The Worst Roommate

I was talking with my roommate about nothing in particular, and somehow the conversation found its way to our old roommates and any interesting things about them. I thought this would be an interesting prompt for my Blogging class assignment, so I asked him specifically if he had any stories that he just needed to tell anyone who reads this. The words that came out of his mouth were horrifyingly entrancing. The story is about his cousin, not him, and it does not take place on the UNK campus. However, it is too interesting to pass up.

My roommate’s cousin, Jake, was moving into his dorm at his college. It was his first year, and just like us all was justifiably nervous. He had not met his roommate and knew nothing about him. I asked my roommate a bit more about that.

“[Jake] was really nervous. He is a fairly confident guy but not 100 percent or anything like that. He just didn’t want anybody that was crazy.”

Jake started to lug all of his belongings up into the elevator and began to steel himself. He had his fingers crossed that what lied beyond the door to his room was simply normalcy. Nothing more, nothing less. He was carrying his backpack and school supplies when he opened the door.

“[Jake] told me that only one bit of light was coming in from the windows. The blinds were closed, and the lights were off, so it was pretty dark. He made it sound like a horror movie.”

Jake flipped the light switch and found the room in complete disarray. Miscellaneous objects were scattered across the room as if the person living there didn’t want to see the floor anymore. That person same person had not budged an inch from his bed. He was completely passed out, and the newly lit room did not affect him at all.

Jake thought for a moment that he should be reasonable. The move-in process is very stressful, so maybe this guy was just falling victim to that. Then, Jake smelled something. He turned his head over to the blue recycling bin in the corner. He knew what the smell was but hoped dearly that he was wrong. He peered into the trash can, and saw it filled with urine. About four inches laid still in the bin. Jake was horrified.

“The poor guy just turned around and left. I don’t blame him; that is disgusting. [Jake] ended up calling the residence hall staff and they cleaned up the room for him. The worst part though is that they did nothing about the other guy. It was like it didn’t happen.”

Jake had to stay in that room with this guy that apparently enjoys urinating in waste buckets for a week. Eventually, and as Jake’s mother puts it, “by the grace of god,” they moved him down to a different room with a different roommate. They ended up having a lot in common, so at the end of the day Jake did get the normalcy he was hoping for. He just had to wait a little longer for it.