Danila Botha is the author of three critically acclaimed short story collections, Got No Secrets, For All the Men (and Some of the Women) I’ve Known, and Things that Cause Inappropriate Happiness. Her novels include the award winning Too Much on the Inside and A Place for People Like Us. Her first graphic novel, Vidal, will be published in 2026.

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Excerpt from A Place for People Like Us

The first time I met Jillian was the night I was about to meet my potential new roommate, and instead of texting me like a normal person, Cassidy called, frantic, and all I could hear was her breathy, high-pitched voice clarifying that she was “sitting near the bar” and “been waiting here for fifteen minutes,” and even though I knew I was less than five minutes late, I could feel my heart start to race.

It was hard to hear anything over all the noise, the people behind me yelling their orders above the blaring speakers at the bar, the band who was sound checking on a small stage in front of them, White Stripe-y garage rock like it was 2006 instead of 2016. I edged closer to her and heard the metallic scrape of her Coke Zero against the graffitied wooden table. Cassidy looked exactly like she did on Instagram, sandy blonde curly hair subdued in a ballerina bun, with a few loose ringlets framing her heart shaped face, glowing skin, no makeup except for a little mascara and lip gloss, a pink hoodie and black high waisted jeans that made her look like a fit suburban housewife with two kids, instead of a twenty-one-year-old, third-year undergrad like me.

“Look, I’ve got to go soon,” she said, tapping the dusty table with her phone like she was Judge Judy condemning a particularly unskilled criminal. “I have to get up at 5 a.m. every morning to run.” …

She liked that I was a business major in one of the elite programs that everyone knew was hard to get into…Webb Gallagher had intimidating marble floors and gold lettering, its vast open spaces filled with bright light and office building-like chairs and tables. Cassidy had no reaction to my double major in film.

We were both trying to act like we weren’t desperate, even though school started again in less than a week. Jen, Cassidy’s old roommate was a faster runner, and when she found out she got a full track and field scholar- ship to Purdue, she ditched Cassidy without a second thought. “She turned out to be the worst kind of friend,” Cassidy said. “…  So, I decided, I’m never going to live with another friend again. This is a business arrangement, right, so we’re going to get along, but it’ll be easier to have boundaries.”

She pulled up a contract on her phone. “I just need you to read this and initial here.”

I took a deep breath. The kids I babysat loved the Little Mermaid movie, and I felt like Ariel, signing my voice away for the vaguest potential of happiness.

I knew I couldn’t spend another second in the messy, revolving door communal artist house I’d been living in no matter how cheap it was…What started out as interesting and relaxed quickly started reminding me of childhood. Officially, there were four music majors from my university… They were called Shut Your Eyes and See, which was apparently a James Joyce quote, and they sounded like a cross between the National and Arcade Fire. They smoked an obscene amount of weed, did mushrooms and drank, practiced and fought at 2 a.m. It was the dirt streaked, sticky wooden floors, the endless nights of rice and lentil dinners, watching them cheat on their Drama or English major girlfriends, who always played dumb or cried and screamed but then took them back.

I skimmed and signed…

.

I glanced over at the stage…The singer, who was wearing red leather pants and a cropped black tank top, was dancing her way into the crowd. I looked at her, and, in one of those surreal moments that only happens in movies, the singer walked right up to me, took my phone out of my hands and kissed me right on the lips. I pulled away and regretted it immediately.

The singer had a big red grin that was both charming and devious, like a cross between Taylor Swift and the Joker. She looked like she’d been expecting me to wait around. “I’m Jillian,” she said. “I always look out into the audience and choose someone who looks like they need some shaking up.”

Cassidy thought the whole thing was hilarious, and I was too embarrassed to talk much to Jillian. I wanted to ask her what her last name was so I could creep her on Instagram or at least hear more of her music. “Hopefully we’ll see each other again,” I said, trying to sound casual and she grinned at me. “Don’t worry, we will.” It sounded like a promise.

I moved in with Cassidy two days later.