I put the whites in first and set the washer. As water starts to fill up I add the detergent. There is a bookshelf with all sorts of detergents and soaps on it but I always bring our own. There has been a case or two where I have forgotten. I would use more than one washer to get the darks done at the same time but there is this small list of rules on the bulletin board in the room and one of the rules is not using more than one washer even if there isn’t anyone else in there. I think it a little absurd but I’m not the sort to take risks or break rules despite my opinions.

All is quiet except for the washer when I take a seat in a slightly uncomfortable tweed chair to the right of the machine. I brought a novel to read while I wait and flip open the paperback to where the bookmark has held my place. It’s a receipt for groceries I bought last week with money from when I babysat the Lincoln twins who live just above us. My mother got laid off from her previous job and so I supported the both of us for a little while doing random things for the other tenants and the landlady. Luckily, she had an interview the past Saturday and managed to convince them she was at all organized enough for a reception job at a huge technology company in the center of the city. I hope she can keep this one for longer than a month.

I tend to get really absorbed when I’m reading and completely tune out the reality all around me in favor of a fictional world. I suppose since I can’t really have far away adventures like the characters in these novels I escape in my head when I read them. I can sail across seas, fight horrible beats, explore alien planets, or fall in love. None of these I know I could never do while I’m stuck in an apartment building and a ten block radius. It’s not like I couldn’t just walk out the door and never return but I could never leave my mother like that. What would she do without me? Probably collapse in her own filth.

There is also the fact that I have a poor immune system and add asthmatic on top of that. So for a fear of dying and my mother falling apart I’ll stick to literature for my epic adventures. Besides, Avalon has its own adventure sometimes if you call constant gossip adventure.

A sharp clack sound causes me to nearly jump out of my skin. Instead of course I fall off the chair and my book slides across the linoleum floor.

As I lay there pondering the possibility that what I heard had been the washing machine and not some mutant supernatural being out to eat me, I watch sparkly blue painted fingernails attached to ring adorned fingers pick up my book. “Dark Blood? Didn’t realize you were into vampires, Colin,” says an amused familiar voice.

I sigh and sit up, “Hey, Joanna.”