The finger coming into his view, his eyes followed up the arm to the face of its owner. When he saw her, the only word that could form in his mind was “beautiful.” Aside from that, hers was also a new face to him. The campus was pretty huge, but he couldn’t believe he’d never noticed her before. She wasn’t exactly the kind of person that blended in to the crowd. After keeping his eyes on her for what he realized might have been a second too long, he quickly turned his attention back to the dial she had pointed to. Hearing what would happen to his clothes if he stuffed them all in as he had, his face turned red in embarrassment. “Oh. Thanks.” He stood up straight and retrieved his clothes from the machine, feeling like a complete idiot.
“That obvious, huh?” he said, letting out a nervous chuckle. He began separating his clothes, like she’d advised. Blacks went in one pile (that quickly became the biggest), whites in another (mostly t-shirts, socks, and boxers, which he felt a little awkward sorting in front of her), and colors in the last (which mainly just consisted of dark blues, and a few button-ups of miscellaneous colors). Can the color in these really wash out and get mixed up? Thinking about it now, it made sense. They were just dyes, after all. He’d never heard of the colors being affected by the washer, though, since it had never happened. Man, he really was clueless. Whoever this girl was, she was a life saver.
Once he’d gotten them separated and one of the piles loaded in, he turned back to her. “Thanks again. You probably saved me from a disaster. I owe you.” Turning back to his machine, he grabbed some of his quarters and inserted them into the slot, then turned the dial she had pointed out earlier. He should say something more. He wanted to know more about this person, this gorgeous
savior who had swooped in and rescued his clothes from certain peril. Unfortunately, he wasn’t that great at talking to people, let alone girls. Asking her name would be a good start, and that shouldn’t be too hard. Noctis looked at the woman once more, and with a shrug and a small smile, said, “Might be easier to repay you if I know your name.”
She could only smile and nod in his response to her helping him prevent a rainbow mess from his laundry. Her personage moved to another machine putting her whites and colors being only a few that their was in the machine. Adding her quarters and slipping in soap before starting everything. Her arms slid behind her pulling her body upon the washer listening to him and watching his movement for a moment. Clearly he had more black then anything, must have been a rich kid thing to wear one of a certain color. Knowing his stasis in society was impossible, knowing he had money was another thing. While she was here on a scholarship, he most likely got in for having the money to pay for such a high end college. “I can’t expect a rich kid to know how to wash clothes no would I?" She asked almost in a teasing tone as she smiled at him softly.
If he didn’t find that his lack of knowledge to how to wash close wasn't obvious she wondered what else did that was completely wrong in the ‘commoners’ world. Her thoughts could only trail on so long that she would find her self laughing in her head. Crystals lightened up as she brought her attention back to him. Owing her? What could he possible do that she could not do herself. Besides having a nice home cooked meal rather then cafe food. She only shrugged and smacked her rose tinted lips. "Owe me? No thanks. I do not need it.” She continued finding herself lost in his eyes for a second.
“Claire Farron” She replied giving her name any how. “Third year student here. Literature Scholar” She continued with a bit more information then needed. Probably something he was curious about and defiantly something she was curious to know about him. Being one who didn’t talk much, having him get so much as two words out of her was lucky. He made her spark an interest in him and that was something not many people had done.
His laundry bag felt like he was hauling a corpse. Of course, that may have something to do with the fact that he waited until the absolute last minute.
In his defense, Noctis had a good reason not to do his laundry besides just being a male college student in his twenties. He had grown up in a very rich family— servants, big house, everything he ever wanted, the whole nine yards. Most people would kill for his life, but he had hated it. He hated not being able to do things for himself or make his own choices. Everything was planned out for him, done for him, decided for him. It’s why he had chosen to go to college in the first place. Here, he could make his own choices, be independent, live his own life. Except, there was one problem. All his life, he’d had maids to clean up after him, so, of course, he’d never done laundry a day in his life. And, somehow, he hadn’t thought to ask before leaving to a university halfway across the country.
He hefted his bag onto the top of the row of washers and opened it up. The stench of some of his older clothes practically hit him in the face and made him cough. With a sigh, he pulled out about half of the bag’s contents, then reached into his pocket and pulled out a hand-full of quarters, setting them a couple feet from the pile. Okay… how did this thing work? Choosing one of the machines, he opened the lid. Well, that was easy. He then tossed the pile into the mouth of the washer, one fist-full of clothing after the other. Machine open, clothes inside. He was halfway there, or at least he thought. Now, how did he turn this thing on? And shouldn’t there be some kind of soap, or was that already in the machine? He closed the lid, leaned his arms against the edge of the washer, shifted his weight to one leg, and stared intently at the buttons and dials on the front. He had no idea which buttons to push and which settings to choose. The only thing he could figure out was where to put the coins.
Light as always her load was nothing but a white laundry basket. Well of course the women kept track of how much laundry she had make sure not to go to the last day where she had nothing at all.
Being at the school for the last two years the scholar had figured out her schedule including her days to do laundry and still have time to study. Doing such task came easy as it was one of many chores she had done around her house when she had to care for her younger sister. Life was easy to transfer over to from high school to college life. It was all the same minus taking care of her sister or dealing with bullies. She had done everything for herself and her younger sister since she was fifteen. This was just living life now rather then caring for someone she was doing everything for herself. The only probably with living alone for the young women was cooking for herself. She managed to burn the bottom of nearly every pot and pan she had the first time she tried till deciding to give up and just eat at the cafeteria every night. Luckily for her, she made a deal with the chief and vegetarian meals were easier for the cook.
Setting her basket down the roseate about to start separating her clothes took a quick glance at the man she had never seen in the dorm laundry room only to chuckle softly under her breath and talking over to him. An appendage extended and pointed to a dial. “That one starts it” Her eyes glanced at the pile of clothes in the machine and a brow rose turning back to the man. Obviously he was clueless about laundry, it was either that or he purposely wanted to change the colors of his clothes. With a soft sigh the women shook her head. “You have to separate your clothes unless you want a big blob of colored clothes and messed up whites you know?” She continued moving away from the machine just a bit to let him remove all the clothes from it. “You do not know much about laundry do you?” She asked one last time before becoming silent.
One year ago I teamed up with some friends to throw a weekly party in Hollywood. This party became Cyber Ceremony. Spearheaded by Amika Akaya,Jermaine KempandAce Aroff, it brought together some of the most talented underground hip-hop djs and artists in Los Angeles and beyond to the steamy basement Hollywood speakeasy bar, Dirty Laundry. What started as a small experiment quickly grew to one of LA’s largest weekly events. Cyber Ceremony was built and fueled by our collective of friends. By us. For us.
To coincide with the 1 Year Anniversary party, I compiled a collection of photos from the past year into a book. A Year Of Cyber Ceremony contains 40 pages, 64 photos, and comes signed and numbered in an edition of 40.
The very silent and shy Kelly Rowland bares all in her single “Dirty Laundry ”. I am just as shocked as most to know what was going on behind closed doors but she came out strong. Kelly is truly a wonderful artist and a woman of empowerment. She came out on-top and lowkey I like her music more than Beyonce. Now most would say she was living in B’s shadow but Not Anymore she is now her own voice. Congrads Kelly. CHECK OUT the visuals “DIRTY LAUNDRY ”.
