Mountin’ Biking
by Mudak
Part 3
Chapter 12
The following day, Jenny called Desiree to see if she wanted to head up to the gym. Desiree apologized and said she had to go to class.
“Well, when your class is over,” Jenny said, politely, “Why don’t you come on over to the gym and join me? It can get awfully lonely there sometimes and... Well...” Jenny sighed and added, “I’m sorry if I upset you yesterday. I miss having you around.”
“Thanks, Jenny. We’ll see how I feel after class.”
Desiree hung up the phone, sighed, and sent a quick text message to Steve: SHES GOING 2 GYM. R U?
A few moments later, Desiree smiled as she saw the response come through on her phone: YES.
Steve quickly got into his exercise clothes, stuffed his student ID into his sneaker, and jogged to the gym.
When he got there, the exercise bikes were empty. He found his way over to a weight machine from which he had a reasonable view of the bikes.
After doing a few bench presses, he heard the sound of beeping. He paused and sat up slightly. He couldn’t suppress his smile when he saw Jenny programming an exercise bike and then jumping onto the seat. Her enthusiasm was clear as she began pedalling.
Almost immediately after she started her exercises, Jenny arched her back, bit her lip, and let out a low, barely audible, moan.
She started panting as her eyes rolled up into her head.
Steve smiled. This exercise bike had something hokey about it; he knew that as soon as possible, he’d need to explore things more closely.
His first move was to head up to the front entrance, where he asked the girl behind the counter if she kept a file with all of the instruction manuals for all of the machines in the gym.
The girl knelt down, standing up a few minutes later with a large brown accordion-style folder. “Here ya go,” she giggled.
Steve quickly started rifling through the contents of the folder before he finally found the instruction manual for the different exercise bikes. He surreptitiously glanced back and forth between the illustrations on the covers of each of the manuals, and the one that Jenny was riding. In relatively short order, he was able to identify the correct manual.
After looking through it twice, he finally realized that a few pages had been removed from the book; there were no jagged edges of paper where the missing pages ought to have been. In fact, it almost seemed as if the missing information was meant to be removed, since the only evidence of its existence was misnumbered pages.
Scowling, Steve quickly turned over the book and jotted down the phone number of the company that manufactured the exercise bike.
Steve was satisfied that the exercise bike was the reason for Jenny’s bizarre behavior. He jogged back to his apartment, took a shower, got dressed, and walked over to Desiree’s dorm, texting her en route to the building: R U HOME?
A few minutes later he got the message back that said YES.
ILL BE THERE IN 5 MINS.
K.
When Steve told her what he suspected, Desiree’s face was frozen for a moment with a look that was a combination of shock and relief. “So what do we do?”
“I’m going to try to call the manufacturer. I just don’t want to do it from my apartment in case Tony might overhear me. Mind if I call from here?”
“Be my guest!”
He motioned for her to close the door, and she complied. He started pacing around her dorm room as he dialed the phone number from the back of the instruction manual and navigated his way through the voice response system before finally speaking to a human being.
“Yes, I, um... I’m having a little trouble with your MC8000 Exercise bike and I was hoping you might be able to help me.”
“Of course, sir. What seems to be the trouble?” A pleasant sounding woman on the other end of the phone spoke with him.
“It’s, um... My girlfriend. She’s ... changed since she started using it.”
“Really, sir? How so?”
“Well, she, um... I guess you could say she’s gotten a little bit more ... um ... adventurous. Sexually, that is... Since I put the bike together.”
“Yes, sir, but what seems to be the trouble?”
“I’d, um... I’d like to put her back the way she was, if you know what I mean.”
There was a short pause at the other end of the phone. He could hear the clicking of her keyboard. Finally, the woman spoke. “In order to do that, sir, you need to follow the instructions on pages 47 through 49 of your user’s manual.”
“I... Um, I don’t have the user’s manual. I think I ... I might’ve thrown it out when I finished assembling the bike.”
“I’m sorry, sir, but I’m not authorized to provide you with that kind of information over the phone.”
Steve started to feel a bit agitated. “Then connect me with someone who is authorized!”
“Sir, I’m sorry, but I can’t do that. If you need another copy of the user’s manual, you need to forward us a copy of the original sales receipt and an affidavit signed by the general manager of the store where you bought it, affirming that you did, in fact, purchase the bike there. We can then forward you another copy of the manual, but we are otherwise not permitted to answer any further questions about that particular product.”
“An affidavit?!?” Steve was angry and incredulous. With sarcasm, he asked, “Does it need to be notarized?”
The woman never ceased to be polite in response to his questions. “No, but it does need to be worded in such a way that you’d be certifying under penalty of perjury that you are either the owner or qualified to act on behalf of the owner of the bike.”
Steve sighed and said “Thank you. If I can get the receipt and the affidavit, how can I get it to you for the user’s manual?”
The customer service representative gave him the address to which he should mail the requested information. He thanked her and hung up.
He shrugged at Desiree as he told her what had happened.
“So now what?” she asked, meekly.
“I guess I’m just going to have to figure out the machine on my own.”
Chapter 13
Unfortunately for Steve’s plans, it was next to impossible to find the time to study the computer interface of the exercise bike. Between a steady stream of women who were interested in using the machine, and Tony’s near-omnipresence at the gym, Steve had resigned himself to the fact that getting the time to look at the computer attached to this bike and then trying to figure out how to deactivate one unknown component would be next to impossible.
He kept a close eye on his roommate for the next few days and, whenever Tony went to work at the gym, Steve decided he would make an attempt to search his bedroom for the missing documentation. He made a mental note for himself not to disrupt anything else in the room.
It took more than two hours, punctuated occasionally by Steve looking over his shoulder to make sure Tony didn’t return home early, but finally he found a couple of torn pieces of newsprint that had been stuffed rather clumsily between his mattress and box spring.
Thumbing through the paperwork, he realized he never would’ve been able to handle the programming without it: it required a complicated series of menu item choices that were either misleading or counterintuitive, followed by the need to enter a pre-programmed password, “De-fuck”.
Soon, though, he knew how to do it and it was just a matter of time before he could figure out when.
He casually returned the paperwork back to its hiding spot in Tony’s bed, and started pacing around his living room. After a while, he decided to send Desiree another text message: FIGURED IT OUT. CAN U REPROGRAM MACHINE IF I TELL U HOW?
Desiree squealed with glee when she saw the text message from Steve. She hastily texted him back: I CAN TRY.
After a pause that felt like an eternity, Steve sent her back a text message: I’LL B @ YR DORM IN TEN MINS.
Chapter 14
Steve and Desiree talked well into the night about the best way to return Jenny to her usual, bubbly, former cheerleader of a self. Despite Steve’s personal misgivings about the plan, he begrudgingly conceded that it was the best chance they had.
“Are you sure you want to go through with this?” he asked her, almost imploringly, or as if she didn’t have a sense of the danger she was putting herself into.
“Positive. There’s no other way.” Her slightly fearful yet still determined look convinced Steve not to pursue this line of conversation any further.
Steve sighed. “All right. Do you need me to write down the commands you need to enter?”
“Probably not a bad idea.”
She handed him a piece of paper and a pen, and he hastily jotted down what she needed to know. “Can you read my writing all right?”
“Y-yeah. Is that a G or a 6?”
“Six.”
“Then I’m good.”
“Great! I’ll see you on the other side.”
“And hopefully I won’t be a slut when we get there.”
“Here’s hoping.”
Steve whispered, “Good luck” before he left her dorm room. Desiree went to bed.
After lunch the following day, Desiree knocked on the door of Jenny’s apartment. Becky answered the door.
“Hi, Becky. Is Jenny around?”
“I, uh, think she’s at lunch. She shouldn’t be a whole lot longer, though. She said she’d stop back here when she was done.”
There was a short pause in the conversation when Becky added, “Would you like to wait for her here?”
“Yes,” responded Desiree, her voice barely above a whisper. “Please.”
Desiree paced somewhat nervously around the living room of Jenny’s apartment, occasionally looking out the window for her old friend.
“Is everything all right?” asked Becky, who absentmindedly played with her own breasts.
Desiree watched Becky’s hands and knew that Becky had taken a ride or two on the exercise bike, too. “Oh! It’s just, uh... You see, Jenny and I had a, um, you know. We had an argument and, well...”
Becky nodded knowingly. “It’s not easy to say you’re sorry, is it?”
Desiree wondered what Becky knew about the argument, but nodded slightly. “Yeah,” she said, barely above a whisper.
“That’s all right. If you tell Jenny you’d like to go to the gym with her, I’m sure all will be forgiven.” Becky’s casual demeanor, coupled with the ongoing self-fondling created an image that was incongruous and unnatural.
“I was hoping you’d say that,” said Desiree.
“That new exercise bike they’ve got there’s amazing. I was a kind of a wimp when I rode it. Set it for the Bonneville Salt Flats. I think I’d like something a bit more hilly next time around. Like... You know. Nebraska.”
Desiree chuckled.
Soon, Jenny walked up the sidewalk towards her apartment, accompanied by Tony. Desiree stopped pacing and tried to appear as calm as she could.
Soon, the front door to the apartment opened and Jenny announced to the apartment at large that she was home.
Becky yelled from the kitchen, “Welcome home!”
Desiree slowly turned around to face her friend; in spite of all the two of them had been through together, this simple act felt unnecessarily hard. “Hi, Jenny.”
“Oh, hi! Desiree! How’ve you, um... been?”
“All right, I guess. You?”
“Fine.”
Tony noticed some tension between the two friends and said, “I think I’ll go help... Becky.” In a somewhat louder tone, he called out, “Becky! Where are you?”
“That you, Tony? I’m in the kitchen!”
Tony quickly walked towards the kitchen. There was a brief silence in the apartment that was broken by Becky’s loud moaning.
“Well,” said Jenny. “What brings you around here?”
“I just wanted to, um... I wanted to apologize and ask if you wanted to head on up to the gym for a short workout.”
Jenny looked at her watch. “All right. Can you give me five minutes?”
“Sure.”
Jenny disappeared in the direction of her own bedroom and Desiree began pacing the living room once again.
After a moment, a giggling Becky emerged from the kitchen, topless, and holding Tony’s hand. “Come on! This way!” she laughed, excitedly.
As the giggles and the moans from Becky grew louder, Jenny re-emerged in the living room, ready for a workout. “You ready to go?”
“Yup!” Desiree hoped her voice didn’t betray how anxious she was feeling. “So, um... What can you tell me about this great new bike?”
Almost as though Jenny were ready for just this question, she began to ramble on and on about the sensation of riding your bike literally through any terrain on earth and how smart the computer really is. “It’s like it senses how strong you are and makes adjustments for it. The video it shows you even gives you a sense of the usual weather patterns around there. Just without, you know, actually getting cold or ... wet.”
Jenny paused at the final word because she knew exactly how wet a girl can get while riding on this bike, but that wasn’t something to be discussed with someone who hadn’t ridden on it.
Chapter 15
Once the two girls had reached the gym and signed in, Desiree said, “I think I’ll work out in these clothes.”
“I’m going to want to go get changed in the locker room. Tell you what. Why don’t I set up the bike for you and then I’ll go get changed. Fair enough?” Jenny asked.
“Sure.” Desiree couldn’t believe it: was she actually going to have a few minutes alone on the bike? She couldn’t believe her luck and did all she could do to mute her enthusiasm for this turn of events.
The bike wasn’t in use at the time. It looked recently used, and Jenny reached for a sanitizing wipe from a container on the wall and quickly rubbed down the handlebars and seat. “Whaddaya think?” asked Jenny. “What kind of terrain would you like to try for your first time on the bike?”
“Um... Hilly but not too bad.”
“How does Rome sound?” Jenny tapped a few boxes on the computer screen and in no time, a picture of the Coliseum appeared. “You also get to drive across St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican when you do Rome. It’s really scenic.”
“That’s fine.” Desiree leaned forward to examine the touch screen.
“Great! Hop on!”
Desiree started pedaling slowly on the bike, not wanting to seem like she was waiting to start until after Jenny left. She felt a slight vibration between her legs coming from the seat, pausing for a moment.
Jenny smiled. “What d’you think?”
“It’s ...” Desiree started to pant. “I like it.” This was the truth. It was getting hard for Desiree to concentrate and she unconsciously started to pedal faster.
“Good. I’m going to go get changed. I’ll be back in five.”
Desiree’s voice cracked as she said, “I’ll be here.”
Once Jenny was out of sight, Desiree found it extremely difficult to stop pedaling. She took a deep breath, shook her head and forced the pedals into a backward motion before finally willing herself not to continue pedaling, despite the sensation that pulsated between her legs.
Her mind still somewhat foggy from her simulated and stimulated excursion through the hills of Rome, she reached into her sock and retrieved a folded piece of paper that contained the sequence of commands she would need, in order to deactivate the computer. She quickly tapped the commands, hoping she wasn’t making any mistakes that would cost her any time. Finally, when it asked her the password, she sighed and typed in “de-fuck.” A few more taps of the screen and she heard three beeping noises and it displayed a message that read, “Sex program deactivated. Tap OK to confirm and ride bike to remove any mental reprogramming.”
Desiree tapped OK and got back on the bike. As she started to pedal, the pleasure she had been feeling from between her legs had waned. The bike slowly started to replace the sense of pleasure with a sense of pressure, like something heavy being pushed against her pussy and clit. It wasn’t painful, per se, but it certainly wasn’t enjoyable either.
The screen displayed some of the architecture for which Rome was famous. Desiree turned her head and saw Jenny moving slowly towards her, her exercise outfit redefining the concept of “skimpy.”
Desiree bit her lip and began to moan. This had to look somewhat convincing, she thought, and, even though she didn’t feel any pleasure whatsoever, she had to make it seem as though she were on the verge of orgasm.
When Jenny was a few feet away from her, Desiree screamed out, “Yes! Oh, wow! Yeah! God yes! Mmmmmmmm.”
Jenny smiled. “That’s it. Don’t hold back. Give in to the beauty of the bike...”
“Not... Holding! Back!!!! Oooooooooohhh!” She squeezed the handlebars and leaned forward, hoping that her faked orgasm wasn’t too obviously faked. She started panting as closely as she could in the rhythm of her pedaling, hoping that either she was moving her legs quickly enough to be believable, or if she wasn’t, then she hoped that Jenny wouldn’t notice.
Breathing heavily through her mouth, Desiree slowed down her pedaling. She wiped her brow and said, “Wow!”
“I know, right? Mind if I take the bike for a spin?”
“Be my guest.”
Desiree got off and Jenny mounted the bike. She tapped a few buttons on the screen and the scenery changed to a seaside resort Desiree didn’t recognize.
Seeing Desiree’s confusion, Jenny smiled and said, “the Riviera.”
“Oh, okay.”
The effect was almost immediate, once Jenny started to pedal. Where before she got on the bike, Jenny had a wild, abandoned look in her eyes. The moment she felt the pressure between her legs, her expression slackened. Her breathing slowed down and she scowled, unable to stop the motion of her legs but clearly not happy with the bike all the same.
After about two minutes of riding the exercise bike, Jenny seemed to regain her senses. “What? Where am I?” She looked down and noticed her skimpy dress and jumped off the bike, covering herself. “What? What happened?”
Desiree smiled. “Nothing, really. Let’s go back to the locker room and get changed. It’s good to have you back!”
With some difficulty, Jenny found the locker where she had stored her regular clothes, and got changed. Desiree tried to explain everything that had gone on, but the most she could really explain was that there was something to that bike that put her under Tony’s control, and how that involved getting her friends to ride the bike and everyone getting really slutty and all.
“So how’d you undo everything?”
“Steve showed me how to do it.”
“Steve? Really?”
“Yeah. I think he’s still carrying a torch for you. Maybe you should give him another chance.”
“I...” Jenny didn’t know what to say. He had certainly earned something from her but she wasn’t sure what. After a long pause, she smiled and said, “Listen. I... I think you saved my life tonight. These past few weeks have felt like I was in some kind of bad dream I couldn’t wake up from. What you told me... It woke up some ... I guess you could call them memories and... I’m not happy about it. I owe you now...”
“Actually,” said Desiree, “Now you know how I’ve felt these past five years.”
“This is different.”
“How?”
“Well... I saved you physically but...” Jenny began seeing scenes from her argument with Desiree from the previous week. “You saved me on a lot more levels.”
“I still say we’re even. Before we came here today, you forgave me for our argument.”
“But that wasn’t me any more than it was me trying to turn you into me.”
“You’re not the bad guy, Jenny. We need to get the other girls on the bike.”
“Yes. Yes we do... And then Tony needs to go down.” Jenny laughed. “In a way he hasn’t done before, that is.”
“Did it feel good?” asked Desiree.
“Yes, but it feels better to be free.”
Epilogue
By the end of the day, Jenny had successfully de-converted both of her roommates, freeing them from Tony’s control.
Early the following morning, Tony called Jenny. “Good morning, Jenny!”
“Good morning, Tony,” said Jenny with a tone that was far more exuberant than she really felt.
“Hey, listen, baby. I woke up this morning feeling really ... horny. Mind if I come over? I think you know exactly what I need.”
Jenny chuckled. “Yes. I know exactly what will do you some ... good.” She paused and added, “I just need to... Oh, fuck!”
“What?”
“I promised Desiree that I’d meet her for breakfast in fifteen minutes. And you know that we had a fight last week. We’re starting to reconcile, but I don’t want to jeopardize that. I know you’re horny and you’re making me horny, but can you wait about an hour or so?”
Tony sighed.
“I’ll make it worth your while,” she said seductively.
Tony guffawed. “Since you put it that way. Sure...”
As soon as she got off the phone with Tony, Jenny called the campus police. “Can you please come over here? I think that at least one person who works at the gym has been doing something ... improper. ... No no no. He’ll be coming to my apartment in about an hour and I think it might be better if you were here when he got here.”
About forty five minutes later, Officer Amanda Salazar arrived at Jenny’s apartment. Jenny, who had been getting increasingly agitated waiting for someone to arrive, took a moment to calm down.
Once she had calmed down, Jenny told the officer what had happened to her. Olivia, who was also in the apartment at the time, added her story. They both spoke of the bike and how it created a new, unfamiliar reality for both of them. That they could feel what they were doing, and they recognized that their actions were wrong, but they simply couldn’t restrain themselves. So basically if Tony asked them to do something, they’d do it without question, no matter how wrong or degrading it might have felt.
Jenny told the officer that her ex-boyfriend Steve and her old friend Desiree were instrumental in deactivating the bike, so they might be able to answer additional questions.
Soon, Tony knocked on Jenny’s door, and she invited him in. “So who else is here right now?”
“Just Olivia.”
“Olivia! Awesome. Why don’t you both come here, strip naked, and blow me?”
Officer Salazar stepped out from the kitchen and said, “That might not be a good idea, Tony.”
“What? Wait! Whoa! Who’re you?”
“Officer Amanda Salazar. And I’m going to take you down to the campus security office. We can take your official statement as soon as we get there. Please come with me.”
Tony spluttered in confusion. Jenny and Olivia could barely suppress their own giggles, watching Tony try to make sense of how he could’ve gotten caught.
“I’m going to ask you again, Tony.” Officer Salazar spoke calmly but pointedly. “Please come with me down to the security office.”
After a moment, he quickly turned and ran out the door.
Officer Salazar chuckled. “He really shouldn’t have done that,” she said to Jenny and Olivia. “I was hoping we’d be able to get his statement before we had to bring in the local police, but... Could one of you please confirm his address?”
Jenny wrote down the address of Tony’s apartment on a piece of scratch paper and handed it to the campus security officer.
“Thank you,” said the officer. “We’re probably going to have cops watching his place nonstop starting in about an hour. If he’s not home by then, he won’t make it home. If he is home, then he’ll be arrested the moment he steps outside. I wouldn’t worry about him any more.”
“Thank you,” said Jenny. “Could you please let me know when you’ve got him?”
“Sure. It’ll be within the next day or two, that much is for sure. Let me call the police. Here’s my number if you need anything.” Officer Salazar handed her business card to Jenny, who eyeballed it before handing it to Olivia. Olivia took it and hung it on the refrigerator.
“Thank you for everything.”
“Not a problem Jenny. I’ll talk to you soon but feel free to call me if you need me.”
“I will.”
Officer Salazar turned on her heel and walked out the door.
Olivia stretched and said, “I’m heading over to the library. You going to be all right on your own?”
“I think so,” said Jenny.
The silence that lingered in the apartment after Jenny was left alone at first felt comforting but after a few minutes, Jenny started pacing around her living room, feeling agitated again.
She let out a sigh before she picked up her phone. She looked down at it and sent Steve a text message: U BUSY?
It took a few minutes before he responded, but when he did, it said, “NO. WHATS UP?”
Jenny bit her lip and thought for a minute before she knew what to say in her text back to Steve. I NEVER THANKED U RIGHT 4 YOUR HELP W TONY. CAN U PLS COME OVER?
It wasn’t long before she got a final text message that read, SURE.
Fifteen minutes later, Steve knocked on Jenny’s door. She swung the door open wide for him and before he could say anything, she gave him a big hug. She whispered in his ear, “I really appreciate all of your help, especially knowing how I’ve treated you lately.”
He looked away, feeling somewhat embarrassed. Eventually, he said, “Well, I do, um... I’m hoping we can still be friends.”
She took hold of his shoulders and said, “I think we can be more than that. Whaddaya say we reactivate that bike and take a little ride together?”