That is, until I met Johnnie.
I was around 15 at the time, and while I ran track and swam laps about once a week, I was still a thin, scrawny thing. My hair was cut pretty short and was finally starting to darken from the dirty blonde it was when I was younger.
As we turned on to the road leading to my grandparents' house, I couldn't help but notice a boy sitting on the steps of one of the mobile homes parked in the lot one of the neighbors owned. He looked to be around 16, a year older than me, with medium-length messy black hair. He glanced up from the handheld game he had been playing and our eyes met, though they quickly fell back down to his screen.
"Who is that?" I asked my grandma.
"That's Johnnie. He's helping his grandpa on his fishing boat for a few weeks."
Unpacking my bags from the car took far less time than usual as I hurried out to meet this other kid who would hopefully help to alleviate some of the boredom I usually felt while staying with my grandparents. He was still sitting on the steps, playing his game. He was dressed pretty simply with a pair of shorts, a t-shirt and some slightly worn sneakers that barely showed his black ankle socks. It was obviously that he was pretty fit. Though I wouldn't come to officially think of myself as gay until a year or two later, I couldn't help but think that he looked pretty cute.
He looked up at me as I approached. "Hey," he said simply.
"Hi," I responded. "What's going on?"
"Nothing much. My grandpa's out with some of his friends right now, so I'm just goofing off. I haven't seen you around here before, are you just visiting too?"
I sat down on a nearby table facing him and talked about visiting my grandparents. He explained more about how he helped his grandpa fish in the mornings but didn't do much more than that. Two teenage guys that just met don't have much to talk about, so I finally brought up the subject of video games. I'd always enjoyed games, and here he was playing some, so it just seemed natural.
"Want to play some Sonic?"
I said sure, and we went inside the mobile home and started playing some Sonic Adventure 2 Battle. The game was fairly old at that point so I'd already had plenty of experience playing it. Eventually, I ended up beating a few levels for him that he apparently hadn't had much luck on in the past.
After a few hours his grandpa came home, and although he was pretty surprised to see another kid in his mobile home, after I introduced myself he said that my grandparents had already told him a lot about me and I was welcome back anytime.
* * * * *
The next few days were mostly uneventful. I went to the boat with Johnnie and his grandpa, we traveled up into the woods behind my grandparents' house and (apparently) trashed the mobile home's bathroom (or so I'm told, though I have no recollection of this particular event).
Eventually Johnnie and I ended up back in his grandpa's mobile home. He was gone for the evening. We had just come inside when I noticed some rope sitting in the corner.
"What's all that for?" I asked, pointing to the coils.
"Well, it's usually on the boat, but I guess my grandpa didn't need it."
"I bet it could be used for other things!" I said with a grin and jumped on him, knocking him to the floor. I was pretty scrawny at the time, so there was no way I was going to overpower him. He struggled pretty violently and I knew I would have no chance of tying his hands.
"Hey, hold still, would you?" I complained.
"If you're kidnapping someone, they're obviously going to struggle!" came his reply, though for my sake he seemed to struggle much less. Finally I managed to tie his wrists together in a very crude fashion. He continued struggling, so I gave up on trying to tie him further.
"Alright, try to get out," I said, standing up. It took all of about ten seconds for him to wiggle out of the poorly tied rope.
"Hey, if you really want a challenge, go tell your grandparents you'll be gone for awhile."
This peaked my interest, and I happily complied, running up the street. While on my way, I thought of something else I should grab: a roll of silver duct tape I always had packed in my bag for emergencies. In my mind, this definitely counted as an emergency.
I pushed it into my pocket and headed back out the door, yelling to my grandparents that I would be staying over at Johnnie's for dinner.
As I opened the door to the mobile home and stepped inside, Johnnie grabbed me from the side and put a hand over my mouth.
"My turn," he said with a smug grin.
He pushed me to the ground and pulled my hands behind my back. I tried to struggle a bit, though I knew there wasn't much I could do with someone that much stronger than me. Taking a coil of rope, he crossed my wrists and tied them tightly together. It was obvious he'd done this before.
"How's that?" he asked, getting off of me. I tested my bonds and instantly knew I wasn't going to be getting loose anytime soon.
"Alright, stand up," he ordered. I obliged, and he began using another piece of rope to secure my arms to my torso. It was then that he felt the roll of tape I'd had in my pocket.
"What have we got here?" he said as he pulled the roll out of my pocket. "Duct tape? Nice!"
"I thought I should give you a handicap since there's no way this is going to hold me," I joked. I had some experience with TUGs before, but never with anyone that actually knew how to properly tie me up; I'd always easily escaped.
"Oh really?" he scoffed. He grabbed the duct tape and tore off a strip, plastering it over my face. It didn't take long for me to simply move my face around and get the tape off my lips.
"That was pathetic," I taunted. This was a mistake. He reached down and peeled off one of his black ankle socks, and I knew what was coming next. I attempted to shut my mouth, but he only needed to pinch my nose before I was forced to open my mouth. My reward was his sweaty ankle sock. He clamped a hand over my mouth to keep it in as he reached for the duct tape. Attaching it to my cheek, he brought it over my lips and around my head, patting it down as he circled me three times. Finally, he tore the tape and attached it behind my head. I mmphed in protestation. He apparently wasn't satisfied. He tore off another strip and put it under my chin, patting the ends down under my ears, completely restricting my jaw.
I could taste the sweat from his sock in my mouth, and a wave of excitement and disgust washed over me at the same time. It was disgusting, sure, but I was definitely enjoying this.
He turned me around and began wrapping duct tape around his earlier ropework, further reinforcing it, before pushing me down on the couch and duct taping my legs together. He then used another piece of rope to attach my crossed wrists to my duct taped feet, forcing me into a hogtie. He was merciful, though, and kept it somewhat loose.
"I'm going to lock the door and go take a run. Maybe you'll get out by then, but I doubt it!"
He smiled at me, tearing off another strip of tape and approaching me. I shook my head and mmphed no, but I wasn't in any position to argue. He put the piece over my eyes, pushing it down until I couldn't see anything. I heard the sound of him putting down the tape, putting on his shoes, and finally of the door closing and locking. I began struggling.
I'd never felt so helpless before. Usually I'd been tied up with a jumprope or shoelaces by a complete novice, but now I was hogtied with rope and duct tape and gagged with a dirty, sweaty sock that had been sealed in by several rounds of tape. Eventually, though, through some superhuman strength, I managed to break the tape on my wrists and wriggle free of the ropes. The first thing I did was unwrap the tape from my face and spit out Johnnie's sock before I continued untying myself.
Finally free of my restraints, I now had another challenge: Getting out of the mobile home. And try as I might, there was nothing I could do about that without breaking windows. They'd all been locked.
Finally, Johnnie returned. He unlocked the door and was actually surprised to see I'd escaped. He said his grandpa had called him and was coming home, soon, though, so we couldn't continue our game.
"You might want to cover those rope and tape burns, by the way," he said with a grin.
It didn't take long to clean up all of the tape, though we did have a bit more trouble finding a place to dispose of it without it looking suspicious. Afterwards, we simply went back to the usual video games.
The rest of the week went pretty normally, and eventually it was time to say goodbye. We promised that we'd see each other next summer, but unfortunately that never happened (I guess his grandpa was there a different time than I visited). In the last few years, I've stopped taking these annual trips to stay with my grandparents, and as such, I haven't seen Johnnie since that summer, but I still think of it as one of my most exciting TUG adventures.
I was reminded of this particular encounter by my grandma randomly asking me if I remembered Johnnie at a recent family gathering. I guess he's doing pretty well and has now taken over the boat for his grandpa. He'd be around 22 now. I still think back on this and wonder if it's something he remembers as vividly as I do. Who knows... I guess more guys are into TUGs than let on!