We had a big party on Saturday night as it was Daniel's birthday! Everyone had a great time. In fact, I'd rate it in the top 3 parties I've ever been to! Anyway, we have two toilets in the house. One is just off the kitchen and the other is the en-suite to Leah's room. The understanding that we have is that the person with the en-suite must allow all the other room mates access to the toilet (providing she's not asleep or getting busy or whatnot) considering she's not paying any extra for it. It's a convenience for her to have that bathroom but we don't charge her extra so long as we have use of it too. Whenever we have parties we close off all the bedrooms to prevent layabouts from going into them. With Leah's room, we keep the door closed but go in there infrequently to use the toilet (as is our paying right). We keep it under wraps and try to keep people from going in there.
Now, the party we had on Saturday was nothing out of the normal in terms of bathroom use. We used her toilet but stopped other people from going in there. However, inevitably, someone will see us sneaking off to do a wee and use the bathroom as well. I did my best the next day to clean up the path from her door to the toilet and returned the bathroom to it's pre-party condition. Today, Leah got home (she wasn't at the party because she went on a uni camp for the weekend). Apparently there is a small hole in her changing screen (it's a paper-thing that gives her privacy while changing; like this but navy blue), not big enough to see through, just like maybe the size that a pen point would put through it. And her pillows are in a different order to how she left them. I'm not an unreasonable person, I understand that she has the right to be upset that her personal belongings have been touched and damaged. However, she does not have the right to come into the kitchen and say to us "You guys are *bleep*ing responsible, the one thing I told you was to not let *bleep*ing people into my room. You've broken that promise and all better *bleep*ing fix it" AND she has no right to say to TLR "You organised this so it's all your *bleep*ing fault". If she wanted to go down that road she might as well say to Daniel "You were born on this day so it's YOUR fault".
Anyway, TLR had told me that Leah sent her a text saying she was mad...I didn't comprehend just how mad until I heard Leah screaming at her from the kitchen. We all congregated around the dining table, with arms crossed while Leah set off telling us that we were all terrible people. It ended something like this:
Leah: I'm giving you an ultimatum; either you find the person who wrecked my screen (omg one tiny hole =/= wrecked) so I can make them pay for a replacement, or you all put in $40 each so I can buy a new one.
TLR: That's ridiculous. I will help you try and find who did it, no problem, but you can't hold us personally responsible. I won't pay for a replacement.
Leah: You were here, you broke your promise and let people into my room.
Me: Woah, woah...it's not like we intentionally let people into your room. In fact, throughout the night we stopped people going in there whenever we saw them trying to get in. You can't make us pay for an accident.
Leah: It's your *bleep*ing fault my stuff is ruined now. You better *bleep*ing pay $40 each for it to be fixed.
Spike: It's not like we maliciously wrecked anything of yours.
Me: LOOK, we're sorry okay? It shouldn't have happen but it did. I'm sorry it happened to you, I'm sure we all are.
Leah: Well, I don't accept your apology.
TLR: What do you want us to do? Stand at the door all night and make sure nobody goes in?
Leah: No, that's ridiculous.
FF: Then how can you expect us to have control over who goes into your room at all times?
Leah: I don't care. My privacy was violated. I expect something to be done by Sunday; either you find the person or pay me $40 each, I don't care!
[storms off]
Me: Jesus, if she'd just come in and said "Look guys, this got broken on your watch, would you mind footing the bill to fix it?" I'd probably be fine with that.
Spike: I know, I'd be happy to pay for half of it.
TLR: Exactly. If she'd just be adult about it and not scream at us I'd be more than willing to help pay.
Me: And she wouldn't accept our apology? What's that about, we're not being insincere? I'm genuinely sorry it happened and if it had been me, I'd be annoyed too. I wouldn't take it out on my roommates as if they deliberately went about causing the destruction of my stuff though.
FF: What do we do now?
TLR: I suppose we send a mass message to everyone who came and ask if they did it. I doubt anyone will put their hand up though.
Me: Yeah. I wonder what will happen on Sunday if nobody turns up and we refuse to pay?
Daniel: Oh...it's alright...I'll just pay for it...
TLR: Daniel, that's not fair. It wasn't any of our faults.
Bloody Daniel! He's just so nice and hates confrontation so much that he'd just pay her because he felt guilty about it. Screw that though. If Leah's not going to treat us like human beings, I'm not going to pay for her to be right. That'll just prove that she can guilt trip us into anything. She doesn't need that power. If she comes forward and talks to us (in an indoor voice) rationally I'll gladly pay up. I think that's fair.
~C~
