Laundry Fiction

The piles are starting to multiply. There are disheveled artifacts of my wardrobe strewn all throughout this dorm room I will call home for a year.

A fading gray “I Heart NY” sweater draped on my dresser, a joke t- shirt ("Word to the Mothersip" it says) crumpled beneath my bed. And the odor is getting out of hand. Nearly everyone that walks in has an issue with the unidentifiable stench that I claim could belong to my neat roommate’s side of the room. It doesn't belong to his side of the room, it belongs to me and I know it.

Anyway, I go to do laundry. Which means I stuff every dirty piece of clothing in a bag and I have people do it for me. Whoever these people are, they are magnificent folders. I get my clothes back and hardly recognize them as my own. On the way to drop off my stinking pile of clothes, I run into a girl I once knew. It's embarassing to be carrying your laundry, so I make a joke about it when she asks about the bag.

"Yeah, this is actually a big bag of money." I say.

The conversation goes from there. This girl I once knew has a lot on her plate. She is working two jobs, taking the maximum amount of credit hours one can take and is learning how to play violin. All the while, I have people do my laundry.

Anyhow, after the mandatory small talk about her classes and my classes and people from high school and places to eat on campus and movies, I tell her that I used to be in love with her.

I know she has a boyfriend. I know. I know. I don't give a fucking shit either.

She laughs to ease the tension. I blush.

"Uh, my class starts like right now," she says as she glances at her cell phone.

My cheeks burn. I am too timid to ask if she feels the same way.

"Yeah, and I, um, have laundry to attend to," I say in a defiant, sarcastic tone in order to alleviate the intensity of what was exchanged just moments ago.

She leaves. I turn in my laundry at the drop off spot. There are a lot of other people who have their laundry done at the same place as me. I wonder if they recognize the skill and craft of the folders.