Wrong Room

“Are you coming tonight?”

I couldn’t believe what was actually happening when she barged in and asked me that.

There I was, curled up in the calm cosiness of my favourite blanket, dozing off to the background noise from the television in the other room. It was what I did most evenings these days, not long after dinner. There’s nothing quite like drifting off into a slumber when you’ve filled your belly with good food that you enjoy.

So, when I was so suddenly and unpleasantly interrupted from that by a being so indescribably unlike anyone else whom I had ever encountered, it threw me into a state of utter annoyance.

Her name was Rosie. She was staying with one of my housemates. I think they had a mutual friend and Rosie was staying on our sofa for the night. I felt a bit uneasy when my housemate told me, but there’s not really anything I could realistically have done to stop it from happening. I just didn’t like the idea of our home space; a space we had all lived in for years amicably and peacefully, being disrupted like this.

She was a lot younger than all of us, especially me. Her presence made me feel obtuse, like I was sticking out in a negative way. I noticed how all of my housemates flocked to her like she was something special, like she was bringing something to the house that I didn’t naturally bring myself.

In my eyes, all she brought was blonde hair, a petit stature, a loud voice and – I really mean this – a swarm of erratic, rude behaviour.

I’m not saying that to be judgemental, though I’m aware I’ve only known her for a matter of hours, but she really is rude. She didn’t seem to have the foggiest idea about dinner etiquette, she’s been messy with everything she does and she probably doesn’t really care that we are doing her a favour by putting her up for the night.

I lay there, head upright and face perturbed, staring at her in disbelief.

She asked me again.

“Are you coming tonight?”

What was she thinking, crashing her way into my room without a care in the world that I may have been sleeping? Does she think that kind of behaviour is normal? Maybe it is, where she comes from.

She stood there, looking at me with a sort of condescending smirk on her face. She knew she was in my space - I could read it in her eyes. She knew she was disturbing me, but she looked happy about that.

The brief disturbance to my leisure was then swiftly expanded to a group disturbance. Her friend, my housemate, followed her in. She stood, towering above her, looking a bit uncomfortable.

“Wrong room, Rose” she whispered.

She brought her hand to Rosie’s shoulder and gently ushered her back out of the room, closing the door half-shut behind her.

They walked off together to the kitchen, where I think the others were also gathered. I could hear everyone talking together. They mentioned my name, like I was some sort of mood killer. It was Rosie’s high-pitched voice that prevailed over everyone else’s, though.

I wanted to lay back down in peace, but I couldn’t do that now. My calm state had been broken and I felt overwhelmed with agitation at what had just happened. They were probably all getting set up to go out. None of the others were ever rude enough to expect me to accompany them on a trip out at night, they knew I didn’t like to do that.

It’s not like I don’t do stuff. Heck, we even went out today before lunch. We usually do stuff like that together, a few times a week. Having lived together for near-on 12 years, it’s safe to say that we know each other inside and out. They know me. They know I like my down time in the evenings.

But it was too late for me to have down time now. My blood was pumping. The muffled sounds of excitable conversations happening in the kitchen rang around my ears.

Each time I heard them move something around it got under my skin. I was getting worked up now, I could feel the tension escalating to a point where I was about to do something totally out of character. I couldn’t stop it. They were putting their shoes on. I could hear it. They were putting keys into their pockets and flicking light switches.

My whole body shook with a wave of energy and I let out an uncontrollable, almighty wail.

It was the loudest noise I had ever made. It felt like the clock was going to fall off of the wall above me. The noise in the other room suddenly stopped.

I let out another.

Then another, and another.

Without thinking, I shot up from my blanket and headed straight for the door that Rosie had plummeted through a few minutes before. I stormed down the hallway, with a kick in my step that I hadn’t felt for a long time.

What was happening? What was I doing?

I swung around the corner into the kitchen and looked ahead to see my four housemates and Rosie standing near the back door. They were frozen, totally paralysed by my sudden outburst.

I looked straight at Rosie. The smirk on her face had shifted. She was looking right back at me, but with an encouraging smile. It was no longer condescending, it looked almost motivational. Like she had wanted this to happen.

She stepped towards me.

Somehow, in some indescribable way, I felt like the irritation had slipped away from me. I felt myself overcome with excitement. I let out a big smile, and gestured towards the door.

All of my housemates looked at each other with puzzled expressions, unable to mask the amazement on their faces. It was a bit of a strange reaction, I had thought. They even looked emotional. I didn’t know it meant so much to them that I might join them. Rosie came over to me and asked me that question again.

“Are you coming tonight?”

“Yes” I replied, in a language none of the others could understand.

My housemates rushed over and cuddled me. They were so happy. I could feel it in their warmth. We hadn’t all cuddled like this in a long time. I looked up at them, breathing heavily with enthusiasm.

“Who’s a good boy? Such a good, old boy” my housemate whispered as she ruffled my hair and rubbed my belly.

Then she opened the door and we headed out. Rosie let me lead the way.