Text Message for Anderson Clark

[Alexia Dashwood-Dune]

Lexi crawled into bed before reaching for her phone to text Anderson.

You up for some bowling?

She slipped her phone into her pocket and stared up at the ceiling. Replaying everything that happened that day, she sighed and slammed a pillow over her head before screaming into it.

[Anderson Clark]

The desk was covered with all manner of books and charts, and the sound of a pencil scribbling furiously nearly matched the quiet music playing through Anderson's desktop speakers. He always listened to mood music when he was working, and tonight's selection was his classical music playlist. Currently, Edvard Greig's In The Hall Of The Mountain King was playing. It was one of Anderson's favorites.

The music was interrupted by a soft knock on his door. “Come in,” Anderson called out without even lifting his head. The door creaked open to reveal a middle aged lady dressed quite nicely in a very expensive looking gown.

“How's your schoolwork coming, dear?” Anderson's mother lingered at the doorway, glancing back at the clock.

Anderson shook his head slowly. He had very little homework this evening, and it had been finished a while ago. He was currently involved in working on the fine details of the D&D campaign he would be starting this weekend. He wondered if his mother even knew what he did in his free time. “Fine, Mom. Just fine,” he replied lifelessly. He could have said anything, sure she wouldn't have noticed.

“Excellent, dear. Well, I'm off to the Red Heart Fundraiser, you be a good boy tonight.” Her voice drifted back through the doorway. She hadn't even finished the sentence before making her way back into the hallway. Anderson looked up at the spot his mother had been occupying a second ago, then returned his focus to his work.

“Looks like they'll be heading into Waterdeep after all...” he murmured to himself, pleased with how the campaign was coming along. He had at least three to four sessions planned out already, with extra material in case the group got off track and followed one of his red herrings.

A garbled ringtone rose through the din of Anderson's room, Barenaked Ladies' Some Fantastic. Anderson instantly knew that particular song meant that Lexi was trying to get a hold of him, a text by the looks of it. He slid his phone open to find one simple sentence. He paused a moment, glancing back at the work on his desk. He had much to do to feel comfortable before Saturday, but he could hardly resist the chance to go bowling with a pretty girl, even if he knew it was just as friends. He had known Alexia Dashwood-Dune for a few years now, and if he ever had a window to date her it was no doubt closed tight by now. Anderson had come to the conclusion years ago women liked him for his ears rather than any other part of his body.

In a few moments he had typed up a quick reply and hit send.

Certainly my dear, I'll pick you up. Give me about 30 minutes and I'll be there. Call and reserve a lane?

[Alexia Dashwood-Dune]

After she let everything out in that scream, Alexia made sure no one was in the kitchen before raiding the fridge for the snack she had put away earlier and started munching in the kitchen nook. The house was eerily quiet without Raisa and their parents but she welcomed the silence as she continued to snack.

Her phone vibrated in her pocket and she took it out, reading it with a smile. If she didn't know Anderson as well as she already did, the term of endearment would have made Alexia think of grandpas who patted their grandkids heads. Shaking her head, she texted back before making the calls for the arrangements.

She raced up the stairs after the call and took a quick shower, washing her face and making sure it wasn't so obvious that she had been crying before. After her shower, Alexia looked through her closet and grabbed the first thing on the pile, which so happened to be a dark red lace trimmed camisole with spaghetti straps and jeans. She shrugged and put them on before running a brush through her hair to keep it down.

She looked at her face in the mirror and saw the red eyes and puffy nose. "Well crap..." she sighed before grabbing her concealer and tried hard to cover up the bulge under her eyes. She ended up doing her whole face when she found some acne on her forehead and chin. She just hoped Anderson didn't think she was putting on make-up for him. She really liked Anderson but she knew they respected each other too much to want anything more than being gaming buddies.

And she knew how Anderson felt about girls. He had never told her anything about his love life but he was always stuck on the friendship level and what's worst was for how much he was an effective Dungeon Master, controlling the players in the game, he could never control the players in his own life. And he always seemed to falter when he wants to go up the next level. And she definitely didn't want to make the first move. She didn't want Anderson to be the rebound guy. Not in this lifetime. He was too good a friend to compromise.

So it was because of that she removed the concealer and decided to heck with it, let Anderson see her as she was. It had been around half an hour when she was done getting ready so she went downstairs to wait for Anderson.

[Anderson Clark]

Anderson's car rolled up in front of Lexi's house. It was a bit of a drive from his own house, but he didn't mind. Plus, getting out of the house was much better than just sitting around. Anderson wasn't great at social events, so the more he got out the more practice he had. It was also hanging out with a girl, even though it was Lexi, and girls tended to smell better than his room.

He shut off the car and walked up to Lexi's front door, a path he had followed many times before. He didn't like just honking to let her know he was here, and it seemed like texting her was a waste of a text. He never minded actually walking up to the door. It wasn't long after he rang the bell that Lexi opened the door. “Hey Lexi,” he said, hugging his friend. He was right, her hair smelled great. She must have just taken a shower.

The pair walked back towards his car, and as usual he opened the door for her. Anderson did his best to act like a gentleman with any girl, even if he knew he never had a shot with them. It only seemed right to do, and since he barely ever saw his parents together in the same room, he never had a real-life couple to base his relationship knowledge off of.

He quickly walked around the car and got in the driver's side. As he started the car, he looked over at Lexi and smiled, but he noticed her eyes seemed a little puffy. Had she been crying? Anderson tried to act like he hadn't noticed, but he couldn't help but feel concerned. As he started to drive off, he tried to think of ways to bring it up, but his only option was to start with the park clean-up. Lexi had been really looking forward to that, so hopefully he could lighten her mood by talking about it.

“You look really pretty tonight, Alexia. How was the park clean-up?”

[Alexia Dashwood-Dune]

The doorbell indicated Anderson's arrival and Alexia took her time to answer the door as she slipped a few dollar bills into her jeans pocket along with her cell phone before swinging the door open with a little smile at her friend. The hug he gave her was something they normally did but Alexia hung on to him a little bit longer than the three seconds they usually spent on their hugs. "Hey Anderson. I'm glad you could come at such short notice." She smiled as they walked to his car.

She slid into the passenger seat and immediately buckled up, not thinking too much about him opening and closing the door for her as she was so used to it. When he started driving, she kept quiet and rested the side of her forehead on the cool car window. It was a comfortable silence she could only hope for from Anderson. The silence was broken by his complment followed by the dreaded question she didn't want to hear from anyone, including her friend. But there it was.

Alexia couldn't lie to Anderson, she never could lie in general really. After thanking him and complimenting him back as per their usual custom, she eradicated the sigh that was dying to escape from her lips before reliving the whole thing. Surprisingly, she did it without any tears but of course, it didn't stop the pain.

Once she got everything out of her chest, she turned to Anderson to see what he could assess from the situation. "You can be honest with me, my twin's already done worst." She leaned her head against the head rest and looked to Anderson for his reply.

[Anderson Clark]

Really, if Mew didn't want to date Lexi then he was crazy. There weren't a lot of girls at school that were as pretty and as cool as Miss Alexia Dashwood-Dune. Anderson guessed he could count the number of them on one hand. But he also understood that there was no helping who you liked or didn't like, and he felt bad for his friend. He reached over and tousled her hair, wishing it could have been another hug instead. But it's kind of hard to hug someone when you're driving, so Anderson made do with what he could.

“Sorry to hear, kiddo,” Andseron said, compassion in his voice. “But I don't blame you. You can't help who you fall for. I can tell you it'll get better.” He didn't really know that, but he knew that's what you said to someone whose heart was just broken. He himself had never had such a feeling. He'd liked girls before, but he was so used to not having a chance that he never put himself out there too far. It was both a good and bad way to go about love. At the very least, he never got hurt.

“I would think the best thing to do would be to get your mind off it, so it's a good thing you called. We'll go bowling and get some ice cream, how's that sound?” Anderson smiled, hoping to get Lexi to smile back. He really hoped it didn't make things weird for her gaming with Mew. He had mentioned he might be playing this Saturday, something Anderson had been quite excited about until he heard Lexi's story. Hopefully, everything would work out.

[Alexia Dashwood-Dune]

The hair tousling made Alexia bat his hand away. Although she was used to thinking of Anderson as the big brother she'll never have, sometimes his moves were way too big brotherly and it annoyed her to some extent but right then, it felt kind of good. And his advice was not something she would have wanted to hear from him but it was expected. Anderson was and always will be politically correct in every situation he was put in.

His next bit made her smile instantly. Ice cream sounded good from any standpoint. And she was pretty good at bowling so she always enjoyed it and with Anderson as company, she was quite sure her mind was going to get off the whole Mew thing.

They say ignorance is bliss. And for Alexia, this was doubly so since her being ignorant of what was transpiring between Mew and Bree was not worrying her so much. She wasn't sure what she would do if she found out that Mew had immediately rebounded with the next girl he met. She wouldn't be surprised since that was the whole principle of getting a rebound. And add to the fact that Bree was so pretty and a cheerleader. She really wouldn't be surprised. But she was, of course, ignorant of all this so her excitement over bowling with Anderson was the only thing that was going to keep her from going under.

Once they arrived at the bowling alley, Alexia rushed out of the car without waiting for Anderson to open it for her so she could sign them up. A lane was immediately open for the two of them. Waiting anxiously for Anderson to get his shoes so they could start playing, Alexia's feet tapped the ground in a quick rhythm. She waved at Anderson when he finally got his shoes. "Over here!"

[Anderson Clark]

A smile crept upon Anderson's lips as Alexia sprinted from his car. He was glad to see her rebound so. When she got in the car she had seemed so morose, but perhaps it was just the effect of getting what was bothering her off her chest. Her crush was merely a high school dalliance, one she would no doubt completely forget by the time she was out of college. Anderson guessed a pretty girl like her would get a lot of attention at a university.

He made sure to grab his iPod and lock up the car before following the spritely young girl into the bowling alley. It wasn't a bad neighborhood by any means, but Anderson was a careful guy. One could never be too sure who was creeping around. Ho strolled leisurely into the building, almost the exact opposite of Lexi. He was not very good at bowling at all, though he was getting better, but he enjoyed the girl's company. Also, this bowling alley had an old soda machine that sold glass bottles of different flavored sodas, and Anderson enjoyed the novelty of it. Before he even got his shoes, he stopped to get a bottle of grape, his favorite. He made sure to get a bottle of root beer for Lexi, as well.

Two sodas now in hand, Anderson made his way to the shoe desk to get a pair of shoes that he knew would never quite fit exactly right. He glanced over and saw Lexi already at a lane, putting their names into the scoring computer. She waved at him, and he returned the gesture before picking up the shoes that were set before him. He wove his way through the crowded bowling alley to reach their lane, hoping in vain Lexi hadn't put in some cheesy nicknames for the both of them.

“Okay, so who am I this time?” he groaned as he handed the root beer to his friend. Anderson pulled his large feet out of his own shoes and stuffed them into the grungy bowling shoes he had been given. As expected, his feet felt a bit uncomfortable. It was as if bowling shoes were made for a species that did not include the poor boy. He sat back up, took a swig of his grape soda, and smiled.

“I'm all set!”

[Alexia Dashwood-Dune]

Grabbing the bottle of root beer, Alexia grinned widely at Anderson and tried to get the cap off but decided to let Anderson do it for her. "My hands are probably too slippery." She shrugged, hiding her embarrassed smile as she let Anderson look at what name she gave him. "Look you're Captain Noodles and I'm Spongebob! With all the symbols and all! Yes, yes. I am an absolute genius. Bow down to me." She laughed, momentarily forgetting that she probably had the biggest heartbreak in her entire high school life.

It was her fault to begin with, she supposed. She shouldn't have exclusively gave her all to only one guy who didn't ever see her as anything more than that junior who's on the swim team. Did it even matter now? She was with a boy who made her smile no matter what! And he never asked for anything in return. The guy was a saint and whoever landed him was going to be the luckiest girl in the world.

When everything was set, Alexia got up and danced to the balls and grabbed an 8. She turned to Anderson and looked at him through narrowed eyes. "You're gonna be bowled over Captain Noodles." She made one hand into a gun and cocked it before pretending to shoot him, then blowing off the imaginary smoke from the tip of her finger. "Yeah you heard me. I made a funny." She turned back to the lane and poised herself to throw the ball down the smooth oiled surface. The ball rolled easily down the middle and hit all ten pins.

She held both hands up in a rock on sign and turned to Anderson. "I rock!" she grinned before dancing her way back to her seat, not caring that people were staring. "Your turn Captain."