#this is soooooo old and don't get any ideas anyone bc i'm not doing more of these i just hoarded this one in case i ever felt like doing it

[oh-my-damn]

However, power imbalance wise, it's gross if he does that. Like if it is real and they're in love then there is some parts of it, at its roots, thats rotten. Bc he does not at all seem invested in her life, her hobbies, her personality. It's all been adapted to fit him and his needs.

This is part of what makes it so weird because he has always said he doesn’t like when a girlfriend adapts to his life. He has said he likes when they have their own thing going on unless maybe that’s why he chose someone that lives in another country ? He can just get rid of her when she adapts too much 🤷🏻‍♀️ any way you look at this thing it is the opposite of almost everything he has said he doesn’t like the only exception is being in control.

Soooooo many of you sent me something along the lines of this

I'm going to say this once and delete the others bc I understand why you all refer back to this but once I tell you this, you will no longer be doing that lol

Guys.

Have you not realized that we basically cannot trust anything he's ever said in an interview that painted him in a purely perfect light?

We've all found out more real shit about him in the past 4 months than in the last ten years, like the facts are staring you in the face.

I am willing to bet, without double checking, that he has not said that in an interview since either, before he dated Jenny, or since he left Marvel.

Because he hasn't said that he wanted a bossbitch/independent woman in a very, very long time. The interviews I remember them from are old, we're talking 2011-2015 MAX. But perhaps @nancydrewwouldnever knows something about this, I could be wrong.

The one thing I do know though, is how he talked about relationships and partners this last November when SMA came out. And an "independent strong woman with her own life and opinions and goals" does not fit that description. AT. ALL.

SO MUCH of what we think we know/knew about him were lies, fed to us by the Marvel machine bc they wanted us to believe him as Captain America. It's not true. He isn't real.

That family man who wants to get married and have kids and settle down and all that jazz? Maybe some part of him is in there.... But so is the narcissistic mama's boy who loves to go out and hook up routinely with young girls, the one who primarily does fuckbuddy situations and smokes a lot of weed and who says that if he hadn't become famous what he would have done with his life is "nothing."

I beg you all to look at back at all those interviews, with what we know now, and see them for what they are. So many of them are literally lines he's being fed (which is also why its the same lines over, and over, and over again.)

I understand breaking up with the idea of him is tough which is also why I wanted to write this. I don't blame anyone for believing in that person or him etc still. But lets stop using examples from his past interviews at this point, the only ones I would trust are the ones that are crazy (like the one where he got the interviewer drunk and she slept over at his house) or where he's not portrayed as americas golden boy (like the esquire 2020 interview).

[spurgie-cousin]

i feel like i should be dating and getting into relationships and i'm not opposed to the idea. i'm 24 and i always been single (had people like me before + a few dates), but i kind of feel... i don't want to? i don't want to be alone forever, but i'm not sure if i like it? i feel nauseous and stressed, and i don't understand how people develop feelings? also, this is going to make sound shallow and picky, i don't find the people i attract attractive in personality or appearance.

I have a family friend (I call her a niece) in college who has expressed something similar to me before, she feels like she needs to start dating bc everyone around her is but she doesn't really have any interest in it right now. I just try to remind her that she will never regret going at her own pace when it comes to big life decisions; so many people shoe horn themselves into relationships just bc they think they should be in one. It's ok to not date right now if you don't want to, 24 may feel old right now but it is soooooo young, you haven't even been a legal adult for a decade yet you have plenty of time.

Feeling stressed about going on dates is pretty common, personally I used to get SOOOO nervous about one on one dates omg, I would sweat like a monster and fumble my words lol it made me feel very uncomfortable. It's nice of like riding a bike, the more you do it the less nerve wracking it gets, but i also don't think it's bad to not go out with anyone you're not super interested in. With the right person it is eventually OK, or even fun, you start out nervous but it gets better. And a date can be whatever makes you feel the most comfortable.

I also don't think it's bad at all to acknowledge that you're not attracted to someone just because they are to you and I think that's also something girls should know. One of my grandmas was in a bad relationship with a guy for a while before meeting my grandpa and when I asked her what attracted her to him in the first place, she said "well he really liked me" and it made me so sad. So I don't think it's picky at all, you definitely want to vibe on a personality level at the very least.

[raleighcarrera]

10. staring at the other’s lips, trying not to kiss them, before giving in for raleigh x mc

(this is a lil continuation of this)

with at least a thousand people in the venue, he should’ve been able to ignore her, no problem.

as the party raged on around him, raleigh knew he should’ve been able to find a distraction, especially with so many -- drugs, alcohol, industry people to avoid and women to flirt with -- at his fingertips. 

but he wasn’t interested in those. the only thing he was interested in was loitering by the bar, looking ethereal in a long, silk gown cinched at her narrow waist. as his eyes trailed over her from behind, lingering on the line of her spine under the fabric, he wondered if the marks he’d left on her last saturday when she’d come over and immediately pulled him into his bedroom had faded yet.

before he could get too caught up in the memory, cadence turned and caught his eye. she had a champagne flute in one delicately manicured hand and didn’t appear surprised at all to find him staring at her, like she could feel the heat of his gaze even with so many people between them. 

raleigh slid his eyes slowly down her body and then turned away, heading for the balcony at the far side of the room. if he knew her at all --

footsteps echoed in his ears a moment later, and the door closed behind cadence as she stepped up beside him. the sound from the party faded into silence, and just like that, it felt like they were completely alone. he stared out over the city as she leaned her arms on the balcony beside him.

“hey.” 

unable to resist the temptation, he slid his eyes to the side and glanced at her. just a glimpse was enough to weaken his resolve; raleigh turned his head fully and took her in from up close. she was just as stunning as she’d been in his fresh-from-tour sheets on saturday, smiling up at him while he leaned over her in bed. 

“hey, stranger,” raleigh returned casually -- more casually than he felt. “long time no see.”

she was still carrying her champagne flute and he ached, suddenly, for a drink of his own -- anything that’d make this interaction go down a little easier. especially considering that the illusion of privacy they had was just that: an illusion. no one here could know that they were anything other than broken up -- if they even were anything else. which he doubted.

“i forgot to ask you,” she murmured, flushing a little for some reason he couldn’t understand, “how was europe? tour?”

true, they hadn’t done much talking on saturday. he’d barely dropped his bags before she came in from the private elevator and took him to bed. and she’d left pretty quickly afterwards.

“nice, i guess. it was only fifteen cities. done pretty quickly.” raleigh tapped his fingers against the stone ledge of the balcony. “what about you? got a release date for that album yet?”

it felt strange, making small talk with her. they weren’t small talk people -- or they never had been, before. maybe they were now.

“not yet. i’m still working on a few things.” a breeze blew through the balcony and cadence took a step closer to him, pressing her shoulder into his. raleigh turned his gaze back out at the city and then sighed, stepping away.

“what’d you come out here for?” 

cadence blinked at him. “what?”

he grit his teeth. “i said, why’d you follow me out here?”

“i... i don’t know. i thought you wanted to talk in private. you were staring at me.”

raleigh stepped away from the railing, then, turning towards her fully. fortunately, with the door shut behind them and the heavy curtains covering the windows, the chances of anyone inside seeing them were minimal. "of course i was. i haven’t heard from you all week.”

cadence’s brow furrowed, and she turned towards him, too, leaning her hip against the balcony ledge. “was i supposed to call you?”

he gaped back at her in disbelief. “okay -- you know what? forget it. i need to not be around you for awhile. i’ll see you later.”

she reached out for his arm before he could turn away and wrapped her fingers around the sleeve of his jacket tightly. “hey, what the hell is your problem? why are you mad at me?”

“i’m not mad at you,” he sighed, drawing in a deep breath to calm himself down before stepping closer to her again. “i just don’t want to do this with you right now.”

cadence dropped his arm and then folded her own under her chest, frowning at him. “good to see you’re as emotionally stunted as ever.”

raleigh’s patience instantly snapped cleanly in two. “i’m emotionally -- you’re out of your fucking mind,” he seethed, doing his very best to keep his voice low, even as he leaned in closer, crowding her back against the balcony’s ledge. “what’s your endgame with these mixed signals, anyway? i’d love to know.”

her eyes narrowed. “i haven’t been giving you any mixed signals.”

raleigh ticked each one off on his fingers as he said, “first you break up with me. then you write a song telling everyone you love me -- everyone except me -- then you come over and sleep with me after ignoring me for three months and now you think that i’m the one with the problem because i want to get over you in peace instead of playing this head game. i’d say those are pretty mixed, from where i’m standing.”

cadence leaned in closer, her face flushed -- a telltale sign that she was growing annoyed with him. “we broke up because of you. maybe you don’t remember, but you spent most of our relationship acting like you barely wanted me around.”

“that literally could not possibly be farther from the truth,” he shot back, leaning over her. his hands braced on the railing behind her back, caging her in. as he came closer, he noticed cadence’s eyes drop to his mouth, and his next retort died in his throat as the pink on her cheeks deepened.

there was nothing but the sound of the wind, then, and their own breathing. cadence still looked pretty angry at him, but her eyes were soft where they were narrowed in on his lips, and, with a swallow, he shifted his own gaze to her mouth, too.

her lips were parted and painted a soft pink; the memory of kissing her on saturday was making his fingers twitch where he was gripping the railing behind her. it’d be easy to go for it -- he’d only have to move an inch, and then she’d be in his arms again, and he could kiss her...

god, he was still so fucking mad at her, though. without lifting his eyes, he sighed, “if you don’t want to be with me then you need to leave me alone.”

cadence pursed her lips. a long moment of silence stretched between them.

then she leaned forward and kissed him. though he knew he should’ve seen it coming, raleigh was still surprised; his hands found the small of her back after a moment and he pulled her closer, kissing her back forcefully. 

no matter how much time had passed, cadence still felt the same under his hands. she still tasted the same, still responded the same, still fit perfectly against him. she did something to him he was sure no one else would ever be able to manage. 

the little half-sigh, half-moan she exhaled into his mouth just before she bit his lip went straight to his dick, and while he knew there was absolutely no way he could get her undressed out here, at an industry party, on the balcony in front of the entirety of midtown manhattan -- he still wanted. he was only human.

and he’d missed her.

cadence ripped her face away with a gasp, staring at him in surprise like she hadn’t been the one to kiss him. raleigh squeezed her waist, then asked, “you okay?”

she hesitated, then blew a lock of hair out of her eyes with a huff of annoyance. “no. i really miss you.”

he bit the inside of his cheek. she was just talking shit, same as always. “i’m right here.”

“not, like -- not, like, now. always. i miss being with you all the time.” 

“cadence --”

“no,” she interrupted, “listen.” he shut his mouth and watched her draw in a deep breath, squaring her shoulders. “the reason why i ended things was because i felt like you were never going to be able to be serious about us.” 

raleigh met her eyes and found himself unable to look away from how they were pleading at him. “but -- you were serious about us, right?” she asked, her voice so soft he could barely hear her over the wind. “the whole time, right?”

he pulled one hand away from her to run it through his hair. “yeah.”

she nodded, and as he stared at her some more he started to realize she’d never known that before right now. which meant he probably had been a pretty shitty boyfriend. 

“look,” he started again, “i thought the way i felt about you was obvious. you should’ve told me you had doubts.”

cadence averted her eyes. she still had her arms looped around his neck. “i know.” he shifted to get a little closer to her and felt her fingers slide into the hair at the back of his neck. it felt almost unnaturally good. “but... we could try this again, if you want.”

raleigh lifted a hand to her chin and tilted her face up. when their eyes met she looked both hopeful and sad in a way that made his heart pound. 

one day she really was going to ruin his life.

in lieu of an answer, he leaned down and kissed her again. cadence pushed back off the ledge of the balcony, pressing her body firmly against his. 

into her ear, so that he could be sure she’d hear him over the wind, raleigh finally told her exactly how he felt, as plainly as possible.