The Contract Chapter 5 By The Mangler
For a few moments after the door closed, Ethan just stood there in his jock strap, trying to figure out how he had ended up in this mess. The answer was an easy one -- his ego. Next, he was trying to determine if he was going to go through with it or not. He came very close to saying "fuck it" and not doing it, but once again, his ego took charge. He sighed as he turned to his desk and began looking for quarters.
Ethan started talking out loud. "Let's see, that would be four quarters for washing and four quarters for drying. But some loads need a second round in the dryer, so to be safe, let's say eight quarters per load. That means I need 12 quarters for each load. To add a safety margin, let's add in 3 more loads. Twelve loads times 12 quarters means 144 quarters. Each quarter is twenty-five cents, so 144 times twenty-five means 36 dollars' worth of quarters."
Ethan rummaged through his desk and drawers and came up with eight quarters. Enough to start the first load and figure out where he would get the rest of the quarters from. He turned from his desk, walked over to Sam's laundry basket, picked it up, and placed it on the bed. He began to divide it into three piles: whites, darks, and colors. If an item didn't easily fit into such a stack, he forced it into one anyway. Contrary to what the three guys thought, Ethan had been taught to do certain basic chores, and laundry was one of them.
He took the "whites" pile and organized it in such a way that it would be easy to carry. He grabbed the pile in his arms, picked up the laundry detergent pods, which he fortunately had enough of for all loads, and opened the door. He stopped when he heard some voices in the hallway.
"What the fuck am I doing," he thought. Once again, he came close to just saying fuck it, but his ego told him to "stop being such a goddamned pussy."
Once the voices were no longer heard, he exited the room and quickly headed for the stairway at the end of the hall. He could push through the door before he heard other voices in the hallway. He was hopeful that they hadn't seen him. The odds of seeing anybody in the stairwell were low as most people were too lazy to use them.
No sooner had that thought entered his head than when he started to turn at a landing, a group of three guys came charging up the stairs in their workout gear. Evidently, they were running the stairs, and they were his friends.
"Hey, Ethan," George said as he ran up the stairs. "Doing a little laundry before going....What the fuck are you wearing? Or should I say not wearing?"
Ethan turned red and just stammered.
"Why are you dressed like that?" George demanded as the other two guys reached the landing to see what George was talking about.
Ethan just stood there like a deer in the headlights.
"Well, why are you dressed like that?" Stan asked.
"Well, umm, err," he began as he remembered his instruction on answering that question. "To remind myself of my place," he murmured as he turned redder.
"What, I couldn't hear you," Stan said.
Ethan said louder, "To remind me of my place."
"What the fuck does that mean?" George asked.
Ethan turned and started down the stairs as he said, "It's just the way I wish to be dressed."
George looked at his two friends and said, "I always knew there was something off about him. I just thought he was a little narcissistic, but something else must be going on." The three just laughed as they continued their run up and down the stairway.
Ethan continued down the stairs and into the basement. Fortunately, no one else was around as he placed the first load into the washer, inserted the quarters, and started the cycle. He looked at the clock on the wall, assessing the time before turning and heading back up the stairs. To decrease the chance of getting caught, he jogged back up the stairs and managed to get back to his room without being seen. He then weighed how to go about getting more quarters. He remembered that Jack, a friend of his, usually kept quarts on hand. Unfortunately, he was two floors up. Ethan went to get his cell phone from his desk but could not find it.
"Goddamn it," he murmured. He remembered lying on the desk. One of the three guys must have picked it up before they left. "Fuck, fuck, fuck, FUCK," he screamed to no one.
Knowing he had no choice, he grabbed his wallet, returned to the stairwell, and climbed two floors. Taking a very deep breath, he exited the hallway, walked down to Jack's room, and knocked on the door. He had passed two other guys on the way, but they had simply stared and said nothing.
The door opened, and Jack said, "Hey, man," before he realized what Ethan was wearing or not wearing. Ethan tried to push himself into the room, but Jack placed his hand on the chest, stopping him. "Not so fast there, cowboy. I don't want to give the wrong impression to the other guys on the floor. So, simply question. What the fuck."
"I just needed to see if you had quarters I could buy for laundry."
"And all your clothes are dirty except those?"
Ethan laughed, although it sounded somewhat strained. "Something like that," was his reply. Jack hadn't asked why he was dressed like that, so Ethan felt safe with that answer.
"Okay, but you stay there in the hall. Don't want any rumors starting. How many quarters do you need?"
"Uhh, I could use 35 dollars' worth."
"35 dollars. What the fuck, haven't done any laundry since you got here? Why do you need that much?"
Just as he was about to answer, someone walked behind him and slapped him on the ass hard enough to leave a handprint. He turned to find the school quarterback smirking as he walked down the hallway with one of his friends. "Nice ass there, Ethan. Looks like you're advertising." He laughed as he continued walking.
Ethan turned red as he turned back to Jack and, remembering his instructions, said, "Ugh, I'm doing laundry from some friends and myself."
Jack just chuckled. "Some friends hhhmm. And why would that be?"
Ethan looked blank momentarily, turned slightly redder, and said, "Just trying to be a good friend and roommate."
"Aahh, roommate hu? So, the friends must be his two skater punks. Is that right?"
Ethan was growing increasingly uncomfortable standing in the doorway and just wanted this to be over with. "Yeah, that's right. Got ANY quarters? Need to get back to the basement to change the first load."
"Stay here." Jack then turned and walked over to where he kept his change. He noted that he had two rolls worth twenty dollars. However, he only grabbed one roll when picking them up. He walked back to the door.
"I have ten dollars' worth."
"Great, I'll take them," Ethan said as he pulled a ten out of his wallet and reached for the roll.
Jack pulled them back and said, "I don't know, Ethan. I also have to do laundry this weekend, and this is the last of my quarters."
"Come on, man, this is urgent as I've already started and need to finish the rest."
"I'm not sure...." Jack began.
"Fine, I'll give you twenty dollars for them."
"Let me get this straight. You'll give me twenty dollars for ten dollars' worth of quarters??"
"Yeah. Look, Jack, I know this is weird, but I really need those quarters, so how about it? Please."
Jack smirked to himself when he heard the please.
"Yeah, since we are friends, sure."
Just as Ethan handed over the twenty and took the roll of quarters, he felt a smack on his other ass cheek, also leaving a print.
"Looks like your advertising paid off, and you found a buyer," the quarterback laughed as he and his friend walked by in the other direction.
Ethan turned redder as he remembered that the quarterback and Van Saint were good friends, so he knew this wouldn't remain quiet for long. He turned and started to walk away.
"Hey, Ethan," Jack said.
Ethan turned back. "Yeah?"
"My friend Rollins usually has a good supply of quarters. He is two floors up in this same room."
"Uhh, thanks." Ethan turned and power walked back to the stairway passing several guys who hooted and hollered when they saw the handprints.
Entering the stairway, Ethan stopped and leaned back against the wall.
"Fuck," he mumbled. He had never felt so vulnerable or embarrassed.
As soon as Ethan left, Jack grabbed his phone and texted his friend Rollins.
Hey, an attractive `package' headed your way. He gave me 20 bucks for 10 dollars' worth of quarters. Says he needs another 25 dollars' worth. But you could get a good deal on that. Be even better if you only gave him 20, so he had to scramble for the other 5.
Sounds intriguing. I'll let you know what happens.
Jack then texted his friend Quentin. Shortly after that he retexted Rollins.
Send the package down to Quentin for the final five. And text me when you do.
A smiley emoji and a thumbs-up was the reply.
Ethan took a couple of deep breaths and slowly climbed the two flights of stairs. Once he got to the doorway, he listened closely, and not hearing any voices, he eased out into the hallway and found it empty. He quickly walked down to the appropriate door and knocked. He waited for what seemed like an eternity before the door opened. Standing before him was Rollins, someone he vaguely knew as a friend of Jack.
Rollins looked Ethan up and down before saying, "Well hells bells. This IS one interesting and attractive package."
Somehow, being referred to in that manner made things more embarrassing for Ethan.
"Uh, I came for some... Uh, I mean, Jack sent me up. He said you might have some quarters I could do laundry with?"
"Do you always dress this way for laundry?" Before Ethan could reply, Rollins continued. "Not that there is anything wrong with it. As a matter of fact, I find it quite.... Refreshing. Probably the same way the breeze on your ass is refreshing."
Ethan's overwhelming desire was to turn and run, but he suppressed the urge.
"Yeah, I don't mean to be rude or anything, but I'm sorta in a hurry. I'm looking for 25 dollars worth of quarters. Do you have ANY that I might get?"
Rollins just stood there a moment before saying, let me check. He then closed the door in Ethan's face.
Ethan stood there for a couple of minutes, during which time several guys walked by, most with some snarky comment, but Ethan just stared at the door and tried to ignore it, although his body turned redder. In some ways, he didn't understand the embarrassment. He was used to being around other guys in the nude, but that was in the locker room. Somehow standing in the hallway in his too-small jock was just wrong.
Finally, the door opened, and Rollins said, "I have 20 dollars worth of quarters. You can have them for 100 dollars."
"What, 100 dollars for 20 dollars worth of quarters? That's absurd."
Rollins started closing the door, saying, "Okay, if you don't want them."
"Okay, okay, 100 dollars then. You're sure you don't have 5 dollars more in quarters??"
Even though Rollins had another two rolls, he followed Jacks's request and said no.
Ethan handed over the money and took the rolls of quarters.
He started to turn away when Rollins said, "What, no, thank you?"
"I'm sorry, yes, of course, thank you," Ethan replied as he turned back towards Rollins, only to be met by the flash of the phone in Rollins's hand.
"Hey, you can't..."
"Well, I need some evidence, or my friends will never believe this."
"Please, don't...." Ethan began, but then just shut up.
He heard another click of the camera as he turned away.
"By the way, jockboy, Quentin in 217 always has some quarters. Might want to try him."
"Thanks," could be vaguely heard as Ethan jogged back to the stairwell. Once he entered, he sat his bare ass down on the cold top shelf and took several deep breaths to calm himself.
Come on. You are Ethan Winthrop III. You CAN do this.
With that, he trudged down the stairs. He decided to proceed directly to the second floor to end this portion of his nightmare. When he reached the door to the second floor, he let out a loud groan as he heard what sounded like a party going on in the hallway. Fortunately, he heard the sounds diminishing, and then a door slam and silence from the hallway.
He quickly opened the door, stuck his head out, and saw the empty hallway. He entered the hallway, then ran down and knocked on 217. There was no answer, so he knocked again. After what felt like an eternity, the doorway opened.
"Hey, the entertainment is here," someone shouted. "I'm Quentin, and I have been waiting for you."
Standing in front of him was a gentleman dressed in a rainbow muscle shirt with a large gay pride button on it and a pair of short shorts. Quentin had a muscular, hairy chest.
"Maybe I don't have to go to the club after all." As he said this, Quentin reached out and ran a fingertip down one of Ethan's pecs before circling the tit and lightly squeezing it. Ethan flinched but also felt a stirring in his groin.
Ethan just mumbled, "Uhh, Uhh, I'm looking for Quentin."
"Well, you found him hot stuff," the guy replied. "What can I do for you?" he said as he tweaked the nipple again. Once more, despite the embarrassment, Ethan felt more stirring in his groin. His tits had always been an erogenous zone.
"Oooh," came out of Ethan's mouth before he shook his head and continued. "Rollins said you might have 5 dollars in quarters I could get?"
"Quarters? If you shook that fine-looking ass, you could get lots of dollars," Quentin quickly replied.
"I just really need quarters," Ethan said, trying to ignore the sounds from the open door and the stirring in his groin. He kept his head down so he didn't have to look Quentin in the eye.
"Sure, honey. I can do that." Quentin walked into the room, grabbed an armless chair, turned it around, and then dropped down into it. "I'll even let you have them for nothing -- other than a 2-minute lap dance."
Ethan's head shot up. "What?"
"Free quarters for a lap dance; otherwise, it'll cost you 200 dollars."
"Are you crazy?" Ethan demanded.
"Nope, I've just got what you need and want to get my money's worth."
Tiring of the entire situation, Ethan opened his wall to find that he only had 150 dollars in cash.
"I got 150, and I can give you the other 50 later," Ethan pleaded.
"Honey, do I look like a fucking bank?"
Ethan's face fell, and he looked like a lost dog.
"Aahh, but that face. Tell you what, I'm feeling generous. One hundred fifty dollars, a 45-second lap dance, with my wandering hands, and we'll call it good."
Every fiber of Ethan's being just wanted to flee. But he knew it would probably only get worse trying to find the extra money, especially if he had to don his `outdoor outfit." He thought about cheating and combining loads, but his ego wasn't going to let him do that.
"Fine," Ethan said as he handed over the 150. He walked into the room and started to close the door.
"Leave the door open," Quentin demanded.
"But someone might.." Ethan began.
"Well, I certainly hope so. But as I'm being generous, I'll allow you to close the door -- for an extra 1 minute on the lap dance.
Ethan held his hand on the door momentarily before he released it, leaving it open, and walked toward Quentin.
Quentin tossed the money on the desk and patted his lap. Ethan sighed in resignation, went over, and straddled Quentin's lap. He had been to enough strip clubs to know the routine, even if he had never personally partaken of a lap dance. And this was, for sure, the first time he ever gave one.
Ethan started gyrating his hips and moving back and forth but avoided sitting on Quentin's lap.
"Oh, honey, you have to get closer than that," Question said as he reached out and put his hands around Ethan's upper legs and grabbed each butt cheek in one hand. Simultaneously, he pulled Ethan forward and downward, such that Ethan ended up sitting in Quentin's lap with his jock-covered cock resting against his lower abs.
Ethan was startled by the move and just sat there.
"It's called a lap dance, not sitting in the lap," Quentin chided.
Reluctantly, Ethan began to gyrate his hips. For the next 45 seconds or so, Ethan gyrated while Quentin's hand roamed over Ethan's body, paying particular attention to his nips. Despite himself, Ethan felt his cock hardening. He may have been in a humiliating position, but he was still a healthy 19-year-old with a high sex drive.
Just as the forty-five seconds was coming to an end, Ethan heard a voice behind him.
"Oh, Quentin, nice job. Any chance of sharing?"
Quentin looked up at Ethan, who shook his head from side to side with a horrified look on his face.
"Afraid not today. But I'll let you know the next time this fine piece of ass is available."
Ethan turned deep red, thinking about being referred to as a simple piece of beef.
"Okay, but don't forget," the voice said as it retreated down the hall.
Ethan stood from the lap and stepped back. Quentin couldn't help but notice the enlarged cock and the small wet spot on the jock. When Ethan saw Quentin smile, he looked down. When he saw what Quentin saw, he turned a deeper shade of red and just wanted to sink into the floor. Quentin laughed when he saw the expression.
Quentin stood up, went to a drawer, and took out a 10-dollar roll of quarters.
"The entire roll for another 30 seconds," he said, but Ethan quickly shook his head no. Quentin broke open the roll and slowly counted out 20 quarters, which he held out toward Ethan.
Ethan transferred his wallet to the same hand holding the other rolls of quarters and formed a cup. Quentin poured the quarters into his hand, with two falling out and landing on the floor. He looked at Quentin, who said, "Not my problem."
Ethan decided to let them go, but he pulled his cupped hand up against his six-pack to prevent any further coins from escaping. He turned and moved out the door as fast as he could. He heard Quentin give a whistle and then laugh. He moved expeditiously to the stairway and climbed up back to his floor. He made it down to his room without being observed and turned the doorknob, which didn't move. He had forgotten to fix the door so it wouldn't automatically lock when he left.
"No, no, no, FUCK NO," he screamed. He felt like crying. He realized the level of his voice and turned around, looking at the empty hallway, but fortunately, no one was around, and no doors opened.
Resigned to his fate, he walked down to the end room, which belonged to the RA. With both hands full, he resorted to knocking on the door with his forehead.
The door opened, and William, the RA, said, "What can I do for you?" immediately followed by, "What the fuck?"
Looking down at the floor, Ethan said, "Uhh, well, uhm, I was doing my laundry and locked myself out of my room. Could you let me in?"
"Does doing your laundry turn you on?" William asked as he noted the hard cock and the wet spot.
"Uumm, well, umm," Ethan stuttered.
"Whatever, dude," William said as he grabbed his keys and walked down the hallway. "Here, I thought I had seen everything. Is this some fraternity hazing? You know that shit isn't allowed, don't you?"
"It's not, it's not," Ethan mumbled.
William unlocked the door and pushed it open.
"If you decide to go wandering again, I'm leaving for the evening, so you'll have to go up to the 9th floor and find Joseph to let you in. And I believe he is going to be in a poker game. On second thought, that would be an interesting tale to tell."
William turned to leave but couldn't resist giving Ethan a hard swat on one ass check where the previous handprint was almost faded. Considering the overall situation, he figured that Ethan wouldn't report him for inappropriate behavior. He laughed as he continued back to his room.
As the door closed, Ethan dropped the wallet and the quarters onto Sam's bed before falling onto his bed, still mortified by his hard-on. He realized that he shouldn't be on the bed per Sam's orders, but he was beyond caring at this point.
Ethan remained on the bed for about 15 minutes before he started to regain his composure, and his hard-on had subsided. He looked at the clock and noted it had been almost an hour since he started the first load of laundry. He grabbed some quarters and made sure the door was unlocked. He looked out in the hall to see it was empty, so he exited his room and jogged to the stairway. Once in the stairway, he ran down the steps to the laundry room in the basement.
When he arrived, the laundry room was empty, but the washer needed about five more minutes before it was finished. He elected to sit on the folding table to wait out the machine.
Just outside the door, Ethan heard, "But that is only true if you are talking about Euclidean geometry. In non-Euclidean geometry, the shortest path between two points doesn't have to be.." before the sentence stopped as "stereotypically" looking nerd walked through the door and stopped. That nerd's mouth dropped open when he saw Ethan sitting there.
"Doesn't have to be, what?" the person behind him said.
"Doesn't have to be muscular perfection sitting on a laundry table," the first guy finished.
"What are you talking about?" his friend asked in confusion until the first guy stepped into the room, allowing Ethan to come into view. "Ooh, I see. Well, you are right. That is one fine piece of sexy beef," his friend said.
Ethan's cheeks turned pink with a blush.
"Hey, guys. Here to do some laundry?" Ethan murmured.
"Oooh and the piece of beef is smart, too," the first guy said with sarcasm. Looking at Ethan, he said, "You didn't use up too many brain cells coming to that conclusion, did you?"
"You don't have to be snarky," Ethan snapped.
"Sorry, but I'm not used to seeing a himbo sitting nearly naked in front of me and using logic at the same time."
Once again, Ethan blushed. He chose to ignore the two guys.
The same couldn't be said of them as they openly stared at him as they walked by Ethan to place their laundry into a washing machine. Ethan's machine beeped at that moment, signaling it had finished. Without thinking, Ethan hopped off the table and went over to the machine to transfer the clothes to the dryer. The front-loading washers were in one row, and directly across the aisle were the front-loading dryers. Ethan opened the door of the washer and started removing the wet clothes to transfer them.
"Goddamn it," the first guy said, "Would you look at that rock-hard ass sending out an invitation."
Hearing this, Ethan realized that he was mooning them and quickly stood up and turned to face the two guys who were staring without any hesitation. Ethan was used to being looked at, but right now, he felt he was being exploited. Not saying a word, he shoved the first handful of clothes into the dryer. He made sure to face the two guys as he transferred the rest of the clothes to the dryer, inserted the quarters, and started the machine.
Ignoring the two guys, he walked out of the laundry room and back to the stairway, where he rapidly began his ascent only to realize that the two guys had followed him and were walking up the stairs behind him.
The second guy said in a husky voice, "Ooohh, it looks so much better in action. I would like to see it doing another kind of action."
"No shit Sherlock," his friend said.
Every fiber of his being wanted to turn around and confront the two guys, but he realized this would only make things worse. He was relieved when the two guys exited the stairway shouting at him, "Let us know the next time you are showing off that magnificent ass."
Ethan blushed even redder. By the time he reached his room, he was determined to tell Sam and the boys to fuck off. He walked face first into the door in his haste to get into the room, since the door did not open when he turned the doorknob. It was locked.
"What the fuck?" he asked as he tried to open the door several more times.
Having no success, he turned and walked to the RA's room, hoping William hadn't left yet. He wasn't sure he could handle going to the ninth floor and facing Joseph and his friends. He got lucky, for William walked out just before he reached the door.
He just looked at Ethan without saying a word.
Ethan tried to avoid William's eyes before saying, "Umm, err, I seemed to have locked myself out again."
William just stood there before saying, "And?"
"And, could you open the door for me?"
"What's the magic word," William said with a straight voice.
"What??" Ethan demanded before saying, "Oh, yeah, could you please open the door for me?"
William laughed as he walked down and opened the door. "Stupid freshman, muscle heads," before turning and walking away.
Ethan quickly entered the room and closed the door behind him. He noticed a piece of paper on his bed, picked it up, and read it.
"Should be more careful, Ethan. I came back to pick something up and found you had left the door open. So, I made sure to lock it on my way out. Sam."
Ethan scrunched the note up, threw it toward the trash can, and grunted in frustration. Would this night, and this humiliation, never end? He thought as he sat dejectedly on his bed.
For questions or comments, you can contact me at bgklmanlger@yahoo.com
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