The Struggle Of Our Lives

Chapter 5, continued

And now we wait for the laundry..

 
The man cut open the bag and helped me sort out the bottles from the cans. I felt a vibration in my pocket, so I stopped sorting and pulled out my phone.

oh no.

*10 missed calls from Mom*

*30 unread messages from Mom*

*2 missed calls from Gregory*

I felt my heart drop into my stomach. I didn't know if I should look at her texts. I was so scared to. What if she knew where we were?

I decided after looking at my notifications for a few seconds to read them later.

Together, the man and I worked through the giant bag and we placed them in their respective bins. He took the bins away and handed me $10.

I thanked him and went back across the street to wait for the laundry. We sat inside the building on some uncomfortable metal chairs.

A few minutes later, the washing machine beeped, and I switched the load into the dryer, putting in another quarter.

I walked back to my chair and sat. I took the opportunity to check on the twins, and both of them were dead asleep.

Oh, how I wish to be them.

I decided to check my phone again. My hands were shaking as I opened my messages from the past two days.

"Where are you?"

"Where are the twins?"

"Do you know what happened to John?"

"It wasn't my fault"

"Forget what you saw, get back home now."

"you better get back here."

"I'll find you."

"I'll call the police on you."

"How dare you steal my son away from me?"

"What did you do to Charlotte?"

"You fucking dick. Bring me back my kids."

"I never fucking loved you. You and John were both mistakes"

"You're in so much trouble."

"get back here"

The list continued. Each message making me more and more nervous. My call log showed she left me two voicemails.

"where the fuck are you? if you don't come home right now, I'll come find you and teach you a lesson-"

I paused the message before I heard the rest of the recording. As it went on, her voice became more and more threatening.

I didn't bother checking the other recording or Greg's texts, knowing they'd be worse.

I put my phone back into my pocket, and tried to focus on our laundry. I checked on the kids again, making sure I didn't wake them up.

They were still completely unconscious, Theo snoring ever so quietly. I smiled to myself, hoping their time with me will be better than what their future would've been with our mom.

I relaxed into my chair and leaned my head against the wall behind me. I looked up at the ceiling, wishing I could spend as much time with the twins as possible.

I wish their mother was better to them.

Their?

She's my mother too, so why did I say their?

Do I not think of her as my mother anymore?

I closed my eyes and contemplated our situation. Should any of us consider her our mom?

Time passed and eventually the dryer buzzed. I looked over and noticed a couple doing their laundry.

They look so happy.

I got up and grabbed the load. I walked back to our spot and threw the uniforms back into the trash bag. I gently shook Theo awake, and then Char, and told them it's time to keep moving.

They got up, we went to the bathroom, and we left, heading back over to corner store next to our campsite.

We entered the store once again and I handed the change we got from the bottle return as well as the trash bag of uniforms. She thanked me and handed me a $20 bill and some instant ramen. She turned around and went back into the backroom.

When she returned, she had 3 boxes of Cheerio's and handed them to us. I thanked her for the food and we walked back through the glass doors.

As we got back to our camp, I placed our food into our shopping cart on the left side of the ally, and shoved the bill into my wallet, hidden in my suitcase.

It was late by this point, so we all climbed back into our bed.

I kissed them both goodnight, and told them the story of Sleeping Beauty yet again. It was their favorite.

We eventually fell back asleep, hoping for a better tomorrow.

7 hours later..

We woke up and I checked the time on my phone to see it was 8 a.m. My phone's almost out of battery.

Fuck.

Well, time to get moving.

I rolled over slightly to see Char cuddled up against me, holding onto my waist. Theo was too, holding my right arm to his chest.

I really didn't want to disturb them after the past 3 days they had, but I knew we couldn't stay here forever.

I nudged Charlotte awake with my free arm and turned to brush Teddy's hair out of his face. He stirred slightly, and moved closer to my arm.

"Tedd? Heyyyyy Teddyyyy. Wake up, hunny. It's morning." I cooed.

He opened his eyes to look at me, and stared through them like he could see my soul. I was scared he knew what was going on.

"Do we have to move? You're so warm." He said, sleepily. I turned again to see Lotte sitting upright, rubbing her eyes. She looked rested enough.

"How about I put you in the shopping cart so you can sleep for a while longer?" I suggested a compromise. He blinked at me, and mumbled an "ok."

Charlotte got up and stretched. She turned back to me as I picked up Theo and the blankets we had underneath us, and wrapped them around him for warmth.

I was surprised he even wanted to be warm, since It was pretty warm out already. It was May 13th after all.

What if he's sick?