Roommates! - Chapter 1 (Patreon)

cant think of a good title o well

~

“Welcome home, sweetie!”

Ryan rolled his eyes and threw his keys on the table, making his way into the living room, where his roommate Trish was seated on the couch and affectionately smiling at him. “Hey,” was all he said, as he stepped past her and fell onto the recliner, sighing out of exhaustion from his long day.

“How was work?” she asked, her green eyes shining bright. It wasn’t a question he loved having to answer, because the answer was always “bad.” Every day he showed up at his job was a reminder of how much his life had changed in the past few months.

A year ago, he’d been an excited freshman starting his first year of university at Florida State. From his first day on campus, Ryan knew he was going to have a blast there—and that was the only thing he cared about. He knew he was there to get a degree, sure, but within months he’d gotten so addicted to a lifestyle of partying that he’d often get blackout drunk even on weeknights. As a result though, his grades slipped. He failed several of his classes and missed so many credits that his academic advisor said he’d probably have to take a 5th year if he kept it up, if not spend his sophomore year taking twice as many classes and working twice as hard as all the other students. But he wouldn’t have to make a decision. His parents—who’d been paying his tuition—had found out, and not only did they tell him they wouldn’t be paying anymore, but they kicked him out of the house too. They were furious at having wasted tens of thousands of dollars on him, and decided the best course of action would be for him to “learn about life the hard way.” So he crashed on friends’ couches for a few months, but eventually realized he couldn’t do that forever; their parents were on the brink of kicking him out too for staying so long. So he was forced to take a job at TJ Maxx, the first place to accept him, and after getting denied by all the other guys his age when he went apartment hunting, was forced to move in with a 43 year old woman he’d found on Craigslist. All in all, he’d had a bit of a fall from grace, and now he didn’t know what the hell he was going to do with his life.

“I can’t decide if you sound like a mom or a wife when you say that,” Ryan replied, an unamused expression on his face.

“For asking you how your day was?” Trish responded, an eyebrow raised. “I can’t decide if you’re that naive because you’re 19 or because you’re a man.”

Ryan didn’t know what to say back, so he just grumbled instead. “Can you pass me the remote? Didn’t seem like you were watching TV.”

“Oh, sure thing.” She looked around her, trying to see where she’d put it, before realizing it fell on the floor. As she bent over, Ryan used the opportunity to take a peek down her shirt; as much as he didn’t love having someone twice his age as a roommate, he was still a guy, a straight and horny guy. And Trish’s tits were huge.

“Here ya go,” she said, tossing it over to him as she sat back up, and Ryan quickly looked away to try and not get caught.

He caught it in mid-air, pausing for a moment and looking the remote over. “Did you get a new remote?” he asked. “It feels bigger but all the buttons are the same.”

Trish shrugged and shook her head. “Nope. Same remote.” Ryan continued inspecting the device as she got up to head to her room. He glanced at her again, gazing at her butt waltzing away from him, before turning his attention to the TV, which would remain his beacon of entertainment for the rest of the night.

~

Another day brought another disappointment.

A couple days later, Ryan had gone on a lunch date earlier that day with someone he’d met on Tinder. Their conversation had gone great on the app, but when they met up in person at the cafe, he could tell she seemed disheartened by him right away. She was smiling when she walked through the door, but then as soon as they gave each other a hug, her mood seemed to sour a little. For the whole date, he wondered if it was something he said, or if she thought he smelled bad. It wasn’t until the end of the date, when he brought up the fact that something about her seemed off, and she confessed that she was annoyed that he lied during their texts. “I told you that I’m 6’2,” she’d explained, “so I generally prefer to date guys that are at least six feet tall, which you said you were.”

“I am!” he had argued. “I’ve been six feet tall since I was a junior in high school. Maybe you’ve had a growth spurt lately, cuz you seem taller than just 6’2.”

“My brother’s 5’11, and even he seems taller than you. I would’ve assumed you’re like, 5’9 or 5’10. That’s not necessarily a deal breaker though, so I still went through with the date. But I just didn’t feel any sparks, and I still feel like you were dishonest with me—”

“I’m telling the truth, get a tape measure!”

She pursed her lips, not wanting to cause a scene, and feeling like she’d dodged a bullet considering his outburst. “I’m just gonna go,” she said quietly, standing up to leave. “Thanks for the coffee, I hope you find who you’re looking for.” As she turned to leave, Ryan was gritting his teeth and considered yelling at her some more. But several people in the coffee shop had turned their head; he knew it was pointless now anyways. So he headed home, fuming that someone had the audacity to question him over his own height.

When the issue was brought up later that day around Trish, she couldn’t keep herself from laughing. “I actually kinda agree with her, you do seem shorter than six feet, if that’s what you’ve always been.” She crossed her arms and stood up, beckoning him to do the same. “I’m about five and a half feet, and when you first moved in, my eye level was right below your chin.” Stepping closer to him, she looked straight ahead, and chuckled at how drastic the difference was (at least, the difference was drastic relative to how much the normal person’s height changed in the span of a few weeks, which was: not at all). “See? I’m about even with your mouth now. Maybe that other girl really did get taller, but I’m 43, so I doubt I’ve gone through any growth spurts lately.”

Ryan’s eyes furrowed; he felt like everyone was against him. “Well… I haven’t gone through any ‘shrinking spurts’ lately. I’m only 19, I thought that shit only happens when you’re old.”

Trish shrugged, “Maybe it’s something with your back, or your spine.” She headed to the closet where she kept her sewing kit and grabbed a soft tape measure to bring back out, motioning for him to stand up as straight as he could against a wall. “OK now, put your hand flat against the top of your head, that way you’ll know I’m not cheating or lying about anything.” He did as she asked, holding his hand up to where the top of his head was and then taking a step to the side, watching her drop the end of the measure to the floor. His eyes trailed up the length of the ruler until they arrived back at his hand, where he saw his fingers level directly at a marking that shouldn’t have been possible: five feet and nine inches.

He stuttered in disbelief, trying to grapple with what he was seeing and come up with some other kind of explanation. “Maybe you’re just holding the tape measure at an angle, is it really straight?”

Trish laughed, able to see what Ryan wasn’t exactly very quick at math. “If I was holding it at an angle Ryan, that’d actually it longer.” He realized she was right, and he blushed at how dumb his statement had been, which only evoked further laughter out of his older roommate.

She withdrew the tape from the wall and wound it back up into a loop to put away again. “All jokes aside honey, don’t worry about it. Maybe this is all just a dream and I’m not even real.” Trish smirked, knowing that wasn’t true, but she let him cling to that possibility. “We can measure you again for the next few days, see if it was a one-time thing or if something really is happening to you. In all seriousness, I really don’t know what could be causing you to seem shorter though. It’s not too serious right now though, so just try not to worry about it too much, and we’ll see what happens, mkay?”

He had tuned her out though, and was staring off into space, lost in an assortment of overstressed daydreams about what could be happening to him. But there wasn’t anything he could do right now. The only option was to simply wait.