Falling in Anon

Tessa walked up the stairs slowly, groaning as she read Alexis’ text about not being home yet. It wasn’t new, she was used to Alexis making her wait in the stairwell outside her apartment, but it still annoyed her. She sent back a snarky reply reprimanding her for her untimeliness and opened twitter, perusing through her timeline to find the cute boy she followed to see what he was up to. Early he had said he was going on a blind date and as she stumbled up the floors she searched for any news on how it had gone.
‘Getting ready to go! Red roses;check lucky jacket; check hot bod; check’
‘running late and literally running. @oldspice your deodorant better work as well as you promise!’
‘she said she’d be wearing a green scarf, but so far no luck. maybe she’s later than me!’
Tessa smiled at his tweets, hoping for his date to turn out good. The last tweet was about 15 minutes old and he hadn’t tweeted yet, so she was hoping his date had arrived. He was her favorite twitter personality. His name, on twitter anyways, was Liam and he was one of the many infamous NYU anon accounts. There was a whole group of them, just like all the riding anon accounts and band-whore accounts(that was what they called themselves, but whenver she talked about them she altered the title or Alexis would call her a misogynist). Something about the anon accounts was undeniably fun. There was complete mystery about them. They tweeted their life, but did it just right so you almost never knew who they were. Liam was one of the most secretive -and mischievous. Most accounts would leak a picture of themselves every few weeks, but not Liam. Clothing? Yes. Sometimes he’d tweet an outfit of the day, but not too often. And definitely no face pictures. Mostly because it was through this twitter that he’d organize things like protests for getting 50 Shades of Grey removed from the library and the school-wide Santa day on the last day before break last year where almost everyone dressed up as Santa and he didn’t want anyone to know who he was as there were several outraged people-students and staff-who weren’t too pleased over those things or any of the other ‘events’.
So Tessa suposed calling him cute guy was inaccurate as she didn’t know what he was like, but his personality was cute so it worked. He seemed pretty intelligent and was also going to Tisch like her. She had always kind of hoped she’d somehow find out he was in one of her classes, but she figured it was a long shot. She was in the acting department and frankly, few of the boys were likely to be him because first of all, they were all dramatic bitches. Something told her Liam wasn’t.
She refreshed her feed as she arrived to Alexis’ door, taking a seat on the the stairs. A new tweet appeared, this one leaving her with a frown.
‘green scarf was a no show. waited 20 minutes for her and she never showed. going back home now for some much needed tv therapy and ice cream’
Tessa sighed and typed out a kind response, promising him it would be okay and such. She sent out the tweet then ventured back onto her timeline, letting the world on her phone absorb her. The one horse riding anon she really liked, Krystal, was getting high and had posted a photo of her snake wrapped around her bong and Tessa found herself replying with information about how pot affects snakes. She finished that then went on, messaging Alexis really quick to ask if they had any more white widow.
While she was focused on her phone, one of Alexis’ landing-mates, as they’d taken to calling him, ran up past Tessa. He had large bouquet of crumpled, smashed flowers and was muttering angrily beneath his breath. Tessa ignored him as he rustled through his pockets and beneath his door mat.
“Fuck!”He growled, slamming his fist against the door.
“Chill out, holy shit,”Tessa muttered, shaken by the sudden loud noise. She turned to watch him as he leaned against the door. “Forget your key?”
“Yes, I did. Forget your girlfriend?”He asked in a biting tone.
“No, she’s just not home yet. What about your boyfriend? Where’s he at?”
“He’s not home either. Out on a date,”He replied, his tone still quite venomous. Tessa couldn’t help but smirk when he didn’t correct her about his room mate. Usually, if she’d make a remark about a guy’s sexuality he’d defended it like his life depended on it. She herself used to do that, but over the past 3 years she and Alexis had been called a couple so many times the annoyance over it wore off and she didn’t hardly even bother correcting anymore.
“I see. What’s up with the flowers? A break up?”
“What’s it even matter? You realize I don’t know you and you don’t know me, right?”
“Doesn’t matter I guess. I was just curious,”Tessa shrugged, turning her attention back to her phone. A new message from Alexis came up, telling her she was still about half an hour away.
‘your a bitch. so is you landing mate.’ She sent back, glancing up at the boy before her. He caught her eye and raised a brow.
“What?”
“Nothing, jesus,”She sighed, looking back down at her phone. The silence laid over them for a few minutes before he broke it.
“Are you and Alexis a thing?”He asked. She raised her head slowly, a dumbfounded glare set on him.
“Seriously? You bitch me out for asking about your relationship then do the same?”
“Yeah, I guess so. So is that a no?”
“Answer my question first, then I’ll answer yours,”She told him, crossing her arms and leaning against the wall. He didn’t answer at first and it gave her time to get a good look at him. He had a close buzzcut, but the roots of his curly hair were dyed a bright blonde. His eyes matched his ebony skin and scowled at me, a mix of emotions flowing through them. His lips were bowed and plump, the kind of lips Alexis always complained about not having. He had a strong build, but not large. His short sleeved button up did wonders, showing off his toned arms and fitting around his torso perfectly. He was the kind of boy she always dreamed of, gorgeous and muscled. She briefly wondered if he was a dance major, he had the body for it, but dismissed it. He’d never tell her and the question would drive her insane.
“I was stood up. The flowers were for the boy who stood me up,”He told her after a moment, his scowl turning to a daring glare, like he expected her to laugh at him for any of what he said.
“Boy? So you are gay?”
“Answer my question first.”
“No, Alexis is just my friend. She’s gay as fuck, but I’m pretty straight. I think.”
“You never know until you try,”He grinned, his face relaxing a bit,”And I’m bisexual. Not gay.”
“Oh, cool. So was this your guys’ first date?”
“Yeah. It was a blind date actually. Never doing that again,”He said, rolling his eyes.
“Really? I’ve always thought they might be kind of fun.”
“No, not at all. It’s annoying to plan and they don’t feel as bad about standing you up.”
“You don’t know he doesn’t fee-“
“Yes, I do. I asked the person who set us up where he was, and they told me they called him and he was just picking up chinese food. Decided he wasn’t interested in someone who danced,”The boy groaned, settling on the stairs going up. She allowed herself a small smile, proud to have been able to guess his major.
“That’s pretty shitty, boo to him,”Tessa sighed,”Sorry to hear that.”
“It’s whatever. Not like I was even emotionally invested yet anyways, ya know?”
“Yeah, I guess that would make it easier.”
“Yup. I’m Oliver by the way.”
“Tessa,”She said with a smile which he returned. They lapsed into another silence, her retreating back into her phone and he venturing onto his. Tessa was typing into the search bar for the cute anon boy but forgot about it once a message from Alexis popped up.
‘Almost home! 10 min at most.’ Tessa smiled in relief at the message. Her butt ached from the hard concrete stairs and she just wanted to watch Game Of Thrones already. After a moment though, her mind turned to Oliver. She peeked up at him, curious to what he was doing. Like her, he was absorbed in his phone and typing away. Would he be out here much longer, she wondered.
“Hey, how much longer until your roomie gets home?”
“I dunno, 20 minutes? 2 hours? Depends on what date night activities they’re up to.”
“Oh, well, Alexis is going to be here soon. If you get tired of sitting on these stairs you can probably come in and hang out for a bit. We’ll just be watching game of thrones.”
“Are you sure you have the authority to invite a stranger into Alexis’ apartment?”
“She made me sit out here for over 30 minutes. I get to do what I want,”She laughed, Oliver joining in.
“Alright then. Yeah, if you wouldn’t mind, that’d be pretty chill,”Oliver nodded, smiling. Tessa nodded back then turned her attention to her twitter again. She pulled up Liam’s profile, reading the first tweet and stopping in surprise.
‘locked out of my apartment, but my neighbor has a very cute friend who just so happens to be waiting outside as well. making it worth it’
Tessa’s eyes wandered up to Oliver again, widened in surprise. “Liam?”
“What?”Oliver’s head snapped up and he stared at her just as surprised.
“You’re Liam? And you think I’m cute?”She asked, smirking as she realized that he had, in fact, tweeted the last part.
“What?”Oliver repeated, a red blush spreading over his cheeks.
“You’re twitter Liam. And you think I’m cute!”
“You follow me? Fuck, seriously?”
“Yup! But seriously, you think I’m cute?”
“Yes, I think you’re cute. But damn it, you’re the third person to find out that’s me and the only one I didn’t tell!”Oliver glowered.
“Sorry, but not really,”Tessa laughed, just excited he thought she was cute. It was a remark she didn’t often hear. Oliver grumbled a reply, pulling out his phone and typing yet again. Tessa wondered if he was tweeting about her, but didn’t get to check as Alexis came tripping up the stairs right then. Her sleeves were pushed up to her elbows and grease from the pieces to whatever metal sculpture she was creating now was rubbed all the way up her forearms. Her hair was tied back, a few loose strands looping around her face. She grinned at Tessa when she got to the landing, a vindictive kind of grin, and didn’t even seem to notice Oliver.
“Mom’s horrendous Christmas sweater is officially in the mail, on it’s way to a random house address in England!”Alexis announced with a laugh, unlocking her door as she did.
“Wow, good job. You got rid of your mom’s favorite sweater without her even knowing. Daughter of the year right here,”Tessa teased, smirking at her friend.
“That’s me! Where’s my trophy? Or do I get a cash prize?”Alexis joked as she walked through her living area, tossing her bag on the couch, and headed to her bedroom.
Tessa followed behind her, tossing her stuff beside Alexis’, then turned to make sure Oliver came along.
“In case you hadn’t guessed, you can just toss your stuff there,”Tessa told him, glancing at the crushed boquet.
“Can I just throw this out instead?”He asked as he slipped his jacket off.
“Yeah, of course,”Tessa pointed out where the trashcan was, then watched him as he went over to rather aggressively shove the flowers into the can. As he did that, Alexis came back into the main area, changed out of her evening clothes into shorts and an old tee.
“I don’t remember inviting you in,”She noted when she realized Oliver was there.
“He’s locked out. Just like I was. So I invited him in til his room mate returned,”Tessa explained, taking up residence in the corner of the sofa as she spoke. Alexis nodded, not bothering to comment, then went to turn on the tv.
“Do you watch Game of Thrones, Oliver?”Alexis asked him.
“It’s alright,”He shrugged. He had came back over to the living area and taken a seat in the arm chair, where he curled up and had begun to play on his phone again.
“Just alright?”Tessa asked this time.
“It used to be great. But they’ve gone too far off the story line for my taste. I still watch it though,”He told her with a sheepish grin. He usually tried to avoid getting too in depth about his opinions on Game of Thrones, as his friends weren’t exactly interested in the deeper aspects.
“You mean Sansa aka Jeyne Poole?”
“Yes! Yes, exactly. It was all for shock factor and I hated it.”
“Okay, shut up now. Enough flirting,”Alexis smirked, earning an indignant glare from Tessa. They fell silent though, watching through two episodes before Oliver’s room mate returned.
“Thanks for the invite,”Oliver said as he stood up to leave, offering them both a grateful smile.
“Of course. You’re welcome any time Tessa is here or we’re watching Game of Thrones,”Alexis told him, returning the grin.
“I’ll have to remember to take you up on that offer,”Oliver nodded,”Have a good night guys.”
“You too!”Alexis said with a wave goodbye. Once he was gone, she turned to Tessa with a wide grin.
“So, that’s Liam. What do you think of him?”
“I think I definitely want him to come over for more Game of Thrones."