My Roommate Kept Stealing My Food — I Set a Trap and It Brought Us Closer

The kitchen's silence, usually a abstraction of comforting home noise, was present a cold, accusing stillness. I stood earlier the unfastened refrigerator, the fluorescent airy casting a stark, uncompromising glare connected the bare shelf. My signature dish, my magnificent, deep-red Jollof rice, was gone.

A young pistillate is looking astatine nutrient successful an unfastened refrigerator. For illustrative purposes only. Photo: AndreyPopov
Source: Getty Images

It was not conscionable a scoop oregon a country nibbled by a forgetful hand. The entire, heavy, two-litre stainless alloy vessel was absent. It was the lone happening I had placed determination past night, gleaming nether its cling-film cover, a committedness of a aboriginal meal.

Now, thing but a faint, dried smear of capsicum paste marked its territory connected the solid shelf, a gruesome hint of the culinary crime. My enactment hitched, a sharp, ragged dependable successful the quiescent morning.

This wasn't a surprise; it was the sickening confirmation of my plan. The thief had struck precisely arsenic I'd calculated, drawn successful by the intoxicating aroma of my Shito and herb blend.

A pistillate is opening the fridge successful her home. For illustrative purposes only. Photo: KikoStock
Source: Getty Images

I ran a manus done my hair, the acold aerial from the fridge raising goosebumps connected my arm. The feeling that settled implicit maine was a strange, toxic cocktail of grim restitution and profound guilt. Satisfaction, due to the fact that I had them. Guilt, due to the fact that of the limb I had used.

I hadn't added onions, ginger, and bay leaves to that perfectly seasoned rice. I had crushed 3 over-the-counter laxative tablets, dissolving them into the centre, and masking the flimsy bitterness with other chilli flakes.

It was a measurement of desperation, an enactment of justness carried retired by a idiosyncratic driven to the partition by weeks of disrespect. My ain ethical lines had been crossed, blurred by the relentless, quiescent thievery.

A pistillate is reaching into the refrigerator successful the kitchen. For illustrative purposes only. Photo: Caia Image
Source: Getty Images

I closed the fridge door, the gentle thump sounding successful my ears similar a judge's gavel. Today was expected to beryllium a time of communal joy: our quarterly movie marathon, a contented meant to solidify our enslaved arsenic roommates, our tiny 'family' distant from home. But it would beryllium a time of reckoning for 1 idiosyncratic successful the adjacent room.

I strolled towards the surviving area, fo...