The first night in my new flat, I lay in my bed. I struggled to quiet my brain, and the thin walls around me didn’t help. I shuffled around and closed my eyes in the hope of relaxing, but it was in vain. My mattress was too springy, my pillow was lumpy.

I missed the soft chatter of my old roommates at night. I imagined I could hear them on the other side of the wall.

Wait. No, that wasn’t my imagination. Those were actual people talking in the room above me.

I opened my eyes and focused on the ceiling, as if that would help me hear their conversation. At first I could only hear quiet murmuring, but as they talked, their voices rose.

“Yes! And maybe we could do little things that are noticeable but not obvious!”

“Good idea. Should it be spread out on different days or all on the same?”

“Maybe all on the same, ‘cause then he could guess what it is. But we’d need some kind of distraction…”

“We could ask his roommate to take him out for the day?”

“Maybe… but will he be suspicious? We don’t want him guessing before he gets back.”

“You’re right. Well, lets sleep on it. We have time.”

“Okay, goodnight!”

“Goodnight.”

I listened for a minute more, but they were quiet. I considered what I had heard. Who were they talking about? What were they planning?

I pondered these questions for a while, but then I realized that I probably shouldn’t have listened to their conversation. Oops. I assured myself it didn’t matter, because I could finally fall asleep.

The next evening, I did laundry. I gathered my clothes into my basket, walked out of my bedroom and down the hall. The walls were painted a shade of green that I imagined would have looked nice if there hadn’t been water stains.

I sighed. This wasn’t ideal, but at least it was something.

I bumped every single wall on the way down to the laundry room. That would take some practice.

I shoved all my laundry in, with the soap on top, and started the machine.

On my way back up, my slides flopped on the stairs as I took out my phone to start a timer. Preoccupied with scrolling through the numbers, I didn’t see the other person until it was too late. We bumped shoulders and stumbled, struggling to retain our balance. Eventually we succeeded and looked up at each other.

“I’m so sorry, I was looking at my phone!” I apologized immediately.

“No worries, I was too.” They laughed lightheartedly. “Did you just move in?”

“Yeah, yesterday. I’m Clover, she/her. Nice to meet you.” I waved.

They waved back and said, “Awesome! I’m Ash, they/them. Are you liking it so far?”

“It’s nice,” I responded, putting my phone back in my pocket. “Kinda hard to get used to, but that’s normal.”

“Yep! Takes a bit of time, but I’ve come to think of it as home. I hope you will too, we’ll be glad to have a new flatmate!”

It was then that I realized they must have been the enthusiastic person from last night.

“Hey, I know this isn’t a great first impression, but I couldn’t help overhearing your conversation last night. What were you talking about?” The weirdness of the question only sunk in after I said the words, so I added as an afterthought, “I’m sorry, that was rude and personal. Don’t feel like you have to answer that.”

“Oh, I was just talking to my partner,” They laughed and shook their head. “We’re planning a surprise birthday present for our friend, Warren. It’s gonna be funny because he loves mystery novels and TV shows, so we’re going to attempt to do something that’ll make it seem like he’s the main character in one.”

They seemed super excited about it, but what caught my attention was their friend. A guy named Warren who liked mystery novels and TV shows? How common was that?

I smiled. “That sounds fun. I have a friend named Warren who also likes mystery!”

“Wow, what a coincidence!”

A week later, I found out that it was in fact, the same Warren.

Another week, and I was helping them plan the present.

Three weeks later, we set the trap. It was successful, but he guessed it far faster than we had anticipated. He still loved it though, and it was nice to see him again.