JANA
"So what are we gonna do?"
"What do you mean, what are we gonna do? We’re going to live in this amazing house, by this amazing ocean, in this amazing state. What else is there?"
I sighed, giving Chelle a dirty look as I poured over our stack of bills. From the beginning of the month, they had been piling high and now I was trying to figure out the finances.
"If something doesn’t just magically appear soon, we’re not going to have this house anymore. Girl, we make good money, but it’s not entirely enough to live on. The bills will be fine, but we won’t be. Ummm, remember there is a thing called a grocery store? We like to go there. Remember food? We LIKE TO EAT IT! Sheesh," I groaned.
"Don’t be getting all pissy with me Jana. I’ve got the perfect solution to our little predicament. All we need to do is put an ad in the paper and rent out one of our remaining three guestrooms to someone. We’ll be picky and get someone good. And hopefully HOT!" Chelle giggled.
"Preferably someone who has money. To pay us with. Good-looking stud sounds nice too. I could handle something like that. Him all walking around the house in a pair of boxers after he just woke up, out of the shower, cooking us breakfast, keeping us fully sated in bed…whoops. Did I just say that out loud?" I grinned sheepishly at her.
"Now you’re talking! There’s my girl; I wondered what had happened to her. You just haven’t been yourself since we got here. You don’t want to go out, you don’t really want to do anything. But now I can see you are on the fast track back to reality. Hot men, come on down!" Chelle screamed and then fell over as I pummeled her with throw pillows off the couch.
"Well then let’s get started on writing this ad. What do we want it to say to weed out the bad people, not that we’re being discriminating, but still? We don’t want no riffraff coming in here and pulverizing our place." I asked.
We sat down in the living room, with the breeze ruffling our hair as we worked diligently on a newspaper ad. After many arguments, many rough drafts, we came up with our final product.
"All right Chelle, read it to me. Let’s see if this is going to work."
"WANTED: M/F roommate (18-26) to share house on coast with 2 roommates. Nonsmoker preferred, small pets accepted. $600/month. Full facilities including garage space and own room. Please call after 5pm for interview or appointment."
"I think that just about covers it. What do you think? The rent is high enough to keep out the annoying little college kids, but not too high for this house. Maybe some hot, rich stud will come and sweep us off of our feet…" I mumbled.
I was met with the whoosh of a pillow being smacked in my face.
*~*~*~
The next day, the ad was placed in the paper. Almost immediately we began getting phone calls for appointments to see the house and interviews were set up. The first batch of people scared us.
First there was Beth. She was 23 and was a smoker. That pretty much ruled her out, but she also showed up with her boyfriend. Her scary looking biker boyfriend. She was fully able to afford the rent, but he just scared us. We showed her the door with a promise to get back with her at a later time.
Then there was Scott. He was a cutey and he was 21. Only two problems with him: he smoked and was only able to afford $450 per month. We were willing to work with someone if they couldn’t quite afford it, but they had to be the one that we wanted. Scott just didn’t fit the bill for us.
Third came Nick. He was 20 and a nonsmoker. He brought pictures of his four little pug dogs that he obviously adored, and was absolutely breathtaking to look at. He was able to afford the rent and he traveled a lot. Which would mean that we would be adopting four rambunctious pugs.
Fourth we had Chrissy. She was really a sweetheart but she had a crazy ex-boyfriend who was after her from Ohio. She was in constant contact with detectives from her hometown to keep tabs on his whereabouts at all times. She just really needed a place to hide out and start over again. She had two large German shepherd dogs that would need a large dog cage in our lovely backyard. She wasn’t really able to afford the rent, but she was willing to work hard to make it.
Finally we had Jenna. She was a 19-year-old college student, pregnant and on her own. Her daddy had set her up with a nice trust fund, but had managed to kick her out of his house. She has three obnoxious cats that aren’t too friendly. She was escorted out the front door also.
We had decided it was down to Nick and Chrissy. We both really liked Nick but we also really wanted to help out Chrissy.
"But Nick is a fine looking piece of male. Imagine seeing THAT every morning. I like him. He’s really sweet, kinda shy and has a good head on his…"
"Chelle!"
"Hey I didn’t say anything! You’re the one who jumped to conclusions about what I was going to say. I didn’t say it though! Though it is a nice thought…"
"But I really wanted to help out Chrissy too. She just needs a break," I said.
"Yeah, but what if Mr. Crazy comes after us because he thinks we’re her or something? What happens then? What if he kills one of us? What if…" Chelle trailed off.
"Enough with the ‘what ifs’. What if the pugs pee on all of our nice furniture, or tear up our back yard. Both sides are kinda iffy, but we’re going to have to take a chance. We’ll sleep on it tonight and figure it out in the morning," I said, yawning.
Chrissy called us back later that evening to tell us that she had found somewhere else to live. They were more secluded, with better security and the rent was lower. Our decision was made.
Nick was moving in on Monday of next week.