Connective Cube

Lissa opens her door. Her roommate, who is usually at her boyfriend’s house, is putting on her boots. They nod at each other, like they usually do.

Lissa moved here three months ago, and she found the place on Craigslist. This is her third move in two years. Like the other two times, she doesn’t see befriending the roommate. The Craigslist ad said that Jewel would be losing a beloved roommate and friend, and that she was hoping the same in the next roommate. Lissa needed to move in a matter of three days, as her current roommate decided on the 15th of the month that his girlfriend would be moving in at the end of the September. He said Lissa could stay until October 15th for free, but Jewel didn’t want to listen to them have loud sex and walk around half naked anymore.

At least Jewel and her boyfriend didn’t have loud sex. Jewel was 10 years her senior. Lissa already had enough of Jewel calling her hon and hogging the shower for 45 minutes at a time in the morning. It wasn’t like Jewel had anywhere to be.

There were a couple of incidents over the past six months. First, Lissa opened Jewel’s almond milk, thinking it was her own almond milk. Lissa ran out to the corner store to get another crate and sent Jewel a text, thinking she would laugh at her spaciness.

Her roommate came home, and wrote a three sentence note on the door.

“Lissa,

Almond milk is expensive, and please pay more attention. You also got me sweetened almond milk, and I do not drink that. Also, the gas bill is due – $45.62, and have the check to me by tomorrow.”

Maybe it was that time of the month. Jewel worked as a freelance interior designer, but she didn’t seem to work all of that much. Maybe her parents cut her off after her mom lost her job. Or, maybe Jewel was just a bitch. Lissa went to her room that night, turned on the episode of Hoarders where the women had too many cats, and opened a pint of Ben & Jerry’s Half Baked ice cream.

The other time, Lissa walked in on Jewel and her boyfriend naked on the floor during a gray and humid summer afternoon. Lissa was supposed to be at her parent’s house in New Jersey, but she left early so she could go to the gym and drown out the raised eyebrows from her relatives. She told Jewel she would be home at 8pm.

Jewel’s boyfriend stood up right away and put on his blue jeans. Lissa turned around, went to the cafe around the corner, and opened her copy of Bossypants. She sat there for two hours, half reading the book.

When she got home, Lissa and her boyfriend were no longer there.

Lissa took all of her clothes off, except for her bra and panties. She kept the full-length mirror out of her room, and instead placed it on the door in the bathroom. It had a long hallway and institutionally sea green tile. She bounced up and down, noticing that her right tit flopped out of her bra. There goes another $30. Her underwear left track marks around her hips, not quite chafing them.

She would avoid the pint of ice cream in the fridge tonight.