Welcome to Gaia! :: View User's Journal | Gaia Journals

Okay, so I should be working but instead I'm gonna vent. I know that we all have stories about housemates/roommates/suitemates/family annoying or angering us so here's my current predicament.

Implied Laws of Conduct AKA "the unspoken social contract of politeness: you're doing it wrong."

A conversation for your enjoyment:
[All names have been changed to protect the innocent. Any resemblance to any persons, living or dead, is not pure coincidence.]

The Players:

SOL: protagonist/campus noob
Betty: direct suitemate to SOL/about to graduate
Veronica: shares kitchen with SOL and Betty/often goes home

The Scene: Our apartment/dorm thingies (they're "on-campus" apartments but really they're just dorms with a kitchen). There are three singles, two of which share a bathroom.

Enter SOL

SOL: Wow, this sure is a nice place. Everyone's so eager to welcome me and it turns out my suitemates actually acknowledge my existence *cough*notlikeUIW*cough*. What happy times await me here?

Enter Betty

Betty: Hello, SOL! Glad to see you're settling in! *looks around room* I see you've got some nice water there.

SOL: Yes. Can't survive without it, you know.

Betty: Preaching to the choir, good lady. I am actually rather parched. My I partake of your water of deliciousness?

SOL: Why, of course. I have plenty and I don't mind if you have one.

Betty: *partakes* Why thank you, SOL. You're an excellent suitemate.

Betty Exits. Enter Veronica.

Veronica: Hi SOL. Settling in?

SOL: Yeah, thanks!

Veronica: I see Betty's been getting herself some water. Be careful about that.

SOL: Whatever for?

Veronica: Well...she's a nice girl but...when you allow her to take an inch, she takes three miles. She's gonna take advantage of you if you let her. I know this from experience.

SOL: DESPAIR. THIS KNOWLEDGE OF BETTY'S MOOCHERNESS HAS PUT ME IN DESPAIR.

Veronica: Tell me about it.

The End

Badly constructed, but that's basically how it went. I talked to Veronica about Betty and how I was concerned because while I told her she take water since she was so thirsty, I did not expect her to go to town with the notion.

See, children, this is the difference between an implied social contract of politeness, and an explicitly stated one.

what I expected to go down:

"Hey, Betty. Since we're all friends here I don't mind if you have water. The thing is, it costs money and I don't have means of getting to the store on my own so I would appreciate it if you only took every now and then and if not then please replace it."

What she apparently thinks I meant:

"Heya Betty! I'm totally cool with paying your way in H2O this semester so whenever I put water in the refrigerator, please take it. We're all friendly, after all :3."

Alternatively:

"Hey Betty! I'm a doormat!"

There's a bit of a difference there. See, I don't mind going to the place across the street with her when it's dark and she doesn't wanna walk alone. I don't even care if she uses my cleaning stuff to clean the bathroom (actually, I'd prefer it. I threw my back out cleaning the tub the first time and so it's hard to keep up. Note: Betty cleans NOTHING. She has changed the bathroom trash can ONCE (1 time, O.N.E., I, "won" to sound it out) since the semester started. That and washing her rugs once (again) are the only contributions toward the upkeep of the bathroom I have seen her do this entire time.

She also tricked me. Awhile ago, she came in and asked if she could borrow ten dollars in order to pay for a graduation item. I understandably got the "I need to get stuff together" rush since I did it the semester before, but all I had was a twenty. She said she had zero change and that she would give me the ten she got back from them that Friday and then pay back the next the week after. Money I've seen back: $0.00.

More complaining: I said she could use my butter and in a week most of it was gone. She didn't even ask Veronica if she could use her mustard and in a weekend she managed to use the entire thing (a big jar too). I put out a roll of toilet paper and in twenty-four hours it is reduced to the cardboard it was wrapped around. Betty's a tiny person, probably a size zero or something inhuman like that. WHAT DOES SHE DO WITH THESE THINGS?

Veronica's fed up with it so she's now not only put a new note on the fridge stating that "IF YOU DIDN'T BUY IT, DON'T TOUCH IT." She also wrote a note to Betty stating that I might like my twenty bucks back in addition to all the things she's taken from Veronica in the way of food as to why we all need to keep out of each others' things. I hope to see back on this.

I'm not an aggressive person, so confronting her about it is problematic. I also know where long-drawn out, hissy fit, cat-fights lead, and I want to avoid that drama, but she's really getting on my nerves. It wouldn't be so bad if she replaced things, or else offered her own in substitution every now and then. Instead we get no cleaning out of her and she just uses our things indiscriminately. Pet peeve central.

But, man, venting feels good. Gentlemen: be careful around ladies, we get our braids in a twist over things like this. Ladies: Can you believe her XD?

That's all for now :3