The Fourth Roommate

Family Matters

I was curled up on my side, my cheek pressed against Ace's shoulder. His thumb traced patterns on my arm and I sighed; content.

"Serena?" Ace whispered into my ear.

"Mmm," I murmured, hoping he wasn't going to suggest getting out of bed.

"Can I take you somewhere?"

"Mm," I muttered, sounding decidedly less happy.

I had the day off work, it was two days before I started University, and all I wanted to do was to sleep. Surely that was a good idea? But Ace was apparently not having a totally activity free day. He got up, calling first shower and throwing a pillow at my face.

"Ace," I groaned, "please... no."

Another pillow hit me and with a flurry I ripped off the sheets, scowling at him. He left, laughing and shaking his head at me. I quickly chose an outfit for the day, a short pencil skirt and a white halter top and a black cardigan. That was suitable for any occasion, surely?

I heard the shower stop; Ace took ridiculously short showers. He often complained that mine took fifteen minutes whereas his took like three. Excuse me, but I had to wash and condition my hair, soap myself down and shave my legs unless he wanted to be with a monkey-lookalike. He scoffed and bet that if he were, he would be done within five minutes.

I was so going to back him go through my shower routine and time him, see how fast he actually was. And oh my god, I would make him shave his legs. I pictured his grouchy expression and a devious smile lit up my face like never before. This was a great plan. It truly was.  I passed Ace on the way to the shower and I gave him my most evil smile.

"Are you high?" he asked, charming as Always.

"I'm evil!" I corrected him.

"Yeah and I'm Bruce Springsteen. Now hurry up," he told me, pinching my cheek.

***

We were in the car. Ace refused to tell me where we were going, so I had resorted to guessing.

"Theme park?"

"No."

"Zoo?"

"Nope."

"That museum? The one about bacteria?" I asked enthusiastically; I had told him yesterday how much I wanted to visit the place. At the table he had seemed vaguely horrified; apparently he failed to see the interest I had in bacteria.

However, he just did not know enough stuff about them. Like bacteria was actually used to ferment wine and vinegar, which was so interesting. Also they were used to make some cheese have that distinct, very stinky smell. And you had to respect the little guys; c'mon there are 40 million bacterial cells in one gram of soil. That was freaking amazing. They were only first discovered in the 1660's as well, how weird was that? Like they were everywhere but it had taken us ages to first observe them.

"Definitely," Ace said and my face lit up, "not."

"Screw you," I joked, poking his cheek.

He batted my hand away, laughing.

"Okay so maybe... the cinema?" I frowned because we were driving out of the city.

"Guess again," Ace said.

I drew my cheeks up to my chest, resting my chin on my knees. I knew the geography of this part of the state and there was almost nothing really near here. A graveyard, the suburbs, and that seemed to be it.

Ace flipped on the radio and I started to sing loudly and embarrassingly, much to Aces amusement. I tried to get him to join him, but sadly he refused. So of course this meant I had to sing even louder to compensate for the both of us.