Falling for my Roommate

CHAPTER 2

THE RULES

The next morning, I woke up convinced the entire thing had been a dream.

Not the apartment.

Not the housing mistake.

Just Adrian.

Surely there was no way I had actually ended up living with the one person I had spent three years trying to avoid.

I opened my bedroom door.

Then I heard music.

Loud music.

At seven in the morning.

I closed my eyes.

No.

Definitely not a dream.

I walked into the kitchen and found Adrian standing by the counter, completely relaxed, making coffee as if he hadn't destroyed my peaceful morning.

He was wearing a plain black T-shirt and gray sweatpants.

His hair was messy.

He looked annoyingly comfortable.

I stared at him.

He glanced over.

"Morning."

I pointed toward his phone.

"Turn that off."

He looked at the phone.

Then at me.

"Good morning to you too."

"Adrian."

"What?"

"It's seven in the morning."

"I know."

"Then why is your music loud enough for the entire building to hear?"

He shrugged.

"I like music in the morning."

"I don't."

"That's unfortunate."

I stared at him.

He took a sip of coffee.

"You know," he said, "you could try waking up in a better mood."

"You could try being less annoying."

"I don't think that's possible."

"At least you're self-aware."

He smiled.

I reached over and turned the music off.

He stared at me.

"You just turned it off."

"Yes."

"You can't do that."

"I just did."

He shook his head.

"You have a serious control problem."

"And you have a serious volume problem."

"Fair."

I blinked.

"Did you just agree with me?"

"Don't get used to it."

I opened the refrigerator.

"Where's my yogurt?"

He looked at me.

"Your yogurt?"

"Yes."

He pointed toward the counter.

"I ate it."

I slowly turned around.

"You what?"

"I ate it."

"You ate my yogurt?"

"I thought it was mine."

"My name was written on it."

He paused.

"You wrote your name on yogurt?"

"Yes."

"That's strange."

"It's not strange."

"It is a little strange."

I stared at him.

He smiled.

"Relax. I'll replace it."

"You'd better."

He took another sip of coffee.

"Anything else?"

"Stay away from my food."

"Fine."

"And my clothes."

"I don't want your clothes."

"And my room."

"I wasn't planning on entering your room."

"And don't touch my books."

He raised an eyebrow.

"Anything else?"

I thought for a moment.

"Yes."

I grabbed a piece of paper from the counter.

"We need rules."

He laughed.

"Rules?"

"Yes."

"You're serious."

"Very."

I pulled out a chair and sat at the table.

He sat opposite me.

I grabbed a pen.

"Rule one: Stay out of each other's bedrooms."

"Agreed."

"Rule two: Don't touch each other's belongings."

"Agreed."

"Rule three: Clean up after yourself."

"Obviously."

"Rule four: We take turns cleaning."

He nodded.

"Fine."

"Rule five: Don't bring people over without telling the other person first."

He paused.

"Why?"

"Because I don't want to walk into the apartment and find strangers here."

"Fair."

I wrote it down.

"Rule six..."

I hesitated.

Adrian watched me.

"What?"

"No romantic involvement."

He stared at me.

Then he laughed.

I frowned.

"What's funny?"

"That you needed to say that."

"Why wouldn't I?"

"Because I wasn't planning on dating you."

"Good."

"Good."

"Perfect."

"Perfect."

I wrote it down.

Then I added one more.

"Rule seven: No unnecessary conversations."

Adrian leaned back.

"That's going to be difficult."

"Why?"

"You talk too much."

I threw the pen at him.

He caught it.

"Violence?"

"Shut up."

He laughed.

I stood.

"Are we done?"

"Almost."

He took the paper.

"What's this?"

"The rules."

He read through them.

Then he pointed to rule seven.

"This one is impossible."

"It's not."

"You've already talked to me for ten minutes this morning."

"Because you ate my yogurt."

"That's not unnecessary."

"Exactly."

He smiled.

I reached for the paper.

He pulled it away.

"Hey."

"Relax."

He folded it.

"What are you doing?"

"Keeping it."

"Why?"

"So you can't change the rules."

I stared at him.

"You really think I'd do that?"

"Absolutely."

He put the paper in his pocket.

"You're unbelievable."

"And yet you're still here."

I rolled my eyes.

"Unfortunately."

I walked back toward my room.

"Maya."

I stopped.

"What?"

He pointed toward my feet.

I looked down.

One sock was white.

The other was gray.

I looked back at him.

He was trying not to laugh.

"Don't."

"I didn't say anything."

"You were about to."

"I'm not."

"You are."

He smiled.

"Just thought you'd want to know."

I

walked into my room and slammed the door.

I heard him laughing from the kitchen.

I sat on my bed.

I hated him.

I really did.

At least, that was what I kept telling myself.

Because if I admitted that I was beginning to enjoy his company, even a little...

Then I would have to admit something much worse.

That maybe living with Adrian wasn't going to be as terrible as I thought.