The formerly blossoming roommate relationship of Josephine Tobey and Brenna McKernan is currently on the rocks. “When she comes home, she just goes straight to her computer, sits down, and stays there for the rest of the night. No ‘Hi, Josephine.’ No ‘How was your day, Josephine?’ It’s like I don’t even exist,” grumbled freshman English major Tobey, referring to her roommate, Brenna McKernan.
Their relationship began as well as any freshman roommate relationship can. Tobey and McKernan were paired through the housing lottery, and have since gotten along extremely well.
“We did everything together,” says Tobey. “Orientation was a blast, and even though we made different friends, we were still an unstoppable duo. We vowed to be friends forever, and I knew I had found my best friend in college already,” Tobey trailed off, looking at her feet with a distraught expression on her face. She continued, “I never thought it would come to this.”
Tobey took a second to compose herself before explaining the unfortunate and unexpected turn her relationship with her roommate had taken.
“It started out fairly subtle,” she said. “I would talk to her about my day, and she would pretend that she couldn’t hear me through her headphones. At first, I assumed that she actually couldn’t hear me. But one day, I noticed the headphones weren’t even plugged in.”
“Then there was the avoiding. I invite her to get dinner with me every once in awhile, and she’s always too busy. We used to get dinner every Tuesday and Friday. It was tradition. Now I don’t know what to think. We just don’t go out anymore.”
When the State-Run Media reached out to McKernan on her and Tobey’s dissolving relationship, she stated that the main issues were with her roommate’s artwork.
“She brings all this horrible artwork over,” said McKernan, “and a couple of times it’s crossed over onto my side of the room.”
“I’m an interesting person,” defended Tobey. “I have eclectic tastes in artwork. I found a beautiful wood carving, and I immediately thought of Brenna and her affinity for carving wood. I bought it and hung it over her bed, thinking she’d love it, but then she just wouldn’t talk to me. She didn’t see the beauty in it like I did.”
While McKernan appears to have no desire to patch things up with her roommate, Tobey says she has high hopes their relationship will defrost after they’ve both been gone a week for Thanksgiving break.
