Lost in Laundry; Found in Love

I live in apartment 22B in the building right behind Taco Bell. I have a cat, Muskers. I do college online and I work at the grocery store down the street. My roommate bailed on me last month so I got stuck with paying the whole rent. I am up to my elbows in student loans and my anxiety is off the charts. I can hardly afford to buy groceries every week and my mother stopped talking to me after I moved out. My life just keeps getting harder and I hardly have any motivation anymore. But that doesn’t mean my life completely sucks. All of my neighbors hate me. All because of the incident during Freshman year of college. Of course that’s when I still went to an actual university. 

Freshman year was quite a roller coaster. Overwhelmed with work, pressured into doing things like drugs, hangovers to the max, you get the gist. Well it was spring break and my friend was hosting this party, several drunken mistakes later, I ended up inviting everybody over to my apartment the following Friday for a so-called “super weekend bash”. When I woke up my friend had to inform me that I had to throw a party and that some frat guys took my socks and shoes. When I was stumbling back to my apartment I realized I had absolutely no budget to throw this party having worked at a minimum-wage job at Burger King. So I begged my current boyfriend, Jared, to pay for the supplies. He eventually gave in, not knowing that that party would be the last time I or anyone else ever saw Jared King. 

I ran around all week decorating my apartment and hiding any valuables that people could steal. When Friday came I started to lose hope. Nobody had shown up and it was already 7:30. The invite said 5 pm. But people started pouring in around 8 pm. We were having a good time, everybody was drinking up the expensive vodka my ex best friend got me for my going away party. It was about 12 am when I realized I knew nobody at the party aside from my friend that threw the party the week before. I cranked the music up loud and we partied until about 4 am. We were forced to stop because the neighbors were complaining. When we didn’t comply the first time, they brought practically the entire police force to reprimand us. I figured we would get in trouble for underage drinking but they just booted everybody out of my apartment. 

About 2 months after that party I got a call from Jared’s mother. Jared had killed himself the night of my party. He went home and shot himself. I didn’t know what to do but to breakdown right there in the middle of my shift. The customer I was helping looked at me empathetically but quickly turned away. I received his suicide note in the mail but I couldn’t bring myself to read it. I threw it in the back of my closet and never got it out again. I figured it had to do with me and Jared’s family had the complete right to hate me. I shut myself in after that incident. Decided to start taking college online and not letting anyone talk to me. I had practically no social life and only left my apartment to go to work. 

That was well over 2 years ago. I have bettered myself and I started going to therapy. I was prescribed medication to help with my anxiety and depression. Muskers acts as a therapy cat for me even though he’s not classified as one. Even if I’m not even crying, he would always know, and he would curl up on my lap. He always made everything better. 

Today is unfortunately laundry day. My laundry basket is overflowing and I can’t put it off any longer. Doing laundry is the biggest pain in my life of living in apartment 22B. I have to haul my gigantic basket of laundry down the 3 flights of stairs outside because the elevator broke about 6 years ago. 

One horrendous time I fell down the stairs, I must’ve been drunk or something because I sprained my ankle as all of my dirty laundry fell out in the thunderstorm getting drenched in rain. I made a vow to myself to always do laundry sober from then on. Today was like any other, I woke up and fed Muskers and hauled my laundry basket down the stairs. I didn’t bother putting on any makeup or any changing my pajamas since no one is ever down there to see me or judge me anyways. The laundry room has about 8 washers and 5 dryers. I hardly ever see anyone in there unless it’s the weird witch lady from 3 floors above. I set my laundry basket down and started shoving all of my clothes into the cleanest washer I could find. I claim it as mine because all the other ones are covered in lint or mold or god knows what else. Usually I make coffee before I go down to the laundry room but I somehow forgot today. I heard the laundry door swing open but I ignore it since I figure it’s either crazy witch lady or the repair man, Joe. I slam the washer door shut and turn around. A man I had never seen before stands before me. He looked too ordinary to belong to this apartment complex. Everybody was demented or close to it around here. 

“You new?” I look him up and down. He had a clean haircut and glasses that sat on his nose at a perfect angle. He was wearing a button up shirt and jeans. He had a smile on his face but he looked desperate for help. I usually don’t talk to people anymore so this is probably my first social contact that isn’t over the phone in months. I see him swallow and open his mouth to say something, “ I-I’m yes. I just moved in last week. A-Are y-you new?” He must be nervous around me. I mean I was nervous like always but I never show it. “Nah, I’ve been here for about 3 or 4 years. You need help with your laundry?” He examined me and nervously held out his laundry basket for me to take. I glanced for the next best washer apart from mine. I found a rusted one in the corner. “Now you just want to put all of your laundry in here our in your detergent and you’re good to go.” I walked back to my washer but I didn’t hear anything going in the washer. I turned back and he was looking at me like a puppy. I rolled my eyes. “What now?” He reminded me of my younger brother Aidan, who was 6 years old. “D-Detergent.. I-I don’t own any.” He twiddled his fingers as he looked at the floor. I groaned as I hauled my big bottle of detergent over to him. “Here. Don’t wear it out.” I held up a peace sign as I opened the laundry room to return to my room. “A-Adam.” I hear him barely mutter. His name. I walk backwards into the laundry room and say, “22B.” He looked confused but I figured he could figure it out. “39F!” He exclaimed. I threw my head back and laughed. This guy was adorable, he resembled a kindergartner on the first day of school, the face and everything else even. 

About 3 hours went by and I was working on an essay for a class when I realized my laundry was done. I usually forget about it until the last minute. I strolled down the stairs and into the laundry room once again. I open my washer but there is no clothes in it. I ran over to Adam’s rusty washer and opened it as well. His clothes were gone as well. He must’ve taken them with him. That creep! I sprinted out of the laundry room and up the stairs to apartment 39F. I knocked as loud as I could. “Open up you creep!” Adam answered the door with that same kiddish smile on his face. 

“What did you do with my clothes?” I push past him to see all of my clothes folded on his living room floor. “I-I’m sorry. I didn’t think you would mind. I figured I could fold all your clothes and put them back in time but I estimated wrong.” I was astonished. These past couple years anybody who ever met me thought I was an ice cold snake and I had accepted that reputation. But this guy just out of pure kindness folded all my clothes. It seemed so small but yet so big. “I-It’s for helping out with detergent. T-The folding may not be the best because I’m not so keen on-” I hugged him before he could finish. I had accepted that I could never be friends with anyone ever again but Adam has proved me wrong. He gave me hope. He didn’t seem surprised. He let go and gathered up all of my clothes in my laundry basket and set my detergent on the top. I took the detergent off and held it out to him. “Here. I can buy some more. Think of it as a housewarming gift. Use it wisely. I put a lot of thought into it.” I said sarcastically. He laughed and I skipped merrily back to my apartment. I felt happy for the first time in awhile. 

After that I saw Adam everywhere. We would time our laundry days so we would see each other at the exact same time although it would seem uncoincidental. It felt like we would talk for hours on end. One day I let him come up and meet Muskers. We would also meet on Mondays to have coffee. We would switch off apartments each week for the coffee talk. 

One day when he didn’t show up to the laundry room at our regular time I figured he had found someone better to do laundry with. I laughed to myself thinking I was delusional. When I came back to get my dried clothes a few hours later, I found a letter attached to one of my shirts. It was from Adam and it was an invitation to meet him at the park. I was ecstatic. I hadn’t felt this way in a long time and it felt great to go out with someone. He was the friend I had needed for so long. 

That night I made myself look gorgeous for the first time in forever. I actually put on makeup and a nice dress. Not too glamorous but not too basic. But then I started to doubt myself. What if this is all a glorious joke? What if he’s standing me up? I shook my head in the mirror. No, Adam wouldn’t do that would he? I talked to Muskers as if he could talk back. I convinced myself that I wasn’t capable of love and sat down on my couch drowning in my sorrows. I was close to crying my makeup off when I got a call from Adam. I answered trying to sound as cheery as possible. 

“Hey! Are you comin’ out? You’re gonna miss this beautiful sunset!” He exclaimed and I knew at that point that he couldn’t be lying. I hung up without responding and drove over to the park. I took a deep breath as I fixed my makeup in the overhead mirror. I opened my door and spotted Adam. There were candles and a picnic basket. He was dressed up quite nicely. I sat down and Adam stared at me for a solid 30 seconds. I was wondering if my hair was messed up or something. I tried to fix it but he took my hand in his. “You look beautiful.” He kissed my hand and gave me an empty wine glass. “Wine, m’lady?” He said with a fake British accent. I chuckled and nodded. He poured the wine gracefully and we cheered for each other. We had never announced what we were before that. We had always flirted but we remained friends. I knew at that moment I loved him. He told me to look up at the stars in the sky. My heart burned for him. I heard a sizzling in the distance and I panicked for a moment. Then I heard a “BOOM!” I sat up quickly. I don’t know what I was expecting. I stayed looking at the night sky though. After about 5 seconds, fireworks went off. I felt myself crying tears of joy inside. I laid my head on his shoulder and he put his arm around my waist. 

When the fireworks ended I looked at him and said “That was beautiful.” We both looked at each other in the moonlight and without saying another word, we kissed. I finally felt safe with Adam.