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“I have guests.”

“I’m aware.” I walked past them to the kitchen to grab a bottle of soda from the fridge.

There were none left, despite me having put in a brand new case yesterday. I hadn’t managed to have a single one of them, and the asshats drank them all gone. On second glance, most of the refrigerator was empty. The only things left were salad fixings that had seen much better days, some condiments, and my roommate’s to-go container from the last time he went to the pizza place. It had been there at least two weeks now and was probably more like a science fair project than food at this point.

There were days I would’ve said something about my missing soda, but I was not in the mood to deal with them. They would only tell me I was being selfish and friends share. And while friends did share, neither Jason nor Tyler were what I would call a friend.

I shut the fridge and went into my room. At least that was only mine. It was tiny. It held my twin bed, my rabbit hutch, and a dresser. Not much more. That was fine, because it was the one place I could be alone.

I put on my noise-canceling headphones and plopped on the bed.

I was saving up to get my own apartment. I made enough to rent a low-end studio by myself. What I didn’t make enough for was saving up the first month, last month, and the deposit, along with any pet fees. It was ridiculous how much money they wanted down. I’d been quoted more than my current car had cost just to move into a cheap apartment. I had no idea how people in the luxury apartments did it. They were paying as much as a small home, just to move in. Ridiculous.

A few times I found something I thought would work until they heard my “small pet” was a rabbit. Apparently they had a bad reputation. I needed a place that was truly pet-friendly so my sweet bunny could stay with me. That was turning out to be a real challenge.

I leaned over the edge of the bed and pinched the lock of the rabbit hutch and opened it. A few seconds later, Pierogi, my one-eared rabbit, hopped on the bed to join me.

When the person at the pet store told me I could litter train him, I thought they were making things up, that it was just another way to sell a product, but I was wrong. It had been a life changer. When I was in the room, I could just let Pierogi out and about as long as I kept an eye on him because he did like to nibble on wires if given the opportunity.

“Did they keep you awake all day?” I scratched behind his ear. It was such a cat move, but he liked it.

The apartment door slammed shut a few minutes later. I assumed that it was the guys leaving over whatever bullshit was happening in their game, but I wasn’t that lucky. Tyler was back, and from the sounds of his shouting, he was drunk too.

It was probably best to stay in my room all night and not meet my work friend. Usually, if I stayed out of sight, I didn’t get sucked into their drama. But if I went into the common areas for anything, I’d be blamed for the mess they made and told to fix it or told to get out of the apartment because they had company or asked to go get their delivery at the door.

My plan was a fail. A half-hour later, they were both banging on my door. I scooped up Pierogi and sat up on the bed.

“Come in.” I didn’t really want them to, but it was that or having them bang at it all night. My guess was they wanted me to go out for a beer run. My guess was wrong.

“So, got a call from the landlord,” Tyler said. “Rent’s not all in.”

“How can rent not be in?” Our landlord was notorious for being a prick about rent being even ten minutes late that we were always sure to have it on time.

“Don’t know.” Jason’s eyes were on the floor. He 100% knew. “But we need five hundred more.”

“I don’t have it. I already paid my share.” Jerks were trying to shake me down for their own lack of funds. Heck no.

“You have the best job out of us, and it doesn’t matter if it was your share or my share or Jason’s share that is missing. The result will be us getting kicked out. You need to pay.”

“No. I don’t. Whoever didn’t give their entire amount needs to pay, and that wasn’t me.”

“You have Pierogi. That means you need to up your share.” Jason had some nerve.

“In what universe does that make sense?”

“Fine. You can rehome him.” Tyler looked down at my bunny and a chill ran through me. “Or we can.” He fucking meant it. He was going to rehome my rabbit. “And don’t think we won’t.”

“I’ll see what I can do, but it won’t be until the morning.” I needed to buy myself some time to figure this mess out.

It worked enough that they left. A small victory, but a victory nonetheless.

“Okay, Pierogi, What are we gonna do? They tried to take our money, and now they’re threatening you. If I don’t pay, we get kicked out.” I refused to think about what they would do to Pierogi in that scenario. “If I do pay, I become their moneybags. And you, you get caught in the crossfire.”

He bounced down and straight into his hutch. I could hear him drinking his water, the little metal ball popping back and forth.

“That wasn’t much help, Pierogi.” But I didn’t need a rabbit’s help. What I needed was someplace else to live. If I could get someplace fast enough, I had a couple grand saved. If I waited, it would be five hundred less, and as it was, my money wasn’t enough for most places.

I tapped away on my phone till I found a realtor that specialized in “budget-friendly apartments.” It was probably gonna be a crappy apartment building, but someplace was better than no place.