Ryan and I were college roommates, randomly selected freshman year but got along so well that we ended up getting an apartment together the remainder of our college years. So it was a natural progression that post college we shared an apartment in the city after we both landed jobs. We both liked working out, playing video games and going out to bars on the weekends. But Ryan was more of a player with the ladies than I was. He was more aggressive and assertive and there were plenty of times I would think to myself that he is going too far. I could tell when the girl was getting uncomfortable with his advances and the "don't take no" answer attitude. A couple times I even intervened just so he wouldn't take it too far and get in trouble. You see, Ryan was a big dude, I knew he took steroids when we were in college and that sometimes resulted in a hot temper over the smallest things. As his best friend I took it as my responsibility to keep Ryan from hurting Ryan, and that is when I would step in.
As for me, I was very athletic but more of a swimmers build compared to Ryan's bodybuilder physique. He taught me a lot about building muscle when lifting, proper form, the type of exercises and even the correct order in which to do them. But I did not want to take steroids (he even offered) because I was seeing great results without them, plus, I hated needles. With women we were opposite, I was naturally shy around women, I think it started in high school where I went to a catholic school and the girls were prudes. Or, at least I thought they were despite a few of them giving in to the more aggressive alpha boys the rest were not interested in sex so I would try the nice guy approach to close the deal. Eventually that paid off as I finally lost my virginity my senior year with a cheerleader I was dating at the time.
But in college the nice guy approach seemed to fall flat a lot. Girls would end up friend zoning me and that was a death sentence. Ryan on the other hand would take the more direct and aggressive approach which was successful more times than not. So it was not uncommon after a night at the bars that Ryan would be banging some chick while I sat in my room playing video games and jacking off.
Despite our differences in the women department we were very much alike and enjoyed hanging out whether that meant going to the gym or playing video games. I was raised by a strict father who was a former Marine, he would insist we made our beds on the morning and we all had chores to do around the house. If your chores weren't done when he got home at night he would have no problem waking you up to make you to do them. My brothers and sisters all shared in the chores too, my dad and mom didn't subscribe to "girls" or "boys" chores which meant we all had a "kitchen night' where we had to do the dishes. Even the girls had a garbage night where they were responsible for collecting the trash around the house. Going a step further, since there were 7 of us (Irish Catholic), it meant my mom needed us to step up in doing our own laundry and even taught us how to iron our school clothes.
IN college those habits transferred over and I was always making my bed and keeping my laundry clean and folded. Whereas Ryan had a different upbringing, his dad was a Union foreman and his mom was a stay at home mom. The dad ran the house and when I visited the mom would wait on us like we were kings. His dad wasn't disrespectful to his mom, however, you can tell she knew her role and they both seemed to be happy in their decisions. So it was natural to see Ryan be messy and expect the girl to be the one who cleaned up after him. That was probably the one thing we fought about in college, his mess he would leave.
Fast forward back to Ryan and I living together in an apartment post college. The same behaviors were there but since we each had our own rooms I wouldn't have to see his mess except in the common areas. I tried implementing a "chore list' with Ryan, having him agree that we will take alternate turns being responsible for the kitchen cleanup each week. It started fine but after a while it was evident that Ryan only put in minimal effort to clean while I was very meticulous when it was my week. IT really wasn't worth getting into an argument about it plus as I mentioned, since Ryan took steroids he would easily get angry. Ryan angry was the definition of "roid rages" where he would break things and get out of control. So in order to keep that to a minimum I wouldn't nitpick about how clean the kitchen was when it was his week.
Our first year as adults living in the real world with real jobs was great. It was basically an extension of our college years except we had more money. That all changed because of a video game that we both thought we were better at. The newest Call of Duty had just been released and Ryan and I were binging all weekend. We are both competitive so we would start talking shit when one of us beat the other one. I knew Ryan was making some mistakes and all I had to do was capitalize on them. I learned Ryan's strategy and started to beat him regularly which only made him mad. We were so engrossed in playing that we didn't even go to the gym or to the bars that weekend. We uber eats our breakfast, lunch, and dinner and barely left the couch as we were in a battle of who was the better player. The house looked like a college frat house with food, food containers, and a bunch of empty bottles of beer and energy drinks, basically it was a pigsty.
"Listen, one more game then we need to get our shit together for work tomorrow." I said to Ryan.
"Fuck that, stop being a pussy, you are just afraid I'm going to beat you again."
Ryan had just beat me for the first time in like 6 games so he was on a high. I still knew his strategy and was confident I would bounce back to beat him again.
"How about this, if I win you not only clean up this mess, it's your week for kitchen detail after all but also you take next week kitchen duties as well?" I suggested.
Monday would normally be when the responsibilities would switch so that meant the next day I would be on the hook to clean up. I knew Ryan would do a half ass job cleaning up tonight so it really would mean I would have more to do starting tomorrow. But if I beat him then it was his job to clean for another week.
Ryan continued to talk shit but stopped short of agreeing to the bet. I took that as an opportunity to goat him.
"Are you scared that I'm going to beat you? What happened to "I'm the best there is" talk?"
I can see Ryan getting mad but I continued to egg him on.
"Okay, if you are too much of a wussy to bet then I'll just stop playing now and you can get started on this kitchen and all this other mess."
"Alright dude, you are ON!" Ryan yelled.
"Let's agree on the terms, the winner of the next game is responsible for cleaning up all this shit as well as the rest of the week. One game, that's it." I explained.
Ryan agreed and we jumped into the game. Within a couple minutes I had more kills and was dominating him easily. This will be so easy. Then I came around a corner and spotted Ryan's guy, I raised my weapon to shoot and nothing happened. I feverishly clicked my remote but still nothing. Ryan notices me, turns around and fires off a kill shot. FUCK!
But I was still ahead and my guy spawned and we were at it again. The game got closer now as Ryan was making more kills and the momentum seemed to be swinging in his favor. On top of that my controller was having intermittent problems as the same thing happened again with my guy not being able to get off a round. I asked for a pause in the game but Ryan refused and before I knew it he was on top of me stabbing me giving him the victory.
"FUCK! That shouldn't count. My controller didn't work. Do over!" I demanded.
"Nope, a bet is a bet and now you have some chores to do." He said smugly.
I tried one last time to convince him of a rematch but he wouldn't budge. I shook my head and said fine I'll clean up. The place was very dirty after a weekend binge of gaming so there was a lot to get clean. Plus I had to work in the morning so I hurried to get started. After a couple hours I figured it was good enough and went to go get ready for bed.
While I was in my room Ryan came waltzing in,
"You done?" He asked.
"Yeah, thanks for nothing. You are so fucking messy dude."
"I think I should inspect your work, come with me," he commanded.
I walked behind him chuckling to myself that Ryan, who was the worst cleaner I knew, was going to inspect my work.
"Hmm...there seems to be some dry pizza sauce still on the counter." Ryan pointed out.
He was right, I didn't get it wiped perfectly clean so I grabbed a rag and started cleaning it up.
"Oops, here's something else, the garbage can is full and should have been taken out to the dumpster." Ryan said.
"Sorry, I was going to do that in the morning" I found myself saying.
