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angrydurf

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Not really one to wait once his mind was made up Mike made his way to the girls dorm after he finished up his chat with James. He was glad his friend had been able to clarify some things to him but wasn't completely sure he was right about what Erin thought. Then again it may have just been his own perceptions that were skewed. After all it had been but one date and an unorthodox one at that.

When he arrived at Erins room he gently knocked hoping she'd be home. He knew Alex had class so it woudl be a good chance for them to talk without outside ears if she was.

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Erin looked up from her work at the knock on the door, frankly grateful for any interruption. History wasn't her worst subject, and tutoring had gotten her mostly caught up over the summer, but it was still horribly boring. It was probably one of the other girls looking for Alex to borrow a hair tie or some paper or any of the million other things Alex always seemed to have handy somehow. Pushing herself back from the desk, she reached out and snagged the door handle from her seat, pulling it open.

It was definitely a surprise to see Mike standing there. Erin hadn't been avoiding him, precisely, she'd just been very busy for the last little while. Very, very busy. She figured that probably worked better for both of them, but here he was. Probably looking for Alex, too. "Hey Mike," she said casually. "Alex is in class. You can probably catch her in another fifteen minutes or so before she heads to dinner."

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Mike smiled, "I know." He replied, "I actually wanted to see you." He glanced at the desk, "If you're not too busy at least." He added questioningly. He wasn't quite so slow as to have not realized that Erins normally demanding schedual had become downright grueling when it came to events he was likely to be attending. He hoped he hadn't waited too long to have this talk and inadvertantly hurt her feelings. "You mind if I come in?"

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"Sure, come on in. Just leave the door open so nobody gets snotty." Erin stuck her pencil in the textbook and closed it, then swiveled around in her chair. Mike was too tall to sit on the bunk beds, so Alex's chair was pretty much the only other seating option in the room. She figured she should probably say something chatty while he was sitting down, but nothing was exactly springing to mind. So, how's parenthood working out for you? was not an appropriate conversation starter, she was pretty sure. "It's getting cold out," she said instead, which was inane but at least polite.

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Mike sat gingerly in Alexes chair and nodded, "Yea I suppose it is, but not too bad yet." He replied with a slight frown. Smalltalk wasn't really Erins style, her attempt could be at the behest of Dr. Marquez but as it wasn't her style to follow those suggestions either he assumed it was to cover for some discomfort.

He supposed plain talk was best in a way but didn't want to sound too cliche. He settled on moving towards th subject at hand more obliquely. "You doing alright after the big hoorah in the quad?" He inquired curiously.

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"I'm fine," she told him with a one-shoulder shrug. "I should be asking you that, I guess. I'm sorry I couldn't tell you guys anything. Zoe let me listen in on her conversation with Summers, but she made me promise not to tell. I knew you guys would find out anyway, but I hoped she'd tell you herself before that. I didn't count on Dirty Daisy coming along. She'll get what's coming to her, eventually."

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"Well," Mike sighed, "I'm coming to terms with it all. there certainyl could have been better ways to learn what was up but I hope I didn't do any permanent harm." It was clear that he wasn't talking about the physical realm when he spoke but to Mike it was just as bad either way.

"Don't worry about it though, it wasn't your secret to tell." He offered amiably. "In the end though that was all less about Zoe than about me, and to a lesser extent Alex and Mark."

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"From what I hear, it was pretty much about Mark," Erin pointed out. "Everybody knows how he and Ray Gardner hate each other, and Daisy's practically throwing herself at Ray's feet. I'm sure she saw an opportunity to cause trouble for Mark and jumped all over it. She didn't really care about Alex because Alex doesn't play social games, and you were just the vehicle. I'm sure she didn't know about Zoe at all." Erin leaned back in her chair. "Not that it's probably much consolation."

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"Not really. No matter how many people say I shouldn't feel bad I just got played it doesn't change the fact that I lost it like that. You know how serious that can be." He replied hopeing she understood what he meant.

"The reasons for the games may have been about Daisy and Bolt and Mark but what actually happened was about me and moreover my connection with Alex." He explained and paused trying to guage Erins reaction, he had pointed out what to him at least was the elephant in the room.

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"Yeah, I guess," Erin agreed, picking up the protractor from her desk and turning it over in her hands as she chose her words. "From Daisy's point of view, that was about Mark too, and she won because they broke up, but I don't think he'll take it too hard for very long. Mark's broken up with girls before, and I think he and Alex were both just having fun. It hurt his feelings a little, I think, but he'll get over it. And everybody else basically knew how things were already," she added casually.

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Mike shifted uncomfortably, it wasn't the first time the fact that everyone else knew had come up but the fact that most of his friends seemed to know better than he did how he flet was a little embarrasing. "Well not quite everyone else." HE said looking away, "I didn't really realize until I had calmed down and tried to figure out what had made it so easy for her to set me off like that." He looked back at Erin awkwardly, "You saw it too then?"

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"Sometimes things are a lot less obvious to people who have lived with them a long time than to people who see them all of a sudden," Erin told him, trying to be charitable. "Like if you don't see someone for a long time, then all of a sudden you see them again, they notice right off that you've gotten tall or lost weight or whatever, even if you didn't notice it happening. I know you love each other, but it's up to you guys to decide what you're going to do about it, or if you're going to do anything about it right now. From the way Zoe tells it, you've got plenty of time to think about it," she said with another shrug.

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Mike nodded, "Yea I can see that I guess." It made a kind of sense and was certainly less embarassing than just plain being out of touch. He flashed Erin one of his rare smiles, "Yea, what to do about it is the question." He said somewhat distracted by the options for a moment.

"Actually," He said refocusing on Erin, "Thats part of why I wanted to talk to you." Mike chewed his lip for a moment, He was rather uncertain how to broach the subject as if she knew all along then James was probably right and she hadn't really thought of their thing as a date and certainly not as dating right?

He paused as that series of thoughts ran its course, "So where do we stand then?"

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Erin rubbed a hand over the back of her neck uncomfortably. She could play dumb and drag things out a little longer, but there didn't seem to be any point to it, besides making them both feel even weirder about the whole thing. "Well... we're friends, right?" she finally said. "We went out and played baseball and talked and toured the city. It was a lot of fun, and I'd still like another game sometime if we can find a better program." She noticed that the protractor she'd been playing with was developing fine cracks in its clear plastic surface, so she set it down before she snapped it.

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Mike slowly nodded as she spoke, he caught that she was uncomfortable and given the subject that was understandable. Finally he replied, "Ok, I'd like that." So it had just been for show. That was easier in a way, certainly easier than havign to try and break up so he could date her roommate that would just be awkward, and he appreciated her not just shooting him down and telling him he was acting like the idiot he aparently had been.

He smiled congenially, "And thanks for playing along and not makeing me feel like more of a fool." Mike added warmly, "Your a good friend Erin." He reached out gingerly to pat her knee, "I don't think theres alot of people that'd do that kinda thing, certainly not many that would for me."

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"It wasn't like that," she told him, looking up with an effort from his hand to meet his eyes. "I mean... it wasn't pity. I knew you and Alex had this thing going, and I know I'm too screwed up right now to be starting anything with anybody, but I didn't go just for you, or to make you feel better. Maybe if everything were different..." She broke off then, suddenly looking anywhere in the room except at him, in a moment that had gotten both more sincere and more intensely awkward than she'd planned. "Anyway, we are who we are, and you're still my friend. And we still need to finish that game," she finished, with a passable attempt at returning everything to normal.

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Mike looked to Erin the concern clear on his face. The last thing he wanted was for this whole debacle to lead to another of his friends feeling hurt. He offered a weak smile, "I'm sorry I misunderstood." He said wrestling with what to say, "If we can still be friends I'd realy like that. And for what its worth, if things were different ..." He didn't really know how to finish the thought but hoped his point got across anyway.

"You are wrong about one thing though." Mike said with a gentle smile, "You aren't nearly as messed up as you say." He nodded confidently, "And any guy would be lucky to have a shot with you. I know I felt like I was, or am or ..." Mike trailed off uncertain how to explain and shrugged his wide shoulders. "We'll deffinately have to finish that game though." He added, not wanting to dwell on the subject that made her so uncomfortable, and letting her choose where she wanted to take the conversation.

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"Yeah, well..." Erin leaned back in her chair, folding one leg over the other. "I know there are some people around here who can do crazy stuff with computers. If I can't find a good simulation, I'll see if I can get one of them to cook something up. Winter's coming, maybe everybody will be more bored than usual. But I'll let you know when I find something that'll let us actually play through that whole game. Maybe you can bring Alex along," she suggested. "She's not a hard hitter, but I'm sure she'd have fun."

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Mike nodded leaving well enough alone on the more serious issues, "Yea I'm sure she would, but we might practice through it a few times just us, ya know to make sure its all well tuned, before we invite everyone else along." he replied with a gentle smile. He stil considered the baseball game kinda their thing even if it wasn't really a date thing or whatever. Mike paused uncomfortably, he felt like he should reitterate that she didn't need to hide from people like she did but decided instead to leave the unsolicited advice for another time. "After all it is kinda our project." He finally said with a smile.

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Erin wasn't entirely sure about that, but since when did she care about gossip, anyway? She was pretty much a social nonentity in the school hierarchy, so it wasn't like she had a lot to lose if people got bored enough to start speculating on life at the bottom of the ladder. Her counterpart, she thought ruefully, would be appalled at that attitude. In any case, she'd known the score with Mike and Alex before she'd ever gotten into this, and she wasn't going to let one of her few friendships go because of impossible might-have-beens. "Yeah, that sounds good," she agreed. "We can put it through its paces, and if it works, maybe invite some other folks down to try it." She cracked a smile. "At least in the simulator, we can do stuff as a group and only get into a fight if we want to."

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Mike laughed softly at that, "Yea I sometimes wish Marks luck took opinions other than his own into account." He said with a grin. "But at least my stuff has stopped randomly breaking so I guess I can't complain too much." Mark had clearly been more piqued than he let on but after a rather uncomfortable few days and a more uncomfrtable talk they had worked things out pretty well.

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"I'm not really sure that Mark's luck always takes Mark's opinions into account," Erin pointed out wryly. "But I'm glad you guys worked things out. You only have so many possessions, after all." She looked back to her history book. "I need to finish another chapter before I can head to dinner. You eating in the caf tonight?"

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Mike chuckled softly glad that they were able to return to thier normal friendly banter, "I suppose thats true but when it comes to being in just the right place to drag all of us into trouble it sure seems to." He shrugged good naturedly, course some of us need that kinda push to get involved anyway.

He nodded an affermative to her question, "Yea, Its comics day so I'll have to roust Mark so he remembers to eat but we can swing by and get you and Alex on our way over." he said with a smile.

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"It's okay, this is going to take me awhile," Erin told him. "And I think Alex might head straight to the caf anyway. I'll catch up with you guys later." She scooted her chair back in the direction of her desk, clearing a path to the door so that he could pass by easily. "And tell Mark that I hear reading those things will rot your brain," she joked. "If you think it won't get a light fixture dropped on your head."

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"I'll pass that on," Mike replied with a laugh, "From a safe distance of course."

He stood and headed for the door, "Well if you feel like a break you know where we'll be." he said as he slipped past her chair, "let me know if you wanna give the baseball sim another shot." He added pausing in the doorway.

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