Back for Revenge: Roommate Edition

My roommate is the kind of person who has to get to the bottom of everything and doesn't stop asking questions until she's satisfied. One night, while I'm sound asleep, she suddenly stands by my bed and calls my name, "Melissa, are you asleep?"

Having been awakened by her, I shoot her an annoyed glare, but she just says, "See? You weren't really asleep. Otherwise, how could you have answered me?"

One day, she decides to skip class. Thinking that I could help by signing her in on my phone, I do just that. However, near the end of the lecture, she suddenly bursts into the room and asks the professor, "I wasn't here today, so why does it show I was marked present? Is the system down?"

The professor traces it back to me, fails me on the spot, and makes me retake the class.

Later on, I join a speech contest. My roommate stands up in front of everyone and asks why my speech sounded exactly like her ideas. I get disqualified, lose my scholarship, and am labeled a plagiarist. Devastated, I climb onto the rooftop late at night.

When I open my eyes again, I'm back to the night when my roommate first asked if I was asleep.

"Melissa, are you awake?" came Sienna Riggs's annoying voice in the middle of the night.

I couldn't tell if I was dreaming or actually awake. I fumbled around my pillow until I found my phone. When I turned it on and saw the date on the screen, I became certain that I had been reborn.

Outside my bed curtain, Sienna was not giving up when I didn't answer her. Instead, she kept calling my name. However, I simply turned off my phone, put in my earbuds, and closed my eyes.

When Sienna still didn't get a response, she pulled my curtain open.

It was already past 1:00 am, but another roommate was still up playing video games. The glow of her monitor flashed against my eyelids as the keyboard clacked in the background.

"Melissa? Melissa? Are you asleep?" Sienna's voice grew louder.

At that point, it was loud enough to wake anyone up. Still, I kept my eyes tightly shut, determined not to move. I knew Sienna's game. I knew I couldn't give in because if I opened my eyes, she would get exactly what she wanted.

In my previous life, she'd loved pulling these little "compliance tests." If I so much as opened my eyes and asked what she wanted, she would just grin and say, "Oh, nothing. I just wanted to see if you were sleeping."

It had driven me crazy and kept me up all night, while she couldn't have been happier. Not to mention, that wasn't the only bizarre thing she did.

When we first moved into the dorm, she'd introduced herself by saying she was from a small rural town and wasn't used to city life, so she might need our help a lot. She was like a clueless newborn who knew absolutely nothing.

Once classes started, the professors had posted all the instructions in the group chat, so anyone who read the announcements knew what to do. Yet, Sienna still came to us with the same questions every single time.

"Melissa, how do I submit this assignment? I have no idea what to do."

I'd told her to check the group chat since all the instructions were there, but she wouldn't even look and just kept asking, "What format do we need? Word or PDF?"

"Either is fine. Just go check the group chat first," I'd said.

It was like Sienna had a built-in filter that blocked out everything I said, and she just kept doing her own thing.

"Melissa, it still won't go through! Can you help me?"

Again, I reminded her to check the announcements. When she finally listened, it was only for her to ask, "Where are the announcements? How do I find them? I have no idea."

I'd nearly lost my mind from frustration, so I started keeping my guard up around her after that. But idiots like Sienna always found a way to catch me off guard, no matter how prepared I was.