Haylstorm

Why we got stuck in a party house

     I facetimed Leslie almost every single day when we weren't working and we immediately started making plans to move back to LA. I was only home for 3 months, but it felt like an eternity. Looking back, I'm glad I had the time to focus on myself, but being back in Mansfield just made me feel so hopeless and everyday I looked forward to leaving again.

     I met a boy on Instagram who was looking for a place to live in LA and since Leslie and I were so desperate to get back, we made an agreement with him that he could sleep on the couch of the apartment we were going to get in LA and pay a little bit less rent. We figured this was our best chance at saving up enough to get back as soon as possible.

     November 2016 I packed up my bag in Texas and Leslie packed up her bag in Boston and we boarded planes to meet back in LA. I thought things were finally going to work out because of how miraculous it was that we saved up so much in such a short amount of time, but quickly I learned that just because something is miraculous doesn't exactly mean it's a good thing.

     The day Leslie and I landed our apartment wasn't ready for move in yet so we reached out to an old friend from college who said he had a place near by and we could crash on the couch.

     Upon arrival we found out that it wasn't actually his apartment, it was his friends, and he'd just been crashing their for a month. Immediately we felt awkward and awful for crashing on the couch of someone we hardly knew, but the owner ended up being super understanding and ended up becoming a really good friend of ours.

     Or so we thought.

      The next day, as we were getting ready to head to our apartment and sign all the paperwork, the boy that originally said we could sleep at his place (we'll call him Dave) came to Leslie and I and said that the owner was kicking him out and he needed a place to stay. We figured it was only fair to let him crash for a few days since he let us do the same.

     What we didn't know was that we were pulling ourselves into a ridiculous mess by saying yes to Dave.

     Dave promised he would only be there a few days while he figured a new living arrangement out, which we thought would work out perfectly because the boy that was going to be sleeping on our couch (let's call him Kevin) wasn't going to move in for a few days anyways.

     When Kevin was finally moving in Dave was still sleeping on our floor and had made no effort to find a new place, but since we had known him for a while we didn't think it would be a problem.

     Quickly we realized how impossible it was to have four people share a one bedroom one bathroom apartment and the fighting began almost immediately.

     It seemed like no matter what anyone said to Dave, his efforts to find a new place never worked out and he became entirely too comfortable sleeping on our floor.

     Luckily, Leslie and I worked a lot so we were hardly home to deal with the mess, but knowing someone is living rent free off of you and you can't get them out is insanely stressful.

    In January, Kevin decided to go home for a month to visit his family. At this point, we all thought Kevin was the cause of all the fights in our apartment because of his anger issues, so we hoped things would calm down and give Dave a chance to find a job or a new place to live. 

     Unfortunately, Dave's partying escalated the most during the month Kevin was gone. Dave partied in West Hollywood every single night. And if you know anything about WeHo- aka the gay capital of California- it's that their pre-games, parties, and after parties involve a lot of cocaine, alcohol, and hooking up. Which wasn't a problem at first because I'm not one to tell people how to live their lives, but when Dave started bringing the parties home, it made our apartment absolutely fall apart.

      At first it was okay every once in a while to have a few people over, and quickly we got to know Dave's core group of party friends. One friend in particular- Rick- was going through a break up with his boyfriend and needed a place to stay for a few days.

     Sadly, Leslie and I were both cursed with the inability to say no to people, so we agreed to let him stay a few weeks until Kevin got back.

     What we didn't know was that Kevin was planning on bringing a friend from home to live with him and promised that his friend was going to pay rent.

     When Kevin arrived with his friend Rick was still living with us, as was Dave.

     That made 6 people in a one bedroom one bathroom apartment. And to make matters worse, the bathroom was inside the bedroom, so even if Leslie and I wanted to hide from the insanity, it was impossible.

     Within no time, our house became the after party house and every morning I would wake up to at least 6 WeHo boys passed out on my living room floor, in my bathroom, or see them still awake on my balcony.

     Fights between the boys started to get so bad that it was scary. Kevin and his friend were constantly mad that there were always "gay boys" in the house, Dave and Rick were constantly mad that they couldn't use the bathroom as long as they wanted, and Leslie and I were constantly getting our food eaten, makeup used, and money stolen.

     Starting around march I physically couldn't take any of it anymore and started to lose my sanity. I had been trying to just go to the parties to distract myself but it caught up to me so fast and I started to feel more alone than I've ever felt in my life.