Helping a Friend (M/F)

[rebok]

This happened a few years ago during my time in grad school at a Canadian university.

PART 1

I needed some release from the stress of pursuing a masters in chemistry. It’s a subject that tends to be equal parts lab work and theory, but neither half was going particularly well in that second year of school. My chosen research project was going nowhere fast and I felt self-imposed pressure to have more progress. I figured hitting a wall might happen, soI had been proactively hedging my bets on sanity by dividing a good part of my attention between this and sports.

I’ve been a lifelong fan of cross country skiing, but moving to a bigger city meant that I’d have limited access to real trails. There existed some in nearby parks, but it was the equivalent of running in circles on a track. So to keep that habit alive, I had joined the university’s ski club. They were a lively, energetic bunch that were generally fun to be around on and off the trails. We were collectively a mix of grads and undergrads, in other words a bunch of people in their early 20s. Being part of the team meant organizing drives out of the city to practice, balanced with some light fundraising ostensibly to take part in some actual races.

We would collectively drive out to the foothills and we had a great time, assuming cooperative weather. These excursions for me were an immediate release from the stress and concerns of life, and the smell of fresh air was naturally worth the effort. Fundraising, meanwhile, often meant hanging out at tables in cafeteria hallways, rotating in pairs, selling baked goods. These initiatives generated a pittance compared to our club fees, but so it goes. Between the hills and tables, I got along well with everyone, in particular a senior undergrad named Alice. She was petite, athletic, and there was a tomboy-ish vibe about her, which I liked. Dating wasn’t quite on the forefront of my mind, but we were getting along great as friends.

On top of the stress of getting through “higher education”, I had recently broken up with my girlfriend of four years. The breakup happened early in my first year of grad school, and while it was a blow to my self-esteem, being single wasn’t all bad as I could focus on the “me” instead of a collective “us”. As you might have guessed, we had participated in some light tie-up games at my initiative. I still had the ropes at my disposal, not wanting to throw them out. I missed those intimate moments and her, but I needed to sort out things in my head. Hence I didn’t feel it was the time to ask anyone out, especially if Alice declined, which would only make things awkward. But, as life often does, some interesting curveballs come at you when you least expect it.

PART 2

Fast forward to early April just before exams, where snow was a fading memory. My chemistry studies were dragging, but ever-so-slowly inching forward. I was still spending time with our ski club doing so-called “dry-land” running.. Almost every skier has some interest in running, not always by choice since you have to stay fit during the off season. I was no exception and loved to run. The team also has some business ends to wrap up in the form of debt.

Our team captain had gotten word that clubs selling beer at home games was a good source of income. There was a soccer game planned for a Sunday morning. Normally that would be the time I’d do a long Sunday morning run, but hey I was trying to be a team player. Me, Alice, and two others came at the appointed time, but when I arrived, I saw my three compatriots at the front gate but the stadium was oddly quiet. It turned out the game had been postponed until that afternoon, unbeknownst to us. Everything in the stadium was still setting things up, but clearly no beer was needed yet. We had a few hours to kill. An afternoon game meant selling more beer than one starting 11am, so it was worth lingering.

The other two had biked there, but were also close enough to campus they planned to just return later. So off they went. Alice lived father away, and I spontaneously made the suggestion we could watch TV at my place, which was only a few blocks away.

We were walking and talking about school and stress. She knew of my breakup and hence single status, while I was reasonably sure so was she (I had never heard her mention otherwise). We shared a habit of getting overly concerned about school. Her exams were coming up, but at that point she was sick of studying for them and needed a break. This was going to be her day off, selling beer.

Not too long after we reached my tiny bachelor’s apartment. Entering, she saw my pile of running shoes at the front door, probably expecting leftover ski stuff, exclaiming “Wow, you really have switched over fast. Nice collection of shoes you got there”. I admitted as much, and we turned on the TV only to find out there wasn’t a lot on. It wasn’t helping things that I had no cable, comprising all of three over-air channels. As a bonus, I was lacking home internet that year as an ill-planned method to force myself to read actual books. Again, I had not planned this morning out.

So while we were talking over the TV program, I intimated that normally I’d be running Sunday mornings now with skiing done, but had planned to wait until the afternoon. “Ah, but now you’re stuck hosting me, then selling precious beer this afternoon“. There was a moment of awkward pause, then she followed up “But really, you should just go run now. I can wait it out here until you get back.” Jokingly, I said, “Though there isn’t much to do here; no cable and internet make Homer go something something”. “Well, maybe I can read one of these books while you’re gone”, as she got up to look at what was available.

It was at that moment I realized not having guests too often meant leaving a lot of things out in the open you shouldn’t. As she was browsing my bookshelf next to the TV, she spotted a bunch of coiled rope under the bed. I should mention my bed was currently folded up as a couch to save space. “What’s this, hey, are you into climbing too?”, she smirked. I mumbled something to the effect it was leftover from moving apartments. Perhaps she bought it, or so I thought at that moment, but it mattered little. She reached down to pick up the rope, me watching her in suspense. Yet I could soon tell unexpected ideas were running through her mind. She started to look at the ropes in her hand, which was the soft cotton kind good for you-know-what.

“Say, I have a silly idea. Let’s try something. Why don’t I try to escape while you go for your run?” Like a Choose your own Adventure, there’s these dividing moments you get but once. Toying with my opportunity, I asked “Hmm. I’m game. But are you sure?”. She asked me if I had any practice before, and I admitted to as much with a wry smirk, and admitted I could probably do a half-decent job. “Ok it’s a deal”, she said. Alice was probably wondering what I was thinking about all this, so she elaborated: “Ok here’s where I’m coming from; I trust you and I basically I feel the need to do something to get myself to a place away from anything school-related today. I’m considering this a meditative challenge, and boring will be good” Then she followed up with a very attractive phrasing “Let’s say it will be your job to make sure I don’t run off to the library”. Meanwhile I’m shaking on the inside while she’s saying all this, trying to keep it cool. I didn’t want to reveal this was beyond exciting to have proposed to me.

We settled that I’d tie her hands and feet, no more. And I’d leave my phone with her, which can buzz anyone into the apartment without a key. I’d also have a key while I ran. She was wearing tight blue elastic stretch jeans and a university-brand sweater, which she took off to reveal a pink tank top. I remembered also having some running sleeves for cold weather, which I offered to put around her wrists to avoid marks. “Good point” she winked. Next I crossed her hands like an X behind her back, wrapping the rope horizontally and vertically. Since she was petite, I figured she might get those hands to her front without some further precautions, so I wrapped the last of the coil around her waist, through her belt loops, knotting it off everything neatly in front. “Hey, that’s sneaky!”, not hinting at any real annoyance from my improvisation. For step two, I tied a rope around her ankles in a figure-8 fashion with maybe 2 inches of space, just enough to keep her balance while standing, and knotted it off in front of her immobilized feet. “There, how is that? Give it a test, and I’ll be back one minute; I have to change”.

I moved as fast as I could into my running gear. When I re-emerged, she was squirming around on my couch, bent in a forward-leaning, seated position, looking determined to free herself but making no obvious progress. “Grr, this is something. You put the knot right here in front of me but I can’t reach it!”. She was giving it a spirited test, but miraculously the ropes held her in place. I checked one last time if she was ok with me leaving her for the planned 90 minutes, and she gave me a thumbs-up so to speak everything was cool. I left the TV on, though she had full access to the remote, for what it was worth. “Have fun”, I smiled back, as I closed the apartment door.


I ran my usual loop around the nearby park, but I really can’t recall much of that run for obvious reasons. I was entirely engrossed in the idea that I had someone willingly tied up in my apartment, struggling on her own, based on a self-imposed challenge. And would she escape? Would she try, or just give in to the meditative aspect? A very non-linear 90 minutes later, I arrived back to my apartment to find she had indeed not escaped, but I could see some sweat had formed on her brow despite being cool inside while giving me a sideways smile of relief.

She had not gone down without a fight but was looking calm now. “I see we both got a workout in the end”, forgetting now which one of us said that aloud. “But I’m ready to be freed, and for a glass of water, please”. I undid both the ropes binding her, and offered her water, which she readily accepted. After I had put everything away, I saw only minimal marks on her wrists, to which we were equally thankful, though somewhat moot given her sweater. “I have to say, strangely enough that was just what I needed. Work stuff never felt so far away”, so she said, and so I thought, too.

Alice gave me a little more detail to what transpired in my absence, explaining that she shuffled around my apartment at first, browsing my bookshelf for any interesting reads, then moving on to admiring my handiwork in a full-length hallway mirror and looking for fatal flaws (she found none). After that, she told me of zoning out a bit while watching TV, which led to her dozing off. But then maybe 10 min before I came back, she jerked awake and misread the time on the microwave as being late afternoon, briefly panicking that I hadn’t come back at the promised time, and so began frantically struggling for about 5 min before realizing it was leftover paused time from my last reheated meal. Anyhow, she soon saw the real time on the phone I left her, and gently settled face-down onto the couch to relax before I arrived. Hence the sweat. It also explained her relieved look when I re-entered.

I very much enjoyed her point of view telling of events, and we packed up to walk back to the stadium. I also lent her my copy of The Watchmen. It was a somewhat quieter walk the other way. We talked about summer plans and so on. Alice explained her motivation of wanting to try what it was like being tied up after reading a campus article about unusual forms of meditation. That and she was a competitive person and thought she might get free. The walk ended with an overhanging sense we had done a rather curious thing that would remain our secret. The rest of the day went by in a blur. Meanwhile we rendez-voued with our two teammates, and we did our rounds of the soccer game handing out beer, which netted us 150 dollars in tips that afternoon. And so we parted ways that evening. Although you might expect this led to dating, it didn’t. We stayed friends but it reminded me some events take on a life of their own, and can only be assessed in isolation. Nevertheless, it was among the most memorable of experiences I can share.

[Rtj65]

Lovely story, thank you for sharing! You really described everything with just the right amount of detail. I'd love to hear more stories from you too!

Also, this sounds like a true story - is it supposed to be in the fictional section?

[NotSeen]

True or fiction, a beautiful story. You do a really nice job at conveying the feeling of the situation.