Roommates share more than just living space – whether it’s clothes, snacks, toiletries or microwaves. However, sometimes roommates also share horror stories. Some incidents, we are able to bounce back from, but others leave a permanent and irreparable rift in the relationship. Here are a few of the funniest and most horrifying roommate stories from Drexel students.
1. You rub my back, I’ll rub yours
“After having an awesome Halloween at Temple with my roommate and some friends, we got a call a few days later from one guy we went with. He prefaced the conversation by telling us not to freak out, and then revealed he was diagnosed with scabies. He tried to assure us that it was hard to contract and there was a cream we could pick up as a preventative measure. We picked up the cream and the instructions clearly stated that it needed to be put in every nook and cranny. For some reason we thought the only option was to strip down, while standing on a singular towel in the middle of our room and apply this cream. While we were in the process, our friends knocked on our door. I shot my roommate a look to say ‘don’t you dare open it,’ but she giggled and peeked her head out. Our friends swung the door open and stared at us in horror and hysteria. To this day we hear, ‘remember that time they were naked rubbing lotion on each other.’ Our bond only grew stronger as a result.” -Ariana, Class of 2019
2. Don’t sleep on roommates and robbers
“Back when I was a freshman, I caught another student breaking into my room while I was taking a nap. My roommate not only told me I shouldn’t report him, but told the guy that I was going to report him and caused a confrontation. It put me in a very awkward position.”
3. Deal with the devil
“Freshman year I had a crazy roommate who dropped out at the beginning of our last quarter and left all of her stuff in our room. Literally everything. The university couldn’t remove it until the end of the year and she wasn’t coming back, so naturally I went shopping. Little did I know that I would find a pact that she made with Satan – I kid you not. She listed a bunch of conditions and wrote that if the ‘Almighty Lucifer’ satisfied them, she would give him her soul. I had some hope that it was a joke until I flipped the paper over and found her signature … in her own blood.” – Megan, Class of 2019
4. Up close and judgmental
“My freshman year roommate would always ask me very personal questions, even back when we had just known each other for a few weeks, including ‘Why did your parents force you to go to church?’ and ‘When did you start saying ‘I love you’ to your boyfriend?’ (which when answered, got the response, ‘Oh. That’s way too soon.’).”
5. Ay, chihuahua!
“My freshman year roommate thought it would be a good idea to bring her dog to live with us in our dorm room. It wouldn’t have been so bad if she didn’t completely neglect the poor thing. Unfortunately for me, I was too clean and too good of a person to let the long haired chihuahua starve and rot in its own feces. So guess who became its primary caretaker? There were many hallway encounters with my RA where the dog was hidden in a tote on my arm. Eventually our RD found out after two whole months after some resident went and ratted us out. We got away without any punishment.” – Megan, Class of 2019
6. Cleanliness is next to godliness
“My roommate was a neat freak, and always thought my side was way too dirty (even though it definitely wasn’t). Somehow, she thought the cleanliness of my side affected her and would sometimes tell me I had to sweep my side of the room by the end of the week because dust particles were getting onto her side of the room. I left for spring break before her, and the Monday of break, I woke up to a video sent at 3 a.m. of my side of the room with about 2 scraps of paper and a smudge on the floor,with a long message telling me how disappointed she was in me at how ‘disgusting’ my side of the room was!”
7. Freak on the bed
“My roommate has freaked out on multiple guests for sitting on her bed while wearing clothes that they wore that day. She will only sit on her bed if she is showered and in clean pajamas. We’re halfway through the year and I have yet to sit, lean, or even breathe on her bed because I’m so scared of conflict.” – Ivy, Class of 2020
8. Volume or density?
“My roommate would sometimes listen to loud talk shows in the room in her native language. When I had work to do, I would ask her to wear headphones because it was very distracting. Instead of just putting on headphones like any normal person, she refused and instead accused me of hating her native language! Obviously that wasn’t the reason, but she still took it personally and wouldn’t put in headphones.”
9. Filthy lies and dirty dishes
“I lived in a four person suite my freshman year and the entire first quarter I did way more than my share of the dish washing. When the second quarter came along, the dishes piled up at least six inches above our sink by week three and I refused to do them. I asked my roommate that I shared a room with if they were hers and she said they weren’t, that they were our other two suitemates who I tried to avoid. The entire quarter my roommate told me not to let the other two girls take advantage of me. We had multiple conversations about how annoyed I was. By finals week the dishes were STILL sitting there so I couldn’t ignore them anymore. My other two roommates saw me washing them and told me not only that they weren’t theirs but that my actual roommate had told them that they were mine! There was mold on one of her bowls of instead of washing it, I threw it right in the trash.” – Megan, Class of 2019
10. Puke and rally
“My roommate came back from a party VERY drunk. She was joking around in our common area, when all of a sudden she passed out. We were trying to wake her up, when suddenly she threw up all over one of our friends. We were horrified. We were cleaning her up when she asked if she can go to the bathroom then proceeded to lock herself in there for about an hour. We tried to get her to come back out, but she wasn’t responding at all. Finally, she came back out and went to bed, but it was one of the most terrifying things I have been through in my life.” – Sofia J, Class of 2020
11. Looking for a handout
“I loaned my best friend of ten years a lot of money for the security deposit, first month, and last month rent so that she would be able to move in with me, with the obvious agreement she would pay me back. Not only did she not pay me back, she also did not get a job and got behind on two months of rent and utilities, so since we were on the same lease and because I felt a responsibility to her as a friend, I’ve been paying for it. She’s finally decided to move back home and has left it to me to clean her room and the house, find people to move in, communicate with the landlord, skip club meetings and take time out of my busy schedule to show potential tenants the house.” – Sarah J, Class of 2019
12. Blenders and burglars
“My one (psycho) suitemate convinced me and my other two suitemates that someone had broken into our apartment and stole our blender, among other things. She then sent a group text with a picture of the top to the blender in our sink with a message about how scared she was that someone was intruding. She claimed to have filed a report about the incident and that was the end of it. Months later, she admitted to lying to mess with her roommate, who she was in a fight with. This is the same girl who believed muskrats were living in our vents, constantly mentioned her assault charges, and one time greeted me at the door covered in self-inflicted wounds and blood.”
Hopefully this article has made you appreciate your roommate. If your roommate has never put you through any of the above situations, give them a hug. Tell us your roommate horror stories in the comments!