The room looked sad without any furniture in it. I stood with my hands on my hips, scanning the room with no thoughts in my brain. Numb.
"How're things going up here?" Bret asked as he poked his head in the doorway."I left all my furniture at my old apartment." I said matter-of-fact-ly, "Why? Roaches?" Bret asked. "No," I said, "I didn't have time to get them." I didn't feel like elaborating, and Bret didn't make me. "Do you think they're still there? We could go get them." "No, I don't have that kinda gas money, I'll figure something out. get an air mattress..." I muttered.
"I bet Emmit would take you. He loves to race out of the old roads down here in his cars." "I can't ask him to do that," I said "I haven't met anyone here but you- not that you should take me either, just. I'll figure it out." "Nonsense! I'll go ask him for you" Bret said with a playful smile. Then he ran down the hall, and I chased after him.He beat me in the race and made it to the dining room where Emmit was sitting. Before I could get through to the dining room, I was confronted by another tall guy, about Bret's height. He stood up from the couch and walked towards me with an amused expression on his face. "Connor?" The voice that came out was softer than I expected. I remembered my manners and stood up straighter, nodding my head. "Nice to meet you." I said. The man just looked at me, then let out a laugh. "You're so funny! My God man. You is just a lil guy."
Taken aback was an understatement, I was flabbergasted. "Heyo get in here guys" Said the grinning man. Men started approaching me from what seemed like every angle. Three men came from the kitchen, one of them being Bret, and the other two being a buff looking Greek guy and a shorter, chubbier guy with an expensive looking haircut. Then from the livingroom came another guy, with pale skin and dark hair. I was surrounded and honestly terrified.I looked up at them all for what seemed like forever, then Bret, my saviour, spoke up. "Guys, give him a little space." His words worked on them and they all soffened their gazes. The man from the living room approached me. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be rude. I'm Josh." He reached out a hand so I took it. Big mistake. He hoisted me up into a firemans carry and stood with me over his shoulder proudly. "Please put me down." I asked flatly. "I will bro, just gimme a second. Hey Carly get over here, this guys light as fuck." Josh passed me over to the dark haired man, who carried me bridal style. "I'm not the smallest anymore!" He shouted triumphetly.
"That's enough of that" Said the Greek man as he picked me up by my armpits and stood me on my feet. It was all I could do to keep from screaming at these guys. I've been bullied for my height before, but never like this. "Let's go" Said the Greek man. "To where?" I asked him. "Bret says you need a ride to go pick up some stuff, is that right?" I don't feel like arguing, my pride has already been destroyed, so I just nod.
"Here, we'll take this one." Emmit says, pointing to some kind of racecar thing with a very small trailor attached, I don't know anything about cars, but I know that this one looks... homemade, or something. I sit carefully in the passanger seat, but my butt still slides back into it. "They're bucket seats!" Emmit says excitedly, his big green eyes look brighter when he says it. "Bucket seats?" I ask. "Mhm. custome fitted! Well, maybe not for you." Emmit leans over me and does the buckles for me. I give him a weird look and he seems to realize what he's done "Sorry. Force of habit, most the people I let ride in here don't know how to buckle those." (I thought they were custome fitted? Like for one person?) I thought to myself, but didn't say it.
I wanted to ride in silence, but Emmit made sure I didn't. Infact, he spent a lot of the ride talking to himself, asking me the occasional question, to which my answer would trigger another random tangent. I didn't mind it, it kept me from thinking.
YOU ARE READING
the new roomie
Non-FictionConnor is a 20 year old service industry worker. When he loses housing, he's lucky enough to happen upon an ad asking for someone to room for just 100 dollars a month! The only catch is, it's with 6 college guys. But Connor can't afford to be choose...