When I walked inside, Norman Bates was lying across my couch. His car salesman styled suit jacket was no where in sight. His sleeves were rolled up and he was eating honey barbecue chips. My honey barbecue chips.

"What the hell? Where's my mom?" I looked at him disgusted. His greasy hair is probably going to stain the couch.

"She ran out to the store to buy me some beer. Do you want anything? She might still be at the store if you text her." He said casually and picked the remote up and started flicking through channels.

After the long miserable day I've had, I'm so not in the mood.

I stormed up to him and snatched the remote out of his hands. "This is my remote. That is my television. Your ass is on my couch in my living room eating my chips."

"Calm down, Leah." Norman put his hands up as if he was calming a rearing horse down.

I clenched my jaw. "It's Luna. Get out of my house." I snapped and pointed towards the door. Dramatic? Maybe a little.

"This is your mother's house. Not yours, young lady. I'm your mother's guest and I'll leave when she tells me to. I'm likely to be your step-daddy sometime in the future and you will respect me." He glared at me. I wonder if my mother has seen this side of him. I wonder if she'd even care if she saw him talking to me like this.

"I'm calling the police." I pulled my cellphone out of my back pocket and dialed 9-1-1.

Norman's face went slightly pale, but he still didn't get off of the couch.

"9-1-1, What's your emergency?"

"There's a man in my house who refuses to leave." I told the operator. I don't believe that Norman thought that I was actually on the phone with the police.

"Do you know the man?"

"Yes, he's a friend of my mother's, but she's not home and I don't think she knows that he's here." So, I stretched the truth a little bit. Sue me.

"Who is this and how old are you?"

"My name is Luna Ludwig. I'm eighteen."

She asked if I wanted the police to remove Norman from the property. I told her yes and gave her my address. I wasn't allowed to hang up until they got here.

"You aren't seriously on the phone with the police, right?" Norman looked a little nervous.

He's not very smart. "I asked you to leave and you refused. You're trespassing."

I heard the sirens approach the house and Norman's eyes widened. "Your mother is going to be furious with you."

I ignored him and opened the front door. Two uniformed police officers were just walking up the front steps. One was kind of attractive in an older guy kind of way. The other was younger. He looked fresh out of the academy. His uniform looked like he ironed it and he looked way too energetic for four o'clock in the afternoon.

"The police are here." I told the 9-1-1 operator and hung up.

"Are you the owner of this house?" The older one asked me.

"My mother and I rent the house." I told him. "My mother isn't home and for some reason there is a man on my couch that won't leave."

I stepped back and let the officers inside. I lead them into the living room.

Norman froze.

"Sir, who are you and do you have authorization to be here?" The younger one asked. I could tell that he thought he was badass.

"Norman Bates. I'm her mother's boyfriend." He quickly stood up from the couch. Crumbs from the chips fell to the ground.

"How did you get in here?" The older one grabbed a notepad and started writing. What he was writing, I have no clue.

"Her mother, Cindy, let me in. She just ran out to the store to buy some beer. She should be back any second." Norman rushed.

"If your mother pays the rent and she let Mr. Bates in, he's allowed to be here." The older officer told me softly.

"Both mine and my mother's name is on the rental agreement. Currently, the rent is being taken out of my bank account." I wasn't lying. When my father was here, he set up a savings account for college for me. Unfortunately, after he left, my mother's salary didn't cover the rent and utilities. She had to dip into our savings account. After I turned eighteen this summer, my mother told me that our savings had run dry and asked me to sign a paper that let her take out rent from my college account. There wasn't much in there to begin with and by the end of the school year, that account will run dry as well.

As much as I don't like my mother. I'm not stupid. I need somewhere to live. I had no choice but to sign the papers and add my name to the rental agreement.

My mother is paying for food, house repairs, and any other expense that comes up during the month.

"You're paying the rent?" Norman asked me, shocked.

"Didn't know that my mother's broke?" I asked him, smugly.

The young officer interrupted before Norman got a chance to reply. "If you are paying the rent, you can kicked Mr. Bates out."

"I want him gone." I felt extremely exhausted all of the sudden. It's time to get these people out of my house, so I can watch some Netflix in peace.

"You need to leave now, sir. If you are on the property again without permission, I will arrest you for trespassing." The older officer told Norman firmly.

Norman seemed to give in. He walked around to the back of the couch and grabbed his suit jacket off of the floor. "Yes, sir."

Norman finally left.

I thanked the officers and sent them on their way as well.

Twenty minutes later, my mother stormed into the house and slammed the door behind her. "Do you not want me to be happy?!" She screamed at me. Wow, her volume level is going to get us in trouble with the landlord.

"I don't care if you are happy or not to be honest." I told her bluntly. "I pay the rent and I don't want your boy toy here alone."

"You flipped out for no reason! You called the freaking cops on him, for God's sake. If he doesn't want to see me anymore, it's your fault." She glared at me as if I was the devil.

"I don't know Norman enough to be comfortable with him being here alone. I asked him to leave and when he refused I called the police. If I'm paying the rent, I have a right to set some rules. I've been nice enough not to bring up the rent often. I'm not going to come home to a missing couch or TV because you've let some stranger in the house alone." I explained to her. I felt a headache coming on and internally groaned.

At least this will make an interesting story to tell Marie tomorrow.

"I'm being given ground rules by my own daughter." She complained. "This is embarrassing. I'm still your mother."

I'm so done talking to her right now. "I know that, but Norman cannot be here alone. That's a safety rule for both of us."

She sighed, but seemed to calm down. "I'm making dinner. Do you want anything?"

"No, but buy more chips next time you go shopping. Your boy toy contaminated mine." I reached over for the Wii remote and hit play on Netflix.

"Sure, dear, and next time, I'll try to respect that this is your house too." She gave me a small smile and walked off into the kitchen.

I rolled my eyes. At least, I'm not getting grounded. I normally don't pull the rent card because I know that my mother is very embarrassed at the fact that she can't pay the rent. I don't like the woman, but going out of my way to be nasty to her is too much effort most of the time. She can try to pretend to be 'Cindy, the cookie baking mom' all she wants, but I know that as soon as I really need her, she's going to let me down. Her record speaks for itself.

I watched Dean dig his way out of his grave on the TV screen, but the sound didn't register. Soon enough, I was asleep.

*

I woke up a few hours later.

The living room was dark. I was kind of disgusted at myself for sleeping on the same couch that Norman was sitting on only hours before. That man needs his own grease trap.

I ran upstairs and took a shower.

After I was satisfied that there was no Norman grease on me, I wrapped a towel around my body and made my way to my room.

I opened the door to find a dark figure sitting on my bed. "What the-?"