Leslie texted his mom that he got in safely and asked where she got the dress and almost called Samantha back. Instead he texted her that he was at the apartment and he would call tomorrow. He put his headphones and put on some music. He decided to organize and clean his apartment, since it smelled pretty bad even though he had only been there 2 weeks before going home to see the family one last time before the semester. Besides, he was too amped up to sleep or sit town to watch TV. He hung up the dress far away from everything else before changing into some sweatpants and a t-shirt that was in a box from his truck he hasn't brought into the hotel. He took out any expired food in his fridge, picked up his socks on the floor from the previous couple weeks and vacuumed the place. He started to scrub the tub and toilet, but the vigorous shaking of his boobs when he cleaned the tub reminded him of his situation so he changed gears. He picked up any clothing from the floor and put it into the laundry basket, noting that was the source of a lot of weird smells in the place. I should have run a load before I left He also noted his sleeping bag smelled a bit off. He unrolled it and found a piece of junky jewelry with what may be an angel on it. He wondered whose it was for a minute before throwing it away. He sprayed a bunch of fabreeze on this sleeping bag and then left it open to dry. He grabbed the trash and laundry and made his way to the laundry room in the basement.
He started a load of laundry and went outside to threw the trash in the dumpster. Going back upstairs, he looked at his phone noting that it was just after 11pm and he needed to sleep soon to be rested for class. He would try to sleep after the laundry was done. He was back in his apartment and looked at the 3 messages Samantha sent before 11pm, when her phone was set to shut off her social media and texting apps.
"Leslie, we need to talk"
"I think you have something of mine I wanted to use"
"Call me at like 0700 tomorrow when I can talk to you again. Love ya Les."
Leslie texted back that he would call tomorrow morning, so Sam would know when she woke up he would call. He also saw his mom said she got the dress at Target on sale for 20%. She then went on to text that if Carrie didn't like it, there was a gift receipt if needed. He stared at the dress and then tried to see if anything was weird about it. Nothing felt out of place when he wore it earlier and nothing looked weird now. He looked up if some where celestial event happened last night, but nothing was recorded. Even the access he had in the military didn't show anything. His phone pinged and he looked at the message, which was from Carrie
"I hope your first day goes well tomorrow Les. I know I asked for space, but I still hope school goes well for you. XO" Leslie shook his head and deleted the message, not wanting to deal with his ex along with everything else. He went to the basement to put his stuff into the dryer. He the realized that the weird theater prop or whatever it was may have been Sam's. Thinking about his younger sister, he grabbed the trashbag to bring it up to his room, but it got snagged on the dumper and tore apart as he was taking it out. Taking a deep breath, Leslie looked at what fell outside the dumpster and didn't see the thing. He went back into his apartment and put on his headlamp to try again. He looked around the dumpster and under it. Realizing he had to go into the dumpster, he took stock of the situation and decided once again to take one step at a time, by weighing pros and cons to dumpster diving on his last night before school.
Pros : Sam wants the thing
Cons: it is in a smelly dumpster, at night. Someone may see him. There may be critters in the dumpster.
