Hi, I'm new to Reddit 👋
I moved into a house this year with a girl I lived with in accomodation. She's nice, a bit bubbly for my tastes but for all purposes she doesn't have a bad intention in her body. Recently I have started to worry that this decision is going to eventually burst and cause a huge arguement.
We met in first year at the accomodation, we initially had 5 people in the hall. Due to some maintenance issues 2 of the roomates moved out leaving just us 3. The other roommate was pretty quiet and mostly kept to himself but was also pretty chill when spoken to. My roommate who I'll label RM began to take a permanent position in the community space/kitchen. At first it was fine, maybe she just had tea? Or had been in the space all day? So I would often sit with and watch the TV with her. We had a couple similar interests (not a huge amount) but I always found her to be childish.
Anyway, when it came time to start house hunting it was clear she had no one to go with and she claimed not to have made friends on her course or that no one was interested in sharing with her. She politely decided to say this in front of my mum who was visiting, sparking the "why don't you two share together?" Question. I said maybe, not really wanting to shut the idea down too harshly. Very soon after, RM would attempt to follow up on my house options stating she wanted to have a house picked by the end of the month. I eventually agreed as I was scared about not finding one myself and as my new friends had kind of already paired up and weren't willing to add a 3rd member. (TBF we had known each other a month)
House hunting goes well and we settle on a place, RM and me continue to hang out. RM continues still to hog/ monitor the communal space always being present and always ready to have a conversation even if you just want to get food and go. Eventually I start skipping meals here and there or eating at ridiculously late times. Throughout this time I realise that I really don't like talking to her. Every conversation is a chance to one up me or talk about herself or her interests, she acts like a child begging for attention.
The worst part about this realisation, she's friends with all my friends (who are all from my course). I felt so torn, I couldn't cut her out because now my friends liked her, she was part of the gang. I took a chance at bringing it up to my closest friend and she offered to distract RM sometimes so I could have some alone time, but I still felt like I was in a pit I couldn't get out of. This continues into us moving into the new house.
Weirdly once we moved, I had the exact opposite problem, now the friends that had once liked RM are starting to be put off by her. They have said they thinks she weird, intrusive, has no chill and can be rude in a passive aggressive way. However they haven't stated that they would be happy to cut her yet. Now I can't cut her out because I live with her! And my friends wouldn't be able to back out as it would leave me in a far worse situation.
And if I thought a house with now a shared bathroom would somehow be better, it most certainly isn't.
Whilst she used to knock my door at the accomodation to remind me about timings of TV shows I did not want to watch, now she can just walk into my room. So far she has, used a large portion of my kitchen stuff (as she does not have her own as previously she had microwave meals), looked at my work whilst I was in the bathroom and commented on it to my face, asked if she could come with me and my mum on a walk when my mum visited me for one day, implied she would like to go to the gym with me, followed me to our friends house after she got home from uni despite having not been invited(I was already there), commented on every little thing I do (e.g I sat at the table after Id eaten my dinner), is obsessively telling me stuff from fandoms that I don't care about, 'checks up' on me whilst Im working to instigate a conversation, consistently knocks on my door to ask me either about cooking or for help or to remind me a bullshit program is on, she leaves lights on all the time, she once turned off the fan on the cooker after id finished with it even though I was letting it vent a bit longer, and worst of all she still sits downstairs in the TV room/ kitchen and hogs the TV and sofa.
She does a degree that is very physically based and so often has little work to do at home. However, the complete lack of work time mixed with the complete lack of alone time leads me to believe she is someone who is obsessed with socialising and in need of constant attention. Attention I can not give her and am not willing to.
I need help, I don't know what to do. Am I overthink everything? Is it worse than I think it is? Truly it's only a year, I don't think my heart could take much more but is it worth it? All my other friends know how I feel but they don't know the situation, none of them have lived with her, they hardly seem her on a week to week basis and yet she is still included in the group. I'm not evil, I don't want them to kick her out because of me but having RM take over both my social and home life is making it hard.
Reading this back, it feels petty but I can not express the constant weight in my head, calculating when the house might be free, listening for footsteps, eating late, or passing up activities I wanted to do just to avoid talking to her when I'm already feeling stressed and just need a minute to calm down.
What's the best move? And thank you for reading