Hate Adjacent

She had a system. She always had a system.

The system did not account for a roommate who arrived first, took the better bed, and offered her crackers she refused to take for reasons she was not going to examine.

The system did not account for the guitar at eleven PM, or the sticky notes that started logistical and became something else, or the specific way her chest did something unregulated every time the room smelled like someone else's shampoo.

The system did not account for Lookmhee.

The system, as it turned out, was never going to survive contact with Lookmhee.