#The Affair club

[moetachiins]

talking about kyokao more ,, how would it work future tense ??

like kyoya says he'd only marry if it benefited the ootori family but what would he even DO if he was married off to a random person and still liked kaoru .????? kyokao affair ???????

[manygeese]

this is going to be embarrassing if this gets no notes but WHO WANTS TO HEAR ABOUT MY VALGRACE SMALL TOWN AU.

[torchickentacos]

i will always shout praises of bi4bi but given recent discourse I feel the need to say that I love bi4het too! I just love bisexuality in general in its many forms, and anyone who only likes it when it's 'queer enough' for them is biphobic. Bisexuals should be able to bring their LaMe CiShEt BoYfRiEnD to pride without being made to feel like spectators and outsiders to their own event.

[aussiexlovexaffair]

Tracks— Chapter One

overview: a surfing trip with Ashton after a particularly rough exam leads to a piqued curiosity regarding the club that he attends after all of his classes. the conversation leaves you with more questions than answers. words: 2.5k tws: none! author's note: i just made a wattpad where i'll be reuploading tracks! it's @mrsallamericxn if you'd like to check it out!

⊹ ࣪ ﹏𓊝﹏﹏﹏𓂁﹏﹏﹏𓂁﹏﹏𓊝﹏﹏𓂁﹏﹏﹏𓂁﹏﹏﹏𓂁﹏﹏﹏𓊝﹏⊹ ࣪ ˖

You felt a little out of place sitting on a board that you didn’t even know how to use, but the look on Ash’s face as he crashed through wave after wave was worth swimming out.

Upright on the grain of the board, you trace your manicured fingers over the baby blue stripe on the edge. The California sun beat down on your body, but the feeling didn’t seem to bother you. Cool beads of saltwater drip down your back and saturate the material of your swimsuit, darkening the color by a few shades. You had paddled out far enough to the point where the waves were not yet breaking— but the undulating swells still rocked your body every so often.

You had watched the boy’s progress as he would wade out to float beside you and watch the horizon, waiting for a swell that seemed promising enough. Then he’d paddle forward and wait until it grew into a white cap, from which point he’d wait until he was swept up into the summit of the wave and he’d hop up, using the power of the sea to propel him to the shoreline. Occasionally, he fumbled and sent himself tumbling into the serene blue waters underneath his board, but he was resilient enough to brush it off, no matter how embarrassing the falter, and make his way back out to try again.

He always returned to your side, no matter where the waves took him.

It’s hard to believe that it was his first summer surfing. According to Ash, it was popular with guys his age back in Australia, but he’d never taken much interest in it until now. You had to admit, he didn’t exactly look like a surfer in his everyday life. His clothes were always dark in color and he never dreamed of touching shorts, even when the temperature reached triple digits. His hair, which used to be a dirty blond color, had grown out in waves and had been highlighted by the combination of the sun and the saltwater. His skin, however, was the same golden tan he’d sported since the initial move to Los Angeles. Above his knee was a white scar he proudly brandished from his first time surfing when his leg nicked the fin after a wipeout. In his words, it was his “battle scar” and he displayed it so shamelessly because he’d been so brave that he didn’t even shed a tear after the incident.

You had watched him.

He cried. A lot.

Your concentration on the pattern of the wood grain was broken when you heard something cutting through the water on your left. You’d been facing away from the shoreline for awhile, so you expected to have drifted off a bit. Your head turns to face the direction of the sound, but before your eyes could register the sight, a splash of sea water flies in your direction. Sputtering, you wipe your face and squint. Your eyes dart over to find the culprit. A guilty-looking Ashton perches on his board with his feet on either side of it. “Hey, what was that for?!” You call out to him as he inches closer, the board gliding through the water towards you. “Well you were the one staring off into space! What if you floated out to sea or something?” He scrunches up his nose at the thought of you miles out, still staring at the board without a clue in the world where you were. “Did you see that last wave I caught? It felt awesome!” His dimples deepen as he flashes you a cheeky smile.

“Was that the one that you wiped out on?” Your brows furrow at both the glare of the sun on the water and the question that posed difficult to answer. “What?! I haven’t wiped out in— like— ten whole minutes!”

He wasn’t the best surfer.

You laugh a little at yourself and rub the back of your neck. “Sorry, ’m still thinkin’ about Malphin’s exam.” He grimaces and shakes out his wet hair, spraying you with droplets in the process.

“God, that was rough. I swear, I think he likes it when we fail.” His eyes roll in disbelief. In the syllabus, the professor had mentioned that the coursework for the class was undeniably cumbersome and the tests, therefore, would be arduous as well.

You should’ve taken that as a sign to unenroll entirely, yet here you were on the verge of a breakdown and swamped with his assignments. “He’s gotta have a rough marriage.” You suggest playfully.

Ashton grins at the comment and cards his fingers through the wet strands of his hair. “Oh, absolutely terrible. They probably haven’t shared a bed in years.” Childish giggles escape from him as he continues. “I don’t think I’d want to either— with that beacon of a bald spot on him.” A gasp racks through your body when the words register. “Ash, that’s rude! Don’t say that!” “What? It’s true! He better be careful out in the open, helicopters might confuse it for a landing pad.” His shoulders raise in a shrug, dismissing your gaping mouth. “What, did I say something?” “You’re terrible.” You start, looking back at the shore. Between the two flags that the lifeguards had posted, an ice cream cart was being wheeled by your line of vision. You don’t even need to glance over at the boy before he switches over to laying on his stomach. “But I guess I’ll forgive you for an ice cream sandwich.”

Positioning your body in a similar fashion, you toss your hair over your shoulder and dip your hands into the water, paddling back towards the sandy beach. In your peripheral vision, you see the blond staring at you, eyes fleeting over your exposed skin under the warm sun. You fight back a smile at the thought of Ashton possibly checking you out and turn your head.

He immediately pivots his gaze to the beach.

“Guess we better catch him before he leaves, then.” He coughs out, wiping his brow of the sweat collecting from his hours in the sun.

It only took a few minutes for your board to reach a manageable depth and from there, you dismounted your board. You wrapped your arm around it, preparing to lift it from the water and carry it the rest of the way, when your board was suddenly taken from your grasp. Ashton, wiggling it under his arm, carries both of your boards back to the little station you two had set up. “Such a gentleman.” You say in a cheesy tone, watching him set them down beside the rest of their bags and their chairs. He rolls his eyes and rustles through the tote bag you brought for him to stash his stuff in while he surfed. Retrieving his wallet, he follows along behind you happily as you lead him towards the ice cream cart.

Fisting out some cash, he pays for both your ice cream and his. In your hand is an ice cream sandwich, the vanilla ice cream already dribbling down your wrist as you hurry back to the chairs. Ashton, on the other hand, settles on a small, pineapple water ice. As he digs into the treat with the wooden spoon provided, he glances up to find you licking the white trail on your arm, going from your forearm to the cone where it originated. His feet stop moving for a moment as his brain runs the image through his head.

Settling into your chair, you watch him stumble along behind you and plop into his own, pulling his knees up to his chest. “You sit like a little kid.” He scoffs and looks around at the other beach-goers as if to check and see if they heard the insult as well. “Rude! I just bought you ice cream!” He shakes his head and looks down at his water ice. “Little kid— you know, I’m older than you, actually!” His tone is loud, with a certain faux-abrasiveness that you’ve grown so comfortable with. You toss your towel, previously strewn over the back of your beach chair, in his face and watch him wrestle the material off. Taking the towel for himself, he rubs it over his damp hair, listening to the seagulls screech above. “Not much more mature, though..” He laughs dryly at your statement, draping the towel over his shoulders.

I’ll just steal his, you think to yourself. Quickly, you grab the edge of the fabric hanging behind his chair and yank it from behind him. His towel was significantly larger, but yours felt softer. Based on how the fibers rubbed at your skin, it hadn’t seen fabric softener in awhile.

A buzz interrupts the quiet moment between you two. In between your chairs, the tote bag is illuminated by the light of Ashton’s phone.

It was normal for you two to check each other’s phones. Neither of you had anything to hide— the time you’d spent living together in the dorms had slowly worn away at the boundaries you both had once subconsciously set and now nothing seemed “too private.” You squint down at the phone and grab it, inputting his passcode you’d memorized so long ago and opening his messages. “You have a meeting tonight.” You murmur absentmindedly into your frozen dessert. He doesn’t bother to check his phone for himself.

“With who?” Ash swallows his mouthful of water ice and gazes out at the waves crashing against the beige sand.

“The 405 Club?” His head whips around faster than you’d ever seen him move. Raising a curious eyebrow, you hold out the device for him to grab. “The 405 Club?” He repeats as he checks the screen for himself. Slowly, you wrap up your trash from your dessert and shove it in the tote bag. Your eyes dart from your actions to him. “I don’t understand why you’re even in that club. It sounds so boring—” You shake your head, dissatisfied with the mere thought of it. “Cleaning around the campus… I mean, nothing against you guys, but I don’t think it’s working. This morning I saw a squirrel eating the leftovers of a moldy Whopper outside of the Science Hall.” He clicks his tongue at the second buzz his phone emits. Ash’s eyes narrow at his phone. “Must’ve missed that…” His tone is absentminded and flat. You could tell he was focused on the messages he was getting, running his schedule through his head and planning out his night accordingly.

He had a habit of being too charged up about things— whether that was positive or not depended on the situation. With tense shoulders, he bites his bottom lip in consideration. “Ash, you’re doing it again.” Your gentle hand rests on his shoulder and for a moment, his line of vision travels upward to meet yours. The hard look in his eyes dissipates within seconds and he rests his phone on the arm of his chair, face down, and his shoulders return to their normal position.

If you let him, his shoulders would be up to his ears 24/7. But he hated bad posture and encouraged you to intervene if he ever got too distracted to notice. He liked that— how all of his bad habits were slowly being chipped away at with your help. You’d been doing this ever since you met him at the freshman social and since then, you hadn’t stopped.

It made him feel like he’d reinvented himself since the move from Hornsby to LA, even if he still kept to his old interests.

“Thanks.” A smile rests comfortably on his face as he reclines in the chair. Every once in a while, you spot him checking his phone for new messages. The two of you bask in the sun in a pleasant silence until he breaks it. “I’ll be staying at a friend’s place tonight.”

It takes a moment for you to respond. The manner in which he said it confused you. It sounded less like a boy’s night and more like a responsibility. He notices your frown, but waits for your response. “Is everything okay?...” His answer is quick. “Oh, yeah, yeah.. everything’s alright. Me and the boys are just goin’ out after the meeting. Probably to the bar or somethin’.” Ashton himself wasn’t big on drinking. His complex relationship with his family and drinking prevented him from truly enjoying himself under the influence, but every once in a while he’d indulge in a beer or two and bet a few bucks on some pointless game his friend group was playing. “You know how my friends are— ‘go big or go home’ kinda guys.”

That was true. You hadn’t ever hung out with the rest of “The 405 Club,” but you’d heard about their bar-hopping tendencies. Ashton was typically the designated driver for the other three. “I’ll be back by noon tomorrow, though, if you wanna grab lunch.” His suggestion came out more as a request, but naturally on a Saturday, you had nothing much better to do than to agree.

“Yeah, sure. That açaí place on the corner?” He nods in response and offers a smile of agreement.

“If that’s the place you want.”

For a moment, the two of you stare at each other, both with secure smiles plastered on your faces. You couldn’t tell whether it was from the prolonged exposure to the sun or from something entirely different, but the seconds seemed to feel like hours. Blinking tiredly, you circle back to the topic that piqued your curiosity.

“Hey, uhm… I know the club’s like— invite only..” He seems to perk up at the mention of the extracurricular. “But do you think I could come along some time? I mean, if you’re staying up until 8pm. Cleaning, there’s gotta be something I’m missing. You wouldn’t stay in the club if you thought it wasn’t worth your time.” He considers the idea for a moment, hazel eyes dragging across the sand below him.

“I think you’d like it..” He begins, prompting you to sit up taller, anticipating and fascination making his silence seem so all the more interesting.

“...But it’s club rules.”

You can’t help the childish groan that you let out. The club, though it served a great purpose, was never very popular and nor was it talked about much. The meetings were held at night, though no elaborate schedule was planned out. The group seemed to operate in a much more impromptu fashion. “Ashton!”

He sneers at your action and nudges you with his elbow. “Nuh-uh! Club. Rules. I’ll talk to the guys and see what I can do, but for now, it’s a no.”

“Fine..” You grumble, barely audible over the ambience of the beach. “But you’re paying for lunch on Saturday.” Standing up tall and stretching your back, the both of you unanimously decide to wrap up the seaside hangout and return to the dorms. Folding up the chairs, Ash helps you sling them over the bag and your shoulder as he grabs the boards, hoisting them under his arms. His biceps tense noticeably, pressed against the slick material of the surfboards.

He smiles back at you, beginning to trudge over the loose sand and back to his beat up van parked on the other side of the dunes. “Wasn't that a given?” You shoot him an appreciative look and hurry your pace to walk beside him.

“Such a gentleman.”

[le-trash-prince]

PopTopten Club Friday Trailer is here 👀

[choicesbookclub]

12 Days of Choices Special Event

Not sure who is planning to participate, but I figured I'd start this thread to talk about it and share info for anyone that is playing.

If you find the hidden item, please share where and when (what chapter + scene)! All clues and hints welcomed. I'll try to update this post with whatever info I see so that it's all in one place for anyone checking in quick!

Day One: December 12

Book: Mother of the Year

Chapter 1

Scene: MC's daughter has the option for the uniform. The Partridge in a Pair Tree is on the stairs in the background.

Day Two: December 13

Book: The Duchess Affair

Hint: In chapters 1-3

Chapter: beginning of chapter 2

Scene: The location is the breakfast room, in front of the large painting and next to the Christmas tree.

Thanks @lizzybeth1986

Day Three: December 14

Book: Bachelorette Party

Hint: "3 French hens, 3 blind mice, 3 is the number you'll want to check twice "

Chapter 3

Scene: The Abracadabra Lounge, right at the front of the room.

Thanks @lizzybeth1986

Day Four: December 15

Book: The Cursed Heart

Hint: "You didn't hear this from me, but it's in a prime number chapter greater than 3!"

Helpful Math: Prime Numbers include: 5,7,11,13,17,19

Chapter 5

Scene: At the stables talking to Sir Montgomery, perched on the ceiling

Thanks @lizzybeth1986

Day Five: December 16

Book: Ms. Match

Hint: "Five Gold Rings: Starting from the left, which finger is your ring finger? 🖐️"

Chapter 2

Scene: walking home from the bar with jack, they very impressively transformed a building

Thanks @alasforher

Day Six: December 17

Book: Untameable

Hint: "Six Geese A-Laying: (four) The perfect amount of geese to have is four! 🪿"

Chapter 4

Scene: The stables, at the very beginning of the chapter.

Thanks, @lizzybeth1986

Day Seven: December 18

Book: The Unexpected Heiress

Hint: "Seven Swans A-Swimming: You'll spot them right away! 🏊"

Chapter 1

Scene: On the ship, immediately after the MC is introduced and says goodbye to her mother and brother.

Thanks, @lizzybeth1986

Day Eight: December 19

Book: Slow Burn

Hint: "Eight Maids A-Milking: You'll only need two maids to get this job done. 🥛"

Chapter 2

Scene: Bunting when you are first in the New Orleans ‘Hushpuppys’ restaurant

Thanks, @alasforher

Day Nine: December 20

Book: Queen B

Hint: "Nine Ladies Dancing: You'll need to be FOURtunate to find this item! 💃"

Chapter 4

Scene: At the sports field on Kickoff Day

Thanks, @lizzybeth1986

Day Ten: December 21

Book: Laws of Attraction

Hint: "Ten Lords A-Leaping: These lords are leaping VERY early on. 💯"

Chapter 1

Scene: Sadie McGraw's office

Thanks, @lizzybeth1986

Day Eleven: December 22

Book: Wake the Dead

Hint: "Eleven Pipers Piping: You'll need five fingers to play this pipe. 🖐️"

Chapter 3

Scene: Second scene in Red Meadows Cabin discussing the surge, after the upstairs has been cleared

Thanks, @alasforher

Day Twelve: December 23

Book: Roommates with Benefits

Hint: "Twelve Drummers Drumming: These drummers are marching in twos. 🥁"

Chapter 3

Scene: Opening party scene in the dorm room

Thanks, @alasforher

More to Come

*Note, according to PB, you don't have to click on the item or do anything special, once you past that scene/chapter, the app will remember it and the rewards will be granted at the end of the event.

*Rewards will be granted on 12/26 at 11 AM PST

[lesamis]

Please may we have some regency recs from the local lyres book club? 🥺

ohh you mean regency romance? i'm not super In The Game as it is, but i can absolutely tell you my favourite one and the one i've most recently finished!

i think everyone who feels the feelings expressed in this post should read a seditious affair. everyone. it's well-researched and class-aware and well-executed. silas is an excellent character. if you're into 1810s radical politics, this book is for you; alternatively, if you could take or leave 1810s radical politics but enjoy a slow burn during which the characters are hooking up literally the entire time, it is also for you. (a gentleman's position from the same series is very good, too.)

a couple of days ago i finished letters to half moon street, a regency romance with a fantasy bend, and it was very sweet. i like when self-esteem issues are at the core of a plot's conflict, and this really hit every branch on the way down the Issues tree. its tone is warm and its protagonist is a fairly loveable wet cat of a man. recommend, even if i do think it could have fleshed out its love interest a bit better.

honourable mention: miss percy's pocket guide for the care and feeding of british dragons, which is not a romance and which i am of many minds about, but it still deserves a shoutout for having a dragon hatchling in its quaint and sensible little world.

hopefully there's something in here that sounds good to you, anon!

[scarefox]

classic Pop character moment 😅

[alas-pooryorick]

On the perils of being clever

Anne of Green Gables, L.M. Montgomery

Winnie-the-Pooh, A.A. Milne

The Bacchae, Euripides

The Magic Mountain, Thomas Mann

The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde

Equal Rites, Terry Pratchett

Fight Club, dir. David Fincher

Free, Florence + The Machine

Fight Club, dir. David Fincher

I Know It‘s Over, The Smiths

The Mysterious Affair at Styles, Agatha Christie

[uzumaki-rebellion]

Free Black Romance books!

From Dec 18-22 you can get Black romances in every genre for free on Amazon! Use the All Black Book Affair google docs link HERE to find authors/titles to binge for the holiday season. Happy reading!

[jigsaw1974]

*in a Humphrey voice*

Your cousin, he wasn't wearing...boots with the fur, was he?

[posthumanwanderings]

[ DJ Mute City - Zero Gravity Club (Excerpt 1) ]

[justapayneaway]

This week I'm reviewing The Au Pair Affair by Tessa Bailey 🏒

Follow me on IG at @ritasbookclub for more content!

[borealing]

there's codependent then there's whatever wans got going on about pleng

[double--cross-d]

I put too much effort into this shitpost. No you aren't getting context. Blame @xxnu11-sku11xx for this.

[glitterslag]

thinking so many thoughts about rust saying he spent a month in Paris getting drunk on the steps of montmartre or whatever it was