Part One
I do not fancy living by myself. Not because of the bill that I have to pay on my own without a sharing partner, but I always have that unsettling feeling that I wasn't alone. I know it was silly for me to think so. I have been dissing the idea. My parents would laugh on me every time I told them how I feel when they left me in the house alone on date night. They said it was a silly thought and I should get rid of it. That is exactly what I did. It has been okay so far living by myself sine I left college dorm. Tho I won't mind having roommate again. I am 25 now and working in a Painting Gallery in Jakarta. It was an easy job. All I have to do is checking the coming and going paintings, making sure all them are written on the catalogue and occasionally sending them to the buyers locally mostly. Not my ideal job, but I am trying to be an actress. This is just a job to sustain my life for now.
The house I live in located in Mampang area. My dad bought the house a long time ago when he was still working as Manager in that Oil Company. He thought that one day I could use the house. Once he got his pension money, he moved back to Bogor with mom. So now, I live there by myself in a 3 bedroom house. I was thinking that I should just share it with 2 other people. Close to where I live, there is a big TV Station with almost 2000 employees. I am sure some of them might look for a place to stay. That will be a great way to solve my problem living alone and helping with electricity or water bills.
I started to write an Ads searching for roommate on several website; Couchsurfing, AirBnB, and Kaskus Forum. Not too long after that, several people started to contact me asking for the location and price. Some of them were not serious enough. There were 2 people interested. One of them was working for that TV station and the other said she is a writer and mostly work from home or from a co-working space as long as there is good internet.
I agree to meet them separately in Plaza Semanggi. One of the girl who works in television company, her name is Nisha, seems like a very nice and outgoing personality. She knew I wanted and been trying to get a job as an actress. She said she might be able to share some casting information if she heard one. I instantly like her and decided she is a good fit as my roommate.
However, Tini sort for Surtini, the other girl, has a very different characteristic with Me and Nisha. She is reserved and most of the time keep it to herself. I guess maybe that is what is like to be a writer. I decided to accept her anyway. Seems like she needed a cheap place to stay and the price that I asked was pretty cheap.
Nisha and Tini immediately moved in a week after the meeting. I was happy with my new roommates. Nisha is pretty outgoing that I would sometimes meet her after work and hangout with her. As for Tini, she prefers to stay at home but she won't disturb any of us. She is quiet and most of the time stays in her room. I am happy with the ambiance and situation in my house.
My room was the located near living room. It used to be my parent's room and it was the biggest bedroom with personal bathroom inside. Nisha's room was the one close to my room and it used to be my room, slightly bigger than Tini's room. Tini's room located near the kitchen, smaller but she doesn't mind. She said it is suitable with the cheap price as Nisha has to pay slightly more. Nisha and Tini share a bathroom near the kitchen. Tini seems to like her room because it is located in the back that the sound for the living room won't bother her. She said she needs a quiet room for her to write her novel. When I asked her what kind of novel she writes, she said horror novel. I asked her if her book is already published. She said it was on a process of editing in a big publisher company. Seems like she is gonna be big, if a big publisher company is representing her.
Life was good for me. Nisha is quickly becoming my bestfriend and she is been helping me with casting information. Job in the gallery has been pretty good. The owner of the gallery is away for a business trip. She is trying to get more paintings from Bali and surrounding area. Most of her buyers are expatriates or foreigners who fancy Bali and Lombok. They would like at least a piece of painting from Bali's aspiring painters to show that they have been to Bali or Lombok. I doubt that they actually know the art of painting itself. Well I don't either.
Usually Nisha and I would watch a movie on HBO or Fox Movies at night after work. On her good day, Tini would join us to watch movie. Sometimes I get curious and ask her a lot of questions since I rarely had a chance to talk to her that much. She would nicely answer my questions, but sometimes she gets quiet when she is uncomfortable with the question. Nisha would roll her eyes if I asked offensive or private question. Like one time, Tini will quietly go back to the room and leave us hanging when I asked her why there is always a smell of flowers from her room. She just smiled and leave for her room. Nisha and I would assume she likes perfume with flowery scent. Once, I went to the kitchen at night to get some drink and I could smell jasmine scent. That would make me shiver. Indonesians believe that a smell of jasmine has a mystic effect and always associated it with ghost stories. Other time, Nisha said she would smell cananga or ylang flower.
Tini could be very weird sometimes, but overall she is a sweet and quiet girl. She would not bother us. So we don't mind her perfume scents. She would sometime clean the dishes when Nisha and I were busy watching movie or sometimes she would buy us sate when she was out. She said sate is her favorite food other than chicken. The sate she bought was always delicious. It tasted better than the place I used to go to. Every time I asked her where she bought it. She always smile and said she could get it for me again if I am craving for it. I am happy with that. Sometimes I brought home some fried chicken from Suharti. She said she likes it, but she knows better place with a better taste. Always mysterious our roommate, Tini. It is amusing to both me and Nisha to have a horror novelist as a writer, her mysterious characteristic must be because she is trying to get a deeper feeling for her work.
That was the introduction to the story I am planning to tell you. This is what happened to me and I hope this would never happen to anyone else. I still haven't solve all the mysteries and the problems too. I wrote this here hoping that I would get enlightenment from anyone with similar experience. This roommate from hell story is an ongoing story of my life. I would try to update it as often and as quick as I can in between work, casting, and other things that I do on a daily basis. Hope you can keep reading my story and helping me finds out what is happening to me and to my life after having roommates. I will see you again on the next update as now I have to work again. A potential buyer already making a prior arrangement to see one of our expensive paintings.
See you.
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