Old Habits Die Soft

Chapter 5
Comfort

Chapter Description: Ben and Chris are forced to get comfortable.

[img align=left; footer=’’; border=0; showfooter=1;]http://i.imgur.com/RqyLV.png[/img]

The next day, Ben received a text message from Chris again, or, more appropriately, Chris’ mother. It instructed him to come to the house for the next session and to plan to stay the night. Stay the night? That sounded strange. He was sure it was just part of the procedure, but he wished he had actually READ the massive amount of supplementary information Mrs. Heben had provided instead of just leaving it behind during the first session. He was sure that Mrs. Heben would answer any questions he had.

As Ben approached the large, beautiful home, he saw the door swing open as Mrs. Heben held open the screen door for him to enter.

“Come on, now, we mustn’t dilly-dally! Chris!” she called to the living room, “are you ready? Ben’s here!”

“Yes, mom!” came the reply from the couch.

As Ben came into the living room, he was startled to find Chris sprawled out on the couch in a blue pair of pajamas adorned with spaceships and stars. A big bowl of cereal rested on his muscular chest as he watched Cartoon Network on the sixty inch plasma TV set that glowed from the corner of the room.

“Uhh, you’re looking pretty comfortable, huh? Didn’t go in to work today?” Ben asked, uneasily.

“Work? Haha, good one. Mom told me I don’t need to work anymore, seeing she plans to make a ton of money from the habit-erasing treatment once it hits the market.”

“Oh,” Ben replied, “well, that’s good. Did she buy you those PJs, too?”

“Yeah, she told me I should wear as much comfortable clothing as possible, apparently the treatment works better if you’re more relaxed.”

“Well, your certainly look relaxed,” he replied, taking note of the non-slip footie pajamas his 24-year old best friend was now dressed in.

“There’s a pair for you, too,” came a voice from around the corner, causing Ben to jump a little bit.

Ben turned around to see Mrs. Heben, arms folded, leaning in the archway of the door. She smirked at Ben’s surprise and pulled out a plastic hanger on which another pair of pajamas hung. This one featured dinosaurs.

“You expect me to wear that?” asked Ben, laughing uneasily, his headache feeling stronger than ever.

“Yes,” Mrs. Heben replied sternly, “your normal clothes aren’t nearly as comfortable and I’d like to make sure my treatments work to their maximum effect, if that’s alright with you, Ben?”

She handed him the hanger with the green pajamas on them and continued, “Now, be a dear and put them on.”

“Um, sure, where’s your bathroom?” he asked, glancing behind Mrs. Heben into the hallway.

“Just get changed here, we don’t have time,” Chris’ mother replied, impatiently.

Ben felt like a little kid again, being forced to take off his clothes. This was incredibly embarrassing. Mrs. Heben barely tried to hide the fact that she was nearly staring at him while he unbuckled the belt holding up his Gap jeans and began to unbutton his shirt. He felt a chill run down his body as he slid the shirt off his shoulders, standing in front of Mrs. Heben in only his boxers.

“Those, too,” she said, extending an open hand.

Ben’s cheeks flushed red. He reluctantly slid his boxers down, being careful to turn his body and attempt to hide his dangling penis from Mrs. Heben’s sight as he rushed to pick up the dinosaur pajamas and slip them on. As he pulled on the fleecy garment, he felt much warmer and eagerly zipped up the outfit with the colorful zipper that ran up the front.

“Better?” she asked, inspecting his new outfit.

“Uh, yeah, I guess,” Ben replied uncertainly, “do you think I could trouble you for a glass of water?”

“Sorry, Ben, the plumbing is broken right now in the house—blame it on the cold weather, probably a burst pipe, could I get you a glass of juice, instead?”

“Um, sure, yeah that’s fine,” he said. She disappeared into the dark hallway and returned a moment later with a tall glass of apple juice which he gulped down eagerly. She refilled the glass for him, and he drained it a second time. Maybe some liquids will get rid of this headache, he thought.

“Well, are you two boys ready?” Mrs. Heben inquired.

“Yup!” replied Chris from the other room, excitedly, bounding from the couch to join the two in the doorway.

“Yeah,” replied Ben uncomfortably.

“Great, let’s get started.”