The Guy With The Shades

Chapter 3

"What?!" Mum gasped, standing up.

"Please!" I pleaded.

"No, Selena! We've discussed this, remember, 2 years ago, before you started uni, you wanted to and your father and I said no."

"But that was 2 years ago, we'd just had an extension so we weren't exactly rich."

"And what, today's something different?"

"Mum! You know it is! You don't even pay for my uni, I have a student loan. I can live on my own! Mum, I can."

"Selena. I mean it. No."

"Why?!" I cried.

"Because I said so."

"Oh, for gods sake Mum!" and with that, I marched out the room, stormed upstairs and slammed my bedroom door. I did this little meditation thing in my mind after I jumped on my bed where I count to ten but unfortunately, that didn't help and I gave up. I decided that no matter what Mum said, I'd still go. After all, I'm an adult and I can make my own choices.

I flipped up my laptop screen, switched it on, and clicked on google chrome. It was 9:30pm, early and I didn't want to go down because I was angry at Mum. So I guess I'd have to survive without the telly for tonight. I didn't know what to do and I stared at the screen, my mind blank. I didn't know whether to watch a film, to revise, to do some shopping. After some silent debating, I decided to research the university rooms and the necessary information etc.

 I googled the cheapest rooms in my uni, if the cheap rooms were any good (Which they weren't) and how much I'd need. Since I got £3,000 every month for my student loan, I would be able to live on that money because the cheapest room only cost £100 rent. And of course, other things like food, and utensils, etc, but it wouldn't be so bad because every dorm was already supplied with basics. So if I did stay, I would already have at my dorm: a kettle, a toaster, a griller, a set of knives and forks and spoons, plates, bowls etc, wardrobes, beds, drawers, curtains, soap and shampoo (of which I would never use because that's so unhygienic) and so on. I wouldn't stay at the cheap dorms because they're not exactly high maintenance and the moderately priced dorms, around £300/400 rent, were a lot better.

One thing was that the moderately priced ones had more bathrooms nearby, so I wouldn't have to share and also the bedrooms were bigger and it was located at a more convenient place in the building; it only took 15-20 minutes to walk and 10 minutes by bus to get to the university building. After making a few calls and googling a bit more, I finally found out that there was a really good dorm located on the East side of the apartments and some girl lived there but because it was a 2 person dorm, she said she 'wouldn't mind another room mate'.  The rent was £500 expensive because I'd be left with £2,950. About £50 would go towards food shopping so I'd be left with £2,900. Then I'd save £900 of that and put it in my bank account so that I would have some rainy day cash for when I'm older. Yes, every month, when I receive my loan, I put £900 of that loan into my bank. Currently I have £21,600 spare cash from my habit of placing £900 from my loan into the bank which I will never spend unless it's absolutely necessary.

So minus £900 would leave me with £2,000 of which probably £600 would go on that month's university resources, e.g the bus, purchasing new study books, new materials etc. So I'd be left with £1,400 of which £500 would be spent on random things like clothes, jewellery, make up etc, which would leave me with £900. That £900 would just be for anything; and I could even just buy things for mum or even just

After completing these calculations, and making sure that everything would be perfect, I decided to note it all down on my whiteboard that I still had from when I was a kid. I brought it out from my bedside drawer and dusted it off, before grabbing a marker pen and noting all the information down so I wouldn't forget it. After all, it did take me about 2 hours. I checked the time and it was 11:30pm. I looked down and look at the whiteboard and felt glad and proud that I'd had all this done in 2 hours. I could show this to mum and prove myself tomorrow. I'm sure she'd be shocked and would definitely rethink her decision.

Pleased with myself, I placed the whiteboard on my desk, changed into my pyjamas and snuggled up in my bed. I found I was really tired, and soon I fell into the world of dreams...