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Tuesday, October 24, 2017

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Insanity:

Locking a guest out of the apartment and then defending yourself by saying it isn't your responsibility to be kind to someone else's family.

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            The one thing I had been expecting with living so far away for school was that I would get homesick. And I was right (per usual)—I started to get homesick towards the middle of October. (1)

            Luckily for me, my mother and sister surprised me out at school by flying in from Virginia the day after Peter had freaked out on me about the jacket. (And for anyone who's curious, I sent Paige to deliver the jacket back to his roommate, who had been asking her out for a while at that point despite her being semi-serious with another guy.) (2)

            I've already given an introduction on my mother, so here's one on my sister.

            Amelia Kuns is exactly one year, two weeks and four days younger than me. We grew up sharing a bedroom and literally everything else, from clothes to shoes to books (3) to our love of showtunes. I could confidently call her my best friend in the world, so it was rough having her finishing out her senior year of high school back home while I was out at college.

            She had arrived with my mother on Friday and we had spent the weekend laughing constantly and catching up on everything possible. My mother had decided that she didn't completely hate my blonde hair, but would go back and forth on that opinion at least four times an hour.

            But it was Tuesday, the day they were going to head back home to Virginia. I had classes in the morning but was excited to spend the afternoon with them—the visit had been a nice halfway point between arriving in Utah and going back home for winter break in December.

            But in the moment, I was standing outside of the building my next class was in, waiting for Madison so we could walk in to American Government and Politics. I was on my phone, scrolling through Instagram, when my phone started buzzing with a call from Amelia.

            "Hey, what's up?" I asked, looking around for Madison even though I knew she wouldn't be there for another few minutes—I had gotten out of Nutrition early.

            "So, I'm not really sure what to do." Amelia's voice came through the other end, "You know how I was going to make muffins for you and your roommates while you were in class?"

            "Yeah." I replied, "Do you need muffin mix or something?"

            "No, I had the mix." She responded, "But you didn't have eggs left so I was gonna run over to that little convenience store right next door."

            I loved that convenience store. It was only about a hundred yards from my building and was perfect for when you ran out of something and needed it quickly. It was also great for cravings during that time of the month. (4)

            "Okay, so what's the problem?"

            "Well, I don't have a key to your place so I asked Madison if I could use hers for when I came back from the store. And she seemed like really off about it, which was whack, and said she couldn't give it to me because of safety. Whatever, she's weird. So, I asked if she could let me back in the apartment when I got back, since your stupid door locks automatically and she couldn't leave it unlocked."

            "Did she say yes?"

            "Yeah, she said she had to leave in ten minutes so if I was back before then, she would let me in." Her tone was starting to get more annoyed, "So I ran, Morgan. I sprinted to the store, grabbed the eggs, and ran back. I timed myself. It took me four minutes. And I get back up here and knock on the door and she's not home. Like no one's home. So, I'm banging on the door, right? One of your neighbors walked out and asked if I was alright. Like she heard me from her place. But no one's answering."

            I felt myself getting upset. Madison had already been acting strange lately and locking my sister out of our apartment when she was trying to make us food was not going over well.

            "Alright, I'm gonna text you Rebecca's phone number. She's the RA and has a key to everyone's apartment."

            "Thanks." Amelia said, "I'm sorry to bother you about this. Isn't she meeting you for class? Did she have to leave right away?"

            "Nope." I shook my head, finally seeing Madison's head bobbing in the sea of people heading for the building behind me. "We're always fifteen minutes early to class, every day. I can see her right now, and it's—" I pulled the phone away from my face to check the time before talking again, "9:14. Class doesn't start until 9:30."

            "What a jerk." Amelia groaned, "I'll call your RA."

            "Alright. I'll send you her number. Sorry this happened man, Madison's the worst sometimes." (5)

            I hung up and fished Rebecca's number out of my contacts to send to her before Madison walked up.

            "Hey! Ready to go?" She asked.

            "Yeah, I guess." I nodded.

            We walked into class and I ignored her regular flirting with whoever she was sitting next to as I read over a novel-length text message from Amelia.

            Your RA let me in. She like had to jump out of the shower to come and help me. But dude...I walk into your apartment and Samantha is sitting at your kitchen table? Like she's just casually eating breakfast. Even though I was banging on your door so loud that your neighbor heard me and asked if I was okay.

            I had grown up defending Amelia against everything. She was shy and had never been able to properly stand up for herself, so I had always done what older sisters are supposed to do; I protected her.

            So, upon hearing that not one, but two of my roommates had mistreated her, I felt the familiar rage starting to bubble up inside of me. But I kept it down. I kept it down until Madison and I started walking back to our apartment after class.

            "Hey, can I talk to you real quick about something kinda awkward?" I asked as our building came into sight. "It's about Amelia."

            Madison gave me a blank stare.

            "My sister." I raised my eyebrows, "The one whose been sleeping on my bed for the past three nights?" (6)

            "Oh, yeah." Madison nodded, "What about her?"

            "Well, she called me today before you got to class about how you kinda...locked her out of our apartment." I had never been confrontational with Madison before, and it was freaking me out a little bit, "I just wanted to know why, I guess."

            Madison rolled her eyes.

            "I had to get to class, Morgan. It's not my fault that she left at an inopportune time."

            I raised my eyebrows.

            "Madison, we were over fifteen minutes early to class. It took her four minutes to run to the convenience store and come back with eggs. You easily could have waited—"

            "Look, it's not my problem, alright? It's not my sister."

            I nodded uncomfortably, not willing to push it any further.

            "Alright. I guess I have a bigger bone to pick with Samantha, since she was in the apartment the whole time and didn't let Amelia in when she knocked."

            "Samantha was home?" Madison asked in shock.

            I felt my eyes widen in alarm.

            "You didn't know she was home? You literally thought you were leaving my sister outside our door without anyone home to let her back in?"

            Madison stopped in her tracks and turned to face me, two feet outside of our building.

            "Morgan, it's not my job to babysit your sister. I'm not going to apologize for this."

            She turned on her heel and strutted into our apartment building, the door slamming shut behind her. I just stood there, mouth gaping open, as she left.

            It's not my job to babysit your sister.

            I wanted to throw something at her badly. I wanted to throw something at her head.

            But I didn't. Instead, I walked inside of the apartment building, over to my apartment, and said hello to my sister and mother.

            It was good practice, being the bigger person. Excellent practice for what the rest of the year would bring.

            A quick quote from my mother as she left my apartment for the airport later that afternoon:

            "Watch out for Madison. I think she might kill you." (7)

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Theory:

People take their anger out on the wrong people.

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(1) Honestly though, that's pretty impressive. I moved out to Utah knowing absolutely no one, with no friends or family to get lunch with or stay over at their place when my roommates were too much to handle. Two months without getting homesick was pretty good, if I did say so myself.

(2) The #1 thing I learned in college was that approximately 87.4% of men have absolutely no idea how to take a hint.

(3) Lmao just kidding, she doesn't read. Her sister is an author and she doesn't read.

(4) I live in a different apartment now, during sophomore year, and I cannot tell you how much I miss that convenience store. Or how much money I've saved this year by not having it right next door.

(5) Always.

(6) I had taken the couch like a good hostess.

(7) Not if I killed her first.