Keegan’s POV
“Here!” I thrust the large wicker basket in my roommate’s hands.
“W-what am I supposed to do with this?” Skyler queried.
“The laundry. And in the mean time I’ll do the dishes.”
“Oooh!” He drawled. “Okay!”
He swirled around almost dropping the basket with our dirty clothes then strolled to the door. His hand had barely reached the handle when he turned back with a perplexed expression.
“Where is the landry room?” He uttered the question I’d been waiting for him to ask.
“In the basement,” I announced wondering if my blond friend’s next words would be “where’s the basement?”
“Basement?!” He shouted, literally jumping in the air, making some of the clothing fall on the floor.“Kee, there are spiders in there! What if one attacts me?”
I sighed.
I should be used to his theatrics by now!
“Attack it back,” I suggested. Seeing asthe boy was still hesitating, I spoke more firmly: “Just go already!”
“Fine!”He pouted and headed for the door again all the while muttering:“Going to the dumb basement, with the dumb spiders to wash the dumb clothes...”
He’d made it halfway through the room before he faced me again.
“Hey, Keegan, how do you wash clothes?”
I gaped at him.
Oh, he must be kidding me!
He must be trying to piss me off with his annoying questions so that I’d end up doing the laundry. But he would not succeed; I was not going to let him choose his chores. We’d already made a schedule for them and we were going to stick to it.
“You put them in the washing machine,” I explained, attempting to keep my voice even. “You know what a washing machine looks like, right, Skyler?”
“Of course I do,” he huffed. His body had not turned a full one-eighty degrees, when he looked at me again. “How do you operate the washing machine?”
“Are you trying to get away from laundry duty?” I inquired, deciding to no longer beat around the bush.
“No.”
“So you've really never done laundry before?”
“I'm rich. I have a maid for that,” he stated as if it was the most obvious thing.
“You actually have a maid?”
“Yep. Several infact. We also have a butler, chef, assistant chefs, a few gardeners, poolboy, horse trainers...”
“Okay, okay, I get it:you are living high on the hog. I don't need to know about your army of servants.”
“I was almost done actually.”
I groaned.
“Skyler, go downstairs to the basement, open the washing machine, put the clothes in, close the washing machine then read the instructions that are taped to the wall above the washing machine,” I started explaining as if he was a child. “Once you are done, read them again then follow them one by one. If anybody is in the basement at the time, ask them for help.”
“You know I’m not a dimwit, right?” He glowered at me.
“No, you are not.” I waited until the frown was gone before I added just to mess with him: “But you are naturally blond and that color suits you very much.”
He grasped a sock from the basket and emitting a sound he liked to call “his battle cry”, he threw it at me. It landed about two feet from where I was standing.
“Oh, yeah, that was really scary, Sky,” I laughed and headed for the kitchen. The smile left my face as soon as I saw the cluster of dishes that awaited me. I made a mental note to never let them pile up like that again.
“Wow! That is a lot of dishes,” someone commented maybe fifteen minutes later just as I was finally done with the washing and about to start wiping them dry.
I turned around to look at Alice.
“That is the result from having two University boys living together,” I replied, subtly checking her out. All signs of her cold were gone and she looked as good as always even though she’d lost some weight after the shooting. My jaw clenched at the memory.
How could anybody do that to her?
She was a wonderful person, a sweet girl, how could anyone just go and…
“Are you alright, Kee?” She asked with concern in her voice. “You look angry.”
“I’m kind of pissed that Sky and I slacked off the first days we moved here and now we have to catch up,” I lied, not wanting to bring up the robbery and upset her.
“Speaking of catching up on your chores: when are you guys doing laundry? Beth and I were just about to go to the basement to take care of ours so we could keep each other company. But since you guys are busy we could help you out with yours.”
“Thanks but Skyler’s got that covered… I hope,” I added, remembering all those ridiculous questions he’d been asking me.
“You let Skyler Miller do laundry without adult supervision?” The girl gasped. “You know he’s probably going to mix up the white ones with the colored, right?”
“I gave him only the dark clothes.”
“He probably doesn’t even know how to turn on the washing machine,” she went on, making another good point.
“I told him where to read the instructions and commanded him to do it twice before he actually turned the machine on.”
“Seems like you thought of everything, Kee,” she remarked with a bright smile.
I couldn’t help return it. The way her green eyes sparkled, the way her whole face lit up when she was cheerful… It only made her even more beautiful than she already was.
Stop thinking like that, Keegan, I remarked in my head. She’s with Caden now and he’s making her happy. They are your friends and you should be glad they found each other.
But even though I’d accepted that the two of them were a couple, a part of me had not gotten completely over this girl and I sometimes caught myself wondering what would’ve happened if Alice had chosen me.
“I should get going,” the girl announced. “I have to wash Cade’s favorite shirt so he can wear it tomorrow. It’s going to be his first day at the Vermont Academy of Arts. I’m so excited for him!”
“I can tell; you are beaming.”
I wonder if I’d ever find someone to be this happy for me.
“Keegan!” Sky shouted joyfully as he entered the kitchen. “Oh, Alice! You guys won’t believe what happened! Today I did laundry and killed a spider,” he stated proudly. “You should’ve seen the thing. It was huge and ugly and it tried to bite me but using my amazing reflexes, I grabbed a broom and WHAM! Bye-bye, Mr. Spider! Or Mrs. Spider. Do those things even have gender?”
“Oh, Sky,” Alice affectionately hugged her childhood friend. Would I ever get used to this boy’s ramblings the way she has?
“You mighty spider slayer!” She giggled and with a “see you later, guys,” walked out of our apartment.
“Well?” My roommate turned to me.
“Well what?”
“I did the laundry and killed a spider,” he said it as if it was a big deal. “You treated me like an idiot before but I think I proved that there’s more to me than just unbelievably good looks.”
I sighed.
“You actually want me to congratulate you on doing chores?”
“And the killing; don’t forget the killing.”
“Skyler,” I started, taking a step towards him. “Only girls are afraid of spiders. Little, five years old girls with pink frilly dresses and pigtails.”
“Whatever!” He glared at me and crossed his arms in front of his chest.
“What happened to your elbow?” I asked, seeing some blood on his skin. He muttered a “what are you talking about” and gazed at his arm.
“Oh, my God; I’m bleeding!” He screamed.
“Enough with the dramatics already!” I ordered, grasping the boy by the arm and leading him to the sink. “Now wash the blood from your elbow,” I turned the water on for him and placed his arm underneath, “while I go get you an icepack to put on the bruise. How did you get injured anyway?”
“Oh, it probably happened while I was running… hitting… while I was hitting the spider.”
*****
Alice’s POV
“You should’ve seen your brother, Beth; he was so proud of himself.”
My friend laughed, putting the last of her laundry in one of the washing machines in the basement.
“Remember that one night as children when you and I woke up from his screams and when we asked him what happened, he said that he’d woken up and a gigantic spider was crawling on his arm?”
“Oh, yeah!” I laughed as well. “It was one of those times that the three of us slept in the same bad and the “gigantic spider” was actually a few strands of my hair that Sky mistook for a spider because of the dark.”
“What is this I’m hearing about gigantic spiders,” a deep voice with a cheerful inflection inquired.
“Hi, Mr. Andrews,” Beth and I chorused.
“Girls, I told you that you can call me Cal,” he replied, opening one of the washing machines and taking out what I assumed was his laundry. “And I hope you two aren’t going to scream if you see one such creature here like that boy did. He’s your brother, right?” The last sentence was aimed at Beth who nodded in an affirmative response.
“Don’t worry, Cal; my twin is the more melodramatic in our family.”
“I’d say he is,” the man went on. “What king of a boy runs at the sight of one tiny spider?”
“He ran?” I repeated in confusion. “He told me he smacked it with a broom.”
“Did he now?” Mr. Andrews laughed. “This is what happened: I walked in here while he was watching the clothes go round in the laundry machine. At first I thought he might be high or something. Who just stands in front of a laundry machine and looks at it as if it’s the most fascinating thing in the world?”
“Skyler doesn’t take drugs; it’s just that this is the first time he does laundry,” I explained.
“So he informed me. We started a conversation and everything was going fine until I mentioned that there was a spider next to his foot. He shrieked, started to run around, tripped on that broom over there and hit his elbow on one of the washing machines. He then glared at the broom, murmured “stupid thing,” took it in his hands and smashed it on the wall where coincidentally the spider had climbed after your brother’s screams startled it.”
“So that’s what really happened,” I muttered.
“Well, that is my brother for you,” Beth stated half-amused, half-embarrassed. “A drama queen and a spider slayer.”
*****
A/N: I will try to have no more than two different POVs in each chapter so that it will be easier for you to keep track on who’s talking.
Don’t forget to comment and vote if you enjoyed the chapter!