#people look for hockey content on PINTEREST???

[doubleminor]

i just wanted to let you know that a few of the most popular matthew tkachuk pinterest gifs come from your blog and every time i go on pinterest to look for chucky content there’s a least one post under your name

PINTEREST?????

[matbaerzal]

Then I Met You | M. Barzal

A/N: IT’S FINALLY HEREEE!! Thank you for being patient, and please, PLEASE let me know what you think!! 🥺❤️ (playlist + pinterest) Songs mentioned, in order of appearance: IDK You Yet - Alexander 23  IDK You Yet (Live on Piano) - Alexander 23  Favorite T-Shirt (Acoustic) - Jake Scott

Summary: Mat is a musician living in New York. He’s got a regular spot playing at the café underneath his apartment. Then, one night, you walk into his life. Warnings: a little bit of swearing, alcohol mentions, lots of fluff.. BARZY PLAYING GUITAR AND PIANO!! (There’s also two different perspectives in this: Yours and Mat’s) Words: 13,8K Copyright © @matbaerzal 2020 All Rights Reserved Tagging: @tkachukme @idontgiveaflyinggrayson69 @thirteenisles @zuucc @captainkreider  @tysojost @generallybarzy @yeeehaw-hockey @kerwritesthings @suchalilyofthevalley @softboybarzal @josty @itrocksmysocks @patricksharp @broadstbroskis @laurenairay @charlie-theangelwrites @sorryjustafangirl @konecny-s @canadianheaters​ @folkloreflyers​ @shawnsreputation​ 

Your usual cafe is only a few seconds from your apartment. Your usual cafe makes your coffee perfectly and has the best sweets to go with it. Your usual cafe is the perfect environment to do study in - it’s comfortable, predictable, safe. 

So why you took a different turn this Thursday morning and headed for another cafe down the street, you had no idea. You’d walked past it countless times, always thinking to yourself that you should check it out one day, but you never had. 

Until now.

Walking in, feeling the warmth, was an instant relief. Then you took in the scenery as you unwrapped the scarf around your neck before brushing off some snow from your coat. It was cozy, with a mix of old furniture that would not have worked if it was placed in any other space.

As you took in the exposed brick behind the bar counter, the art and the old guitars hanging on the sidewalls, and the piano that was standing on what could only be a stage, you wondered why you’d never gone in before now. 

The young barista, Lucy - you read her name tag, gives you a warm smile as you walk over. “Hey, what can I get you?” she says as you glance over at the handwritten chalkboard menu behind her. “I’ll have a double latte” you glance over at the baked goods, “and a cinnamon bun, please” you decide. 

She nods, “are you staying in, or taking it with you?” she asks as she lifts the glass food cover. “Staying in” you smile before looking around to find a place to sit. She puts the cinnamon bun on a small plate before entering your items on the till, as you pay you make sure to leave a little tip.

“I’ll bring the coffee over when it’s done,” she tells you, you thank her as you take your plate, finding a table near the window with a big chair that almost looks too comfortable. Carefully putting the plate down as you sit down before sliding your bag off your shoulder, setting it next to the chair. 

You set the plate to the side, making room for your computer and book. Just as you’ve set everything up, Lucy comes over with your coffee, you thank her again as you reach out for it. You scootch your book over a little to make room for the cup, the table barely fitting everything you brought with you. 

You hum in content as you take the first sip - smiling as your eyes scan the room. You look over at the couple of friends trying to keep their laughter down at the opposite side of the room. The middle-aged man reading the newspaper a couple of tables over, the grey dog laying by his legs. And the lady ordering her coffee before heading off to work. 

Taking another sip you shift your focus back to your schoolwork in front of you, sighing as you put the cup down before opening the book. You absentmindedly rip a piece off the cinnamon bun, only to put the book down for a bigger piece when you taste it. Now you’re definitely kicking yourself for not coming here sooner. 

You sit there for hours, watching people come and go, the pages on your document filling with notes, your cup emptying - stretching your legs as you order another one, and another one. 

The last cup you order, you notice you can’t keep your focus on the pages you’re reading anymore, deciding to bookmark it to take a break. You put your items back in your bag, taking your time to finish the last half of your cup as you watch the strangers around you. 

The middle-aged man with the dog is still there, his paper now folded by the table as he finishes eating the cake he ordered earlier. His dog perks up as he slowly gets up from his seat when he’s done. He takes the plate, lifting it over to the bar counter - giving it to Lucy who takes it from him with a smile, telling him he doesn’t have to keep doing that. 

You gather he’s a regular as he walks back to his table calling for his dog and putting his jacket back on. He grabs the leash and picks up the newspaper. He smiles at you as he walks past you, turning to Lucy, lifting the newspaper to wave goodbye to her. 

Something slips out of his paper as he lifts his hand, making you call after him as you stand up. Picking up what looks like some sort of flyer, you stretch your hand out to give it to him. He looks at your face, then back at the flyer, “that’s alright, you can keep that” he says with a polite smile before turning back around and continuing out the door before you can say anything. 

Confusion takes over as the bell over the door rings when it closes again. You sit back down before you really look at the flyer. 

Mat Barzal: Live Friday night at the Blackbird Café 9:00-10:30 PM Get your tickets online or at our venue

You hum to yourself, taking the last cold sip of your coffee before putting the flyer in your bag, making a note to ask your roommate, Olivia, if she has plans tomorrow night - intrigued to see this cozy cafe turn into something else. You slide your jacket back on, wrapping your scarf around your neck. After picking up your bag you take your cup and give it to Lucy who thanks you. You ask her if there are any tickets left for the concert and her face lights up a little. 

“Yeah, do you want to buy a ticket?” she says.

“Actually, could I book a table? And I’ll get the tickets online - so, if my roommate wants to come along, she can- “ you trail off, noticing your own rambling.

“Yes, of course. Is that table ok?” she points to a small table a couple of rows from the stage, near the wall. You nod, and she writes down your details. “Perfect, I’ll see you tomorrow” she smiles, “yeah, have a nice day,” you say before bracing yourself for the cold air as you open the door.

The Blackbird Café

Mat wakes up late Friday morning with a headache - groaning as he glances over at the clock. He wants to let sleep take over his body again, but the ache in his empty stomach and the dull pain in his head wouldn’t have let him. 

He lifts the covers, swinging his legs over the side of the bed as he sits up, rolling his shoulders before getting up. He cranes his neck from side to side, breathing out as he hears the bones pop. He pulls on a pair of sweats, moving quickly to find socks to warm his feet from the cold floor. 

He pulls on a hoodie as he walks out of his room, walking straight to his door to put on some shoes. He didn’t bother putting on a jacket, even though the air in the hallway is even colder than his apartment. There's a hurry in his steps as he walks down the stairs to the tiny lobby. As he walks out the door he instinctively wraps his arms around himself, huffing out as the cold air hits him.

He doesn’t waste time walking to the next door over. The familiar noise of the bell over the door comforts him - his headache lifting a bit already. 

“Hey, Lucy” the sleep is still evident in his voice as he closes the door quickly behind him. She perks up when she sees him, instantly starting to make his usual coffee as she greets him, “Mat’s here” she says, quickly peeking her head into the kitchen. 

Mat sits down on a barstool by the counter, gladly taking the plain black coffee from Lucy when she hands it to him. “You’re late today” she points out. Mat takes a sip of his coffee, nodding as he hums - “couldn’t sleep” 

Lucy raises her brow for him to elaborate, there aren’t too many people in the café so she has time to talk to him, and her dad isn’t around to scold her for taking a break. 

“I woke up in the middle of the night, and-” he pauses unsure of where to start. “So there’s this song I’ve been writing, and I’ve been stuck on it for the longest time” he takes another sip of his coffee. “And then it just came to me, and I couldn’t sleep until I’d written it all down and finished it, you know”

“So, there’s a new song in your set tonight?” Lucy hopes. It’s not that his current set was bad, not at all. But, having heard the same songs for months on end, the thought of a fresh song excited her. “Oh, I don’t know about that” Mat averts her eyes, his voice low and void of confidence. 

“Mat, please, I’m sure it’s great” she tries to encourage him, but he’s still not sure. “I’ll give you free coffee for a month” she tries to bribe him, but he scoffs - “I barely pay for them as is” 

“I’ll think about it,” he says after a moment, and the sheer joy on her face is enough to convince him - but he won’t tell her that she’s won just yet.

Lucy’s like a little sister to Mat - her dad, Daniel, owns the café and the two apartments above it. That’s how he landed a spot to play every first Friday of the month at the café. Daniel helped him move into his current apartment, and when he saw all the instruments he asked Mat to play him a couple of songs. That was almost three years ago, and Mat was still here. 

He was beyond grateful for what Daniel did for him, he was sure he wouldn’t still be in New York if it wasn’t for him and this café. If Mat ever struggled to make ends meet, Daniel would help him out any way he could. Whether that was giving him a couple of shifts at the café or hooking him up with various bands in need of a substitute guitarist, pianist, or back-up singer. 

But Mat had hoped he’d have gotten further by now.

Sure, he was living off of his music by now. He was able to pay rent and stock the fridge with the money he made off of writing songs. But he didn’t want to write meaningless songs for other artists to fill out a blank spot on their album. 

Mat wanted to be on stage, performing his own songs, the ones he didn’t have it in him to sell. And once a month, he had a chance to do just that, and he loved it - he really did. But lately, something just felt off. Like he was missing something - something he couldn’t put his finger on. 

And last night when he wrote that song, well, he hadn’t felt that alive in a long time. 

The thought of performing it scared him a little, but if it meant he got to feel that way again, and if it made Lucy happy, he knew needed to do it. 

----

You were going to be late. 

Not that you were too surprised, Olivia had a special talent for being late to any occasion. She’d started getting ready two hours before you had to leave, but somehow, despite insisting she’d make it in time, the concert had now already started. 

When she finally comes out of her room you shoot up from your spot on the couch, turning the TV off before going straight to the hallway. You see her stop abruptly, her thinking face on, and you hold your hand up before she can even say anything. “No, nope-” you put on a stern voice. “Whatever you think you’ve forgotten, I swear I have it in my purse” you grab her arm and pull her with you.

“Ok, ok I’m coming” she laughs.

Luckily her habit of always being late also meant that she was a fast walker, and you were at the café in no time. You could see that it was full, the only free table was the one you booked the day before.

As Olivia opens the door, a strange feeling washes over you - almost as if you were nervous. But before you can dwell on it, his voice pulls you in. 

As one of the stage lights hits you, you can barely see the man standing on stage, but you swear you see him looking at you. You try to brush it off - it’s just because you walked in during his song. After you’ve sneaked past a couple of bodies to get to your table by the wall, you look up at the stage again and notice the whole room has gone silent. 

No guitar, his voice quiet.

A breath catches in your throat - you hadn’t been able to take a proper look earlier, too embarrassed that you were late, but now you see him, really see him. 

And he’s looking right at you.

You’re completely frozen in your spot, you don’t even register Olivia tugging at your sleeve to get you to sit down. It’s his tousled hair, his parted lips, and his eyes - his eyes. You’re compelled to walk closer, just to be able to find out what color they are, but you stay still. Though, even from where you’re standing you can see there’s a sadness hidden deep behind them.

Mat had grown tired of the lyrics to his songs a long time ago, as if the more he sang them the more the meaning behind the words faded away. Before last night he’d been in a rut and hadn’t written anything for months. He tried his best to pour his soul into them anyway, but even he knew that his eyes didn’t shine the way they used to when he sang those same old songs.

He’d glanced over at Lucy in the crowd before he began playing his new song, and taken a deep breath before he started picking on the strings, and there was a sense of relief that washed over him. That feeling he felt last night came back, it wasn’t as strong but it was in his fingertips as his music filled the room.

He’d felt every word deep in his bones when he wrote them down on the paper. It was like something took over and wrote it for him - an unknown muse had inspired him. He couldn’t quite understand it, but whoever they were he longed to find them.

Then, you walked in. 

He didn’t see you at first, his eyes glued to the guitar, but as the bell over the door rang, he’d lifted his eyes. And the whole world stopped - the words slipping from his mind as your beauty blinded him.

He’s desperate to see your eyes, but as quickly as he gets a glimpse they’re gone - focused elsewhere as you rush to find your seat. Just as you’re about to sit down, you look up at him again.

A breath catches in his throat, and he’s consumed by you. Suddenly the words of his song make sense, and as he looks into your eyes they start to come back to him. 

When his fingers pluck on the strings again and his voice fills the room again, it’s as if you can breathe again. The words seep into your soul, and you feel them in every bone of your body. His eyes never leave yours as he finishes the song.

How can you miss someone you've never met? 'Cause I need you now but I don't know you yet

It’s like you and he are the only people in the room, it’s not until you hear people clapping that the world fades back into view. Olivia touches your shoulder, making you tear your eyes away from him, grounding you. Your body is flushed with warmth, it’s almost overwhelming. 

“Is it just me or is he staring at you?” Olivia says, you bite your lip looking back at him. His eyes are still on you, but you swear you see him blush before he averts his eyes to his guitar. He clears his throat, his voice is almost shy as he introduces the next song. You look back at Olivia again to answer, but you find yourself speechless. You’re left looking at her with your mouth agape, unable to put words to whatever it is you’re feeling.  “He’s cute” she winks at you, and finally you scoff out a breath - “yeah”. 

He continues his set, but you can’t quite shake the feeling that his words were meant for you. And you know that’s crazy, you’ve never met him before, never even seen him. Because if you had seen him, you would have remembered. Your breath hitches in your throat every time his eyes drift back to you. 

You take a deep breath as he finishes his last song, thanking the crowd as he lifts the guitar strap over his head. As he’s setting his guitar down you recognize Lucy as she comes up to hug him, the man sitting with her follows, patting him on the shoulders with a proud smile on his face. You can’t hear what Mat’s saying but you’re pretty sure he nudges his head towards you.

“I’m gonna go to the bathroom before we leave” you hear Olivia say, and you were hit with the reality that you’d agreed to go to the library tomorrow morning to study. Then, he’s walking your way, his eyes on the floor before he lifts his head, meeting your eyes again. 

“Hey,” he says breathlessly. 

“Hi,” your voice matches his, and strangely, it feels like you’re greeting an old friend.

“Can I sit?”

You nod, and he pulls up a chair. “You were-, that was great” you don’t know what else to say. He smiles, running his fingers through his hair and you wonder what it would feel like. Now that he’s closer you notice his eyes are hazel, and even in the dim light, you drown in them.

“Thanks,” he smiles.

“I’m Mat, by the way” he reaches his hand out for you to take. You give him your name, biting your lip as you take his hand. His hand wraps around yours and you feel his calloused fingertips against your skin. 

“At the risk of being forward, I was wondering if you wanted to have a drink with me” 

Your face falls and his confidence falters for a moment before you speak up. “I would love to, but I have an early morning and it’s getting late” you’re afraid it sounds like a silly excuse, but you can tell he doesn’t see it that way. Still, you’re quick to add, “but I’m free tomorrow afternoon.”

“Yeah?” his eyes light up and you nod.

“Wanna meet me here? at 5 - or whenever you’re free” he rambles. There’s a slight blush on his cheeks and you bite your lip before you ignore his question.

“Do you have a pen and some paper?” you ask.

He’s caught off guard, but he’s quick to reach into his jacket, pulling a small notebook and a pen from his pocket before flipping through the pages to find you a blank one. Your curiosity peaks as you get a glimpse of his scribbles, but you don’t act on the urge to check as he hands it to you. Holding back a smirk, you write down your number. Just in time, Olivia comes up next to you, her eyes drifting between the two of you as she introduces herself to Mat, who’s desperately waiting for an answer to his question. 

“Are you ready to go?” she asks you, “yeah,” you say as you sign your name under your number in Mat’s book. 

You slide the book over to him again, still open on the page you wrote in. As he turns it around to see what you wrote you pull on your jacket. 

He looks up at you as you stand up, and just as he’s about to say you still haven't answered his question, you say, “I’ll see you tomorrow, then?”. You feel your heart beating in your chest, and you’re surprised you managed to say it so smoothly. You’re surprised you’re able to stand as he smiles at you, your legs weakening at the look he gives you. You bite your lip as you wait for him to speak.

“Yeah, I’ll see you tomorrow” 

Smiling at him, you resist the urge to stay as you follow Olivia out the door. You give him one last look as you walk out the door, only to find him still looking at you.

It’s Olivia’s squeal that turns your head again, and you panic to silence her, rushing her down the sidewalk. 

“The look he was giving you, oh my gooood” she practically screams, “the look you were giving him too, for that matter” she lowers her voice as she nudges your shoulder. 

Despite the cold air, your cheeks feel warm as you laugh at her.

You feel your phone vibrate in your pocket, taking it out to check who’s messaged you this late. It’s an unknown number, but he’s signed his name at the bottom and you can’t help but squeal yourself as you show it to Olivia.

Unknown Number: How do you like your coffee? - Mat x

The first date

Mat’s nervous.

Not in the way he was when he performed his new song. Not in the way he feels when he’s about to go on a first date even - because it feels bigger than that somehow. Usually, before a date, he’s not too afraid of fucking things up, because he knows it’s not the end of the world if it doesn’t work out. But now, for some reason, he knows that if he doesn’t do it right, he’ll be missing out on something big - something important.

He’s been down in the café for half an hour already and it’s still another half hour until you’d agreed to meet. Every time the bell over the door rings he turns his head to check if it’s you, but there’s no way you’d show up so early. Lucy doesn’t know whether to laugh at him or to pat him on the shoulder, she’s never seen him so nervous. Fidgeting with his fingers, asking her if he looks alright, trying to check his reflection in the shiny coffee machine across the bar. 

He checks the time once more and sighs out, he swore time was moving slower. “Can you make that coffee now?” he asks Lucy again as if you’d magically appear in front of him when everything was ready.

He’d asked Lucy to make sure there were a couple of cinnamon buns left and he wanted you to have your favorite coffee ready for when you arrived. You’d told him you were studying today and guessed you’d be tired, so he just wanted things to be perfect. 

“Mat,” Lucy chuckles at him, and he raises his brow at her.

“You know if I make it now it’ll be cold by the time-“ her voice trails off as her eyes look behind him. “Never mind” she mumbles as she starts making the coffees with a smirk on her face - his eyebrows furrow in confusion. That is until he hears the bell above the door ring and he turns around to see you walk in.

You were early, maybe even embarrassingly so.

You’d gotten ready as soon as you got back from the library and you simply couldn’t wait any longer. You’d tried to sit down on the couch next to Olivia, but you kept checking the time, fidgeting around, and sighing out loud - “Just go” she had laughed at you.

So 20 minutes before you’d agreed to meet up you walk into the café, hoping to grab a coffee before Mat shows up to wake yourself up a little. Only to see him already sitting by the bar, his head turning as he hears you enter.

“Hey,” he shoots up from his seat, a nervous smile on his face matching your own.

“Hi” you breathe out, relieved to be out of the cold and happily surprised that he’s already there. 

“You’re early,” he thinks out loud, his eyes drifting over your face, trying to memorize your features now that he’s seeing you in the daylight. Without a second thought, he greets you with a hug, and it’s too short for your liking. You fight the urge to hold on, the brief whiff of his perfume intoxicates you and you want nothing more than to stay wrapped up in his warm embrace. You have to shake your head to rid yourself of your thoughts, you’d only just met this man and you already felt butterflies going wild in your stomach just looking at him, surely that couldn’t be normal.

“So are you” you point out with a small laugh - looking at him just in time to see him blush. “I uh- I live close by” he scratches the back of his neck and Lucy scoffs with a playful roll of her eyes. He glances over at her, with a warning glare, though just as playful as her eye-roll. She slides over your coffees, giving you a warm smile as Mat takes them and walks over to a table with two very comfortable looking chairs. 

“I live right upstairs, actually” he motions his head to the ceiling. He gently sets your cups down as you both take a seat at table 13.

“So you’re here often, then” you smile.

“You could say that” he chuckles, “I’ve never seen you in here though, I mean, before yesterday” he continues.

“Yeah, I came in here for the first time earlier this week, and someone gave me your flyer and, well” you trail off.

“It was Barry” you hear Lucy speak up, a confused laugh leaving you as you turn to look at her for a second. 

“Of course it was,” Mat says back to her.

“He’s one of the regulars” Mat explains, but it doesn’t answer your internal question - why is it obvious that he’d give it to you? Mat senses your confusion and blushes again before he speaks up.

“Barry’s always telling people about my Friday night shows,” he says bashfully. 

“Well, I’m glad he did” you bite your lip, your eyes shying away from his for just a moment.

Time passes as the two of you fall into conversation. Your cups empty, only to be replaced by new ones as he tells you about where he’s from. How he’d moved from Vancouver to New York five years ago into a tiny shared apartment with barely enough space for everyone who lived there. The 3 other guys in his apartment started out as strangers, but were now some of his closest friends. They were also musicians, so they’d quickly bonded when they started playing together here and there. 

And he gets lost in your voice as you tell him about yourself, the smile on your lips, your laugh, the way you don’t know what to do with your hands as you tell him a story about when you and Olivia had to run for your lives to catch the last train home a few years ago - it all drew him that much closer to you. 

You lose yourself in his eyes as he looks intently into yours whilst you tell him the stories - it’s not until Lucy comes over with some food for the both of you that you realize how quickly time has passed.

“How did you two meet?” you ask as Lucy sets a couple of cinnamon rolls on the table for you. Lucy’s about to speak when someone walks over to the bar to order something, “I’ve gotta-” she motions towards the bar and you nod understandingly.

“It’s pretty funny actually” Mat speaks, drawing your attention back towards him. He explains that the owner of the café and his apartment is Lucy’s dad and that they both helped him move in. 

“I���d been living in this shitty apartment, you know, and it was already furnished, so I didn’t really have a lot of stuff. I had to buy a bunch of furniture when I moved out. Dan and I were scratching our heads trying to figure out how to assemble it all, and Lucy-” he nudges his head in her direction, you’re hanging onto his every word even as he laughs through them. “The IKEA genius, saved the day when she came home from school. It’s pretty funny actually - I would’ve had to sleep on the floor if it wasn’t for her”

The café has filled up with people by now, and Lucy’s heading home as coffee orders are swapped out with beer and martinis. With the noise around you, it was getting harder to hear each other, and your chairs were moving closer and closer together as time passed. 

For the first time since Lucy came to the table, you check the time again. Your eyelids were getting heavy, and even though you didn’t want to leave, you had to admit you were getting tired. Mat reads you, leaning over “c’mon, I’ll walk you home” he offers.

You think of him walking you all the way home only to walk back here again in the cold alone - and no matter how much you wanted more time with him, you didn't want to feel like he had to.

“Mat, that’s sweet, but you don’t have to-” 

“Please, I want to” he doesn’t want the date to end either, he rarely ever feels so comfortable around someone so fast as he does with you. Whenever that happens and whoever it’s happened with before, they’ve always ended up being important to him. And he didn’t care if he had to walk a few blocks away and then back again in the cold if it meant he got to spend just a few more minutes with you.

“Thank you” You give him a soft smile, putting on your jacket and following his lead out of the café. He opens the door for you and you wait a moment for him to step next to you before you continue down the street.

A comfortable silence falls between the two of you, the distant noises of a Saturday night is the only thing filling the cold air. As you meet a couple going the opposite way, Mat steps closer to you to let them pass and you feel his hand brush against yours. Your cheeks warm at the feeling as you look down at your hands, his touch feels electric and it sets off a spark in your body. The other couple has passed you by now but he doesn’t step away, instead, his fingers search for yours. His touch is a question and you answer it by intertwining your fingers with his.

You look up at him to see him looking at you, biting his lips, his cheeks rosy as he squeezes your hand as if to say thank you. 

Once you see your apartment building you’re almost tempted to walk around in a circle, to draw out the time, but you come to a stop outside your door with a bittersweet feeling.

“When can I see you again?” he instantly asks once he realizes you’ve arrived.

“I’m free on Wednesday” you’d checked your schedule before the date, hoping that it would go well. But really, he’d blown past every expectation and you felt like a teenager, wanting to skip out on your classes so you could see him sooner.

“Meet me at the café again? I’ll be around there all day, so come whenever you want” he rambles.

“Okay,” you smile, squeezing his hand hoping it reassures him.

You take the smallest step backward, reluctant to go into your building, your fingers slide from his just the tiniest bit before he grasps them again. He’s pulling you to him, carefully, testing the waters. “I had a really great time tonight” he murmurs, and your breath hitches in your throat at how close he is now.

“Me too” you find your voice, eyes dropping to his parted lips as he leans a little closer. Your free hand finds his waist, as his moves to cup your cheek. You close your eyes and shy away from the cold touch with a small laugh. 

“That’s cold” you hum.

“Sorry” his voice is soft as he lets out a small chuckle and you lean into his touch again as you open your eyes. He’s looking at your lips, and he really, really wants to kiss you right now.

“Then kiss me,” you say and he realizes he said it out loud.

His forehead presses against yours, your cold noses touch, eyes fluttering shut. You feel his breath as his lips brush against yours and you grip his waist, bringing him closer, his lips finally against yours. 

That spark in your body ignites and the fire warms you up from within as your lips move together. And you kiss and kiss and kiss until you run out of air and wide smiles take over your faces. His nose nudges against yours and you give his lips another peck before leaning back in his embrace.

“Let me know when you’re back home?” Your question warms his heart and he nods - ”I will” he promises, pressing his lips against your one final time, savoring it before he lets you go. His hand lingers in yours as he slowly steps back the way you came, and they stay intertwined until the distance between you pulls them apart. 

He keeps walking backward, his eyes on yours as you huff out a laugh when he stumbles a little. He turns around then and gives you one last soft smile over his shoulder as you walk up to your entrance.

You start getting ready for bed the moment you get in, Olivia is already in her room, but you have no doubt she’ll ask you about your night the moment she sees you. Your night plays over and over in your head on a loop and it’s a movie you’ll never get tired of seeing. 

Mat’s damn near skipping on his way home, wearing a smile he knows must look ridiculous to anyone passing, but he still feels your touch on his hand, on his lips and it’s all he can think about.  

Your phone buzzes just as you come out of your bathroom, and you check the message just as you hear Olivia's bedroom door open, peeking her head out with a tired but expectant look on her face. You reread the message with a smile on your face as you nudge your head towards the couch as if to tell her “you’re gonna want to sit down for this one.”

Mat: I’m home Mat: Can’t wait to see you on Wednesday x

The second date

He hasn’t left your mind, not for a day, an hour, or a minute. 

You were one step away from drawing silly doodles in your textbook about him in your classes, and it was painfully obvious to you how fast you’d connected. 

What didn’t help is that he was texting you, every day. 

Because you hadn’t left his mind either.

When he was listening to music he wanted to know what music you listened to. When he was watching a movie he wanted to know if you’d watched it or if you’d like it. When the sunshine poured in through his window he wondered what you’d look like covered in the golden light.

The café was quiet this early on a Wednesday, Mat had been keeping Lucy company since they opened, writing songs on the bar as she cleaned the coffee machine 5 times just to have something to do.

You’d let him know you’d be there around 12, right in time for lunch. You took your time in the morning, deciding to do some reading for one of your classes, but ending up reading the same sentence three times because your mind was elsewhere. Each time you finished a paragraph you’d check the time to see if you should leave soon.

A few minutes after 11:30 you decided to just go, going to the bathroom to check your appearance one last time before heading to the door. You don’t even put on your jacket properly before leaving, locking the door before heading down the stairs - clumsily sliding your arms into the sleeves on your way down to the exit. The air was colder than you expected and for a second you debate going back up for a scarf, but you decide against it, wrapping your arms around yourself instead. 

Mat’s filled up more pages than he can count in his notebook since your date, and he’s so wrapped up in it that he doesn’t even notice the time passing him by - doesn’t register the rare few times the bell over the door rings and doesn’t realize you’ve arrived until he hears your voice.

“Hey” you breathe out, making his head shoot up. Lucy greets you before he finds his voice, offering you a coffee as he takes you in. 

“Hi” he finally says, writing one last thing in his book before marking his page and closing it. 

Lucy turns around to make your coffee as he stands up. You’re about to shrug your jacket off when he steps to you, cupping your cheeks gently before kissing you. Though he caught you by surprise, you don’t hesitate to kiss him back, your hands sliding up to his shoulders. 

It’s when Lucy clears her throat that he pulls away, a blush on his cheeks as he avoids her eyes, scratching his neck. You’re left with warm cheeks and goosebumps, speechless - having to shake yourself out of it before taking your coffee from Lucy, a small embarrassed “thank you,” leaving you. 

The two of you order food before sitting down at the same table you sat at on Saturday, his hand finding yours across the table. Before lunch, you catch up on the little things you hadn’t already spoken about over text since last time. By the time food comes he mentions that he’d spoken to his family the night before and you notice the tiniest hint of sadness in his tone.

“Do you miss them?” you ask, feeling a bit stupid, of course he misses them.

“Yeah” he sighs.

“I talk to them a lot though, but it’s not the same. I’m super happy that they call me when they get together, but I just feel like I’m missing out on their lives sometimes” he pauses for a moment, “I’m super grateful for FaceTime, don’t get me wrong” he laughs a humorless laugh, “but it’s not the same at all, you know?” 

You squeeze his hand - “it’s like they’re with you, but not really” you say, and he knows you understand what he means as he looks into your eyes. 

“I don’t know what I would do without Dan and Lucy, to be honest - probably drift away” he smiles, glancing over at Lucy who was now cleaning the fridge doors. And you hum, “my roommate is my anchor” you laugh.

“Yeah?” he asks, a small smile on his face

“She’s a pain sometimes, but I’d be lost without her”

“Any friend you live with is a pain sometimes” he laughs, thinking back to when he lived with his friends. Sure, they were loud and way too messy, but sometimes he missed having someone around to keep him company. He used to go to Daniel’s for dinner a lot, but he’d been so busy lately and Mat didn’t want to impose.

The bell over the door rings again, making you both look over. A man walks in, waving casually at Mat before doing a double-take, turning to walk over to your table. 

He speaks your name enthusiastically and you’re confused as to who this man is and why he knows your name. He holds his hand out to you and now that he’s closer you think you might recognize him from the concert, if you were to guess you’d say that this is-

“I’m Daniel, so nice to meet you” he smiles, shaking your hand. 

“Nice to meet you too” you smile back, feeling slightly accomplished that you’d guessed right. 

He looks between the two of you, “I’ve got to work a little, but you two have a lovely date.”

He walks over to Lucy and you hear them talking about getting some things from storage before his voice picks up again. “Mat, can you keep an eye on the bar for me? Call me if anyone comes in?” 

“Of course” Mat smiles.

You’re left alone in the café as they walk into the kitchen. There seems to be something on Mat’s mind and before you can ask him, he’s standing up, pulling you with him.

You’d taken his breath away when he first saw you, but being around you now, he felt like he could truly breathe. Like that first breath of fresh air after being stuck inside a stuffy room, or a cool breeze on a hot day. He felt like he could be himself completely, he could tell you his highs and lows without filtering out any details, and you’d listen to him.

“Can I play you something?” he asks, walking you over to the piano.

As he sits down, he makes room for you on the bench too - patting the spot to urge you to sit down. 

“One of your songs?” you hope.

“Yeah, it’s uh- the one I was playing when you walked in on Friday” 

A shiver runs down your spine as you think back to it. And you're left with your mouth gaping as he continues to speak.

“I’d written it the night before, and I didn’t know why or who it was about. When you walked in it was like I found the missing puzzle piece, and fuck- it sounds weird but-”

You kiss him.

Threading your fingers through his hair on instinct, as he hums into the kiss.

“I’ve felt those words in my bones since I heard you sing them, Mat. Please, sing it to me again” you murmur against his lips. 

His lips find yours again, softly, before he speaks - “okay” 

You lean your head on his shoulder as his fingers brush over the keys on the piano.

Closing your eyes as the first note fills the room, his voice finds its way into your soul as he opens his heart to you, for you. You meet his eyes for a moment seeing his emotions painted on them, hearing them laced into the words, hiding between each note. He knows you’re the one the song is about, he knew the moment he saw you, but he’s finally admitted it to himself. And the way you look at him only confirms it. Since he met you his chest hasn’t felt so heavy, his morning headaches were gone, they’d been replaced by you - images of your face, the memory of your voice, your laugh, they all played through in his mind. Grounding him.

A Home

My muse ❤️: My place at 5 tomorrow?

He’d been staring at the text you sent him yesterday for who knows how long. It’s been four days since he saw you last, four days since he sang to you, four days since he kissed you. He’d walked you home that day too, held your hand again, drawn out your goodbye as he pressed his lips to yours again and again.

He’d opened up to you last time, with the smallest fear that it was too much, that he’d scare you away. He was left in awe to see you inviting him into your space now. He’d typed out several replies yesterday before finally settling on one. 

I’ll see you then! Need me to bring anything? x

My muse ❤️:  No, don’t worry x

You’d answered him straight away, but now that he was searching for any type of clue in your previous messages he still had no idea what you’d planned for him. Locking his phone and looking back into the mirror he hoped the casual outfit he’d gone for was appropriate for whatever occasion. He runs his fingers through his hair a few more times before walking out of his bathroom to get a jacket before making his way over to your place. He follows his mom's advice and stops to get you something, even though you said he didn’t have to.

You’d been a bit bold inviting two people you barely knew into your home, but the short amount of time you’d now spent with Lucy and Daniel had shown you how good they were. When you’d walked into the café the other day asking if they had time for dinner anytime soon they’d been nothing but polite and eager to find a day that fit. As Lucy got someone to cover her shift, Sunday worked out perfectly. 

Biting your lip, you hope Mat will like the surprise you planned for him. 

When you saw how much he missed his family and felt how much it was affecting him, you just wanted to do something to show him that you cared. And you thought inviting his little world into yours would at least be a good place to start.

Dinner was just about ready. Daniel and Lucy had both politely offered to help and even though you insisted they didn’t have to, they didn’t listen. Lucy prepared the side salad, Daniel prepped the vegetables, while you prepared the meat, and Olivia had made some dessert earlier in the day so she was currently sitting drinking some wine by the dining table. You had all finished in no time, and now you were just waiting for the vegetables to finish cooking - and for Mat to show up.

Just a few moments after your doorbell rang, the timer for the oven went off too, as if on cue. Daniel winked at you as he went to the door, pressing the button to open the door downstairs before waiting for Mat by the door. You quickly got the vegetables out of the oven so you could catch Mat’s reaction when he saw Daniel opening your door.

He barely even gets to knock once before Daniel opens the door - the confused look on his face is priceless. Everyone else comes into his view and he’s not sure where to look, he’s never seen your apartment before, and to see two very familiar faces standing in it threw him off, but he couldn’t be happier. 

“Dan- What are you two doing here?” he laughs, looking between Daniel and Lucy, before giving them both a quick hug with one arm. You notice he’s holding something behind his back with his other hand as you step towards them.

“Same as you,” Daniel replies.

He greets Olivia quickly too before you reach them. Everyone else moves back towards the kitchen as you step over to Mat, soft smiles on each of your faces. He reveals a paper bag with some flowers sticking out, holding it out for you in the space between your bodies. At first, you think it’s a bouquet, but you soon realize as you take it in your hands that it’s a potted plant.

You meet his eyes, you’re about to thank him when he pulls you in by your waist for a kiss. It’s short and sweet but it still makes your head spin, “they’re hydrangeas” he nods his head towards the flowers. “Thank you, they’re lovely” you kiss his cheek before stepping away from him - another kiss on his soft lips might have sent you spiraling.

“Please come in, take a seat” you smile, gesturing towards the table that was now set and ready for you all to eat as the others had made everything ready while the two of you were in your sweet little bubble. 

You put the flowerpot in the kitchen, admiring his choice for a moment - wondering how he picked just the right colors to go with your apartment. 

“Get over here, we’re hungry” Olivia urges you, tapping her fingers at the table. “For someone who’s late to everything, you sure are impatient” you tease her as you make your way to the table, sitting down next to Mat. 

“Hey, I was early to this” she argues.

You’re about to open your mouth when Lucy speaks up - “you live here” 

The whole table, including Olivia, break out a laugh and you smile at Lucy, “I was just about to say that”

You all settle down and start passing the food around to each other, keeping the small talk up as you all eat, your plates emptying slowly.

Mat takes a moment to take in the scene before him, how comfortable Lucy seemed talking to you and Olivia, how you genuinely laughed at one of Daniel’s awful jokes, how you all forgot to eat because you were too busy getting to know each other. He’s broken out of his thought as your hand comes to rest on his thigh. 

“Hey, you alright?” you speak so only he can hear, your eyes intently watching him. He takes your hand in his, raising it to his lips with a soft smile as he presses a kiss to your knuckles. 

“I’m perfect - this is perfect”

Without even realizing, you’d reminded him that he has a family here in New York too, and now it has grown to fit you and Olivia. And as he sat at your dining table next to you he felt like he was home.

The Weekend

Friday

The next couple of weeks flew by, and you and Mat spent as much time together as you could. You’d gone for walks, had dinner together a few more times, you’d spent the day with him studying at table 13 while he wrote songs - your feet next to his thighs in his chair, his hand coming down to rub your leg comfortingly whenever she heard you sigh deeply or saw you tense up.

A month has gone by since you first met him and Mat has another show tonight. After a day of classes, you were finally free to go get ready, pull on your favorite outfit, and pack an overnight bag.

The bag was open, standing on your bed - empty. You’d gone through all your drawers, and you had no idea what to bring. Nothing felt right, and you couldn’t really afford to go and buy something either. You were about to spend the weekend at his place, and if that wasn’t enough on its own, his old roommates were coming over on Saturday.

As if Olivia could sense your troubles from the other room, she comes in and plops down on the bed next to the bag, eyeing it. 

“Pack that set, you know, the one with the-” 

“Isn’t it a bit much?”

She laughs, “I don’t think he’ll complain - but pack a back-up too, then, if it eases your mind”

She got up and started going through your stuff, picking out a couple of items and throwing them haphazardly on your bed. You rushed over, glaring at her as you picked up whatever she threw, folding it nicely again before packing it in your bag.

Mat was pacing in his room.

Not because he was nervous about adding a few new songs in his set tonight - No, he felt perfectly confident about them. And not because you were meeting his friends either, he knew they’d love you. But you were spending the weekend at his place, and while you’d been to his place before, you’d never stayed over. 

He’d cleaned and tidied, then cleaned some more, remade his bed about ten times. He knew his buddies would note that it was uncharacteristically clean - he could hear their chirps in his head already. But, now he was running out of time. You’d be at his place any second now, to leave your bags there before you headed down to the café.

His eyes scanned his room one more time before he sighs out, putting his hands on his waist, running his fingers through his hair before pulling himself away and into the living room to wait for you. 

He doesn’t have to wait long, but it feels like forever as his eyes are glued to the clock. He shoots up the second his doorbell rings, and runs out his door and down the stairs to meet you. 

The second you’re in his view his whole body relaxes, breath evening out, but his heartbeat picks up. He’s dragging you in before you can even say anything - his hand on your cheek as he leads your lips to his in a kiss that makes you drop your bags on the floor, your arms going around his neck, fingers finding his hair. He smiles, breaking away - bumping his nose against yours softly. 

“Hi,” you say in unison. 

Your fingers linger in his hair as you lean back to look at him, “you nervous for tonight?” you ask.

“For the concert?” he asks, a small laugh huffing out.

You nod, watching him intently as he leans into your touch.

“No, not for that” his words make you furrow your brows, a smile still present on your lips

“What do you mean, not for that?”

He glances down at your overnight bags, giving himself away.

“Me too, a little bit” you admit.

“I don’t even know why, you just- It’s like I feel everything so much more when I’m with you, and sometimes when you look at me I can’t even think straight, but it’s also like I’ve never seen so clearly, never been more sure at the same ti-”

You can’t help but kiss him. 

The way his brows move and how he pouts his lips slightly when he’s not sure what to say before he rambles on, too cute to resist. He hums into the kiss, pulling you closer again, breaking away with a slightly embarrassed laugh.

“You’re like never not on my mind, Barzy”

He kisses you again before he moves to grab your bags for you, a clever look in his eyes as he opens his mouth - “you should be the songwriter, not me” he teases, 

You bump your hip against his, rolling your eyes, making him stumble a bit - playfully giving you glare before walking up the stairs. “I personally think Never Not On My Mind would be a great song” you argue playfully. 

He has just enough time to show you around his apartment before the two of you have to go down to the café to meet Daniel and Lucy. He grabs his guitar in one hand, intertwining his fingers with yours with the other.

There’s already a fair few people there as you enter, the lot of them all greeting Mat and he awkwardly raises his guitar to greet them back, refusing to let go of your hand. 

He only lets go as you get to your table, greeting Daniel and Lucy properly with a hug as you do the same. He gives you one last kiss before he gets up on stage to set up and start his soundcheck. 

In the corner of your eye, you see Daniel looking at you, you can’t quite read his look, so you raise a brow and hum quizzically. 

“He looks happy” Daniel nudges his head towards Mat, making you look over at him. As if he senses you looking at him he lifts his head and meets your eyes, a few strands of hair covering his forehead.

“You both do” he continues.

So much has changed in a month and you’re looking at him with new eyes. And he’s looking back at you with a new set of eyes himself. You’d never felt like you were strangers, and to think that a month ago you didn’t even know of him seemed crazy to you both. But, here you were - not thinking straight, but still seeing so clearly.

Mat was excited. Not just to play his new songs, but he felt like his old songs had been given new life, and he was itching to start plucking at the strings on his guitar - to let the words flow into the room, to finally play them to you properly. 

He’d shared snippets with you, sending you short audio files or snaps of him singing, showing you lyrics as he wrote them down in his book. But they were small puzzle pieces and you had no idea what the puzzle looked like. 

You’d lost yourself in the music last time, but this time - you found yourself. Small hints of you and him scattered around in his words. It’s all a whirlwind in your head until he plays the final note of the final song and the room erupts in applause. 

The rest of the world fades out again as soon it faded in when he strides over to you, wrapping his arms around you, spinning you around - a surprised laugh leaving you. 

You stay with Daniel and Lucy for a while after, and you watch him with proud eyes as people come up to him, telling him how much they liked his show. Barry, from your first day in the café, comes up saying he was going to tell everyone he knew about the new songs. You both listen intently as he goes on about the chord progressions and the symbolism in the lyrics. 

When your eyelids start feeling heavy, you leave and Lucy comes with as Daniel stays to help close up. You say goodnight to Lucy with tired voices, Mat makes sure she gets home safe even though she lives only seconds away in the same building. 

As you get ready for bed, the two nervous people from earlier seem like a distant memory. You move around each other like it’s second nature. Sharing smiles in his bathroom mirror as you brush your teeth side by side, hips bumping into each other playfully. Toothpaste dribbling down his chin as he tries not to laugh, making you spit out into the sink, doubling down in laughter. 

Your heartbeat rises as you step into his bedroom, your movements slow as you start to undress. Eyes glued on each other as you take this next step in your relationship. As each layer is peeled off, and your skin is almost bare apart from your underwear, you freeze - taking a moment to really see one another.

Goosebumps form on your arms as the chilly air of his room brushes against your skin. As your arms wrap around yourself to stay warm, he steps closer to you, his hands sliding up from your elbows to your shoulders - his touch warming you instantly. You loosen your arms, fingertips curiously moving across his bare chest, eyes dancing across his skin. 

Your lips meet his as your bodies tangle together, breaths mixing, fingers exploring, hearts melting. You fall into the softness of his bedsheets - your body on fire under his touch, his skin burning from yours. 

As you drift away wrapped up in each other, sleep taking over your bodies, you’ve never been more content. 

Saturday

You drift in and out of sleep in the morning, his arm draped over your waist, keeping you in bed. When you wake up completely, you still stay - basking in the feeling of the warm skin of his chest against your back, his breath on your neck, your fingers tracing patterns on his arm. 

He groans in protest when you move, trying to keep you still, but you manage to turn in his arms to face him. His eyes are still closed, breath still heavy as your fingertips trace his pink lips. The move to his nose, moving over his profile as you admire his sleeping form. It’s when you run your fingers through his hair that he nuzzles into your touch -  finally stirring from his sleep.

His eyes are still closed as he drags you on top of him, “let’s just stay here, yeah?” his groggy voice sends shivers through your body and you can’t protest - sighing as his lips kiss down your neck.

You don’t get out of bed until your stomachs beg you to, and it’s a slow morning on the couch as you wait for his friends to come over. 

Mat’s hesitant to move as his doorbell rings, but you urge him to go open and let them in. You follow after him, a few steps behind as he lets them in.

Anthony, Jordan, and Anders all walk in with smirks on their faces as they scan the room. They look back at Mat and before they can even open their mouths he speaks up - “don’t even say it” he warns, making them chuckle.

“Love what you’ve done with the place” Jordan teases.

“Yeah, so clean,” Anders adds.

“And tidy,” Anthony nods, snickering.

Their eyes then fall on you as Anders speaks your name - “nice to finally meet you” they all agree, patting Mat on his shoulder as they walk into his apartment. They all introduce themselves to you and you repeat their familiar names in your head, trying to connect them to their unfamiliar faces. If it weren’t for Mat’s hand on the small of your back you know you’d feel a bit overwhelmed. 

Before you know it you’re gathered around Mat’s living room table, filling your stomachs with the pizza you ordered, the boys trying not to talk through their chewing as they catch up by telling you all sorts of stories, mostly embarrassing ones on Mat’s behalf. 

Mat doesn’t mind though as he laughs along, even adding details that the guys forgot with a loud cackle.

You clear the pizza boxes away as the guys find their instruments, and you beam at the thought of getting to be a fly on the wall as they play after having heard Mat talk about it so much. Though as you sit down, they don’t go into a world of your own as you’d expected, you’re pulled into it as they start with a “guess the song” game for you.

Anthony starts off by playing a familiar bass line on his acoustic bass guitar, that you recognize instantly, “oh! Another one bites the dust” the words stumble out of your lips, making Mat chuckle at your eagerness 

When Anders gives you a beat on his cajón you have no idea what he’s playing, but as soon as Jordan joins in you can’t help but snort out a laugh as you recognize the melody to Wonderwall - and they laugh as you try to speak up through your laugh.

It’s Mat’s turn and he smiles at you before he starts strumming his guitar, you look around and everyone’s brows are furrowed at first, but it doesn’t take long for the others to pick up what song it is. You’re still lost, however, racking your brain to try to figure it out, you know you’ve heard it and you swear the answer is on the tip of your tongue. When Mat gives you another look, you know what to guess - although you’re not certain.  

“Are you- is this Nickelback?” you laugh, squinting your eyes at him, making Mat stop altogether, giving you an amused look. 

“Yes, this is Nickelback” his serious expression makes you snort out another laugh, having too fun to even care about how it’s the second snort-laugh of the night, but probably not the last.

“I’m a Nickelback fan and I’m proud of it, babe,” he says straight-faced, before starting the song again, his movements exaggerated as he starts singing too. 

As you try to hold your laugh everyone else jumps in singing the lyrics to Rockstar to you. As the chorus comes near you decide to say fuck it, and belt out the lyrics with them - cheers going around the room before the song continues.

You’re out of breath by the time the song finishes and your face hurts from smiling so much, stomach aches from laughing. Mat sets down his guitar next to him, wrapping his arm around your shoulder, pulling you closer to him - kissing the side of your head. 

You brush your hand up his side, the fabric of his t-shirt moving as your fingers move underneath it, tickling his skin, but he doesn’t shy away from your touch as you move your head to kiss the first spot of his skin you can see - a shiver running down his spine as your lips touch the nape of his neck. 

He wants to play that moment on a loop on his head, but Anthony laughing at something Jordan said drags him out of it - “I’ll never forget when you sang that at karaoke that one night”

“Not my best performance” Mat laughs.

“I beg to differ” Anthony chirps.

It gets late quicker than you want it to, and before you know it you’re hugging Mat’s friends goodbye, wishing them safe travels home. You start to tidy, but Mat brushes your hands away, pulling you to him - “we’ll worry about that tomorrow” he says before lifting you, wrapping your legs around his waist, capturing your lips as he carries you to his bed. 

Sunday

On Sunday Mat wakes up before the sun - if he’d been alone he would have shot up out of bed and grabbed his guitar frantically before the lyrics from his dream slipped out of his mind. But you’re here, and he doesn’t want to wake you, and he knows that all he has to do if he forgets the words is to look at you and they’ll come back to him. So he carefully raises your arm around his waist and sneaks out of bed, his feet padding across his floor to grab his guitar and notebook. He gently sits down at the edge of the bed - laying his phone next to him to record.

You’re woken up as the first light of the day peeks through his windows, bed sheets wrapped around you like a warm hug, his t-shirt soft against your skin.

It’s the sound of his soft humming and the gentle strums of his guitar that wakes you, and you stay quiet as you glance at him sitting on the edge of his bed. You try to piece together what he’s singing, but it’s too hushed - as if he didn’t want you to hear. Your curiosity gets the best of you as you fold away his sheets to sneak up to him, resting your chin on his shoulder, making him stop altogether to look at you - turning slightly to get a better view.

“‘Morning” he smiles.

“How long have you been awake?”

He huffs, squinting his eyes, “uuuh, not sure - you sleep well, baby?”

You nod, leaning in to kiss his lips, humming into the kiss, treading your fingers into his hair. You kiss his cheek before making yourself comfortable behind him.

“What are you writing about?” your eyes scan the scribbles in his notebook.

“You,” 

Your heart swells, hiding your face in his neck - “me?” 

His hand softly urges you to look at him again, “I’m always writing about you.”

A breath hitches in your throat, his eyes never wavering from yours. “Play it for me?” you kiss the spot where his shoulder meets his neck. He nods as you nuzzle into his neck, taking a breath as his fingers find the right grip.

I've been sittin' here, tryna figure out What did I do right to be with you right now?

Worlds Colliding

My Love 💕: I’ll pick you up at 6 x

You checked his text for the tenth time, to be absolutely sure of when he was coming. 

“Breathe” Olivia laughs out, looking at you bouncing your leg, your shoulders tense as your nervousness consumes you. 

Mat’s arriving in 5 minutes.

Mat’s arriving in 5 minutes and you’re going to a restaurant.

Mat’s arriving in 5 minutes and you’re going to a restaurant with his mom and dad and sister, where you would have dinner with his mom and dad and sister. 

This was big, and no matter how many times Mat reassured you that his family would like you, it didn’t ease your mind all too much. Before you can even fill your lungs with air, the doorbell rings and you look over at Olivia desperately, desperate for your nerves to ease, desperate to crawl into a hole and hide. 

Of course he’s early. 

“Breathe,” she says again, “they are going to love you, you have nothing to worry about”.

You focus all you can on taking one deep breath before standing up, taking another deep breath before you make your way to the door.

Mat stands outside your door, Liana pokes his side in excitement as they wait for you. She jumps when the door cracks open and pushes her brother aside to hug you, which you welcome without a second thought. And just like that, your nerves are gone, his parents meet you with warm hugs too before Mat can even speak up to introduce you all. 

“Oh, it’s so nice to meet you, we’ve heard a lot about you” his mom, Nadia, beams and his dad, Mike, nods along. “He doesn’t shut up about you” his sister pipes in, hoping to make him blush, but he just smiles and nods to confirm when you look at him. You smile warmly at him, taking his hand that he offers before turning back towards his family - “I’ve heard so much about you too, feels like I already know you”. He squeezes your hand, “should we get going?” 

There’s a chorus of you all agreeing and Mat kisses you softly - you don’t notice his mom emotionally clutching her chest at the sight, pulling herself together as Mat starts leading the way as his sister asks about the menu. 

Before you know it you’re sat around a table, eyes scanning the menu for what to eat as you make conversation.

“We’re sad we couldn’t come to catch one of his shows, hearing his new songs over the phone isn’t quite the same as hearing them in person,” his dad says.

“And there are a lot of them too,” his mom adds, with a gleam in her eye.

“I think he’s found some inspiration” his sister, sitting next to you, bumps her shoulder softly against yours. 

“You could say that” there’s a gleam in Mat’s eyes when he focuses on you.

As you get to know them more you see little pieces from his family that Mat has brought with him to New York - his dad’s competitiveness, his mom’s kindness, and his sister’s ambition. Your heart warms, seeing Mat around his family, so much love in his eyes. You’d always understood why he missed his family, but seeing first hand how close they all were you had to keep yourself from getting lost in a bittersweet feeling - focusing on here and now instead. 

“He was so energetic as a kid - when he was seven months old he was running around the house, and we had to cut bedsheets and tie them around him” Nadia looks at her son fondly, as he shrugs, scratching his neck as he laughs.

“Once he got a little keyboard for his birthday it all changed though - he was still energetic, don’t get me wrong, but he put all his energy into music,” Mike tells you.

“Oh yeah, I’ve seen the garage band photos” you laugh, looking at Liana.

“Oh, he told you how he made me stand there, singing back-up as our neighbors walked past”

“Made you, eh?” Mat scoffs out a laugh, “pretty sure you liked the attention more than I did” 

She pokes her tongue out at him and he returns the favor. 

The conversation shifts as Mat asks how things are at home, and they all update him on all the small and big changes that have happened since he was last there. This store closed, this store opened, their neighbor got a small dog, so and so got married. They explain who’s who to you as they go along talking about life in Coquitlam.

“You should come visit sometime,” Liana exclaims.

“Mat usually comes home around May, you’re more than welcome to come with” his mom adds.

“You’ve got finals in May, no?” Mat asks, and you nod.

“Yeah, so we’d have to come after those” his hand rubs your shoulder as he looks at you - “if you want to of course”

“I’d love to” you squeeze Mat’s thigh before turning towards his family - “we’ll definitely come to visit after my finals”

You all walk slowly on the way home, planning out the rest of their week here. When you reach your door they all give you and Mat some space, because even though you’re going to see each other tomorrow, kiss each other tomorrow, you can never get enough.

You spend the rest of the night talking to Olivia about them - and they spend the rest of theirs talking about you. 

“Then I Met You”

Mat had written so many songs, he had enough for a whole album and then some. He’d filled out his notebook and then another one and another one. He’d gotten some help from Anthony, Jordan, and Anders - recording demos whenever you were busy. They were helping him out tonight for his Friday night show too, and you had no idea.

He wanted to surprise you. 

You’d already heard most of the songs, he couldn’t help himself there, but he’d managed to keep a couple to himself. And you’d only heard the others when it was just him and his guitar - which never failed to give you goosebumps and it never felt like anything was missing to you. But with the help of his friends, every feeling in the songs had been amplified, and he couldn’t wait to play them for you.

You and Olivia were meeting him at the café, you’d been busy studying all day - now currently rushing to be there early even though Lucy and Daniel were holding seats for you at the front. Olivia had surprised you as she was ready to leave only a second after you were, seeming just as eager to get there as you - you were too rushed to notice the secretive smile on her face.

Mat’s setting up the stage when you get there, but your attention is pulled away from him as you hear a familiar voice yell your name. Olivia is already on her way over to your table as you turn your head towards the noise. 

Mat’s head picks up, just in time to see you hug Anthony, a surprised but pleased look on your face as you notice Jordan and Anders too. “What are you guys doing here?” 

“At the bar? Getting drinks” 

“In general? We’re playing” Anders points towards Mat, a drink in both his hands.

“What?” you smile, looking over at Mat, who’s got a smirk on his face which only widens when you make your way over. 

Only then do you notice how the stage is set up with more instruments than usual - “You’re getting the band back together?”

He laughs, “surprise” his words end up sounding like a question as he drops what he’s doing to meet you with a kiss.

Olivia comes up and introduces herself to the other guys, and you overhear her talking about how hard it was for her to keep this secret from you. “Makes sense now” you muse and Mat raises his brows as he takes a sip from the drink Anders brought him. “I was a bit suspicious of how early Olivia was ready to leave” you add and Mat has to stop himself from laughing mid-sip.

You give him one more kiss for good luck and sit down at your table with Lucy, Daniel, and Olivia. You all make small talk until you hear Mat’s signature the-show’s-about-to-start throat clear, watching the lights in the café dim a little. 

“We’ve got a couple more people on stage tonight, if you didn’t notice” the crowd laughs at his silly joke. As he introduces everyone it takes you back to the evening in the living room, how carefree he seems, comfortable - made for this. And they haven’t even started yet. 

“We’ve got a whole new set tonight, and I hope you’ll like it - This first song is called Table 13” he turns his head towards you, winking. Your cheeks flush with warmth as a few eyes drift towards you - as if they didn’t all know that you were dating.

“It’s about someone very dear to me, well they’re all about her, but this one’s about our first date” he starts strumming and the rest of the band joins in. You’re left speechless as the set goes on, every song you hear is your new favorite. You’re in awe of him and his talent, and he can’t take his eyes off of you.

He feels alive, on fire - as long as he feels like this whenever he’s playing, he doesn't care anymore, he doesn’t feel stuck anymore. He could play in this café for the rest of his life as long as you were there with him - he doesn’t need the label and the fame and the tour, he just needs you. 

You hadn’t fixed him, but you’d given him the tools to do it himself and stood by his side while he did so. 

The set is a journey - the story of you and Mat. The band is one with the music and they’re dragging you all with them. Images of your time together flash vividly through your mind as Mat sings the words that are meant for you and you only, and he’s glowing. 

After the last note on the last song the crowd breaks out in applause, the rest of the band comes to the front of the stage to thank the crowd. But Mat’s eyes stay on yours as you stand up with the rest of the crowd. 

In that moment your hearts pour out and melt together into one.

He can’t wait any longer, stepping off the stage, wrapping his arms around you, laughing into your lips as the cheers grow when he kisses you, you don’t care how sweaty his neck is as you grab him to keep him there just a little longer. 

As always, you all stay behind, moving a table and some chairs over to yours to fit the whole band. Mat’s mid-story when Barry comes over to the table, a stranger standing next to him. Mat stands up to meet them both.

“Great show as always, Mathew” he shakes his hand.

“Thank you” Mat smiles

“I want you to meet my friend, Gwen,” Barry continues.

“Loved the show- you don’t happen to have any demos?”

Mat nods, “yeah, we- uh- we have some demos” he briefly looks over at the band. He's a little confused, his mind wants to travel to a hopeful place, but he doesn’t quite let it just yet. 

“Great!” Gwen reaches into her purse, pulling out a business card. “Why don’t you contact me, I might know some people who’ll be interested in hearing it” there’s a gleam in her eye as she hands the card over to Mat

Without even looking at the card Mat says, “Thank you, absolutely I will”

“Enjoy the rest of your night” Barry winks at him before they both make their way out.

You’re quick to jump out of your seat, going over to your boyfriend who’s stuck in his spot, staring down at the card in his hand. He almost can’t believe what he’s seeing, but as you stand next to him, your hand wrapping around his bicep you mumble the words on the card, he knows it’s real. 

Someone from a record company had seen the show.

Someone from a record company had seen the show and they wanted him to contact them so they could hear his demos.

“Baby, I’m so proud of you” your voice shakes him out of his own head. And he’s a little overwhelmed as he looks over at you. 

“None of this- I swear, none of this would be possible without you.” he rushes, pressing his lips hard against yours. You wrap your arms over his shoulders and he presses his forehead against yours, noses brushing against each other. As you tug on his hair at the nape of his neck he leans back, needing to get something off his chest.

“I felt stuck and then I met you and you broke me loose. I was longing for something-, someone and then I met you” he catches his breath, his thumb caressing your cheek as he looks ardently into your eyes - “I love you- so much”

Your eyes tear up, and you don’t hesitate to say, “I love you more”

“Not possible” he laughs, leaning in again.

Epilogue

His hand is in yours as you walk down the broad hallway, following a man in a snapback. The noise around you, though muffled, is loud and a bit overwhelming. Your hearts are racing as you get closer and closer, the noise growing louder and louder.

Everyone you pass, reach their hand out and Mat bumps his fist against theirs as he passes, a small laugh leaving him. 

You follow the snapback man and walk through an open door, the noise is almost too loud for you to hear each other now, but as he embraces you in a hug, his lips to your ear, you hear him loud and clear.

“I love you most”

“I love you mostest” you giggle.

You hold on to him still as you give him his good luck kiss, before he and his band are rushed out onto the stage. Tens of thousands of screams grow even louder as they come into their view.

He starts plucking on his guitar, his eyes scanning the crowd as he takes it all in with a deep breath. He turns his head to find you again, and the noise of the crowd fades away when he sees you. 

Then it’s as if you’re back in the café, just the two of you. 

The smile you share is like a secret you share that no one else knows - I love you, I’m so proud of you.

[ukiyoexo]

hi can i ask for tips on how to start posting my fics on tumblr?

first, the fact that you want tips from me makes me feel all warm inside like ahhhh? like me??

i think to give the best tips, it really depends on what part of posting fics you struggle with, you know? like is it the confidence to post, or what aesthetic to go for, or how to tag etc. but i’ll just give you some general tips and if you have another question feel completely free to send another ask! <3

first, you just gotta go for it. write something, anything, and be like: you know what, imma post this! we tend to be pretty self critical of our work so even if you think it’s a shitty piece of writing, i highly doubt it.

when it comes to aesthetic, scroll through some of your favourite blogs and take inspo from them. putting three aesthetic images at the top is pretty common and in my opinion, posts that look well put together always look more enticing to read. you can find aesthetic pics on pinterest by searching [insert] aesthetic. you can search by general vibes so like soft or dark, or you can by colour, or even more specific like coffee or angel etc. you can also make banners by using photos from pinterest, editing shape and size and adding stickers of filters on picsart and then adding text on phonto (i also download fonts from dafont).

tagging posts is by far the hardest part of publishing fics. tumblr sure does love to screw content creators over. how to tag fics can also vary depending on the fandom. in kpop you generally want to tag with the idols name or group name and then fluff, angst and/or smut. then just the idol and group. also putting [idol] imagine or drabbles or social media au etc. again just checking your fave blogs and seeing how they tag things will help you

tip for when you tag a post as well, once it’s published, search up one of the tags you put (tumblr normally only acknowledges the first fifteen) and check whether it comes up in recent posts for that tag. if you’re a newer blog then tumblr may think you’re a bot and not show you’re posts so either delete and repost or post some random things over a space of a couple days until they start showing up in tags.

depending on what you plan on writing another important thing to do before you even post is to make a masterlist and some guidelines (this part is more important if you’re gonna write smut). having a masterlist set up means people are able to find your works way easier and having guidelines helps if you ever want to open requests

IMPORTANT REMINDER: you are not required to take requests or write ones that you recieve. if someone sends you a request you are not comfortable with or simply don’t have inspo for or vibe with, you do not have to write it! it is you’re blog and you write what you want. you writing requests is just something extra you are doing and is literally you making personalised content for someone for free so it is not a must.

another important reminder is that it’s also completely ok to take breaks, no matter how long. it’s ok to post one short drabble and not post for another three months, take you’re time, this is a hobby not a job and you should enjoy it, even if writer’s block is kicking your ass (which is also annoyingly common)

to solve writers block or to get general ideas i recommend taking inspo from even the most simple of things in life. like little wholesome moments or just the things you’ve been enjoying recently eg writing about playing your current favourite game against an idol and winning for the fifth time in the row. it’s also fun to switch up the fandoms you write for if you feel like it. i write for kpop, ice hockey and mcyt so there’s really no limit!

if you want to link posts to others, here’s a guide one of my first ever mutuals made me back when i was first getting into fic writing. here’s a guide i just made bc i realised that one is kinda outdated.

that actually brings me onto the point of making fellow writer mutuals can be really great when it comes to posting. having that lil support system of fellow writers to talk to, to bounce ideas off, to collab with, etc can really help!

now, final tip i can currently think of (again send an ask if you need more specific advice) is read fics! i barely read fanfiction nowadays (ok literally not all anymore) but when i was first getting into writing, it really helped. reading how other people write will hands down help you figure out your own style of writing and grow as a writer overtime.

oh that also reminds me, if you take inspo from someone else’s writing, it’s greatly appreciated if you ask the op if you can write something based off their work etc, and also even tag them in the piece. of course this doesn’t apply to general ideas, like there’s probably a million college social media aus, but if it’s something specific, it doesn’t hurt to ask

[eulau]

⟨ ROSS BUTLER. CIS MALE. HE / HIM. ⟩   though the mist might prevent some from seeing it,   CHARLIE LAU   is actually a descendent of   ATHENA. it’s still a question of whether or not the TWENTY-SEVEN year old ELEMENTARY EDUCATION MAJOR from VICTORIA, MICHIGAN, US has taken after their godly parent completely, but the demigod is still known to be quite APPROACHABLE & RECKLESS.

                    character details.  ♡  pinterest.  ♡  wanted connections.  ♡  playlist.

hey all,  i’m jj and i’m a full disaster.  my pronouns are she/her, i’m 26 and i live in the cst.  i work full time but i’m also fake so i’m on discord like  ...  the entire work day unless i’m in meetings.  but i am busy so i can be pretty slow and am likely to be most active on the dash with replies on weekends,  but i’m around to plot all the time so hit me up.  i’m also in the indie rpc which is where i’m most active and by most active i mean barely there,  but anyways.  i’m the worst so i’ll probably end up writing a full bio at some point,  but in the meantime check out the bullet points and his stats. 

PERSONALITY

at his core, charlie lau is warm.  raised by a grandmother who loved him fully, he learned that the only way to live a life that is full, you need to put your heart into it. so that’s what he has always done.  while some may challenge him by saying if he truly wanted to follow his heart, he’d pursue art,  he disagrees.  because while his art may be how he illustrates his heart,  teaching is how he best thinks he can fill it. he is passionate and empathetic, always willing to take a step back and help whoever is a step behind him. and from his own experiences in school,  he knows how important a good teacher can be. how they can change a student’s entire view of learning.  he wants to make school not only a safe but fun space for kids, regardless of  how they learn. he wants to help them figure out their how, and give them the tools to do so.  he’s almost endlessly patient, only waining with those who who insist on bringing others down.  

while there is uncertainty in life, he has none in his plans for his career.  he is facing the future with bright eyed confidence,  a smile on his face as he prepares to do what he can in a world designed to kick the spirit out of you.  he likes to bring an excited energy to everything he does, and while he doesn’t always think things through enough, he finds that a positive attitude can get him through even some of his worst screw ups.  charlie is the person you want on your side,  and the shoulder you want to lean on.  if you give him a chance to hold your heart he’ll do nothing but keep it warm.

POWERS

genius intelligence — charlie has always been smart, his education coming easier to  him than it did with any of his classmates. if he could ever sit still. while incredibly smart, he was always critiqued by his teachers for his more hyperactive tendencies and the way he never seemed to be paying attention. he was often accused of cheating on quizzes, as his teachers didn’t think it were possible for him to pay such little attention, but still do well. however, he did pay attention. they just couldn’t realize that this is exactly how he did that.  he’d been known to help his friends study, although he struggled to be very good at that. apparently not everyone learned best if you ran through flashcards while physically hanging upside down on the monkey bars in the local park. however, over time he learned just how his friends best needed to study, and that’s what he’d do. it started a pattern that lead to what he knew he wanted. he hated seeing his friends, or anyone really, lose their confidence in their own minds. he wanted everyone to realize they were smart. capable. and could learn. their minds may just work a little differently.

skilled craftmanship — while he did well in school, there is something he kept to himself. something far more personal than the way he could get away with not really studying for quizzes so long as he listened in class. his love for art. from a young age, charlie was always drawing. on paper, on the walls, it didn’t matter. life was his canvas. and while his grandmother didn’t necessarily discourage it, he did feel as though it was something that he should keep to himself. something that was just his way of reinterpreting the world for his own thoughts, particularly when things seemed to get just a little too crazy.  but nevertheless,  he finds himself always turning to his art.  he always has a sketchbook in his bag and can be found doodling on napkins and the edges of paper placemats. while he doesn’t see anything he draws or paints as impressive, there are always looks of shock as people notice the intricacy of his drawings. as he’s gotten older he’s gained some confidence in his art, however, it is still by far the ability he is least confident in. leading to most of his art being kept shut away in notebooks and folders, away from judgmental eyes.

superhuman agility — charlie likes to think it’s just because he puts in the work, but there is definitely a genetic component to the ease he has in various physical activities. while it is not very obvious, it is subtly super-human, proven by the exasperation of his friends his adolescent years. particularly when playing games like dodgeball or jail tag.

OPTIONAL INFO

charlie is part of a few student organizations at eonia, including the feminist alliance,  asian students alliance and the rollerskating club.

he works as a student tutor at the library, primarily helping with math and history courses.

he was raised predominantly by his paternal grandmother after the death of his father,  who passed when charlie was merely two years old.  while he doesn’t remember his father,  he grew up with plenty of stories and pictures of his father’s childhood all around the small midwestern home.

charlie and his grandmother lived in a small costal town along lake superior on the upper peninsula of michigan. his grandmother making a living as a home health aid,  driving around the few towns in their area.  because of this,  when charlie was younger he was often taken along with her,  a sketchbook in hand as he tried to do something other then kick the back of the passenger seat from his perch in the back of her car.

as a kid, charlie was very active. he’d grown up playing sports, the attempt of his grandmother to keep a very active child as content as possible. he played baseball and hockey, and as he grew older became one of the several regular bikers that took to the trails for their cardio.

charlie was raised with a pretty heavy religious upbringing by his paternal grandmother, which inspired a great deal of his values. however he doesn’t consider himself religious. he just pulls from teachings about acceptance, loving thy neighbor, and the like. he doesn’t really identify with the “godliness” of any religion as he knows that the greek gods exist.  so who’s to say others don’t? he is focused on the humanity of the all.

charlie’s favorite band growing up was jimmy eat world and no you can’t make fun of him for that because he stands by that choice.

[chatting-leaves]

Maggie (or “Don’t lose hope, someday you’ll need it!)

November 2002, Poughkeepsie, New York

For most people, the period of life immediately following high school is one of great exploration in life, a way to wade the waters of the so-called "real world" before launching fully into adulthood. For many, it is a chance to go away to continue their education away from home, getting a taste of life somewhat on their own while building friendships and memories that would last a lifetime. Others take the route of a trade or a skill, while some others end up realizing that college wasn't their calling and fall into the workforce if they were so able. Then there was myself, an odd person stuck between all of these places.

Mom, ever the fearful person prone to fall in line with what empirical evidence she was confronted with, wanted me to go to community college first to "see how I would do" before transferring to a four-year college. Her reasoning was heavily influenced by the fact that every friend of hers who sent a child away to college, had them withdraw by the end of their freshman year and she wasn't going to shield such a risk given the debts it might incur. While in hindsight I will say I gained quite a bit and the typical "I don't know what to do" degree of an Associates in Arts in Humanities, my social life wasn't there as I had erected walls around myself after some early incidents where unsettled conflicts from one high school still stood while me running away from my past at another shooed away potential rebuilt friendships. My life could be distilled to classes and the work study job I had two days a week doing Human Resources work at a nonprofit. 

One Friday night in November, I was killing time in a chat room for teenagers; while I was 20, I was only a couple of months removed from my teens and related a lot better downward. In the background, I notice a person we'll refer to "goaliegal" and I make a beeline knowing that there is a probable chance that they could be good people. As a child, I wanted to be a hockey goalie badly until I figured out that balancing on skates was just not my thing and to say I didn't have a crush on at least one field hockey goalie in high school was a lie. I give the standard "a/s/l" greeting of the day and get something promising: "19/f/NY". This person was in my state! Rather than pollute the room with an awkward first conversation, we ended up going into a conversation of direct messages, away from a room probably teeming with middle aged men posing as twentysomethings preying on thirteen year olds.

As we talked, I got a feel for who "goaliegal" was. She grew up in a rural town south of Rochester, an area that might as well have been on another planet for my borderline Downstate self as I had never been west of Utica. She was a freshman at Buffalo State but already was plotting her way out as she was feeling a bit homesick. In her spare time, she was a goalie on the club team there but was itching for ice time which was in short supply. She then sent a picture and I was immediately smitten: long red hair flowed down an oval face adorned with glasses as she was otherwise in full goalie gear. We then swapped names, I complimented that her name of Maggie fit her well even if it seemed a bit unconventional for a person taking slap shots at up to 100mph.

I should say that at this point, I was the epitome of romantic desperation. My most recent date, a pair of arranged meetings with the younger sister of a sobriety sponsee that Mom had, went nowhere and I had not had a date of any sort in three years let alone a kiss or any contact. Any sort of positive attention from anyone of the opposite gender was something I hopped on like white on rice. Soon enough, the conversations between Maggie and I began getting very detailed with myself having a somewhat unhealthy obsession over certain things such as what she was wearing. If I couldn't be there, at least I could sigh in what I was missing had we been in the same room, clearly heading towards a heated makeout session.

As 2002 came to a close, Maggie's life path was shifting as she was transferring from Buffalo State to a college in the Rochester area in order to be closer to home. As my time at community college was one semester from its end, I was looking at other schools in the state university system to transfer to and one caught my eye: Geneseo, located right outside Rochester. If I was accepted there, I would be relatively close to Maggie and what existed online could exist in real life. We both felt that we were the one for each other going into the new year, clearly fate would help accelerate things.

Three days into the new year, things came crashing down. While on a two and a half hour plane ride to visit Dad, something in Maggie snapped and when I went to check things once I got to Dad's house a sobering bit of news came up: Maggie had a boyfriend, a local boyfriend, someone who would actually be able to do things with her. My trip which would have been a respite from Mom and her ways instead became me marinating in my own self-pity, trying to find a means to move on now that The One faded away. Nevertheless, I persevered until several weeks later when Maggie came back out of the blue. Instantly I forgave her and soon put in my application for five different SUNY campuses: Geneseo (for her), Stony Brook (Mom's family was nearby), New Paltz (the nearest to home), Albany (close yet far enough), and Plattsburgh (practically Canada). I got into four of those five, the one rejection coming from the most obvious of these five. At least in Albany, my eventual choice, she'd be the shortest drive away?

As Spring sprung, Maggie entertained the idea of inviting me out to visit her for the Fourth of July, my being inserted in the typical family events of fireworks and fish fries enjoyed by herself, her siblings, her parents, and the other new arrival of her baby nephew. I was elated at the idea of being able to share a holiday with someone I had grown increasingly infatuated with who I would be able to share a wide assortment of experiences with. Right as I was about to book the train tickets from Poughkeepsie to Rochester, something happened and things once again were off. Lather, rinse, repeat. I still held out hope in her, that perhaps someday things could work out. Eventually she became a background person in my life though if she came back wanting to be with me and only me I would have pushed away any local person to be with her especially as my emotionally damaged self was unsuccessfully navigating the minefield of romantic relationships.

The next year, fate and circumstances started to push us back into each other's path. I was seemingly certain that this time, unlike all the others, things would work. Needless to say I was in for a rude awakening when out of the blue one November day she hit me with the news that she was dating an old friend who lived across the border in Canada, a fellow hockey player going to university over in St. Catherine's. To say I was devastated would be a massive understatement in itself as by that point I felt I had no other options. I was socially inept on that front, gaslit from the past actions of my parents, bitter, jealous, angry, and just at the point of sheer hopelessness. Maggie tried to assure me but I was having no point of anything at all. Over the next few years she'd drop in from time to time but in my mind the damage was already done. Why string me along that much and then do an about face?

Going through the cobwebs of some old zip files archiving the contents of former computers, I found some old logs from the dearly departed AOL Instant Messenger from the above period that made me cringe at the pathetic desperation that I embodied with Maggie and overall, however that state is for another day. I also discovered some awkward late 2000's chats from a period where she was regularly commuting transborder to visit her boyfriend while I had settled down in the Washington, DC area. Analyzing these over a decade later, I can see an air of unresolved frustration, deep down inside yearning for Maggie or at least the idealized concept of her my mind had built up. We'd drift in and out, I do remember her congratulating me for finally finding someone who I was compatible with when I began dating my now-wife in 2010 but after that point I felt that I could close the book on Maggie. I finally had someone, why would I need to have her around?

Three years later, I end up getting curious about certain people and end up running a search on Maggie. In the years since, she ended up moving across the border - having a Canadian parent and dual citizenship from birth helped - and had recently married the man she pushed me aside for all those years earlier. She also had little social media presence, no publicly findable Facebook, no Twitter, nothing I could send a request on outside of all things Pinterest. Naturally, wanting to make a lowkey reintroduction into her life, I shot her a friend request on Pinterest. Within an hour, I got a request on AOL Instant Messenger from one of Maggie's old screen names. I accept only to find her complaining at how dare I track her down on Pinterest of all places and for the who-knows time to leave her alone.

This is probably the only time in recorded human history in which AIM was used in regards to Pinterest, two mediums at different eras of the internet interacting with one another. I moved on and did all I could to forget her, for once I thought I had really moved on.

By 2017, I had moved on, a difficult task for me to undertake especially for someone who never gives up on anybody when lo and behold one afternoon I find a request in my New Message Requests folder on Facebook Messenger. It was Maggie, the previously unfindable Maggie, apologizing for her past actions. Being a pushover, I accept and save some fits and starts we've spoken ever since. Soon enough, I realized that years of marriage behind me that in some ways, we wouldn't have meshed that well as a couple, my naiveness and desperation would've eaten me whole had I done so. Save for some fits and starts, it's gone relatively well and Maggie is the sort of person I know who will usually reach out by default, a stark change from years ago. This would be the end of the story, only it isn't.

July 2019, Scarborough, Ontario

My wife and I had been planning a trip up to Toronto for years and soon as our new passports came in I was given a litany of ideas from Maggie of what we should do during our trip there, scheduled coming out of Canada Day while enveloping Independence Day in the United States while also straddling a baseball series between the Blue Jays and Red Sox. Originally, we were to meet Maggie before a game one of those nights, then that got jostled around. She invited us to the museum she supervised volunteers at the time, that would've been too much of a headache. Then an idea came up: the zoo.

For those not familiar with Toronto, the Toronto Zoo is as far east in Toronto as you can get. It's halfway to the farther out suburb where Maggie and her husband made their home. As our trip there was via several modes of transit and Maggie was headed into Toronto anyway, she volunteered to pick us up. Only issue: my wife didn't know the circumstances of how I knew Maggie.

Our trip came as Toronto was under a heat wave, the humidity quite oppressive with the ever-Canadian Humidex pushing 40 degrees Celsius. Trekking through the zoo left us exhausted, worn, and all-around tired, the heat taking a toll on our bodies. Waiting in the little zoo cafe, I got the question I was waiting for my wife to ask.

"So, how do you know this 'friend'? Is she some old girlfriend?," she sarcastically tailed off. It had become a bit of a running joke between us that anyone I listened to in the past was automatically a "girlfriend", a sign of my desperate nature then mixed with my ability to listen that never will leave. I then spilled the beans, finishing right in time to see a black pickup truck make it to a dropoff area. After sixteen years, what 20 year old me wanted was finally happening at age 36.

Maggie and I hugged instantly and it felt all worthwhile. Had I not fallen head over heels with her as a desperate younger me, she would've been the great female friend I really needed, the close-in-age sister I wanted to a degree, yet I blew it. As we worked our way into Toronto on local roads, dodging the mess of Highway 401, Maggie quizzed my wife about who she was, what she did, how dealing with me in person on a day to day basis went. Somewhere underneath the scaffolding holding Toronto's aging Gardiner Expressway up, I realized something: Maggie and my wife are largely one and the same. Similar personalities peppered with heavy sarcasm poking out of introversion, same height, same attitudes, similar likes and dislikes. Perhaps awkward younger me had gotten the happy ending they sought. Even how Maggie spoke of her husband made me realize that he and I had a lot more in common than I had thought, especially given how much more put together he came off to my hurt mind a decade and a half earlier. 

While our time together was short, less an attempt to meet for dessert after said baseball game when both of us were tired and achy, it was one of the best memories I had that year. My only regret is not getting a picture of us three, a reminder to be brought up for the rest of my life that sometimes hopes and dreams do come true!

[thisisheffner]

Nightmares on wax: the environmental impact of the vinyl revival | Music | The Guardian

Inside a US vinyl pressing plant – its owners have asked that I do not give its location – dozens of hydraulic machines run all day and night. These contraptions fill the building, as long as a city block, with hissing and clanking as well as the sweet-and-sour notes of warm grease and melted plastic. They look like relics, because they are. The basic technological principles of record pressing have not changed for a century, and the machines themselves are decades old.

While it is far exceeded by revenues from streaming, the vinyl market keeps growing – Americans now spend as much on vinyl as they do on CDs, while there were 4.3m vinyl sales in the UK last year, the 12th consecutive year of growth. So, if you’re one of the millions of people to re-embrace vinyl records, it’s worth knowing where they come from and how they’re made. There are containers called hoppers at each pressing station, brimming with the lentil-like polymer pellets that get funnelled down into the machinery, heated and fused to form larger biscuits that resemble hockey pucks, and squashed to make records.

Employees are cagey about the separate warehouse where this company stockpiles its plastic. But the empty fridge-sized cardboard boxes on the pressing floor hint at their origin. They are marked with big red letters proclaiming, “Vinyl compound” and “Product of Thailand”.

While vinyl pellets are shipped in large boxes, it takes only a handful to make a typical record. US–based petrochemical corporations supplied much of this raw material until the LP market dried up after 1990 and, consequently, the US supply chain evaporated. Nowadays, with the stylus back in style, the ingredients of LPs are manufactured offshore. More than half of the polyvinyl chloride (PVC) used by today’s US record manufacturers comes from the Thai Plastic and Chemicals Public Company Limited (TPC), which has its headquarters in Bangkok.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest

TPC makes this specialised vinyl on the banks of the Chao Phraya river, about a half-hour’s drive south of the capital. After a year of unanswered emails and weeks of being hung-up on, I finally got a tentative invitation to tour TPC’s facilities and boarded the next flight to Thailand.

By coincidence, the first person I met in Bangkok was a retired Belgian petrochemical engineer. He was surprised when I told him not only that vinyl record sales had been increasing since 2005 but that the recording industry still used what he saw as a grimy and outmoded material. But he knew one thing for sure: TPC was not going to let me see how PVC is made. He was right.

Unsurprisingly, security was tight at the TPC facility, and guards refused me at the gate; I never saw inside or had contact with TPC representatives. Instead, a representative from SCG Chemicals – TPC’s parent corporation and one of the largest petrochemical manufacturers in Asia – agreed to meet at my hotel to discuss their business and to explain how vinyl is made.

The process of producing PVC compound is complicated. There are numerous phases, a campus of buildings, tall silos, deep vats, busy machines, as well as many workers in hardhats, hairnets and safety glasses. But the basic principles are easy to imagine.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest

If you have ever rolled Play-Doh in your hands, placed it in one end of a garlic-press-like gadget and squeezed it out the other, then you know how PVC compound is made. Once PVC has been synthesised from its component chemicals, the raw resin is then mixed with a variety of additives, heated to form a molten plastic compound, forced like spaghetti strands through a die and chopped into pellets.

The SGC representative I met was quick to explain the intricate sciences, the high levels of industrial expertise and the thorough quality-control checks needed to make this high-grade vinyl compound, but stonewalled questions about the harmful side effects of vinyl production. PVC contains carcinogenic chemicals, and the operation produces toxic wastewater that the company has been known to pour into the Chao Phraya Rriver according to Greenpeace, which says TPC has “a history of environmental abuses” going back to the early 1990s. A representative from SGC brand management and corporate social responsibility declined repeat opportunities to comment in detail via email.

During vinyl’s original heyday, the situation in the US was no different. In the 70s, the Keysor-Century Corporation, located north of Los Angeles, supplied about 20m kilos of PVC a year to the US record industry. That amounts to about one-third of the total annual amount used in the country at the time.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest

Keysor-Century was an illegal pollutant. The corporation had been under investigation by the Environmental Protection Agency since 1977. It was revisited by the EPA in the early 2000s, this time with the FBI, which resulted in a $4m fine and public apology for lying about exposing workers to toxic fumes, releasing toxic chemicals into the air and dumping toxic wastewater down the drain.

It is impossible to know the proportion of the effluent in the Chao Phraya or how much of the pollution is directly linked to the production of LPs. One thing, though, is certain. Vinyl records, as well as cassettes and CDs, are oil products that have been made and destroyed by the billion since the mid-20th century. During the US sales peaks of the LP, cassette and CD, the US recording industry was using almost 60m kilos of plastic a year. Using contemporary averages on greenhouse gas equivalent releases per pound of plastic production, as well as standard weight figures for each of the formats, that is equivalent to more than 140m kilos of greenhouse gas emissions each year, in the US alone. Music, like pretty much everything else, is caught up in petro-capitalism.

Is rejecting physical media and embracing streaming the answer? This is the wrong way of framing the issue, as digital media is physical media, too. Although digital audio files seem virtual, they rely on infrastructures of data storage, processing and transmission that have potentially higher greenhouse gas emissions than the petrochemical plastics used in the production of more obviously physical formats such as LPs – to stream music is to burn coal, uranium and gas.

The amount of energy required to stream an individual song or album is negligible – much less than it takes to get that same music on an LP, cassette or CD – but one-to-one comparisons miss the point. We need to understand the aggregate energy effects of billions of streamers who now expect, without a second thought, instant access to unlimited amounts of music. This culture of listening is what gives us the result that, although the US recording industry is using far less plastic, it is producing more greenhouse gas emissions. Conservative estimates show the amount of such emissions to be 200m kilos a year after 2015, while pessimistic estimates show it to be 350m kilos a year – which is more than double the US industry’s emissions profile at the height of vinyl, cassettes or CDs. Individual digital audio files use less energy than those previous formats. Those individual gains in efficiency are outstripped by increases in overall use.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest

The devices required to access those infrastructures – smartphones, tablets, laptops – rely on the exploitation of natural and human resources around the world. These products then quickly succumb to fashion and obsolescence, ending up at dump sites, making further claims on other people and places.

Still, practical resolutions are emerging. A group of eight Dutch companies is exploring ways of greening vinyl, by making records from a recyclable, non-PVC material. Yet last October in Los Angeles, at the world’s leading business-to-business conference for plastic music formats, their Green Vinyl Records prototype recordings were laughed at because they sounded “awful” and felt “cheap”. One of the consortium’s leaders complained to me about the conservatism of vinyl junkies. I listened to the available demo record, and it’s true that it neither sounded nor felt like a typical LP. The background noise was not what I was used to, and there was even sometimes an intermittent ringing – as if the record itself had tinnitus. The bend and the flex were unusual. The edges were boxy. But if this is the sound and the feel of something that is made from a material less damaging than PVC, then these characteristics are not blemishes but beauties.

Streaming services such as Spotify have started releasing information about their environmental impact. While the numbers they publish suggest that their carbon footprint is decreasing, they only provide information about their own data centres. However, Spotify has decommissioned most of their own streaming infrastructure and subcontracted that work to the Google Cloud. So the amounts must be significantly higher than what is reported. As more and more streaming services subcontract their data storage and processing needs to cloud corporations, they also subcontract responsibility for the energy requirements and carbon emissions of digital music. As one streaming engineer told me: “As long as we have an ozone layer, we live in the cloud.”

It can be unsettling to find out that something as delightful as music is inseparable from these disturbing realities. But confronting those realities is the first step toward understanding them – and maybe improving them. I think back to the strange feel and whine of the recyclable record – it��s now the cosy crackle of PVC vinyl, which indexes petrocapitalism, that I find disturbing.

• Adapted from Decomposed: The Political Ecology of Music by Kyle Devine, published by MIT Press.

This content was originally published here.

[footballmetrics]

Football RPF Survey - Demographics

This is the first part of the Football RPF survey report. It’s the part that mainly covers the demographics of the responders. The form had a total of 202 responders, with certain sections getting more or less responses (except for the section start, none of the questions were mandatory).

What is your age?

Of the 202 participants:

105 (52 %) are between the ages of 18 and 24

48 (23,8%) are between the ages of 25 and 34

42 (20,8%) are younger than 17

6 (3%) are between 35 and 44

One person abstained from answering.

More under the cut

What country do you live in?

The majority of responders were from the United States, around 50 of the 197 responders to this question. They’re followed by Germany (17 responders), the United Kingdom (15), France (8), Brazil and Finland (5), Hong Kong and Portugal (4). Ireland, Slovenia, Australia and Austria have 3 participants. Argentina, Canada, Colombia, Czech Republic, Israel, Italy, Malaysia, Mexico, Norway, Philippines, Russia and Spain all have 2 responders. Bolivia, China, Croatia, Denmark, Hungary, Indonesia, Lithuania, Mauritius, New Zealand, Peru, Serbia, Slovakia, South Korea, Thailand and Venezuela all had one participant.

What football teams do you support?

The table above shows the top represented football clubs and national teams. Also mentioned: Argentina NT (9), France NT(8), Spain NT (8), New York City FC (7), Chelsea (6), England NT (6), Bayer Leverkusen (4), PSG (4), Brazil NT (4). The other teams mentioned had less than two supporters. Let us know if you want to see the whole list.

Note that many responders said that they support more than one football club and/or national team, and this table represents each time a particular team was listed in their answer.

How long have you been following football?

198 out of 202 survey participants responded with how long they’ve been following the sport (4 non-response). Some responded that they had been following football for “most of my life,” “ever since I can remember,” or “since I was a child” and similar phrases. Without each responder’s exact age, it is difficult to accurately quantify the number of years encompassed by such descriptive phrases. As such, all responders who noted that they have been following football since childhood have been counted together with those who explicitly stated that they had been watching the sport for more than 15 years, due to the common implication that football has figured as a significant portion of their lives.

Also of note is that some responders delineated a casual following for some years before getting deeper into football (for various reasons). For the purposes of this survey, the earliest given date of following the sport is reflected in the chart and the responses below:

Less than one year - 6 (3.0%)

1-3 years - 47  (23.3%)

4-7 years - 46  (22.8%)

8-10 years - 25  (12.4%)

11-15 years - 20 (9.9%)

More than 15 years OR since childhood - 54 (26.7%)

Abstained - 4 (2.0%)

How long have you been in the football fandom?

A majority of responders (144 responses, 71.3%) have been part of football fandom for less than 3 years. This time frame coincides with the last World Cup in 2014, which was cited explicitly by a number of responders as the impetus for seeking out fandom in the last three years.

At least 12 responders (6%) said that they had been either been more active in fandom in the past, have been in fandom on and off for a few years, or lurked for some time before participating. For this question, we are more interested in learning when survey participants first joined fandom rather than gauging an individual’s level of active participation in football fandom. Accordingly, their earliest experience in fandom has been represented, regardless of how active their participation has been. 

Less than one year - 26 (12.9%)

1 to 3 years - 118 (58.4%)

4 to 7 years - 43 (21.3%)

8 to 10 years - 7 (3.4%)

More than 10 years - 6 (3.0%)

Abstained - 2 (1.0%)

We were also interested by the relationship between how long individuals had been following football and how long they had been in fandom. Each response was plotted on a graph according to these two answers, where the x-axis is the number of years an individual has followed football and the y-axis is the number of years they have been in fandom.

(The numerical value of 21 years following football has been used to signify individuals who answered that they had been following it since childhood. This was determined from the median age category of fans surveyed (18-24 years), as a way to quantify phrases such as “all my life” without having the individual’s exact age. As such, the scatter plot may be skewed slightly in comparison to the true ages of responders.)

The resulting scatter plot, seen above [1], shows that more people who have been following football in the last three years have also joined football fandom in a comparable time frame. The increased concentration of the points in the lower left of the graph demonstrates that people who are newer to football are joining fandom almost simultaneously to following the sport. It is also interesting to note how much more spread out the points are for responders who have been following football for more than ten years. While it is difficult to determine the cause for this trend, it may reflect the inherent bias of our survey toward active Tumblr users since we circulated and promoted the survey largely on the platform, which celebrated its tenth birthday earlier this year, as well as the increasing importance of Tumblr as a hub for fandom.

[1] The scatter plot has been updated to reflect the correction of minor errors in data entry. For example, in the original graph, two responders said that they did not know when they started following football but had been in the fandom for x years. In this case, the years following football was incorrectly entered as 0. A more accurate representation would be x (or, years in football fandom), with the assumption that the responder had been following football for at least the same length of time they have been in fandom, which this graph represents accordingly. Thank you to KS for bringing this is our attention.

What made you join the football fandom?

Several people mentioned that they joined the fandom because of tumblr, because they saw a meme or a graphic. Quite a few people mentioned joining because of a World Cup or an Euro or because of Copa America. People mentioned that they were looking for a community of like minded people, and that they wanted to be updated all the time and in one place (and this made them join the fandom on tumblr. A few people mentioned they joined for the fanfiction, either by seeing their favorite authors’ tumblrs, or by looking for more.

The consensus seems to be that a big event in football that has a lot of hype surrounding it, also raises the interest of people to join the fandom.

Have you been in or are you part of any other fandoms?

The majority of people have been in other fandoms before entering the football fandom, or are still in other fandoms. Some of the answers we got were of other RPF fandoms like hockey, One Direction, Five Seconds Of Summer, bandom, actors RPF, and others. Some people mentioned anime fandoms, like Yuuri on Ice and One Piece, and TV shows like Shadowhunters, Skam, Sherlock, Doctor Who and Supernatural.

What platforms or websites do you use to engage with fandom?

Following the near consensus of responders who stated they used Tumblr to engage with fandom (198 individuals, 98%), the next most popular platforms were Twitter (115, 56.9%), Instagram (96, 47.5%), Livejournal (64, 31.7%) and Snapchat (44, 21.8%). Fans also reported using other platforms such as Ao3, Fanfiction.net, Pinterest, Facebook, Wattpad, and ask.fm.

How long have you used these platforms to engage in fandom?

When asked how long fans have used the aforementioned platforms to engage with any fandom, nearly half (97 responders, 48.0%) said that they have been using these platforms for less than three years.

Less than one year - 17 (8.4%)

1 to 3 years - 80 (39.6%)

4 to 7 years - 69 (34.2%)

8 to 10 years - 16 (7.9%)

More than 10 years - 20 (9.9%)

Conclusion

The football fandom is very diverse and has members from many different cultural backgrounds and ages. In this way, it reflects the people we watch on the pitch and is a testament to how far this sport can reach. As such, this fandom offers us an opportunity to learn and coexist in an online space with people whose stories we’d otherwise never get to see.

The members of this fandom show their support and participation in different way, either by making graphics or spreading information, or by writing fic, or making memes, liveblogging, or just by reblogging the content.

As this survey was conducted and spread mostly through Tumblr, there’s a bias towards people who use this platform. And while two hundred people is a higher response than we thought, it’s hardly an accurate representation of every football blog on tumblr, because those probably number in the thousands. Still, it offers some interesting insights, especially perhaps to those who participate in the fandom by reading and writing fic, since this is what our survey focused on. We hope you find something new and interesting in our results and the solutions we’ve come up with.

Join us tomorrow on the @footballmetrics blog where we’ll talk about the Reading section of the survey. We’ll be posting sections of the report every day for the rest of this week, culminating in the Solutions section on Sunday. Please feel free to reblog this post with your comments or insight, or contact us through the askbox.

[gethealthy18-blog]

35 Fun Things To Do With Friends

New Post has been published on http://healingawerness.com/getting-healthy/getting-healthy-women/35-fun-things-to-do-with-friends/

35 Fun Things To Do With Friends

Harini Natarajan Hyderabd040-395603080 August 30, 2019

Looking for some new and fun things to do with your buddies? Well, all you need to do is look around!

If you all always hang out at eateries, clubs, or pubs, it’s time to try something new. It doesn’t matter where you live – there are so many amazing places to go to and fun things to do that don’t cost much. If you and your friends keep nudging each other to come up with something to do over the weekend or even on a weekday, all you need to do is take a look at this list. Choose the ones that you all like and go and have a blast!

Fun Things To Do With Friends

1. Organize A Bonfire

Shutterstock

This is a great idea for winters. Set up a bonfire, and roast s’ mores, marshmallows, and other tasty stuff. It is the perfect opportunity to tell each other ghost stories or maybe even have some heart-to-heart conversations. You can also get sleeping bags and simply camp around it.

2. Amusement Park

This is a no brainer – you will have crazy fun no matter what. And remember, riding the giant wheel is a must.

3. Pottery Painting

Are you a creative lot? Try painting pottery. Find a local pottery store, buy some pottery, and go crazy. You can also get coffee mugs or wall hangings to paint and decorate your room with. Make sure you buy paint that could be put on earthenware.

4. Bake A Cake!

Shutterstock

Making fresh-baked cake, bread, and cookies and then devouring them is something you all need to experience if you want to reach the Zen level of happiness. In fact, you can even split into teams and have a contest of who can bake the best dish. The winning team eats it all!

5. Horseback Riding

Stroll the neighborhood on horseback! If you and your friends are into this sort of thing, you can have a great ‘Western’ day. You can get Wild West outfits and have a fun photoshoot as well!

6. Go To A Concert

Check out which artists are performing in your area. Yes, the tickets may be expensive, but you guys better save up for this than spend it at clubs. Anyway, being with your buddies will make it super-duper fun no matter where you guys are sitting!

7. Go And Visit The Local Animal Shelter

Shutterstock

If you all love animals, go and cuddle with some cute animals at an animal shelter. Show them some love, and maybe even take the dogs on a walk. They will adore you for it!

8. Go To The Zoo

On a nice, cool day, go and check out the newest exhibit at your local zoo. Walk around with your buddies and take pics of your favorite animals. You can have a nice outing and buy souvenirs from the zoo outlet as well.

9. Go Zip-Lining

Are you up for an exhilarating day with your buddies? Go zip-lining! It will be a day to remember. You will get to glide through the treetops and have that adrenaline rush. In some places, you can even get to experience this thrill at night.

10. Laser Tag

Shutterstock

Get your group of friends to play a game of laser tag. Many places offer fun themes, and you can have a great time doing this.

11. Go To A Park

Goof around on the playgrounds, play some Frisbee, or even go exploring. Whatever you decide to do, it will be super fun because you are getting to spend time with your friends.

12. Find A New Coffee Cafe

There are so many different kinds of coffee cafes that have their own theme. Find a new, funky one and enjoy the music, a super delicious latte, and a great chat with your friends.

13. Go To A Festival

Shutterstock

Check online for upcoming festivals or fairs in your city or town and have fun going around with your friends. There is something for everybody – music festivals, craft fairs, food festivals, and so many more things!

14. Go To A Factory Outlet

Is there anything better than getting stuff from your favorite brand at a huge discount? The feeling is amazing, and it will be even more awesome if you will get to experience it with your pals.

15. Take Up A Craft

There are some awesome DIY ideas on Pinterest. Get together and get this thing done! You can gift it to your teacher or someone you all adore.

16. Go To An Aquarium

Plan a trip to your nearest aquarium. You will get to see your favorite sea animals and snap some pictures of them. Find out what the latest exhibit is and go and enjoy. If you go at the right time, you may even be lucky enough to see aquarium babies.

17. Participate In A Color Run

Shutterstock

Ever heard of a color run? If you guys are fitness enthusiasts, you will love this. You need to start out with a clean, white t-shirt. As you run, people will throw color at you, and eventually, you will get covered in the colors of a rainbow. Find out when your place is doing a color run, sign up with your friends, and enjoy the amazing experience!

18. Try Mini Golf

Mini golf is a super fun activity. It is a great way to spend time with your friends and have some lighthearted competition. Look for a place that offers fun themes like glow-in-the-dark mini golf – you will have a lot of fun.

19. Try Skiing Or Snowboarding

When the season is right, try skiing or snowboarding. If you have never tried it before, be warned – it is going insane fun. Just be safe and have loads of fun on the slopes!

20. See A Play Or Musical

Are you all a classy bunch? Then, this one is for you. Whether you are in high school, college, or even working at a company, you are never too young or too old to enjoy some amazing acting or awesome music. Gather your friends, sit back, relax, and get ready to be entertained!

21. Try A New Restaurant

Shutterstock

Trying out a new restaurant with your friends could be super fun, especially if you guys are foodies. Try going to a restaurant that has a theme and offers foods you normally don’t get elsewhere. Even if you only go for desserts, it can be a super fun way of having a new experience with your buddies.

22. Go To A Water Park

This is a great one for the summers! Water parks are always an amazing choice if you want to have some good, clean fun. Have fun splashing around and pushing your friends down the waterslide!

23. Watch A Match

Whether it is cricket, football, hockey, or any other game, attending a match with your friends is a super fun way of spending time with them. Get yourself some popcorn and enjoy the match.

24. Try Skating

Skating can be an ah-ma-zing way to spend time with your friends. Play your favorite songs on the speaker and have fun gliding around!

25. Go To The Beach Or The Lake

Shutterstock

Take a trip to the nearest beach or lake and have a lazy day relaxing. You could also go boating and swimming. Don’t forget your sunscreens!

26. Ice Skating

Ice skating, whether indoor or outdoor, can be a wonderful experience. You can have a lot of fun with your friends and even play with snow later on.

27. Go Bike Riding

Choose a beautiful day with great weather and gather a group of friends to go on a long bike ride. Find a safe bike trail and enjoy the wind and the exercise.

28. Photo Scavenger Hunt

Photo scavenger hunts are a great way to have fun. All you need to do is make a list of specific things around town, such as a stop sign, an ice cream shop, or a park. Divide yourselves into teams and start looking for these items. Snap a picture when you find them. The first group to find all the places/items wins! You will have tons of fun doing this.

30. Go Canoeing Or Kayaking

If you guys love water, this is what you all need to do. Go for canoeing or kayaking if you are looking for something different to do.

31. Movie Or TV Show Marathon

Shutterstock

Log on to Netflix and watch the Harry Potter series or Stranger Things. Get into your pajamas and have a fun, lazy day.

32. Have A Potluck Party

Host a potluck party and ask all your friends to bring a dish to share with others. If you can’t cook, maybe you can get snacks or desserts.

33. Host A Spa Day

If you and your girlfriends are in the mood for some TLC, you can do this spa thing. Try out new hairstyles on each other, give each other manicures, try facial masks, drink mojitos, and enjoy the day!

34. Go-Karting

Shutterstock

Go-karting is a great way to have fun and some friendly competition. The winner gets a voucher for bragging rights!

35. Have A Video Game Tournament

How about having a video game competition? Whether it is PUBG or Call of Duty, play against each other and hand out pizzas to the winners.

You don’t have to get bored of doing the same old things with your buddies ever again! Just go through the list and go for activities you know you and your buddies will like. Whether you are a couch potato or a marathon runner – there is something for everybody! Have lots of fun, and see your beautiful bond with your friends grow stronger.

Which of these activities are you going to try with your buddies? Share the details with us in the comments section below.

The following two tabs change content below.

Latest posts by Harini Natarajan (see all)

Harini Natarajan

RELATED ARTICLES

Source: https://www.stylecraze.com/articles/fun-things-to-do-with-friends/

[chocolateheal]

Seven Things About Fine Art Cards Online You Have To Experience It Yourself | fine art cards online

Seven Things About Fine Art Cards Online You Have To Experience It Yourself | fine art cards online – fine art cards online | Pleasant to be able to my blog, in this period I will explain to you in relation to keyword. And now, this is actually the first photograph:

Buy Bird Greeting Cards Online – Kathryn Callaghan Fine Art – fine art cards online | fine art cards online

How about image earlier mentioned? will be which amazing???. if you’re more dedicated thus, I’l l demonstrate some impression again under:

So, if you’d like to acquire the wonderful shots related to (Seven Things About Fine Art Cards Online You Have To Experience It Yourself | fine art cards online), press save button to download these pics in your computer. These are all set for download, if you appreciate and want to grab it, just click save symbol on the article, and it’ll be instantly saved to your computer.} At last if you desire to gain new and the latest image related with (Seven Things About Fine Art Cards Online You Have To Experience It Yourself | fine art cards online), please follow us on google plus or save this page, we try our best to provide daily up-date with all new and fresh images. Hope you love keeping right here. For many updates and recent information about (Seven Things About Fine Art Cards Online You Have To Experience It Yourself | fine art cards online) shots, please kindly follow us on tweets, path, Instagram and google plus, or you mark this page on bookmark area, We try to offer you up grade regularly with all new and fresh graphics, like your surfing, and find the ideal for you.

Thanks for visiting our website, contentabove (Seven Things About Fine Art Cards Online You Have To Experience It Yourself | fine art cards online) published .  Today we are excited to declare we have found a veryinteresting contentto be discussed, namely (Seven Things About Fine Art Cards Online You Have To Experience It Yourself | fine art cards online) Many people looking for info about(Seven Things About Fine Art Cards Online You Have To Experience It Yourself | fine art cards online) and certainly one of these is you, is not it?

Thanksgiving Blessings. Fine Art Greeting Cards | Zazzle – fine art cards online | fine art cards online

Luxury Printed Art Greetings Card: Sweet Peas & Fern … – fine art cards online | fine art cards online

Pumpernickel Press Pack of 27 Snowman with Birds Fine Art Embossed … – fine art cards online | fine art cards online

Vontobel Fine Art Publishing House, Fine Art Cards, order online … – fine art cards online | fine art cards online

CRAFTS (Carving Fine Art Summer Program) 27 – fine art cards online | fine art cards online

Medieval Unicorn And Girl Pepe Title The Frog Domenichino Unicorn … – fine art cards online | fine art cards online

Artist Original Postcards for Sale Online – Zodiac Signs … – fine art cards online | fine art cards online

How to Make and Sell Greeting Cards (with Pictures) – wikiHow – fine art cards online | fine art cards online

Best 20+ Card making templates ideas on Pinterest | Card … – fine art cards online | fine art cards online

A27 Fine Art Greeting Card : Historic Lincoln One, Greetings Cards … – fine art cards online | fine art cards online

Pack of 16 Country Ice Hockey Fine Art Embossed Deluxe … – fine art cards online | fine art cards online

Fine Art Cards Brochure – fine art cards online | fine art cards online

Vontobel Fine Art Publishing House, Fine Art Cards, order online … – fine art cards online | fine art cards online

Art Greeting Cards Printing, Art Card Printers, Giclee Fine Art … – fine art cards online | fine art cards online

Fine Art Cards Brochure – fine art cards online | fine art cards online

Imagina on Zazzle: Angel Christmas Cards Fine Art Burne-Jones – fine art cards online | fine art cards online

Vontobel Fine Art Publishing House, Fine Art Cards, order online … – fine art cards online | fine art cards online

"Angel's Descent" Fine Art Greeting Card | Zazzle – fine art cards online | fine art cards online

Vontobel Fine Art Publishing House, Fine Art Cards, order online … – fine art cards online | fine art cards online

Artist Original Postcards for Sale Online – Zodiac Signs … – fine art cards online | fine art cards online

Fine Art Greeting Cards by Kerri Meehan | Expression of Art – fine art cards online | fine art cards online

27 Christmas Cards (Fine Art) – Buy Online at QD Stores – fine art cards online | fine art cards online

Fine Art Cards For Sale – Kimoy Arts – fine art cards online | fine art cards online

Hubert Fine Art | Limited Edition Fine Art Greetings Cards … – fine art cards online | fine art cards online

Fine Art Greeting Card – Duck in the Daffodils – KF Studio – fine art cards online | fine art cards online

Artist Original Fine Art Cards for Sale Online – Emotion – fine art cards online | fine art cards online

Dry Lake – fine art cards online | fine art cards online

A27 Fine Art Greeting Card : Historic Lincoln Two, Greetings Cards … – fine art cards online | fine art cards online

from WordPress https://americanartist.club/seven-things-about-fine-art-cards-online-you-have-to-experience-it-yourself-fine-art-cards-online/

[healthbolt-blog]

New Post has been published on Health bolt

New Post has been published on http://www.healthbolt.net/cooking/healthy-cooking-for-men/

Healthy Cooking For Men

Contents

Heat. cook onion

Healthy cooking resources

Shih tzu super-wonderful healthy meals

Sweet potato fo

Perfect healthy alternative

Brown sugar replacement. previously

MINETTO – Members of the Oswego State Men’s Ice Hockey team made a detour on the Healthy Highway when they stopped at Minetto …

Many men have never had cooking responsibilities until life circumstances … The course also covers topics such as meal plan…

Are microwaves bad for your health? Almost every American home has a microwave oven. The convenience they offer is undeniable. But despite the widespread use of microwave ovens and their excellent safety record, some people have lingering doubts that cooking food with microwaves somehow makes food less healthy by zapping the nutrients out of food. . Does cooking with microwaves do t

Cooking with the Bears: Healthy Recipes by Hairy Men [Angelo Sindaco] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. “Now there is a cookbook that rises above the junk―and it’s specifically designed for a subculture of hirsute

That’s the same amount of sugar in 3.8 12-ounce cans of Pepsi. The Editors of Men’s Health The editors of Men’s Health are yo…

Healthy Cooking for Two (Or Just You) "At last…a cookbook for us! Plenty of reliable, effortless main dishes."–Catherine Houck, Dieter’s Notebook columnist, Cosmopolitan magazine "An especially good book for beginning cooks, empty-nesters and health-oriented small families.

Make the most of your pantry. Learn what to keep and what to throw out as well as food safety and healthy cooking & cookware tips. Enjoy!

And since restaurant food is typically high in sodium, fat and calories, going out for lunch a lot can significantly impact a man’s health — and his waistline. Preparing your own box lunch is a more …

The Healthy Cooking blog includes easy healthy recipes, diabetic recipes, gluten-free recipes, and easy recipes for cancer patients.

How To Cook Healthy Tasty Broccoli Good Healthy Meals To Cook For Dinner All right, then more healthy food it is. Are you cooking and eating healthier … we should take time to recognize the way we … Cooking Eggplant Healthy But what if you could eat food that’s both healthy and delicious … remaining coconut oil. Cook over medium heat for five to … Find quick and healthy recipes, nutrition tips, entertaining menus, and fitness guides to help you make smart choices for a healthy lifestyle from Cooking Light magazine. In a sauce pan heat oil over medium-high heat. cook onion for about 5 minutes until soft. Add garlic, red pepper, eggplant and celery root and saute for 10 minutes. Crispy on the outside and super soft on the inside with toppings of marinara sauce and fresh mozzarella cheese. This Air Fryer eggplant parmesan will be a super hit in the family. Serve on the side of whole grain pasta for a perfect wholesome healthy meal. I love eating eggplant parmesan in the … There’s one final tool I want to give you that will help keep all the amazing healthy habits you’re developing this month car… Find healthy, delicious eggplant recipes including baked, roasted, grilled and stuffed eggplant. Healthier recipes, from the food and nutrition experts at EatingWell. We are challenging ourselves to eat 30 vegetables in 30 days! Join us for healthy recipes to try a different vegetable every day … Best Youtube Channels For Healthy Cooking Learn to Cook with the Top 5 Healthy Cooking Channels on YouTube August 29, 2017. … These YouTube channels could be your best healthy cooking resources! … If you’re looking for even more cooking channels on YouTube, look no further. The channels that we … Best of YouTube Music … All Categories Cooking & Health 30 channels. subscribe subscribed unsubscribe 10m. … On this channel, you will find tons of healthy recipes, including epic meal prep … Healthy Home Cooking For The Shih Tzu You’re just one step away from obtaining your book and offering your shih tzu super-wonderful healthy meals with no fillers, preservatives or nasty by-products. 67 recipes in all! Once your payment is received, you will immediately see a button, so you can have your book right away. No waiting! You’ll also be sent an email with your book, so that you can place it anywhere: computer, laptop … Franké said her Thumper, half toy poodle, half shih tzu, is "like my … president. The food is made from proprietary recipes, m… Dear Dr. Fox • I have a 4-year-old female shih tzu … food recipe from the Internet, and I would like to know how much of my home-prepared food I should give her daily? How much dry food? She eats tw… Explore Marcela Bowers’s board "homemde shih tzu food" on Pinterest. | See more ideas about Make dog food, Pets and Dog recipes. … I’d make sure they had healthy, home-made & non processed meals…so am I crazy if I’m seriously

Men’s Journal aims to feature only the best products and … From socks and grooming products to craft beer and healthy meals …

How To Cook Sweet Potatoes In Oven Healthy … maple oven-roasted sweet potatoes taylor kiser‘s quick Paleo Maple Oven-Roasted Sweet Potatoes in coconut oil are sweet, spicy, and so easy to make! If you need a simple recipe to batch cook to fe… My go-to recipe for a single fillet is one-quarter … salt and pepper and roasted in the oven alongside your sweet potato fo… Roasted sweet potatoes look like something easy to make, but achieving a perfectly … and a lot of wasted energy from your oven if it’s not done right. That’s why it’s so important to learn to do it … "This gluten-free sweet potato gnocchi is the perfect healthy alternative to the traditional … is a little softer than the … How To Cook Healthy Tasty Broccoli Good Healthy Meals To Cook For Dinner All right, then more healthy food it is. Are you cooking and eating healthier … we should take time to recognize the way we … Cooking Eggplant Healthy But what if you could eat food that’s both healthy and delicious … remaining coconut oil. Cook over medium heat for five to … Find quick and healthy recipes, nutrition tips, entertaining menus, and fitness guides to help you make smart choices for a healthy lifestyle from Cooking Light magazine. In a sauce pan heat oil over medium-high heat. cook onion for about 5 minutes until soft. Add garlic, red pepper, eggplant and celery root and saute for 10 minutes. Crispy on the outside and super soft on the inside with toppings of marinara sauce and fresh mozzarella cheese. This Air Fryer eggplant parmesan will be a super hit in the family. Serve on the side of whole grain pasta for a perfect wholesome healthy meal. I love eating eggplant parmesan in the … There’s one final tool I want to give you that will help keep all the amazing healthy habits you’re developing this month car… Find healthy, delicious eggplant recipes including baked, roasted, grilled and stuffed eggplant. Healthier recipes, from the food and nutrition experts at EatingWell. We are challenging ourselves to eat 30 vegetables in 30 days! Join us for healthy recipes to try a different vegetable every day … Best Youtube Channels For Healthy Cooking Learn to Cook with the Top 5 Healthy Cooking Channels on YouTube August 29, 2017. … These YouTube channels could be your best healthy cooking resources! … If you’re looking for even more cooking channels on YouTube, look no further. The channels that we … Best of YouTube Music … All Categories Cooking & Health 30 channels. subscribe subscribed unsubscribe 10m. … On this channel, you will find tons of healthy recipes, including epic meal prep … Healthy Home Cooking For The Shih Tzu You’re just one step away from obtaining your book and offering your Shih tzu super-wonderful healthy meals with no fillers, preservatives or nasty by-products. 67 recipes in all! Once your payment is received, you will immediately see a button, so you can have your book right away. No Healthy Substitute For Brown Sugar In Cooking custard powder Notes: Bird’s is a popular brand.Look for this in British specialty markets. Substitutes: instant vanilla pudding mix (Substitute measure for measure) dark brown sugar (1 C = 6 ounces) Substitutes: 1 C light brown sugar + 1 tablespoon molasses OR 1 C granulated sugar … Oct 03, 2017  · A general substitute for brown sugar in baking is to use white sugar and molasses together to create the flavor and texture expected in brown sugar. Oats are naturally gluten-free and can be added to many recipes as a partial substitute for flour … Sprinkle with more cinn… This is a fantastic brown sugar replacement. previously we have used stevia and erithyritol as a sugar replacement, but they are difficult to replace brown sugar with … Try avocado as the substitute in your next batch of healthy brownies. We’ve got a delicious Chocolately Avocado Brownie recip… Cooking Eggplant Healthy But what if you could eat food that’s both healthy and delicious … remaining coconut oil. Cook over medium heat for five to … Find quick and healthy recipes, nutrition tips, entertaining menus, and fitness guides to help you make smart choices for a healthy lifestyle from Cooking Light magazine. In a sauce pan heat oil over medium-high heat. Cook onion for about 5 minutes until soft. Add garlic, red pepper, eggplant and celery root and saute for 10 minutes. Crispy on the outside and super soft on the inside with toppings of marinara sauce and fresh mozzarella cheese. This Air Fryer eggplant parmesan will be a super hit in the family. Serve on the side of whole grain pasta for a perfect wholesome healthy meal. I love eating eggplant parmesan in the … There’s one final tool I want to give you that will help keep all the amazing healthy habits you’re developing this month car… Find healthy, delicious eggplant recipes including baked, roasted, grilled and stuffed eggplant. Healthier recipes, from the food and nutrition experts at EatingWell. We are challenging ourselves to eat 30 vegetables in 30 days! Join us for healthy recipes to try a different vegetable every day … Best Youtube Channels For Healthy Cooking Learn to Cook with the Top 5 Healthy Cooking Channels on YouTube August 29, 2017. … These YouTube channels could be your best healthy cooking resources! … If you’re looking for even more cooking channels on YouTube, look no further. The channels that we … Best of YouTube Music … All Categories Cooking & Health 30 channels. subscribe subscribed unsubscribe 10m. … On this channel, you will find tons of healthy recipes, including epic meal prep … Healthy Home Cooking For The Shih Tzu You’re just one step away from obtaining your book and offering your Shih Tzu super-wonderful healthy meals with no fillers, preservatives or nasty by-products. 67 recipes in all! Once your payment is received, you will immediately see a button, so you can have your book right away. No waiting! You’ll also be sent an email with your book,

[jameyoverton-blog]

If you have A Twitter Account

Twitter is now ubiquitous in media. Expect to make a number of errors inside your social media promoting. We're the world's greatest gathering of Buy instagram likes social networking enterprise, and we convey numerous sorts of on-line networking objects as likes, feedback, tweets, followers and so forth. It’s an important social networking platform that permits a user to perform a wide range of tasks from a synchronized account. It is here the place we are able to give you all of the free Twitter followers you want to boost your social presence and make your account well-known! While there are numerous extra Social Marketing tools, let's begin with these four. It's very easy for you to find a number of websites that provide you with the chance so as to add extra followers to your Pinterest profile more easily. How will this get you extra followers? Often don't put up too much on the Fb web page that individuals will shortly feel too saturated on your part. If you can add 200 people within ten minutes, you'll have at the least 20 followers by the top of the day. You’d be stunned at simply what number of issues you are able to do that you may not have thought of earlier than.

When you've got an Multi level marketing Home-based business alternative, you might have been beneficial to write an inventory of family and friends, brandbuilders then contact them about your product or business alternative. Quality content that may be properly written, authentic and in addition beneficial may keep people returning your weblog. Every of these third celebration providers don’t set costs based mostly purely on follower counts, but also on follower quality. I set a schedule to observe 250 individuals on daily basis, about 25 from every guru I was following. Once folks discover your video fascinating then they might follow your channel. Strive posting at a number of instances all through the day to seek out out as soon as your audience is regarded because the lively. Don’t be scared to tweet it a couple of occasions all through the week to help the content material achieve some traction. How typically do they tweet? Understand that whereas all of these steps are an vital part of finding and attracting targeted followers, the only method to keep them is by being an lively user on Twitter.

It is a implausible method to keep monitor of people who interact with you throughout Twitter chats and kind of give them props for doing so. With out a gimmick or a particularly engaging way of writing, tales about boring on a regular basis life won’t choose you up any readers. Not just any photograph however one where you are smiling and look like loving life. Do this for each key phrases that you simply think greatest describes what you wish to do and what you are twitting about. The committed Twitter customers that you are attempting to attach with like those that post Tweets continuously. Create Lists in your Clients, native businesses, competitors, trade networks, folks most engaged with, so and so forth. Give Your Target market Relevant Info: Intention to put up a combined vary of fascinating industry news and product or services developments out of your business. On the other hand, a POD firm typically offers a menu of providers together with manuscript formatting, cover design, proofing, and distribution.

The profile image and description gives potential followers an indication of your company’s companies and core rules, so you have to first make sure that your profile is full. Remember, a picture paints a thousand words - guarantee what you’re saying about you and your brand is skilled and not the opposite! However remember, by following too many people you will get overloaded with tweets and it could possibly becomes very difficult attempting to sustain with them. You may also goal @usernames, if a particular firm or individual has the kind of followers you would like to draw. Like basketball within the summer video games, hockey is the galvanizing team sport for the winter games. Working might be an exhilarating sport and if performed properly, can have quite a few advantages for each athlete. Then, you can click on their followers link and begin to observe their followers. In this article we shall enlighten you on how to increase your Twitter followers.