The Contract Chapter 4 By The Mangler
As Ethan walked away from James and toward his appointment with his masters and the real estate agent, he wondered how he had reached this point.
SIX MONTHS EARLIER
"Come on, it's only $20 bucks. What is the big deal?" Ethan asked.
"The big deal is we have to work for our money, and we have to use it wisely," Sam sneered. "Unlike you, trust fund boy, who doesn't have to do anything."
"Hey, that's not fair. I can't help it I was born into the family."
"No, but you can help it that you act like a narcissistic, know-it-all, jackass, who has no concept of real work and hardship." Marc threw in.
"I know about hard work...." Ethan began before Sam laughed.
"You have no goddamn fucking idea what it is like to have your life controlled by others. You do what the fuck you want, and you have the best coaches, the best cars, etc. And if something doesn't go your way, call on "Daddy" to fix it. You couldn't survive in our world if your life depended on it."
Ethan was starting to get angry. "Well, I'm sorry I use what I have available, and I'm sorry you are such damned pussies. I could better organize my life in your situation than you can."
"Willing to put your body where your mouth is?" Sam demanded.
"What do you have in mind?" Ethan replied.
"Next weekend, we each choose the winner of each NFL game. From Thursday to Monday night, there are 13 games. Whoever gets the most right gets to control the other person from Friday at 5:00 pm until Monday at 7:00 am. Thus, I can show you what it's like to have little to no control over your life."
"I'll agree to that, and WHEN I win, I'll show you how to effectively use your weekend and quite bitching about how hard you have it."
The bet came down to the Monday night game. Out of the 13 games played, Sam and Ethan had predicted the winner in 8 games and selected the same team. They each had picked a different team for tonight's game, so this would determine the winner.
Ethan's team was ahead by 5 points with only 10 seconds left to play, and Sam's team was at their own 20-yard line.
"Suck to be you, Sam. I've got many ways to teach you to better manage your time and money," Ethan smirked.
"Fuck off," a slightly depressed Sam replied. That is until the ball was snapped, the quarterback dropped back and threw a Hail Mary pass down the middle of the field, which his receiver managed to catch over the head of the defender. While trying to knock down the pass, the defender came down onto the field off-balance. He managed to grab the receiver by the jersey but could not pull him down to the turf with him. The receiver bolted like a bat out of hell for the endzone but was hit by a defender at the five-yard line. However, he maintained his balance and stretched just enough to get the ball across the goal line before his knee hit the ground.
"Up your goddamned, mother fucking, smug face," Sam screamed as Ethan sat in stunned silence. In a matter of seconds, he had gone from the top of the world to the bottom of hell. He knew he was in for a rough weekend but knew it wasn't anything he couldn't handle.
Friday 5 pm rolled around, and Sam casually strolled into his and Ethan's shared room, followed by Marc and Brad.
"Get naked, bitch," Sam demanded.
"What the hell," Ethan responded.
"As of NOW, I control your life for the weekend. So, get naked or let everyone know you are a chicken shit coward who doesn't live up to his bets," Sam smirked.
"Fuck you, I always live up to my bets -- wins and losses," Ethan replied as he stripped naked. Ethan had no problem with nudity because, as a high-quality athlete, he had been around it all his life. Once naked, he just stood there while the three stared at him. After a few minutes, the silence started getting a little unnerving, but Ethan was determined not to give in.
Sam reached into a bag he was carrying, pulled something out, and tossed it to Ethan. "Put this on. This is your "indoor" uniform for the weekend."
Ethan caught the tossed garment and examined it. It was a basic "Bike" white jockstrap, size small.
"This isn't the correct size," Ethan stated.
Sam just laughed, took one step closer, and looked up at Ethan. "If I say it is the correct size, it is the correct size. Now put the goddamned thing on." With the last words, Sam jabbed his index finger into Ethan's chest.
Ethan started to raise his hand to slap the offending hand aside, but when he saw Sam raise an eyebrow, he realized he was purposely being goaded, so he stopped lifting his hand. He opened the waist of the jockstrap and stepped through each leg hole. He then pulled the jock up and around his waist. The band was tight around his waist, and he had to adjust his package to try and get it comfortable, but due to the tightness, it was not so.
"As I stated, this is your indoor uniform. For the rest of the weekend, this is all you can wear while you are in the dorm."
"What the fuck? I'll get all kinds of grief for.."
"Afraid of a little teasing, are you?" Marc laughed.
"NO. I can take anything you can dish out," Ethan yelled. Marc and Brad simply smirked.
"Also, if anyone asks why you are dressed this way, you are to simply say, `to remind me of my place.' If they question that, you CANNOT mention the bet at all. Say whatever you must to convince them you are dressed this way because you want to be."
"Are we talking about just the room or..."
"No dumbshit. ANYWHERE within the dorm. Once you enter the dorm, immediately strip down to just the jockstrap. And I mean JUST the strap. No shoes, no socks, no jewelry, nothing but the jock."
Ethan took a deep breath and nodded. "I can get through this if I just joke my way through. I will show these punks how a real man lives his life."
Marc reached into a bag he held and pulled out some other clothing.
"And this is your outdoor outfit for the weekend if you need to be outside the dorm." He first held up a pair of light pink running shorts with the liner removed. Secondly, he held up a lime green t-shirt with "stupid" written across the chest in yellow letters. The shirt had been cut so that it extended just below the pec. The final item in his hands was a pair of glittery flip-flops.
Ethan's mouth flopped open before he sputtered. "You can't ... you can't be serious."
"Yeah, we can be," Brad replied.
"I can't go out dressed like a common street whore," Ethan protested.
"Well, then obviously, don't go outside, dipshit. Just hang around in your jock," Sam laughed. "And oh, you can't just hide out in the room. You will be expected to spend time in the lounge, like on the weekends, watching football, etc."
Ethan's stomach fell as his weekend was getting worse and worse. But at least it had reached rock bottom. "They are making this as difficult as possible. You can do this." Ethan told himself. "Damned fucking cowboys. If they knew how to play defense, I wouldn't be in this mess."
"Oh, and by the way, furniture is off-limits to you this weekend as well. Hang out, sit on the floor, stand, kneel, whatever, stay off the furniture."
"Well fuck, the weekend evidently can get worse."
Sam walked over and opened his wardrobe door, exposing the full laundry basket.
"We can't have you sitting around being lazy all weekend so you can do this laundry. And Marc and Sam each have a similar basket in their room. Make sure you wash, dry, fold, and put away all the laundry. Anything put away incorrectly or in the wrong place will earn two slaps to the ass. You can't mix loads from us, either. Each person's loads are done individually. Got it?"
Ethan struggled to keep his mouth from saying the things his Alpha brain demanded, so he just gritted out, "Yeah, I got it."
"Excellent. Now, there are some rules regarding doing the laundry. Number one, you must use the stairs to reach the take the laundry up and down the stairs."
"But that's six flights down," Ethan grumbled.
"And six flights back up," Brad added. "But you are in shape, and that should be no problem for you."
"Number two, you are only allowed to use one machine at a time," Sam replied.
"But that'll take forever," Ethan complained.
"You got something else you need to do?? Go out to the bar, to the gym or something," Marc smirked as he pointed to the "outdoor" uniform.
"No," Ethan replied.
"Excellent," Sam replied. "And just to make it clear, by one machine at a time, I mean only one machine at a time. You may use one washer and one dryer ----BUT not both together. One at a time."
"What the fuck? That will double the time. You are being fucking ridiculous."
Sam just laughed. "You can always pussy out."
"Fuck you," was Ethan's reply.
"And, since you are being so disrespectful and bitchy, you can only have one load of laundry in the basement at a time, AND you must put away one load before starting another."
Ethan opened and closed his mouth several times but said nothing.
The three just laughed.
Sam said, "Okay just to sum things up in simple terms that even you can understand. While in the dorm, jockstrap only. If you need to go outside, we have this wonderfully fashionable outdoor wear for you. You will do the laundry for the three of us in the following fashion. You will take ONE load of laundry to the basement via the stairs, place it in the washer, and then walk back upstairs. You will then start cleaning up the rooms while you wait. When the first wash load is done, you can walk back to the basement, put the clothes in the dryer, then come back up and continue to clean. Once the dryer is done, you will walk back to the laundry room, remove the clothes from the dryer, and then sort and fold them WHILE remaining in the basement. You will then bring the clothes up here, put them away, and repeat with the second load. You will continue this until the laundry is done and the rooms are cleaned."
Brad popped in, "When you feel the cleaning is done, you will hang out in the lounge, waiting for the washer and/or dryer. You can study, watch TV, whatever, just remember to stay off the furniture." Marc and Sam smiled at this addition.
Marc then said, "Considering three loads per person, that would be nine loads, so one hour in the washer, one hour in the dryer (it sucks to have such inefficient machines) that would be 9 hours of washing, 9 hours of drying and say 30 minutes for moving from washer to dryer and folding for nine loads would be 4.5 hours. So that should take you 22.5 hours. So, by 5 pm tomorrow."
Ethan just stared in a daze as he realized what he was looking forward to.
"Of course, that doesn't include any interruptions for any additional chores we may have for you," Sam smirked. "Also, you will have to pay for all of this, AND you can only use quarters, no plastic."
"I don't have...." Ethan began.
"Unfortunately, the change machine downstairs is broken, so you can go to the bank or store and get quarters, OR you could borrow them from some of your friends.
Marc suddenly laughed and interjected, "But, if you borrow from anybody and they ask why, you have to tell them so you can do your roommate's and his friend's laundry."
Sam and Brad laughed uproariously at this stroke of genius from Marc. "And if they ask why you are doing our laundry, tell them it is only the natural order of things."
Ethan was slowly starting to enter shell shock as he realized what his weekend would be like. And a lot of it was going to be embarrassing as hell.
The three turned and started to leave the room. "We are off to get dinner and then to a party somewhere. See you later."
Just as Sam started to close the door, he stopped, turned, and looked at Ethan. "Oh yeah, two other things. Number one, we have a couple of people who know the rules watching out for you so don't try and get lazy. And number two, you are not allowed to use a basket, so you must carry all the laundry by hand up and down the stairs. If you drop any coming back up, they must be rewashed. ." A smirk appeared on his face, and he said, "Have fun," as he closed the door and headed for his night out.
"Is the change machine really broken?" Marc asked Sam as the three entered Marc and Brad's room.
"It will be shortly," Sam replied as he took some paper and wrote "Broken" on it with a sharpie. "At least according to this sign, it is," Sam laughed. The three grabbed some tape and headed to the basement to affix the sign.
"Sucks to be other people who need to do laundry," Brad stated.
"Yeah, but oh, so much fun for the loser, well, for us anyway.? Hey, were you able to hack into the security cameras down here, Marc?"
"Yep, we should have everything here on tape to prove if dear old Ethan cheats or not."
The three headed out of the dorm toward the student union where they would have dinner and hang out before heading to the Frat parties.
Much thanks to Sir Calvin and His slave William for assistance with proofreading and story suggestions.
For questions or comments, you can contact me at bgklmanlger@yahoo.com
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