Like Real People Do

Emma Swan has not had an easy life. Given up as a baby she had been raised in the foster system, bouncing from home to home. Her life has seemingly been a series of bad mistakes and worse friends and she has been in trouble more times than she can count. At only eighteen she is sure her life can not get any worse, but she hasn't hit rock bottom yet. Rock bottom comes in the form of Neal Cassidy, a boy with a similar story that Emma falls hard for and she believes he feels the same way. That is until he ups and leaves Emma to take the fall for a crime. She narrowly escapes a jail sentence and is now left with no one, no money and no place to stay.

Regina Mills has grown up in a wealthy family and seemingly has everything she could ask for, good friends, an apartment of her own and she is studying for a law degree but her life isn't everything it seems. Regina's mother is controlling and powerful, she wants Regina to have the life she never had but instead of helping Regina have the life she wants, she is forcing her down a path she believes is the right choice. Regina is buckling under the pressure and wants to escape. Despite having friends Regina feels lonely, no one around her can truly understand what she is experiencing. She's desperate for someone to share her almost suffocatingly empty apartment with.

Emma finds a flyer advertising a nice apartment in a good part of town with low rent, and all they're asking for is a quiet roommate. Things might be starting to look up.