Chapter 5 #3
Denny didn’t budge. “I know you don’t like it here.” Were her eyes golden brown or green? They looked so green in the yellow light of the room. “I can see it. And I can’t in good conscience abandon you to such an unhealthy environment.”
Eris swallowed. Why would you do this? You don’t even know me.
“Look, I don’t pay rent, I don’t have a mortgage to pay off… And I have so much spare room! You can stay for free! We’ll split the cost of the utilities, keep each other company!”
I don’t want company, and you’re a nuisance, anyway.
As much as Eris fought to talk herself out of it, the temptation was irresistible.
Life had taught her that when something sounded too good to be true, it probably was, but Denny was so…
Denny. Such a genuinely good person that it was impossible to think ill of her.
Eris had nothing to lose: rent was due again soon and she was unemployed and penniless.
Claudia was going to throw her out on the street regardless, and Pilar and Wen would side with her.
No one wanted an unreliable housemate that came home with new problems every week.
But would it be fair to bring all those problems into Denny’s perfect life without a forewarning?
She decided she would worry about it another time.
Her priority right now was to keep herself off the streets and heal to be able to work.
The speech part was a marginal problem. She’d never needed many words at the warehouse; her ex boss always said that a good employee was a listener, not a talker.
“Do you have a formal contract with the landlord?”
Eris denied. Claudia was the one officially renting the house. Eris and the others were subletting from her, cash only.
“Then it’s settled!” Denny beamed, spreading a flare of light all over the room. “Your dues are paid, nothing keeps you here!”
Eris let out a disbelieving laugh. You’re bonkers, Sunshine but who am I to contradict you?
They started packing. It didn’t take long: within minutes the suitcase was full and only the most voluminous garments like shoes, the winter jacket, and the bedding were left out.
Denny volunteered to go downstairs to find an emergency container, but when she opened the door she found herself face to face with Claudia, who jumped back, caught red-handed.
Denny maintained her composure. “May I have a couple of bin bags?”
Eris snickered to herself. So prim and proper.
“Why?”
“I think you eavesdropped enough to know.”
A contemptuous scoff.
“The bags, please.”
“You can have the whole roll if you drag that stupid dyke out of this house.”
“It’ll be my pleasure.”
Eris was on the ground, stuck in the middle of folding the duvet cover.
No one had ever stood up for her like that.
Her entire existence so far had been a sequence of kicks in the teeth, figurative and literal.
She was used to being by herself, relying on herself, trusting only herself…
and now she was putting her life in the hands of a stranger.
Claudia came back with the bags. She threw them at Eris’ feet and left.
Denny shut the door with the least intimidating grunt Eris had ever heard. “That homophobic bint! Oh my god, she’s obnoxious! Let’s hurry up, yeah? I want you out of here ASAP.”
So they were doing this.
Eris was moving in with a girl she’d only met the night before.
Perhaps a scan for a concussion wasn’t a terrible idea.
* * *
In the end, they had one suitcase and two enormous rubbish bags filled to the brim. Nothing excessively heavy, but difficult to fit on the Tube at rush hour.
“I’m calling us an Uber,” Denny decided.
It was happening. Eris was truly shutting down a big chapter of her life without even feeling tempted to reconsider.
She was walking into the unknown, but she couldn’t see how living with Denny could be worse than living in this hole with Claudia.
And if Denny tired of her in the far or near future, at least Eris had bought herself some time to regroup and find her footing again.
They jogged downstairs with their bulky load. Claudia was waiting for them at the entrance, an open palm lifted up, waiting. Suitcase in one hand, Eris unhooked the bunch of keys from the carabiner attached to her belt loop and chucked it to her.
See you in hell, bitch.
Claudia’s eyes were ablaze with loathe. Jealousy, maybe.
“When she robs you in your sleep,” she said to Denny, “don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
A seraphic smile curled Denny’s lips. “She doesn’t need to rob me.
All she has to do is ask.” A ping from her phone ruined her dramatic pause, but it was good news.
“Eris, our Uber is here. Cheers, What’s-Your-Face.
Oh, and…” Denny emptied her crossbody into one of the bin bags and threw it to Claudia, then picked the bags up and nudged Eris out of the door.
As the Uber driver opened the boot for them, Eris jabbed Denny with a foot, jerking her head back to the door.
Why did you do that?
“What? The bag? I thought she might use some cheering up. My spidey senses tell me she’s going to miss you.”