The Quarantine Diary of Adam Garrett [mxm]

Day 1

Well, it happened: I'm in full, mandated quarantine for fourteen days.

Over the past few weeks, things have progressed from "hmm, people in China are getting pretty sick" to "please stay six feet away from the other shoppers in the store, thanks," and now all non-essential businesses are closed and people are wearing surgical masks if they go out at all. I was managing nicely, but my roommate, Brad, was notified today that one of his coworkers is infected, so now the two of us have to fully lock down.

I figured it was time to start a diary. Samuel Pepys' and Anne Frank's diaries were some of my favorite books as a teenager. I always wanted to keep one, and now that I can't leave my apartment, might as well use one of the many notebooks I've hoarded over the years to start a quarantine diary.

So, for posterity, here's my situation:

My name is Adam Garrett. I'm 25 and I live in a suburb outside Toronto in a two-bedroom apartment with my new roommate, Brad Kaczmarek. To be honest, this lockdown situation isn't actually going to change my life all that much. I already work from home, in software development, so I was basically already living that social distancing life up until last month, when Brad moved in.

The spare bedroom used to be my office, but a while back my cousin Giselle called and said she had a friend who needed a place to live ASAP and asked if I'd be interested in renting him my spare room. I thought, why not? Some help with the rent would be nice. I could just move my office into my bedroom, no problem. If I could help, I probably should. She said Brad and I would get along, and so far she's been right.

Brad works long hours in a warehouse. Leaves very early in the a.m. and gets home in the late afternoon. Usually just eats dinner and maybe watches an episode or two of a show on Netflix before he heads to bed. Fine by me. He seems to like the same kinds of shows and he always saves leftovers for me whenever he cooks, which is nice. He's a better cook than me. All around it's win-win.

I'm worried now that we're going into lockdown, though. We hang out sometimes on weekends, going for jogs and the odd brunch, but he always talks about how he doesn't really like weekends, how he needs structure, needs a reason to get up in the morning. Feels antsy if he doesn't have a plan. Lockdown is going to be one big weekend for him.

He's on his way home now, and once he's here, we'll be stuck in this apartment together for two whole weeks. Crossing my fingers it all goes well, but there are all kinds of reasons this could suck.

Reasons this could suck:

1. We could discover weird habits we each don't know the other has yet. He's been fine so far, but I've lived alone for a long time—what if I do weird things I don't realize are weird that Brad just hasn't noticed yet because he works all day? What if I like, accidentally forget to close the door when I take a piss or something?

2. We could discover we don't actually get along. Maybe this discovery has been delayed, since we haven't spent all that much time together. Spending 24/7 locked in the same apartment could make any personality differences very apparent.

3. What if Brad goes stir-crazy and I have to talk him off the balcony or something?

4. What if he finds out I'm gay and has a problem with that?

5. What if we both get the virus and spend the whole time sick as dogs? Or what if one of us does and the other has to take care of them? Talk about awkward.

I guess it could also go really well. It could cement our bond as roommates. But, of course, worrying about the bad things comes much more naturally to me than getting excited about good things.

I guess we'll see how it all pans out.