the fourth roommate » alex ernst

SEVENTEEN

Eloise Holbrook Belle died three days later, sitting on her bench seat while Alex and I were off to lunch. The whole ordeal was traumatic and entirely hard to talk about, but Alex got me through it. We flew home to next week, and although I was still shaken from the whole ordeal, I felt a lot better being with people I loved.

"Hey, Mas," David hugged me as soon as he hopped out of his car. He came to pick us up from the airport when we flew back, and he was obviously keeping his usual giddy exterior to a minimum. "I'm sorry about your grandma."

"Don't be sorry," I replied, smiling up at him. "Turn that frown upside down!"

"Just for you," his lips turned up in a smirk. "I missed you. Me and Dom can't function without you two."

"What do you mean?" I asked as I watched Alex stuff our backs into the back with no help. I was tempted to kiss him for being so nice, but not with David in front of us.

"Alex just yells all the time and makes us get stuff done, and you literally cook and clean every single night. You're like a mom we didn't know we needed," his words made me laugh because it was true, but I didn't mind. My favorite passtimes were cooking and cleaning, so it's not like I was slaving away for no reason.

"What'd you ever do without me?" I posed the question as I hopped in the Tesla. I had gotten past the 'wow I'm so cool I'm in a Tesla' phase and now officially felt like a douche every time David lifted the butterfly doors. I got stuck in the backseat alone, which wasn't fair, but I let it slide.

"Is it okay if we stop by the house for a couple hours or do you want to go home?" I had learned after a while that when David said "the house" he was referring to Jason, Scotty, Todd and Kristen's home since that's where everyone usually hung out. I shrugged; I was tired, but never one to intrude on anyone else's fun.

"If I need to sleep, I can probably sleep in Jason or Todd's room, so it doesn't really matter to me," I added when he gave me an unconvinced look in the rearview mirror. "Seriously, let's do whatever. The plane ride was only like four hours."

So, we did. David drove us to the house and I sat and talked for an hour before the jetlag hit me. Heath and Zane and a guy named Dom were over, and they all seemed to know what happened and were attempting to baby me, but I cut that off real quick.

"Holy guac, this is so awkward!" I yelled after another awkward silence that I knew was caused by me. I guess they were scared I would break down, but what I needed was to be treated like a normal person. "Can't we drink or something? Or maybe you guys just act normal?"

"Honey, this is normal," Heath responded in his little voice and I had to roll my eyes.

"No, usually y'all are complete assholes to me, but tonight I'm being treated like a second grader," I contradicted, raising an eyebrow smugly because I knew I was right. I heard someone mutter y'all under their breath, making fun of me, and laughed. "See, that's the spirit! Let's fucking party!"

30 minutes later, I was a little past tipsy and talking to my new friend Dommy D about all of my boy problems.

"Boys just suck, you know? I thought I was gonna marry that kid," I sighed and leaned back against the couch. I was talking about Jack and had gotten fairly depressed. "But guess not."

"You need to fuckin' dance," he decided after a few minutes, getting up and walking (a bit impaired, but still walking) to the speaker and turning up the volume. A Demi Lovato song I remembered from my childhood, Here We Go Again, played much louder. I immediately stood and started singing along.

"So how did you get here under my skin? Swore that I'd never let you back in! Should've known better than trying to let you go 'cause here we go, go, go again! I threw all of your stuff away... and cleared you out of my head... I tore you out of my heart! Oh, oh! Oh, oh!" this song was a bop, and in my half drunk state, I was living for it. I jumped up and down, dancing with Dom and Jason who also decided to join. We sang along to the next few songs before I felt myself slowing down and feeling extremely tired.

"Toddy, can I sleep in your bed?" I asked after my head bobbed a few times and I thought I was going to pass out. "I'm clean, promise."

"Yeah, of course, babe," he waved me off before going back to his conversation with Jason, who I realized was filming. I immediately felt like a bitch for interrupting their shot but it looked like a casual, unscripted bit. I left the living room soon after that, flopping in to Toddy's bed with a huff.  It was a long day and I wanted to sleep.

I stirred when the bed dipped, unsure of who thought they had the right to come lay in the same bed as me.

"Holy guacamole, who the fuck are you?" I squealed and tried to pull away until I noticed the chipped black nail polish of the hand on my hip. "Aw, baby, you came to sleep with me?"

"Shh," Alex's hand found my mouth and covered it up. I licked it until he removed it. "You're disgusting."

"Says you."

"What do you mean says me? I'm not disgusting."

"Alex, you wouldn't do laundry if I weren't here to remind you. That's disgusting," I joked, pulling his hand to my lips to kiss it. "Thank you for coming with me, by the way. I know I've already said it, but... you didn't have to come."

"Can you turn around?" it was silent for a few seconds before he asked this question, and I was nervous, to say the least. I had a bad feeling that he was going to cut us off at this point, and I kind of wanted to pretend I was asleep so he couldn't. I flipped my body around to face him and looked up at him expectantly. "Okay, don't freak out."

I pulled my head back slightly to create some distance between us, just in case. "What do you mean?"

Once again, I was met with silence. Alex was staring upwards at the wall instead of looking me in the eyes.

"Alex, just tell me."

"Okay..." his eyes finally shifted down to look at me directly. "I think I love you. Like, love love. Like I think I'm in love with you."

"What?"

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BITCH SHIT JUST GOT REALLLL LOL

HIII GUYS HOPEFULLY THIS CHAPTER GETS US TO 2k READS AND IF IT DOES THANK U SO SO MUCH I LOVE U GUYS SO MUCH ITS SOOOO AWESOME

please vote and comment and all tbat jazz and most importantly LET ME KNOW UR THOUGHTS!!! Are they moving too fast? Are they the greatest couple on earth?? Is the answer to both those questions yes???

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