afterglow @lydiaxoconnell - Tumblr Blog

alexrsylvan·:

Face scrunching faintly as the girl spoke, there was a grin lingering beneath the questioning look as Alex tilted his head at her, letting out a laughed ‘right’ at her apparent assessment. His amusement clearly wasn’t going to be going anywhere anytime soon, because between the dramatized expressions on her face and the animated way that Lydia spoke, there was plenty to be entertained by. She was cute, too, not that he’d ever been the person that spoke to cute people only or anything. Laughing yet again at her reply, he gave a tilted nod of his head. “Shockingly, I’ve been called worse.” Getting into the detail of her reasons for hiding behind him, Alex had sort of already assumed - correctly, as it turned out - that it was probably something to do with another guy she didn’t want to talk to. He had seen it before a couple times at gatherings like this, whether it was an ex situation or just some random dude that wouldn’t take a hint, he had just never been the distraction-piece, so to speak. There was a first time for anything. Listening to Lydia’s quick and long-winded explanation, Alex’s brows remained lifted, grin present, as he nodded along slowly. “Anybody ever told you you’re a little like a cartoon character?” He countered, smiling wide. “I think I caught it all, though, don’t worry. Fast-forward is something I’m kind of familiar with.” He teased gently further. “Just curious, though, why haven’t you blocked his number or anything? Doesn’t that usually send a pretty solid 'I don’t wanna talk to you’ message? Or is that too 2017?”

Squinting at the nameless male in front of her, she crossed her arms over her chest. “You’re telling me you’ve been called worse then Hagrid? You? You, an attractive tall male, have been called worse than Hagrid? You’re lying to make me feel better.” Lydia answered, her last sentence more than a statement than a question in complete disbelif that he would ever be called something worse than Hagrid, that he would ever be called a rude nickname ever, really. Getting into her wordy and long winded explanation about why she was in fact hiding behind him, she looked up at him when she finished, not really sure what he was going to get out of it or what he was going to say. Waving a dismissive hand at his comment she shrugged. “No, but I took a cartoon class at summer camp in 3rd grade where I learned how to draw Spongebob and Marvin the Martian pretty well.” Lydia smiled, then half rolled her eyes. “I’m sorry you just think I haven’t tried that? He’s show up at my dorm, I think we’re well past texting him to say I don’t want to talk to him.” She sighed, pushing her hair out of her face then lifting one hand to his shoulder to brace herself as she pushed herself up on her tip toes to see if her ex was still standing there. “I think we may be clear, or you’re just too tall and I can’t see over your shoulders well enough.” Lydia answered, settling back down on her feet and letting her hand fall away. “Thank you for allowing me to borrow your height, let me know if you need me to return the favor someday.” Lydia smiled, hand patting his chest and side stepping him to go find her friends again.

#chat #alex #alex: 001

alexrsylvan·:

Thinking on the moment, Alex couldn’t say that he had ever been used as a hiding mechanism, at least not in a sense like this. He’d been to Horror Nights a few times, there was inevitable girl hiding behind him then, but this was a little different. There was something more humorous about this way. Alex couldn’t help but chuckle further as the girl answered his question while simultaneously working to get a look around him. “I’m sure you say that to all the boys.” He grinned, shaking his head. Sparing a curious glance back over his shoulder, wondering if he would spot just who this girl - Lydia, as she’d introduced - was hiding from, his amusement was still clear on his features as he looked back at her again. “I can’t say I do, no. Somewhere in my biology there’s just like, a single strand of giant DNA, actually.” He nodded his head. Finishing off the remaining beer in his cup, he nonchalantly nudged the next guy to walk by on the shoulder. Once getting his attention he gave a ‘hey what’s up, man, can you take this for me, you’re the man’ which was evidently enough for a half drunk fraternity brother to think that they were friends, because he did just that. Having not really gotten an exact idea of what Lydia was hiding from in his quick look over the room, he focused his curiosity back in her direction. “So, Lydia?” He tilted his head in momentary clarification before nodding once without her answer. “Lydia, yes. Given I’m being used, I think it’s only fair I get a little more elaboration here. Wouldn’t you say?”

Now that she’d been discovered by her hiding spot, there wasn’t really much getting out of explaining why she was there, but she wasn’t going to offer it up right away either. She had a little dignity to hold on to. Maybe. “Actually, I would hardly consider the population of males at this school as “giant” in any category other than pretentious, but maybe I’m not broadening my horizons enough.” Lydia smiled up at him, still trying to somewhat distract him from the fact that she really was using him as a human shield. Squinting one eye closed and scrunching her nose up as he looked over his shoulder to see who she was trying to hide from, she was thankful she hadn’t gotten into any explanation just yet. “Well, I’ll call you Hagrid then.” The brunette answered, sinking into her knees a bit to see Brian standing at the foot of the stairs still. Standing back up straight with a quick motion, she didn’t miss the way he handed off his empty cup to a drunk fratboy, a quiet snort of a laugh leaving her but her gaze once again pushed behind him after the fact. At least until he was saying her name. “Hmm?” She hummed out a second time, blinking and looking back at his face for what seemed like the first time considering she was finally able to recognize the attractiveness that was there. “Oh, right, well, you see.. I’m hiding because my ex boyfriend who also happens to be an eleventh of my friend circle is here, and I just broke up with him last week and he just won’t leave me alone. He wouldn’t really take a hint when I was doing the whole goodbye thing, so I told him I was seeing someone else, which I’m not, by the way, I lied, like a liar all because I thought that might deter him a little. Turns out I was in fact very wrong as he’s still texting me every day and showing up at my dorm and being an absolute crazy person trying to get me to get back together with him, which I have no desire of doing..” She trailed off, looking at this mystery giant’s face. “..obviously.” Lydia finished, then bit down on her bottom lip. “So I’m sorry I’m using you as a human shield but I gotta, please don’t hate me or like... move at all just yet.”

#chat #alex #alex: 001

alexrsylvan·:

Alex didn’t consider himself a huge party-goer. He liked the socialization of it, got a fair bit of amusement from watching others get so drunk that he had to remind them what they’d even done the night before, but he wasn’t making it a point to be at every party ever. More power to the people that had that kind of patience and tolerance, but he got his fill sporadically. It just so happened that part of getting that fill fell on this fine evening. He had managed to avoid getting pressured into a keg stand, but instead was watching with a grin as a couple of the other guys that lived in the fraternity house took a crack at it. He wasn’t planning on sticking around all night, maybe a couple more hours, he was just glad that there was enough going on at this particular party to keep him entertained for that long. His amusement was diverted, however, by the sudden and notable use of him as a hiding place. Eyebrows lifting, the grin remained on Alex’s face as he half turned in the girl’s direction. She was facing the other way, clearly meaning to simply utilize the fact that he was tall enough to obscure her from view as enough for her needs. He paused while looking at her, a vague expectancy in his gaze over the top of his red plastic cup of beer before he tilted his head. “Sorry, did you need something? Should I have stayed facing the other way? I’m not sure what the operation is here.”

Typically, Lydia didn’t hate a good party, free alcohol, decent-ish music, other people participating in underage drinking, plenty of good people watching; it was a set up for success for someone who had nothing better to do on a Friday night. Tonight was a little different though, she’d been convinced to come out by her friends, and if their whole friend group was going somewhere together, that typically meant she was and it also meant that Brian was. Brian who she’d dumped less than two weeks ago. He’d already texted her once asking where she was, and Lydia was in no mood to have to explain why she broke up with him again, who this guy she liked more than him was (especially when that guy didn’t exist). So, she’d been dodging him for most of her night. She was rounding a corner to head into the kitchen to get another beer when she spotted him coming down from upstairs. “Shit.” She muttered to herself, looking around for somewhere to go in the body packed frat house. Stepping over to her left, she wormed in between two girls and then stood directly behind a very tall boy with her back to him, finishing the rest of her beer and breathed out a sigh. “Hmm?” She hummed, looking over her shoulder with a wince, then peering behind him to see if she could still see where her ex was. “Um, no, nope you’re so good right there.” She stood up straighter from peering around his side, smiling at him. “I’m hiding, and you’re a very useful giant shield.” Lydia smiled sweetly, hoping it would get this guy into her good graces long enough to help her out for a second. “I’m Lydia. Nice to meet you, thank you for being so tall this evening, do you have lifts in your shoes because your height is quite impressive.” She continued, willing this poor boy to just talk to her long enough to maybe make it look like she liked him if Brian happened to spot her.