During my sophomore year in college I lived with a friend I had known since sixth grade (I had also lived with her the year before) and two other girlfriends.
In the beginning, things were great. We were all excited to be out of the dorms and living in our first apartment. Each of us had fun decorating our rooms, the living room, and even the bathrooms. Everything was just fine and dandy, until one day, he happened.
He was loud, obnoxious, spoiled, rude, disrespectful ... and my sixth grade friend’s new boyfriend.
Me and the other roomies couldn’t stand him. He was constantly at our place, showering in our shower, cooking food in our kitchen, and leaving the dirty pots and pans out on the stove for days. His disrespect + sixth-grade friend’s sloppiness = a recipe for disaster.
When I came back to school from winter break, I opened our hall closet only to find it filled with all of his clothes and other miscellaneous junk. I called out to sixth-grade friend, “Did boyfriend move in?” Both she and the boyfriend just giggled. This meant yes.
From then on out things just got worse. The other two roomies and I decided we were no longer cleaning up their mess and that they needed to take responsibility for their sloppiness. This rule went out the window however when our kitchen started to smell because sink became clogged with chunks of food while dirty dishes that had been ignored for days began to spill out onto the counter.
Our water bill went up because he would take long showers.
Our electricity bill went up because he constantly left the lights and TV on.
Our AC broke because he was constantly turning it down to 50 degrees because, “he was too hot.”
My roomies and I would wake up on Saturdays and not be able to relax in our own living room because he and all of his buddies would be having a movie marathon ... in the apartment that he wasn’t paying jack for.
Being the gem that he was, he never offered to pay for anything, or even pitch in now and again. But don’t worry, he was constantly showering my roommate with expensive gifts which I think was partially responsible for her inability to recognize he was a jerk. When we would try to confront her about his ways, she would get defensive and pick a fight with us.
Eventually the three of us stopped hanging out at our apartment just so we didn’t have to deal with them, which was a shame because it really was a great place.
After that year all three of us moved out, which you think would have sent sixth-grade friend a message, but I don’t think it did.
Eventually sixth grade friend and boyfriend broke up, but the other girls and I never really cared to become good friends with her again. A year or two later after they split, I saw her at a restaurant and she gave me a long overdue apology and said, “What was I thinking?”
