Bookshop Encounters (Chris Kendall/Crabstickz) Bk 1: FF Series

Chapter Three: Housing Issues

Chapter Three: Housing Issues

RACHEL

A week had passed since my run in with the fantastic foursome. I haven't seen or heard from any of the guys since; I knew they only pitied me when they told me that we'd meet up again. But like the fool I was I actually got my hopes up, I let people in too freely and only end up getting hurt in return. Why would four famous youtubers want to hand out with a nobody like me?

Don't get me wrong they hadn't completely lied to me because when I got home that night, I saw that they had all followed me on Twitter which made my notifications blow up. I was too scared to tweet any of them since they hadn't made any effort to get back in touch with me.

I needed to get the guys out of my head; I needed to focus on more pressing issues in my life. I was homeless, I wasn't living on the streets but I wasn't exactly living in comfort either. I should explain how I ended up without a roof over my head.

Rent in London was ridiculously high, even for some of the less clean places. As much as I hated and loathed my one bedroom, I hated my pervert landlord more. He knew I was behind on rent so he called me down to his room and pretty much offered me free rent if I slept with him whenever he wanted.

Apparently he found me attractive which was why I got the room in the first place. I punched the sleaze bag in the face and ran up to my room, I quickly packed what little I owned and fled into the night.

Luckily Gale, the sweet lady who owns the bookshop was supportive. She said I could live in the back room of the bookshop for free until I found my own place and got myself back on my own two feet. That was a week ago and I was starting to hate sleeping on a grotty sofa which made my back hurt.

Which was why I'd spent the majority of the day trying to find a cheap place online. I wasn't having the best of luck especially in my low price range. Maybe I was destined to live in the back room for the rest of my life. I hadn't posted a video or a vlog in just over a week and my fans were asking questions because it wasn't like me to ignore them for this long. I didn't have the heart to tell them my situation because I was embarrassed at how low I had fallen.

I was so preoccupied with my flat hunt that I didn't hear the little bell above the door chime indicating that we had a customer.

A shadow loomed over the counter and someone cleared their throat, in my preoccupied state the sudden noise startled me and I nearly fell backwards off my stool.

"Sorry. I didn't mean to spook you Rachel."

I blinked a few times, I recognised the voice. It belonged to Chris Kendall. Wait, what was he doing here? Oh crap my laptop, I quickly tried to close it but his hand swatted mine away and turned the laptop to face him.

"Not so fast love, why are you looking at flats? Don't you already have one? Also by the quickness I assumed that you were on one of the many Crabstickz fan pages."

I snorted.

"Don't get your hopes up Chris. Anyway why is it any of your business why I'm looking and well failing to find my new place?"

He seemed slightly taken aback by my little outburst but he quickly composed himself.

"You're right, you don't really know me and vice versa, so you don't have to tell me."

I sighed and ran a hand through my tangled hair, was I really going to tell Chris what was going wrong in my life? I'd seen his videos so I knew that he was a joker, would he mock me? Would he laugh? I doubted he ever took anything seriously.

"Chris, you have to swear on your life that you won't tell anyone. It's kind of embarrassing and I've never sunk this low before."

CHRIS