... Felt itself in a new place. This one was so much more dirty.
Jock was tossed under several clothes and football gears, all in a bag.
It felt the shoes nearby and, just stuck to itself, used socks, craving for being washed.
Jock couldn't puke, but it felt how these two needed to be taken care of. It was sad for them, sympathising. What kind of owner could let them in this state ?
And with these new questions, its mind started to float again and...
... It find himself suspended to a wire. Pinched in two points, Jock guessed that this time it was ending do dry after a laundry, just below the ceiling of a garage. Next to him, other parts of a sport outfit were waiting to get dry.
Starting to recover, the jockstrap reminded that it was part of a tessalated body. A network of 22 bodies, actually. Reality emerged again to its consciousness.
"- Finally ?! Is it you Jock ? Are you back here ?"
Jock looked around itself to find the origin of the voice. No human was in the room. And, to be fair, no voice had been emitted, actually. No... It was thoughts. Coming from another piece of clothing.
"- I am here, just near you. The socks. The left one, actually."
Jock was surprised. It was the first time that some congenere was talking to it. At least, for the time it was remembering...
"- Things have changed in town, while you were dreaming, bro."
A shiver ran through all of Jock's body. This voice...
"- Yes. It's me, Nate. Your former brother, do you recall ? "
And suddently a wave of memories rushed to Jock. In a second it remembered having being human, turned into a jockstrap, worn and broken in, almost saved but exploded, left at the mercy of its brother and its dangerous doopleganger... the new Jeff.
"- Nate ? But... How ?! What happened ? I was there just a moment before and...
- Not a moment, bro. You spent weeks into slumber, at least. I mean... I think you kind of left during the first evening, didn't you ? The day I created your copy and replaced you.
- Weeks ?! You're crazy ! How could I...
- I had got some time to think about it, you know. I was missing you, at some point. Maybe because I was needing you. You were the only one able to understand what was happening to me.
- What..
- It's caused by the splitting, I guess. You've been put into pieces, and each of them was awaking, needing strength, energy, consciousness. They must have been considering you as a tank. How could we blame them ? What else could they do ? This famous evening, when we get back upstairs, you were silent. Impossible to find. You didn't anwser a single of my provocations. At first I thought you were pouting, and that you would end with some time. So I focused on Jeff. You remember him ?"
Yes, Jock was remembering him. The encounter had been surprising, and short, but it had been enough to guess that this man had a strong will and some cleverness that he was decided to use. He had stolen its humanity to Jock in a blink, and had had no difficulty to behave like a human whereas he was a brief some minutes before Nate turned it and kissed it.
At this thought, some whisper came from aside.
"- Yes... I'll always remember that kiss. I still don't know exactly what happened, if it was from a mistake in the settings I've entered in the computer or if all was coming from me but... I was like... cursed.
- Nate...
- His eyes were... fascinating. And you should have been earing him during the dinner. The parents laughted so much. I laughted so much."
Jock extended its focus, and quickly found Nate's body. He was now a long and white sport sock, clean, soft and made of very good quality fabric. He was still warm from the laundry, and still al ittle wet in two areas : his heel and toes extremity, where he had been woven more thickly and reinforced with pads. Some colored line was designed along all his body. He was beautiful.
Jock felt Nate would get blushing, if he still was able to do so.
"- Thanks, bro. It's strange, but your compliment makes me proud. I'm a good sock. I'm... Oh my..."
Nate's mind seemed to get blurry and quite panicked at this words.
" - Fuck, it's getting worse ! That bloody bastard is winning ! No way, you ear me, no way that I end like my nerdy bro.. I'm... I'M NOT A BLOODY PIECE OF CLOTHING ! I'M HUMAN, BASTARD ! AND THE MOMENT YOU PUT YOUR FOOT INTO ME AGAIN, I WILL... I WILL BITE YOU, MORRON !"
Jock waited, astonished by its brother's suddain violence. After some time, he went quiet again.
" - What happened to you, Nate ?"