Armand was sitting on the bench with Mike's gym next to him when Stu
and Tom came out of the store carrying their red and blue spandex
outfits. They too had been transformed into rubber bracelets, but
since no one had put them on, the two reverted to their former forms.
They were confused when they exited the store. Each was afraid to
tell the other that he thought he had had a ministroke. For 10 minutes
each had been immobile, and then as suddenly, they could move again.
Stu was s certain he had hallucinated the whole episode with Mike.
Tom had been in the changing room, so he had missed seeing Mike
reduced to a yellow ring.
"I can't believe Mike ditched us here," Tom said as they exited the
store.
"I'm not sure that he did," Stu said thoughtfully. He hadn't found a
yellow object on the counter, nor any sign of Mike, but still he was
suspicious. Now he stared at the gym bag beneath Armand's bench, and
the Nike shoes on Armand's feet looked exactly like Mike's pair right
down to the black scuff that Mike had gotten earlier in the day
kicking his own car tire. "Isn't that Mike's gym bag?"
"Lots of guys have that style gym bag," Tom said.
"Lots of guys have Nike's just like Mike's with the same crescent
shaped scuff on the toe?"
Tom's jaw dropped and he stared at Armand's shoes.
Armand did not miss this. He stood, and said, "How do you like my new
shoes? They used to be Mike's but last week he bet me the point
spread on the Lakers, and I won. He didn't seem to be too happy to
see me. He hightailed it stocking footed over to Foot Locker.
It was total mayhem at Foot Locker's Anniversary Sale, and they
couldn't find Mike there, nor anyone who had seen him.
A few days later, Armand would repeat his story to the police. The
mall security cameras took pictures every 10 seconds, and apparently,
Mike had left the store during the 10 second interval and had been
missed. They had seen Armand enter the store and exit wearing Mike's
shoes, and they figured that Mike had run stocking footed during the
10 second gap in the video. Since the next picture showed Armand
seated he wasn't a strong suspect.
Armand was surprised when the policeman interviewing him had mentioned
that the store had its own video surveillance concealed by the
mirrors, but unfortunately the video had gotten erased. Armand
managed to change a sigh of relief into a sigh of disappointment.
He wore Mike constantly for the next several weeks. He wore the
yellow rubber ring while he worked out, when he showered, while he
slept, when he made love to Magda, and every second in between.
For Mike it truly was hell. He was trapped most of the time in a
dark, hot damp place which reeked. He hadn't enjoyed Armand's
naturally spicy scent, but the longer Armand wore him, the more Mike
hated it. Of course wearing a tight rubber ring means sweat traps
under the ring, and bacteria and fungi starts to grow.
So after a particularly harsh workout, Armand was in the gym shower
scratching under his balls. He peeled Mike off and hung the yellow
ring on the shower control handle. He rubbed the sore red chafed ring
that encircled the base of his penis. He used lots of liquid soap,
and it felt great. He totally forgot about Mike as he cleaned
himself, and raced back to his locker to apply ointment to his
inflamed crotch area. Mike hung there on the handle. But Armand had
been gone for barely a minute when someone walked in and retrieved
Mike. His yellow ring body was shoved into somebody's pocket.