MY BEST FRIEND’S CAPTIVE FOR THE SUMMER (M/M)
Part 1
Hello. My name is Steve. On the summer of my eighteenth birthday, I spent six weeks with my best friend Tom.
I was 6’ 2†and - at the time - I was fairly slender at 170 pounds; no athlete but I was in excellent health and reasonably fit. I was a bit of a nerdish bookworm and looked it – glasses and all. My friend Tom was the same age but smaller than I – 5’ 7†and 140 pounds. Unlike me, he was as athletic as they come, and he had a leanly muscular, well-toned and tanned body that frankly I was quite envious of. He also had the kind of face most girls (and some boys) easily fall in love with. He had an olive complexion, black curly hair, blue-gray eyes, sensuous lips (which I couldn’t fail to notice even though I was a straight guy) and a relaxed, friendly personality.
We often went on cross-country trips together when school was out, and had been since we were 12 and could travel only by bicycle (and had to be home by dark). Once we were 16 and old enough to drive, we began taking overnighters, then weekend trips, and then be gone for a week or more at a time when school was out. Now, in the summer after we finished high school and before I began college (and he joined the military), we were going to go on one Almighty road trip to travel through all 48 of the continental states (plus portions of Canada and Alaska if we had the time).
I had no idea at the time that he planned a different journey of discovery for me as well.
Tom had an RV that used to belong to his uncle, whom Tom had lived with part of the time for years and who’d been confined during those years in a wheelchair. It had one of those motorized ramps similar to those required on commuter buses these days where an occupied wheelchair can be safely loaded onto or off the van. Tom used to chauffeur hi uncle around in it and helped to take care of him as well. The van was still practically brand new when Tom’s uncle was the beneficiary of some radial new surgery that fully restored the use of his legs. Tom’s uncle was so ecstatic that gave the van to Tom to get one that wouldn’t remind him of his crippled days. The RV was a big, luxurious one that the two of us could easily live in for the several weeks of our road trip.
I got packed for the trip and gave my mom a goodbye kiss as Tom came in the van to pick me up for the start of our trip. We began our six weeks of travel in northern Maine and the first leg of our trip involved traveling west through New Hampshire and Vermont and then all the way down the coast to Florida. And from the time we left, I chattered on and on about this and that in my usual manner; hardly letting Tom get a word in edgewise the entire time until we took a rest stop a few hours into our trip. That is when I noticed that Tom had his uncle’s wheelchair folded up and tucked all the way out back in the van.
“Why’d you bring that thing along?†I asked Tom. “It just takes up valuable space.â€
“You never know when a wheelchair might come in handy,†he told me. “For one thing, it’s an easily carried place to sit down and rest in.â€
So saying, he took out a folding lawn chair and the wheelchair and set them down side by side. He sat in the folding chair and invited me to sit inside the wheelchair. Feeling a bit foolish, I did so.
“Have you ever wondered what it’d feel like to be confined to a wheelchair like my uncle was?†Tom suddenly asked me.
“Uhhh… no, not really,†I replied. “I guess it’d be kind of rough.â€
“I want to try something,†he told me. “Close your eyes for a minute.â€
I did so, and heard him move over the van, grab what sounded like a loaded paper bag, and come up behind me as I sat in the wheelchair with my arms relaxing on the armrests. Suddenly, before I knew it, I felt him grasp my right wrist, click one end of a set of handcuffs onto it, and click the other end to some bar below the armrest so that I could hardly move my hand or arm at all.
“Hey!†I yelled, opening my eyes. “What are you doing?â€
“Relax, Steve,†he said to be with a relaxed smile. “It’s *me*! Remember? You know I wouldn’t hurt you. I just want to try out an experiment.
So I sat there without protest as he took another pair of handcuffs and locked my other wrist to the other arm-rest. I looked around nervously; glad that no one else was parked at the rest stop and that we were largely out of view of passing traffic.
Tom then reached into the paper bag I’d heard him get and pull out a roll of duct tape. The then knelt down beside me and proceeded to duct tape my ankles together (I was wearing shorts, which made this easier) and then tape them to the leg rest behind. Then, as if that wasn’t enough, he took some rope and tied my upper arms and shoulders and my torso to the back of the wheelchair.
“Okay, try to get out of the wheelchair,†he asked me.
It took only a little effort on my part to realize that this was impossible. “But this isn’t fair,†I protested. “Your uncle wasn’t a quadriplegic. He could still move his arms!â€
“Well, *some* people can’t!†Tom pointed out to me. “Haven’t you ever wondered what it’d be like for someone to be totally helpless and dependent on another person for *everything* like my uncle was?â€
“Not really,†I replied honestly. “Can you let me go now?â€
Instead of letting me go, Tom pulled a ball gag out of that bag and fitted it on me despite all my protests and futile struggles.
“I love my uncle and I’m glad his paralysis was cured,†Tom told me calmly as I sat there in helpless silence and stared at him. “But it felt good to help someone who needed me and depended on me, and I want to feel that again one more time before I join the service. And so while you and I travel together for the next six weeks; I’m going to do everything for you from now on. So relax and enjoy the trip.â€
Tom activated the wheelchair ramp and wheeled me onto it, totally ignoring my muffled cries and feeble struggles. The motorized ramp lifted me and the chair to the level of the RV’s interior, where Tom wheeled me inside and secured the chair to restraining straps behind the driver’s seat that were specifically designed for the purpose.
“Now I can enjoy the dive without hearing your inane chatter,†he told me with a cheeky smile and a gentle, affectionate slap on my face as he folded up the wheelchair cramp, closed the rear of the RV, and got back into the driver’s seat. Within moments, we were resuming our trip; and this time Tom did all the talking.
TBC