You are taking a creative writing workshop and you have to submit the following assignment:
"Imagine you are a university student living in a student hall. Your roommate has suddenly decided to leave. Write a short story describing the events that led up to your roommate’s sudden departure."
Elizabeth, my roommate, literally possesses the same adorable personality as the character described in Pride and Prejudice, but she looks even more astonishing in 21st-century fashion. The first time she showcased her beauty to all our hallmates was at the university’s High Table dinner. I was supposed to be her closest confidante, and she would always tag along behind me. So clever, playful, and glamorous was Elizabeth that she swiftly became the celebrity of our hall. When freshmen started visiting rooms during orientation, our room ranked high in popularity.
Things began to go wrong when a few love letters appeared daily, slipped through the gap under our door. Elizabeth read them during the first week but gave up when their number skyrocketed. She grew annoyed by the awkward greetings from the guys she bumped into and sometimes received hostile looks from the girls. I tried to help her (and myself) by sticking a memo on the door warning people not to leave anything. But then, a particularly foolish guy tried to shove a parcel into her pigeonhole. This forced Elizabeth to spend two hundred dollars hiring a locksmith to fix the problem.
When it came to the matter that really contributed to her sudden departure, I must mention the gross poster on the notice board of our floor. Last week, after we finished dinner in the canteen and were walking back to our room, she stopped in front of the board with a desperate look. A guy had created a poster combining Elizabeth’s picture with his. Worse still, an arrow was drawn across both of their hearts.
“Oh, goodness! Does he want to murder me?” she exclaimed. “Maybe he wants you to kill him softly,” I teased her with a song reference.
I immediately regretted what I said as she turned visibly upset.
On her birthday, we went out for a nice breakfast before our lectures. Elizabeth remarked that she was lucky her birthday was packed with lectures and tutorials, allowing her to avoid receiving unwanted presents from strangers. I wasn’t so optimistic. And I was right—later that day, while I was enjoying a film screening (my favorite part of the week), she called me, sobbing, and asked me to come back to the room.
By the time I arrived, she was about to leave with her luggage. She gave me one last hug in the hall before she left. She planned to move back to her parents’ home. She didn’t tell me what had happened, but piecing it together wasn’t difficult.
Apparently, a guy had tried to surprise Elizabeth on her birthday with tens of balloons. He tied the balloons around his arm and attempted to climb through the window. The ending was far from romantic—he tripped and fell onto the balcony of the floor below. I guessed the balloons somehow saved him from breaking any bones, though he did twist his ankle. However, Elizabeth was summoned by the warden and scolded for “risking her boyfriend’s life” for romance.
I knew she was innocent, but she had reached her limit. To live an ordinary life, she decided it was best to stay with her parents.
Now, it's midnight, and I’m eating cup noodles while revising. What a peaceful time! A kind of peace I hadn’t enjoyed in the past three months.
