Trouble Boils Over

Scott drive away, grumbling in an audibly inarticulate manner. Mike turned to face me in the back seat. He continued to fight a laugh. “Need some help there?”

A number of responses occurred to me. I selected “Yes please.” He reached for my headpiece but I shook him off. “I'll do that. Free my hands man.” As the car bumped along in the dark, he sought to find the tape edge. This task proved impossible in the meager time alloted him. Focused on our task as we were, it seemed like mere moments before we were double parked in front of the house where the party was located.

Outside, in the improved light, Mike was able to start removing the tape from my right hand. “The jocks had been generous with the duct tape and removing it took some time. Scott stomped back and forth. Angela ran up to us. “Are you okay?” she asked, genuine concern on display.

“I feel stupid,” I responded.

“I'm looking for new information,” she enthused. “You looked unconscious when they carried you out.”

“There's a reason for that,” I explained. “I was.”

“But you're okay?” she checked again.

“I think so, yeah. Physically anyway.”

Once that was communicated, Angela started laughing. During a brief moment when she managed to refrain from guffawing, she stated “I'm so glad; then I can enjoy this.”

“You do look ridiculous,” Mike again stated.

I could understand the concept. “I feel ridiculous.”

Scott's grumbling and pacing suddenly ceased with an explosion of vulgarities. In some language he expressed his dislike for this situation, what he thought of the marital state of the jocks' mothers when the jocks had been born, as well as where the jocks would find his foot in their anatomy. Scott was generally a mellow fellow but when he got mad, he tended to go full force. While he was not angry with me, I still shuddered from the force of his words.

Angela's laughter stopped. Her mirth was replaced be concern. Calmly she declared “I didn't call you in for trouble Scott. I knew you'd find Patrick before things get worse.” She didn't feel she had his full attention and sharply shouted his name to snap him into facing her. “I'll go back in and get his stuff. We don't need any trouble Scott.” Her eyes narrowed. “Got it?” He just grumbled. “Got it?” Scott managed to make some sort of gesture that looked affirmative. “Good.”

“You know where my clothes are?” I asked.

She smiled. “Not yet but I will.” Angela quickly posed seductively. In a higher pitch, simple sounding voice, she said “You guys 'r' so funny. What did 'u' do to that guy? Oh wow.” Just as quickly, she snapped back out of this mode and winked at us. “Five minutes, tops.” Confidently, she strode to the house.

Mike just stared at her. “She is so hot.”

“She would chew you up and spit you out,” I informed.

“What a way to go!”

Finally my hands were free from their furry prisons. I thanked Mike for the restoration of my dexterity as I had missed it so. The only other item that made sense to remove at this point was the headdress and I worked on that.

Have you ever had to remove an adhesive bandage from a part of your body where hair commonly grows? Peeling off the bandage is always bad enough but add in the reaction of that hair and it can be like torture. Remove it slowly? Remove it quickly? There's no painless option.

Duct tape is not really designed to be applied to the human body. Had it just been attached to my person, it might not have been that bad an experience. They had wrapped it around my head three times, grinding it in. I'm surprised it didn't affect my ability to speak more than it had. The first layer to be removed was bad but it was mostly attached to other tape rather than me. Once I got closer to the bottom layer, it became a greater problem. With a great deal of momentum, I quickly pealed it off. The yelp of pain that followed was instinctive. Through watery eyes, I looked down at the tape, seeing bits of my beard upon it.

This was the last straw for Scott. After a generic expression of anger, he turned and stomped for the house. Mike and I were unable to stop him.

This would be bad.