36. Circling Around Rules
I had a friend in high school whose parents had an all-white living room that they kept immaculately clean. They even kept plastic covers over the couch and chairs as if it were 1960. Anyway, their stairs were literally two steps from the entry hall but those two steps were through the living room which nobody was allowed to walk in except my friend’s parents and their adult guests. So to get upstairs to her room we had to circle through her entire house to come around to the stairs from the other side. Her stepdad was a violent man so they were all too afraid to dare challenge the rule.
It wasn’t terribly inconvenient but it was weird, especially when her mom was watching TV and we had to walk past her and which meant we had to stop for an awkward chat. Really that was the worst of it.