Writing Prompt Very simple: early morning in a 24 hour laundromat.

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Here is a very simple writing prompt.

[Character] is in a 24 hour laundromat in the very early hours of the morning - 2 or 3 AM-ish. There, they have a startling encounter.

Although this prompt is simple, I hope it is loaded with enough points of intrigue for you to explore.
 
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JustHANO

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She pulled out my hoodie. I can't believe it, after all these years it turns out my ex still had my hoodie.

I had just finished up my laundry and was on my way out when I saw my ex, Bell, walk in. It was over north-east so her being over here was weird already. She must have moved recently. She had a washer and dryer at her house so she must have moved. It's also weird because she was sold on getting at least 8 hours of sleep. If she was still taking morning classes, she would be breaking her rule. I'm guessing just by the looks of her hair she's not doing too well.

She didn't say anything to me. We made eye contact, but I'm assuming she didn't recognize me because I shaved my head. Her hair was half stained with the same old blue dye while her blonde hair grew from the roots. She looked as if she just gave up or started drugs. Her face looked worn and her eyes dragged. She was in sweats, signifying it was laundry day. I stuck around and watched her unload her cloth. I was going to leave it be until she pulled out my hoodie.

I remember the night I gave her my hoodie. It was some dumb costume party I went to for my friend's birthday. It was a Dinsey themed party that was five bucks if you weren't dressed up. Back in freshmen year, I was oozing with confidence. Basically, I was a class-A douchebag and five dollars was worth being the "only group of non-loser" for me and my friends. I met her during Disney trivia and we talked. I didn't think he kicked it off much. But then I saw her when I went for a smoke. She was calling an uber and I was being nosy. She looked cold. she was dressed as white Pocahontas, she claimed it was a good ice breaker and also an inside joke. Her dress barely didn't reach her knees so I could see them shivering. I offered her my hoodie while she waited and she accepted. She put it on and almost instantly she was offering it back. I wanted her to be warm and she was worried about my warmth. I didn't take it back. I remember getting distracted and before I knew it she was gone in her uber with my hoodie. I knew this meant she wanted a reason to see me again. We met a few days later, she had been asking around for me and finally found me. She gave me my hoodie back and I couldn't think about anything other than the fact that this was like a movie moment. I asked her out and right then I thought I was the luckiest man alive when she said yes.

I remember having our last argument and thinking "Well damn, I'm not getting that hoodie back." I came to realize I didn't even want the hoodie because it would bring back memories of what we had. That what happened when I just now seen it. All the good times, all the bad. Now I don't even know. Can I deal with that now? Do I have it in me? I think I want my hoodie back.
 

JustHANO

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He shaved his hair. After all that arguing, he did it.

It was late, but It's cheaper in the long run if I wash my things at this laundry mat before I move back home. My girlfriend had just broke up with her ex and really needed someone to be there. I moved in for the week to help her get through it. It was a long relationship and so it damaged her a lot. She was getting better so it was time for me to give her some space. I head over to the laundry mat and just by chance I see Bryan.

It was embarrassing, I had been pig-ing out with my girlfriend for the past week because she had been there for me. I looked like shit. I was off my sleep schedule and didn't even get the chance to take the blue out of my hair. I pretended not to notice him and started my laundry. I could see out the corner of my eye that he was acting weird. There was one machine already going and it obviously belonged to the old lady there. I wasn't going to speak to him, but I wouldn't mind if he spoke to me. That's when I pulled out his hoodie. This fucking hoodie.

The trend of me keeping his hoodie started at some costume party my classmate dragged me to. I didn't want to go but I had my old friends Halloween costume in the closet. It was a Pocahontas dress. She gave it to me because I mistook the costume as just another dress and said I thought it looked beautiful. I asked if I could borrow it sometime after and she joked about me trying to be the white Pocahontas. Anyways, I'm at the party when Bryan sits next to me. We're playing a game as a party and he's on my team. We don't hit it off or anything but we do win. It wasn't until I was going to leave when we met again. It was chilly out and I was waiting for my uber. He gave me his hoodie, trying to be a gentleman. I took it even though it was my legs that were cold. I put it on and it smells awful. I try to give it back in the nicest way possible but he wouldn't take it. I was so annoyed, I was just glad when his friends came and recused me. The uber came while he was talking and I snuck away while I could. I hadn't even noticed I wore the hoodie the whole car ride home. I guess I got used to the smell. I washed it and not wanting it to be on my mind, I went out my way to return it. It was a really nice hoodie. I tried to give it to my friend who knew him but she kept going on about how this was destiny or whatever. I don't believe in crap like that, but I did want him to have his stuff back. So I met him after my class one day and he asked me out. I remember my mom always told me that dating in college was just a potential waste of money, so I wasn't focused on that. But when he asked me that day and I took pity on him, there was no way to know that he would be my first real love.

I hadn't got the urge to return the hoodie, but now I do. I didn't really think about it. But it's time now. It's funny how a chance encounter can affect your life so much. I fold the dirty hoodie and take it over to him. He smiles as I'm walking over and I start to get deja vu.
 
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Wow, so good! Loved seeing the different perspectives, really evoked the feeling of how the two of them really didn't understand each other from the beginning, but still ending on a sense of closure.:blob_cookie:
 

JustHANO

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Wow, so good! Loved seeing the different perspectives, really evoked the feeling of how the two of them really didn't understand each other from the beginning, but still ending on a sense of closure.:blob_cookie:
Thanks you, I like that you like it. now i wish i spent more time on the second part, i left a few unanswered questions.
 

Llamadragon

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There are times when my insomnia doesn’t let me get much sleep, and things kind of starts to bleed into each other. These past couple of days have been one of those times, so around two or three in the morning or so, I gave up tossing and turning in my bed and decided to do something productive. Because of my lack of sleep the past week, I was behind on laundry and it started to get to the critical point, so I grabbed some stuff from the top of the laundry pile and headed outside to the laundomat down the street. Early mornings is one of two things I do love about insomnia. The summer nights are wonderful and only a pair of singing blackbirds broke the peace and the sky was a dark, but nowhere near black, cerulean color with a handful of stars strewn across it.

The other thing I liked was the music. I loaded the machine, turned it on and took a seat when it started humming and singing. The noise this time sounded like flutes to my sleep-deprived mind, a strange but beautiful sound. It was a strange kind of music I rarely heard from recorded songs, though sometimes there were rare pieces that caught it, making me think that there were musicians out there capable of capturing the otherworldliness of this delirious state of betweens. Like the background choir from the Princess Mononoke main theme, or Lux Aetherna from the Space Oddysey. Not quite songs, but quite magical in its own right. It was just my brain translating white noise into a tune that sounded like it had a melody hidden in there somewhere, in the spaces between its notes. I listened to it and stared into the washing machine. The sound of the singing blackbirds drifted in through the door I left open. There was no one there but me, no machine running but mine.

I noticed that something was strange when the blackbirds suddenly went silent, and the beautiful ”flute” music turned dark and eerie, like the lower notes on a pipe organ. That happened sometimes, and the sudden horror movie soundtrack playing in my exclusive reality didn’t particularly bother me. But perhaps it made me a little uneasy, because I turned around. In the open door, at the treshold, were two blackbirds, silent and staring. Judging? Definitely Seeing. The three of us stood still for a while, and they never looked away, staring at me in a way that birds never stares at people.

Then, it was as if I looked through the eyes of one of them, and I was looking up at the human that was myself. I felt the little heart of the bird beat, faster than mine, felt the cold floor under its claws. ”I” kept staring at me, the horror movie soundtrack turning increasingly eerie. My face distorted, melting away like dripping mud, revealing black bone underneath skin and flesh. I was rather calm, as I had long since passed the point where it wouldn’t be that odd if I hallucinated. Then, both birds took flight, flying into my chest, and inside was a field, long swaying grass surrounded by forest. Mist laid upon it, and the other bird and I flew between branches until I saw myself again. I was sitting on a throne of bones, surrounded by decaying birds cawing a cacophony of noise, of music-in-noise, drowning everything else out. Hundreds of birds. Thousands of birds. Crows and ravens, from what I could tell, fighting over the black sludge that melted off my own bones. The ”me” sitting on the throne of bones didn’t want to let them have it. After all, it was mine.

We sang, the two of us, me and the other blackbird. A shrill, light and pale song, that sounded almost like the promise of sun when it approaches the horizon in the mornings, like the sound of light dancing in shards of glass, in morning dew. All the other birds stilled, and the ”other me” fell asleep, the skull falling to the ground with a silent ”thud”. The me in front of me lost the fight against the corvids, who quietly, peacefully, took the chance to clean off the disgusting rotted meat and sludge off those bones of mine. Then the soil rose up, as gentle as a sighing wave, and devoured those bones, throne and all, as if only a hill had been there the entire time. The corvids took off, wings whispering, and the blackbirds sat silent. Then the two of us took flight as well, and I landed on my own window sill.

I don’t know how I got home that night, but I woke up in my bed the next morning, feeling... not entirely rested, but much better off than I had been in weeks, months. My laundry was done and neatly folded on my desk, and the window was open. There were footprints of birds on my window sill.

I shrugged. That might’ve been kind of crazy, but there’s this thing about living on the edge of your sanity because of sleep loss for a few weeks that makes even this kind of thing seem... kind of normal. Or at least not that odd. I decided to buy a bird feeder.
 

JustHANO

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Wow that was amazing and descriptive. Made me feel like I had the dream. Light yet satisfying ending too, maybe I'll buy a bird feeder🤔
 

Llamadragon

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Thank you, I’m glad you enjoyed it. :) Do buy a bird feeder if you have some space where you can see it from your window, it’s so nice to watch the little guys go about their business.
 

ars

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The silence of the dead of night gave a great atmosphere for reconsidering your life choices, and Lucy often took advantage of it. For example, the her of five years ago would never answer a call at 2AM, especially not one telling her to drag her ass out of bed and come over.

Lucy spent fifteen minutes driving over, then ten minutes driving to the nearest laundromat. Now, she had to spend about an hour under the fluorescent lights of the empty laundromat to wash clothes, and probably another hour to throw them into the dryer. That was a lot of time to think.

With a stone-cold expression, Lucy ran the cold water of the laundromat's sink over the clothes while pondering the course of her life.

She should have been a dentist. It was the same amount of teeth she would have to deal with, and the same amount of crying people, but a lot more money. Plus, she would have a slick business card to hand out. Dr. Lucy Cheng had a great ring to it. Her parents would finally stop nagging her at family get-togethers for being the problem child.

Lucy violently scrubbed at a particularly dirty long-sleeved, frilled shirt, thinking about how the next time she went home, her parents were going to ask about why she didn't have a boyfriend, or if she was secretly dating her employer. She frowned, repulsed at the thought. If she was going to date someone, they would at least have to have some basic table manners.

Lucy was so caught up in her thoughts, she didn't notice someone else had come into the laundromat until she heard an older man's voice say, "Excuse me, miss. Everything alright?"

Lucy whirled around, clutching the stained frilly shirt in her hands.

There was an older man with a bit of a pot belly standing at a washing machine on the other side of the room. He had a duffel bag of clothes at his feet (t-shirts, dark short-sleeve button-ups, pants, underwear), and he was wearing a tank-top, slacks, and loafers. Lucy's eyes quickly zipped toward the belt around his waist, on which was clipped a pistol.

Lucy's body froze. Her face chipped in increments, a stiff smile pulling itself up millimeter by millimeter on her face.

"Evening, sir!" she chirped, continuing to furiously scrub the shirt under the running water while holding it below eye level of the sink. "Everything is just dandy! How are you doing this fine night?"

"Things are alright," the officer said. "Just washing some spare clothes. Notice you've got, hm, a lot on your hands over there."

He nodded toward the pile of clothes next to Lucy. It was a mountain of aristocratic coats, trousers, stockings, and cravats. They were all worn and faded with a few loose threads like they had lasted for quite a long time, and they were also drenched with spreading red stains.

"You know how it is," Lucy said, continuing to smile brightly at the officer. She grabbed a bottle of saline solution and poured it over the frilled shirt, pink water running down the sink. "That time of the month. It's hard on a woman. The stains, gosh, they just get on everything."

"Uh-huh," the officer said.

Just like usual, Lucy spent the next two hours in silence as she reconsidered her life choices. She jittered her leg, watching the clothes spin round and round in the washing machine. The cop sat on a fold-up chair behind her, reading something on his phone. Every time he shifted, she jumped in her seat. A cold sweat formed on the back of Lucy's neck as she waited for him to get up and point his gun to her and say, "You're helping those vampires who live in that ramshackle old mansion wash their clothes, aren't you?"

Maybe it wasn't too late to learn how to be a dentist.


-

Reading this prompt made all of the teen wolf fanfics set in laundromats that I've read over the past years flash before my eyes...
 

JustHANO

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The silence of the dead of night gave a great atmosphere for reconsidering your life choices, and Lucy often took advantage of it. For example, the her of five years ago would never answer a call at 2AM, especially not one telling her to drag her ass out of bed and come over.

Lucy spent fifteen minutes driving over, then ten minutes driving to the nearest laundromat. Now, she had to spend about an hour under the fluorescent lights of the empty laundromat to wash clothes, and probably another hour to throw them into the dryer. That was a lot of time to think.

With a stone-cold expression, Lucy ran the cold water of the laundromat's sink over the clothes while pondering the course of her life.

She should have been a dentist. It was the same amount of teeth she would have to deal with, and the same amount of crying people, but a lot more money. Plus, she would have a slick business card to hand out. Dr. Lucy Cheng had a great ring to it. Her parents would finally stop nagging her at family get-togethers for being the problem child.

Lucy violently scrubbed at a particularly dirty long-sleeved, frilled shirt, thinking about how the next time she went home, her parents were going to ask about why she didn't have a boyfriend, or if she was secretly dating her employer. She frowned, repulsed at the thought. If she was going to date someone, they would at least have to have some basic table manners.

Lucy was so caught up in her thoughts, she didn't notice someone else had come into the laundromat until she heard an older man's voice say, "Excuse me, miss. Everything alright?"

Lucy whirled around, clutching the stained frilly shirt in her hands.

There was an older man with a bit of a pot belly standing at a washing machine on the other side of the room. He had a duffel bag of clothes at his feet (t-shirts, dark short-sleeve button-ups, pants, underwear), and he was wearing a tank-top, slacks, and loafers. Lucy's eyes quickly zipped toward the belt around his waist, on which was clipped a pistol.

Lucy's body froze. Her face chipped in increments, a stiff smile pulling itself up millimeter by millimeter on her face.

"Evening, sir!" she chirped, continuing to furiously scrub the shirt under the running water while holding it below eye level of the sink. "Everything is just dandy! How are you doing this fine night?"

"Things are alright," the officer said. "Just washing some spare clothes. Notice you've got, hm, a lot on your hands over there."

He nodded toward the pile of clothes next to Lucy. It was a mountain of aristocratic coats, trousers, stockings, and cravats. They were all worn and faded with a few loose threads like they had lasted for quite a long time, and they were also drenched with spreading red stains.

"You know how it is," Lucy said, continuing to smile brightly at the officer. She grabbed a bottle of saline solution and poured it over the frilled shirt, pink water running down the sink. "That time of the month. It's hard on a woman. The stains, gosh, they just get on everything."

"Uh-huh," the officer said.

Just like usual, Lucy spent the next two hours in silence as she reconsidered her life choices. She jittered her leg, watching the clothes spin round and round in the washing machine. The cop sat on a fold-up chair behind her, reading something on his phone. Every time he shifted, she jumped in her seat. A cold sweat formed on the back of Lucy's neck as she waited for him to get up and point his gun to her and say, "You're helping those vampires who live in that ramshackle old mansion wash their clothes, aren't you?"

Maybe it wasn't too late to learn how to be a dentist.


-

Reading this prompt made all of the teen wolf fanfics set in laundromats that I've read over the past years flash before my eyes...

Glad I was scrolls through old post and got to see this. Me likey the twist. I couldn't think what she could be.
 
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