ACCIDENTAL ROOMMATE

Leaving

Ethan grabbed his phone and hoodie from the chair beside his desk while I slipped my feet into my sneakers.

The pizza downstairs suddenly sounded a lot more appealing than sitting in the room overthinking everything again.

Ethan was halfway to the door when he suddenly stopped.

I noticed the way his expression changed slightly, like he had just remembered something important.

“What?” I asked.

He turned around slowly.

“Oh. Right.”

Something in my stomach tightened immediately.

“What?”

He rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly.

“I forgot to tell you earlier.”

The way he said it made me sit up straighter.

“What happened?”

Ethan hesitated for a second before answering.

“Housing emailed me today.”

My chest sank a little before he even finished speaking.

“They finally moved me to a boys’ room.”

The room suddenly felt strangely still.

“Oh.”

That was all I managed to say.

Ethan nodded once.

“Yeah.”

I looked down at my blanket, trying to ignore the weird feeling that suddenly appeared in my chest.

Of course this was going to happen eventually.

It was temporary from the beginning.

I knew that.

Still… hearing it out loud felt different.

“When?” I asked quietly.

“Tomorrow morning.”

Tomorrow.

That fast.

For some reason, the thought hit harder than it should have.

It wasn’t like we were best friends.

Most days we barely talked.

But after a week of sharing the same room, his presence had become familiar.

Comfortable, even.

And now suddenly it was ending.

Ethan glanced around the room awkwardly.

“They said they’re assigning you a new roommate too,” he added. “An actual roommate this time.”

I let out a small laugh at that, though it didn’t sound very real.

“Wow. So the universe finally decided to fix its mistake.”

“Guess so.”

Neither of us spoke for a moment after that.

The room suddenly felt different now that I knew he was leaving.

Temporary.

Just like he said before.

Ethan shifted slightly near the door.

“I mean… it’s probably better this way,” he said carefully.

“Yeah,” I replied automatically.

Because technically it was.

This was how things were supposed to be from the beginning.

A normal girl roommate.

A normal dorm setup.

No awkward explanations every time someone found out.

So why did the idea make me feel disappointed?

I looked over at Ethan.

He looked awkward too, like he didn’t really know what to say about it either.

“You already know who your new roommates are?” I asked.

He nodded.

“Three guys in another dorm building.”

“That sounds loud.”

“That’s exactly what I was thinking.”

A small smile appeared on my face.

Then Ethan looked down at his phone briefly before slipping it into his pocket.

“Well,” he said softly, “we should probably still go get pizza before it’s all gone.”

I nodded slowly.

“Yeah.”

But neither of us moved immediately.

Because suddenly the room that had slowly become normal over the past week was counting down its final hours exactly the way it started:

Awkwardly.