In a world where young adults often require communal living to get by financially, roommate horror stories abound.
Whether it’s an grating habit, political or religious differences, or a lack of understanding boundaries, roommates can find just about anything to butt heads over.
But when does something cross the line from simply “annoying” to “eviction-worthy”?
Redditor blanketthroaway recently had a very uncomfortable experience with one of her roommates, so she turned to the subReddit “Am I the A**hole” (AITA) to see if she overreacted.
She asked:
“AITA for kicking my roommate out for ‘using’ my blanket?”
The original poster (OP) started by describing how her relationship with her newest roommate started to deteriorate.
“Okay, i promise this story is not as straightforward as it may seem.”
“I (21F[emale]) have two roommates (F, 20F, and C, 22M[ale]),and last July of 2020 we got a new roommate (same age, let’s call him M). It was nice at first, he was fun, the rent was less of a burden on all of us, he seemed to get along well with all of us.”
“But around last December, things between me and M got pretty sour fast. It started with small things, him “accidentally” eating my food (like flan), rushing me while I’m using the bathroom, and him constantly coming in and out of the house, and he is very quick to aggressive behavior.”
“In this pandemic especially I was getting pretty annoyed with the lack of consideration and boundaries. Then his behavior turned even weirder.”
The OP laid out some of M’s bizarre behavior.
“Sometimes, when its raining, I’ll hear the door unlock and he comes in soaking wet without any explanation, and he’ll sit in the bathtub with his wet clothes on just to chill I guess?”
“Even stranger, he seems to have developed an attraction to both of my roomies, F and C. He keeps flirting with both, to their discomfort.”
“Even weirder, my mom came to visit to meet my roomies and M immediately took a liking to her, and my mom even seemed to like his attention, which weirded me the f**k out.”
“He seemed to be this insanely horny guy that had no standard for who he was interested except me. Apparently.”
“I once made a joke asking why he hasn’t hit on me yet, and he immediately looked me up and down and made a stink face. I wasn’t genuinely upset that he wasn’t into me, but is that not a little insulting?”
But things recently took a turn after the OP caught M violating more than just her privacy.
“The final straw came in January. I was working a closing shift at my job, and I had asked my roomies in our group chat if they could potentially put my blanket into the washer/dryer to clean for me, so that when I got home from my long shift I could just get into bed.”
“M agreed, so I felt good about that. Except that when I got home around midnight, I find M with my blanket in hand, pleasuring himself on the fuzzy end of my blanket.”
“He didn’t hear me come into my room, and I caught him with his pants all the way down doing a lot of moving around against the corner of my bed into the blanket.”
“I still don’t get how he managed to form the blanket in a pleasurable way, but I screamed at him and told him to get the f**k out of my apartment and he left WITH MY BLANKET.”
“This was the final straw for me. I told him to come get his stuff, and that he had until next weekend to clear out.”
The OP’s other roommates felt she took things too far.
“My roommates didn’t like him, but they did think I was too harsh.”
“I DISAGREE, for many obvious reasons, but they said that I could’ve just told him to keep the blanket and wait for him to find a place to stay before I kicked him out.”
“I have a guilt complex, so I come to reddit today to see if I truly did ‘freak out’.”
“So, AITA?”
Redditors weighed in on the situation by declaring:
- NTA – Not The A**hole
- YTA – You’re The A**hole
- NAH – No A**holes Here
- ESH – Everyone Sucks Here
Reddit agreed that she was right to kick M out of her apartment.
“NTA.”
“That’s disgusting, it’s abusive.”—birdwalk94
“Dude!!!! WTF!!!! The guy was spanking into your blanket!!!”
“All the other crap aside… WTF man!!! It takes a conscious decision and some honest drive to do something like this.”
“Who just does this? ‘Oh it’s 73 degrees and cloudy, time to go wack it on my roommates blanket’, NO WAY!!!”
“Seriously, what else did it wack it in if he was on your bed with your blanket? Is anything safe or is the entire house his blanket? Can you ever look at your blanket normally again?”
“This guy took something and that’s peace of mind. The only time there should be c*m on a blanket is if you are present with your partner and one of you puts it there or watching HBO Max gets a little intense on your part.”
“NTA. And spray the house in Lysol.”—Freethinker_86
“NTA. That’s the kind of thing that would officially get you kicked out of the dorms in college, too. And dorms are pretty understanding of weirdness.”
“That’s just… So so so not ok.”—ifimhereimrealbored
Some questioned whether or not this was the first time he’d done something like this.
“I wonder how many times he has done this. Who knows what else he’s done, in the roomies rooms, when they are not around.”—BooBooKittyKat1
“I guarantee it’s not the first time he’s done something like this. It’s the first time he’s been caught.”
“There’s a big difference. You made the right call OP.”
“NTA”—Reaper0207
“He has leaped over this boundary and makes it questionable whether OP is actually safe with him around. His limits are unknown. That’s scary.”—Anseranas
“NTA. That is so creepy.”
“You also don’t what other belongings of yours or your roommates he has defiled. I wouldn’t want to have him around at all after that.”—squirrelsareevil2479
Not everyone was sure about the legality of kicking him out, however.
“NTA this dude was absolutely purposefully violating your bed as a power move.”
“I’m sure he thought he could finish before you got home and then think about you being completely naive to the disgusting thing he did.”
“It would’ve have cost him absolutely nothing to not defile your blanket. The only grey area might be if he was on the lease or entitled to any tenants rights.”
“Morally though you’re 100% not the a**hole.”—CatdogIsBae
“NTA but:”
“If you are in the U.S., know that legally you cannot kick him out. It’s fine if he doesn’t come back and cooperates but he is entitled to his home until you mutually agree that he leaves or you petition to evict him.”
“Doesn’t matter if there’s a lease or not.”
“Also, please start a paper trail in case this gets ugly. File a police report for it. Explain what happened and report theft of the blanket and whatever criminal mischief or intentional exposure to biohazard material or whatever you can.”
“If he comes after you for illegally kicking him out, you’ll have a mitigating circumstance to show. If nothing else happens it will be on his record in case he does something stupid and weird again.”—KittyLilith17
Hopefully M won’t put up a fight, otherwise things could get legally messy.
But assuming he ever eventually returns the OP’s blanket to her, we just have one suggestion: Douse that thing in lighter fluid, light a match, and walk away.