Pushing myself up to sitting, I yell, “Come in.” I blink as I watch all five of my roommates enter, single file, into my room. This ought to be good.
Crossing my arms over my chest, I ask, “What can I do for you?”
Patsy speaks first, because of course she does. “We wanted to tell you that we don’t want you to move out.”
I look at each roommate one at a time, ending with Susanna. “Oh?”
“Look. We know Kara is….”
Oh, I’ll finish her sentence. “Mean?”
“She’s, well, challenging.”
“Oh come on, Pats,” mutters Robbi. “She’s a bitch and you know it. And not just to Quinn.” She looks over at me. “But she’s especially terrible to you, Quinn.”
“Fine.” Patsy sighs. “The thing is, her dad is our mom’s boss. We don’t want to rock the boat with her because our mom really needs her job.”
I want to scoff, but I don’t. “You think Kara has that kind of power?”
I look at Susanna, who is slowly nodding. “She’s a daddy’s girl.”
“So, you want me to move out so she can give your mom job security?”
“No, we don’t want you to move out,” says Kat. “None of us can stand her, okay?”
“So, when she took the gift card and wanted to use it herself, you were okay with that?”
“Pardon?” says the man on my computer screen. When he says it, it’s like there’s noo, so it’s just “Pardn?”
“Oh, sorry, Cooke.” I turn the screen around so he can see the girls.
“You’re talking to Cooke?” asks Lindsay.
“Cheers, ladies,” he says in a husky voice.
“Hi, Cooke,” they all say at once.
“Did you say this other person took the gift card I sent toyou?”
“She tried to,” Robbi snaps. “But Quinn took it back.”
“Quinn.” He looks at me. “That’s naff. She sounds like she needs a good bollocking. Would you like me to take care of that, love?”
I have no idea what any of those words mean, but it sounds like he may want to beat her up. “That’s very kind of you to offer, Cooke, but I can handle Kara.”
“I’ve no doubt. You’re quite something, Quinn.”
Looking back up at my roommates, I say, “So, now youdon’twant me to move out?”
Kat speaks first. “We never did.”
I glance at each woman. “You never did.” It’s not a question.
“No, we were fucking relieved when Patsy said she promised the room to you,” Robbi adds.
Awkward. That’s how I feel right now. They’re telling me they want me to stay,andI can feel Cooke’s eyes burning a hole in my side. “Well, finding a new place was going to be impossible. Doesn’t Kara have an apartment?”
“A nice one,” mutters Susanna.
