Frizz

Chapter 4 | Exploding Washing Machines

Chapter 4.

I hadn't spoken to Natasha since Saturday night. I had spent all week falling into a routine of sleep, eat, go to class and study. I had become very well acquainted with my dorm room. I had spent the past 6 days eating and studying at my desk and lying down on my bed, staring up at the plain white ceiling.

I had even rearranged all of my art supplies into height and colour order.

When I had woken up Friday morning and seen last nights Chinese takeout sitting on my small wooden desk was when I realized that I was becoming a person I didn't want to become.

I was becoming boring.

Natasha had agreed to meet me in the grassed area in the middle of campus at 10am. When I arrived there I saw her already seated on a bench, with her phone pressed to her ear.

"Hey," she greeted me, ending the call and putting her phone away.

"I think I need a job," I blurted out, sitting next to her on the bench and putting my bag on the ground.

"Whoa, hold up," she said, holding her hand out in a 'stop' gesture. "Where is this coming from?" she asked, looking at me with narrowed brown eyes.

"I've become boring Tasha. I've been at college for almost a week and have barely done anything except sleep, eat and go to class!" I exclaimed. Natasha looked at me with amused eyes and a slight smile on her face.

"Maisie, you've always been boring," she said and I glared at her.

"Natasha, be serious for a moment please," I begged. She sighed before turning and facing me seriously.

"Look, it'll probably be hard to get one and especially one that fits in with your time table. Apply for jobs on campus or very close off campus," she advised and I nodded. I knew that jobs were always snatched up before the semester began and were always hard to find once semester began. It was always first in best dressed with college jobs.

"But Maisie, a job won't change much. You need to start making friends. Take chances. Live!" Natasha exclaimed, "I don't want to have to tell mum that you're a friendless loser that lives off of muesli bars and sits in her dorm room all day."

I laughed and agreed, but it was easy for Natasha to joke about. She had clicked into college life as if she was always meant to be there. I had never been anti-social, but once I had my group of friends I hadn't strayed far from them.

"Well I have a tutorial to get to, but I'm serious about the friends thing," she warned before standing, slinging her handbag up onto her shoulder and striding off across the grass with purpose and confidence. I watched her go, seeing as she waved to a few people as she passed them and wondering when it would get that easy for me.

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I spent the next three hours in classes and then set off walking around campus, handing out my resume to different places. Jobs on campus didn't look very promising, as every manager I handed my resume to took it without much enthusiasm.

I sighed as I exited the last place on campus I could apply to. Most places had told me that I would receive either a phone call or email within a fortnight to a month. Some didn't even make any promises.

I pulled my coat tighter around me as I glanced up at the grey sky. I really hoped it didn't rain; otherwise my hair would be a complete nightmare. As I trudged along the campus back towards my dorm room I wondered what I could do when I got back. I was sat to discover that the only thing I needed to do was to take my washing down to the laundry room.

I sighed to myself. I really had become boring.

The laundry room was a small room with about 5 washing machines and 5 dryers. It smelled like laundry detergent and there was only one other person in the room, which was a skinny guy wearing a black hoody and watching something on his phone through earphones.

I had brought a book that had been assigned in lit class and sat on the floor, with my back resting against the washer as I waited for it to finish.

The book was 'The Yellow Wall-Paper' by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and just as I was starting to get into it two black chunky heeled boots stopped in front of my legs.

I looked up and locked eyes with icy blue ones.

"Hello Maisie Green," Eleanor Richards greeted me with a smirk, carrying a large duffel bag on her shoulder that I was guessing were clothes.

"Uh, hi," I replied, smiling hesitantly. I was surprised that she had remembered me. Today she was wearing black stockings with a leather skater skirt, a white shirt that said 'people disappoint, pizza is forever', a black jacket and the chunky black boots.

With her icy blonde hair perfectly straight and framing her angelic face she managed to make the outfit look chic and edgy.

She threw the duffel bag down at the washing machine besides mine and started shoving clothes into the machine. I looked worriedly at the large amount of clothes she had in the duffel bag and then at the much smaller washing machine.

"So you live in this block?" I asked, trying to make conversation as she tried to stuff every item into the washer.

"Nope, I live in an apartment on the east side but our washer broke, so I had to lug it all the way over here," she explained. I looked worriedly again at the huge pile of clothes that she was trying to stuff into the washer but decided that she would know how much was too much.

"Oh," was all I said.

"It's so annoying. I wasn't even the one that broke the machine. I know that it was Jamie, but no one could prove that it was actually him. So we decided to paper-scissors-rock it and of course, I end up being the poor sucker that end up having to carry this huge thing all the way over here," she complained, "and to top it off we're down a room-mate, which means everyone has to pay more for rent, and we now need to pay for a new washer."

"Why don't you just get a new roommate?" I asked, just as my washer beeped, letting me know it was done. I moved the clothes to the dryer and then turned to see Eleanor grinning from ear to ear.

"You want some new roommates Green?" she asked, folding her arms and leaning causally against the washer.

"What? Me?" I asked, shocked that she had asked me (basically a complete stranger to her) to move in with her and her other roommates.

"Yeah, you," she rolled her eyes, "rent is $50 a week if you move in, excluding food. It's a 5 bedroom, each room with a double bed and build in robe. One bathroom, kitchen and living room with TV. And it's probably the most fun apartment you could live in."

I stared at her, still bewildered. This was all happening so fast.

"What do you say?" she asked, a twinkle in her determined blue eyes.

Natasha's voice came back into my mind. "Take chances. Meet new people," she had told me.

So I decided to take a chance.

"When do I move in?" I asked and her face split into the widest smile I had ever seen, just before her washing machine made a horrible grumbling noise before sparks started flying.

We both screamed as more sparks erupted and the whole machine started shaking violently. I scrambled for the wall switch where it was plugged into and quickly turned it off.

When the machine stopped shaking we stared down at it, black smoke was erupting from the top and water was spilling out of the top.

"Ok, so maybe it was me that broke the washing machine," Eleanor admitted sheepishly.

Oh god, I thought, what was I getting myself into?

A/N: Does anyone know how to indent the lines on here? I write it on word and it's always indented but when I post it the indent disappears. Comment your feedback and vote if you like :) x

Picture of Natasha up top.