My name is Esmira Vinell.
I have been living in this home by myself for just over three years now. I got away from the loud, emotionally and mentally stressful household that I'd grown up in and went off on my own. Now that I'm on my own, I now have all the freedom to do whatever I want now without eyes constantly on me and invading my space when they felt like it. However, after a while, I kinda started to miss the constant interaction with other people, even if it was often mentally draining. You see, back where I came from, I didn't have many friends. I was and still am an introvert so I never really sought anyone out. I'm not like, shy or anything but I have always been very wary of who to open up to because often times, the people I became friends with were not truly my friends. These "friends" would talk about me behind my back, actively treat me different from their other friends, only ever contact me to vent and ask for advice that they'd never listen to, and essentially leave me out of a lot of events and conversations so I frequently felt left out. And if I dared to open up about myself? I was often degraded or made fun of. I even recall a time where I was forced to come out and that led to a whole mess that I don't wanna talk about.
Though despite my general distrust, I'm genuinely tired of being alone with my own thoughts and want this place to feel a bit more lived in so my life is less quiet and boring. So now, I think I'm gonna go online and find a potential housemate. Social media is definitely a no go since I'm not looking for some weird "with benefits" thing, so instead I've dedicated about an hour of my life to finding the proper site for those looking for housemates and vice-versa. After quite some time, a site I found that was the most referred was 'ScouterHousers', 'that sure is a name for a site, not the worst to be honest, it gets an E for effort.', I thought.
I spent a few minutes making my account which was surprisingly easy. The site seems to have a bit of an old interface but despite that, it seems to be used by quite a few people. They even have a community tab and the forum posts seem rather friendly, like people are just hanging out. And thus I spend about 10 minutes trying to think of something to say and after a while, I begin to type:
"Hi! I'm Esmira! I'm currently living in Magton, Colorado! Looking for a new housemate to fill the void that has become very apparent in my home. My home is 2 floors and has: 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a large living room area, and more. Contact me if interested!"
'aaaaaand submit! Short and simple, hopefully doesn't sound too awkward since I'm not really used to this sorta thing….', I thought.
After shaking my nerves and forcing myself not to delete my post immediately, I stand up and stretch, deciding that I'll freshen up and go to bed. I'll just check and see if anyone's responded to the ad tomorrow…
Though instead of going to sleep immediately, I decided to play a game on my phone for a while before eventually falling into a sleepy haze and finally going to sleep. After a few hours, I wake up shortly after 10am and immediately head to my desktop across the room…..there's one response! With an air of immense nervousness, I click the responder's profile and read her info. Her name is Aerith McCoully, 24 years old and she's originally from the south like me. She's actively in need of a place to stay and is willing to work to help me pay bills too, which seems sweet of her to do, we also have a lot of the same interests. I accepted her request and clicked the chat button.
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[https://imgur.com/aSrqskY][https://i.imgur.com/aSrqskY.png]
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"She was pretty neat…I like her", I say aloud, smiling subconsciously to myself after adding her number to my contacts.
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For the next few weeks, we keep in touch talking about well….pretty much everything except for why she was in need of a place to stay, maybe she'll tell me after she arrives and gets comfortable living here.
Then the day arrived, she told me she'd be arriving in an old white pickup truck and the vehicle I spotted outside the window sure does fit the description if the multiple items on the back hadn't told you anything..
I hesitantly open the front door to my home and then step outside, my heart is thumping wildly in my chest, almost like a jackhammer. I'm incredibly nervous about what I should say. A tall woman exits the truck and turns toward me with a bright smile, beautiful blue eyes, and flowy brown hair. It's Aerith! She immediately rushes towards me before I can process what's happening and proceeds to quite literally lift me up into the air in a tight hug. My head is empty and I genuinely don't know how to respond to any of this at the moment. After a few moments, Aerith puts me down, looking down at me with that bright smile of hers. 'h-holy shit...', is the only thing that runs through my mind. I'm internally freaking out, but after realizing I haven't said anything this entire time. I quickly attempted to mentally get my shit together and open my mouth to greet her. "W-welcome to my humble abode! Uhhhh….. do you….want a um...tour around first before picking out which room you want?", I ask, attempting to keep a calm composure. Aerith smiles and nods at you. I then put out my hand in an awkward gesture, signifying that Aerith can come outside. Out of nowhere, she grabs and holds onto my hand instead, which causes me to jolt a bit in surprise. "Oh sorry, is that not what you meant to happen?", she asks as she begins to loosen her grip. "Wait, no this is fine! It was just a surprise is all!", I nearly yell as I slightly tighten my grip around Aerith's hand. "Oh, then lead the way", she says with a smile and soft chuckle.
I lead Aerith inside, immediately leading her to the living room area. "This is the living room area, it leads directly to the kitchen and dining room area through that door over there", I say as I point at the large door near the couch. "Oh wow", Aerith says with a gasp. "This place is actually pretty big. Bigger than the images you sent me…"
"Yeah….I guess it really is much bigger in person than a simple picture…", I say as I walk her upstairs.
"This is the area that I like to call the gaming area, all my consoles are up here in the case that I feel like coming up here and playing anything. There's also an office room too.", I add on. "Oh that's pretty neat", she says, locking eyes with me briefly.
For several minutes, I then rambled about the rest of the area and some of the items I keep up here. I don't really realize that I was blabbering until I finally looked up, noticing Aerith looking straight at me with what I think was a bit of a twinkle in her eyes and a wide, amused smile. You stop for a second. "Oh sorry, I um I just kinda...info-dumped a lot onto you…..sorry about that", I look away in embarrassment. "There's nothing to be sorry about Esmira, I actually like listening to you talk about all of this, it's wonderful", she responded.
I didn't know how to respond to that so I quickly changed the subject. "A-anyways! Let's go back downstairs and look at the rest of the rooms and see which bedroom you want", I say, letting go of Aerith's hand and go a bit too quickly down the stairs. In a lapse of clumsiness, I trip and almost fall down the stairs before Aerith quickly catches me by the waist, bringing me close to her. "Hey, you really should be careful! Don't want you getting hurt because of me…", Aerith quips, trying to joke lightly. I calm down and breathe for a second. "Alright", I finally muster after having had my life quickly flash before my eyes just seconds before.
We go down the stairs hand in hand before heading through the remainder of the rooms. After that was done, Aerith picked the bedroom two doors down from my own and I helped her get settled in. After a few hours, Aerith and I relaxed and talked for a bit whilst having a bite to eat from a fast food joint I had ordered online. Later, we both retired to our respective rooms, leaving me to ponder about today's events. I changed into my nighttime attire and lay in bed thinking for a while. 'man why the hell did I freak out so hard….? She probably thinks I'm fucking weird or something...why can't I just act cool instead of like the world's most awkward person alive…..', I internally chastise myself and turn over in bed with a frustrated sigh, I close my eyes and go to sleep.