#Road Trip 2017

[isawken]

this is Total Time in Car. train trips don't count. do not count time spent in hotels. if you slept in your car you can put those hours towards your total tho. doesn't matter if you were the one driving or were just a passenger. and put in the tags where you went :)

[rabbitcruiser]

The Petrified Forest National Park is established in Arizona on December 9, 1962.  

[asadgirlwithaprettymind]

a dream

[sunshinereddie]

ok a reddie college au. eddie is supposed to be heading to his hometown in maine, but of course with his luck the very day he’s supposed to head home, his car breaks down. the garage says it’s gonna take at least three days to fix, and there are no available flights until the following week. normally, eddie wouldn’t care if his plans were disrupted by something like this... except he’s supposed to be going home to see his mother, and if he doesn’t, he knows that she’ll flip her shit, and he just doesn’t want to deal with that. 

so he’s ranting about his problem to his friend bill, trying to figure out what on earth he’s gonna do, and just when he’s starting to think he’s gonna have to resort to hitchhiking back to maine, bill gets an idea. 

“there’s this guy in my english class,” bill says, “who was telling me he was planning on taking a road trip down to maine this weekend- he’s like you, he’s going back to visit his parents who live there. maybe i could ask him if you could ride along?”

eddie doesn’t love the idea of having a five hour road trip with a complete stranger, but at this point he’s starting to feel like he doesn’t have any other choice. so he agrees, and bill says that he’ll text the guy and ask if he’s willing to bring along a passenger. 

when eddie gets a text from bill an hour later, telling him to pack his things and be waiting by the dorm parking lot in ten minutes, he’s never been so relieved in his life...

...until he gets down to the parking lot, and realizes that he person he’s signed up to spend the next five hours in a car with is none other than richie “trashmouth” tozier, a guy who eddie knows all too well from having grown up together back in maine... a guy who eddie cannot fucking stand.

it’s been a year since they graduated high school, a year since the last time eddie had heard those crude, unfunny jokes and that obnoxious laugh, a year since the last time richie had gotten his rocks off by teasing eddie with embarrassing nicknames and calling him ‘cute’, making eddie flare up in a blush each and every time.

and by the way richie’s face lights up when he realizes just who it was that was going to be riding with him all the way back home, eddie knows that this is going to be a long ride. 

[delightfulkingtyphoon]

Guys, come read my Fanfic 😀

It's a crossover between Freddy Krueger, Pinhead, Candyman, Pennywise, Creeper and Charles Lee Ray (a.k.a Chucky)

The story is basically them all in the Creeper's truck going to Las Vegas 💁🏻‍♀️

Have fun

[why-animals-do-the-thing]

I promised you some lions! Let's talk about manes, males, and management.

This is Tandie, the current male lion at the Woodland Park Zoo.

Notice anything odd about him? He's got one of those hilarious awkward teenager manes. Except... this cat is nine years old.

I was, of course, immediately curious.

Manes serve a lot of purposes for male lions, including being an indicator of health and fitness - it's actually a sexually selected trait and a social signal. Mane texture / hair quality / length is dependent on nutrition and the body having energy to grow (and carry around!) that much hair! The color is also a signal: males with darker manes have been found to have higher testosterone levels.

In one research report, wild males were much more likely to avoid a lion decoy when it had a longer or darker mane - but the girls really loved a dark mane. It's thought this is because a long, dark mane is an indicator of mate quality. Males with longer, darker manes have higher testosterone and were pretty healthy: meaning they had more energy for fighting, had a better chance of recovering if they got injured, and generally had a higher rate of offspring survival. Manes matter!

So, back to Tandie. He was actually born at the Woodland Park Zoo in 2014 alongside two brothers, to dad Xerxes and mother Adia.

This was Xerxes (rip).

Obviously, a very large, dark, lush mane on Xerxes here. So where did these blond muttonchops come from on his son?

I asked the zoo docents and got an answer that didn't make a lot of sense. They told me that after the three cubs grew into adolescents, they were moved to the Oakland Zoo together. But living together suppressed his testosterone, and he never grew a mane.

Hmmmm.

Here's a photo from 2016, when the brothers debuted at Oakland. They're a year and a half old in this photo.

(Photo Credit: Oakland Zoo)

And here's from an announcement for their third birthday.

(Photo credit: Oakland Zoo)

Okay, so these dudes obviously all were growing manes as of 2017. I think Tandie is the one on the left in the first photo, and laying down in the middle on the second. What happened?

I was just in the Bay Area for a zoo road trip, of course I went to Oakland and tracked down a docent to ask some questions.

It turns out that shortly after the brothers turned three, they started acting like adult male lions: they started scuffling regularly. It's a normal social thing for male lions to live in groups, called coalitions, but according to my lion experts there's generally a baseline level of some social jostling within them. It wasn't quite clear from what the docent said if they couldn't manage the boys together, or if they just wanted to avoid the scratches and small wounds that result from normal lion behavior. Regardless, they put all three of the boys on testosterone blockers in order to be able to keep them together as a social group.

Now, I don't know a lot about the use of hormone alteration as a form of captive animal management, except in the case of birth control. I don't think it's something that's unethical - there was just a webinar on it that I saw go by - but I don't think it's commonly done with big cats. Lions have kind of complicated reproductive cycles, and for instance, we've been learning that female lions can take much longer to come into estrus again than expected after coming off hormonal birth control.

In males, testosterone blockers (or being neutered) means they lose their manes. This is why a lot of rescues will do a vasectomy on their males instead of a neuter - it allows them to keep their mane and the social signals that accompany it.

Tandie returned home to Woodland Park Zoo after Xerxes passed in early 2022, and the docent told me all of the lions had been off their blockers "for while." I'd guess those things happened around the same time, since bringing the trio down to a duo at Oakland would reduce some of the social tensions.

Hormones are such interesting things, though. One of Tandie's brothers has a full mane again, and the other is still totally mane-less.

As for Tandie, his mane is growing back in, and it looks like he might rival his dad for length and coloration.

He started here, in February:

Yesterday:

What a difference four months (and maybe proximity to a girl) makes!

[jbk405]

Road trip starts tomorrow! WoooooOOOOO!

[beardedmrbean]

Cory Lee has visited 40 countries on seven continents, and yet the Georgia native has never explored Cloudland Canyon State Park, about 20 minutes from his home. His wheelchair was tough enough for the trip to Antarctica but not for the rugged terrain in his backyard.

Lee’s circumstances changed Friday, when Georgia’s Department of Natural Resources and the Aimee Copeland Foundation unveiled a fleet of all-terrain power wheelchairs for rent at 11 state parks and outdoorsy destinations, including Cloudland Canyon. The Action Trackchair models are equipped with tank-like tracks capable of traversing rocks, roots, streams and sand; clearing fallen trees; plowing through tall grass and tackling uphill climbs.

“I’ll finally be able to go on these trails for the first time in my life,” said the 32-year-old travel blogger, who shares his adventures on Curb Free with Cory Lee. “The trails are off-limits in my regular wheelchair.”

Georgia is one of the latest states to provide the Land Rover of wheelchairs to outdoor enthusiasts with mobility issues.

In 2017, Colorado Parks and Wildlife launched its Staunton State Park Track-Chair Program, which provides free adaptive equipment, though guests must pay the $10 entrance fee. Michigan’s Department of Natural Resources has placed off-road track chairs in nearly a dozen parks, including Muskegon State Park. In 2018, Lee reserved a chair at the park that boasts three miles of shoreline on Lake Michigan and Muskegon Lake. “It allowed me to have so much independence on the sand,” he said.

Mobility FTW

[diminutoatelierambulante]

[rabbitcruiser]

National Ford Mustang Day

Look for an event or showcase near you to admire Ford Mustangs throughout the ages, and learn about the history of this popular every-mans sports car.

It’s got sleek lines and a powerful engine, its name speaks of wild places and adventurous times. For generations it was the car of choice for action heroes and spies alike, even James Bond drove one in Goldfinger. For some it was the very flavor of summer sunsets and nighttime drives on youth’s misadventures, but it always brought them home safely. We’re talking about the Ford Mustang, of course, and Ford Mustang Day celebrates this incredible and iconic piece of American engineering.

History of Ford Mustang Day The Ford Mustang was first introduced to the world in April of 1964. The World’s Fair was in full swing, and this car was Ford’s introduction as the car of the future. This introduction of the Mustang also was the introduction of the first Pony Car, to wit, a line of small sporty cars with sleek lines and an affordable price-tag. Sales of the Mustang proved that this car was going to become an American favorite, with well over 400,000 sales in the first year it was in production, an unprecedented success for an unprecedented vehicle. The muscle car of the time was the Thunderbird, and that beauty was the one that every serious sports car fanatic wanted to own. The Mustang came into existence with the idea not of replacing that vehicle, but instead putting its like within reach of the working class. Such was its popularity that over 500 clubs celebrating the Mustang came into existence within just 3 years of its release. This is the kind of fanaticism that’s usually saved for classic cars, but the Mustang just rolled right in and took its place as a new classic right off the bat. Such was the popularity of the Mustang that 60 years later over 9 million of them have been sold. Ford Mustang Day celebrates this vehicle that came out of nowhere to become an American institution.

Celebrating Ford Mustang Day All over the country (and indeed, all over the world) festivals and celebrations are held that honor this vehicle. 60 years of different models of this line are brought out by enthusiasts, most maintained in impeccable shape, standing as an icon of their time. You can find these with a simple web search, and then go out and see the march of time and technology as it reshaped the overall appearance of the Mustang while leaving its underpinning sense of aesthetic and purpose untouched. Ford Mustang Day presents an opportunity to really appreciate what American Engineering can do, and how a car can change the face of the automotive industry.

Source

Ford Mustang formally introduced on April 17, 1964.

[asadgirlwithaprettymind]

pretty flowers

[oveliagirlhaditright]

So, Final Fantasy XV was the car/road trip simulator of 2016, huh? Whilst Hello Neighbor was the box stacking simulator of 2017.

[supernovafics]

series masterlist | last part — next part

pairing: modern!college!steve harrington x fem!reader, bestfriend!eddie munson x fem!reader

word count: 3.6k words

warnings: explicit language, mentions of alcohol/drinking

summary: growing closer to steve during the trip was pretty much inevitable, but it still surprises you how easily it happens

CHAPTER THIRTEEN | ❝𝒊 𝒅𝒐𝒏'𝒕 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒘𝒂𝒏𝒏𝒂 𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒗𝒆❞

Summer 2017

“Does that make sense?”

“I’ll be honest, not really, no.” 

It was dark in the small motel room and you both were facing each other. Your eyes had long adjusted to the dark, so you were able to vaguely make out Eddie’s face and the small smile pulling at his lips. 

“Okay, let me try to phrase it this way. You know that feeling you get when your heart drops?” He asked.

You nodded then. “Mhm, yeah.”

“That’s pretty much what it’s been like.” 

Your eyebrows furrowed. “So, you’re saying that this entire road trip has felt that way for you?”

“Yeah.”

“But, that’s the worst feeling ever.”

“No, sometimes it’s good. Like, when you're on a rollercoaster.”

“Yeah, I guess that’s true,” You said, eyes falling shut just for a second before you opened them again and let out a laugh when you thought about something. “Y’know, when I asked how you've been feeling lately, I initially expected just a simple good or bad.”

“That would've been a boring answer,” He answered. You weren’t looking at him anymore, instead you were lying on your back and staring up at the ceiling, but you could still hear the smile in his voice. “So, how have you been feeling lately?”

“Good,” You answered. “And I’m okay with my answer being a boring one because I’m too tired to think of a better way to say it.”

You heard Eddie laugh. “Understandable.” 

You turned on your side again and faced him. He was still smiling and you smiled back. He’d been happy a lot lately, which was nice to see.

“Glad to know you’re doing good, though.”

You gave him a quick nod. “You too.”

This was the first time that you couldn’t block out the thought; the realization that you still liked him.

It didn’t surprise you at all. Instead, it annoyed you. Because there was still no way that you could admit it to him and it all still felt so hopeless. Only a month had passed since his breakup with Chrissy, and although he seemed better about it now, the thought of confessing anything to him felt like the dumbest idea ever.  

You pushed the realization away, trying to forget about it completely because you didn’t want it to ruin what was left of the road trip for you. Especially since there were only a handful of days left of it. 

“You falling asleep?” Eddie asked, pulling you out of your thoughts. 

“A little bit, yeah,” You said softly, letting your eyes slip shut. It actually wasn’t that much of a lie. “Which is weird because I’m usually never the first one to fall asleep.”

“First time for everything.”

“Yeah,” You said, voice still quiet as you turned away from him again. “Goodnight.”

“‘Night.”

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。. .・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。

Spring Semester 2018

Sunday quickly became your favorite day of the trip. It was the only day that ended up feeling like an actual vacation.  

You and Steve decided to order in breakfast because neither of you could really bother getting out of the room, or even out of bed— especially you. Your body was still aching after experiencing the most intense hike that you’d probably ever been on, even though it had been deemed as “beginner-friendly.” 

You managed to get out of bed when the food showed up and Steve decided to set it up on the table outside on the balcony— everything about the room was too nice and too big, even the balcony. 

You expected to spend the majority of the day with Steve’s parents, and you were mentally preparing yourself for that inevitability as you ate breakfast. But then his dad was calling and Steve was pulling his phone out of his pocket and proceeding to talk to him inside for the next few minutes. 

“I just got us out of going on an all day boat ride with my parents and aunt and uncle,” He told you when he returned, walking over to you and pocketing his phone back in the basketball shorts he was wearing. 

“How did you do it?” You had asked as you took another bite of fruit from the bowl that he ordered. 

He sat back down across from you. “I said that you get seasick easily.”

“Solid excuse.”

“We do have to meet them for dinner, though,” He said and you nodded at his words because you were completely okay with doing that. 

You two spent the rest of the morning in your room, on the balcony specifically, and then you were suggesting that you go to the beach because the weather was too good not to and the view of it from the balcony also made it look really nice. Hours were spent out there in the sand and in the prettiest blue water until the heat became too unbearable and you found yourselves back in the room until the sun went down. 

Even the dinner with his parents got canceled because, after the boat ride, they were too exhausted to do anything else; apparently, there had been a lot of snorkeling involved. So, you and Steve had dinner alone and then ended up at one of the bars on the resort that was having a karaoke night. There was something about watching drunk people on vacation doing karaoke that was very amusing to both of you. 

You were the one that tipsily suggested that you two play rock, paper, scissors, and whoever lost had to go up and do a song, and Steve was laughing as he agreed. You lost on the tiebreaker third round but ultimately refused to follow through with the punishment because you weren’t near drunk enough to go and sing something and not throw up from embarrassment. 

“You still owe me a song,” Steve reminded you now as you two sat by the pool. “Or did you forget about last night?”

You didn’t even have to look at him to know he was smirking at you. You instead took a sip from the drink in your hand— the lemonade that he had actually gotten for you barely ten minutes ago. The weather was hotter than yesterday, but the umbrellas covering your and Steve’s long lounge chairs made it actually feel okay, and the drink was helping too. And then there was the added fact that today was your last full day here that made you want to stay out by the pool for as long as you possibly could. 

Steve had been the one to suggest the pool day idea when you two woke up and you immediately agreed. And then, barely two hours later, alternating between actually being in the pool and wasting away next to it in two lounge chairs was where you found yourselves after having breakfast with his parents and one of his aunts and older cousin. You two had purposefully acted extremely smitten at breakfast— chairs pushed close together, hands held, an arm draped around your shoulders at one point, and yours circling his torso at another— so no one asked to join you; surprisingly, not even his mom. It seemed like the idea of you and Steve being a perfectly happy and serious couple was fully sold, and you felt relieved. 

You set the drink in your hand down and then finally looked at Steve. “I didn’t forget about last night. But, that song is never gonna happen. I don’t stand by the things done or said by my past drunk self.”

“You weren’t even drunk then.”

“Tipsy still counts.”

He laughed a bit, slightly adjusting the sunglasses he was wearing, a fancy-looking pair of black Ray-Bans. “That’s the shittiest excuse.”

You knew that it was but you still stood by it. “I have no idea why I suggested the karaoke thing. You can have anything else for winning rock, paper, scissors.”

Steve nodded and things were quiet just for a moment before he was asking, “What are you reading?”

You looked down at the book in your towel-covered lap. It was a short novel, barely two hundred pages, and you were only a few chapters in. “It’s something for one of my classes.”

“Read to me.”

For a second, you simply looked at him with an amused smile on your face. And then you were saying, “Seriously?”

He shrugged. “Yeah, there’s really nothing else to do. And you said I could get anything else I wanted.”

You gasped dramatically. “Holy shit, is this the moment where I finally turn you into a person who doesn’t hate books?”

Steve gave you a playful smile. “It is. This is your one shot.”

You let out a laugh as you rolled your eyes and then met his gaze. You fought the urge to reach over the few feet that separated the two of you and steal his sunglasses for no other reason than you wanting to see his stupid brown eyes. 

You and he had grown closer over the last couple of days, which shouldn’t have surprised you because, with the set of circumstances that you two were in, it was kind of inevitable. But still, you were pretty surprised about how much more you two felt like actual friends. It was a friendship that you had a feeling you’d really miss once all of this was done and over. 

Pushing your thoughts away from that for the time being, you gave him a brief catch-up on everything that had happened in the book so far and then you picked up where you left off, reading out loud for him. It felt a bit awkward at first, you couldn’t remember the last time you read a book to someone or even just read out loud, but then you were falling into a sort of rhythm and you felt perfectly fine. 

Eventually, you two moved back into the pool— it was too hot not to. Steve got all of the way in and you simply sat on the edge with your legs in so that you didn’t get the book wet. Everyone else in the pool probably thought you two looked insane, you reading out loud to him, but it was hard to really care or even feel all that weird about it. 

Steve moved closer to you, crossing his arms and resting them on your thighs. You told yourself that the sudden jolt you felt was from his cold and wet arms abruptly touching your dry skin, nothing else. This wasn’t that far off from any other time you two had touched— holding hands or keeping one another close with arms draped around each other. However, there was something about this moment that felt the tiniest bit different from the others because this moment wasn’t for show.

Or maybe it was. Actually, you quickly figured that it definitely was because his parents could technically pop up at any minute, so it would be good to just keep looking completely infatuated with each other. Right? Yeah, of course. 

Steve turned his head and rested it on his folded arms. 

“Are you still listening?” You asked, stopping in the middle of the sentence you’d been reading. His damp hair was dripping onto you but you didn’t even mind it all that much. 

“Of course.” 

You stole his sunglasses then, putting them on for a second before pushing them up and letting them sit on the top of your head. 

A part of you wished that you could just stay stuck here in this moment— in this entire weekend, actually. Where things weren’t complicated and you were basically living a life that was much easier than your actual one. Where your thoughts and feelings toward the Eddie situation were tossed to the side for the time being, and where you didn’t have to preemptively stress over the questions you knew that everyone would have when you eventually told them that you and Steve were “broken up;” you were still in the middle of working out a story that you hoped would make enough sense to them. 

You knew that going back to reality would suck and it was nice to push your mind away from it all, even just for a short amount of time. You were good at that— avoiding certain thoughts and problems. If you weren’t overthinking, you were probably avoiding.

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。. .・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。

“Stop, there’s no way that you actually think that’s gonna happen,” You said as you shook your head. It was that head shake that made you realize that the half-empty glass of champagne you had sitting next to you at this table was doing its job. 

There was an amused smile on Steve’s face as he simply said, “Why not?”

“He can’t die. He’s the son. It would make no sense for him to die,” You said with another head shake and another reminder that you were the tiniest bit tipsy. Talking about a book with Steve in the middle of a wedding reception wasn’t exactly where you expected the night to go— especially since it was him who brought it up in the first place— but you liked it just the same. 

“Yeah, exactly,” He told you. “That’s exactly why it would happen. Right as he and the dad finally get their relationship to a good place, boom, he dies.”

You refused to believe that Steve could possibly be right; even if his words did kind of, sort of, maybe make sense.  

“You’re insan–” You weren’t even able to finish your words before he was abruptly kissing you.

It was entirely unexpected and also entirely unlike the moment barely two days ago when he gave you the quickest peck that quite literally felt like nothing. This one reminded you a lot more of your date with him— that first and only date barely a month ago where he kissed you and for the briefest second it actually felt right. 

In this moment, Steve had one hand on your cheek and he was moving in quickly, but his lips were still softly finding yours; it seemed entirely contradictory but somehow he managed to do it so smoothly. 

Your heart did a weird thing— a sudden drop that surprisingly didn’t feel all that scary and made you think about that conversation in that motel room with Eddie, a moment that felt like forever ago. And then all you could think was why the hell were you thinking about that moment in this one? 

This was more than just a simple peck, but still, you had no time to really process it before Steve was pulling away, lips finding your cheek instead and then lingering by your ear. To say that you were completely sobered up would be an understatement. 

“Sorry for the no warning. My mom was walking past and looking our way, and I wanna sell this as much as we can before we end things.”

“Mhm, got it, no problem,” You said softly, and then before he could potentially question your sudden shyness and whatever else was happening with you right then, you continued. “You wanna dance? That’ll probably really sell it, and this is a good song for it too.”

You didn’t recognize the song playing, but it was slow; a soft guitar melody that you two could easily move together to. 

Steve pulled away from your ear then, meeting your eyes and nodding. “Sure, yeah, that’s a good idea.”

You finished what was left of the champagne in your glass and then set it down on the table before standing up. Steve led the way and you followed him onto what was probably the most lively dance floor you’d ever seen at a wedding. The number of people who danced and genuinely looked like they were having a good time when more upbeat songs were being played during the first hour and a half was actually surprising to you. And even at this moment, there were so many couples paired up on the floor and swaying to the soft song. 

Your hands came up to rest on Steve’s shoulders and then linked at the nape of his neck, and his circled your waist and settled at the small of your back. You could feel the warmth of his touch through the silky fabric of the dress you were wearing; or maybe that was in your head. Either way, with how close you and him were right then, everything was weirdly starting to feel a bit too real and serious, so you quickly decided to bring up the first thing that you could think of. 

“Your mom does hate me, by the way. You were right about that.” 

Steve’s eyebrows furrowed. “She said that to you?”

“Not outwardly, but I could read between the lines,” You responded. “I forgot to tell you, but it happened when she asked me to go to the gift shop with her before the hike on Saturday. She mentioned that you and I look happy together, and it seems like I make you happier than Nancy did, which is good. But, she also implied that I’m only “good” for you for now and definitely not forever because I’m not a certain kind of girl from a certain kind of family. I’m guessing certain means rich.”

“I’m sorry,” He said and he sounded so genuine about it that you weren’t sure if he was apologizing for his mom’s words or for something else entirely. 

You shook your head anyway. “No, it’s okay. It’s good, honestly, because it means that this is working. She believes that we’re— well, more specifically, you— are happy and in love and in a great relationship. So once you tell her that we broke up because I cheated or whatever, she’ll believe that you’re actually heartbroken about it. This is definitely gonna work for you.” 

“This should’ve worked for you too. I still don’t get why it hasn’t,” Steve said, shifting the conversation to what you really didn’t want to talk about, but, of course, he didn’t know that. “I can tell that Eddie likes you. It just doesn’t make sense why he hasn’t admitted it to you yet.” 

“It’s okay. It’s fine,” You said and shrugged like it was truly no big deal, even though it was and you’d been trying for the past week to convince yourself that it wasn’t. “Doesn’t matter, honestly.”

Steve gave you a look that was too hard to decipher. “I feel bad, though. This whole thing was for you.”

You didn’t say anything in response to that and instead focused on the music playing; the current song started to fade out and it transitioned into another one that sounded similar. 

You knew that this was when you should’ve been honest with him. You should’ve finally told him about the conversation you had with Eddie; the rejection that you’d been trying hard to avoid thinking about because you just wanted to move on from it. 

“Maybe I can say something to him,” Steve started before you could potentially admit any part of the truth. “Tell him that I can tell that he likes you, and then maybe it’ll all finally click into place for him and–”

You were shaking your head and interrupting him mid-sentence. “No, stop, there’s no way you’re doing that.” The thought of that happening made your heart drop and that one was not in a good way. “Seriously, Steve, it’s okay that this whole fake dating thing didn’t work for me.”

You could tell from the look on his face that he was going to try and debate your words, maybe even try to convince you that his idea was a good one, so you pulled away from him and quickly walked off before he could say anything. A part of you wanted to leave this banquet hall that the reception was in and head back to your and Steve’s room. Simply wallow for the rest of the night and continue to forget and push away everything that you didn’t want to think about. It was a walk that you knew would take less than five minutes, even with the slightly uncomfortable shoes you were wearing. 

Instead, though, you sat back down at the table that you and Steve had been occupying throughout the night because that felt a thousand times less dramatic. 

Steve joined you after a second, once again sitting down in the chair across from you. “Hey, I’m sorry. I promise I’ll stop bringing it up.” 

You shook your head, more so at yourself than at him. “I’m sorry too. For walking away from you back there; that was shitty. It’s just…” You trailed off, still unable to say the words, the truth. Ultimately, you shrugged. “I don’t know. Whatever. It’s okay.”

The only thing you wanted to do right then was end that part of the conversation entirely— no more talking about you and what worked and what didn’t work and whatever else. 

Before Steve could say anything, you were leaning in and kissing him. It lingered longer than just a simple peck, but it was still quick; it was basically a repeat of what he did to you barely ten minutes ago. When you pulled back, you could tell that he was surprised by the abruptness of it.

“That was just in case your parents were watching us,” You said as you let one of your hands find his, trying to look like that “happy couple” again. “Don’t want them to think that we’re mad at each other or something for leaving the dance floor abruptly.”

He nodded, throwing on the sweetest and most charming Steve Harrington smile that you’d probably ever seen. “Good thinking.”

“Thank you,” You responded with the quickest nod. “Now can we please just drink more champagne and have fun on our last night here? No talk of anything else.” 

He gave you a real smile then. “Yes, cheers to that.”

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。. .・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。

next part!

taglist (lmk if you want to be added or taken off<333); @eddiernunson , @loulouloueh , @the-aster , @blckburd , @totally-bogus-timelady , @yujyujj , @irhdifartzamfyaa , @mochminnie , @munsonssweets , @blckbrrybasket , @xprloki , @definitionwanderlust , @dwcode , @sun-fiower-seed , @keerysfolklore , @damon-loves-pie , @lodeddiperrodrick , @bisexual-and-intellectual , @munsonburn3r , @negomi123 , @khena , @facexthexsunshine , @seatbacksandtraytables , @suckerfordylansstuff

(if your user is crossed out it means i can’t tag you</3)

[shrekgogurt]

on this the five year anniversary of wayward son @rainbowrowell do you care to comment on the disturbing lack of “despacito” in the american road trip book explicitly taking place during summer 2017???????

these anachronisms! smh my head fr fr

[superstar49]

does anyone have any galex lore to add to my master doc? i started my list back when they were in junior formulas but i missed a lot from like 2020 to mid 2023 so i fear i may be lacking. here’s what i have so far:

the 2017 cycling incident

portugal throat infection

george potentially asking lily for alex’s nudes and getting blasted on her insta story

george harassing williams to give his old seat to alex

baby george taking pics of baby alex on a podium

“he is NOT my boyfriend!!!!!!”

the alex wall in george’s williams driver room

lily not finding it unusual at all that alex has a huge poster of george in his driver room

“they’re making him look like an idiot”

george violating as many traffic laws as possible during his and alex’s italy/monaco road trips

george’s extremely suspicious williams garage visits (including that one time when he was seen getting dressed as he left????)

if anyone has anything to add let me know! and shoot me a message if you’d like to see the doc; it’s got detailed explanations of all the bullet points plus cited sources