*NOTE: In the mood for some good old Alex/Elias banter? DEFINITELY Check out the Audiobook (by clicking the video above) version of this chapter voiced by kaelking12 (Kristen Maglonzo)! Featuring music by Andrew Bell, Kevin Garrett, Hot Hot Heat, OK Go!

Elias

She hates me.

Even after three hundred and sixty five days of hoping she wouldn't...

...she fucking hates me.

And I thought I'd be ready for it.

I thought I could deal with the idea of her never wanting to talk me again.

That I could handle her turning down everything I wrote. But obviously----I can't.

I'm standing here, holding on to the only book I care about in front of the only girl I care about, and she won't even take it.

She hardly has it in her to look at it.

And it doesn't matter that I'm on the verge of begging her to.

Or that my hands are fucking shaking and that my heart's about thirty seconds away from dropping out of my chest.

She's done.

With this.

With me.

With whatever it was I thought we'd have once we saw each other again.

And I don't know how to turn things around.

I open my mouth to say something, to try to tear through the silence sitting between us, but she shushes me before I can speak.

"Don't. Things will be easier if we just--"

"Pretend? Sure, Alex. I'll just shut my eyes, plug my ears, and pretend that you're not here. If you need me, I'll be in the corner humming to myself."

A hundred little stress lines explode across her forehead, and her cheeks flush red the way they always do when she's pissed. She'd be easier to ignore if her face wasn't so damn distracting.

"Please, go right ahead. Actually, if you wouldn't mind making yourself disappear while you're at it, I'd be eternally grateful."

"No can do, princess. I'm famous now, remember? Even if I did disappear, my name and face would still haunt you. You're stuck with me, Jersey. Better get used to it."

She crosses her arms over her chest and trains her eyes on mine.

"No one is stuck with anybody, Elias! This is not last summer, we aren't roommates, we aren't even friends--"

We're a hell of a lot more than that.

"--because friends stay in touch."

Here she goes.

"I did, Jersey. What the hell do you think this is?"

"A cheap shot at fame?" She says.

I pop the pressure out of my knuckles just to try to stay calm, but I'm losing it. I'm trying not to, but she's pushing so many buttons that my half-boiled balls are hardly bothering me anymore.

Okay, no. That's bullshit. My boys are still throbbing like crazy, but a little café à la nuts is nothing compared to the things she's saying to me right now.

"I don't give a shit about fame, Jersey."

"Oh really? I thought you did, Mr. 'I'm famous'. Cut the crap, Elias. You love it. You love the attention. You love the girls, and that's all this is. A way for you to win yourself into fan girl panties one chapter at a time."

I wanna prove her wrong. To show her how far I've come from being the guy I was last summer. But all she remembers is his shadow. His mistakes. The Elias King who tore her trust into a thousand little pieces and threw it to the wind on Belmar Beach.

One text could've changed so much about that day.

I could've said a thousand other things that would've kept this from happening.

I could've told her the truth.

But the "truth" about me and Mindy would've ruined her at the time.

God knows, it ruined me.

But I sent what I sent.

I said what I said.

And now I have to live with the consequences.

I just hope those consequences don't mean having to go back to living without her.

"Look, I know I fucked up, and I get why you're pissed at me, but I--"

"You don't 'get' anything, Elias. You have no idea what's going on with me or my life, and I wanna keep it that way. So stop talking, turn around, and knock on Dr. Garret's door so we can go inside and get this over with."

She stares up at me like I'm standing between her and the rest of her whole life. Like I'm some big, stupid, roadblock keeping her from being happy. Keeping her from going back to Kai.

And she's right.

I am in her way.

But I put myself here to fix things.

And I'm not leaving until I do.

Back in rehab, I had it in my head that maybe if I wrote enough, that maybe if I sat down everyday and thought about how to put all the apologies I owed her on paper, that I could make things better.

That maybe I could fix everything that went wrong with us.

But she's still broken.

We're still broken.

And time didn't do anything but make shit worse.

Alex walks towards the examination room door, but I step between her and the handle before she can get her hands on it.

"I can wait, Jersey," I say.

My voice spills out of my mouth in pieces. The sound's so hollow it's hard to believe it belongs to me. I don't know what happened to the old Elias King. The guy who used to run his mouth like a damn faucet. The guy who used to spout out the first thing that popped into his head without thinking about it. But now I'm tripping over everything, stumbling on thoughts before they even reach my tongue.

I don't even know how to talk to her anymore. Maybe I never did.

"What are you even talking about?"

Us.

"T-the book. If you're not ready to read it right now, I get it, but I still want you to--"

Halfway into trying to hand my heart to her for the second time she slaps it out of my fingers and sends it flying towards the floor. Something, somewhere in my chest snaps the second the sound reaches my ears. Before I even I realize what I'm doing, I'm down on my knees with the book in my hand again, holding it out to her again.

She takes me by the shoulders and does her best to lift me off the ground, but I don't move. I anchor myself to the floor like a damn rock 'cause I'm not standing up until she takes that book. Real talk.

"Get up. You get up right now or I swear I'll--"

"You'll what? I thought we weren't friends, Jersey. You shouldn't care about what I'm doing right now."

She cracks her neck like she's getting ready for a boxing match and leans closer to me than I'm prepared for.

"Friends or not, I don't wanna be embarrassed when Dr. Garrett opens the--"

"Mr. King, I'm ready for--oh, am I interrupting something important?"

I turn around to see a super smiley dude who looks more like the actors they get to play doctors on TV, than a real shrink.

He's definitely the most ripped guy I've ever seen in a lab coat, and to make things worse, his teeth are like, Clorox Bleach white. I whip back around to face Jersey, only to see sparkles and fucking rainbows pouring out of her eyes over Dr. Garrett.

Seeing her make out with Kai was one thing, but at least that was short lived. Watching her drool over the kinda guy who gives Denzel Washington a run for his money in the looks department is gonna fuck up my day worse than it already is.

"Actually--"

"Not at all, Dr. Garett! We were just about to walk-in," Alex says.

Her voice comes out all weird and girly to the point where it hardly sounds like her own. Or maybe this is what she sounds like when she's talking to guys she's actually into. Fuck.

"Are you sure, young lady? If your boyfriend's down on one knee that usually only means one thing."

Jersey starts waving her hands around like a panicked chicken and shaking her head back and forth fast enough to hurt herself.

Great.

At least now I know how's she'd react if I actually tried to marry her. Whatever. I'm never getting married anyway. My parents tried it, and it didn't work, so fuck that.

"Oh, no, no, no. He just dropped something, and he's not my boyfriend he's just a...an acquaintance."

A what?

"Dr. Garrett, feel free to ignore her name calling. I am not an Atlantis, we're friends. As a matter of fact, I used to think she was one of the most friendly friends I had until she spilled coffee on my balls. That's why we're here, Doc."

Dr. Garrett glances down towards the obviously stained crotch of my shorts and winces. Good man, at least he understands the severity of my injuries. Unlike some.

"I see. Well, Mr. King, if you step inside I'll be happy to take a look at your problem. Need a hand?"

"Absolutely."

Thank God he offered. When I got on my knees, I didn't realize how hard trying to get back on my feet was gonna be. Garrett lifts me off the floor without even breaking a sweat and ushers me into the room.

Maybe he isn't so bad after all. After having to deal with people like Dr. Murray and Stacey, Garrett seems pretty alright. As long as he doesn't hit on Jersey, we'll be cool.

"Young lady, we'll need you in here too. The nurse told me to check your blood pressure, but with a pretty girl like you in the room, you may have to check mine."

Yeah, about what I said earlier...scratch that. Garrett's blacklisted.

Jersey flashes him a flowery smile and practically floats into the examination room. I'm not even a quarter of the way over to the patient table when Jersey asks the doc the one question I hoped she wouldn't.

"Dr. Garrett, is it okay if I go first? Since all you need to do is check my blood pressure I think it would be best if--"

"Slow your roll, Jersey. I'm his patient, not you. Just sit back, relax, and wait your turn like the angel you are."

She flips her hair over her shoulders and cocks just enough to perfect her side-eye.

"I would, but there's this thing called logic and if you knew how to use it, maybe you'd realize that it makes no sense for me to go second when my examination takes thirty seconds."

Is it weird that I like it when she insults me?

Oh well.

Bottom line, if we ever do make up, the sex is gonna be out of this world.

#Quoteme.

(Part 2 coming around Wednesday! How'd you guys like the audio? Me and Kristen (kaelking12) love reading your comments <3)