A Time Once Upon

This story starts a few years back during a part of my life I’m not too proud of. No, I wasn’t a sex worker, but let’s just say I had some unique interests. The year is 2015 and I’m living with my parents again. Undergrad just ended, so I was doing my best to reacclimate to “normal” life. My parents were excited to have me home, but I felt trapped. Those 5 yrs seemed to fly by, and man was I missing it at this point.

Being at home wasn’t too bad. My mom always had a fresh meal ready, and my dad always kept the fridge stocked with beer. I saved a ton of money, because i had nothing to spend it on. My clothes were always cleaned and there was never an empty fridge. I guess you could say I had a sweet deal, right? Wrong! During my time in college I had a developed quite an appetite for sex, alcohol, and drugs and I was unable to scratch the itch while at home.

I was used to dating different women, partying, and getting belligerently drunk every weekend. Now my weekends consisted of baked cookies, a Heineken, and maybe a joint or two. Life was different at home. After a few weeks maybe a month, I decided I needed to get my own spot. I looked online everywhere, there were tons of places available. “This process should take a month tops”, I thought to myself, but I was sadly mistaken.

Two months fly by and I have yet to find a place suitable for me within my price range. I was getting discouraged and for a second started to give up and just stay at home with my parents. That’s when I stumbled on an ad on craigslist for a sublet apt.

Now, I know what you’re thinking. Craigslist is notorious for shady business deals, so of course I was skeptical, but I was also desperate at this point. I reached out to the owner of the ad for additional details, and surprisingly he was really nice and receptive. He told me he recently graduated and was going to move across the country for a new gig with Amazon.

In my head at this point, there’s no red flags, the price is right, and it’s only 5 mins away from my parents house. This was a steal...

The next week came, and we were signing paperwork at the leasing office. Up to this point, there are still zero red flags. He told me he had 3 roommates, but they were never home and each of them were still in school so they didn’t spend much time at the apartment. In my head, this meant I essentially had the place to myself. I couldn’t have signed that lease faster .

After signing the lease, we walked over to the apt and he showed the space and which room was mine. I was hoping to at least meet my new roommates, but when we arrived the place was empty.

Now that the paperwork aspect was finished, the only thing left to do was move in. He still had 4 weeks on his lease technically, but his job was scheduled to start before his lease was up. That meant I had the option to move in earlier.

Looking back on it, I probably should’ve waited to move in.

Move in day; packing up went by relatively quick. I was so ready to get out of my parents place, I staRted to just throw things in boxes to speed up the process. My parents were torn, my dad was glad I was showing some initiative and taking the next step in my life, but my mother didn’t want me to leave.

Neither of them helped while I packed, my mother was baking a batch of cookies for me to take along and my dad was sitting on the back porch drinking a beer and listening to jazz.

When the last box went into the trunk my dad finally stepped outside to see how things were going. I could see in his eyes, he didn’t too much want me to go, but he knew that I had to. Those last moments were so precious in hindsight, I had no clue what I was walking into.

We arrive at the apt complex, and I can see that the lights are on so I would finally be meeting my roommates. My dad helped me unload the back of the van while my mom analyzed the surroundings. Everything was going according to plan. Nothing could go wrong...

Here is where things take a turn for the worst. While we were walking up I noticed really loud music playing and a few people outside on there balcony watching me and my parents move my stuff in. The look we received wasn’t too invitational. As we approached the music got louder and I realized it was coming from my apt once I got to the front door.

At this moment in time, I just made the biggest mistake of my life and I hadn’t noticed it yet. I put my key in the door and the music lowers, I can hear voices coming from inside it sounded like quite a few people so I guessed all my roommates were home. Perfect, I’ll get a chance to meet them all at the same time.

I struggled with the lock for a second before opening the door to a cloud of marijuana smoke. The smoke was so thick and the odor so pungent, I pulled the door shut before entering. My dad double checked to see if this was the right apartment, and before I could reopen the door, it swung open revealing a large black man standing with a pistol and a wave cap on.

Frightened, doesn’t capture how afraid I was in that moment. “Who the fuck are you white boy?” I’ll never forget that moment, because I couldn’t answer him. My lips were sealed shut from fear.

Before he could repeat himself, a smaller man comes from behind “that must be our new roommate bro” he lowered the gun after realizing who I was. Even after the fact, my parents and I were extremely hesitant to walk in.

My dad pushed the door open and we finally entered the apartments. The floor plan opened up once you walk through this long narrow hallway. Revealing a group of young men who were all seated in the living room smoking copious amounts of marijuana.

At this point my parents are scared for my safety. As we walks through the living room they all just stare. Nobody says a word, they just watch us approach my room. The door to my bedroom is locked, so I’m grateful for that, at least no ones been in here since the last guy moved out...

I open my door and see a completely furnished room, a bed, tv and closet full of clothes that aren’t mine. The same guy who previously held the gun to our faces had moved in my room and was living comfortably.

This had to end, so I go to confront him and completely have a change of heart because he was standing in my doorway just staring at me. Almost as if he wanted me to contest him living in my space. My dad interjected, and told him we would take the room closest to the door.

My mother had sat the cookies down while we made our second trip to get things out the car, and when we came back the entire Tupperware bowl was empty. This infuriated me, “ay who made them cookies? Them shits good as fuck” My mom was too shook to acknowledge the compliment so she just smiled awkwardly at the comment.

We finally finished moving in and it was time for my parents to depart. They didn’t wanna leave me there, but I was already locked in to the lease so I had to make the best out of it.

Later that night, I invited Brittany over. Brittany isn’t my girlfriend, more like a female I’ve been dating consistently for a few months now. Things were going pretty steady, I wanted to have come see my new spot.

She walked in and immediately her attention shifted from me to my roommates. They made several advances at her when she entered, but she just laughed it off.

Later that night, I notice Brittany is not in the bed. I figured she was just using the bathroom, until I heard her laugh come from the living room. I walked out the room wiping my eyes, and to my surprise Brittany is on the couch seated between two of my roommates with their shirt off.

The look on her face told it it all. I retreated back to my room and cried in my pillow...

To this day, these are my roommates. I have exactly 27 days before my lease is over, and I cannot wait to leave this place. What appeared to be a great opportunity, was just a life lesson wrapped in pain...

Julian Foster