Song: Gimme Love - Joji
About to scream at her best friend, Sage saw Cole and Jake, seated on the floor and holding chips bags, staring at them like watching a Mexican tv show.
"Don't mind us," Cole whispered, nodding.
The two looks above them were tired, unable to handle each other.
"Fuck you, Michelle!"
Sage turned around dramatically and left the balcony. Michelle looked down at her ass and shouted how hot she looked, calling her 'babe', who then lifted both middle fingers. Michelle hid her anger towards Sage's behavior, stood unbiased, and laughed at that exaggerated scene. But maybe it wasn't an exaggerated scene. She did understand her roommate's action, the closer human she had next to her, the only one that surely cared about her, cared too much. The truth was that, months ago, Michelle had promised that girl she would stop smoking. From her point of view, that didn't happen that often, but she did smoke whenever she felt frustrated or exhausted, even after the promise.
She looked at the boys on her left, thinking about what she was supposed to do: stay there or walk to the girl she was just slapped by. Her brain began to churn, even though she would hide it very well. Michelle didn't want to go and face Sage, tell her exactly how she felt, and take the risk of throwing disrespectful and angry words at her. So she ended up sitting there, looking at the girl from the balcony and piling up her hate.
"This girl is going to drive me insane!" Sage went behind the counter where the other girls were. "She already ruined my mood today..."
"Ok, but why do you care so much?" Hannele asked. "Michelle is almost twenty, she's a grown-up girl and might take her own responsibilities. What are you, her mom?"
Sage knew damn well that was a truth flaunted in her face. But she couldn't, she couldn't just not worry about Michelle and let her do whatever she wants.
"People smoke..." Nia protested.
"And people who smoke die."
"Everybody dies!"
"You know what I mean."
"Ok, but Hannele is right!"
The whole apartment was immersed in uncomfortable silence. Michelle was on the balcony's floor watching anime on her phone, waiting impatiently to go to her bed, the boys in front of her were sharing headphones, the girls in the kitchen devouring a pepperoni pizza they had forgotten and Louis was still sleeping, with his phone on his chest.
"Whenever you guys want to go home, let me know,'' Jake shouted, "Cole is taking you."
"What? Why me?"
"Just... Get to know them better."
They went inside and had a chat with them about which beach they were going to, when, and how. Minutes later, Sage went to Michelle's encounter, with her legs straight crossed.
"Let 's go." She said after kicking her black boots.
On the elevator, Skye avail of the mirror to take more pictures with everybody this time, except Louis and Jake. Michelle had forced a smile and tried to look as natural as possible.
***
"So, is it here?"
"Yes." Nia, next to Cole, said.
They left the black Nissan +2, said goodbye to Cole, and drove to the third floor.
"I'm so tired!" Hannele sighed.
"Yeah, not gonna happen." Skye had this partygoer mood.
With two bathrooms, everyone managed to be in the living room wearing their pajamas in fifteen minutes. Michelle and Nia moved the central table to a corner and improvised a place to sleep with a big duvet over the carpet and tons of blankets and pillows. Meanwhile, Sage was standing behind the island mixing eggs and sugar for biscuits, Skye, in front of her, trying to teach Hannele steps she learned from Nia.
YOU ARE READING
I Hate My Roommate
Teen Fiction«It felt like things were going back to normal, their balance, the peace between those walls that sooner or later would reach a climax and everything would break into pieces, it would look like the damage is irretrievable and there's no turning back...
