Family Dating Game

[thecakeisalie]

It was just a few more weeks till college started for the 18 year old Alex Walker. He was excited to be finally be going of to school and living on his own for a little bit. High school at its ups and downs especially when his father bailed on the family when he was a freshman. Over the four years of high school him, his mother and sister had become rather close and very much enjoyed each others company. At school Alex was always very active in sports, playing a couple per year. He was average in intelligence but his extracurriculars got him into a good school for physical therapy.
Alex was of average height, and had a very atheltic build which could be attributed to all the exercise he did. He body was complemented nicely by his handsome looks and big bright smile. With medium length blonde hair that he usually made a little spikey and messy for school and big green eyes a lot of girls found him rather attractive. But being a good hearted person he didn't act like a "player" and had only dated a couple girls throughout high school.
It was a simple Friday afternoon in the summer and Alex was on his way home from the gym. He and his mother had some plans for the rest of the day. Alex had just recently agreed to help his mom get back into the dating game. It had been a while that she was single, but it wasn't until now that Alex saw that she was really looking to date some one again. He didn't know what changed but he was happy to help her out when he could. Alex got out of his car and walked up his sidewalk to go inside. Upon entering his house he called out, "Hey guys I'm home!" seeing if is mother or sister were still around.

 

[huntinchick8854]

16 year old Sadie was a sweet southern kind of girl. She has always enjoyed the presence of older males. She was overjoied to hear her mother wanted to begin seeing other people and that her brother was coming home to visit and help her. Always looking up to her brother Sadie tried to be like him; doing sports, great grades. She never knew how she really felt about him.

Sadie had thick blonde hair with defined curls. Her eyes were also greeen, just like her brother Alex. Her style of clothes didn'treally match her southern draw. She was more of the push-up, tight jean shorts, tanktop kinda girl. That's one of the easiest ways for her to attract males of any age.

She never saw her brother as one of those "older guys" until a few days ago.
"Alex!" She squealed as she heard his voice calling. Her feet quickly made their own way to the door as she opened it and pressed herself up and hugged her older brother. "I missed you!" She beamed and loosened her grip, looking up at him. Pulling him inside, she began to babble about how momma's at work, how they've been doing, etc. Turning around she asked Alex, "Can I get you anything?"

 

[thecakeisalie]

Alex saw his little sister come bounding down the hallway and a big smile rushed across his face. "Hey Sadie!" he shouted happily. He took her in his arms in a big hug and picked her up off the ground. "How the hell have ya been?" excited to see his sister. The two have always been close, with Alex always happy to hang out with her and take him with him places like the mall and whatnot. She was a pretty cool girl so he was never that embarrassed to have her around.

"You don't need to get me anything. I stopped for some food before my drive home." Alex explained before walking down the hallway into the house. "So is mom home yet?" Alex asked while messy up his sister's hair to annoy her. He always enjoyed messing with her as she usually took it pretty well and she had quite the adorable giggle too.

Alex set the one bag he brought out of his car in the closet and headed into the kitchen to see if they had any cookies laying around. Usually Sadie or his mom would get the itch to do some baking so he could usually get lucky in this respect.

 

[Frogger]

Lydia Walker set her pen down, hand coming up to remove her glasses. It has been a long day thus far. A migraine was all too happy to remind her of this, every once in a while swinging a mallet right into her temple. Her shoulders and lower back felt tight as well. That was normal, given her line of work. Being a defensive lawyer was never an easy job. Most would think so, but there was much more to it than exchanging barbed comments with the prosecution in court. Research had to be done, along with perhaps a dozen other things.

With a sigh she pushed her chair away from the mahogany desk. Even when tired, there was no denying how beautiful the woman was. Her hair was rich and thick, and a hue most people envied. It flowed down her back like a river of molten gold, the strands glimmering under the fluorescent lights. Her skin at the moment was pale, though usually she had a healthy pink glow along her cheeks. Her eyes were a light shade of green, and with little darker dots noticeable just around the edge of the pupils. Standing right at five foot seven, it could be hard to take her seriously…weren’t it not for the ferocious look she undertook at certain times. It was because of this that no one dared to mess with her.

“I better call the kids…” she murmured, hands smoothing down the professional blue suit she currently wore. Finally the phone was found, and she dialed home while heading out the door. “No, wait.” Quickly she hung up, and instead began calling the nearest pizza place. Of course she wasn’t just going to pop in late without dinner in hand. At least pizza was a good choice. There was nobody on this earth who didn’t absolutely love pizza –at least, she hasn’t met any who didn’t as of yet. She unlocked her old but reliable Honda and piled inside. “Hello? Yes, I would like to order two pizzas.”

Luckily it didn’t take long to place the order, or to pick it up. The food and the money exchanged hands rather quickly as well. Two steaming pizzas, a bag of garlic sticks, and cinnamon sticks in hand, Lydia headed home on a pleased note. It was a nice day. If she could have, she would have enjoyed it earlier, playing some kind of sport, or reading a book underneath the sun’s warm rays.

Once she was parked, she gathered everything together and went up to the door. Of course, it was rather hard to do so, what with all the food, but somehow she managed. The keys jingled as she pulled them out of her pocket. After finding the one she was looking for, she slid it home and unlocked the door. “I’m home!” she announced, shuffling inside.

 

[thecakeisalie]

Alex could her his mom’s keys fumbling their way into the lock. He dropped what he was doing and rushed to the door. Sure the two had talked on the phone plenty while he was away at college but sometimes it just isn’t the same. He truly enjoyed her company and couldn’t wait to hang out with his family all together again. He got to the door just as his mom was making her way into the house with plenty of things in her hand. Alex was tempted to give her a big hug anyway but seeing the hot pizza made him choose otherwise to avoid some silly burns.

“Mom!” he greeted with joy while trying to take some of her things to help her out. Finally once getting her in the house and setting some things down Alex wasted no time and took him in her arms. “So good to be home. . .” He spoke into her ear as they hugged, “especially now that there is my favorite pizza!” joking happily. Alex always tried to keep a sense of humor to lighten everyone up. He knew that his mom had a stressful job and had been a little down lately so he planned on laying the cheer on thick while he was at home.

“Come on, let’s go into the kitchen and eat. I bet you’re starving. And it gets even better cause Sadie is home already too!” Alex took the pizza and headed into the kitchen. He grabbed some cups and paper plates and got some drinks out of the fridge and placed everything on there large kitchen table. Alex and Sadie sat on either side on their mom at the head of the table leaving the other end of the table completely empty.

After a long semester at school’s this is exactly what he needed. Sure he loved hanging out with his friends at college but this was just a different kind of happiness, a bigger kind.

 

[Frogger]

“I see how it is,” Lydia teased while chuckling. It was soft and throaty; quiet but charming in its musical quality. The sound rang out across the living room. Oftentimes it’s the first thing a man notices about the woman, how clear her laugh was. “You’re only happy because I brought pizza, not because I’m home. I feel the love here.” Her eyes twinkled like dew drops on spring grass, amusement dancing within the green irises. Bad mood melting away, as though it was never there in the first place, she smiled and returned her son’s high-spirited embrace. Her chin came to rest on his shoulder. Their height differences never were an issue before, but now that only invited emptiness to reside inside her chest. “You know I’m just playing. Let’s go on and eat some pizza. I’m starving.”

Anguish and uncertainty leaked into her smile. The control she had over her emotions faltered, the shields deteriorating at a fast rate. Jake was growing into a fine man. For years she has taken care of him, through thick and thin, through good times and bad. It felt like just yesterday that she was kissing a bloody knee, or cradling him during a thunderstorm. So many wonderful memories over the years…and now here he was, eighteen years old and heading off to college. To build the life he wanted for himself. While she encouraged such growth….it was difficult, especially since all she wanted to do was to nurture, to protect him. In no uncertain terms…she was torn in two.

On one hand, she knew it was close to time he began walking down the path of his own making. At the precarious age of eighteen, there was no denying this. And yet…the other hand…ached to protect him from the world still, though he was no longer the little boy who begged to eat chocolate chip cookies before dinner, who came home laughing and dirty from a good game with friends. Even now she longed to do so. At least in the wake of his absence, Sadie will be keeping her company…and hopefully busy with the mundane details of their everyday lives. Not to mention work, and trying to form a romantic and trusting relationship.

Quickly she built that wall back up. The soda hissed as she popped it open, bubbling playing along its gaping mouth. “Dig in!” she told her children, a hand gesturing towards the food. “Don’t wait on my account. I’m thirsty, so that’s my first concern.”

 

[thecakeisalie]

“You know where my love truly lies mom,” Alex said quietly as they hugged and separated with a little wink. Not really being clear in whether it was just another jab at her or a sincere comment. Even though he always like to play around with his mom and sister they really did mean the world to him. Without the two of them, making this family what they really were, Alex would have definitely not turned out to be the man that he was starting to become. Even without his father in his life for a long period of time, his childhood could not have been any better. His mom did everything she could for Sadie and Alex and they showed lots of respect in return.

Alex excitedly sat down at the table and passed out some paper plates to his mom and sister. It was times like this were Alex really let the kid in him show through, he really did love this pizza. Since he was the “man” in the house he tried his best to act mature and responsible but always was able to open up and be silly with the people he loved.

There were few families who were as close as these three, they talked about anything and everything pretty openly with little embarrassment. Everyone was amazed at how few big arguments the got into, sure there were some but nothing that cut of communications for days. When Alex was talking with his mom and learned she wanted to start dating again he almost jumped at the chance to help her out in whatever way that he could. Alex knew that he wouldn’t necessarily be able to find guys and set her up with people but he offered what services he could provide anyway. Since there wasn’t all that much time left before headed off to school, he was actually pretty excited to get the whole thing going, mostly to hopefully see his mom happy with someone. He didn’t exactly want to jump right to it at dinner so he just tried to get some small talk going.

“So, mom,” he began between big bites of his first slice of what will probably be many. “what do we have on the itinerary for the weekend? Any big plans? Or are we just going to wing it?” He was hoping they could all hang out, provided Sadie wasn’t up to anything with her friends too.

 

[Frogger]

Lydia thought it over for a minute, idly chewing on a bread stick while doing so. “Mm… To be honest, I’m not quite sure. I haven’t dated in so long…and I’m just…I have no idea how to go about it again. The last date I was on…was with your father, before we were married.” Memories came surging forth, each more bittersweet than the last. Her heart threatened to crumble around the edges, and she could have sworn a few fragments went plummeting into the pit of her stomach. It still hurt to think about all the years they spend together. Twenty years…gone, in the blink of an eye. And not because there was trouble at the home, no, and not because the connection was gone. To think, that he would leave her…and for another woman…

Quickly she pushed those thoughts to the darkest corner of her mind. There was no reason to bring up such past memories, not now and not ever again. If only she could forget…everything… Of course, the likelihood of that ever happening was slim to none. Amnesia doesn’t happen without a reason. And besides…whether it be brain damage or disease, the feelings she had for her husband could never be completely eradicted… Never will they die. Daniel was her first love, the father of her children…and at one point, he was her life.

“Anyway, I’ll take any suggestions you have. Don’t worry about it right now though. How about we take everything we have here, and head into the living room? I bought some new movies, including…” Lydia paused for dramatic effect, a smile curving her lovely pink lips. “Girls Against Boys…Jack the Giant Slayer, mm…and a couple others....I just can’t seem to remember the titles…” One fingertip tapping against her chin, but then she snapped her fingers. “I remember! One movie I bought was Snitch! It was the movie you really wanted to watch when it first came out in theaters a few months ago..” Okay, so maybe she did that on purpose. It was fun to spoil the kids every once in a while. It wasn’t very often that she did something like this, since school and work often interfered with their time spent together, but she relished these little moments where she is able to.