7
Hearing this, my heart sank even further.
“No, Mrs. Liu. Leo and I have been getting along great. My mom even came to visit today – we were planning to have
dinner together.”
“Did Leo say specifically why he’s leaving?” I asked, a tiny spark of hope rekindling. If I just knew the reason, I could change. I could fix things.
But the landlady just shook her head.
“Leo came to me first thing this morning, insisting he absolutely couldn’t live with you anymore. He said he wanted to terminate the lease.”
=
“He even forfeited his security deposit without hesitation, saying he needed to move out as soon as possible.”
“You wouldn’t believe it – usually when people break their lease early, they haggle endlessly trying to get their deposit
back.”
“This is the first time I’ve seen someone give it up so easily.”
“He really didn’t give any other reason? Just that he didn’t want to live with me?” I pressed urgently, unable to process the landlady’s meaningless chatter.
“That’s all he said. I asked if you two had some kind of conflict. I even offered to sit down with both of you to talk it out.”
“I figured if it wasn’t a major issue, you could work things out by talking.”
15+
“But that young man was dead set on leaving. He just kept repeating that he absolutely couldn’t live with you anymore, like he was terrified or something.”
ㄨˇ
Now I was completely baffled. Just this morning whe
I left my room, Leo had greeted me normally.
When I told him to come home for lunch, he had seemed excited, saying it had been ages since he’d had a home–cooked
meal.
He even said he’d bring watermelon and drinks – he had sounded genuinely looking forward to it.
How could everything change so drastically in just a few hours?
જાન નીક યો
མིགཏོས་ སྐར་ ང་གི།ང་རང ན་པཆད་པ
“Leo, can you please tell me why?” I asked plaintively, carefully grabbing the edge of his shirt as he was about to walk out the door for good.
Though we had only lived together for less than a month, I had truly believed he would become a lifelong friend.
But Leo just gave me an indifferent look, yanked his shirt from my grasp, and left without a word.
“River, what’s going on out here?” my mom emerged from the kitchen, finally noticing the commotion now that the range
hood was off.
“Mom, why doesn’t anyone like me? I haven’t done anything wrong, so why do they all refuse to live with me?” I broke
down the accumulated burt of the past weeks finally overwhelming me
2:00 AM
<
down, the accumulated hurt of the past weeks finally overwhelming me.
“How can this be happening?” my mom also looked panicked.
“Was that your roommate moving out?”
“It’s okay, River. It’s alright. Let me go ask what’s going on,” she said, trying to soothe me before hurrying after Leo.
I crouched on the floor alone, letting waves of anguish wash over me.
I truly didn’t understand. I had come to a new city, a new school, surrounded by complete strangers.
I couldn’t fathom why I was being inexplicably ostracized, with not a single person willing to be my roommate.
My mom soon returned. Seeing me still crouched on the floor, she gently helped me up.
“River, he probably just misunderstood something and got confused,” she said.
“Or maybe you unintentionally upset him somehow without realizing.”
P
“Don’t worry about it. I’m sure if you apologize later, you two can quickly make up and be friends again.”
“Let’s eat dinner first, okay River?”
My mom patted my back comfortingly as she spoke.
“Can we really make up, Mom?” I suddenly looked up at her, not missing the flicker of uncertainty that crossed her face.
Caught off guard by my change in tone, my mom’s smile slowly became strained.
“What’s wrong, River? Did you figure out why your roommate is angry with you?” she asked, her voice losing some of its confidence.
“I don’t know, Mom. But I think you do,” I said, staring steadily at her until her eyes began to dart away nervously.
“River, what are you talking about? How would I know anything when I’ve never even met him?” my mom stammered.
