ROOMMATE

Chapter One

I check the clipboard in front of me, sighing. Two more people. Two more people I have to interview before I can finally change out of these jeans and into my running shorts.

I push myself off the sofa when the doorbell rings. I pull it open to see a tall lanky girl with purple hair and a nose ring. I give her a tight lipped smile and gesture for her to come in.

"Arial?" I ask, already knowing she wasn't going to get the room.

"Yes. Sorry I am late." She says, throwing her bag on the floor at her feet, blocking my way to the sofa. I stare at it in disgust before stepping over it and walking back over to the sofa. I sit at one side and her on the other.

I question her for ten minutes before we stand and I lead her to the door telling her I would call her. As soon as the door is closed behind her I lean against it and sigh, banging my head with the clipboard.

The last person, a tall guy with a SpongeBob top on goes pretty much the same way, leading to me collapsing on the sofa with a curse.

When I hear the door open five minutes after the SpongeBob guy leaves, I am lying with the clipboard over my face on the sofa.

"By the looks of it, they all failed." Rosé, my best friend says, amusement in her voice. I pull the clipboard away and glare at her as she comes over and collapses on the sofa beside me.

"Not one of them are even a consideration." I tell her. She pulls the clipboard out of my grasp, flicking through the options.

"What about this girl. She is studying biology. That is hard, there is no way she is out constantly partying." Rosé suggests, glancing at me.

"She plays the trumpet," I tell her, my face showing I disapproved. She nods once, going back to the options.

"Ok, so what now?" She asks, once she gets to the end of the list and sets the clipboard on the coffee table.

"I go upstairs and beg Ava to let you out of your contract and move in with me. I'll give her one of these people." I suggest, waving to the clipboard. Rosé lets out a laugh, shaking her head.

"If I could move in with you, I could." She tells me. I nod, knowing it was true. Rosé transferred uni this year after having attended the university closest to our hometown for her first year yet didn't like it and decided to transfer. I already had a roommate by the time she got the paperwork in order, so she had to find somewhere else. She was lucky and was able to move in with the girl who lives in the flat above me. However, a week later, my roommate, who had been my first-year roommate in halls, decided she was going to travel to uni instead, leaving me with an apartment with two bedrooms and no roommate. By that time Rosé had already missed her forty eight hour window to get out of her own contract.

"I know," I reply, closing my eyes again. "What am I going to do, Rosé?"

"You aren't going to like what I suggest." She tells me, sighing.

"Tell me anyway."

"You have two options. You either pick the best out of this bunch or you phone your parents and ask for more money to cover the whole rent." She tells me, all amusement and teasing gone from her voice. I groan, not liking either idea.

"And which is the best of that lot? The Arial girl who said she is going to have her stoner boyfriend here most days?" I ask, rolling my eyes.

"No. Maybe, you just need to be less picky." She suggests.

"Rosé, it's me." I remind her, both of us knowing I was exceptionally picky as well as a perfectionist.

We sit in silence, both of us knowing I was also too stubborn to ask my parents for the money.