the fourth roommate » alex ernst

THREE

"That's so sweet," my hand went over my heart as I saw Alex petting his bunny at the end of the prank. He had gotten really pissed in the video, and when he was yelling at David, he looked very embarrassed in real time. "That's adorable, seriously."

David was pulling into a parking garage that he claimed was a block or two away from Buffalo Wild Wings. I had been trying to pay attention while he was driving since I had only been in town for three weeks and knew where nothing was, but Alex was a very distracting person. We left the beautiful Tesla like some rich ass twenty year olds, which made me feel unbelievably cool, especially with the weird Tesla doors that I got to open and close.

Los Angeles was terrifying, to be completely honest. There were so many weird street performers, and weird people in general, standing around and trying to make money. I had lived in a tiny town in Georgia, so catcalls were not a thing I had ever really experienced. Of course, when I went to Atlanta for jobs and fun nights with friends, I experienced a few whistles and "how you doin', baby"s, but not to the extent that I had already experienced in LA. Every single time I went outside I got creepy men talking to me, even when I wore giant sweatshirts and loose pants. It was neverending. It didn't stop today either.

I could literally see Buffalo Wild Wings rounding the corner, and I was in the middle of thinking to myself, Wow, I made it, when I heard it.

"Ay, Barbie, how much for a night?" I turned my head at the voice, jaw dropped to the floor because while I had heard "damn, ma" and "nice ass", never in my life had I actually been referred to as a prostitute. I made eye contact with the gross man and almost said something, but it was unnecessary. Alex had already beaten me to it.

"Go fuck yourself, asshole," he never turned towards the man and wrapped an arm around my shoulder to keep me moving. His jaw was clenched and his face was red, and I realized how attracted I was to him. "I swear, LA guys are fucking dickheads."

"Calm down, babe," I called everyone I ever met babe, so I didn't think it was a big step. He still looked pissed, so I grabbed the hand that hung over my shoulder and kissed it. "Hey, it's fine. Chill out."

David and Liza were probably thirty feet ahead of us, already standing at the door of the restaurant and staring back at us.

"Thank you, though. You didn't have to do that," I smiled at him and he looked down at me, nodding with a straight face. I could tell he was angry, and apparently David could too.

"What'd you do to him? Reject him?" David joked and pointed the camera at the two of us.

"Some fucking asshole was calling her a prostitute and shit," Alex rolled his eyes at the thought and kept his arm over my shoulders. While kissing his hand I had interlocked our fingers and I had yet to let go, so our arms were just hanging there over my right shoulder.

"No way, I didn't even get it on camera?" David asked and I giggled at his serious question.

"Sorry, but you guys ditched us," I shrugged, and that's when Alex realized he still had an arm wrapped around me. I let his hand go and he dropped his arm off of my shoulders. "Would've been great footage."

"Fucking amazing clickbait, dude. He called her a prostitute," Alex lightened up and laughed at the situation. I didn't know exactly what clickbait was, but I assumed it had something to do with a way to make people watch your videos. I used to be obsessed with Joe Sugg for probably a month, and I felt like I vaguely remembered him mentioning it. Still, I had so much to learn.

We sat down at a table towards the back at Buffalo Wild Wings where I officially began to stress out. I rarely ever ate at new places because menus I had never read made me overwhelmed and sometimes gave me panic attacks, so my meals in Georgia consisted mainly of Applebee's and Chili's, places I had been going since I was very little. Obviously I was going to get wings, but exactly how big were small, medium or large wings? I had no clue what I needed.

"What are you guys getting?" I asked after a few moments of silence. I squeezed the lemon into my water and shifted my eyes from Liza, who was in front of me, to David, who was to her right, and Alex who was beside me.

"Wings?" Liza answered sarcastically, causing me to roll my eyes and cross my arms over my chest. "Kidding. I'm getting small boneless wings with medium sauce."

"Okay. How big is small? These sizes make no fucking sense," I sighed, placing my forehead in my hand as I stared at the menu.

"Calm down," Alex chuckled at my slight mental breakdown. "You want small."

"I do?"

"Yes, you do."

"If you fuck me up, I'm going to kill myself."

"Mason, I swear on my life I won't fuck you up."

---

After we ate our meal, David drove us to the hotel I was staying at so I could collect my things.

"You stayed here?" Liza asked incredulously as she looked over the dirty, run down motel. Starlite Motel was small, baby blue in color, and incredibly dingy. Even I surprised myself for staying in it as long as I did. The group followed me to my room, 311, and seemed even more grossed out by the appearance inside. It wasn't that bad, I had stayed in worse, but it was pretty nasty.

Only one of my suitcases had been opened in the past three weeks, so it didn't take long for me to shove the loose clothes and toiletries back in, along with my phone charger.

"Okay, I think I've got everything," I checked the room one last time before nodding to myself in satisfaction. "Yeah, I'm ready. Gotta check out though."

David and Liza carried my bags to the car while Alex and I went to check out. I told him I could've done it alone, but he was convinced the creepy middle aged man in the lobby would be anything but nice to me.

"Hey man, we need to check out," Alex put the key on the counter and death stared the man behind it. He rearranged his glasses and stared right back at Alex, a disgustingly smug smirk on his face.

"The beautiful girl checked in alone," the man challenged Alex, raising his eyebrows. I took a deep breath and fake smiled at him.

"Listen, you have my card number and I've already been charged, so I'm leaving the key here and we'll be on our way," I pushed the key across the counter,
closer to the owner. "Have a nice night."

I grabbed Alex's arm to pull him behind me despite his stubborn feet keeping him planted in his spot. He huffed, giving the creep one last glare, and followed me out of the lobby and back to the parking lot. As we approached the car, the doors opened, shocking me for the twentieth time that day.

"That is the coolest thing I've ever seen," I repeated for the hundredth time as a large smile grew on my face. It was only this morning that I had never met these people, but I already felt how different my life was. I mean, I was in a Tesla for God's sake, in LA with people who seemed like they liked me and I was so, so far away from Georgia and the people there and the feeling was indescribable. Absolute bliss.

I wondered how long it would last for.

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Jskfka ik this chapter is short so dont hate me but im trying so hard bc ppl are actually reading this book, no one ever reads my books lol so this is different.

The next chapter will take a while bc I'm going to write two chapters before I post one, that way i always have one backup chapter if I just can't get around to writing for a few days

Also IK EVERYTHING IS MOVING FAST but i want it to!! This book is 100% inspired by all of the songs where the girl is in charge and the guy is just following her lead, like There's Nothing Holdin' Me Back by Shawn Mendes and Carolina & Only Angel by Harry Styles so the point is that they go in really quickly and don't know what's happening. Also I think David and the group are so nice and fun that you could get close with them really quick, I mean they put most of their lives on the internet so they aren't keeping much to themselves

Anyways vote and comment thank u for reading!!