I opened the door into a large room that was a living room with couches on one end and a kitchen with counters and a table at the other. Inside were four men, all staring at me in surprise. "Hello," I offered, as cheerily as I could manage.
They all continued to stare at me.
The gentleman standing farthest to the right was fairly heavyset. "Can we . . . help you?" he said, a little testily.
Well, this wasn't going well.
"I'm your new roommate," I said. "I'm moving in."
"I thought move-in day was tomorrow," he said, the pitch of his voice rising slightly to an implied question at the end.
"Uh, it is," I said, perplexed at the need to explain this, "but I needed to move in tonight."
They all stared at me.
Under other circumstances, I might have been annoyed, but I was too tired and too scared to risk offending anyone tonight. I simply plowed ahead. "So . . . is there somewhere I can put my stuff?"
Everyone suddenly realized they were staring at me and stopped. A skinny fellow with black hair standing toward the back of the room offered, "It's, uh, right back here, to the left . . ."
I carried the rest of my stuff up that night and fell into bed while everyone else was still awake in the front room. What a day.
I had certainly never gotten a reception like that before.
YOU ARE READING
Nick & Finn
General FictionFor me, it started as the worst summer of my life. For them, it started out as a social experiment. And though we only crossed paths for a short time, I'm grateful for the experience. It taught me to never be comfortable, and it changed our lives ir...
