Erin pored over the bills in front of her. For two years now she had lived on her own after finally getting a good job and getting away from her parents. She was twenty-one and lived in a small apartment in the middle of Seattle. Her job was a critique, reviewer and video maker for video games, movies and just about whatever came to her mind. A website paid her depending on her hits on her videos as well as a certain stipend for doing the videos and games they wanted as well as not doing anything for any other website or business.
She averaged a few hundred thousand hits per video and made around four or five videos a week. A movie review, a game review, a let's play, a rant and then whatever she could come up with. The more traffic she brought to the gaming website, the more the ads paid and the more she got. Right now she averaged about two thousand dollars a month.
When Erin lived with her parents and she started earning about that much, it seemed insane. It seemed like that was more than enough to move into an apartment and live her life. But it wasn't nearly as much as she thought. After taxes and rent, she was left with barely anything to live on. Luckily the apartments she lived in bundled her utilities with her rent and so all she paid outside that was the internet bill and food. Erin wasn't interested in the outside world and only went out to shop.
Being a geeky girl, skinny, short and hidden behind large glasses, she never got into romance, friendship or really any relationships at all with anyone else. Her hair was dull red, down past her waist, her skin was pale and it was covered with freckles. Needless to say, she wasn't popular in school nor in the real world.
But the outside world just wouldn't leave her alone. This month, she had enough to pay her bills, but food was going to have to be tightened down to whatever was the absolutely cheapest possible if she was going to be able to eat for the whole month. The way this was going, she wouldn't be able to keep up next month. Erin had ate up the last of her savings the month before and this month was barely skimming by. She was going to have to do something.
"I'm gonna have to get a roommate." She groaned, laying her head down on the table covered with papers, pencils and a calculator.
She dreaded this course of action, but it was the lesser of two evils. The other she couldn't even consider...a real job out there in the world. So she swept all the paper into the trash, the bills were just paper copies of all the automatic transactions that happened with her bank account online, and walked across the small living room to her computer.
Her apartment was sparse and roomy and almost always dark. The living room and kitchen were all one large room, only separated by a change from shaggy green carpet to a cream linoleum. A short hall led away from the living room, leading to two small bedrooms and a bathroom. One bedroom was her sleeping quarters and the other was just an empty room with whatever she stored in there. Right now was just an old recliner and a bookshelf full of manga. There were also a few long boxes full of hundreds of classic Marvel comics.
Her apartment itself was dirty. In her eyes it was pretty clean, but to an outsider it was pretty filthy. Dirty clothes were strewn down the hall. Random papers covered the floor in the living room. Video games and consoles of all kinds were covering the floor and shelves around the sizeable thirty inch flat screen television she prized above most her possessions. Her computer desk was covered in old game cases, game manuals and a few new comics. There wasn't anything health-threateningly dirty like molding food or anything like that. That was something she couldn't stand. Everything at least made it to a trashcan. Old shoes and jackets covered the floor near the door, she just picked up what she wanted to wear when she left. Her bathroom wasn't bad, having nothing to dirty it. Erin never wore makeup and she was pretty abstinant about at least having a clean toilet and shower, even if her bedroom did look like an eruption at the Dry-Cleaning factory. To the untrained eye, the bed looked like she just slept in a mound of crumpled clothes and underwear, but under the clothes were some comfy sheets and blankets.
Although when it came to sleep, her couch and her keyboard were used much more as a bed and a pillow.
Erin found the email address for the paper ads and started to write: 'Wanted: one female roommate. Split rent fifty percent and purchase own food. Roommate gets own bedroom, bathroom drawer, shelf in shower and equal usage of kitchen. All power of acceptance and possible eviction of roommates remains with apartment tennant.'
She then paid the twelve dollar fee for a one week ad with her debit card and sent in the email. If she didn't get a response within the month, she was going to be in trouble.
*******
Luckily enough, by the end of the week, Erin had found one young woman who needed a place to stay while she was in college. However, she sounded very un-excited about having a bed to sleep in for only three hundred dollars a month. There was a knock at the door and Erin got up from the couch, pausing the game she had been playing. She was wearing old basketball shorts and a worn black T-shirt.
She opened the door and looked out. A tall blonde woman stood there, almost eight inches taller than Erin, looking down at her. She wore a long skirt and a sweater. Her hair was cut neatly about her neck, making her seem very professional. She carried a small white purse and fidgeted where she stood.
"Hi, I'm Ari Lett." The woman said with a small smile and a nervous wave, "Um...he...here's the first month's rent."
"Thanks." Erin said, taking the envelope out of Ari's hand and walking away.
"Um..." Ari said, standing in the open doorway as Erin walked back to the couch and continued her game, "Could I come in?"
"I assumed you paid me rent because you wanted to live here." Erin said as she shot a zombie in the face.
"Oh my! What on earth are you doing?! That's terrible!" Ari squeaked as she saw the zombie's head disappear in a red mist.
"They're zombies. A shotgun to the face is perfect for them." Erin said with an evil grin, "Or a crowbar, haha!"
"I...I don't...I don't know if I want to stay here...this place is kinda dirty...and those games..." Ari stuttered, still standing in the doorway.
"What?" Erin said, pausing her game and standing up, "Then why did you pay me rent?"
"I...I dunno...I don't...really know how these things work." Ari mumbled, trying to look at the floor.
Ari was a bit of a tall woman, making it difficult for her to hide her face. Erin walked back over to the doorway and looked at her.
"Alright, I guess I'm supposed to show you your room." Erin sighed, rubbing her face with one hand.
"O...Okay." Ari said, stepping inside.
"This is the kitchen. There's the living room. The first door on the right is your bedroom. I'll move my stuff out of there sometime. The door at the end of the hall is my room. The door on the left is the bathroom. You can have the bottom drawer and shelf." Erin said, standing in the center of the living room and point down the hall.
"Umm..." Ari hummed nervously as she walked down the dirty hall, trying not to step on any of the dirty clothes, "There's...There's no bed in here."
"Yah." Erin said as she returned to her game.
"Where do I sleep? I...I don't think I could sleep in a chair." Ari said almost too quiet for Erin to hear.
"I thought you people were supposed to bring your own bedroom stuff. Don't you have anything? A bed?" Erin asked, not looking away from her game, "Yes! Die you bastards! Die!"
Ari squeaked and jumped at Erin's yelling. She clasped her hands and shuffled back down the hall.
"I...I have some suitcases...some clothes...a few books. I don't have any furniture." Ari mumbled, "And I really don't have any extra money to buy any. I mean...all my stuff is outside on the sidewalk...the taxi driver just dumped it there and left."
"Okay, so sleep on the couch here then." Erin said.
"But...I...this isn't...private." Ari said, blushing.
"Nobody ever comes over. I don't have any friends. The curtains are always closed. What more privacy do you want?" Erin asked, slumping back on the lumpy red couch.
