The Perfectionist

Surprisingly the rest of the week Elly kept her word and didn’t tell my parents anything. I was grateful to her for that. It was Saturday and I was loading up stuff into the back of my shitty Ford Focus hatchback. That’s when Elly found me. 

 

“You’re really leaving today?” She asked me. 

 

“Yup. I’m a free man now. Who knows maybe I can get a girlfriend for real now.” I laughed and stuffed the last of the boxes into the trunk. 

 

“I’ll miss you.” She said, and hugged me from behind. I felt awkward again. I really didn’t think anyone would care when I moved away. Especially not Elly though I guess she did spend a lot of her time bothering me. 

 

“It’ll be okay. Before long you won’t even remember I was there.” I laughed but her arms tightened around me. “Come on, it's really not so bad.” I said feeling less sure. 

 

“I know mom and dad are hard on you because of me.” She said, “I’m sorry.” 

 

“It’s okay.” I said and pulled away from her. She reluctantly let me go and I slammed the hatchback door. With a loud thunk. I turned to Elly. She was looking morose with her arms crossed over her tummy. I walked up and put my hand on her shoulders. “Don’t look like that. I said you could come visit right?” She nodded. “Mom and dad even got you that fancy new car for your birthday. This is a good chance to take it for a spin every so often.” I smiled and ruffled her black hair. It was something I used to do to her when she was a little kid. That made her smile. 

 

“You’ll mess up my hair.” She whined, but leaned into my hand. 

 

“Who knows I may even let you have some of the funny juice when you come over. You can’t tell the rents though.” I grinned at her. She gave me a scandalized look. 

 

“Isaac! If they found out-” I cut her off. 

 

“They’ll only know if you tell them. You can spend the night, can’t have you driving home anyway.” She was looking like she was in a better mood now. So it was time to make my exit. I pulled away from her. “I gotta head out now. Don’t want mom and dad to catch me. Let them know I’m okay.” I slipped into the driver seat of my car and looked in the rearview mirror. Elly gave me a little wave and I nodded. I started the engine and pulled out of the driveway. 

 

____________________________________________________________________________

 

It took me a long time and a lot of work to get even my meager belongings set up the way I wanted them. I quickly understood why people hated moving. My new apartment was actually pretty good sized. It had three bedrooms and two bathrooms. The rent wasn’t bad either. The only bad thing about the place was that it was a little ways out of the town center so it took about 15 minutes of driving to get to the basic stuff, but that really didn’t bother me all that much. Looking at the brightside the area was quiet. 

 

I took a little tour of my new place. It was pretty barren at the moment, but I was looking forward to decorating the place my way. The freedom made me feel a little giddy. Game posters in the living room? My parents would throw a fit, but it’s my house now. I had a modest little kitchen as well. I’d need to do a run to stock things in it. Needed to buy some pots and pans, maybe a plate or two. I didn’t really need that much. My cooking repertoire wasn’t the best, I could make do with a pot. I’d just make some soups or something. I could cook eggs too. Hell, learning to cook didn’t actually seem all that bad. 

 

Needless to say I was filled to the brim with optimism. I’d had a technician come out and hook up the internet already, that was a necessity for someone like me. I also went and picked up a desk. That was one of the good points about my Ford focus. I could lay the seats down and have a bunch of extra room to put stuff in the back. It saved me the effort of going to buy a uhaul or something. I also bought some new furniture that was supposed to be delivered sometime before the end of the day. A new couch, a TV, a bed. I got myself a nice big bed too. My entire life I’d been sleeping on a XL twin bed as that was the only thing that would fit into my cramped bedroom once I’d put my computer desk in there. Now I have two extra rooms. I could just put my computer in one of those. I didn’t know what I’d do with the other one just yet. Maybe I’d make it a shrine to my figures and posters, or a reading room. 

 

Buying all that furniture hadn’t been cheap, but I had a pretty hefty sum saved back from doing my apprenticeship. If I’d gone to college I’d be 40K in debt instead. Speaking of said furniture I still had a lot of it to assemble. I was tired already, but I knew it would be worth it tomorrow when I could just relax and drink in the novelty of living in a new place. While I was thinking that I got a call. It was Elly. 

 

“Hey what’s up sis?” I said. 

 

“Hi Isaac. Mom and dad want to talk to you.” I frowned immediately. 

 

“What for?” I said. Elly didn’t answer immediately. 

 

“They want to know where you’ve gone. I swear I didn’t tell them where you moved! They just kept insisting I call you.” She said hurriedly, but the phone was taken away from her. 

 

“Isaac what’s the meaning of this?” It was my mother. 

 

“I wanted my own place, now I have it.” I said irritated. 

“Can you even afford to live on your own? Where did you even go?” She insisted. 

 

“Yeah, if you paid attention you’d know I finished my apprenticeship already. I told you over and over. I might not be making six figures as a doctor, but I have a lot of money saved up already and I was offered a job immediately. The rent here is only $1200 a month and I make about four times that.” Mom went quiet for a long time, but huffed into the phone. 

 

“Well where did you move?” She insisted. 

 

“I moved to Birchwood. Just out of town it’s quite a drive.” 

 

“We know where it is. You know your sister is going to university near there in a few months.” she said proudly.  

 

“Yeah? So?” Even now they had to bring her up. I wanted to hang up already. 

 

“Well if you’re there you can keep an eye on her.” My eye twitched. 

 

“You want me to hover over her because you can’t?” 

 

“Isaac…” She said her voice held a warning, but she didn’t have any power over me anymore. 

 

“What? Do you even care that I left? You still have your favorite daughter there so you should be happy. Oh! She’s leaving too isn’t she. Maybe I should have just taken her with me, then you’d actually do something I bet.” 

 

“You’re being childish, Isaac. You’ve always been jealous of Elly even though she’s your sister. Your idea isn’t a bad one though. If she lived with you we wouldn’t have to worry about what’s going on in the dorms. What do you think, John?” She said to my dad. 

 

“What? No! She can’t live with me.” They always did this to me. They’d decide to just have me chauffeur Elly around after they got me a car. My weekends were forfeit when Elly needed something. Now they were going to send her to my apartment? Fat chance. 

 

“Your father said he’d cover all of the expenses. The dorms were going to cost us $1600 a month so if we gave you $1200 we’d still be saving.” That would cover my entire rent bill. How long was a semester of university? 4 months? I didn’t know, but suddenly this didn’t sound like such a bad deal. 

 

“Make it $1400 and I’ll do it.” There was another round of muffled arguing before my mom came back on the phone. 

 

“Got it. We’ll do that. Just make sure you take care of your sister okay? Don’t let her bring any boys home.” My mother chided. 

“Yeah yeah whatever. No boys” I rolled my eyes. She chattered for a long time after that about pointless stuff like when they’d be sending Elly’s stuff over. When Elly’s classes started, of course the entire conversation revolved around her. By the time I hung up I was already feeling exhausted. 

 

And just like that I got a new roommate. At least I had a few months to enjoy my solitary life.