For three nights, Magdalene had said, “I’m fine,” then taken her calls in the . still reached her through the . She did not want to or Marlene’s game, but she needed . The ’s was already dark. Magdalene leaned her against the and rested one on the cold . A formed in her . “You don’t have to wait until you ,” Shaylene said. Magdalene felt after a long day. Her was still racing after a from the game; her notes about circulation lay unread upstairs. “I her interests. I’m not judging her ,” she explained. “Being isn’t wrong, but this does me.” Their rules had been , and nobody had stated a clear . A shared room was different from a of one’s own. They needed to a routine together and agree on how to . Nobody had to remain about their needs. Leaving small problems unspoken could a bigger problem later.
Back in the , Marlene pointed at her headphones. “I turned the off,” she said in a puzzled , stretching out an toward the screen. Her game showed an with a , a and a . Behind the of a stood a . She had to a and a , and add a to a . The ambitious made Shaylene . Magdalene was : “It’s the tapping.” Marlene lowered her lavender ear to the desk and heard every . She touched her . “I thought you were .” Shaylene’s study cards showed a , an and a . One sudden had made her lose her place. “When my teammates , I join in,” Marlene admitted. “You aren’t being unreasonable, and I shouldn’t be about changing.” They shared a snack to ease their and discussed the actual problem.
They reached a : one hour before midnight, with a in the group chat. Marlene joked about moving into a , a , a , a , a or even a from her game. Magdalene did not . “You don’t need a . We here together.” Shaylene walked down the between the beds and lowered the on her phone. Outside, a motorcycle gave a beyond the . The closed with a , leaving an beneath the . Magdalene began to slightly. Marlene steadied the and noticed her roommate’s tired . She knew how a sudden could raise someone’s . “Tomorrow you can study that diagram in peace.” They borrowed a soft mat from the duty for the keyboard. The clock continued to . Marlene did not or argue; she simply gave a . The next night, she closed her laptop at ten fifty-nine. “I can be and lose a game at the same time.”
