the fourth roommate » alex ernst

SEVEN

I felt weird taking a shower in the apartment. The lock on the door was broken, there were only male products in the shower, and it smelled kind of weird in the bathroom. I still felt like I wasn't truly living there; maybe it was the fact that I didn't have my bed or my clothes weren't unpacked.

I finished my shower and changed into a big sweatshirt and some spandex shorts, tying my wet hair up into a bun. I knew the next day I had a shoot, so they would fix my hair and face then, so I wasn't really worried about it. I finished my skincare routine in the bathroom then left, throwing the clothes I wore that day back into one of my suitcases. I finally felt clean. I had been terrified of the shower at my motel, so the only time my hair had gotten clean was when I got a job.

I never ate much after eight o'clock, so for dinner I just took out a few strawberries from the fridge to eat, and I plopped down next to Alex on the couch.

"Hi."

"Hi."

We sat in silence for a while, watching some Will Ferrell movie that was on TV. I didn't really like him, so I could never remember which movie was which. Alex seemed to enjoy it; he laughed at every stupid joke on screen.

"Where is Dom?" I asked, knowing he wasn't anywhere in the apartment or else it would smell like weed.

"I think he went to pick up your key," Alex looked at me when he talked to me, completely taking his attention off the movie that I thought he was loving.

"I could've done that! I'm such a bad roommate," I sighed and felt the insecurities eating away at me. First full day in, and I felt like these boys already hated me. It seemed like they accepted me because they thought I was hot, but they were going to figure out how annoying I was real quick, and I think they were starting to.

"It's okay; it's not like Dom has anything better to do," Alex joked and pulled an arm up over the top of the couch, basically wrapping it around me. I internally freaked out as if it were the first time though I knew we had already slept in the same bed. Alex gave me butterflies no matter what he did.

"Yeah, but..." I trailed off, raising my eyebrows for emphasis. "I could help or something. I will cook for him."

"He ate before he left," Alex warned me, but I was already up and in the kitchen, taking out the ingredients for white chocolate macadamia cookies. Sadly, when I moved from Georgia, I had to leave my prized possession at home: my beautiful three hundred dollar lavender stand mixer. Even without it, I was ready to make these boys some cookies in return for them letting me live there.

Alex never said anything else, occasionally turning around when I would bang the spoon too loud against the bowl. Dom came in just as I put the cookies in the oven, and David left his room when the scent perfumed throughout the whole apartment.

"You made cookies?" he was genuinely happy, looking between me and the pan of hot cookies that I was moving to a different pan to cool down. I put the hot pan in the sink.

"Yeah, you guys have been such good roommates so far. I really like to cook and stuff, so I figured I'd make you cookies!" I smiled at the three boys who were staring at me in awe. I think Alex assumed I didn't know how to cook, but the smell of the cookies made him feel better.

"Hold on, hold up the pan," I held the pan up to my chest and smiled at David's phone. I knew I didn't look my best, makeup free and wet hair tossed in a messy bun, but I didn't care. "Now you're on my snapchat."

I reminded myself to check that later. Yesterday afternoon, before David left for Liza's, the four of us had exchanged all of our information and social medias just in case. They were shocked at my kind of large Instagram following; I guess since I came from a small town. While I was thinking about it, I also reminded myself to watch David's latest vlog because he told me it was all about me.

"Mason, you're actually the best roommate ever," Dom said, shoveling a cookie into his mouth. I had zoned out to the point that I didn't even notice them moving deeper into the kitchen to steal the cookies off the cooling tray.

"I've lived with them for two years and they've never made me anything for being a good roommate."

"Well, Alex said Dom went to get my key and I felt bad because I could've done it so..." I trailed off and felt my insecurities eating me alive. "I guess it was kind of stupid, wasn't it?"

"You really need to stop doubting yourself all the time," Alex laughed and with one hand holding a hot cookie, the other wrapped around me and pulled me into his chest. "No matter what you do, you're cool. Don't be so worried about what we think."

I nodded into his chest and he released me, a blush over my cheeks and the tip of my nose. No one commented on it.

"Speaking of your key," Dom was now on the other side of the counter, so he slid the key across to me. I took off my necklace, which I never take off, and slipped the golden key on next to the golden locket, then put it right back on my neck. Very Zoey101-esque, but since I didn't even have car keys here, I really didn't have any other place to keep it.

I slept on the couch that night, after I heard the noise again during a movie and David laughed and told me it was the ice maker. I woke up early the next morning for my job, so I didn't think anyone else was awake yet. I didn't even change out of my pajamas, just sliding on some fuzzy socks and Nike slides and leaving the apartment with my phone in hand.

My work always sent a driver to pick me up and drop me off from different jobs; his name was Eduardo and he was incredibly nice.

"You get moved in okay, Miss Belle?" he asked when I hopped into his black SUV. I talked to him a lot on the way to and from jobs, so he knew a lot about my life.

"Yeah, my roommates are so nice. But they're all boys! I showed up to look at the place thinking they were girls," explaining the situation made me giggle. I was honestly readying myself for Alex Russo or something in the elevator, so Dom answering the door definitely threw me offguard. "They are awesome though. And kinda famous!"

"Famous, wow. That's what happens when you live in LA. Everyone's famous," his English always deteriorated the closer we got to whichever studio we were going to. I noticed it the first time I rode with him, and I guessed it was because he was focusing on driving. Whenever he stopped giving complete sentences, I usually stopped talking.

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After a long day in the studio, I was finally on the way home, hair left loosely curled and face covered in a thick layer of makeup. I had changed back into the pajamas I wore to work as opposed to the Sherri Hill dresses I had been wearing all day. Eduardo dropped me off at the door and I waved him off, feeling the weight of the day coming in on me and all I wanted to do was take a nap (or maybe, since it was already seven o'clock, go to bed).

That didn't happen, though. When I unlocked the door to my apartment, I instantly heard loud voices and sighed, almost ready to cry. I just wanted food and to go to bed. I took a few deep breaths at the front door, readying myself for whoever was in my apartment on the longest day of my life. I walked down the hallway and into the living room, shocked at what I saw. Not only was there a midget in our apartment and our coffee table was destroyed, but I would recognize the face of the man sitting on our couch anywhere. As a huge Nickelodeon person growing up, I knew exactly who was sitting right in front of me, staring at me like I was crazy.

"Holy fucking shit."

Everyone stopped their conversations to look at me, and that's when it happened. I started feeling light headed and wobbly. Before I knew what was happening, my mind went black and I fell backwards.

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Here we are w another chapter bc I have no life!!! Anyways over 600 reads in 8 days is so cool so thanks guys!!! If you like this book please continue to vote/comment/tell ur friends !!

I'm honestly still shook from shawn mendes which is my excuse why this chapters a bit late but really i have no excuse. Hopefully we're going to get a little deeper into mason's personal life in the next couple of chapters so be sure to look out for that

Also one of my favorite things as a writer is dropping foreshadowing in certain scenes so when people reread this book they comment "im a rereader and im shook" like on chapter 4 and no one understands but they do lol

ANYWAYS THANK U SO MUCH FOR READING HAVE A BOMB ASS DAY LOVE U MISS U KISS U -abby