The previous week had been one victory after another for Nico; finding his way to the correct city, seeing what lay between there and his own home, managing to actually text into classes at the collegeâŚthough to be fair that victory was a bit bland since he was only marginally certain heâd stay in those classes; but victories none the less.Â
And another finally reached; heâd been camped out in his own apartment for nearly four days.Â
Which had been three days too long once heâd realized he did not enjoy living by himself; where was the chaos and the noise? Where was the echo of people moving around, the sense of comfortable awareness that safety existed in numbers?Â
And it was incredibly boring with only himself and Xari to take up what felt like so very much space.
Truth be told it was a small apartment by most standards, typical with two bedrooms and a common room between them with an attempt at a kitchen to one side and a bathroom to the other. Still, to Nico it was a large amount of space for one person; heâd never even had a bedroom to himself growing up since there were always cousins around to share it so an entire apartment was unheard of.Â
A few cousins back home were bound to be jealous and he was quite pleased with that fact.Â
It was too much space though, the furnishing were minimal but he thought all in all a couch and table and a few chairs in the kitchen was pretty damn impressive, and that didnât even count the beds. His own bed was another new concept that he was enjoying, it hardly mattered that it wasnât really the best bed.Â
But not just his space for long, no; he had worked out the logic that while he could afford to rent the apartment by himself if he lived with someone else that automatically gave him half the rent to send back to his father.Â
Really there was no way he could stomach living in that luxury unless he knew something was going back home to ease some of the burdens there.Â
His ad for a roommate had read along the lines of; Looking for roommate, must be okay with animals, late hours and social interaction. Flexible about space and what you do, another student would be a plus as I have no idea how to do college life.
Thus far heâd gotten all of one response, it wasnât as though the apartment was in a terrible neighborhood..not a great one either but it seemed average to Nico, so perhaps it was his wording that had come off oddly? One answer was better than none though and heâd been waiting to meet the potential roommate a bit eagerly all afternoon; he simply was going to go mad if he was forced to live in that apartment by himself for much longer.Â
The knock got him moving, it had to be the guy heâd talked to earlier, briefly, orâŚmaybe the nice old lady down the hall who kept bringing him cookies because she thought he was too thin; either way it was reason enough to go grab the door.Â
Ash wasnât quite sure about this apartment and the roommate that lived in it. Not really. By the way he worded the ad, it seemed that he wanted someone outgoing to live with and.. Well, that just wasnât Ashâs style. He really needed to get out of his current living situation, though. There was too much crime in the area and his landlord was, for lack of a better word, a complete asshole. He hadnât found much of anything that would fit into his price range while still being decent, so this place seemed to be one of his only choices.
He trudged up the stairs, checking the apartment number about three times to make certain it was right. As silly as it would probably seem to anyone else, he couldnât get his mind off of how this potential roommate would react to being deaf. Some people didnât really act any different, but then there were those other people who clammed up and seemed to forget how to talk normally around him. He couldnât live with someone like that, so he just hoped and prayed that this person had some common sense.
As he finally made it to the door, he gave it a light knock and stepped back. He checked the apartment number one last time, nodding to himself. The door opened up and he put on a polite smile. âHi, Iâm Ash. We talked on the phone earlier?â
