The Roommate Arrangement

### Gabriel Quinn, Henry LaMontagne, Oliver Fitzsimmons, & Louise Katz

Roommates are an odd group of people. They are a group of people who are roughly the same age, but have next to nothing else in common, yet somehow still live together. And me and my roommates were no exception.

Monty and I had been friends since highschool, after which we both went our separate ways for a few years. He went to the FBI academy, and I took a few film courses at the community college. A couple years later, when we were both out in the real world, we decided to get a place together. It worked out well, as neither of us worked a normal 9 - 5 job. Monty, as he was now a full FBI agent, would get called away at the most random times for a case. I had started my own free-lance filming business, April Skys Production, and was working whenever I could get a job.

We soon realized that the little closet suite that we were renting was a bit pathetic, and after some deliberation, we decided to move to a four bedroom loft. That is when Oliver joined us. Oliver is a physicist or engineer or something like that. None of us actually really understand what he does, but he has a couple of PhDs and comes from a family of geniuses. He also had crazy hours. Sometimes we didn’t  see him for days in a row because he had gotten so invested in what he’s doing that he would forget to take a break.

The fourth room has had a number of occupants over the years, but none really stayed for very long. Because of our various jobs and schedules, none of us were very good at planning, meaning just about everything we did together was spur of the moment. The number of times we had done a midnight pizza party or movie night because we had just realized that we hadn't all been at the house at the same thing for days or even weeks, was crazy. It’s not a lifestyle that works for everyone.

We did eventually manage to find a fourth roommate that fit into our unique life.Louise was the final member of our group. I know what you’re thinking, a girl, but she fit right fit.

We had been without a fourth roommate for a couple of months, and the extra cost that each of us were paying was starting to get annoying. When Louise showed up at our door in response to the ad Monty had posted, we were all a bit concerned. But Oliver suggested we at least interview her. She was a pharmaceutical intern at the hospital, so her hours were slightly more regular than any of ours, but we still made it work.

After a falling out with her previous roommate, she was looking for a place right away, which worked perfectly for us. No one had ever stayed with us for more than 3 months anyways, so we figured if it didn’t work out, the commitment would be for that long. And it’s not like we were entirely clueless when it came to females. Oliver and I both have sisters and we’ve all had girlfriends.

There were things about having a female roommate that we were not prepared for, such as the hair everywhere. Louise has long blonde curly hair and sheds worse than the dog I had when I was little. There were good things too, such as her ability to cook. Now, I’m not trying to be sexist saying all women should cook and men should not. Monty could cook a little bit, but only fancy Italian dishes that his uncle taught him. I love baking cookies and muffins and anything with chocolate in it, but as soon as the responsibility of making a meal is there, I am hopeless. The only food I’ve seen Oliver actually make is mac ‘n’ cheese and package oatmeal, when he actually remembers to eat at all.

We created a system where Louise cooks dinner for all of us, but the three of us guys pay for the groceries and do the cleaning. She definitely got the better end of the deal, but none of us were complaining because we were actually eating real food.

One of the best parts of having roommates is that I’ve gotten people to act in my films when I want to test a new idea. SOme of them are better actors than others, but still.

Monty was actually in a drama club back in highschool, which is how I got to know him. He says he doesn’t actually like acting, but he is quite good at it. He is a profiler at the BAU for the FBI, which includes figuring out how people think. Because of this, he is good at pretending to behave differently. His mother also worked for the BAU along with a bunch of his family friends growing up, and they were the ones who suggested that he join a drama club if the FBI was his goal. So in short, Monty is good at acting, but convincing him to do it is hard.

Louise is great to film, as she loves to sing and dance. She doesn’t mind being the center of attention, but when recording, she wants it to be perfect. She’ll make me do take after take, until she is happy with the result. I guess being a perfectionist is good for her job, counting pills all day, but it can be frustrating as a film creator. She has a pretty decent voice, and I enjoy singing as well, but not in front of the camera, so between the two of us, we’ve managed to convince the others into a few karaoke nights. Especially while Minty was dating an opera singer.

Filming Oliver is an experience. He is great for trying out new things, as he is up for just about anything. When I wanted to try filming a glow in the dark film, he was in without question. I believe his ideology is if you want to see if something works, try it. This has caused him to come home with many stories of explosions from his lab, though.

I hate being filmed myself. There is a reason I am behind the camera. It is not that I am shy. As soon as I get a camera in my hand, I have no trouble ordering people around. But for some reason, as soon as I have a camera pointed at me, I freeze.

Even though we all live together, there is a lot we don’t know about each other. Monty never talks about his work. He’ll mention his co-workers and the shenanigans at the office, but never what happens or what he sees while on a case. Oliver doesn’t talk about his family. It is not that he doesn’t love them, he calls them often and visits home a lot. Maybe it is because most of what they do would go right over our head, or maybe it is something else. Louise doesn’t talk about her friends or her life from before she moved in. Life took them on different paths, was the only thing she said on the topic and that was the end of the conversation. I don’t talk about my childhood. The immigration and struggle of starting a new life. We've all got skeletons in the closet, but then again, who doesn’t?

Even after living together for this long, we are still learning new things about each other. Monty was dating this teacher, I think her name was Cassie, and because there are four people in the loft, privacy is in short supply.

There was one night in particular when everyone was home. It didn’t happen often, but it did happen.

Louise was cooking dinner and I was doing  my best to help her. Oliver was fiddling around with some robot he had built from some spare computer parts. Monty and Cassie were on the couch, and Cassie was explaining how she had done some ASL interpretation for a kid in the classroom. Monty  of course asked her to sign something, which she did with a bit of a smile.

Oliver’s laugh startled us all. I was ready to jump in to say he wasn’t trying to offend her, when Cassie hesitantly asked him if he understood ASL. His response, in typical Oliver fashion, was ‘apparently”, then he added, “but I completely agree with what you said.” Her face turned slightly red, but neither of them would say what she had actually signed, even bribing didn’t work. We all watched in slight shock as they started rapidly signing to each other. It wasn’t that Oliver understood a couple signs - he was fluent. Later, he told us he had learned sign because his little sister is deaf, and at home they use a combination of English and ASL. Over the many years that we had known him, he had never once mentioned that. After learning this, I started thinking back and realized I should have guessed. The amount of times that his speech was embellished with hand movements and facial expression, and when he would trail off speaking, but still be moving his hand, his hands moving while he was silently thinking or mumbling under his breath. It all added up.

Not long after this, I decided that I wanted to do a deaf film. I figured the challenge of setting the tone without sound and music would be educational and fun. Oliver gave me some advice while working with the deaf community. I hired some actors who had varying degrees of hearing abilities. While I was working on it, Oliver introduced me to his sister, Angie. The kid was a genius just like the rest of her family, and even though she was still a teenager, she had already gotten her first PhD and was working on another. She took a look at my film to make sure the emotions I was aiming for were getting across.

The world really is a small place. A couple years later, my girlfriend, Lizzie, ‘s sister ended up being roommates with Angie.

Louise’s last name is Katz. Yes, like the animal. The best thing about it is that she absolutely hates cats. She says it’s not because of growing up everyone assumed that they were her favourite animal, but who knows. Monty, on the other hand, loves animals, including cats. Growing up, he didn’t have any pets, since his mother was an FBI agent and his father was a cop. They had long hours and were often called away at random times. Even though Monty has those same sort of hours, that doesn’t stop him from bringing home every stray that he comes across. He brings them the SPCA, but not before letting them stay at the loft overnight. Louise hates it. The kittens were adorable and often looked so forlorn, but Louise is adamant that they are the devil in disguise. She and the kittens seem to have a mutual agreement that the other doesn’t exist. I love kittens, but am glad that they are temporary guests, though they do make great film stars. Oliver seems to have no option one way or another. His mother, brother, and siblings all have PhDs in biology, and says he has seen dissected cats before. But he does admit there is a reaction in our brain that triggers a cuteness response, or something sciency like that, I didn’t really pay attention.

It was no surprise when Oliver and Louise started dating. Though it did take a while. Louise is the only one who understands even half of what he talks about when he is excited about his work. The amount of times that we’ve been hanging out as a group and the two of them go off on some sciency talk is ridiculous. Oliver liked her for longer than he’ll admit, but she had a boyfriend at the time, and he wasn’t going to interfere.

You would think with 3 out of four of us having professional jobs, that the place wouldn’t always be on the verge of falling apart. It wasn’t that it was a cheap place, you know, like students often get, it was a decent apartment in a decent neighbourhood. The problem was, Oliver loves to experiment to see if he can not only fix, but improve on the problems that pop up. Unfortunately, the improvement is not always a success, and more often than not, we end up with more of a disaster than we started with. For example, when the toilet handle broke off, instead of simply reattaching it, he decided to see if he could rig a self-flushing toilet. Long story short, we ended up with a toilet that flushed at random times of the day, and Louise was convinced we had a ghost infestation.

Monty never sees the need of fixing anything before it is absolutely unusable, and sometimes, not even then. When the fridge door hinges broke, he wouldn’t let us buy new hinges, as it was still hanging, instead, claimed ducktape would solve all our problems.

Louise is good at noticing when something is in need of fixing before it becomes a big problem, and often even can come up with a good, practical solution, but aside from announcing it, she never does anything about it.

My roommates would probably say I am a mix of Louise and Oliver’s strategy for fixing things. I’ll notice a problem, and slap some duck tape or whatever on it as a temporary fix, but let the others deal with it when it becomes a bigger problem.

So, to sum it up, we’ve got the money and the talent to keep this place in running condition, and even the realization skills, but somehow, we are always one disaster away from it all crumbling to the ground. And everyone seems fine with that.