Thanks for telling me

"Emilie, we need to have a bit of an adult chat", my father said to me an hour ago.

Please not about sex, please not about sex!

"What about?", I asked warily.

"It's about the house."

"I know you want to go to the Isle of Wight in two weeks' time", I said, thinking that this conversation would have something to do with my house keys.

"No, it's not about that. We're thinking of selling the house."

Any relief I may have felt evaporated immediately.

I can understand that my father isn't keen on paying a large mortgage during the worst recession since records began. Equally, I appreciate the fact that living in a four-storey house with only three human occupants is extravagant at the best of times, let alone when I'm at university or otherwise out for the most of the day, and my father goes to the Isle of Wight every week.

What I'm furious about is that they're not just thinking of selling the house, oh no. They're trying to sell the house. They only told me because people are viewing it today. I can hear them downstairs right now, and I want them to get the fuck out.

What's more, my parents have already been to see an apartment on our estate (my father reassured me that if the house does get sold, we probably wouldn't move out of the estate we currently live in, and certainly wouldn't leave Beckenham).

"How long has this been going on?", I asked him.

"A few months."

Then why the fuck did my parents push me to live at home during university? Wouldn't it have been more sensible to nudge me into halls, if they knew that there was a good chance of "at home" changing location over the course of the coming year?

Actually, that was a stupid thing to say. My parents have never been famed for being sensible.

Also, on a completely selfish note, I cannot live in an apartment with my parents. I have no problems with a house, especially if our rooms are on different floors, but an apartment would be hell. I can barely stand living in the one on the Isle of Wight for a week with them. I deliberately isolate myself from my parents on the top floor, and I like it that way.

I believe in everything happening for a reason- as unscientific and corny as it sounds- so I'm waiting to see how things pan out. If my parents don't manage to shift this house and we stay here, that's all well and good. However, if someone does buy it and we move out, it could be the push I need to move out of home altogether.

Time will tell. It always does.