Cat Instinct

Chapter 3

The Roommate

Courtney twitched her head from side to side as she walked, talking to herself in her head. She couldn't believe the dumb move she just pulled and cursing whoever decided to put the trash can near the door in the first place. After a while, she started to stop blaming the trash can and started to blame herself.

It was starting to get hot. Well to Courtney at least. She sat down on the bus stop bench, waiting for the university's shuttle bus. She crossed her feet over each other and looked around. The campus was crawling with students. People honking horns, walking, riding bikes, laughing, shouting, and acting a fool. It was coming up on homecoming week.

"Hey. Excuse me?"

Courtney raised her hand to block the sun from her eyes and looked up at who was bothering her, "Yes?"

It was a woman. She seemed to weigh a little more than Courtney, but looking at her you wouldn't notice her weight. Courtney admired the way she wore her clothes and carried herself. Hair did to perfection and flawless makeup. Nails done. Clothes and assessories on point. She wore a black and white stripped blazer, white blouse, and red Bohemian style pants.

She smiled back at Courtney, "I wanted to tell you about a woman's movement called Cat Instinct and you should come."

Courtney accepted the plastic card invitation. It had the body of a woman across the bottom and what seemed to be a white tiger in the background. Courtney looked back up at the woman, "What do you mean by woman's movement?"

She sat down beside her, "It is a whole day dedicated to making a woman I feel good about herself. Now its a twenty five dollars admission fee. At the end of the event there is always this big finish. I mean it is just truely an experience and you will not leave there the same way you came it."

Courtney wanted to laugh in this woman's face. She was a good pitch for sure, "You are?"

"Oh," she perked, "Tanya. I am just a scout. We may end up in a group together."

"Group?"

"You take a test at the beginning before the event starts and turn it in. During the break, you will get a number and you will have a group. Aka. Your new best friends."

Before Courtney could ask another question, Tanya must have saw someone because she quickly got up and was gone before Courtney could get a word out. Courtney stuck the invitation in her pocket. She wasn't even sure if she would have time for a bonding event. Courtney didn't think she needed to change.

She knew she wanted to lose weight, but admitted to herself that she didn't have the strength to make herself go to the gym with her friends. Courtney figured she didn't need to pay twenty five dallors on some stupid event that would eventually tell her what she had already known.

Yeap. Courtney crossed her feet back the way they were and got back comfortable.

~*~

Courtney sat on the steps leading to her apartment. Jada was there but she wasn't alone. Courtney figured that it must have been Jeremy from the gym or Brad Michealson from work. Jada made enough noise to wake Courtney out of her sleep at night.

Sometime Courtney would wonder if it was really that good or was Jada just faking to keep her up or make the men feel better about themselves. Courtney knew she would be outside until Jada was done. She pulled out her laptop and started to work on her report.

Two hours later, the door opened and a man came out. It was Brad. He looked down at Courtney sitting on the steps, laughed a little and shook his head.

Courtney waited until he passed to roll her eyes. He was fine but a dumb jerk. Jada only wanted him for the sex and sometimes as an "arm piece" as Jada called it. Still, he was nice to look at.

Courtney walked into the apartment and closed the door behind her. Jada was in the part of the kitchen that connected with the washer and dryer.

Courtney watch Jada use the last of the Tide pods to wash her load of clothes. It had gotten to the point where Courtney would just go ahead and buy some every week. She would have to hide some so she would have enough to wash her own clothes.

Courtney walked into the kitchen. She would fix her a real dinner. She had already planned to eat some pork chops, homemade mashed potatoes, Mac&Cheese, and the peach cobbler her mom brought over Sunday.

Courtney opened the frigerator and bent down to look for her left over peach cobbler and pork chops. What the? She push aside the yogurt and fruit, but still couldn't find it, "Jada, did you eat my food?"

She could hear Jada's bare feet sticking to the floor as she walked, "Oh yeah. I threw it away."

Courtney closed her eyes while still looking in the refrigerator. No this trick just didn't.

"Well," begun Jada, "You've been saying how you want to lose weight and I really think we should stop eating so much unhealthy food."

We? Courtney straightened up and closed the refrigerator, "Yeah. I was going to throw it out anyway."

"See there! Now you don't have to." Jada slapped Courtney's shoulder, "Oh! Can I barrow your laptop? I left mine at work."

"I need to work on my paper."

Jada poked out her lip, "But it'll only take a minute."

Courtney knew it wouldn't but wanted to just get Jada out of her face, "Sure okay."

Jada was going for the bag at the "Sure" because she knew Courtney would never tell her no. Courtney looked around the kitchen for something...anything to eat. She looked in the freezer and the cadinets. In the cabinets she found a bag of veggie chips.

Courtney grabbed the bag. Ain't chips already made out of potatoes? She sat the bag down and pulled out a packet of broccoli and cheese rice. She knew that Jada would want something to eat so she made extra, and season some chicken and put in into the oven.

Courtney got out her phycology book and some paper and started on the questions at the end of the chapter. In the middle thought, Courtney looked up and realised that the apartment was a mess. Courtney hated leaving the house a mess and woke up early just to clean up behind Jada.

By the time Courtney finished straightening up the living room, the chicken was almost done so she put on the rice.

It was a two bedroom apartment with one bathroom and a living room that was connected to the kitchen and dining room. Courtney moved into the bathroom and figured she just had enough time to straighten out the sink.

8:42

Courtney turned off the stove and the oven. Jada came into the kitchen on her phone laughing, "You a mess! But that's why I love you."

Courtney could hear Tina from the other end of the phone. Tina is Tim. Jada would just call him Tina behind his back. Courtney wasn't sure if he was gay, femine, or just confused.

"Girl, you got it smelling good up in hur."

Courtney fixed herself a plate and moved to the side to pull two glasses out of the cabinet. Jada just pick up her chicken breast and grabbed the glass from Courtney, sitting it down on the counter. Jada moved over to the trash and peeled off the skin to the chicken and threw it away.

Courtney waited for Jada to leave before she started eating. She hated it when people would watch her eat. It felt like they was judging her. Courtney felt sometime as if she could hear their thoughts.

Courtney finished her food.

9:52

She was fast asleep.