My best friend and I bought the tickets months ago, despite having no real plan for how we’d get there. Neither of us had a car, and no one in our country-music-obsessed town shared our taste, or was going.
Legal adults or not, it was a school night, which meant asking our parents was off-limits. So, we dusted off the classic I’ll be at my bestie’s house studying excuse.
Every dollar we had went to the tickets. Uber was a luxury we couldn’t afford. So we decided to go old-school, nineteen-seventies style, and hitchhike.
The concert was in the city about twenty miles up the highway, an easy commute if you have wheels, a treacherous journey on foot. It was dusk when we got to the on-ramp, and we had about three hours before the opening act.
Being a port city, trucks were everywhere, rolling in, rolling out, steady and constant, and we were hoping to catch one to our exit in the city.
Was it dangerous for two teenage girls dressed scantily for a concert to hitchhike? Yes.
Did we care? No.
We were determined to get there.
We walked up the on-ramp toward the drawbridge, the scent of salt mingling with gas as we waited to thumb a ride until we hit open highway where someone could safely pull over.
Below us, the river roared, catching the last light of the day’s reds, oranges, and blues glittering on the water. Port lights and the town’s riverfront lit up the banks as the first stars appeared.
We wouldn’t have to wait long before I heard the unmistakable sound of a diesel engine drop to a slower, heavier idle. How do I know that? I had a step-dad who drove a flatbed. Then the air brake hit loudly, Phhhhhhh, and startled my bestie. I laughed and she shoved me.
The truck pulled off to the side ahead of us, the sound of the gravel in our ears as we jogged up to the door. It was a huge long-nose American-semi, orange with a black racing stripe, twin smokestacks, and a sleeper cab.
I grabbed the sidebar and jumped up on the stirrup step, my heel catching in the grid and I had to wriggle it out. I jumped in first and then my bestie. Both of us on the passengers’ seat, which felt like a springboard. We were all smiles, excited we were getting a ride.
“Hey ladies,” he said, eyes on the road as he released the air brake and another loud Phhhhh as he eased back onto the highway, “One of ya sit on the sleeper please, and one of ya buckle up.”
I jumped onto the sleeper bed and she buckled up.
The cab was fairly clean. He had just gotten a new load at the port and must’ve cleaned up before leaving. Coffee was in the holder and was still steaming, and there was a donut bag sitting next to it on the center console.
“This is so cool!” my bestie squealed, looking around, her first time in a truck. “It looks like you’re in an airplane cockpit.”
He chuckled, “I take it you’ve never been in an airplane cockpit either?” It made me laugh. She shrugged, unbothered.
“So where to, ladies?” he asked, looking back at me in the rear view.
Jesus, I caught his eyes and I forgot to inhale. They were dark brown, deep, and I swear, looking into them lit up every nerve in my body. He took off his ball cap and threw it on the dash and ran his hands through his longish soft brown curls.
My friend slowly turned her head, eyes wide, mouthing silently, holy fuck… he’s soooo hot! And she’s right. Broad shoulders, arms thick from hauling cargo and rolling tarps. Ink covers both arms, meaningful, not random, a story. His story. A square jaw covered with stubble, not unkempt, but sexy…it made my chest ache.
Looking back in the rearview again, flashing a crooked grin, southern drawl dripping off his tongue: “So, what’s up? Cat got your tongue? Planning to rob me, or just need a ride somewhere?”
My friend just smiled. I had forgotten he asked a question!
I stumbled over my words: “Uh… just to the city. Concert tonight at the arena.”
“Shit, really? Lucky bastards. I love those guys… damn, I wouldn’t mind catching them myself,” he murmured.
My friend mouthed at me, rolling her eyes upward, I think I’m in love. I laughed, but my heart was hammering in my ears. He met my eyes again, I couldn’t breathe, heat pooling low.
The silence stretched for several miles as the lights streak past and music filled the cab, not country.
Every once in a while, he looked into the rear view and shock waves flooded my body; it felt mutual.
“You look… younger than most truckers,” I blurted out, voice trembling. My friend shot me a knowing look, a grin pulling at the corners of her mouth. I glared back, embarrassed.
“Well, that’s rude,” he teased, dark and smooth. “Truckers can be all kinds of things, young, too, ya know.” He held my gaze for a few seconds before adding, “God, you have… the most beautiful eyes,” slow, deliberate, syrupy.
Before I could stop myself, words fell out of me playfully, “That’s it,” I declared. “Pull over right now.”
My friend gasped, half in shock, half in laughter.
His grin widened, “Don’t tease me, girl, I spend way too much time alone to be played with like that.”
The look on my friend’s face was unreadable. Was she scared? Intrigued? Confused or equally willing?
He looked over at my friend and said, “We doing this?”
“Hell yeah,” she squealed, adding, “we got a few hours,” and shrugged, looking back at me with a smile.
With zero hesitation, he threw on the jake-brake, sounding like a machine gun, roaring Brahhhhh, and slowed the rig into a low rumble that we both felt under our feet as he pulled to a stop in the breakdown lane.
Hazards clicked on. He reached for the CB, “Dispatch, this is Haywire 24,” his voice smooth and thick through the speaker. “Had a sensor light pop. Gonna pull over quick and check it out. Shouldn’t take too long.” He turned and winked at me. He opened his door and jumped out. I could see him in his rearview, throwing down reflective triangles before heading back.
I know I started this, but dammit if I wasn’t feeling nervous! My mouth was dry, my thighs shaking, my friend has more experience, so I was looking at her for reassurance. She smiled at me sweetly and whispered, “This is going to be fun, just follow my lead, okay?”
He slid back into the driver’s seat, and my friend quickly pulled herself onto his lap, straddling him and immediately starting to kiss him. I felt like a fish out of water until he caught my eye, soft and gentle, and my nerves began to ease.
After a few minutes, he slowly made deliberate moves to get my friend up and into the cab with me. She scooted all the way in as he pulled off his shirt, belt, and jeans, never taking his eyes off me.
I was frozen on the edge of the bunk as he lowered himself over me slowly.
“Don’t be nervous, baby. I won’t rush you, okay?”
I nodded, my breath shallow.
My friend came up behind me, lifting my shirt over my head and kissing my neck. It felt like ice water hitting me, and I jolted, but he looked at me and smiled while she whispered in my ear, “Close your eyes.” I melted into it.
After a few minutes, I wasn’t sure whose hands were whose as my clothes were peeled away and lips found their way all over me.
“Baby, are you ready?” he breathed into my ear.
I swallowed hard and said yes.
He lay down behind me, turning my back slightly toward him in a spooning position, one hand around my friend’s neck as he kissed her above my head, his other driving me wild.
I felt him guide her head down…closer, and I held my breath for what came next.
“That’s it, good girl,” he whispered to her as her attention turned to me. I was overwhelmed with new sensations and could hardly keep a thought in my head.
Between his steady rhythm and her mouth exploring new territory, my body couldn’t tell where one feeling ended and another began. Before long, all the air left my lungs, my body completely surrendering as it trembled through wave after wave of pleasure.
He slowed and buried his face in my neck.
“Oh my God, baby, that was so fucking intense,” he breathed, kissing along my jaw.
Then, he pulled my friend up over me with intent. They worked together, and she settled into the perfect position for me to reciprocate and give back what she had just given. He steadied himself into her unapologetically, his intensity returning.
I was far less sure of myself than she was, but she arched into me, moaning loudly, and I kept pace, my confidence growing until she broke open with the same intensity I had felt moments before.
Satisfied and now eager to please him, she and I worked together. He lifted himself onto his knees, running his fingers through our hair and along our necks as we moved in tandem to repay him properly. It didn’t take long before it ended in a rush. He unraveled, control slipping, his head falling back as his body shook.
My friend rolled out of the bunk immediately, breathless and mumbling excitedly about what had just happened. He and I lingered a beat longer. He ran his thumb over my cheek, my head tilting into his palm. He clicked his tongue softly, flashed that crooked grin, and gave me a wink before exiting the bunk.
He dropped us off a block from the arena, our attention shifting to the upcoming concert. The night was alive, music already humming from the venue. My friend jumped out without hesitation, and I was right behind her. His fingers curled around my arm as I was slipping out the door.
“Those eyes, baby. I sure do hope I get to see them again.”
I smiled back as I hopped down next to my friend, and we disappeared into the crowd.
