My Roommate is a Boy

RIVERI stare at the house in front of me and then at my phone again; it is exactly the house I had rented for my four years here. I look around the place and see similar houses lined up around the street. I take a deep breath and walk up to the door. I had been told by my roommate via chat that she was going to be around but might not be in when I get there, so I just need to go in with my key that I had gotten delivered.I dig through the bag slung over my shoulder for the key. "Oh my goodness!" I exclaim as I search. I know you had put it in here; why then was it not there? I squat and search through the bar until my fingers finally glide through a slippery, silver-like metal. I pull it out and plant a kiss on it before I push it into the keyhole and open the door.The door clicks open, and I am left with a huge space right in front of me. This must be the living room. I push my bags inside, glad I only had to struggle with one suitcase for now, since my other things will arrive la

RIVERTaylor was quieter than I would have loved to be during dinner, and I could not be happier. When I offered to pay for what I had eaten, he waved it off. I did not like being indebted to him, so I planned to leave him a few bills when I moved out by tomorrow. I have no idea how long the wait would be at the housing agency, but I must get it done by tomorrow so my life can get on track, and I have no reason to lie to my father.I look down at my phone. I had promised to check in with him before I went to bed, but now that I could not be honest, it was hard. I wonder if there would be other things I couldn't be honest about with him. Was this going to be the reason that I drifted from him? I try to focus my mind on the present and stop worrying about what has not happened yet.I take my phone and call my father. I hear screaming and muffled sounds in the background. "Dad," I groan into the phone."Kiddo, I am just taking one drink," he defends almost immediately."And one drink wou

RIVERI was even surprised that he asked me to make the rules. I had thought he would have been against it, but then maybe this was a good thing. He knew boundaries and decided to accept them. I take out a notebook and open it to an empty page before I begin to write in it. I wanted to believe that somehow I might find a way here before the end of the year. Who knows, my luck could just turn around all of a sudden, and I could get lucky.'HOUSE RULES' I write boldly at the top of the paper and draw a line underneath. I hear him snicker, but he does not say anything about it. "First rule, you can't be shirtless, especially in shared places," I say, and he smirks with a head shake. He is quiet as if he had agreed, and since I did not get any refusal from him, I scribble it down and go on to the next."No morning noise, at least before 9 am," I say, and because he is just sitting there quietly as I recite all of the rules before scribbling them down. I tear out the page and hand it over

TAYLOR"Don't call me that," River glared at me as she walked up to her room."Oh come on, you look like a sweetheart," I say, smirking again. I don't know why, but she looked like those nerds we had while in high school who knew nothing more than to study and read."I. DO. NOT. LOOK. LIKE. A. SWEETHEART." She turned to me, picking every word with annoyance written over her face. "In case it is tough for you to understand, rule number one says you can't be shirtless in the house," she said, running her eyes over my chest slightly before throwing me a deadly look."Why do all the rules only apply to me?" I ask in a whiny voice, mainly to get on her nerves."Because you look like someone who wouldn't know the basic rules of life, and see how right I was," she adds sarcastically with a frown directed at me. "I know I wouldn't walk into this shared space shirtless.""Hey! Who says you can't? I won't complain," I say with a shrug, a smile still plastered on my face. She does not seem too pl

RIVERThe day is finally over, and I have never been so eager in my life to curl up in my bed and think about how to take control of my life once again. All through high school, I had been a loner who did not care what people thought of me, and Lana knew this, so I wonder why she thought it was a good idea for her to try and act friendly all through the day. I had barely gotten a moment of peace without them hanging over my head and chatting loudly.Lana's insistence on us talking to other boys in the department with hopes that someone would be living close by and would be willing to drive me to and from school was sweet, but I saw it more as a burden. I could hike up the hill, catch a bus, and be in school before any of them. I have worked on a tight schedule once in my life, and I am sure I can work on one now. How hard could it be?"There is a faculty welcome party for all freshers," Elise said happily. From the moment I saw her, I knew she would be the kind of girl who would like p