Equivalence: Chapter 3
Chapter 3:
I was determined not to come into any form of contact with that damn Mutt after last night. I literally laid in my bed for 3 hours wide awake because of the dream I had. I knew it would never happen but the fact that I had such a dream still freaked me out a great deal. Of course avoiding him would mean that I would have to skip out on the outing, but than again he was most likely going to be the only person I was assigned to if I wanted to go out.
Honestly, the more I thought about it, the more of a lose lose situation it was turning out to be. I really did want to go out, and wanted to roam about the facility without having to worry about watching my back. I guess I would simply have to try pretending he is not there, or maybe get over the fact that the dream wasn't even real. I doubt he had an interest in guys, and even more so in one as broken as I was.
I had been the first one in the "laundry mat" and immediately set out to wash my clothes and dry them. I didn't mind that it was 6AM or the fact that I was only wearing a towel, which hilariously I had no shortage of. I dumped all my clothes into one of the washer/dryer combo machines which had one simple setting of "on" and "off" along with a few status lights indicating what it was doing and an LCD display indicating time left. They were also self regulating and added detergent, softeners, and other cleaning agents in regards to what a load sensor indicated. They were barbaric polished stainless steel boxes without even a window on the front loading door, but they were quick compared to the slightly more "feature packaged" ones at the orphanage. It took some 45 minutes to wash the clothes, and another 25 to dry them. When I opened the loading door I expected moderate results but to my surprise they felt, smelled, and looked very clean, though they were very hot and I could guess the dryer operated strictly on one temperature.
There were little brown shopping baskets located on both sides of the entrance for you to use when transporting you clothes back and fourth, but I had not bothered to get one before carrying my clothes here, nor was I going to bother with it now. I gathered my clothes out of the dryer, forming them into a large ball using the bath towels to tangle everything together so nothing would fall out.
I padded back to my room tossing the clothes onto the head of my bed and glanced at the clock simple digital clock I had placed on the storage rack's top shelf. It was apparently only 7:55, to which I was hoping it would have said something closer to 10. I knew in my head that I had not wasted that much time by simply washing my clothes, nor was there much around here to do to waste time that quickly.
However I was still rather tired from my lack of sleep and the idea of missing the outing by sleeping past the meet time was indeed inviting, and more tempting as I would not have to deal with that mutt at all, at least for the rest of the day. I turned by to my bed where I had set my clothes and began folding them roughly, just to the point where they would not winkle but no where near symmetrical. Being somewhat warm still from the dryer I started with the shirts, and would work with the pants afterwords, than everything else. I may not exactly care about how I act, but I liked having a nice presentation, and non-winkled clothes were more comfortable to wear.
As I got to folding the bath towels, a firm knock made its way through my door. I looked at the clock again and was disappointed that it only read 8:30. I was even more disappointed that I already recognize the knock as the mutts and my stomach did that weird sinking feeling. I wanted to ignore it so bad, so I did and began folding once again. I stayed quiet and did not budge as the second knock came, then the third, and the fourth. After the fourth, I heard pawpads outside the door heading away, and I felt relieved, yet somehow more stressed as I suspected someone else would be knocking soon.
I only had two towels left to fold, but I could not bring myself to continue and threw them onto the small desk in anger. I felt like crying, just completely breaking down and losing my sanity for a bit, yet I could not. All I could do instead was to look blankly at the wall in front of me and wonder why, something that I was beginning to do to often. There was no way I could be in love with the mutt, hell there was no why I could even like him. But how could he bother me so much? That was the one thing I could not understand. Why was my mind focused on him and my heart feeling the need to chase him?
I turned and walked over to my desk, grabbing one of the towels I had thrown and walking into my small bathroom. All the tiles, including the floor, where small fading orange that looked as if they had never been replaced. Some of them had small cracks forming, others had chips, but most were still in one piece. The bathroom had a freestanding shower, a toilet and a small sink with an almost useless counter acting as the frame. The shower did not have a curtain, nor did it have its own cubical. It was simply a couple of knobs and the head poking out of the flat wall across from the toilet. The sink was located next to the door frame. The room as a whole was about the size of a very generous walk-in closet. The one nice thing about it though was the fact that inside the door frame it did have a built in fur dryer, so at least it had one amenity.
Even though it was nice to have my own bathroom, I hated taking showers in it because it made the bedroom moist for a good hour despite the fact the bathroom had a vent with a fan that fed through the wall to the outside. My guess for the ineffectiveness was due to the fact that it was about as large as a normal home clothes dryer vent. Since I had first discovered this flaw, I had been taking my clothes to the central showers located in the facility. The only time they were ever used was if a facility sport competition was going on, or by the morphs who were assigned community service during their stay which almost always involved some sort of landscaping projects. Other than that, they were mostly abandoned and not to mention surprising clean. A few morphs besides myself used them, though it had seemed they had the same idea and we all picked stalls as far away apart as we could. I myself used the same stall every time, which was located in a corner fairly close to the entrance while yet maintaining the most privacy due to its shape.
As I gathered up my clothes for the day and towel, another knock came though my door. I simply rolled my eyes and with clothes in hand I padded over and opened the door with a normal haste. I was greeted by Mr. Taylor thankfully instead of the Mutt, but I had no desire to talk to him either. I stood in the doorway and waited for him to speak.
"Why didn't you answer the door when Cain knocked?" he asked with a slight hint of boredom in his tone.
"Because I don't want to deal with him right now. May I please get by so I can go shower?" I replied back with a polite tone. I wanted to end this conversation as quickly as possible and not stick around in my room in case the mutt decided to come back.
"Are you still going on the group outing? The meeting starts at 10:30 if you plan on going out. If you plan on staying here however, I guess it would be alright for you to stay outside in the courtyard, or whatever it is you wanted to do... So long of course you don't start breaking the rules. Whichever you choose, just let Cain know so he doesn't have to wait on you."
With that he nodded his head and walked down the hall, leaving me in my doorway with my decision even more complicated. In an entirely confused daze I close my door behind me and walked in the opposite direction towards the showers. I suppose it was his job to check up on me, but I didn't like being baby-sat. I guess I would have to deal with the feeling though since this was a government run facility and it would look bad on them if anything tragic happened.
The walk to the central showers was relatively short as my room was less than 40 yards. There were three entrances to the showers, two being in either main hall that ran the length on the building, and a backdoor entrance that lead into the locker room that lead into the showers. Of course there was male and female shower room, the female's was located towards the front of the facility in what I could guess as an attempt to keep the genders as far away as possible to prevent any sexual acts.
I pushed open one of the double doors and made my way inside. I heard the sound of a running shower along the opposite side of the room near the other side entrance. From the humidity of the room I guessed that he was the only one that has been in here all day, or that he started not to long ago. Either way it was fine with me. The stall I used religiously was in the left corner from this entrance. I gently assisted the door in closing so that it would not slam shut, and headed towards my stall. The room itself was covered in tiles, though these were in better condition and more appealing the ones in my own bathroom. The floor tiles were a mocha brown, evenly spaced, and for the most part without faults. The walls were all ocean blue with a line of forest green going horizontally every 6 rows. The roof, though not tile, was painted to match the floor and had LED lights in the fixtures. The room was well lit, but was not bright, and everything from the tiles to the stalls were always kept clean.
As I padded towards my stall, I heard a small whimper emanate from one in the center with no water running. I doubted the morph showering heard it as I just barely heard it over the running water. I only momentary hesitated and turned my ears towards the direction to see if I could pick up more. There was definite muffled whimpers coming from one of the center stalls, and the one I heard must have been a loud one that escaped accidentally.
I was tempted to try to look who it might have been, but in morph culture it was considered rude to interfere in another's personal issues. This was one of the many concepts in which humans were completely daft, though a few understood. I continued towards my stall and opened the door, hanging my clothes and clean towels on the rails on the backside of the door. As I turned on the water, I heard the other across the room turn off, which meant that I was going to be the only one in here soon. I did not count the distressed morph as I knew he was not going to bother me and was going to keep to himself.
I fiddled with my stalls more than worn 5 spronged knob to get the water temperature to where I liked it. Of course it was one of those things that was never the same twice, so I had to spend a minute annoyingly playing with it. The slightest turn of the cold knob often went from making it way to fucking hot, or cold. It was literally the most sensitive shower I had ever had the pleasure of using. Dispite it though, it was my favorite since it was so isolated.
When the water finally agreed to be the right temperature, I stepped under the head and let the water soak through my fur. It felt so nice having water course through the layers to reach my skin, it reminded me of all the times I wondered alone in the rain, whether it was through the woods or the streets of the city. I was just happy it was warmer and more isolated. I folded my ears back and lifted my head up towards the spraw, letting it run over my face and drip down off the back of my head. That was until i heard a loud crack and the floor vibrate a little cause my head to turn in the direaction and my ears to perk fully. It was only a couple of seconds afterwards that i heard a muttered "motherfucker" in a familiar tone.
For a split second i wondered what made Cain so angry and upset that he would explode in such a way. Then i went to immediately not caring since he had now disrupted my shower time. I let out a huffed sigh and a low growl that only myself would hear as I shut off the water and eyes the door of the stall with an annoyed stare. Grabbing my towel, wrapping it around my waist, I snatched my clothes up and slowly peaked through the gap between the seems of the walls. I could not angle my vision enough to see his stall, but the look allowed me to see if anyone else had come in, which from what I could see was not the case.
I slowly opened the door and peered towards his stall which I could now see. I did not see any damage from the walls I could see so he must have took it out on the other side. Clothes in paw, i made my way out of the stall and walked through the room as if nothing had happened. As i went past his stall i turned and saw the wall that he had hit had massive crack lines going through the 2 inch of solid thick plastic. I turned my attention back to where I was walking and made my way through the doors that I had entered from. I was still dripping water heavily but i wasn't about to use the dryers with him in there. Plus no one really came this way anyway, this was like the dark alley of a side street, just without the creepy guy threatening you.
As i walked back to my room I kept my ears aimed behind me, in case Cain decided to leave the showers before i made it all the way back. That way i would have a least some chance to hide before he saw me, though admitting there was not a great deal to hide behind besides some standard grey plastic trash containers. Nearing my room i heard a small "psst" coming out from from one of the six hallways that would lead you to the other side of the building, as well as the cafeteria and a few supply closets. I whipped my head around to find this ordinary though a little short statured Hyena looking at me. Other then being ever so shorter then his species already was compared to my own, he was a just a little chunky and had, in my taste, far to many piercings going through the outer-rim his ears all of which were plain dark silver studs. His clothes were pretty much absent besides a pair of standard camo colored shorts that went just past the knees. "He's in love with you, in case you are missing it or too anal to acknowledge it" he whispered very quietly while looking at me, leaning back against the wall, arms folded and one hindpaw against it, his ears being only focused on me. I squinted my eyes at him and flicked my tail a bit in both directions and studied him for a split second before speaking. "you mean that Dog? I don't give a damn what that mutt wants." I replied in a firm tone. His expression didn't change, rather he just shrugged and turned away and began walking down the hall as if I did not matter in the least to him.
I turned my attention back to making my way back to my room, but my ears had been so focused on the Hyena that i had stopped listening behind me. By time i heard the pawsteps, it was far to late to hide. I whipped my body around to find Cain looking at me, void of any discernible emotion. I knew he could not have heard me since it was more of a firm whisper then anything. I rolled my eyes at him and started walking again to my room, though a little faster then my normal so that I could hopefully avoid him.
As I was nearly at my door, a strong paw grabbed my shoulder and pressed down firmly, but through that force i could feel a little bit of shaking. I folded my ears back knowing that he was much larger then me, and the fact that he had just nearly knocked a clear hole in the shower stall had me do it more out of fear than anything else. My door wasn't all that far from here, but I figured he would be faster then me if I ran, and it would take time to unlock it which he could no doubt use to catch me anyway. And If i managed to unlock the door as he caught me, well then that would be a bad situation and I would have no safety at all.
His breathing was very unsteady, I could hear the faults and feel them through his paws, his pads being very warm. His whole body was radiating more heat then normal and i could feel it through my fur. I kept my eyes focused ahead of me, but kept my stance even and relaxed. After a few awkward seconds he finally spoke, trying to hide the faults his emotions were creating inside of him. "Are you coming or not?" he asked in the best, flat tone he would manage.
I stood my ground and chose to answer him, more or less not to be an ass but because I wanted to go, just not with him being there. A few more seconds went by before the paws on my shoulder carried with it a very strong amount of twisting force, turning me to face him. His other paw pushed itself onto my other shoulder and before i knew it I was pressed against the dull grey cinder block wall with him staring me down. Before I got a chance to fully reorient myself, I felt one of his paws leave my shoulder, then a fist directly in between my ribcage forcing the air out of my lungs.
The punch was very strong and direct, enough to knock the air out of my lungs but not enough to make me fall on the ground. My reflexes took over to cover the spot he had just hit and he used the time to take me by my left shoulders and whip me off the wall and push me onto the hard laminate floor. I could feel my towel come off of me as I slid across the floor, wet fur not helping in ceasing my momentum.
When I finally stopped some 15 feet away, i was left feeling exposed and weak. As I brought myself to a sitting up position I was expecting to be pushed down again, instead I found him looking me from the distance. Before I could say anything, he simply turned his back to me and walked back the other way until he got to the hall where the Hyena had been. He turned and walked without regarding me once more.