Julie woke with a groan, rubbing at her eyes before retrieving her glasses from where she had left them hanging on her shirt collar and putting them on; she then blinked repeatedly and pushed some of her wavy black hair out of her face so she could take a look around.

“Sounds like someone’s awake,” she heard from off to her left. Sarah glanced over at her for just a moment before turning her attention back to the road, speaking while keeping her eyes focused on what lay ahead. “Have a nice nap?”

“Eh…” Julie shrugged, then turned to look out the window on her side of the car. “How much longer, do you think?”

“Dunno. Hard to tell how traffic’s gonna be once we get into town, so… Could be a few hours yet.”

“Gonna need you to pull over somewhere when you get the chance, then.”

Sarah nodded gently. “Sure. There’s a gas station coming up in about an hour.”

Julie looked over at Sarah with an eyebrow raised. “What, did we just pass one or something?”

“Few miles back, yeah. Why? Need something sooner, or…?”

“Nah, it’s fine. Still kinda half asleep so I’m just trying to figure everything out.”

With another glance over at Julie, Sarah said, “Alright then. I can stop, like, anywhere around here if you change your mind, though.”

“It’s fine,” Julie insisted, following up with a sigh as she rested her head against the window. She sat with her legs crossed, but from what Sarah could see she looked to still be tired more than anything else – understandable, really, considering the many hours they’d spent together throughout the day had left Sarah feeling a bit worn out as well.

But they had enjoyed themselves, and that was what really mattered. They’d get to relax before too long, and in the interest of not causing any unnecessary delays, Sarah was keeping herself alert and focused on the road so she could get home as quickly as was safely possible.

Julie, meanwhile, was simply focused on trying to stay awake. The slight tension of a bladder filled up over the course of a three-hour drive so far wasn’t quite enough to keep her conscious on its own. As she figured it, it wasn’t even enough to stop her from ignoring it and going right back to sleep – and since that would just cause its own set of problems upon her waking up again, Julie had decided that she was just going to stay awake and watch the scenery going by.

Every so often she would absentmindedly reach over to drink from the massive bottle of peach tea that the girls had been sharing throughout the whole trip. They had picked it up in the morning from the gas station general store Sarah worked at – for a fair bit of money even with the not-quite-official employee discount she’d been given – and weren’t even remotely finished with it yet. It would surely continue to be worked on during whatever evening activities the girls felt like doing, and possibly not even finished until the next day, but for now it was keeping the two of them from going thirsty while on the road.

And, just as importantly, a bit of caffeine would keep them both awake. Sarah was obviously going to end up doing all the driving, and Julie just wanted to stop herself from falling asleep again now that she could feel that she kind of needed the bathroom.

But Sarah seemed to be making decent time, and with Julie feeling only a little bit of pressure, she wasn’t at all worried, and continued to take little sips from the bottle while she stared mindlessly out the window.

She still wasn’t worried even after an uneventful half-hour passed and the tea started catching up to her. Sure, her jeans were starting to feel a little tight, and she was sitting with her legs firmly crossed and one foot wiggling, but that was certainly no cause for alarm. There was a bathroom in her near future, so she could deal with a little discomfort for now.

But even so, Julie still figured it would be nice to confirm exactly how near the near future was, and turned to look at Sarah, adjusting her glasses as she spoke up. “Did you catch how much farther it is to that rest stop? I haven’t been paying attention to the signs.”

“Should only take about twenty minutes,” Sarah said with a quick glance to the side, spending just a little longer than she had intended looking into Julie’s eyes. “You still good?”

“Yeah, fine.” Julie adjusted herself to look straight ahead, and shuffled a little bit in her seat. “Just kinda bored.”

“Uh-huh. I’d have fallen asleep too if I could. That cop that went by on the other side of the road like two hours ago was the most interesting thing that’s happened this whole drive so far.” Sarah sighed. “And that was just because of the flashing lights.”

“Can’t believe I’m saying this, but I think I’d actually prefer being stuck in traffic right now. At least then there’d be something happening.”

Sarah looked over at Julie for a moment, then back at the road, and briefly used one hand to gesture as she spoke. “Okay, why does that make sense? That shouldn’t make sense.” She shook her head with a bit of laughter. “Like you’ve actually made me think that getting stuck in the middle of a mile-long pile of cars would be a good thing.”

“Well, who says it wouldn’t?” Julie re-crossed her legs and lightly pressed them together for a moment. “I mean, sure, it’d be nice to get to a bathroom first so that we don’t have to deal with… all that nonsense. But still, we wouldn’t exactly be getting anywhere but there’d still be stuff going on.”

“Mostly just stuff to complain about.”

“Yeah! It’s something, at least. And, anyways…” Julie reached out with her left hand to touch Sarah’s arm, and Sarah responded by removing that hand from the wheel and letting Julie take hold of it. “I just like talking to you, even if we’re just bitching about idiots in cars.”

Sarah chuckled lightly. “So basically you just want us to be caught in traffic so that you have an excuse to talk to me. You know you can do that whenever you want, right?”

“Yeah, but there’s just, like, nothing to talk about. Nothing’s been happening, y’know, and I’ve just kinda been braindead for the past couple hours. Can’t exactly strike up a conversation if I’m all spaced out like that, now can I?”

“Fair enough. I’ve kinda been zoning out myself, I suppose, just staring at the road for ages…”

“Well, zone back in so you don’t miss an exit.” Releasing Sarah’s hand and moving her own up to the side of her head, Julie continued, “’cause I gotta pee and I’d really rather not wait too long.”

Sarah glanced over at Julie, then at the bottle sitting in the cupholder between them. “Y’know, with how quickly you’ve been working through that thing I’d be really surprised if you didn’t.”

“It’s fucking delicious. What surprises me is that I’ve barely been paying any attention to anything and didn’t drink more of it than just that without noticing.” Julie wiggled and added, “Good thing, though, ‘cause that shit just goes right through you.”

“Uh-huh. I’m kinda starting to feel it too, so… At least it won’t be too much longer. Would suck to make the whole drive home all uncomfortable like that.”

Julie reached over to lightly hit Sarah on the shoulder. “Shush! Saying shit like that is, like, the best way to make sure something goes wrong.”

“Sure it is,” Sarah responded with a little giggle. “And now specifically because I said that this bathroom up ahead is gonna be out of order, I suppose. How unfortunate.”

“You never know.”

Continuing her teasing, Sarah said, “Well, anyways, since we know something’s gonna have gone wrong, I suppose we might as well just keep driving and skip this next stop, then. No point stopping somewhere we can’t do anything, right?”

Julie quickly looked over at her with wide eyes. “Woah, hey! I never said that! Gotta still try it, at least.”

Sarah chuckled lightly and turned to Julie for just a moment. “What, is it that bad already?”

“Uh… No, I don’t think so. Still… Like I said, better sooner than later, so…”

“And you’re sure you don’t want me to just pull over somewhere here? Plenty of space and nobody’s around to see anything.”

“I’d prefer a toilet. We’ll see what happens at this place coming up here.”

Sarah looked over to her right again, then shrugged as she returned her attention to the road. “If you say so.”

After that, the girls went quiet, each having her own business to focus on – Sarah on driving, and Julie on the rising pressure in her bladder, which was growing a little faster than she had expected. She was still confident in her ability to hold on until they stopped, but after only ten minutes her idle leg-crossing had turned into shifting around and swinging her feet. Nothing particularly alarming, she figured, but even so she was making sure to breathe thoroughly and stay calm – she was certainly fuller than she was comfortable with being, but with relief so near at hand she couldn’t let herself worry about it too much.

In hindsight, it may not have been the best idea to drink so much, with her jeans and the seatbelt now digging into her to only add to the pressure, but Julie assured herself that it was definitely not too much to handle. This wasn’t going to be a repeat of her most recent birthday, where Sarah had taken her out for a night of alcohol-fuelled fun; that hadn’t ended too well for either of them, with Julie loading up on alcohol and not wanting to break the seal until she was ready to head home. Most of that night between her first drink and Sarah putting her to bed was lost to her, but she did know that she had poured a lot of booze into herself before deciding she’d had enough, and that when she finally did decide it was time to start the process of seemingly-endless trips to the toilet, she had sought out the ladies’ room with an uncomfortably-heavy bladder; she had left with it weighing just as much after finding the line to be too long to be worth standing in, and could vaguely recall something about needing to squat between some cars at the side of the road quite a while before getting home.

That was absolutely not going to happen tonight – for one, she wasn’t drunk, and her bladder wasn’t really that full. Julie very much did need to relieve herself, and could feel the need growing just a little bit too quickly for comfort, but she would get to go soon enough. The tea was certainly living up to its potently-diuretic reputation, but all things considered she hadn’t put all that much of it into herself.

So, over the next fifteen minutes, the tea moving through her system worked at gradually eroding her confidence and empowering her squirming. Her legs were knotted up and swaying side to side while she watched closely as various scenery passed by the window on her side, letting out a satisfied but impatient groan when she saw the sign designating the exit they had been looking for.

“Just another minute, Jules,” Sarah said with a hint of concern in her voice as she worked her way over to the rightmost lane and onto the off-ramp leading to what she could already see was a quaint little gas station with little more than a few pumps and a small shop – just like the one she worked at.

Barely more than a minute after getting off the highway, Sarah pulled up next to one of the pumps and cut the engine, unlocked the doors, and stepped out to stretch. At the same time, Julie eagerly hopped out of her seat, pausing for just a moment to squeeze her thighs together – and in that moment, just as she was taking her first steps away from the car, Sarah spoke to her.

“Hey, Jules, hold on a minute,” she said, prompting Julie to turn and look at her with an expression that on its own asked if whatever Sarah wanted to say could wait until later. “Don’t take too long in there. I’ve gotta piss too and I’ll need you to watch the car so I can go.”

Nodding and speaking quickly, Julie responded, “Yeah, sure, whatever, I’m going now. I’ll try to be quick.” Then, with a tense stride, she speedwalked over to the shop and left Sarah to deal with refuelling.

For Sarah, it was an uneventful process, and while she did have one foot tapping impatiently while she waited for the little click of the pump indicating its refusal to dispense any more gasoline, her own somewhat-full bladder wasn’t very much of an issue.

Just as she got done filling the car, she saw Julie approaching, and started to speak to her. “Hey, great timing. Tank’s full, so –“

Julie cut her off with a distressed whine. “Yeah, so’s mine, come on. Need you for something,” she said, grabbing Sarah’s hand and bouncing on her heels.

“Huh? What’s wrong, hon?”

“Fucking… zipper’s stuck. Need help, like, right now.” Julie started tugging Sarah towards the shop, encountering a little resistance at first but soon having full cooperation from her girlfriend while they hurried back to the bathroom.

Sarah was quiet until Julie dragged her through the store and into the single-occupancy restroom within, and she watched Julie slam the door shut behind them and take up a position in front of the toilet, squirming with hands in her pockets.

“So you just need me to unzip you,” Sarah said as she took a few cautious steps forward. “Right?”

“Please.” Julie crossed her legs and groaned. “Fuck. Told you something bad was gonna happen.”

“At least the toilet’s working.”

“Doesn’t help me if I can’t get my pants off,” Julie said as Sarah came in close and took a moment to properly inspect her unbuttoned jeans, the zipper only slightly pulled down.

Laying her hands on Julie’s hips as she crouched down, Sarah responded, “Don’t worry. We’ll get this dealt with real quick here.”

“You fucking better. Almost pissed myself on the way out to go get you, I swear.”

“Just calm down, sweetie. And try not to bounce so much.” Sarah’s hands moved so she was holding the zipper of Julie’s pants with one hand, and the waistband with the other. “Gonna need to get your hands out of your pockets too if you want these to come down.”

Julie groaned, but did her best to stand still with her hands fiddling with each other behind her back.

“Let’s see here, then…” A few experimental tugs at the zipper preceded a grunt from Sarah as she tried to forcefully yank it down to no avail. “Fuck, that’s really stuck there, isn’t it?” With a sigh, she added, “This is gonna get uncomfortable.”

“Whatever. Just do what you’re gonna do,” Julie said, forcing herself to keep her eyes on the ceiling.

Sarah nodded, then took a second to come up with her plan. Then she pulled Julie’s zipper up before immediately tugging firmly on it, only to lower it just as far as it had been before encountering significant resistance. “Shit. This thing’s tough. Hang in there, baby.”

“Trying…”

Pulling gently on the zipper a few more times as an experiment, Sarah looked up and said, “Feels like it got caught on something somehow. I’ll see if I can…” The hand that had been holding Julie’s waistband now reached into her pants, two fingers quickly finding the inside of the zipper.

The sudden contact and inadvertent pressure Sarah had applied while getting her hand positioned correctly made Julie yelp, and prompted the creation of a spot of warmth that both girls could feel. “Fuck! Hurry up!”

“I’m doing what I can,” Sarah said, trying to stay calm while she looked for the source of the problem. With fingers within Julie’s pants, she spent a minute probing for any obstructions and continually trying the zipper with no results other than making Julie whimper and expanding the warm spot. “Christ, this thing really just doesn’t want to move.”

“There’s gotta be something!”

Still trying, Sarah responded, “Yeah, I’m not giving up yet. Don’t you give up just yet either.” She continued working, pulling at whatever she could and trying to move anything that seemed like it could be getting in the way, until…

“Oh God…” Julie groaned and squirmed as well as she could with Sarah working on her pants. “Sarah, I can’t… I can’t hold it!” Sure enough, she lost a large spurt, enough to dampen the crotch of her jeans.

“Just a little bit longer, Jules. You can do it. If I just…”

While Sarah tried out her newest idea, Julie stood shivering and whining, on the verge of tears and absolutely certain that she was going to have an accident standing two feet from the toilet. She could feel another leak working its way out, and she knew it was going to be big. It took all the energy she had to keep it sitting right on the edge of escape, but…

“There, that’s it!” Sarah called out, and immediately afterwards Julie briefly felt a sharp pressure against her body from outside while Sarah was at last able to lower the zipper. As soon as it was down, Sarah took hold of Julie’s waistband and yanked her pants and underwear down to her knees for her just as that leak broke free with a hiss.

Julie mindlessly stumbled backwards and onto the toilet, after a moment letting out a long groan while the sound of splashing filled the little room.

Sarah rose to stand and shuffle uncomfortably as she watched Julie panting heavily with her legs spread, giving her an unobstructed view of the waterfall that had just barely been kept out of Julie’s pants. Sarah absentmindedly unbuttoned and unzipped her own jeans while she watched and squirmed, both to make sure that she wouldn’t end up in the same situation and to save time once Julie finished.

“Oh God,” Julie moaned while her stream kept going. “That was way too fucking close.” She sighed and added, “Holy shit… Dude, I would have pissed myself if you hadn’t…”

“Just hurry up and finish so that I don’t either,” Sarah curtly responded.

Julie nodded slowly but erratically. “God, yeah, forgot you had to go too… I’ll be as fast as I can, but…” Moaning again, she trailed off without finishing her thought. “Ohhh… Oh God…”

She continued for nearly a minute, Sarah all the while looking around anywhere but directly at Julie and hoping that somehow she wouldn’t have to listen anymore, until at last her stream petered out to a little trickle and vanished as she heaved a great contented sigh.

It took a few moments for her to collect herself again, at which point she looked over at Sarah and seemed to suddenly remember what was going on. “Oh, shit, here. Your turn, I guess,” she said, hurrying to her feet and grabbing her clothes, working on pulling them up as she stepped aside.

“Thanks,” Sarah said as she slid her own pants down her legs and seated herself on the toilet. Unlike Julie, she was able to resist peeing until after she was properly positioned, and started relieving herself with a light and quiet sigh. Her stream was as strong and noisy as Julie’s had been, but Sarah herself was much quieter, simply taking a few deep breaths while she emptied her bladder.

From her position in front of the nearby sink, Julie commented with a little chuckle, “Sounds like I’m not the only one who had more tea than she should have, huh?”

“Hey, at least I needed it to stay awake so I could drive,” Sarah said after taking a deep breath. “You coulda just slept through the whole trip no problem.”

“Why would I want to do that, though? Don’t you remember what I told you in the car just a little while ago? I’m not just gonna sleep and miss out on so many hours that I could have spent with you.” Julie shut off the sink and grabbed a paper towel to dry off her hands, and another in an attempt to do something about her underwear. “Sure, we already spent all day together – speaking of which, seriously, thanks for today, I had a really great time… But, uh, yeah, we spent all day together, but still, I like being with you and talking to you and everything. Doesn’t matter what it is. I like doing stuff with you because I just like you. A lot.”

“That’s sweet, but…” Sarah’s stream died out, and she wiped herself off, flushed, then stood to take Julie’s place at the sink. “Isn’t a bathroom kind of a weird place for a romantic speech?”

“Maybe,” Julie said, laying her hands on Sarah’s hips from behind and resting her head on Sarah’s shoulder. “But that’s kind of exactly what I’m saying,” she added as she brought her hands a little lower and nuzzled Sarah’s cheek. “Wherever you are is the most romantic place in the world to me.”

Sarah laughed and turned around once she was done washing her hands, wrapping her arms around Julie with a quick kiss. “Sounds like someone wants something…”

“Hey, why not? Perfect end to a mostly-perfect day.”

“Yeah, it sure would be… But not here, though,” Sarah responded as she took a step back and grabbed Julie’s hands. “It’ll be more fun at home anyways. Or…”

“Or?”

“Well, I suppose if you’re feeling impatient, we could just find somewhere quiet to pull over…”

“Hmm… I kinda like the sound of both of those…”

“Then I guess we’ll do both.”