Alexandria Anderson
I wake up early today, so I could go for a walk whilst Avery and Nana are still asleep. After tying my hair into a bun, I take my phone from the bed and go downstairs. As soon as I step out on the porch, I feel the cold wind past by so I put my hands into the pocket of my jumper and start to walk down the sidewalk of Somerset. I walk past the park, where I usually go to when I was younger together with my best friend.
“Alexandria?”
I stop on my tracks and turn around to see Rye, wearing a jumper and a pair of jogging pants. He smiles at me and takes his earphones off, as he jogs over.
“Why are you up so early?” I ask with a small smile on my face.
“You know, I could ask you the same question.” he chuckles.
I giggle, “Right, I just want to go for a walk before we head back to Slough.”
“Well, uh, can I come with you?” he asks, looking straight into my eyes.
“O–of course.” I stammer, but smile at him afterwards.
Rye and I continue to walk down the sidewalk in silence, it feels so great to be back in Somerset; there really is no place like home.
“I was thinking, it’s amazing how one place could make you feel something different and bring back so many memories, if you know what I mean.” I sheepishly say, looking down at the pavement.
“Yeah, I do.” he replies.
I take a deep breath and stop walking, I just look at the park and all the memories from when I was little just came back to me all at once making me feel sad all of a sudden. I snap out of my thoughts, when Rye suddenly takes my wrist.
“Come with me.” he says and the two of us start to walk.
“Where are we going?” I ask.
Looking over his shoulders, he just smiles at me and continues to walk down the sidewalk. He takes a few turns without even letting go of my wrist, until we get to a beach. Rye and I just walk down the shore as we talk to each other, watching as the waves hit the shore which I find very serene and relaxing. As we walk, I receive a text from an unknown number.
fr: Unknown
— Hey, Lexi ☺
I furrow my eyebrows, don’t tell me it’s Matt – he’s my ex and he’s the only one who calls me Lexi.
“Who’s that?” Rye curiously asks.
“Just an unknown number.” I reply, putting the phone back into my back pocket.
He furrows his eyebrows as he looks at me, “Aren’t you going to text them back?”
“Nah,” I simply reply and turn around to walk away. “I, uh, I gotta go back.”
“I’ll walk you back home.” he offers, causing me to look back at him.
“You don’t have to, I’ll be okay, but thank you.” I assure him, smiling.
“I am still coming with you.” he insists.
“Alright,” I chuckle, even though years had already past; he is still very persistent. “why don’t you have breakfast with us as well?”
He thinks about it for a second before smiling and nodding, “Okay.”
Rye and I walk back to my grandmother’s house and when we get there, Nana’s already awake. We talk to her for a bit and when it is around 8:30 already, I excuse myself and go to the kitchen to cook our breakfast. Whilst I am cooking, I try my best not to think about Matt; what does he want now?
“Hey, need a hand?”
I snap out of my thoughts and look over to the door, it’s Rye; smiling at me as he walks over.
“Yes, please.” I reply, chuckling.
“What can I do to –” before he could finish his question, I give him the spatula. “Oh, okay.”
I smile at him before I go and make Avery’s food. After eating, we talk about going to Winter Wonderland with the kids – Avery and Rye’s twin brothers – later afternoon. So, once everything was clean; Rye goes back to their house to tell his brothers about it whilst I call Avery’s mom, Melissa, to let her know that I’d be going to Winter Wonderland with her daughter.
“Yeah, though you are going back to Slough tonight, right?” she asks.
“We are.” I reply.
“Okay, I’ll just head straight to Winter Wonderland once I finish what I am doing.” she says.
“Don’t bother, Lissa, I can just take her back to Nana’s house afterwards.” I assure her.
“It’s okay, I miss her already anyway.” she chuckles.
“Alright, I’ll see you later then.” I say, before hanging up.
I go upstairs and start to get ready, I take a bath and put on a pair of black jeans, a black shirt, and put a red plaid shirt on top of it. I put on a little bit of makeup, before heading to Avery’s room and get her ready. Just as I finish tying her hair, my phone starts to ring as if on cue. I pull it out from my pocket and answer it.
“Anderson!” Andy chirps, as soon as I answer his call.
“Hi, Andy.” I chuckle, sitting down on the edge of the bed.
“So, how are you and Rye doing?” he asks rather teasingly, but I just ignore it.
“We’re alright, I was with him earlier; he had breakfast with us.” I reply. “By the way, we’re going to Winter Wonderland later, you and the boys might want to come meet us there, the kids are coming with us.”
“You mean, Shaun and Sammie –”
“and Avery, my niece.” I say, finishing what he was going to say.
“Cool, we’ll go.” he immediately replies.
I chuckle; he can be really easy to convince sometimes, but there are times that it’s the other way around. Just before I could answer, I hear the doorbell ring so I hurry downstairs to answer the door.
“Alexandria!” Robbie beams, as he pulls me into a hug.
“Hi, Robbie.” I smile and when we pull away, I put the phone back to my ear. “I’ll call you back later, Andy.”
“Wait!” he says, just before I hang up.
“Yeah?” I ask.
“Let me talk to Rye, please.” he replies.
Without any questions, I hand the phone to Rye whilst I go and hug the twins who are both very excited to go to Winter Wonderland. I introduce them and Robbie to my grandmother, before going upstairs to get Avery.
“Aw, she’s so adorable.” Robbie says, making me giggle; that was exactly Rye’s reaction when he first saw her too, they really are brothers. “can I carry her?”
“Sure.” I reply, as I gently pass him Avery.
“How old is she?” Sammie asks, reaching up to hold Avery’s hand whilst smiling.
“Three.” I answer.
He nods and joins Shaun as they talk to Avery who’s currently in Robbie’s arms; it is such a beautiful sight, I really love this family. I look away and turn to my grandmother and she was smiling at them, as she watches them.
“They’re such a lovely family.” she says, as I walk towards her.
“Yeah, they are.” I reply, smiling. “Are you sure you don’t want to come with us?”
She looks over at me and smiles, “I’ll be okay, dear, just have fun.”
“Alright, well, we gotta get going.” I sheepishly say.
I wrap my arms around her for a long hug and kiss her on the cheek, before pulling away.
“See you again soon, Nana.” I say with a smile.
“Take care, Alexandria.” she replies, as we walk out to the door.
After we say goodbye to her, we leave to go to Winter Wonderland.