Worried About My Roommate

Meet Jen

She's 20. She's a sweetheart. She's funny, and shy, with a heart of gold, an infinate amount of patience, she's undstanding, flexible, a little niave, and manages to not only live with me (which is a feat in and of itself), but to enjoy living with me, laughing at my quirks and putting up with the constant danger of having me around.

Jen grew up with a Mom who was a user, and bounced from boyfriend to boyfriend. She remembers her best Christmas was living with her grandparents for a year, because they could afford presents. She has a little sister in Texas that her mom had to give up for adoption because she couldn't afford her. She has a little sister that she helped raise, because Nicole was born when Jen was 12, while her Mom was working two jobs and her step-"father" worked, and smoked pot in the back shed when he wasn't smacking her mom around.

Because she grew up so fast, she's taken the opportunity to be on her own, and to enjoy being a kid now that she can. That makes her sulky, with serious passive-aggresive tendancies. She doesn't handle money well, and usually overspends herself. She's also gained about 50 pounds from high school, and is frustrated with the fact that she doesn't wear the same size, so she still buys juniors' clothing, which pulls and squeezes and bulges, and refuses to wear anything that doesn't look like it belongs on a fourteen-year-old. She never learned how to cook (She can screw up boxed macaroni and cheese), can't iron or sew or do laundry or change a tired or handle conflict. She's a slob, even when she's trying to be neat.

And she never learned what a healthy relationship is. He very first boyfriend cheated on her, demeaned her, used her like a doormat. Her second used her, when he wanted her. Her thrid was good for her, but moved to Colorado when he graduated. Her latest, well, he liked her well enough to have sex with her, but not enough to call her back when she called him.

That second boyfriend, the flake? He called tonight, wanted to hang out, watch a movie. That was an hour and a half ago, and she's still sitting on the couch, filling out a word search, waiting on him to come by and get her.