#Atlanta screen sprinting

[hyperfixatedoncrimminalminds]

Spencer Reid x Autistic sister reader

Yes Y/N in this is autistic because i am there will be alot of Autistic reader oneshots in here.

Summary: Spencers little sister is at the BAU waiting for her brother to return home, when she finds out hes being tortured by Tobias Hankel.

third person pov...

11 year old Y/N Reid was wondering around the BAU waiting for her brother and his team to come home safe, she was currently spinning around in her brothers chair and playing with one of her many fidgets, like her older brother Y/N is also autistic.

The little girl had her noise cancelling headphones on, At the minute the BAU are pursuing a religious killing team in Atlanta that sets up computer webcams to record their murders and post them on the Internet, Y/N might've looked over at her brothers file before they left.

The little girl wasn't fazed by the dead bodies and blood, sometimes she even helps the team with their cases and helps Penelope on her computer. Y/N special interest is criminology and computers she can hack into anything without leaving a trace, she leant from the best Penelope Garcia.

Y/N soon gets a call from Derek Morgan, quickly the girl answers it hoping everything is okay. "Hey Pretty girl" he greets her, Y/N giggles happily at the name. Even she has a nickname by Morgan like her brother who is Pretty Boy.

"Hi everything okay?" she asks knowing they were still working, the girl was confused why the man was calling her, she hears the man sigh quietly before answering. "Somethings happened Pretty girl, something bad" he said solemnly.

Y/Ns heart starts beating fast her anxiety rising when she speaks her voice is a whisper. "what's happened? Is it Spence? Is my brother okay?" she asks question spilling out of her mouth, her main concern is her brother.

As her anxiety rises Morgan calm voice calms her down. "no Pretty Girl he isn't dead so don't worry your little head, just hes been kidnapped by the Unsub. But! We are in the process of finding him" says the man, but is met with silence as Y/N froze.

Her brother has been taken hostage by the Unsub who is a psychotic serial killer. The 11 year old then jumps from her brothers chair and sprints to Penelope's Batcave, the blonde haired ball of sunshine is on the case with the team so her office is free.

The girl skilfully hacks into the computer frame where the team was and appears in a call with them, she could seem them and what was on the screen, from her side it looked like Penelope was sitting at the unsub's computer.

The whole teams' eyes widened at seeing the young Reid sitting at Penelope's desk. Morgan still on the phone ends the call and begins talking to the scared girl. "Pretty girl you shouldn't help us, we don't know what's happening it could be something bad" reasons Morgan trying to get the young girl to leave.

Y/N shakes her head, "I cant leave my brother is in danger" she says glaring at Morgan through the scene the 11 year old then turns to Hotch, she looks him dead in the eye (usually she can't do eye contact with anyone) the eye contact surprised everyone usually she would avoid it but it shows how serious she is about helping.

"Please let me help" she says to Bossman.

Hotch sighs and looks at Gideon who shrugs his shoulder, the man then turns back to the little girl on screen a grim look on his face "okay I will let you but if it gets to much for you, you wont help" he says the H/C girl nods her head a thankful look on her face.

Suddenly the screens turn black before Reid is shown tied up on a chair in the middle of a room. Everyone eyes widened, Y/Ns eye well up in tears as she sees her brother tied up by the Unsub. "Spence" she whispers as she sees her brother grabbed by the Unsub.

He has blood running down one side of his face, he looked so scared, the team start tracing the video that was streaming trying to pinpoint his exact location. Y/N can hear the unsub telling her brother to pick another victim, but he refuses which ends up with Spencer being hit.

Y/Ns eyes widened in horror at what she sees, Morgan storms off out of the room while Penelope attempts to comfort the distraught child on the screen, Y/N begins to rock herself in Penelope's chair as she goes over what she has just seen on the screen, trying to calm herself down she begins to think about her brother at least she knows he is alive, the team will save him.

Time skip...

The team finally found Spencer and Tobias Hankel, on the plane ride home the team was telling him all about his sister and how she helped them find where he was. "Y/N was very helpful in finding you" says Hotch as the young man smiles he sister is amazing. "I'm glad she was there" he mumbled.

Spencer couldn't wait to get home and see his siter, once the team arrived at HQ Spencer looks around the bullpen for Y/N but didn't see her, he looked at his desk and she wasn't there, confused he went to go and ask someone but was stopped when a pair of arms wrapped around him crushing him to them.

Spencer relaxes when he sees Y/C hair, the tall man then wraps his little sister into a big hug as the crying girl sobbed in his chest happy to have him safe and sound back home, it was hours until the girl fell asleep still holding onto her brother.

Spencer walked into the roundtable where the others were finishing up with Y/N in his arms, JJ looked at them her eyes were sad, Spencer was confused until they told him about the video and how Y/N was affected by it, she was so scared she would loose her brother that she did everything in her power to rescue him.

After the story Spencer looked down at the head resting in the crook of his neck and gently kissed Y/Ns head. "Thank you for saving me Y/N/N" he whispers before the two geniuses left the building.

The end!

Hope you liked this one shot, this episode always got me, my poor Precious tortured by a physio, but anyway sorry again about the grammar and spelling mistakes.

Requests are open!

Word count: 1102

[kaunis-sielu]

Sick: 6

You’ve been bouncing ideas for a cure off of one another all night. Even while you, Nat and Yelena dig through the dark web to try and see if anyone has posted anything bragging about making this virus, you need to occupy your brain as much as possible. If you don’t you’re afraid you’re going to go into a panic spiral about Steve.

None of the guys are any better, but none are any worse either. Sam’s temperature had spiked for a couple hours but has since dropped back to normal. You have FRIDAY monitoring the rest of the guys to make sure that their temperatures stay down too. Carol had flown Scott in, in his shrunk down suit since it was the easiest and fastest way to get him here. It seems the virus had started on the east coast and was now infecting other big cities. Chicago, Minneapolis, LA, Atlanta and Milwaukee.

You don’t sleep for two days no one seems to notice so you just keep working, keep going, you’re not going to stop until you figure this out. You miss your brothers and you miss Steve, god it’s like you’re missing part of your body.

“Hey.” Wanda says softly drawing your attention from the screen you’ve been staring at. “When did you last sleep?”

“I’m fine.”

“Nox, you cannot lie to me.” She says softly, “you need to sleep.”

“I will when we have a cure.”

“You could sleep next to him. He wouldn’t want you to kill yourself looking for a cure.”

“I’m fine.”

“Please don’t make me force you.” She says softly and you glare over at her. You may not be the best fighter but you can hold your own against Wanda if she plays fair. You have a feeling she won’t be playing fair.

“Fine. Just a few hours.”

“Would you like my help?” You sigh heavily before responding,

“Yes please.” You head back to the room where the guys are, they’re all hooked up and all still unconscious. You gently touch the foot of each man as you pass them, making sure they’re still doing okay, easing any pain.

If physically hurts you to see him like this. It’s like he’s been frozen in the ice again and it breaks your heart.

You climb up onto the bed with him, careful not to pull out any of the things that are monitoring him. Once you’re settled Wanda gently touches your shoulder and you fall into a deep sleep.

You’ll never admit it but when you wake up several hours later you feel almost normal. You kiss Steve on the cheek then gently climb back out of bed. You check on the other guys then wander out of the room to find your friends.

You’re half way down the hallway when a hand reaches out of the lab and grabs your arm. Helen pulls you into the lab “You can’t ask me how I know this or why. You just have to trust that I do.” Helen says wringing her hands, her gaze is darting around the room.

“Uh, okay.” You agree hesitantly.

“I know who made the virus.”

“Who made it?”

“Yea.”

“Okay?”

“Which means I might know how we can stop it. But she’s not going to be easy to find.”

“Who?”

“Dr. Deidre Wentworth. We were roommates in college. She’s part of this group, they call themselves the Femizons. She runs the group and hates men.” Things are starting to fall into place.

“Do you know where to find them?”

“No, but Natasha will.” You nod and turn to leave when she stops you, “Nox?” She says softly and you look over your shoulder at her. “Just please don’t judge me.”

“Is there more Helen?”

“I- No. She wasn’t always like this.” You nod then head out of the room and back to where you’d last seen Natasha.

“Nat? Nat! Are you in here?” Of course she’s not in the room, you turn on your heel and sprint out of the room before stopping suddenly. FRIDAY. “FRIDAY! Where’s Natasha?”

“In the gym Miss.”

“Thank you!” You call before you start to run again. When you burst into the gym Nat freezes, horror is etched onto her face.

“No, nothing, nothing, bad.” You pant and her face relaxes. “Have a, lead.”

“What? How?” She asks excitedly, you gulp down a few more deep breaths and then tell her everything that Helen told you.

“The Femizons are the worst. Because their message is so twisted. They believe in female power and being badass and shit but they also hate men and think they’re superior to them.” She says with a huff, “like I want to support some of their shit but they’re just too extreme and also they wouldn’t have me.”

“Why wouldn’t they have you?”

“Um I kinda beat the shit out of Black Lotus, one of the members. They tried to kidnap me and it didn’t end well for them.” She says with a little shrug and you blink at her in surprise. One of the things you’ve always loved about Natasha is how straightforward she is.

“Helen said you would know where to find them.”

“I know where to start looking.” She says wiping her forehead with a towel. “How are you doing?”

“Feeling more optimistic now that we have a lead.”

“How did Helen figure this one out?”

“I don’t know. She said not to ask how or why she knew but to trust that she did. And I trust her.” Natasha looks thoughtful, “what?”

“I don’t like it but it can slide for now. We have more pressing issues. Finding Femizons is first.” She tells you as the two of you make your way back to the war room.

“We should start looking down south. Usually that’s where they hang out.”

“Okay, what exactly am I looking for?” You ask as you drop into a chair and get comfortable with your laptop on your lap.

“They tend to live in smaller towns, several women together. Not super isolated but isolated enough where they can do shit they don’t want people to know about. Be prepared, this could take a while.”

“Someplace like this?” You ask flipping the computer around to show her.

“Wait, what the hell? How did you find this so fast?”

“I just googled feminist communes.” You tell her with a shrug and she shakes her head in astonishment. “This is them right?” She comes over and looks at the photo. Natasha doesn’t even need to say anything to confirm that it’s the Femizons, you can see it in her eyes.

“See if you can find any other compounds. I’ll start getting a team and a plan together.” She says, “since apparently you’re really good at just googling.” You laugh softly but get to work as Natasha leaves the room. You can’t imagine this group is going to be particularly difficult, you’ve got two Black Widows, a Scarlett Witch who Wanda can now control, a woman with literal alien tech in her veins and yourself. While you’re not quite as deadly as Yelena or Natasha you know how to fight, and you know how to weaponize your powers like Wanda. You’ve never been helpless a day in your life.

After an hour of searching the first couple of Avengers have wandered into the space. Hope has been here for almost the whole hour. She’s been fiddling with some tech on her suit and cursing softly occasionally. Wanda, Kamala, Monica, Carol and Jessica came in as a small group about a half hour ago. You know that Nat and Yelena will be here soon and you’ve found two more compounds that you need to search. Pepper wanders in talking to Jean and Rogue, while the Mighty Thor and Storm chat about their ability to harness lightening. Valkyrie, Yelena, Kate, Gamora, Nebula and Jennifer come in as a noisy group but there’s still no Natasha. Sue comes in with Helen, followed by Shuri, Okoye, America and Doreen who makes a beeline for Kamala who looks like she’s going to explode with excitement. You’ve never seen this many female heroes in one room and it’s honestly overwhelming and amazing. Kitty, Jessica Jones, Felicia, Elektra and Nat come in and when Natasha makes her way to the front of the room. As she passes the room slowly quiets.

“I know there are a lot of questions, but let’s get started. Helen.” She says and Helen stands before clearing her throat.

“We know that the strain of this is only effecting men. It’s something to do with the Y chromosome and it is made by a Dr. Deidre Wentworth. She will have made a cure but she’s either going to be withholding it for ransom or she’s just withholding it for fun.”

“Does this look like fun?” Carol asks gesturing to the tv that’s playing the chaos on mute.

“To Deidre? Yes.”

“Deidre hates men.” Natasha says, “she runs the group the Femizons.”

“Fuck.” Carol says and Natasha nods.

“Um, who are the Femizons?” Kamala asks looking between Natasha and Carol.

“They’re a group of women who live in compounds and hate men. They’ve recruited several super powered women. Titania is one of them.” She says and Jen frowns,

“So they have money.” She says and Natasha nods.

“And other super powered women.”

“And smart women. Deidre isn’t exactly moral but she is smart.” Helen chimes in again.

“So we’re going to need a good plan.” Hope says and Natasha nods.

“How many locations are we looking at?”

“Potentially three.” You say, “FRIDAY share my screen.”

Tag list:

@foxyjwls007 @andahugaroundtheneck @also-fangirlinsweden @pagina16ps @princesssterek @valsworldofcreativity @dumblani @inkedaztec @loving-life-my-way @animegirlgeeky @shinycupcakebaker @eralen @sophham @gh0stgurl @killcomet @wonderlandfandomkingdom @abschaffer2 @capsiclesdoll @patzammit @sass-masterkittenmama @jaqui-has-a-conspiracy-theory

[atlanta-t-shirt-screen-printer]

COLORFUL DESIGN FOR A BRIGHT CAUSE

Today, we printed a bunch of shirts for a non-profit organization.

This design came to us for The Atlanta Children’s Shelter. It was a very bright, and colorful design. It was a total of 7 colors, and it turned out great. (Video of the screen printing process included at bottom of post)

Printing is our passion here, but we also love being able to help out and give back to the community any way…

[elliesguitarstrings]

Just Friends

Masterlist

Pairing: Tom Holland x Actress!Reader

Summary: You and Tom haven’t seen each other since filming Uncharted, and you decide to surprise him at his Jimmy Kimmel interview. Although you’ve always been “just friends,” you can’t help but think there’s something more.

A/N: Hey y’all sorry it’s been a few days since I last posted, I’ve just been super stressed with school and stuff, but I actually really like this fic and I hope you guys like it too!

Warnings: Language, fluff, angst if you squint

WC: 2.4k

~~~~~~~~

It’s been months since you and Tom last saw each other in person.

While filming Uncharted, the two of you had become extremely close, hanging out in each other’s trailers and spending all of your free time together. In such a short period, you had become best friends, but neither of you could deny the spark of something more. Unfortunately, the two of you never got to explore that spark because of the short time limit. After wrapping, you and Tom went your separate ways, him to Atlanta to film Spiderman 3, and you back to your hometown for a well-deserved break.

That doesn’t mean you two haven’t stayed in contact though. You and Tom have texted and facetimed almost every day since you parted ways, or as much as his busy filming schedule allows. Throughout this time, however, you never seemed to discuss the obvious love connection between you two. Without actually speaking about it, you both seemed to agree that that conversation would be better to have in person.

This bring us to today, where Tom is backstage at Jimmy Kimmel, anxiously waiting for his interview segment of the show. He picks up his phone and decides to text you before he goes on to settle his nerves, wishing you were here to comfort him in person.

T: Are you watching the show yet?

Y: yep I already have my tv turned to abc! are you going on soon?

T: Yeah, I’m so nervous though

Y: why? you’ve been on the show before and you’re like amazing at interviews

T: Idk, Jimmy just said “be ready for a surprise” and he looked really suspicious so I’m scared

T: I just hope they don’t bring like Jennifer Aniston out or something because I would totally freeze and make a fool out of myself

Y: lmao that would be kinda funny tho, but I’m sure you have nothing to worry about

T: Okay we’ll see haha

T: Gtg I’m on in 10, I’ll facetime you after I’m done!

Y: kk, good luck tommy :)

T: Ahh thank you!!

What Tom doesn’t know is that you are ten times more nervous than him. While he’s under the impression that you’re sitting on your living room couch watching the show, you are actually in the dressing room down the hall from him.

Last month, when Tom told you he was going to be on Jimmy Kimmel to promote Cherry, you had the idea to surprise him. You emailed Jimmy not expecting a response, but to your surprise, he actually emailed you back and loved your idea.

So, here you are, waiting backstage and shaking with anticipation to surprise Tom. To be completely honest, you’re even more nervous now that you know Tom is expecting some big star like Jennifer Aniston, who you know has always been his biggest celebrity crush. But nonetheless, you shake off the nerves as best as you can, just hoping everything goes well.

“Please welcome our first guest… Tom Holland everyone!” you hear Jimmy’s voice over the speaker in your dressing room.

Now that Tom is on stage, you can safely leave the room without him seeing you, and you head to the side stage, waiting for your cue.

Tom and Jimmy talk about Cherry for a few minutes, and you can’t help but admire him. His voice, his face, his outfit, everything about him is just perfect. And even better, he’s here in person, closer than he’s been to you in a long time. It takes every ounce of self-control in you to stop yourself from running onstage and hugging him now. ‘Only a minute longer,’ you tell yourself.

“So, other than Cherry, what other upcoming projects are you working on?” Jimmy inquires onstage.

Almost there…

“Well, as most of you know,” Tom addresses the audience, “I’m filming Spiderman 3 right now, which has been going brilliantly. It’s definitely going to be the best one of all the Spiderman movies I’ve done. And I just wrapped on a film called Uncharted a few months ago in Berlin, which was so much fun.”

“Ooh, Uncharted, tell us more about that!"

“Yeah, well it’s based on the video game, and I play the main character, Nathan Drake, who’s on a quest throughout the film. It’s a lot like Spiderman in a way, with all the stunts and stuff, and I think it’s going to turn out great, I can’t wait to see it finished.”

“That sounds like a lot of fun! And if I’m not mistaken, you seem to have met a certain Y/N Y/L/N while filming?”

“Oh, Y/N, yeah, she’s great,” he starts to gush, and you immediately smile, “we became friends super fast, and I miss her so much. I wish she could be here right now, but she’s watching from home actually, so hey Y/N!” he looks directly at the camera and waves, as if he’s waving to you through the screen.

That’s your cue. You tiptoe onstage behind Tom, trying your best to shush the immediate gasps from the audience.

“Well Tom,” Jimmy smiles, “I think your wish may have come true.”

“Huh?” Tom looks around, confused, until his eyes land on you, and he completely freezes.

“Hey Tom,” you smile.

“Y/N! Holy shit! You’re here, you’re actually here!” he exclaims, not caring that he just cursed on live TV.

Tom immediately springs off the couch and sprints to you, arms outstretched. As soon as he reaches you, he picks you up in a tight hug and spins you around, both of you laughing. He sets you down, but still keeps you in a tight embrace, not pulling away until neither of you can breathe. He steps backwards to take you in, still trying to fathom that you’re actually here, with him, after all this time.

“Y/N, wha-, how? I thought you were at your house!” Tom can barely form a sentence, smiling wider than ever and completely out of breath.

“Eh, my house was boring. I thought it would be more fun here with you,” you smile.

He pulls you in again, whispering, “I missed you so fucking much.”

“You have no idea,” you whisper back, resting your forehead on his.

The two of you lock eyes, and for a moment, it’s like you are the only two people in the world. You both start to lean in, lips almost touching, when Jimmy interjects.

“Alright, you two, while that was very sweet, we do still have the rest of the show to get through, so why don’t you come sit down,” Jimmy laughs, bringing you and Tom back to reality.

“Right, of course,” Tom responds, trying his best to keep cool in front of the audience.

Tom ushers you to the couch, keeping one hand on the small of your back as he follows you. He keeps his arm around you when you sit, staying as close to you as possible without raising any more suspicions from the audience.

“So, you two, huh?” Jimmy smirks.

“What? Oh, no, Jimmy, we- we’re just friends,” you laugh trying your best to hide the obvious blush on your cheeks.

“I don’t know, that seemed like a little more than just friend behavior to me over there,”

“What do you expect, I haven’t seen her in half a year!” Tom exclaims, saving you from more embarrassment.

“Okay, okay, fine. Just friends,” he turns to the camera and winks, earning laughs from the audience.

“Anyways Y/N, we already talked about Tom, so tell us about you! How was your experience filming Uncharted?” thankfully, Jimmy moves on.

“Well, up until this point I had only really done small indie films, so it was definitely a major change. But Tom was so nice in helping me and it actually turned out to be such an amazing experience, probably the most fun I’ve ever had filming a movie…”

You go on for a few more minutes, talking to Jimmy about your role in Uncharted and your career in general, exchanging small glances with Tom, who just sat back and listened, completely entranced by you.

“Alright, well thank you so much for coming Y/N, it was great to have you! I’m afraid I have to keep Tom for a few more minutes for our next segment, but you’ll have him all to yourself soon enough,” Jimmy smiles.

You laugh, “Thank you so much for having me Jimmy, it was such a pleasure!”

You stand up and hug both Jimmy and Tom, giving Tom a small peck on the cheek before you walk offstage, waving to the audience as you leave.

You smile all the way back to your dressing room, completely overjoyed that you were successful in surprising Tom. As soon as you sat down on the small couch, not even two minutes after you walked offstage, your phone starts blowing up with notifications.

You see that your best friend texted you, so you check that first.

BFF: so you and tom huh? girl why didn’t you tell me?????

Y: what no???

Y: we’re just friends!!

BFF: that’s not what literally all of twitter thinks

Y: wdym? they don’t know anything

BFF: go check rn, i’m telling you they’re going batshit crazy over you two

You check Twitter and immediately see the fans already going crazy over you and Tom.

“just friends”????? bullshit did y’all see the way they almost KISSED?????

TOM AND Y/N I SHIP I SHIP I SHIP

did y’all see the way tom looked at y/n? he’s totally in love omg

UGH I’M SO JEALOUS AKSDHJSAHDSHD I WANT TO BE Y/N SO BAD

they’re so cute help omg

THE WAY Y/N FLEW OUT TO CALIFORNIA JUST TO SURPRISE TOM??? JUST FRIENDS MY ASS

Were you really being that obvious? You quickly call your friend, looking for some advice on what to do, and she picks up right away.

“Okay you were right, they’re going absolutely insane,” you start.

“I mean what do you expect y’all almost kissed on live tv!”

“Shut up.”

“Come onnnnn Y/N, I know you like him and he obviously likes you too so just talk to him! You already know that you two would be the cutest fucking couple ever. Plus you already have the approval of twitter what more could you need?”

You laugh, but you’re still hesitant.

“I don’t know, what if he doesn’t like me back?

“HE. ALMOST. KISSED. YOU. ON. LIVE. FUCKING. TELEVISON. I THINK HE LIKES YOU BACK BITCH!”

“Okay first of all we didn’t almost kiss, and second of all I don’t want to ruin our friendship. Plus how would I even tell him?”

“Okay YES YOU DID ALMOST KISS! And this isn’t middle school! Just tell him how you feel.”

“I’ll think about it.”

“Think about what?”

You whip around and see Tom standing at your dressing room door.

“Fuck I gotta call you back,” you whisper, quickly hanging up the phone.

You turn back to Tom, still standing in the doorway.

“How much of that did you hear?” you ask, blushing profusely.

“Um, all of it I think,” Tom looks down and you immediately start to freak out.

Tom, however, looks back up at you and smirks.

“So you like me huh?”

You stay silent for a moment, a billion thoughts running through your head. You contemplate denying it and staying just friends with Tom. But then you think back to what your best friend told you just a second ago.

“Just tell him how you feel.”

“Yeah Tom. I like you. And not as a friend. This isn’t really the way I intended on telling you, and I get if you don’t feel the same way, but the way I feel about you isn’t just platonic. There’s a connection between us that I felt since the day we met and I can’t help but think that you feel it too. And then today it just got, like, ten times stronger and I-“

Tom promptly cuts you off by cupping your jaw and placing his lips on yours, sending a rush throughout your entire body. His lips feel like heaven, moving ever so gently against yours, and again, it feels like you two are the only people on Earth. The kiss is warm and loving, and although it doesn’t last long, the moment has already been engraved in your mind for eternity.

He pulls back, looking into your eyes, making sure he hasn’t made a mistake, but you only stare back at him ten times more lovingly.

“You have no idea how long I’ve wanted to do that.” he whispers.

“Me too,” you whisper back.

He takes your hands in his, “Y/N, I do feel that connection, and I want us to be more than just friends. I always have.”

As much as you are relieved that Tom feels the same way, you can’t help but worry.

“What about the distance? Are you sure we can handle that?”

“Of course we can,” Tom assures you, “I don’t care how far away we are from each other, I love you, and I’m never letting any amount of distance take that away.”

“But these past few months have been so hard without you, and we haven’t even been dating, I just- I don’t want to be apart from you anymore.”

“Then move in with me. Come to London and live with me!”

“Okay,” you grin.

“Wait, really?” Tom questions, taken aback.

“Yeah, why not? I mean, obviously we won’t be able to be together all the time because of our jobs, but it’ll be the closest thing.”

“Are you sure? That’s a big commitment to move that far.”

“I’m positive Tom. You’re my best friend, and now, I guess you’re my boyfriend,” you giggle, “I love you too, and I want to be with you, even if that means moving thousands of miles to London.”

Tom smiles, “You called me your boyfriend.”

“Shut up you dork, come here.”

You pull him in for another kiss, still feeling like you’re floating. Your lips once again move perfectly together, as if they’re made for each other. You’re completely consumed in him, and him in you, and in this moment, you know that he is the only one for you. In this moment, you know that you want to spend the rest of your life with him, and only him, and it’s the best feeling in the world.

~~~~~~~~

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[dasia-nicole]

The 6 hour drive from Atlanta to New Orleans felt like forever, but at last I made it safely and very tired might I add. I turned down the street that the GPS had gave me and pulled into what seemed like an apartment complex but read ‘Garden Condo’s’. I can’t believe it’s been 2 years since I’d last talked to Angela and she still treats me like she did when we graduated. Angela was like the sister I never had. She was there for me when we were freshmen’s and all the sophomores decided it would be funny to pick on us because we was “fresh meat”. She was there when I was at my lowest moments. So it’s unbelievable how I didn’t keep in touch with her after all these years. “You have arrived” the lady inside my GPS announced once I pulled into a parking spot. I put it in park and pulled my phone out to call Angela. After 2 rings she answered. “Hello” “I couldn’t make it” I said faking my tone. “What” she shouted sounding a bit hurt. I laughed, “Just kidding Ang, I’m outside” She let out a squeal before hanging up which I’m guessing was her way of saying she was on her way down. I let out a chuckle before turning the car off and getting out to retrieve my bags. I grabbed my duffel bag and pulled it over my shoulder. The sound of screaming made me let out a laugh and I turned around to see Angela sprinting towards me. “Jae” she yelled while coming up to me and pulling me into a tight hug that I returned. “Oh my God I missed your crazy ass” I said in her shoulder. “I know you did I mean like everybody misses me” she said pulling away and putting her hands on her hip. I sucked my teeth and laughed, “Whatever girl”. She smiled then went to grab the 2 suitcases out the trunk while I grabbed my book bag from the other side. After I had everything I made my way up to her condo. The cool air from the air condition hit me as soon as I walked in. I let out a low groan as I took in the cool place. Such a huge difference from the NOLA air. “Girl it feel like heaven in here” I said letting out a laugh before dropping my bags by the door and looking around her living room. It was beautiful in here she had a light brown sectional with the leather on the bottom. She had a fire place with a big flat screen above it. Her cream curtains blocked the balcony but the sun still shined through them a little. She had a lamp in the corner of the room turned on that showed the cream pain on the wall with a lot of pictures hanging on them as well. “Wow” I gasped, “this is a nice place Ang”. “Thanks” she said shuffling my 2 suitcases to the back. I followed after her after grabbing my bags. We walked pass the kitchen and pass the bathroom. We walked into a room that was nice and clean. The queen sized bed was neatly made. The black sheets was neatly folded over the beige quilt. The cream walls was naked except for the painting of a black women covering her naked body and her afro was filling the top half of the painting. I thought it was beautiful to be honest. “Do you like it” she asked after placing my suitcases on the floor and looking around. I smiled, “yeah it’s really nice Ang, thanks” “No problem” she said smiling and giving me another hug, “now I know you’re tired so I’ll let you rest but if you need me I’m down the hall. Also if you’re hungry, help yourself to anything in the kitchen, just make yourself feel at home”. I smiled, “I really appreciate this Ang, thanks”. She patted me on the back and walked out the door closing it along with her. I let out a sigh as I set on the bed and looked around. Part of me was happy that I actually had somebody being there for me and willing to take me in but another part of me felt like I was just using her. I wasn’t though honestly but why did it feel like it? I always depend on somebody that takes me in. I always depend on somebody to take care of me. Maybe it was time that I started taking care of myself and stop depending on people.

[wkemeup]

Do Becca and Bucky become close again? Like texting and talking? I can see Becca requesting to follow Bucky and reader on Instagram or something and Bucky being so happy

I’m With You - Masterlist

It was a warm day in the city so you decided to meet Bucky down at a coffee shop in Brooklyn near his apartment. He put up a fight at that, always wanting to be the one to travel to you, make things as easy on you as possible, but you were insistent. He was already waiting a table positioned outside under an umbrella, your favorite drink ordered as he was talking to the server.

You waved as you crossed the sidewalk and the moment he caught your eye, his face lit up. He handed the menus back to the server and quickly stood as you approached. His hand slipped against your lower back, pulling you in for a chaste kiss to the corner of your mouth.

He pulled out the chair for you with a wink and you sat down.

“You order for me again?” you laughed, leaning forward to take in the scent of the coffee and sweet creamer. Your mouth started to water.

Bucky shrugged, trying to downplay it. “Thought you might like it. We can always order another if you--”

“This is perfect, Buck. Thank you,” you smiled at him, taking a sip and fluttering your eyes closed at the taste. He knew you too well for a man you’d only met a month ago.

This became part of your weekend routine. Sunday mornings at local cafes. He’d find time to see you during the week, texting or calling on the nights you couldn’t slip away from work, but he’d made himself indispensable in your life. He was a permanent fixture now and there was no getting out of it, not that you’d ever dreamed of it.

After your coffee was near finished and you were both scrolling through your phones in search of the name of an actor on the tip of your tongue, when you glanced up to find Bucky frozen completely still. He was like a statue, paralyzed, and his eyes were bulging wide.

“Bucky? You okay?” you asked cautiously, setting your phone down gently on the table. He didn’t move, but you saw the clench of his jaw, the muscle twitching under the surface. You reached across the table, touching his hand to try and pull him from his daze, but he barely seemed to notice. “Buck, talk to me.”

He swallowed and turned the phone around to you. It was open to his Instagram requests, a long series of usernames he’d ignored over the years, but it was the one at the top, requested 3 minutes prior that froze him dead in his tracks.

rbarnes98

Rebecca.

“What do I do?” he gaped, his chest starting to rise at a rapid rate. He nearly dropped his phone as he pulled it back to stare down at the screen. “What do I do? Shit. Fuck. What do I do?”

“Buck, calm down,” you eased, quickly standing from your chair and skirting around the side of the table to kneel next to him. You rubbed at his thighs, then grabbed his hands and forced his attention back to you. “She requested me yesterday.”

Bucky paused, eyes narrowed, surprised. “She did?”

You nodded, offering him a smile. “Yup. This is her trying to mend things, Bucky. Let her.”

One quick glance back at his phone and he pushed out a heavy breath through his lips. You stood, brushing a hand through his hair as he grabbed his phone, fumbling with the password before the Instagram page came up again. You stayed over his shoulder, hands running along his scalp, down his arms. He needed the physical touch, you’d learned, to calm him down.

His thumb hovered over ‘accept’ for a minute before he closed his eyes and tapped the screen. You leaned down and kissed the crown of his head.

“Okay,” he sighed, nodding to himself. “Okay, yeah. I’ve got this. Now what?”

You laughed, scooting your chair around to sit next to him. He seemed to be more relieved at that. “Now, you can see what she posts. You can follow her back, you know?”

“What?”

“Buck, when is the last time you used Instagram?” you giggled, leaning onto his shoulder.

“Don’t think I have,” he replied in a short chuckle. He was looking down at his phone, scrolling through the images of years he’d missed. His right hand snaked around your thighs, tugging you closer and you watched as he clicked through the pictures.

“Oh wow, look at that one,” you pointed to the one of her and Bucky’s mother sitting on the porch steps of their home in Atlanta. It must have been around the time they’d closed on the house. Bucky smiled and continued scrolling.

He paused on one of two small children.

“Is that you?” you asked, zooming in on the little boy with big blue eyes in a sailor costume and chocolate sauce covering half of his mouth and splashes of frosting up in his eyebrows. He was holding an infant wrapped in a pink blanket. Rebecca.

“Yeah,” he said, a smile creeping up the sides of his face. “Guess I scrolled back pretty far.”

You glanced down to the date. It was around the time before Bucky enlisted a second time, before the fallout with his sister. The caption said ‘Happy birthday big brother. Thanks for always taken care of me, even when you couldn’t take care of yourself. Big love.’

“That’s really sweet.”

“Wonder if we’ll ever get back to that,” Bucky sighed.

“You’re on the right path, Buck. That's all that matters right now.”

“Yeah, you’re right.”

“Here,” you offered, picking up his phone and switching to camera mode. You held it up away from your faces and curled up close to Bucky’s side. “Smile for me.”

He didn’t. Instead he pressed a kiss to your cheek, forcing you to laugh. You pushed him away playfully and began to attempt another picture, but Bucky stole the phone from your hand. He opened the photos to find you’d accidently snapped the picture anyway.

“Use that.”

“It’s blurry,” you teased but he wasn’t having it.

“It’s artistic,” he argued with that grin of his you’d come to adore. “You look happy here,” he added sincerely, shyly. “I do, too.”

So, you posted his first picture. Just a series of emojis as a caption because he didn’t want to spend another second dealing with that when he could be kissing you. You had to shove him away before he started drawing the attention of half the city block. The pout he gave you nearly made you cave in then and there.

As you paid the bill and turned to leave, Bucky reached for his phone, a narrowed look on his face. You started to laugh, shaking your head because judging by his expression, you knew what was coming next. You were nearly halfway down the sidewalk before Bucky came sprinting up behind you, grinning and jumping and showing you the notification on his phone.

rbarnes98 liked your photo

[mwdders]

Unexpected love.

Part 1

Summary: You’re Tom’s older sister and as your relationship sourly ends, you retreat to L.A. for some time away, not expecting to meet Sebastian Stan and fall for him. (There is a longer summary on my blog if you want to read that before reading this)

Paring: Sebastian Stan x reader and Sibling!Tom x reader

Warnings: Swearing and unedited so sorry for any mistakes!

Part 1/?

Enjoy!

This wasn’t requested but if you enjoy this, and like my writing please message me requests.

Update: Link to Part 2:

https://bluediamondsevie.tumblr.com/post/184710177662/unexpected-love

—

You: Tom, me and Cam broke up

Tom: What?? Why???

You: He er said he didn’t love me anymore and didn’t want to marry me

Tom: WTF!!

You: Yeah...

Tom: He only proposed to you 6 months ago!!

You: A lot can happen in 6 months....

Tom: I’m so sorry sis

Tom: Wait till I get home, I’ll kill him

You: No, no. As much as I’d like to see that, I can’t let you

Tom: Wait till I tell Harrison and Harry, they’ll be fuming

You: I know.... can I ask a favour???

Tom: You sure you’re okay??

Tom: Anything

You: I know Harrison and Harry are with you and room at your flat is limited but can I come and stay with you??

You: At least till you go to Atlanta

Tom: You don’t need to ask.

Tom: I’ll have my agent book you the next flight out.

You: oh good

You: cause I’m already packed.

Tom: 🙄 ofc you are. See you soon sis, love you.

You: Love you too.

—

Smiling at your phone, you locked it. You knew you could rely on Tom to be a shoulder to cry on.

Sighing, you stood up from your comfortable position on the sofa, in the living room of your shared house with Cam, although not for much longer.

As soon as he told you he didn’t want to marry you, you were calm and collected, slowly packing your things, but inside your heart was breaking and falling into your stomach.

It was difficult to end a 4 year relationship especially having only just got engaged mere months ago, you never thought you’d be happier than you were when Cam proposed on Christmas Day with your entire family there to witness it, but that seemed so long ago now.

Your thoughts were interrupted as your phone rang.

Harrison’s face lit up the screen as his caller ID was displayed.

“Hey Haz.”

“Y/n hey.” His voice was full of emotion and you could guess that Tom had just told him about your breakup.

“You okay?” You asked the normal pleasantries.

“Me? I’m the one that should be asking you that, are you okay? Tom told me about Cam.”

You sighed, rubbing your temples slightly, “I’m okay, it’s not quite sunk in yet..”

“I bet it hasn’t. Why would he do this? And so suddenly?”

“I don’t know babe.” The pet name slipping off your tongue with ease, you’d known Harrison for ages and pet names were more common than your actual names.

He sighed and there was silence on the other end of the phone, “I’m coming to L.A.” You trailed off, placing the phone between your ear and shoulder, trying to multitask and pack up the last of your things.

“Yeah, Tom told me, he’s booking your flight now.”

“Good, I can’t wait to see you all. I’ve missed you.”

“We’ve missed you too, if only the circumstances were better.” You sighed again, that’s all you seemed to have done these last 24 hours, that and cry.

“I know but I’m coming to get my mind off things, I need to be away from the media when my break up comes to light and I think Tom’s flat will be the best place to do that.”

“You sure? He’s not cleaned in weeks!” You laughed as Harrison tried to lighten the mood.

“I’ll see you soon, bye Harrison.”

“Bye love.” He hung up and you shyly smiled, placing your phone in your bag and picking up the bags you needed for L.A.

You’d already had your dad come and pick up most of your stuff, after boxing it all up and taking it to your family home, including your dog Treasure.

You walked out the room and grabbed your keys from the hall table, turning all the lights off knowing Cam wouldn’t be back soon- you’d told him to give you some time so he’d left not long after he broke up with you.

Opening the door, the cold air hit you, for a May evening it was rather chilly. The door slammed behind you, and the locked clicked as it shut, after making sure it was locked, you bleeped your car, dragging your suitcase behind you, and placing it in the boot and getting into the drivers seat, as Tom text you your flight details and boarding pass, you stared at the house one more time, the house you thought you were going to grow old in, the house was suppose to be your family home, but now it was nothing but bad memories, memories you wanted to forget, so you drove away, not looking back.

—

The flight was long, and nothing could take your mind away from the TMZ story that broke half way through it.

“Y/N Holland splits with fiancé in shock cheating scandal!” The headline read and it made you scoff, there was no cheating scandal, although Cam had found another woman he told you before anything happened and never cheated on you, the media made anything up these days.

You’d collected your bags and were waiting for Tom, coffees in hand.

“Y/N!” Someone shouted your name and you turned around to see your younger brother literally running towards you.

“Tom!” The enthusiasm laced in your voice as you placed the coffees down and pulled him into a hug.

“Oh my gosh I’ve missed you.” He mumbled into your shoulder as he held you tightly.

You giggled before relaxing into his chest.

“How was your flight?” He questioned as he pulled from the hug and picked up your bag.

“Fine, except I saw the TMZ story.” Eyes rolling you picked up the coffees, handing him one.

“Ohh thanks. I saw it too, I tried not to get papped on the way here so they wouldn’t know you were here, but I’m not sure it worked.” You shook your head, as much as you didn’t want the media to know where you were it was inevitable that they’d find out eventually.

“It’s okay, better sooner rather than later, as long as they don’t bother me.” You reached

Tom’s car and as he assumed it was swarming with paparazzi lingering near it.

“Hey can you guys move please.” He said as he couldn’t get to the boot to open it.

“Get in Y/NN” He bleeped the car, unlocking his Range Rover.

“Y/N! Why’d you break up with your fiancé?”

“Did you cheat on him?”

“Is another woman having his baby?”

“Have you seen he’s moved on already, Y/N!” Where some of the things yelled at you along with cameras in your face as you politely pushed them away and got in the passenger seat, once Tom was in the drivers seat he locked the doors, pulling out the parking spot, although you’re not sure how he reversed when all the flashes were in his face.

“So I have to go straight to set if that’s okay?”

“Of course Tom, I don’t mind.”

“You sure? I know what you’re like after long flights, you like to shower and sleep.” He raised his eyebrows at you laughing slightly.

You hit his arm, “I’m not that bad, and I don’t mind. Your trailer has a shower right?” He nods, keeping his eyes on the road, “Then problem solved.”

—

You shut your door, as you jumped out the car.

The sun was shinning and you pulled your sunglasses onto your face.

“I can already feel the vitamin D.” You joked, arms out wide.

Tom laughed and grabbed your arm, pulling you along.

“So what’s it like? Being a big movie star.” Tom rolled his eyes and lightly put his arm around your shoulder.

“Oh you know, it’s great, I do whatever I want, and get whatever I want.” You shoved him, “You better not be an arrogant arsehole Tom.”

“I’m not, I promise.” He laughed and sighed in content.

You took the chance to take in your surroundings, big buildings littered the lot and you could see numerous trailers but also car park after car park.

“So my trailer is number 106, and it’s just up there, I’m sorry to leave you but I just got a text to be in hair and make up.” Tom looked up from his phone and pointed straight ahead where you could see the trailers starting at 100.

“No problem Barbie, go get all dolled up.” You shoved him, and he walked away slightly but not before turning back and tripping you, making sure you stumbled over your own feet.

“Fuck you!” You shouted as he ran in the opposite direction away from you. Shaking your head, you’d missed this, the sibling rivalry, the pranks, the shoulders to cry on, the company no matter what the time, the support, you’d missed your family, especially with Tom being away which meant Harry and Harrison were gone too because they went everywhere with him.

Reaching 106 you opened the door, the trailer was huge, nearly as big as your house at home. There were 3 rooms you could see just as you walked in, let alone what was behind the closed door.

You pushed the sunglasses back onto your head and left your bag by the door.

Voices were echoing through the room and you felt relaxed as the familiar voices of Harry and Harrison filled the air. Opening the door slowly, they both had their backs to you, sat on the sofa watching TV.

Taking the opportunity, you snuck up behind the sofa and put your head in the gap between the two of them and screamed.

“Fucking hell!” Harry yelled as he practically jumped six foot in the air. Harrison had fallen off the sofa and was lay on the floor, hand on his chest. “I actually hate you.” Were the words that left his mouth as you laughed.

“No you don’t!” You rounded the sofa and hugged your brother. “How are my two musketeers?” You then hugged Harrison who was now stood up.

“We’re good, we’re good. And you? What about you?” The mood dimmed a little as you sat on the sofa, knees to your chest, “I don’t want to talk about it, but I’m okay.” You smiled shyly and Harrison could tell you weren’t okay because the smile didn’t reach your dull eyes.

“Where’s Tom?” Harry asked not even looking up from his phone, rolling your eyes it was like you’d never left.

“He went to set.” Both there heads shot up when you said that. “Oh shit we’re in trouble, we’re suppose to be on set when he gets there.” They both went sprinting out the room before you could say another word, “Bye then.” You sarcastically said, but they were gone.

You pulled your bag into the living room, getting your phone out of the pocket, you had at least 50 notifications, mostly from social media, but a text from Cam caught your eye.

Cam: I’m deleting these off my phone, wanted you to have them. Attached: 200 photos

There were 200 photos from the last 4 years of your life, from the moment you first met, your first date, your first kiss, your first Christmas, getting Treasure, moving in together, cute dates, anniversaries, him proposing, selfie after selfie, scrolling through them all was hard as every photo had a story behind it and they call came flooding back, and the reality of it all was finally sinking in and you couldn’t hold back the tears, they were free falling as you sobbed, feeling the nerves rack your body as you shake.

You put a hand to your mouth as you choke on a sob, trying to conceal it, bringing your knees to your chest, you bury your head in them and shut your eyes, trying so hard to forget everything, although you could barley hear your own thoughts let alone the door of the trailer opening.

Tom stood there for a second, his heart breaking at the sight of his sister so vulnerable before walking over to you, and just sitting next to you wrapping his arms around you.

You look up startled slightly but relax as you realise it’s Tom and your sobs become louder as you hug his chest. “It’s okay, you’ll be okay.” He kept repeating, rocking you slightly as your tears fell, wetting his Spider-Man suit, he places a light kiss on your head before placing his chin in its place, allowing you to cry as much as you needed too, in the comfort of his arms.

—

Tag list: @melp1219 @memesmyselfandhate @marvelouspottering @coohlwhip @tastefulknife @vaultures @just-a-littlebit-of-everything @helloitsmeamie203 @kiran1245 @augustnightsx @meowmeow230 @coffees-and-constellations @celebsimagines @myfanstories

—

[harriesweirdosx]

Eighteen

For Chloe 

~eighteen~

I got a heart and I got a soul

Believe me, I will use them both

~

Five-year-old Chloe Beale sat in her bedroom playing “Tea Parties’ with her most favourite stuffed animals, running to the window when she heard a car door close.

The young girls bright blue eyes widened as she saw a big truck pull up onto the driveway next to her with a little brunette and man getting out of a car that was parked in front of it, dashing downstairs to get a better look at just who was moving into the house next to hers.

~

We made a start

Be it a false one, I know

~

Five-year-old Beca Mitchell sat outside her home in Atlanta, Georgia on the swing her father had set up for her when they had moved in a month ago, staring out onto the empty street and the wind swirled through her hair.

The young brunette jumped when she felt two little hands on her back pushing her, jumping off the swing to meet bright blue eyes.

“Leave me alone.” The young brunette pushed past the other young redheaded girl and running inside her house.

~

Baby, I don’t want to feel alone

So kiss me where I lay down

~

Ten-year-olds Beca and Chloe walked through their schools' hallways shoulder to shoulder, laughing about the boy that Beca had just punched for making fun of Chloe’s hair.

“Thank you, Bec’s,” Chloe said once her laughter died down. The girl draped her arm around her best friend’s shoulder pulling her in for a side hug before being pushed into a locker by Beca who darted to the main doors of the school.

“Race you, Beale.” The brunette yelled laughing as hit the locker in frustration

“You’re pure evil, Mitchell!” The redhead sprinted after her friend giggling as Beca did a victory dance outside the glass doors.

~

My hands press to your cheeks

A long way from the playground

~

Fourteen-year-old Beca walked out onto the schools quad heading in the direction of her’s and Chloe’s usual sitting spot when she noticed her best friend with her knees tucked into her chest, tears rolling down her face.

“Chlo,” Beca dropped her backpack and kneeled down in front of her friend gently placing her hands on the girl's cheeks to wipe the tears away “What’s happened?” The brunette said, her voice automatically softening.

“H-he cheated on m-me,” Chloe said in between hiccups.

Beca knew exactly who her best friend was talking about. The brunette pulled out her phone and dialled a good friend of the two girls to come and comfort Chloe while Beca sorted out Chloe’s boyfriend.

~

Sixteen-year-old Chloe sat on the floor of her room with her legs crossed leaning towards the phone that was resting on the hook “What’s your issue?” Chloe had asked her best friend rolling her eyes when Beca let out a long sigh. “Global warming, rising ocean levels, the economy, world hunger…the list goes on” Beca had replied sarcastically “That’s not what I meant idiot,” Chloe replied bursting into fits of giggles. Looking out her window across to Beca’s bedroom rolling her eyes.

The next day, Beca wandered through the library, looking along the array books that stood neatly on the shelves, behind her groups of students had their heads buried in their books studying their lunch away. She turned back around to see the familiar hair of her best friend. Chloe turned around and gave the brunette a soft smile before Beca continued her way down the aisle.

~

I have loved you since we were 18

Long before we both thought the same thing

To be loved, to be in love ~

Eighteen-year-olds Beca and Chloe smiled proudly standing in their Blue graduation gowns out the front of their high school that they would soon be graduates from in about an hour.

“I cannot believe that we’re graduating,” Beca said as she walked down the familiar hallways of the high school she spent most of her time making wonderful memories with the people she grew up with, but most importantly her best friend, her crush that she had harboured feelings for not too long ago. The petite brunette looked down at her hand that was now intertwined with the girl she was madly in love with smiling softly.

“I know!!!” Chloe said letting out a squeal squeezing Beca’s hand “I can’t believe we both got into Barden! I can’t wait to go there.” Chloe also had a mad crush on her best friend, she had found these feelings one night when the two had found out they had both been accepted into the university of their dreams. It was getting harder and harder to cope with the fact that Beca may never like her back and that she’d just have to live with it, that she’d just have to learn to ignore the feelings that get stronger and stronger as time went on.”

~

All I can do is say that these arms were made for holding you

I wanna love like you made me feel

When we were 18

~

Nineteen-year-old Chloe stood on the stage after her first ever performance with the Barden Bellas, her best friends. The girl had tears running down her face when she saw Beca, her best friend, her crush, pull in Jesse Swanson and kiss him. She felt the arms of her co-captain and cousin Aubrey Posen pull her down off the stage and guide her away from Beca, the girl, Aubrey, knew Chloe was madly in love with.

Nineteen-year-old Beca ran down off the stage after her first acapella performance that she had arranged with her now co-captains Aubrey and her best friend Chloe. She walked down the aisle reserved for her group of misfit friends and pulled Jesse in for a kiss. She knew it was a mistake, but she needed to get her mind off of Chloe because deep down she knew Chloe would never love her the way Beca loved her.

~

We took a chance

God knows we tried

Yet all along, I knew we’d be fine

~

Twenty-one-year-old Beca had tears of joy running her face as the Barden Bellas were announced the new World Champions of acapella. She locked eyes with her best friend, her crush, and strode over to her and pulled her into a kiss that knocked the air out of her lungs. She kissed Chloe with passion, with love, whilst the rest of the Bellas and the crowd went wild.

~

So pour me a drink oh love,

Let’s split the night wide open and we’ll see everything

We can live in love in slow motion, motion, motion

~

Twenty-five-year-old Beca stood on a stage at the Grammys performing her newest song that she had written for her best friend, her fiance, the one she’d be marrying in 4 months time in front of their family and friends, vowing to always love each other no matter what. So as she continued to sing the song she glanced over to the beautiful girl she had grown up with and fallen hard for who was wiping tears from her eyes with a soft smile on her face. Beca then glanced out to where her Bellas where sitting all having soft smiles on their faces whilst wiping tears away also. She remembered the day she had proposed to Chloe. They were at one of Beca’s concerts in their hometown with all their friends and their parents sitting in the audience as Beca called Chloe upon to the stage.

~

So kiss me where I lay down

My hands press to your cheeks

A long way from the playground

~

“Now before I sing my last song of the night I’d like to invite someone very special onto the stage,” Beca chuckled as the crowd went wild as she scanned the front rows for her girlfriend “Chlo can you come up here please.” The brunette said as her drummer handed her a small box before running back to his kit. Some people let out gasps as the box came into view

Chloe was handed a microphone when she had gotten to the top of the stage stairs. She looked at her girlfriend with a small smiled tilting her head to the side “What’s this about?” Chloe had said when she stepped closer to Beca.

“So, we’ve been together for what 5 years? And known each other for like 20?” Chloe nodded and Beca nodded to her lead guitarist who brought out a chair facing the large screen at the back of the stage as a video came on with pictures and videos of the two girls together through the years as Beca turned to face the audience putting her finger up to her mouth to tell them to be quiet as the small brunette got down on one knee behind where her girlfriend was sat.

When the video had finished Chloe sniffed and wiped her tears.

“Turn around Chlo,” Beca said into the microphone. Chloe let out a gasp as she turned around her hand flew to her mouth as the crowd let out a collective ‘awwww.’

“Will you marry me?”

~

I have loved you since we were 18

Long before we both thought the same thing

To be loved and to be in love

And all I can do is say that these arms are made for holding you, ooh

And I wanna love like you made me feel

When we were 18

~

Twenty-seven-year-old Beca looked up as the doors at the back of the room opened, walking down the aisle was as her soon to be wife the redhead winked at Beca as tears sprung to the brunette's eyes. Beca thought back to the time that Chloe and her had spent together in college. To the first day, the two women had met and Chloe had barged into the brunettes shower stall I after hearing the girl sing for the first time in the thirteen years they had known each other.

“You can sing!” the redhead had exclaimed as she ripped open the shower curtain. “All this time you lied to me!” Chloe said as she pushed Beca’s shoulder with a side smile on her face

A small smile formed on Beca’s face, she then thought back to the night they had been accepted into the Barden Bellas and Chloe was asked to be co-captain.

“I’m so glad that I met you.” Chloe had slurred, pulling Beca in closer before whispering “I knew we’d be fast friends”

Beca smiled wider when she recalled that particular night. She had to basically carry the extremely drunk redhead to their dorm room.

Beca’s thoughts were interrupted by someone clearing their throat. The brunette looked up to see her bride smiling at her as the ceremony began. Beca was now an award-winning artist, living in her new LA home starting the family she had never thought she’d want. Chloe Beale had changed Beca Mitchell for the best.

~

Kiss me where I lay down My hands press to your cheeks A long way from the playground ~

Twenty-Eight-year-olds Beca and Chloe sat on the bathroom floor in their LA home waiting anxiously. The two women had been trying for a baby for around 5 months with no successes, Chloe’s head rested on Beca’s shoulder jumping when the timer on Beca’s phone went off.

“Can you please look at it?” Chloe said looking into her wife’s eyes “I don’t think I can.”

Beca nodded at Chloe and stood up making her way over to the counter where the pregnancy test had been left. The brunette picked up the stick and held it in her shaking hands. Her mouth dropped instantly and tears threatened to spill over.

“What?” The redhead asked as her wife strode over and kissed her.

“We’re having a baby Chlo!”

~ I have loved you since we were 18 Long before we both thought the same thing To be loved and to be in love ~

Thirty-two-year-old Chloe sat in her bed letting out a small groan when her son Nate called out her name. Chloe got up with a huff and slowly made her way down to the bedroom of her son, sighing when she saw him sitting on his knees tears glistening in his eyes.

“There’s a something on under my bed Mommy.” The young boy said in a hushed tone not making much sense. Chloe rolled her eyes and knelt down slowly to inspect what her son was talking about. When she lifted up the sheet Chloe was met with her child once again.

“There’s a monster on my bed mommy.” The young boy said.

Chloe stood up shaking her head.

“Come on boy’s this is getting a little old,” The redhead said in a tired tone “Jack get out from under your brother's bed and Nate lay down.”

Once Chloe was sure the boys had settled she returned to her room laying down with a sigh feeling an arm snake around her waist.

“That’s the last time I leave you alone with the boys Becs.”

~ And all I can do is say that these arms were made for holding you And I want a love like you made me feel When we were 18 I want a love like you made me feel When we were 18 I want a love like you made me feel

~

Thirty-five-year-old Beca sat next to her wife at the Grammy’s laughing loudly as her wife fangirled over the fact that sitting next to Chloe was Taylor Swift. Chloe quickly made her way backstage not long after that presenting the next award.

Beca had been nominated for 4 awards on this fateful night, unfortunately, losing one of the categories. But up next was the Lifetime Achievement award that the Brunette was nominated for. The crowd died down as Beca’s beautiful wife walked out on stage smiling politely at the crowd.

“It is with great pleasure that I am here to announce the award for Lifetime Achievement tonight,” Chloe says as she looks towards the correct camera then, to Beca.

“Presented to my loving wife Beca Mitchell. We recognize and acknowledge you for your outstanding work, success and continuous ambition. We honour you as a prolific, inspirational and fine Comedian, Musician, Actress, Author, Wife and Mother. Thank you for the best years of my life anyone could ask for.”

~ When we were 18

[captainchrisfics]

Faster Than You Can Fall Asleep

About: Chris and the reader Skype while he’s away filming since they miss each other so much, but little does she know she won’t be missing him for long.

Word Count: 966

A/N: This is the first thing I’ve written in a while, and my first Chris/Steve fic ever, so please keep that in mind- I think I’ve improved a lot since this, but it’s still cute and fluffy and just plain sweet. Hope you enjoy!

The Skype ringtone seemed to echo through your emptier-than-usual apartment, a sound that had become all too familiar to you especially in the middle of the night like this. Nevertheless, your race to answer as soon as possible only seemed to speed up with how desperate you became to talk to him even if it was only over the internet, evident by the explosive sprint to where your laptop sat patient and waiting to be picked up. You got comfortable and tried to fix your hair a little based on the small box in the corner of the screen, but it wasn’t a secret that Chris could see through the facade of normalcy you tried to keep up in an attempt to lessen his worrying. Especially when you answered his call on only the second ring at two in the morning.

“Hey, doll,” Chris slurred with a sheepish, sleepy smile on the other end. He was sprawled out on his hotel bed, somewhere miles away in Atlanta filming by day and eager to talk to you by night. He was uncomfortable with having all of this mattress to himself, he’d give anything to be sharing the bed rather than the computer screen. “Are you wearing my hoodie?” Chris inquired with a small chuckle. Of course you were. Why did he even have to ask? Why did he need to make your loneliness a reality?

“Do you need to make me say that I miss you out loud?” You groaned without missing a beat, sure the heartbreak was evident in your voice, maybe a bit more defensively than you meant it to come out. “I just- I just really, really miss you. Our bed is empty, you aren’t here, and I miss you. And I know I shouldn’t be so upset because I’m the one who’s still home, but the thing is it just doesn’t feel like home.” Your voice cracked with the tears welling up in your eyes. He frowned and you instantly regretted it. “Hey, hey,” Chris said, his voice soft and understanding. “I’m sorry, you have every right to be upset. You didn’t choose this,” he sighed, glancing down and running a hand through his unkempt hair. He looked up at his webcam, a subtle smirk erupting. “Do you want to know something so beyond dorky? I’ve sprayed your perfume on my pillow every night since I left,” Chris admitted, but he got a laugh out of you which always made his embarrassment worth the while. Even in the dim lighting of his hotel room you could see his blush. “I can’t sleep when you’re not beside me and it’s the closest I can get,” he huffed, some of the frustration of your separation coming back to him. “Oh no, I’m sorry, what’s wrong? Why are you crying? I’m sorry.” Chris’s eyebrows furrowed in concern as he word vomited, something he couldn’t often help when you were upset. “I didn’t even realize I was until you pointed it out. I️ didn’t even know you had my perfume. I think I just miss you a hell of a lot more than usual.” You were smiling as you wiped the tears from your hot cheeks. “I guess I’m a dork, too,” you confessed with a laugh despite the waterworks.

When you finished drying your eyes and looked back at the screen, you saw Chris, in fact, was not looking at you. You grabbed his attention with a subtle, “hey, dork, I thought we were having a moment.” Chris put up the one minute finger as he kept scrolling with the other pointer- he was focused. Usually, you weren’t the type to mind not being the center of Chris’s universe, but you haven’t spoken to each other in what feels like forever and you barely made it a minute into the call without bursting into tears. Some words of comfort, maybe even a longing look, anything other than the tongue peaking out of the corner of his mouth in concentration would be appreciated right now. You were too caught up in his not-being-caught-up-with-you to notice your phone buzzing on your bedside table with an alert from your email. Chris looked back at you with a big grin, the happiness reaching his eyes.

“Aren’t you going to check your phone, doll?” Chris said, trying to play dumb. Soon a smile to match his own broke out across your cheeks. “Chris, what is this?” You said tentatively, hoping this was a reality, but knowing it seemed too good to be true after the countless nights spent alone. “A plane ticket. You’ll have to spend most of the day hanging out at the hotel or around set while I work, but at least we’ll get to sleep together right?” Chris said with the same goofy smile, obviously not really listening to his own words. “So you want to sleep with me, Evans? Am I just a late night booty call to you?” You commented with a smirk as the double entendre crossed Chris’s mind. “N-no of course not! That’s so not what I meant,” he started sputtering, thinking faster than he could talk while trying to profess his innocence. “So… you don’t want to sleep with me then?” You said, just picking on him for the hell of it with the elation of your upcoming flight to Atlanta prompting you. “Of course I do! Y-you know what I mean. I’m looking forward to spending time with you- regardless of the activity.” Chris concluded with a wink. “You’ve got me, Evans. I’ll be in that bed faster than you can fall asleep without me,” you said with a certain smugness, knowing you sounded like a self-important idiot, but not really caring. Chris got the joke, and soon he’d have you too.

[junker-town]

NBA MVP candidates, ranked for 2022 so far

Here’s our NBA MVP ballot so far.

NBA MVP is almost never a consensus decision. There has only been one unanimous winner in the history of the award — and it wasn’t Michael Jordan, LeBron James, or Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Stephen Curry was the lone unanimous winner back in 2016 while playing for a Golden State Warriors team that won an NBA record 73 games. LeBron and the Cleveland Cavaliers would go on to shock Curry’s Warriors in the NBA Finals that season — Secret Base made a documentary on it! — which offered perhaps the most lasting reminder that MVP is only a regular season award.

There’s never really been a tried-and-true criteria for an NBA MVP winner. Usually the winner has to be considered one of the two or three best players in the world. Usually the winner has to come from a team that actually wins. The fact is that it’s really hard to win MVP. Kobe Bryant only won the award once. Kevin Durant also only has one MVP. Even being the best player on the best team can only get a candidate so far.

With the NBA season getting close to its true halfway point, we thought this would be a good time to take stock in the NBA race for the 2021-2022 season. This would be our MVP list right now.

10. Trae Young, G, Hawks: Young is currently top-five in scoring and top-three in assists while acting as a one-man offense for the Atlanta Hawks. Unfortunately, the Hawks haven’t been able to carry over their winning ways from last year’s charmed Eastern Conference Finals run. I will boldly predict Trae wins an MVP in the next five years, but it’s not coming this year.

9. LeBron James, F, Lakers: LeBron just turned 37 years old, and there’s an argument that his game-by-game ceiling is still the highest in the league. Wild stuff. If the Lakers were near the top of the West, LeBron might win the award. Instead, LA is fighting just to stay out of the play-in tournament. It’s too bad the Lakers are wasting another amazing LeBron year, because we don’t know how many of these we’ll have left.

8. Rudy Gobert, C, Jazz: Gobert and teammate Donovan Mitchell have both been incredible this year, and this spot easily could have went to Mitchell instead. Gobert just feels like the centerpiece of everything the Jazz do, from his elite rim protection powering a top-five defense to his screening, rebounding, and finishing helping fuel what is currently the NBA’s No. 1 offense. Gobert’s 15 rebounds per game also leads the league.

7. Chris Paul, G, Suns: The Suns are possibly even better than last year when they went to the NBA Finals. Phoenix is far more than a one-man team — Devin Booker, Deandre Ayton, Mikal Bridges, and head coach Monty Williams all feel like they play an equally valuable role — but CP3 is still the man steering the ship. On the brink of his 37th birthday, Paul is putting up his lowest scoring numbers ever, but has a chance to lead the league in assists this season.

6. Joel Embiid, C, 76ers: Embiid may have won the award last season had he not missed time with an injury as the Sixers sprinted to the No. 1 seed in the East. Philly hasn’t been as good this year with Ben Simmons out, but Embiid might be even better. He’s shooting better from three, dishing out more assists, and turning the ball over less. Missed games will again hurt his chances, but he should rise if he stays healthy. This likely isn’t the year he gets the award mostly because his team is fighting for a mid-table seed in the East playoff picture.

5. DeMar DeRozan, G, Chicago Bulls

When the Bulls signed DeMar DeRozan to a three-year, $85 million contract — and traded Thaddeus Young plus a future protected first round pick to finish the deal — the move was hailed by many as the worst of the offseason. Whoops. DeRozan has turned in the best year of his career at age-32 and fueled Chicago’s worst-to-first move up the standings. After finishing with the fewest wins in the league over the last four seasons, the Bulls are now a legit contender for the No. 1 seed in the East.

DeRozan’s deadly mid-range scoring and crunch-time heroics have been the foundation of the Bulls’ rise. He’s leading the league in fourth quarter scoring, and he’s done it by mostly hitting the type of shots the opposing defense wants to concede. While DeRozan still doesn’t shoot many threes and remains a below average defender, his consistent ability to get to the foul line and his substantially improved playmaking has helped aid his superstar turn. If DeRozan keeps this up, the Bulls are a legit contender in the East.

4. Kevin Durant, F, Brooklyn Nets

Durant is the best scorer on Earth. He’s leading the league in scoring at about 30 points per game, and he’s doing it on ridiculous efficiency once again. If KD can maintain a true shooting percentage above 61 percent, it will be the 10th straight year he’s done it. He’s also had a major impact on the Nets’ team success: Kyrie Irving still hasn’t played a game, James Harden is having a down year by his historic standards, and Joe Harris is hurt, but Brooklyn will still enter 2022 as the favorite to land the East’s No. 1 seed.

Durant has a strong case both as MVP winner and the mythical title of ‘best player in the world’ this season. It’s remarkable that he’s still this good after tearing his achilles. Brooklyn’s defense has also been playing at a top-five level most of the year, and Durant is a factor on that end as well despite not putting up huge steal or block rates so far. KD is fully incredible, but there are a couple players who are having an even better season.

3. Giannis Antetokounmpo, F, Milwaukee Bucks

Giannis stamped his greatness by leading the Milwaukee Bucks to a championship last year with one of the more dominant playoff runs in recent memory, highlighted by a 50-point performance in the title clincher. The Bucks haven’t yet torched the league this year after a short offseason, but they’ve been charging up the East standings as of late and will be one of hte teams to beat when the playoffs start. That’s because Giannis is as dominant as any player in the league.

Antetokounmpo is my pick for the league’s best defender. He’s also averaging almost 28 points per game offensively, and he looks better than ever as a mid-range scorer. Compared to Durant, Giannis has a better steal percentage, block percentage, rebound percentage, and assist percentage so far this season. This isn’t Giannis’ best regular season campaign, but it feels like he’s still improving in meaningful ways.

2. Nikola Jokic, C, Denver Nuggets

It’s heartbreaking that the Nuggets have so many major injuries to key players — Jamal Murray, Michael Porter Jr., and even P.J. Dozier — because Jokic is playing at an all-time great level. Jokic clearly had the best regular season in the league last year on his way to winning MVP, and he’s putting up even better numbers this year, with superior assist, block, steal, and rebound rates. He’s the runaway leader in all-in-one numbers like EPM. Anecdotally, Jokic finally seems to be shedding his undeserved reputation as a middling defender to become a legit plus on that end.

That the Nuggets would make the playoffs if the season ended today without needing to go in through the play-in tournament is the ultimate testament to Jokic’s greatness. Here’s hoping Denver can finally stay healthy next season so we can see what Jokic can do in the playoffs with a legit team around him.

1. Stephen Curry, G, Golden State Warriors

On the brink of his 34th birthday, Curry is still playing like he’s in his prime. He’s again one of the league’s leading scorers, and he’s doing it by taking and making more three-pointers than ever before. Curry’s mere presence on the court warps opposing defenses in ways that we’ve never seen before. Now that he’s been surrounded by a reliable veteran supporting cast, his Golden State Warriors have jumped from a team that got knocked out in the play-in tournament last year to one with the league’s best record this year.

Curry is leading the league in an all-in-one metric like Nathan Walker’s DRIP, and he’s second behind Jokic in EPM. Curry has always been a bit of an underrated defender, but it feels like he’s still getting better on that end as he enters his mid-30s, this time playing a pivotal role on what’s clearly the best defense in the league in Golden State. He also authored arguably the most defining moment of the season by breaking the all-time three-point record for a career in Madison Square Garden. As long as he stays healthy and Golden State remains in the mix for the West’s No. 1 seed, Curry is set to become the ninth player in league history to win three MVP awards or more. It sure seems like he isn’t slowing down anytime soon.

[atlanta-t-shirt-screen-printer]

Covid-19 is Eviscerating The Atlanta Screen Printing Industry. Can the T Shirt Industry Survive?

T Shirt & Hoodie Industry Insiders Say Everything Is Imploding.

You’ve heard the horror stories. Almost everyone has been laid off or out of work because of the current pandemic. For those of us in the Atlanta screen printing industry its become very frustrating. The daily logistics of a screen printer is time sensitive at all times. Being an truly on demand business, printers often use…

[watchingthesuperbowl]

Notes taken during Super Bowl LII

KITTEN AND PUPPY BOWLS

Is this the first-ever Kitten Bowl to go to overtime? Tied at 28. Feline Manning throws deep. Macaroni grabs it in the end zone. Touchdown! 34-28 Panthers, final score.

I've never thought much of Feline Manning in the regular season, but you can't argue with his results in the Kitten Bowl.

There's a new Puppy Bowl stadium? This is embarrassing. The taxpayers are getting fleeced again.

OH HELL YES. THE REFEREE AT PUPPY BOWL IS A SLOTH.

Update: Puppy Bowl is tied at 14 after a quarter. It's anybody's game.

Dammit. Should have called it a pupdate.

Puppy Bowl is 24-21 in the second quarter. It's quickly becoming apparent that dogs can't play defense.

Pupdate: Fluff 28, Ruff 24. Presumably, we're deep into the second quarter.

Now it's 31-28 Ruff. Still in the second quarter. I'm sure Puppy Bowl XIV is on track to destroy the all-time record for total points scored in a single game.

Last second touchdown! Fluff pulls off a 52-47 win over Ruff!

PREGAME

Okay, I've got a beer, dinner is on its way, and I'm settling in to finish this project. The only reason I've finished this is that I'm a stubborn SOB. This hasn't been fun for about 6-7 months now.

A feature about Tom Brady's mom. She had cancer in 2016 and was only able to be at one of his games, Super Bowl LI. A nice story.

Oh, cool, now Dan Patrick asked Brady when he knew he could be great. It's no longer a heartwarming story about his mom, now it's about slurping on Brady.

Patrick comparing Brady to Michael Jordan. Brady says he doesn't think about that very often. Could never be compared to his childhood heroes.

Brady has no idea how he'll fill the void when he retires. Maybe coach his kids. He's happy his kids are old enough to see him play. His son didn't pick him in fantasy football. Took Cam Newton instead.

You know what NBC should do more of? Talk about Tom Brady. I wonder where they rank him on the all-time list.

Now it's a feature about the Eagles defense. Not a ton of big names, says Chris Long, but they have a bunch of good players.

And then they end it with more about Tom Brady. Good. More of that, please. I never get sick of it.

One thing I've noticed, in watching all these Super Bowls, is that the team with the better defense wins more often than you'd expect. If one team is offense-reliant and the other is defense-reliant, the defensive team wins a bunch of games. That would be the Eagles here.

Rodney Harrison: Patriots will run short passes and screen passes to avoid the Eagle pass rush.

Commercials. Zelle. Applebees has a quesadilla burger. George Washington crossing the Delaware Turnpike for Geico. Turbotax. Promo for a new NBC series, Good Girls. It's not about puppers, unfortunately. Promo for the Olympics.

NBC bumps in with a bunch of sound bites from Eagles and Patriots fans. The Patriots remain the worst. I hope this old guy gets to see an Eagles championship.

Rodney Harrison: Tom Brady gave me a hug, told me he loves me, and gave me a little wink. I've seen that wink before. That means he's going to have a big game.

Dungy and John Harbaugh talk about how loose and calm the Eagles seem. Harrison says the Patriots need to come out and start fast. Can't fall behind the Eagles like they did last year against Atlanta.

Harrison picks the Patriots. Harbaugh picks the Eagles, says they'll hold New England under 24. Dungy picks the Eagles, says he's fallen in love with Nick Foles. Dan Patrick doesn't pick anybody. It's good to be the host.

Commercials: HQ trivia. You can watch the game in Spanish on Universo. Local ad for Tim Hortons. Local ad for Columbus Cyberknife prostate cancer treatment. State Farm insurance. State of Ohio PSA saying you shouldn't drive drunk. YoutubeTV. The commercial for Youtube TV includes a bunch of NBC programming.

Time for the "Youtube TV kickoff show". Starts with a Carrie Underwood song. Great. This is where I need a fast forward button.

There's a rap breakdown in the middle of this Underwood song. They show Super Bowl legends including Roger Staubach during that part of the song. Staubach has been one of my absolute favorite players to watch in these Super Bowls, but he is the least "hip hop" person on earth.

Al Michaels: This is a league built for parity and the Patriots are on the cusp of their sixth championship in 17 years. Eagles have a history of success, but have never won a Super Bowl.

Cris Collinsworth: Everybody knows Tom Brady, but not Nick Foles. But Foles is capable of having a tremendous game. Had one of the greatest seasons in NFL history in 2013. Chip Kelly says you're welcome.

Commercials: A really long commercial for Mass Mutual that involves people singing a Pretenders song. Red Sparrow.

Eagles walk out to the field. NBC runs a montage of their players introducing themselves. "Donnie Bag of Bones Jones" is the punter.

Patriots now. "Chris Hogan, Penn State lacrosse." I wouldn't want to be associated with their football program either. (Also, he didn't play football in college.)

It's very clear very early who the fans in the stadium want to win. The Patriots are loudly booed as they take the field.

Commercials: Kraft, US Bank, Mercedes Benz, Terrell Owens for Pizza Hut, Winter Olympics Promo.

Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award. J.J. Watt, unsurprisingly. He did a ton of work to raise money for hurricane relief after Houston got leveled.

America The Beautiful. Leslie Odom Jr. I genuinely have no clue who this person is. He can sing, though. He nails it.

It turns out Leslie Odom Jr. played Aaron Burr in Hamilton. This would explain why I don't know who he is.

The Star Spangled Banner. Pink. She also nails it.

Commercials. I spaced out and may have missed one. The Quiet Place. Lionel Richie for TD Ameritrade. Big Mac.

Michaels: What's the most likely way the Eagles win this game? Collinsworth: The offensive line and defensive line. They need to be able to run the ball and they need to be able to pressure Brady without blitzing him. It's hard to imagine that this game could come down to anything other than Tom Brady.

Coin toss: Medal of Honor winners. Very cool. Herschel "Woody" Williams will toss the coin. Won the Medal of Honor for valor at the Battle of Iwo Jima in World War II.

The referee called him Willie Williams. Oof.

Now he called him Corporal Wilson.

Eagles call tails. It's heads. Patriots defer, Eagles will receive.

Michele Tafoya: Eagles coach Doug Pederson told Nick Foles "You're not Tom Brady. Be Nick."

Commercials. I spaced out again. Is there a new Jurassic Park movie? There was a thing for that. Also YouTube TV.

NBC bumps in from commercial with a bunch of sound bites from past Super Bowl heroes. Staubach, Namath, Hines Ward.

FIRST QUARTER

Okay, kickoff time

Line-drive kickoff. Clement takes it out to the 25.

First play, pass right to Agholor. 5 yard gain.

Agholor for 2 more yards on second down. Michaels says Foles completed 15 passes in a row at the end of the NFC championship game. It's 17 in a row now.

18 in a row. Foles buys time on third down and hits Alshon Jeffery for 15 yards or so.

Well, there's an incomplete pass. Torrey Smith can't come up with the ball on a 2nd and 12 downfield pass.

Smith more than makes up for the incompletion - goes up the ladder to make a 15 yard catch on 3rd and 12. Eagles approaching field goal range.

Eagles running a bunch of "RPO" plays. (Run-pass option.) Ajayi runs for six on first down. Next play is a screen pass to Corey Clement. Takes it to the New England 5. The Patriots were blitzing and got burned. First and goal.

2nd and goal from the 2. False start on tight end Zach Ertz. Ouch. Offensive penalties inside the 5 are brutal.

Yep, that false start penalty was a killer. After incomplete passes on second down and third down, the Eagles will attempt a field goal.

Got it. A chip shot field goal ends a 14-play game opening drive. 3-0 Eagles. NBC bumps out to commercial with "The Underdog" by Spoon, which is cool.

Commercials: Toyota supports the Paralympics. Sprint has a Westworld parody

Eagles kick off. It's a touchback. Then more commercials.

Commercials: Solo, a Star Wars story. With Donald Glover! Nothing brings it down quite like Dr. Oz in the next commercial. Ugh. Go away. Turkish Airlines. He is Turkish, so there's that. Promo for a new show called Rise. Looks like a musical. Great.

Stop me if you've heard this before. Brady completes a short, outside pass to James White for a first down. 15 yards. Next play is a pass to James White. Because all he does is catch passes in the Super Bowl. That play's wiped out after a 12 men on the field penalty on the defense.

Brady to Chris Hogan underneath, coming across the middle, for a gain of 28. They're inside the Philadelphia 30. Next play is an end around to Hogan for four yards.

Brady to Gronkowski coming across the middle. Another completion, another first down at the 14.

Oh, hey, it's a completion to James White. Gains six yards, down to the 8.

NBC is using a white line to mark the line of scrimmage which is horrible and I hate it. I can't tell which is the line of scrimmage and which is the 10 yard line. Brady throws behind Gronk on third down and the Patriots settle for a Gostkowski field goal attempt.

Yup. 26 yard field goal for Gostkowski. 3-3, late first quarter.

Commercials: Bud Light with a Dilly Dilly ad that I've seen before. M&Ms. The red M&M turns into Danny Devito, who walks down the streets of New York asking if people want to eat him. Promo for the halftime show. Justin Timberlake. Winter Olympics promo.

Kenjon Barner with a decent kickoff return. Kenjon is my dude. Thrilled that he's had an NFL career. Incredibly cool guy.

Big, big run for another Duck, LaGarrette Blount. 36 yard rumble into New England territory. Collinsworth says the Patriots asked Blount to take a pay cut, he said no, and went to the Eagles.

TOUCHDOWN! Foles deep to Alshon Jeffery, who makes an incredible grab in the end zone.

Ugh, they blew the extra point. 9-3 Eagles.

A good article about Barner. He studied, among other things, ballet dancing at Oregon.

Commercials: Ram trucks, Wendy's. Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.

HEY, JEFFERY. NICE CATCH, JEFFERY.

Commercials: A Hulu show from Stephen King and J.J. Abrams. Heroes Arena mobile game. Olympics promo.

The Patriots look very human at this point. Which, yeah, it's the first quarter of the Super Bowl. Gronk false start, Brady overshoots Hogan, and it's 3rd and 7.

Hey, you guys? You might want to cover Danny Amendola. Amendola is wide open deep and Brady hits him. First down at the Philadelphia 29.

Collinsworth: Eagles defense led the league in highest percentage of threes-and-out in the regular season, but they're struggling with New England's fast-paced offense.

First quarter ends. Philadelphia 9, New England 3.

Commercials: Peter Dinklage for Doritos. Morgan Freeman for Mountain Dew Ice. Both are lip-synching rap songs. David Harbour for Tide. Skyscraper starring Dwayne Johnson.

289 yards of total offense in the first quarter between the two teams.

SECOND QUARTER

Third down, Brandin Cooks on a jet sweep. Tries to jump over a tackler but can't get that done.

New England botches a field goal attempt. Holder drops the ball, Gostkowski has to stop, then start, then drills it into the left upright. Big break for Philadelphia.

Foles with a nice move to avoid a sack on third and long. Probably could run for a first down but throws to Ertz. Incomplete. Donnie Bag of Bones Jones to punt.

Fair catch at the 37.

Commercials: Another Dilly Dilly ad for Bud Light. ETrade. A movie. I was looking away. Mission Impossible? Is there one of those? Olympics promo. After the game, "This is Us".

Brady to Cooks downfield for 23. Gets absolutely annihilated by Malcolm Jenkins and he's not moving. There was a bit of helmet-to-helmet contact. Commercial time.

Commercials: Rocket Mortgage. Avocados from Mexico. The Cloverfield Paradox.

We're back from commercial. Cooks has been taken to the locker room. There was no penalty on the hit because he was a runner and not defenseless.

Third down, the Patriots run a reverse/throwback play, a pass to Tom Brady. Incomplete - Brady dropped the ball. They go for it on 4th and 5 from the 35. Incomplete pass. Turnover on downs.

Commercials. Diet Coke with Mango, Jeep, Tide, WeatherTech. Halftime show promo.

Michaels: Patriots DB Malcolm Butler has played zero defensive snaps today. The team says it's "a coach's decision".

Foles downfield to Zach Ertz, First down at the New England 43.

Great throw and catch from Foles to Jeffery downfield. 22 yard gain.

Next play, LaGarrette Blount! Blows through the defense for a 21 yard touchdown. 15-3 Eagles. They go for two, which I absolutely hate. Incomplete pass. It's still 15-3.

Commercials: Pringles. Febreze. Chris Pratt for Michelob Ultra.

Anyway, back to the "going for two" thing. I wouldn't do it until I absolutely had to. The second quarter is not that time.

NBC graphic: Most championships by a coach/QB combo: Belichick-Brady and Lombardi-Starr are tied with five.

Cutaways: Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez. Mike Trout, who Al Michaels calls a California Angel. Missed it by a couple decades, Al.

Big play from Brady to Burkhead. A screen pass - he nearly breaks it for a touchdown. Gets it to the Eagles' 29.

Third and 8, the Eagles completely blow up a screen pass with backfield penetration. Brady throws it away. Gostkowski kicks a 45 yard field goal. 15-6. And that's why you kick the extra point. A ten point lead is so much better than a nine-point lead.

Um, hello? The screen has gone black. I don't know what just happened. No commercials. They go back to the stadium after 10-15 seconds.

Tafoya: Brandin Cooks will not return. He has a "head injury". Patriots now have a total of three wide receivers available.

Michaels: Foles nearly retired when he was released by the Rams. Decided there was only one coach he'd play for, Andy Reid of the Chiefs. Reid wanted him.

Collinsworth: I love what Nick Foles is doing. When the Patriots blitz, he's throwing the ball to the area vacated by the blitzer.

Big run from Ajayi on third and 4. Inside handoff, looks like he's in trouble, and he bursts through the hole to the New England 43.

Huge break for the Patriots. Alshon Jeffery makes a one-handed catch downfield inside the 10 but the ball squirts loose, hits him on the other hand, and bounces to a New England defensive back for an interception.

Commercials: Squarespace, Dodge Ram uses a Martin Luther King speech to sell trucks, which is unbelievably gross.

Gross.

Brady deep to Chris Hogan inside the 30. Next play, James White breaks about eight thousand tackles on a 26 yard touchdown run. Patriots doing Patriots things right before the half.

Gostkowski blows the extra point. 15-12 Eagles as we hit the two minute warning.

Nope.

Huge play for the Eagles on third and 3. Corey Clement runs a swing route down the right sideline and Foles lofts it to him for a 55 yard gain inside the 10.

Next play, Clement powers up the middle to the 2. Nice power run from a third-down back. Clement again on second down. Up the middle again, gets to the 1. Patriots call timeout. 0:40 left.

Good lord, Alshon Jeffery got tackled in the end zone before the ball got there. Incomplete pass. They'll line up to go for it on fourth and goal.

Timeout, Eagles. They want to think about this. The offense is back on the field.

OH WOW. OH WOW.

Direct snap to Clement, flips it to Trey Burton, who throws to a wide-open Foles in the end zone. Touchdown. 22-12 Eagles with 0:34 left in the half.

Once again, Al Michaels says Mike Trout plays for the California Angels.

Patriots have the ball at midfield with 0:03 left. They're lining up for a Hail Mary.

They don't run a Hail Mary. They throw a swing pass to Amendola, who gains 20 yards as the half ends.

At halftime: Philadelphia 22, New England 12

Eagles coach Doug Pederson on the fourth down call at the 1: Our guys marched downfield and I wasn't going to let them get stopped at the one.

HALFTIME

There are commercials happening, but I'm going to grab a snack and a drink. It's a local break anyway.

Commercials: "Unsolved" on USA Network. Pepsi.

Halftime show. Justin Timberlake. Opens with an unbelievably cool laser show under the stage. Now he's coming upstairs into the stadium. Not sure what's with the wardrobe choice. A black leather jacket with fringe and a bandana tied around his neck.

Justin Timberlake isn't my thing musically, but this has been a good halftime show. Better than the Coldplay/Beyonce thing. Better than the Black Eyed Peas. He seems to be changing stages for every new song.

Timberlake doing a "duet" with Prince, which is something Prince was pretty adamant about opposing when he was alive.

Mental note: Make a GIF of the saxophone guy Timberlake walked by just now.

I remembered. Look at sax guy on the left. He's the new Left Shark.

Okay, halftime show over. It was good. Not the best I've ever seen, but solid.

Commercials: A "Jack Ryan" series on Amazon, which seems like exactly the sort of show you'd make if you didn't want me to watch it. Verizon.

Dan Patrick: This is the first game in NFL history to be 22-12 at halftime.

Commercials: Promo for The Voice. Spectrum cable. Giant Eagle. This is obviously a local break. PSA about drinking and driving.

This is the first Super Bowl in history where both QBs were over 200 yards passing in the first half.

Tafoya: Asked Belichick why Butler wasn't playing. He said he makes decisions to give his team the best chance to win. Belichick says they need to do everything better in the second half.

THIRD QUARTER

First play of the second half, Brady misses a wide open Gronk.

They connect on the second play of the half. 25 yard completion downfield to the 50. Next play, Brady to Gronkowski again. 24 yards this time, to the Philadelphia 26.

3rd and 6, Gronkowski again. First and goal at the 8.

It's all Gronk, all the time. Brady zips it to Gronkowski in the end zone on second and goal. 22-18, pending the extra point.

This is not optimal defensive positioning.

Got it this time. 22-19 Eagles. Brady up to 344 yards passing with more than 12 minutes left in the third quarter.

Commercials. Anheuser Busch. Turbotax.

My dude.

Eagles called for a block in the back on the kickoff return. They'll start this drive inside their 20.

Third and 6, Eagles trying to avoid a three-and-out. Agholor with a catch underneath, breaks a tackle to pick up the first down.

A couple of nice runs from Blount and they're into New England territory.

Collinsworth suspects something's up with Jay Ajayi and maybe it is, but Blount has been great.

Ajayi looked okay on that run. Gains 9 on 2nd and 10 and gets to the New England 40.

3rd and 1, Foles to Ertz down the sideline. Gets to the Patriots' 26.

3rd and 6, Foles throws into the end zone. What. a. throw. Corey Clement double covered and the ball is perfect. Looks like Clement bobbled the ball. It's under review as NBC goes to commercial.

Commercials: Jeep. Westworld on HBO. Turbotax.

Ruling on the field stands. Touchdown. It was a close call. Collinsworth is flabbergasted. I don't know what a catch is anymore, to be frank, but I've seen worse calls than that. Extra point is good. 29-19 Eagles.

Commercials: Kia. Blacture.com. Eli Manning mumbling incoherently for something or other. Olympics promo.

Eagles called for defensive holding. Gronk sold it well.

2nd and 8, Dion Lewis up the middle for 6. 3rd and 2 from the Eagles 45.

Brady downfield to Amendola on third and 1. Amendola to the 26 yard line. Next play, Brady to Hogan, who falls into the end zone. Got it. Touchdown. 29-25 with the extra point to come.

Extra point is good.

Commercials: Avengers. T-Mobile. Jesus Christ Superstar promo.

Cutaways: Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton, Floyd Mayweather, Jimmy Fallon, Bradley Cooper.

Commercials: Toyota. Wix. Kraft. The Today Show.

Brady is 19-32 for 404 yards, 2 TD, 0 INT.

First play of the next drive, Folds downfield to Agholor. First down near midfield. Next play, Foles to Torrey Smith. 18 yard gain.

Jet sweep to Agholor for 9 on 2nd and 8. First down inside the New England 25.

NBC graphic: The two teams have combined for 955 total yards, the most in Super Bowl history. And it's still the third quarter.

Third quarter ends. The Eagles have a 3rd and 3 from the New England 15 yard line.

After three quarters: Philadelphia 29, New England 26

Commercials: NFL promo. ADT. Ohio Northern University. Obviously this is a local break. State Farm.

FOURTH QUARTER

Patriots blow up a swing pass to Agholor on third down. Eagles will presumably attempt a field goal after a loss of 8.

Jake Elliott drills a 42 yard field goal. Sets the record for the longest field goal kicked by a rookie in the Super Bowl. 32-26 Eagles. AND THAT'S WHY YOU DON'T GO FOR TWO IN THE SECOND QUARTER.

Commercials: Monster headphones. Michelob Ultra. Groupon.

It's a Rex Burkhead kind of drive for New England. Burkhead run for 5, then Burkhead for 9, then Burkhead for 4.

3rd and 3 for the Patriots. It's clear from motion that the defense is in man coverage, so Brady throws to Amendola. Because that's what he does in man coverage. First down. Next play is a pass downfield to Amendola. First down at the Philadelphia 20.

Hey, have I mentioned HOW BAD AN IDEA IT IS TO GO FOR TWO IN THE SECOND QUARTER?

Swing pass to Amendola for 9. Second and 1 inside the 10.

James White up the middle. First and goal at the Eagles' 3.

Brady is up to 453 yards passing. Throws incomplete on first and goal. Gronk. Brady into the end zone for his big tight end. It's tied at 32, which Michaels describes as the Patriots' first lead of the game.

Brady is now up to 457 yards and 3 TD.

Extra point is good. 33-32 Patriots.

Commercial: Amazon Alexa.

"So I said to myself 'We need that point. We have to get it back. We need to go for two.'"

2nd and 6, Foles throws deep to Smith on a one-on-one jump ball. It falls incomplete. Weird play. It's a huge third down here.

HUGE PLAY. Foles to Ertz for 7 on 3rd and 6. Nice throw.

Clock under 7:00 as Foles throws to Clement. Seven yard gain on 2nd and 8. It's third and 1.

Eagles throw on third and 1. Ugh. It's a swing pass and it's stuffed. Pederson will go for it on 4th and 1.

WHEW. They threw the ball and picked it up. Foles to Ertz for 2. Clock below 5:00. Eagles near midfield.

Philadelphia uses a timeout with 4:52 left in regulation. They have two left.

Commercials: Coke. Peyton Manning for Universal Parks and Resorts. The World Cup on Telemundo.

Nice play by Agholor. Foles escapes the pocket and hits Agholor on the run at the sticks. First down. 3:30 and counting. First and 10 from the New England 43.

Agholor again! Foles zips it to him across the middle. There was a tiny window to complete that pass and he did it. First down inside the 25. The clock is about to become a factor here - the Eagles are likely to take the lead, barring a turnover. The question is how much time Brady will have and how many points he'll need.

Foles is up over 350 yards now. It's pretty obvious that the winning quarterback is going to be the MVP.

1,081 total yards tonight. The most in any NFL postseason game, ever.

Foles to Agholor for 10 yards to the Patriots' 14. Forced out of bounds.

Ajayi for three yards up the middle. Patriots burn their second timeout with 2:30 remaining in regulation. It'll be 2nd and 7.

Incomplete pass on second and 7. Third and 7 here. 2:25 left. Brady's going to have some time, it looks like. If they can get 8 yards on this play, that would be perfect.

TOUCHDOWN! I think. Yeah, that's a touchdown. He had the ball, took a few steps, and dove into the end zone. Ertz took three steps before the ball hit the ground. It seems obvious that this is a touchdown. Collinsworth thinks they have to overturn it. I think he's insane.

I don't see how this is a close call. He caught the ball, started running, dove, got over the goal line, and then the ball popped loose. How is this a question?

What is Collinsworth smoking?

Yeah, they call it a touchdown. That was an easy one, I think. Collinsworth is silent.

Eagles up 38-33. They'll go for two.

Nope. Incomplete pass. AND THAT'S WHY YOU DON'T GO FOR TWO IN THE SECOND QUARTER. DAMMIT.

Brady has 2:21 to put together a touchdown drive.

Collinsworth is still talking about this?

Michaels: In all five Super Bowls Brady has won, he has come back to win them.

Brady to Gronk for 8. 2:16.

BRADY FUMBLES! HOLY CRAP! EAGLES RECOVER.

The game isn't over, but it's damn close. Start chilling nem bottles of champagne.

We reach the two-minute warning with 1:56 left. It'll be third and 5 from the New England 26. They'll run the ball, get the clock down to 1:20 or so, then either kick a field goal (if they don't pick up the first down) or take a knee (if they do).

Blount stuffed on third down. Clock will be down to 1:10 before the field goal attempt. Eagles take a timeout with 70 seconds left.

46 yard field goal, dead center from Jake Elliott. Eagles up 41-33 with 1:05 left. Hell of a clutch kick by a rookie.

Patriots try to run a trick play on the return, but Burkhead is stuffed at the 9. Brady needs to go 91 yards in 58 seconds.

1st and 10, incomplete to Hogan.

2nd and 10, incomplete to White. 0:48 left.

3rd and 10, Brady under pressure in his own end zone, gets the throw off. Incomplete. It's 4th and 10. Now or never.

Complete to Amendola for 12 yards. They spike it with 26 seconds left. They still need 78 yards.

Brady to Gronk. Gets out of bounds at his own 33. 0:20 left.

Brady to Gronk for another 16, gets out of bounds. Near midfield. 0:13 left.

Eagles take their final timeout to talk this over.

Incomplete pass on first down. 0:09 left.

Next play, Brady buys time, chucks it deep, and it falls incomplete in the end zone as time expires.

THE EAGLES HAVE WON THE SUPER BOWL.

THIS ONE'S FOR PHILLY BOY ROY.

Final score: Philadelphia 41, New England 33. Nem Eagles got it done.

POSTGAME

Commercials: Scientology.

Yes, I’m curious. Where’s Shelly Miscavige? Why has nobody seen her in public in more than a decade?

Tom Brady threw for 505 yards, three touchdowns, and zero interceptions. And lost.

Brandon Graham: We are the world champions because we worked our butts off.

The Patriots punted zero times. And lost.

Collinsworth: Nick Foles was unbelievable tonight.

Trophy presentation. Darrell Green carries the Lombardi Trophy to the stage. Weird that they'd have an NFC East great who didn't play for Phiadelphia do this. Apparently he had a big game in Super Bowl XXVI. I contend that game never happened, which is a shame because the Bills were supposed to be in it.

Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie: For Eagles fans everywhere, this is for them. This is the most unique, together, group of men I've ever been around. An incredible group of men, players and coaches. Attempts to dedicate the win. Dan Patrick blows through that, but Lurie somehow gets the microphone from him and dedicates this championship to Eagles fans around the world and especially to his mom and dad.

Doug Pederson thanks Jesus. Praises his players. Has the best players in the world, loves the coaching staff and the owner. Has the best fans in the world.

Pederson: Wanted to stay aggressive with Foles. That was the plan coming in.

Ertz: No doubt that it was a touchdown. No telling what would have happened in the city of Philadelphia if it had been overturned.

Nick Foles is the MVP. Jokingly says it was just another game. His infant daughter tries to grab the microphone. Foles says he's very blessed.

Commercials: Motorola with Amazon Alexa. H&R Block. Discover Card. McDonalds. Eagles championship gear at NFLShop dot com. Xfinity.

Dungy: Foles made big plays all night, but when he needed a touchdown, he went to Ertz.

Harrison: Said Graham would make a difference on defense for the Eagles, and he made the big play late in the fourth quarter.

Bill Belichick: I obviously didn't do a good enough job coaching. We missed a lot of opportunities in the first half. Not good enough on defense. Not good enough in the kicking game.

Harrison: If the Patriots are going to come back to this game, they'll need to improve that defense. Just not enough athletes.

Dungy: Foles knows this is Carson Wentz's team, but was ready to go tonight.

Michaels and Collinsworth awkwardly fist bump.

[monsterfanfic]

Chapter 03: The Weekend

"You should really come with me. Monday, classes are cancelled for the random security testing that the Dean is requiring. Besides my parents would love if you came. Shelly is already excited; she talked about you the whole while we were out shopping."  Eva nodded as Kelly spoke. The words going through one ear and out the other. Regardless of what her friend said Eva wouldn't bombard them with her presence for such a personal family event. She loves Mr. and Mrs. Griffin but this wasn't the time for "pops up". 

Besides, this weekend Eva had plans.

She hoped for them, anyways.  "No.....you guys go and enjoy yourself. I'll be fine here." "Doing what? Studying for a test that's weeks away? Sounds so exciting."  "Hey! I need this 4.0 to continue if I plan to finish at NYU. And trust me, I do."  "One weekend won't kill it, Eva." 

Looking up from her biology notes, a laugh erupted from her lips as she watched Kelly sit on the overly packed traveling bag. Their parents stayed in The Hamptons. A little over 2 hours away from their dorms. If she needed anything, she could simply plan a trip back. Or better yet wear something from her closet back home. "I'll help." Hoping down off the bed, Eva went to Kelly, allowing her friend to sit still as she tried her hardest to zip the bag completely shut. Eva knew when Kelly came back that bag of clothes would be half-empty, and the rest would be replaced with newly brought ones.  "Thanks, love." Getting off, Kelly started with packing her hygiene bag, Eva went back to her bed.  The room fell into an tensed silence. Eva could tell Kelly wanted to ask more questions. Beg for her company because regardless if Eva believes it or not, Kelly could use her company even in the mist of her family being there. She and Shelly were five years apart, leaving room for a mild difference in maturity for the sisters. Besides them catching up, Shelly and Kelly wouldn’t see much of each other, because she too had convinced friends to tag along. Giving Kelly the advantage of having someone in her corner also. In fifteen minutes Eva's mind was fired and Kelly was done with her packing. She had about twenty minutes before the car taking her home would be downstairs.

"Eva are you sure?"  "I'm positive." Eva laughed, responding again.  "You know,"  Her words were cut short. The sounds of Eva's ringtone cutting her off. She shot Kelly an apologetical look before picking up the device, seeing Nicole's motherly name flash across the screen.  "Momma. Hey."  "Eva! Hey, sweetheart. How are you?" "I'm good. How are you? How's the shop going?"  Kelly rose an eyebrow before snickering and flipping the TV on while Eva leaned back against the wall behind her.  Nicole went into a full sprint on her locally owned flower shop right on the outskirts of Atlanta, Georgia. Atlanta was the one place Eva and Nicole seemed to get stable at and honestly the only reason that happened was because it was time for Eva's high school experience, and Eva begged her mom to understand that college was important to her. Eva couldn't see how she'll land herself in a commendable college without the proper years of high school.  Now that Eva's gone though, she fears that phone call when Nicole says she's moving on. Again. Eva knows her mother. It's going to happen soon.  "You should really come home this weekend Eva. Just so I can see you and see how you're really doing. Everything is moving so fast and I'm missing out on it all."  "Mom,"  "No, Eva. I'm serious. I want to see you. Maybe tonight you can get an early flight here and be back for class Monday."  "I already made plans. Kelly's parents invited me to their anniversary celebrations. I don't wanna be rude and just not show up."  The look Kelly shot Eva could've made her laugh and cringe all at the same time if it wasn’t for her mother's tearful emotions and voice. She hasn't lie to her mother in years and even then, it wasn't to this extent.  "I know, I know. But I'll see you soon. Thanksgiving break is coming up sooner than we think," Kelly laughed at Eva’s words of reassurance. It was only approaching the end September, Thanksgiving would be over a month from now.  Nicole brought it though. That's all Eva cared about. After a while, the conversation went back to normal and Eva relaxed again. Her and Nicole falling back into an easy conversation. This was the moment that Eva enjoyed. When Nicole wasn't over protective and emotional, when they were......normal. For so long Eva wanted and wished-for normality in her life. And right now, she has that feeling. It won't last long, but it's something.  "Mom, I hate to end this, but the car is downstairs." "Okay, Eva. Please call me when you get there and be safe. Tell her and her parents I said hello." "I will. I promise. Love you, Ma." "Okay. Love you too, Baby."  Then the call ended. Eva hadn't look up from her phone before pillows came flying at her. One after another until Kelly was out of options and then she was on her.  "I'm going to kill you! How dare you, bitch?"  "Girl," Eva laughed, pushing Kelly back before jumping down off her bed. "Both of you will be okay. I don't want to fly home and I don't want to hurt her feelings. So, I lied. I'm sure you've lied on me to Mrs. Patricia." "Actually," Kelly started to say, but stopped herself. They both knew the truth.  "Right." "Shut up, heffa."

Turn off your phone or don’t turn it off. Eva wasn’t sure to do. She knew turning this device off meant she would be railroaded with missed phone calls and re-run of all the same voicemails, but tonight was one night that she didn’t want to share her time with him.

Was that weird?

Eva had just meant the man, she knew nothing more than his first and last name, the type of vehicle he owed, some bedrooms and parts of his home, and that he was a “freelancer”. And while that seems to be the gist of everything. There was much to fill in. Like what’s his personality? So far, she’s figured him out as unpredictable. Whenever he’s in his head Tonio is cold, closed off. When she says his name, he brings himself out of that funk.

Nonetheless, he invited her out to dinner. Eva didn’t know if he was serious by saying she would be paying him back, but it was worth the time. The time wouldn’t be wasted. Not in her mind.

Fifteen minutes.

Eva pressed down on the on/off button until she saw the words Samsung Note 5 appear on the black screen. She dropped it in Kelly’s adorable Loewe Designer Pink Elephant Mini Bag. The pretty pink bag matched her pink bomber jacket which she paired with a pair of black ripped jeans and a simple matching cotton Fashion Nova black blouse. The last choice to be made was which shoes and the only options she was giving herself was thigh high boots or either combat boots.

Five minutes were left and quickly she flopped down on the bed, pulling up each of the four-inch heel boots up.

By the time Eva finished, time was up and she was working on being three minutes behind. Pulling on the jacket, she locked the door behind her, dropping her keys down in the bag. Outside, Tonio stood against the hood of his truck, once again, his eyes pierced to her the second she stepped out the door. Dramatically he looked down at the watch on his wrist, then back to her.

“Once again, Eva. 5 minutes.”

“I was on the phone with my mother at the time.”

Tonio rose an eyebrow, approaching her, his facial expression letting her know she that either he wasn’t buying it or she was a horrible liar.

“I’ll give you that.” He opened his arms for hug and Eva happily-complied, a smile playing on her lips as she wrapped her arms around his muscular frame. He smelled of his signature cologne, one Eva hadn’t figured out, but whatever it was, she hoped he didn’t stop wearing it. Not long as they’re together.

They let each other go for him to open the truck’s passenger door and then off to the driver side for himself. Eva tried to settle the butterflies in her stomach as he pulled out of the three parks and back into the rode of Manhattan.

“So, what do you have a taste for?” Tonio looked over his shoulder before switching lanes and moving the G Wagon truck with ease through the crowds of people.

“I don’t really care.”

Tonio looked at Eva, leaning back in his seat as he took lead in the passing lane, driving in some familiar direction, obviously not needing to ask that question in Eva’s mind.

“You sound uncertain.”

“I am, I suppose,” Eva laughed at herself, shaking her head in disbelief. “It’s just that if I wasn’t here I’ll be eating Ramen noodles, so anything is an upgrade from that.”

“Why noodles?”

“Because that’s all we keep in the dorm. Well that and some esnacks. Besides, they only cost like a dollar or something for a 5 pack. I could eat those for the rest of my life if push comes to shove.”

Tonio cuts his eyes to her, slowing down for on-coming truck.

“Have you ever had them before?”

“Maybe as a young child. And I don’t plan on being reminded. So, please give me an idea of somewhere to eat.”

“I don’t care…anywhere you go will be fine.”

Nodding, Eva saw a hint of a smile trace his lips before, he made a turned and she saw they were heading into the city.

“That’s better.”

Tonio had his truck valet parked as he grabbed Eva’s hand to enter a small, yet obviously popular place. Eva had never been before, she’s heard of it. Mozzri’s.

There was no line, but this kind of restaurant called for invitations and reservations; no walk ins. Like them. It was Italian styled and served, Eva remembered the name from other students talking around in classes and campus.

"Do you have a reservation?" The question came from the hostess standing at the front door, looking down at a black book filled of names of reservations. "No." "Oh, I'm sorry. We're completely booked for the rest of the week."  "Look, how about you go tell your head chef East sends his regards."  Eva looked up at Tonio, raising an eyebrow, but he ignored her expression. She tugged on the hand which squeezes her, but still nothing. It took the waiter nothing short of two minutes to come back with and grab two menus.  "Sorry for the misunderstanding. It looks as if we have a table open for you two after all. Follow me." "I figured." Eva's body followed behind the host first, Tonio's hand pressed firmly to the lower part of her back as they moved around ones already sitting. Hopefully no one heard that exchange. Even Eva didn't understand what had just happened. The lone word or better yet name; East got them a seat without an blink of an eye.  The name was the one Martin referred to him as.  The one he has tattooed across his hand along with an RIP tattoo to an fellow friend or family member.  The name that he kept himself from telling her, yet knows that Eva knew of it because she was there. Eva could only figure out that the name obviously was taken serious. Something she didn't know how to response to just yet.  "Do you guys know what you want to drink?"  "Yes, a bottle of Brignac Brut Rose."  Eva took this as her queue to occupy herself with reading the menu, drinking the water or something naturally distracting. The young man waited for a second his eyes on her as if he was hesitating on asking, but eventually walked away to retrieve the drink of choice.  Eva couldn't hold back anymore and East seemed to be counting down for the moment.  "How?"  "How what, Eva?"  "How? This place is so difficult to get a reservation, let alone walk in and have a table like that. So, how?"  "I called in a favor to an old friend, he knew I would be here eventually."  "But you asked me,"  "Yeah, I did. I'm good at reading people. You included, Eva. So, while I figured I would ask and see if you had a particular taste. I knew if you didn't, we had a choice. This was that choice, sweetheart." Somewhere there was an switch because an waiter brought out the bottle of champagne, where Eva realized it was the famous Ace of Spades champagne. She knew from rappers and Kelly's experiences that the champagne would be the buck of their bill. Tonio took over the untwisting the second he placed the bottle down, filling Eva's glass to the rim first.  "Are you ready to order?"  "Yes, well," Tonio said, his eyes were on Eva. He was allowing her the chance to choose the dinner. She rose a perfectly arched eyebrow at him, an sense of an attitude spreading across her face causing him to laughed.

"The chef's tasting plates." He finished with. Putting the cap back on firmly. "His or Hers?"  "Neither."  Then they were alone again. "And that?"  "What, Eva?"  "His or her’s plates?"  "I rather the chefs not know which one is mine." "Why not?"  "Could be poisoned."  Eva laughed, the words being the last thing she expected to come from his lips. Why would someone try to harm him? She hadn't seen nothing harmful come from his end. Besides his attitude. "Tonio......" "I told you."  "You're pretty paranoid huh?" "Merely curious about what could happen. Don't trust anyone. You haven't learned that for yourself?"  "Don't you want me to trust you, East?" Eva asked, testing the waters then. He shook his head, taking the glass to his lips. Not an inch of amusement or carelessness crossing his facial features. "Don't call me that, Eva," Yep…….. "And no, sweetheart. I never asked for your trust. Just to have dinner with me."  Dinner is a four-course meal. Consisting of steak, shrimp, and roasted potatoes for the entree, salads, bread sticks, and then chocolate and strawberry deserts. Tonio has made sure to keep their flute glasses full of the champagne. The conversations have smoothly transitioned without much problem. Surprisingly they stayed on the topic of Kelly, Eva guessed the fact that Tonio brought up trust, opening the door for her friend’s credibility to be questioned. briefly Professor Martin; Eva tempted to question what he could want with her professor. But refrained from it.  "You have a big family back in Atlanta?" Tonio asked, leaning back in his seat as fingers twirled the spoon.  He hasn't touched much of his food, hadn't even drunk much of his drink. He's filling hers every chance instead.  "No," Eva laughed at the thought. Family? Big? Yeah, if big is her and her mother. "It's always been just me and my mother." "What happened to your father?"  "He was killed when I was a new born. I had an older brother named Nick but he went missing one summer and hasn't been much word of anything since. My mother believes he’s still around. I……don’t know, at this point, honestly. Maybe so. My mother is paranoid of everything because of it."  Tonio eyes stunk to her, nodding once she finished her statement. Eva didn't know if she was laying too much on him. It was only there first dinner together and she was already telling the man her life issues.  "What about you? Do you have silbings? A big family?"  "Yeah, I have a big family, most of us aren't blood related though."  Eva frowned, before nodding as understanding took over. She hears the saying a lot especially back home.  Not all family is blood related.  "Your check." The waiter sat down the black check book, Eva's nosiness taking over some as she took a look. A surprised gasp escaping from her lips as she took in the amount. Antonio laughed, pulling out a few big bills before closing them inside with the check.  "I could've eaten a like a year off that amount."  "Probably three if you stuck to your noodles, sweetheart."  "Why is it so expensive, seriously? I can cook. I'm great, matter of fact. I could've," Eva stopped herself shortly afterwards. His words from earlier about not trusting other people lingering in her head as well as the fact she barely knew this man. Why would she be cooking for him?  "Well, it was tasty, right? Even your chocolate strawberry desert? You seem to like chocolates. So, again, did you enjoy it?" "Yeah......"  "Good," He refilled her glass, draining the bottle of its peachy smooth alcohol. "We all deserve to indulge sometimes, Eva. Even you."  "Yeah? Well thank you. Again." She picked her glass, taking it to her lip as her hazel brown eyes settled on him. "You really showed out with the champagne though, Tonio. If I didn't know any better I'll think you was trying to get me drunk."  "Now why I do that?" "I don't know. I don't know much about you to be honest."  "All you have to do is ask. I'm the only one who can give you the real answers." Eva laughed at his words, sitting down her glass.  "How old are you?"  "29, you?"  "I'm 20, but I'm supposed to be asking you questions. You know me pretty well, Tonio."  "I don't know everything. You didn't tell me what you were studying in school." "Nursing, I'm going for my RN license. Are you from East Harlem?"  "Yes..." He narrowed his eyes to her, wondering silently where the question came from. "Drink up, Eva."  "Yep, you trying to get me drunk."   "No, you're alert, sweetheart. You know everything going on."  "I do......" Eva knows lust when she sees it. And right now, it's written all over Tonio’s face. "I'm young, Tonio. Not naive."  "I know, Eva,” His long finger trailing the edge of his glass.

“Is that invitation?”

Tender kisses align Eva's neck and upper shoulders. Her thighs tighten around his hips feeling the hardness of his stomach and toned body against hers.  It shouldn't have gone this far. She knew it. East probably knew it. But the second they were through his front door, that electric charge was there and it spread down to her middle, making her body loosen and her vagina wet in excitement.

Soon her clothes and ability to think about what was going on were out the way. "Antonio," It was the first time she had ever used his first name. Her soft hands trailing down his naked back, outlining the many tattoos of his body. He was so structured and divine. It almost scared her.  "Less thinking, baby. More feeling."  Then his body slipped out of her grasp and his head was in between her legs.  His tongue separating her lower lips, licking at her most intimate spot. Her nails rubbed at the scalp of his head, as her bottom lip found it place in between her teeth. Those tattooed hands of his roamed her body. From her waist to her hips. Pinning her down to the bed just to release her to find her harden nipples.  His tongue hadn't stop its exploring on her lower half. In and out. Up and down. Side to side. That's the only movement she could functionally keep track of. Tonio's low mumbles of pleasure hadn't gone ignored. Eva couldn't form words for him, but her moans were loud enough to fill that void; if there was even one. Placing a hand behind herself, Eva sat her upper half up, her eyes strictly on him as he started to suck on her clit. His soft lips placed tender kisses on her, his hands rubbing softly down her body until he was pinning one of her thighs down again. While the other hand found her pussy. Tonio smoothly slid two fingers inside her. Eva's eyes rolling back at the sensations spreading through her body. She's been sexually pleased before by a boyfriend from her high school and once from a college boy in one of her freshmen English courses.  But this? This was definitely different. Definitely more about her and her pleasure than his.  Tonio's fingers curled deep inside her, Eva's body flopping back onto the bed. His mouth found her clit, his tongue matching the speed of his fingers. Eva could feel the cream leaking out of her for him by now. Her hands toyed with her own nipples, needing to give them some kind of attention. "Tonio." Her breathless voice catching his attention. She didn't notice that Tone had left from in between her thighs. His fingers and thumb keeping her on the edge.  "You cumming, Eva." His matter-of-fact tone causing her to moan aloud in response.  She was.  "Cum for me. Show me how much you like this, Eva."  His words sent her body off. Her vagina squeezing around his fingers as her back arched off the cool silk sheets. Tonio placed kisses down her physique, sucking on each of her nipples before trailing his way down to her sweet nectar again.  Tonio grabbed a hold of her hands, his arms holding her stomach and hips as he begins his teasing again. He hadn't had his full just yet of her sweetness. Eva squirm underneath him, her moans louder until they were almost screams of pleasure as he feasted on her once again.  "Toni---fuck....please."  His mouth stayed in the same spot until she started to squirt. Eva, not ever experiencing such an intimate act before, wanted to curl up into a ball the second it happened, but his body forced her to only accept him and all he caused. Her body slightly jump from the after works of his job.  "I really want to fuck the shit out of you, Eva," Tonio said, flicking a finger across her swollen clit. "But I'll wait. Sleep, baby."

[xdoublev]

Adventures in Ireland! Part One

My mom first mentioned taking me to Ireland to celebrate my college graduation… I don’t even know. A long time ago. I graduated Georgia State in August of 2015 and I know it has been a constant topic of conversation ever since. But life happened and got in the way, as it tends to do, and neither of us really had the funds or the time off to seriously plan the trip. Finally, earlier this year, even though we still lacked PTO at both of our positions, we finally decided we had enough seniority to request a large chunk of time off in addition to enough advance time to save. So in May of this year, it was decided. A one week long trek all over Ireland in September. Tickets were purchased. Hotels were booked. It was official.

Here is where I’m going to discuss, in great detail, EVERYTHING that I can find the words to describe. It was my first time out of the country, and technically for my mom too because let’s be real driving in to Canada waay back in the day before a passport was required doesn’t really count. Being thrown in to a completely different culture was fascinating and everything I wanted it to be. So, prepare for A LOT of wordy wordiness. You have been warned.

Sunday, 9/24

My mom made the early morning trek from Savannah to Atlanta to meet me at my apartment (Let me resist the urge to call it my ‘flat’ here, I picked up on a lot of the language while I was there). Our flight wasn’t boarding until about 7 that night, but I was so anxious about getting through International security that I insisted we get to the airport incredibly early. We took our first Lyft experience to the airport and managed to get through security much more easily than I expected. We arrived with enough time to grab a bite to eat and even a drink. First realization I made upon seeing our plane from inside the gate, it was A LOT bigger than domestic planes I had been on in the past. And it was indeed quite a packed flight. I’m generally one to fly as cheaply as possible, so I felt incredibly spoiled by Delta. It was a 7 hour or so flight non-stop, and they really did spoil the fuck out of us. We got fed several times, along with snacks and FREE BEER?! Given our flight went through the night and I was already quite exhausted I did not partake, but I found that incredible. Thanks Delta! I did my best to try and sleep, but no such luck. So Sunday night/time traveling in to Monday morning was an all nighter spent watching Bob’s Burgers, School of Rock, and 500 Days of Summer. They had screens in front of every seat where you could pick whatever you wanted to watch. But even cooler, they had a screen where you could track the plane’s location. So I spent most of the time actually watching as the plane steadily headed north towards Canada, then eventually banked East allllll the way over the Atlantic Ocean and to the far East side of Ireland towards Dublin.

Monday, 9/25

Our plane landed in Dublin around 11am local time. We worked our way off the plane and immediately found our way in to the wrong line trying to get out of customs. We got shooed to a line with all the other Americans, and had to wait in a hefty line that took us about half an hour to get through. Again, I was quite nervous to get through customs (I think I watch too many movies) but they were really rather pleasant. They simply asked why we were there and where else we were planning to travel. We told them we were just visiting (On holiday, as they say over there) and would be traveling just around Ireland. He wished us a good time, and we got our first stamps in our passports!

We spent a few moments outside the airport trying to figure out how to get to the train that would take us to Galway. Even though I had gotten international coverage cleared with Sprint, I shouldn’t even be surprised that my coverage was mediocre at best. My data ~selectively~ worked, and even though my mom has the exact same plan with Sprint that I do, and we set up her phone the same way, her phone did not work at all. Basically, we knew we had to get to Heuston Train Station, but weren’t sure how to get there. We saw a lot of people getting on various buses and I looked up at the maps and found what we needed. Bus 747 would take us alllll through Dublin to the end of the line at the station, and it was about a 45 minute ride. It was only €7 per ticket, so I went ahead and bought us both a ticket and we boarded the DOUBLE DECKER bus. May or may not have been waaay too excited about that.

So the bus took us through Dublin and I watched with extreme anxiety how the bus weaved in and out of traffic narrowly missing pedestrians and bikers, as to be expected in any major city. As excited as I was to be there, I was quite excited we were gonna be spending the majority of our time in Galway, which is much smaller. A city is a city everywhere you go. I saw a lot of chains – Starbucks, McDonalds, Burger King, etc. Main difference was that everyone was driving on the left and everyone had accents! Heh. So a few of the things we passed included Temple Bar, which I’m still not sure why it’s a big deal but hear a lot about it; and the GUINNESS FACTORY! Having been an avid Guinness drinker several years ago (I lean more towards IPA’s these days) I was very excited to see how massive it was. The plan was to visit it later in the week, unfortunately we ran out of time, but that’s a story for later in this narrative. I saw it, and that’s enough for me honestly. Maybe I can go back some day.

So our bus dropped us off at the train station and it was time for priority #1: Coffee. Anyone who knows me knows that I’m a pretty serious coffee drinker. Well, guess who raised me to be that way? That’s right. My mom. There were several cafes inside the station, and we decided on one that also gave out free pieces of fudge with any purchase! Win! First observation upon looking at the menu: Drip coffee was not listed as an option. We soon found out that drip coffee does not exist in Ireland. I suppose if we were to have walked in to a Starbucks we would have found some, but fuck that. So we both ordered lattes and made a run for the train. There wasn’t really any reason to run, our ticket was open ended and we could use it whenever. But I was having issues with my wrist and my mom’s arm was hurting her and we were both pretty eager to get settled in Galway and ditch the damn luggage.

We made a very scenic 2.5 hour trek through Ireland by train and I can’t think of a better way to see the country side. Most exciting moment for me – passing through the fields of Athenry. Although I haven’t listened to them much in recent years one of my first favorite punk bands was the Dropkick Murphys, who are of course are an Irish punk band. And yes, they have a song called The Fields of Athenry (Which turns out is a cover. But still. I was excited). So commence me flailing just a little bit.

We arrived at the train station in Galway and of course proceeded to promptly get lost since my phone was giving me quite misleading information about which way to walk to our hotel. This turned out to be not such a bad thing though! We found an old cemetery and a nice walkway along the water we decided to revisit after we checked in to our hotel. We finally found our hotel, the Garvey’s Inn, nestled in the center of Eyre Square. We walked in and I was very surprised to see, not a reception office, but a pub! We were greeted by the bartender, in that lovely Irish accent I came to love so much while we were there. We told her we were checking in and she took us off to the side where a small little reception area was tucked away. We got our room key, which was not a card to swipe in the door, but an actual KEY attached to a very large plastic room number. We were told we were on the second floor and the lift (not the elevator) was around the corner, tucked behind a door you still had to open to access the lift. So we made our way up to our hotel room and it was absolutely adorable. Given that it doesn’t ever really get very hot in Ireland, most people always have their windows open and they are designed in such a way that the rain doesn’t come in. So it was nice and chilly in our room. Outside our window you could see another hostel and an alleyway that was just LINED with empty kegs from all the pubs along the way. The roads were brick and we were surrounded by so much beautiful architecture. Our room consisted of two tiny single person beds and a tiny tv that we really had no use for. It was time for adventure (Although one stereotype was confirmed when we briefly turned it on, our only channel options were BBC1 and BBC2)! Another lesson I learned quickly, the ground floor is never listed as 1 in the lift, it is level 0. A little odd, but hey, I won’t question you Ireland.

Finally free of our luggage, we set back out to explore the cemetery we had found earlier. But first, it was time for more coffee. We walked in to the café right next to our hotel called Esquires. Quite hungry after our journey on the train, we decided we needed some food as well. We ordered at the counter, americanos and bagels, and sat down. Our server was very friendly, and it was somehow decided that we needed to come back to this place because we enjoyed it so much. I can’t describe exactly how, but the cream cheese was different over there. Not in a bad way, but not quite what I was expecting. And this was when I first noticed they really put bacon on EVERYTHING! I see no problem there 😊

The cemetery was very old and settled up on a hill with the bay in the distance. It was a particularly cloudy day and we got some very spooky photos. From there my mom decided it was time for a beer and she needed to pick up some cigarettes. So we went to the nearest petrol (not gas) station. She picked up a Heineken, her drink of choice, which for whatever reason is extremely popular in Ireland. The cigarettes… Okay to start it was €9 for a pack. My main mistake most of the time in Ireland was thinking of a euro as the equivalent of a dollar. Well, that’s new true at all. But I’m honestly okay that I had that misconception because it made me feel like I was spending less than I actually was! Heh. Aside from the obscene price, they were littered with messages of warning, moreso than American packs, and PICTURES. There was no Pall Mall logo on these cigarettes. There was instead a damn picture of a baby smoking a cigarette with some cryptic message underneath. They were all like this! It was honestly kind of hilarious. Everyone we met in Ireland that smoked we showed the pack of American Pall Malls and their immediate reaction was always WOW THERE’S NO PICTURES! Hah.

From there we found a path that went down with train tracks on one side and water on the other. We walked a little ways down there before we realized it wasn’t really going anywhere significant, just what looked like a residential area. There were lots of people on bikes and what looked like uniforms making their way towards town and I gathered that this town was small enough for a lot of people to make their commutes without a car. That is something I always appreciate about a city. We headed back in the other direction and found what I guess is considered the “tourism central” area. It was just LINED with pubs and shops and buskers. So many pubs, that it was actually incredibly difficult to decide which one to go to. We settled that we would just eat at our pub in the Garvey’s Inn a little later that night. We popped in a few of the shops and got some souvenirs. I didn’t want to get too much just yet since we still had a whole week and several cities to go, but I did pick up some Guinness fudge that is absolutely INCREDIBLE. At the end of this stretch of pubs was more water, the city museum, and an area full of young folks just out enjoying picnics and drinks by the rushing canal. I was immediately envious, and if I hadn’t been itching to get a real pint of Guinness at the pub so badly, I absolutely would have hit the first shop and bought one to do the same!

But alas, we were tired and it was starting to get late. We headed back to our hotel pub and ordered fish and chips to split and I ordered my first Guinness. Everyone has always told me it is a must to have Guinness in Ireland so I did what I was told. I was not disappointed. I ended up getting another, and then many more throughout the week. It’s worth noting that I was convinced the taste difference was all in my head but upon my return to America I had a sip of Keegan’s Guinness at dinner and it’s got this horrid metallic taste over here that CERTAINLY is not there in Ireland. So anyways, I’ve been ruined. No more American Guinness for me ever again. We got chatting with a man at the bar from San Diego that was touring through Ireland with his wife. He was really nice and it was a great introduction of what the Irish experience really boils down to – making friends in pubs. He also got us chatting with our bartenders who taught us that us Americans have been saying Jameson and Smithwicks wrong this whole time! A band started playing at some point in the night but it wasn’t so much a performance as a large group of people just occupying a table playing some traditional Irish music together. It was really nice. We called it an early night after a few drinks since we had indeed stayed up all night for our flight. We had plans to get up and try to see the sunrise over the water the next morning.

Tuesday, 9/26

Well, waking up for the sunset certainly didn’t happen! I slept through all of my alarms and woke up at 9:30 much more refreshed than the day before. We accepted that sleeping in had been necessary and would resume the rest of the trip with as little sleep as needed to function. First order of business: Coffee, obviously. Mom had reserved us a car for Thursday through Saturday, but it had been manual. She was already nervous that she hadn’t realized she’d have to be shifting with her left hand since the driver’s seat is on the opposite side over there. She was even more nervous when she saw the roads and the intersections and just how confusing it all seemed to be. We attempted to change our reservation with the Budget Car Rental right in between our café of choice and our hotel (So convenient!) but it turned out we had to entirely cancel our previous reservation and create a new one. This meant sitting in the café for the wifi longer than either of us had really wanted to. Then we ended up having to correct several mistakes with our new reservation. All the while fumbling with new money trying to figure out which coins were which to buy coffee. I felt so much like a tourist, and I wasn’t enjoying the feeling. By the time we got all of that squared away, it was just passed noon. We had entertained the idea of going to the Cliffs of Moher that day, but we had just barely missed the tour bus leaving, so we were left with a free day in Galway. This turned out being one of the best days of the trip.

We decided to walk down to the city museum to get some history. It was a nice museum, a few stories high and with a gorgeous view of the city from the top floor. We had passed a place called Burgatory on the way over, and I was obviously intrigued by the name and we decided to eat there for lunch. I was boring and just got a bacon cheeseburger and chips (not fries!). My mom decided to be adventurous and get the one that had black pudding on it. Sounds awful right? NO. I wish I could better describe this, but it comes in some kind of patty form and it was the most delicious burger I’ve ever tasted. This place was tiny, and we were the only ones there so we got to chatting with the guy behind the counter. He said they were brand new and had just graduated from being a food truck to having a store and were hoping to expand through Ireland. It was a really unique place and I hope they do well.

We left from Burgatory with plans to head towards an area called Salthill, which is really just a shopping district with pubs across from the Atlantic Ocean that I thought looked cool. On our walk there, we got significantly distracted walking down a canal pathway and looking at all the beautiful buildings and exploring different paths. Quite a while later, we finally got back on track walking towards Salthill again. But by this point we both had to use the toilet (not restroom!) and stumbled upon a pub called the Salt House. We decided to go in for a pint and use the toilet before we headed on. The place was tiny and only carried local beer, so I think we found the perfect place for my hipster-in-denial little heart. I had been hoping to stumble upon some other local beers aside from Guinness. A lot of the brews in there were from a place called Galway City Brewery so I tried one of the IPA’s and the bartender suggested another beer for my mom since they didn’t have Heineken. We got to chatting with one of the guys sitting at the bar named Robert. He was from Poland originally but had lived in Galway 11 years. I don’t know how we got on the subject, but he was also quite a fan of craft beer and liked a lot of the same beers I did. I told him all about all the breweries popping up around Georgia and he talked about all the great beers local to Galway. He suggested we check out a microbrewery in Salthill called The Oslo. I told him we were headed that way and we would!

Well, after about two hours of chatting with Robert about a lot of things – How ridiculous American policies are mainly – He said that he had to get going, but would walk with us since he was heading the same way. Along the walk, he taught us so much about the culture in Galway and in Ireland as a whole. I’ll summarize some of the things he taught us as best he can here:

- Even though Galway is the fourth largest city, it is still very compact and walkable

- There are so many pubs in Galway he hadn’t even been to all of them in 11 years of living there

- Some of these pubs had five generations of family members who had been drinking there

- Galway is an incredibly safe city. They apparently hadn’t had a murder in 10 years. Their main problems, mainly because of all the alcohol, are domestic violence and suicide

- The cops are rarely seen and are generally bored because the town has so little crime

- It’s such a music town because everyone in Galway plays some kind of instrument. It’s normal to see a band formed from just a family who all can play different instruments. Music in the pubs isn’t necessarily performed or planned as it’s usually just a bunch of musicians meeting up for pints and playing

So Robert walked us all the way to Salthill and showed us to the Oslo, but rather than parting ways like I’d expected us to, he came in with us and even bought our pints! The Oslo had more local beer, so I tried another and we spent another several hours in this pub talking with him! I was really blown away and it felt so amazing to be shown around by a local, even if we were just drinking in pubs. From what I gather, that’s what people do in Galway. They go out, make friends, and drink together. I never quite gathered what Robert did for a living, but he was only 37 and planning to retire in the next five years. Self-employed.. something to do with boats.. I don’t know. Whatever he does he is doing quite well for himself. He had never been to America and absolutely loved chatting with us about it. He had some pretty interesting ideas about what we as Americans have to do to take our country back. He also told us all about where people go and what they do in Europe when they go on holiday.

We eventually got done at the Oslo and walked outside and started talking just outside while him and my mom smoked (Everyone in Galway rolled their own cigs.. Probably a nice way around having to pay €9 for a pack). I assumed this was where we were going to part ways. But another local also smoking right outside heard us talking and realized we were American and came to chat. I found that fascinating. Just as we do when we hear accents here in America, they were always so eager to chat with us about where we’re from and how we’re enjoying our holiday. This is also how I learned that the “honest US map” that floats around the internet from time to time is incredible accurate. “Georgia.. is that near Chicago?”

Anyways, the other local chatted with us for a bit and he suggested another pub called O’Connor’s. Robert got excited and said AH YES! I’LL TAKE YOU THERE NEXT! So off we went. It was pretty clear we were closing down the night with our new friend here. For a brief moment I was concerned that we were wasting our day in pubs, but then I thought about one of my favorite Beans on Toast songs where he talks about travelling the world and making friends in pubs. There was no better way to get the locals experience.

Robert suggested another delicious beer for me at this pub, which was the most decorated of them all thus far. We were at this one for a little while and it started to get late. I felt fine, but we did have a tour booked the next day starting at 9:45am and I was concerned of oversleeping again, so I knew we had to turn in soon. A band started to play behind us on a small stage. Robert asked us where we were staying, to which we replied the Garvey’s Inn near City Centre. He then mapped out where our next pub adventure would be on the way back. I’m glad he was navigating, because he took us off the main path along the ocean that I was familiar with and we would have never gotten home.

He took us to our last stop of the night, a place called Crane Bar that had an upstairs and downstairs. We walked upstairs first to an incredibly packed pub, of which the majority of the pub was a band just sitting in a circle in the middle of the room playing traditional Irish music. Showcasing what he had told us earlier about people just showing up together to play, which I imagine is what we also witnessed our first night in town at the Garvey’s Inn. We decided to head to the less packed downstairs area, where there was another smaller group of men playing traditional Irish music just off to the side. My favorite part of drinking in this pub is that I truly experienced what Robert had described to us. A man, completely a stranger to the band, walked up in between songs and asked if he could sing a song and have them play along. They agreed, he started to sing, and slowly, one by one, each of the men started playing along their instruments with him. What a truly incredible thing to witness.

Some time after midnight I knew it was time to bring the night to a close. We walked back towards our hotel. About this time, my light weight ass being quite buzzed, I realized that we had completely skipped dinner. And then I remembered I had saved chips from the Burgatory in my bag and ate them cold walking down the street. The roads were completely empty of cars except for taxis, because as Robert told us “No one is sober after midnight.” Which was confirmed promptly by a girl stumbling by slurring in to her cell phone in high heels. We made it to our hotel and Robert gave us both hugs and wished us a good rest of our trip. And that was it. It was just a genuinely nice stranger who wanted to show us a good time and we parted our ways after. I don’t know if I’m just overthinking it, but I found this lovely. He did not want anything in return. While a part of me wishes I at least had an email address to thank him for such a lovely day, I think the day was perfect and I will forever remember him for adopting us and making sure we had fun.

Part Two can be found here:

http://xdoublev.tumblr.com/post/166055989300/adventures-in-ireland-part-two

Part Three Can be found here:

http://xdoublev.tumblr.com/post/166270451010/adventures-in-ireland-part-three

[androidskit-blog]

Best superfast 5G Mobile phones: Galaxy S10 5G, OnePlus 7 Pro 5G, Moto Z4 & more

On Aug. 7, Samsung unveiled three more phones that it's adding to its already-crowded Galaxy lineup: the Note 10, Note 10 Plus and Note 10 Plus 5G. The announcement marked the first time the company has split its Note phone into two sizes, and it revealed Samsung's second 5G phone, following the Galaxy S10 5G, which is available on US carrier Verizon.  But Verizon and other major US carriers aren't the only ones readying themselves for 5G. Carriers around the world are ramping up to deliver the latest generation of cellular tech. Not only will these networks connect users to a superfast mobile network, but many other industries will benefit from the faster connectivity of 5G as well, like self-driving cars, drones and the internet of things, to name a few.  Though none of these networks are ready for a nationwide rollout currently, carriers everywhere are racing to lay the necessary infrastructure to roll out a faster and more expansive wireless network. As such, more and more 5G deployment will take place throughout this year and next. Right now, 5G is live in select cities for Verizon, T-Mobile, AT&T, and Sprint users. And in Britain, UK carrier EE became the first 5G carrier in the country, with Vodafone following seven cities under its belt. Meanwhile, Three UK plans to switch on its 5G in August. Britain's government is also allowing Huawei access to set up the country's 5G infrastructure.  Most people will likely experience the benefits of a robust 5G network only through a 5G-enabled phone. After all, the grand promises carriers and chip-makers are making with 5G coverage doesn't mean much if you can't access the network with your own device. To help you keep tabs on all the 5G phones and when we can expect more, here's what the major phone-makers are planning. 

Apple 

Apple's in no rush to launch a 5G iPhone, and it's likely you won't see one until at least 2020. In fact, Apple analyst Ming-chi Kuo predicts the company will unveil three 5G phones next year. There are a couple of reasons for this. First, Apple usually isn't the first in on mobile trends, preferring instead to perfect an emerging technology before committing to it. For example, it was behind its competitors in making phones with 3G and 4G LTE connectivity when those networks just launched.   Second, Apple stopped working with the leading 5G modem provider, Qualcomm, because of a dispute over Qualcomm's licensing fees. The two companies settled their litigation in April and then agreed to a multiyear 5G chip deal. This led to Apple's previous partner of 5G modems, Intel, to ultimately exit the 5G phone modem business altogether and Apple later acquired Intel's smartphone modem business for $1 billion. Apple is still working with Qualcomm, but it got started too late to launch a 5G phone this year.  Despite all these legal issues, that doesn't mean Apple is totally ignoring 5G. In April, Sprint and AT&T reached a settlement after Sprint sued AT&T for displaying "5G E" connectivity on some of its phones, which included iPhones. This is despite the fact that its network technology remained unchanged from 4G. (However, our recent tests in Los Angeles were on the network's 5G network.)

Samsung

As previously mentioned, Samsung unveiled its second 5G phone, the Note 10 Plus 5G. It's pretty much identical to the regular Note 10 Plus but connects to 5G networks. It will be available on the US carrier Verizon first for $1,300 and will be in stores on Aug. 23. However, it may not be worth investing in this phone just yet.  Meanwhile, Samsung's first 5G phone, the Galaxy S10 5G, is out right now. It has a 6.7-inch display, four rear cameras and the ability to wirelessly charge other devices. The device is available on Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile, as well as AT&T but only for businesses.  Samsung's foldable Galaxy Fold will have a 5G variant, too, but that phone's launch has been delayed until September due to reported screen issues that the company said it recently solved. 

Google

Google hasn't revealed its plans for 5G, and the company declined to reply to a request to comment. What we do know is that Verizon is continuing its plans to roll out its 5G network in early 2019, similar to other carriers.  What does that have to do with Google exactly? For the past few years, and for better or for worse, Google has tapped Verizon as its exclusive carrier partner for its Pixel phones, including its last flagship, the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL. (However, Google also sells the phone unlocked or on its Wi-Fi-first network, Google Fi. Its most recent midrange phone, the Pixel 3A, and Pixel 3A XL are also now available from other carriers.)  This could mean that its next flagship, which Google confirmed will be the Pixel 4 (and Pixel 4 XL), which could be a 5G phone. If it sticks with its usual phone launch schedule, the Pixel 4 would debut around October 2019 -- well after the first half of the year. 

LG

The LG V50 ThinQ 5G is available to Sprint users for $1,152 and Verizon customers for $1,000. Sprint's 5G network is live in four cities: Dallas, Houston, Kansas City, and Atlanta. As mentioned earlier, we tested Sprint's 5G network in Dallas with the V50 and coverage was more consistent but slower than Verizon's. Sprint will also flip the switch for a handful of other cities afterward, like Los Angeles, New York and Washington, D.C. later in 2019. (FYI, Sprint is also expected to merge with T-Mobile soon, a move that carrier speed analyst Ookla said "could result in an unmatched network in the face of 5G.")  The V50 will also be sold by T-Mobile and AT&T later in the year. The phone features a 6.4-inch OLED display, three rear cameras that include a wide-angle and telephoto lens, the Snapdragon 855 chipset and two front-facing cameras. It can also attach to a Dual Screen accessory that increases the phone's display size, though that won't be available in the US. 

Lenovo/Motorola

Lenovo's first 5G device was 2018's Motorola Moto Z3. Its successor, the Moto Z4, launched in May without much fanfare. Like the Z3, the Z4 connects to 5G with a Moto Mod modular accessory, which attaches to the back of the phone using magnetic pins. The phone is $499 and the Mod costs extra, but for a limited time, you can get both for $440, making the Z4 the cheapest 5G phone yet.  When we first tested Verizon's 5G network with the Z3 and Mod in April, Jessica Dolcourt noticed "theoretical download speeds kissing 600Mbps." But other times, "The download would start strong, the phone would flicker to show the 4G logo, and speeds would plummet."  As for a Motorola phone that wouldn't need an accessory to connect to 5G, the company is working on making such a device, but you'll have to wait much longer. Doug Michau, Motorola Mobility's director of technical sales and operations, said that phone would come much later than early 2019. More specifically, Michau said it would launch in "definitely less than three years, but no time frame yet." 

Huawei

Chinese phone-maker Huawei has two 5G phones waiting in the wings. One is the Mate X, which combines 5G speeds and a foldable display. The device has a 6.6-inch display when folded closed, and an 8-inch OLED screen when you flip it open. It also features a 4,500-mAh battery and three rear cameras. The Mate X is scheduled to launch in the middle of the year and will cost a whopping 2,300 euros (about $2,600).  Its second phone is the Mate 20 X 5G. The phone was supposed to launch in the UK in June for £999 (or about $1,279 in the US and AU$1,856 in Australia) but UK carriers EE and Vodafone have dropped plans to sell the device. The phone has a huge 7.2-inch display, a 4,200mAh battery, and a triple rear-camera setup.   Don't expect these phones to come to the US, though. Calling it a security threat to the Department of Defense, the US government banned the sale of Huawei phones on US military bases. In May, an executive order put limits on foreign involvement in the US' carrier networks, which Huawei said will leave the US behind in 5G. Retail giant Best Buy also stopped selling Huawei products in March 2018 and Huawei's CFO was arrested in Canada at the request of the US in an act her father said was politically motivated. Italy also wants to ban the company from supplying 5G equipment.  That doesn't necessarily spell the end of Huawei and its 5G ambitions, though. "Our products and solutions are used by major carriers, Fortune 500 companies and hundreds of millions of consumers in more than 170 countries around the world," a Huawei spokesman said last March. "We have earned the trust of our partners across the global value chain." 

OnePlus

OnePlus' latest phone, the OnePlus 7 Pro, has a 5G variant that currently sells on UK carrier EE's 5G network. The OnePlus 7 Pro earned CNET's Editors' Choice Award and features a 6.67-inch, 90Hz display, a pop-up selfie camera, and three rear cameras. (It also survived a few dunk tests for water resistance, despite not being IP rated.) EE's 5G deployment will also span 16 cities in 2019, starting with London, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Belfast, Birmingham, and Manchester.  OnePlus is working on bringing a 5G phone to the US though. On Aug. 6 the company announced it was partnering with Sprint to release a 5G phone "soon." In the meantime, the no-5G version of the OnePlus 7 Pro is available through T-Mobile, but unlocked models work on AT&T and Verizon. The regular OnePlus 7 Pro starts at $669 and £649 (converted, that's about AU$962 in Australia).     

Nokia 

Though Nokia isn't the phone giant that it was 15 years ago, it's still taking steps toward a 5G future. It's currently working with Qualcomm to make 5G devices and in July, the company announced a $3.5 billion partnership with T-Mobile, which includes taking advantage of T-Mobile's 600MHz spectrum to back its 5G network.   But don't expect 5G Nokia phones anytime soon; in February HMD CEO Florian Seiche (who makes Nokia phones) said those devices probably won't arrive until 2020. Nokia also stands to benefit from 5G in other ways though. In addition to Qualcomm and Ericsson, the company has patent rights to 5G technology and stands to make up to $3.50 for every 5G smartphone sold. 

HTC

Instead of a phone, Taiwanese electronics company HTC has a 5G hotspot. Available now on Sprint for $600, the hub connects up to 20 people simultaneously. Equipped with a 5-inch display, audio speakers and Android Pie software, the device is also a media hub that users can make video calls with or use to check the mail.

ZTE

Scheduled to release in China and Europe, ZTE's Axon 10 Pro 5G has a 4G version that is already available in Germany for 599 euros ($671, £520, AU$967). It's equipped with a Snapdragon 855 processor and has a fingerprint scanner embedded in its screen. On the back are three cameras that have AI capabilities, including scene recognition. The rear setup includes a wide-angle camera, a standard lens, and a third telephoto camera. For your selfie shots, the front of the phone has a 20-megapixel camera.   In February ZTE said it was aiming to have 5G phones off the ground in either late 2018 or early 2019, but followed that up with a "late 2019" prediction. Currently, ZTE is working with eight international carriers to roll out 5G testing. For now,  the future of ZTE in the US is up in the air due to a recent (now lifted) ban on its phones because the company violated trade sanctions. 

Xiaomi 

Chinese phone-maker Xiaomi remixed its Mi Mix 3 with a 5G model. Aptly named Mi Mix 3 5G, the phone costs 599 euros (about $679). It's unlikely that the phone will be available in the US. The company's initial 5G network partners include many European carriers, including Orange, Sunrise, Telefonica, Three, TIM and Vodafone -- the last of which will exclusively carry the Mi Mix 3 5G first.   The phone itself features a 6.39-inch AMOLED display, a Snapdragon 845 processor and dual 12-megapixel rear cameras. Calling it "almost the perfect phone," CNET editor Aloysius Low also mentioned that it's neither water-resistant nor do its front-facing cameras have secure 3D face unlocking. 

Oppo 

After showing off a prototype at MWC 2019, OnePlus' sister company Oppo debuted its trio of Oppo Reno phones in April. One of the phones includes a 5G model, the Oppo Reno 5G, which is available on the UK carrier EE and Australia for AU$1,499. The device features a fantastic 6.6-inch screen, a Snapdragon 855 chipset and a pop-up selfie camera.   In addition to EE and Australia's Telstra and Optus, Oppo is working with Swisscom, as well as Singtel in Singapore, to launch the phone. It's also partnering with China Mobile to sell the phone later this summer.    Read the full article

[atlanta-t-shirt-screen-printer]

T-shirt Screen Printing For The NC Democratic Party

T-shirt Screen Printing For The Democratic Party

IS Studio Silk Screen Prints T Shirts For Iredell County, North Carolina

Opportunities like this happen once every four years. For us it was definitely an honor when an official arm of the democratic party appreciated our prints enough to entrust their brand to us. We built an eCommerce site to push sales backed by our t-shirt screen printing.Of course being the democratic party all of these…