My roommates and I always seem to find ourselves in interesting situations that just beg for the world to hear about them. This is one of them. One night, I was sitting on my bed attempting to get some homework done when I saw a huge cockroach climb out of my closet onto the wall. Panic ran through my body and I started to scream repeatedly at the top of my lungs.

This bug was massive, and I even though I’m known to over-exaggerate, for once my imagination could not create anything worse than what was now on my mirror. I ran out of the room and burst into my roommate Alisha's room. She was fast asleep and woke up in a panic once she heard me come in. I quickly explained the situation to her, trying frantically to calm down so my words actually sounded somewhat like English.

After a lot of coaxing on my part, she finally got out of her bed and followed me to my room. As we neared the room, I pointed with a shaky finger (from the safety of the doorway of course) at the large insect that managed to make its way to the ceiling. It seemed to sense our presence and dropped to the floor. I screamed again, backing away from the door, yelling at her to kill it.

“I need a shoe! Give me a shoe!” Alisha cried out. I quickly ran into the living room and grabbed one. I attempted to hand it to her, but in her dazed, half-asleep state, she just kept on repeating that she needed a shoe. Eventually she grabbed hold of the shoe and started attacking a Reese’s wrapper as the bug escaped underneath my bed. I questioned her about her actions and that’s when she decided to actually fully wake up. But it was too late; the bug was lost somewhere in my room.

Of course I refused to sleep in there so I quickly grabbed pillows and blankets and made my way to the couch. I turned off the light and got situated and then I saw something moving in the darkness. It was in the living room. I let another squeal as ran to Alisha’s room. This time she was actually coherent and immediately went to her closet to look for a weapon (in the form of a shoe). But being the girl of class that she is, she couldn’t just use any shoe (those things are expensive).

So as she searched for a shoe, I kept watch for the insect. Of course I was standing on the couch, but I was still getting the job done. That is, until it advanced towards me. At that point, I gave up on my position and ran screaming back into Alisha’s room. I went where I knew I would be safe. At that point, my other roommate, Giselle, came out of her room armed. In one hand she had a bottle of Windex, and in the other hand she had a shoe. But it was too late; the bug was lost again.

At that point I refused to go to bed until the monster was gone. So, we Googled how to coax a bug to come out of hiding. And nothing. Then Giselle, the wonderful roommate that she is, had a glorious idea. She suggested that we turn on all of the lights in the rooms, except for the living room. Then, we could set up shop in Alisha’s room and just wait for the bug to attack again.

Shortly after we were situated in our lookout positions, I spotted it. But then it started running towards me and of course that resulted in a series of screams on my end, which scared my roommates and caused them to scream and run into the recesses of the room too. After a stern look from Giselle, we went to go see if it was still there. And to our luck, it was! And then out ran Alisha, shoe raised high and belting a battle cry. She slammed the shoe down repeatedly, while saying quite a few foul words.

It was finally over. And where was our other roommate Kassidy during this time? Sleeping peacefully in her bed. But at the end of the day, I love my roommates and together we can conquer anything. Even a ferocious cockroach.