© 2017 Shay Spencer. All rights reserved.

The Distance Theory

Chapter 3

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Cliche's had dominated the vast majority of my life. From falling for my best friend to moving in an attempt to run away from old problems; it was as if I couldn't escape them. But one cliche I was determined to steer clear of was having feelings for my new, very broodingly attractive roommate.

I had made the mistake twice before in falling for the men closest to me, as Lewis so kindly reminded me when I got home the day before. So I wasn't about to continue on making the same mistakes.

Knowing what was on the line with my new living situation, I thought it was to keep my distance from our new roommate; especially after our interaction the night before. As far as I knew, Elijah now disliked me to whatever degree he saw fit, and I was okay with that. Having another roommate was the last thing I could have wanted, but as luck would have it, Eli was now apart of my life. I couldn't ignore that.

The most I could do about the situation was to accept it, and to try my best to deal.

So last night, I had stayed hidden in my room, only leaving for the essentials like midnight snacks and water. I had even avoided taking a shower for fear that I would run into Eli again. I was more than happy to prove Lewis wrong, show him that I didn't just fall for any guy that happened to walk it to my life.

But even if I tried as hard as I could to avoid these cliche's, sometimes, the universe had it's way of wanting to push you in your least favorite direction.

As I walked out into the living room, I could hear the shower running. Knowing that Lewis could never be bothered to wake up at this hour, I had a hunch it was Elijah in our one bathroom.

I made my way into the kitchen, grabbing a water bottle and an apple out of our refrigerator before my phone began buzzing in my pocket for the first time this morning. Why someone felt the need to call me at five in the morning was beyond me.

I frowned as the same foreign number from the night before popped up on my screen, practically begging me to answer. I turned in the direction of my room, knowing it would be best to take the call behind closed doors, before I slammed right into Eli.

He was far more damp than I would have liked.

"Bree," he jumped back, grabbing onto the towel that was wrapped loosely around his lower half. My eyes shot up from my phone, meeting his equally disturbed gaze. "I thought you had afternoon classes."

"I do," I nodded awkwardly. "But I've got the first portion of my internship Monday mornings. The rest of the week it's after school."

Eli kept his left hand tied to the towel that threatened to fall even lower, while he began to scratch his neck awkwardly with his right. It took everything in me not to inspect his overly apparent abs at a moment like this.

"I'm sorry-" we both began to stutter.

He held up his hand to stop me, "it was my fault. I should have remembered clothing."

I bit my lip to keep the uncomfortable smile off my lips. "It's fine. I'll be gone in a few minutes anyway."

"Did you forget something?" He asked, the man sounding almost bored as he slicked back his still wet, black hair.

I shook my head, looking back down at my phone to see the call had dropped sometime during my encounter with Eli. I no longer had any need to rush back to my room.

"Actually no," I huffed. Without a second thought, I pushed my phone back into my pocket.

"I won't let it happen again." He hushed, silently reminding me that Lewis was still asleep.

I nodded, tossing my apple between one hand and the other, "I know."

"I'll try to remember-"

"You're room is like right across from the bathroom," I interrupted with an intimidated laugh. "It's fine that you didn't remember clothes. It was just this once."

Eli merely nodded back at me. "I was going to say I'll remember your schedule. Try and shower after you leave, or something like that."

I took a deep breath, warding off any more ramblings that threatened to escape my lips. Before I embarrassed myself any further, I managed to take a step back from Eli, pointing off in the direction of the door. "I'll be going now."

"Okay," he barely murmured after me. I waved to him over my shoulder as I strode out of the house, closing the door behind me. I made sure to walk far enough away from the house before breathing a sigh of relief.

Of course Lewis would have to pick an a bitterly attractive roommate.

# # #

I couldn't contain the sigh that escaped my lips as I pulled into one of the last parking places on this floor of the parking garage. Pulling my bag over my shoulder and grabbing my keys, I stepped out of my car and closed the door quickly behind me. My supervisor would kill me if I was late again, but Lewis didn't seem to care.

"We talked about it over lunch, actually," Lewis mused into the phone. I could feel my cheeks heating up at the memory, and at knowing I would never be able to live this one down. "Eli seemed pretty indifferent about the whole thing. The guy had more expression before you got ahold of him."

"I haven't been home yet, and I barely said anything to him this morning," I bit my lip nervously. Taking each step from the parking garage to the elevator with care. The paving was uneven at this high level, and I knew that my boss wouldn't appreciate another one of my 'tripped' excuses as to why I had shown up late. "But he didn't say anything?"

"Yeah," Lewis basically huffed back at me. Even without Lewis standing in front of me, I could tell how much this little situation was affecting him; despite the fact that he hadn't actually been involved in it. "But you know how it goes. You might render a guy speechless when you find him in only a towel before five in the morning."

"Lewis-" I groaned.

"Don't you Lewis me!" He cut me off abruptly. "I told you not to do this!"

"And it's my fault the guy forgot a change of clothes? I wasn't the one walking around in a towel at five in the morning."

"Well you may as well have been," Lewis warned. "I want this to work out, Bree. I don't want to have to get assigned another new roommate before the semester ends."

"I know," I agreed. Now knowing that we would be forced into having a third roommate either way, I was more than happy to try my best in steering clear of Eli. Though it didn't sound like he had too many other options himself, it would be best if I didn't find him shirtless again. "I want it to work, too. Trust me."

"And trust me when I say I'll kick you out if something weird like this happens again," he threatened.

"You don't have the guts."

"For hell I do," Lewis hissed. There was a small pause on his side of the phone as I waited endlessly for the elevator to arrive. "You want to get pizza tomorrow?"

"Why not tonight?" I asked, starting to feel the after effects of skipping lunch. My stomach was growling loud enough for anyone in the parking garage to hear. It was almost as if I had only eaten an apple today, or something.

"I've got a video project that's going until pretty late tonight. Most of my partners are night owls like myself, so I won't be back until maybe midnight."

"I guess I'll see you late tomorrow, then?" I sighed, stepping into the elevator as the doors finally slid open. "It sucks how little I've been able to see you since school started back up again."

During the break, Lewis and I had spent every day together; doing whatever we pleased in our new city. The possibilities were just about endless, as neither of us had really spent that much time in Los Angeles. But once school started, we had both gotten so caught up with with our respective jobs and classes that we'd lost touch with one another.

That was all before the Eli incident, too.

"I am quite the friend. I don't blame you for missing me," Lewis sang. "But I promise, we'll eat dinner together tomorrow. Maybe we'll even watch High School Musical if we're feeling crazy."

"I'd really like that," I laughed as I clicked the button for the second to top floor of the building. "I'll see you tomorrow?"

"Don't do anything I wouldn't do," Lewis hushed into the phone before he hung up on me. I rolled my eyes at him, pushing my phone into my back pocket as I did.

Reaching out, I clasped my hands around the railing lining the walls of the elevator, feeling the elevator rise quickly. It was days like today that I was happy to have a work-filled internship like this. I would be stuck here until well into the night, and thankfully, I would be able to avoid Eli a little easier because of it.

The doors slid open a second time, the lobby of the floor opening up to me as I stepped onto the level ground. I made my way past reception, smiling as I strolled into the small closet like space they had set aside for their interns; myself included.

I took quick notice of the lack of interns hustling about, and of the large stack of papers sitting on my desk. I frowned as I took the last few steps, dropping my bag onto the ground and kicking it underneath my desk. The stack of papers was piled nearly two feet high, and I knew there was no chance in hell of me leaving any earlier than nine o' clock at night.

"Oh," Connor breathed a seeming sigh of relief as he strode confidently into the room. "I was starting to think you weren't going to show. I've got the rest of the interns sitting in on a meeting upstairs."

"I'm not even late," I defended, glancing down at the clock on my desk to double check the time.

"But you weren't early," he popped his eyebrows up and down before turning his attention to the papers. "And seeing as you're the last one here, you'll be on paperwork for the remainder of the day."

I closed my eyes in a small attempt to calm myself down before taking my seat. It wouldn't help me jump any further in my career as an author if I talked back to my supervisor.

Connor Cavanaugh was my illustrious supervisor, and conveniently, one of the top editors at the publishing house. He claimed time and time again that he had gotten stuck with the job, though there were times when he was helping one of the many interns that I would catch him smiling to himself at his job well done. He was a complex man in his mid-twenties, and the tight dress shirts he wore did him justice enough, as far as I was concerned.

But his over-exuding confidence only made him more of an ass at times like these.

"Thank you," I smiled politely back up at him.

"Before I forget," he said, pulling yet another packet from the clipboard in his hands. "This is all you're missing in the meeting. I'll be in my office overseeing the new batch of manuscripts if you have any questions."

"Wait," I called after him, standing from my seat as I scanned over the packet. "What is this? Find the next best bestselling author?"

"Read the packet, Bree," he ordered snidely. "Unlike me, it's there to explain. Try following directions next time."

With that, he made himself scarce for the second time today. I hated that I had been given Monday's to double up on my shifts. The other interns had it far easier than me. That, and with them sitting in on the meeting upstairs, they got the chance to evade Connor for another hour or so.

Shaking my head at myself, I trailed after Connor, stopping as he shut the door to his office abruptly in my face. Without stopping a second time to knock, I popped open the door and stepped inside.

"Are you even going to explain all the paperwork sitting on my desk?" I stood my ground, crossing my arms over my chest as I did. I had taken quite a bit from the man over the last two months, and I was more than over his attitude.

"It's the same type of paperwork you do here every day, Bree," he shot back absentmindedly. He kept his sight honed in on the very computer screen that lit up his face, highlighting the remainder of his good features; like his defined jawline, or his bright green eyes.

"And I'm the only one that has to do paperwork today?" I continued, vying for his attention.

He nodded, not daring to look up at me. "It's your day. Tomorrow it will be Brody's, the next it will be Daphne, the day after-"

"Trevor, I know," I cut him off. "I just-"

"You just what?" He gave me a look, one that showed me just how unamused he was by my small outburst. "You need to earn your position here. You do that by filling out paperwork every Monday. Get back to your desk." I nodded numbly before turning on my heal and twisting the doorknob.

Just as I opened the door, Connor's obnoxious phone ringing filled the small room.

"Yes," he answered. The man paused for only a second, waving me away as he caught sight of me looming in the doorway. "Astrid, I really don't think it's the time."

"Astrid?" I spoke up without thinking. "Astrid Free?"

"Bree!" He hissed, placing the phone over his chest. "Go, now."

His words struck me enough to make me stumble back out of his office in enough time to close the door before he returned to his conversation. There was no doubt I would be getting written up for my small act of defiance.

Turning the corner into the intern's office, my phone began buzzing in my back pocket; and as today's theme was bad decisions, I gave into the little distraction. I quickly pulled my phone from my pocket to see the unlisted number for the third time in less than twenty four hours.

Here goes nothing. "Hello?" I said, making my way towards my desk as I did.

The loud breathing on the opposite side of the phone caught my attention more than any words could have. "Who is this?" I tried, egging on whoever was on the other side.

"Bree," a familiar voice cracked halfway through my name.

"Alan," I nearly gasped before the line went dead. "Alan?" But it was no use, Alan had cut the call short for no reason whatsoever.

He had always had a problem with acting on impulse. It didn't seem like much had changed since the last time we'd crossed paths.

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Finally wrote a long chapter! I'm so sorry for the wait guys - but I really wanted to do this chapter justice. With writing for Something Real for the last few months, I've gotten used to writing shorter chapters.

But I do hope everyone liked it!

How do you guys think Bree will handle the unexpected call from Alan? Will she tell Lewis or keep yet another contact from their old friends a secret...

Remember to vote and comment with your thoughts guys! It would mean a lot ❤️

The next chapter will be posted on Monday - August 21st!