Halloween may still be a month away, but plenty of NYU students are living their own horror stories everyday. Roommates, whether in a shared room or within an apartment, can be the grounds of a great friendship or a necessary evil. Even if you weren’t a victim yourself, almost every first-year knows of a scary story to share, worthy of a spooky night around the campfire.

If your roommate doesn’t seem too ghoulish to begin with, exposure to the various vices made available in college can bring out the worst in people. Tisch sophomore Shayla Bowen learned this firsthand, thanks to her first-year roommate’s bothersome drinking habits.

“She stumbled across the room to my side, stood against my bookshelf and pile of shoes, and peed on the floor,” Bowen said.

Unfortunately, this was not a one-off incident: Shayla had to deal with her roommate’s bathroom misfires on several occasions. This, in tandem with a whole host of other negative incidents, led her to unofficially move to a friend’s dorm in Lipton Residence Hall.

But a roommate who can’t handle their alcohol is just the tip of the iceberg. When a bad roommate is mixed with even shadier activities, the results can be downright harrowing. Another NYU student, who preferred to remain anonymous after experiencing harassment from her former roommate, had a more than odd experience to share.

“She sold weed by the pound and had a scale in the room,” she said. “Regularly lots of her clients would come to the room and buy drugs from her. Once they were on acid and began screaming when I turned the light on to do my homework.”

Another key source of awkwardness in the first-year living experience is probably the biggest destroyer of college friendships: hook-ups. One student, who asked to remain anonymous for privacy, recalled fruitless attempts to break her roommate out of a bad spell after a difficult breakup.

“My drunk roommate and her man of choice were whispering and kissing,” she said. “She begins boo-hoo crying on the guy. He thought he was going to get some, but at that point, I really woke up. The guy taps me and tells me to calm her down, and before I could fully get out of my bed, the guy runs away.”

Sometimes, it’s less complicated than substances or sex. At times, fights will break out about personal space — or the lack thereof — in first-year residence halls. One Steinhardt sophomore, who also asked to remain anonymous for privacy, found the lack of separation between roommates to be a problem one time specifically.

“I woke up at 5:30 a.m. to his sheets moving furiously,” the student said. “Other than his obsession with jerkin’ it, he was an OK dude.”

Though it may seem like the end of the world at the time, a bad roommate experience is a fundamental part of being in college. Reflecting on her time in school and her troubles after a former roommate decided to rent out her room as an Airbnb without her permission, NYU alumna Emma Cillekens has some advice for those living out a real-life roommate horror story today.

“I think everyone in New York has a crazy roommate story — it’s a little bit like a rite of passage,” she said. “On the flip side, I have also had some incredible experiences with my roommates too. I have met some of my best friends through living together and they have become my New York family.”

A version of this article appeared in the Monday, Sept. 17 print edition. Email Natasha Jokic at [email protected].