The Monolith

Story Concept by Anonymous

Written by HikerAngel

CHAPTER 1: DISCOVERIES

Worthless.

That’s what her ex-boyfriend had always called her. He had repeated it often, searing it like a brand into her psyche. It had become so ingrained that when he left her for a prettier woman, she had apologized to him for being so inadequate.

April sighed, staring out the passenger window of the car as the city lights flowed past, casting a series of distorted shadows over her contemplative features.

Thank goodness Zach wasn’t like that. She had met him just days after being cast aside by her previous boyfriend. Zach was kind. He donated to PETA and Greenpeace. He took care of her.

April looked over to see his hazel green eyes focused on a distant point ahead as he pulled into the parking lot of their favorite bar. His hard-set jaw was clean shaven, his shirt immaculately pressed as always. April smiled as her eyes descended the long, vertical stripes. She took as much pride in his appearance as he did. It kept her going during the long hours of laundry and ironing that consumed her weekends while Zach alternated between watching football games and National Geographic specials.

As Zach brought the car to a stop, April waited for him to open her door. He was old-fashioned about things like that, and she knew he liked to do it for her.

When her door finally opened, she caught a glimpse of herself in the window as she rose. With her makeup on, she looked presentable enough, she thought. If she didn’t know better, she would have thought herself almost pretty.

Feeling the warm buzz of something akin to pride in her appearance, she followed Zach to the bar’s entrance where he once again held open the door for her in gentlemanly fashion. Flashing him a smile as she walked inside, April murmured another silent prayer for her good fortune in finding a guy like him.

She wove through the crowded establishment toward their usual corner table, taking off her coat and draping it carefully over the back of her chair before sitting down. Zach sat across from her, giving her a warm smile before picking up the curly-cornered menu.

He probably didn’t need the plastic-covered listing of all of the seven options the watering hole could deliver—they came here every week for trivia night—but April knew that Zach liked his traditions. Perusing his options carefully before making his selection was his wont. He was very particular in his preferences. Zach set down the laminated sheet just as their waitress arrived.

“Hi,” the woman said in an overly cheerful voice. “I’m Laura!”

Zach looked up, his eyes lighting with the radiant glow of attraction as soon as he saw her. The woman was tall, at least six feet. An attractive blonde, she was extremely well-endowed, with massive breasts that strained the cleavage-baring neckline of her tight tank. The woman gave Zach a dazzling smile, leaning forward to touch his shoulder—and, no doubt, to give him an eyeful of her magnificent, fleshy swells in the hope of “earning” a substantial tip at the end of the evening.

“Hi there, Laura! You must be new!” said Zach, a spellbound smile plastered over his lips.

“Well, as a matter of fact, I am!” said Laura with a tinkling laugh. “How did you know?”

Zach leaned toward her, his gaze squarely focused on her cleavage, voice hushed as if he were sharing a secret confession. “We come here all the time…”

“Well that’s great!” said Laura with a bit too much enthusiasm, tapping her fingers lightly on the back of Zach’s hand as her eyes danced flirtatiously. “I do love meeting the regulars. Especially ones as cute as you.”

April scowled but said nothing. She knew exactly what the waitress was doing, but she couldn’t compete with a girl that tall or that pretty. It was fine if Zach was attracted to someone like that, she told herself. Just as long as he didn’t break up with her.

After taking Zach’s order, she seemed to notice April for the first time. “Whatcha want, hun?” came her curt question.

“Just the salad,” April’s response equally curt.

“Watching your figure, huh?” commented the buxom waitress, looking down her nose at the shorter, less attractive girl before giving her a superior smirk.

April shot the waitress a faux smile, then demurely handed her the plastic-covered menu. Laura took it, spun on her heel, and sauntered away, effortlessly drawing Zach’s gaze to her rounded backside.

“So I was promoted to supervisor today,” April said loudly in an obvious attempt to draw Zach’s attention to her once more.

“That’s nice,” said Zach absently, as he watched Laura disappear into the kitchen. Only when she was completely out of sight did his eyes return to those of his girlfriend. Once the visual distraction was gone, his mind processed his girlfriend’s words. “So you’re under Carl now? Or Brad?”

“Susan, actually,” replied April, still frowning.

“Oh right. I always forget about her.” Zach worked at the same company as April, though he was several levels of management senior to her and part of a different call center division.

“Well, she’s actually really good. I think she’s smarter and harder working than either Carl or Brad.”

“That’s great,” said Zach disinterestedly, grabbing a handful of nuts from the bowl in the center of the table and tossing them into his mouth. He cast a glance at the door to the kitchen, clearly checking to see whether Laura had emerged from the back.

She hadn’t.

“So do you have any advice for me?” Laura prompted, taking his hands in hers, pleased when she saw that the ploy had worked and his attention had returned to her expectant face.

“Yeah. Make sure your team hits its numbers,” Zach said with a playful wink, glancing again to the side.

“Very helpful,” April replied, her nascent smile faltering.

“But seriously, my advice is: don’t let anyone off the hook. You always need to show them who’s in charge. Just remember: they work for you, not the other way around.”

April nodded thoughtfully.

“The number one mistake new supes make is not laying down the law with their people from day one.”

“Got it,” said April, making a mental note of his advice.

“So enough work talk,” said Zach, pleased that April seemed to be taking his words to heart. “Do you want to go to the movies tomorrow after our hike? That new Wonder Woman movie looks pretty good. I saw this special on the new actress that they picked for the role, and she’s been working out with like ten trainers for six months straight! She looks totally ripped, and that new costume really shows off her arms!”

April’s eyes flicked to her outstretched arm, noting its slender, pipe-like thinness with a resigned sigh. “Yeah. I know. Sounds great.”

Zach squeezed her hand affectionately just before Laura arrived at their table, letting Zach’s eyes feast on her voluptuous chest once again as she set his meal before him.

As Laura tossed April’s salad disdainfully before her, April slid back her chair. “I’m going to go to the bathroom.”

Zach nodded, then pointed with his fork at his entree. “Mind if I start?”

“Go for it,” April said, giving him her best attempt at a warm smile.

She walked into the bathroom a moment later, eyes glassy as she surveyed her appearance. She wasn’t bad looking. Sure, her face was a little plain, but with makeup, it looked decent enough. Her brown hair was a bit lifeless, but that’s why she wore it up tonight. Her C-cup breasts were nice, but obviously not the attention magnet’s of the waitress’ DD monsters. She pinched at her stomach. It wasn’t exactly firm, but it was reasonably slim. Her shapelier-than-average legs brought her height to a respectable 5’5”, only a couple of inches under Zach’s relatively modest stature. Yes, not bad looking at all.

So why did that waitress seem to attract his attention so effortlessly? She was attractive, but she was carrying a few extra pounds in her middle. It wasn’t as if she were some kind of supermodel or anything.

Was it her height? Those breasts?

April already knew the answer. It was both. Thank goodness the woman didn’t have muscles too. That would have given her the Zach-magnet-trifecta.

It wasn’t Zach’s fault. That’s just how he was wired. The fault was her own. It simply meant that she wasn’t adequate to hold his attention all the time. If he needed to look at other women to be satisfied, then that was simply a reflection on her.

Her lips trembling slightly, April wiped the glimmering tears from her eyes before they fell, sniffed, then smoothed out the front of her dress. She slipped on a serene, untroubled expression, then left the bathroom to take a seat once more across from Zach. This time, his eyes were not on the waitress but on the game playing across the television behind the bar.

She was pretty sure he knew she had returned, though she couldn’t be certain. Raising her fork, she stabbed her salad and crunched into a mouthful of lettuce.

***

As they returned home, April hung her coat before shivering and rubbing her arms. Zach liked to keep the temperature inside their house a little lower than she would have preferred. But she didn’t say anything. If that’s how he liked it, she simply had to adjust.

“We almost won the trivia contest this time,” said Zach, sounding pleased. “If my little English major could only have remembered her Walt Whitman, it would have been enough.”

April gave him a tentative smile, though her eyes dropped to the floor, and she turned away.

Zach approached her from behind, wrapping his arms around her in a tight embrace, warming her. April smiled. Thank goodness Zach was in her life.

She turned, pressing upward, onto her tiptoes, and kissed him softly on the lips. He grinned as he kissed her back. Walking her backward into the bedroom, he broke their kiss, whirling her around before leaning backward to fall prone on the bed. After two small bounces on the firm mattress, he crossed his arms behind his head.

April placed her hands on his slim chest, hovering above to give him one more passionate taste of her tongue before walking her hands, at either side of him, back to the foot of the bed. Her nimble fingers pulled down the zipper of his jeans.

“You know, we could undress for once and do the full deal,” Zach said, staring at the ceiling as April pulled out his swelling cock. “We’ve been dating for six months, and I’ve never even gotten you off!”

April said nothing in reply. She didn’t deserve the gift of pleasure from a man like Zach. She needed to be the one to give it herself. To keep him at her side.

Kneeling on the floor to pin Zach’s calves to the edge of the bed with her torso, she fingered his shaft into firmness. Once she had massaged him into throbbing rigidity, she leaned over to breathe on his tip.

“Not that there’s anything wrong with what you’re doing,” he murmured, his voice now tinged with arousal.

April smiled. This was one thing she was good at. She was technically still a virgin, but she had countless oral climaxes across multiple partners to her credit.

Moistening her lips, she placed them over his member, applying pressure from all sides as she began to descend. Zach relaxed into the down comforter atop their soft mattress, his lips parting to emit a soft, pleased “Mmmm”.

April smiled inwardly, continuing to attend to her boyfriend’s penis as he began to squirm with increasing urgency beneath her light touch. As his slim stomach finally began to tense, she knew he was about to climax. Pressing her tongue into the underside of his penis, she rose his length a final time, removing her satisfied lips just as he erupted. She curled her fingers around his quivering cock as he came, milking every bit of pleasure as he grunted in time with his bucking hips.

She couldn’t quite make out the word that formed the basis for the grunts as he climaxed, but it wasn’t the “Yes, April!” he usually said. This time, it was something like “Ooo, Lord!”

April grabbed some tissue from the box nearby and cleaned him off. When she was done, she pulled off his pants and shirt as he lay there, continuing to bask in the hazy sensation of post-orgasmic dopamine that had flooded his alcohol-dulled system. He kissed her as she tucked him under the covers. By the time she had brushed her teeth and changed into her pajamas behind the closed door of the bathroom, he was asleep.

April lay in bed, staring at the ceiling when she suddenly realized what Zach had been saying as he climaxed.

“Laura.”

With the unexpected epiphany, April’s singular talent was violently stripped from her. It hadn’t been her skill at oral sex that Zach had been thinking of when he came; it had been the thought of their waitress.

April sobbed softly, emptiness enveloping her as she began another sleepless night. She curled into a trembling ball of crippling insecurity.

***

“You okay?” Zach questioned as April sluggishly ascended the trail to catch up with him. She had never been the strongest hiker, but today she seemed particularly lethargic.

“Fine,” she panted, placing her hands on her hips as she reached his position on the sloped trail.

“I’m always telling you to join me in the gym,” he said. “If you did, you probably wouldn’t have such a hard time keeping up…”

The little reminder was one of many he sprinkled into their conversations. Getting her to work out more would be good for her, he told himself. And, if he were being completely honest, he wouldn’t mind seeing her put on a little muscle for more selfish reasons as well. When they went to see the latest installment of Wonder Woman tonight, he would be sure to drop another hint.

They continued on until Zach came upon a small, half-overgrown side trail. Usually little side trails like this led to some sort of lookout point. With the way April was dragging today, maybe they could simply go to the end of this side trail, check out the view, and head back. It would ensure that they made it back in time for the movie, at least.

Looking back at April’s struggling form, he paused again to wait for her. “Why don’t we follow this side trail to the closest view, then head back. That way, we’ll have time to shower and change before the movie.”

April frowned, leaning on a nearby tree to catch her breath, but nodded her agreement. He probably could have left off that last part. She had inferred that he thought she was slow, and he hadn’t really intended to bring that to the forefront. But who knew? Maybe it would help her understand that she should hit the gym with him next time.

Turning, he placed his hands in front of him and pressed forward into the fairly dense foliage. By the time he’d gone 50 yards, he had reached a small clearing, surrounded by large granite boulders, with a small pond in the center. It was beautiful, a private little garden in the middle of the wilderness. Zach walked slowly around the area in fascination as April emerged from the underbrush.

Eying him curiously, April turned her attention to a flat black slab at the water’s edge. It was small, perhaps the size of a notepad. On end, it rose vertically about a foot from base to tip. Drawn to it, April knelt beside it, placing her small fingers onto its smooth, matte surface. As her skin contacted the mysterious object, she felt a dizzying rush of energy and swooned.

Zach caught her slumping form out of the corner of his eye and rushed to her side in alarm. “April!”

He pulled her to him, cradling her head in his lap as she blinked her eyes open. “What happened?” he asked, his voice tight with concern.

“I just touched that black thing by the water, and it zapped me or something.”

Zach’s gaze immediately zeroed in on the small monolith. Funny, he hadn’t noticed it before.

“Well, that’s enough of that. Maybe it’s some kind of solar panel or something?” The words sounded lame, but he couldn’t think of what else it might be. It was too far into the woods to be a transformer. Maybe a battery?

April took a couple of deep breaths, then rose to her feet without assistance. Zach stared up at her as she rolled her head in a circle and examined the fingers that had touched the strange object’s surface. “I actually feel pretty good.”

As if to illustrate her point, she bounced on the balls of her feet, looking far more energetic than she had as she had staggered into the clearing.

Rising to his feet, he took her by the shoulders momentarily, careful not to brush against the small monolith near his feet as he looked her in the eye. “Well, I’m glad you’re okay.”

“I think I am.”

April’s tone was hopeful, more confident than she usually sounded. That confidence finally assuaged Zach’s concern. “Okay. If you’re up for it, let’s head back then.”

April nodded, then marched back toward the trail enthusiastically, Zach blinking in surprise before following her back down the trail.

When they reached the trailhead, Zach nodded to the ranger station. “We should let the ranger know about the monolith.”

A look of fear flashed across April’s face. “I-I’ll go in and tell them.”

Before Zach could reply, she hustled inside the ranger station. As she approached the desk, however, she smiled demurely. “Where is the restroom?”

A ranger bearing the name tag “Harvey” smiled back at her. “Just over there,” he pointed.

April thanked him, then used the facilities, wondering why she hadn’t told the man about the monolith. When she emerged from the bathroom, she thought about going over to tell him, but again a strange reluctance overcame her. She exited the building without saying another word.