It’s rough right now.
It’s a nice job, for sure, maybe even cushy compared to whatever the hell is going on with his two roommates with their heady complex about being line cooks at a restaurant. He shows up in the morning, talks with his shift lead Pike, then washes and dries and folds clothes until the day is over. He gets lunch from the vending machine, an egg salad sandwich and a Snapple. He eats it out on the unshaded asphalt while watching the semi trucks on the Oregon highway zoom by in front of him. He gets to put whatever music he likes on, so he puts on Coldplay like he’s 10 again. Pike starts talking about getting stoned and writing poetry with his buddies and customers ask for his recommendation on which laundry detergent to use.
Then it’s quiet. Just the rumble of ten washing machines going at the same time, the soft clinking of coins, the folding of fabric. Just Jude and his thoughts.
Sometimes they’re okay. Recently his fascination has been with Pike, the only other human being Jude has been spending a lot of time with. They’re always scheduled for the same shifts, so much so that he doesn’t know the names of the rest of his coworkers. It helps that Pike is a 29-year-old stoner who can work whatever hours the laundromat wants him to work.
He has a bad crush on Pike. Bad. The biggest infatuation he’s ever had with anyone in his life. Pike isn’t even that special. He eats sour cream and onion chips and doesn’t wipe the crumbs from his wool and shakes the sand out of his pockets onto the ground and kicks it under a dryer with his sandal. Still, he finds himself falling asleep at night thinking about Pike, getting nervous when he has to respond after one of Pike’s stupid stoner monologues. Sometimes he sneaks off to the bathroom on his break and jerks off as quickly as he can, imagining Pike is wrapping his arms around his body and helping Jude finish.
Pike is easy to crush on. He’s a little oblivious, a little messy, but he’s so kind. His voice is so warm and his smile is so loveable. Whenever Jude spills the detergent and starts panicking, Pike just tells him to breathe and that they can clean it up together. Whenever Jude needs to stop listening to his own thoughts or needs the music changed or needs a situation de-escalated, Pike is always there to help.
Sometimes the thoughts aren’t okay. A lot of the time it’s about how stupid he is, about how he should have just stayed home with his asshole dad. Even if every day in that house sucked, it didn’t suck as bad as this. He’s 18 years old and living in the middle of Oregon, 2000 miles from where he was a few months ago. He has no friends, no family, no boyfriend, no money, can’t cook, can’t clean, fucking nothing. At least he knows how to do laundry, but when the only thing getting him out of bed in the morning is his desperate crush on his older coworker, that doesn’t count for a lot.
His roommates are playing Mario Kart in the living room, but Jude’s too anxious to go out and play with them. It’s not anxiety about one particular thing, which is the worst part. It’s like a complete unraveling. He has no energy or desire to get out of bed but also nothing he wants to do in bed now that he’s already jerked off to the thought of Pike twice. His heart is racing even though nothing is going on and nothing ever goes on. The only thing he ever does is work at the laundromat. What the hell could he be anxious about?
He stares at the pile of clothes on the other side of the room to give himself something to be anxious about. When he drove away from home, he took his dirty laundry hamper and nothing else. No winter coats, since he figured he’d end up somewhere warm, nothing else in his closet. Normally, he washes his clothes at work for free, but lately he’s had this thing about being perceived. It’s too vulnerable to wash his clothes at work, for people to see that kind of thing. It doesn’t make any sense logically in his head, but when his body completely prevents him from doing it, logic doesn’t matter.
The laundromat is closed right now, but he has a key and he knows that the security system isn’t more than a sign out front saying they don’t keep money on the premises overnight, which they do.
He stands up and gets all of the laundry in the hamper. It starts to sound nicer and nicer the more he thinks about it. Get out of the house, get dinner from the vending machine, be in a comfortable environment that isn’t his room.
His roommates don’t give him any attention as he drags the hamper out to his car. The warm night air is nice on the cat’s fur. The roads are empty. He’s the only person waiting at every red light. Even the highway the laundromat is off of is empty besides guys in massive trucks on their way across the country. He parks in the lot and sits in his car for a moment. He takes in a deep breath.
The laundromat is creepy at night. He doesn’t turn the light on to not arouse any suspicion, so the only light is from the full moon and the street lamps outside. He squats down and puts his clothes one-by-one into the washing machine, taking special care to empty all the pockets and unball all of the socks. That’s all the clothing he owns fitting into half of the washing machine. He swallows and realizes he should probably take his shirt and pajama bottoms off too, which are stained with egg salad and semen respectively. He’d take his white briefs off too but it’s probably a crime to do that.
He stuffs everything in there, puts some of the nice fancy detergent from the back in there and some fabric softener because he can, then uses the store’s infinite money card to pay for it. He turns the machine on and stands back, happy that he managed to do anything at all.
Then he realizes he’s standing in his briefs in an empty laundromat in the middle of the night with nothing to do for the next two hours.
So he sits there and thinks.
Mostly about what a stupid idea this is, that he’s carved out the next two hours to sit here in his underwear and do nothing, that he could be back in Minnesota right now instead of doing this, that he could be happy right now instead of doing this. He clothes his eyes and loathes.
And then the light turns on.
Pike is standing right there.
He drops his sack of laundry to the floor.
“Ohhh,” Pike laughs. “Hey, dude.”
“I’m sorry, um– I’m sorry, I–”
“Doin’ some laundry? That’s cool.” He picks up the basket. He’s wearing pajama bottoms and a tank top and his wool is all scruffy. He has a little smile on his face but is trying to keep it in. “I’ve snuck in here before to do laundry. I mean, I’m literally doing it now, haha. Why not when you work here, y’know?”
“Yeah, yeah.” Jude tries to keep from crying. He doesn’t know what’s so bad about all of it, because clearly Pike is being very nice, but his face is burning from how hard he’s trying to not cry.
Pike takes a step forward. “Rough day?”
“Hm?” Jude tries to play coy about it, but just being asked makes him start crying. Hot, wet tears start streaming down his face as he stops trying to keep them all in. He brings his legs up onto the bench and holds them tight. “Aw, fuck. Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck.”
“I’m sorry, bud,” Pike says with a little frown. He approaches slowly. “Can I sit next to you?”
He’s not outright crying, just all jumbled and panicked and red. He gives a little nod and buries his head in his paws. He feels Pike sit down next to him, his wool brush against Jude’s bare fur. He wraps his arm around Jude’s shoulder actually, rubs his arm softly. He would freak out about it if he wasn’t already preoccupied.
Pike sits with him while he normalizes his breathing. If there’s one thing he’s good at, it’s bringing himself into a panic attack and then back out of it. He wiggles his toes and feels his legs and takes deep breaths, still a little choked up but a lot better than before. He listens to the rumble of the washing machine, feels Pike’s leg against his. It’s okay.
When he looks up, Pike is smiling at him. He hasn’t pulled his shoulder away. “Have I ever told you you’re a really good employee?”
Jude laughs. “What?”
“I mean, it’s true. You’re always five minutes early, you’re great at folding clothes, you listen to me when I monologue. You’re, what, 18, and you broke into the laundromat on a Friday night to do laundry. You’re good, man.”
It disarms him so much that he forgets he was even crying until he sniffs in. “You’re a really good lead.”
“Aww, really?”
“You’re really nice.”
“Thanks, bud.” He grins, really truly grins. “So what’s up?”
“It doesn’t really matter.”
“Eh. Gonna be here for two hours no matter what.”
“Just. Bad day. You’re right.”
“Yeah?”
“I dunno. It’s nothing in particular. Just a rough couple of… months. And then you walked in on me in my briefs in the–” He laughs. “Rough.”
“Hey. I’ve been there. Really.”
“Yeah?”
He stops rubbing but keeps his arm in the same place. “Oh, dude. Yes. You’re 18? That is the messiest time in your life. Maybe middle school, but being 18 freaking suuucks. You’re finally an adult and you have all of these grand desires and you finally have the ability to act on them, but you’re still limited by being a human, you know? Like you finally run into all of these things you never thought about as a kid, your health, your waking hours, your abilities, all that. It’s the first time in your life you finally have the ability to do everything and also the first time you realize you can’t.” He laughs. “Am I waxing poetic right now?”
“I dunno. That pretty much sums it up.”
“Yeah. Totally dude. You need anything right now? Or do you just wanna chill.”
“I need a sandwich.”
“Good fuckin’ idea. A good sandwich fixes everything. Aaactually, there’s a Domino’s pizza in my car if you wanna go splitsies on it.”
“Really?”
He stands up and Jude misses the warmth on his arm. He grabs his hamper and brings it over to the laundry next to him. “I have spent many a night getting stoned in here, playing on my Switch, and eating pizza. That’s what’s waiting for you when you turn 30.”
“That sounds really nice.”
“It is really nice. But yeah,” he says, shoving laundry into the machine. “God. When I was 18, I was so sad and so angry and so horny and all those things at the same time and it’s not easy. It’s not easy in the slightest.” He laughs. “Mostly horny. Bad year for my dick.”
“What did you do?”
“I got,” he sings it, “Gonorrhea!” then laughs at his little joke. “I went to, uh, a very famous college that you might have heard of for two years for business, actually, and in those two years I fucked everything that moved.”
That’s new to Jude. He always knew Pike was a beach bum, but not a college dropout beach bum. “Which college?”
“In the northeast. Not saying which one.”
“Woah. I wish I could do that.”
“You totally can. Minus the gonorrhea, hopefully.”
“I’m not good at talking to new people.”
“Totally charmed me when you met me.”
“Oh.” He puts his paws up to his face to hide his flushed cheeks, then remembers he’s sitting there in his briefs and nothing else.
“Yeah, dude. Cute ginger cat in his white briefs? What is there not to like? I’m sure if you just put yourself out there something would come of it.” He laughs and Jude sinks a little deeper into the chair. “Dude, lemme go out to the car and grab my stuff and we can nosh.”
“Cool.”
Pike heads out and Jude ruminates on what he just said. True to his word, he comes back in with a pizza (not fresh but reheated) and a Nintendo Switch. He puts the pizza down next to Jude and lets him take out a slice.
“So. Two hours. What are two guys to do?”
Jude pitches it. He tries to sound casual and funny and a little serious all at once. “Have sex?”
Pike laughs at that in his usual stoner way. “I mean, we’re off the clock,” he quips.
Jude laughs too. “In the laundromat.”
“Ooh, like on a washing machine? It’s rumbling while you’re–” He thinks about that for a second. “Cool. Yeah, that’s cool.”
“There’s so much ‘stuck in the washing machine’ porn.”
“Dude, what the hell is the appeal of that? Go fuck on a bed.” He stands up and stretches. His tank top raises a little and Jude can see his tummy. “Dude, getting off would be so good right now, it’s not even funny.”
“Yeah?”
“Friday night, pizza and weed, getting off in the laundromat. Fuck yeah.”
“We could…” He whispers. “If you want.”
Pike smiles. “What’s that?”
“We could mess around.”
“Ohhh,” he laughs. “Hell yeah.”
“Yeah?” His heart flutters. The only good thing he’s thought about in the past months might really be happening.
“You’re seriously taking my advice to heart, dude. Hoo doggy.” He leans against a machine, his crotch at eye level. His bulge looks magnificent in his plaid pajama bottoms. “What are you thinking?”
“Um…” He looks down. “I dunno, um… we could… kiss a little bit… or…”
And when he looks back up, Pike’s half-erect dick is flopped out of the fly of his pajama bottoms.
“Ohhh…”
Pike grins. “C’mon over.”
Jude kneels in front of the sheep, his dick pressed against the end of his muzzle. It hardens almost instantly, a beautiful five inches and very thick. A little bit of wool pokes out of his pajama bottoms too – he must not be wearing any underwear. He looks up at Pike and smiles.
He wraps a paw around his cock and gives it a good stroke. Already, a nice thick stream of precum leaks out of his dick and onto Jude’s nose. He holds his balls with his other paws and begins to jerk him off. Pike lets out a little moan, exactly what Jude thought it would sound like.
“Lil’ bro,” Pike says, putting a hoof under his chin. “Have you done this before?”
“I’m not a virgin but I’m not really…” He wants to say he’s thought about this exact scenario many times before, so he knows exactly what to do, but that might be a little too far.
He smiles. “That feels fuckin’ good.”
Jude keeps stroking his cock, doing this thing he’s fantasized about so many times. His own erection pokes against his briefs with urgency. With Pike’s balls cupped in his paw, he gives them a kiss right on the little tuft of fur in the middle, then starts kissing up from the shaft to the tip of his dick. Little licks. He forgot how different the act of sex is from thinking about it, how good and how physical it feels. He could sit here and kiss Pike’s dick forever and never feel the need to do anything else.
Another bit of precum drips onto his muzzle and Jude pulls away, smiling. “You got me leaking, bro,” Pike says. “Fuck, you’re good at that. Here, stand up.”
Jude stands up. Pike puts a hoof on the small of his back and pulls him in for a kiss. Jude has to tilt his head way up to kiss him at the right angle, but it’s everything he’s ever wanted when it finally happens.
They keep making out. Pike’s hooves are both on the small of his back, but as their kissing starts getting sloppy, his hand slowly drops to Jude’s crotch. He maneuvers his dick out of the hole in his fly and starts jerking him off. Jude very quickly has to retreat from the kiss, moaning into Pike’s mouth instead. Pike pulls back and smiles.
“Dude. Your dick is huge.”
Jude smiles. “It’s not that…”
Pike squeezes his dick tight. “What is that, like seven inches? Seven and a half? Beautiful pipe, haha.”
“Thank you.”
“See? Exactly what I was saying. Cute kitty, tiny briefs, huge dick. You’re irresistible.”
Pike pulls Jude right back into a kiss before he has time to think about it. He keeps stroking his dick, but this time Jude manages to keep kissing the sheep back. His brain is completely empty for the first time in a while. There’s nothing to think about but how good it feels to have his dick stroked, how nice it feels to make out again, how warm Pike’s wool is pressed against his bare fur. It’s exactly what he needed.
“Hold on, lil’ bro,” Pike whispers. He adjusts the two of them so that their dicks are touching, then pulls them both into his hoof. “There we go. Yeah, look at that.”
They both glance down at their dicks in Pike’s hoof. Jude’s is much bigger, no contest, but the height difference evens it out. “Yeah…” he says, sheepishly.
“Beautiful.”
He gives him another kiss. He starts stroking their dicks together now, a possibility Jude never even considered. He thought about them fucking in every position possible, against every object that could hold their weight, and yet he never thought about how good frottage could feel.
He melts into Pike’s arms instantly. He’s basically holding the weight of both of them now, which he does happily. Jude moans into his neck.
“Fuck, dude,” Pike whispers in his ear. “You feel how wet it is down there?”
“I’m getting close,” is all he can say in response.
“Riiiight behind you, little bro.”
It takes everything in him to resist orgasm, but it comes soon enough for Jude. His load drops down both of their cocks. That’s enough to push Pike over the edge it seems, because soon he stops cumming but still feels a stickiness running down his cock. Pike rests his chin on Jude’s forehead and they stand together in spent pleasure. They breathe in unison.
Jude pulls back and laughs. “Woah.”
“See, man?” Pike says, pushing his cock back in. He wipes all the excess cum off with one of the rags they use for cleaning. “Totally awesome. Plus no gonorrhea, haha.”
Jude sits down and stuffs his dick away too, still mostly hard and caked in cum.
Then the little buzzer goes off. That’s his laundry done.
Pike smiles. “I got it. Have some pizza, little bro. You did good.”
