We Stitch These Wounds

Spring Cleaning -8-

"Muscles, Andy!" CC flexed his bicep, which was nicely built from how much he played drums.

"I don't care! Get offa me!"

"But you told us to wake you up," Ashley pouted.

"Get the fuck offa meeee!" I whined. I squirmed around and ended up pulling the pile and myself onto the floor. The guys were laughing non-stop and I couldn't help but join in.

"By the way, you are the cleaning master," Jake said.

"What makes you say that?" I asked.

"Dude! The place is cleaner than it has ever been!" Jinxx chuckled.

"I'm not even done," I said as I got up and dusted off my Batman pajamas. I walked to the closet in the living room and pulled out the vacuum cleaner. I turned around to see the my friends leaning on the couch with their heads in their hands, smiling. "Why are you being creepy?" I asked softly.

"Like I said. The cleaning master," Jake said. The rest of the guys nodded and hummed in agreement. I rolled my eyes and began to vacuum the bedroom. I took off the tube to vacuum underneath the bunks and dressers. When I turned around to put to tube back into the vacuum, I saw the guys all in the doorway watching me.

"Okay, this is past creepy. What are you doing?" I asked them.

"Watching the cleaning master," CC spoke up. I facepalmed and mentally groaned. I sighed and recoiled the wire to the vacuum. I tucked it away back in the closet and turned around to see Jinxx right behind me. I gasped and jumped and clutched my chest.

"You even cleaned the cleaning closet?" Jinxx rose an eyebrow. I nodded and walked back to the bedroom.

"Are you a neat freak?" Ashley asked from his bunk.

"Sort of."

"Control freak?"

"Sort of..." Ashley laughed and I blushed furiously. I huffed and pulled out a Batman tank top, some ripped black jeans, and my combat boots. I changed in the bathroom and grabbed my leather jacket.

"Where're you going?" Ashley asked me.

"Laundromat. Or someplace like so."

"I'll go find out where that is." Ash left the room as I laced up my boots. "They said it's on the bottom level like a hotel." I muttered a thanks and tried to pick up the heavy and big laundry basket. I frowned and just pushed it out into the hallway. I pushed the button on the elevator and waited.

"Can I come with?" I looked up to see Ashley standing next to me. I nodded. The doors opened and I pushed the basket inside. I sat on the edge of it as Ashley looked down on me (for once). "You having fun there, Andy?" He asked me. I just smiled goofily up at him. "Can I ask a question?" I nodded. "Who's Oliver?"

I stiffened a little and thought. "He's my boyfriend. I love him." I'm just not sure if he feels the same.

"How long've you two been at it?"

"About a year. Give or take."

"Coolios," Ash smiled. I could tell it was forced, but I just smiled back. The doors opened and I pushed the basket towards the laundry room. Ash trailed along and looked around. "Do you know how to do laundry?" He asked.

"Sorta. I mean, enough to be okay. But yeah." I threw in all of the black clothing that wasn't leather and closed the lid. I pulled out the little soap container and filled it with detergent. I pressed the start button and watched the machine begin to shake.

"Why'd you throw them all in?" Ashley asked me.

"Because these are all black clothing. The colours are upstairs all in another basket."

"Why didn't you put those in?" He pointed to the basket.

"Leather lasts longer if you don't put it in the washer."

"I think you're better at this than you think, Andy," Ash chuckled. I filled the sink that was down there with water and detergent and began to hand wash all the leather clothing. I rinsed them and hung them up on the horizontal poles in the ceiling.

"I have a hairdryer if you want those to dry faster." Ashley pointed upstairs.

"Drying leather in heat or cold makes it crack sometimes. So they need to just air dry," I explained. "Didn't you ever do laundry?" I asked him.

"No. My mom did all my laundry. She never really taught me anything. After my dad left us, she kinda gave up." Ash told me.

I chuckled. "Your mom and my dad should go bowling."

"Why do you say that?"

"My mom left my dad and I and he gave up on me, too. I figured things out from YouTube."

"I had a lot of friends who taught me how to do things, but I never asked the girls how to do laundry," Ashley laughed. His laugh was adorable. Maybe it's okay to think other people are attractive. You just gotta stay true to the one you love.

"Can you go back upstairs and get the other basket, please?" I asked Ash. He nodded and ran back. I stuffed the blacks into the dryer and threw in a dryer sheet with it. I closed the lid and pressed start.

"Got the clothes!" I heard Ashley say from behind me.

"Thank you." I sorted the colours. I had a pile of whites, greys, reds, blues, and - baffled at this - purples. "I didn't know anyone had anything purple."

"I do! But I also have a pink shirt. So, yeah," Ash smiled.

"You have a pink shirt?" I raised an eyebrow.

"It's a Hello Kitty shirt!" He squealed.

"Hello Kitty? You like Hello Kitty?"

"I'm not saying anything about your Batman obsession."

"Fine, fine." I kept a cycle going as I was washing clothes. I took out the blacks and started drying the reds and I was washing the purples. I folded the blacks before taking out the reds, drying the purples, and washing the blues. I folded the reds before taking out the purples, drying the blues, and washing the greys. I folded the purples before taking out the blues, drying the greys, and washing the whites. I folded the blues before taking out the greys and drying the whites. I folded the greys before taking out the folding the whites. I grabbed the now-dry leather clothing from above and folded it and put it back into the basket with the rest of the folded clothes.

"You were so rhythmic," Ashley said in awe.

"I guess it's just from doing it so much." I shrugged. "Can you carry the other basket up, please? Thank you."