Saturday was a day filled with chores. Because he had focused on homework and party prep all week, Taylor had neglected everything in his apartment. Immediately upon walking through the door, his eyes locked onto the stack of dishes in the sink. In the bedroom, a mountain of dirty laundry covered the carpet near his bed. In the bathroom, damp towels lay in a musty pile.

Taylor tackled his chores one-by-one, despite fatigue setting in after his trip. With the dishwasher running, Taylor performed a rudimentary cleaning in the bathroom. With the intent of hitting up the laundromat in the evening, he loaded up his hamper and threw it in the trunk of his car. As a reward for discipline and hard work, Taylor fired up his gaming computer. Hour-by-hour, his unattended laundry fell further away from his mind. Before he knew it, Taylor had to shade his eyes from the early morning sun. He sauntered quietly to his room to shut his eyes and zone out until daylight had fully sprung.

It was difficult for Taylor to focus after a Sunday full of relaxation. His class periods came and went, filling his notebooks with nonsensical notes. Upon arrival at work, Taylor found himself in a staring match with the influx of work from the Friday before. Because he spent all afternoon checking in equipment, there had been no time to get a headstart. Taylor determined the line of machines would keep him busy all week long.

Day-by-day, machine-by-machine, the stack slowly started to shrink. Toward the end of the week, as the shelves became barren, Taylor's anxiety subsided. A visit from Erin would be welcome, but Taylor knew he shouldn't always rely on her visits. Maybe it was time for him to pay a surprise visit to her. But he was not allowed to leave the shop unattended while his boss was away on service calls. So that would have to wait.

Taylor never thought twice of his dresser drawers progressively emptying as the days passed. He usually left his clean laundry in the hamper until he needed it for his dirty laundry. So pulling his last pair of underwear from the drawer Friday morning was practically a routine. By afternoon, Taylor was ready for a break. He deserved a special treat for making it through such an arduous week. Without too much fuss, Taylor had a shopping cart full of junk food, capable of lasting for the next week. After checking out, Taylor headed to his car, dug out his keys, and popped open his trunk. Astonished, he found his hamper full of dirty laundry from the previous week.

Not about to spend his evening at the laundromat, Taylor sheepishly returned to the store to purchase some new socks and a package of underwear. Taylor instinctively found the aisle with the young adult socks and underwear. Quickly, he grabbed some plain white socks his size. Picking underwear, however, proved to be more challenging. They were generally all the same, which Taylor thought was boring. Plain and boring would have been fine for the Taylor of the past, but he reflected on what he learned from Jordan last weekend. Bright colors and fancy patterns help boost his confidence. If it works for Jordan, why couldn't it help Taylor?

“Mom, what are we doing here?” Taylor asked in disgust at seeing the rows of colorful and frilly panties. “Shellie has outgrown her underwear, so we're buying bigger ones for her.” His mother seemed to have no shame in taking him places he didn't want to be. “I don't see any superman or batman underwear.” Came a satirical response from Taylor. “Well, she doesn't want batman or superman. She prefers princesses and cute animals”. “That's just weird”. Mom could sense Taylor's disapproval from more than just his words. “Well, maybe we should let her pick; don't you agree?”. Taylor had no reasonable objections, so Shellie left the store with her pink and purple movie character panties.

As this memory resurfaced, curiosity struck Taylor. He cautiously sauntered to the young woman underwear section and found a rack filled with hundreds of variations, leaving him petrified. This aisle was nothing like the boy aisle. Determined to evaluate all his available options, he dug through everything. The character patterns stopped with the little girl sizes. But an intriguing package caught his eye, featuring a pair of rainbow and unicorn hipster panties that matched his new nightgown. The packaging contained other panties of varying bright colors and fun prints. Without much of a second thought, he grabbed his new-found treasures. As he turned to walk away, his eyes caught the colorful pajamas hanging on the track behind him. Remembering his newly acquired nightgown was dirty, he pawed through the selection of 2-piece sets and nightgowns, finding a purple nightgown with a unicorn similar to the nightgown he received from Jordan. Hanging beside it was a coordinating 2-piece set with fleece bottoms. Placing both discoveries in the cart, Taylor discretely headed toward the front of the store, purchased his new clothes, and headed home.

Once in the safety of his basement apartment, with new laundry in tow, Taylor could finally relax. After a quick shower, he opened his package of new underwear. Experiencing the refreshing smell of new clothing was a rare occurrence. Carefully, he set aside all the rolled-up panties except the pair with a unicorn on the front. The tape holding them in a tight roll took much persuasion to let loose. The fabric, fighting to maintain its rolled-up form, slowly unrolled, revealing a much less familiar silhouette. With his new panties on, he slipped his nightgown over his head, allowing the skirt hem to rest at his mid-thigh. In front of the mirror, he paused momentarily to stare into the eyes of this unicorn as he had the weekend before. Unicorns could be his new wardrobe theme.

Taylor snapped a quick photo of himself in his new outfit, and accompanied by an emoji face with heart-eyes, he sent the picture to Jordan. An enthusiastic response came more quickly than Taylor had initially expected.

In his mind, the night was still young. Moving into the kitchen, Taylor heated a can of soup for dinner, followed by a small helping of ice cream. Burrowing under the covers with his bowl of ice cream, he pulled out his computer and opened an episode of his favorite TV series. In spite of the active text conversation with Jordan, exhaustion gave in, quickly causing Taylor to drift off to sleep.

“Taylor, you have no clean underwear.” “It’s fine, mom; we’ll wash some.” He replied casually. “No, Taylor. We don’t have time. We have to be leaving for school in 5 minutes.” “What do I do then? Can I go to school without underwear?” “No, Taylor; you can’t. The only clean underwear we have your size belongs to your sister.” Uh-oh, Taylor thought. Not another Halloween incident. That was just a few weeks ago, and he was still upset. Paralyzed with fear, he allowed his mom to quietly take him upstairs, find a pair of borrowed lace-lined panties, finish dressing him, and send him off to school. Taylor spent the whole day silent, stone-faced, and upset.

Blissful sleep lasted only a short time. Toward the end of the episode, Taylor awoke, seemingly swimming in his bed. Frustratingly, he put away his computer, took care of his ice-cream bowl, and replaced his wet bedding. After unrolling a new pair of yellow panties and changing into his purple 2-piece pajamas, he pulled up the covers and tried to sleep. But not much to his surprise, all Taylor could do was stare at the ceiling.

Glancing over at his phone, Taylor found some unread responses from Jordan. Because of his accident, though, Taylor was too embarassed to respond. A million questions raced through his mind. How had these memories been buried all these years? How many more are there? What safeguards could he find against future night-time accidents, especially with a roommate?