of juice down his beard. “But if I’m being honest I think it’s probably more like 80-20, you know? 80 percent girls, 20 percent guys. Haha, and, sorry if I’m being too "TMI" here —”

“Uh, n-no…oh god no!” responded Eve with energy. “It’s refreshing to hear a guy, uh…be so open.”

“Haha ok,” said Ben, nodding appreciatively, “So I’m like 80-20, girls to guys…and, hehe, well, the guys I’ve done stuff with looked more like girls than guys anyway.”

“Like…transgender?” asked Eve, fascinated.

“No idea,” said Ben, shrugging his huge shoulders as he casually popped the other half of the apple into his mouth, core, seeds, stem, and all. “Maybe they were. But they were definitely more…effeminate, shall we say.”

“You like that?” asked Eve, smiling a little flirtatiously, although she wasn’t quite sure why.

“What, feminine traits?” Ben tipped a large mug of coffee into his mouth, draining it at startling speed, and then leaned back, patting his stomach and unloading a burp that caused people around them to turn and stare. A few of them looked like they had been prepared to laugh, but once they caught sight of how enormous Ben was, their smiles had vanished and they turned quickly back around.

“Umm…yes,” said Eve in a voice that sounded quite small indeed compared to the sound that had just come out of Ben. It was so strange for her — ordinarily, such an uncouth display would have offended her, or at least turned her off. But Eve felt like, in the moment, she didn’t even have the capacity to take offense.

“Yeah, I guess so,” said Ben, leaning back in his chair as he stared at Eve. “Softer features, you know, not a ton of body hair…haha, pretty much the opposite of myself, really!”

He laughed merrily, and Eve had no choice but to laugh with him. She had the sudden perception that she was growing braver in the exchange.
“Aww, what, you don’t find yourself attractive?” she chided at him, shaking her head, as if in rebuke.

“Huh! Are you kidding!?” Ben rumbled in a rolling laugh that sounded a little like thunder. He pointed to his face. “With THIS face??” He spread his mammoth hands out towards Eve, palms upward. She looked down at them with wide eyes.

“And THESE hands?!” he continued, laughing out loud. “Hahaha, oh boy…Eve, the last girl I was with…ha, well...maybe I shouldn’t even say." His voice had grown quieter, and he suddenly seemed almost somber. But he quickly smiled again, saying, "God, why am I being so open with you? Heh, it must be because you seem cool. And I know Jason’s cool.”

“Yeah, um…I uh…thanks,” said Eve. It was almost puzzling to hear Jason’s name mentioned in the conversation. But quickly, Eve returned back around in her mind to what Ben had been saying, about the previous girl he had been with. She desperately wanted to know more.

“But no, no, yeah…you can keep going,” said Eve, folding her hands together on the table as she leaned in a bit, perhaps a little farther than she intended. “I’m interested.”

“Haha, well ok, so her name was Rose,” said Ben, wiping the bits of food off his beard absentmindedly. “And…uh, she was pretty small, actually. Well, I mean not tiny, but small compared to, uh…compared to — ”

“Compared to me?” Eve asked, surprising herself.

“Uh, haha, well sure, definitely small compared to you,” chuckled Ben, but then backtracking almost immediately. “I mean, I’m sorry Eve, I don’t mean to say —”

“Oh don’t worry at all, Ben,” she replied, taking great pleasure in shooing his concerns away. “I’m 6’1 in my bare feet — I know most girls are shorter than me. And anyway, ever since I’ve been on campus I’ve been exercising and gaining weight.” She reached out both hands and loudly grabbed handfuls of flesh from both her hips, squeezing them tightly, and then released them, jiggling, as she reached both her hands up to her enlarged breasts, cupped them, and bobbed them up and down, right across the table at him. It took her a couple seconds to realize what she was doing, but by that time Ben was already grinning and answering.

“Well, you look great Eve, and like I said before — Jason…lucky guy, haha — but anyway, so this girl Rose was like…uh, maybe 5’5 or so, but, you know, nice and thick. I think she was attracted to me because she literally wanted to have a guy, like…smother her.”

“Smother?”

“Yeah, like, totally, completely overpower her. To an almost, like…absurd extent. I think she wanted to feel like she was being, uh…ravished by some kind of wild beast or something. Something that somehow was wilder and crazier than a human.”

“Huh, interesting,” said Eve, nodding her head slightly as her eyebrows went up. She hoped that her casual response was masking the turmoil that was spreading from her loins. She could feel the color creeping up her neck, and she couldn’t do anything to stop it.

“And I guess, you know, because I’m a giant and have all this hair everywhere, haha…that she kind of associated me with some kind of…werewolf or something. And she thought…well, she thought that I could give her what she wanted.”

Eve wanted to immediately ask if he had, but she waited a second longer, to hide her eagerness, before speaking: “And…well? Did you?”

Ben smiled, but this time it was tinged with something like wistfulness…or sadness.

“Yeah, I think I did,” he said pensively. “But just because it was what she wanted doesn’t mean it was…the right thing to do.”

“Wow — what do you mean? What happened?” asked Eve. She couldn’t hide her breathlessness now.

“Eve! What’s up!?” came a sudden voice next to their table. They both turned around, startled by the intrusion, Eve especially. Shanna and (the other) Ben were standing there next to their table, smiling.

“Uh, oh! Heh — hi guys!” said Eve, feeling like she had been caught with her pants down. Her two friends just stood there, still smiling. Eve recovered herself quickly, remembering that Ben and Shanna were both a bit awkward, and took the initiative, turning back to Big Ben.

“Uh, Ben, these are my friends from math club — this is Shanna, and well, haha, this is Ben.”

“Pleased to meet you both!” smiled Ben, reaching over and engulfing their hands, one after the other, in one of his massive mitts. It didn’t matter that Shanna was 6’0 with larger-than-average features; her hand was totally swallowed up, and the smaller Ben’s was to an absurd extent. They both had gradually realized how huge this man was, and they shook his hand, both looking a little dazed.

“It’s a hell of a first name, isn’t it?” joked the large Ben to the smaller one, who nodded and smiled awkwardly. He turned back to Eve, shrugging his shoulders and laughing a little, as if to say, ‘Well, I can’t finish the story now — maybe some other time.’

“I think I should get on going,” he said out loud, wiping his beard one last time as he stood up. The metal chair groaned in relief, as Shanna and the smaller Ben gaped at his height. Without meaning to, Eve stood up along with him, keeping eye contact with him and feeling desperately disappointed.

“Oh! But — I wanna hear the rest of the story!” she blurted out. In that moment, she didn’t care how she sounded.

“Maybe some other time, haha,” chuckled Ben. “But until then it’ll just have to wait. But I’ll see you later tonight, right?”

“Oh yes…yes! At the dance!” exclaimed Eve, feeling glad of that, at least. She suddenly remembered her previous question. “And so I’ll meet your girlfriend…or boyfriend…haha…later on tonight?”

“Nope,” said Ben, fishing up his tray. “I’m going alone. Kinda nervous about it, to be honest, but I’ve gotta put myself out there, you know? See what the night brings. Ok, well anyway, nice to meet you two, and Eve — always nice to see you. See ya tonight!”

And the giant was gone. Eve felt a sinking feeling in the middle of her body as the clueless Shanna and other Ben pulled up chairs to Eve’s table and immediately began chatting away about last night’s homework. Eve was irritated at them, but her vicious arousal eclipsed everything else. She excused herself to the bathroom, sat down in a stall, waited until the room was empty, and rubbed herself hard until she came.