the new roomie

sunday

"I don't know, I had a pretty normal childhood I think." I said.
Mary crossed her legs and looked at me, tilting her head. "you "think"?" she asked. probing me further
"Well, yeah," I said "Other than being left home alone a lot. And the whole 'no dad' thing."
Mary breathed deeply through her nose and leaned back in her chair. "You know," she said, grabbing her large water bottle from her desk "You can be grateful for the things your mom did for you, and still admit that your childhood was subpar."
I didn't answer

"You know, when I was younger," I began "I always felt older than I really was. But as I get older, I just feel more childish- Scared, unprepared. It's weird" I cut myself off, figuring I no longer made sense
Mrs Mary nodded and clicked her tongue. "we'll have to unpack that in the next session."

When I got into my car I leaned my head back on the seat and breathed a deep sigh. Mom's money, bless her heart, is going to waste on this therapy shit.
But then, what else could I do with it? Invest it? It's not enough to buy a car, or a house, or finish school. I put my hands on my face to quiet the thinking. "Just be grateful you have any money. Be grateful." I repeated to myself.

After my little moment I got out on the road, but when i pulled up to my apartment, something was immediatly wrong. The apartment owner, Miss Tilly, was outside my open door, with two teenage boys hauling my stuff out of my house. "What's going on?" I shouted as I ran towards my door.
"You're being evicted!" Miss Tilly shouted back in a mocking tone.
"This is illegal, I didn't get a notice!" Tilly stretches her neck slightly and breathes "Sure you did. I sent it to ya" "Well I didn't get it!" I retorted
"It's just my job to send it, not up to me if ya got it." She said in a sing songy voice. "I suggest you pick up these things, it looks like it's about to rain."

I grabbed my stuff quickly, as there wasn't much of it. Well, I say my stuff, but it wasn't all of it. Anything that was paper, they'd thrown away; Posters, drawings, comics. I'm shocked they didnt touch my books. I picked all my stuffed animals off of the ground and threw them into the back of my mini-van. After everything was in my car, I looked back at my old apartment. "We're gonna have to steam clean everything because of your damn hippy sticks!" Shouted Tilly. Incense. She meant Incense.
"Whatever, This might as well happen" I thought to myself as i hopped into my driver's seat and began down the road out of the complex.
In about 20 minutes I'd made it to a public park, and pulled into the little gravel road where my highschool boyfriend and I used to hangout. No one comes here.

I lean my seat back as far as it will go, and I pull out my phone. Scrolling on social media, sorted by locally tagged posts. Hookup personal ads, lost connections, wild stories- my town had some funny posts, plus it was interesting, to see how other people live. Families at the lake, homecoming photos, weddings at the historical churches. It sometimes baffles me how differently two people right next to eachother can live.

An ad caught my attention. An ms-paint looking image with text in lime green. This might be silly. It read:
"LOOKING FOR ROOMATE TO LIVE WITH 6 COLLEGE DUDES
RULES:
Must pay 100 dollars each month
Must clean up after yourself
Must have own car/transportation
Must be 18+
No pets
*not peanut allergy friendly
If interested, call or text 770-687-1925"

Well damn, I know a blessing when I see one.
I shot a text with my roomate application and then turned my phone off, curled up and went to sleep. Thank God this didn't happen in winter, I would've frozen.