10 Reasons To Room With Your Best Friend
Reason 7: Agree to Disagree
"There is an opportunity now, with the recent expansion of the mansion, for some of you to obtain your own individual bedrooms instead of sharing," Professor Xavier addressed the at dinner one evening, "There have been ample complaints in the past about your rooming situations that we have until now been forced to be set aside. However several new rooms have finished being remodeled recently, and Ororo, Hank, and I will be listening to any petitions for room changes through this week. We ask that you be courteous and respectful towards one another if the decision is made to separate you, and that you keep in mind that whatever decisions we make are not permanent."
The residents of the mansion began talking among themselves excitedly, with more than one thoughtful glance at unsuspecting, completely friendly roommates who didn't notice the potential mutiny upon them. Kitty and Rogue both began celebrating, Rogue internally and Kitty out loud in the form of a small dance. Their chance had come!
As soon as the meal was over they stopped the Professor, Hank, and Ororo at the door.
"We want to get our own rooms!" they said as one, then looked at each other awkwardly.
"Go ahead," Kitty motioned politely. Rogue thanked her equally politely.
"We're completely different people, and can't stand each other," Rogue began, "Kitty listens to that horrible Jonas-Brothers-wannabe music-"
"-And Rogue's Satan music drives me crazy," Kitty interrupted. "And she organizes her socks-"
"And Kitty leaves her stuff laying everywhere. It gets into my parts of the room-"
"When she eats her cookies in the room she leaves the crumbs on the floor, and they just lay there, sometimes for over a week!" Kitty shuddered.
"And you try to make me be social and hear every single one of your Lance stories when I've clearly told you multiple times that I'm not interested." Rogue turned to face Kitty, who also turned to face her roommate head-on.
"You stay up really late not even doing anything, just sitting around thinking and thinking, and I can't sleep because of it!" Kitty jabbed Rogue in the arm with a finger.
"You're always inviting people in for little uplifting go-get-'em talks and hugging and touching and throwing your physical signs of appreciation around!" Rogue's voice began getting louder, and Kitty was beginning to snarl a little.
"And you throw things at me to get my attention," Kitty said, "Who does that?"
"And-" both girls glanced at the adults after Hank cleared his throat to get their attention. They stepped away from each other and calmed down.
"And this-" they both said simultaneously. Rogue gestured to Kitty to proceed politely. Kitty acquiesced equally politely.
"Thank you, Rogue. This is why we would like separate rooms."
The adults looked at each other slowly. Professor Xavier was laughing very hard on the inside, however to others he appeared to be just as stern and calm as ever.
"Your complaint has been noted. Please allow us to discuss this matter this evening and tomorrow we will let you know what we've decided," he said, then nodded goodbye and went towards the library for contemplative reading of classic literature for an hour or two.
That night the room Rogue and Kitty shared was humming with anticipation. The possibility of it being their last night confined together made it difficult for both of them to sleep. To pass time, Rogue swept the cookie crumbs off the floor and Kitty tidied her clothes. They traded a few questions about a few possessions that they were unsure of who the owner was, then finally fell asleep.
The next morning after breakfast, Professor Xavier told them that the adults had decided that a trial period of separation was in order, and that one of the new rooms was allocated to whichever of them wanted it. The other would remain in the old room they were currently in. The girls, along with Hank, went to see the new room to decide which one would claim it.
Upon walking in, they noticed that it was very large and very well lit. A grand window filled a good portion of one wall, facing south, so that for most of the day there would be no need for a light switch or lamp. Both girls were awed and initially fought about it until Hank pointed out that this room and the one they were currently in were about the same size, the difference in appearance being that their current room was full of two peoples' belongings and furniture instead of only one.
They swiftly came to the conclusion that since Kitty was more into bright, cheerful things she should get the new room, and since Rogue haunted the window seat in their current room she would stay in there. Their belongings were swiftly moved around and rearranged, and most of the evening was spent reorganizing furniture and possessions cheerfully.
The following few days were unusually busy, with school and being X-Men, but the next weekend they met up in Rogue's room under the pretense that Kitty's winter boots were still in there (they were not, they were to the right of the desk by the door, lined up neatly between the beat up ballet slippers and the boots she wore with her X-Men uniform).
"So how is having your own room?" Kitty asked, looking around the room she'd been a part of for over a year. It bothered her a little to see no trace of her left in it. She had been erased. Rogue was standing in the middle awkwardly, unused to the space but with a vague urge to fill it with something.
"It's good, yeah. I really enjoy being able to keep my own hours." She said. "And yourself?"
"Same, definitely. That big window opens, and so I leave it like that when I'm working on homework for a nice breeze. It's very pleasant. I like how you've rearranged things."
"Really? Thank you. I don't like it, actually, I can't get the furniture to fit right."
"There's too much space, right? I'm having that same problem." Kitty grasped onto the idea, still feeling a little like a stranger.
"Really? But you have more stuff than me."
"I know, right? It all fits really well but it doesn't look right. It's almost too cheerful!"
"Yeah," Rogue agreed, seeing where this was going, "And this room looks like a tomb with only my stuff laying around."
"Small children would be afraid to enter it," Kitty agreed.
They stood silently for a minute, waiting for each other to say it. It would only be a few words, one sentence, and each already knew what the other would say back- and then the moment passed. Bobby ice skated down the hall and crashed into Sam, who went flying backwards and took out a wall in a room nearby. The girls were obliged to go make sure anyone in the room was okay and yell at Bobby for being dumb and Sam for being himself.
That night, Rogue couldn't help but feel unusually alone, and kept tossing and turning. Kitty, down the new hall in a new room that she was beginning to worry she'd never get used to, stared blankly at the ceiling in the dark. Rogue finally sat up and groaned, slapping around her nightstand for the lamp switch. She padded down the halls barefoot in the darkness and knocked on Kitty's door. After a few minutes Kitty answered, rubbing her eyes.
"Hey," Rogue said awkwardly. Somewhere downstairs in the larger rooms, a clock tolled one in the morning. "Are you busy?"
Kitty blinked at her for a moment. "Really? Now?"
"Yeah," Rogue said, avoiding looking at her ex-roommate. "I haven't slept well all week because I haven't fallen asleep wishing you'd shut up."
"Really? Because I haven't slept well without your random inexplicable nightmares suddenly waking me up at lousy hours."
They stared at each other.
Rogue rubbed her gloveless hands together. "So your room looks really big. You said the window opens?"
"Oh, yeah. It's got a little mini-balcony that you can't walk onto, but it looks nice."
"I almost fall out of the window a lot in our- my- room," Rogue commented offhand, walking into the room to take a better look.
"Yes, it's kind of funny. However there's that little rail there, so it would be harder for that to happen in here."
"So," Rogue began, looking around at the spacious room. "Are you looking for a roommate?"
Kitty grinned, "I suppose you could cram in here if you wanted. Want to get your mattress?"
They spent a few hours in the middle of the night moving the mattress and sheets off Rogue's bed down the halls as quietly as possible, and fell asleep randomly in the early morning. Later that morning when the sun and mansion residents were rising for the day, Professor Xavier came by to investigate what he'd sensed during the night and found Kitty asleep hanging on the edge of her bed, and Rogue curled up on her disheveled mattress and sheets in the middle of the room. He smiled knowingly to himself and left.
Later on that week, their old room was given to one of the New Mutants, but they didn't really notice. Their new room was preferable due to the increased lighting and the whole new hall bathroom that none of the other teens had discovered yet. Rogue lay on her bed one night not much later pensively looking out the window at the stars, and noted that rooming with your best friend means they're hard to get rid of.
