First Time For Everything

All characters are fictional and over 18 years old.

It had been a week since the breakup, so Julia figured she was strong enough to finally box up her ex's stuff. She opened her closet, grabbed a box, and began tossing in big sweatshirts, hardly-worn lingerie, and tacky jewelry that was cute at the time, but now spoke to Mark's lack of creative effort. It was a surprisingly mechanical process, which was all too familiar to Julia. The last few months of the relationship were so robotic and monotonous that she barely had any memories from them. Julia almost wished that Mark did something so offensive that she would have no choice but to break up with him, but that would require him to show some kind of emotion.

Julia threw a Valentine's Day teddy bear into the box and revealed a plastic bin tucked in the corner of the closet. She sighed and opened it up. Inside was an assortment of once or never-used sex toys that she bought in the hopes of spicing up their mind-numbingly dull sex life. Julia went to dump the contents into the box, but she stopped herself, reasoning that she could probably get some use out of the fuzzy handcuffs in the future. Before putting the bin back, she tossed a bottle of massage oil into the cardboard box, which was Mark's only contribution to the arsenal of toys. Sadly, but not unsurprisingly, it still had the brittle plastic seal wrapped around the cap.

As Julia did a double-check to make sure her closet was Mark-free, she heard a few rapid-fire vibrations from her phone.

"Did you do it?" Taylor asked in a group chat with Julia and her other closest friend, Alex.

"Yeah," Julia said. "I'm down to like, two sweatshirts now though."

"Did you cry? I was sobbing when I packed up my ex's stuff," Alex said.

"I honestly didn't feel much."

"Like when he fucked you," Taylor responded immediately, which earned a healthy amount of laughter from Alex. Julia rolled her eyes, but couldn't argue with the truth.

"Ignoring that, are you both still coming tonight?" Julia asked.

"Of course. Now that you aren't sad, we can make fun of you for dating a guy that thought you could get pregnant from a blowjob," Alex said.

"Remember when he forgot about her birthday?" Taylor immediately jumped on the opportunity to slide another knife into Julia's side.

"Or how he couldn't read an analog clock?" Alex twisted the knife deeper.

"Save it for tonight," Julia cut them off. "And bring wine. Lots."

***

"I still don't understand how you don't learn how to read a clock," Alex said while pouring three glasses of rosé from a disgustingly cheap bottle.

"Was it the hour hand or minute hand that confused him?" Taylor asked. She swirled the wine in her glass like she was a sommelier and not a broke college student.

"I think it was interacting with anything that wasn't on a screen," Julia admitted. She took a long sip of wine and winced at the taste, but she kept her opinions to herself. She was in no position to be making judgements about taste in wine while her taste in men was being thoroughly eviscerated. Despite trying to be respectful to Mark, she had to admit that it was cathartic to be validated for all of the small grievances that piled up over the course of the relationship.

"Do you think he could've made you cum if your clit was digital?" Taylor took out her phone and made obnoxious scrolling motions. The three women erupted in laughter, Julia fully abandoning any attempt to keep her dignity. Rounds of jokes poking fun at the relationship's obvious incompatibilities circulated until the bottle of wine was empty and Julia's stomach hurt from laughing.

"I promise I'm not hitting on you, but you look a lot hotter when you're not wearing one of his sweatshirts," Taylor said.

Julia raised her eyebrows suspiciously. Taylor's only form of communication was flirting, which made Julia seriously doubt the intention behind the compliment. By their third year of friendship, Taylor mostly stopped trying to make a move on Julia and Alex, but she let her inner thoughts slip through every now and then.

"Right? Even I'd fuck you," Alex nodded her head at Taylor, who shrugged in agreement.

"Thanks," Julia said. She felt the compliments and the wine warm her cheeks. "Though there are a few apparently un-fuckable sweatshirts available if you guys want them. I don't wanna just throw everything out," Julia said and grabbed the cardboard box from her room. Taylor and Alex lit up with excitement, realizing that they were about to see three years worth of shitty gifts and stolen clothing.

"No judgment. Not to me at least," Julia swatted Taylor's hand away and put her hand over the top of the box.

"Pinky promise," Taylor said. Alex nodded in agreement. As soon as she moved her hand, her friends began tearing through the box, modeling different clothing and launching a new barrage of jokes at Julia that instantly broke the "no judgment" rule.

"What's this?" Alex pulled the bottle of massage oil out of the box. Julia saw something change in Alex's demeanor. Her green eyes were wide and her lips were slightly parted as if she just discovered a scandal.

"Oh, that's gotta be a year old at least. Mark got it for me for Valentine's Day last year, but he never used it," Julia explained.

"I would demand daily massages if I were dating someone," Alex said. "God, I can't believe..." she trailed off.

"What?" Taylor and Julia said in unison. Alex was normally very secretive about her sex life and romantic feelings.

"No, I can't..."

"You just spent the last two hours ripping into my life, I hereby order you to spill it," Julia said with a fake declarative voice.

"If either of you make fun of me I'm going to cry," Alex warned.

"I would never! Taylor... you wouldn't do something like that, would you?" Julia asked, a smile growing on her face.

"Me? No, that wouldn't be very nice," Taylor nodded in agreement.

"Fuck you guys," Alex laughed. "Ok, back when I got recruited for the volleyball team, I fucked up my shoulder and needed physical therapy. As part of the program, I went to this massage parlor and... it was incredible."

"Did you..." Taylor couldn't hold in her excitement.

"I'm getting there!" Alex cut her off. "I was really stressed about my shoulder, so the massage therapist offered to extend the session into a full body massage. No, not like that," Alex waved her hands at Taylor and Julia, who were side-eyeing each other.

"I don't know what it was, but having someone run their smooth hands over my tired muscles... it was euphoric. I was practically moaning into the table when she rubbed the knots out of my lower back. By the time she was done, I was REALLY horny, and you guys know it takes a lot to get me there," Alex said. Julia and Taylor nodded in agreement.

"And so afterwards, when she left so I could put my clothes back on, I..."

"You masturbated on the massage table?" Taylor jumped in again. Alex rolled her eyes.

"Yes. It was the best feeling I've ever felt in my life. And I feel way too guilty to ever go back to a massage parlor again," Alex said, putting down the massage oil. "Satisfied?"

"Very," Taylor said. A tangible silence fell over the women, and Julia could see Alex's cheeks still pink with shame.

"Alex, you don't need to feel guilty about doing that," Julia said. "That's just a kink you have, and a pretty tame one at that. Everyone has embarrassing fantasies."

"Oh yeah? What's yours?" Alex looked up at her. Taylor turned to Julia, and she realized that she was the center of attention again.

"I mean... I don't really..." Julia stuttered.

"So not everyone has embarrassing fantasies?" Alex said. Julia knew what game she was playing. Either she has to admit something embarrassing about herself or keep silent at the cost of Alex's eternal embarrassment.

"Fine. But Taylor has to go after me," Julia relented.

"Deal," Taylor leaned back on her hands and looked perfectly happy with the exchange.

"For as long as I can remember, I've always wanted to be the princess in the tower. The damsel in distress, you know? Like in that one Indiana Jones movie where the woman is chained up and slowly lowered into lava. I want that to be me, but maybe without the lava," Julia said. "And it's not just a sex thing... I guess I just want someone to want me enough to kidnap me."

"Woah," Alex said. "Kinky."

"Yeah, I don't know. I've just always felt jealous of the kidnapped princess, is that weird?" Julia asked.

"I mean, I can't say that I'd want to live my life chained up in a dungeon, but if that's what gets you off..." Alex said.

"I used to hookup with a girl who liked being tied up," Taylor jumped in. "I'm not sure if she was into the whole dungeon thing though."

Julia felt heat between her legs as her friends talked about her fantasy. Opening herself up like this felt so vulnerable, but she felt oddly comfortable. Images flashed in her mind of beautiful women bound in ropes in chains, staring longingly out of a dark, barred window.

"Taylor? You were about to tell us your deep, dark secret?" Julia snapped herself out of her trance and switched the focus onto her friend.

"Alright, this is a bit morally dubious, but I've always wanted to fuck a straight girl," Taylor said. Julia looked at Alex, and they both immediately burst into laughter.

"Oh, come on, I thought there was no judgment here," Taylor protested.

"There isn't, it's just funny that you chose the most obvious fantasy in the world," Julia said, wiping tears of laughter from her eyes. "When we first met, you flirted with me for months before I told you I was straight. Then you started flirting even harder."

"Yeah, you honestly made me question my sexuality for a bit," Alex added. "And I was dating a boy then, too."

"Seriously? It's that obvious?" Taylor asked. Julia smiled. Taylor never looked nervous, so seeing her flustered was wonderful.

"Well, we're your best friends. And you flirt with us all the time. I'm honestly surprised that you haven't managed to fulfill your fantasy with how many people you sleep with," Julia said.

"I get nervous around straight women. You two have always had boyfriends, so it was different, but I obviously don't want to make someone do something they don't want to do. Just the thought of it is hot," Taylor said.

"That's the tough part. I always felt nervous to bring up my fantasies to Mark because I didn't want him to think that I was weird. Plus, I didn't even know if I wanted to actually indulge my fantasy," Julia said. It was hard to differentiate between what she actually was sexually into and what was just a fun fantasy. She didn't want to be kidnapped in real life, but the thought of being strung up by some demonic entity had its appeal.

"Have you ever had someone tie you up just to see if you liked it?" Alex asked.

"No. I bought some fuzzy handcuffs but I was too nervous to use them," Julia said.

"That's not really what you want though, right? You want to be left helpless, not tickled," Taylor pushed further.

"Right, but I literally just broke up with Mark. I think it'll be a while before I can try that one out," Julia said, not understanding where this was going. Alex and Taylor shared a look with each other, as if they had been having a telepathic conversation.

"What?" Julia demanded. She looked rapidly between her two friends, trying to read their faces.

"I mean, we all have fantasies, right?" Alex asked rhetorically.

"Yes, we clearly established that," Julia didn't know where this was going.

"And we're very good friends?" Taylor asked, also rhetorically.

"Yes..."

"Why don't we just try them out together? As friends," Alex said, shooting a disarming look at Taylor. Julia's eyes went wide. She looked at Alex for some sign that she was joking, but found none. Her warm, brown eyes stared deep into Julia's with an unyielding confidence. Julia looked over to Taylor, who was unusually quiet.

"Taylor?" Julia asked, unsure if she was hoping for her to diffuse or accelerate the situation.

"Sexual exploration with friends? I'm all for it, obviously. I just don't want to pressure you," Taylor said.

"There's no pressure. I'll just lay out my idea," Alex said. "Julia is easy, we just have to tie her up," Alex started. Julia swallowed hard, her mind racing with different scenarios. How would they bind her? Would she be clothed? Would they touch her?

"Taylor, if you're interested, I'm willing to let you... persuade me," Alex said, turning to her. Taylor's eyes went wide. She wasn't expecting to have her fantasies indulged tonight.

"You want me to try and what? Seduce you?" Taylor asked.

"That's where my fantasy comes in. You can give me a massage and if it's convincing enough, who knows what'll happen?" Alex smiled as if she knew exactly what might happen. Taylor visibly perked up at the prospect of getting to run her hands over Alex's body. "I'm keeping my underwear on, so don't expect anything crazy," Alex warned.

"What if I don't end up enjoying being tied up? Or if you don't want to fuck Taylor?" Julia asked.

"Then we'll stop and go back to bitching about our relationship problems. I just figured, why sit and talk about our unattainable fantasies when we can actually do something about them?" Alex asked. "And hey, you're not the one that Taylor's going to try and fuck."

Taylor gave Julia a small smile that said, "We'll see about that." That probably should've scared Julia off the idea, but it made her mind race even harder.

"Ok... fuck it, let's do it," Julia said. "I'm keeping my clothes on, though," she added in a last-effort attempt to desexualize a very sexual plan. So many voices in her head were telling her not to go along with the insane idea, but her curiosity and arousal overruled logic and reason.

"It'll be fun! Julia, where's your climbing gear?" Alex asked. Julia pointed to a backpack hanging on a hook by her door, and Taylor got up to retrieve it. Inside were multiple spools of climbing rope, which Taylor gathered and passed to Alex.

"Any preference for position?" Alex asked. "Sacrifice style? Hogtied? Dangled from the ceiling?"

Julia looked around her and wiped her sweaty palms on her shorts. There were a few large, exposed wooden beams on her ceiling that could easily have a rope thrown over them.

"I don't know about dangling me, but you could just tie my wrists to that," Julia pointed to the rafter. Alex nodded in agreement and walked over to her.

"Your hands, princess," Alex said. Julia nervously extended her arms to her friend with her forearms facing up. Julia looped the rope around her wrists and cinched the knot tight in between them. Julia flexed her wrists and fingers and instantly knew there was no way out of this. A wave of anxiety hit her as she felt the rope dig into her wrists. She had just broken up with Mark, and despite his shortcomings, she truly did love him. Now she was indulging in her once-secret sexual fantasy with her friends just a week later.

"You okay, Jules?" Taylor asked, noticing the worried look on her face. Alex finished tying a knot and looked up too.

"Yes, it's just... I just broke up with Mark and it feels weird to be doing something sexual with other people. Especially this," Julia held up her bound hands. "I've just spent so long only seeing one person and jumping into this intense fantasy with you guys... it's exhilarating, but it kinda feels wrong."

"I get it," Taylor said. She sat next to Julia on the couch and put her hand on her leg, squeezing it twice. "If you're thinking this deeply about it, then really think about it. You're with two people that've seen and loved every side of yourself that you've shown them. And I know that your concept of sex is still tied to your relationship, so don't think about this as sex, because it isn't."

"What is it then?" Julia looked up at Taylor.

"Personal experimentation, exploration, discovery, whatever you want to call it. We're helping you figure something out about yourself, but there's no expectation that you do anything for us. Obviously it's sexual in concept, but it's only sexual in reality if you choose to engage with it like that," Taylor explained. Julia rarely saw Taylor speak with such sincerity and honesty. She felt emotion swell behind her eyes and felt Taylor's thumb rub soothing circles on her thigh. They were emotionally and physically closer than they ever had been. Julia felt connected, as if her heart and head were linked to her friends.

"You're right, I think I just needed to hear that," Julia said. Taylor and Alex gave her confident nods.

"Alright, I'm ready. And honestly, I trust you two to just do whatever you want with me. I think that's kinda the whole point of this, that I don't have control over it. If things are getting too intense, I'll find a way to let you know," Julia said.

"Whatever we want?" Alex raised her eyebrows. Julia felt a nervous spark run through her stomach to her core to her growing heat between her legs.

"Yeah," Julia said, feeling bold. "Just don't do anything to me you wouldn't want done to you."

"We have a lot of room to work with then," Taylor laughed. She picked up the long stretch of rope connected to Julia's wrists and gave it a tug, forcing her to stand. Taylor tossed the rope over a rafter by Julia's bedroom door and pulled on the end, which stretched Julia's arms towards the ceiling. Taylor tested the tension of the rope, pulling it further and stretching Julia's body so she could just keep her feet on the ground.

"Fuck," Julia whispered to herself. She already felt so exposed with her arms stretched above her head and her body completely defenseless. Her breasts were pushed up and forward by the strained position, threatening to expose themselves from behind her tank top. Taylor tied a knot to keep the rope stable and stepped back to look at her with Alex.

"I don't think she's going anywhere," Alex said, looking her up and down. Julia felt her face get hot with embarrassment as her friends assessed her.

"No, but what if she started calling for a handsome knight to come save her?" Taylor asked.

"Oh, we couldn't have that, could we?" Alex grinned devilishly and went into Julia's bedroom to look for something. Julia swallowed nervously and turned her head to try and see what Alex was digging around for. Taylor grabbed her chin and tilted her head back towards her.

"Why so worried, princess? You don't think two peasant girls like us would be cruel to royalty like yourself, do you?" Taylor asked. Julia was equally impressed and scared at how fast they switched from emotionally supportive friends to evil characters. She opened her mouth to respond, but it was filled by a knotted cloth before she could get a word out. Alex was behind her, tying the gag tight so she couldn't push it out. Julia's eyes were big with shock as she realized how seriously Alex and Taylor were taking her fantasy.

"She looks really hot like this," Taylor said to Alex, who trailed her fingers along Julia's side as she rejoined Taylor.

"I know. And think about it, she's probably a lot more turned on than we are," Alex said, making eye contact with Julia's hips. Watching her friends talk about her as if she was their captive was humiliating, especially with Alex's wandering eyes.

"Phufck youf," Julia said with great difficulty, her tongue trapped underneath her gag. Alex was right, but Julia didn't need her to know that. She flexed her thighs together, trying to get some relief for the pressure between her legs, but the effort was futile without her hands.

"That gag was a great idea," Alex laughed. She took a few steps closer to Julia and put a hand on her cheek. Her hand was warm and comforting, betrayed by the evil look in Alex's eyes. "No one's coming to save you, princess," she teased before slipping past Julia into the bedroom. Taylor grabbed the bottle of massage oil and followed Alex into the room. She paused next to Julia and put her lips to her ear.