#HUNDRED DOLLARS ON THRIFT BOOKS

[crymeariveronceagain]

augh augh augh *suffering psychic damage for looking at how much college textbooks are going to cost me this semester*

[houseofripley]

HEYY

Can you do a rhea x fem!reader story where rhea and reader are in Highschool and have both had feeling for eachother for the longest time and both haven’t confessed but all that changes because rhea ask reader to prom and they end up kissing and it leads to something else (ifykyk😏) (smut n a lil bit of fluff too🙏)

Starry Prom Night

Rhea Ripley x Fem!Reader

WARNINGS: 18+ SMUT, Kissing, Vaginal Fingering, Cunnilingus, Scissoring, Praise, Cheek Cupping & Kissing Galore, INSANE PLOT BUILDING FOR NO REASON LOL SORRYYYYYY IM A YEARNER (im serious this is like 67% plot building)

WORD COUNT: 3,731

A/N: this is just pure sapphic yearning on my end LMAO anyways anon i had so much fun writing this even though its all over the place!!!

also can you tell where i got impatient with all the plot building lol

“Rhea, I seriously don’t know how many more of these cheesy signs I can’t take. I think I’m gonna go insane.” You grunted, rolling your eyes to the back of your head. 

Prom season was in full swing. It was third period and you had just witnessed what had to have been the seventh promposal of the day. This year would be the mark of your and your best friend, Rhea’s senior prom. Senior prom was a date thousands of dreamed about, wanting to show up and show out one last time before waving goodbye to their highschool years. 

Every girl except you and Rhea. You both despised the thought of prom. Why would any sane person spend hundreds of dollars on an outfit just to spend their night drenched in sweat in the school gymnasium? 

Fuck that!

“Romeo O Romeo! Will thou spend your Saturday night with I, drinking punch next to the locker rooms?” Rhea mocked, elbowing your arm. 

You shook your head, pressing your lips together trying to keep your laughter silent. The commotion of classmates was soon drowned out by thoughts as your eyes met Rhea’s, causing your tightened lips to curl into a small smile.

Rhea’s blue eyes never failed to warm you. Everytime you gazed into those beachy eyes you were brought back to the day you first met the girl. Seventh grade, first period, language arts. A quiet blonde girl sporting a Pierce The Veil shirt was assigned to sit next to you. Nobody knew anything about the girl besides the fact she had just moved basically across the globe. You spent the entire period thinking of what you could possibly say to her, because what do you even say to a kid that was just relocated from South Australia all the way to some shitty suburban town? 

“Cool shirt.” 

And it fucking worked somehow. You were immediately attached to her hip. The two of you grew closer with each day that passed. You were inseparable. She was everything to you. Sleepovers every weekend. ‘Study’ sessions that were spent play fighting with each other. Singing pop-punk songs at the top of your lungs till your throats were raw. Dying your hair the same shade of blue at three in the morning. She was even at your side while your parents scolded you the morning after for said blue hair. 

Jesus Christ. Lost in her eyes again? Snap out of it already! 

“Yo, Alice in Wonderland, you okay?” Rhea playfully questioned, breaking your trance by poking at your thigh.

“Just…thinking. That’s all.” You softly chuckled. You were telling the truth, you were just thinking. Just thinking about her. Thinking about her touch, her hands, her pierced nose, her lips, her stupid cool shirts. 

══════⋆☆⋆══════

“Jesus, someone’s eager to get out of here.” You laughed, trailing behind Rhea who was booking it over to her small black Lexus.

“Dude, can you blame me? It’s like everyone has some sort of prom fever. I am not letting it catch me.” Rhea complained, ducking into the vehicle. 

You made your way to the passenger side of the car before hopping into the seat next to Rhea. “I counted eighteen of those damn signs today.” You babbled, resting your arm on the center console before trailing on, diffusing the topic, “Anyways, let’s go thrifting or something. I don’t wanna go home.”

Rhea shrugged in agreeance before pulling out of her parking spot. She knew things were tough for you at home. You had recently come out as lesbian to your parents. They weren't unsupportive but they weren't exactly supportive at the same time which had built quite a bit of tension in the household. You came out to Rhea just about two years ago, who was more than supportive. She was your number one defender, always there to threaten whichever classmate that dared to ridicule you.

You knew absolutely nothing about Rhea’s sexuality. Hell, even Rhea knew nothing about her sexuality. She only knew one thing, that she liked you. She didn’t even know when she caught feelings for you, it was like the sentiments were there since the moment you first spoke to her. She hoped as time went on the flutters she’d feel for you would pass on but recently she couldn’t seem to even push the mere thought of you out of her head, it was killing her.

The drive to the nearest thrift shop was comfortably silent…silent if you ignored the Black Veil Brides cd Rhea had blaring…

Entering the store the pair of you let out scoffed laughs as the first thing catching your attention was a large display of second hand dresses. Shaking it out of your heads and ignoring it at first you carried on to wander the isles, grabbing whatever caught your eye to try on later although you’d inevitably end back up to the racks of long dresses. You weren't a big fan of dresses but you wanted to waste as much time as you possibly could, so you decided to browse the gowns with Rhea. 

She pulled a deep maroon dress, the form fitting glittered bodice was paired with a looser, more freeing skirt. “Try it on!” Rhea pushed, shoving the dress into your arms.

“I’d look so stupid in this.” You gave Rhea a bewildered look.

“Oh c’mon just try it!”

“Rhe’ when have you ever given a shit about this stuff?”

“Dude you’re the one that wanted to waste time here…” Rhea playfully scorned, diverting your question.

“Urgh, I hate when you’re right.” You huffed, shuffling towards the dressing room. 

“How ridiculous do I look?” You pouted, opening the door of the changing room before shuffling to the closest mirror.

Rhea stood behind you, peering over your shoulder as you silently studied yourself in the mirror. You looked at Rhea through the mirror as she opened her mouth to speak but stopped herself in her tracks. “I mean it’s cute but where in the world would I wear this?” You shrugged, adjusting the straps as Rhea chewed on her cheeks.

“Wear it to prom.” Rhea timidly broke her silence.

“Why would I go to prom, Rhe’? First of all it would be so lame and second of all I’d have nobody to go with. I’m just gonna put this back.” You mumbled, turning to make your way back into the changing room.

 A hand grabbed your wrist, stopping you in your tracks. “Go with me…” Rhea blurted out, sounding scared of her own words. Her statement caused you to turn to face her with a puzzled expression, Rhea herself even looked surprised at what she just said. Fearing your rejection she quickly added on, “Ya know, like as a joke and stuff. We can make it not lame…”

“As a joke?” Your heart that was skipping beats just seconds ago was immediately let down. 

“Yeah. It’s just a stupid idea we don’t hav-”

“No, let's go…as a joke.” You interrupted Rhea’s nervous deflection. “We’ve got nothing better to do.” You shrugged on watching Rhea’s anxieties fade into the distance as her classic cheeky smile crept upon her face.

After you swapped out of your dress you returned to Rhea who was holding up a silky black dress with a deep slit in the skirt. “This’ll work. I’m too lazy to try anything on.” She chuckled while shrugging.

“That's ballsy Rhe-Rhe.”

══════⋆☆⋆══════

Tonight was the night, you were sat atop Rhea’s bathroom counter, finishing up your makeup while Rhea was shuffling around her closet searching for a pair of shoes. It had been four weeks since Rhea ‘asked’ you to prom and you simply couldn’t keep your mind off it. Although you two planned this whole thing as a joke, something shifted ever so slightly between the two of you, maybe it wasn’t a joke, who knows. Rhea had your heart in your throat at every moment and you were the topic of every thought that popped into Rhea’s head. More than ever the both of you were head over heels for each other, just terrified the other wouldn’t reciprocate those shared feelings.

Your parents were completely unaware you’d be attending prom. You had informed them you were staying with a friend before immediately storming off to Rhea’s house. Rhea’s parents hadn’t a clue either, they were under the impression tonight would be just another night of the two of you doing nothing for hours then sneaking out to go for a drive at three in the morning. There truly wasn’t much reasoning behind this secret, you guys just wanted to have this night for yourselves without pestering parents. 

“Urgh! At this point I’m gonna go barefoot!” You could hear yet another pair of shoes be tossed to the floor. You slid off Rhea’s counter, stepped out of her bathroom and over to her closet. She was already in her dress tearing through a pile of shoes on the floor. “What has gotten into you Rhe’?” You leaned against the doorframe laughing at the fact that Rhea of all people was stressing over shoes. 

 Rhea rolled her eyes ignoring your banter. “Would it make me a hipster if I wore converse?”

“Oh absolutely, I dare you!” 

“You know I will,” Rhea retorted, picking up a black pair of the canvas shoes.

You chuckled before turning to return to the bathroom, letting Rhea know you were gonna change. You got into your dress with ease up until you came to the zipper on the back. You groaned in annoyance, reaching behind to your back attempting to wiggle the zipper to no avail.

“Rhe’, can you help me real quick?” You asked while popping your head out the door.

“Hm? What’s up?” Rhea turned around and questioned before making her way up to you, trying to keep her gaze from falling down to the hand placed on your chest, keeping the dress from completely slipping from your body.

“Zippers stuck,” You pouted, turning around. Rhea’s hand swept across the base of your neck, sweeping your hair to the side. You watched her through the mirror as she began fumbling with the metal, ultimately getting it to slide up your back.

After an awkward exchange of bashful looks the two of you finished getting ready in each other's company. You sat next to Rhea slipping into your shoes while she tied off her converse, took a handful of polaroid pictures together, then eventually snuck out Rhea’s window to begin your hike to the school.

══════⋆☆⋆══════

“Ouu! Ripley’s got a date!” Was whistled out by a classmate as you and Rhea made your way down the congested hallway, making Rhes roll her eyes.

“Shut up dickhead! We’re here as a joke.” Rhea rebutted, flipping the guy off as she carried on down the hall. 

Here as a joke but her flushed cheeks and sweaty hand gripping yours told a slightly different story.

“Dickheads always running their mo-” Rhea muttered, stepping into the crowded gymnasium.

“Shh. It’s fine, you shouldn’t worry about them.” You cut off Rhea, giving her hand a squeeze as you examined the starry night themed room. The area was dimly lit by blue leds and strings of fairy lights. Blue curtains decorated with paper stars draped over the majority of the walls while an array of tables adorned with bottles of fairy lights surrounded a dance floor full of teenagers.

You both seated yourselves near the stage where a live band was playing. Your legs pressed against one another as you fell into an array of conversations. Thirty minutes had managed to sneak by before your meaningless conversation was cut short by your biology teacher.

“You girls gonna sit here and chat all night? Go dance!” 

“But dancing is lame, Mr. Brown.” Rhea groaned while you both turned to face the man.

“I promise you that in ten years you’ll regret not doing anything at your senior prom. Seriously, go dance!” Your teacher stood behind you giving his words of advice. Rhea peeked over to you looking for your opinion. You gave her a ‘why not’ shrug before rising from your seat.

“But I don't even know how to slow dance.” Rhea whined to herself under her breath as she stood up. “If we have to dance, we’re dancing in the corner cause I’m gonna look stupid.” She stipulated.

You guided Rhea over to a secluded section of the dance floor near a wall, reassuring her that you also had no clue on what you were doing. 

“We’ll just do what everyone else is doing, Rhe’.” 

“I think this right,” Rhea unassuredly giggled with a racing heart, taking a hold of your left hand while wrapping her free hand around your waist. You shook your hair to cover your flushing cheeks as you brought your right hand to rest on her shoulder. The pair of you began swaying to the music while trying to hold back laughter, both in slight disbelief at your current situation. Prom was the last place either of you ever expected to be attending.

You were already trailing back into the pit of those sapphire eyes, drowning out all external noise you missed Rhea humming about how beautiful you looked. You were too occupied taking in the essence of your childlike crush to take notice of the grip Rhea had on your waist tightening. You were fully prepared to stare into those eyes all night, but Rhea was eager to run a risk.

A set of warm lips fell onto you abruptly, pulling you by the waist into a desperate kiss. All five senses rushed over your body, sending a rush of adrenaline through your bloodstream, placing you in awe too shocked to move.

Rhea forced herself to pull away, letting a sigh of relief out before the panic settled in, “Shit. I, god I’m so-”

Your thoughts had just now grasped what just happened.

This was a kiss that spent years in the making…you were not just gonna let it end like that.

Your hand slipped to the back of Rhea’s head, pushing Rhea back into the kiss, forcibly putting an end to her apology. She immediately fell back into your lips, closing her dilated eyes. While her tongue slid across your bottom lip begging to deepen the kiss, her hands slid up to cup your cheeks. Time slid away as the two of you fell into each other in your isolated corner of the gymnasium.

Rhea pulled herself from your lips breathless, her parted lips forming an open smile. She wanted more. You attempted to collect your thoughts while catching your breath. Both of you were attempting to draft a response while gazing into each other, because what do you say after tasting your best friend of five years?

“Cool.” You nodded

Rhea shook her head scoffing out a laugh, still making an attempt to regulate her breath. She took grip of your hand, giving it a squeeze before beginning to pull you into the hall without speaking a word.

“Wher-”

“Just follow me!” Rhea cut you off, rushing through the halls as she dragged you behind herself, both of you trying not to stumble over your dresses. 

She halted in front of the nurses office before fiddling with the keypad on the door, “God bless modern technology,” She muttered, managing to get the door open as you watched in disbelief. “Don’t even ask.” She chuckled, scanning the hall to make sure you were in the clear before tugging you into the room.

Once Rhea’s foot forced the door shut her lips directly got to work pinning themselves to your neck, nipping at the delicate skin. 

“Shit Rhe’, there might be cameras.” You pushed through a stunned whine. 

“There's none…” Rhea couldn't even pull her lips away from your skin as she spoke, “Wouldn't stop me either way, I’ve waited too long for this.” She grunted, dragging her kisses to your collarbone. “Now please tell me I can keep going.”

“I don’t think I could ever tell you to stop.” You pulled Rhea’s face to meet your eyes, whispering your confession. There was no need for Rhea to open her mouth, the look on her face alone told you that was exactly what she needed to hear.

“You have no fucking clue how long I’ve waited for this.” Rhea growled, grasping your cheeks as she pulled you over to the nurses twin sized treatment bed. 

She brought her legs to straddle over you, lowering her chest to hover over you. Rhea was attached to you like a dog, her lips were sloppy against yours as her hands snuck to pull up the skirt of your dress. 

Rhea brought herself between your legs, in a rush to finally get a taste of your core.

“Please…I’m begging you, please don't make me wait more than I already have.” Rhea looked up at you pleading.

Your heart was in your throat as you fervently nodded. “I wanna hear your voice,” Rhea begged, whispering out your name.

“Rhea, please just do anything, I need, I need you.”

With that said she hurriedly slid your panties down your legs, tossing them to the foot of the bed. Rhea was making it clear that tonight was her time to shine.

“Fuck, you’re perfect…” Rhea murmured, awed at the sight of your soaked cunt. Her arms tangled themselves around your legs. After years her tongue finally made contact with your delicacy, she preached a string of curses, finally getting what she was after. You propped yourself on your elbows to catch the sight of Rhea exploring your brand new world. You could feel a smirk between your legs as her eyes met yours, thirstily watching you watch.

“Tastes so good.” Rhea praised, sweeping her tongue through your folds before bringing herself to round your clit. You chewed on your cheeks to hush the moans escaping your throat as Rhea wrapped her lips around your sensitivity, allowing her to lightly suck at your skin. Your legs made an unsuccessful attempt at wrapping around Rhea’s head only to be overtaken by her hands, prying them open, giving her full access to devour your aching heat. 

The stealthy addition of two fingers into your emptiness was only amplifying the wobbly knees her mouth alone had created. Her fingers began steadily massaging into you, causing an arch to form over your back. The mixture of Rhea’s roaming tongue and grinding digits already had a knot forming in your stomach.

“Fucking Christ Rhe’, where the fuck did you learn all this.” You struggled out through moans. Rhea let out a soft chuckle as she continued to take your clit into her mouth, rolling her tongue piercing over your sensitivity.

Rhea gave your cunt one last kiss before she brought herself to face you. Now that Rhea had finally gotten a taste of your mouth she couldn't get enough, she had to return for more. Your lips once again blended together, your moans now slipping into Rhea’s mouth as her fingers curled inside your core. 

“God, you sound so beautiful.” Rhea admired, pressing her warmed forehead against yours while her digits continued toying with your clenching walls. Her thumb was soon added to the mixture of pleasure as it rubbed rhythmic circles over your bud. 

“Rhe’, I want to feel you against me,” You opened your eyes, pulling from her kiss while your hips rolled against her working digits. “Please.”

Rhea nodded, her eyes full of adoration, she’d do whatever it took to please you no matter if it took minutes or hours. She let her fingers come to a declined pace before withdrawing from your warmth. She stood up, licking her fingers clean before riding her dress up her legs and dropping her panties. She rushed to return to the bed pulling your leg into the air before propping a leg of hers next to your hip.

Rhea settled her heat against yours, letting out a heavy breath. She gradually started rocking her hips against you, mixing your slick together. You watched as the new sensation of pleasure washed over her, causing her jaw to drop open and her eyes to roll to the back of her head. 

“Just…just like that.” You whimpered as you began to grind your hips at a matching pace, chasing towards your climax. Rhea’s arm clung to your leg that was situated in the air for support as the sound of quiet moans and the rustling of dress fabric bounced around the room. 

“Feels so good, fuck.” Rhea quickened her motions, moaning out the nickname she created for you through heavy breaths.Rhea pushed herself further against you chasing her own high as you squirmed beneath her grinds. 

“Rhe’, I’m gonna cum.” You whined out, reaching for a hand to cling to. Her hand met you halfway, instantly taking you into her grip she pulled you up to meet her face. She was back to those oh-so passionate kisses she could now never get enough of. “Please, Rhe’!” You cried against her, her movements bucking against your cunt.

Rhea nodded into your kiss signaling for your release, her own climax just seconds away. Your series of moans brushed against Rhea’s lips as your orgasm washed over you, hers quickly following. Muffled whines echoed around the room as Rhea’s thrusts against you faltered.

After riding out your highs together, Rhea squeezed herself next to you on the tiny bed and rested her hand on your thigh, giving it a soft squeeze. “I swear to god if you say cool.” Rhea looked over at you giggling. 

“Unfair!” You joked, resting your head against Rhea’s chest. You both fell into silence simply taking in the moment, reflecting on everything that had just happened. Rhea peppered small kisses to the top of your head as you toyed with the fabric of her dress.

“We should probably get outta here before somebody finds us.” Rhea suggested, breaking the silence.

“Wanna go dance again?” You teased as you turned to face her.

Rhea quickly shook her head, “I’m never gonna dance again. I was so bad.” She laughed, “How about we go find a parking lot and makeout under the stars, hm?”

“I seriously would have never expected you to be all smoochy, Rhe’.”

“Look, I have like five years of kisses to make up for!”

[chimivx]

That one fucked you over last year, this one is fucking you over this year, you had no idea she was involved with him, someone over here has been lying to you, you didn't mean to end up in that ones bed, he told you he loved you... Does anyone even trust anyone anymore?

👫 -> college!teez x fem!reader/oc {frat/sorority} #️⃣ -> 10k (part TWO of ten) ‼️ -> 18+, sexual content, drugs/alcohol, college life, all the drama, heavy angst, infidelity adjacent moments, mean boys, mean girls, mentions of anxiety/depression… IF I MISSED ANYTHING PLEASE LET ME KNOW!

september 5th ~  friday ~ 1:06 p.m

The library in the center of Nasara’s campus could house a titan. Tall sculpted ceilings towered over you as you browsed the shelves that also towered over you. Spacious, every footstep echoed over the marble floors, the only sound to be heard from anyone who set foot inside. Two stories high, the building held history in the city of Delo before becoming the center of Nasara, the campus having been built up around the stone giant.

Classes started next week, Monday morning, and you’d be lying if you said the ATZ ban didn’t help you get a fabulous head start on preparations for the semester. The nights you’d spend dancing in their living room were spent with your sisters instead, putting plans into place and checking in that everyone had what they needed for their classes.

Which brought you here, the Conoscenza Library. There was one text book you needed for an Analytics class that you didn’t want to drop hundreds of dollars on. Thankfully, Conoscenza would let you keep it for the months you needed it. Now, if only you could find it. 

Securing your bag over your shoulder, an old leather thing, a vintage find in a thrift store thanks to Tori a couple months ago, you held onto the strap and rounded another row of shelves, having little luck nearing the end of the A section. It didn’t help that the shelves were several feet high, higher than you were tall. Taking a few steps backward against the shelves opposite the ones you were searching, you craned your neck to the shelf just out of reach and groaned aloud. 

There it was. Your Analytics textbook.

Nestling your brows over your eyes you stepped directly in front of it and reached up, stretching your arm as far as it would go, going as far as to lift yourself up on your tiptoes. Your fingertips brushed the front of the dusty shelf, nowhere near close to grabbing the book. Touching your heels back to the floor you exhaled heavily and tried again, getting only a smidgen higher than last time. Bad day to wear flat strappy sandals.

“Need some help?”

His voice came from around the corner, the warmth hitting you before the realization of who it was set in. Feet back on the floor, arms down by your sides, you squeezed your eyes shut and took a breath before turning to him.

Yunho, leaning against the shelves, wore a smile. His hair was pushed over his eyes, styled strategically, it just brushed his thin framed glasses. In a beige hoodie with a grey flannel overtop, he paired the fit with dark blue jeans and white sneakers. There was a chain around his neck peeking at you from the collar of his hoodie. Your eyes lingered there for a second.

He moved his hand, reaching up for the silver chain, twirling it around his fingers. His long, slender fingers. 

“What did you say?” you asked, forcing yourself to look him in the eye.

The smile never left his face, his perfectly squishy cheeks perked up while he watched you. “I asked you if you needed help.” He gestured toward the book with the fingers tangled around his chain.

Sighing, you glanced up at it, then back to Yunho and shrugged. “Yeah, I do.”

His soft laugh made your heart skip a beat, and you wished it wouldn’t. Crossing the row of books, coming closer to you he didn’t give you time to get out of the way. Caging you up against the books, he reached both arms up and effortlessly grabbed the textbook. Breath hitching in your throat, his scent had the power to charm you. A gentle musk mixed with something woodsy. Comforting. Exactly what he was. Exactly what he had the power to do. Comfort you.

Centimeters between you, he looked down with that same damn smile and handed you the book.

“Thanks,” you whispered.

Yunho whispered back, “Anytime.”

His sweet brown eyes shifted toward your lips and your heart sunk into your gut. “I’ll see you again, sometime.” Darting from in front of him, you started down the row of shelves, removing yourself from the situation before it became a situation.

“Rory,” Yunho called after you, his voice echoing within the section of the library you were in. Your feet had a mind of their own. You wanted them to keep going, but they stopped, and then they turned you around. With his arms out at his side he shook his head. “What’s going on?”

Taking him in, all you could see was Mina.

Their amazing summer dates. Their nights spent sharing their deepest thoughts with one another. Their movie-esque summer kisses.

Since Tuesday, these last couple of days spent with Mina, he’d hardly come up unless it was another member asking her about him. Keeping it to yourself, everything she’d shared with you, you didn’t even tell Tori. Mina’s business was her business, and in this world, everyone was in everyone's business. The sophomore didn’t deserve that. She deserved a good guy that didn’t come with drama, one who treated her right and appreciated her family. 

If any member of ATZ was going to do that, it was Yunho.

You’ve been friends with him long enough to know that he was a decent human being. You just wished he’d told you how serious this Mina thing was.

“The rules,” you said, keeping your voice low so it wouldn’t carry through the shelving. Yunho dropped his hands and rolled his eyes.

“Since when are you one to follow rules?”

He wasn’t wrong. It was you and Tori, rules didn’t exist for the two of you.

Swallowing hard, you shrugged. “Since I got really fucked over.”

Yunho took a breath, you watched his chest rise and fall. He started toward you, stopping when there was a few inches between you on the marble floor. “You were over him a month ago.” His half whisper struck you across the face.

“Yeah, because I was under you.”

He winced, glancing upward. “Can you tell me what’s going on, for real?” He looked at you, eyes full of something you despised. “Is it really the rules? I half expected you to sneak out and show up one of these nights, but… neither you nor Tori have. At least she tells Mingi she’s not coming.”

“I don’t owe you that,” you said, and it was as if your words physically hurt him with the way he changed his gaze. “We’re not in a relationship, we’re not dating.”

“We’re friends,” Yunho said, his hands flying out at his sides again. “Rory, what did I do?”

Stepping closer to him, closing the open air between you, you narrowed your eyes and tightened your lips. “Mina,” you whispered, and his eyes did that thing where they got all soft. “Mina, Yo.”

“Wh-What about her?” he stammered, his eyes frantically flickering from either of yours.

“You pursued her,” you said with a nod, stating the obvious. “Come on, genius boy. You had an entire summer fling with her, you met her family, you had dinner with them, then we fucked in the backseat of your car parked at the lake in Sicuro.”

Yunho blinked, a sort of shame overcoming him. “She told you guys a lot,” he said.

“She did,” you said. “And I have to act like we weren’t hooking up all summer.” The boy could write essays upon essays, and here he was before you, speechless. “I knew you guys were getting closer last semester and stuff, everyone had guessed that it would be you and her to pair off with one another.” He watched you with remorse, but not enough of it. “Tuesday night, at the party. Tori asked me where I went.”

“Outside. The noise was nauseating, Wooyoung pissed us off, and you had too much on your mind.”

“Exactly,” you said within a breath. Word for word, what you both said you would say. 

Outside. The noise was nauseating, Wooyoung pissed you off, and you had too much on your mind.

Which wasn’t a lie, you did have too much on your mind. Between Yeji becoming a dictator, Wooyoung forcing himself into your space all over again like nothing had happened and he hadn’t ignored you until this semester started, and now this thing with Yunho that couldn’t turn into anything because of the sophomore living in your house…

“I had Mina asking me the next night what we were talking about, if you were okay ‘cause she hasn’t heard from you,” you said. “I had to lie to my best friend. No one knows what we’ve been doing. After hearing about your lovey dovey summer, how can I say anything to any of them?”

Yunho creased his brow, slowly grazing a finger over the back of your hand where it hung at your side.

“No one can know we hooked up at the party,” you said, thinning your lips. Yunho wore something like a pout while he barely nodded his head. “I will not be a Yeji.” The circles he drew over your hand enticed you to flip your palm over, the tips of your fingers grazing the tips of his. “Mina likes you, Yunho.”

He exhaled, the space between you growing smaller with every passing second. “I like you, Rory.”

“I like you too, Yo,” you breathed.

His smile was pure. “I know you do,” he whispered, low and raspy, then pressed his lips to your own. 

It took three seconds for you to push him away, yanking your hand from his, pressing both to his chest. But, for three seconds he had you.

“Stop,” you sighed. He took a step back and touched his fingers to his lips. “We can’t do this.”

Yunho dipped his head back and groaned to himself. “Why?”

“It’s unfair,” you said. “To either of us. I’m not over Wooyoung and you have feelings for Mina.” Yunho shrugged, glancing about the library. “Don’t do that, you have feelings for Mina.”

“Do I?” Half a laugh came out of him. “It was a lot of work trying to keep up with all of that shit.”

Yes, him.

Yes, Yunho.

“That’s nice to hear,” you tightened your gaze on him, “That she was a lot of work. What does that make me? Easy? A floozy? A slut?”

He reached out his hands to hold onto your shoulders, caressing the fabric of your ITZ crewneck. “No, no, no,” he muttered, his head shaking entirely too fast. “Don’t say that, I didn’t mean that, I wasn’t implying anything.”

“Really?” Shaking his hands away, off of you, he held them to his chest and flipped his eyebrows over. “If Mina, the nicest girl I have ever met, is a lot of work… What does that make me?”

Taking a hand into his hair he blew air from his lips and messed with his locks. “Rory,” he mumbled, dropping his hand after gesturing toward you, letting it smack against his thigh. “It makes you Rory, the girl I’ve had a crush on since she sat next to me in that English class.” With a shake of his head he darted his tongue between his lips and said, “Wooyoung fucked you over, I won’t do that.”

Holding the book over your chest, grabbing it with both arms, keeping a line of defense between the two of you, you smiled. “Like you aren’t doing to Mina right now?”

Turning on your heels you left him behind, letting the hurt turn your heart ice cold… If you could call it hurt.

After Yeji and Wooyoung made it downstairs leaving you and Tori speechless in the doorway of Hongjoongs bedroom, Yunho was the first from the group of boys on the stairs to hurry up to where you were paralyzed in place. Seonghwa and Yeosang followed, of course, but Yunho was the first to appear. He took you in his arms, one hand cradling behind your head, fingers knotting in your hair. 

Tori was lost in whispers with Seonghwa and Yeosang, the three of them moving down the hall to give you a moment. She told them everything, between pulses of your heartbeat in your ears you could hear it in their gasps and disapproving groans.

Yunho held you until you started to cry. He held you, and played with your hair, and rubbed a hand along your back as you mumbled to him everything Tori had just told his friends. At some point the two of you ended up on the floor, Yunho leaning against the railing of the staircase with his too long legs stretched out along the hall. Sitting opposite him, one leg between his and the other bent so you could lean on it, you shared whispers, deciphering the entire situation.

There wasn’t much he could say to make anything better. Nothing he could do would fix anybody’s feelings, or make it all go away… But, his presence was enough. Aside from Tori, he’s been your longest, closest friend at Nasara, whether people paid attention to that fact or not. He knew a lot about you, and you knew a lot about him. You cared for him, you cared for each other.

And that made walking away from him all the more painful.

Despite the blurry lines this summer created, it didn’t feel worth it losing a friend.

Stopping at the end of the row you turned around. He was still there, hands in his pockets now, standing over six feet tall with his puppy eyes watching you walk away. Meeting his gaze, he didn’t falter. If anything, the corner of his lips perked up.

“I get it,” he said, as if he could see the gears grinding away in your brain. “I promise you, I do.”

“Then, what happens next?” you asked, fingers tightening around your textbook.

Yunho took a step backward and shrugged his shoulders. “You stay my friend.”

A breath corrupted your lungs. “And, what if we can’t do that?”

He narrowed his eyes and flashed you that smile. “We will,” he said. “We’ll try.”

september 5th ~  friday ~ 5:48 p.m.

[youknow everythin]: I think you should still try to come to the party tonight

[you]: there is no way out of this house

[you]: there is no such thing as sneakin around yeji

[youknow everythin]: …

[youknow everythin]: I have faith in you & Tori

[youknow everythin]: Especially Tori

[you]: thanks.

[youknow everythin]: You’re welcome <3

[you]: don’t ever send that heart again

[youknow everythin]: …

[youknow everythin]: …

[youknow everythin]: <3

Slamming your phone down on the marble counter Tori jumped a mile, the ice in her glass rattling. Leaning over the flat top you drug your hands over your face and groaned aloud, letting your fingers slide through your hair. 

“What happened?” Tori asked, cracking open a can of red bull, pouring it into the glass in front of her. 

Leaving the library around two, parting ways with Yunho, when you came back home you spent an hour or so in your bedroom, organizing and reorganizing what you would need for Monday’s classes. Tori popped in and out, working on her own tasks for recruitment and future events that would need to be announced soon, and then the two of you spent about two hours on the floor stalking Instagram accounts and talking about Isla, or Mina.

When it came to the sophomore you didn’t have much to say, but you forced yourself to give your input, some side of the story so you wouldn’t be suspicious.

Tori was your best friend, but she’d never know what happened with Yunho.

If Mina didn’t spill her heart out it’d be a different story.

“The guys want us at ATZ tonight,” you said, giving her a knowing look. 

Tori crunched the can in her hand and walked around the island to throw it away, her mind working, then she returned to her glass, took a sip, and bobbed her head.

“Who’ve you got on the phone?”

“Yunho,” you said. “I saw him at the library earlier.”

Tori sipped her drink, nodding some more. “Mingi has said some stuff, too.”

“Like what?” Your voice was small. Quiet. Almost afraid.

“About us not being there,” she said, setting the glass down. Lifting a hand she adjusted her nose piercings and shrugged. “You and I, Yuna and Ryujin… They want us around. Mingi said Yunho’s even brought up Mina, but I dunno if we’d get her to sneak out.”

“She’s too ‘good girl’ to sneak out,” you mumbled, pointing your eyes to your phone screen that lit up. youknow everythin at it again. Opening the message, you scoffed.

[youknow everythin]: Please come to the party tonight <3 <3 <3

Typing back a mile a minute, you didn’t catch Tori circling the counters to end up at your side.

“What’s with the hearts?” she asked, startling you. Locking your phone you dropped it to the marble and shot her a glare. “Sorry,” she giggled. “You weren’t listening to me, I wanted to see what was so interesting.”

With a deep breath you groaned. “Nothing is interesting, I’m just being pestered by a grown adult with the mentality of a four year old.”

Tori screwed her face up in confusion and twirled around where she stood, her long waves brushing over your arm. She hopped up onto the counter, saving her drink from spilling, from experience. “Yunho has the mentality of a four year old?” About to sip from her cup, she cut herself short, eyes going wide, “You sure you aren’t talking to Wooy-”

A rash laugh blew through your lips, your eyes blazing into hers. “I’m sure!”

“I’m sorry,” she whispered, then waited four seconds before sipping her Red Bull. Your phone lit up again, Tori looking at it this time. “youknow everythin,” she sang like a song, swinging her head to look back at you. She was telling you something. Under the little smirk that grew she was saying something, and it was threatening to turn you red. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” she asked to break the silence that was deafening, you’re certain only for you.

Shaking your head the slightest, you shrugged. “I guarantee you I am not.”

She laughed once. “How are you not!?”

Glancing to your hands hovering by your phone that has lit up again, you messed with your fingers and muttered, “I got a lot on my mind.”

Tori leaned toward you, a hand grabbing onto your shoulder. She gave you a shake, and then another to get you to look at her, and when you did, she whispered, “We’re going to that party.”

[youknow everythin]: I miss you. I just want to see you. You don’t have to come if you don’t want to… I understand, you know I do. You just feel like my best friend right now, I don’t want to lose that.

september 6th ~  saturday ~ 12:03 a.m.

ATZ’s house stood three stories tall on the corner of the street opposite ITZ, three blocks south of the sorority. In the dark it was menacing, and all the more enticing. Large with tall, thick white pillars holding up each balcony of every floor. The exterior was a muted grey, making the shadows bounce off of it in the nighttime. The ceiling’s beneath the balconies were painted a pale teal blue, the light pouring out the windows illuminating the color giving the house a glow that pulled people through the front door.

Like moths to a flame.

The balconies wrapped around the entire house on the first, second and third floors. Every room had one, each boy blessed with the freedom of an escape if their president ever decided they were to be confined to their bedrooms for the time being while their favorite pastime was off limits.

Standing under the street lights before yours, you swallowed a sigh. The faint pulse of music and people’s chatter greeted you like an old friend. One you haven’t seen in three days. The drama. Glancing to your left, Tori wore a grin tapping away at her phone.

“Is this crazy?” you asked, throwing a hand toward the house. Pursing her freshly glossed lips, she looked at you without a change of face and she nodded.

“Oh, absolutely,” she said. “Especially becau-”

“Okay, I’m good, I’m good.”

The voice behind you, coming closer to you, boiled your blood ever so slightly.

Tori, ecstatic, shoved her phone in the pocket of her bell bottom jeans and clapped her hands together. “Thank god, I’m so excited for you.”

Turning on the balls of your feet, you forced a smile. “You’ll be fine, Mina.”

The sophomore, in a denim mini skirt and a pink long sleeved crop sweater, returned your smile. Hers was real. “He texted me,” she said in a rush, seemingly bouncing on her feet. “He apologized. For what I was talking about the other night.” Tori, lost, looked between you both.

“Apologized?” She scrunched her brows together. “What happened?”

Mina turned her chin, her hair swinging just below the gorgeous curve. “Nothing crazy,” she assured your roommate. “He’s just been distant, that's all. I mean, I understand. Aurora told me the other night that it could be the stress of coming back to school, preparing for the year… Normal stuff like that.” Mina shot you the smile. “It’s what he said,” she nodded, “That he just has a lot on his mind.”

Tori put a hand on Mina’s back, her eyes pointing to the ground for all of a second. “Let’s go find him,” she plastered her grin back on her face, looking to you for support. “Meen’s at an ATZ party!”

Laughing along with them you took Mina’s hand and Tori took the other. It gutted you that neither Ryujin or Yuna were tagging along, both grumbling about not wanting to get caught, and it’s too soon, you’ll get found out, give it time to settle first…

A part of you agreed. It was too soon. Knowing all the boys definitely knew about the ‘rule’ now too, tonight was guaranteed to be insufferable. Pair that with the fact that you’ll have to be around Yunho and Mina, and you’ll have to put up with Wooyoung, all of the above wanted to force you back into the safety of your bedroom where you could rot in your sweatpants and lock the door and never have another social interaction again. But, alas, here you were in a tight dark blue dress that Tori suggested you wear so you match her strapless tube top, being forced into many, many social interactions that may or may not possibly worsen your situation.

At the moment it was controlled.

You and Yunho were on the same page. You wouldn’t talk about it with anyone, you would move on. Your friendship would go back to the way that it was before anyone got drunk and handsy, and life would be good. Time would pass and things would go back to normal. Time will pass, and one day you won’t have butterflies in your belly while you walk up the steps to his front door with his consort in hand.

Mina and Tori babbled together, words you couldn’t process, not as the heavy white door swung open. Noise flooded the night air, twisting your gut with both adrenaline and anticipation. Mina’s hand tightened around yours, triggering you to look at her. Wide eyed, she wore a smile, taking in the stretch of a man who opened the front door.

Tan cargo pants with a skin tight black cut off tank tucked into them, Mingi grinned something silly, his light hair already hanging in front of his eyes, messy just the slightest. Two metal studs lived in his ears, matching the ones in Tori’s third hole on her lobes. He squinted in the night, the light inside not much brighter than the porch.

“Where’s your glasses?” Tori half scolded with a giggle, pulling her hand from Minas to topple forward onto her man. Her arms swung around his neck, his catching her around her waist. He squeezed her, lifting her off the floor while he pressed a thousand kisses to her cheek. “Makeup! I have makeup!” Tori squirmed, attempting to escape his grip.

Mingi put her feet on the floor and maneuvered her underneath one arm, extending his other into the house, an invitation for you and Mina, who’s hand you realized you were still holding. Tori dabbed at her cheek, muttering things to Mingi only he could hear. 

“Ladies,” he said, the smile never leaving his cheeks. “Pleasure to see you, come on inside.” Mina surprisingly took the lead, dragging you behind her up the step into the sticky air of ATZ. “Oh, stop,” Mingi bickered with Tori, his focus turning down to her. “So what if I did mess it up? You tryna impress someone else here?!”

A long hallway greeted you, extending many, many feet down to the end of the first floor. It was littered with people either stumbling into the next room hand in hand, or wandering toward the kitchen that resided in the back of the house behind the tall staircase pushed up against the wall to the left. The lights hanging from the spacious ceilings were all original, deep orange colored stained glass, and they were off for the night. The dim glow came from the room to the right, through the rounded archway accented with a thick brown hand carved wood.

ATZ hadn’t changed a lick since it was established. The dark walls, the dark hardwood floors, each generation left it alone. It was like stepping into a time capsule. A mesmerizing, charismatic, delightfully musky scented time capsule. It was clean, put together, and so undeniably sexy. As were the nine men who resided in the floors above.

Mesmerizing, charismatic, and so undeniably sexy.

Losing Tori at the door with Mingi you allowed Mina to pull you along, her head turning every which way as she took everything in. Glancing back you deemed her safe and in good hands, the two were already liplocked, Mingi walking Tori backward toward the stairs, both of his hands slipping into the back pockets of her jeans. You’d see her in an hour.

“Damn, Mina, it’s just us,” you said, turning back to the sophomore who yanked you down the hall, dodging bodies as she did. Eyes turned to follow you. Both of you. Suddenly this plan didn’t feel so good.

Her brown bob whipped your way. “Okay,” she breathed, taking notice that Tori disappeared. The wedges she wore on her feet came to a stop, one of your sandals jamming into the back one abruptly. With them on she stood an inch or so taller than you, and in this moment she looked down at you with a spark in her eye. “Is that what happens? Here?”

Holding back the face you wanted to make, you instead tilted your head. “What do you mean?”

Mina glanced up and around at a group of seniors you’ve seen before at these parties brushing past you with a happy greeting. Smiling at them, you shot them a quick wink before returning your attention to the sophomore still holding your hand. 

“They went upstairs,” Mina said, lifting her eyes to where Tori escaped.

“Yeah,” you said slowly. “But, they always do. She’ll be back, she’s okay.”

Mina huffed a laugh, meeting your eyes. “I know she’ll be back, I just…” She flitted her head about nervously, blinking a trillion times, emphasizing on something she wasn’t telling you. “You’ve been upstairs before?”

“No,” you pushed from your lips in a composed hurry. “Not in the way Tori goes upstairs, let me say that again. I have been upstairs, but not to fuck.” That was the truth. She cringed at your use of word, it made you laugh. “Oh, Mina.” Her lips pursed. “You don’t have to go upstairs if you don’t want to. I think I know what you’re thinking about.” Yunho. “You can say the words, it’s okay.”

Waiting until the hall cleared for a few seconds, Mina leaned closer to you, so close you could make out all the beauty marks on her smooth skin. “I’ve never… Done it before.”

“Okay,” you said, nodding. Placing your other hand on top of hers that clung onto you, smiled. “That’s okay.”

Chop chop, Tori and Mingi. 

In and out.

Hurry it up.

“I mean,” Mina glanced to the floor, collecting her thoughts before her shining eyes came back to yours. “I’ve done the other stuff. You know, I’m not a prude even though I probably come off as one.”

You shook your head, crinkling your lip. “You don’t, you don’t.”

Little bit.

“What happens if he wants to go upstairs?”

Well, that question shouldn’t hurt as much as it just did.

Gulping, you tossed your shoulders up, letting them fall as you shook your head. “That’s up to you to decide, Meens. If you’re ready, and you want to go, you go. If you don’t wanna, you say no.”

“Will he get mad if I say no?” Her whisper hurt you in a different sense this time.

You tapped her hand. “It’s Yunho. He won’t get mad. And, besides, if he did, Hongjoong would have him kicked out in seconds. Their president doesn’t fuck around here. Especially when it comes to that.”

She took in every word that fell from your mouth, nodding along in tiny. Letting it marinate in her brain, she pulled her hand away and smoothed out her sweater that danced above her belly button, a few inches of skin exposed between the soft fabric and the denim of her skirt.

“You’re right,” she said. “Thanks, Aurora.” Responding with a smile, she returned it. “I’m sorry, I feel like I’ve been sort of, up your… Up your ass.” She said the word at a whisper, her smirk growing straight after.

Narrowing your eyes, you pressed a hand to your chest in fake shock. “Mina… Watch your mouth, for fucks sake.” The giggles that erupted immediately eased all of the tension that had built up around the two of you. Tension only you noticed, you hoped. “If you wanna stay with me tonight, that’s totally fine. We just have to be careful of pictures and stuff like that, but I’d love to help you get more acquainted with this place, it’s so fun to-”

“Ror!?” The most beautiful voice traveled halfway down the hall from the kitchen, where you and Mina had stopped. Looking over Mina's shoulder, you had no time to think before feet barrelled down the hardwood, arms wrapped around your waist and you were in the air, thrown over a shoulder. “No fucking way, I GOT HER!” The leather vest wearing, bulky bicep animal who grabbed you whirled around, facing you toward Mina as he took off for the kitchen.

Smiling ear to ear, Mina followed behind him, trying to keep up. Swatting at his back you groaned and flipped your hair backward, praying that the top of your dress hadn’t ridden down. Pressing your lips into a line, you flatlined your brows, letting Mina know this happened every time. She cupped her cheeks and laughed. You caught her eyes traveling down the backside of the leather wearing monster. This really was a whole new world for her.

Tucking those thoughts away, you turned your chin to catch a glimpse of the man who held you. Slicked back, neatly cut black hair lived atop his head. He kept it shorter in the back and along the sides. You caught a glimpse of necklaces around his neck, probably hanging down his chest over the bare skin showing through his vest that was definitely unbuttoned. You could feel it on your thighs.  The pants he wore matched the top, the low rise waist hanging right at the base of his hips, accenting the curve of his ass, the leather hugging his muscular thighs just right.

“You slut,” you laughed, lifting a hand to slap him where you knew he liked it. A sweet, shameless sound came out of him, echoing in the end of the hall as his head tossed backward. His hands slid down to your thighs, gripping your bare skin below the hem of your dress. Letting out a yelp at the shift of weight, he simply laughed within his chest. His fingers squeezed the soft skin between your legs, obviously having to adjust every few seconds, he couldn’t get a good hold. It tickled, and as much as you tried to hold back your giggles and squirms, the way his fingers knew how to move was too much. “Down, San!”

More boys and girls moved up and down the hall as he carried you, Mina absorbing every single second of every single moment, though it seemed like she was looking out for what you warned her about. Everyone who ducked out of San’s way looked up at you, either in shock or with a laugh. Every face that came and went you had seen before, so it seemed thus far you were in the clear. It was normal, this was normal.

ITZ girls at an ATZ party? Normal.

San dressed in some ridiculous get up with eyes glued to his dick? Normal.

He turned into the kitchen full of a small group of people, the hanging chandelier in here also dimmed like the living room. Sliding his hands up your body, over your ass, to your waist, he lowered you to your feet with an energy so forced your knees gave out, but his hands caught you. Around your back they held you, big and strong, and he hovered above you. A sideways, shit eating grin graced his pink lips. A singular strand of black hair fell over his forehead, the smallest, most attractive accent for his sharp features.

“You’re a dick,” you said softly, smiling up at him. His moves were on purpose, they always were. San was calculated, he was quick. He could pick up your next move before you’ve even thought about it. 

Flickering his eyes to your lips, he softened his smile and breathed through a laugh. “Nice to see you too, Ror.”

“You can let me go now,” you said, and he obliged, swiftly pulling you steady on your feet. 

Taking a finger below your chin, he drug the digit under your jaw with a smirk, and then his body was his, and yours was yours. “Drinks?” he asked with a brow raise, making sure to look at Mina as well. “Hi, pretty,” he smized with a knee buckling head tilt, and the sophomore blushed. “I’m surprised to see you here.”

“She’s off limits, Sannie,” you muttered, fixing your dress. San pointed his gaze to your fingers at the hem of the blue fabric, then to your eyes.

“I know,” he said, his voice flowing like sultry music. “I’ve been debriefed.”

“Debriefed?” Mina asked, taking all of Sans' attention. His dark eyes ate her up, shamelessly fawning up and down her body, ending on her eyes that were all too wide and innocent for the man standing in front of her. San wore his thoughts on his face, you knew exactly what he was thinking about at this very moment. Thankfully, Mina did not.

“You’re Yunho’s girl,” San tipped his chin back, looking down at her. With the smallest gasp, Mina snapped her jaw and whipped her chin to shoot you the look of surprise. You forced a smile onto your lips. 

So, that was the story in this house, too.

“I am?” Mina nearly squeaked.

San’s smize turned up to a hundred, his heat quite literally filling the air. A tiger ready to pounce.

“San,” you stole his focus and actively watched the lust somewhat leave his eyes. “Those drinks would be nice.” Taking his bottom lip between his teeth, he nodded, caught one last look at Mina then started behind you, pausing at your side for a moment more.

Looking up into his siren eyes, the deepest, clearest chocolate brown, you kept the San mental shield up as he said, voice low, tickling your skin, “You’re not off limits, Ror.”

“San,” you whispered, giving him the most polite look you could conjure up. “We’ve talked about this.”

The smallest pout found his gorgeous, kissable lips. Taking a hand to your bare shoulder he watched his own finger as he drew circles over your skin. “You’ll tell me when,” he whispered. Only his eyes lifted to look at you through his lashes. “Right?”

“Right,” you nodded once. “You have a house full of people, Sannie.” Putting a finger on his chest, you drug it toward the waist of his leather pants, entirely too low, and tugged on the fabric when your finger hooked in it. San watched it, his brows furrowing above his eyes with the subtlest inhale through his lips. “You look all cute, does no one wanna play with you?”

“Someone already has,” he whispered, looking to you with just his eyes. 

“Mm!” you hummed happily, giving him a smile, one he returned. “See, you don’t need me.” His jaw tightened. Taking your finger out of his pants, you placed your hand over his cheek and drug your thumb over his cheekbone. “Drinks, Sannie. Please?” Widening your eyes ever so slightly, his shaky inhale and twist of his lips made you smile, too.

He didn’t need to say anything, he spoke with his eyes. Taking off into the depths of the kitchen, around people standing around, leaning on counters talking, he’d be back. He’d find his way back. He always did. Spinning in a small circle, watching him go, when you faced Mina, almost forgetting she was in the same room, you find that she found a way to keep herself occupied. 

“Oh, Aurora!” She wore a smile, an excited smile. “Look who I found.”

Yunho stood in the archway beside her focused on San and where he wandered off to. As if on defense, he snapped out of it when Mina called your name, smiling down at her. It took him a couple beats to look your way, but when he did it was as if his gaze pierced you through the heart.

He wore a t-shirt, a black one with that damn chain hanging beneath the collar. Everything else was the same as you saw him earlier in the day. Jeans, sneakers, hair pushed forward over his glasses. He was the same. He was just Yunho.

It was just Yunho!

“Hey, Rory,” he said. Mina couldn’t take her eyes off of him. Poor girl was smitten.

“Hey, Yo,” you said, jaw clenching as he gave his smile back to Mina.

“Was not expecting this one to be here when Mingi told me you guys were coming,” he said, putting a hand on the wood over Mina’s shoulder. 

Fluttering her lashes she shrugged. “You know, it’s kind of your fault we’re here.”

Yunho frowned, his eyebrows squishing together, and it was apparently funny because Mina giggled like crazy. “My fault? You’re the one here breaking the rules, aren’t you? I didn’t tell you to sneak out of the house.”

Mina playfully rolled her eyes. “No, you didn’t tell me to, but Tori said you guys know how to climb their side of the house, so we had a way down and out!”

“Oh, they told you about that, did they?” Yunho, maintaining this… act, or whatever he was doing, gave you a disappointing look. “Thanks, Rory. Now I’ll be in trouble.”

“Rory,” Mina repeated, eyeing Yunho’s lips as he said it. “That’s such a cute nickname.” She shot a smile toward you for only a second, not wanting to miss a moment of her man.

Yunho, with a sheepish shrug and downturn of his lips, said, “It’s nothin’.”

It’s what he’s called you since you met him.

Within a game of two truths and a lie at the start of the semester he admitted he secretly loved that old show Gilmore Girls. And thus, the Rory thing began. He’s the only one to ever call you Rory to this day.

“It makes me think of this show my mom liked to watch,” Mina said, and Yunho’s act faltered.

“Gilmore Girls?” They both questioned at the same time, falling into laughter together at their own shock of saying the same thing. You could’ve told them that, having the same thought at the same time as them, you could’ve joined in on the laughter as well. But, it didn’t look fun.

With a breath, you muttered, “Cute,” and turned to search for San.

You needed a drink.

Or several.

Weaving through the bodies lounging about the space dripping in shiney dark wood, you approached the circular table in the back corner where several boys sat with cans in their hands. You recognized them all, but only a few were eligible to greet you.

“Aurora!” Yeosang and his wavy chestnut hair raised the beer he held. “You’re here?!” Another head perked up at his shout, long, almost shoulder length black hair and a sharp, slender nose.

“I”m here,” you smiled, holding a hand in the air. A cold can was placed inside of it, your fingers wrapping around it quickly. Yanking it down, you spun and gave San a sweet smile, leaning in to give his cheek a peck. “Thank you, San,” you said, cracking the drink of fruity bubbles open yourself.

“You’re welcome,” he said, looking down at it. “Can I?”

Putting the skinny can in his hand, you nodded. “‘Course.” 

San, keeping his eyes on yours, poked his tongue slightly from his lips and pressed your drink to it, taking the smallest sip before returning it to you. “Your turn.” Copying him, tongue out, lips pressed to the can, you sipped it while you watched him and gave him a wink. A quiet groan escaped him as he smiled. Then, he was gone as fast as he found you.

“Cute.” There was a boy around every corner it seemed. Turning yourself toward the table of men, long, almost shoulder length black hair smirked up at you where he sat. Taking to his side, you tousled his hair and snickered.

“You just gotta know how to appease him,” you said. Seonghwa, leaning over the back of the wooden chair that matched the rest of the kitchen, laughed and shook his head.

“You’ve got a soft spot for San,” he narrowed his eyes, teasing you.

Sipping your drink, you weighed the options with a few twists of your hips. “And if I do?” You smacked your lips, licking the sweetness off of them. Seonghwa watched, then licked his own.

He beckoned you closer with a wag of his finger. “Then I’d say you’re not the only one,” he said loud enough for you to hear, then you laughed with him. Pushing his chair out from the table a bit, tucking his long legs under the chair, he tapped his lap without taking his eyes off of you. “Stay a while.”

Raising your eyebrows, eyeing the group of men who paid no attention to what was happening, you gave him a look. “Vice President Seonghwa, I know you are not telling me to sit on your lap.”

He laughed, dark and sweet. “I am,” he tapped his lap again and pushed his hair out of his face with his other hand, exposing his sculpted features to the dim kitchen light, the shadows contouring around his face like magic. “I miss you. Where’ve you been?”

“Around,” you said, following his request by sliding onto his lap over his knee. On the edge at first, nervous to sit back too far, Seonghwa took matters into his own hands and hooked an arm around your waist, tugging you closer to him. Your knees basically straddled his one, his hand finding solace on your bare thigh, just below the hem of your dress.

“Around?” he parroted in question, moving the chair closer to the table, your bottom halves lost beneath it. “You were here Monday, right?”

Twisting on his lap, your knees moving between both of his legs, you looked at him and his breathtaking beauty and pouted. “I was,” you sighed. “And then we got in trouble… Like little kids.” Taking a sip of your drink while he laughed, you expressed your regret with a roll of your eyes.

“Mingi kinda let it slip to us,” he said, his speaking voice alway so soft and full of purpose. “Tori told him what happened.”

“Of course she did,” you grumbled.

Seonghwa reached for a short glass he had on the table, half full of a cinnamon smelling liquor. “Uh oh,” he sang, sipping the drink that sparked your fancy. “What goes on?”

“What is that?” Taking his glass from him, he let you, you took a whiff and cringed. It was awful up close, much better from far away.

Like Wooyoung!

Seonghwa couldn’t wipe the smile off his face. “Fireball,” he said, and you shot him a look of disgust. “And rum, some peach and cranberry juice, hey, don’t judge until you try it.”

“How do you get past that… smell,” you said, faking a gag over your shoulder. 

Leaning toward you a bit, he placed an elbow on the table. “Some of us like that smell, Aurora.” The smile he wore had swapped for one more stern. “Don’t be a bitch, take a sip and find out for yourself.” He even made cuss words sound pretty, though somehow the kick was more intense.

You listened to him, straightening up where you were perched on his thigh and took the glass to your lips, letting some of the liquid hit your tongue. Getting it down fast, swallowing within milliseconds, the chuckle that came out of him was borderline condescending. Fixing your face, keeping it neutral though tears stung your eyes, you gave him the glass and bobbed your head.

“Don’t like it?” he asked, his gaze dancing all around your face. Looking him in the eyes, gauging how to answer, you opted for a head shake and that chuckle left him again. “That’s okay,” he assured you, his hand on your thigh giving you a squeeze. “You tried it, I’m proud of you.” “Thanks,” you whispered, fixated on his eyes.

“Now,” he started, putting the glass on the table. Facing you like he was, he balanced an elbow on the table and gave you his full attention. “Tell me what happened with Tori, baby.”

And you did, for about an hour.

Starting with the fact that Tori spilled everything to Mingi all of the time, you let that trickle into the ban that was set into place, which then turned into you telling him how you snuck out of your bedroom to end up here on his lap. Within each story a drink was opened by Seonghwa and finished by you. He used whichever boy was closest to a fridge to bring one over to him, all he had to do was lift a finger in the air and he had one in his hand. 

Somewhere along the way your schedule for the year was brought up, you shared you and your sisters anxieties over recruitment this year, and somehow it all boiled back down to Wooyoung and the shit you went through last semester.

You were on drink four, and whatever kept getting poured in Seonghwa’s cup was more and more appetizing as the night went on.

“I’ll have it,” you said, nibbling your bottom lip as a boy in a blue sweater slid it across the table for Seonghwa to grab. He was able to snatch it before you, pulling it away with a grin. “Lemme have it,” you whispered, dipping your chin down.

His other hand had been sliding up and down the inside of your thigh for the last fifteen minutes… You think.

“You didn’t like it, Aurora,” he said, keeping his voice down. Sipping from the glass, eyes on you, he perked a brow.

“No, it was shit,” you were only speaking truths at the moment, and he found it funny. “Let me try again, I promise you I’ll like it better this time, Hwa.”

“Will you?” he asked, and when you nodded, sure of yourself, he handed over the drink and waited for you to hate it all over again.

Taking a sniff like you did earlier, you exhaled in dramatized pleasure, fluttering your eyes shut, and Seonghwa shook his head, his hair caressing his cheekbones. “Absolutely…” you paused to take a sip that was more like a gulp. Seonghwa quickly put his hand on the bottom and eased it down from your lips. “Delicious,” you said, wiggling your brow.

The glass made it safely on the table and Seonghwa drug his tongue over his teeth, looking at you in disbelief. “You got me,” he shrugged. He leaned into you, the space between you growing smaller. “Proved me wrong.”

His lips, soft and full, made your legs close, trapping his hand between them. Unknowingly checking him out, drunk enough to not know what your subconscious was consciously doing in the driver's seat, you took a hand to his jaw and danced your fingers along the underside. Like San had done to you earlier.

Seonghwa, surprised, but letting you do your thing, wore a soft smile when he asked, “You’re alright though, right?”

His features worked in perfect harmony. The slope of his nose down to his lips, and his stunning smile. The depth of his eyes balanced the seemingly innocent wonder he typically wore in expression. A beautifully crafted exterior to match the heart he carried within.

You knew what he meant when he asked you if you were alright. He was there that night, he was close with Yunho, though not as close as Yunho and Mingi, but he was closer than the others. When you became friends with Yunho you met Seonghwa, you’ve known him almost as long as Yunho.

Yunho, damn.

Where did he end up? Mina’s here, they’re probably together, and it’s been too long and neither of them have tried to find you. Maybe he did take her upstairs. She’d probably let him take her upstairs. It shouldn’t matter to you whether or not they went upstairs, but for some reason it hurts. For christ sake, you only started to hook up with Yunho to get over the Wooyoung thing, you never intended for it to become this. You didn’t expect to have feelings for him, your longest friend here at Nasara.

Granted, the Wooyung thing still hurts like a bitch. He didn’t care. He whispered sweet nothings, promises of tomorrow, kissed your lips like you were the most precious thing in the world to him, and then took Yeji to bed.

Couple the both together, and it sucked.

No one knew you and Yunho had done anything, so it wasn’t even like you could say anything to anybody about it. You couldn’t even talk about it, vent about it, get the frustration out. It all had to stay inside, you were forced to keep it inside. Yunho seemed fine with continuing his pursuit of Mina, it’d been over an hour, or more, and no one had come looking for you. Even Tori. Where was she? Helping Mina with Yunho? Still fucking her boyfriend? She was probably helping Mina with Yunho, getting the two of them together, making sure they live happily ever after!

“What are you thinking about?” Seonghwa whispered, bringing you back into the moment. Your thumb was over his bottom lip, the plush skin incredibly soft to the touch. There were centimeters between you, and your thighs were squeezing his hand tight. 

Sucking in a breath, you whispered, “Too much.”

“Tell me.” Speaking in whispers, the both of you, his eyebrows lowered, worried. “Did something else happen?” All you could do was nod, but then as your bottom lip crinkled Seonghwa pushed the chair away from the table of boys talking too loud to notice you guys were leaving.

He got you on your feet and wrapped an arm around your waist, keeping you close to him. Walking side by side out of the kitchen, you melted into his touch, his powerful, safe hold, and scanned each room for a sign of anyone you were dying to see.

Yunho, Tori, Mina.

Wooyoung.

Out in the hall, Seonghwa, several inches taller than you, kept you out of direct view and whisked you toward the end by the front door, making a sharp turn up the staircase. He made sure you made it up every step, taking his time beside you as you clung to him for balance.

A babble of, “I didn’t drink so much,” and, “How are you not as drunk as me?” came out of you and he simply smiled and assured you with, “I’m much bigger than you,” and, “Trust me, I’m drunk.”

You made it into his bedroom on the second floor, the room between Yeosang and Yunho’s, directly in the center of the hall straight off the staircase. Several others lined the hall on the wrap around of the stairs before they went up again to the third floor. Luckily it was his own, ATZ didn’t have to share like ITZ.

Once inside, Seonghwa shut the door quietly and took a deep breath, shifting his attention to you, full of concern. Unsure of what to say, he let you wander his room for a minute before he asked, “Are you okay?”

His room was utterly him. Blue grey walls with photos and a few posters hanging up strategically, the floor was neat and clean, all of his drawers shut properly and everything on top of them placed with precision. There was a softness to it all, but then the hints came out, the sort of unexpected spice he carried within his eyes. It came out in the dark decor hiding in plain sight, and the way the belts hanging on his wall weren’t placed there for daily wearing accessibility. A bottle of whiskey lived on his nightstand, and the books beside it definitely weren’t for a class.

Turning to look at him, his voice once more pulling you back, you shook your head and took your time walking up to where he still stood at the door. “No,” you whispered, your voice filling the air that was much quieter than downstairs. Seonghwa, brows flipped over, nodded slightly, waiting for you to say more. “Everything is just… a mess.”

“Right,” he whispered, having no possible clue as to what you were talking about. Reaching out your hands you grabbed onto the black button up he was wearing, the top three buttons undone, and closed the space between you, pushing him back against his door. His eyes clouded over with that unexpected spice. 

Taking a hand behind him, he pressed the lock on his door, and when it clicked into place you whispered, “Make me forget.”

Hands taking to your neck, he tipped your head back and pressed his lips to yours, heavy and hungry. Without a second wasted a hand was in your hair, the other sliding down your body to grab onto the fabric of your dress, hiking it above your waist. Wrapping both arms around his neck, you succumbed to his touch, to his hold, letting him do as he pleased. Working your lips against his, every following kiss longer, wetter, noisier, you tangled your fingers in his hair. His long, soft hair that brushed his shoulders and now tickled your cheeks.

Seonghwa took both hands to your waist and lifted you up, your legs instinctively wrapping around him. Within the kisses he took you to his bed, laying you sideways over the mattress, the dark blankets beneath about to be rumpled into a heap on the floor. Rolling his body into yours, a gasp shot through you as he pushed his hips where you needed him most.

“Oh my god, Seonghwa,” you breathed, knitting your fingers in his locks. The laugh that came out of him made you buck your hips up against him, longing to feel that definitely larger than average bulge in his pants.

Listening to you, following how your body responded, he rolled his hips and reveled in the sound you made for him, drinking it up through parted lips and shared air, then he kissed you again, slipping his tongue inside. Taking his time, kissing you with a calculated conscience, he took his hands down your body, sure to caress every curve. He hooked his thumbs in the little lacey thong you slipped on beneath your dress for no reason in particular, and pulled it off of you, tossing it somewhere on his floor.

Moaning something nasty into his mouth as he drug one of his fingers over your soaked center, he smirked on your lips as your legs spread even further for him.

“Is nobody fucking you, Aurora?” Seonghwa looked down at you and wrapped his other hand around your jaw, his thumb taking to your bottom lip, pulling it open. Eyes wide, you stared up at him, a completely different Seonghwa than the one you were sitting with ten minutes ago. Nodding as best as you could in his grip, he scoffed. “Yes?”

“Yes,” you breathed. 

He dipped his thumb into your mouth and pressed it to your tongue while he tutted his own. “They’re not doing a very good job, are they?” 

He did a good job.

He did a very good job, Yunho did.

Seonghwa sensed the thoughts. Pulling his thumb from your mouth he pressed both his thumb and fingers to your cheeks, studying how you were locked the fuck in.

“Who is it?” he asked. You gulped and shook your head as best as you could, he was strong. “That means I know who it is,” he flashed you a smile you’ve never seen before, something so devilish it forced a whine from your throat. “You don’t want me to know, do you?”

“No,” you said, muffled with how he held onto your jaw.

Poking his cheek with his tongue, he flashed that smile and nodded. “Why not?” You answered with a shake of your head. “Oh, come on, baby, you can tell me.”

“Can’t,” you whispered, and his brows lowered the slightest.

“You’re not in trouble, are you?”

“No!” You would’ve leapt up if he wasn’t holding you down.

Seonghwa watched you, his face softening, and then he nodded. “Okay,” he spoke above a whisper. Eyes dancing down your face to your lips, he whispered, “Open,” and you listened. He groaned within his chest. “Such a good girl,” he half whined. “No way Yunho taught you to be this good of a listener.”

Your heart sank. 

Your stomach flipped. 

Your blood ran ice fucking cold.

Eyes shooting open wide, Seonghwa mimicked your shock until it turned into a laugh. “You’re kidding me?” He took the hand between your bodies and messed with the buttons on his pants. “I had the smallest chance, and you’re telling me I guessed it right on the first try?”

Wiping the feelings from your face, you whispered, “Shut up. I’m drunk, I don’t know what you were talking about.”

“I’m drunk, too, baby,” Seonghwa cooed, his lips taking to your neck, messy kisses sliding up and down your skin, pulling you back under his spell. His thumb brushed over the spot you were dying for him to touch, a few expert, well practiced twists of the joint enough to have you a babbling mess under him.

“Hwa, please,” you gasped, and he finally kicked his pants off, wearing that devilish grin that was going to make you burst before he was even inside of you. With a hand between you, he pushed his length through your arousal, teasing you.

“Ror,” he said softly, dipping his head down to kiss your cheek. “Are you sure?”

Grabbing his face, squishing his own cheeks together like he had yours, his hair framing his face and brushing your own, you nodded and whispered, “Make me… forget.”

It didn’t take much else, he pushed himself inside of you, his forehead pressing to yours, keeping himself where he could see you, where he could watch you lose yourself in him. The sound that came from you matched the face he made when he gave you all of him, his brows synching in the center, his teeth clenched, but his lips parted. 

With every slow push of his hips and every beautiful sound that came from either of you, he felt you, could hear you adjust, and once your body welcomed him and your nails dug crescents into his back and your eyes clouded over in pleasure, he knew he could take you where he wanted.

He would make you forget.

NU home ✧ nice for what masterlist ✧ talk to me ✧ thank you for reading <3

you do not have permission to copy or translate my works without my consent.

[natspookie]

book worm

warnings, …stalker nat? LOL

an, kinda bad but i had the idea??? also, i’m working with the reqs soon!!!

it was rare natasha had time to go out for leisure, more so, to shop. but here she was, natasha romanoff shopping at thrift shops and markets.

this one road in new york was slammed with sellers and all sorts of things to buy.

natasha had bought a few vests she thought yelena would like, also some for her to match. she’d bought little trinkets to fill her room up. she had been dragging her shopping bags for about two hours when she reached the end of the market, a book stall.

hundreds of books were stacker on top of each other but the one of top caught natasha’s eye.

pride and prejudice

in the red room, sure natasha had read books. well.. books how to seduce men, and basic knowledge. but never for her own enjoyment.

she picked the book up, flipped through its pages seeing annotations here and there but she didn’t mind, handing the shop owner a couple of dollars before she made her journey back to the compound.

it was a quiet weekend at the avengers compound, not much missions. “hey nat! ohhh, what did you get?” wanda immediately eyed the eco bags on natasha’s wrist.

“just saw like a flea market or some thrifting- i don’t know honestly.” “the one near that shawarma shop we go to?” “precisely. i also got you this lamp, you said you broke yours”

natasha handed wanda a clear pink tinted lamp with crystals hanging from the top. “oh nat i love it! thank you!” wanda jumped across the couch and hugged natasha “no problem, witchy” natasha laughed, making her way to her room.

she took a quick shower before unloading all the things she got on her carpet. she put all of yelena’s things in one bag and started to put her things in her laundry bin.

when everything was sorted, she picked up the book and sat on her bed.

it was a book with good condition considering she paid 2 dollars for it. she got her reading glasses out and started to flip through the pages, immediately seeing clean and beautiful cursive black writing.

on the cover page it says, “01/01/2023 my love, i have my whole heart to give to you and it starts by the pages of this book. with little annotations, i hope you love this book as i do you.

all the love, y/n”

love was never in the cards for natasha but boy, would it not be nice to receive this.

as natasha ventured through the pages of this book, she found a certain comfort in the cursive writing she knew she was not meant to read.

little comments like “i bet she’s as beautiful as you” “you remind me of this line” “i want us to experience this” were enough to get her hooked till dinner time.

“nat, dinner” wanda knocks on the door before rushing to the kitchen. natasha had made it more than halfway through the book.

she reached the confession in the rain and one writing in red caught her eye. “no love is ever the same. but know my love for you is bursting with all kinds to give” natasha had fallen in love with the words from a person she doesn’t even know.

she made her way to dinner, nose nuzzled in the book. “nat, you read classic romance?” yelena points out “mhm” natasha sets the book down, remembering her page.

“i got you vests and left them in your closet” natasha stabs a french fry before eating it as natasha does a little ‘yes’ air fist.

natasha didn’t stick around for dinner conversation. instead, she grabbed a milk tea in the refrigerator and retreated to her room to read.

it was 1 in the morning when natasha finished, reaching the last blank page. the words took her by surprise.

“09/01/23

it’s been 9 months without you, you didn’t read this book. i’ll be giving this to the book shop down the block and you will never read the words i longed for you to hear. i hope you’re happy with your new life, truly.

to whoever is reading this,

i wish you a love as strong as darcy and elizabeth. you’ll get there;)

all the love,

y/n”

natasha shut the book with a deep breath. along the pages, she had been looking forward to that annotation in the end. natasha took it as a sign to sleep with all the excessive thinking.

yet all the black cursive words swirled around in her head that night, painting numerous people to who could be the face of these carefully said words.

the next morning natasha went on a personal mission to find you. why? she doesn’t know.

she realized an hour in that it was pointless looking for a y/n if she doesn’t even know what you look like. hence, her going back go the market.

she asked the seller when the book came in and if he knew who.

“oh yes, around last week monday a young woman with (y/h/c) donated a whole stack of books! only that one had annotations though” natasha nodded and thanked the man before going back to the compound after getting shawarma.

natasha accessed the city cctv footage from last week monday and saw you struggle with a pile of books.

you turned before turning back to the person and walking the other way. nataha rewinded the footage and paused it when you turned, she knew what you looked like now!

natasha ran face scanners and finds you — y/n y/l/n.

fresh graduate and working at a little cafe not too far from the market.

natasha didn’t really have a plan so when she stepped foot in the cafe. but when she saw you, she immediately lost track of her words.

“hey, what can i get you?” you smiled at natasha “um- a drink” natasha said as you laughed “what kind of drink?” “coffee” “black coffee?” natasha nodded

“alright, can i have a name?” you grabbed the cup and a marker “natasha” “thanks, that’ll be 3 dollars” natasha handed you the money. “i got that book” you tilted your head at her “pride and prejudice.. the one by the market” you sighed

“oh. yeah… sorry for the annotations” you laughed “no! i actually loved them. you have a great way of words” “thank you.. did you stalk me here to say that or something” you joked, putting the drink in front of her. “sort of” natasha shrugged and you paused

“that was a joke but… thanks?” “i mean this in the nicest and less creepy way but i really was curious by you. as i said, i was kind of enthralled by your words.” “are you saying you want to take me out on a date, natasha?”

“hoping to do so” natasha leans on her heels. “7 o’clock.. don’t be late or be a stalker” you chuckled, walking back to the counter “you bet”

[kickthecan-revolution]

Well it’s an atmospheric river here which for me means two things, I didn’t walk as much as I have been and I didn’t have to water my plants today. Both in the win column.

I had a cardiologist appointment today before radiation. It was fine, there’s a couple of problematic things but they are temporary and will resolve themselves. My weight is still good and he’s happy with the exercise, surprised I’m doing the hills during radiation but said it’s important for my heart to get as strong as possible, so he’s a fan.

My favorite part of today was this nurse - we were chatting and family came up, she is Samoan. I have very dear friends in Seattle who are Samoan and shared how much they made me feel like a part of their family when I didn’t really have one, and how special of a culture it is. She is a little obsessed with Jason Momoa and showed me her Jason Momoa coloring book. We laughed so hard. Amazing.

I walked to radiation from there but took a longer route up Fillmore street which is a famous shopping section in San Francisco I’ve never been to before. It was pretty incredible, I found the coolest thrift shop and some artisan shops that sell sweaters for five hundred dollars each 😂 but they are stunning and I have a feeling people in that neighborhood don’t really look at price tags much.

The rain got bad so I ducked into a Starbucks and ordered a caramel apple cider. I don’t do a lot of coffee purchases these days but I almost laughed out loud when the woman behind the counter said “oh wow, ok, no one ever orders that.” 😂

Today was another difficult day getting my body in the right position, it took awhile. They are learning this new machine. My BPDish tendencies to trust no one scream internally during the process but they aren’t going to shoot bolts of radiation into my body unless they’ve gotten it right. Given I see them everyday now, I always start the session with the most obnoxious phrase I can think of- “there is no ‘I’ in team, everybody, we can do this” and then I wondered out loud at the scientific training it takes to roll my body around using a towel to get me into the right position. “Was it a class? Was there an instructor?” and we all giggle so hard until I realize I’m distracting them. I spend a lot of time looking at these flowers on the ceiling.

Eight more to go, two this week, four next week, two the week after. It hurts now but I can deal. Then it’s over, at least the big stuff.

[abeautylives]

Imperfect Moments - Chapter Fourteen - The Final Chapter

a/n: Here it is, the end. I am already so sad that this story is over. Thank you for your patience, and thank you for reading 💕

Series Masterlist

pairing: Jakexfemale!reader

word count: 9.2k this chapter

final summary: It's really just been a series of imperfect moments that led to this.

warnings: 18+ minors stay far away, mentions of sex and sexual situations, language, mention of drinking, mushy fluff, graphic sexual content, unprotected penetrative sex, little bit of cum play, oral sex (m. and f. receiving, lots of it), biting as always, pneumonia sorry

“I really do love it, darling. It’s perfect.”

Josh is doodling on one of the pages of a leather bound journal, adding notation that you can’t read from your seat across the aisle. You wish you could say you’d come across it at some quirky boutique, but you’d known what you wanted and ended up ordering his Christmas present online. It was hand-crafted and you’d had it personalized with his initials stamped into the Napa.

To your left in the window seat, Jake is flipping through the pages of a worn paperback. His gift had been significantly less expensive than Josh’s, and you’d serendipitously come across it at a thrift store. You’d watched a glimmer of recognition pass over his features as he’d torn into the wrapping paper and revealed the title.

Treasure of the Atocha: A Four Hundred Million Dollar Archaeological Adventure

Insecurity had set in as he lifted it to show his family, prompting you to mumble an explanation.

“You know, that one necklace. The, um, silver one you wear sometimes? It’s an Atocha coin- you know that already. The book, it’s about the search for the treasure. From the shipwreck. I saw it and thought of you…”

You’d trailed off as he’d stared at you, your cheeks and chest warm with self-consciousness but it wouldn’t last long. Before you could say anything else, he’d reached out and pulled you in with a hand wrapped around the back of your neck, kissed you so hard you could barely breathe. Unconcerned about his parents and siblings in the room and reluctant to let the moment end, he pressed his forehead to yours.

“Thank you.”

Remembering that morning now, you lean back in your seat and smile to yourself. It really had been pretty perfect, but you’re happy to be headed home.

The new year came and went, celebrated with a relatively tame get-together at the twins’ house, that still managed to end with you and Danny carrying Josh to bed before fighting a bottle of tequila and a Roman candle out of Jake’s hands. Sam remained blissfully unaware and unhelpful, passed out on the living room floor by the time you had Jake leaning heavily into your side as you guided him up the stairs.

Life was busy in the following weeks, but mostly for the guys. With a huge tour looming and new music already being written, you spent a lot less time with them than you’d grown used to, and your time together seemed to move too quickly. Jake never forgot his promise though.

I’m all in.

Jake K: We’re gonna be here late, I can tell

Me: ☹️☹️☹️

Me: It’s ok, I figured you would be

Jake K: I’m sorry love. Can I still come over after?

Me: I HAVE to get some sleep, work in the morning

Jake K: You can go to bed, I’ll be quiet. I just wanna sleep next to you

You’d given him a key. It had worked out in his favor so far, and it was almost worth going to bed alone to wake up next to him in the morning.

“Mm, just call out… fuck, keep doing that.”

He’s got one knotted handful of your hair and the other one is white-knuckling your sheets. You can’t reply with words, your mouth otherwise occupied with his dick throbbing against your tongue that’s dragging up the length of it from the base.

“We can stay in bed today, don’t go to work.” You watch through your eyelashes as he swallows, his head thrown back and sunk into your pillow, throat exposed to you. When you pull off of him with a final flick of your tongue to the head, he groans and cracks an eye open.

“Why are you stopping, pleasepleaseplease don’t stop.”

“Jake…” Your lips pressed to the soft skin of his stomach. “You have to work today too.” Another wet kiss, just above his navel. “But…” Crawling further up his body, another kiss, right over his heart before you’re nose to nose.

“…You sound so pretty when you beg.”

A growl rumbles past his lips before they’re on yours, hard and fast and then he’s got you flipped onto your back. You’ve hardly caught your breath before you feel the tip of his cock pressed against you, still slick from your mouth and slipping through your own wetness. He practically moans his next words into your ear, sliding inside you slowly.

“Please call out today, sweetheart. Stay with me.”

He’s laying it on thick, meekness and desperation in his tone, his bottom lip poked out in a pout when he pulls back to look into your eyes. For good measure, he adds a soft I miss you and his best puppy dog eyes.

“Pffft!” The laughter bursts forth without restraint and he joins you in it, a quiet chuckle and sly tilt to his lips even as he props himself over you and starts to roll his hips. Your giggles catch in your throat on a sigh.

“Ohh… you know I can’t. Makes me feel guilty.” Even as you’re rejecting the idea, your hands are roaming the warm skin of his back and your legs are circling themselves around his waist.

Determined to get his way, he brings one of his own hands to the outside of your thigh and squeezes, drawing them tighter to his body as his thrusts pick up speed.

“Fuck that job.” He feels your nails sink into his skin. “Quit.” A heel digs into his ass, the sound of his hips colliding with your thighs gets louder. “I’ll just be your sugar daddy.”

“Jake!” His eyes light up, bright and warm as the notes of your laughter float up to him from the mattress.

“You think I’m joking, but you like that idea.” Leaning close again, you can feel his breath across your lips so you pucker them, a silent request. “I felt your pretty cunt squeeze me, you want me to spoil you, love?” He captures the kiss you’re offering and absorbs your hum of confirmation. His hips slow until each stroke draws its own gasp or whimper from you, playing composer and instrumentalist of the music you’re making for him.

Forehead dropped to yours, he lets his gaze fall between your bodies, zeroing in on the skin just below your hip bone. There’s a crease there at the joint, where your legs are spread wide and wrapped around him. He releases his grip on your thigh to move higher and slide his thumb through the soft fold. His cock pulses inside you.

“Fuck babe, I’m gonna cum-“ It’s a warning just a heartbeat before it happens, you can feel the beginnings of your own orgasm fade away as his hips stutter and then still. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to, not before-“

You reach up to tuck strands of his hair behind his ear and rest your palm against a rosy cheek. “It’s okay, baby. I need to get ready for work anyway.” He slips out of you and shifts like he’s going to let you out from beneath him, but his arms keep you caged in and he shifts down your body instead, landing on his stomach between your thighs. “Jake, no we don’t have time-“

“Give me two minutes.” You’re not allowed to argue, his mouth already attached to your cunt. A man of his word, he focuses his attention to your clit, sensitive and already swollen. Hands shooting to the back of his head, you hold him there as your muscles constrict and your back arches. You can feel his release begin to leak from you, picturing the pearlescent liquid moving over your pink flesh in your mind.

“Fuuuck, keep going keepgoing!”

A grunt against your skin and then his lips open over you and suck you in, a lewd slurp of your juices… and his. You think he’s going to stop when he realizes what he’s done, but when you lift your head to look at him, his eyes are already on your face. With a knowing lift of his eyebrows, he licks a long, slow stripe through the mess he’s made. It ends with a flick to your clit, and you can see it there, glistening on his tongue.

The moan that rolls out of you is animalistic, feral.

He does it again, dipping inside you for more this time before pulling his face away.

You haven’t taken your eyes off of him, but he makes sure you’re watching.

His lips open, pink and slick and you can just barely see his tongue move behind them before he purses them, and spits it directly onto your clit.

“Fuck Jake!”

You’re plummeting over the edge before he even buries his face back into you, sucking and lapping at you sinfully until you have to push him away. When his head pops up from between your legs, the lower half of his face is a mess, he drags the back of his hand across his grin just before you’re grasping at him and pulling him back up to you.

His kiss tastes like him. And you. The mixture is heady and improper and your tongue is greedy for it as it swirls against his. You stretch out your shoulder from beneath his weight, searching blindly for your phone with one hand as he breaks away.

“What are you doing?”

“Calling out of work.” Your fingers are already moving over the screen, typing up an excuse. “Not quitting, but I’m definitely not going in today.”

His laugh cracks out and bounces off the walls of your tiny bedroom, his head thrown back and the smile on his face stretching wide as he props himself up to lean on an elbow.

“That’s my fucking girl, I love you.”

He’s still shaking with laughter, you’re still typing. “I love you too, baby.”

Your thumb lands on the arrow, message sent before you realize. His body stills beside you. Slowly, you turn your head to face him over your shoulder. He’s already looking at you, eyes wide.

“What did you say?”

“What did you say?”

He breaks first, in slow motion you watch the corners of his mouth tug upward and curl, smile lines sinking deep as he beams at you. Oh, how long he’s been waiting for this. Scrambling to sit up, his legs fold under him and he pulls you up too. When your eyes are focused on him, he reaches forward and gently picks up both of your hands to hold in his, and he says it again.

“I love you, sweetheart. I’m sorry it took me so long-“

“Don’t. Please don’t apologize. I’m so in love with you…” A relieved giggle bubbles from your throat. “I love you! Oh my god, that feels good. Say it again.”

He does, over and over, between lingering kisses and long moments spent entwined with you, fingers drawn leisurely over the dips and curves that make up his favorite parts of you. With nowhere else to be, it’s a long time before you leave the nest of your blankets.

It’s already early afternoon when you’re both seated at your pub table, sharing love-sick glances over the rims of your coffee cups. You’re still naked aside from Jake’s tan button up hanging loose and open over your frame, Jake had opted to simply pull the sheet from your bed and wrap it around his waist.

“Can I ask you something?”

Jake nods as he swallows a sip and places his mug on the table.

“When did it happen?” You begin to pick nervously at your nails, knowing that whatever he says is probably not going to be what you expect.

“When did what happen, love?”

“Ya know, when did you… know?”

He remembers being in almost this exact position before. Having a drink with you, at this table, considering his next move. Instead of an abbreviated version of the truth, he gives you the entire story as it’s written in his mind.

“Well… by April, not this past April but the one before, I knew that I wanted you.” He’d been a month or so deep into the façade of hating you at that point, and he can see that realization move across your expression. “It was a really small thing at our place, for our birthday. I used to try and avoid you when you were there most of the time, but I watched you that day, fawning over Josh. I could see it in your eyes, that you had feelings for him. You were really very obvious about it.”

You groan and drop your face into your hands, a little ashamed of your naïveté. Jake waits patiently for you to look back up at him, which you do sheepishly.

“I knew that day that he wouldn’t reciprocate those feelings, whatever it was that you wanted from him. He wasn’t gonna give it to you. I knew that if I were him, I would’ve taken the opportunity you were presenting on a silver platter. I would’ve had you in my bed every night, looking at me like that.”

Your head is nodding absently, an almost forlorn look on your face that’s pulling the corners of your lips into a barely there frown. All of that time, wasted. His intention isn’t to make you sad, he keeps talking.

“It sort of just… went on like that. For a while. Me wanting you, you snarling or frowning or rolling your eyes at me anytime I dared to speak. But you came to watch us play, and you smiled up at me on purpose. I could tell it was some kind of power move, so I upped the ante. I’m sorry about that, by the way. What I did backstage.”

You laugh it off. “Don’t be. I think it turned out okay.”

He smiles in response. “It did. Still, it wasn’t… nice of me. It was mean, and intentional, but after I’d gotten my hands on you I knew once wouldn’t be enough. I dreamt about fucking you that night, jerked off thinking about you the next morning.”

He chuckles when your cheeks turn pink.

“The next night, at that party, I suppose I had hoped I could shock some reality into you. That you’d just see that I was better for you. But you started crying and it broke my heart. Right before I kissed you, that was when I knew that sex probably wouldn’t be enough for me, but it was what you were willing to accept.”

Your smile is soft, remembering what had been one of the worst nights of your life as something more hopeful. The way he tells it from his perspective is addicting, it’s rare to pull this many words from him at any given time and his voice is quiet, his tone thoughtful. You reach a hand out over the surface of the table to place it over his.

“I do realize that none of that is an answer to what you asked. I just thought you should know.”

He smiles with that, your favorite one, just for you.

“Keep going…” Your own voice is not much more than a whisper.

“I’m getting there. Ya know, there’s a handful of these like… just almost perfect moments that stand out. Really good moments that I’d somehow fuck up, or almost fuck up. Times that had me thinking about every word before I said it, because I knew I was going to embarrass myself. Because I knew I was undeniably and irrevocably in love with you, only four days after I left here for the first time.”

“Jake!” He just grins at you, pleased with his admission. “That’s not true!”

“It is. I swear on Josh’s life. And he’ll tell you himself, I think he knew way before he ever asked me about it. Way before I’d admit it, even to myself.”

You can feel your jaw hanging slack, mouth ajar in disbelief. “I… don’t even know what to say.”

“You don’t have to say anything, please don’t tell me when it happened for you. I’ve embarrassed myself enough, I think.”

Silently, you stand from your chair and slide yourself onto his lap, looping your arms loosely around his neck. His hands keep you secure there, wrapping themselves over each hip as he looks up at you.

Brushing a thumb over it lightly, you ask him, “Did you know I love it when you do this little grin?” Your words cause it to stretch, just a little wider. “You looked just like this when you smiled back at me, on stage, in front of all those people but it was just for me.”

“There is only ever you, for me.”

He’d made love to you again in the shower, unable to wait until the suds had even been rinsed from your body. Slipping against you, your face and tits pressed into the tile with fingers grasping to find purchase on the slick surface, his hands and hips kept you where he wanted you. His teeth worked to coax fresh rosebuds to the surface of your skin, nipping across your shoulder, soothing each one with a kiss and breaths of hushed words.

Mine. My love. I love you.

The sun had eventually disappeared from the sky, replaced by moonlight as you were stretched out over the length of your couch with your head in Jake’s lap. About halfway through The Goonies, which he’d described as “one of the greatest films about pirate treasure of all time”, he called out your name quietly. Your actual name, not love or sweetheart.

You turn your face up to him and find him looking very serious.

“What’s wrong?”

“Absolutely nothing, my life’s pretty perfect at the moment.” He looks around the room and back down to you, confirming that he’s right, it’s perfect. “I was thinking though… wouldn’t it make a lot of sense if you just moved in with me?” When your eyes nearly bulge out of your skull, he adds, “Me and Josh, into our house.”

You shoot up from his lap and twist until you’re cross-legged on the cushion next to him. “What?”

“Hear me out, and I mean this, we’re leaving soon and we’ll be away more than we’re home. For a while. Wouldn’t you rather have our whole house to yourself than be here, alone?”

Ouch.

It’s a harsh truth and it’s coming your way, quickly. You know that.

“You can stop paying rent. You could work less and fly out with us sometimes. You could be around all of our stuff, sleep in Josh’s bed when you miss him more than me.” He’s trying to keep it light-hearted, but you can still feel the sincerity rolling off of him. He’s serious.

It’s your turn to survey the room. You know it’s kind of a shithole apartment, with your entire life packed into its six-hundred or so square feet.

But that’s not true, is it? The best parts of your life live outside of these walls.

“Okay.”

“Okay. Okay?”

“Yes. You’re right, it kinda makes sense. I can’t do it right away, I have to give notice here. What am I gonna do with my furniture? It’s all secondhand, it’s not super important to me but I have to figure out how to get rid of it. Pack and move everything else. Would you have time to help me? Maybe we can ask the other guys- What?”

He’s just been watching you ramble, watching the gears turn in your head and the words spill out as you think of them.

“You’re sure? I was expecting you to have to think about it…”

“I’ve thought about it.”

“Maybe not enough?”

“The last time I thought about something, maybe not enough, I ended up with you.”

Half of his mouth curls up into a smirk. “Fair point.”

“Shouldn’t you… I dunno, talk to Josh about this though?”

He tugs you back to his cushion on the couch and tucks you under his arm until you’re curled into his side, turns his face back to the movie.

“It was his idea.”

You’d started planning and packing the very next evening, notice given to your leasing office and less than two months before the guys leave for Michigan again. Within two weeks, most of your earthly possessions had found new homes in the twins’ house and your furniture, left behind in an otherwise empty apartment, was sitting there waiting to be sold or donated.

It had been strange at first, spending all of your time there, falling asleep and waking up there every day. Most of your time with Jake had been spent in your space, but you figured that this was your space now. It would take some getting used to.

More than once, Jake had stopped you on your way out of the bedroom.

“You don’t have any pants on, sweetheart.”

It was nice though, being with Josh. They were both busier than ever, so much of their time poured into their music, their upcoming performances, but at the end of the day they both came home to you.

You had missed him more than you’d realized.

“Are you sure you don’t want to come back to Michigan, darling? It’s still snowing up there. We could go ice skating again.”

“I can’t take the time off, Josh. Not yet. Also the entire state is going to be crawling with Greta Van Fleet fans, we’re not going ice skating any time soon.”

“I suppose that’s true. So, when are you planning to fly out to us?”

“I don’t know, I haven’t even told my job that I’m planning on cutting my hours yet. All of this happened so fast.”

“You should’ve just quit. I know you care about your job, in the way that any of us care about responsibility, obligation and money… but you don’t love it. You’d be fantastic at artist management, actually. Look how well you keep the two of us in line, we’d be lost without you!”

He’s joking, you think, but he’s not entirely wrong. You don’t exactly have a passion for what you do, you’ve just been doing it for so long. And quitting without a plan is just not in the cards.

They flew out two days later for a solid three week stretch of shows, dates scheduled back to back for most of it. The twins had FaceTimed you after the first one, still high on adrenaline, Sam’s distinct laughter loud in the background. The next day, a day off, Jake had tucked himself away in his bunk on the bus and called. Your conversation was subdued and unhurried, knowing that you wouldn’t have many opportunities like this in the coming weeks.

“I’m so proud of you, baby.”

“Thank you, sweetheart. I love you so much.”

You don’t hear from them much in the next couple of days, a few texts when they have a moment, updates when they can. Jake calls on their days off, waiting until he knows you’re home from work. You’re not expecting it when Josh texts to tell you that he and Jake both had woken up feeling under the weather, only six days in, two shows canceled and rescheduled. Just like that. Neither of them answer your calls, undoubtedly heartbroken over disappointing their fans. Jake sends you one text that day, knowing his brother had broken the news to you.

Jake K: I hate this. I wish you were here.

You cry yourself to sleep, their pain is your pain.

The abrupt ringing of your phone wakes you up. 5:17am.

“Josh?” You have to clear your throat and try again. “Josh, it’s early, are you okay?”

Even through the fog of sleep you can tell he’s upset. “I’m fine, better, actually. Um, darling… it’s Jake.”

Your stomach twists into a knot instantly, you’re shoving the comforter away and moving to stand.

“We had to take him to the hospital.”

The air leaves your lungs, you couldn’t stand if you tried.

“What?” It hardly passes your lips as more than a squeak.

He goes on to tell you that Jake had woken himself up coughing, unable to catch his breath, in pain. The doctors hadn’t been able to diagnose him yet, but they’re trying.

You’d cut him off there, told him you were coming.

He’d stopped you, told you to wait until they figured out what was wrong.

The following hours passed slowly as you waited for information. Jake, still having difficulty breathing, wasn’t able to call. His texts to you were dismal, sad and infrequent as he waited for a diagnosis that turned out to be pneumonia.

Four days. Four days he’d lain in a hospital bed, struggling to breathe and Josh had refused to fly you out, day after day.

“Darling, we’re bringing him home as soon as they let him out. He seems to think he’s going to be able to play, but it’s not happening.”

He’d come home a little thinner, pale, still coughing and short of breath. It had taken weeks for him to feel well enough to even leave the house, you and Josh there to answer to his beck and call, though Josh had tired of it after about a week.

“He’s a grown man, he can walk himself to the kitchen if he wants a damn popsicle.”

“Joshua. He would do anything for you if you needed him. Have some empathy.”

You’d taken Jake the popsicle and found him sitting at his desk, an ostentatious antique with an even more pretentious wingback chair to match, scribbling on an unlined sheet of paper.

“Baby? What are you up to?”

He delicately finishes a sentence, the sound of the pencil’s lead moving over the paper hits your ears before he drops it to the desktop. “Writing them a letter, they deserve to hear from me.”

They. His fans, disappointed but concerned for his health, had shown an outpouring of love and well wishes for him online that hadn’t gone unnoticed.

Looking over his shoulder, you find about half a page of flowery words explaining the progress of his recovery, rescheduled dates, and his thanks.

“They’ll like this, I think. It’s way better than those ugly blocks of texts you guys use to deliver bad news… They’re kind of impersonal, ya know?”

He coughs into the crook of his elbow before answering, a dry sound, already much better than the thick, painful sounding cough he’d come home with.

Clearing his throat and taking a deep breath, he answers you, “I know, and I hate doing that to them.”

You watch him pick up the pencil again and finish it off with a line about their long awaited reunion, dropping lower and signing off with his name. He scans his own words for a second before peeking up at you and finally snatching his popsicle from your fingers. “It’s pretty good, right?”

“I think it’s very good, Jake. All of your love, huh?”

You’re referring to his sign off, heartfelt and dramatic, as he’s been known to be.

All My Love,

Jake

“Jealous, sweetheart?” There’s a playful sort of twinkle in his eyes as he grins up at you, that you’re grateful to see after so many days of the sadness that you’ve found there.

“Shut up and eat your popsicle.”

You treat him like he’s fragile until he can’t take it anymore, but the first time you’d tried anything physical since he’d come home, he came so violently down your throat that it sent him into a coughing fit that left him red in the face and unable to breathe. He’d tried in the days and weeks since, more than once you’d awoken with his hands moving over you, sometimes already rubbing soft circles into you over your underwear. He would beg you to let him make you cum, and you would, but only with his fingers.

Eleven days before they were scheduled to leave for South America, he jumped you as soon as you got home from work. Cleared with a clean bill of health, excited to get back on the road but desperate for you, he attached his lips to yours, wrapped his hands around your waist and lifted you off the ground. With your ankles locked behind his back, he carried you blindly up the stairs without breaking from your kiss.

He’d fucked you, fast and dirty, bending you to his will and tossing you around the bed. Simply because he could. You’d cum hard at his command, the orgasm ripping a scream from your lungs that he’d been aching for, triggering his own that pulled a sound akin to a roar from his mouth.

Sweating, chests heaving and bodies sprawled across the sheets, you’d come down silently aside from a pleased chuckle from Jake.

From the hallway outside the bedroom door, Josh’s voice had rung out, coming in and then fading out as he’d passed and headed down the stairs.

“So glad to hear you’re feeling better, but that was absurd. Keep that shit to yourselves!”

You almost felt bad but for the next week, the sex was savage. And loud. On their birthday, Josh had presented you with what he referred to as “a gift to myself.” He pulled up an email confirmation on his phone and flipped it around, dropping it into your hands.

“You’re staying in a hotel tonight?”

“No, you two animals are staying in a hotel tonight. I will be sleeping soundly in my bed. And it will be quiet.”

You didn’t argue, just sighed and wrapped your arms around him. He stopped you when you started to apologize for the noise.

“I knew what I was signing up for when I floated the idea of you moving in, darling. I also know that you’re still wrapped up in this little honeymoon phase, and it’ll pass. Now get out, enjoy yourselves and leave me in peace!”

You’d run upstairs to pack a small bag before telling Jake what your new plans for the evening were. Digging through what was now your underwear drawer, looking for something worthy of the birthday boy, it had dawned on you.

All you packed was a change of clothes for the morning, and the oversized black band tee. His band.

Ultimately, Jake had been correct about a few things. You were ecstatic for them to be going back to South America and Mexico, to be performing again with arguably the biggest rock band in the world, their excitement had been contagious but it didn’t take long for you to miss them, and being in a house full of their things actually did help. Some. There were even a couple of nights spent in Josh’s bed, but not exactly because you missed him more.

You missed Jake so badly that it physically hurt, the scent of him in your shared bed made your chest ache, sometimes so deeply that it prevented you falling asleep. On one of those nights, tucked under Josh’s comforter, you were scrolling mindlessly through the Greta Van Fleet tag on Instagram. Already knowing that some of the things you would find there would be… odd, you scrolled and scrolled. From experience, you also knew you would find fan photos, people who’d met them or seen them out and about. Jake had told you that they were meeting people everywhere they went, and you found the evidence of that just like you’d easily found the picture of yourself in the Christmas store.

Both of the twins had been sending you their own pictures as they made their way through Chile, Argentina and Brazil, usually of distinct landmarks, exotic flowers, or beautiful blue bodies of water. But you’d started a collection of saved photos, the few that they’d sent of themselves, or each other.

As you scrolled, shifting from Instagram to your camera roll, you noticed something. Back to Instagram, you search for the band’s account and look closely at everything posted since they got to Chile. Pinch, zoom, yep. There it is. Back to your camera roll. Every picture Josh had sent you of his twin, knowing you needed them, many times taken without his knowledge.

The silver necklace, the coin. It would appear that he hasn’t taken it off since he’s been gone. It’s curious, and you’re not sure why it had caught your eye aside perhaps from the fact that it simply hasn't been his regular jewelry of choice since you’ve known him. You’re fairly certain that you understand his mind pretty well at this point, and you decide that this is deliberate. You make a mental note to remember to ask him about it before a fatigued yawn grips you.

With your eyes squeezed closed, you can feel how you’ve strained them staring at your phone in the dark of Josh’s room. Before you lock the screen for the night, you open your messages and choose the thread at the top.

Me: I love you baby

You had said your goodnights hours ago, intending to go to sleep and failing. You’re not expecting a response, but you keep typing.

Me: Will this ever get easier?

You’re awoken in the morning, entirely too early, by the ringing of your phone. Startled into consciousness, the fear hits you first, the memory of Josh’s call from Michigan still fresh in your mind. You scramble to reach for it, noting the time is actually after nine, and the name and photo on the screen are Jake’s.

Nervously, quietly, you answer. “Hello?” Met at first with silence, you try again. “Jake?”

His voice bleeds from the speaker, low in volume but directly into your ear, and as soon as you hear it your vision blurs.

“I can’t promise that it gets easier, sweetheart. I don’t know the answer to that. But I can promise you that whatever you’re feeling… I feel it too.” He waits for your response, but the soft sound of your breath hitching comes over the line. “Please don’t cry, baby, you’re breaking my heart over here.”

He listens to you weep, a melancholy mixture of quiet sobs and sniffles, offering you words that he hopes are comforting and wishing he had you in his arms.

“I- I’m sorry. You don’t need this right now, I didn’t mean to-“

“Don’t be sorry, love, just.. do me a favor?”

You sniffle again, swiping your fingertips across the wet streaks left on your cheeks. “What?”

“Tell me you love me, tell me you’re all in.” You repeat his words back to him, and you mean them. He smiles to himself, a grin that you can’t see. “That’s all that matters. I’ll be home in a week.”

Seven days and thirteen hours later, he’s on his knees between your legs, wrinkled linen shirt discarded somewhere on the floor nearby and quickly joined by your leggings. He’s working on your panties, his hands are impatient as they drag the lace past your hips and down your thighs, his lips are hungry as they follow the trail of goosebumps left behind by his fingers.

From your seat at the edge of the bed, leaned back on your palms, you watch him move. The apples of his cheeks and the bridge of his nose are faintly freckled from the Mexican sun, the first thing you’d noticed when you’d cupped his face in your hands this morning, as soon as he’d unfolded his frame from the car in the driveway. There’s also a distinct V of tanned skin down the center of his chest, his shoulders and arms still pale. The silver necklace still hangs there, apparently his new favorite.

When your underwear are slipped free from your feet, you watch him bring them to his face, balled in one of his fists. His eyes meet yours just as he buries his nose into them and breathes you in.

You don’t bother with an objection because his eyelids flutter and the honey of his irises disappears as his eyes roll back, and you feel your pussy pulse in response. When his eyes open and refocus on you, they’re nearly black.

He tosses the panties over his shoulder and skates his fingers up the backs of your legs, up your calves and settles his palms onto your knees.

“Y’know those dreams that are so… vivid that you can smell them?” His hands slip inward and slowly push your knees farther apart as you hum in acknowledgment. “I had dreams like that when we were gone, I dunno what’s in the air down there but I think it was affecting my brain.” Spreading your legs as far as they’ll go, his hands continue their journey up the insides of your thighs and he watches you open to him, revealing your arousal glistening between the folds. “I could smell your shampoo, the lotion on your skin.” He brings his face closer to your core, close enough to feel the heat rolling off of your body, closing his eyes and taking another deep inhale through his nose. You run a hand through the hair falling over his ear and sink your fingers into the tresses, guiding his face up to look at you again. “I could smell your cunt, I swear I could taste it. I’d wake up with my mouth watering and my dick pounding.”

Lost for words, all you can manage is a whisper. “Stop teasing.” You use your grip against his scalp to pull him into you, his soft chuckle rippling over your already sensitive flesh.

He savors you, his movements slow and intentional as his tongue drags over every inch of you, your lips sucked past his own as the flavor of you coats his taste buds.

With a hand lifted and placed to the center of your chest, still covered by the soft cotton of one of his old t-shirts, he pushes you gently to lay back for him. As soon as your back hits the sheets, your hips are writhing against his mouth, searching for friction, searching for more, desperate to reach this first peak and get him inside you.

He lets you squirm, taking what he needs from between your thighs while your body begs him to take you higher and push you over. Knowing he’ll never truly get his fill, he’ll never actually get enough, he gives in to the demand of your hands, both now tangled in the hair at the back of his head and trying to coax him to where you need him. He sucks your clit into his mouth and rolls his tongue over it.

Your hips still and your back bows, a perfect arch over the mattress. He likes your reaction, loves it even, but something’s missing. Popping off of your pussy, he shakes his head at you.

“Let me hear you, love. I’ve been missing all those filthy sounds you make for me.” He leans in a flicks his tongue over you, pulling an airy whine from your throat. It’s not good enough, so he abandons his work and moves to trail kisses down the inside of your thigh instead.

With a bratty huff of frustration, you lift your head and find him watching you from the corner of his eye, lips still moving over your skin. You let your head drop back to the bed, annoyed.

Laced with attitude, you spit out, “Jake, come on.”

Rather than respond, or comply, you feel his tongue slip over the tender skin high inside your thigh just before he opens his mouth wide and then closes his teeth around it. Hard.

“FUCK Jake!”

That’s better, his dick jumps in his pants at the sound and he drops a hand to his lap to run it over his length. He’s painfully hard already, straining against the material but prepared to wait until he gets what he wants from you. He keeps running his lips, tongue and teeth over your thigh until he does.

“Baby please, I need you.”

“And I need you, but you’re holding back on me. Why?” When you stay silent for a beat too long, he pries further. “Tell me, or you can go to bed now, wet and aching.”

You know he’s bluffing, or you hope he is, but there’s no possibility that you’re going to test that theory.

“Josh…”

Just over the mound between your thighs, you see his brows lift, eyes burning into yours. “You better explain that, sweetheart. Now.”

“He’ll hear us.”

His features relax as a slow grin pulls one corner of his mouth upward. “So what?” Moving in close, he extends his tongue and swipes it over your clit with a pointed flick that jerks a yelp past your lips. “He doesn’t care.”

“He does, and we’ve been pretty terrible roommates so far, Jacob.”

The admonishing tone combined with the use of his full name grabs his attention. “Oh she’s serious.” He drops a kiss to the soft sprinkling of hair just above the throbbing and neglected bud between your legs. “You’re such a sweet girl, aren’t you?” Another kiss, this time with his lips puckered and placed directly over your clit. You sigh quietly at the contact. “How could I deny my sweet, perfect girl anything that she wants? Just let me hear you, make that pretty music just for me.”

Finally, he sucks you onto his tongue again, swirling it over you until your barely restrained gasps and soft moans of his name are filling the room, bouncing against these four walls. Your hands keep him pulled tight against you, muffling his own satisfied grunts and when you feel the tips of his fingers dip into you, your hips rock against them until they’re sunk in deep, until you’re fucking yourself with them. With just one curl sending them brushing over that hidden spot inside, you begin to unravel around them.

“I’m gonna cum, baby, I- oh god!”

He doesn’t stop when your legs attempt to clamp shut around his head, lapping at your release as it rushes out of you and soaks the fingers that he’s still pumping into you. He’s drawing it out, swallowing down everything that you’re giving him as if he’s been shipwrecked, stranded on a deserted island, finally presented with enough precious liquid to save his life. When your muscles go lax and your legs fall open, he slips his fingers from you slowly, careful not to waste a drop, licking a final stripe over you before popping those fingers into his mouth and sucking them clean.

Unable to will your muscles into motion, you call out to him from your position, limp and splayed out over the bed. “Pants off, now.” You don’t hear him spring into action, so you crack an eye open and lift your head enough to look down at him. He looks drunk, his eyes dazed and unfocused but still trained on your pussy. You try to prop yourself up but your limbs feel useless, so you force your other eye open to see him better and that’s when you catch it. The ends of his hair, hanging forward over his collarbones, are wet. There’s a drop clinging to his chin, catching the light as it quivers there and then falls, dripping to the floor.

“Jake, what-“

Your voice breaks through the haze and his eyes snap to yours. “I think… I’m pretty sure you just squirted.”

The word alone makes you groan, your arms finding the strength to lift and fold over your face, hiding the flaming heat turning your cheeks red. This finally has him moving, off of his knees to kneel on to mattress and hover over you, tugging your arms away to reveal your embarrassment.

“Whoa whoa, what’s wrong?”

“Don’t say that!”

“What? ‘Squirt’?”

You slap your hands to your face, hiding it from him again. “It’s gross!”

With a gentle touch, he peels your hands away and pins them to the mattress, fingers linked with yours. Your eyes are squeezed shut as he brings his face closer. “Look at me.” You do as he asks, his tone delicate and soft as a summer breeze. “It’s not gross, nothing about you could ever be. It’s probably the hottest thing you’ve ever done, right above the first time you asked me to fuck your mouth.” He’s flooded with relief when a tinkling giggle slips from between your lips, now turned up into a timid smile. “Here, feel this?” He guides one of your hands down between your bodies and places it over his cock, sucking in a hiss through his teeth when you squeeze it. He’s hard as stone, and you can feel the heat coming off of him even through his pants.

In awe of your effect on him, you whisper, “Does it hurt?”

“Mm, a little. Feels like I could explode any second.”

“Show it to me, let me see.”

He presses a fast kiss to your lips and stands from the bed, stripping himself quickly of his pants and taking his briefs with them. Completely bared to you, he watches you sit up for a closer look and wraps a hand around the base.

His cock is swollen and flushed a deep pink, the tip nearly red and leaking as he pulls his fist to it. Your brain is screaming at you, yelling for you to lean forward and taste it, but the walls of your cunt are pulsing, clenching around nothing, greedy for him. He continues to stroke himself slowly, in front of your face, wincing through the near pain of it and silently challenging you to make the next move. Whatever you want, it’s yours.

Your original need wins out and you turn away from the sight of him, beautiful and brazenly pleasuring himself inches from your lips. You crawl up the bed and place yourself comfortably upon the pillows, finding him eyeing you intensely once you’re facing him again. His hand stills on his dick as you bend both legs at the knee and let them fall open wide.

“Get over here.”

He’s on the bed in an instant, yanking the hem of your t-shirt up and revealing your breasts, pulling a nipple into his mouth as he lines himself up, lavishing it with his tongue as he crashes his hips into yours.

Unable to stop it, you scream when the head of his cock slams into your cervix. Rather than slow his pace, he takes the fistful that he still has of your shirt and shoves it into your open mouth. He’s pleased with its efficiency, the primal sounds that you’re making are pretty effectively quieted as you bite down on the cotton. Just to make sure, he pops off of your nipple and takes the other between his teeth. Your muffled mhmm, mmhmm has him driving them into the skin. Your muted squeal has his hips pistoning, jolting your body as he races to his finish.

Almost there, dangling over the edge, he lifts his face from your chest to check on you, a visual assessment that finds a sheen of sweat across your brow and your eyes rolling back in your skull.

On a ragged breath, he calls for your attention. “Babe…”

You roll your eyes forward and find him dripping with sweat, it’s rolling down his neck and traveling over his chest. The pendant of his necklace, the coin, is swinging over your face as his rhythm begins to falter.

“I’m gonna cum, fill this pussy up, you want it?” His jaw is clenched, he’s barely hanging on.

You release the shirt from between your teeth and spit it out.

“Give it to me, I want it all. Do it, Jake!”

With a strangled call of your name, your actual name, he lets go. You can feel the heat of it spilling inside you and he groans, sounding again like it’s physically painful as he fills you until his release is overflowing from your cunt, while he’s still fucking more into you. His body shudders as it finally ends, he sinks to you, hot and sticky and completely drained. Into the damp skin in the crook of your neck, he murmurs a drowsy I love you.

Hands running through the sweat-soaked strands of his hair, you say it back. He breathes into a kiss placed to that spot on your neck before rolling off of you.

He’s already slipping into sleep, you know he’s exhausted from travel and you can see it now in his features. There are soft purple shadows under the fans of his eyelashes, resting over his cheeks. You also know that he’ll wish in the morning that he had showered, washed the film of sweat and sex off of his body before passing out, but you can’t bear the thought of forcing him from the bed now.

You let your fingers trail over his chest, moving steadily with the rhythm of his breathing that’s evening out as he drifts away. Drawing a circle over the cool metal of his necklace, you whisper up to him before he’s completely gone.

“Have you been wearing this since you left?”

Barely conscious, he lifts a hand and wraps his fingers around yours that are toying with the coin.

“Mm, yeah. Haven’t taken it off.”

“Is there a reason?” You know there has to be, everything he does has a purpose, even if he doesn’t know exactly what it is.

“Finished the book you gave me for Christmas. I read it three times while we were gone. Necklace reminds me of you.”

Oh.

He’s snoring softly before you can respond. You move away from him slowly, rolling to grab your phone but not finding it on your nightstand. Quickly and quietly, you tiptoe around the room and don’t find it anywhere, so you slip your leggings back on, up and over your hips and sneak out the door.

You head first to use the bathroom, then to Josh’s bedroom door but find it slightly ajar and the room dark. After slinking down the stairs, you’re met with a dark kitchen but a soft blue glow coming from the living room. Josh is there, nearly asleep himself but still upright on the couch in front of some black and white film that doesn’t seem familiar to you. He startles only slightly when you step into the room.

“What are you sneaking around for, darling? I didn’t even hear you come down the stairs.” He pats the cushion next to him, an invitation that you accept.

“Jake’s asleep, I didn’t wanna wake him. What are you still doing up?”

“I could ask you the same, shouldn’t you be cuddling your beloved or some shit? You reek of sex.” There’s no fire behind his words as he teases you.

“I need to talk to you. I need your help.”

Just over two weeks later, they’re packed to leave again. They both pack infuriatingly light for a month-long journey through Europe, but you know they’ll cycle through five outfits, max, between the two of them

Jake saunters into your bedroom as you’re frantically sifting through your closet, tossing things out into the room as you go. He moves through the space, taking note of the open suitcase laid out on the bed as he steps toward the closet door, where a denim jacket slaps him in the face and wraps itself around his head. You haven’t even noticed and continue to throw things in his direction. He pulls the jacket free and drops it to the pile you’ve created at his feet before scaring the shit out of you.

“Running away, sweetheart?”

“Shit Jacob!” You’ve nearly jumped out of your skin, but gather yourself quickly and keep moving through your hangers. “How do you guys pack so easily, how do you know what to bring?”

“It’s simple, love, we never change our clothes. Mind if I ask, again, where you’re going?”

You push past him in the doorway and move to start folding things to put in your suitcase. He turns and follows you with his eyes as you continue to ignore his question. Crossing the room, he steps in behind you as you’re leaned over the bed and reaches around you to stop your hands from shoving another pair of jeans into the case.

“Stop, before you piss me off.” Your back stiffens at that, the authority in his tone sending a shiver down your spine that makes your toes curl. He slides his hands from yours, slowly up your arms until he’s spinning you around by your shoulders. Curiosity is lifting one of his eyebrows, the other drawn down and creasing the skin between them.

You’ve been waiting for this confrontation, thought you were ready for it but now that it’s happening, your palms are clammy with nerves. You try to wipe the anxiety from your expression, offering him your own quirked eyebrow and a sly smile.

“I’m taking a trip to Denmark.”

You watch a range of emotion flash across his face in just a few seconds, surprise, then confusion, followed by the dawn of understanding. Finally, excitement is alight in his eyes and you start to feel it too before the corners of his mouth pull downward.

“You’re coming with us. You can’t just up and come with us, this shit takes planning babe, scheduling, flights. We have a whole team that travels-“

“It’s taken care of.”

He’s still confused, understandably. “How?”

“Josh took care of it. I asked him to.” The nerves are back, sensing that he has more questions before he accepts this as truth.

He considers what you’ve told him so far, which is next to nothing, with his arms folded and a hand under his chin, running his finger over the small dimple there.

“For how long?”

“A month.”

“Baby, that’s the entire time we’ll be in Europe. What did you tell your job?”

“I quit.”

“You quit.”

“Two weeks ago. I put in my notice after Josh said he would handle the arrangements. Yesterday was my last day.”

You let him process it, not daring to move from your place in front of him, terrified that he’s going to tell you you’ve made a mistake. Your heart’s beating so rapidly that you’re sure you’re about to pass out, just before he unfolds his arms and takes both of your hands in his.

His voice is soft, sweet as cotton candy and spun up with the dreamy quality of disbelief. “You’re coming with me?”

Your fingers squeeze his, helping to ground you both in the reality of this. “I am. For as long as you’ll have me. I’ll look for a new job when we get back to the states, if that’s okay. I’m not sure wh-“

His kiss punches the air from your lungs and any other words from your brain, his hands thrown into your hair then sliding down your body until he hauls you off your feet. Arms and legs wrapped around him, you throw your head back and laugh until you truly can’t breathe. He watches from below, and he knows.

When you drop your forehead to his, he smiles back at you, that one that he now knows to be your favorite. He’d almost fucked this up, this moment that he’ll tuck away into his memory, but he’ll recall it later and it’ll be perfect.

“Forever. I’d take you with me forever, to every horizon.” Another kiss pulled from your lips, one of thousands, millions even. “I don’t give a shit if you never work again. I knew you wanted me to be your sugar daddy, sweetheart.”

The End 💔💔💔

Taglist:

@lightmylove-gvf @spicedandicedtea @weneedsomehealing123 @milkgemini @why-ami-on-here @gretavanbitches @twistedmelodies @wildflowerxx-x @dannythedog @blissfulbellss @averagemisfit03 @dharmasdivine @thetroublegetssoloud71 @lucimoo @toxbexannouncedx @dig0930 @maddie-van-fleet @friska101-cg @welllauragvf @gretasimp @objectsinspvce @writingcold @gretavangroupie @sweetybre @gretasgoose @gvfjess @josh-iamyour-mama

[godesssiri]

Mwahahaha!!!!! I collect antique books, mostly non-fiction, I'll grab poetry books if they're lovely enough. My favorite local thrift store gets so many books donated and they mostly just chuck out the old ones, anything with browned pages goes in the dumpster. There's a lady that works out the back who's been campaigning with the management and the people who sort/price the books, she hates the waste and loss of history. She's a friend and she saves anything she thinks I'd like and will message me if anything particularly special comes in. I've told her about how Dark Academia and Traditional styles are big in home decor and people will buy old books just to have them sit on a shelf and look **aesthetic** and I've seen re-sellers bundling together stacks of pretty old books and selling them as as sets. She's been making up little aesthetic stacks tied with twine for the last week - none of them have lasted half a day on the shop floor before they sell. She's made at least a hundred dollars for the charity from books that would have gone in the dumpster. She's thrilled and the people I've seen buying them have had the biggest smiles on their faces.

[doberbutts]

And if you don’t have some of these kitchen tools, that’s fine! I didn’t when I started out either. You can do a couple things about that:

If you have the budget for it, shop at thrift stores, look on fb marketplace, go to tag sales! A lot of the stuff I have in my kitchen was not purchased new but was found for extremely cheap within my local neighborhood.

If you don’t: see if you have a local buy nothing group. Buy Nothing is a fast-growing resource that discourages people from throwing out their older, but still good, items and instead putting it back into the community where it can still serve some good. I have personally saved probably about $200 getting stuff off my local buy nothing, and I have given my own things as well. Mostly I’m getting kitchen stuff but I did get some toys and books for my niece and nephew, a timer for one of my lights, new nightstands, and I’ve seen other really nice stuff as well go by.

Another thing I’ve done is go to fundraiser sales and you can occasionally get some really nice things that way as well. I went to a fundraiser sale for the local senior center (it was on my way home while walking the dogs) and I had intended to buy the items I picked out. But they flagged me down and said honestly it was going to rain soon and they didn’t feel like hauling everything back inside so I should just take whatever I wanted and if I wanted to make a donation great but I could also just have them for free. I did donate about $15 but I also took a couple hundred dollars of knives and baking pans etc as well as some holiday decorations.

Like the reason I don’t have a dehydrator yet is because I haven’t found one in any of these areas. Eventually I either will find one or I’ll have pooled enough money to buy one, I’m not that pressed about it. But I don’t buy these things new off the shelf because I super do not have money for that sort of thing.

[arctic-hands]

ThriftBooks, I have a question for you: you have "thrift" in the name, so what makes you think your freebie swag of one hundred dollars off a one hundred and sixty dollar case of fancy wine is useful to the majority demographic buying your books?

[neopronouns]

man, now i wanna be punk... got any resources i can look at avout the movement and the people or just useful stuff in general?

mrri [i] don't have any specific resources, but here's mrry [my] tips (keep in mind mrri'm [i'm] still kind of a baby punk fjklgsdk):

above all else, being punk is about radically caring about people! kindness in the face of an uncaring society, listening to and boosting the voices of marginalized people, attending protests (or helping in other ways), and leftist ideology in general are core tenets of punk politics. hate governments and oppressive systems and care deeply for the people being hurt. many people who decide to look/act the part of a punk already hold their beliefs!

in that vein, try to get involved with local activism! this doesn't just include going to protests/marches, doing sit-ins, etc. - volunteering at a local food bank, boycotting products, graffiti, hacking, and all sorts of other things can be punk. any way you can stick it to the man, no matter how small, is great.

don't buy into the commercialization of punk fashion. if you want a punk wardrobe, you don't have to spend hundreds of dollars on punk-style clothes from mainsteam brands. rip up cheap tights, make chains out of can tabs, sew patches onto your jackets and pants, dye your clothes black, buy a pair of combat boots and wear them until they fall off your feet, whatever! diy-ing, mending, and thrifting are all parts of the punk look, so if you can do those things, do them, and if you don't know how, look it up and try it out!

pick a band in one of the punk genres (such as punk rock, riot grrrl, folk punk, queercore, etc.), listen to an album, and branch out from there! punk music varies greatly, so you'll probably find something that really speaks to you. mrri [i] personally recommend starting with more modern music and working your way back, since that'll let you adjust to the genre first and then start learning punk musical history, but it's your call!

engage with other punk creations! films, visual art, stories, dance - there are punks in every artistic field, and chances are they'll teach you something wonderful.

create! put your feelings about society into something - paintings, songs, stories, whatever calls you. make tons of shitty art and love every bit of it. there may be open art exhibitions, zines, or other events near you (or in your online communities) that you can showcase your work in or view work from other punks in.

explore political theory! punk philosophical and political papers/books are great (and tend to be free somewhere), but if reading long texts is difficult for you, you can find documentaries, podcasts, youtube videos, etc. you may find it more accessible to follow punks on social media and learn through that as well.

overall, punk is not rigid in any sense. you may look different from other punks, listen to different music, make different art, etc., but you'll be united by your similar ideologies, and that's what matters.

and, very importantly:

FUCK FASCISTS! there are fascists in punk spaces, and you need to not only not listen to what they say, but work with other punks to make these spaces hostile towards them. actively reject their messaging.

[enoughtotemptme]

Can we get a lil more of the urban fantasy hellcheer? 👀

Hahaha now I'm nervous 😅😅😅 Even though I called it urban fantasy, that's probably overplaying the importance of magical beings in the world. It's mostly a pretty mundane story (slowburn roommates to best friends to idiots in love!!), with just hints of the occasional magical nature making it to the page.

I just finished chapter 10! Two more chapters to wrangle and then the epilogue, and then I'll be editing/posting. Here's a bit from chapter 2!

“What do you want to do with these?” Chrissy asks, surveying the ground with her hands on her hips. The yard sale went better than she’d hoped, and nearly a hundred dollars in miscellaneous bills and change is stuffed into the pocket of her borrowed floral apron. 

Eddie joins her. “Uh. Ding dong ditch them somewhere?” All that’s left from the spread they started with are a handful of books, two shirts, and a scattering of kitchen things. 

She flicks his arm. “Let me rephrase. Thrift store or dump?”

“Thrift, I guess,” he says. “I’ll grab a box.”

Chrissy begins to gather the things up in her arms while Eddie turns away. The crunch of the gravel road doesn’t distract her, but Eddie saying, “Cunningham?” in a careful voice does. 

“What?” Chrissy replies, turning to look at him; she fumbles and drops one of the books when she sees her little brother and Eddie in a staring contest. Matt is still on his bike, one foot on the ground to keep himself upright. His face is red and his hair is sticking to his forehead in sweaty clumps. “Matty? What are you doing here?” she says automatically. “Is Mom—”

“She doesn’t know I’m here,” Matt interrupts, tearing his gaze away from Eddie. “I…” He scuffs the toe of his white sneaker in the dusty gravel. “I rode my bike.”

“I see that,” Chrissy says, gentler now. 

Eddie silently moves to take the yard sale rejects from her arms. He nudges her, nods toward the trailer. “Go ahead. I’ll finish up out here.” 

“You want to come in?” Chrissy asks, and Matt nods jerkily, swinging off his bike and leaning it against the trailer steps. 

The couch is gone, sold to some kid fresh out of high school, but the dinette is still there. Chrissy gestures at the table. “Sit if you like. Want some water?”

“Yeah. Thanks.”

He doesn’t sit down, not until she hands him a mug full of water from the tap and takes a seat herself. Her little brother isn’t so little anymore—he’ll be sixteen this fall, and he’s already taller than her. But the way he avoids her eyes, looking around the trailer, reminds her all too well of the little boy who would do something naughty and then pretend if he didn’t look at you, he couldn’t get in trouble.

“It’s a long ride from Loch Nora to Forest Hills,” Chrissy says.

He shrugs. “It’s not so bad.”

“It’s ninety-five outside,” she says, dry, and Matt looks up at her now. He seems surprised, like he didn’t expect her to be anything other than sad or angry. 

And she is. Sad and angry, that is. But only parts of her, and those parts of her are smaller every day that goes by with nothing but possibilities and the promise of Eddie’s friendship in front of her.

[goldeneyedgirl]

Re: sex-worker alice— Have you written jasper finding out the alice he left is a sex worker? Cause oof i need to see the reaction to that

The initial meeting between Alice and the Cullens - from Alice's POV - happens on the street accidentally, and Edward identifies the bruises Alice has as something she does for work and is consensual - Jasper is definitely more focused on finding and harming the person who inflicted harm on Alice than comprehending what Alice actually did as a job.

There are also notes for a scene where the various Cullens try to get Jasper to talk about Alice's career choice and Jasper very stubbornly refuses to talk.

The below is the closest I've gotten to the first kind of confrontation, and is a very very rough draft

I'd say I was surprised to see another Cullen waiting for me after work, but I would have been more surprised to be left alone honestly. The surprising part is that it was Jasper. I was sure Carlisle and Esme would make another bonding attempt before Jasper came near me.

He stood up like a gentleman when I walked over, looking every bit as good as I remembered, but I had long since stopped caring what the Cullens thought of my clothing or how I looked. Not everyone was as wealthy and privileged as they were, and sometimes food and shelter came before plush winter coats and buttery-soft leather boots. Not all of us could have flawless skin and glossy hair every moment of the day. 

…Maybe I was still a little jealous. 

"Hi." Jasper's voice is soft, and I can feel his eyes search mine for a moment before I look away, to jam my phone in my bag. 

“Hi. Wasn’t sure who to expect today,” I said in a wry voice. “Figured it would be Esme again.”

He chuckled. “Are we that transparent?”

“Mmm-hmm.” 

//

"Just because you didn't want to see me naked, doesn't mean other people don't," I said calmly, taking a sip of my milkshake. 

Jasper scoffed, and for a moment, he looked annoyed. "That's not true," he began, and I raised my eyebrows. That was probably the closest we’d ever gotten to actually discussing sex. Some very restrained and polite kisses were the closest we got - the singular time we came close to making out, he’d insisted he leave. And I know my sixteen- and seventeen- year old self in her Hello Kitty underwear and thrift shop dresses wasn’t exactly the stuff of teenage fantasies, but I had definitely wanted more back then. 

Jasper gritted his teeth and changed the subject. "I thought you got free college through the state?”

"I get free tuition. I still need to pay for food and shelter and clothing and books,” I said. “Plus I need a car, and new glasses and a whole bunch of human things. The details don’t matter, Jasper, I need to work to afford school.”

“Not like this,” he snapped, and I realised this was as upset as I had ever seen him. 

"An hour of my time starts at one hundred dollars, Jasper," I retorted. "The house pays me sixty from that. There are no jobs for nineteen year old high school graduates that pay close to that. I've had nights where I’ve made a thousand dollars.”

He turned his head away from me. "I don't want to know that.”

"Why?" I demanded. "Because if it's some antiquated notion that I should have stayed virginal and pining for you - after you left without saying a word - whilst being screamed at by women who wanted extra foam in their coffee for ten bucks an hour we have nothing left to say to one another. We both know that you haven't sat around since the Civil War waiting patiently for marriage, so why was I supposed to? Especially when you had no intention of ever seeing me again?”

"You're selling your body, Alice. You can't expect me to be okay with that.”

“It’s my body,” I hissed, standing up. I almost missed Esme’s sad eyes and flowery euphemisms about saving me from my bad choices. “You don’t get to fuck off secretly and then turn up two years later - by accident - to judge me and complain and send your family to try and save me from myself. I needed saving when I was sixteen. Not now.”

Shouldering my bag, I turned to leave when his hand whipped out and clamped around my wrist suddenly and I tried not to flinch, the old bruises protesting at his tight grip. 

“You were supposed to be mine,” he said in a low tone that made the hair stand up on the back of my neck. Whether it was something supernatural or just the anger in his voice, I didn’t know. 

I pulled my wrist away and he let me go. “No,” I said quietly. “I’m not property, Jasper. And whatever we were supposed to be was over the minute you left me in Forks alone. Tell your family that I don’t work Wednesdays.”

And with that, I walked away. 

[pbandjesse]

Welp James got hit by another vehicle. Thankfully this time they were just a bit banged up. But Jesus Christ. I am so upset. Their bike is a little bent up and the person didn't even say sorry. They doored them and knocked them down. And honestly it could have been so much worse!! I hate that this happened again. My heart hurts so much because I am so worried for my husband.

Today wasn't a bad day before this though. I was just tired. I got to sleep a little longer which helped me feel a little more out together.

I got dressed and had a bagel. I felt pretty positive for the day.

I left here and went to the museum. I got there a little early to load in the leftover boxes from from outreach yesterday. A man in the parking lot told me he liked my bird collection, referring to my molcars. And he laughed when I told him they were actually hamsters.

It was a good day though. I was training the new Jess. And we had a city builder program and a neighborhood tour. And we ended up with an excellent teacher who had a great handle on the kids.

So it made it really easy. And I really had fun with them. They were 2nd graders, which is the oldest that do these programs (and the youngest that will do a regular tour and cannery) so you never know where they are going to be at. But they were awesome. We did finish each program a little early but that was fine. We would look around the galleries and they were sweet kids.

They were just a little embarrassed to wear the costumes. But I think they got into it by the end. They loved buying things and spending tokens and getting paid at their little jobs. It was super cute.

The bank actually went super well. I didn't need the extra time I built in. So once I got everyone finished their bank books and collected their costumes I took them to the car to play and take pictures.

We had about 10 minutes there. So me and Jess went and reset the galleries and got the costumes. And by then it was time to go to lunch.

During lunch I had the dumplings I brought and reset the costumes. Got everything on hangers. I started getting a little lightheaded so I would sit down and take a break.

And then it was time to take them to the movies. I grabbed my crochet to take to the front desk, gave them a five minute warning and went to make sure the dvd was working.

Someone turned off the DVD player which was annoying but James fixed it and everything was fine.

I dropped them off at the theater and sat with James and crocheted. They went to heat up their lunch. I helped a few guests. Found out that our event person doesn't like when we answer any questions about events. Which is ridiculous because they aren't even in this building 80% of the time so what would you like us to do? It's the polite thing to try to help guests, and like yeah if I don't know I'll direct them to you but if you aren't answering your phone you don't get to be mad. Whatever. I honestly don't care if they are mad I just think it's wild that that is something they are mad about.

I enjoyed sitting with James though. And once the video was over I got the kids to their coats and on the bus. It was nice to be done.

I had to call my rheumatologist because they had called me. They had to reschedule my appointment to Thursday. Not shocking I thought it was weird they were making appointments for MLK day.

And I made plans with Callie to have a late lunch tomorrow. I was feeling good.

But I was very tired. I would reset the rest of the costumes that got used today. And then went to sit with James until I could leave.

I decided to go walk around the second chance, the big furniture thrift store.

And I had fun looking but man we're the prices outrageous. Some stuff was normal. $20 or $30 bookshelves. A few I considered but decided not to get in the end. But some stuff that didn't need to be was hundreds of dollars!! Like at one point I found a dirty bean bag chair for $200???? I was so confused.

There were a few things I was seriously considering. One was a beautiful painted dresser but if it was tomorrow it would be a reasonable price (because every few weeks the ticket price drops) and so I decided it wasn't meant to be. Maybe if I go back next week and it's still there.

I got very very tired all of a sudden. And I really wanted to be home.

So I did just that. I went home and I curled up on the couch. I worked on my crochet. I would finish 5 squares today. I read a little. I made an early dinner of oven fries and veggie chicken nuggets. Our oven was not working well and I was getting frustrated but it was fine in the end and eating made me feel better.

When James got home they were really angry and upset. Half way home a driver doored them. Knocked them down. Bent their handlebars. Broke their phone mount. And they didn't even say sorry. I wish they got their info but they were to shaken up. Worried about their collarbone. Which thankfully seems fine. They say their wrist and elbow and hip hurt. Their emotions probably hurt the most. It's scary and I am so frustrated that it has happened again.

James was really upset though and so they went for a walk to cool down. And I tried not to cry. When James got home I just held them on the couch for a long time.

We would hang out. Work on our own stuff. I got in bed. Watched videos. Tried to just be calm.

I just got a shower and me and James have been talking and trying to process. The scary feelings. I am just really worried for them you know?

But now we will sleep. Tomorrow James has the engineering event at the museum. They are going to try to see if the bike shop can help the bend in their bike handle and realign their tires. And I have my second workshop at the national guard. I am nervous but this project was super popular this summer so I have high hopes.

I am trying to not be super upset but it is hard. Send us some good vibes. Be safe and watch out for bikers.

Goodnight everyone. Sleep good.

[blazehedgehog]

This video came up in my friend group a couple days ago and I feel there's nothing truer than the story I told:

When I worked at a thrift store a number of years ago, I helped stock shelves and sort new donations. And one day I wheeled a shopping cart full of merchandise to put on the shelves only to discovere someone had donated a legitimately beautiful, genuine leather bomber jacket. It was brown with a wool collar, meaning it was the spitting image of Leon's jacket from Resident Evil 4. The lining on the inside may as well have been real silk. I slipped it on, and though it was a little snug, it still fit quite well.

And it was only $15. At the time, I did not have $15 on me.

So I called my Mom. Hey, lend me $15. She waffled. She was watching TV at home and didn't feel like getting in the car and driving half a mile to my thrift store in order to give me $15 for a jacket. I begged. I pleaded.

I continued to stock shelves.

C'mon. It's a really nice jacket. I'll pay you back as soon as I get home. "Fine." She relents. She'll be there in--

I turn around. The jacket's gone. The thrift store had rules about employees buying things. You're not supposed to let shoppers know you have first dibs on items, and it's frowned upon to take items off the racks and back into the stock room after they've already been set out. But obviously workers did it all the time and nobody really cares. It's one of those rules that only applies if someone complains.

This meant that instead of carting around the jacket while I stocked, I put it back on the rack. I figured, worst comes to worst, my mom comes in, buys the jacket for me, and we pretend we don't know each other. But I also figured maybe I could slip the jacket into my cart and skitter back off to the stock room at some point anyway.

But now it's gone. Well, my cart is empty one way or another, so I need to head back to the stock room anyway and get a full one.

As soon as I'm back there, I see it: we had a special, locked room just above where you get new carts to wheel out into the store, for the truly "high ticket" items. I catch a glimpse of the jacket, hung delicately by its hanger from a hook on the back of the door as my boss shuts and locks it.

Most things in our store were so cheap I don't understand how it stayed in business. Books for $0.10. Blu-ray movies and games for a dollar. Stocking the shelves, often you'd barely set something down before a customer picked it up and bought it. And heaven help you if you're on shoe duty. I had multiple people follow me around one day asking when we were getting more shoes in. The input/output of that store was insane. I was one of like five people on stocking duty because it was the only way to keep up.

They even had a policy where we were supposed to change out the price stickers every day, and if it was on the shelf for more than 3 days, it got taken back, packed up, and shipped off to the shelters. But in the two years I worked there, I never saw that policy enacted, because nothing ever sat on shelves that long outside of like, wicker baskets and some coffee mugs.

"High ticket" items got set aside because every few months, the store would run an auction. It was for items they knew they could get more than a hundred dollars for. Things that were not for the commoner plebeians.

And that jacket disappeared into that room, never to be seen by my eyes ever again. It was authentic. It was beautiful. It was almost mine.

I think about that jacket often.

[britneydelenue23]

Innovative and Affordable Storage Options

Anne Simpson of Genuine Simplicity is the author of the following guest post: Ingenious (and Affordable) Storage Options. My husband and I moved into an apartment earlier this year that was nearly twice as big as our previous apartment. While we adored the large rooms in our new home, the lack of storage left us more than a bit perplexed.

The former apartment had everything: a laundry room, a linen closet, a pantry, loads of cabinets and a walk-in closet in the kitchen, medicine cabinets in each bathroom, and even a storage unit outside the door! Our new residence? Not really.

There was no laundry room or linen closet, only a small laundry closet for anything but the washer and dryer), no walk-in closets, poorly planned kitchen cupboards that defy organization, no pantry, no medicine cabinets, and definitely no storage units.

1. Shelving in Closets and Cupboards

You've probably seen those inexpensive white pressboard modular shelving units at Walmart, Target, and other big-box stores. I suppose they're kind of unattractive. Don't judge a book by its cover, as they say. I adore these cute tiny shelves because of three things. They are quite affordable, strong, and practical. They are also very versatile.

2. Tractor Trunks

While a new or antique trunk can cost hundreds of dollars, especially if it's constructed of real wood, there are less expensive options that are easily found at thrift shops, yard sales, and discount stores. With these trunks, you don't have to stow them away in the closet unless they're in extremely poor condition (or are just plain old ugly) you can cover them up with some fabric that matches your decor.

3. Canvas Bins

I’ve discovered that those cube-shaped canvas bins made for the modular storage shelves actually come in handy all over the house whether or not you have the cubicle shelves.

Plus, sometimes you can find them at the dollar store, which makes them a super cheap creative storage option. Clearly, they’re not the sturdiest storage container in the world, so I wouldn’t recommend using them for anything heavy or anything children access often (I learned that lesson the hard way!), but they’re still useful for holding all sorts of other items and can last a really long time if you’re careful with them.

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[dugansdangerousdictations]

The Story

It was the summer of 2022 in early July. Me and some of my friends do this thing when where all free from school and work, where we pick a day to go out and look in stores. Anything from thrift stores to the mall to even Walmart. Just to get out of the house to explore Kansas and see what It has to offer. On this day I was mostly interested in records as I just got a fresh record player, an Audio- Technica AT-LP120. This player was sweet with three different rpms, adjustable dynamic anti-skate control, variable pitch control, balanced S-shaped tonearm with hydraulically damped lift control and all at a sweet price of two hundred and fifty dollars. If you know you know that good records are not cheap. So, I was looking for something that I really have never listened to before with a good price and that sounded good. It was getting relatively late, and we were about to head back when we spotted the last store that we luckily visited. I was already tired from the long day in the July heat, it is terrible. This store also was relatively old which excited me. As soon as we walked in a huge storm of the old book smell filled my nostrils. This store had books, comics, and most importantly records. My friends found some cool comics after sifting through them for a while. I of course headed straight for the records with my friend James but was not really expecting too much. We sifted through all the records and found many different things amongst many different genres but nothing that really stood out too much. Until James pulled out “The Great Adventures of Slick Rick”. Curious, he showed me the record. I instantly thought this record looked extremely cool. The color scheme and theme instantly reminded me of 90s hip hop and rap albums. It was a cool record, and I was immediately intrigued at who this individual was. This LP was apparently a classic and my friend James told me I could have this record. When I asked him if I knew who this person was, he was shocked that I've never heard of Slick Rick before and said something like “you do not know who Rick the Ruler is?”. He was even more shocked to find out that everyone who we were with also had no idea who this was. So, I bought the record, and he basically gave us an assignment to listen to this album. This was how I was first introduced to Slick Rick and later I would realize that I’ve heard multiple people praise him for being the architect of rap / hip hop yet never would research him until after this moment.