Roommates

The Third Wheel

Four

I hadn't expected to be provided a full sized bed, so I had packed the wrong size of sheets. If I wanted to sleep tonight, I needed to buy bedding with some of the money I was trying so hard to save. Driving around an unfamiliar city can make the quickest of shopping trips take much longer than expected, and Target has a tendency to distract me with all the things I didn't know I needed until I walked into their store. Of course, I don't actually want to spend much, so by the time I had put all of those didn't-know-I-needed-this items back on the shelf, checked out, and found my way back to the dorm, I had been gone over two hours.

I take the stairs to the tenth floor; all I'm carrying is a blanket and some sheets, and a little exercise never hurt anyone, right? Who am I kidding-- I really just hate elevators because of my whole issue with confined spaces.

It's almost ten o'clock when I unlock and open my front door. The lights are on in the kitchen and living room, and music is drifting in from my unnamed roommate's bedroom. I can't help smiling, relieved that my roommate has good taste in music; he's listening to my favorite band, the Red Hot Chili Peppers. It's pretty cool that I have come across two Chili Peppers fans in one day. My other friends don't care much for them. They all listen to that top forty crap.

I drop my bags on my bed before approaching the open bedroom door. "Hey!" I call out. "I was wondering when I'd get to meet you. I'm--" when I see the person in the other bedroom, I stop mid-sentence, startled. The person in the second bedroom... is a girl. Not just any girl; it's Tris, the one from dinner. Tris can't be my roommate? Why is she here? "Tris?" I say, even though obviously, yes, she is Tris. I just don't really know what to say.

Her jaw drops and her eyebrows arch upward. "Four? You're Eric's roommate?" I think I get it now...

"Uh... I guess? I haven't met him yet. Is Eric, um... the boyfriend you mentioned?" I ask with furrowed brows as I look around, noticing how much tidier the room is compared with a few hours ago. She slowly nods. "Uh... okay... so... where is Eric, then?"

"At work," she says nervously, but her voice gets higher at the end, so it comes out sounding more like a question. Tris picks up the dishes she was stacking and carries them past me and places them in a dishpan on the kitchen counter before moving it all to the sink and beginning to fill the pan with soapy water. I follow her.

"So... what's going on, Tris? Not that this isn't a nice surprise..."

"Uh, well, I have pretty much the worst luck ever," she begins, "and I ended up with the girl who has hated and tormented me for the last two years... as my roommate. I went straight to talk to housing, but they were less than helpful. Eric said I could stay here, I hope that's okay with you... I'm afraid that if I'm at my room much things will just get worse." She sounds timid and it surprises me; in the cafeteria tonight, she seemed full of life. Does she really think I'd kick her out?

"Oh, yeah, of course I don't mind, Tris. Actually, I was hoping to run into you again anyway so I could introduce you to the rest of my friends." The tips of my ears are suddenly warm, and I feel like I'm stumbling over my words, even though they seem to be coming out alright by the time they make it to my lips. "After dinner tonight, I was thinking that you'd really fit in well with us."

Tris's smile lights up her whole face. "I'd love to meet them!" she exclaims as she pulls a bottle of Jack Daniels out of the freezer and a can of coke out of the fridge. "Want one?" she asks, keeping her eyes on the glass she had set aside before putting the others in the sink, as she pours a few centimeters of whiskey into it. I accept the offer and she swiftly grabs the last clean glass from the cupboard. Once she's handed me my Jack & Coke, she holds her glass out. "Cheers!" I clink my glass against hers and laugh slightly.