Louise:
"C'mon Louise, we're finally free, you should be happy," Jessica mumbled, stuffing another spring roll into her gob.
"Yeah, I guess," Louise sighed, monotonically, seemingly distracted from the conversation.
"Dude, you've been standing beside the food table staring blankly into space for five minutes straight, this isn't like you," Jessica complained, though it was barely audible due to both her mouth being full of food and the pounding dance music.
Louise broke her gaze to look at the bubbly ginger girl beside her, so much promise and optimism for her future, she seemed so… happy. But Louise knew better. They weren't
'free', in fact, they were the exact opposite of free. Now that high school was over life was only going to get more complicated, and that was just the last thing she needed.
"Can you at least pretend to enjoy yourself? It's graduation, you're never going to experience a party like this again in your entire life," Jessica slurred.
The tables had certainly turned, normally it'd be Jessica unhappy about the situation and Louise trying to encourage her to be more care free, but not this time. Perhaps the sudden attitude change had something to do with Jessica being completely drunk, or because she had hated school so much that graduation was like a 'beginning of her life' sort of sentiment.
"Fine," Louise replied, half-heartedly. She figured she'd swallow her worries and have a night of fun for Jessica's sake as it's not everyday Jessica's willing to party and participate in any 'extroverted activities.' Louise smirked at her loyal high school friend, snatching a shot-glass from the table and downing it like there was no tomorrow, only to scrunch her face up in disgust due to the strong whiskey. Jessica giggled and grabbed the Belcher teen by the wrists, dragging her away from the table and into the mosh pit, the shitty music blasting from the speakers becoming the only sound filling their ears.
Gene:
Gene took a deep breath and stared at the rosewood door, knowing behind that door would be the five housemates he'd be spending the next four years with. He was normally outgoing when it came to these sorts of things, but for some reason this time was different. Most likely because he'd been living with his family, the Belchers, for the past 18 years of his life and it just felt odd knowing that things were different now.
With all the courage he could muster, Gene was about to finally knock but then he hesitated again, this time wondering if this was even the right house. He checked the address, 29 Crescent Avenue, he was definitely where the letter had told him to be. But this house looked nothing like what you'd expect a house of college students would look like – in fact it looked sort of abandoned.
The paint was weathered and peeling off in some places, and the slats in the shutters on the upstairs windows were mostly broken out, not only that but the garden was overgrown, weeds practically covering the driveway. Gene wasn't much of a neat person himself, but even to him this was ridiculous. Either he managed to get the address wrong somehow and wound up at an abandoned lot, or his new housemates were a bunch of slobs. Either way it was a bad situation.
Gene realized he'd been standing at the doorstep for quite sometime and finally decided to knock. No answer. He tried again and just when he began to further doubt he was at the right place the door flung open revealing a lanky man roughly Gene's age with a knitted beanie and a navy blue David Bowie shirt.
"Hey man, you must be our final housemate, come in, come in," the man said, stepping aside to allow Gene to pass.
"Uhm – h-hey," Gene murmured, looking around. The house wasn't much better on the inside, syringes, empty beer bottles and an array of dirty washing scattered the floor and the room had a strong scent of B.O. Now Gene knew why the rent was so cheap.
Four more housemates sat in a circle, passing around a bong and taking puffs from their cigarettes, they certainly were not the type of people Gene normally hung out with. He was more of a 'band geeks' type of guy, which is why the one thing in the room that caught his attention was an old, worn out spinet piano at the back of the room. That could possibly be useful in the future, that is, if it was still usable and its strings hadn't been clogged from all the dust surrounding it.
"Right so, I'm Todd," the lanky man introduced himself, you could tell he was a stoner from the hipster beanie and his bloodshot eyes, however, Gene had to admire his taste in music.
"Nice shirt, Todd, I'm a David Bowie fan myself, " Gene said, which was an unusual thing to say to someone you'd just met instead of introducing yourself in return, but Gene was desperate for small talk.
"What, this ol' thing? I don't even listen to David Bowie, I just borrowed this shirt from my brother back in high school because I had nothing to wear and – well, forgot to return it," Todd chuckled.
Gene sighed, did he have anything in common with these people?
"Anyways, so this is the gang: Lana, Violet, Simon and Blake," Todd said as he pointed to each housemate.
"Right, well, hi, I'm Gene," Gene mumbled, he could feel their judgmental eyes glaring daggers through him.
"Well then, Violet, do you mind giving Gene here a bit of a house tour?" Todd suggests, as he plumped himself onto the couch.
"Why does it have to be me?" Violet whined.
"Just do it Vi, it's not that big of a deal, besides, it's your turn," Blake scoffed.
Violet groaned, as she stood up and approached the now nervous Gene.
Violet was quite intimidating appearance wise, with a face covered in piercings, bright purple hair, and a dog collar. She looked like an immature thirteen-year-old trying too hard to piss off her parents, except she never grew out of her phrase and continued the edgy persona during her college years.
"Follow me, lard-ass," she sniggered.
Gene always hated painful jabs at his weight, then again, he realized he was being quite hypocritical considering he just judged her for the way she chooses to dress. Brushing it off he followed the young woman down the hallway, anxious to see what his new room looked like.
Tina:
"Alright, Tina, and what do you consider to be your most significant quality that can be used to better our company?" the employer questioned.
"Uhhhhh…"
"Tina?"
"Uhhhhh…"
"Tina, is everything okay?"
"Uhhhhhhhh…"
There it was, that signature groan that has ruined every job interview so far. Tina already knew that this was another rejection waiting to happen. Yet she couldn't stop, whenever she was nervous and had nothing to say, a huge, monotone groan escapes her voice box and doesn't stop until everyone talking to her has successfully been weirded out.
No matter what she does she just can't control it. It's like in books, when the main character sees something terrifying and they want to run away from it, but they tense up and describe their legs feeling like jelly – well that's what it's like when talking. Whenever Tina's stressed out, but needs to inform someone about something important, nothing can be spoken except that dull, confused groan. She was never going to get a job at this rate.
Finally It stopped, Tina glanced back at her employer's disapproving features then quickly to the floor.
"Miss Belcher, you've yet to answer the question," the employer reminded her.
"I – I don't know," Tina sputtered.
I don't know – possibly the worst answer one can give to a job interview question. At this point Tina understood that she had certainly failed.
"Alright, uhm… tell me about -" the employer began her next question, but was cut off due to Tina getting out of her seat.
"Miss Belcher, please sit down, we're not finished… Miss Belcher? Miss Belcher!"
Tina ignored the agitated woman and speed-walked out of the building, not looking back.
Great, yet another embarrassing moment that will haunt me forever, I'll be sure to add it to my list of regret, Tina thought to herself as she began her walk home.
By that time the sun was setting, the sky was painted an array of pink, orange and yellow, and the pale glow of the moon was beginning to show. It was a beautiful sight, but it only meant that darkness followed, and Tina didn't want to be walking alone at night. She began to speed walk, as she couldn't deal with that sort of paranoia at the moment with all the other shit going on with her life.
Unfortunately, she had thought too soon, because that odd feeling washed over her – that feeling you get as though you're being followed – it's not a safe feeling, that's for sure. Which is why Tina decided to pick up her pace.