One year and four months later

*Ray

Ray glanced around the dingy bedroom. It was a short-bike ride from campus but on the town side, so not so far from Waikiki, either, and it was the right price. As in, affordable on her tight budget.

This was her second year at college; she had lived on campus as a freshman, but one year was more than enough. She was a sophomore and needed some freedom with her new title. Movement on the floor jerked her back to the present.

A cockroach—the really big, juicy kind they grew in Hawaii—scuttled from the beam of light the open door allowed in and went straight for a crack at the sideboard on the wall. It was probably taking news back to the colony: alert, human presence. Watch for crumbs and sleeping girls.

Her gut dropped. Dust floated in the air and the smell of mildew tickled her nose. There were brown, circular stains on the mattress and one of the doors hung crooked on the closet. Two guys (other boarders in the eight-bedroom house?) shouted and banged furniture or something against a wall in the adjoining room.

The double window didn't have glass panes, only clear plastic slats like Venetian blinds that wouldn't keep out mosquitoes or traffic noise. And there was a lot of noise. In the short time she stood there, staring at the decrepit room, two police cars went wailing down the avenue at top speed.

Nice.

Felipe, the guy showing her the room, chewed on a fingernail, intent on getting every scrap of white gnawed off the root. He paused. "So what's it gonna be? I've got a guy coming later, but you have priority since you called first. It doesn't get better than this, I promise."

"I have my own shelf in the fridge, and there's a sign-up sheet for using one of the stoves, right? I'm vegetarian and like to cook my own stuff. I tried to go vegan, but I couldn't quite let go of the cheese. But I do cook a lot."

"Yeah. Fridge is half a shelf, unless you sublet the space from someone else."

"If you have two ovens, why don't you get two fridges so everyone can have their own whole shelf? And what about laundry? Just one machine for the eight of us?" She leaned against the door-frame, mirroring him.

"That's right. Well, actually there are eight other renters, but there's a laundry-mat at the intersection with Kapiolani."

"And a second fridge?"

"Keep dreaming. You want the room or not?" He found a new nail to attack, completely uninterested whether or not she accepted.

Rooms were hard to find in Honolulu for students, he probably had two dozen people on a waiting list to come and see it.

And it was only a bike-ride away from everywhere she wanted to be.

"I'll take it. Do you take cash for the first month and deposit?"

"Cash will do. Follow me downstairs."

He trotted off down the hallway. She took a last look at her new home. The cockroach hadn't returned with reinforcements, yet, which was good. The smell didn't seem as bad with the door ventilating the place and no sirens had passed by for a full two minutes. The mattress could be covered or replaced, and she had a secret weapon for the crooked door and lack of furniture.

As far as bugs went, better a cockroach than a biting centipede. Those suckers were truly evil.

A huge grin spread across her face. This apartment rocked. And speaking of suckers, she pulled out her phone as she skipped after Felipe, and found Beth's number.

"Hey," a boy yelled.

She glanced up. She was about to smash into a guitar propped against the wall. The boy who yelled was coming up the stairs and had stopped her just in time.

"Watch...um, be careful, please," he said, frowning in confusion at her.

She smiled. "Hey, yourself. I'm your new neighbor. Ray. I hope I get to hear you play that beautiful instrument." She jumped over the guitar and brushed past him, shaking her head at his dumbfound stare. An acoustic guitar playing roommate, how awesome was that?

"Yeah, I'm, um..." his voice fizzled out.

"Travis, help me move the dresser!" another guy yelled.

"I'm Travis," he said to her back. She waved behind backwards, but kept punching in her message.

I love it. Signing now.

It took a while to get all the paperwork signed and figured out. She had the cash in her bra, so it was a bit warm and damp with sweat when she pulled it out and handed it to Felipe.

He gaped.

"So, who else is here? Are all the rooms full?" she asked.

"Rooms full?" He blinked a couple of times and finally wadded the bills together to put in his pocket. "They are full. There is Travis and Zach in the master bedroom, me, Trevor, Lokela, Casey, Miller, and Doug. We are all students at the university except for Casey who is working on a post-doctorate."

"Is Casey a girl or a guy?" she asked.

"A guy."

"What about Lokela? that sounds like a girl," she said.

"Nope, he's a guy. It's Hawaiian."

"So, you're all dudes."

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"I mean, I'm the only chick living in the whole house."

He glanced skywards, ticking off his fingers as though counting. "Yup. Is that a problem?"

"Nope. I'm cool. I can open my own jars, I have this trick. You hit the edge of the lids really hard with a heavy knife handle until the suction breaks and then you just twist the lid right off." She nodded at him.

"What does that have to do with anything?" he asked.

"Well, I won't bug you guys all the time to help me. I'm cool. If you're cool, that is."

"We're cool."

"Great. About the fridge, who actually uses it?" Without waiting for a reply, she jumped up and crossed the avocado green and orange kitchen that obviously dated from the seventies.

The inside of the fridge was a freak show. It should have been a paid event for a Halloween haunted house. Somewhere a professor was searching frantically for his scientific experiment, and Ray wanted to find him presto to tell him to come and get his stuff back.

Old sandwiches quivered and tried to speak to her. Tentacles inside black streaked Tupperware squidged, waving to be let out of their tight confines. Things that might have been food once upon a time, but were now mummified works of modern art, decorated the shelves. The fridge suddenly vibrated and hummed loudly as though waking up at her touch.

She pressed her lips together to keep from screaming and faced Felipe.

"You might have a health hazard here. I'm not an expert and normally I'm not even that sensitive to bit a mold on other people's food, but the green and red things growing in the egg holders could be highly toxic. I tell you what. You get this cleared out and bleached sparkling clean by tomorrow morning and I'll pretend I didn't see it. Then we get a list going of who actually uses the fridge for stuff other than long-term storage and petri-dish samples. After that, I'll see about my shelf. We cool?"

Felipe frowned first at her and then the interior of the fridge, not quite sure what the problem was. When his eyes fell on the egg holders in the door, though, understanding dawned in his eyes. He stuttered a couple of times before whispering, "Yeah, we cool."

"Key?"

He handed her the house key, mutely.

"I'll be back tomorrow. See you then." She showed herself out, she knew the path through the arched ways to the living room and entry-way. On the small table next to the door, she noticed a pile of papers, she hadn't seen when she came in.

Help wanted for shop on Waikiki. Must have experience with diving, snorkeling and equipment, customer service and have flexible work hours. If interested, call Mililani.

Uncut phone number tags lined the bottom of the sheets. Didn't seem to be one of the guys Felipe had mentioned living here. She sorted through the short stack. All the same help wanted signs.

She checked over her shoulder, but Felipe had already wandered off upstairs and she didn't see anyone else. The papers slipped with a sigh into her back-pack. She needed a job and someone obviously needed her, this was fate. But it was always better to make sure no one else jumped the gun before she could get a hold of Mililani.

The sun was setting behind the palm trees, neighborhood apartments and houses and the skyscrapers in the distance. It was hot, but a gentle trade wind blew through her loose cotton tank-top and flowery skirt.

Her phone buzzed. Beth had answered.

Beth: Don't sign before we can check it 4 u.

Ray: too late. Moving in tomorrow!

A bang above her head made her jump. She stepped off the porch to look, remembering there was a balcony over the front door.

Indeed, the door to the first floor balcony stood wide open and a twinge of jealously pinched her chest. Her room had one stupid window with a view of the neighbor's driveway covered in plastic kid toys. Someone in the house had a balcony.

She probably couldn't afford that room, anyway. It was going to be a stretch to pay for roach infested cell she had signed for.

But it was her roach infested cell.

A flapping whoosh sounded from above, but she didn't have time to react.

Darkness—she yelled in surprise. The heavy scratch of wool landed on her head and body, covering her eyes. Tearing at the thing (a blanket? Who kept wool blankets in Honolulu, and who the hell tossed them off balconies onto people in the yard?), she protested in oomphs and ughs.

"Hey, are you all right?" shouted a guy.

She cleared the blanket and stared up in indignation. "Don't you look before you toss?"

"I'm clearing out old junk. Just leave the blanket on the grass."

A guy, who it should be noted was missing his shirt, leaned over the balcony edge, ready to drop a lawn chair. His dark hair and Tahitian pearl skin glistened in the golden sunlight, proclaiming him more likely than not to be native Hawaiian.

"Sure," she said, still annoyed. "Was there an apology for hitting me with a wool blanket in that request?"

"Sorry." He motioned for her to move so he could throw down the chair. "Are you somebody's girlfriend or something?"

She smiled up at him. "No, I'm actually a whole human being all to myself, and not defined by a relationship I may or may not be in with any guys. Actually, I'm Ray, your new roomie!"

He leaned further over to study her, then abruptly turned sideways to go. An intricate, black tattoo covered his shoulder and half his neck and a silver barbell flashed in his eyebrow. There was a scar running across his cheek and nipped into his nostril, slightly deforming his nose. All in all, he was one scary looking roommate. She hoped she wouldn't run into him in a dark hallway any time soon when she had chips he might want to steal.

Without another word, he grunted, spared her one more glance and returned indoors.

After that, all she could do was hope that he didn't know Mililani, the person hiring for a diving shop.

***Hope you are enjoying it! I'll be back soon with a picture!***