Find Her, Keep Her (CFTM Sequel)

Chapter 6 (Part 1)

Elias

So there's like, nine-hundred screaming, crying, half-crazed college girls standing outside my dorm's parking lot right now.

Problem is...

....they all showed up for me.

Fuck.

If I was fourteen and still as obsessed with myself as I used to be, the fact that Justin Bieber level chaos is breaking out on my first day on campus, probably would've made my year.

I would've popped out of Tanner's car, riled up the crowd, and posted that shit on Instagram just to see how many likes I'd get.

But I don't care about fame, or followers, or the hoards of people trying to break past UCLA security just to find out where Tanner parked so they can find me.

I just wanna get outta here and into my room where nobody knows who I am.

But it looks like that's gonna be damn near impossible today.

Caleigh's been cradling my head in her lap for the last fifteen minutes 'cause my skull's throbbing from seeing that crowd outside. She's got her hands in my hair and keeps whispering that things are gonna be okay.

But nothing's okay.

'Cause I've got a mob full of girls holding posters with my name and face on it, and I haven't exactly told anyone in my family the reason why.

"Elias--?"

"Not right now, Tanner."

"Look, I'm not trying to stress you out, man, but, I feel like I kinda missed something major," he says.

"You did, but I'll tell you about it later, my head hurts," I say.

Tanner whips around and glares at me like a lost puppy. I hate when he makes this this face almost as much as I hate when he interrogates me.

"I've got two Tylenol if you've got two minutes to explain things. Meds for info, bro?"

Caleigh leans into the front seat and slaps him across the back of the head. I'd be laughing if my brain wasn't bleeding out of my ears.

"Leave him alone, babe. You know how he handles stress and this--"

Caleigh cracks the window and a wall of screams seeps inside the car and rattles my bones.

"--is out of control," she says.

The thing is, it wasn't supposed to be like this. Sure, I might have broken the million mark on Twitter and Instagram last month, but I didn't think people gave a damn about me offline. 

Turns out they do.

Dan warned me to keep an eye on my following, but I haven't been paying attention--until today.

"Maybe we should go home," she says.

But I don't wanna go home. I can't, not after everything I did to get here.

There may be a thousand girls outside, but there's only one face I'm looking for.

"No. I'll be fine. They'll calm down eventually, and if they don't, the Dean promised he'd get security to break up the crowds if--"

"The Dean? As in the Dean of UCLA? How does he even know you? When did you guys--? I'm confused," Tanner says.

Good. Confusion's better than clarity when it comes to Tanner being in on my secrets.

"Tanner, I promise I'll tell you everything later, but right now you've gotta stop talking, so I can figure out how the hell we're gonna get outta here. Honestly, I don't even know how those girls found out I was coming. Fucking Google."