Tamed so Easily

The computer group had been very kind and once lunch was over they dispersed. I sighed as it was now afternoon. The last day I had free time before I would be busy with school, studying and maybe a little part time work. I returned to my dorm, snagged my clothes and headed to the laundry room. I loaded my rag, towel, and bloody pants and underwear. It was a small load but I didn’t want my jizz or blood to soak too far into the cloth I needed. I grabbed the application and filled it out quickly. My pen dancing across the page in neat little movements to make everything so uniform it might as well have been printed.

Jose wandered in with his own load of laundry. The powerful scent of sweat and body odor filled the air. The basket was filled with workout clothes, shorts, wife beaters, all of them damp with his hard work. He stepped next to me and started adding everything into the machine next to mine. “Hey Tim, pretty early to do laundry. Did you pack dirty clothes or something?”

I straightened and looked at the tumbling small load of my belongings. “No, the swim team had a field day tanning my hide and it got some blood on my underwear and pants. I don’t really want to talk about it.”

“Sounds like you just talked about it. Man that sucks, weightlifting hazing they just put me through the hardest workout of my life. I felt so accomplished at the end of it. Then they had me steal a bunch of chairs from the teacher’s lounge and put them on the lawn of the campus. That was a heart pounder.” At the bottom of the laundry he pulled out some spring fresh detergent and added a healthy amount.

“You know you don’t have to really add all that detergent. You can use less and it does just as good of a job,” I mentioned, I used mine as sparingly as possible. Something my mother told me about when the family was going through some tight financial times.

“Well, if you knew how bad my stuff stinks up my room you would disagree with that statement. I prefer it to smell like…” he turned the bottle, “Spring Fresh.” With a small clang he closed the door and started the washing machine. “What’re you up to?”

“I’m applying for Quick-E Mart. I need a part time job in order for me to have some spending money. You said I could use you as a reference?” I looked at him as I was bent over the machine. His muscles rippled and flexed under his loose shirt. Thick powerful trunk-like legs supported the tank of a body and I wondered what he had in his pants. I felt my mouth fill with drool.

“Hell yeah!” Jose stepped up next to me and gave me his phone number and email so the store could call him. “Not many people actually take me up on the offer. Something about being dishonest. Too bad it’s not cooking. I wouldn’t have to lie about how good that steak was.”

I looked down at the number and email so I pulled out my phone and made a new contact for him. “If you could call or email me when they call you so I know if I’m actually close to getting the job I would appreciate it.”

“Sure thing Tim.” He pulled out his phone, top of the line Samsung. I would keep my mouth shut about the superiority of the apple app store that I so enjoyed. “What's your info?”

I shared it with him pretty quickly and he thanked me with a pat on the back knocking me a little against the machine I was using as a table. “Watch my stuff would you? I gotta do some rounds and check on everyone.”

“Hey now, I’m not your little maid to do your laundry.” I protested as he looked at me seriously. 

“I’ll just be a few minutes. Then I’ll owe you one.” His damn winning smile made an appearance and I relented.

“Man everyone is owing me favors today.” I straightened and regretted leaning on the dryer as I looked at Jose. “Ok, you owe me.”

“My man!” Jose wrapped one powerful arm around me and squeezed me for a moment. I was starting to get the idea that he was just one of those touchy feely guys. I had my bet that he slapped everyone of his teammate’s asses during a competition for good luck. I looked at his broad back as he left. Thanking god he didn’t pat my ass right now.

I pulled out my headphones and put on some Black Mages, a cover band that remade all sorts of final fantasy remixes. I enjoyed it quite a bit as I remembered playing hours of video games in the winter, when the local open air pool that had the only diving board in town closed. I pulled up some videos covering the best of olympic diving competitions and daydreamed about accomplishing the same feats.

Time flew by and there was no sign of Jose returning. I watched the door with growing impatience and a worry that I had been duped and that I would find myself rotating his laundry. The same thing my own siblings had pulled on me dozens of times. My laundry’s buzzer went off and I got it in the dryer for a quick dry for the small load.

My mind wandered as I waited, the smell of the laundry room reminded me of home and the loneliness that I had been feeling last night was far from my mind. The time spent with the computer guys having done a little to show me that there might be a brotherhood I could join and be part of.

Then Jose’s buzzer went off and there was no sign of him. I tapped my foot looking at the machine and then the door. Back and forth as my patience was tested against my compulsion to get the task completed properly. Giving in to my compulsion I grabbed his wet clothes and put them in a dryer. I dug through his stuff and grabbed a dryer sheet tossing it in there and starting the damn thing. I growled at myself for being so weak that I couldn’t make a stranger do his own laundry.

Soon enough I was folding my own clothes into my tiny basket and Jose’s dryer went off. This time though I told myself I wouldn’t fold it and just leaned on the dryer. An idea came to me, I had his phone number.

Calling him I looked at the ceiling as my airpods rang in my ears. Three rings later he picked up. “Oh Tim… OH! shit man sorry. The floor below yours had a food theft accusation that I had to resolve. I’ll be right down there.”

“Ok, just making sure you didn’t completely forget about it.” I rolled my eyes as I waited with my clothes.

Jose came sauntering into the room. No obvious rush in his movements. “You didn’t have to fully wait, you know. I don’t think anyone would have stolen my clothes in the few minutes that I wasn’t going to be here.”

“After my day I wasn’t so sure about that.” I sulked as I grabbed my basket and went to leave.

“Hey if you need to talk I can always listen.” Jose gave me those warm chocolate eyes and I sighed inwardly.

“Just, I forgot my lock after you warned me. Exactly what you told me happened.” I tucked my basket under one arm and began balancing it on my hip. “Plus one hell of a beating against my ass. So I’m going to be sleeping on my stomach for a few days.”

“Ooooh ouch sorry man. Wish I was here this morning to remind you. Usually they only do it once but you should still be careful. Freshmen are too much like toys to a lot of the guys here. I’m sure you’re going to be ok.” Jose leaned against the washers on the back wall and frowned at me, “I’ll text you every day until you get it as a habit.”

“Thanks Jose, I’ll tell you when it starts being a pain in the ass. I got plenty of that right now.”

Jose gave a hearty laugh that filled the air with warmth. “You got it Tim.”

After I put my things away I grabbed a cup of chunky thick soup to end the day with a hearty meal that wasn’t too heavy on calories. My log was getting too close to my max for the day so it was best that I keep it at that. As I set the pot on the stove and got the soup slowly heating up. I leaned on the counter precariously balancing on the spot above my ass and below the welt from the one guy who missed badly.

Greg sauntered in with a couple notebooks and what looked like a bag of groceries. When his eyes fell on me they lit up with hope as he made his way over. That was until he saw the open can of soup and paused. “Oh man I thought you were going to be making something much different.”

“Well, when I stop being a broke college boy with more time I’ll make something much better.” I filled my voice with dripping sarcasm as the water in the soup started to make that weird sound right before it gets to boiling.

“Well, if you are up for it I have some foodstuffs here. Take a look at what I got written down and then if you want to keep them then you can make me a meal. There is enough for two.” He waved the groceries and notebooks at me and I smiled to myself. At least Greg wouldn't ever betray someone if they were cooking for him.

I snagged the notebook and turned my soup onto low so it wouldn’t burn if I was getting engrossed in the notes. I opened the first page and started to digest what he had all written.

The notes were truly a work of art. Different concepts were highlighted in separate colors to differentiate his rambling notes that seemed to switch topics randomly. But if you just skipped to the same color it continued the thoughts. “Uhhhh Greg?”

“Yeah Tim?” Greg was looking at me with even more hope than before.

“You have ADHD don’t you?” I looked at him through my lashes as my head was tilted down to read.

“How did you know?” Greg tilted his head sideways like a confused dog and the warmth I felt for this lost silly older man grew a little. Almost reminding me of my youngest sister in a strange way.

“Just a guess,” I closed the notebook and took the groceries from his hand. “I’ll whip up something for you. Did you even have a meal planned for what you bought?”

“I thought you could just whip something up. It's mostly vegetables that I like and some noodles. Soooo, whatever you can make of that.” Greg wandered over to the table and I could hear his stomach grumble loudly. I looked at the sad soup and the pile of vegetables and asian noodles.

“Do you have any condiments?”

An hour later I had a steaming pile of veggie sukiyaki with noodles and I piled a plate full for Greg and I. The look of sheer happiness on his face as I brought over the food and set it down before him warmed my heart. I sighed, “I guess this means we have a deal. Only if you buy enough for me to have some as well. And only dinners!”

“Deal!” Greg was already trying to shovel food in his mouth and I watched him. I kept my own sedentary pace and tried to enjoy what I had made. 

After dinner I spent some time studying the notebooks and when I laid down for bed I had a fresh layer of aloe on my poor abused cheeks.

Then I started to have a very good dream.