Venom

02

Sat in my car and parked outside a McDonald's, with a soft serve in hand, I flipped through the pages of apartment listings in a newspaper I had picked up.

I found none that my waitressing job and paid internship could afford.

And if I did, the building was way too far from campus.

This is bad.

As I ate my ice cream, I ran over possible solutions to my problem.

First, I could drop out of university. Tempting.

Second, I could live on campus in the library and hope no one ever found out. Sure, that's realistic.

Third, I could sell my car. No, no, I could not.

I sighed, resting my forehead on my steering wheel.

I didn't know what to do.

Before I could begin to have a mental breakdown, my phone began to ring, startling me and causing me to honk the car horn.

It was Ellie.

"How's it going?" She greeted as I accepted the call.

"You will not believe the day I just had."

I gave her a play-by-play of all the events that had led me to eat ice cream in my car.

She went silent on the other end.

"Uh...Ellie, I could use some of your advice right about now!"

"I know, I know. Hold on." I could hear her rummaging about. "I just remembered grabbing some flyer from my building this morning about someone needing a roommate..."

I toyed with the sapphire pendant of the necklace I always wore, a nervous tic, as I waited.

"FOUND IT!" She yelled, from what I could only assume was the other side of the room.

Ellie explained that this person was looking to split the rent and wanted someone who didn't own any pets.

It looked like whoever it was, was my only hope, so—

"—Wait, they're getting convicted? Are you crazy?" I interrupted. "I get that you like living on the wild side of life, Ellie, but I can't live with a mass murderer—"

"—EVICTED. He's getting evicted. Like I said before, if he doesn't manage to pay off for the apartment this month he'll be kicked out, so he really needs a roommate."

"Oh." Maybe I needed to get my hearing checked.

And wait.

Did she say, he?

"Ellie." I paused. "I can't live with a boy."

"You won't believe who it is." She said, ignoring me.

"Who?" I prayed it wouldn't be some old creepy dude.

"You know the guy that I've been in love with ever since I moved to my apartment?" Ellie squealed.

"Uh-huh..." Oh boy.

"It's him! Oh my god, Cher. If you move in, I can pop by all the time. Then he and I will fall in love and ride off into the sunset. This is perfect. You need to move in with him!"

"Ellie, what's his first name?"

"I don't know, it doesn't say anything on the flyer either."

"Exactly, how can you be in love with him?"