I Am Not Uptight!

Josh part 2

Josh didn’t think he would live to see the day that he would have to move out of the apartment that he chose by himself four years ago because Perry was too busy with his work—too busy that the only input he gave was, “As long as it has good water pressure,” and that was it. Josh was the one who painstakingly did the research to find the best apartment within their price range that was at a perfect distance to the hospital, his office, the park, the bus stop, the grocery store and the fire station; was at a quiet neighborhood where the neighbors weren’t too nosy but not too cold either; and had a landlady whose morals aligned with theirs. It took him months to find that perfect apartment, and yet he was the one who had to leave because it was Perry's name in the contract and not his.

It was unfair, Josh knew, and he could do something about it by talking to the landlady—he could easily snatch the place up and make Perry leave instead, especially after breaking his trust and throwing the six-year relationship they built into the dumps—but he just wasn’t that kind of guy. Make no mistake, Josh was furious and it could be heard by how loud his fingers hit the keys while typing into his laptop, but he kept his mouth shut—even when Perry sat on the other couch directly across from him, smiling and texting away on his phone, eating a cinnamon roll, unbothered as if he hadn’t just dumped the one who bought them.

“How’s the apartment search going, babe?” Perry casually asked, barely looking up from his phone.

Josh’s jaw clenched as he stared daggers at his laptop screen. “Can you not call me—"

“Right, sorry. Force of habit,” Perry sheepishly smiled as he finally set his phone down and looked at Josh. “So? Found any good places?”

“No,” Josh muttered, scrolling down the listings in his frustration. “I found a vacancy at the apartment complex near my office but there’s no emergency station nearby and the price per square meter is a lot more expensive than usual. Another one is three minutes away from here but I can see from the pictures that the floor is uneven. There’s one that’s great, except when I asked for recent pictures from the owner, I saw mold in the corners of the bathroom.”

“I knew it,” Perry sighed. “At this rate it's going to take you months to move out. See? This is your problem. You're too—"

“I am not uptight,” Josh flatly said as he continued scrolling through more listings.

“I was going to say ‘specific,’” he heard Perry mutter under his breath, “but that works as well. Everything has to be calculated with you. No spontaneity.”

“’Spontaneous,’ again?” Josh bitterly scoffed. It was then he Josh noticed what was on his screen—a listing quite different than the rest. There were pictures of a large two-storey house that had a complete kitchen with an island, a large flat-screen TV in a spacious living room that was tastefully decorated, a clean, big bathroom with a tub and black tiles just like how he preferred it, and a bedroom with black-out curtains. “I can be spontaneous and fun,” Josh said indignantly as he clicked to see more of the details. The place looked great, the rent was reasonable, and they were just looking for a “fun housemate that is easy to get along with.”

“Josh, please,” Perry said with the roll of his eyes. Josh had always hated it when Perry would use that tone with him—and he knew that Perry was aware of it, so when he glared at him for a good second, Perry raised his hands up as if to say he’d stop it.

Josh returned his attention back to the screen and finally understood what they meant by “housemate” when he read that five other people would be sharing the house with him. Five! That was the only catch he could see, since the place was just a few minutes away from the bus stop and it was closer to his office, the neighborhood it was in was known for being slightly upscale and peaceful, and it had an easy route to the hospital and fire station.

Living with five other people inside a house! Josh couldn’t even imagine it, but then his eyes flickered towards Perry when he heard him lightly chuckle. He was smiling at his phone as he read and his thumbs moved quickly—clearly texting with someone only a few hours after he called time of death on their six-year relationship, called Josh “plain, boring and uptight,” and asked him to move out while eating the cinnamon rolls he thoughtfully bought for him.

Plain, boring, and uptight. As soon as Josh was reminded of those words, they ran in his mind once again like that cartoon Tasmanian Devil, wreaking havoc in his head as he stared at the listing in front of him, until he suddenly heard himself say, “I found a place,” as if his mouth had a mind of its own.

That certainly caught Perry’s attention. His eyebrows raised as he put his phone down. “Really? In just a few hours?”

“Yes,” Josh found himself nodding. “For a change of pace and just for the heck of it, I’m going to live in a house with random strangers. A shared house, as they call it.”

That made Perry look at him in disbelief as he stood and sat beside Josh to take a look at the screen of his laptop. “What are you saying?” he asked, sounding like he clearly thought Josh was joking around. Perry’s smile disappeared as soon as he was shown the listing—specifically when he read the part that said there were five other people in the house.

“Yeah, right,” he dismissively scoffed while it was Josh’s turn to be busy on his phone. “I know you, Josh. You can’t live with others and you’ll be out of there the second you do an ocular visit. Just get one of those vacancies at the apartment complex near your office so you can—"

“Done,” Josh cut Perry off with a smile as he turned his phone’s screen towards him to show him the message he just sent to the number under the listing.

“You’re joking,” Perry said in disbelief, but not a second later and he saw the same number calling Josh’s phone.

“I better pick up,” Josh innocently muttered. “My new landlord is calling.”