Laundromat (story)

Jackson sighed as he opened the door, propping it with one foot while grunting and grabbing his hamper full of clothes. He regretted having rented this apartment, somehow he forgot to ask about laundry until after he had paid for his first month, and only after he was told that there was no on-site washer or dryer. 

"How could I have been so dumb? If this is the punishment for what I did to that mouse, I should have gone way further," he reminisced as a few days ago he had played a trick on his roommate and close friend, chuckling at the memory of his reaction to the prank. That boy's face was still red up until Jackson walked out the door, carrying a hamper weighed down by both of their laundry loads. The mouse’s voice rang through his head as he remembered his conditions for the punishment. 

‘You’ll go do the laundry for the two of us, make sure you keep a close eye on it and use this detergent on yours,’ Jackson glanced at a pod of detergent that was sitting in his hamper, ‘also don’t expect me to just let you stuff me in these humiliating diapers without you having to feel the same way.’ 

That part definitely had the cat a bit more bothered. It was enough having to carry two loads of laundry at once down the block, but he was also being made to waddle his way down in diapers just as thick as his roommate’s and hope that nobody would notice the bulge in his shorts, or the crinkle in his step. 

Jackson turned the corner, the laundromat only being a few doors down now. He set down one of the hampers and checked his shirt, noticing that the back had ridden up a bit, and the white plastic waistband had been peeking up from behind him. He tugged his shirt down as far as he could and tried to tuck the back into his pants before picking the hamper back up. The slight bending motion being all it took to release his shirt from his shorts. He sighed and hurried to the door, opening it with a ‘ding’ as a bell sounded to announce his entry. Jackson kept his gaze low and rushed to the nearest free washer dryer. 

He set down the hampers by either cabinet and started loading his clothes first, making sure to use the pod that his roommate had given him for his clothes, and then doing the other load with regular detergent. 

Jackson considered sitting on the bench in front of the machines, but his shirt predicament wouldn’t allow him to be anything but upright unless he wanted to flash any and all passersby his ‘special’ underwear. He settled to stand.

His phone buzzed. The cat pulled it out of his pocket and saw a message from his roommate: 

“dont forget 2 watch ur clothes” 

Jackson was a bit confused and replied back, “what do u mean? I’m not going anywher”

“ur special detergent has 2 be watched”

The cat rolled his eyes and looked back at his machine. Through the window, he could see that it had already filled with water, and there were some colors coming out from the pod. 

“What?!” Jackson exclaimed before the spin started, the window quickly became saturated with bright colors as his clothes became a rapidly spinning blur. The wash got brighter and more colorful, and Jackson’s surprise began to subside as he continued to watch the wash happen through the window of the machine. 

He felt strange, but couldn’t place how or why. He felt constricted, like the clothes he was wearing were tight and hot. He thought about how much better it would feel if he could take them off. 

‘No, that would be silly, there are all these people here!’ 

He felt a pressure build in his bladder, as if he had needed to go all day and was only just realizing it. 

The spinning changed directions, clockwise to counterclockwise, as his bright, colorful clothes formed a new spiral, it was like new colors kept appearing for him. 

Jackson sat down on the floor, feeling a slight squish, and feeling the cold floor against his bare legs. 

‘Huh, when did I take my shorts off?’ 

He thought to look down, but his eyes were transfixed by the spectacle in front of him. Rubbing the front of his diaper, he felt it squish more. It was warm. 

“I’m gonna need a change,” he said out loud, as if it were the most normal thing for him.

The spinning changed directions again. Jackson raised his arms and let out a weak yawn, having lost track of how long he had been there for. His tail hiked, and he felt something on his bottom, but he wasn’t quite sure what it was, and figured it must have not been very important at all. 

The water started to drain now, leaving his colorful clothes to spin on their own as the drying cycle started. He watched through the window, trying to see if he could spot his favorite shirts among the chaos. Among them, he spotted a red one which he thought he could read “Time for a change” on it. That made him giggle, and he agreed with it. 

The dry came to an end, and he started pulling out his clothes, making sure to pick out a shirt to wear right away. 

‘How could I have forgotten to wear any shirts to the laundromat? Silly me!’

Jackson slipped on a blue shirt, with the tag in the front, tickling his neck, and on the back, in big yellow letters, “My other pants are still dry!”. 

Among the rest of his clothes were a couple pairs of shorts with stretchy waistbands, a couple pairs of shortalls, plenty of onesies with fun prints on them, his favorite being the one covered in yarn balls, and a few shirts with diapers printed on them, one that said how much he loves his daddy, and one that still had his paci clip attached to it! How could he have forgotten to take that off of it?

After sticking his paci back in his mouth, and clipping it to his backwards shirt, the kitten loaded up both hampers, completely ignoring the shirt and shorts he wore on his way there, and started waddling on home, with a saggy, bloated bottom, and without a care in the world.