Bound Friends Pt. 09

"You know, this has actually been really nice," Andrea said as she slowly walked arm in arm along the waterfront with her date. She had been dreading it, a setup by a roommate, but it had actually not been a bad night. The food was good, the guy seemed nice, and now that it was just a few days shy of fall the oppressive summer muggy heat had finally been replaced by an altogether more pleasant temperature.

"Well I got one more surprise for you," He said as he led her off the trail and down to the water. The sun was still up but it was lowering, casting a golden color across the sky. "OK, now stay right there and close your eyes."

Andrea was a little hesitant, but the night had gone fine so far. She closed her eyes and felt him go in for a kiss. It was a little surprising but not unwelcome. As she began to kiss him back she felt him begin to passionately push her back, forcing her to slowly back up until she was resting her back against a tree. Then she felt something hard fold around one wrist and then the other. She opened her eyes in a panic as she felt she couldn't move her arms from her sides. He had sneaked her into cuffs with the chain running behind the tree. "No, no take these off!" Andrea said firmly as she pulled away from his lips.

"Aww, come on.. I saw that site, I know you're one of those NESIC Slaves, I know this is what you're into," he said as he began to press his hands against Andrea's ass.

"I said I don't want this, get me out!" She said in a louder tone while trying to shuffle away from his touch.

"It's ok, I like the freaky stuff too," he said as he continued to run his hand along her body unabated.

Andrea moved her hands further behind her so they could feel around the other hand's cuff. She found a safety release and pushed it, freeing her hands to shove him away. She undid the other cuff and threw the whole thing into the river. "Fuck you alright. You don't get to just assume shit like that!"

"But you were one of the NESIC Slaves, and in those videos.."

"Fuck those videos too. OK. This night is over, I don't want to hear from you ever again," Andrea fumed as she turned to walk away. When he followed behind she turned to slap him hard. "Get the fuck away from me freak."

"Yeah, well I'm not the freak here ok? You are. I was just trying to throw you a bone."

"Yeah well you can fucking keep that fucking bone," Andrea said so angrily she was shaking and at the verge of tears. Of course this is how the night would end. She changed her hair to a short pixie cut, dyed it black, changed the way she dressed but of course he still knew it was her. Of course he saw that fucking site. It was only the first few hundred results when you googled her name.

When Hannah posted that site and sent links to everyone she could find, the site went viral. It even became the topic news outlets talked about to fill time during the otherwise slow week. It gave them an excuse to show sexy b-roll and get up on their high horse about the degenerate "NESIC Slaves," as they became known. Almost immediately, people who already had a problem with "kids today" or the idea of a NESIC all banded together and had a rallying cry. "The NESIC Slaves" became a cautionary tale, a tale of innocent young teenagers who got turned into bondage-loving sex fiends the moment they got that little chip. It wasn't true at all, but it was far too compelling a narrative to let something like the facts get in the way. They became "public figures" and so no amount of lies could be considered slander any more. Their names were public and mentioned in some places, but at least with such an inflammatory group name few people could actually remember the individual name of who these NESIC Slaves actually were.

It took four days to track down the server Hannah had used to host it and convince the web hoster that even without the login and account information (which Hannah created and then destroyed record of) they did in fact have the authority to take it down. The problem was that by then the full site had been downloaded and rehosted in a half dozen other places insuring it would live on to anyone who cared to search for it.

Andrea dashed to the walkway under the canal to get the hell away from this guy before he got any more bright ideas. "Hey Megan, you free?" She said as she called her friend.

"I was just in the library, why how'd the date go?"

"I could really use a friend and a drink, that's how it went. I'm pretty much at your campus anyway, can I come by?"

"That bad huh?" Megan replied sympathetically. "Well I guess I can push the studying for another night. My roommate always has something to drink and she's said I'm free to it whenever. I think she just assumes I don't drink much."

"But you don't," Andrea teased

"...Just meet me by the front door." Megan said after a pause. She then hung up to go collect her things.

Andrea had arrived early and greeted Megan before they both walked up to Megan's second floor room. "So I don't think you've met my roommate yet have you?" Megan asked. Andrea just shook her head. Megan opened the door and walked in with Andrea in tow mostly on autopilot, not really looking up at what was happening.

"Close the door!" came a loud voice from beside the far bed. The two looked over and saw a small dark skinned woman wearing nothing but a large black strap-on. She was a shorter than Andrea by almost half a foot and quite a bit skinnier. She couldn't have been much more than a hundred pounds if that. She had long black hair in a French braid stretching down to the small of her back. Her breasts were very prominent for such a small frame. Her legs and ass were toned and flawless and she had a small tattoo of some foreign letter on her right ass cheek.

On the bed beside her was a very terrified looking pale woman with strawberry blond hair, much taller but if anything even more attractive. She was naked except for a silver cross necklace, leather cuffs binding her arms behind her and a large red ball gag. She started frantically screaming at the other woman but with the gag nothing she tried to say was intelligible.

"Is she.." Andrea began to ask as she pointed to the bound woman before being interrupted.

"She's fine, she's just a little shy sometimes, turn around."

Megan and Andrea both turned to face the cinderblock wall to give the two some privacy. "Andrea, I'd like you to meet my roommate, Zainab" Megan awkwardly said.

"Oh, so you are Megan's friend from back in her hometown? The one going to AU? Well good to meet you!" Zainab said as she walked in front of them to greet and hug Andrea, which she did despite the strap-on very clearly pressing into Andrea as they embraced. She turned the two around to see the woman now covered by a blanket. "Come, you look like you could use a drink," she said as she walked over to her mini-fridge and bent over giving them both a rather prominent view of her ass. She got out some ice, some water and a clear bottle of something not labeled in English. She poured out three glasses that began immediately to turn milky white. "Here, to finally meeting you and to you not being a boring library kid again on a Friday night," She said as she handed each of them a glass and began to drink.

It tasted sweet like liquorice but burnt going down. Andrea wasn't used to things much stronger than wine and couldn't help but cough a little. "There, there" Zainab said as she began slapping Andrea's back. "Someone doesn't drink much do they?"

Andrea caught her breath still bent over where she faced Zainab's uncovered breasts. She found herself staring without even realizing. "Oh you like?" Zainab said causing Andrea to quickly look away. "Oh come now, you've already seen them you might as well enjoy them if you want. Are you that much of a prude?"

She was interrupted by the renewed sounds of gagged pleading from under the covers. "Excuse me for a moment would you? I have someone to deal with who likes to think she actually is a prude when really she should know better by now," she said as she walked back and lifted the covers off the girls face and undid the ball gag.

"Don't Look!" the woman screeched as soon as she was able, causing Andrea and Megan to turn back to face the wall. Zainab and the girl talked quietly but frantically, Andrea and Megan could tell it was heated but couldn't hear any real words. Eventually they started having louder and louder exchanges until the bound woman could be clearly heard saying "no, they saw my face, I don't know who they are, get me out of here, I can't be here!" That seemed to be the end of the conversation as Zainab set about freeing her friend who quickly got dressed and darted out of the room.

"Sorry, I find her beautiful and so much fun but she works on the hill for a humorless, religious bore of a congressman and she can absolutely panic about anyone finding out what she is into. I try to tell her no one cares what interns do in their private life but she doesn't listen. I've never understood that kind of view myself. If you like something, do it! You're only hurting yourself and wasting what life is offering you if you don't," She said before she downed the rest of her drink. "And the worst thing? We hadn't even gotten to the good parts yet," she said as she reached one hand down and grabbed the strap-on to emphasize what she was talking about. "I do all this setup work and I got nowhere before you two walked in. I ask you how is that fair? But now if you're here for the night I suppose we're back to reading and computers for the rest of the night are we?"

Andrea stared at her glass and in one quick gulp finished the rest. "Forget that, I'm here to get drunk."

****

Andrea woke up with a splitting headache and uttered those words freshmen across the world can be heard uttering on any given Saturday morning. "I'm never drinking that much again." She opened her eyes, but that was a mistake since she couldn't make the ceiling stop spinning. The skull splitting whine of her phone forced her to give consciousness another go if for no other reason than to get the phone to shut up.

"He..llo?" Andrea said in a low voice.

"You OK? You never came home last night even though I heard the date bombed, did something bad happen?" Asked Andrea's far too cheery roommate in far too high pitched a voice.

"No.. fine ... friend place," she mumbled as she hung up the phone and let it drop to the floor.

"You don't sound very fine," Zainab said from across the room. "Good afternoon, since you already missed morning. Here, this will help with that hangover," she said as she threw a small bottle of Tylenol and a red colored drink in Andrea's general direction. The drink wasn't labeled in English but Andrea was very thirsty and sat up to try to drink it. It tasted vaguely like watermelon and the cold felt good going down the throat.

"No.. not so loud... dying.."

"You're not dying, you're just hungover. But I like you, you're fun. And so eye opening," Zainab said as she walked over still wrapped in a towel with a second towel wrapped around her hair and sat beside Andrea. "I've been living with this one over there for weeks now and that whole time I thought I had a boring little goody good for a roommate, but you two are a couple of undercover freaks!"

Andrea tried sitting up seeing if that helped, it didn't much. As she leaned against the wall she noticed it was her bare skin making contact with the wall. She looked down and saw she was in fact topless with her metal stud piercings plainly on display. "Oh god, what did we do last night?" She asked as she pulled the covers up to shield her breasts.

"Oh relax, I was the perfect lady. I even turned you down when you asked me to tie you to the bed for the night," Zainab said getting back up and walking over to her closet.

Andrea looked around, she wasn't in Megan's bed, and she could see what she thought was Megan buried under some covers in her bed across the small room. Andrea noticed vague marks on her wrists and more above her elbow. "I thought you said you didn't do anything," Andrea said as she began to put two and two together.

"Ok, you got me, not a perfect lady. But perfect ladies are so boring. Still, I didn't leave you tied up for the night like you wanted, you were too drunk to be asking for it," she said as she took off her towel and hung it over the closet door giving Andrea another clear view of her naked body. "And anyway I..." she said as she turned around and noticed Andrea staring. "Now is this drunk zoning out or is this a continuation of last night when you couldn't take your eyes off me?" She asked as she walked back over to sit down beside Andrea. She started leaning in closely, making Andrea unsure what was coming next. Her face was inches from Andrea's and her lips began to pout for a kiss. Zainab stopped short though, only using the prospect of a kiss as a distraction so her hands could grab the blanket and rip it away without a fight. It revealed that Andrea was not only topless but fully naked. "There, parity," she said playfully as she walked back over to the closet with blanket still in hand that she draped over the foot of her bed, leaving Andrea with nothing to cover herself.

"Where.. what.. happened to my clothes?" Andrea asked as she curled up to try to cover herself.

"Oh you threw those out the window last night, you said you'd rather be 'naked forever,'" Zainab said matter-of-factly as she slid into a wispy yellow frock top. She began to straighten it out when she turned to see Andrea's shocked face and cracked. "Sorry, no, they're just over there by Megan's bed. But your face... wow you just remember nothing huh?" She turned back laughing to herself as she continued to get dressed.

Andrea was still feeling a little too foggy to appreciate the humor at her expense. She slowly walked over to Megan's bed where her clothes were piled and sat down to stop the room from spinning as she began to slip her panties on.

"Uhhhh... why," came a groan from under the covers as Andrea sat down. Megan slowly turned her head to peek out from under the covers. "Oh god, what's wrong with me?" Megan asked as she felt she could barely move.

"Do you mean the hangover or the restraints?" Zainab asked walking over with another bottle of red juice and Tylenol.

"Restraints?" Megan asked as she tried moving her hands only to hear the jangle of chains.

"Oh don't play coy, you know a cuff when you see one. You were practically jumping when you saw them last night," Zainab said walking over to them. "You might have been a bit drunk by then but you seemed to me like you knew what you were asking for."

"And what was she asking for?" Andrea asked as she finally accomplished the difficult task of putting her t-shirt on, not backwards.

"Oh god I think I remember. I asked if I could wear these. Because.." Megan started saying before losing herself.

"'Cause you said it was the softest leather cuffs and collar you'd ever felt. I know, I agree, I absolutely love them too."

"Collar?" Megan asked as she tried sitting up only to feel a tug on her neck as she tried to straighten her arms.

"Here let me," Zainab said as she helped her roommate sit up, revealing she was also topless.

"And why am I topless? That's it, unlock me now I've had enough."

"You must have been more out of it than you looked, you're good at hiding being drunk, I'll have to remember that. I just assumed you were like this one here," she said as she pointed at Andrea who had finally conquered the left sock and nearly fell forward as she tried moving on to the other. "Sorry to tell you this but..." Zainab added as she opened a drawer in Megan's desk that was directly beside her bed.

"Well... shit," Megan said as she saw her roommate hold up a clear box with keys inside locked with a countdown timer then still read 14 hours.

"Yeah, you said you wanted to wear this for 24 hours and insisted I lock the keys away so you couldn't talk me out of it in the morning. You didn't need to be somewhere today did you?"

"I was going to video chat with Sophia, but she'd probably find this as hilarious as you do. Can't I just cut them?" Megan asked, even knowing what the answer would likely be.

"Yeah, that would be no. The chains aren't easy to cut and those cuffs are from when I lived in Italy. Every part of them is handmade in a shop that's been working with leather for centuries. I had to order them special since they don't usually do fetish things. Those are not getting cut unless you're planning to have some replacements made special and flown over from that hole in the wall leatherworking shop whose name I can't even remember but was down the block from the embassy in Rome," Zainab responded.

"You could have just said no," Megan replied, feeling a little bad for even asking.

"Now I am actually sorry I don't remember any of this," Andrea said, now fully dressed in last night's clothes.

"Well we can always have a repeat matinee runthrough," Zainab said as she poked Andrea suggestively in the gut with her elbow. The hits were meant in jest but they were not sitting well with some of the nausea she was battling and the message was accurately communicated on her face as she bent over. "Fine, another time then when you're not so out of commission."

****

"I brought food, who's up for some afternoon breakfast?" Andrea said as she walked in holding three bags.

"Thanks again, I can't exactly do much myself right now," Megan said as she sat forward with some difficulty. Her hands had only enough chain to sit at their lowest at the small of her back. Andrea set Megan's bagle on the paper bag and she began to attempt to simply nibble off of that.

"Oh stop your complaining, you were begging for this last night. Talking about how you used to love to get tied up, but that you hadn't in so long, about how much you loved giving up control so you didn't have to worry about responsibility and stuff. Phh, please. Last time I do any favors if you keep up like this," Zainab grumbled. "And if you love it so much by the way, why did you stop? You knew your stuff last night, it sounded like something you certainly had experience with."

"Well, those videos were good at splashing some cold water..." Andrea started before being shushed by Megan.

"What videos?" Zainab asked.

Andrea suddenly felt terrible, Megan had a roommate that didn't know about her summer at all and she might have just ruined it. "Oh, it was just one of those... things. A crazy ex got pissed we were leaving and posted some explicit videos online. And I mean really explicit stuff," Megan explained diplomatically withholding some of the key parts.

"Oh so like some homemade porn? You are a lot more interesting than I've given you credit for. But no I don't really watch porn. If I want to see sex I will simply find someone to have sex with, much better than watching someone I don't know have all the fun while I'm alone." Zainab said before biting into a muffin Andrea had brought. "Wait we? Who else was in these?" she asked after a sudden realization.

Andrea sheepishly raised her hand.

"Oh you utter slut!" Zainab said excitedly. "That would explain your matching pairs," she said, gesturing to her own nipples. "So then, where you two... together?"

"No we just had the same mistress," Andrea said continuing the half-truth Megan started.

"Mistress? Not master, interesting.." Zainab said stroking her chin theatrically.

"That isn't... I mean it is but it isn't like that," Andrea tried saying but failing to find any kind of point.

"Don't worry, I don't judge. So you like women, so what? So do I," Zainab said sitting down beside Andrea and putting her arm around her.

"No, I like guys, it's not like that," she said trying to shrug the arm off her.