Lesson 1: My friends are jerks, and so are most people on the internet.
Eesha sat in the seething hot basement of her parent's California house that she called home. She did all she could to focus on the fun sized fan she bought a few years back, doing a half-assed job of keeping her cooled. "Eesha!" her mom yelled. She grunted loudly in response, "Eesha Thompson I will not ask you twice, it's lunch time." She groaned to herself and lazily got herself off her leather couch, being fully convinced that it took a bit of her skin with it.
She trudged up the sticky and creaking basement stairs and swung the door open, hoping to be welcomed by the cool and conditioned house. That too, to no avail, with the house being at most two degrees cooler. She shrugged it off and followed the scent of food to the kitchen, sitting at the counter island. "Hah..." she sighed in the relief the swirling marble brought her. Her mom placed her plate in front of her face that was currently smooshed into the cold island. She expressed her gratitude, "Tank ou" with a muffled tone. Her mom grunted in response. Eesha picked herself up from the counter to scarf down whatever her mom had made. To her absolute horror, it was soup.
"Oh my god." she thought to herself, "Who on earth makes soup on this hot of a day?" The answer to that being, her mother. Reluctantly she scooped the soup and sipped little by little. She looked behind her to see her dad slumped on the couch with the fan blasting in his face. "He never listens to me, always ends up with a fever!" her mom complained. "Yeah.." she said, zoned out. Right now she was focused on one thing and one thing only. Finishing the soup in front of her, because who throws away the cooking of their sweet mother in front of them? She hurriedly finished and scurried back to her concrete furnace.
She tried sleeping to avoid the feeling of heat, and sat there for a good five minutes. She tossed and turned for a good while, trying to ween off the heat. This moment made her consider something she should have done as soon as she graduated college. She resolved to move out. Enough was enough of being a basement dweller. She had nothing but soda cans for drinks and ramen for eating as if she was still a struggling college student. In her little basement, cold water was as rare a sight as a bear in the winter. There was only one problem. "How will I afford anything in California?" she thought. A light bulb went on in her head and she picked up her phone. She dialed her best friend, Sabbath Alvarez.
One ring, two ring, "Sab!" she said excitedly, "Eesha! Good morning." responded Sabbath. "Sab, it is two in the afternoon." Sabbath laughed, "Yeah yeah I know, but whats up? You never call me." she said in a jokingly cold way. "Well.. I was wondering if you wanted to room with me?" a pause followed the question, "Eesha, no." Eesha gasped dramatically "Eesh weesh, I love you to death, I do. But you are difficult to live with, for me at least. You always wake up late on the weekends!" Eesha scoffed at her best friend's remark, "No one wakes up at eight a.m on a Saturday, Sab!" she hung up and tested her luck with her other friends.
She asked her other friends, begging them, praying to her Gods, just to get a roommate. This went on for about an hour before she was finally ready to give up. She let out a frustrated sigh-grunt. "I'm never making it out of here." She opened her laptop that had a stronger fan than her actual fan, and opened up youtube, and thats when she realized something. She could just find a roommate online. "If I still know how to make online friends, I can definitely find a roommate online." She started typing into the search bar, 'roommate finder', 'renters near me', and 'rich roommate finder'. She was almost ready to give up seeing as all the links were purple, when she resolved to type in the most basic website name. The letters on the keyboard were clicked to spell out 'roommate.com'.
By now it was 3:15 p.m, and she began her journey of scrolling. And in the process, finding very interesting roommate profiles. She read out only the most interesting ones, "'Alec, 32 years old-Konichiwa! I'm Alec, I like animes and will die for my waifu!' Oh god no, definitely not." "'Riley, 23 years old- I don't fuck with weird people, so keep scrolling.' Nope, no. She will bully me." She scrolled through more and more profiles with the same kinds of people, either creepy or rude. She found a guy similar to the guy from earlier, and decided to at least give it a shot, "Ryan, 27 years old-I need new friends!! And also a new waifu hehe, just kidding! But it would be nice though."
You are talking with Ryan. Say hi to your new roomie!
Ryan: Hii :-:
Eesha: Hi! Still looking for a roomie?
Ryan: Yes, heheh, but.. you're a girl, I-I don't know if I can, c-control myself around someone as g-g-gorgeous as you, Eesha kitten
Eesha: Oh, uh, uhm, ok. See you never I guess?
Ryan: W-wait, Eesha kitten, no!
This chat has ended.
She felt like she clicked a 'bad people to live with finder'. When it seemed all hope was lost, she finally came across a seemingly normal guy, "Luke Smith, 23 years old-Sup! Just a dude being a dude who needs a roommate.' I can settle with this, and he looks like a CA boy. How convenient for me."
Eesha clicked to chat with Luke, and was answered immediately.
You are talking with Luke. Say hi to your new roomie!
Eesha: Hi! Are you still looking for a roommate?
Luke: Yeah I am, do you live in Cali?
Eesha: Yess I do, SoCal
Luke: Awesome, same!
Eesha: How much rent money are you willing to pay?
Luke: Woah, straight to the money I see
Eesha: Sorry if that came off too strong lol, a little rushed to move out.
Luke: All good, at most I'd pay like $800
Eesha: Great! Shouldn't be too hard to find a place we can split if thats what we can pay, to hell with California housing prices.
Luke: I could not agree more! Would you like to meet for coffee before we move in? Just so we are like comfortable with each other?
Eesha: Sounds great, I got to make sure you're not a kidnapper lmao
Luke: Same here!
Eesha: When and where do you want to meet?
Luke: Maybe a coffee shop, do you know any good ones nearby?
Eesha: There's one I usually go to on South Vermont Ave.
Luke: I think I know which one you're talking about, are you free tomorrow at 12 pm?
Eesha: As a matter of fact I am. See you tomorrow?
Luke: See you tomorrow!
You have closed the chat.
She closed the laptop that was now burning her thighs and left a red mark. Pushing it aside, she curled up onto her leather couch, sighing with a feeling of accomplishment. She mentally prepared herself to meet her potential new roomie, and leave her basement days behind.
sab ❤️
ohh sabbath
ohh eesha?
guess who
found a roomiee
AHHH okk is it a
boy or a girl?
a boyyy
ouu ok, dont be
stupid.
ok, mom.
read 7:00 pm
YOU ARE READING
Across The Hall
RomanceDweller of her parent's basement, Eesha Thompson had-had enough with living in her family home. In her frustration, she resolves to get an apartment with a roommate. But when no one is willing, she resorts to the world wide web to find one. Stumblin...
