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That earns another laugh and the brunette pats me on the back.“I’m Kristen and don’t you worry. I’ll get you all sorted.” She winks at me and goes on to explain the register and the storage room system to me. I sigh in relief, realizing not all my coworkers are complete assholes.
***
I stand outside the apartment, staring at the door and wondering if it was worth returning home at all after helping Kristen lock up the shop. I hear muffled voices inside and grimace, knowing I would have to go pass them in order to get to my room.Might as well get it over with,I tell myself while shoving my key into the door and pushing it open. I’m immediately welcomed by the sight of Seth and Lucas watching some game on the television while Hunter stands in the disgusting kitchen, sniffing through the glasses before opening the cabinets. His grimace alerts me to the fact that there are no clean glasses awaiting him, or anyone of us.
Lucas turns in my general direction, eyeing me up and down while I kick the door closed. I shrug on my bag, which keeps slipping off, and keep my head down, hoping to get to my room before the boys get any funny ideas. The hallway is still littered with shoes and I pick through them. Unfortunately, I’m not as adept at skipping over a littered hallway and my toe snags on one, sending me tumbling face forward into the sticky floor. No one bothers to ask if I’m okay while I groan, lifting my head and wondering what I did in my pastlife to earn me such terrible karma. I roll over and grab my bag, unzipping it and taking out my camera. I check for any damage, but it seems the only thing damaged was my ego.I’ll take it,I think while trying to stand amidst the shoes.
“Geez,” says Lucas, shaking his head. “Psycho roommate sure is clumsy.”
Pyscho roommate?Rage boils deep within me and I grind my teeth to keep myself from saying something I know I was going to regret. Three on one isn’t quite a good number to be fighting with, but psycho roommate?He dares say that as if I’m not even in the room?How was I the psycho roommate when the whole lot of you live in a pigsty and trade girls around like they are baseball cards?
I sigh and throw the shoes around me to the side, making a little so I can stand. “Watch it with those.” Hunter scowls at me. “Those are expensive.”
Then why do you leave them all over the apartment if they are so expensive?Once again I bite my tongue. I continue to stand, eyeing my room like the safe haven it is. Just a few steps more and I would be home and safe away from these freaks of nature. I grab my bag and take a step towards the door.
“How was Betsy?” Hunter asks, leaning against the cluttered counter.
“Ugh. Two stars,” says Seth, not bothering to turn around and answer. “She just laid there like a dead fish.”
“She’s hot though,” adds Lucas, as if that’s the only thing important.
Seth shakes his head.“Yeah, but that’s not everything. At some point you gotta move, moan, do something. She just did absolutely nothing. Even after I ran there from work and everything.”
“Good to know,” says Lucas.
Hunter chuckles.“That’s what you get for being too needy.”
Seth groans.“I guess.”
Something catches my attention with this conversation. And it isn’t the fact that these assholes are speaking about a woman as if they are rating a campus restaurant. No. I already know these jerks aremisogynist pigs. I tell myself it’s nothing and I should just get to my room and drown out their muffled sounds with some indie rock music. But sadly, I remain in my place. Shoulders shaking.No,a little whisper whimpers in the back of my mind.It’s nothing. Just go.
Instead, I turn around and open my stupid mouth. “I thought you said you had practice, Seth.”
Seth glances over his shoulder, his eyes narrowing on me.“Did I?”
I cross my arms and nod.It’s not a big deal, just go. You were saved by Kristen earlier. Why do you have to confront him on this? No good will come of it.But I ignore that little voice. Maybe I shouldn’t have, but something inside me snapped. This jerk-off left me completely alone in a store full of customers and didn’t even bother explaining shit to me. And now I return and have to listen to him give a two star rating to a girl who is probably nice deep down inside.
“You did,” I finally say, jutting out my chin while keeping eye contact. I am not going to bow down to him. I am a strong, independent woman and I deserve some explanation.
Seth shrugs and turns around.“Huh.” He doesn’t bother elaborate.
The boiling sensation returns to me, like I’m a volcano about to explode. I look around at the room, at the growing mess. The shoes littering the hallway, the mildew crusting the sink, the glasses filled with yellowish nearly green water, and the stench of sweat and rotten eggs permeating the air around us.
And the bathroom.
I grimace, remembering my shower from the morning and the sink covered with various toothpastes, socks slipped over the sink, swimming trunks hanging from the shower door and hairs (I don’t even want to know where they came from)stuck in the shower drain.
And that’s when I just had to open my stupid mouth again. Why couldn’t I have been a good girl and just gone back to my room is completely beyond me. I’m only two steps away from my door. Two steps away from my little sanctuary and my mouth opens and what comes out is, “I think we should have a roommate meeting.”
Seth and Lucas turn fully around in the couch. All three pairs of eyes are on me, staring at me as if my hair has suddenly grown snakes and frozen them in this catatonic frustrated look. It takes a moment for anyone to say anything. Whatever game on the television is still blaring in the background. I take a look at the screen and realize it’s football.Of course. I should have known.
Seth finally blinks and turns to both Lucas and Hunter, with a look that still reads ‘what the hell is going on?’.
“What?” He nearly shouts.
Lucas and Hunter shake their heads.
“I don’t know bro,” says Hunter. “You were the one who brought it here. You get rid of it.”
