the goverment

Feet pounded the floor and a double chin dropped as her roommate glued her attention to the interactions between the people below the drones and the drones themselves. “Jade. We gotta get ourselves one of those.”

Jade only narrowed her eyes in disgust. Do I need to spend my money on something (albeit magical) that might just deceive me? She spat that she didn’t need one. “But you can, if you like the government’s stupid merchandise tricking you. Side with it for all I care.”

“I just thought our lives would be easier.”

Jade shrugged. “Not mine.”

Her roommate squinted her blue eyes. “Why do you have to act like that whenever the government pops up? Sure it’s controlling, but it’s not invading this place!”

Jade leaned back against the couch, wiggling into it. “It will. Next year.”

The roommate crinkled her face, but she stopped before Jade could snicker. “You’re just…” She walked away, mumbling under her breath about her inability to voice her opinion whenever Jade got in a mood. She up the stairs. And then closed her door.

Downstairs, Jade burst into hysterics.

A few minutes later, her roommate told her she can stop thinking so hard about something she can just use as a donation gift.

 “I’m going to have to travel to this strange county to collect the money! I can’t fly. I—I’m afraid of heights, and what if I crash and never wake up…?” Jade whipped her head over to Connie. She showed her palms to the ceiling and shrugged.

“Don’t know. It’s your money.”

“His house holds the check.”

The roommate smirked. “Then go get it.”

Jade moaned. “I’ll give up my last months of college.”

“You can go back.”

“Easy for you to say!”

 “Go get it, Jade.”

“I don’t want to copy others’ monetary goodness.”

The roommate plopped down on the couch, taking up the rest of the leather square on which Jade sat. “You can just donate a small amount to, let’s say, an animal shelter to help them organize it so it’ll break people’s hearts for those poor animals.” She leaned over and wiggled her thick eyebrows. “And it’ll cheer them up for the holidays!”

“Anything will.” Jade shut the TV off with a single word. It’s my money. She sighed heavily. I just want it. “Graduating with my dream job in the future should be happening, not this mess!”

“Well,” the roommate rocked forwards and told her she was going to make some butter popcorn. “You could always pay for my weight loss program.”

“Yeah, by telling you to stop eating fattening foods?” Jade laughed and told her to change her mind about the snack. “That’s okay. Just go to the gym.”

A minute later, Jade leaned over and saw the shaking shoulders of the roommate.

“Geez—I didn’t mean it. You okay?”

“I’ve been the fatso. The heavy one.” She showed a tear-streaked face. “All my life I’ve struggled with my weight. You can encourage me, you know?”

She stormed away, yelling about jerks who never understood her pain. “Especially Jade!”

Jade hopped up and apologized again. She said she didn’t mean it like that.

The roommate whirled around, and Jade stepped back. “No one means for their comments to slice my heart. But they do. Because they’re directed at my physical appearance!”

“Connie—”

She jerked around and whipped open the door, Jade calling her to stop. She kept going, out into the cold. Where she said she’d get some peace with the wind kissing her face. Maybe she’d feel some kindness then. Before Jade could lunge at the door handle, the roommate slammed the door, the window banging and about to fall to a thousand shards. But it reformed itself. Jade blinked and stood there. Maybe the window’s breaking is like her feelings. She’s oversensitive. If only she was able to instantly reform herself like the window. Then maybe she’d do something about that struggle of hers.

She then pursed her lips together. Am I that ugly to her? Am I really that focused on myself?

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