This is a story I wrote about a year ago, which I'll now post here in several parts - mainly as a prompt to me to finish the sequel...
The best weekend I ever had? I guess that started with the phone call from Erica that Friday night asking me to come over. It came out of the blue – I had heard she had plans for the next couple of days, so I was settling down to watch the Monster Movie Marathon at 9 o’clock when the telephone rang.
“Yup.”
“Hey Mark.”
“Erica? I thought you were round at your friends for a sleepover. Don’t tell me you ran out of things to do already?”
“Nah, not really, it’s just that...”
“Yeah?”
“Listen – can you come over? I need your help with something, and I know I can trust you.”
“Won’t those two have something to say about that?”
There was a pause, before Erica said “I don’t think they will object – you’ll see what I mean. How quickly can you get here?” I looked at my watch. “Half an hour?”
“Great – just come in the front door. I’ll see you then.”
Now, I need to explain what I thought was meant to be happening this weekend. Erica had been invited by her best friend Paulette to spend the weekend with them in an extended sleepover. Paulette’s parents were going to be out of town, so there would just be her, Erica, and her younger sister Kerry. They had cheerleading practice for the college team that Friday afternoon, so Erica had said she would be going straight there, see you Sunday, miss you lots, yadda, yadda, yadda.
There was also the small problem that Paulette did not really like me. Well, maybe dislike is too strong a word – more indifference... Maybe she was upset I prefer blondes to brunettes, but that’s just me. As for Kerry, she’s a nice enough girl – a year younger than Erica and Paulette, so a freshman as opposed to sophomore.
All three of them are on the college cheerleading team. Given both Erica and Kerry are petite, that may seem a bit strange, but cheerleading is a lot like athletics. Given both of them are very lithe and supple, they get used to be the top of the pyramid, or the ones flying through the air with the greatest of ease. As for Paulette, she’s taller by five inches, and heavier, so she gets to do the base work or the throwing. I’ve seen them in action at enough college games, so I know they’re good and enjoy what they’re doing.
Anyway, the point was this – this was a girl’s weekend, so why was I invited? I had planned a quiet weekend at home, but it was no problem for me to go over – it would only be for an hour or two, I thought.
Well, that soon went out of the window...
When I pulled up outside the house, there was nothing unusual to see. It was getting dark, and the lights were obviously on behind closed curtains, so nothing wrong there. Erica had said to just come in, so I did that, closing the door behind me and calling out “Erica? Girls?”
I didn’t get an answer immediately, but there was a note pinned to the bottom of the stairs. I took it off and looked carefully at it.
“Mark,
Get a drink from the fridge and go into the front room. I’ll be down in a minute.
Erica.”
So, I walked to the kitchen, took a coke from the fridge and walked into the front room. As I looked round, however, I began to get an idea of what the girls may have been up to that night.
The first thing I noticed were the lengths of rope discarded on the floor. I picked up a couple to look at – they had been cut to different lengths, and by the looks of them they had been used for some purpose. I smiled to myself as I wondered what that purpose might be. You hear tales of hazing and other activities, and you’re never quite sure what the truth behind them might be.
Far more interesting where the other things that had been left around the room. On the floor next to the ropes were three large white cotton napkins, which had been folded into bands. I picked them up and saw the faint lipstick stains on the side of one of them, as if some woman had pressed their lips against it. There was also a damp patch in the centre of one of them, where something moist had gone against it.
Also on the floor were a number of handkerchiefs, which had been crumbled up into balls. As I picked one up, I could feel that it was sodden, and put it back down again in a hurry. Closer examination of the others showed they were all in the same state, almost as if someone had dumped them into a bowl of water and wrung them out again. What the hell had been going on here?
There were also strips of striped cloth, which looked as if they were cut from an old sheet. These were also twisted round in various loops, although these were not damp. As I picked them up to look at, I heard a familiar female voice behind me saying “Hey, Mark.”
Erica was standing in the doorway, her hand running through her blonde hair, which was pulled back in a pigtail. She was wearing the cheerleader outfit for the college – a red v-necked sweater over a white sports top, red flared skirt that came halfway down her thighs, white socks and trainers. She stretched her 5 foot 2 frame before walking over and giving me a hug.
“Thanks for coming over,” she said as she looked up at me, “I really need a favour and you’re the only one I can trust.”
"Looks as if you’ve been having some fun already,” I said as I looked round. “What happened here – girl guide practice?”
“I’m 20, Mark – girl guides was a long time ago. As to what happened – Why don’t I show you? Promise to be quiet?”
“Of course I will,” I said as she led me out of the room and up the staircase. “Where are the other two,” I said as I followed her up. “I don’t think Paulette likes me that much.”
“She can’t say anything about it,” Erica said as we stopped outside a door. She looked up at me and said “We’ve been playing a few games with each other tonight, but I’m bored and I want tot take part as well in this game. Do you think you can help?”
“What’s the game?” I said, and in answer Erica simply opened the door and showed me.
Paulette and Kerry were sitting on the floor, with black sleep masks over their eyes. They were both sitting in the Lotus position, the skirt of their uniform spread over their legs to preserve their modesty. That, however, was not the most fascinating thing.
I could see the ropes around their legs where they crossed in front of them, holding their ankles together over their socks. By the same token, their arms were pulled behind their back, and I could see as Kerry leaned forward for a moment the glimpse of a coil of rope. This was not the thing that held my attention either.
Kerry was closest to me, her wasp thin figure still as she straightened up and her blonde hair in two pigtails, one either side. She had some form of pink gloss on her lips, and it matched perfectly the pink of the knotted bandana that they were closed around. The bandana had been rolled into a thick and before the knot had been tied in the middle, and pulled into her mouth. It looked as if it filled her mouth by itself, the thin black swirls of the pattern clearly visible both on the knot and on the rolled bands that stretched around her jaw and behind her head. She let out a low moan, and she seemed relaxed and not distressed at all.
Paulette was moving her body slightly her curly brown hair falling over her head, and her unadorned lips closed around a brown band that was wrapped around her jaws. I stepped in and looked closer, and saw it was a silk scarf that had been rolled into a tight band. The ends also went behind her head as she grunted. Erica put her fingers to her lips as she went to the two girls.
“The help is here,” she said as the two girls raised their heads. “I need to talk to them for a few minutes, and then I’ll have them come and talk to you.” The two girls nodded as she took my hand and led me out of the room.
“Good god,” I said as Erica led me into the room next door, “What have you been doing?”
“Oh, we do this all the time,” Erica said as she sat on the bed. “We started by watching an old DVD, and then we’ve taken turns to tie each other up. An hour ago we played a game of cards and I won, so I got to tie both of them up.
“The thing is, I wanted to take part as well, but we needed an extra pair of hands if that was to be the case. Mark, would you be a dear and be our chaperone for a while?”
Well, what would you have done? I was been asked if I wanted to tie up this beautiful girl, and then watch the others. “Well, I don’t know,” I stammered, “I mean, to have three gorgeous women to myself, how can you trust me? How can I trust myself?”
“I’ll make it worth your while,” she cooed as she stood up and walked to me. “So, what do you say?”
I gulped, and said “What do you want me to do?”