2: In Your Shadow - Evan Peters

UCLA

I flicked through my mail, until I saw a letter addressed to me by the University of California, Los Angeles. All the other mail didn't matter, because this moment determined the rest of my life. I practically ripped it open, sitting on the edge of my dorm room bed with my friend Lucas standing in front of me, anticipating an answer just as much as I was.

I pulled the letter from its envelope, but put it down in my lap as I took a deep breath and looked up at Lucas.

"Alex, what are you waiting for! Open the damn letter," Lucas encouraged, sitting on the bed across the room, his gaze not wavering from the letter in my lap.

"I can't do it," I argued, putting the letter next to me on the bed and putting my head in my hands.

"Give it to me," Lucas snatched the letter from next to me and opened it without hesitation, his eyes flicking through the words on the page. It was hard to read his face as he got to the bottom of the letter, but when he finished it, he looked up at me.

"Alex," he started, my heart beat accelerating as he passed me back the letter. I had to read what it says, now that only one of us now knew if I was accepted.

I read aloud as I skimmed through the page, "Alex Miller, we are honoured to inform you that you have been accepted-" I didn't finish because Lucas got up from the bed across from me and lunged towards me, wrapping his arms around me and picking me up.

"Alex you fucking did it!" He yelled, as he spun me around before settling me back down. A wave of relief washed over me as I read the first few lines of the letter again and again, not believing what I'd just seen.

"Oh my god," I smiled up at Lucas, and hugged him again, shrieking in excitement at the best news I could have ever received.

Lucas, Amaya and I had set up the most intense study group for our finally semester of community college. We met at least twice a week just to go over the content. They were both so adamant that I would work as hard as I could to get into UCLA, and our hard work had payed off.

"You're going to LA baby!" Lucas exclaimed, as I sat back down on my bed, holding the letter tightly to my chest.

"I have to call Dana," I scrambled over to my bedside table and retrieved my phone, calling Dana. She picked up almost immediately.

"So what's the verdict?" She sounded just as anxious as I did 2 minutes ago. I stayed silent on the line for a moment.

"So it looks like.." I began, trying to sound as calm as possible, "I'm coming to LA! I got accepted!" I heard Dana scream in excitement, and Elliot let out a loud "woohoo" in the background.

"Oh my god Lex, that is such great news. You're going to love it here, it's so warm you won't even believe it," Dana expressed her love for LA on more than one occasion, and now I could finally see them again after 6 months of them being away.

"I'll call you later I gotta call my parents," I hung up the phone and made the round of calls that I needed to make.

As I hung up the phone to my parents, my finger instinctively hovered over Evan's contact in my phone. I held my breath, and put my phone back on the bedside table.

I'd seen snippets of the pilot of Evan's new tv series, where he starred alongside world-renowned actor Kate Winslet. The tabloids were going crazy for Evan Peters, up and coming star actor, and his impeccable natural talent for his work.

It made getting over him harder, St Louis buzzed in excitement that one of their own had made it big in Hollywood. There wasn't a single person who didn't know his name now, and unfortunately, I got messages weekly from news outlets trying to get the scoop into Evan's personal life.

"We have to celebrate," Lucas remarked, walking over to my dorm room's door and swinging it open.

"Get dressed, do your make up. We're hitting the bar on a Thursday night," Lucas left my room, leaving me to process the news on my own.

For the last 6 months, my future rode on the possibility of getting accepted into UCLA. Elliot and Dana moved into a 2 bedroom apartment on the outskirts of West LA, their rent relying on funds from Dana's trust. I would contribute a quarter of what they had to pay, but it was still over a grand a week, and to fulfil my dreams, my parents decided they'd help me out too.

My mind was in a scramble, but I had to collect my bearings and celebrate the greatest achievement I'd made to this day. A refunded ticket to LA sat in my account for almost 6 months, waiting for me to reschedule the flight I never took. Now was the time I'd finally book it.

I got dressed and ready in almost 15 minutes, and accordingly to a text from Lucas, I was to meet him downstairs by the Jeep. The Jeep had been a lifesaver the last 6 months, for Lucas and I both. We were able to carpool to work and saved a fortune on Ubers when we were going out. But the little pang in my heart when I got into the drivers seat and slid the keys into the ignition didn't go away. The Malden and Lake Michigan key rings stood out to me every time I drove.

"What are you waiting for let's go!" Lucas had collected Amaya along the way and together we travelled to a Sports bar on the main strip.

Not to my surprise, Kyle was sitting at the bar, a whisky in his hand as he chatted to the bartender. After Evan and I broke things off, Kyle and I rekindled our fling and slept together on a biweekly basis. It was casual, and I liked it that way. There was no denying our sexual chemistry, but it never progressed further. We were both busy, and sleeping together was all it was. If only Evan knew about it, he'd come crawling back from the limelight.

I think Evan had visited St Louis a couple times over the last 6 months, mainly for weekends, to spend time with Curtis and his other friends and to check up on Emma. To nobody's surprise, she had the baby, and was sapping child support off Evan and his new found fame, until finally he got a paternity test and it came back negative. St Louis didn't see Evan again after his father duties were dismissed.

"A lovely cosmo cocktail for the prettiest UCLA Fine Arts major soon to be in LA," Kyle handed me the cocktail and kissed me on the cheek, "and to the best piece of ass in St Louis," he lifted his whisky and together we cheers-ed our drinks. I couldn't help but roll my eyes, he was hard to talk to, he was arrogant and didn't have a romantic bone in his body, hence why we're just sleeping together.

"Thank you, Kyle," I smiled at him as we sat down at the bar and conversed over my future plans in LA.

I got a message, my phone buzzing in my pocket. I pulled it out to see Austin, another engineering major at UCLA, congratulate me on my acceptance. After Dana and Elliot moved to LA, they met Austin, an overachiever in science. Dana thought he'd be a good distraction for me, and he was, we spoke almost every night over the phone. He was kind, and thoughtful, and as time went on, I knew he had feelings for me, even without meeting me.

He was calling me, so I excused myself from the bar and headed back outside to talk to him.

"Alex, oh my god I just heard the news! That's fantastic," he said through the phone, I could hear the smile in his voice.

"Thank you Austin, I'm so excited," I bit my lip as I smiled.

"Dana said you'd be here in a couple days? I can't wait to meet you," he gushed over the phone, making me laugh in flattery.

"Me too," I said, looking back inside as Kyle, Amaya and Lucas chatted.

"You sound busy, I'll call you later?" I guess he could hear the bar chatter.

"I'd like that, thanks for calling me. I'll talk to you later," I said, saying our goodbyes and hanging up the phone.

I stared down at my phone at Evan's contact once more, and sighed. It didn't matter how hard I tried to form new relationships, Evan was like a bad smell that wouldn't go away. Regaining my composure, I went back inside to sit with my friends.