[BETTER VERSION] Roommates with Benefits

Scrolling through my emails, I sighed out loud. No one, not a single person has applied to my ad so far. If I don’t get a roommate by the end of this month, I might have to relocate somewhere else, or worse, go back to the dorms. I really don’t want to do either. This apartment has been my home for the past 2 years, it’s perfect for me because there’s only one neighbor on my floor and he’s pretty much never at home or he’s just really wonderfully quiet, and the same goes for the people upstairs.

However, the building recently got a new owner that thought very well to increase rent for everyone. If I lived on a balance before, I might have serious issues with making ends meet unless I sub-rent the other bedroom. Worst case scenario, I’d have to ask my parents for money, and that will never ever happen. I don’t have parents, really, or rather I do, but it’s like I don’t. Long story.

When my phone’s alarm went off, reminding me to go to work, I stood up. Working part time at a café near campus doesn’t give me enough to be stress free when it comes to money, and trying to break records and graduate in advance doesn’t give me the chance to find another job.

The ugly truth is that I have 2 choices, none of which look really appealing: a) get a full-time job and neglect my studies but be able to afford living on my own in an apartment that’s actually nicely big; b) keep the same balance but ask my parents to support me.

Since the first one is impossible and I’d rather start selling drugs than need my parents, I had to resort to a third choice. Like I said, get a roommate. But apparently, either my apartment isn’t nice enough or I’m not. Probably the latter, it usually is.

While I was roaming my closet for something decent to wear, I heard the sound of a notification go off from my laptop. I went to check immediately, hopeful, and I was right: a new mail.

Hello, when can I see the apartment?

That was all it said. It wasn’t even signed and the email address didn’t give away any details. Sighing, I trashed the message. Believe it or not, ever since I put that ad, I got really few people truly interested in the apartment, but a lot of perverts asking what I’m wearing. This was probably just another one.

Defeated, I went back to my closet as my second alarm went off. Yes, I need my phone to remind me to do things or I might forget regular stuff like getting to work on time. Happens when you have a scattered mind like mine that can really only concentrate on books. Happens even more when you sleep way less than you should because you read at night.

Yeah, I’m one of those people. Those that sought relief and company in books, an inevitably found them. Therefore, I am ever so grateful to my paper friends, and I’ll hardly ever abandon them to favor a more mundane life. Because as someone definitely wiser than me put it, you’re never alone when you’re with books.

And every night I am inevitably captured by those paper monsters that just won’t leave me alone until they’ve made me lose my sleep. But oh, what a happy captive I am. If you were looking for some cool girl to admire, you chose the wrong book. I’m Tara Walking Disaster Baker, sorry to disappoint you.