Miss Peacock. In the Study. With the Wrench.

I have my own unsolved mystery at the moment and the clues all seem to point in the one direction I don't want them to but it's hard to deny or make excuses when the answer seems so obvious.

A friend has been staying off and on with me for the last few weeks since she and her boyfriend broke up. She stayed at my place the week I was away in the Dominican Republic and with me for most of my first week back in town. I comforted her for several days while she sobbed over the breakup. I encouraged her to pick herself up and look for an apartment and then visited apartments with her until she found one. It was a bit of an adjustment living with someone in such close quarters when I'd grown accustomed to being on my own with everything just so, plus the fact that I'd only just returned from an action-packed 8-day holiday with friends, but I wanted to help and genuinely enjoyed her company. That is, until my stuff started disappearing.

It started out innocently enough. She drank my booze without asking and without replacing it. Then three of my tops mysteriously disappeared. They were in a pile on my dresser and now I haven't seen them in over a week. I looked everywhere and am quite organized so it's impossible that I missed them. I commented on how odd it was and she asked me with wide eyes whether I thought she took them and I said no, of course not, because I hadn't for a moment thought that she'd do that. Then I noticed she'd helped herself to a couple of condoms from my bathroom drawer. Not a big deal but again I would've appreciated her mentionning it. Finally this morning I realized that she'd taken one of four tubes of moisturizer I kept underneath the sink, and not the one that she'd been secretly using anyway but a brand new one so that I now have two full bottles, a third one that's half-empty, and one that's missing. The idea of her having taken my tops sucks but suddenly isn't so improbable anymore...

More than anything I'm hurt and feel somewhat used. Until recently she was still popping in throughout the day to take showers, do loads of laundry, and use the computer. Her stuff is all over my place. None of this really bothered me until she started taking things without asking. I'm upset that she's put me in such an uncomfortable position, having to confront her about what seem like such petty things but it's not OK to take advantage of someone when they've been kind to you, which I think I have been. She doesn't move into her new place for another three weeks but clearly I'm not too keen on hosting her anymore.

I asked her over the phone this morning whether she'd taken the moisturizer and she said maybe she'd used it and had taken it by mistake. (Mind you, she didn't use/take the same one I was using and kept in the cupboard but a brand new one from beneath the sink.) Then I added that she probably didn't have them but that I'd appreciate it if she could double check her bags to make sure she doesn't have my tops. I'll also have to ask her for my keys back. I know she let herself into my place last night while I was out, which I'd once told her was OK, but I feel differently now. Now I've been betrayed. Blindsided by Miss Peacock herself.