Match Made in Quarantine

2. Lockdown Mode

After what felt like an hour of just standing there with my shocked Pikachu face I managed to utter two words. 

"Yeah, no."

"What?" Maddox stared at me as if he wasn't sure I'd actually said that. 

Honestly, I wasn't sure either. 

What I was sure of, however, was that I could barely survive one evening with Maddox, let alone 24 hours daily for over 20 days. My mind went into overdrive, trying to calculate the exact amount of time I'd be forced to spend with him: 480 hours. Which was around 462 hours more than I'd spent with him in the past three months.

It took about two weeks to figure out his schedule - not that there was much to it. During the day he was in class, during the evening he was hitting up the hottest clubs or exercising his thumb on Tinder. 

Once I'd realized the only moments of peace I would have were early mornings, and some evenings, our contact was reduced to the occasional hello and my aggressive wall-slamming. Things were far from ideal but I had been so proud of unlocking the 'Avoid Maddox' achievement. I'd even considered making a plaque for my wall. 

Now, my wonderfully planned life management system was made obsolete. This was a living nightmare.

I folded my arms across my chest and defiantly stared at the shirtless man-pig I had the misfortune of living with. "There's no way I'm spending 20 days locked in this apartment with you." 

"Oh, and you think I want this, princess? You're not exactly a fountain of fun." Maddox looked me up and down before frowning. 

"Gee, thanks. I'd rather claw my eyes out than have to look at you every day!" I spat at him, my eyes a raging fire. 

"I'd rather catch a virus than be locked up with you!" he snapped back at me and my eyes went wide. He'd never actually barked back at me when I started anything with him.

"Great, then your dumb ass can just go do that and problem solved," I said and felt heat surge through my body.

We'd never actually gotten into a real argument considering how much I'd avoided him. Somehow I felt like that was about to change and this apartment was going to become the new arena for a Battle Royale. 

Before he had a chance to respond an angry voice reminded us that we were definitely not alone yet.

"That's enough! You think I'm happy to be working when there's a virus outside? Hell no!" The policeman seemed to snap completely at our childish bickering and honestly, I couldn't blame the man. "Some people don't have the luxury of staying at home, so take your damn box, and shut the hell up before I arrest both of you for disturbing the peace!"  

We stood there, frozen in place, after the sudden outburst, and the cop shoved a large cardboard box into Maddox's arms.

Giving us both the look of a disappointed school teacher scolding his misbehaving students he cursed under his breath and left, muttering, "Damn millennials these days, nothin' but disrespect. When I was—"

Maddox closed the door with his foot, and we both stood there in awkward silence. The adrenaline that was pushing us both further during our argument had somewhat depleted, and neither one of us seemed to know where to go from here. After what felt like hours, but was probably just a few seconds, my roommate spoke up. 

"You think we should have told him we're Gen Z?"

I looked at him in surprise, trying to figure out if I'd heard him correctly. He looked stoic, too serious, and at that point, I burst out laughing, Maddox joining in instantly.