T H E R O O M M AT E S JOSEPHINE
Dear Nolan, Successfully moved into the new house today! I thought the vibes were a little off with my roommates, but the house itself is nice. Let me explain: Right away when I walked in, the first thing I could hear was someone playing The Smiths from a speaker in another room, much louder than any college girl should ever be listening to The Smiths. Then again, I’m a college girl and I love The Smiths, so maybe it’s a good sign that we have something in common, even if it’s a potential red flag. I hadn’t met my roommates in person up until today, just exchanging messages over Facebook, so I hoped that I could use this to help me make a good, real first impression. My room is the closest to the front door, one that would probably be a home gym or office if a family lived here instead of three students. I dropped my suitcase off just inside the room and looked around, mentally starting to make a game plan for how I would start filling the sparsely furnished space. Overwhelmed, I headed in the direction of the music to introduce myself. I followed the sound into the kitchen, where a young woman was boiling soup on the stove. She scooped tomato paste out of a can and flung it into the pot. My immediate first thought was that it looked like a smushed up human liver. I blame this on you for showing me Texas Chainsaw Massacre last month. As I entered the room, I tried to announce
S PA N I E R
my presence without startling her by purposefully shuffling my feet on the floor to make more noise. She still didn’t look up, probably not hearing me from her close proximity to the speaker. If I got any closer, I’d be nearly breathing down her neck, so I finally stopped a few feet away. “Hi,” I started. At that, she finally heard me. Just like I predicted, she jumped like she’d just seen a ghost. “I’m the new roommate,” I added quickly to make sure she didn’t think I was a burglar or something. Not that I look like a traditional burglar, I hope. “Margaret.” She looked relieved. “Oh, yes. Nice to meet you. I’m Wren. Make yourself at home.” She abruptly turned back to her cooking. So, yeah, weird vibes, right? I took that as my cue to leave. I went back to my room and spent the next several hours tediously unpacking. That’s when the missing you finally kicked in the hardest, and I started to have doubts about transferring here. The distance from you is hard, and the feeling of starting over was beginning to weigh on me. I got interrupted from going fully down that rabbit hole by a knock at my open doorway. I turned to see Cora, my other roommate, the one who originally made the posting for the open room on Facebook and the only one I’d communicated with. “Nice to finally meet you in person!” I smiled, hoping for a better start than with Wren.
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