The Return of the King

There's so much that has been going on. And it is going to take a lot to catch everyone up. Lets start with the room mate and then move onto Spring Break. Here we go.

On Wednesday by room mate Caitie asked via text if she could have a chat with Nick and I. After my night class I wasn't feeling up to it and had started to talk to some friends over the internet. Caitie and Nick proceeded to have the conversation without me. She however filled me in through text messages. IT was her feeling that since she does not have a full bedroom that she should pay $50 less in rent per month. She had become unhappy with the arrangement that she had wanted. Nick was the first to move in and I was the second to arrive. Since we were to have a female room mate Nick believed that the gentlemanly thing to do would be to let her have the bedroom. Which Nick informed me that I would be doing the gentlemanly thing and giving her the room. Well after a couple of days she decided that she would prefer to live in garage. So I let her have the garage and thus brought us to the original agreement that Nick and I had the bedrooms while Caitie occupied the garage and we three would split the rent three ways.

This reasons she felt that this arrangement had become unfair were as follows. When our boss Jillian had occupied the garage she paid $100 less in rent each month. She spent over $100 to fix the garage and it was still too cold to live in with a lizard and spider infestation. Another apartment splits the rent equally but has switched rooms. She believed that is was fair for her to pay less considering she also had no sound proofing. Her family and Nick agreed that this was fair and wanted to let me know of the new agreement before I dropped off the rent. She also said that she felt bad that I had not been there to negotiate but understood that I was busy. I did not respond to any of these text messages because I was having a panic attack.

The next morning I received the following message: "Morning brian. I tried to talk to u last night and didn't receive ANY response from u so i guess ur ok with the arrangement. My check is for 303. Droppin it off." To which I replied, "No Caitlyn I am not ok with that, pleasse b ready to discuss this with me face to face instead of via text." As I driving from my apartment to my school that morning I received the following texts: "I absolutely tried to. U refused. What is unfair to u? I think it is immature to use texts to. I have an potion to move into a cheaper ful room on campus and will take." "The rest is between u and nick. Shal I place a stop payment on my check and do that? It is spelled Caitlin btw." Herein I stop for a stoplight and am able to reply: "I'd b more than happy to talk face to face. Last nite was not good for me." To which Caitlin replies: "Sorry to hear that but we all have stuff to deal with. Doin that and handling obligations at the same time is what we all do." "This is why i was so persistent. So we ALL could talk. I am prepared to move next week if need be the room is open now. I expect to talk first thin." Her last text read: "Have a good day." This is the point where I decide to call her. I tell Caitlin that we have each signed a legal lease contract. We each have a 33% stake in the apt. Just because 66% decides to d one thing, does not mean that the last 33% must go along. I said that I was prepared to listen to all of her point and that she should be prepared to listen to mine. We agreed to speak later.

After talking to many people at school I decide to involve my boss Jillian. At this point any discussion that I would have with Caitie would be mean and petty. After talking to Jillian she said that she would be willing to be present at any meeting as an impartial third party. I sent Caitie two texts asking what time Jillian should come over. While I was doing my taxes with one of my teachers at school I got a call from Caitie. She said that she had worked out an arrangement with Nick wherein they would switch rooms and no change in rent would happen.

I won. I won! In that moment I finally felt good after so many months of abuse and disrespect from those two. I felt as though I got my fight back. In that moment I felt as if Stella had finally gotten her groove back, the Rebels had finally been the victors over the terrible Empire, and the King had finally returned. I finally felt a little bit like myself after so many months of taking their bullshit and biting my tongue in the name of what I thought was civility. No more. The King is back, and they finally learned that you don't mess with the big boys!