I met this guy, Aaron, at a mutual friend's house a few weeks ago, and we hit it off right away. Towards the end of the night, he mentioned an Eminem concert he had tickets to and offered me his spare. I accepted without hesitation.
I was packing the cooler when Aaron showed up on the night of the concert. I called out to him to come on in, and brought the cooler out to the garage to load it up. Some coils of rope caught my attention on the way past my tool bench.
Gears turned in my head. Aaron mentioned on the night we met that he was "basically Houdini" and could escape anything. I grabbed the few lengths of rope and a roll of duct tape and threw them in the cooler with the beer.
"You ready, Joey? I don't wanna be late," Aaron said when he found me in the garage. He was looking fresh in new black and white Yeezy Zebras with a matching sweatshirt and pants.
"Almost, I've got all the stuff packed," I answered. "Just need to grab shoes and socks."
Aaron followed me upstairs to my room, checking out my house. "Dope place," he complimented as he looked over the balcony to the floor below. When we got to my room, he looked through my video games and DVD's. While he was distracted, I swooped a pair of handcuffs out of my closet and pocketed them. I grabbed my hat and slipped on my black cement Jordan 3's.
"Just got 'em," I said when I caught Aaron looking at my kicks.
"They're sick," Aaron nodded. "I might have to steal them."
"You wish!" I laughed.
Aaron smiled. "We'll see. You hoop? I'll win 'em off you."
"Not gonna be risking these on a basketball game," I answered. "But good try. Let's get going, you're the one worried about being late."
We got to the show and I picked a secluded spot on the back of the lawn. It wasn't completely private, but there were enough bushes around up here that most people couldn't see us. We set up the blanket, cracked open a couple beers, and waited for the show to start.
About a half hour later, Eminem was on stage. The crowd was going crazy. With him on the huge T.V.'s over the stage, I could see Em was wearing Jordan 3's. I handed Aaron a beer and thought about the rope in the cooler. I made a comment to Aaron about how Eminem was wearing the same shoes as me, just the True Blue colorway. He said that would make them more memorable once he got his hands on them.
"You really want a chance at my kicks?" I asked. "I'd be willing to back up what I said last week. Would you?"
Aaron looked confused. "Back up what?"
"When someone brought up Houdini, and you said you can escape anything," I said. I grabbed a coil of rope out of the cooler. "I wasn't joking when I called bullshit. Here's our chance to settle it. Winner takes the loser's kicks."
Aaron looked at my Jordans, then around at the crowd. "Here? Are you crazy?"
I put the rope back in the cooler. "It's getting dark, but if you don't want them that bad, that's okay. Not like you would win, anyway."
"Wait, wait." Aaron looked around. Everyone nearby was watching Eminem and no one was behind us. "Fuck it, you're on." We shook on it.
I started the roping with his hands, slowly wrapping them in front of him about five times and going through the middle so it was like a pair of cuffs. I cinched it tight with the knot on the wrong side for his fingers to reach, and left some rope hanging. Aaron was paying close attention, but didn't seem worried. Maybe he thought he'd be able to get at the knot with his teeth.
"Well wait, how much rope do you have, Joey?" He asked when I pulled out another piece.
"Plenty," I answered. "Why? You did say you could escape anything, right? I could use my handcuffs, count yourself lucky that I'm not."
I tied his ankles the same way as his wrists. I wasn't tying it so tight that he would lose circulation quickly, but I definitely wasn't leaving slack in the ropes anywhere. I forced Aaron to hug his legs and tied his elbows to each other, under his knees.
I ran the extra rope on his wrists through the rope at his ankles, and the ankle ropes through his wrists. I pulled tight before cinching a knot at the back of his ankles. His hands were stuck right at his feet.
When I tied his wrist and ankle ropes off at his elbows, Aaron started swearing. "Jesus fucking Christ, don't you think this is a bit overkill? Are you done? Can I fucking get out now?"
"Yeah, go ahead," I said. "I could do something like wrap all the knots in duct tape, but I really don't think I need to. Better enjoy those Yeezys while you still can."
Now that Aaron was good to go, I grabbed another beer and watched Eminem. I sat a little bit behind Aaron so I could watch him at the same time. He realized quickly that trying to reach a knot was wasting his time. There weren't any close to his fingers or his mouth, no matter how he stretched. He tried to force a hand free, using all his strength to pull against the ropes. He spent a few minutes doing that, probably thinking he would find slack somewhere or that he would stretch the rope eventually. But I used high quality hemp rope, it had basically no elasticity and did not yield.
Aaron was heating up from his efforts, his face turning red as he tugged on the rope with all his might. I think he was beginning to realize he might be fucked, and started struggling a bit frantically. That didn't help his cause at all, and he stopped quickly when it tightened the ropes around his wrists.
"Okay, you really don't fuck around," Aaron said breathlessly.
"I couldn't with these on the line," I nodded at my shoes. "You still have hours before the show ends, though. Keep trying, maybe you'll get lucky."
Aaron gave my Jordans a greedy look, then resumed his struggles. I was still confident that I would be winning, and watched happily as Aaron tried to get at a knot again. He knew he wouldn't be untying the knot for his wrists unless he got it untied from his elbows first. He looked hilarious as he tried to reach his elbow with his teeth. When he lunged, he was still inches away from reaching the knot, but he didn't quit.
Aaron took breaks to catch his breath and watch the concert, but for the most part he kept trying to escape the entire time. I threw out taunts here and there, talking about how he would never get a shot at my Jordans again, or how I was excited to get my first pair of Yeezys. He would reply in kind, telling me not to get attached to them yet and that he was starting to get somewhere.
But the concert was more than halfway over now, and he hadn't touched a knot. His ropework looked pretty much the same as when he started. I finished another beer, and it topped off my bladder.
"I have to go piss." I told Aaron. "Do you want me to untie you before I do?"
"Well, who would win?" He asked.
"If you need me to untie you, then I win obviously," I stated.
"Fuck that," Aaron said. "I still have almost half an hour left. Those Jordans are fucking mine."
I told him I would make it quick and threw the blanket over his legs. Aaron was working on the ropes again as I walked away.
There was a line for the bathroom somehow, but it was moving quickly and I didn't have to hold it for long. I was rock hard when I got to the urinal, but softened up as I started pissing. I let out a sigh of relief as my bladder drained. As I was washing my hands, my dick started growing again, thinking about Aaron being stuck in my ropes.
I was trying to think of a way to get him to suggest a rematch on my way back from the bathroom. A few well timed jokes at his expense, and making more fun of his escapology skills that he was proud of. If I taunted him enough with my Jordans that he wanted so bad, I was pretty sure he would want to try again. That train of thought was interrupted when I came around a bush and saw that Aaron had company.
Aaron didn't see me, so I crouched down to watch for a minute. Two guys were kneeling on either side of him. I couldn't see them very well in the dark, but they had gagged Aaron with the duct tape. They were tickling the crap out of him, and I could hear his gagged laughter.
"Holy shit dude," I heard one of the guys say. "Look, he's totally hard right now!"
"Don't start playing with his willy now," the other one laughed. "We should leave before his buddy comes back." He pulled the duct tape off Aaron's face.
Aaron spat a large ball out of his mouth and instantly started begging. "Please guys, untie at least my wrists so I can win my bet. I'll get a pair of Jordans if I escape before the concert's over, please help me out."
"Ain't that some shit," one of the guys said. "Trying to cheat your friend. Some people."
"Yeah," the other one chimed in. "We're not gonna help you cheat, dude. Good luck."
I walked up when they left. I plopped back down next to Aaron and asked, "You get anywhere with those ropes?"
"No, everything just gets tighter when I pull," he replied without mentioning the two guys that had just tickled the shit out of him while I was gone.
I really did know what I was doing when I bound him up. "Almost sounds like you're ready to give up, but I'm sure you want these kicks worse than that." I smirked at him and added, "I wouldn't have counted it as cheating if they helped you, by the way. We never said how you could escape."
Aaron rolled his eyes. "Were you watching the whole time, then?" He asked.
"Just the last few minutes," I said. "I would have stopped them if they weren't just tickling you, but it gave you your best shot at winning anyway. Without someone's help, you're boned. This is probably the last song, now."
The show ended minutes later and people started leaving. I quickly covered Aaron up with the blanket; people were filing past us now.
"Alright, it's official then. You lost," I told Aaron. "I'll untie you when there's not so many people around."
"Fuck," Aaron said. "I want those Jordans so bad, man. I can't believe I blew it."
"If your escaping game was as good as you thought, they'd be your's right now," I goaded him. "But you didn't even get close."
I drank another beer as we waited for the crowd to thin, Aaron still sitting next to me, bundled up tightly. Once most of the people were gone, I took the blanket off to start untying him. Before I started on the first knot, I heard footsteps behind me.
"Holy shit!" Aaron gasped, looking over my shoulder.