FreshPedicure
TMF Novice
- Joined
- Mar 21, 2024
- Messages
- 56
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- 18
Here is the eight installment of my series. The "stakes" have been raised a bit, and a new character enters the fray. All previous parts can be found in my signature. As always, comments are welcomed and encouraged! I hope everyone enjoys it!
The Fundraiser
“Ugh… are we going to freeze out there today?” Kristine said as she peered out the small window above the kitchen sink. She sat perched on a high stool at Nicole’s breakfast nook and sipped a sweet latte from a steaming cardboard cup.
The sky looked as if it were made of glass broken only by sparsely leafed tree branches. It was one of those late Autumn days that felt more like early winter. Cold and crisp even without much wind.
It was also a particular Saturday that would force the girls to be outdoors most of the afternoon: the annual fundraiser for their Northcoast Clinic.
Held at a large county park, the fundraiser attracted a large crowd every year. Raffles, children’s rides and activities, games and presentations were available, all to attract donations that would go to a handful of large medical and academic charities and awards. It was basically mandatory for employees to attend, as it was one of the most important networking events of the year.
“Probably, yeah.” Nicole replied from inside the bedroom as she pulled an oversized pair of grey varsity looking sweats over her lithe, silken-covered legs and then stretched a black quarter sock over each nylon covered foot. She’d thought about the cold weather a few minutes before Kristine arrived, and reasoned that a pair of tight sheer nylons might afford her a bit of extra warmth. On top, a white long sleeve t-shirt clung to her perky breasts and midsection.
“I really wish they’d do this thing a couple weeks earlier. The weather is always hit or miss.” Kristine said, looking away from the window and at Nicole as she emerged from the bedroom.
“We go, we sit through Dr. Chen’s speech, we do the stupid race and we are home free,” Nicole said, trying to convince herself as much as Kristine.
Kristine nodded and stretched her arms outward as if hearing about their promise to participate in a three-legged race reminded her that she’d better loosen up. Her honey blonde hair bounced as it hung off the back of her head in a ponytail. She wore a blush pink hoodie that draped off her shoulders and covered her breasts but was too cropped to cover much else. Her black leggings fit perfectly on her toned legs, framed her perky butt and stretched up over her hips to just below her navel, close to where the hoodie stopped. She wore retro-looking crew socks, crisp white with two black bands, on her lower legs and a pair of thick soled white, black and pink running shoes.
“Jess is here. Let’s get going,” Nicole said, relaying the message from her phone to Kristine.
As Nicole approached the apartment door, she pushed her feet into her sneakers and pulled her sweatshirt over her head. Kristine unfurled a thick black scarf from the coat hook and wrapped it loosely around her neck and the two of them made their way down to Jessica’s SUV waiting in the lot.
“Hey girls!” Jessica greeted her cousin and friend excitedly, with a warm smile and brightness in her cerulean eyes.
Kristine climbed into the passenger seat and Nicole in the back. Both of them said their hellos and it wasn’t long before the car was filled with the sounds of their typical chitchat.
—
The fundraiser wore on throughout the rest of the morning and early afternoon. The chilly air was warmed by bright sunshine that cut the blue sky with rays of golden yellow and filled with the noise of chatter emanating from the large crowd in attendance.
By the time the three-legged race was about to start, Kristine and Nicole had been more than ready for the day to end. Jessica, somehow, had positioned herself as host of the event, which made her exempt from the ridiculousness and annoyingly jovial about seeing Nicole and Kristine participate.
“Ok, girls. Ready?” Jessica said, smirking and holding up two lengths of thick nylon rope.
Kristine rolled her eyes and Nicole sighed audibly, “I guess…”
Seated on a picnic bench, both Nicole and Krissy surrendered a leg. Kristine’s right and Nicole’s left. Jessica knelt down and wrapped the fist length of rope around their ankles. She looped the rope on itself sloppily and recklessly. One knot cinched their legs together, but she continued knotting the rope onto itself until there was an indiscernible mess of rope hanging behind their legs.
“What are you doing? That’s too tight!” Kristine complained. She knew nothing about knots either, but she knew enough that it seemed like they’d have a real hard time untying it.
“It’ll loosen up a lot when you start moving,” Jessica said, impressed with her handiwork.
Kristine rolled her sneakered foot around a bit and Nicole stretched hers forward and then flexed it back upward. “ Let's just get this over with,” Kristine said.
Jess held the second hank of rope up and stretched it out, “hold on. I’m not done!”
“What? Seriously?” Nicole complained as Jess wrapped the second rope around their thighs and tied another messy knot.
“Can’t make this too easy,” Jessica quipped and tapped both Kristine and Nicole on their thighs as if to usher them up off the bench.
—
Kristine and Nicole made their way clumsily across the grass field to where the race would start. They laughed and smiled as they struggled to find a good way to walk bound together as they were. Jessica walked a few paces ahead of them, leading them past coworkers and friends, some of whom jeered and egged them on in jest.
Kristine’s eye caught a familiar figure standing off in the distance, still and dark, visually striking against the backdrop of the rest of the onlookers who cast a more casual and lighter vibe.
“Ugh. Illyana’s over there,” Kristine said, nodding at Nicole to look off in the distance.
Nicole turned her head and registered the near-gothic Illyana. “Ugh. Who wears that to a park?”
Nicole was referencing Illyana’s choice to dress as if she were attending a business meeting or maybe a funeral. She wore a thick wool overcoat, such a dark charcoal that it could’ve just been black, and black slacks that were perfectly creased to hang straight down over point black heeled boots.
Her attire fit her persona and the rest of her appearance. Her dark brown hair hung neatly down to her shoulders with layered bangs brushing softly over her thin brows and curtaining stunning silver-blue eyes. Her ivory skin seemed made of glass and her thin lips seemed to rarely cast a smile. She stood unnaturally still even as she talked casually with someone, the only movement she seemed to make was to raise a slender hand clad in a dark leather driving glove to swipe a stray hair from her face as the wind blew gently.
“Illyana does. I don’t think vampires own casual clothing,” Kristine said snarkily.
It was no secret that Kristine and Nicole were not fans of Illyana. She was shrewd and disinterested in any friendliness. Moreover, she was competitive and calculating. She thought Kristine was given special treatment by the management that ran the clinic, that she was too much of a “teacher’s pet”, that she had too much autonomy.
While everyone else in the clinic seemed enamored by Kristine, Illyana seemed unimpressed and jealous. She also treated the nursing and administrative staff poorly, bordering on with contempt at times, Nicole included. This made her generally unpopular around the office.
“I’m actually shocked that she’s here.” Nicole said as she and Kristine fussed and fumbled while they waited for the race to start.
“Even Illyana isn’t exempt from stuff like this. I mean, we’re here. And at least she’s not doing this,” Kristine said, gesturing down to their tied legs.
As she spoke, Kristine stared over at Illyana once again. She couldn’t help but feel even more ridiculous knowing that she was here. She hated the idea that Illyana might scoff at this silliness, or that she’d criticize it as unprofessional.
It didn’t matter. They were there now, and it was for a good cause. Kristine and Nicole clasped each other in a half hug and got ready to race.
—
The race ended quickly, though not without nearly all the participants stumbling and falling over once or twice, Kristine and Nicole included. All the participants scattered to different benches and patches of dry grass to untie themselves and move on with their day. Kristine and Nicole, however, sat frustrated at a faded splintery picnic table and tugged at the knots on their legs to no avail.
Jessica walked over smiling and shaking her head as if their inability to untie the knots were somehow their fault. “This is more embarrassing to watch than the race.”
“Jess. Shut up,” Kristine said, annoyed and frustrated.
Jessica knelt down and pushed their hands out of the way, “Watch out. I’ll get you guys out.”
After a half-minute of tugging and then studying the ankle knot as if it were a Rubik’s Cube, Jessica looked up at her friend and cousin a bit wearily as she said “Don’t freak out. I have scissors in the car. I’ll cut you guys free. I’ll be right back.”
Jessica stood up as Kristine interjected “No way! We’re leaving. The race is over, my ankle is hurting and I’m getting cold. I’ve had enough.”
Kristine sort of guided Nicole upward with her as she rose, even though their predicament meant she didn’t have a choice.
“Ok. Fine. Whatever you want to do.” Jessica said through a smirk, holding in a laugh as the two of them struggled to stand upright together.
—
Nicole and Kristine hopped and hobbled their way across the parking lot, both giggling at the sheer ridiculousness of their situation and scowling at Jessica who kept pace a couple of yards ahead of them and periodically turned around to snap pictures of the two to save for later embarrassments.
“Come on, you two.” Jessica grinning widely as they approached her SUV, a gleaming pearl white Volkswagen.
“Ugh. I could kill you, Jess. I swear. My ankle is starting to hurt.” Kristine said snappily as her and Nicole finally rested their tired bodies against the vehicle.
“Oh, pipe down Krissy.” Jessica’s voice was muffled as she leaned herself into her truck and rifled through the center console compartment. “Ugh I can’t find them! Just get in the back seat. I’ll have to cut you guys free when we get to the house.”
“What?! How are we supposed to do that?!” Nicole said as she tugged at the mess of knotted rope on her leg.
Kristine swung the back door open and leaned her head in. “Just get in. The faster we go, the faster we get out of this.”
Nicole followed her friend into the back bench seat, having no other choice. They’re joined legs twisted uncomfortably in the middle of the truck on the transmission tunnel that protruded up from the floor a few inches and forced one or both of their knees to be bent and a large plastic cup holder on the bottom of the center console created an obstacle for their feet. Kristine, the taller of the pair by an inch or two, wriggled in the seat to try to find a better way to sit. Nicole resigned herself to the circumstance and nuzzled up close to Kristine.
“Just a few minutes like this.” Nicole said with a huff.
Jessica’s icy blue eyes pierced the rearview mirror. “What’s wrong?”
“Ugh it’s just an awkward position back here.” Kristine complained and pouted her lip exaggeratedly so that Jess could see her displeasure in the mirror.
Jess turned around in the front seat and leaned on the center console. “…just stretch your legs up here.” She reached down and pulled at the thick band of rope that joined the two girls' ankles together and lifted the twinned feet up onto the console.
Kristine gasped for a brief second and then rolled her sneakered foot a bit, enjoying the freedom.
“That’s better. Let’s go.” She said, Nicole shrugged and sat back in the seat.
Jess dug through her purse and then whipped her head up with a quizzical look on her face. Her hands shot into all of her pockets. “Ugh you gotta be kidding me. I can’t find my keys.” She sighed deeply. “Relax. Let me just run back to the raffle table. I think I left them there.”
“Are you serious?!” Kristine scolded. “Come on Jess!”
“You’re really in no position to complain, sweetie. Sit tight.” Jess said, turning over the seat to look at Kristine.
She put her hand on the door latch and paused. She turned almost 180 degrees in the driver seat and sat up on her right knee. She reached down and tugged at the lace on Kristine’s sneaker.
“Hey! What are you doing?” Kristine yelled and lurched forward. She pulled her leg, but Nicole wasn’t paying attention and the movement was awkward.
The sneaker came off easily and Jess tossed it down to the passenger seat floor. She then undid the lace on Nicole’s sneaker. “I feel like this is too good an opportunity to pass up.”
Nicole yelled now “Jessica! Don’t you dare!”
The two of them tried to get their legs off the console, but with them tied together, they really couldn’t get out of each others’ way.
Nicole’s sneaker hit the car floor and Jessica smiled widely as she stared at their socked feet and then back to their faces.
Her fingernails skittered over their socked soles, more a tease of what was about to happen than anything.
She grabbed the toe of Kristine’s white crew sock and tugged a few times at it as it was trapped under the rope that bound their legs together. It slid off quickly and when her toes felt the cold air they spread and then instinctively curled.
Jessica looked down at her friend’s wiggling toes, the nails painted a deep almost-black-looking green color that sparkled luminously when the sunlight streaming through the windshield hit them. She began tickling the soft pale arch of Kristine’s foot immediately, fingernails swirling and scratching lightly on the sensitive skin.
“No! I am not doing this today!” Kristine protested through gritted teeth and jumped her bare foot off the center console as much as she could anchored to Nicole’s foot.
“Ow! Stop it!” Nicole squealed as Kristine’s twisting and jumping pulled her ankle and leg in unnatural directions.
Kristine giggled and then grunted and clenched her teeth again. “Jessica. Stahap!”
Jessica flicked her finger under the collar of Nicole’s quarter sock and snatched off with ease. Her eyes lit up as she looked at her cousin who was already begging. Seeing Nicole’s foot clad in stretchy nylon delighted the tickler in Jessica. She knew how ticklish Nicole was at baseline, and she also knew that Nicole was even more ticklish with nylons on.
“No! Jess! Please! I don’t want to get tickled!” Nicole said in vain.
“Sorry hun, but you’re definitely getting it today.” Jessica grinned as she dragged the fingers of her left hand over the top of Nicole’s tiny, nylon-covered foot.
As she felt Jessica’s nails grazing her foot, Nicole squealed and her toes curled inside the tight sheer nylons. Her dark polished toenails stretched against the nylon material. Her foot contorted trying to evade Jess’s fingers which had found their way to her instep. Another girlish shriek before she tried desperately to press her sole on the side of Kristine’s vulnerable bare foot to use it as a shield.
Jessica smiled and worked both hands on Kristine’s sole, making her laugh and twist her ankle and exposing Nicole’s foot. “See that Kris? She’s trying to hide behind your foot!”
Kristine reached forward and swatted at her friend’s tickling hands. “Get off! Leave us alone Jess!”
Jessica struggled for a moment to try to hold their feet down on the center console. Every time she tickled, one of them twisted and jerked away and she’d lose her grip. Frustrated, she scanned the car interior for an aid, and yanked a phone charging cord from its USB port in the console.
She stretched the white cord a bit and looped it around the knotted rope that joined their ankles together. Kristine swatted at her hands again yelling “No! No way!”
Jessica swatted her hands in return giving her just enough time to push the cord through itself and knot it. She pulled it tight and tied the other end to a piece of metal that belonged to the seat mounting assembly below her.
Jessica popped her head up after tying the cord off and admired her handiwork. “That’s better!” she scratched her two pointer fingers, one on each foot snared up in front of her on the console, and watched them pull against the tight charging cord. They could still move their feet an inch or two here and there, but they were now relatively immobile.
Kristine’s voice was panicked as she giggled and yelled at Jessica “Are you serious?! Let us go! This is nuhuhuhuts!”
“No way. This is too good!” Jessica said excitedly, tickling both feet at the same time. Nicole shrieked before releasing a wave of uncontrollable laughter. Kristine protested as much as she could but as she felt Jessica’s fingernails under her toes she bucked backward into the seat and laughed hard.
The two girls laughed and leaned on each other in the back seat. They didn’t have a choice. “This is horrible!” Nicole gasped out as she felt her cousin’s fingers gliding across the nylon material that covered her arch.
“Nic, I think these nylons are making you almost as ticklish as Krissy!” Jessica and Nicole had sometimes talked about just how ticklish their bombshell friend was, and the idea that Jessica knew that the nylon material covering Nicole’s foot was making her as unbearably ticklish as Kristine stuck in her brain like a dart.
Nicole’s eyes, normally sultry and smouldering in a subdued way, were wide and huge. Her cheeks lifted as high as they could, her bright white smile ached persistently as she panicked and she screamed out in laughter as she felt the stretchy nylon material heightening every ticklish sensation.
“JESSICAHAHAHAHAHAHA! PLEHEHEHEASE STAHAHAHAP! PLEHEHEHEASE!” Nicole’s voice echoed in the cabin of the SUV, ringing out even over Kristine’s hysterical chuckling.
Jess grinned, enjoying the feeling of power she had over them. She watched them in the back seat, adorably embracing each other in fits of laughter. “What do you think, Kris?” Jessica taunted as she curled her fingers under Kristine’s toes, waiting for the shriek she knew was coming.
Kristine’s scream was immediate and piercing as she felt her friend’s manicured fingernails scratching her uber sensitive toes. She lurched forward, reaching desperately and to swat her friend’s tickling hands off, but nothing seemed to deter Jessica. Nicole, being a good couple of inches shorter than Kristine, couldn’t even reach Jessica’s hands. She’d slunk down low in the back seat, tugged at the band that joined their thighs together, desperate and huffing deep breaths in as she felt momentary breaks in the tickling.
Something about being bound, even in this utterly ridiculous way, was driving Kristine crazy. She hated the feeling that she couldn’t get away. That she was trapped. The tickling was bad enough–her foot ached from stretching, her ankle was sore and her sides and abs began to hurt from laughing–but the idea of the feeling of the ropes were a constant reminder of her inability to escape. Her lack of control.
Jessica’s fingers lifted off her toes for a split second and Kristine sucked a deep breath and clenched her toes as fast as she could. Jessica pivoted her technique, sliding her nails up and down the length of her extremely sensitive arch.
Kristine gritted her teeth again. She kept her toes clenched, her sole now rippled with wrinkles. The light teasing on her arch sent her nervous system into a different gear. The deep chuckling gave way to whimpering giggles as she tried to fight the maddening sensations.
“Please Jess! No more! No more!” Kristine pleaded, all the feistiness and grit dissolved from her body.
Jessica smiled and continued her torture. She lightly teased Nicole’s instep with one hand and she pretended to count the wrinkles on Kristine’s arch with the other. “Come on, Kris. Let me at these pretty toes again,” Jessica teased before being interrupted by the noise of the vibration of her phone on the dashboard.
“Shit. It’s Dr. Chen.” Jessica said, immediately pulled out of the moment.
“Hey. What’s up?” Jessica said sweetly, as if she wasn’t just tickle torturing her best friend and cousin in a parking lot.
She opened the door and stepped out, not wanting Dr. Chen to hear anything. Kristine lifted her head off Nicole and watched Jessica walking away from the car toward the park area.
“I think she’s going to get the keys!” Kristine said, exhaustion in her voice.
“Thank god… I can’t take any more of this.” Nicole said, her chest heaving up and down as she caught her breath.
“I’m starting to think she’s actually evil.” Kristine said she sat up a bit and tried to make herself comfortable in the back seat.
In the distance, Kristine could make out a small crowd of people walking from the park into the lot. One figure broke from the group and seemed to be heading in their direction. She thought maybe it was Jessica, but in the distance she could make out the silhouette of a long black coat.
There weren’t many cars left and there were even fewer parked near them. She looked around then back at the woman approaching them. She turned to look out the back window and saw a white Mercedes a few rows behind them.
Illyana’s Mercedes.
She recognized the coat too, as the tiny girl got closer. And her gait, or perceived lack-thereof. Illyana moved like a ghost or some floating thing that didn’t need to waste energy moving its legs.
“Illyana…” Kristine said softly as she came into full view outside her window.
“What? Where?” Nicole said, popping her head up to see.
“She’s walking to her car. It’s behind us.” Kristine said, wariness in her throat.
“Oh my god. She’s not going to see us like this, right?” Nicole said, sharing the wariness now.
“Nah. Her car is a few rows ba–” Kristine began to say but stopped short. She watched Illyana making a b-line now for Jessica’s Volkswagen. “I think she’s coming over here. “
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me!” Nicole slunk down low in the seat again. “Get down Kristine! Maybe she won’t see us.”
“She’s literally walking right over here.” Kristine placed a hand on her forehead.
Illyana looked into the car, past the light factory tinting of the back seat windows and could obviously see them. As she got closer they clocked her eyes darting around the vehicle's cabin.
“What are we going to do?” Nicole seemed overcome with embarrassment.
“Just don’t say anything. She might not notice.” Kristine reasoned absurdly.
Illyana's eyes met Kristine’s as she got within a few feet. Kristine opened the back driverside door.
“Hey.” She said flatly.
“Hi. I tried calling Jessica. I have her keys. Where is she…” Illyana’s eyes searched for Jessica but landed squarely on the bound feet on the center console. “… what is going on in here?”
The faint freckles that spattered Kristine’s cheeks were washed away by the pink flush of embarrassment. “Uh…” her toes wiggled involuntarily as Illyana’s silvery eyes shifted back to the center console.
“Jessica was playing a prank on us.” Nicole jumped in, trying desperately to free them from the awkwardness and get Illyana to walk away. “She’ll be right back. You said you had the keys?”
Illyana’s gaze shifted again. She glared at the girls through the open back door. She reached into the pocket of her long coat and pulled her gloved hand out dangling Jessica’s keys from her fingertip. “Yes.” Her voice was mellow but sharp. Her chestnut bangs swept delicately over her face in the breeze. She reached out and opened the front door and placed the keys on the dashboard above the steering wheel.
She hesitated for a moment and turned back toward the center console. Krissy’s toes moved again sort of nervously, as if they knew they were being stared at. Illyanna reached down and unbuttoned her coat before kneeling on the front seat and facing the two girls in the back. She looked down again, this time studying the USB cord that held their ankles in place.
Her thin lips widened into a smirk. Her full black eyelashes batted as she looked up at them. “This is quite a prank.” She pulled at the finger of one of her gloves and slipped her thin, snow white hand out from its leather cover. Her nails were long and almond-shaped, almost pointed, and painted a pale nude color tipped with pure white–a sort of french manicure.
She removed the second glove without pulling her silver eyes away from them. “You know, Kristine, I noticed as soon as we met that you were always popping your feet out of your shoes at your desk. What a garish behavior. Certainly not ladylike to have your bare feet out in a professional setting. I think I can even recall seeing them up on a chair or something while you talked on the phone. Like the office is some kind of flop house…”
Kristine couldn’t help but roll her eyes at Illyana. She was so pretentious and so prim, of course she’d notice something like that.
Illyana’s smirk returned. “...And I couldn’t help but wonder at times if you’re ticklish…” She looked down at the vulnerable bare foot before her as Kristine squirmed in the back seat. “...It’s awfully inappropriate of me to think that, I know, but sometimes I have intrusive thoughts…”
Nicole and Krissy turned to face each other for a moment before Kristine’s entire body lifted off the seat with a shriek. “Illyanaaaa! What are you doing?!”
Illyana’s tiny slender fingers moved quickly across Kristine’s soft pale arch, her pointed fingernails scratching lightly.
Kristine pressed her left hand against the seat cushion and her right hand on Nicole’s thigh. Her butt lifted off the seat as she gritted her teeth, desperately not wanting to give in to Illyana’s torment.
Illyana watched the pretty pedicure toes curl and flex and kept her hand glued to her arch as her ankle rolled frantically back and forth. “So, Kristine… are you ticklish?”
“Mmmph… Fuck off Illyanaaaa!” Kristine said through a forced gleaming white smile.
“It certainly seems like you are, Kristine. Come on, say it.” Illyana’s smirk grew wider.
Kristine held out for as many seconds as she could before she cracked. “Gaaahahahaha! I’m ticklish! I’m ticklish! PLEHEHEHEASE DOHONOHON’T!”
“Mmm. That’s what I wanted to hear.” Illyana lifted her fingertips off of Kristine’s bare sole and rested her wiry hand on Nicole’s tiny stockinged foot.
“Now… Here’s a girl with some class. Stockings on a cold day, and I’ve never seen you barefoot at the office, Nicole.” Illyana purred and stroked the nylon foot she held in her hand. “Although… you are wearing this awful sweat outfit.”
“Illyana…” Nicole’s foot moved like a windshield wiper trying to evade the imminent tickling.
“Let me guess. You’re ticklish too.” Illyana said, beginning to stroke her nails across the nyloned arch.
Nicole didn’t bother trying to hold it in. Or she couldn’t. The laughter spilled out of her adorable mouth in sheepish giggles. She covered her face with her hands as if she couldn’t bear to watch. “Yes! Please stop!”
“These stockings are so nice, Nicole. They must feel just wonderful under my nails.” Illyana taunted the beautiful hysterical girl.
“Leave her alone Illyana! Just get out of here! This is ridiculous!” Kristine protested and lurched forward swinging her arm at Illyana's hands.
Illyana bobbed gracefully dodging her upper body backward and darting her hands back down to tickle both feet in front of her. She scratched deep into the center of their soles and both girls screamed with laughter. Krissy fell back into Nicole in a heap of uncontrollable laughter.
“So obviously Jessica figured out how fun this is before me, right?” Illyana purred.
Kristine mumbled as she caught a breath in between laughter. “YOU GOTTA STAHAHAP! I can’t take anymoooore!”
Nicole was in a fit of laughter that wore out the noise from her vocal chords and caused periods of silence. Her toes curled inside the nylon prison. She felt Illyana’s pointed nails pulling and then sliding over the tightly woven sheer material that felt more like a layer of massage oil or lotion at this point.
Illyana used her pointer and middle fingernails to scratch at Kristine’s toes, which caused the sultry blonde to explode into a fit of hysteria. “No no! Not my toes! Illyana please! NOT MY TOHOHOES!!”
“Oh this just keeps getting better. What’s wrong with your toes Kristine? Hmm?” Illyana was a masterful taunter and an even better tickler. She knew how to make the very tips of her nails just barely touch the base of Kristine’s toes. Kristine felt an electricity of laughter striking through her body. She was pushing so hard against Nicole that Nicole began yelping.
“Sorry, Nicole. I’m going to have to give you a break. I need both hands for this.” Illyana reached into the lapel of her coat and down into the tiny handbag that hung from her shoulder near her waist and pulled out a tiny black tube. She quickly unscrew the cap and retracted a small black mascara brush from the tube.
She grasped Kristine’s big toe with her thumb and index finger and held it tightly. Her grey eyes peered over the seat to Kristine’s plump breasts rising and falling deeply with each labored breath. “Here’s one of those intrusive thoughts again…”
Illyana pushed the tiny mascara brush in between Kristine’s big toe and the one next to it. She twisted it slowly and pulled it back and forth. Kristine shot up off the seat “Aaaaiiieee! Whahaat the fuck is thahahahat?!”
The brush left streaks of black mascara on the sensitive skin between Kristine’s toes. Illyana studied them and watched Kristine’s toes spread as the brush did its awful work. She moved the brush over to the next space and Kristine jumped again. Nicole pushed at her friend. She had to get her off of her. She looked over the passenger and could see Illyana flossing Krissy’s perfect toes with the brush.
Kristine kicked her free leg wildly first at the back of the front seat, then up the center opening to try to kick Illyana’s hands off her incredibly ticklish foot. Illyanna was quick and stronger than she appeared. She captured the untied ankle and ripped Kristine’s sneaker off first, then her white crew sock.
“Noooo!” Kristine whined and almost whimpered.
She clenched her toes tightly as she felt Illyana’s thin lithe arm wrap around her ankle. “Perfect. A new toy.” Illyana swirled the mascara brush in circles on Kristine’s freshly uncovered sole, leaving intermittent streaks and dabs of black makeup on her porcelain arches and pink heels. “Open up those toes Kristine. Come on.”
Kristine laughed helplessly. Her cheeks ached and she felt exhausted. She collapsed down onto Nicole’s shoulder whimpering as the brush made a cacophony with her senses.
She couldn’t hold out any longer. Her toes loosened up and Illyana immediately began rotating the mascara brush in between each toe causing Kristine to howl in laughter.
“Kristine… I have to say… Your feet are so soft. So well taken care of. So ticklish.” Illyana continued teasing Krissy as laughed with a rasp to her tired voice.
“What do you waaant Illyana? Plehehease! I’ll do anythiiing!” Kristine pleaded.
“Just fucking stop Illyana! She’s had enough!” Nicole yelled and kicked her still bound foot in protest at Illyana's arm.
Illyana held onto Kristine’s foot with her left arm and used her right hand to tickle and scratch at Nicole’s foot in retaliation.
Nicole screeched when she felt her nails hit her sole again. Illyana tickled both exhausted girls at the same time once more, they giggled musically and sweetly in unison with their heads collapsed onto each other until finally the tickling stopped.
Illyana dropped Kristine’s foot down to the console next to her other one and Nicole’s. She stood up quickly, pressed her coat flat and screwed her mascara brush back into its tube and slipped it away into her bag.
She leaned back into the car and peered past the seats at the girls. “Bye ladies.”
Kristine and Nicole, too exhausted and embarrassed to look up, could only hear Illyana greeting Jess outside the car. A minute later, Jess opened the door and looked down, seeing Kristine’s two bare feet smeared with mascara and Nicole’s nylons, pulled and a bit rustled.
“What the heck happened here?” Jessica scoffed with a chuckle as she looked into the back seat to see her friend and cousin wrecked.
“What do you think? She was tickling us!” Kristine said sharply.
Jessica laughed. “Ha! What is all over your feet?”
“Mascara I think.” Nicole answered for Kristine.
Jessica tugged at Kristine’s toe and examined her graffitied foot. “Ok.. Well. Good news. The keys are here… We can go back to the house now.” Jessica said, chuckling under her breath as she started the car.
—
On the short drive back to Jess’s house from the park, Kristine sat quiet for most of the ride, her bare feet, marked and smeared with black makeup, were still propped up on the cushioned armrest that covered the center console, one still tied tightly to Nicole’s tiny stockinged foot. She stared out the window with a hand on her left cheek and her elbow on the door panel. Her toes flexed a bit as she idly rubbed her free foot against the toes of her tied one.
Nicole recounted some of the details to Jessica who seemed too interested in how the whole thing went down. She seemed particularly interested in Illyana’s motivations, thinking for certain she took it as an opportunity to punish the girls a bit.
“I just can’t believe she just started tickling you guys…” she said, pausing to hear what else the girls would share.
Kristine, a bit annoyed with Jessica for the entire ordeal, snapped “... Yeah, because you tied us together and left us there like that. Oh and let’s not forget that YOU were tickling us to death to start with. She literally hates me. She was enjoying herself so much, making me freak out.”
“Yeah, she’s definitely the type to enjoy that.” Jess said sympathetically. “I could totally see her trying to punish you.”
“She’s so mean.” Nicole said with a huff as they pulled into Jessica’s driveway.
“Let me run inside and grab some scissors. Don’t let anyone sneak up and start tickling you again, ok girls?” Jessica said with a sly grin.
—
When Jessica came out of the house waving a rather large pair of scissors, Kristine and Nicole both let out sighs of relief.
“Thank god… I can't wait to get out of this car!” Nicole exclaimed.
Jessica re-entered the front seat and knelt on the cushion. She slipped one blade of the shears under the bottom ring of rope and began cutting her way through all the binds.
As soon as the last rope popped open, Nicole yanked her foot away and down off the center console. Kristine sat up in the seat but Jessica scolded her “Do not move Krissy. I don’t want that mascara all over my seats!”
Jessica pulled a paper towel out of her coat pocket and wiped it across the bottom of Kristine’s left foot.
“Ugh that’s not going to work!” Krissy said. She was proven correct as Jessica turned the paper towel over to examine it and found only a small smear of mascara, the rest still stained Kristine’s sole.
Nicole dug through her bag and pulled out a small package of makeup remover wipes. She yanked one from its bag and leaned forward over Kristine’s unwillingly-painted feet and wiped the dripping towelette over a thick black smudge that streaked the outside edge of her right foot.
The wipe did its job immediately and quickly became saturated black. “This’ll be quick,” Nicole said.
She pulled another one out and tossed the package to Jess who grabbed a second one and began wiping Krissy’s left foot while Nicole continued on the right.
Kristine sat back in the seat and breathed in and out deeply trying to calm herself. Her toes began moving involuntarily. Her abdominals tensed. Her hands pushed down and clenched the seat cushion below her.
The sensation of the wipes was a confusing mixture of wet and slippery and scratchy. They were somewhat fibrous and covered in a network of tiny circular pads that lent more scrubbing power but also seemed to be alarming Kristine’s senses.
Her legs began to twitch and she bit down on the inside of her lip. Her eyes squinted and quivered. She could feel their fingertips under the cloth material scrubbing away at stubborn stains.
“Fuck,” she thought.
Jessica looked backward, feeling Kristine’s legs and feet tensing up. She smirked as she saw Kristine barely holding herself together. And pushed down on the foot that she’d been working on to hold it still while she scrubbed circular motions on the silky skin of her friend’s ivory arches.
“Mmmphh, ” a muffled groan of something unintelligible hopped out of Kristine’s mouth.
“What’s that Kris?” Jessica asked with a smile.
“Nu-nu-nothing. Just hurry uuhhhppp!” Krissy exclaimed, her voice whining as she braced herself against the back seat.
Jessica’s sympathy was gone and Nicole’s seemed to be rapidly fading. Both girls scrubbed the wet wipes all over her soles, but Jessica seemed particularly interested in drawing out shrieks and yelps and grinned as she watched Kristine fight the muscles in her cheeks.
“Come on… Haven’t I been through enough today?” Kristine asked as her left hand rose off the seat to cover her brow and hide her eyes as if she was embarrassed or couldn’t bear to watch them tickle her feet anymore.
Nicole smiled at Jessica mischievously. She scooped her arm under Kristine’s ankle and held it tight as she teased, “we have to get the makeup off Krissy.”
“Yeah, what are you going to do? You can’t put your socks and shoes back on like this.” Jessica said as she locked Kristine’s other ankle in the crook of her arm.
Kristine’s eyebrows raised as she mumbled “I guess… just make it fa—ahahahahaha!“ Kristine’s statement dissolved into laughter as she felt her friends’ fingers and the wipes scrubbing, now tickling intentionally more than cleaning.
Kristine’s feet were slick with whatever substance had soaked the wipes. She shrieked as she felt Jessica bunch one up and push it into her toes, rotating it and scrubbing deeply with her covered pointer finger.
“HAHAHAHA—no! Jess! COME ONAHAHAHAHAHA,” Kristine yelled as she scrunched her toes, entrapping Jessica’s finger and the wipe.
“Krissy. Your toes are covered in mascara sweetie,” Jessica said matter-of-factly.
“Yeah, this is Illyana’s doing. There’s a big glob of it right here under your toes on this foot too,” Nicole said as she pulled a fresh wipe from the package and rubbed it vigorously onto the pillowy soft skin at the base of Kristine’s toes.
Feeling both of the girls’ flicking and scrubbing at her uber sensitive toes made Kristine’s entire body jolt in the back seat as she howled with uncontrollable giggling laughter. Jessica draped the towelette over her toes and slipped her fingers and the cloth material between Kristine’s toes, rolling the wipe around each toe with her thumb and pointer finger.
Kristine reached forward instinctively and covered her toes with her hands, one on each foot as she yelled “OKAY! NO MORE! NOHOHO MOOORE!”
She propped her feet on their outside edges and glanced at her wet soles, assessing how much makeup was still left.
“There’s still some on right here,” Jessica teased and reached forward with her pointer finger and flickered her nail on a spot of Kristine’s sole not covered by her hand.
Kristine yelped and pulled both feet down off the center console, “well then it’s staying there. I can’t take anymore!”
Nicole tossed Kristine’s rumpled socks into the backseat and handed her athletic sneakers over the console. Kristine looked displeasing at her right sole propped up on her left thigh, “Ugh, now my feet are all wet… I can’t put my shoes on like this,” she said.
She rubbed one of the crewsocks over her wet sole like a makeshift towel, then did the same to the left foot. She flexed her foot and spread her toes, drying the runny liquid from in between them and sighing audibly staring at a few remnant stains of makeup that would have to come off in the shower.
She pushed her bare feet into the sneakers as Jessica and Nicole gathered their things as well.
“Wanna come in?” Jess said, stepping out of the vehicle.
“No, I’m going home to take a nap before I go out tonight.” Nicole said, her thumbs typing something on her phone.
Kristine stretched her arms, happy to be out of the car. “Ugh, a nap sounds like a good idea. I’m exhausted.”
—
Kristine trotted quickly up her walkway to her front door. As she opened the door she saw the headlights from Luke’s truck as he parked next to the curb.
She turned, watching him walk up the driveway to the walkway. “Hey! You got here so quick,” she said, her eyes taking him in as he approached.
Luke walked with his hands tucked partially into the front pockets of his black jeans and smiled as he got closer to her. His thick dark hair was pushed backward and that smile put slight dimples on his stubbled cheeks.
“Yeah, I was in town getting a few things when you texted me. Figured I’d come straight here.” Luke explained before leaning a bit as he landed in front of the large door to kiss her hello.
He inhaled her natural vanilla scent in off her hair and neck as he greeted her and felt her hands touching the muscles of his upper back and their embrace created a sense in both of them that every moment was leading up to that one.
They had moved fast over the last few months, not purposefully, just naturally. They were infatuated with each other.
They walked into the foyer and Luke watched Kristine remove her jacket first and then push the heels of her sneakers off and slip her bare feet out of them. The amber light from the sconce on the wall glimmered off her shiny black-green nail polish as her toes flexed when her feet hit the entryway rug.
Luke’s gaze lingered on her gorgeous bare feet for a few seconds before traveling up her ankles and then her sculpted legs and butt clad in the onyx spandex of her leggings. He reached his hand out to meet hers as he commented, “no socks today?”
“It’s a long story…” Kristine said before Luke pulled her close to his chest and kissed her passionately. She interrupted him, batting her eyelashes and tugged his hand to urge him down the hallway toward her bedroom.
The Fundraiser
“Ugh… are we going to freeze out there today?” Kristine said as she peered out the small window above the kitchen sink. She sat perched on a high stool at Nicole’s breakfast nook and sipped a sweet latte from a steaming cardboard cup.
The sky looked as if it were made of glass broken only by sparsely leafed tree branches. It was one of those late Autumn days that felt more like early winter. Cold and crisp even without much wind.
It was also a particular Saturday that would force the girls to be outdoors most of the afternoon: the annual fundraiser for their Northcoast Clinic.
Held at a large county park, the fundraiser attracted a large crowd every year. Raffles, children’s rides and activities, games and presentations were available, all to attract donations that would go to a handful of large medical and academic charities and awards. It was basically mandatory for employees to attend, as it was one of the most important networking events of the year.
“Probably, yeah.” Nicole replied from inside the bedroom as she pulled an oversized pair of grey varsity looking sweats over her lithe, silken-covered legs and then stretched a black quarter sock over each nylon covered foot. She’d thought about the cold weather a few minutes before Kristine arrived, and reasoned that a pair of tight sheer nylons might afford her a bit of extra warmth. On top, a white long sleeve t-shirt clung to her perky breasts and midsection.
“I really wish they’d do this thing a couple weeks earlier. The weather is always hit or miss.” Kristine said, looking away from the window and at Nicole as she emerged from the bedroom.
“We go, we sit through Dr. Chen’s speech, we do the stupid race and we are home free,” Nicole said, trying to convince herself as much as Kristine.
Kristine nodded and stretched her arms outward as if hearing about their promise to participate in a three-legged race reminded her that she’d better loosen up. Her honey blonde hair bounced as it hung off the back of her head in a ponytail. She wore a blush pink hoodie that draped off her shoulders and covered her breasts but was too cropped to cover much else. Her black leggings fit perfectly on her toned legs, framed her perky butt and stretched up over her hips to just below her navel, close to where the hoodie stopped. She wore retro-looking crew socks, crisp white with two black bands, on her lower legs and a pair of thick soled white, black and pink running shoes.
“Jess is here. Let’s get going,” Nicole said, relaying the message from her phone to Kristine.
As Nicole approached the apartment door, she pushed her feet into her sneakers and pulled her sweatshirt over her head. Kristine unfurled a thick black scarf from the coat hook and wrapped it loosely around her neck and the two of them made their way down to Jessica’s SUV waiting in the lot.
“Hey girls!” Jessica greeted her cousin and friend excitedly, with a warm smile and brightness in her cerulean eyes.
Kristine climbed into the passenger seat and Nicole in the back. Both of them said their hellos and it wasn’t long before the car was filled with the sounds of their typical chitchat.
—
The fundraiser wore on throughout the rest of the morning and early afternoon. The chilly air was warmed by bright sunshine that cut the blue sky with rays of golden yellow and filled with the noise of chatter emanating from the large crowd in attendance.
By the time the three-legged race was about to start, Kristine and Nicole had been more than ready for the day to end. Jessica, somehow, had positioned herself as host of the event, which made her exempt from the ridiculousness and annoyingly jovial about seeing Nicole and Kristine participate.
“Ok, girls. Ready?” Jessica said, smirking and holding up two lengths of thick nylon rope.
Kristine rolled her eyes and Nicole sighed audibly, “I guess…”
Seated on a picnic bench, both Nicole and Krissy surrendered a leg. Kristine’s right and Nicole’s left. Jessica knelt down and wrapped the fist length of rope around their ankles. She looped the rope on itself sloppily and recklessly. One knot cinched their legs together, but she continued knotting the rope onto itself until there was an indiscernible mess of rope hanging behind their legs.
“What are you doing? That’s too tight!” Kristine complained. She knew nothing about knots either, but she knew enough that it seemed like they’d have a real hard time untying it.
“It’ll loosen up a lot when you start moving,” Jessica said, impressed with her handiwork.
Kristine rolled her sneakered foot around a bit and Nicole stretched hers forward and then flexed it back upward. “ Let's just get this over with,” Kristine said.
Jess held the second hank of rope up and stretched it out, “hold on. I’m not done!”
“What? Seriously?” Nicole complained as Jess wrapped the second rope around their thighs and tied another messy knot.
“Can’t make this too easy,” Jessica quipped and tapped both Kristine and Nicole on their thighs as if to usher them up off the bench.
—
Kristine and Nicole made their way clumsily across the grass field to where the race would start. They laughed and smiled as they struggled to find a good way to walk bound together as they were. Jessica walked a few paces ahead of them, leading them past coworkers and friends, some of whom jeered and egged them on in jest.
Kristine’s eye caught a familiar figure standing off in the distance, still and dark, visually striking against the backdrop of the rest of the onlookers who cast a more casual and lighter vibe.
“Ugh. Illyana’s over there,” Kristine said, nodding at Nicole to look off in the distance.
Nicole turned her head and registered the near-gothic Illyana. “Ugh. Who wears that to a park?”
Nicole was referencing Illyana’s choice to dress as if she were attending a business meeting or maybe a funeral. She wore a thick wool overcoat, such a dark charcoal that it could’ve just been black, and black slacks that were perfectly creased to hang straight down over point black heeled boots.
Her attire fit her persona and the rest of her appearance. Her dark brown hair hung neatly down to her shoulders with layered bangs brushing softly over her thin brows and curtaining stunning silver-blue eyes. Her ivory skin seemed made of glass and her thin lips seemed to rarely cast a smile. She stood unnaturally still even as she talked casually with someone, the only movement she seemed to make was to raise a slender hand clad in a dark leather driving glove to swipe a stray hair from her face as the wind blew gently.
“Illyana does. I don’t think vampires own casual clothing,” Kristine said snarkily.
It was no secret that Kristine and Nicole were not fans of Illyana. She was shrewd and disinterested in any friendliness. Moreover, she was competitive and calculating. She thought Kristine was given special treatment by the management that ran the clinic, that she was too much of a “teacher’s pet”, that she had too much autonomy.
While everyone else in the clinic seemed enamored by Kristine, Illyana seemed unimpressed and jealous. She also treated the nursing and administrative staff poorly, bordering on with contempt at times, Nicole included. This made her generally unpopular around the office.
“I’m actually shocked that she’s here.” Nicole said as she and Kristine fussed and fumbled while they waited for the race to start.
“Even Illyana isn’t exempt from stuff like this. I mean, we’re here. And at least she’s not doing this,” Kristine said, gesturing down to their tied legs.
As she spoke, Kristine stared over at Illyana once again. She couldn’t help but feel even more ridiculous knowing that she was here. She hated the idea that Illyana might scoff at this silliness, or that she’d criticize it as unprofessional.
It didn’t matter. They were there now, and it was for a good cause. Kristine and Nicole clasped each other in a half hug and got ready to race.
—
The race ended quickly, though not without nearly all the participants stumbling and falling over once or twice, Kristine and Nicole included. All the participants scattered to different benches and patches of dry grass to untie themselves and move on with their day. Kristine and Nicole, however, sat frustrated at a faded splintery picnic table and tugged at the knots on their legs to no avail.
Jessica walked over smiling and shaking her head as if their inability to untie the knots were somehow their fault. “This is more embarrassing to watch than the race.”
“Jess. Shut up,” Kristine said, annoyed and frustrated.
Jessica knelt down and pushed their hands out of the way, “Watch out. I’ll get you guys out.”
After a half-minute of tugging and then studying the ankle knot as if it were a Rubik’s Cube, Jessica looked up at her friend and cousin a bit wearily as she said “Don’t freak out. I have scissors in the car. I’ll cut you guys free. I’ll be right back.”
Jessica stood up as Kristine interjected “No way! We’re leaving. The race is over, my ankle is hurting and I’m getting cold. I’ve had enough.”
Kristine sort of guided Nicole upward with her as she rose, even though their predicament meant she didn’t have a choice.
“Ok. Fine. Whatever you want to do.” Jessica said through a smirk, holding in a laugh as the two of them struggled to stand upright together.
—
Nicole and Kristine hopped and hobbled their way across the parking lot, both giggling at the sheer ridiculousness of their situation and scowling at Jessica who kept pace a couple of yards ahead of them and periodically turned around to snap pictures of the two to save for later embarrassments.
“Come on, you two.” Jessica grinning widely as they approached her SUV, a gleaming pearl white Volkswagen.
“Ugh. I could kill you, Jess. I swear. My ankle is starting to hurt.” Kristine said snappily as her and Nicole finally rested their tired bodies against the vehicle.
“Oh, pipe down Krissy.” Jessica’s voice was muffled as she leaned herself into her truck and rifled through the center console compartment. “Ugh I can’t find them! Just get in the back seat. I’ll have to cut you guys free when we get to the house.”
“What?! How are we supposed to do that?!” Nicole said as she tugged at the mess of knotted rope on her leg.
Kristine swung the back door open and leaned her head in. “Just get in. The faster we go, the faster we get out of this.”
Nicole followed her friend into the back bench seat, having no other choice. They’re joined legs twisted uncomfortably in the middle of the truck on the transmission tunnel that protruded up from the floor a few inches and forced one or both of their knees to be bent and a large plastic cup holder on the bottom of the center console created an obstacle for their feet. Kristine, the taller of the pair by an inch or two, wriggled in the seat to try to find a better way to sit. Nicole resigned herself to the circumstance and nuzzled up close to Kristine.
“Just a few minutes like this.” Nicole said with a huff.
Jessica’s icy blue eyes pierced the rearview mirror. “What’s wrong?”
“Ugh it’s just an awkward position back here.” Kristine complained and pouted her lip exaggeratedly so that Jess could see her displeasure in the mirror.
Jess turned around in the front seat and leaned on the center console. “…just stretch your legs up here.” She reached down and pulled at the thick band of rope that joined the two girls' ankles together and lifted the twinned feet up onto the console.
Kristine gasped for a brief second and then rolled her sneakered foot a bit, enjoying the freedom.
“That’s better. Let’s go.” She said, Nicole shrugged and sat back in the seat.
Jess dug through her purse and then whipped her head up with a quizzical look on her face. Her hands shot into all of her pockets. “Ugh you gotta be kidding me. I can’t find my keys.” She sighed deeply. “Relax. Let me just run back to the raffle table. I think I left them there.”
“Are you serious?!” Kristine scolded. “Come on Jess!”
“You’re really in no position to complain, sweetie. Sit tight.” Jess said, turning over the seat to look at Kristine.
She put her hand on the door latch and paused. She turned almost 180 degrees in the driver seat and sat up on her right knee. She reached down and tugged at the lace on Kristine’s sneaker.
“Hey! What are you doing?” Kristine yelled and lurched forward. She pulled her leg, but Nicole wasn’t paying attention and the movement was awkward.
The sneaker came off easily and Jess tossed it down to the passenger seat floor. She then undid the lace on Nicole’s sneaker. “I feel like this is too good an opportunity to pass up.”
Nicole yelled now “Jessica! Don’t you dare!”
The two of them tried to get their legs off the console, but with them tied together, they really couldn’t get out of each others’ way.
Nicole’s sneaker hit the car floor and Jessica smiled widely as she stared at their socked feet and then back to their faces.
Her fingernails skittered over their socked soles, more a tease of what was about to happen than anything.
She grabbed the toe of Kristine’s white crew sock and tugged a few times at it as it was trapped under the rope that bound their legs together. It slid off quickly and when her toes felt the cold air they spread and then instinctively curled.
Jessica looked down at her friend’s wiggling toes, the nails painted a deep almost-black-looking green color that sparkled luminously when the sunlight streaming through the windshield hit them. She began tickling the soft pale arch of Kristine’s foot immediately, fingernails swirling and scratching lightly on the sensitive skin.
“No! I am not doing this today!” Kristine protested through gritted teeth and jumped her bare foot off the center console as much as she could anchored to Nicole’s foot.
“Ow! Stop it!” Nicole squealed as Kristine’s twisting and jumping pulled her ankle and leg in unnatural directions.
Kristine giggled and then grunted and clenched her teeth again. “Jessica. Stahap!”
Jessica flicked her finger under the collar of Nicole’s quarter sock and snatched off with ease. Her eyes lit up as she looked at her cousin who was already begging. Seeing Nicole’s foot clad in stretchy nylon delighted the tickler in Jessica. She knew how ticklish Nicole was at baseline, and she also knew that Nicole was even more ticklish with nylons on.
“No! Jess! Please! I don’t want to get tickled!” Nicole said in vain.
“Sorry hun, but you’re definitely getting it today.” Jessica grinned as she dragged the fingers of her left hand over the top of Nicole’s tiny, nylon-covered foot.
As she felt Jessica’s nails grazing her foot, Nicole squealed and her toes curled inside the tight sheer nylons. Her dark polished toenails stretched against the nylon material. Her foot contorted trying to evade Jess’s fingers which had found their way to her instep. Another girlish shriek before she tried desperately to press her sole on the side of Kristine’s vulnerable bare foot to use it as a shield.
Jessica smiled and worked both hands on Kristine’s sole, making her laugh and twist her ankle and exposing Nicole’s foot. “See that Kris? She’s trying to hide behind your foot!”
Kristine reached forward and swatted at her friend’s tickling hands. “Get off! Leave us alone Jess!”
Jessica struggled for a moment to try to hold their feet down on the center console. Every time she tickled, one of them twisted and jerked away and she’d lose her grip. Frustrated, she scanned the car interior for an aid, and yanked a phone charging cord from its USB port in the console.
She stretched the white cord a bit and looped it around the knotted rope that joined their ankles together. Kristine swatted at her hands again yelling “No! No way!”
Jessica swatted her hands in return giving her just enough time to push the cord through itself and knot it. She pulled it tight and tied the other end to a piece of metal that belonged to the seat mounting assembly below her.
Jessica popped her head up after tying the cord off and admired her handiwork. “That’s better!” she scratched her two pointer fingers, one on each foot snared up in front of her on the console, and watched them pull against the tight charging cord. They could still move their feet an inch or two here and there, but they were now relatively immobile.
Kristine’s voice was panicked as she giggled and yelled at Jessica “Are you serious?! Let us go! This is nuhuhuhuts!”
“No way. This is too good!” Jessica said excitedly, tickling both feet at the same time. Nicole shrieked before releasing a wave of uncontrollable laughter. Kristine protested as much as she could but as she felt Jessica’s fingernails under her toes she bucked backward into the seat and laughed hard.
The two girls laughed and leaned on each other in the back seat. They didn’t have a choice. “This is horrible!” Nicole gasped out as she felt her cousin’s fingers gliding across the nylon material that covered her arch.
“Nic, I think these nylons are making you almost as ticklish as Krissy!” Jessica and Nicole had sometimes talked about just how ticklish their bombshell friend was, and the idea that Jessica knew that the nylon material covering Nicole’s foot was making her as unbearably ticklish as Kristine stuck in her brain like a dart.
Nicole’s eyes, normally sultry and smouldering in a subdued way, were wide and huge. Her cheeks lifted as high as they could, her bright white smile ached persistently as she panicked and she screamed out in laughter as she felt the stretchy nylon material heightening every ticklish sensation.
“JESSICAHAHAHAHAHAHA! PLEHEHEHEASE STAHAHAHAP! PLEHEHEHEASE!” Nicole’s voice echoed in the cabin of the SUV, ringing out even over Kristine’s hysterical chuckling.
Jess grinned, enjoying the feeling of power she had over them. She watched them in the back seat, adorably embracing each other in fits of laughter. “What do you think, Kris?” Jessica taunted as she curled her fingers under Kristine’s toes, waiting for the shriek she knew was coming.
Kristine’s scream was immediate and piercing as she felt her friend’s manicured fingernails scratching her uber sensitive toes. She lurched forward, reaching desperately and to swat her friend’s tickling hands off, but nothing seemed to deter Jessica. Nicole, being a good couple of inches shorter than Kristine, couldn’t even reach Jessica’s hands. She’d slunk down low in the back seat, tugged at the band that joined their thighs together, desperate and huffing deep breaths in as she felt momentary breaks in the tickling.
Something about being bound, even in this utterly ridiculous way, was driving Kristine crazy. She hated the feeling that she couldn’t get away. That she was trapped. The tickling was bad enough–her foot ached from stretching, her ankle was sore and her sides and abs began to hurt from laughing–but the idea of the feeling of the ropes were a constant reminder of her inability to escape. Her lack of control.
Jessica’s fingers lifted off her toes for a split second and Kristine sucked a deep breath and clenched her toes as fast as she could. Jessica pivoted her technique, sliding her nails up and down the length of her extremely sensitive arch.
Kristine gritted her teeth again. She kept her toes clenched, her sole now rippled with wrinkles. The light teasing on her arch sent her nervous system into a different gear. The deep chuckling gave way to whimpering giggles as she tried to fight the maddening sensations.
“Please Jess! No more! No more!” Kristine pleaded, all the feistiness and grit dissolved from her body.
Jessica smiled and continued her torture. She lightly teased Nicole’s instep with one hand and she pretended to count the wrinkles on Kristine’s arch with the other. “Come on, Kris. Let me at these pretty toes again,” Jessica teased before being interrupted by the noise of the vibration of her phone on the dashboard.
“Shit. It’s Dr. Chen.” Jessica said, immediately pulled out of the moment.
“Hey. What’s up?” Jessica said sweetly, as if she wasn’t just tickle torturing her best friend and cousin in a parking lot.
She opened the door and stepped out, not wanting Dr. Chen to hear anything. Kristine lifted her head off Nicole and watched Jessica walking away from the car toward the park area.
“I think she’s going to get the keys!” Kristine said, exhaustion in her voice.
“Thank god… I can’t take any more of this.” Nicole said, her chest heaving up and down as she caught her breath.
“I’m starting to think she’s actually evil.” Kristine said she sat up a bit and tried to make herself comfortable in the back seat.
In the distance, Kristine could make out a small crowd of people walking from the park into the lot. One figure broke from the group and seemed to be heading in their direction. She thought maybe it was Jessica, but in the distance she could make out the silhouette of a long black coat.
There weren’t many cars left and there were even fewer parked near them. She looked around then back at the woman approaching them. She turned to look out the back window and saw a white Mercedes a few rows behind them.
Illyana’s Mercedes.
She recognized the coat too, as the tiny girl got closer. And her gait, or perceived lack-thereof. Illyana moved like a ghost or some floating thing that didn’t need to waste energy moving its legs.
“Illyana…” Kristine said softly as she came into full view outside her window.
“What? Where?” Nicole said, popping her head up to see.
“She’s walking to her car. It’s behind us.” Kristine said, wariness in her throat.
“Oh my god. She’s not going to see us like this, right?” Nicole said, sharing the wariness now.
“Nah. Her car is a few rows ba–” Kristine began to say but stopped short. She watched Illyana making a b-line now for Jessica’s Volkswagen. “I think she’s coming over here. “
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me!” Nicole slunk down low in the seat again. “Get down Kristine! Maybe she won’t see us.”
“She’s literally walking right over here.” Kristine placed a hand on her forehead.
Illyana looked into the car, past the light factory tinting of the back seat windows and could obviously see them. As she got closer they clocked her eyes darting around the vehicle's cabin.
“What are we going to do?” Nicole seemed overcome with embarrassment.
“Just don’t say anything. She might not notice.” Kristine reasoned absurdly.
Illyana's eyes met Kristine’s as she got within a few feet. Kristine opened the back driverside door.
“Hey.” She said flatly.
“Hi. I tried calling Jessica. I have her keys. Where is she…” Illyana’s eyes searched for Jessica but landed squarely on the bound feet on the center console. “… what is going on in here?”
The faint freckles that spattered Kristine’s cheeks were washed away by the pink flush of embarrassment. “Uh…” her toes wiggled involuntarily as Illyana’s silvery eyes shifted back to the center console.
“Jessica was playing a prank on us.” Nicole jumped in, trying desperately to free them from the awkwardness and get Illyana to walk away. “She’ll be right back. You said you had the keys?”
Illyana’s gaze shifted again. She glared at the girls through the open back door. She reached into the pocket of her long coat and pulled her gloved hand out dangling Jessica’s keys from her fingertip. “Yes.” Her voice was mellow but sharp. Her chestnut bangs swept delicately over her face in the breeze. She reached out and opened the front door and placed the keys on the dashboard above the steering wheel.
She hesitated for a moment and turned back toward the center console. Krissy’s toes moved again sort of nervously, as if they knew they were being stared at. Illyanna reached down and unbuttoned her coat before kneeling on the front seat and facing the two girls in the back. She looked down again, this time studying the USB cord that held their ankles in place.
Her thin lips widened into a smirk. Her full black eyelashes batted as she looked up at them. “This is quite a prank.” She pulled at the finger of one of her gloves and slipped her thin, snow white hand out from its leather cover. Her nails were long and almond-shaped, almost pointed, and painted a pale nude color tipped with pure white–a sort of french manicure.
She removed the second glove without pulling her silver eyes away from them. “You know, Kristine, I noticed as soon as we met that you were always popping your feet out of your shoes at your desk. What a garish behavior. Certainly not ladylike to have your bare feet out in a professional setting. I think I can even recall seeing them up on a chair or something while you talked on the phone. Like the office is some kind of flop house…”
Kristine couldn’t help but roll her eyes at Illyana. She was so pretentious and so prim, of course she’d notice something like that.
Illyana’s smirk returned. “...And I couldn’t help but wonder at times if you’re ticklish…” She looked down at the vulnerable bare foot before her as Kristine squirmed in the back seat. “...It’s awfully inappropriate of me to think that, I know, but sometimes I have intrusive thoughts…”
Nicole and Krissy turned to face each other for a moment before Kristine’s entire body lifted off the seat with a shriek. “Illyanaaaa! What are you doing?!”
Illyana’s tiny slender fingers moved quickly across Kristine’s soft pale arch, her pointed fingernails scratching lightly.
Kristine pressed her left hand against the seat cushion and her right hand on Nicole’s thigh. Her butt lifted off the seat as she gritted her teeth, desperately not wanting to give in to Illyana’s torment.
Illyana watched the pretty pedicure toes curl and flex and kept her hand glued to her arch as her ankle rolled frantically back and forth. “So, Kristine… are you ticklish?”
“Mmmph… Fuck off Illyanaaaa!” Kristine said through a forced gleaming white smile.
“It certainly seems like you are, Kristine. Come on, say it.” Illyana’s smirk grew wider.
Kristine held out for as many seconds as she could before she cracked. “Gaaahahahaha! I’m ticklish! I’m ticklish! PLEHEHEHEASE DOHONOHON’T!”
“Mmm. That’s what I wanted to hear.” Illyana lifted her fingertips off of Kristine’s bare sole and rested her wiry hand on Nicole’s tiny stockinged foot.
“Now… Here’s a girl with some class. Stockings on a cold day, and I’ve never seen you barefoot at the office, Nicole.” Illyana purred and stroked the nylon foot she held in her hand. “Although… you are wearing this awful sweat outfit.”
“Illyana…” Nicole’s foot moved like a windshield wiper trying to evade the imminent tickling.
“Let me guess. You’re ticklish too.” Illyana said, beginning to stroke her nails across the nyloned arch.
Nicole didn’t bother trying to hold it in. Or she couldn’t. The laughter spilled out of her adorable mouth in sheepish giggles. She covered her face with her hands as if she couldn’t bear to watch. “Yes! Please stop!”
“These stockings are so nice, Nicole. They must feel just wonderful under my nails.” Illyana taunted the beautiful hysterical girl.
“Leave her alone Illyana! Just get out of here! This is ridiculous!” Kristine protested and lurched forward swinging her arm at Illyana's hands.
Illyana bobbed gracefully dodging her upper body backward and darting her hands back down to tickle both feet in front of her. She scratched deep into the center of their soles and both girls screamed with laughter. Krissy fell back into Nicole in a heap of uncontrollable laughter.
“So obviously Jessica figured out how fun this is before me, right?” Illyana purred.
Kristine mumbled as she caught a breath in between laughter. “YOU GOTTA STAHAHAP! I can’t take anymoooore!”
Nicole was in a fit of laughter that wore out the noise from her vocal chords and caused periods of silence. Her toes curled inside the nylon prison. She felt Illyana’s pointed nails pulling and then sliding over the tightly woven sheer material that felt more like a layer of massage oil or lotion at this point.
Illyana used her pointer and middle fingernails to scratch at Kristine’s toes, which caused the sultry blonde to explode into a fit of hysteria. “No no! Not my toes! Illyana please! NOT MY TOHOHOES!!”
“Oh this just keeps getting better. What’s wrong with your toes Kristine? Hmm?” Illyana was a masterful taunter and an even better tickler. She knew how to make the very tips of her nails just barely touch the base of Kristine’s toes. Kristine felt an electricity of laughter striking through her body. She was pushing so hard against Nicole that Nicole began yelping.
“Sorry, Nicole. I’m going to have to give you a break. I need both hands for this.” Illyana reached into the lapel of her coat and down into the tiny handbag that hung from her shoulder near her waist and pulled out a tiny black tube. She quickly unscrew the cap and retracted a small black mascara brush from the tube.
She grasped Kristine’s big toe with her thumb and index finger and held it tightly. Her grey eyes peered over the seat to Kristine’s plump breasts rising and falling deeply with each labored breath. “Here’s one of those intrusive thoughts again…”
Illyana pushed the tiny mascara brush in between Kristine’s big toe and the one next to it. She twisted it slowly and pulled it back and forth. Kristine shot up off the seat “Aaaaiiieee! Whahaat the fuck is thahahahat?!”
The brush left streaks of black mascara on the sensitive skin between Kristine’s toes. Illyana studied them and watched Kristine’s toes spread as the brush did its awful work. She moved the brush over to the next space and Kristine jumped again. Nicole pushed at her friend. She had to get her off of her. She looked over the passenger and could see Illyana flossing Krissy’s perfect toes with the brush.
Kristine kicked her free leg wildly first at the back of the front seat, then up the center opening to try to kick Illyana’s hands off her incredibly ticklish foot. Illyanna was quick and stronger than she appeared. She captured the untied ankle and ripped Kristine’s sneaker off first, then her white crew sock.
“Noooo!” Kristine whined and almost whimpered.
She clenched her toes tightly as she felt Illyana’s thin lithe arm wrap around her ankle. “Perfect. A new toy.” Illyana swirled the mascara brush in circles on Kristine’s freshly uncovered sole, leaving intermittent streaks and dabs of black makeup on her porcelain arches and pink heels. “Open up those toes Kristine. Come on.”
Kristine laughed helplessly. Her cheeks ached and she felt exhausted. She collapsed down onto Nicole’s shoulder whimpering as the brush made a cacophony with her senses.
She couldn’t hold out any longer. Her toes loosened up and Illyana immediately began rotating the mascara brush in between each toe causing Kristine to howl in laughter.
“Kristine… I have to say… Your feet are so soft. So well taken care of. So ticklish.” Illyana continued teasing Krissy as laughed with a rasp to her tired voice.
“What do you waaant Illyana? Plehehease! I’ll do anythiiing!” Kristine pleaded.
“Just fucking stop Illyana! She’s had enough!” Nicole yelled and kicked her still bound foot in protest at Illyana's arm.
Illyana held onto Kristine’s foot with her left arm and used her right hand to tickle and scratch at Nicole’s foot in retaliation.
Nicole screeched when she felt her nails hit her sole again. Illyana tickled both exhausted girls at the same time once more, they giggled musically and sweetly in unison with their heads collapsed onto each other until finally the tickling stopped.
Illyana dropped Kristine’s foot down to the console next to her other one and Nicole’s. She stood up quickly, pressed her coat flat and screwed her mascara brush back into its tube and slipped it away into her bag.
She leaned back into the car and peered past the seats at the girls. “Bye ladies.”
Kristine and Nicole, too exhausted and embarrassed to look up, could only hear Illyana greeting Jess outside the car. A minute later, Jess opened the door and looked down, seeing Kristine’s two bare feet smeared with mascara and Nicole’s nylons, pulled and a bit rustled.
“What the heck happened here?” Jessica scoffed with a chuckle as she looked into the back seat to see her friend and cousin wrecked.
“What do you think? She was tickling us!” Kristine said sharply.
Jessica laughed. “Ha! What is all over your feet?”
“Mascara I think.” Nicole answered for Kristine.
Jessica tugged at Kristine’s toe and examined her graffitied foot. “Ok.. Well. Good news. The keys are here… We can go back to the house now.” Jessica said, chuckling under her breath as she started the car.
—
On the short drive back to Jess’s house from the park, Kristine sat quiet for most of the ride, her bare feet, marked and smeared with black makeup, were still propped up on the cushioned armrest that covered the center console, one still tied tightly to Nicole’s tiny stockinged foot. She stared out the window with a hand on her left cheek and her elbow on the door panel. Her toes flexed a bit as she idly rubbed her free foot against the toes of her tied one.
Nicole recounted some of the details to Jessica who seemed too interested in how the whole thing went down. She seemed particularly interested in Illyana’s motivations, thinking for certain she took it as an opportunity to punish the girls a bit.
“I just can’t believe she just started tickling you guys…” she said, pausing to hear what else the girls would share.
Kristine, a bit annoyed with Jessica for the entire ordeal, snapped “... Yeah, because you tied us together and left us there like that. Oh and let’s not forget that YOU were tickling us to death to start with. She literally hates me. She was enjoying herself so much, making me freak out.”
“Yeah, she’s definitely the type to enjoy that.” Jess said sympathetically. “I could totally see her trying to punish you.”
“She’s so mean.” Nicole said with a huff as they pulled into Jessica’s driveway.
“Let me run inside and grab some scissors. Don’t let anyone sneak up and start tickling you again, ok girls?” Jessica said with a sly grin.
—
When Jessica came out of the house waving a rather large pair of scissors, Kristine and Nicole both let out sighs of relief.
“Thank god… I can't wait to get out of this car!” Nicole exclaimed.
Jessica re-entered the front seat and knelt on the cushion. She slipped one blade of the shears under the bottom ring of rope and began cutting her way through all the binds.
As soon as the last rope popped open, Nicole yanked her foot away and down off the center console. Kristine sat up in the seat but Jessica scolded her “Do not move Krissy. I don’t want that mascara all over my seats!”
Jessica pulled a paper towel out of her coat pocket and wiped it across the bottom of Kristine’s left foot.
“Ugh that’s not going to work!” Krissy said. She was proven correct as Jessica turned the paper towel over to examine it and found only a small smear of mascara, the rest still stained Kristine’s sole.
Nicole dug through her bag and pulled out a small package of makeup remover wipes. She yanked one from its bag and leaned forward over Kristine’s unwillingly-painted feet and wiped the dripping towelette over a thick black smudge that streaked the outside edge of her right foot.
The wipe did its job immediately and quickly became saturated black. “This’ll be quick,” Nicole said.
She pulled another one out and tossed the package to Jess who grabbed a second one and began wiping Krissy’s left foot while Nicole continued on the right.
Kristine sat back in the seat and breathed in and out deeply trying to calm herself. Her toes began moving involuntarily. Her abdominals tensed. Her hands pushed down and clenched the seat cushion below her.
The sensation of the wipes was a confusing mixture of wet and slippery and scratchy. They were somewhat fibrous and covered in a network of tiny circular pads that lent more scrubbing power but also seemed to be alarming Kristine’s senses.
Her legs began to twitch and she bit down on the inside of her lip. Her eyes squinted and quivered. She could feel their fingertips under the cloth material scrubbing away at stubborn stains.
“Fuck,” she thought.
Jessica looked backward, feeling Kristine’s legs and feet tensing up. She smirked as she saw Kristine barely holding herself together. And pushed down on the foot that she’d been working on to hold it still while she scrubbed circular motions on the silky skin of her friend’s ivory arches.
“Mmmphh, ” a muffled groan of something unintelligible hopped out of Kristine’s mouth.
“What’s that Kris?” Jessica asked with a smile.
“Nu-nu-nothing. Just hurry uuhhhppp!” Krissy exclaimed, her voice whining as she braced herself against the back seat.
Jessica’s sympathy was gone and Nicole’s seemed to be rapidly fading. Both girls scrubbed the wet wipes all over her soles, but Jessica seemed particularly interested in drawing out shrieks and yelps and grinned as she watched Kristine fight the muscles in her cheeks.
“Come on… Haven’t I been through enough today?” Kristine asked as her left hand rose off the seat to cover her brow and hide her eyes as if she was embarrassed or couldn’t bear to watch them tickle her feet anymore.
Nicole smiled at Jessica mischievously. She scooped her arm under Kristine’s ankle and held it tight as she teased, “we have to get the makeup off Krissy.”
“Yeah, what are you going to do? You can’t put your socks and shoes back on like this.” Jessica said as she locked Kristine’s other ankle in the crook of her arm.
Kristine’s eyebrows raised as she mumbled “I guess… just make it fa—ahahahahaha!“ Kristine’s statement dissolved into laughter as she felt her friends’ fingers and the wipes scrubbing, now tickling intentionally more than cleaning.
Kristine’s feet were slick with whatever substance had soaked the wipes. She shrieked as she felt Jessica bunch one up and push it into her toes, rotating it and scrubbing deeply with her covered pointer finger.
“HAHAHAHA—no! Jess! COME ONAHAHAHAHAHA,” Kristine yelled as she scrunched her toes, entrapping Jessica’s finger and the wipe.
“Krissy. Your toes are covered in mascara sweetie,” Jessica said matter-of-factly.
“Yeah, this is Illyana’s doing. There’s a big glob of it right here under your toes on this foot too,” Nicole said as she pulled a fresh wipe from the package and rubbed it vigorously onto the pillowy soft skin at the base of Kristine’s toes.
Feeling both of the girls’ flicking and scrubbing at her uber sensitive toes made Kristine’s entire body jolt in the back seat as she howled with uncontrollable giggling laughter. Jessica draped the towelette over her toes and slipped her fingers and the cloth material between Kristine’s toes, rolling the wipe around each toe with her thumb and pointer finger.
Kristine reached forward instinctively and covered her toes with her hands, one on each foot as she yelled “OKAY! NO MORE! NOHOHO MOOORE!”
She propped her feet on their outside edges and glanced at her wet soles, assessing how much makeup was still left.
“There’s still some on right here,” Jessica teased and reached forward with her pointer finger and flickered her nail on a spot of Kristine’s sole not covered by her hand.
Kristine yelped and pulled both feet down off the center console, “well then it’s staying there. I can’t take anymore!”
Nicole tossed Kristine’s rumpled socks into the backseat and handed her athletic sneakers over the console. Kristine looked displeasing at her right sole propped up on her left thigh, “Ugh, now my feet are all wet… I can’t put my shoes on like this,” she said.
She rubbed one of the crewsocks over her wet sole like a makeshift towel, then did the same to the left foot. She flexed her foot and spread her toes, drying the runny liquid from in between them and sighing audibly staring at a few remnant stains of makeup that would have to come off in the shower.
She pushed her bare feet into the sneakers as Jessica and Nicole gathered their things as well.
“Wanna come in?” Jess said, stepping out of the vehicle.
“No, I’m going home to take a nap before I go out tonight.” Nicole said, her thumbs typing something on her phone.
Kristine stretched her arms, happy to be out of the car. “Ugh, a nap sounds like a good idea. I’m exhausted.”
—
Kristine trotted quickly up her walkway to her front door. As she opened the door she saw the headlights from Luke’s truck as he parked next to the curb.
She turned, watching him walk up the driveway to the walkway. “Hey! You got here so quick,” she said, her eyes taking him in as he approached.
Luke walked with his hands tucked partially into the front pockets of his black jeans and smiled as he got closer to her. His thick dark hair was pushed backward and that smile put slight dimples on his stubbled cheeks.
“Yeah, I was in town getting a few things when you texted me. Figured I’d come straight here.” Luke explained before leaning a bit as he landed in front of the large door to kiss her hello.
He inhaled her natural vanilla scent in off her hair and neck as he greeted her and felt her hands touching the muscles of his upper back and their embrace created a sense in both of them that every moment was leading up to that one.
They had moved fast over the last few months, not purposefully, just naturally. They were infatuated with each other.
They walked into the foyer and Luke watched Kristine remove her jacket first and then push the heels of her sneakers off and slip her bare feet out of them. The amber light from the sconce on the wall glimmered off her shiny black-green nail polish as her toes flexed when her feet hit the entryway rug.
Luke’s gaze lingered on her gorgeous bare feet for a few seconds before traveling up her ankles and then her sculpted legs and butt clad in the onyx spandex of her leggings. He reached his hand out to meet hers as he commented, “no socks today?”
“It’s a long story…” Kristine said before Luke pulled her close to his chest and kissed her passionately. She interrupted him, batting her eyelashes and tugged his hand to urge him down the hallway toward her bedroom.
