When in Toronto…“And that’s it! That’s it! It’s over!” the commentator babbled into their headset. “The match goes to Klutz! I can’t believe it!!”The cheering in the stadium was deafening, and yet still Kenneth Lutz couldn’t hear much. He was too busy coming back to reality and focusing on the fact that he needed to breathe.For seven years Ken had worked his ass off to get to where he was now. Where he belonged. He had finally achieved his life’s dream – sitting on a stage, hearing people chant his name. For one glowing moment in his life, however long it would last, he was the biggest name in eSports.Ken wasn’t thoroughly stupid. He knew that people saw him, at best, as a guy who was really good at a video game. He knew that being good at pushing buttons in a fighting game and narrowly beating other people who were basically as good at pushing buttons wouldn’t get him far. He’d have to go back home to his uncle, who was sweet but didn’t believe that eSports was a “real job.” He knew he would have to enjoy this moment while it lasted. In this moment, he had everything he had ever wanted – demonstrated skill, people literally chanting his name, power, and, odds are, money.Of course, he didn’t have a girlfriend yet, but he was still working on that.After taking his award, Ken said a few words to the crowd that were well-rehearsed and yet he never expected himself to be saying them, then quickly left the stage to reunite with his coach and his manager. At first he was grinning when he saw the duo. Trophy in hand, he upgraded his walk to a light jog, a sparkle in his eyes. Perhaps even a fire, eager for more. Unfortunately, his manager’s job always seemed to be the firefighter.“Kenneth,” Christopher, his manager, began. Ken’s smile faded. His manager called him by his gamertag, Klutz, when he was proud of him. It seemed like the more awards he won, the less his manager graced him with the name he had earned.The trio walked out of the stadium hall into a slightly more private hallway. “You were faced with just about the biggest moment of your career,” Christopher continued in his monotone voice. “Your ending speech could have really solidified your brand. And the speech you went with…” Ken wasn’t even going to bother staying on-topic. After all, the speech he gave was the one his manager made him memorize. “Sorry, did you miss the part where I won the tournament?!” Ken replied, anger boiling through his voice yet the smile returning to his face. He was panting in disbelief. “Right now, I don’t give a shit about brand, but the winne-”“Well, that’s just it, Kenneth. You don’t care about your brand.” Christopher continued. “You do understand that the contract you signed states that…”Ken tuned him out and turned to his coach, DisRupt. “Can you believe this guy?” Ken asked him, still panting.DisRupt’s face was turned into a sorrowful grimace as he shrugged. “He actually kinda has a point, man.” he begrudgingly replied. “It’s not going to get any easier from here to keep your brand going. We talked about this – you kind of have to play the villain card here, man. Hype people up. Make sure that your next t-”“Are you serious?!” Ken’s smile was now gone. “Okay, no, shut up. One, this was the speech I was given. If you two are seriously going to crawl up my as for following orders, you can blame yourselves for it going sour. Not me. If it even did go sour. Two, okay, two, like… I won! Can you give me a day without worrying about branding?! I expected this shit from you, Christopher. Like, I hoped not, but I still expected it. But…” Ken turned to face DisRupt. “Come on, man.”Christopher was unmoved. “After your performance here today, you’re going to really need to try harder in the next few tournaments.”“Try harder?! Am I invisible here? I won! I was the best. Yeah, I’ll try harder, but that’s to defend my title, and I just earned it. And by the way, I just earned it.”Christopher sighed loudly. “Kenneth, your job is not to win tournaments.”“Ex-cuse me?!”“Your job is to get the name of Klutz to reach the people. Do you know what the Twitch demographics were like during the final match? This was the last watched final match in-”“Yeah, you know, believe it or not, I wasn’t looking at the Twitch numbers when I was onstage proving myself to the world.” Ken countered. “I’m making a living, aren’t I? I’m keeping you two in it. Hell, I probably just got you guys your biggest paycheck yet.”“With the way you could have extended the brand, and didn’t, I’d say you came closer to robbing us tonight, Kenneth.” Christopher replied sharply. “We have missed out on a great opportunity, and we’re going to need to take some steps to cover the ground we’ve now lost.”Ken’s look turned incredulous. He just won. His friends should be happy for him. This almost seemed cartoonish. Not only were they this obsessed with numbers and money and marketing, but they were obsessed this quickly? They couldn’t let him have just ten seconds to gloat? This wasn’t fair. He turned to DisRupt, who was eyeing the floor. This wasn’t the first time Ken had to deal with his manager and coach acting like this; they had always been the more business-oriented types. He had just hoped that the duo had put that whole shtick in the past, or at least wouldn’t have whipped it out tonight. Unfortunately, as the two were demonstrating, he was dead wrong.“Okay,” Ken’s voice got smaller, knowing he really only had moral ground on which to argue, which wouldn’t exactly get him far with Christopher, who had a mind of money and legalities. “So what happens now?”“I’m thinking Klutz gets involved in a lot more local tournaments.” Christopher clicked a pen and wrote something down in his notebook. “It works with your backstory. You are from around here.”“I’m from St. Catherine’s.” Ken objected dryly.“To an international crowd, that’s basically Toronto. Anyway, I want you to let loose at these tournaments. Yell a little more, see if you can get into a shouting match with one of your fellow fighters. What’s that one guy, YelloJello?” Christopher turned to DisRupt, who nodded. “I think he’d be good for that. If we can push the narrative that you’re cracking after an international win, then all eyes will be on you.”“Not happening. John and I are friends.” Ken stood his ground. “It’s fucking creepy and, um, kinda manipulative to orchestrate a meltdown. Besides, the only local tournament in this city is happening in two weeks, and regis-”“You’re already registered.” Christopher interrupted, not looking up from his notebook.“What?”“You’re already registered.” Christopher repeated, no change in his monotone voice.“But that’s February 17th. I have plans with my uncle that day. We – we planned this like a month in advance. Why did I not hear about this?” Ken protested, feeling his blood run a little cold.“I registered for you ahead of time. If you placed poorly here, dropping out of a later tournament dramatically would have been good optics.”“Making me look like a crying c***d is good opti-”“And if you won, like you did here, we wanted to keep the momentum going.” Christopher sighed annoyedly. “Of course, we were hoping you’d have come out of this tournament having performed better, but-”“I’m going to be with my uncle that day. I promised him. Going to be with him means a lot to me.” Ken stood his ground.“Bro…” DisRupt clearly interjected, sensing the tension building.“Shut up.” Ken sharply retaliated. “This is important to me.”“Sorry, but you’re not.” Christopher replied. “If I need to remind you, it’s in your contract plain as day that I am able to sign you up for any event I deem impo-”“It’s in my fucking contract that you can override my social life with video game tournaments I don’t want to enter, where you guilt me into pretending to fight with one of the nicest eSports players I’ve ever met?!” Ken asked in disbelief.“I’m not asking you to pretend.” Christopher clarified. “I want him to believe it too. If this ends up on his Twitter, there’s going to be a lot of people from his audience looking at you. There’s not a lot of cross-traffic coming from his circle, and-”“You want people that don’t know me finding out about me as the guy that yelled at him for no reason?!” Ken was now shouting. “You guys are like, cartoon bad guys here! I’m not fucking doing this!”“Bro, come on, we’re doing this for you. We want Klutz to keep on living, and sometimes…” DisRupt trailed off, gesturing with his hand. “Brands don’t last forever on their own. We have to do this, if you want a future in eSports.” Christopher added.“I’m not a brand! I’m a human being!” Ken shouted.“Bro-”“Shut the fuck up! I’m not your bro, I’m not your puppet, and I’m not coming to your damn tournament or picking a fight with nobody that doesn’t deserve it!” Before he knew it, Ken was marching right for the nearest door. Above it, the exit sign. Ken would have liked to say he was cool in these situations, but the same passion that brought him his victory also got him into trouble more often than not. Before leaving, he turned back around to face the two, and just started shouting, venting out his frustrations in a very immature and public manner.“Fucking enough!”“Go to fucking hell! Both of you!”“Fuck you both! Fuck this place!! Fuck it all!!”One might have expected the duo to follow after Ken, but both DisRupt and Christopher had worked with eSports players before. They knew about the hissyfits, and they knew that, just like with c***dren, they didn’t want to prove to Ken that his tactics could work. “You still haven’t collected your prize money yet.” Christopher pointed out. “And there will be people that want interviews. Remember th-”“Collect it for me.” Ken replied, his shouting tone wavering. He knew that if he stayed much longer, it would turn to quivering. Before he knew it, Ken – no, Klutz, the newest eSports superstar, had exited the building, no doubt turning a few heads on his way out. As soon as he was out of the building though, he was no longer Klutz. The man facing the chill of the early February air was Ken Lutz, 24, kind of geeky looking (go figure), and possibly unemployed, depending on how well his manager would have taken the fit he’d thrown. As soon as he was out of Roy Thomson Hall, he just started walking. If this was the life for an aspiring eSports player, then he didn’t really want to be one. He wanted to be just Ken. He kept walking until he reached a familiar sight – a simple convenience store. He’d come here every so often for energy drinks or something like that whenever he was in the area, but ever since he came to Toronto for the tournament, something else about this place was on his mind.He walked through the front door, a beep signalling to the cashier that he was entering. His eyes crept up from the floor to the cashier’s desk to confirm that she was working tonight.Ken had no clue what her name was. He just knew he wanted to know. She was definitely older than him by a bit – he would have guessed around 28, 29 – but she looked that kind of older where you didn’t care. She wasn’t noticeably mature or anything, she was just… exciting. That kind of peppy where she probably had a super-serious c***dhood and wanted to make up for it or something. Ken couldn’t quite make out her figure from behind the counter, but he could tell from what little he saw that she was that kind of ‘skinny curvy’ that a lot of guys found attractive. And the most attractive thing of all, she remembered him.“Hey,” she instantly said, breaking into a smile when she saw him walk in. “So did the tournament just end or something? How’d you do?”They’d been talking here and there over the past few days. She was the type of woman that seemed to genuinely care about people and their lives. They instantly clicked when Ken actually answered her. Judging by the way she instantly engaged, he seemed to be the only one to actually respond.Ken chuckled nervously in response, shrugging nonchalantly and daring to actually look her in her eyes. They were hazel, and very warm. “Who cares?” he found himself saying.The cashier gave him a knowing smile. “Ah, so you lost, huh?”“Something like that.” Ken replied. “I sure don’t feel like a winner.”“Oh yeah, eh? Well, you’ll get ‘em next… year? Is this a yearly thing?” “What’s your name?” Ken asked out of nowhere.It was the cashier’s turn to chuckle nervously. “Lauren,” she eventually said. Her shy smile complimented her hazel eyes. “My name is Lauren. What’s yours?”“Ken,” Ken muttered. A few hours ago, he might have added his gamertag to his introduction, and seen if he could push his luck there. Not only would that clearly have not worked with Lauren, but he felt… changed. Reborn. He wasn’t Klutz anymore, and he was pretty sure he liked that.“Ken.” Lauren repeated him, then gave a sweet smile. “It’s nice to meet you. Formally, I mean.”Ken would have continued but an intrusive cough and the dark, cold stare of a balding man from a door behind the counter caught his gaze. It wasn’t staring at him, but Lauren didn’t need to turn around to know who or what it was. “Anyway, if you’re not going to buy something, you need to leave,” Lauren continued, using this authoritative tone that she clearly didn’t put a lot of work into. Her face communicated what she really meant, and Ken scrambled to make it look like he was at least interested in buying something so he wouldn’t face the stare too. Eventually, he settled on an energy drink and went up to the counter to pay for it.Lauren rang it up. “They say these things are really bad for you,” she casually observed.“Some things are,” Ken replied, looking off towards the now-closed door. “Is everything…? Like, are you okay here?”Lauren gave bakırköy escort a warm chuckle. “I’m fine. Things are just a little… tightly run here. That’ll be three thirty six.”“Debit. Do you smoke?”“Sorry?” The sound of the debit machine beeping filled the beat.“Like, do you get smoke breaks?” Ken asked, gesturing out the front door. A few hours ago he wouldn’t have dared to be so bold.Lauren followed his gaze outside, then gave a ‘fuck it, why not’ grin. “Give me a few minutes,” she whispered, then added in a slightly loud tone, “What happens on the job isn’t really your business. Is that everything?”“Yeah,” Ken said softly, leaving promptly. He exited the store, popping open his drink, the caffeine probably not helping his nervous jitters. A few minutes, which felt closer to half an hour, fluttered by when finally, Lauren exited the store.Ken’s assertion wasn’t off at all. Lauren had one of those bodies that no one would notice unless they were looking at her, but as soon as you noticed, you couldn’t see anything other than how attractive she was. She had that ‘stealth hotness’ that shy girls always seemed to have. An impressive bust size that hung nicely over a tight waist, a shirt that complimented every curve it gave, and a tight pair of jeans that complimented a nice set of hips to boot. Ken quickly exhaled in excitement at the sight of her body, but tried to cover it up quickly. Lauren seemed to not notice, and gave him a small smile.“Hey,” she quietly said.“Hey.” Ken chuckled. “So you do smoke.”“Not really,” Lauren replied, pulling out a packet of cigarettes and sticking one in her mouth. “It’s just nice to get the time off.”“Then why…”Lauren winked at him, the cigarette remaining in his mouth, unlit. Ken smiled in understanding.“So you like to break the rules?” Ken asked her.“Only when the rules are stupid,” she answered. “Honestly? The place isn’t good. If the till doesn’t match the exact amount I report, they take it out of my cheque. I get in trouble if I lean against the counter, so I need to stand perfectly still for eight hours. People think being a cashier is easy, but there’s like a million things you need to always be keeping in mind, and a billion that need to get done. If you forget one thing in your shift, or if you’re not always working, you get yelled at. It’s like clockwork.” She exhaled loudly, with Ken nodding at her words. “What about you, what do you do?”“I’m probably unemployed.”“Probably?” Lauren looked at him in confusion. “What does that mean?”“It means I think I was in a position kind of like yours, and then I just said ‘fuck it’ and decided to be spontaneous and give ‘em the finger,” Ken answered. “Life’s kinda fun when you’re being spontaneous. You should try it sometime.”“How?” Lauren gave a sassy smile to Ken, keen to see where he’d go with this.“You hate this job, right? Quit it. Find a better one. You could do better.”“Aw, Ken, that’s sweet.” Lauren smiled warmly. “I already put in my two weeks notice though. I’m ahead of ya.” She winked at him. “Now I just have to ride it out.”“Or you could just quit now. You don’t have to give your two weeks notice. That’s just a technicality, isn’t it?”“I’d love to, but I can’t.” Lauren said.“Why? Are you planning to become the manager?”“Well, no, but it’s the right thing to do. The guy back there is already angry at me for quitting as it is. And I need to give two weeks if I want to put him as a reference on my resume.”Ken thought to himself for a second. “But…” he began slowly. “You just said he’s angry at you as it is for quitting. And he gets upset at you for doing one small thing wrong on the job, like leaning. He probably won’t forget that as soon as you quit. It doesn’t look like he’ll say many nice things about you anyway, and you can put this place on a resume as a past place-of-work without listing him as a reference. Why don’t you just do that?”Lauren stared at him for a few seconds, her eyebrows performing the world’s slowest dance. “…Huh,” she finally mumbled aloud. She stared him down a bit longer, processing what he said, and finally spoke again. “Being spontaneous, huh?”“That’s what I said.”Lauren narrowed her eyes at him as a small smile crept onto her face. “Would you… by any chance would you want to be spontaneous together?”Ken’s heart leapt up about a foot, but he tried to maintain a calm collected face. “I’ve got nowhere to be, so if you want…”“Okay. Huh. Okay.” Lauren took the cigarette out of her mouth and threw it in the trash. “Give me a sec. Stay out here.” She went back into the store, and Ken waited, nervously, for her to come back out.She took a long time. Just when Ken was worried that she lied to him and just went back to her shift, she re-emerged, face flushed.“Are you okay?” was the only thing Ken could think to say.“I have… never actually let loose on somebody like that before.” Lauren breathed. “And how’d that feel?”Lauren still wasn’t even looking at him. “It felt… good.” she admitted. “I want to continue feeling good.” She finally looked him in the eye and sported a smile. A smile full of relief.“What, like tell him off again?” Ken asked as a joke.Lauren gave a sympathy giggle. “No. I’m not working there anymore. I’m talking about… you know, spontaneity. I liked that, like a lot. What were you thinking of when you talked about being spontaneous?”“I didn’t have a plan.” Ken shrugged. “You know, if you plan being spontaneous, you kind of suck at it.”“Oh yeah, eh? If you plan it…” Lauren chewed on his words. “Let’s go to the LCBO.”The LCBO was the place to be in Ontario if you wanted to shop for alcohol. Ken gave a chuckle in surprise. “The LCBO, huh? Okay. Sure.”“Sorry, do you drink?” Lauren’s confidence waned.“Hey, hey, no questions. Just spontaneity,” Ken soothed her. Lauren smiled and nodded, and the two went off in search of the nearest LCBO. Thanks to Toronto being a big city, and Lauren’s phone GPS, it didn’t take long at all to find one, and soon the pair were inside, comparing their favorite drinks.“You’re buying a fair amount,” Lauren observed as they shopped. “Are you rich or something?”Ken shrugged, a smile on his face. “Today I am,” he answered. “I got a fair amount today. At least, I think it’s still mine.” He started thinking to himself.Lauren furrowed her brow in confusion. “You’re… kind of a mystery, you know that?” she told him.Ken opened his mouth to speak, but nothing at first came out as he shook his head slightly with how little he had to say. “Honestly, I think I’m just figuring myself out now,” he said, adding another bottle to his basket. “Ha, I feel that.” Lauren replied. “I feel like I don’t know myself at all. You’d think by 33 I’d know-”“You’re 33?!” Ken interrupted.“Flattery will get you nowhere.” Lauren winked at him. “Anyway, by 33, I should have my life together. Have a place or even just a husband or something.”“I mean, whatever. Live yo life.” Ken cheesily replied.Lauren chuckled. “It just feels like I’m… behind. All of my friends are married. I don’t even have anyone. Like, I have my friends from high school, one or two from college, I live with my parents and my only coworker I see – saw – on a daily basis was my boss, and…”“Yeah. I saw him. I get what you’re saying,” Ken finished. The two headed towards the counter and checked out.“So what are we going to do with this?” Ken asked. “I should have led with this but I’m not really from here. And if you live with your parents…”Lauren laughed at him. “Spontaneity,” she replied. “Follow me.” She walked with determination, looking eagerly at certain spots around the city as they walked, until they reached a street she seemed familiar with. She walked in between some buildings, Ken in tow.She turned around to face him, gesturing around her. A smile formed on Ken’s face – he had no clue how repressed her life was, but she sure as hell was adapting to being spontaneous quickly. The two started going through their bags and pulling out the drink they wanted to start with – a tasteful cider for Ken, a Palm Bay for Lauren. The two found a way to keep the rest of their alcohol in Lauren’s satchel and made a toast.“To…” Lauren began.“To whatever this is. No expectations.” Ken suggested.“Sure.” Lauren rose her Palm Bay to his cider and the two hit cans, then drank.Ken winced. He was not going to admit this to Lauren, but he really did not have experience drinking. At all. He drank a lot less of his cider than he made it look like, and the two faced each other and grinned. They made small talk as they finished their drinks, Lauren finishing hers first and reaching in her satchel for another.Hazel was his favorite color for eyes. Light brown, a hint of green, a lot of hidden mischief. Her smile, which would come out a lot as she spoke – nervousness, he guessed – was so full of passion. And the more he drank, the bolder he got, and he liked seeing that passion on her face.“You’re cute,” he found himself mumbling after she finished a story about high school.Lauren was about to take a drink, but stopped. “Oh yeah? I’m cute, eh?” she asked him.Ken shrugged. “Yeah, I said you’re cute.”“I dunno if ‘cute’ is the word young guys like you would say for an oldie like me.”Ken chuckled. “Yeah, okay. ‘Oldie.’ Frankly, you look like three years older than me. Besides, I think the words you’re looking for are ‘elegant and mature.’”“Oh shush.” Lauren replied, and the two shared a giggle. “I just…” she trailed off. Her shyness returned.“What?”She took another large sip from her Palm Bay and loudly exhaled. “I dunno. I just never expected a younger guy to find me cute. It doesn’t happen, you know?”“Neither does quitting your job out of nowhere, or engaging in public intoxication with a stranger, or throwing an eSports career out the window because your manager is an asshat.”“Throwing your… what…?” Lauren repeated slowly. “I don’t get it, but okay. Well – wait. So you find me cute?”“Maybe I do.” Ken replied teasingly. He knew he was starting to get tipsy, because he never ever felt confident actually flirting with women. “Who knows?” He winked at her. “And speaking of being bold…” Drink in hand, he started to walk out of the highway, towards the street.“What are you doing?” Lauren hissed.“I dunno about you, but I want to see the town.” Ken answered. “Let’s go take a look. You’re local, right? Show me the sights.”“But we could get arrested for public-!” Lauren sputtered.“I’m just tipsy, I’m alright.” Ken argued. “Cover your can with your hand, and if we see the cops we act cool.”Lauren shook her head and chuckled. “You are so crazy,” she muttered, following him.Off the pair went, beneath the grey sky, amidst the harsh wind and amongst the cream-colored buildings and dead trees. They kept wandering and drinking until they were surrounded by brick buildings instead. Ken had to admire the cool urban suburbs feeling after they escaped from the more downtown-looking area. Meanwhile, Lauren was reaching into her bag, pulling out a new drink for both of them.She snatched his can, and her own, and pulled out a bottle of straight vodka. She poured about a cupful into each can, only spilling a little, and handed the cider can back to Ken, a challenging smile on her face.Ken took one smell of the can and winced again. “Jesus,” he muttered.“I knew it.” Lauren replied as she stuffed the vodka back into her bag and the pair continued to walk.“What?”“You’re a first-timer, aren’t you?” Lauren challenged him, confidence now in her eyes. Her voice was beginning to sound a little different too.“Hey, I’ve drank before!” Ken protested, then looked into the can. “…just not this much. And not straight vodka.”“Well, we forgot to pick up orange juice.” Lauren laughed, then looked around her. “Isn’t this part of the city sweet?”“Yeah, it’s pretty fucking sweet.” Ken found himself saying. He kept moving his jaw around, or making weird movements with his face, just to test his muscles and see if he was getting drunker or something. “Come on.” Ken’s fascination with his face muscles was cut short as Lauren took him by the hand and dragged him onto the street. There was no real reason, she just wanted to walk on the street now that they were in a much less busy part of town instead of the sidewalk. Spontaneity, Ken guessed.At this point, pedestrians were definitely giving them sideways glances as the duo walked down the street, occasionally daring to down a few sips of their straight vodka at a time (with Lauren being the more comfortable one doing so by a mile, Ken was still getting used to it). At one point, they heard some impatient honking from behind them and turned around to see a car wanting to get through. Ken quickly grabbed Lauren’s arm and guided the two of them to the side of the road so they car could pass, but was shocked to see Lauren shouting a few choice words at the car and giving it the finger. At first he looked around at his surroundings to see if anyone would react harshly to it, but when the two ended up locking eyes, they couldn’t do anything but laugh. This whole day was such a surreal day, a day of new things. Out of the ordinary was quickly becoming ordinary, and they loved it.Eventually the road ended and the two came across some kind of area that looked like a small-scale business building or plant or something important. Important enough that it had a fence around it, and a booth for letting in cars, complete with one of those lowered bars that prevented cars from getting in unless you paid the toll. Lauren took one look at the area, grinned, and motioned for Ken to follow her.Ken shrugged. It wasn’t like trespassing was going to be the worst thing to happen today. He quickly caught up to beşiktaş escort her and the duo started to explore all they could of the outside of this building. No cars were there and the doors were locked, so they could guess the building was empty for the day.Ken and Lauren decided to slow things down a little and sat down in an area behind the building. Ken let his butt hit the tarmac, his back against the building, looking around for security cameras. Either he was tipsier than he thought, or he couldn’t find any. Lauren sat down really close next to him.“So you’re kinda new to drinking, eh?” she asked him.Ken shrugged. “I guess. I’m not really much of a partier. Not much of a social guy.”“Oh yeah, eh?” Lauren nodded. “Why’s that?”“I dunno. All I do for work is play the same video game over and over. And it’s not exactly a super-social activity. I guess I’m not that social to begin with.” He took another careful sip. “When you’re around others a lot, drinking is seen as fun. When you’re – when you’re by yourself, it’s just… seen as unhealthy.”“Ha.” Lauren chuckled nervously. “I’ve drank alone more times than I’d like to admit. But I think this is more fun.”“Oh yeah?” it was Ken’s turn to ask.“Yeah. I think it’s kind of cool that if we’re being spontaneous, I can let loose and show a guy how fun it is to not drink alone.” She took another sip. “A guy that finds me cute.”“So that lingered on your mind, huh?” Ken asked. He wanted to ask it in a suave tone, but the nervousness no doubt crept through his voice.“Ha, maybe.” Lauren replied, turning to face him, a certain smile on her face. A silence passed by, then she spoke up again. “You know, I can be pretty level-headed when I’m tipsy.”“I think I can too, yeah.” Ken replied. “But I think I can be a bit bolder too. Do you think you can be bolder, Ken?” Lauren asked.“Well, I… I suppose I can’t really answer without experiencing it, huh?” Ken felt his heart beating faster. “So you don’t have much experience drinking… do you have any kind of experience doing other social things? Other stuff you might do at parties?”“I haven’t really gone to parties much.” Ken answered quickly.“Huh.”“Yeah.”“So you haven’t experienced any kind of…?” she trailed off.“I mean, if you have, maybe you’d be better at showing someone the ropes.”“Haha, the ropes?” she asked, her smile widening.“You know, if you’re the more experienced one, I mean, I’d like you to…”The two faced each other. Lauren’s smile had faded. The two had lost their humorous tone. Lauren was breathing deeply, mirroring what Ken was doing. “You know… I think you’re pretty cute, Ken.”“I think you’re… sexy, Lauren. Is that okay to say?”She chuckled softly. “Yeah, that’s okay to say. I just… no one’s wanted me in a long time.”“Well, now that someone wants you, what do you think you should do about it?”Lauren answered that question by attacking his mouth with her own. Ken was improvising at this point, but did his best to keep up with the eager and surprisingly hormonal Lauren. There was barely any time at all that passed before the two were open-mouth kissing, not that either one was complaining. Each kiss had more eagerness and passion than the last, and Ken was very quickly picking up lessons from his eager, horny teacher. Pretty soon, Lauren had moved into his lap, wrapping her legs around his hips as the two sat, her hands on his shoulders, wrestling her tongue with his as if her life depended on it. Ken fought back with just as much passion and eventually wrapped his hands around her waist, much to her enjoyment. With every lesson he picked up, Lauren moaned her approval.Eventually, coming up for air, the two detached mouths, with the both of them breathing heavily. “Fuck,” Lauren muttered. “What?” Ken asked her.At first she seemed shy, but Ken asking her to go on and forcing her to think about the answer renewed her confidence. “I just… fuck,” she simply answered. “I just need this, so fucking badly.” She went back to attacking his mouth, with the surprised Ken just going along for the ride. She started to move her hips frantically against him, feeling like she was a silly stupid girl in high school all over again with how badly she surrendered herself to his hormones. Eventually Ken’s hormones got the better of him too as he moved his hands from her hips to her impressively sized breasts. Even with a shirt and bra on, Ken couldn’t help moaning into the kiss, not believing his luck. The cute convenience store clerk his was eyeing up just a few days ago quit her job to go day drinking with him, and was now going to teach him how to have sex. They were going to fuck, there was no doubt about that. He started to squeeze her boobs through her shirt, understanding when she winced and moved her head back slightly when too much was too much, eventually getting into a good groove caressing her breasts instead. Lauren was already lost to the pleasure and whether it was the alcohol or her hormones going crazy, she didn’t want too much foreplay to bog things down. Not caring about whether she stretched the shirt, she frantically reached below her neck, pulling her shirt and bra aside to reveal the most perfect nipple Ken had ever seen. Not only was it perfectly sized and beautiful looking, it was painfully erect and begging for attention. Lauren moved her hands to the back of Ken’s head and pulled him forward, selfishly and wordlessly begging for him to suck her.Lauren almost felt self-conscious (when she wasn’t tipsy) about how sensitive her breasts were and how easy it was to get her going just by sucking on them. Even with Ken being a novice, she started moaning immediately, with passion and urgency to her voice. Electric pulses moved through her. She was more sensitive than she ever could recall being – certainly more so than her semi-weekly masturbation. She needed this, badly. She needed him to suck on her forever. She needed this release. She ground her hips against him with urgency, moaning his name and closing her eyes, surrendering herself to her base instincts and letting her body take over. A wet sport was beginning to form on her crotch, soon to spread to Ken’s with her body’s movements. She needed him, and she needed him now. And so help her God, nothing was going to distract from what she wanted to get from this.***Steve wasn’t exactly happy with his job. On a basic level, being a security guard sounded like a sweet gig. Watch over the outside of a stupid building, even when it wasn’t active, report any unusual activity, stop ne’er-do-wells – sure, he wasn’t a cop, and couldn’t exercise any authority in that way, but it was still sweet that he had any kind of authority. Besides, people usually just assumed he had the powers of a cop anyway.One downside was, of course, that his job was usually really boring. Not only was there nothing to do, he had these stupid regulations that meant he was somehow almost never left with nothing to do, it was just boring things he had to do. Check in with this, make a report about that, etc.The other downside was that the chain of command was ruthless. If his boss treated him like this, God help the boss’ wife. Either that or whenever the boss went home, his wife would beat him or something. That was the only explanation Steve could think of. Sometimes he just wanted to stick it to the boss any way he could – he had multiple daydreams starring himself where he told everyone above him to fuck off – but he knew with the other butt-kissers on guard patrol, everyone would throw him to the wolves any way they could if he stuck up for himself. It’s not like he had nothing going for him. He sometimes made the wrong decisions but he felt like people liked him. He didn’t feel like he did much in the looks department, but hey, he at least looked intimidating… maybe. Maybe not. It was hard to tell, he never got an opportunity to flex his muscles on any trespassers or ill-wishers of his assigned property. Steve wandered across the property, thinking to himself as he always did, when he heard a noise. No, noises. He broke into a light jog as he followed the noises, which began to sound like people talking – no, yelling? The thought dawned on him that a gang of ne’er-do-wells might be having a shouting match and could have weapons or something, so he tried not to make the sounds of his footsteps too obvious.He should have patched in to his walkie-talkie, but protocol and real life were two different things. Especially since, as he got closer, it was clear that this wasn’t a gang dispute… this was a couple of k**s that thought they could have sex in a public place.He rounded the corner and glanced around to find, to his surprise, these weren’t hormonal teens – these were a couple of adults. A man and a woman. The woman in particular had to be at least thirty. He couldn’t see any nudity, but he could clearly tell the woman’s shirt was down and the man was sucking on her tit like… well, if he had to guess, like a virgin. Even so, experienced or not, the only times he’d ever even heard of public displays of affection like this didn’t occur with thirty-year-olds.And yet here they were, grinding and writhing like they were still in high school, eyes full of lust for each other. Steve bet he was only slightly older than the woman, clocking in himself at around thirty-eight, and he kept following the rules. And for what? To be bossed around by people he didn’t like, to be the guy that had to break up people like this and answer like an obedient dog to his asshole superiors? Well, these people didn’t know he had superiors, and maybe he could have a little fun with that.Steve assumed a standing position in clear sight of the pair and coughed loudly into his hand. The effect was immediate – the couple immediately dislodged from each other and stood up clumsily, the female more clumsily than the male, shifting her shirt back into position so that Steve couldn’t see anything. It’s possible they had been drinking too.“What do we have here?” Steve asked the couple rhetorically. “A bit old for a couple of high-school sweethearts that thought they could fornicate on private property.”The man – boy, really – cleared his throat and decided to speak up, evidently the more sober of the two. “We’re, uh, we’re sorry sir. We were talking and things got out of hand and we just, like, got carried away.”“On private property?” Steve asked, looking around him. “This place is fenced, son. You two came here quite deliberately, it seems, to grind against each other and to… drink. You two do this often?”“We… just met today.” The woman butted in. Judging from the man’s expression, he didn’t find that statement too helpful. Still, Steve’s eyebrows shot up. Damn, these two were ambitious. Never met before today? “What’s the story?” Steve asked.The boy shifted. “Act-”“I wasn’t asking you.” Steve butted in assertively, then gestured towards the woman.“I never saw this guy before today,” the woman began, earning another look from the boy. “I was jus’ another boring person working my boring person job, feeling so out of place in my life, and he came from nowhere and taught me that, fuck it, life is life, and I jus’ wanna enjoy it. And if that’s a crime, you can arrest me for it.”“Trespassing and indecent exposure are crimes, ma’am.” Steve pointed out. “And public intoxication.”“Oh, come on, you didn’t see any nudity,” the boy argued. “The most you can say is it was crass, not i*****l. What’s your badge number?”Badge numbers were for officers, but clearly this boy didn’t see a difference. Steve thought quickly. “I can get it to you in writing in a second. What are your names?”“Ken.”“Lauren.”“Well, Ken and Lauren, I’m Steve. Do you two think it’s okay to do what you were doing here?”“Yes,” the defiant Lauren spoke up. Steve was hoping for that.“Well, if you think it’s okay, why’d you stop when I approached? You seemed worried, like you were doing something wrong.”Ken’s expression became downright confused. Lauren didn’t look away from Steve. “Because law-wise-” Suddenly, she got elbowed in the ribs by Ken, who then whispered into her ear. Steve remained steadfast, able to guess Ken’s logic. “Because even though we weren’t breaking any laws,” Lauren began again, careful to emphasize every word, “you were here to tell us to leave, and we assume you weren’t here to watch us.”Steve wasn’t sure what outcome he was hoping for here, but he had to admit, his job had become very interesting today. “And I suppose you want to leave here without being put in the back of a police cruiser.” He was lucky the two didn’t know that security guards had no police-related powers whatsoever, but some people really thought privately-employed guards were in the same league as the cops. “What do you want?” Ken asked apprehensively.Steve’s grin got malicious. He was enjoying this now. “Keep going. As if I wasn’t here.”“You can’t be serious.” Ken replied immediately. Lauren said nothing.“I am serious.” Steve replied, a voice of steel. He didn’t mind admitting, he was a complete voyeur, and having power over these dumbos gave him an opportunity he couldn’t pass up. “It’s not like – even if… the mood’s gone now.” Ken continued to protest.“Let’s ask Lauren. Lauren, is the mood gone? Do you still want to kiss Ken?” Steve asked. “Especially if it means you two are off the hook? After all, I thought you were into saying ‘fuck it’ and you just want to enjoy it.”Lauren said nothing to Steve, and turned to Ken. “What do you think?” she asked softly, noticeably more sober but still in a bit of a state. Ken thought to himself. This was definitely weird, but he was just talking up a storm about spontaneity, and plus, beylikdüzü escort he did really like her and didn’t want to ruin things, especially if saying no meant being arrested. He had to put on a show for her. “I don’t mind if you don’t.” he replied as casually and as suavely as he could muster. “I’ve never done anything in front of someone else before.” Lauren breathed. A few seconds of silence passed, as Lauren and Ken worked out their tensions in the moment with their eyes, their faces getting closer and closer together. Eventually, their mouths met, and they kissed, timid at first. As time passed they got bolder and bolder, and tried to push Steve out of their minds, and they made out, partially not caring that he was there, but partially trying to amp up their lust so they could please him and avoid getting arrested. Steve gave a low, throaty laugh as the scene played out before him. These two definitely had the hots for each other, and their tipsiness probably helped them get over their stage fright quickly. Despite their protests, inside of a minute’s time Ken was back against the wall, Lauren clearly taking the lead in furiously making out with him, her hands running through his hair, his hands finally accepting what was happening and grabbing her shapely ass. After a few more minutes of making out, Steve gave them words of encouragement from the peanut gallery. “You were sucking her tit when I found you,” he pointed out. “What, are you shy now? I want the full thing.”Ken glanced at Steve in disgust, but Lauren leaned into his ear and whispered, “Is it wrong that this is really turning me on right now?”Ken looked at her in shock. He had heard the suppressed ones were freaks and he could tell Lauren was definitely suppressed growing up, but she adapted to this situation a little too quickly. Still, he wasn’t about to both turn off a girl he had the hots for and also risk angering the guard, so when Lauren brought her shirt and bra down and produced the same painfully erect nipple, albeit with one or two fresh bruises from his suckling before, he eagerly latched on again, earning a hearty cheer from Steve.Steve was definitely enjoying the show, but he also wanted to take advantage of the clearly immovable spot the pair was in now. Calmly, he took a few steps to Lauren’s satchel and inspected it, finding what he expected – alcohol. A fair amount of it. And whoever picked out the drinks had some good taste.“Hey, Lauren,” Steve called.Lauren turned her moaning into a distracted, “Mhm?”“Can I steal one of your Palm Bays? I’ll pay ya back for it.”Lauren was finally back to the pleasure she was feeling before and the surreality of the situation left her numb to any new shocks. “Go ahead,” she replied dismissively, going back to cradling Ken’s head and grinding herself up against him. Ken opened his eyes for a split second to take in everything that was happening – here he was, sucking the nipple of his dream girl, who he somehow managed to talk into quitting her day job, who then convinced him to day drink with her, as a security guard they both just met, engaged in public intoxication watching them. He was just about ready to surrender himself to the surreality of it all himself.And things were far from getting back to normal. As Lauren’s hormone levels increased, so too did her boldness. Eventually she detached herself from Ken’s mouth long enough to work her shirt over her head, then undoing her bra, freeing her surprisingly large boobs to the harsh late-winter chill, not giving a care in the world. You could hear Steve mutter, “God damn,” to himself as she set the girls free, eager to get her other nipple into Ken’s waiting mouth. As the Palm Bay began to work its effects on Steve, he opened up a second (the last of the Palm Bays) without asking, and began to rub his crotch with his free hand, enjoying both the show and the rush of power it gave him. And he wasn’t the only one getting bolder. Lauren, still shirtless, was now moaning as Ken sucked on her beautiful breasts and eventually moan-whispered, “I want to suck your cock. Is that okay?”Ken wasn’t sure how thrilled he was at the prospect of another dude watching him pull his cock out, but all things considered, he was very willing to acquiesce Lauren. “Yeah,” he groaned as he began to undo his fly and work his pants down. Lauren moaned her approval as she slunk down, her hands replacing his to work his pants down and fish his manhood out of his underwear.Ken knew his cock wasn’t anything to write home about size-wise, but always thought of size as something people only obsessed about on the Internet anyway. Upon seeing the cock spring out of his drawers, Lauren closed her eyes and bit her bottom lip in approval. “I fucking love it,” she purred. “I need to have this in my mouth right now.” Grasping his cock with seemingly more experience than she let on, she began to lick and trace Ken’s cock with her tongue, giving it slow, gentle love at first, before her lust won her over and she was clumsily bobbing her head above Ken’s crotch.Steve, not one to be outdone, had embraced his inner nihilist at this point, and had fished out his own notably impressive cock in turn, stroking slowly with one hand, holding his drink with the other. He was definitely enjoying this, and made a note of how much he enjoyed being the dominant one as he watched. Ken noticed Steve’s cock at one point, and froze in shock, but quickly looked away, because… gamer culture, “no homo,” etc.Because this was Ken’s first time, he was going to blow soon, and the noises he emitted let Lauren know of that. She kept up her efforts, diligently thrusting Ken’s cock into her mouth over and over, and eventually Ken’s own lust won over and he grabbed at either side of her head and began to thrust his own hips forward, jamming himself into Lauren’s eager awaiting mouth. Before he even knew what was happening, Ken began to release loads into Lauren’s mouth, filling it up and nearly going faint from the pleasure of it all. Lauren was absolutely drinking in the moment, no pun intended, and had used her now-free hand to finger herself and enjoy the rapture of having the man who taught her how to be free let loose a load, possibly his first ever load released by anything other than his hand, into her hungry mouth. As soon as the spurts subsided, Lauren gently massaged his dick with her lips as he caught his breath and she felt his dick grow limp, then detached from his manhood, spitting its goo out of her mouth on the pavement. “Wow,” Ken breathed as he reeled in the moment, not believing what had happened. Lauren hadn’t stopped fingering herself. “That was amazing,” she moaned as she watched Ken goofily grin at her and pull his pants back up.“Fucking amazing,” Steve echoed from the sidelines, still stroking himself to Lauren. Lauren turned back to him and noticed only then that he was stroking himself.Lauren was a complicated woman. She liked to believe she could live free from baser instincts, but especially if she had alcohol in her system, she could be a bit of a slut ,and a size queen to boot. Of course, Ken felt kind of special to her, and nothing could take that away, but… right in front of her was a second cock, an impressively-sized one at that, and she felt almost ashamed for knowing it instantly… she wanted to suck that cock too. Lauren turned slowly back to Ken and stood up, giving him a soft, long hug. As she hugged him, she turned to whisper in his ear.“Hey, I think we need some leverage in this situation. You… obviously you are special, but I think if I suck his cock, we might get out of this a little easier. I’m glad I got to suck yours first, but I think… I gotta do it to him. Is that okay?”Ken wasn’t an idiot, and Lauren was tipsy so that helped; she wanted his cock too. Ken couldn’t help but get a small twinge of jealousy, especially given Steve’s size clearly won over his, but Lauren communicating that the two definitely shared a bond helped. This wasn’t a normal situation, and he had to act accordingly. “Yeah, good idea.” he replied, a tad uneasily. “Do it.”Lauren broke off the hug but remained looking into Ken’s eyes. “This is gonna sound so weird, but… will you be my boyfriend?” Lauren asked him.Ken definitely agreed – given what they just talked about, that was just about the weirdest thing she could have said. “We… can talk about that later,” Ken managed, the first few words finding difficulty coming out of his mouth, “but I think I want that.”Lauren smiled, and turned to face Steve, who had stopped stroking and was busy finishing off the second Palm Bay. She cleared her throat. “Need some help with that?” she asked.Steve nearly choked on his last few sips. He had to admit, this couple really turned the tables on him. That said, the woman was hot, and he hadn’t gotten an offer like this… ever. “If that’s what you want,” he chuckled, pumping his cock a few more times to emphasize the point.Lauren was trying to tell herself the main reason for this was to guarantee her safety, but in the back of her mind she knew, this was what she wanted. Steve’s cock was thick, uncut, and had such a sexy shape to it. She wanted that in her mouth almost as badly as she wanted Ken’s cock earlier – and make no mistake, she still wanted that cock, many more times, later on. Sinking down to her knees, eyeing Steve’s cock up and down, Lauren took it in both of her hands, replacing Steve’s own hand, and began to pump up and down a few times before licking her lips and letting Steve’s cock fill her mouth.As Ken watched his… girlfriend… take the other dick slowly more and more into her mouth, he didn’t want to admit it… he could see where Steve was coming from. Watching her take someone else, especially knowing that her taking this other man’s cock clearly did not affect how she saw him at all… it was sexy. Ken didn’t really realize, even when the two decided to day-drink, where today had taken him, and only now, now that he’d made a commitment to a woman seconds before she gave him a show with another man, a stranger… did he realize just how impactful today had really been.Steve had been stroking himself for a fair while as he watched the duo, so as much as he would have liked to give a show of stamina, he was set to last as long as Ken, maybe even shorter. He knew the feeling, and had the courtesy to warn Lauren beforehand, as she kept up her efforts. Steve knew what he liked though, and shooed her mouth away with his hand. She got the message and remained on her knees as Steve pointed his cock away from her mouth, towards the building’s wall, and began to masturbate furiously. Ken did his best to look away, but Lauren remained eyes transfixed on Steve’s cock, her hand down her pants fingering herself. At long last, Steve emitted a throaty roar as she shot rope after rope of cum onto the building’s wall, earning a gasp and a sharp hand movement from Lauren, clearly enjoying what she saw. As the show quickly ended, Lauren turned to Ken and shrugged as if to acknowledge the craziness of the situation. Ken gave a “What the fuck?” smile and shrugged back, and the three exchanged no words as Steve did his pants back up and Lauren found her shirt and bra, and put them on. Ken, still with no words, pulled the vodka out of the satchel, and poured himself and Lauren a small amount. After staring at Steve for a few seconds, he offered to pour some in Steve’s can too, and Steve heartily accepted. All three of them drank in relative silence, one of them occasionally being brave enough to make small talk, though the nerves were cooled down as the next drink took effect. It was becoming clear to the trio that they weren’t just going to part ways so easily.It was Ken who first acknowledged it. “So, what happens now?”***The three sat, facing the window outside the shop, arms on the counter as they ate their shawarma. The Uber they took could probably tell they were drunk, and the man who took their order could definitely tell they were drunk, but hey, it was Toronto.The trio had spent the rest of the day drinking and seeing if they could find any other crazy stunts to pull. It helped that they now had what looked like a man of the law with them. If things got into the worst case scenario, he could act like he was placing them under arrest, shuffle them off to a place no one could see, then they could share a laugh together.Steve was cool. It was clear that when they would part ways, Steve would never see them again, whereas Lauren and Ken wanted to go steady, but they had no clue how that would go. Hopefully well. On their first date they’d gone day drinking, got caught, Lauren blew him with another man watching and then blew him, then the trio took an Uber to the ROM and got thrown out for making too much of a scene (though amazingly they weren’t suspected of being drunk, or at least the people there didn’t call the cops for it), and then Steve tried to use his officer-like position to try to commandeer a horse. That went about as successfully as one might think it would’ve gone.The three finished their shawarma and wandered about the city, only noticing then how late it had gotten. Ken only then realized his phone was dead and his manager – or perhaps at this point, former manager – had probably been trying to contact him all day. He didn’t even know where he was going to get back to. Or how, or even who. He could maybe ask to stay with Lauren, but… her parents… that wouldn’t have ended well.The hours flowed by. As dawn approached, a familiar blue light of early winter morning washed over Toronto. All was well and regular in the city, except for a group of three former strangers, hungover, sleep deprived, feeling too awkward to say goodbye and leave each other, and to move on from their night and go on with their lives – aimlessly wandering around the city, not sure of what was to come next, but knowing that even with their wicked hangovers, they would do it again in a heartbeat.