#i do feel lisa might like the sundays but only a few songs on her ipod that she keeps for appearances

[simurghed]

rly wish i could discuss what music the undersiders would like but i am so bad at ascertaining characters music tastes @_@

[irrlicht-writes]

a meadow memory

When Lisa breaks up with Dean, he's left afloat. The break-up didn't hurt in the way he thought it might and he's wondering why. What if she's replaced him? What if she just didn't want to hurt him and that's why she wouldn't say why she left him? In order to calm down, Dean follows the birds' chirping to the nearby park where he meets a curious stranger. He doesn't know this man and yet he doesn't object when he's led into the forest. Maybe it's okay. Maybe in the end, it will be okay.

Pairing: Dean/Castiel Rating: Teen Look at the art here! written for the Dean/Cas Reverse Bang. Find on Ao3 here! @insertdeeplyrics @professorerudite  Want to be added to the taglist? Hit me up!

*

 “When you're lost, come to me. I'm the path you're meant to find.”

 *

It’s a subtle thrum but it awakens something inside the soul.

“Do you want to play?”

There’s a forest behind the house.

“You don’t have to be afraid.”

There’s a boy with the shadow behind him.

“Go hide. I’ll find you.”

There are lights at the heart of the forest.

“You won’t get lost.”

It feels like they sing to him; and within their song, he loses himself in the fog.

*

 It’s a sunny afternoon. It’s a Sunday, and Dean’s stomach is pleasantly filled. There’s no radio on, and Dean has been enjoying the silence. It’s a nice feeling, sitting in peace once in a while. Maybe he should open the window so he can hear the birds. His place is not close to any real forest, but the local park is just around the corner. They do have some trees in there that could technically qualify as some sort of wilderness, if one is generous enough.

“Dean,” Lisa says and she doesn’t break the silence. Dean has been expecting this talk.

“Yeah?” he responds but doesn’t turn around to face her.

“Can we talk?”

Her voice is soft. Dean likes the sound of it. Lisa is an incredible good person, way too good for him. He nods at her request.

He knows what she wants.

They haven’t been a couple for a few months now – they’ve just been living together. Lisa has been talking about kids, cooing over strollers in the streets. Dean wants kids too, someday – but not just yet.

And he doesn’t know if he wants them with Lisa; or if Lisa really wants them with him.

It’s okay though. She deserves to be happy, so it’s okay.

Lisa shifts behind him before she starts to talk.

“You deserve to be happy, you know that?”

Huh. That’s weird. It doesn’t sound like any other break-up speech he’s ever had. Dean turns around and blinks at Lisa. She’s standing a few bits away from him and she – she doesn’t look sad. She doesn’t look sorry.

“I know you put other people’s happiness above your own, Dean, every time. No matter what it means for you, you want to make others happy. And, Dean, that’s wonderful. But I’d wish, that sometimes, you’d put your own happiness as a priority.

I know that they say relationships are a give and take. I go to a car show with you if you in turn accompany me to a shopping trip. But you never took me to any car shows, did you? Because you knew I wouldn’t enjoy them. And yet I’ve dragged you to shopping mall after shopping mall and you’ve never complained once. Because you knew I was enjoying myself.

But know what? I don’t think that’s how it’s supposed to be.

I want children. You know I do, and you also know I don’t want to wait that much longer before having them. I also know that you don’t want them, at least not yet. And yet, if it were to happen – you’d marry me, like your dad taught you to. But would you be happy? You might be, in some time. But it wouldn’t be what you’d want, right? You’d be married to me forever, and you’d tell yourself that that’s how it’s supposed to be like.

But I don’t want that.

I care about you, Dean, I care about you greatly. I want you to be happy, and your happiness doesn’t lie with me.”

She steps closer to him and Dean can feel the warmth radiating off of her. It’s comforting. She gently takes his face in her hands and presses her lips against his forehead.

“I care about you so much. I love you, Dean, don’t you doubt that. But love changes, you know? I don’t love you any less than I loved you a month ago. But it’s different now. And I’m going to move on.

I know you’re going to blame yourself for that. I know that you’re going to tell people that you must’ve done something wrong and that that’s why I left. And in the back of your head – you’ll wonder if maybe you weren’t good enough. That maybe I’ve found someone better than you, someone who’s worth my time.

But that’s not it, you know? There’s nobody else.

And I know that you will still think that, no matter how often I tell you, so I implore you: please believe me. Nobody’s replacing  you. You’re perfect, Dean.

You’re not perfect for me, but you are perfect just the way you are. Let no one tell you otherwise.

So even when I’m gone, remember that, please.

You’re perfect, it’s not your fault and you deserve happiness.

Please remember that, as a favour to me. Please.”

 She’s gone after that. Dean doesn’t feel empty though. He hadn’t been expecting this.

He looks back to the window. He had been expecting the sky to cloud over after this, even if it would’ve just been in his head, but no – it was still a nice sunny day.

He can even hear the birds, he thinks.

 *

 It’s not his fault.

 He wakes up the next day and he doesn’t feel like the weight of the world rests on his shoulders. It feels very weird and he doesn’t really know how to deal with it.

Dean sits up in bed and looks around. It all still looks the same as before. Somehow he had expected things to be different. Lisa is gone, after all. And yet, there are still birds outside. The world didn’t change.

Dean gets up and walks over to the window. It’s another nice day. Maybe he should visit the park today. He could hear the birds properly there. Lisa might be coming to pick up her things today though. But then again, she still has her own key and might even prefer not to see him. Love changes, she had said. He wonders what she meant by that.

  *

 Dean arrives at the park just shortly before noon. There aren’t many people here – a few joggers, a few dog-owners and a few parents with their strollers. Dean thinks that there might be a playground somewhere in the area. He’s never really been here before – he’s never had the time before. He wonders why.

He finds a bench and sits down. There’s nothing particular to look at but it soothes him still. He can hear the birds so much clearer now and closes his eyes to enjoy them better.

He can hear their chirping so much better here and there’s also the soft rattling of the leaves in the wind. It sounds a bit like a lullaby and it reminds him of home but he doesn’t remember why. They moved after Sammy had been born, maybe his first home had been close to a forest? Could be. Maybe. Possibly. But then again, it hardly matters anyway. He’s here now and the noises soothe his soul in a way he didn’t know he needed.

“Don’t fall asleep here, the flowers aren’t blooming here.”

The sudden voice drags him out of his daydream. Dean blinks and looks up, not even really registering what the guy had said. He’s sitting at a disadvantage but the new guy seems to be about as tall as Dean himself. Dean can’t see much against the light that shines from behind the guy.

“I... what?”

The guy bends down to his knees, looking Dean straight in the eyes.

“You were falling asleep,” he says, “and I told you not to.”

Dean doesn’t know how to respond. On the one hand, yes, falling asleep sitting upright on a park bench might not be the best thing – and someone might confuse him for a homeless dude and call the cops on him – but it’s not like that’s a crime or anything.

“But,” the guy continues without waiting for Dean’s response, “if you want, I can watch over you. If I protect you, you can sleep soundly.”

Dean blinks irritated. He’s just supposed to trust this dude out of nowhere? Yeah, that’s not gonna happen.

“Sorry pal, but I don’t even know you.”

The guy cocks his head and blinks.

“You don’t know me,” he repeats slowly as if he doesn’t understand.

“Yeah! Who’s to say you’re not just gonna run off with my things?!”

The guy blinks again.

“You only have your keys on you; and they serve me no purpose. Why would I take them?”

Dean just gapes at the man; and now, for the first time, properly takes him in: the guy has dark brown hair, a solid tan; he’s got stubble on his face and the bluest eyes Dean’s ever seen. Also there’s a flower in his hair but instead of it being weird, it makes a strange sort of sense somehow.

“You’re weird,” Dean says and he knows he should get up and leave.

The guy smiles. It seems familiar.

Dean doesn’t know why.

“You said something about flowers,” Dean continues.

The man nods and pulls the flower out of his hair.

“It’s not safe without them.”

He reaches forward to tuck the flower into Dean’s hair and he has no idea why he doesn’t resist.

“Why isn’t it safe without them?”

Blue eyes blink at him.

“It just isn’t,” the guy responds.

“My name’s Dean,” Dean says.

“I know,” the man responds and when Dean blinks, he’s gone.

He reaches into his hair and pulls the flower out. It’s wilting. It was in full bloom before.

Dean wonders.

Dean wonders, and watches the leaves.

The petals are carried off by the wind and maybe it’s safe wherever they go.

There’s a boy crouching on his windowsill.

 *

 He doesn’t know why he comes back.

Maybe the park is nice. Maybe he enjoys the fresh air. Maybe he enjoys the flowers that don’t bloom.

It’s not even ten when he makes it to the park. At night, he had been restless and he had kept staring at the flower. He had taken it home, cradled in his hands. He had felt bad – when the man removed the flower from his hair, it must’ve been sad since it had started wilting almost immediately. Dean had still put it into water, in a desperate attempt to save it.

He had thought that maybe, with enough good intention, the flower could be saved.

And yet  – it wasn’t dead.

When Dean woke up this morning, the flower was still hanging on. It had lost more petals during the night, but right now, it’s still alive.

It’s remarkable.

Maybe Dean wants to find the guy again just so that he could maybe save the flower.

He doesn’t know why he thinks the guy might be able to do that.

It might be because it’s the guy’s flower.

 Dean sits down on the bench again and waits. There are more joggers here today, but maybe that’s because it’s earlier than yesterday. Dean doesn’t really care anyway.

He can hear the birds in the trees. And as usual, they are a soothing sound. The leaves from the trees in the wind just help add to that melody. He tries hard to not fall asleep as there are no flowers around here. But it’s hard, Dean has to admit. But he can do it. He woke up so early today that he can stay awake now.

 Despite his best attempts, he falls asleep. This time, nobody comes to prevent him from doing so. When he wakes up, he doesn’t know how late it is. He just knows that he feels worse than before. His back and shoulders are stiff now. That serves him right for falling asleep on a public bench.

Dean stretches and looks around. The park is definitely more filled up now, but it doesn’t seem like anyone is paying him much attention. But also – the guy isn’t here. Somehow, Dean is disappointed.

So that poses the question; does he stay here and wait, or does he leave? Should he come back tomorrow? Should he come back at all?

He sits there for a moment longer, indecisive. Then he gets up and gets ready to leave.

Maybe the guy hadn’t been here after all.

 Dean doesn’t want to go home, so he wanders the streets a bit. He’s not sure why, maybe the crowd just sweeps him away for a while.

Lisa is gone.

And she was right. He blames himself for it. He thinks that maybe she left because she’s met someone else. That she’s met someone who’s better than him. He knows that she’s said that she didn’t, but – what if? What if she met some guy called Darren who’s just better than him?

What if she’s at Darren’s house right now, laughing with him about Dean? What if Darren is man enough to give her what she wants? In truth, he doesn’t really want to think about it. But what –

What if Darren doesn’t exist? What if what Lisa said is actually true? He looks up at the sky. It’s still a nice day today. He doesn’t know what to feel about this break-up. He doesn’t feel as heavy or guilty as he thinks he should. After all, all his previous break-ups had been his fault, at least that’s what he’s been told. And now Lisa had said it wasn’t his fault.

It’s not his fault.

He doesn’t think he can believe that. Something breaking apart must always be someone’s fault, right? Just like his parent’s divorce was Dad’s fault. Mom hadn’t done anything wrong, but Dad had. So, for him and Lisa – it must’ve been him. Maybe he hadn’t been able to satisfy her enough. Maybe he hadn’t had the money she’d been looking for. Maybe he hadn’t been enthusiastic enough about kids. Maybe it had been because he hadn’t proposed to her.

Dean steps out of the way of other passer-bys and stops.

Maybe he’s just not man enough.

After all, that’s what Dad’s always said.

Man up, son, he’d say.

After that, Dean had hid his Harrison Ford poster under his bed. He believed it might be better if Dad didn’t see that hanging about.

Maybe it’s his fault that Dad left. Maybe it’s him that drove Dad to another woman so he could have another firstborn son. Dad doesn’t need to tell Adam to man up, does he? Adam doesn’t have any Harrison Ford posters in his room like Dean used to have.

He should’ve been better for Lisa. If he could’ve just kept her, then –

Someone touches his hand.

Dean looks up and sees the guy from the park next to him. Dean blinks.

The man gently holds his hand and just looks at him and somehow, Dean calms down. He doesn’t recall what he had just been thinking about.

“Hello, Dean,” the man says and Dean breathes easier.

The guy interlopes their fingers and starts tugging Dean who willingly follows.

It’s okay now.

It’s all okay now.

The boy smiles the brightest smile Dean’s ever seen.

 *

 Maybe he closes his eyes. But he can hear the birds so much better now. He knows he should be able to hear people passing them by and the cars on the street but he can only hear the birds. They’re comforting. It reminds him of a time long ago, when there was a forest behind their house and he could hear the birds when he woke up.

The hand on his is warm. It even feels familiar.

“Someone held my hand once, just like this,” he says and he gets no response.

But that’s quite alright.

He wonders – who had it been? Who had held his hand like this and why did he let them go?

“There was a forest behind the house,” he says and he can feel the warmth of the man in front of him.

The forest was important – is important. Dean just doesn’t really know why or how.

“I think there was a boy, but – I can’t really remember –“

They stop but Dean doesn’t open his eyes just yet. He can’t really hear the birds anymore but that’s not so bad. He doesn’t miss them, because he feels closer to them than ever before. He’s still holding hands with the man. Dean steps closer to him.

“The flower you gave me,” he says, “it’s wilting.”

“That’s okay,” the man replies and something inside Dean is soothed by it.

Dean drops his head forward slowly until he comes to rest on the man’s shoulder. He doesn’t know why he’s allowed to do this. But it’s nice, it’s so nice.

“Flowers bloom and flowers wilt,” the man says, “but as long as you remember them, they’re never going to be gone.”

Their fingers are still intertwined.

Dean opens his eyes and he sees that they’re in the forest. He can’t remember walking this far; it all looks different from the few trees in the park. But maybe it’s the same? After all, Dean has never gone inside so what does he know? He trusts the stranger, oddly enough.

They’re still holding hands so it’s all okay.

“We're all like flowers. We bloom and we wilt, but for as long as we live, we'll bring joy to those around us. And when we are gone, we will be remembered fondly. So don't fret what's been lost, and relish the memory. Flowers will bloom again, and if you come back, I'll be here.”

Dean doesn’t really understand but he thinks there’s some truth in that. He can’t be sure however.

They sit down and Dean lowers himself to the ground. There is softness to the tree crowns and the man is quietly sitting next to him.

“I feel like I know you,” Dean says.

“Mayhap you do,” the man simply replies.

“She left me,” Dean says. “She says there’s nobody else but I don’t know if I can believe her.”

“Why not?”

The man’s voice is soft and the trees around them make Dean feel better.

“Because – because we didn’t fight. I didn’t – I didn’t give her a reason to leave, I think. She just – she just decided that I wasn’t good enough anymore. I’m – I’m never good enough.”

No, Sam is the golden child. He’s just – he’s just the first son, that’s all. He’s never been good enough for Dad and even though she’s never said it, he knows: Mom prefers Sam as well. If he had disappeared into the forest, none of them would have missed him. Maybe they wouldn’t even have noticed.

“What if – what if I got lost? What if they never looked for me? What if they were better off without me?”

What if he’s still lost even now? Dean’s breathing becomes erratic. He hasn’t talked to Sam in a while, so what – what if Sam just doesn’t remember him at all? What if Sam is happy that Dean’s lost in the forest? What if they’re having a family gathering right now, while he’s here and they don’t even think about him –?

“Hush now,” the man says and Dean takes a breath.

“I have something for you,” the man continues and Dean is trying to focus on the grass under his back. The grass is fresh and cold and the dirty ground beneath him is solid. He didn’t get lost. He’s here, he’s real, nobody forgot about him.

Yes, maybe he’s not the favourite child, maybe he’s not the one to be proud of, but that’s okay. At least they still remember him. At least they haven’t lost him. They haven’t lost him.

“Here,” the man then says and drops something onto Dean’s stomach. At first, he doesn’t notice. The tree crowns are moving softly in the wind and he can hear the birds in the distance. Then he looks up to the guy. He has blue eyes. Dean hadn’t noticed. And there – there are wings behind him. Oddly enough, that’s not even weird. It’s like they belong there. Dean wonders how he ever thought that this guy was complete without them.

The shadow behind the boy wavers. It’s bigger than Dean himself, but he’s not afraid. The shadow will protect him.

 Dean looks down. There’s a stone lying on his stomach. It feels oddly warm. He sits up a bit and takes the stone in his hand. It’s filling nicely into his palm, and there’s a blue shimmer to it. It might be more of a crystal than a stone and Dean could get lost staring into it.

“What is it?”

“It’s important,” the man replies, “and thus is why you must look after it.”

“Why me?”

“Because in the end, it was always meant to belong to you. In the end, you were always meant to come here.”

“What if I hadn’t come here?”

“Then I would’ve found you somewhere else. You were lost, and so I found you.”

The crystal hums in Dean’s hand. It’s a familiar tune.

“What if I lose it?”

“You will not. But shall you lose it regardless, don’t fret. It’ll come back here, and I’ll come back to you.”

Dean looks at him.

The man smiles the brightest smile that Dean’s ever seen.

 *

 He saw Lisa a few days ago. He’s seen her holding hands with some fellow he’s never seen before. So in conclusion, she did replace him. He hadn’t gone to talk to her, but he’d thought it might hurt seeing her. Alas, it has not done so.

He’s happy for her.

Maybe their break-up wasn’t his fault.

Maybe he can believe that now.

He’s gone to the park a few times since then, but the man never appeared again. Some part of him tries to tell him that this guy hasn’t been real at all. That the flower and the crystal are just something that Dean picked up somewhere.

It’s the rational explanation.

But he knows it’s not the truth.

The flower in his apartment is blooming and he hasn’t watered it in five days.

The crystal is still warm to the touch, even after four days in the freezer.

 Dean walks up the stairs. He has a job interview tomorrow. It’s going to go well. He knows it will. And even if he won’t get the job, it will still be good. The interview he’d have after he would be rejected from this job would be even better than the one tomorrow. He has hope. For the first time in a long time, he has perspective – and that perspective doesn’t scare him. It doesn’t prompt him to steer off his path.

There’s commotion in the hallway.

The place across from Dean had stood empty for a while. It seems like there’s a new tenant. Dean’s never had much to do with his neighbours, but maybe this one will be different. After all, why not try?

Dean’s standing next to his door, looking over to the open door across from him. Should he go over? Maybe he should wait introducing himself until tomorrow, when the guy moved in? He’s not sure. Dean fondles his keys in his pocket, but he doesn’t pull them out just yet.

He wonders where the guy has gone. Would he only ever appear again if Dean lost that stone? And would Dean be willing to try this out?

 The forest behind their house is quiet. But Dean is not afraid. There’s a boy holding his hand and so Dean knows he won’t get lost. The shadows behind the boy are not scary at all, and Dean even feels weirdly comforted by them.

They feel like a comfort blanket, wrapping all around him. He wonders what they are.

But then again, it doesn’t really matter that much.

They are nearing the meadow, and it feels like the leaves are singing.

 “Hello,” a deep voice tears Dean out of his thoughts. It sounds familiar.

Dean turns around and sees a man standing there. The man has dark hair, and is wearing an ugly sweater. He’s carrying a box labelled “books”.

He’s got blue eyes, and there’s a flower in his hair.

And around his neck, there’s a necklace. It’s filled with a warm blue glow.

It’s the guy from the park, but – different.

Dean just knows it’s different.

“Hey,” Dean replies.

The guy looks at him and Dean’s not sure what he sees in these eyes. Could it be recognition?

“I’m Castiel,” the man then says and of course. What other name could it have been?

“I’m Dean,” he says. He’s half-expecting an I know, but it never comes.

What comes instead is a curious tilt of head. It’s adorable.

“Let me help you”, Dean says and Castiel smiles.

“I would like that.”

Castiel has the brightest smile Dean’s ever seen.

 *

 “And at the end of the path, we’ll meet again. It might take years, and the path might be overgrown, but if you keep walking, the journey will feel like no journey at all.”

[imaginesmai]

Mob!Tom Holland - Fawn (2)

This is inspired by  Don’t play with fire , @peaceisadirtyword. It’s an amazing Ivar fic, take a look if you have time!

General summary  -  First part 

Plot of the chapter: there is something about Tom Holland that is as hypnotizing as looking at a star.

Tom Holland’s eyes, you discovered, weren’t totally dark. As the lights of the club hit them, they were hazelnut, and reminded you of autumn. Of when you were still living at home, with your mom and dad, and didn’t have half of the problems that you had now. Briefly, you let yourself go back there, to the comfort of the familiarity. But Richard’s voice didn’t let you avoid yourself for too long, as he was screeching in your ear.

You tried not to wince at his loud voice, choosing to keep yourself composed and calmed. What you just had done was a stupidity. One thing was to talk back to Sam, the brother who was in charge of arrangements and deals; or even to Harry, who was a maniac joker. But you had read the expedients with Richard last weekend, and he had specifically told you that Tom was out of reach. That the goal were his brothers, because he was too smart not to notice anything.

Still, you were sure he didn’t have any problem if anything happen to you. However, if you blew the cover, you were sure the club was the safest place.

“Shut up! Shut up right now!” Richard howled in your ear. “Tell him – damn, you screwed everything up! You better get to your knees to keep him from leaving, or –“

“He was just talking with my friend” you continued, feeling like Tom didn’t work like Richard thought. Either way, there was no backing down. “I – I was in between, and I, uh, I panicked. I’m sorry – he didn’t, he wasn’t doing anything”

The last part was almost whispered, and you sank in your place. The dress and the heels were driving away any type of confident you had had before, and in part you were glad for the make-up, because it made you more mature than what you were feeling. Richard was silent for a second on the other line, and you knew you were having an argument when you went back home.

If you went, because you weren’t so sure about getting away with calling Tom Holland a liar. You were very aware that who had reached to him was the bartender, a man that had seen everything from the beginning. That included Jacob talking to you first and then Lisa joining you. But you prayed that he had omitted the details of the encounter, and that he would keep his mouth shut to avoid a man getting beaten to a pulp.

“He wasn’t harassing you?”

Tom’s voice was softer than his brother’s. It had a weird ending that reminded you of the American accent, but the tone was clearly British. While Harry intimidated with just looking at someone, you found that Tom wasn’t even trying to intimidate you. If he wanted, probably, he could make you dissolve to tears right there, because you would crumple down with just a word.

But he talked nicely and slow, not to a baby but to a person. You shook your head and Jacob rushed to corroborate everything. He pointed to Lisa, who once more, was with a different man. Harry didn’t bother to hide how he checked her out, and with a look to his brother, he left the lollipop on an empty cup and left.

“I guess I misinterpreted the situation” Tom said with the ghost of an incredulous smile, and you knew he didn’t believe it. Instead of calling you out, he turned towards Jacob and became ten times more intimidating than his brother. “Get out of my sight and out of the club”

He didn’t bother making a threat, as it was pretty clear what messing with a Holland supposed. Jacob nodded so fast that you thought his head might fall off, and with a discrete grateful look sent your way, he scrambled away as quick as a rat. That left you with Tom a few feet away from you, staring right into your soul and in silence. He seemed to look right past the make-up, the short dress and the high heels.

The boys seemed to know him well enough to leave without him saying anything, and the noise of the club was back. It was sounding some electronic song that you had heard before, probably from Lisa or from any of her friends. People were once more crowding you and the lights were making you blind. The ices on your glass had melted, and when you went to take another sip, you realized you couldn’t without throwing up.

“I’m Tom” he introduced himself, making you jump. He advanced a few inches forward until he was close enough for you to hear him but respecting your personal space. “Who are you?”

From where he was, you could smell him too. You had grown to hate men perfume, because Richard bathed himself in it every morning before leaving the house. But Tom was wearing some soft, faint cologne that was nice enough to make you reconsider your opinion about them.

Remembering that, besides smelling him, you also had to answer, you coughed the lump on your throat. Richard seemed to notice your doubt and was quick to intervene again in the conversation.

“Don’t you dare to back down now” he warned you. “Give your name and ask him to go to the VIP zone”

The VIP zone, the place where the whole family spent the nights. There were other mobs gangs there too, some prostitutes and other known gangster’s wives. It was as if you wanted to enter into the wolf’s fangs.

“So you don’t have a name, that’s fine” Tom smiled at you, not rushing you to talk; unlike Richard, who was once more giving you orders. “I could call you fawn. You remind me of one”

For a second, you thought that you had been discovered. It sounded so different from when Richard said it that they didn’t seem like the same word. Tom chuckled at your surprised reaction, and you found it really cute. It had nothing to do with Harry’s laugh, that was filled with venom. It was a small sound, barely distinguishable against the sound of the music.

You gave him a hesitant smile, and Richard cheered you from the earpiece.

“My name is Y/N” you said hesitantly, and it came out as a weak squeak. “Thanks for – you know”

“Even if he wasn’t harassing you?” Tom raised a curious brow, and before you had time to think you had fucked up, he continued. “He deserved a beating, but it’s okay if you prefer to keep things low. First time I see that, though”

“He wasn’t a bad guy” you looked down to your laced hands on your lap, and thanked yourself from talking in the past and not in present. “He – my friend tends to drag attention to herself.”

“I think you’re far more pretty” he shrugged, and you swore he blushed. “If it’s okay for me to say so”

The giggle that left your lips wasn’t at all coordinated with what your brain was telling you, but you found it funny the way Tom didn’t look like the terrible man Richard had pictured in his files. Tom himself seemed delighted with that, and he showed you a cute full smile that stopped yours from dropping.

“Ask him now, Y/N”

You looked across the room for Jacob, or for Lisa. None of them were there, probably for different reasons; but who was there, was the other twin. Sam was looking at you, standing from the VIP place with a frown on his face. He had his arms crossed and, to you, was the most intimidating of the twins. There was a woman you didn’t recognized there, blonde and dressed in black, who was whispering something to him while looking at you too.

It seemed that you were dragging attention to yourself, and more than ever you were aware of what you were about to do. Sam’s hard eyes seemed to have a staring competition with you, and it was obvious who the winner was going to be.

After seeing your paling face, Tom turned around to where you were looking. You couldn’t have known how the brothers worked, what happened between them or why there was a sudden tension on the club. Both brothers stared at each other until Sam made some grimace wish his mouth. The blonde woman pointed towards you with your chin and turned on her heels.

“I should, uh, go” you decided, and ignored Richard strangled voice.

“What?” Tom turned again and frowned. “Is it –“

“Bye”

You didn’t let him try and finish his sentence, because you jumped from the stool and picked up your purse, running out of there as if the devil himself was behind you; although, that wasn’t far for the reality.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The coffee machine beeped, signalling that it was over and that your coffee was ready, waiting for you in the kitchen. You had forced yourself to make something to eat, too, and the pancakes slightly burned were on the counter, with a bunch of blueberries you had found in the market on Friday. The TV was on with some show you didn’t recognize, and the window was open and letting the morning breeze in.

It would have been a perfect Sunday morning, because you were still wearing your fuzzy pyjamas and the soft socks with little paws. But it wasn’t, because Richard hadn’t come home since last night and you were more than worried.

“I hope you know you fucked up”

That had been the last words from him before he had shut off the line, and when you had managed to find your way out of the club, the van he had on the other side of the street wasn’t there. You had walked back home, buried under your covers, and pretended to be asleep for a few hours.

Nine in the morning rolled by and still the only sound was the neighbour’s dog occasionally barking.

You rose up from your spot on the couch and walked to the kitchen island, that was open to the living room. The house itself was the cute and minimalistic, designed by yourself when you decided to move to the centre of London. You had found a place to rent and create your own business of interior design. And then, just when you were about to leave again, you met Richard.

You took a sip at your coffee as you thought about it. Richard had been investigating an illegal business when he stumbled upon you, a victim in what had been a fake renting contract. After proving your innocence, he had to requisite the place and shut it down; which left you crushed. So he helped you to find a new one, and meanwhile, made you fall in love with him. You almost smiled at the memory of your first days or months together.

It wasn’t like that anymore, and you both knew it.

Taking a fork, you were ready to eat at least half pancake when the door banged open. You didn’t have to look up to know who he was, the characteristic slurred pace that he had when he drank giving him away. Richard slammed the door shut and threw his keys on the small bowl, making them clatter around only to fall to the ground.

He swore but didn’t pick them up. In a few long strides, he appeared through the living room door. Richard was still wearing the clothes of the previous night, his jacket open and loose by one shoulder, and his trousers with a big, dark stain. What saddened you the most were his unfocused eyes and half parted mouth, sings of his drinking.

“Richard –“

“I don’t want to hear it” he raised a hand towards you. He gave you a goofy smile, and you frowned. There was nothing to be happy about. “You fucked up. I don’t know why I trusted you. It’s okay, it’s okay. I should have known that you don’t love me enough to do as I say, and that you’re too pathetic”

You blinked surprised at his accusation, so bluntly done. It was as if he didn’t care about how bad it had been for you to go to the club, to stay there for hours or for endure the harassing from his mate without your boyfriend doing anything. You clenched your fingers around the fork.

“How can you say that?” you asked. “I went there for you! Because you asked me to!”

“No, Y/N” he changed the hand for a finger pointing at you. “I asked you to go there, up in the VIP zone, and get out of him whatever you could”

“Their brothers – they were all there” you whined, and felt like losing the argument. “I couldn’t just ask him what illegal activities he had been up lately!”

“Yes you could have. It was as easy as opening your pretty lips to say something that wasn’t garbage, that was all you did back there!” his tone started to go up, until he was almost yelling. “You’re lucky Tom Holland is as idiot as you, because I wouldn’t have spared you a second glance.”

Hurt exploded in your chest like a bomb at his harsh words, and you let the fork laying on its place. Richard had the speciality of making you feel down in a second, and knew where to hit every time to do that. In your opinion, Tom wouldn’t have spared you a second glace if you had been anything of what he wanted. It wasn’t as if you knew him – you had barely heard two sentences from him. But it occurred to you, that Richard and Tom were complete different people.

“Look, I’m sorry” Richard sighed, walking to you until he was on the other side of the counter. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to sound so rough. But it’s really important for me to catch them. They’ve been tormenting the police for a while now”

“Okay”

Your answer was soft and your eyes were once more filled with tears. You felt like an idiot for crying about something like that, but Richard was making it difficult. He sighed again and moved around the counter. Once he was besides you, he hugged you close to his chest with one arm. That way, you could easily breath the alcohol on his clothes.

Richard pulled you tight against him and whispered an apology once more, and it sounded sincere. You knew it was hard for him, that he had always felt the pressure of being perfect on everything and that the Hollands wouldn’t let him. But you wondered if there was something else, or was just the desire of being good at everything.

“You know, we can go eat to the restaurant you like so much” Richard proposed, and you let out a shy smile. “And then go for a walk. It’s a pretty day, right?”

“Yeah” you nodded, and cuddled closer to him. “I’m exhausted”

“Well you better catch up today” Richard tore away from you, and you frowned. “Because you’re going out again on Monday. And this time you’re gonna be able to prove how much you really love me”

Richard walked away whistling some unknown melody while you stood on your place, mouth open and big tears forming in your eyes.

Want to know more about me? Here is my Masterlist! Feedback is always appreciated!!

Tom Holland/ Peter Parker taglist:

@delicately-important-trash

@lexxxistrips

@smilexcaptainx

@aikaterrina

@zalladane

@gypsystuf (since you didn’t answer me, I just put you on the general taglist. Let me know if you want to change!)

@nikkixostan  (since you didn’t answer me, I just put you on the general taglist. Let me know if you want to change!)

Tom Holland fawn taglist:

@averyfosterthoughts

@killerqueenvibes

@spideylovin

@fantastic-fans

@addictofsupernatural

@americaswritings

@itsjusttor

@theartofemeralds (I can’t find you @sunflxwer99) 

@dramione-winchester-mccall

@nicolettalauren

@coveredinthemessimade

@spideydobik

[let-me-write-shit]

Like We Used To: 15

A/N: I posted chapter fourteen at 2 AM, so make sure you read that one first! 

Please let me know if there’s anything you’d like to see in the next (or any) upcoming chapters! I might be able to try and find a way to include it. :) Enjoy!

[CLICK HERE FOR PREVIOUS CHAPTERS]

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CHAPTER FIFTEEN

The sun wasn’t even up yet by the time Harry and Elizabeth had woken up. Mitch and Sarah wound up staying until a bit past midnight, so the two of them only got maybe five hours of sleep that night before having to get ready and meet everyone else at the news station. Harry reassured her that she would blend right in because of the amount of people that came with him, which did settle her a bit, but as soon as they got to the venue Harry’s publicist had pulled him to the side. 

Apparently the man they saw taking pictures of Harry’s car after dinner last night had also managed to grab a picture of when Harry grabbed her hand, leading her to the car. It started spreading around news outlets overnight and his fans started to notice that she was the same girl in the background of the pictures of Harry going to the club on Sunday. Now there was speculation of a ‘new girlfriend’. Although this first arrangement was just a performance on the news to promote a show next month, they would be heading directly to a broadcasted radio station afterwards for an interview. He was warned that they might ask about it. She suddenly felt a bit foolish for wearing a white lace bra poking through her semi sheer white half buttoned shirt tucking into her ripped high-waisted mom jeans.

“I’m so sorry,” Elizabeth whispered when he came back, “We shouldn’t have gone out to dinner last night.”

“It’s fine, I just don’t want this to scare you off. I can handle it.”

Harry joined the rest of his bandmates to rehearse while Elizabeth joined Lisa and Jeffrey off to the side. They had comforted her in reminding her that it wasn’t the first time he was pictured with a girl that caused dating rumors, but then the thought of him having been with international models sunk in and she started to feel silly that she was even remotely involved with Harry in the first place. 

She watched at the side of the stage, out of view from his fans, as Harry and his backing band performed ‘Cherry’. She hadn’t seen him perform since they were kids. Of course she saw some of his performances online in passing, but she tried her best to avoid it as much as she could. Elizabeth found herself feeling extremely proud of how far he’s come and in awe of how great they all sounded together. 

As soon as he finished singing and the cheers from the fans had died down, a news anchor made her way over towards him to congratulate him on the success of his album. She reiterated his Halloween performance next month before wishing him good luck and cutting the camera. He had managed to give final thanks and goodbyes and within an hour they were ready to go. 

Since there were no performances at the next interview, his bandmates were able to head off and enjoy the rest of the day off until tomorrow. Elizabeth had traded phone numbers with Mitch and Sarah in case she wanted to meet up with them later and joined Harry, Jeffrey, Kenneth, and Lisa to the radio station. Harry had gone through the office introducing himself and his manager before vaguely introducing the rest of them. They didn’t really pay her, Lisa, or Kenneth any mind, which actually made her feel a bit better. Maybe they didn’t really know who she was.

Even though the interview was for a radio station, it was still being video broadcasted live to their website, so Harry was prepped in the studio while the rest of them sat off to the side out of frame of the camera’s. Elizabeth sunk in the back between Kenneth and Lisa so she wouldn’t get noticed and looked between Harry in the studio, and a television above them that displayed what their website video would look like.

Harry was given some headphones to wear and when commercial break was over they introduced Harry. The first few minutes went pretty smoothly. There was a good amount of banter in between questions like if he had been working on any new album or songs, which he admitted that he was in the works on making new songs. Most of the questions were pertaining to his current album and the concert coming up before it started getting a bit personal.

“Now it’s been discussed that this album is, essentially, a break up album, correct?” The broadcaster said, “I mean, I know that there are a few songs that are influenced by the start of a relationship and the fun that comes along with that, but for instance, Cherry. You include a voicemail from your ex at the end. How was that song to write? Was it a bit emotional to get it out, or was it just a relief to get it off your chest?”

Elizabeth’s stomach twisted a bit hearing Harry talk about past relationships, especially songs written about them. Obviously it was his job, but it almost felt like she was intruding on a part of his life that she wasn’t supposed to know about for some reason. She supposed this was better than actually having to interact with one of his exes like he had to do last weekend. 

The interview continued to get more personal and her heart started racing, knowing where this was about to go as the radio host said, “So we have to ask, are you currently seeing anyone?”

Harry did his lopsided grin and Elizabeth could tell that he was starting to get a bit embarrassed as he said, “Euhh...I’m just having fun at the moment, really.”

“So no girlfriends?”

“No girlfriends, no,” Harry shook his head.

“Because I have to bring it up, the listeners will kill me if I don’t,” he laughed, “I can already see the hundreds of angry emails coming in. You were spotted last night holding hands with a beautiful woman, leaving a Chinese restaurant in LA...” the picture of the two of them last night popped up.

Harry nodded, only vaguely saying, “Yeah, that is me. Yep.” and laughing a bit

The host chuckled and said, “Right, now your fans also noticed the resemblance between this woman, and the woman you were seen at a club outside of London last week,” the picture of him walking into a club with her and their friends in the background had popped up. Elizabeth was circled. 

“I am always impressed with the amount of investigative work by some of the fans,” Harry responded.

“I know, it’s crazy! I mean there was also talk of, you know, some kind of scuffle you might have been involved in at the club. Is there any truth to that? Or what’s going on?”

Harry shook his head, glancing at her and Jeffrey before turning back to the host, “No, do you know what it is? So the woman in the picture is just an old friend of mine from school. I was back home and attended some friends wedding, who happens to also have gone to the club with us, and yaknow, everyone got a few too many drinks in them at the club and things got a bit rowdy, but no, I didn’t fight anyone.”

“So this woman is just an old school friend of yours? Not your girlfriend?”

“Right. I’ve known her since I was fourteen. I knew most of these people since I was fourteen,” he pointed to the picture, “It was nice to get back home and spend some time with old friends, to really get back to my old life for a while. It was great fun. That weekend actually inspired a few songs for the next album that we’re working on, which is really cool, so I’m excited for that.”

Elizabeth’s eyes widened in shock. Harry never told her that he was writing songs about that weekend, which was odd because they’ve been pretty much inseparable since. How could he have hidden that from her? She started to wonder if maybe that was what he was doing while she was working, whenever she interrupted him in the middle of playing his guitar. And maybe that’s what him and Mitch went to work on last night. She suddenly started to get nervous that he might have mentioned their sexual intimacy in those songs, unsure how to feel about it.

This round of questions gave Elizabeth mixed feelings. She was impressed with how Harry was able to get around the questions and so easily shoot down the idea of the two of them being any more than friends, but she also felt a bit saddened about how plausible it all sounded. She could easily be just Harry’s old friend, and the thought of that was slightly upsetting. 

“So, since you are single,” the host carried on, “Are you looking to be in a relationship? Or are you just enjoying being single at the moment?”

“I’m not necessarily looking for a relationship at the moment, but if something happens, then it happens, you know what I mean?” He laughed.

“So what would you say your ideal relationship looks like?”

“I would say my ideal relationship looks like…..” he thought for a minute, looking around the room and catching eyes with Elizabeth before saying, “it’s sharing a sleeve of oreos together so I don’t have to eat the entire sleeve on my own.”

Elizabeth’s heart danced in her chest as the host laughed. A smile started to form on her face, suddenly feeling more at ease with where her and Harry’s ‘relationship’ stood. She might not have technically been his ‘girlfriend’ yet, but she was feeling more confident in the idea.

When they wrapped up the interview Harry had joined the three of them along with two of the people from the studio, thanking him for his time and congratulating him. The main interviewer turned towards Elizabeth and smiled.

“I hope I didn’t embarrass you with some of those questions,” he said, kindly, offering a handshake, “What’s your name?”

Elizabeth stuttered, realizing that he had recognized her from the pictures, and shaking his hand “Oh, no. It’s okay, I understand. I’m Elizabeth.”

He nodded, and smiled inquisitively “So you two really aren’t dating?”

She felt her cheeks blush and looked over at Harry who was in conversation with someone else, “No, sir. Just old friends.”

He nodded, looking at her for a minute before saying, “Alright. Well, it was nice to meet you, Elizabeth.”

As soon as they were back in the SUV together and headed to the next interview, Harry turned to Elizabeth with a slight smirk.

“You okay so far?” He asked.

Elizabeth laughed, “I was not expecting it to be like that. First of all, you’ve been writing songs about all of us?”

Harry grinned, “I’ve been dabbling around with some ideas.”

“You never told me! Can I hear them?”

He hesitated, “.....not yet. I’m not done with them. Maybe once we’re all able to go in the studio and start working on it more. We’ll see.”

“None of them are about me, though, right?” she asked. Harry was silent, looking at her like a deer in headlights. Elizabeth gasped, lightly slapping his arm with a giggle, “Harry!”

He put his hands up defensively, laughing, “I can’t help it! I’m an artist! It’s what we do! It’s just song ideas, anyway. Nothing is written yet.”

Elizabeth shook her head with a grin, “Anyway. I’ve just texted Sarah. I think I’m going to take an uber from the next location to meet up with them. I don’t know if I can sit through another interview of them asking you about ‘the mystery girl in the photo’. It’s too embarrassing.”

Harry nodded understandingly. When they had reached the next destination, Jeffrey, Lisa, and Kenneth had stepped out. Harry was supposed to be the next one out, but he quickly turned to give her a kiss and whispered, “I’ve been wanting to do that all morning without anyone seeing.”

She smiled sweetly at him before pushing him out of the car so as not to look too suspicious. She had said her goodbyes to them in the lobby of the building, waiting for an uber to come and pick her up. So many emotions were running through her, but for some reason she didn’t care as much about the repercussions of being photographed with Harry anymore. But was that a good thing?

KEEP READING

[jordm]

Heartland 13x08 - Legacy review

Previously on Heartland: Caleb is over the moon happy about being a daddy and I’m over the moon for them. But unfortunately, it’s back to “mention only” land for Cass. That’s the life.

Georgie and Jade

Jade is the worst roommate, and even if part of the cause for Georgie’s mood is because of Quinn going back to Florida, seeing how she’s woken up by Jade in the morning and the place is seemingly a mess, I don’t really blame her. She moved out to have her own space, and Jade being there kind of defeats it. And even so, why is Jade so surprised she has no waffle maker?! She obviously goes over to the main house to eat most meals. Is Jade even paying rent? Where is Jade even sleeping? The Sofa?

Besides the point, Georgie and Jade decide to have a little friendly competition. Georgie bets she can jump rope a horse better than Jade can jump a horse. Amy can do both and i’m reminded that Amy, in Heartland world is an anomaly. What can’t she do? She can even joust and do archery on a horse.

Back to the main point, they go to the jumping course and Georgie, getting flashbacks of her time with Quinn and clearly still missing him and possibly regretting sending him away on such a bad note, elects not to jump. To say that she is missing him is one big understatement and it’s nice to see Jade acknowledge that she’s sorry about Quinn (even if she doesn’t know the full story) once they call the match a draw. Georgie needs friends and in time, I do believe that something that talking to Quinn may help her feel a little better. We know he shows up near the end of the season... so here’s to some conclusion.

Amy

Ty and Lyndy still aren’t back and Luke is off to Summer Camp (hey that’ll be fun and a totally legit way to write someone off of the show for the episode instead of say, MONGOLIA). Anyways, we get a really cute video call between the fam and I still wish we saw this visit with Ty’s mom but hey, at least he isn’t off in Mongolia right? Plus, the framing for their house is on the way so bets on if the house is going to be done by the end of the season?

When riding Lisa’s cross country course, Spartan ends up breaking his leg (torn ligament or something) and this situation with Spartan is not nearly as serious... but more on this next week. Amy acknowledges he isn’t as young as he used to be (at the very least 13 years old since she rescued him in season 1) and perhaps might need to take it easy. We get a Cass mention that she checked out the Spartan and I wish that with Ty out of town, we got to see some more Cass/Amy scenes; even a scene where Cass is eating breakfast at Maggies with Amy. 

Tim and Casey

So, we hear from their own words, that they simply decided not to get engaged oh so long ago (how long ago? last season ended with Georgie going to Europe, so let’s say July and she’s now graduated and into her summer job at Fairfield, let’s say it’s been one year). I know we’ve said this a thousand times but just because they decided not to get married, why does that mean that they had to break up?!

We find out that it was mutual, and apparently Casey is marrying Greg because he isn’t as challenging. So... it was mostly Tim? I get it, Tim is challenging and runs a thousand miles a minute but this still seems like a VERY thinly veiled excuse (i’m sure @the-real-tc will agree). Casey didn’t say “he’s a better fit for me” or “we just connected”, it was more of a “he’s easier to handle and more predictable” but sometimes we need a little bit of unpredictability in our lives right? And Tim isn’t that unpredictable and always means well, at least in my opinion. I don’t know about all of you, but it sounds like maybe Casey is settling, although I am willing to give her the benefit of doubt because we haven’t actually seen this guy and she may be trying to protect Tim’s feelings.

Anyways, Tim makes a wise choice to not buy Casey’s business. By buying Casey’s business, he is still holding onto that Casey connection but he makes the wise choice to cut ties completely. Hopefully now we can move on from this ridiculous excuse to end a relationship even though Casey promised to never leave.

Jack

Jack is going around recruiting rodeo legends for the Hudson classic when he runs into Butch, who is having trouble the past few years due to concussions; so is the life of a rodeo star back in the day I suppose, when they competed with little protection and no health insurance or pension. 

Jack, being the good guy he is, wants to start a foundation to support retired rodeo vets. And while he, the rodeo owners and the vets all realize it’s a good cause, when it comes to cutting into profits, the rodeo owners are a little more stingy. They want to make money off these legends/riders but don’t want to support them after their retired. And not that i’m saying the owners being skeptical was right but perhaps Jack should have given them some time to think, look over their books and work out the kinks of this like, how it’s going to be spend, distributed... etc. before just saying “donate % of your profits” because let’s face it, they could be like, “okay, we agree to 1% of profits” and it amounts to nothing. Perhaps he should have proposed “okay, 5% of profits to a maximum of $5,000 a year” or something and outline the tax benefits or the social benefits.

Frankly, i’m surprised that 40 years later after Jack was in the circuit, the rodeo riders/participants haven’t started a union they can pay into and get a benefit (ie. pension/insurance) from yet. Granted, I don’t know how hard it is to start a union but generally, a union helps to negotiate these benefits. I’m actually pretty sure that in real life, some kind of union does exist.

Jack manages to get Tim on his side and at the event, through part of Jack’s speech but probably mostly peer pressure, he gets all the rodeo owners to agree to donate a percentage of the profits and all the proceeds from the Hudson Heritage Classic.

Lou

JD Worth is campaigning around Hudson for mayor, but Lou is worried that this change he keeps campaigning for is too much. I say the giant posters of his face on the walls are way too much.

Lou thinks somethings up and even thinks about running for Mayor. And... i can’t say I didn’t see it coming. Especially once she sees JD’s plans to completely modernize main street - something I dare say small towns in real life have had to contend with in order to stay alive - and once she hears JD’s opponent has dropped out, I dare say as a local resident and business woman, she has a pretty good chance of winning. 

This reminds me of Randall’s storyline on This Is Us, anyone else?

Songs in this Episode @heartlandians​

Long Wet Day - Sunday Jones

Without - Sunday Jones

Lean on Somebody - Caution Cat (LOVE this name lmao)

Frank, AB - The Rural Alberta Advantage

[peachesplumsstakesfangs]

Seven Days (Part 5 of 7)

Lucas and Eliott lay in bed as Sunday morning light filtered through the bedroom curtains. Lucas’s body was tired and achy, but in a good way. Eliott lay beside him, one long arm flung across his eyes, a small smile at the corner of his mouth.

“I am-,” Eliott started, but trailed off as if the effort to say words was too much.

“I know,” Lucas concurred. They would have to get up soon. There was cleaning and shopping to do and more studying for Eliott.

“That was really motivating yesterday,” Eliott continued after some time. “I actually got a lot of studying done. But if I don’t know it by now, it’s probably too late.”

Lucas propped himself on his forearm to face Eliott. “How do you feel about the last two upcoming exams?”

Eliott bit his bottom lip. “I think I’ll be fine. It’s just, after everything that happened last year, I can’t believe I’m finally here...about to graduate.” He paused again, turned to face Lucas. “I can’t believe I was lucky enough to find you.”

Lucas shook his head, “I think I’m the lucky one.”

Eliott smiled, but it didn’t quite reach his eyes. Lucas knew that look. Lucas was still navigating being true to who he was, who he wanted to be. He knew he had trouble trusting people completely, of letting anyone see all the disjointed, sharp pieces that made him...him. He had been able to be vulnerable with Eliott, and Eliott had made him feel secure, safe. He wanted to do the same for Eliott, understanding it could be more difficult because of his disorder. Sometimes he felt like he succeeded, other times not so much. He wanted to show Eliott that he was not a burden, but he would carry him if and when he needed to; he wasn’t too heavy.

Lucas had dived headfirst into understanding bipolar disorder. He would get excited when he came across anything hopeful, like the research finding that many people diagnosed with the disease at a relatively young age, often outgrew it by their 30’s, but then he’d read something heart-stoppping, like the suicide rate for people with the disorder was relatively high. At first it stressed him out, but Eliott’s experiences had made him start to consider a career in the sciences, specifically medical research. It could be an option.

“Where are you?” Eliott asked.

“I’m here, babe. I’m right here.”

Lucas scrunched his body under Eliott’s side, wrapping an arm and leg around Eliott’s longer frame.

“I can’t wait until summer break. I think we should go to Les Calanques for a few days. We need to go as soon as classes end, or it may be difficult to visit the beaches. But we could still hike if the beaches are closed to the public.”

“Hmmm,” Lucas said. He could imagine them lying on the beach in the warm sand, the aquamarine water before them, the sunlight warming their skin. “I’d like that.”

“Maybe we could invite everyone, rent something close by.”

The picture in his mind changed a bit. It was no longer just him and Eliott, but their friends laughing and running on the beach, hanging out around Marseille. It could be good for them; it had been a tough year all around, although having Eliott all to himself in such an idyllic locale was also ideal.

“That could be fun,” Lucas said. “Might be a lot of drama.”

“We’ll have everyone sign an agreement to keep it chill.”

“Not sure that would actually work,” Lucas chuckled.

“Not sure they would come, but...I could invite Idriss and Sofiane.”

“I’m sure Imane would love if Sofiane could make it, and her parents might be more inclined to let her join if Idriss is there...but didn’t you have a crush or something on Idriss?”

Eliott looked down at him, one eyebrow quirked upward, “Didn’t you have a crush on Yann?”

Lucas buried his head into Eliott’s side, “Ah, Putain, I should never have told you.”

Eliott laughed. “It’s ok, mon amour, I’m not the jealous type...and you’re all I’ll ever need, ok?”

Lucas nodded, and finally pulled his face from the warmth of Eliott’s side to look into his eyes. “Me, too.”

“So...what’s my gift for today,” Eliott said, rubbing his hands together. “I feel like I got a two-for-one yesterday.”

“Well, that gift was for sharing.” Lucas wiggled his brows, but still felt his face heat up a little. “I do have a little something for you, but we’ll need to go to your place later.”

Eliott looked intrigued, but didn’t press him for more information. Lucas had finally met Eliott’s parents, and they had been kind and welcoming, but luckily they were out of town for the weekend.

The rest of the day was spent snuggling in bed until Eliott finally got up to complete a couple of hours of additional review. They ate and joked around with Lisa and Mika, as well as Manon, who had stopped by to hang out (as she often did when she wasn’t with Charles).

Later that evening, they took the bus to Eliott’s. They walked the tree-lined streets hand in hand, stopping here and there to steal kisses in the dusky evening light.

“We can stay here tonight. We’ll just need to get up a little earlier to make it to school on time.”

“That sounds good,” Lucas agreed.

Once inside, they placed their backpacks in Eliott’s room and sat on the couch.

“I’m curious...why did we have to come here?” Eliott asked.

“Well, at first I was thinking we could hang out and dance to your ultra cool Dubstep collection.”

“Ah, really?” Eliott snorted. “You told me you liked it.”

Lucas laughed. “I like it more now because you like it.”

Eliott huffed in mock offense, but he was still smiling.

“So...you know the last song I played for you here was called, ‘I Love You’.”

Eliott nodded, his face beaming . He had been so happy when Lucas told him the title of the song several weeks before, playing the song for him at a music shop. “So, you loved me then, before we really knew each other...or was it just a song?” Eliott had asked him then.

Lucas told him that he had felt something he had never felt before, and if it hadn’t been love then, it had been the potential for love, and he had been right.

Eliott had told him he loved him the first time he saw him, that first day of school...it just had taken him a couple of months to be able to verbalize what it was.

“Well-,” Lucas continued as he sat down at the piano and opened the cover. “I want to play an original song I’ve been working on.”

Lucas thought all those piano lessons his mom had made him take as a child had paid off, if only for him to have another way to express his love to Eliott.

He began to play, the notes light at first, but then changing, quick here, slow there, different melodies melding together, but with the same simple chord arrangement throughout, linking the different pieces into a whole. He started the song with that simple chord arrangement and ended with the same notes, repeated three times until the last singular note ended the song.

There was silence as Lucas finally turned to face Eliott. He was sitting up, his eyes glistening in the dim light from the side table lamp.

“Did you like it?” Lucas asked softly.

“You created that? For me?” Eliott asked in amazement. “It was beautiful. You still find ways to surprise me.”

Lucas stood and walked over to Eliott. He bent over to kiss him. The kiss was light, gentle, but deepened as Eliott pulled him closer until Lucas was straddled across his lap, lost in the taste of Eliott’s mouth, lost in the echo of music that seemed to reverberate around them.

They finally separated to catch a breath, and Lucas moved to sit beside Eliott, resting his head against the back of the couch.

“Does it have a title?” Eliott asked.

“Working title only...but it’s called, ‘Every Path’.”

“Ok?” Eliott nodded, questioning.

“As in, every path leads to you.” Lucas felt a little embarrassed trying to articulate the meaning of his work, but was buoyed by Eliott’s enraptured gaze. He continued, “The song is about us in every parallel universe. And also a hope that in every one, no matter what choice I make, you are the one unchanging thing...that no matter what path I choose, I will find you, or you will find me...eventually...to love.”

“Wow.” Eliott kissed him once, then again. “I love that.” Lucas noticed that Eliott’s eyes were bright, still glistening. “Thank you.”

“Thanks, and you’re welcome.” Lucas rested his head on Eliott’s shoulder, grabbed his hand to interlock their fingers. Maybe in a few minutes he would put one of Eliott’s Dubstep records on the turntable, have a bit of fun and loosen up before the stressful week ahead. Eliott’s last test would be Tuesday, and Lucas couldn’t wait to celebrate his birthday afterwards. He’d needed to get his friends involved, but they had been happy to help.

[celloyougotabasss]

Benjamin Francis Leftwich

On Thursday 5th April 2019, I had the absolute honour and privilege of watching Benjamin Francis Leftwich in Leamington Assembly, as well as his amazing support acts, Rosie Carney and Joe Dolman.

Bit of context: Benjamin Francis Leftwich (BFL for short) has been in my life (emotionally, lol) since probably year 11 I’d say? His first album ‘Last Smoke Before The Snowstorm (2011)’ tied in perfectly with my love for Ben Howard and Joshua Radin at the time – male acoustic singer songwriter. In hindsight, I think the reason why I loved him so much was because of the depth of his lyrics. It wasn’t just songs that meant nothing or just something on the surface level and you move on from; each song had purpose and a meaning, even if it wasn’t the meaning he intended, you could design it yourself.

Anyhoo – after that we all patiently waited 5 years for his next album ‘After the Rain (2016)’ (SO many good songs on there) followed by where we are now, 3 years later, with his most recent album called ‘Gratitude (2019)’. In between the release of his first and second album, BFL went super quiet on social media and making music. He later released a letter on his website – explaining that in April 2013, he had tragically lost his father to cancer. He said in an interview, ‘I was helpless. Without purpose… It was as if the sun had been sucked out of my sky in the most unfair and unexpected way. It totally broke me.’ (really interesting read the interview actually – here’s the link: http://diymag.com/2016/07/07/benjamin-francis-leftwich-interview-after-the-rain ).

Some might assume that the title of ‘After the Rain’ symbolises healing from the pain of his dad’s passing? Perhaps the title ‘Gratitude’ is a reflection of his past and cherishing all he has now? Who knows. I just think that something so life changing is important to consider when listening to the singers’ lyrics, to gain their understanding of the song.

Okay so, THE GIG! The venue itself was beautiful. I was there with my pal Jim (yes I know, Rosie and Jim hehe) and we were so taken back by the room; sooooo beautiful and intimate. We were eager beavers and fortunately got front row seats - unreal.

Joe Dolman started off the show – a REAL treat to see him! So talented and enthusiastic. He has an incredible song called ‘Close to Home’ with a music video which is second to none. Please take the time to watch it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBHOl_-357E

Rosie Carney popped up next, and YES, she had a cellist alongside her wahooooo!! My fave song of hers is called Thousand – her voice with Lisa Hannigan’s make me think of melted chocolate. They just blend, so perfectly. I think I would describe Rosie’s voice as haunting, but in a very enchanting and lovable way – she reminds me loads of Fenne Lily and Billie Marten. Big up female singer songwriters!! Again, a real treat to watch her.

This only left the main guy himself. The B F of L. Mr Benjamin Francis Leftwich.

I don’t really know how to summarise or try and describe the evening – it was… sensational? Breath taking? Better than my wildest dreams? Along those lines. After every song, Jim and I turned to each other, mouths open in shock of how AWE inspiring he was.

He created this safe, intimate space for us as an audience and himself. It was as if these songs were his deepest secrets and he was playing them just for us – I felt so lucky to be there, hearing and watching him. He was beautifully accomanpied by ‘Lowpines’ (that’s his insta name and the only place I can find him ☹ ) and he also sang sweet sweet harms as well.

I’ve seen BFL before, but nothing felt as special as this. Being so close probably helped, but it really did feel like a performance of a lifetime. He played songs from across all 3 albums. He even jumped down from the stage for a few songs and his encore to perform which was just precious.

I was uncontrollably ecstatic when at the end of the gig, BFL said he would wait around to talk to any fans who wanted a chat. EERRRRMMM YEP THAT WILL BE ME THANKS!! So yes, I did get to meet an idol of mine and yes he was even MORE lovely and kind and appreciative than I thought he would be! I didn’t know what to say so I  said he was basically Jesus and then I forget the rest. I think I got my point across though!!

As well as this, Jim was able to have a really decent conversation with him about his campaign called ‘Save9Lives’ – representing the statistic that 1 organ donation can save 9 peoples lives. BFL was so touched by Jim and his condition, and gladly took the plectrum and card Jim gave him with extra information on it. Just a proper, warm and caring human being. He took the time to talk to all the fans there and he just seemed so happy and like I’ve already said, but appreciative of what was going on.

So yeah – to sum it up – if you haven’t listened to BFL already, listen to him. If you have already listened to him, then just listen again! I feel so pumped and buzzed still from the gig and it was a week ago!

Long one from me I know, but I just can’t help it when I feel passionate – which I do with music and most definitely BFL.

Thanks for reading guys, I’ll be back Sunday for My Top Notes #2! Ciao xx

[putschki1969]

Japan Travel Diary 🎌

Okay, here it is, a more or less thorough report of my Japan trip in January (which mostly consisted of doing Kalafina-related stuff so I thought it might be interesting for some of you XD). Sorry, this is like 5 million years overdue. @mello-chi‘s comment about looking forward to my upcoming Japan trip reports actually reminded me that I still had this post in my drafts so I thought I better finish this now before I have to write another one XD

Without further ado, let’s get to it 〈(•ˇ‿ˇ•)-→

January 14 (Sunday) This was my first ever non-direct flight to Japan so I was not looking forward to it. I boarded my plane at around 10 am (Austrian time), I arrived in Paris at around noon and I landed at Narita Airport at around 9 am the next day (January 15 - Monday). Here’s a rare selfie of little me waiting to board the plance wearing my beloved Cakey bomber jacket by Lily Brown (it kept me warm during the flight ^_^). PS: Excuse the excessive use of filters in this pic. I was wearing no make-up.

You know what I find annoying, they have all these Japanese artists like LiSA and Nana Mizuki in the plane music library but absolutely NO Kalafina. Why?? And no, you don’t need to answer that, it was more of a rhetorical question anyways. I know of course that for some weird reason Kalafina aren’t as popular as those other artists….but still, so frustrating… I ended up watching a ton of movies :P I really envy people who can sleep during a flight.

January 15 (Monday) I didn’t do much that day tbh. I was too exhausted from my flight. I am glad they let me check in early at my hotel (which was in Kanda btw – very convenient location for tourists if you ask me) After I had freshened up a little at the hotel I did make a short trip to Akihabara to check if I could find any second hand Kala goods. That day I found a Blue Day wristband, a KNGNN postcard and a cheap Consolation Pamphlet (something I had always wanted but I never felt like paying the full price on CDJapan). Throughout my stay I managed to find quite a lot of stuff actually but more on that later. Here’s a sneak peek tho XD

January 16 (Tuesday) This day was dedicated to shopping. I think I spent almost an entire day in the Shinjuku/Harajuku/Shibuya area. I bought a bunch of Disney stuff and Pikachu merch for my sister and nephew respectively and then I searched through all the Kala-clothing stores trying to find some WaKei outfits. I am super happy because I got my hands on this cute patchwork skirt by Redyazel, the one that Keiko wore quite recently for the Songful Days promo video. I also bought a matching top because they had a special “buy 2 pieces and get 30% off” deal. I can never resist deals like that even though they actually make you spend even more money in the end XD (sadly, they didn’t have the turtleneck sweater that Keiko is wearing here)

After looking through each and every Lily Brown store in Tokyo I finally found this =>The long cardigan Keiko wore in Nikko (it’s so cute and warm!).

Aside from that, I didn’t really find anything else. I came across the Fig&Viper pullover Keiko recently wore but meh, that’s not really my style and it was still quite expensive. I also saw the Mila Owen dress that Wakana wore a while back but it just wasn’t worth the money (and now I regret not buying it T_T).

January 17 (Wednesday) In the morning I went to visit the lesser known Shinagawa Aquarium which – sorry Wakana – was VERY underwhelming and I can totally understand why it’s not as popular as the other one. The only cool thing was the free shuttle bus, it had a cute design. The aquarium itself looked quite run-down and it was much smaller than I expected. But hey, I met Shirowani-san and I got to touch a dolphin which was pretty epic. Of course I had to eat the parfait that Keiko ordered when she was at the aquarium together with Wakana back in the summer time. It was really yummy but it definitely wasn’t the best day to eat it because afterwards, I was freezing my butt off. Oh well, the things I do for Cakey XD

I really wanted to buy the cute shark backpack but it was just way too expensive T_T Forever sad...Now I regret not buying it. Then again, it’s not really my style.

In the afternoon I met up with my friend Pae and I finally received my goods from the Harmony events and the Acoustic Tour. BANZAI! As for the Harmony event merch, I got the black t-shirt, the blue parka and the keyholder. From the Acoustic Live goods, I got the pamphlet, the clearfile and the postcard set. (I love the black t-shirt SO MUCH! I have worn it a lot since I have gotten back)

Together Pae and I went on a quest to find more Kala-goodies and I got lucky once again. I found two old singles, a limited edition of Magia and a regular edition of Hikari no Senritsu (one of these days my singles collection will be complete XD But I have to be patient because I just don’t wanna pay full price for singles >_>). Aside from that I also bought the limited edition of the Seventh Heaven album which includes the live DVD. They also had a BEST Red Day cup for sale at Radio Kaikan (one of the many tokutens from back in the day) but meh, I didn’t feel like getting it. I wonder if any of you bought it? They also had a FOTW and 9+ONE pamphlet and a few other CDs (but I already own all of those so I ignored them). After my meet-up with Pae, I made a trip to Roppongi to eat at my first out of many Kalafina-restaurants/cafés. That’s when it started raining heavily (so annoying) but at least I found the place rather quickly (thanks to google maps!) I went to the very popular Tsurutontan where they serve huge bowls of udon!! I ordered Katsu Curry Udon (my favourite) and some yummy fried dumplings on the side (OMG, they were SO FREAKING GOOD!!)

The food was delicious but it was a little too much for me. XD Curry soup is much more filling than regular soup. And I underestimated the dumplings quite a bit, they were also super filling. I had intended to go to the Manon Mimie store afterwards but I wasn’t feeling like getting drenched in the rain so I headed back to my hotel. I guess it’s a good thing I didn’t end up going because I messaged the store that night and asked them if they still had the Cakey clothes in stock and turns out they don’t *forever sad* I should have tried to find a way to order it back then when the pretty skirt and sweater were still in stock.

January 18 (Thursday) The first half of this day was dedicated to visiting the Imperial Palace. If you arrive early enough you can make a same-day reservation for a tour so that’s what I did. It was an interesting tour for sure and the weather was amazing!!! After the tour was over I decided to walk to Budokan since I was already in the area. I wanted to check out the venue to make sure I wouldn’t get lost on the day of the concert. At that point I was getting quite tired (and super hungry) so it was time for yet another Kala-food-experience. I took the subway to the Akasaka area and paid a visit to the gorgeous café/restaurant/bar La Maison Kioi (the place where the girls had their special SPICE off-day interview). It was so fancy and pretty. I ordered a crazy expensive Afternoon Tea Set but it was totally worth the money, it was incredibly yummy!!! Once I had eaten each and every single piece of food on that tray, I made my way to Shibuya/Harajuku to do some more shopping. This time I came across this gorgeous red skirt that Wakana has been wearing quite frequently. I think I never actually made a post about this skirt o.O A fellow fan on twitter discovered it right before my trip to Japan and when I saw it in the store I obviously couldn’t resist. On my way home I made another stopover in Akihabara and I found the limited edition of the 5th Anniversary Live Selection album. Had to get it of course XD

January 19 (Friday) On Friday I bought my 3-Day-JR-Tokyo-Wide Pass to do some traveling outside of Tokyo. It was another gorgeous sunny day, perfect for touristy stuff ^_^ The first place on my list was Kamakura. There’s lots of nice stuff to see but I mainly wanted to go there because it was the destination of Keiko’s 60 km walk on New Year’s Day back in 2014 (OMG, has it already been four years!!??) One of these days I wanna do that kind of thing as well. I went to see the big buddha of course and I also checked out some of the surrounding shrines and temples. At first I wanted to go to Enoshima as well but then I decided against it, didn’t really feel like going there. Not a fan of beaches anyways. I took the train back to Tokyo but got off in Yokohama (the second place on my list) where I also did some sightseeing. But first I needed to restore my energy so I had some late lunch in Yokohama Chinatown at Jogenro (the restaurant where Wakana ate her shark fin course – she went to the place in Tokyo tho). I really wanted to try the shark fin lunch menu but they wouldn’t let me order it since it is meant for two people T_T Such a shame! The only downside to traveling alone, getting food is troublesome. Then again, if you have company it’s even more of a hassle because it’s hard to find something that everyone likes. Also, tbh, I probably wouldn’t have been a huge fan of the shark stuff anyways so maybe it was for the best. Either way, since I couldn’t have my shark lunch, I decided on one of their regular lunch menus. Wahhh! So tasty!! I love Chinese food! It was too much tho, so many different things to eat, I almost exploded towards the end but I really wanted to finish everything. I hate wasting good food. In dire need to walk off all the calories I had just put into my body, I explored the rest of Yokohama. I walked to Mirai Minato to check out the two Red Brick Warehouses. Back in 2011 and then once again in 2014 Kalafina performed their Christmas Lives at the Red Brick Warehouse. They have mentioned on multiple occasions that this is a very special place for them. Of course I also had to ring the bell of happiness. ^_^ I couldn’t leave Yokohama without riding the Ferris-wheel so I did that in the evening when the sun was setting. I had a great view of the city up there. Later on I managed to take some nice pictures of the colourful and sparkling Ferris-wheel at dusk. And that’s a wrap for my first day-trip outside of Tokyo.

January 20 (Saturday) On Saturday I took the train to Nikkō. One of the main reasons I purchased the JR Wide Pass was because I wanted to take the Shinkansen to Utsunomiya. It’s much more convenient than the other options. And then I got to ride the Nikkō Line which looks really cool. I think you all know why I traveled to Nikkō XD I wanted to see the venue of Kalafina’s World Heritage Special Live. During my last Japan trips I already got the chance to visit Nara and see Kōfuku-ji but I had never been to Nikkō before. And hey, even if Kalafina hadn’t performed there I still would have liked to see Tōshōgū, it’s absolutely gorgeous. And *weeee* I got to witness a traditional wedding. Everyone was all dressed up and the bride looked stunning!! Afterwards I explored the area for a while and walked around a lot. (I walked so much during my Japan trip) I was considering going to see the waterfalls as well but I thought it might not be the best season to experience it in all its beauty and glory. I’ll come back some day soon, I promise! In the afternoon I returned to Tokyo and I once again found myself in the Roppongi area to eat some Kala-food :P Literally the only reason I went to these fancy schmancy areas was to eat at Kalafina restaurants/cafés. This time I ate at “The Counter Roppongi”, the place where Keiko had her YOLO burger meal this winter. I wanted to order the same burger that she had gotten but turns out it had all kinds of weird ingredients (like mushrooms >_>) so I ended up ordering a chicken burger XD I think that might have been the best burger and some of the most delicious fries I have ever eaten. Really impressed! The only thing I could have lived without was the overly sweet brioche bun. It just doesn’t go well with savoury food. I don’t understand why you would use a brioche bun for a burger, doesn’t make sense to me at all o.O Is it a Japanese thing? Or maybe an American thing?

January 21 (Sunday) I took the special Holiday train to Kawaguchiko because I wanted to get a clear view of Mount Fuji. The mountain was still visible while I was on the train but slowly but surely clouds started gathering around it and by the time I had arrived at my destination, Mount Fuji was hidden completely T_T It’s a real shame. The sun was shining and the sky was blue, it was literally perfect weather but each and every cloud in the area had decided to cuddle up to Mount Fuji. I think I made the mistake of taking the later train. I should have taken the train at like 7am or something. Apparently chances of seeing Mount Fuji are highest before 9 am and I think that’s true, I am sure I would have gotten a good view if I had been there earlier. I was there at like 9:30-10:00 and that’s just too late. Oh well, we all learn from our mistakes. In two week’s time I will be closer to Mount Fuji than I have ever been XD I didn’t want my trip to be wasted so I still took the ferry across the lake and of course I took the Kachi Kachi Ropeway which ascends to an observation point near the summit of Mount Tenjo, from where Lake Kawaguchiko and Mount Fuji can be seen. Riding that cablecar was rather unpleasant because it was jam-packed. I wasn’t aware you could even squeeze that many people into a cablecar. I got some nice views despite there being no sign of Mount Fuji. Afterwards I bought a bunch of souvenirs for my coworkers and took the train back home again. I really love all the train designs! So cute! Since I still had my JR Pass I thought I’d use it for a few trips along the Yamanote Line. I was trying to avoid using my Suica as much as possible as long as I had the JR Pass XD One of my stops was Ikebukuro. I am not a huge fan of the area but I still wanted to see if I could find anything interesting. Bought some more Pikachu merch for my nephew at the Pokemon Center and then I did some window shopping. A girl-group was performing at Sunshine City while I was there but I didn’t stay long enough to figure out who they were. People were going crazy about them tho so I guess they might have been popular. Who knows. Either way, with all these people occupied the shops were pretty empty so that’s definitely a good thing (especially on a Sunday where it’s usually busy as hell). For dinner I had yummy Coco Curry (for once not Kalafina related :P).

January 22 (Monday) a.k.a. Crazy Snow Day This was the day of our tumblr fan meetup. Probably the worst day we could have chosen but hey, what can you do? And it’s not like any of us could have known that it would snow so heavily. It’s almost funny because I am always in Tokyo when crazy snow storms happen. I was there in 2014 as well. XD Thank God I am more or less used to snow (which is something that can’t be said about most of my fellow-fans that were at the meetup). I took things slowly that day since I was already stressing out about the meetup. I went to Akihabara again and this time I found a FOTW wristband in one of the second hand stores. BANZAI. Back in 2016 when I went to see the FOTW Special Finals I actually forgot to buy a wristband. This has annoyed me for the longest time but I didn’t feel like buying it online so yeah, this was definitely a lucky find. Yippie!! Then I went to Don Quijote to buy some more souvenirs (mostly chocolates). I’ll be eating all this stuff foe the next few weeks. :P So far my favourite purchase is Hokkaido Melon Kit Kat. The BEST Kit Kat I have ever had! It’s so DAMN amazing, I regret not buying more T_T When I got back to my hotel I had to figure out a way to squeeze all the chocolates into my luggage without everything getting crumbled on the flight back home. I think I managed pretty well. I had some sandwiches for late lunch and then I headed to Shinjuku to do some more (window) shopping and to wait for everyone to arrive at the Karaoke place. Sorry again @okeuphemia, we totally kept missing each other at Lumine Est. And sorry to everyone else who had a hard time finding Karaoke Kan. I know it must have been quite the hassle for some of you, especially in this horrible weather. But thankfully, almost everyone managed to get there (eventually). My apologies to Jimmy who didn’t make it! Maybe next time (if there ever is a next time :P) I hope you all had a good time at the meetup. There were way more people than I originally expected and we had some hardcore karaoke singers amongst us (you all rocked btw!!) so we weren’t really able to talk properly but I think it was still nice for most of you. Sorry if I seemed a bit awkward, I am just not very comfortable being among such a big crowd of people. I am glad a few of us decided to leave early and grab a cup of coffee, it gave me the chance to get to know some of you a little bit better. It’s really nice to finally know who is hiding behind those tumblr nicknames (shout out to @audiojapanstyle for just being a super nice and comforting presence!) And hey, such a funny coincidende, that day I found out that @theraspberrybushes  and I stayed at the same hotel. We ended up going back together in the heavy snow.Sorry for always rushing ahead. >_<

January 23 I pretty much covered the entire day in my live report but I haven’t talked about my after live activities yet so I guess I will do it here. Originally I had just planned to go back to the hotel to get some sleep. After all I was supposed to fly back home the next morning so I wanted to get some much needed rest. However, my friend Pae convinced me to go have dinner with a few Japanese Kala-fans. I am glad she did because it was actually very nice. But once again, there were way more people than expected (slightly overwhelming – even Hachimaki was there; it felt like I had been invited to an elite Kalafina fan meet-up XD). We went to a Chinese restaurant and had some yummy gyoza. Literally the entire place was filled with Kala-fans XD We didn’t stay there for long so thankfully I didn’t get home too late. Right before we left I managed to REALLY embarrass myself when one of the Japanese Kala-fans approached me. I wasn’t aware he wanted to talk to me, I thought he was trying to get past me or something so when he started talking I turned away from him. Pae had to literally drag me back to him and then I realised he had wanted to start a conversation. Major fail. That’s why I keep telling people that I suck at social interactions. Oh well, we ended up talking about Vienna, seems like he travels there quite frequently for work. Having dinner with all these fellow Kala-fans was a really nice end to an already amazing day. I even have a couple of pictures to remind me of that little meet-up.

Okay, this is officially the end of my travel report. Congratulations to everyone who read the whole thing. I hope it wasn’t too boring. I have lots of Kalafina activities planned for my next trip so I am super hyped ヾ（〃＾∇＾）ﾉ♪

[deanirae]

mother, mother, untie me// 3,6k// for @babybluecas// written for: @celebratingdean// week: storytelling (late entry)// A O 3

[ground zero]

Dean could tell a whole lot of stories. The ones he got to tell, he all learned from his mother who lied and cast spells of charming, warm distraction even before it all rolled into the fire that swallowed her.

Dean wears this like it’s his skin, as if he was made to do just that. It’s natural and easy to lie and smile, like breathing. Truth is suffocating, it’s drowning - it’s death. A weapon in somebody else’s hand, never his because nobody ever listens. And these days there’s only his father, sometimes, to not do that. Here, he’d do something else. From every cough of Dean’s truth, John would weave a rope.  Dean knows, has few illusions, even fewer stories to tell himself and make it better, though he clings to those he has left. His throat is marked, by now, with the price of each slip and fuck up the same way trees show their age, beheaded.

First ring - there was a tug at Dean’s hair when he was four years old, and it has never weakened. It hurt so much he couldn’t speak. In his tiny hands there were no words to hold, to give, just cinders of what was his house, once. Ashes of his mother.

And Sam. Already too heavy to hold him, but Dean did, anyway. With time, Sam has grown roots into his arms.

This is the story his nightmares tell him, the one his bruises repeat, the one tale whistling in unrelenting silence of his car, now that Sam’s gone (John is always gone, even present). It’s in the phone call that never comes, the pull at his head, the only thing ringing.

[1.]

Dean has all heart shelves of stories, but Sam’s presence talks over them; especially when Sam’s quiet. It doesn’t mean he’s listening. It’s loaded, always, that silence. A gun to Dean’s chest, in its middle, only slightly to the left. The cold of that barrell never quite melts down, so Dean tries harder and harder, for Sam. To be the story Sam wants him to be, but Sam, he doesn’t like Mary’s tricks either, anymore.

Or non-fiction, when Dean bleeds it.

Dad just doesn’t like Dean.

He is the hand that’s pulling - at his hair, at his strings, at his sorrows. Not a sound comes out. The noose at his throat he’s told it’s a corset, has him persevere, has him aware of every word spun. A room for mistakes lies in a different house, not the temporary ones he shares with Sam, not in the omnipresent temple of his father.

Dean is a quiet instrument in his hands; best chiseled.

Only sometimes he tells Sam John is good in all his bads, so maybe one of them would get to sleep at night and not fear the moment when the world goes out.

Dean doesn’t tell himself that story anymore, or any.

A part of his heart (the one cradling the legend) dies between podunk nowhere and Nebraska. Dies harder in cold hospital walls. Burns into something so small no reaper could find it and bring it back. And what’s burned stays gone. Fire just runs in the family, is all. If he’s the girl to burn this time? Then be it. He will, at least, go down in blaze of glory.

Dying, dead - he is the same unheard, unseen, read wrong and used. His father makes sure to remind him what he’s made for. To Dean there is nothing new under the sun. Except of, maybe, the skin-covered holes in every single of his guts, howling empty. It was smaller, once. Now he doesn’t know how to manage.

But he does now understand how women in white come to happen.

[2.]

Dean tries his best not to tell the story his bones hold, this one is not for any ears, even his own. He forces a wedge between himself and him, and him, and Sam. This is how safety is built, this is how screaming is made peripheral, almost quiet. His favorite story to keep dreaming is the one where Sam shuts up, stops tugging at his hair until Dean’s mouth is forced open and pain with truth flood bitter, a river of all the things that aren’t milk and honey.

Sam doesn’t want that, he wants the story of easy redemption for the prodigal son, wants the secret of Dean’s lie-driven inhuman strength he so envies and hates, but Dean left those fairytales in another heart’s pocket, the one he ditched by his father’s pyre.

He tries to be of comprehension, to have a beginning, an extension and an ending, all in clear, sharp, safe letters, but deep inside he lacks chronological or any order, he is plots twisted, began and never resolved. The final period is still about John’s last move, and it owns him. Dean’s name is rewritten to spell I.O.U instead.

From now on you will be fishing for salvation - it means. But all he was given is a broken net that can’t capture a thing, certainly not Sam who’s destined for running. Dean’s Gennesaret has no fish and no miracles. He is made to play the leading role in a failure, in the first page of the script he reads that, ending spoiled at the very beginning.

He doesn’t want to be his mother’s empty grave, but he will be.

It’s too heavy for one spine to carry a whole library of already knowing. Who died and made him Cassandra?

Ah, right.

If you can’t save him, kill him.

How do you save someone who will never listen?

[3.]

You don’t.

And at the end of this story you really die. And then you die, and then you die, and then you d-

“Couldn’t you for once go for a different song of screaming, Dean?” He can’t hear himself screaming anymore, but can and will hear Alastair always. “Learn to read between the lines. Your mommy’s name was Mary and John is close enough to Joseph to fly past the censors. You were made to die, everyone knows that. Old news.” This is the moment when he should shrug, but his hands are full of Dean right now. Buried somewhere around the spot where Dean’s ribs once were, before they were reassigned to his skull, to his hands, to his feet, piercing better than any hooks.

The pull to his head is Alastair’s now, and he makes very good use of it, it leaves handfuls of hair ripped like pages. “This is just act one of your three part myth arc, baby doll.”

Today, Dean has no tongue, no teeth, no option for dialogue. Rolled one on participation. But he still has eyes and he doesn’t like the almost fondness he reads off Alastair as he speaks.

“So hang in there, kitty.”

So Dean hangs.

[4.]

From the debris of his answer to Alastair thirty years long bedtime story, Dean gets pulled - by his hair, by his arm, by a white light. Into a cliffhanger, into a pine box, into human shape and size.

But, God, between the covers there’s a story he wants to keep six feet under. He remembers it now, better than his mother’s face, than any life saved, than the sound of his own voice before it got scrubbed to the frame and died hoarse: the weight of every tool in his hands and everything he’s done with them.

It’s loud in his head and it will follow.

For now, the noise is louder, it follows closer. Then it comes.

Beautiful and out of place, a deer in a wasteland. Force of nature beyond any nature he’s ever known. Wearing the best salvation, someone’s best sunday suit, someone’s eyes. He tries to read the price tag it comes with, but it’s not in any language he knows.

It tells him it’s celestial. Soon he starts to orbit. Starts to tell it stories. The beautiful deer is thirsty for words. Its name feels old and foreign on his tongue, he cuts it in half, he gets so much closer.

Farther from his mother - she sewn herself with more lies than he could swallow. She rattles in his boot like a shard of glass and even if he’s careful, it cuts. To all his stories she has sentenced him. He was made to bear witness, to work.

And from Sam, who found a better storyteller - and it takes one to know one - her stories were pretty, fuckable, and grand; Dean’s were never like that so they need to stop.

The noose on Dean’s throat is Sam’s now, handmade. Not much of a surprise, pint of ache and just a teaspoon of disappointment. The user’s manual always said Dean was made to be kept quiet. There’s no telling the Boy King he’s naked.

[5.]

On a wild guess, not that Dean keeps count, this is probably act three.

The one that makes clear he was playing the leading role in being an extra all along, just a person-leather bound cover for an older story, for characters of bigger import.

The one where he rips all the lions on his path, one by one, and finally understands: he will never rip them all, no matter what he does, they will keep coming. His hands are tired. His heart has ran out of ink to write shit of his own, so he might as well step into the script he was made for and play his fucking part.

And then his spine is full of echo, his head is swimming and ringing both and his hair would be held in an iron grip if only his skin wasn’t so repelling to the touch of something other than a fist.

“I gave everything for you. And this is what you give to me?!”

He’s on the ground, curled, hears the footsteps, feels the ending. Only that small bit he didn’t see coming - please, don’t be Delilah, don’t try and bind, don’t demand this, not you. Maybe he mocked, maybe he lied to be right here, right now, but he never made any vows, aside of the one to fight for free will. Never promised how this story would end, but the thing about having free will is that it unlocks this scenario too, as long as it’s his own damn choice.

Well, it looks like it ends like this, with it cut off. And if you ask Dean (except that no one does, thanks), it’s just one lion too many.

“Do it!”

Cas doesn’t do it, not the final it Dean was hoping for, defeated and adorned with dirt, blood and puddles of something that might or might not be piss. It doesn’t mean it’s good. Doesn’t mean it’s alright, but maybe he’s not Delilah after all.

[6.]

He gets thrown into a foreign genre, the epilogue isn’t his, but Sam’s. He learns to live it, learns to love it, really does. He’s as close to being serene as it gets with his insides having been carved out empty.

Dean doesn’t know how Lisa is doing it, but she understands. She makes it real. She offered her shoulder, her heart, her home. She listened and didn’t turn away. Her hand runs softly through his hair every night, he melts into the comfort like a child. Sometimes he even thinks maybe he’s really made for this, maybe he earns it one day, if he tries.

But past comes crashing through his door in an answer to his prayers, and the answer is “or not.”

The whole choir, they say, “you weren’t made to live, you were made to kill. Fuck your plowshare, take the sword”, and he’s pulled by his hair until his purpose sticks.

Never sticks good enough. Dean’s eyes are too well-versed in reading life to not see all the flaws in the script. He can hear how flat and fake all the lines sound. In time, even Cas’s. Especially his.

Were you the one to write this, Delilah? Made me sleep in your lap unaware?

He doesn’t have to ask. Already knows the answer. Doesn’t mean he won’t try to stop this, fix it - whatever is still left on the table.

“I just saved you, yet again. Has anyone but your closest kin ever done more for you? All I ask is this one thing.”

Now that’s exactly the shit Delilah would say, was she here. Dean wonders if Cas knows that, but doesn’t share the trivia.

“Trust your plan to pop Purgatory?”

Maybe if he says that out loud Cas will finally hear how stupid this is.

“I’ve earned that, Dean.”

Maybe not.

No point in raising the word count on trying to convince him anymore. You can move a mountain, you can gank the devil, you can even escape both death and taxes, but you can’t un-convince someone who’s convinced he earned things. With that in mind, Dean instructs where and why he can be kissed now.

Castiel knows how to intimately touch even better. Takes him by surprise, the echo of his warm breath the last thing on his neck before Cas grips his hair - tight, as he is wont to do - and cuts.

Takes no prisoners save for one. But Sam has grown into his arms, old noose. And every monster and their grandma know this story just right. Cas knows it best.

Way to fuck two birds with one stone.

[7.]

He’s by the lake that’s made just for him, but it lacks real effort this time. It’s budget scenography, built to contain him, not to please him. He’s not the superstar of this story. Nor the author. Doesn’t really know what he is here, if anything.

The power that is shows up, eats the spotlight. Assesses the design with delight. Looks fresh and younger; near pristine, most of all. Maybe even the damn coat has been ironed for once. Too bad the holiness doesn’t make Cas the real deal. He can put the tetragram on his forehead and he still won’t be God, but good luck with telling him that.

“Anteater,” Dean greets, half-assing the playing along.

“Ant,” Castiel says, and it’s gratingly fond.

There’s a smile crawling up his face, graceful and merciful and kind, but Dean won’t be basking in that. He will wipe that off. He remembers now what he is: he’s the janitor for disasters.

“How can I help you fuck off today?”

“Don’t you get tired of this, Dean?”

“Hate to disappoint, but I got worse nightmares in my trauma fodder. This ain’t exactly my top five.”

“This is not what I’m talking about, don’t pretend to be so literal,” Cas says, always a drop of amusement before it dries in his voice and leaves bare frustration to behold.

“You know what would be really great? If you would not elaborate on that, thanks.”

“This pointless anger in you,” he does, of course, the willfully deaf motherucker. “Lack of real direction. Keeping this unfounded stubbornness alive. Freedom is a length of rope and I wouldn’t want you to-”

“Hang myself with it. Oh, I’d love to.”

“It will cost nothing to leave it behind. Put down your tools and your schemes, Dean. You know you don’t need to try to stop me, there is nothing to be stopped.”

“Dude that breaks into my head uninvited, tries to throw propaganda think pieces at me and then scrubs the slate clean every night when it doesn’t work? Textbook example of something to be stopped, Cas.”

“I can’t help that you sometimes need to be told what’s in your best interest when you fail to see on your own. You don’t believe me, but you were made to be guided and saved, protected,” Cas pauses then, maybe looking for something better than the narrative he’s already trying to sell. “Held.”

“Had, you mean,” Dean corrects. “I was made to be had. Old song, I know all the covers.”

“No,” Castiel’s mouth says, but his eyes say yes.

Dean retaliates by rolling his.

“Zap me back to sleep, Cas, I have a fake God to end in the morning and I don’t wanna be late for work.”

“In this case, neither do I.”

Castiel comes closer, pets Dean’s hair before he places his fingertips to his forehead. Too brief to have time to hurl an insult, but enough for his head to still ache from how it was ruined.

[8.]

They throw the terms and conditions at him, make him read.

1 - Saying that you forgive, care and love doesn’t stop you getting hit unless you tear all your defenses down, break your ribs to expose the heart and beg you can’t live without them.

2 - Yes, they still can leave you again afterwards.

3 - You don’t get to have friends. Especially good friends. Friends that see you, friends that hear you. Friends that could have been lovers because they loved you and you loved them back. Friends that had to die.

4 - By your hand.

5 - Because you were made to [leave blank, this varies].

Dean has no hair, no strength, so he signs.

The noose on his neck is a leash. Was one, all along.

[9.]

He has the jawbone blade now. Too little, too late, but he will kill all the Philistines. His hair starts to grow back. The bone grows into him, settles into his hand as if she was home.

[10.]

A love letter.

From Dean, to Dean:

SAMMY LET ME GO

His hair is grown back. He combs it to the other side. Turns over a new leaf, starts a new story. The one with a happy ending.

From: we love you

To: [you’re not] Dean

Subject: NO

His brother, his eternal Delilah, they tie him to the dungeon chair, they break his throne, they cut his hair, and from his lips they draw the fuck me, fuck you, and fuck Leonard Cohen-ujah.

Well,

His Gods, they’re praised now. Madly, deeply.

Hallelujah.

[11.]

When her eyes fall on him, he is the first story she’s seen in ages of ages. He feels just like her, he feels just like home as she reads him. She loves him from first word and she’s breathtaken, wants to carry him in the pocket of her heart like a bible.

She had a noose to her neck for eons, she’s been forever a flower in the attic, all alone, angry, crying. He’s just like her, he’s just like her, she sees him, she wants to tear the rope and give him a crown of carnations. In her aching heart he will be king, he will fill the empty, he won’t cry.

Dean doesn’t understand how no one can hear her screaming, her words are static noise for everyone around but she resonates within him, he listens, he knows, and with her, he aches.

They mock him until they make him come and end her. He doesn’t want to. But the sun ate away all the choices. He swallows millions of suns. One last time, he is Samson.

He’s been carrying a bomb in his chest for so many years - what should it mean just one more, what should it mean  to die anew. It means nothing but a promise that the rope will stop chafing.

He finds the time for his mother’s grave at last. Makes himself familiar. His ash will like it here; a neatly trimmed lawn of his own where it will always wander.

Then he goes, where his columns are, where she is, he walks in, blooms a garden of carnage.

They trade their stories.

The epilogue is what she wants to grant him.

[12.]

At the beginning of this story there was a little boy who cried for his mother, his tears swallowed by silence. Since page one, for seventy four years and counting. Before the bell tolled for her, she started this.

Then she comes back, rips off her glory, the remains of what was holy falls away like old scabs. She’s something else, she always was, and she doesn’t see him, just the things she’s lost.

Dean lost every single thing, he lost himself when he lost her and she, she started this. She tied the oldest noose, she put it around his neck and wrapped his cheeks with sweet kisses. He was made to wear it and deep inside, she knew.

She will always be his greatest jewel, the largest shard in his ribcage, now cracked open. She doesn’t hear his bones snap, calling to her. She doesn’t see the tears he bleeds, she doesn’t see him. She keeps cradling the things that are gone. She doesn’t count him as a thing that she still has.

He’s right beside her. For the love of fuck, he’s right beside her. All this time he kept waiting. For the mother, his mother, to untie him.

“I need you to really look at me and see me.” But she’s away, away, away. “Mom, I need you to see me. Please.”

The last broken piece of his heart falls to the floor, she hears it. She sees him. She knows him. She wants to. Dean forgives her.

With the last beating part of his heart, into a hole, she jumps away, away, away.

And his rope is yanked, drags him with, until he hits all the nothing.

He keeps on grieving and crying for his mother. Seventy four years, one more night, and counting.

[dreaming-of-seth-blog]

Meant for a Life With You

Chapter 6: Catching More Feelings

A/N I had terrible writer’s block while trying to write this and that’s why it took like a week.

______________________________

Nikki’s point of view:

I smirk, as a lot of dirty thoughts race through my mind after hearing him groan. At an attempt to tease him back, I pull him in closer and gently kiss his neck, nipping and biting. I release my grip from his shirt and make my way down to his leg. I place my hand just high enough on his thigh to drive him wild. Leaving little bite marks the entire way up, my lips make their way up to his ear. I whisper, “Don’t start something you can’t finish.” The house is so quiet that I can hear his breath hitch. This makes me smile.

“Who says I won’t?” he whispers back. I’m impressed by how quickly he recovers himself.

“How about my four broken ribs?” I sass to him.

“Now who’s the tease?” He very gently pulls me on his lap, keeping my injuries in mind, by my hips. This sends my heart racing, and he leans in for another heated kiss. I wrap my good arm around his neck, while his lay on my waist. We don’t stop for what seems like ages. The whole time I think about how I’m literally kissing the man I’ve been worshipping for years. How I never thought I would be lucky enough to even meet him. The butterflies thrashing in my stomach brought me back, back to being young and falling in love for the first time. It felt like we were a couple of high schoolers, we just couldn’t keep our hands off each other. I hate to disappoint, but all we could do was kiss at this point. All of my injuries left sex out of the question. We took breaks from kissing to eat, breath, and talk. These breaks lasted for MAYBE two minutes tops. All we had to do was look at each other a certain way, and we would end right back to me sitting on his lap, kissing.

______________________________

Seth’s point of view:

The next morning, I wake up to something smelling amazing. Before I can even open my eyes, I’m following my nose out of bed and into the kitchen. Making my way down the hall I start to hear a familiar song. I recognize it as Etta James’ Sunday Kind of Love. I think to myself ‘Is there anything wrong with this woman?’

As I turn the corner, I find Nikki doing an amazing balancing act. She’s standing only on her right leg, with the other propped up behind her on the seat of her wheelchair. Leaning slightly on the counter for balance, she is cutting up some strawberries next to the waffle maker. She’s swaying along with the song, dressed in one of her huge sleeping shirts that she know’s drive me crazy. I get closer and I can hear humming along with the song.

After last night, my feelings for her are growing even more rapidly than I can control. I can’t stop the smile from appearing on my face, “Good morning.” I smell coffee brewing.

She turns her head to meet my gaze with those beautiful eyes of hers. “Morning.” I watch the word leave her lips, and I think about wanting to hear it every morning for a while.

“What do you think you’re doing?” I cross my arms and walk up to the counter next to her. She opens up the waffle maker to reveal a perfectly golden waffle.

“I think… I’m repaying you for making me lunch yesterday. And I’m doing it, by one-upping you with the best waffles you’ve ever had in your life, sir.” She plates the waffle, and hands me it, along with a warm measuring cup full of syrup. Before she lets the plate go, she pulls me in, and kisses my nose. “Now go, be free.” She gives me a smile that sets my chest on fire.

“I didn’t even know we owned a waffle maker.” I take a seat at the counter.

“Oh no, I just carry this around in my purse. Like Mary Poppins, but for breakfast foods.” She smiles at me and pours more batter making the amazing smell strengthen.

I take my first bite and she was right, “Oh my god,” I moan “these are amazing.” with my mouth full. I swallow and my mouth is watering before I can take another.

“Uh huh, yeah I know.” She smirks as she pops a strawberry in her mouth with her eyebrow raised. She places her breakfast on a plate, covers it with strawberries.

“I want these everyday for the rest of my life.” She uses the counter to help her make her way over to join me.  

“That my love, is how you get diabetes.” She sits next to me and drenches her breakfast in syrup.

“I’m calling it now you definitely beat me in the cooking department.”

“Aw it’s ok baby, you’re still the pretty one. I promise.” She takes her first bite.

“Oh thank god!” I brace my chest. “I was really worried there for a second.”

She rolls her eyes at me. “Don’t forget that I’m having the girls over for the night?”

“Oh don’t worry, I’m having drinks tonight with some of the cast so I shouldn’t be in your way.”

“Nooooooo,” she pouts and whines. “I thought you were going to do face masks with us, get drunk on wine, and watch rom-coms till four A.M.”

“Trust me,” I take my final bite, “I would much rather be here with you, but it’s a press thing.” I stand and take our dishes to the sink to let them soak.

“If there’s gonna be cameras, you should wear your all black three-piece. You look sooo sexy in all black, with that dark hair of yours.” She smiles at me from behind her cup of coffee.

I walk over to her, and swivel the chair she’s in, forcing her to face me. With both of my arms on either side of her, I lean in so we’re at eye level and ask, “Oh really?” I can’t stop myself. I tower over her waiting for a response.

She leans in, leaving maybe half an inch between us, “Yes, sir.” Nothing I do phases her.

I lean in so my mouth is next to her ear. “If you weren’t in those casts... with four broken ribs… I would have you bent over this counter, screaming your brains off, right now.” I wait a few seconds before I stand up straight, and leave her in the kitchen.

______________________________

Nikki’s point of view:

“What the hell was that?” After sitting alone for a few minutes, I can’t believe what just happened. How dare he leave me all hot and bothered like that? I hear the shower start and I’m full of rage. I start to contemplate how I can get him back.

Seth gets ready for work and leaves late in the morning. When five o’clock rolls around, so do Lisa and Aurora.

“He did what?!” Lisa seems shocked. The first thing we did was talk about Seth’s actions this morning with the snacks and wine they brought.

“Oh wow.” Aurora fans herself with a her hand.

“AND THEN HE JUST WALKED AWAY LIKE NOTHING.” I shout out of frustration.

“I didn’t think he had it in him to be that…sexual…” Lisa says still in shock.

“What was he wearing.” Aurora asks as she gives me some help out of my wheelchair and onto the couch. I wince a little as I take a seat.

“You ok?” They both ask like scared moms.

“Uh yeah,” I pause and take a in a big breath, “I just pushed it this morning”

“So you did get down and dirty with him!” Aurora sounds excited.

“No I wish, I was on my… foot hopping around, cooking. Plus no pain meds.” I get comfortable. “He was in a white t-shirt and black sweats. The definition of delicious, with bed head and glasses included.”

“The sexual tension must be killing you.” Lisa states the obvious as she sips her wine.

“It’s worse than you know.”

“So, I’m assuming you have a plan to get him back.” Aurora finishes her first glass after asking.

“You know me too well child.” I pour her a second glass. “I was thinking drunk bubble bath for him to come home to, or calling him and talking dirty while he’s out in public.” I sip at my glass after throwing a handful of M&M’s in my mouth.

“Both.” Lisa says.

I chuckle “I like the way you think. Ok I’ll call him around 11. That way he's had enough to drink to loosen him up. Plus I can say you guys are asleep.”

We do all the things we had planned. We watch a few movies, drink about four bottles of wine, eat so much that we have to lay down in worry of puking, and wait for the clock to hit 11. At 10:50 I couldn't wait any longer. I start to dial.

“Speaker!” Aurora demands.

It rings a few times before we hear, “Hello?” You can hear people in the background.

“Hey baby.” I was a little, ok a lot, drunk.

“When are you coming home to finish what you started this morning?” The girls covered their mouths to prevent any noise from escaping.

“Uhh I'm not sure baby. Why? Are you ok?”

“Because my love, the girls are passed out, I'm a little drunk, and all I can think about is what you said to me earlier. Ya know? About bending me over the counter.”

“Nikki...”

Before he can protest, “I just can’t get it out of my head. So I was thinking, that I would call you, and tell you exactly what I want you to do to me... once you get home.”

“Uh, I’m kind of surrounded by people right now.” He says and I look up at Lisa and Aurora while smirking.

“But baby, there’s no way you haven’t spent the whole day thinking about it. About me. Especially since you haven’t been able to get any action since the honeymoon. I know you’re dying for me to ride that cock of yours.”

“Fuck.” I hear him say under his breath.

“I bet you were sitting there at your desk today, rock hard, contemplating all the dirty things you want to do to me.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me...” I can hear his breathing get heavier.

“All I could think of for a while was that if you did bend me over the counter, that you would probably be in such a rush to fuck me, that you wouldn’t even have time to take my panties off.” He doesn’t respond. “I was thinking of how amazing it would be to--”

“That’s it, I’ll be home in 35 minutes. You better not be wearing anything when I get there.” He says quietly so no one around him can hear it.

“And what happens if I am?” The girls look at me dying.

“There will be hell to pay.” His voice deeper than normal. He’s so sexy I could just die.

“I’ll see you in 35 my love.” I hit the end button. “Oh my god.” I screech, “OH MY GOD”

“You have that man wrapped around your finger.” Elle says.

“He’s probably so horny right now he might just break you in half...” Aurora state's utterly shocked.

“You say that like it’s a bad thing.” I raise an eyebrow. We all burst out laughing. “Oh no.” I say with a worried look on my face.

“What?” Aurora asks.

“I haven’t shaved my vagina since before the accident!” I basically shout in panic. My two best friends, who I consider my sisters, are now literally on the floor, crying and laughing at me. “I will not have sex with the man of my dreams with two casts on AND a unkept vagina!” This just makes them laugh harder. Once they both come down from their aggressive laugh attacks I convince them to help me to the bathroom and into the shower to deal with the situation at hand.

Twenty five minutes go by. “IF YOU LOVE ME YOU WILL DO THIS FOR ME!” I yell at Lisa.

“This isn’t normal!” she shouts at me while I hold out the razor for her to take.

“I can’t reach, my ribs are making it impossible to get this last spot! I can’t just have a random patch of fur.” I argue

“He’s gonna be here any minute now!” Aurora reminds us. “We still have to go pretend to be asleep.”

“You lost rock, paper, scissors, fair and square Elle…” I hold up the razor again. “It’s like one swipe of the razor… Please bubs, for me.” I puppy dog eye her.

She sighs “Ok but you owe me big time.” She hesitant but proves how much she loves me. “I hate us…” Aurora says.

Masterlist

[thelozzaview]

It’s been since my fathers birthday since I last blogged and a lot has happened since then for one life is staying strong within me I have been to Rottnest with Keely my Hugh’s girlfriend that was one of our major adventures we went on which was really fun for us to achieve on our list of adventures to explore in Perth, I have been going into work with mum to join a Self Advocacy course in City West for me it was just a everyday thing I think about but it is important to learn more about everyones rights to be themselves and making the big and life changing decisions like moving out and making a living for yourself and the community you build around for yourself for me thats an everyday thing which I witness and live thought everyday so I grew up knowing that I have been doing that for a few Monday’s now.

Gem is still in my life which I am blessed to have the right people around me even though I know that everyone has to have their own life whenever I realise that and that I have nothing to do I remind myself of all the things I haven't done in a long time I should do and today is that day to fill with my to do list and one of them is begging I haven't been doing this for such a long time that I am updating you with and to keep this up everyday from today forward Talitha from the dance/film workshop sent me a link for The Blue Room Theatre for me to read and to apply for MoveMoveMove and 900 Seconds so both of us can work on together and to work on a routine based on what we have learnt while in the process of the work we have done for the film/dance workshop and build from that.

We like the concept of trust and I have been and done to write a bio on me and my elaborate performing/dancing life so that kept me busy for a while, helping mum with her work which I am still doing might do more of that today as well on last Thursday I got to hangout with my youngest brothers girlfriend now that both my brothers have girlfriends means that they keep my brothers busy looking after each other and doing things together keep us siblings apart but we always find each other again when we find the time to hangout Hamish and I are n Saturdays Hugh more on Sundays when we go to our weekend beach walks/swim now that its on the summer side of things each day of the weeks.

I got my hair done in 2 different Mondays last Monday was part 1 which was the cut and then this Monday that past was the colour and on both Mondays I met another addition to my Salon Express family Tanisha Dang Fang do you your thang well thats my nickname for her which I have changed on fb messenger that you can do with your friends on fb so you know who they are yesterday I went on a walk in Manning Park with my Keels which was fun and I made us lunch and she loved it and Normally she isn't a fan of rice paper rolls but she told me that lozza made rice paper rolls are her favourite so Roma and I have planned to go to a movie to see Rams together so I have to have an early lunch which I can do

Just spoken to mum and for singing today its normal time might do my normal lake walk from 9:30-11am ready for morning tea to start my day and that can be my start to my morning but I also need to shop might do that at the same time an if I have more time might do that as well so I will see how much time I have today about have breakfast soon so now the time is 11am just done my shopping time for eating normally but only until 8 and snacking on fruit until 9pm so about to eat now YAY so I went to a movie with Roma after I snacked on meals and period food now its all gone so after the movie I had singing which was fun learnt a new Descendants China Anne McClain as Uma called Poor Unfortunate Souls who was originally sung by her mother on Little Mermaid.

Because I am now watching Descendants only and not familiar with Ursula and her original version this is song is the one to keep practicing as a project to myself and Z and getting to know the lyrics with Z is fun just mentally prepping for tomorrow and how I am going back to eating the way I usually do which I can’t wait to do had my bath salts talked to all the friends I know to pick me back up from feeling down and alone without immediate family in the house and High texted and we are hanging out on Friday afternoon which I am looking forward to so I have Phoebe, Hugh don’t know about Lisa’s yet I will get back to you on that one I better hit the hey but don’t worry I will be back tomorrow if I have time at all

If I do have a break I will make sure I will have the time to come back to bogging its one of my many things on my to do lists when bored so better get a start on so I had my dinner before 8pm and fruit before 9pm, called parents, had my bath now ready for bed haven't stopped all day maybe that’s why I felt bit off before tomorrow is a new day so I will feel better then so let’s get to it.

[networkingdefinition]

Heartbeat Quotes

Official Website: Heartbeat Quotes

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• A Dirty Shame was a crazy movie. I don’t understand that movie at all. I don’t get it, but I’d work with John Waters again in a heartbeat. He’s just a delight. – Selma Blair • A human life is just a heartbeat in heaven. – Robin Williams • A hundred hundred heartbeats…” whispered Sabriel, tears falling down her face. – Garth Nix • A scary dream makes your heart beat faster. Why doesn’t the part of your brain that controls your heartbeat realize that another part of your brain is making the whole thing up? Don’t these people communicate? – George Carlin • A sermon is no sermon in which I cannot hear the heartbeat. – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow • A span of a few heartbeats can make for a greater memory than the sum of a mundane year.-Catti-brie – R. A. Salvatore • A successful song comes to sing itself inside the listener. It is cellular and seismic, a wave coalescing in the mind and in the flesh. There is a message outside and a message inside, and those messages are the same, like the pat and thud of two heartbeats, one within you, one surrounding. The message of the lullaby is that it’s okay to dim the eyes for a time, to lose sight of yourself as you sleep and as you grow: if you drift, it says, you’ll drift ashore: if you fall, you will fall into place. – Kevin Brockmeier • A weak but steady throb lay beneath Kev’s searching fingertips. Win’s heartbeat…the pulse that sustained his universe. – Lisa Kleypas • Abraham Lincoln is resolute, honest, has the best interest of the nation at heart, and he’s as ugly as homemade Sunday sin, so he is modest, too. I’d vote for that in an undead heartbeat. – Bill Oberst Jr. • Alexia gave in to his demanding touch, but only, of course, because he sounded so pathetic. It had nothing, whatsoever to do with her own quickening heartbeat. – Gail Carriger • All these weirdos, and me getting a little better every day right in the midst of them. I had never known, never even imagined for a heartbeat, that there might be a place for people like us. – Denis Johnson • And at any moment it all ends with a heartbeat…just one heartbeat, and there’s no more time. One heartbeat and the chance to be saved is gone. One heartbeat and there’s no more choosing—it’s all sealed for eternal life or eternal death. – Jonathan Cahn • And since time sets its own tempo, like a heartbeat or an ebb tide, timepieces don’t really keep time. They just keep up with it, if they’re able. – Dava Sobel • Any chance he’s turned a new leaf and taken up sailing for real?” “About as likely as me doing it.” Hadrian eyed Royce for a heartbeat. “I put him at the top of the list. – Michael J. Sullivan • Anything I’ve asked of MGM Grand, they’ve done for me in a heartbeat. They’re all about making entertainers and athletes happy. – Floyd Mayweather, Jr. • Around us, life bursts with miracles–a glass of water, a ray of sunshine, a leaf, a caterpillar, a flower, laughter, raindrops. If you live in awareness, it is easy to see miracles everywhere. Each human being is a multiplicity of miracles. Eyes that see thousands of colors, shapes, and forms; ears that hear a bee flying or a thunderclap; a brain that ponders a speck of dust as easily as the entire cosmos; a heart that beats in rhythm with the heartbeat of all beings. When we are tired and feel discouraged by life’s daily struggles, we may not notice these miracles, but they are always there. – Nhat Hanh • As he gave a sleepy, growling groan, that hand disappeared under the sheet. Arizona’s lips parted, and her heartbeat tripped up. She cleared her throat. “Spencer?” Freezing, without moving any other body part, he opened his eyes and met her gaze. She frowned at him. He didn’t look super-startled, and he said nothing. He just started at her. With his hand still under there. “Yeah…” Semi-satisfied with his frozen reaction, she nodded at his lap. “You weren’t going for a little tug, were you? Because as your spectator, I’d just as soon not see it.” -Arizona and Spencer – Lori Foster • Assured of your salvation by the unique grace of our Lord Jesus Christ” is the heartbeat of the gospel, joyful liberation from fear of the Final Outcome, a summons to self-acceptance, and freedom for a life of compassion toward others. – Brennan Manning • Athletic ability can be taken away like that. It can all end in a heartbeat. – Tim Tebow

jQuery(document).ready(function($) var data = action: 'polyxgo_products_search', type: 'Product', keywords: 'Heartbeat', orderby: 'rand', order: 'DESC', template: '1', limit: '68', columns: '4', viewall:'Shop All', ; jQuery.post(spyr_params.ajaxurl,data, function(response) var obj = jQuery.parseJSON(response); jQuery('#thelovesof_heartbeat').html(obj); jQuery('#thelovesof_heartbeat img.swiper-lazy:not(.swiper-lazy-loaded)' ).each(function () var img = jQuery(this); img.attr("src",img.data('src')); img.addClass( 'swiper-lazy-loaded' ); img.removeAttr('data-src'); ); ); ); • Basketball is a beautiful game when the five players on the court play with one heartbeat. – Dean Smith • Because it was starting to get dark, and because the streets were crowded, I bumped into a googolplex people. Who were they? Where were they going? What were they looking for? I wanted to hear their heartbeats, and I wanted them to hear mine. – Jonathan Safran Foer • Being the foundation is what I live for, some people call it being in the pocket, some people call it a groove. I think it’s the heartbeat. There’s nothing that feels better than that. – Tommy Shannon • Breath and brevity are sisters; the long-winded is an enemy who muffles your heartbeat. – Shirley Geok-lin Lim • By writing at the instant, the very heartbeat of life is caught. – Walt Whitman • Can I be blamed for wanting a real body, to put my arms around? Without it I too am disembodied. I can listen to my own heartbeat against the bedsprings…but there’s something dead about it, something deserted. – Margaret Atwood • Christ used the flesh and blood of Mary for his life on earth, the Word of love was uttered in her heartbeat. Christ used his own body to utter his love on earth; his perfectly real body, with bone and sinew and blood and tears; Christ uses our bodies to express his love on earth, our humanity. A Christian life is a sacramental life, it is not a life lived only in the mind, only by the soul… Our humanity is the substance of the sacramental life of Christ in us, like the wheat for the host, like the grape for the chalice. – Caryll Houselander • Dance is your pulse, your heartbeat, your breathing. It’s the rhythm of your life. It’s the expression in time and movement,in happiness, joy, sadness and envy. – Jacques d’Amboise • Dance is your pulse, your heartbeat, your breathing. It’s the rhythym of your life. – Jacques d’Amboise • Do I miss football in Scotland? It keeps you really alive, that’s for sure. Your heartbeat fluctuates. I’m flatlining at the moment which is actually quite nice but you need to go up and down to stay alive. – Gordon Strachan • Do not leave me, hide in my heart like a secret, wind around my head like a turban. “I come and go as I please,” you say, “swift as a heartbeat.” You can tease me as much as you like but never leave me. – Rumi • Don’t do it for the money. Follow the path to do what makes your heartbeat faster. Follow your passion. – Lynn Tilton • Even still, we run. We have not reached our average of 57.92 years without knowing that you run through it, and it hurts and you run through it some more, and if it hurts worse, you run through it even more, and when you finish, you will have broken through. In the end, when you are done, and stretching, and your heartbeat slows, and your sweat dries, if you’ve run through the hard part, you will remember no pain. – Lauren Groff • Everybody gave 100%. I mean everyone, because they all knew that the film had the bones and the heartbeat of something that could be good. And everyone was in on it and wanted it for me and wanted it for Roger and Beau. – Pierce Brosnan • Felt my heartbeat falter, hesitate, then stumble awkwardly forward, tripping on the next beat, then the next, faster and faster until each one tumbled into the other like the drumroll of dominoes crashing together. Funny how time stands still when death is imminent. – Darynda Jones • Find a guy who calls you beautiful instead of hot, who calls you back when you hang up on him, who will lie under the stars and listen to your heartbeat, or will stay awake just to watch you sleep…wait for the boy who kisses your forehead, who wants to show you off to the world when you are in sweats, who holds your hand in front of his friends, who thinks you’re just as pretty without makeup on. One who is constantly reminding you of how much he cares and how lucky his is to have you….The one who turns to his friends and says, ‘that’s her.’ – Chuck Palahniuk • Firepaw held the menacing amber gaze for few moments. Warrior and apprentice, for a heartbeat their eyes were locked as enemies. – Erin Hunter • Five is for five heartbeats, the length of time it takes to breathe in or out. For that is how quickly a life may change, for better or for ill. The time it takes to make up, or change, your mind. – Cameron Dokey • For at no time are any events predestined. There should be no such word in your vocabulary, for with every moment you change, and every heartbeat is an action, and every action changes every other action. – Seth • For God’s sake, Stiff,” he says. “You don’t have to follow me,” I say staring at the maze of bars above me. I shove my foot onto the place where two bars cross and push myself up, grabbing another bar in the process. I sway for a second, my heart beating so hard I can’t feel anything else. Every thought I have condenses into that heartbeat, moving at the same rhythm. “Yes, I do,” he says. – Veronica Roth • Genetics and beats? I feel like the drumbeat is a natural thing. Our heartbeat moves at a certain BPM. The drumbeat, being the first instrument, the platform for us, being that we all kind of come from that – it’s all beats. – Q-Tip • God had a heartbeat for 18-25 years old…the vast majority of whom don’t have a clue why they are on this planet. – Louie Giglio • God has called us into a place of tenderness, when nobody is looking, when there are no great decisions to make, when it’s just him and me in a hotel room, with no one to pray for, no one to preach to. When it is just two people in a room, that’s where you learn. That’s where you learn his heartbeat. That’s where you learn the presence. That’s where you learn the voice. It’s in the moments when nobody is watching, nobody is evaluating how good you’re doing. When it is just you and him. – Bill Johnson • He got right down in the dark between heartbeats, and rested there. And then he saw that another one wasn’t going to come. That’s it. That’s the last. He looked at the dark. I would like to take this opportunity, he said, to pray for another human being. – Denis Johnson • He had also the reputation of being a bit of a lady killer. But that probably accrued to him from his possession of a laughing, velvety voice which no girl could hear without a heartbeat, and a dangerous way of listening as if she were saying something that he had longed all his life to hear. – Lucy Maud Montgomery • He had on bunny slippers. These had fangs. They all stared at them in silence for about a heartbeat, and then Shane said, “That is impressively wicked. Crazy, but wicked. – Rachel Caine • He took both of my hands, twisting to face me more fully on the flattened box beneath us, and again the colors in his irises seemed to pulse with my heartbeat. – Rachel Vincent • He was afraid that the secrets she’d kept would always be here, inside him, an ugly malignant thing lodged near enough to his heart to upset its rhythm, and though it could be removed, cut out, there would always be scars; bits and pieces of it would remain in his blood, making it wrong somehow, so that if he accidentally sliced his skin open, his blood would–for one heartbeat–flow as black as India ink before it remembered that it should be red. – Kristin Hannah

• He’d half meant to speak but those eyes had altered the world forever in the space of a heartbeat. – Cormac McCarthy • Her heartbeat was in her hands, her heart beat the way she moved her head, her whole body was her heart beating. – Tom Spanbauer • Her mind emptied of everything but the gusting wind and how fragile Wolf looked in that heartbeat, like one movement could break him open. – Marissa Meyer • Here’s what I love: when a great writer turns me into a Jew from Chicago, a lesbian out of South Carolina, or a black woman moving into a subway entrance in Harlem. Turn me into something else, writers of the world. Make me Muslim, heretic, hermaphrodite. Put me into a crusader’s armor, a cardinal’s vestments. Let me feel the pygmy’s heartbeat, the queen’s breast, the torturer’s pleasure, the Nile’s taste, or the nomad’s thirst. Tell me everything that I must know. Hold nothing back. – Pat Conroy • His eyes search the crowd until they find my face. My heartbeat lives in my throat; lives in my cheeks. “I still don’t understand,” he says softly, “how she knew that it would work. – Veronica Roth • His gaze was a lot steadier than her heartbeat. “She’s the reason for those whispered phone calls I used to overhear, isn’t she?” “Don’t be silly. I was talking to my lover.” “She told me she lives at a place called Brookdale. After I hung up, I did a little research on the Web. Your talent for obfuscation continues to amaze me.” “Hey, I haven’t obfuscated in weeks. Makes you go blind. – Susan Elizabeth Phillips • Holding Eleanor’s hand was like holding a butterfly. Or a heartbeat. Like holding something complete, and completely alive. As soon as he touched her, he wondered how he’d gone this long without doing it. He rubbed his thumb through her palm and up her fingers, and was aware of her every breath. – Rainbow Rowell • Holding Eleanor’s hand was like holding a butterfly. Or a heartbeat. Like holding something complete, and completely alive. – Rainbow Rowell • How do you know that? (Stryker) I know everything. I feel every heartbeat in the universe. Hear every scream for mercy and feel every tear of pain. (Jared) – Sherrilyn Kenyon • How was it that, even in the common tasks of an ordinary life, Jesus drew the praise of heaven? At the core of His being, He only did those things which pleased the Father. In everything, He stayed true, heartbeat to heartbeat, with the Father’s desires. Jesus lived for God alone; God was enough for Him. Thus, even in its simplicity and moment-to-moment faithfulness, Christ’s life was an unending fragrance, a perfect offering of incomparable love to God. – Francis Frangipane • I asked Chief Justice John Roberts about this definition of life – you know, what is life? The Supreme Court can’t figure it out or doesn’t want us to figure it out; the fact that we know that there is no life if there’s no heartbeat and brainwaves. – Tom Coburn • I believe that every human has a finite number of heartbeats. I don’t intend to waste any of mine running around doing exercises. – Neil Armstrong • I believe that the Good Lord gave us a finite number of heartbeats and I’m damned if I’m going to use up mine running up and down a street. – Neil Armstrong • I can hear sweat trickling down your cheek. Your heartbeat sound like Sasquatch feet. Thundering, shaking the concrete. – The Notorious B.I.G. • I come prepared with the white suit and stethoscope, Listen to your heartbeat, delete beep beep BEEP. Your insurance is high, but my price is cheap. – Kool Keith • I could fall for you in a heartbeat – Ken Follett • I could take you down on this sidewalk and be up that skirt of yours in a heartbeat. And you wouldn’t fight me, would you? No, she probably wouldn’t. Wrath and Beth – J.R. Ward • I didn’t mean to send love letters, but that is what they became. On their way to you, my words turned into heartbeats on the page. – Lisa Kleypas • I don’t audition for “on-air” commercials – the ones where your face can be seen. I’ve auditioned for voiceover campaigns that I haven’t gotten, but I don’t really want to be seen in a commercial unless it’s a product that I really love. Like, if Adidas asked me, I would do it in a heartbeat. But I did a Reebok commercial, one for Pep Boys, one for Dunkin’ Donuts. I auditioned for commercials, but I really couldn’t stomach it. It just didn’t feel right. – Michael Showalter • I don’t have any choice any more. I am in a choiceless awareness. I don’t have to be aware. I am simply aware. Now it is just like my heartbeat or like my breathing. Even if I try not to be aware, it is not possible; the very effort will make me more aware. Awareness is not a quality, a characteristic; it is your whole being. When you become aware, there is no choice left to be otherwise. – Rajneesh • I dreamed you a field of running horses, Selah. For you, Bianca, a balloon the size of the sky, my body a kite you can throw into the air.Pull me by string and horse.Tell me everything won’t end in death. That everything doesn’t end with February. Dead wildflowers wrapped around a crying baby’s throat.I’ve slowed my heartbeat to three beats a minute. I’ve redrawn the clouds into birds, a fox chasing them into the mountains.I’m going to move my hand today.I vomit ice cubes.There’s a ghost next to me.Get up, Dad.(Light Boxes) – Shane Jones • I endorse only products I actually use. Like Wheaties keeps offering me money, but I don’t eat Wheaties, so I can’t do it. Now, if Rice Krispies or Frosted Flakes offered me a deal, I’d take it right away. Apple Jacks, I’d be on the box in a heartbeat. Apple Shaqs. Yeah. – Shaquille O’Neal • I feel his heartbeat against my cheek,as fast as my own. “Are you afraid of me, too, Tobias?” “Terrified,” he replies with a smile. – Veronica Roth • I feel like I’ve gotten an extraordinary opportunity to experience a sort of collective humanity. If you hug many people in such a short period of days you pick up on a communal energy, almost like feeling a giant heartbeat that everyone is beating together. – Rob Bell • I feel the flatline of my existence disrupting, forming heartbeat hills and valleys – Isaac Marion • I folded myself against her body, breathing in the smell of my new life and matching my heartbeat to hers” Sam, Linger – Maggie Stiefvater • I grew up among strong women so I know what it’s like to be loved and humiliated in a heartbeat. – Chris O’Dowd • I have this great fear of people – not when I’m on the runway, but backstage. In a room full of people, I really suffer. I sort of go into a tunnel and I feel very removed. I get so tense, I can’t swallow, and my heartbeat goes way up. It still happens now, although I’m better at controlling it. – Linda Evangelista • I hear my heartbeat. I have been looking at him too long, but then, he has been looking back, and I feel like we are both trying to say something the other can’t hear, though I could be imagining it. Too long – and now even longer, my heart even louder, his tranquil eyes swallowing me whole. – Veronica Roth • I knew there was only one place to go. I sank down into the center of my soul, grew still, and listened to the Rabbi’s heartbeat. – Brennan Manning • I know I hated magic for a reason,” Janco said. “Congratulations. This is the first time you’ve had a VALID reason to hate something,” Ari countered. “Remember your campaign against sand?” “Sand! Horrid little stuff. Gets everywhere. I had a perfectly good argue–” “Janco.” Ari’s voice rumbled deep in his throat. In a heartbeat, Janco switched gears. “Well, this blood magic sounds worse than sand. – Maria V. Snyder • I know there’s some poetry that sort of sounds like daisies, but most of the good poetry is also [political], you can feel the heartbeat; it’s about some situation that concerns human beings under duress. It’s suggesting a solution, or just acknowledging that [the situation] exists. Art does that. – Toni Morrison • I leapt eagerly into books. The characters’ lives were so much more interesting than the lonely heartbeat of my own. – Ruta Sepetys • I listened to the wind bury winter; and when I tasted his grace, his grace had no name; only, night became something else in his presence, as though darkness had a soul, here, swaying to heartbeats roaring. – Marjorie M. Liu • I love you,” she whispered. He stroked his hand down her back. “Yep, you do.” “You’re supposed to say it back,” she said, pretending to be offended because the silliness kept the fear/hope at bay. “Why?” He scowled down at her. “You know you’re my heartbeat. – Nalini Singh • I loved the idea that people dressed up to go to the gardens. Our work always has a utility point of view at its heartbeat and then other things come around it, so it really allowed us to use denims and suedes and gauzes, and those sorts of hard-working fabrics – workwear fabrics – and then contrast them with crepe de chine, beautiful florals and big jewelry. – Karen Walker • I measure the moment in the heartbeats I skip – David Levithan • I most resemble Benjamin Button. I evolve. I attach myself to the heartbeat of whatever is going on at that particular time, or I just chart a new path. – J. B. Smoove • I need music. It’s like my heartbeat, so to speak. It keeps me going no matter what’s going on – bad games, press, whatever! – LeBron James • I stare at him. I feel my heartbeat everywhere, even in my toes. I feel like doing something bold, but I could just as easily walk away. I am not sure which option is smarter, or better. I am not sure that I care. – Veronica Roth • I think my heartbeat might be the Morse code for ‘inappropriate.’ – Rives • I thought that you had stood up for the free will & rights of humans in this town.” “Depends on the human,” Claire said. “As far as I know, Hitler had a heartbeat, and I wouldn’t vote him to be in charge. – Rachel Caine • I try hard to hold fast to the truth that a full and thankful heart cannot entertain great conceits. When brimming with gratitude, one’s heartbeat must surely result in outgoing love, the finest emotion we can ever know. – Bill W. • I used to skip school to go there when I was growing up in Newark, … I saw the Flamingos, the Heartbeats, Jackie Wilson, Chuck Jackson. – George Clinton • I was a barmaid for my mum for years, as we lived above a pub. I still can’t hear the Heartbeat theme tune without breaking into a cold sweat, as it used to start at the same time as my shift. – Sara Cox • I work between my heartbeat. I have one-and-a-half seconds to actually move. And at the same time I have to watch I don’t inhale my own work. – Willard Wigan • I would rather have strong enemies than a world of passive individualists. In a world of passive individualists nothing seems worth anything simply because nobody stands for anything. That world has no convictions, no victories, no unions, no heroism, no absolutes, no heartbeat. That world has rigor mortis. – Criss Jami • I would’ve done it for you in a heartbeat. – Julie James • If I could be a country music star, I’d do it in a heartbeat. I’d hit the road and just jam out. – Justin Deeley • If I had to give up cheese or chocolate, I’d give up chocolate in a heartbeat. – Amanda Peet • If I have to remove one to save ten, I’ll do it in a heartbeat. If I have to waterboard somebody to save a thousand people, I’ll do it in a heartbeat. – Sean Patrick Flanery • If it came down to that, I’d protect you in a heartbeat. – Nicholas Sparks • If there was another Dr. Quinn movie, I would do it in a heartbeat. – Joe Lando • If they asked me if I wanted to go into space tomorrow, I’d do it in a heartbeat. On the other hand, if they asked me if I wanted to go into training for three years and then go into space again, I’d probably say no. – Sally Ride • If you have a heartbeat, there’s still time for your dreams. – Sean Stephenson • If you put two brigades on the ground right now with U.S. forces, they would push ISIS back into Syria in a heartbeat. – Anthony Zinni • If you want to say something profound, writing from your heartbeat is different than writing from the loud voices you get from music. If they’re rapping from noise, it’s about robbing people. It’s that simple. – Russell Simmons • If you will practice being fictional for a while, you will understand that fictional characters are sometimes more real than people with bodies and heartbeats. – Richard Bach • I’m a really athletic person – I’m not that coordinated, but I’m really athletic, so I would play a superhero doing my own stunts in a heartbeat. But hopefully not taking swings at people. That’s not a good idea for me. – Selma Blair • I’m not sure that people want to go back to the womb. People want to go back to the teats of your mother and hear your mother’s heartbeat. – Gaspar Noe • I’m on a Mission, that niggaz say is Impossible, But when I swing my swords they all choppable, I be the body dropper, the heartbeat stopper, Child educator, plus head amputator. – GZA • I’m sure you would have stopped it if you could have.” “In a heartbeat. – Kiera Cass • I’m the ruler in my kingdom and my dark seat is hot. Step into my world and your heartbeat stop! – Aaron Dontez Yates • I’m very proud to be Canadian, but I would move to New York in a heartbeat. – Lexa Doig • In a heartbeat, a thousand voices took up the chant. King Joffrey and King Robb and King Stannis were forgotten, and King Bread ruled alone. “Bread.” they clamored. “Bread, Bread! – George R. R. Martin • In order to terminate a pregnancy, you have to still a heartbeat, switch off a developing brain. – Christopher Hitchens • In the end mortals always expired before faeries. They were such finite creatures. Their first heartbeat and breath were but a blink from death. To add the weight of nourishing his insatiable court in a time of peace was to hasten that unconscionably. – Melissa Marr • In the silence between your heartbeat bides a summons. Do you hear it? Name it if you must, or leave it forever nameless, but why pretend it is not there? – Rumi • In the time just before the bombing of Pearl Harbor, when Perfidia opens, we were pre-psychologized. There were no concepts of identity, no politics of victimization. Reparation wasn’t in the language. Nobody thought about giving the great grandchildren of black slaves so much as $1.98. And all of a sudden the bombs hit, interventionism versus isolationism became a dead issue, and it was us-versus-them in a heartbeat. – James Ellroy • In this world, there are two times. There is mechanical time and there is body time.” “They do not keep clocks in their houses. Instead, they listen to their heartbeats. They feel the rhythms of their moods and desires.” “Then there are those who think their bodies don’t exist. They live by mechanical time. They rise at seven o’clock in the morning. They eat their lunch at noon and their supper at six. They arrive at their appointments on time, precisely by the clock.- Alan Lightman • In your hands The dog, the donkey, surely they know They are alive. Who would argue otherwise? But now, after years of consideration, I am getting beyond that. What about the sunflowers? What about The tulips, and the pines? Listen, all you have to do is start and There’ll be no stopping. What about mountains? What about water Slipping over rocks? And speaking of stones, what about The little ones you can Hold in your hands, their heartbeats So secret, so hidden it may take years Before, finally, you hear them? – Mary Oliver • It is a real issue, a measurement of our society, when we say it’s fine to destroy unborn life who has a heartbeat at 16 days post-conception. – Tom Coburn • It only takes one mistake,’ the Dan Banyan guy says, ‘and nothing else you ever do will matter.’ With his empty hand, he takes one of my hands. His fingers feel hot, fever-hot, and pounding with his heartbeats. He turns my hand palm-up saying, ‘No matter how hard you work or how smart you become, you’ll always be known for that one poor choice.’ He sets the blue pill on my palm, saying, ‘Do that one wrong thing- and you’ll be dead for the rest of your life.- Chuck Palahniuk • It took my breath away, that evening. If you’ve ever dreamed that you walked into your best-loved book or film or TV program, then maybe you’ve got some idea how it felt: things coming alive around you, strange and new and utterly familiar at the same time; the catch in your heartbeat as you move through the rooms that had such a vivid untouchable life in your mind, as your feet actually touch the carpet, as you breathe the air; the odd, secret glow of warmth as these people you’ve been watching for so long, from so far away, open their circle and sweep you into it. – Tana French • It’s time we put thoughts of lack behind us. It’s time for us to discover the secrets of the stars, to sail to an uncharted land, to open up a new heaven where our spirits can soar. But first we’ll have to make changes. And lasting change does not happen overnight. Lasting change happens in infinitesimal increments: a day, an hour, a minute, a heartbeat at a time… – Sarah Ban Breathnach • It’s weird how your perspective changes. At the start of your career, you think, ‘I just want to do cutting-edge work that makes people think.’ Now, I would do a blockbuster in a heartbeat. – Matthew Rhys • I’ve learned that I can’t do it all at once. So, you have to figure out your angle of attack. Coming in on the acting front, acting is a passion of mine. It’s a true love. Dancing, I kind of just fell into. Choreographing, the same thing. But making films, producing and directing, that’s the heartbeat of my existence. – Columbus Short • Laughter is the best way To make somebody’s heart beat – Robert Holden • Let me say, it’s – what a commentary it is on American media that you have to go to Russian television in order to get covered as a candidate in this election. It’s pretty outrageous. And our media could solve that in a heartbeat if they actually opened it up, you know, but they don’t. So I think that’s more commentary on the crisis in our media. – Jill Stein • Liam in Taken has been great to see. My boys love it. They love him. And there’s just the gravitas to it. It’s believable. You know the guy’s endured. You know the guy’s lived some life. Someone like Liam has lived a lot of life. Myself, I’ve lived a lot of life. There’s loss. There’s success. There’s loss. There’s doubts. And there’s some heartbeat there. – Pierce Brosnan • Lies were like acid, corrosive: They could dissolve trust in a heartbeat. – Rob Thurman • Life is a disease, brother, and death begins already at birth. Every breath, every heartbeat, is a moment of dying – a little shove toward the end. – Erich Maria Remarque • Life is more than breath and a heartbeat; meaning and purpose are the life of life. – Desmond Tutu • Life isn’t measured in minutes, but in heartbeats. – Joan Lowery Nixon • Like a heartbeat. Something inside me. Some dream. I think it’s being a dreamer as a child. Dreamy kids become actors, don’t they? – Michael Gambon • Louis-Cesare’s anger suddenly filled the small room like water, and in a heartbeat his eyes went from silver tinged to as solid as two antique coins. I sat frozen, awash in a sea of power. I was beginning to understand why Mircea had wanted him along, only Daddy had failed to mention anything about the hair-trigger temper. I guess he assumed the red hair would clue me in. – Karen Chance • Love is connected to the heart. When the Name of God Allah is synchronized with the heartbeat, it then travels through the blood to all the veins, reaches the spirits and awakens them. Then the spirits are rejuvenated and go into the Love of God. – Riaz Ahmed Gohar Shahi • Love is the heartbeat of all life. – Paramahansa Yogananda • Maybe, he said hesitantly, maybe there is a beast. The assembly cried out savagely and Ralph stood up in amazement. You, Simon? You believe in this? I don’t know, said Simon. His heartbeats were choking him. […] Ralph shouted. Hear him! He’s got the conch! What I mean is . . . maybe it’s only us. Nuts! That was from Piggy, shocked out of decorum. – William Golding • Music gets inside you, music captures you. Music becomes your heartbeat. It’s a drug and makes you feel whatever the song’s about. – Ed Westwick • music is about as physical as it gets: your essential rhythm is your heartbeat; your essential sound, the breath. We’re walking temples of noise, and when you add tender hearts to this mix, it somehow lets us meet in places we couldn’t get to any other way. – Anne Lamott • Music is the elixir of life. It can mimic the heartbeats of our bodies and heal like a magic wand… The resonance it creates in our bodies cannot be replicated by any medicine. – Walter Mikac • My heart beat Beats me senselessly Why’s everything Gotta be so intense with me. – Katy Perry • My heart is fluid and soaring. There’s no longer any space between heartbeats. – Lauren Oliver • My little dog – a heartbeat at my feet. – Edith Wharton • My loving sister Mary has always shared the pain and pleasure of my heartbeat in a unique and special way. We have sung our sad and warm songs together. – John Henrik Clarke • Namby-pamby little routines that don’t speed up your heartbeat and make you sweat aren’t worth your while. – Jane Fonda • No, there is literally nothing on the business side that I wouldn’t sacrifice in a heartbeat to have an extra couple of hours’ writing. Nothing. – J. K. Rowling • Nothing endures except change; nothing is constant except death. Every heartbeat wounds us, and life would be an eternal bleeding to death, were it not for literature. It grants us what nature does not: a golden time that doesn’t rust, a springtime that never wilts, cloudless happiness and eternal youth. [my translation] – Ludwig Borne • Oh, honey, if he swung batter-batter for my team, I’d be all over that in a heartbeat. – J. Lynn • Okay, okay.” I set my hand on top of his and guide it to my chest, so it’s right over my heart. “Feel my heartbeat. Can you feel it?” “Yes.” “Feel how steady it is?” “It’s fast.” “Yes, well, that has nothing to do with the box.” I wince as soon as I’m done speaking. I just admitted to something. Hopefully he doesn’t realize that. – Veronica Roth • Once I was lost in a forest. I was so afraid. My blood pounded in my chest and I knew my heart’s strength would soon be exhausted. I saved myself without thinking. I grasped the two syllables closest to me, and replaced my heartbeat with your name. – Anne Michaels • One has to reach to the absolute state of awareness: that is Zen. You cannot do it every morning for a few minutes or for half an hour and then forget all about it. It has to become like your heartbeat. You have to sit in it, you have to walk in it. Yes, you have even to sleep in it. – Rajneesh • One’s life story cannot be told with complete veracity. A true autobiography would have to be written in states of mind, emotions, heartbeats, smiles and tears; not in months and years, or physical events. Life is marked off on the soul by feelings, not by dates. – Helen Keller • Our breath, like our heartbeat, is the most reliable rhythm in our lives. When we become attuned to this constant rhythm, our breath can gradually teach us to come back to the original silence of the mind. – Donna Farhi • Our story opens in the mind of Luther L. (L for LeRoy) Fliegler, who is lying in his bed, not thinking of anything, but just aware of sounds, conscious of his own breathing, and sensitive to his own heartbeats. Lying beside him is his wife, lying on her right side and enjoying her sleep. – John O’Hara • Over the past year I’vediscovered if you keep on giving and giving, you end up losing yourself. I think that learning to give and receive is the trick. Perfect happiness is also a feeling, and the most amazing thing is that we were all born with the gift to make it happen in a heartbeat. Putting on certainmusic, reading something can make us feel a certain way. I think the key to happiness is allowing ourselves to not feel bad or guilty for feeling it, and letting it be contagious. And to not be dependent on other people to create your own happiness. – Brittany Murphy • Patients know in a heartbeat if they’re getting a clumsy exam. – Abraham Verghese • People who are in it for their own good are individualists. They don’t share the same heartbeat that makes a team so great. A great unit, whether it be football or any organization, shares the same heartbeat. – Bear Bryant • Perhaps the Wilderness we fear is the pause between our own heartbeats, the silence that reminds us we live by grace. – Terry Tempest Williams • Promise to my momma I’ma make it to the Top..So I’ma keep climbing til my heartbeat drop – J. Cole • Raindrops are my only reminder that clouds have a heartbeat. That I have one, too. – Tahereh Mafi • Remember that reputation and integrity are your most valuable assets – and can be lost in a heartbeat. – Charlie Munger • Remember, we could solve this in a heartbeat with ranked-choice voting. The Democrats won’t pass it. This allows you to rank your choices and eliminates the intimidation and the fear. They won’t pass it; I know because I helped file the bill. Sixteen years ago in Massachusetts they could have solved the spoiler problem. They won’t do it because they rely on fear. The fact that they rely on fear tells you something very important. They are not on your side. For that reason alone, they do not deserve your vote. – Jill Stein • Reshaping life! People who can say that have never understood a thing about life—they have never felt its breath, its heartbeat—however much they have seen or done. They look on it as a lump of raw material that needs to be processed by them, to be ennobled by their touch. But life is never a material, a substance to be molded. If you want to know, life is the principle of self-renewal, it is constantly renewing and remaking and changing and transfiguring itself, it is infinitely beyond your or my obtuse theories about it. – Boris Pasternak • Reyes, what happened?” He‘d been busy nibbling his way to my collarbone, his hot mouth evoking seismic activity at each point of contact. I really hated to interrupt, but … “Reyes, are you listening to me?” He raised his head, a sensual grin playing at the corners of his mouth, and said, “I‘m listening.” “To what? The sound of blood rushing to your nether regions?” “No,” he said with a husky chuckle that made me tingle everywhere. “To your heartbeat. – Darynda Jones • Right now there’s a man on the street outside my door with outstretched hands full of heartbeats no one can hear. He has cheeks like torn sheet music every tear-broken crescendo falling on deaf ears. At his side there’s a boy with eyes like an anthem no one stands up for. – Andrea Gibson • Sarah Palin lacked the preparation or temperament to be one heartbeat away from the presidency, but what she possessed in abundance was the ability to inflame political passions and energize the John McCain campaign with star quality. – Roger Ebert • Scientists say every action initiates an equal and opposite reaction. I say that’s just the start. I say every action initiates a most unequal and upredictable chain reaction, that every filament of living becomes part of a larger weave, while remaining identifiable. That every line of latitude requires several stripes of longitude to obtain meaning. That every universe is part of a bigger heaven, a heaven of rhythm and geometry, where a heartbeat is the apex of a triangle. – Ellen Hopkins • Sean reaches out between us and takes my wrist. He press his thumb on my pulse. My heartbeat trips and surges against his skin. I’m pinned by his touch, a sort of fearful magic. We stand and stand, and I wait for my pulse against his finger to slow, but it doesn’t Finally, he releases my wrist and says,” I’ll see you on the cliffs tomorrow. – Maggie Stiefvater • She closes the door completely, and I crouch there. I allow myself to fall forward and rest my head on the door frame. My breath bleeds. My heartbeat drowns my ears. – Markus Zusak • She moved nearer, leaned her shoulder against me — and we were one, and something flowed from her into me, and I knew: this is how it must be. I knew it with every nerve, and every hair, every heartbeat, so sweet it verged on pain. And what joy to submit to this ‘must’. A piece of iron must feel such joy as it submits to the precise, inevitable law that draws it to a magnet. Or a stone, thrown up, hesitating a moment, then plunging headlong back to earth. Or a man, after the final agony, taking a last deep breath — and dying. – Yevgeny Zamyatin • She was my dream. She made me who I am, and holding her in my arms was more natural to me than my own heartbeat. I think about her all the time. Even now, when I’m sitting here, I think about her. There could never have been another. – Nicholas Sparks • Some emotions don’t make a lot of noise. It’s hard to hear pride. Caring is real faint – like a heartbeat. And pure love – why, some days it’s so quiet, you don’t even know it’s there. – Erma Bombeck • Sometimes I heard voices muttering in my head, and a lot of the time the world seemed to smolder around its edges. but I was in a little better physical shape every day, I was getting my looks back, and my spirits were rising, and this was all in all a happy time for me. All these weirdos, and me getting a little better right in the midst of them. I had never known, never even imagined for a heartbeat, that there might be a place for people like us. – Denis Johnson • Sometimes when you are standing still and it’s snowing, you think that you hear music. You can’t tell where it’s coming from either. I wondered if we all really did have a soundtrack, but we just get so used to it that we can’t hear it anymore, the same way that we block out the sound of our own heartbeat. – Heather O’Neill • Sometimes, when a person is truly lost in this world, suffocating inside her private bubble where all she can hear is her own droning heartbeat, a touch can be enough. – Walter Kirn • Such was a poet and shall be and is -who’ll solve the depths of horror to defend a sunbeam’s architecture with his life: and carve immortal jungles of despair to hold a mountain’s heartbeat in his hand. – e. e. cummings • Tell me what it’s like. The race.” “What it’s like is a battle. A mess of horses and men and blood. The fastest and strongest of what is left from two weeks of preparation on the sand. It’s the surf in your face, the deadly magic of November on your skin, the Scorpio drums in the place of your heartbeat. It’s speed, if you’re lucky. It’s life and it’s death or it’s both, and there’s nothing like it. – Maggie Stiefvater • That he’ll never let you down. That boy’s got a heart the size of Kentucky, and he loves you. That’s important. Take it from someone who knows. My mom used to tell me that whatever you do, marry someone who loves you more than you love him. And I listened to her. Why do you think Henry and I get along so well? I’m not saying that I don’t love him, because I do. But if I ever left Henry or something, God forbid, ever happened to me, I don’t think he’ll be able to go on. And that guy would risk his life for mine in a heartbeat. – Nicholas Sparks • That is where my dearest and brightest dreams have ranged — to hear for the duration of a heartbeat the universe and the totality of life in its mysterious, innate harmony. – Hermann Hesse • That’s my favorite thing about him. I like to lie next to him when it’s late, dark, and so quiet I can hear my own heartbeat. It’s times like that when I’m sure that I’m in love. – Lauren Oliver • The difference between deafness and any other disability is that there is no way to put yourself in a position of knowing what it would be like because you can’t stop yourself from hearing your own breath or your own heartbeat. You can not remove sound entirely from your life. You can get a sense of what being blind is like by closing and covering your eyes which provides a source of empathy because we can all project ourselves to that. But people who think they can project themselves into deafness are mistaken because you can’t. – Richard Masur • The eyes of the future are looking back at us and they are praying for us to see beyond our own time. They are kneeling with hands clasped that we might act with restraint, that we might leave room for the life that is destined to come. To protect what is wild is to protect what is gentle. Perhaps the wilderness we fear is the pause between our own heartbeats, the silent space that says we live only by grace. Wilderness lives by this same grace. Wild mercy is in our hands. – Terry Tempest Williams • The final heartbeat for the Christian is not the mysterious conclusion to a meaningless existence. It is, rather, the grand beginning to a life that will never end. – James Dobson • The goal of life is to make your heartbeat match the beat of the universe, to match your nature with Nature. – Joseph Campbell • The government is a heartbeat away from nationalizing health care based on deliberate misinformation about the nation’s uninsured and despite the 100 percent failure rate of such fantastic reforms elsewhere on the globe. – David Limbaugh • The great event on Calvary . . . is an eternal reminder to a power drunk generation that love is the most durable power in the world, and that it is at bottom the heartbeat of the moral cosmos. Only through achieving this love can you expect to matriculate into the university of eternal life. – Martin Luther • The greatest attribute of God is Love. The Tree of Life is located in the very depth of our soul. The most perfect and abundant fruit that grows and ripens is Life giving Love; it is the great healing force in the world. Love never fails to meet every demand of the human heart. The Divine principal of Love may be used to eliminate every sorrow, infirmity, in-harmony, ignorance and all mistakes of mankind. Love is God; eternal, limitless, changeless, infinite. It is the pulse of the world, the heartbeat of the Universe. – Baird T. Spalding • The heartbeat of your originality is deep within a body of thought that continually wrestles with the contradictions and limitations that we’re constantly trying to overcome, the curiosities and the ignorances of the people we seek to help. – Michael Eric Dyson • The myth of this world is that the way to transformation is through power, but God choose to enter the world in a weak manner, gentle and tender through the heartbeat of a child. – Rick Dees • The phone is gonna disappear. Maybe it will be a bracelet. After the bracelet it will be a blood cell sized device that maybe gets installed. We already have people with Parkinson’s that have chips installed in their brain to control their tremors. We already see people have pacemakers to help their heartbeats. I mean we’re already putting these technologies into our bodies. It is only going to deepen. – Jason Silva • The principles of the United States Constitution are, because of Senator Byrd, still the heartbeat of the US Senate. – David C. Hardesty, Jr. • The revolution is like a vessel filled with the pulsating heartbeat of millions of working people. – Ernst Toller • The secret of it all, is to write in the gush, the throb, the flood, of the moment – to put things down without deliberation – without worrying about their style – without waiting for a fit time or place. I always worked that way. I took the first scrap of paper, the first doorstep, the first desk, and wrote – wrote, wrote…By writing at the instant the very heartbeat of life is caught. – Walt Whitman • The soundtrack in the poetry is the soundtrack from your own heartbeat. – Russell Simmons • The thing about physicists is that they tend to think that everything is physics. I don’t. That’s not what music is to me. You can explain aspects of it in physical terms, including the physics of anatomy: how our bodies move, the torsional moment of inertia, the way you move your body to a beat, the inherent periodicities of the heartbeat, the gait. That’s physics, too, I guess – maybe they’d call it biophysics. – Vijay Iyer • The truth is, we live in deeds, not days; in actions and thoughts and feelings, not heartbeats. – Michael Mullen • The type of girls that would sleep with you in a heartbeat aren’t the type of girls I’d want to take home anyway. – Niall Horan • The whole universe was stilled as if listening for a voice. For the space of one heartbeat there was peace on earth. For one fraction of a moment there was no deed of violence wrought on earth, no hatred, no fire, no whirlwind, no pain, no fear. Existence rested against the heart of God, then sighed and journeyed again. – Elizabeth Goudge • The young earth-solution to reconciling the order of creation with natural history makes good exegetical and theological sense. Indeed, the overwhelming consensus of theologians up through the Reformation held to this view. I myself would adopt it in a heartbeat except that nature seems to present such strong evidence against it. – William A. Dembski • There are people we meet in life who miss being important to us by inches, days, or heartbeats. Another place or time or a different emotional frame of mind and we would willingly fall into their arms; gladly take up their challenge or invitation. But as it is, we encounter them when we are discontent or content and they are not. Whatever they are, we are not and vice versa. Two trains going in different directions that pass for a few powerful moments at full speed, blasting noise and wind but then they are gone. Whatever serious chemistry might have been possible if, isn’t. – Jonathan Carroll • There came a moment in the middle of the song when he suddenly felt every heartbeat in the room & after that he never forgot that he was part of something much bigger – Brian Andreas • There is never a time or place for true love. It happens accidentally, in a heartbeat, in a single flashing, throbbing moment. – Sarah Dessen • There is no other closeness in human life like the closeness between a mother and her baby – chronologically, physically, and spiritually they are just a few heartbeats away from being the same person. – Susan Cheever • There was something unbearably sexy about cars at night, Ronan thought. The way the fenders twisted the light and reflected the road, the way every driver became anonymous. The sight of them knocked his heartbeat askew. – Maggie Stiefvater • There would be no chance at all of getting to know death if it happened only once. But fortunately, life is nothing but a continuing dance of birth and death, a dance of change. Every time I hear the rush of a mountain stream, or the waves crashing on the shore, or my own heartbeat, I hear the sound of impermanence. These changes, these small deaths, are our living links with death. They are death’s pulses, death’s heartbeat, prompting us to let go of all the things we cling to. – Sogyal Rinpoche • There’s no conscious thing on the face of the world that doesn’t know dread more intimately than its own heartbeat. – Clive Barker • There’s a heartbeat in any country that carries on regardless – at least in Europe. That’s what worries me about America, because I’m not sure what that heartbeat is – unless it’s the heartbeat of someone who’s just arrived, who just ran over the border two weeks ago. – Helen Mirren • There’s a moment on the arch of a jump, when you are neither rising nor falling. All you can see is the sky. All you can feel is the air and all you can hear is your heartbeat. That is all you are. Muscle and motion. It’s called the deadpoint. I live for that. – Rhianna Pratchett • Things could change so entirely, in a heartbeat; the world could be made entirely anew, because someone was kind. – Jo Baker • This body is fragile. It is just flesh. Listen to the heartbeat. Life depends on the pumping of a muscle. – Stephen Batchelor • This country will kill you in a heartbeat and still people love it. • This is my heartbeat like yours, it is a hatchet It can build a house or tear one down. – Andrea Gibson • Time becomes a stutter-the space between drumbeats, splintered into fragments, and also endlessly long, as long as soaring guitar notes that melt into one another, as full as the dark mass of bodies around me. I feel like the air downstairs has gone to liquid, to sweat and smell and sound, and I have broken apart in it. I am wave: I am pulled into the everything. I am energy and noise and a heartbeat going boom, boom, boom, echoing the drums. – Lauren Oliver • To be in a body is to hear the heartbeat of death at every moment. – Andrew Harvey • To listen to the silence is to hear the heartbeat of the Universe. – Laurence Overmire • Together, we can bring our planet’s heartbeat back. – Ian Somerhalder • True observers of nature, although they may think differently, will still agree that everything that is, everything that is observable as a phenomenon, can only exhibit itself in one of two ways. It is either a primal polarity that is able to unify, or it is a primal unity that is able to divide. The operation of nature consists of splitting the united or uniting the divided; this is the eternal movement of systole and diastole of the heartbeat, the inhalation and exhalation of the world in which we live, act, and exist. – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe • Vishous’s chest expanded. . . and his diamond stare slowly swung to Butch. There was a heartbeat of intensity. Then V reached out and repositioned the cross so it once again hung over Butch’s heart. “You did well, cop. Congratulations, true? – J.R. Ward • Vulnerability is the absolute heartbeat of innovation and creativity. There can be zero innovation without vulnerability. – Brené Brown • Waves are the voices of tides. Tides are life,” murmured Niko. “They bring new food for shore creatures, and take ships out to sea. They are the ocean’s pulse, and our own heartbeat. – Tamora Pierce • We all have music in us – your heartbeat is your drum, your voice is your sound – and music is supposed to put you in tune with nature. – Randy Weston • We are born to love as we are born to die, and between the heartbeats of these two great mysteries lies all the tangled undergrowth of our tiny lives. There is nowhere to go but through. And so we walk on, lost, and lost again, in the mapless wilderness of love. – Tim Farrington • We are tiny flames, Helikaon, and we flicker alone in the great dark for no more than a heartbeat. When we strive for wealth, glory and fame, it is meaningless. The nations we fight for will one day cease to be. Even the mountains we gaze upon will crumble to dust. To truly live we must yearn for that which does not die. – David Gemmell • We conclude that the concentration of wealth is natural and inevitable, and is periodically alleviated by violent or peaceable partial redistribution. In this view all economic history is the slow heartbeat of the social organism, a vast systole and diastole of concentrating wealth and compulsive redistribution. – Will Durant • We each have a finite number of heartbeats, a finite amount of time. But we have enough heartbeats and enough time to do what is important. – Susan L. Taylor • We have our own little heartbeat, too. We already have what I would call polyrhythms going on. – John Densmore • We left no doubt that we are one heartbeat And something like that is pretty hard to stop Once it gets going – Oscar Lua • We like to think of life as a constant … Yet it can be ended in a heartbeat. – David Gemmell • We tell stories. We talk about statistics. And in 1978, we added an element of the show that gave it its heartbeat: the long distance dedication. – Casey Kasem • What interests Sam Mendes are characters and relationships, and he was a genius at giving you the freedom to create the type of character you want, and also to explore and have fun with your fellow actors. For him, characters and relationships are really the heartbeat of the film, and then the action is the backdrop. By developing the characters, he makes you care that much more about the action and going on a journey with the characters. – Naomie Harris • What was time itself but the bloom, the sheath enfolding experience? Within time, and with time alone, there was life – the gleam, the quiver, the heartbeat, the immeasurable joy and anguish of being. – Ellen Glasgow • When I was nine, I was diagnosed with an irregular heartbeat and was prescribed beta blockers, which had the side effect of turning my skin green. Looking like Shrek’s little sister at school wasn’t the easiest thing. – Jessie J • When we have heartbeat and brain waves, we refuse to accept it as the presence of life – this lack of logic of which we approach this issue because we like and we favor convenience over ethics. We favor convenience over the hard parts of life that actually make us grow. – Tom Coburn • When you do take the home pregnancy test, it doesn’t quite seem real. But when you see the baby and the heartbeat on the ultrasound, it’s so incredible. – Danica McKellar • Yes, God wants you to do signs and wonders. But the love of God manifested through you is what people really need. So you first must see His face. You must become so close to His very heartbeat that you can feel what others feel. – Heidi Baker • You are in a place that has not been seen for tens of thousands of years, because it was so sealed off. There is such silence that when you hold your breath you can hear your own heartbeat. Everything is so fresh that you have the sensation that the painters have merely retreated deeper into the dark and that they are looking at you. – Werner Herzog • You can hear the Celtic heartbeat all over Europe and America, from Bing Crosby to Jack White, from the Smiths to My Bloody Valentine, from House of Pain to Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch. – Rob Sheffield • You can hold a secret, hold it so far in that it drives nearly every thought and every move you make- your very heartbeat, almost. – Deb Caletti • You had me tied in knots. You saved Belen’s life, and I wanted to kill and thank you all at the same time. And during those nights when we didn’t know if you’d live or die, I went from being angry, to worried to frustrated to scared all within a single heartbeat. If you had die, I would have killed you.- Maria V. Snyder • You kind of can’t help who you’ll fall in love with. I’d date someone who isn’t in the business in a heartbeat. – Selena Gomez • You know love is everything you say A whisper, a word Promises you give You feel it in the heartbeat of the day You know this is the way love is – Enya • You must learn how to hold a team together. You must lift some men up, calm others down, until finally they’ve got one heartbeat. Then you’ve got yourself a team. – Bear Bryant • You must never check for a person’s pulse using your thumb, or you’ll feel your own heartbeat. Actually, I plan on doing that if I’m the one who’s here when Ruth dies. I plan on giving her my heartbeat before I let her go. – Elizabeth Berg • You think I’d cheat on you?” I demanded with all the innocent outrage I could muster. “With another guy, no. With a cheeseburger . . . in a heartbeat. – Lisa Kleypas • You turn on the television, it’s like, “Woah is me! God almighty, we’re awful.” We are so down and out we are – name me a country in the world, name me one leader anywhere in the world who wouldn’t trade places in a heartbeat. We by far, we’re going to own the 21st century. – Joe Biden • Your mother’s heartbeat is the first sound you ever hear and your own heartbeat is the last. – Dave Brubeck

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Heartbeat Quotes

Official Website: Heartbeat Quotes

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• A Dirty Shame was a crazy movie. I don’t understand that movie at all. I don’t get it, but I’d work with John Waters again in a heartbeat. He’s just a delight. – Selma Blair • A human life is just a heartbeat in heaven. – Robin Williams • A hundred hundred heartbeats…” whispered Sabriel, tears falling down her face. – Garth Nix • A scary dream makes your heart beat faster. Why doesn’t the part of your brain that controls your heartbeat realize that another part of your brain is making the whole thing up? Don’t these people communicate? – George Carlin • A sermon is no sermon in which I cannot hear the heartbeat. – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow • A span of a few heartbeats can make for a greater memory than the sum of a mundane year.-Catti-brie – R. A. Salvatore • A successful song comes to sing itself inside the listener. It is cellular and seismic, a wave coalescing in the mind and in the flesh. There is a message outside and a message inside, and those messages are the same, like the pat and thud of two heartbeats, one within you, one surrounding. The message of the lullaby is that it’s okay to dim the eyes for a time, to lose sight of yourself as you sleep and as you grow: if you drift, it says, you’ll drift ashore: if you fall, you will fall into place. – Kevin Brockmeier • A weak but steady throb lay beneath Kev’s searching fingertips. Win’s heartbeat…the pulse that sustained his universe. – Lisa Kleypas • Abraham Lincoln is resolute, honest, has the best interest of the nation at heart, and he’s as ugly as homemade Sunday sin, so he is modest, too. I’d vote for that in an undead heartbeat. – Bill Oberst Jr. • Alexia gave in to his demanding touch, but only, of course, because he sounded so pathetic. It had nothing, whatsoever to do with her own quickening heartbeat. – Gail Carriger • All these weirdos, and me getting a little better every day right in the midst of them. I had never known, never even imagined for a heartbeat, that there might be a place for people like us. – Denis Johnson • And at any moment it all ends with a heartbeat…just one heartbeat, and there’s no more time. One heartbeat and the chance to be saved is gone. One heartbeat and there’s no more choosing—it’s all sealed for eternal life or eternal death. – Jonathan Cahn • And since time sets its own tempo, like a heartbeat or an ebb tide, timepieces don’t really keep time. They just keep up with it, if they’re able. – Dava Sobel • Any chance he’s turned a new leaf and taken up sailing for real?” “About as likely as me doing it.” Hadrian eyed Royce for a heartbeat. “I put him at the top of the list. – Michael J. Sullivan • Anything I’ve asked of MGM Grand, they’ve done for me in a heartbeat. They’re all about making entertainers and athletes happy. – Floyd Mayweather, Jr. • Around us, life bursts with miracles–a glass of water, a ray of sunshine, a leaf, a caterpillar, a flower, laughter, raindrops. If you live in awareness, it is easy to see miracles everywhere. Each human being is a multiplicity of miracles. Eyes that see thousands of colors, shapes, and forms; ears that hear a bee flying or a thunderclap; a brain that ponders a speck of dust as easily as the entire cosmos; a heart that beats in rhythm with the heartbeat of all beings. When we are tired and feel discouraged by life’s daily struggles, we may not notice these miracles, but they are always there. – Nhat Hanh • As he gave a sleepy, growling groan, that hand disappeared under the sheet. Arizona’s lips parted, and her heartbeat tripped up. She cleared her throat. “Spencer?” Freezing, without moving any other body part, he opened his eyes and met her gaze. She frowned at him. He didn’t look super-startled, and he said nothing. He just started at her. With his hand still under there. “Yeah…” Semi-satisfied with his frozen reaction, she nodded at his lap. “You weren’t going for a little tug, were you? Because as your spectator, I’d just as soon not see it.” -Arizona and Spencer – Lori Foster • Assured of your salvation by the unique grace of our Lord Jesus Christ” is the heartbeat of the gospel, joyful liberation from fear of the Final Outcome, a summons to self-acceptance, and freedom for a life of compassion toward others. – Brennan Manning • Athletic ability can be taken away like that. It can all end in a heartbeat. – Tim Tebow

jQuery(document).ready(function($) var data = action: 'polyxgo_products_search', type: 'Product', keywords: 'Heartbeat', orderby: 'rand', order: 'DESC', template: '1', limit: '68', columns: '4', viewall:'Shop All', ; jQuery.post(spyr_params.ajaxurl,data, function(response) var obj = jQuery.parseJSON(response); jQuery('#thelovesof_heartbeat').html(obj); jQuery('#thelovesof_heartbeat img.swiper-lazy:not(.swiper-lazy-loaded)' ).each(function () var img = jQuery(this); img.attr("src",img.data('src')); img.addClass( 'swiper-lazy-loaded' ); img.removeAttr('data-src'); ); ); ); • Basketball is a beautiful game when the five players on the court play with one heartbeat. – Dean Smith • Because it was starting to get dark, and because the streets were crowded, I bumped into a googolplex people. Who were they? Where were they going? What were they looking for? I wanted to hear their heartbeats, and I wanted them to hear mine. – Jonathan Safran Foer • Being the foundation is what I live for, some people call it being in the pocket, some people call it a groove. I think it’s the heartbeat. There’s nothing that feels better than that. – Tommy Shannon • Breath and brevity are sisters; the long-winded is an enemy who muffles your heartbeat. – Shirley Geok-lin Lim • By writing at the instant, the very heartbeat of life is caught. – Walt Whitman • Can I be blamed for wanting a real body, to put my arms around? Without it I too am disembodied. I can listen to my own heartbeat against the bedsprings…but there’s something dead about it, something deserted. – Margaret Atwood • Christ used the flesh and blood of Mary for his life on earth, the Word of love was uttered in her heartbeat. Christ used his own body to utter his love on earth; his perfectly real body, with bone and sinew and blood and tears; Christ uses our bodies to express his love on earth, our humanity. A Christian life is a sacramental life, it is not a life lived only in the mind, only by the soul… Our humanity is the substance of the sacramental life of Christ in us, like the wheat for the host, like the grape for the chalice. – Caryll Houselander • Dance is your pulse, your heartbeat, your breathing. It’s the rhythm of your life. It’s the expression in time and movement,in happiness, joy, sadness and envy. – Jacques d’Amboise • Dance is your pulse, your heartbeat, your breathing. It’s the rhythym of your life. – Jacques d’Amboise • Do I miss football in Scotland? It keeps you really alive, that’s for sure. Your heartbeat fluctuates. I’m flatlining at the moment which is actually quite nice but you need to go up and down to stay alive. – Gordon Strachan • Do not leave me, hide in my heart like a secret, wind around my head like a turban. “I come and go as I please,” you say, “swift as a heartbeat.” You can tease me as much as you like but never leave me. – Rumi • Don’t do it for the money. Follow the path to do what makes your heartbeat faster. Follow your passion. – Lynn Tilton • Even still, we run. We have not reached our average of 57.92 years without knowing that you run through it, and it hurts and you run through it some more, and if it hurts worse, you run through it even more, and when you finish, you will have broken through. In the end, when you are done, and stretching, and your heartbeat slows, and your sweat dries, if you’ve run through the hard part, you will remember no pain. – Lauren Groff • Everybody gave 100%. I mean everyone, because they all knew that the film had the bones and the heartbeat of something that could be good. And everyone was in on it and wanted it for me and wanted it for Roger and Beau. – Pierce Brosnan • Felt my heartbeat falter, hesitate, then stumble awkwardly forward, tripping on the next beat, then the next, faster and faster until each one tumbled into the other like the drumroll of dominoes crashing together. Funny how time stands still when death is imminent. – Darynda Jones • Find a guy who calls you beautiful instead of hot, who calls you back when you hang up on him, who will lie under the stars and listen to your heartbeat, or will stay awake just to watch you sleep…wait for the boy who kisses your forehead, who wants to show you off to the world when you are in sweats, who holds your hand in front of his friends, who thinks you’re just as pretty without makeup on. One who is constantly reminding you of how much he cares and how lucky his is to have you….The one who turns to his friends and says, ‘that’s her.’ – Chuck Palahniuk • Firepaw held the menacing amber gaze for few moments. Warrior and apprentice, for a heartbeat their eyes were locked as enemies. – Erin Hunter • Five is for five heartbeats, the length of time it takes to breathe in or out. For that is how quickly a life may change, for better or for ill. The time it takes to make up, or change, your mind. – Cameron Dokey • For at no time are any events predestined. There should be no such word in your vocabulary, for with every moment you change, and every heartbeat is an action, and every action changes every other action. – Seth • For God’s sake, Stiff,” he says. “You don’t have to follow me,” I say staring at the maze of bars above me. I shove my foot onto the place where two bars cross and push myself up, grabbing another bar in the process. I sway for a second, my heart beating so hard I can’t feel anything else. Every thought I have condenses into that heartbeat, moving at the same rhythm. “Yes, I do,” he says. – Veronica Roth • Genetics and beats? I feel like the drumbeat is a natural thing. Our heartbeat moves at a certain BPM. The drumbeat, being the first instrument, the platform for us, being that we all kind of come from that – it’s all beats. – Q-Tip • God had a heartbeat for 18-25 years old…the vast majority of whom don’t have a clue why they are on this planet. – Louie Giglio • God has called us into a place of tenderness, when nobody is looking, when there are no great decisions to make, when it’s just him and me in a hotel room, with no one to pray for, no one to preach to. When it is just two people in a room, that’s where you learn. That’s where you learn his heartbeat. That’s where you learn the presence. That’s where you learn the voice. It’s in the moments when nobody is watching, nobody is evaluating how good you’re doing. When it is just you and him. – Bill Johnson • He got right down in the dark between heartbeats, and rested there. And then he saw that another one wasn’t going to come. That’s it. That’s the last. He looked at the dark. I would like to take this opportunity, he said, to pray for another human being. – Denis Johnson • He had also the reputation of being a bit of a lady killer. But that probably accrued to him from his possession of a laughing, velvety voice which no girl could hear without a heartbeat, and a dangerous way of listening as if she were saying something that he had longed all his life to hear. – Lucy Maud Montgomery • He had on bunny slippers. These had fangs. They all stared at them in silence for about a heartbeat, and then Shane said, “That is impressively wicked. Crazy, but wicked. – Rachel Caine • He took both of my hands, twisting to face me more fully on the flattened box beneath us, and again the colors in his irises seemed to pulse with my heartbeat. – Rachel Vincent • He was afraid that the secrets she’d kept would always be here, inside him, an ugly malignant thing lodged near enough to his heart to upset its rhythm, and though it could be removed, cut out, there would always be scars; bits and pieces of it would remain in his blood, making it wrong somehow, so that if he accidentally sliced his skin open, his blood would–for one heartbeat–flow as black as India ink before it remembered that it should be red. – Kristin Hannah

• He’d half meant to speak but those eyes had altered the world forever in the space of a heartbeat. – Cormac McCarthy • Her heartbeat was in her hands, her heart beat the way she moved her head, her whole body was her heart beating. – Tom Spanbauer • Her mind emptied of everything but the gusting wind and how fragile Wolf looked in that heartbeat, like one movement could break him open. – Marissa Meyer • Here’s what I love: when a great writer turns me into a Jew from Chicago, a lesbian out of South Carolina, or a black woman moving into a subway entrance in Harlem. Turn me into something else, writers of the world. Make me Muslim, heretic, hermaphrodite. Put me into a crusader’s armor, a cardinal’s vestments. Let me feel the pygmy’s heartbeat, the queen’s breast, the torturer’s pleasure, the Nile’s taste, or the nomad’s thirst. Tell me everything that I must know. Hold nothing back. – Pat Conroy • His eyes search the crowd until they find my face. My heartbeat lives in my throat; lives in my cheeks. “I still don’t understand,” he says softly, “how she knew that it would work. – Veronica Roth • His gaze was a lot steadier than her heartbeat. “She’s the reason for those whispered phone calls I used to overhear, isn’t she?” “Don’t be silly. I was talking to my lover.” “She told me she lives at a place called Brookdale. After I hung up, I did a little research on the Web. Your talent for obfuscation continues to amaze me.” “Hey, I haven’t obfuscated in weeks. Makes you go blind. – Susan Elizabeth Phillips • Holding Eleanor’s hand was like holding a butterfly. Or a heartbeat. Like holding something complete, and completely alive. As soon as he touched her, he wondered how he’d gone this long without doing it. He rubbed his thumb through her palm and up her fingers, and was aware of her every breath. – Rainbow Rowell • Holding Eleanor’s hand was like holding a butterfly. Or a heartbeat. Like holding something complete, and completely alive. – Rainbow Rowell • How do you know that? (Stryker) I know everything. I feel every heartbeat in the universe. Hear every scream for mercy and feel every tear of pain. (Jared) – Sherrilyn Kenyon • How was it that, even in the common tasks of an ordinary life, Jesus drew the praise of heaven? At the core of His being, He only did those things which pleased the Father. In everything, He stayed true, heartbeat to heartbeat, with the Father’s desires. Jesus lived for God alone; God was enough for Him. Thus, even in its simplicity and moment-to-moment faithfulness, Christ’s life was an unending fragrance, a perfect offering of incomparable love to God. – Francis Frangipane • I asked Chief Justice John Roberts about this definition of life – you know, what is life? The Supreme Court can’t figure it out or doesn’t want us to figure it out; the fact that we know that there is no life if there’s no heartbeat and brainwaves. – Tom Coburn • I believe that every human has a finite number of heartbeats. I don’t intend to waste any of mine running around doing exercises. – Neil Armstrong • I believe that the Good Lord gave us a finite number of heartbeats and I’m damned if I’m going to use up mine running up and down a street. – Neil Armstrong • I can hear sweat trickling down your cheek. Your heartbeat sound like Sasquatch feet. Thundering, shaking the concrete. – The Notorious B.I.G. • I come prepared with the white suit and stethoscope, Listen to your heartbeat, delete beep beep BEEP. Your insurance is high, but my price is cheap. – Kool Keith • I could fall for you in a heartbeat – Ken Follett • I could take you down on this sidewalk and be up that skirt of yours in a heartbeat. And you wouldn’t fight me, would you? No, she probably wouldn’t. Wrath and Beth – J.R. Ward • I didn’t mean to send love letters, but that is what they became. On their way to you, my words turned into heartbeats on the page. – Lisa Kleypas • I don’t audition for “on-air” commercials – the ones where your face can be seen. I’ve auditioned for voiceover campaigns that I haven’t gotten, but I don’t really want to be seen in a commercial unless it’s a product that I really love. Like, if Adidas asked me, I would do it in a heartbeat. But I did a Reebok commercial, one for Pep Boys, one for Dunkin’ Donuts. I auditioned for commercials, but I really couldn’t stomach it. It just didn’t feel right. – Michael Showalter • I don’t have any choice any more. I am in a choiceless awareness. I don’t have to be aware. I am simply aware. Now it is just like my heartbeat or like my breathing. Even if I try not to be aware, it is not possible; the very effort will make me more aware. Awareness is not a quality, a characteristic; it is your whole being. When you become aware, there is no choice left to be otherwise. – Rajneesh • I dreamed you a field of running horses, Selah. For you, Bianca, a balloon the size of the sky, my body a kite you can throw into the air.Pull me by string and horse.Tell me everything won’t end in death. That everything doesn’t end with February. Dead wildflowers wrapped around a crying baby’s throat.I’ve slowed my heartbeat to three beats a minute. I’ve redrawn the clouds into birds, a fox chasing them into the mountains.I’m going to move my hand today.I vomit ice cubes.There’s a ghost next to me.Get up, Dad.(Light Boxes) – Shane Jones • I endorse only products I actually use. Like Wheaties keeps offering me money, but I don’t eat Wheaties, so I can’t do it. Now, if Rice Krispies or Frosted Flakes offered me a deal, I’d take it right away. Apple Jacks, I’d be on the box in a heartbeat. Apple Shaqs. Yeah. – Shaquille O’Neal • I feel his heartbeat against my cheek,as fast as my own. “Are you afraid of me, too, Tobias?” “Terrified,” he replies with a smile. – Veronica Roth • I feel like I’ve gotten an extraordinary opportunity to experience a sort of collective humanity. If you hug many people in such a short period of days you pick up on a communal energy, almost like feeling a giant heartbeat that everyone is beating together. – Rob Bell • I feel the flatline of my existence disrupting, forming heartbeat hills and valleys – Isaac Marion • I folded myself against her body, breathing in the smell of my new life and matching my heartbeat to hers” Sam, Linger – Maggie Stiefvater • I grew up among strong women so I know what it’s like to be loved and humiliated in a heartbeat. – Chris O’Dowd • I have this great fear of people – not when I’m on the runway, but backstage. In a room full of people, I really suffer. I sort of go into a tunnel and I feel very removed. I get so tense, I can’t swallow, and my heartbeat goes way up. It still happens now, although I’m better at controlling it. – Linda Evangelista • I hear my heartbeat. I have been looking at him too long, but then, he has been looking back, and I feel like we are both trying to say something the other can’t hear, though I could be imagining it. Too long – and now even longer, my heart even louder, his tranquil eyes swallowing me whole. – Veronica Roth • I knew there was only one place to go. I sank down into the center of my soul, grew still, and listened to the Rabbi’s heartbeat. – Brennan Manning • I know I hated magic for a reason,” Janco said. “Congratulations. This is the first time you’ve had a VALID reason to hate something,” Ari countered. “Remember your campaign against sand?” “Sand! Horrid little stuff. Gets everywhere. I had a perfectly good argue–” “Janco.” Ari’s voice rumbled deep in his throat. In a heartbeat, Janco switched gears. “Well, this blood magic sounds worse than sand. – Maria V. Snyder • I know there’s some poetry that sort of sounds like daisies, but most of the good poetry is also [political], you can feel the heartbeat; it’s about some situation that concerns human beings under duress. It’s suggesting a solution, or just acknowledging that [the situation] exists. Art does that. – Toni Morrison • I leapt eagerly into books. The characters’ lives were so much more interesting than the lonely heartbeat of my own. – Ruta Sepetys • I listened to the wind bury winter; and when I tasted his grace, his grace had no name; only, night became something else in his presence, as though darkness had a soul, here, swaying to heartbeats roaring. – Marjorie M. Liu • I love you,” she whispered. He stroked his hand down her back. “Yep, you do.” “You’re supposed to say it back,” she said, pretending to be offended because the silliness kept the fear/hope at bay. “Why?” He scowled down at her. “You know you’re my heartbeat. – Nalini Singh • I loved the idea that people dressed up to go to the gardens. Our work always has a utility point of view at its heartbeat and then other things come around it, so it really allowed us to use denims and suedes and gauzes, and those sorts of hard-working fabrics – workwear fabrics – and then contrast them with crepe de chine, beautiful florals and big jewelry. – Karen Walker • I measure the moment in the heartbeats I skip – David Levithan • I most resemble Benjamin Button. I evolve. I attach myself to the heartbeat of whatever is going on at that particular time, or I just chart a new path. – J. B. Smoove • I need music. It’s like my heartbeat, so to speak. It keeps me going no matter what’s going on – bad games, press, whatever! – LeBron James • I stare at him. I feel my heartbeat everywhere, even in my toes. I feel like doing something bold, but I could just as easily walk away. I am not sure which option is smarter, or better. I am not sure that I care. – Veronica Roth • I think my heartbeat might be the Morse code for ‘inappropriate.’ – Rives • I thought that you had stood up for the free will & rights of humans in this town.” “Depends on the human,” Claire said. “As far as I know, Hitler had a heartbeat, and I wouldn’t vote him to be in charge. – Rachel Caine • I try hard to hold fast to the truth that a full and thankful heart cannot entertain great conceits. When brimming with gratitude, one’s heartbeat must surely result in outgoing love, the finest emotion we can ever know. – Bill W. • I used to skip school to go there when I was growing up in Newark, … I saw the Flamingos, the Heartbeats, Jackie Wilson, Chuck Jackson. – George Clinton • I was a barmaid for my mum for years, as we lived above a pub. I still can’t hear the Heartbeat theme tune without breaking into a cold sweat, as it used to start at the same time as my shift. – Sara Cox • I work between my heartbeat. I have one-and-a-half seconds to actually move. And at the same time I have to watch I don’t inhale my own work. – Willard Wigan • I would rather have strong enemies than a world of passive individualists. In a world of passive individualists nothing seems worth anything simply because nobody stands for anything. That world has no convictions, no victories, no unions, no heroism, no absolutes, no heartbeat. That world has rigor mortis. – Criss Jami • I would’ve done it for you in a heartbeat. – Julie James • If I could be a country music star, I’d do it in a heartbeat. I’d hit the road and just jam out. – Justin Deeley • If I had to give up cheese or chocolate, I’d give up chocolate in a heartbeat. – Amanda Peet • If I have to remove one to save ten, I’ll do it in a heartbeat. If I have to waterboard somebody to save a thousand people, I’ll do it in a heartbeat. – Sean Patrick Flanery • If it came down to that, I’d protect you in a heartbeat. – Nicholas Sparks • If there was another Dr. Quinn movie, I would do it in a heartbeat. – Joe Lando • If they asked me if I wanted to go into space tomorrow, I’d do it in a heartbeat. On the other hand, if they asked me if I wanted to go into training for three years and then go into space again, I’d probably say no. – Sally Ride • If you have a heartbeat, there’s still time for your dreams. – Sean Stephenson • If you put two brigades on the ground right now with U.S. forces, they would push ISIS back into Syria in a heartbeat. – Anthony Zinni • If you want to say something profound, writing from your heartbeat is different than writing from the loud voices you get from music. If they’re rapping from noise, it’s about robbing people. It’s that simple. – Russell Simmons • If you will practice being fictional for a while, you will understand that fictional characters are sometimes more real than people with bodies and heartbeats. – Richard Bach • I’m a really athletic person – I’m not that coordinated, but I’m really athletic, so I would play a superhero doing my own stunts in a heartbeat. But hopefully not taking swings at people. That’s not a good idea for me. – Selma Blair • I’m not sure that people want to go back to the womb. People want to go back to the teats of your mother and hear your mother’s heartbeat. – Gaspar Noe • I’m on a Mission, that niggaz say is Impossible, But when I swing my swords they all choppable, I be the body dropper, the heartbeat stopper, Child educator, plus head amputator. – GZA • I’m sure you would have stopped it if you could have.” “In a heartbeat. – Kiera Cass • I’m the ruler in my kingdom and my dark seat is hot. Step into my world and your heartbeat stop! – Aaron Dontez Yates • I’m very proud to be Canadian, but I would move to New York in a heartbeat. – Lexa Doig • In a heartbeat, a thousand voices took up the chant. King Joffrey and King Robb and King Stannis were forgotten, and King Bread ruled alone. “Bread.” they clamored. “Bread, Bread! – George R. R. Martin • In order to terminate a pregnancy, you have to still a heartbeat, switch off a developing brain. – Christopher Hitchens • In the end mortals always expired before faeries. They were such finite creatures. Their first heartbeat and breath were but a blink from death. To add the weight of nourishing his insatiable court in a time of peace was to hasten that unconscionably. – Melissa Marr • In the silence between your heartbeat bides a summons. Do you hear it? Name it if you must, or leave it forever nameless, but why pretend it is not there? – Rumi • In the time just before the bombing of Pearl Harbor, when Perfidia opens, we were pre-psychologized. There were no concepts of identity, no politics of victimization. Reparation wasn’t in the language. Nobody thought about giving the great grandchildren of black slaves so much as $1.98. And all of a sudden the bombs hit, interventionism versus isolationism became a dead issue, and it was us-versus-them in a heartbeat. – James Ellroy • In this world, there are two times. There is mechanical time and there is body time.” “They do not keep clocks in their houses. Instead, they listen to their heartbeats. They feel the rhythms of their moods and desires.” “Then there are those who think their bodies don’t exist. They live by mechanical time. They rise at seven o’clock in the morning. They eat their lunch at noon and their supper at six. They arrive at their appointments on time, precisely by the clock.- Alan Lightman • In your hands The dog, the donkey, surely they know They are alive. Who would argue otherwise? But now, after years of consideration, I am getting beyond that. What about the sunflowers? What about The tulips, and the pines? Listen, all you have to do is start and There’ll be no stopping. What about mountains? What about water Slipping over rocks? And speaking of stones, what about The little ones you can Hold in your hands, their heartbeats So secret, so hidden it may take years Before, finally, you hear them? – Mary Oliver • It is a real issue, a measurement of our society, when we say it’s fine to destroy unborn life who has a heartbeat at 16 days post-conception. – Tom Coburn • It only takes one mistake,’ the Dan Banyan guy says, ‘and nothing else you ever do will matter.’ With his empty hand, he takes one of my hands. His fingers feel hot, fever-hot, and pounding with his heartbeats. He turns my hand palm-up saying, ‘No matter how hard you work or how smart you become, you’ll always be known for that one poor choice.’ He sets the blue pill on my palm, saying, ‘Do that one wrong thing- and you’ll be dead for the rest of your life.- Chuck Palahniuk • It took my breath away, that evening. If you’ve ever dreamed that you walked into your best-loved book or film or TV program, then maybe you’ve got some idea how it felt: things coming alive around you, strange and new and utterly familiar at the same time; the catch in your heartbeat as you move through the rooms that had such a vivid untouchable life in your mind, as your feet actually touch the carpet, as you breathe the air; the odd, secret glow of warmth as these people you’ve been watching for so long, from so far away, open their circle and sweep you into it. – Tana French • It’s time we put thoughts of lack behind us. It’s time for us to discover the secrets of the stars, to sail to an uncharted land, to open up a new heaven where our spirits can soar. But first we’ll have to make changes. And lasting change does not happen overnight. Lasting change happens in infinitesimal increments: a day, an hour, a minute, a heartbeat at a time… – Sarah Ban Breathnach • It’s weird how your perspective changes. At the start of your career, you think, ‘I just want to do cutting-edge work that makes people think.’ Now, I would do a blockbuster in a heartbeat. – Matthew Rhys • I’ve learned that I can’t do it all at once. So, you have to figure out your angle of attack. Coming in on the acting front, acting is a passion of mine. It’s a true love. Dancing, I kind of just fell into. Choreographing, the same thing. But making films, producing and directing, that’s the heartbeat of my existence. – Columbus Short • Laughter is the best way To make somebody’s heart beat – Robert Holden • Let me say, it’s – what a commentary it is on American media that you have to go to Russian television in order to get covered as a candidate in this election. It’s pretty outrageous. And our media could solve that in a heartbeat if they actually opened it up, you know, but they don’t. So I think that’s more commentary on the crisis in our media. – Jill Stein • Liam in Taken has been great to see. My boys love it. They love him. And there’s just the gravitas to it. It’s believable. You know the guy’s endured. You know the guy’s lived some life. Someone like Liam has lived a lot of life. Myself, I’ve lived a lot of life. There’s loss. There’s success. There’s loss. There’s doubts. And there’s some heartbeat there. – Pierce Brosnan • Lies were like acid, corrosive: They could dissolve trust in a heartbeat. – Rob Thurman • Life is a disease, brother, and death begins already at birth. Every breath, every heartbeat, is a moment of dying – a little shove toward the end. – Erich Maria Remarque • Life is more than breath and a heartbeat; meaning and purpose are the life of life. – Desmond Tutu • Life isn’t measured in minutes, but in heartbeats. – Joan Lowery Nixon • Like a heartbeat. Something inside me. Some dream. I think it’s being a dreamer as a child. Dreamy kids become actors, don’t they? – Michael Gambon • Louis-Cesare’s anger suddenly filled the small room like water, and in a heartbeat his eyes went from silver tinged to as solid as two antique coins. I sat frozen, awash in a sea of power. I was beginning to understand why Mircea had wanted him along, only Daddy had failed to mention anything about the hair-trigger temper. I guess he assumed the red hair would clue me in. – Karen Chance • Love is connected to the heart. When the Name of God Allah is synchronized with the heartbeat, it then travels through the blood to all the veins, reaches the spirits and awakens them. Then the spirits are rejuvenated and go into the Love of God. – Riaz Ahmed Gohar Shahi • Love is the heartbeat of all life. – Paramahansa Yogananda • Maybe, he said hesitantly, maybe there is a beast. The assembly cried out savagely and Ralph stood up in amazement. You, Simon? You believe in this? I don’t know, said Simon. His heartbeats were choking him. […] Ralph shouted. Hear him! He’s got the conch! What I mean is . . . maybe it’s only us. Nuts! That was from Piggy, shocked out of decorum. – William Golding • Music gets inside you, music captures you. Music becomes your heartbeat. It’s a drug and makes you feel whatever the song’s about. – Ed Westwick • music is about as physical as it gets: your essential rhythm is your heartbeat; your essential sound, the breath. We’re walking temples of noise, and when you add tender hearts to this mix, it somehow lets us meet in places we couldn’t get to any other way. – Anne Lamott • Music is the elixir of life. It can mimic the heartbeats of our bodies and heal like a magic wand… The resonance it creates in our bodies cannot be replicated by any medicine. – Walter Mikac • My heart beat Beats me senselessly Why’s everything Gotta be so intense with me. – Katy Perry • My heart is fluid and soaring. There’s no longer any space between heartbeats. – Lauren Oliver • My little dog – a heartbeat at my feet. – Edith Wharton • My loving sister Mary has always shared the pain and pleasure of my heartbeat in a unique and special way. We have sung our sad and warm songs together. – John Henrik Clarke • Namby-pamby little routines that don’t speed up your heartbeat and make you sweat aren’t worth your while. – Jane Fonda • No, there is literally nothing on the business side that I wouldn’t sacrifice in a heartbeat to have an extra couple of hours’ writing. Nothing. – J. K. Rowling • Nothing endures except change; nothing is constant except death. Every heartbeat wounds us, and life would be an eternal bleeding to death, were it not for literature. It grants us what nature does not: a golden time that doesn’t rust, a springtime that never wilts, cloudless happiness and eternal youth. [my translation] – Ludwig Borne • Oh, honey, if he swung batter-batter for my team, I’d be all over that in a heartbeat. – J. Lynn • Okay, okay.” I set my hand on top of his and guide it to my chest, so it’s right over my heart. “Feel my heartbeat. Can you feel it?” “Yes.” “Feel how steady it is?” “It’s fast.” “Yes, well, that has nothing to do with the box.” I wince as soon as I’m done speaking. I just admitted to something. Hopefully he doesn’t realize that. – Veronica Roth • Once I was lost in a forest. I was so afraid. My blood pounded in my chest and I knew my heart’s strength would soon be exhausted. I saved myself without thinking. I grasped the two syllables closest to me, and replaced my heartbeat with your name. – Anne Michaels • One has to reach to the absolute state of awareness: that is Zen. You cannot do it every morning for a few minutes or for half an hour and then forget all about it. It has to become like your heartbeat. You have to sit in it, you have to walk in it. Yes, you have even to sleep in it. – Rajneesh • One’s life story cannot be told with complete veracity. A true autobiography would have to be written in states of mind, emotions, heartbeats, smiles and tears; not in months and years, or physical events. Life is marked off on the soul by feelings, not by dates. – Helen Keller • Our breath, like our heartbeat, is the most reliable rhythm in our lives. When we become attuned to this constant rhythm, our breath can gradually teach us to come back to the original silence of the mind. – Donna Farhi • Our story opens in the mind of Luther L. (L for LeRoy) Fliegler, who is lying in his bed, not thinking of anything, but just aware of sounds, conscious of his own breathing, and sensitive to his own heartbeats. Lying beside him is his wife, lying on her right side and enjoying her sleep. – John O’Hara • Over the past year I’vediscovered if you keep on giving and giving, you end up losing yourself. I think that learning to give and receive is the trick. Perfect happiness is also a feeling, and the most amazing thing is that we were all born with the gift to make it happen in a heartbeat. Putting on certainmusic, reading something can make us feel a certain way. I think the key to happiness is allowing ourselves to not feel bad or guilty for feeling it, and letting it be contagious. And to not be dependent on other people to create your own happiness. – Brittany Murphy • Patients know in a heartbeat if they’re getting a clumsy exam. – Abraham Verghese • People who are in it for their own good are individualists. They don’t share the same heartbeat that makes a team so great. A great unit, whether it be football or any organization, shares the same heartbeat. – Bear Bryant • Perhaps the Wilderness we fear is the pause between our own heartbeats, the silence that reminds us we live by grace. – Terry Tempest Williams • Promise to my momma I’ma make it to the Top..So I’ma keep climbing til my heartbeat drop – J. Cole • Raindrops are my only reminder that clouds have a heartbeat. That I have one, too. – Tahereh Mafi • Remember that reputation and integrity are your most valuable assets – and can be lost in a heartbeat. – Charlie Munger • Remember, we could solve this in a heartbeat with ranked-choice voting. The Democrats won’t pass it. This allows you to rank your choices and eliminates the intimidation and the fear. They won’t pass it; I know because I helped file the bill. Sixteen years ago in Massachusetts they could have solved the spoiler problem. They won’t do it because they rely on fear. The fact that they rely on fear tells you something very important. They are not on your side. For that reason alone, they do not deserve your vote. – Jill Stein • Reshaping life! People who can say that have never understood a thing about life—they have never felt its breath, its heartbeat—however much they have seen or done. They look on it as a lump of raw material that needs to be processed by them, to be ennobled by their touch. But life is never a material, a substance to be molded. If you want to know, life is the principle of self-renewal, it is constantly renewing and remaking and changing and transfiguring itself, it is infinitely beyond your or my obtuse theories about it. – Boris Pasternak • Reyes, what happened?” He‘d been busy nibbling his way to my collarbone, his hot mouth evoking seismic activity at each point of contact. I really hated to interrupt, but … “Reyes, are you listening to me?” He raised his head, a sensual grin playing at the corners of his mouth, and said, “I‘m listening.” “To what? The sound of blood rushing to your nether regions?” “No,” he said with a husky chuckle that made me tingle everywhere. “To your heartbeat. – Darynda Jones • Right now there’s a man on the street outside my door with outstretched hands full of heartbeats no one can hear. He has cheeks like torn sheet music every tear-broken crescendo falling on deaf ears. At his side there’s a boy with eyes like an anthem no one stands up for. – Andrea Gibson • Sarah Palin lacked the preparation or temperament to be one heartbeat away from the presidency, but what she possessed in abundance was the ability to inflame political passions and energize the John McCain campaign with star quality. – Roger Ebert • Scientists say every action initiates an equal and opposite reaction. I say that’s just the start. I say every action initiates a most unequal and upredictable chain reaction, that every filament of living becomes part of a larger weave, while remaining identifiable. That every line of latitude requires several stripes of longitude to obtain meaning. That every universe is part of a bigger heaven, a heaven of rhythm and geometry, where a heartbeat is the apex of a triangle. – Ellen Hopkins • Sean reaches out between us and takes my wrist. He press his thumb on my pulse. My heartbeat trips and surges against his skin. I’m pinned by his touch, a sort of fearful magic. We stand and stand, and I wait for my pulse against his finger to slow, but it doesn’t Finally, he releases my wrist and says,” I’ll see you on the cliffs tomorrow. – Maggie Stiefvater • She closes the door completely, and I crouch there. I allow myself to fall forward and rest my head on the door frame. My breath bleeds. My heartbeat drowns my ears. – Markus Zusak • She moved nearer, leaned her shoulder against me — and we were one, and something flowed from her into me, and I knew: this is how it must be. I knew it with every nerve, and every hair, every heartbeat, so sweet it verged on pain. And what joy to submit to this ‘must’. A piece of iron must feel such joy as it submits to the precise, inevitable law that draws it to a magnet. Or a stone, thrown up, hesitating a moment, then plunging headlong back to earth. Or a man, after the final agony, taking a last deep breath — and dying. – Yevgeny Zamyatin • She was my dream. She made me who I am, and holding her in my arms was more natural to me than my own heartbeat. I think about her all the time. Even now, when I’m sitting here, I think about her. There could never have been another. – Nicholas Sparks • Some emotions don’t make a lot of noise. It’s hard to hear pride. Caring is real faint – like a heartbeat. And pure love – why, some days it’s so quiet, you don’t even know it’s there. – Erma Bombeck • Sometimes I heard voices muttering in my head, and a lot of the time the world seemed to smolder around its edges. but I was in a little better physical shape every day, I was getting my looks back, and my spirits were rising, and this was all in all a happy time for me. All these weirdos, and me getting a little better right in the midst of them. I had never known, never even imagined for a heartbeat, that there might be a place for people like us. – Denis Johnson • Sometimes when you are standing still and it’s snowing, you think that you hear music. You can’t tell where it’s coming from either. I wondered if we all really did have a soundtrack, but we just get so used to it that we can’t hear it anymore, the same way that we block out the sound of our own heartbeat. – Heather O’Neill • Sometimes, when a person is truly lost in this world, suffocating inside her private bubble where all she can hear is her own droning heartbeat, a touch can be enough. – Walter Kirn • Such was a poet and shall be and is -who’ll solve the depths of horror to defend a sunbeam’s architecture with his life: and carve immortal jungles of despair to hold a mountain’s heartbeat in his hand. – e. e. cummings • Tell me what it’s like. The race.” “What it’s like is a battle. A mess of horses and men and blood. The fastest and strongest of what is left from two weeks of preparation on the sand. It’s the surf in your face, the deadly magic of November on your skin, the Scorpio drums in the place of your heartbeat. It’s speed, if you’re lucky. It’s life and it’s death or it’s both, and there’s nothing like it. – Maggie Stiefvater • That he’ll never let you down. That boy’s got a heart the size of Kentucky, and he loves you. That’s important. Take it from someone who knows. My mom used to tell me that whatever you do, marry someone who loves you more than you love him. And I listened to her. Why do you think Henry and I get along so well? I’m not saying that I don’t love him, because I do. But if I ever left Henry or something, God forbid, ever happened to me, I don’t think he’ll be able to go on. And that guy would risk his life for mine in a heartbeat. – Nicholas Sparks • That is where my dearest and brightest dreams have ranged — to hear for the duration of a heartbeat the universe and the totality of life in its mysterious, innate harmony. – Hermann Hesse • That’s my favorite thing about him. I like to lie next to him when it’s late, dark, and so quiet I can hear my own heartbeat. It’s times like that when I’m sure that I’m in love. – Lauren Oliver • The difference between deafness and any other disability is that there is no way to put yourself in a position of knowing what it would be like because you can’t stop yourself from hearing your own breath or your own heartbeat. You can not remove sound entirely from your life. You can get a sense of what being blind is like by closing and covering your eyes which provides a source of empathy because we can all project ourselves to that. But people who think they can project themselves into deafness are mistaken because you can’t. – Richard Masur • The eyes of the future are looking back at us and they are praying for us to see beyond our own time. They are kneeling with hands clasped that we might act with restraint, that we might leave room for the life that is destined to come. To protect what is wild is to protect what is gentle. Perhaps the wilderness we fear is the pause between our own heartbeats, the silent space that says we live only by grace. Wilderness lives by this same grace. Wild mercy is in our hands. – Terry Tempest Williams • The final heartbeat for the Christian is not the mysterious conclusion to a meaningless existence. It is, rather, the grand beginning to a life that will never end. – James Dobson • The goal of life is to make your heartbeat match the beat of the universe, to match your nature with Nature. – Joseph Campbell • The government is a heartbeat away from nationalizing health care based on deliberate misinformation about the nation’s uninsured and despite the 100 percent failure rate of such fantastic reforms elsewhere on the globe. – David Limbaugh • The great event on Calvary . . . is an eternal reminder to a power drunk generation that love is the most durable power in the world, and that it is at bottom the heartbeat of the moral cosmos. Only through achieving this love can you expect to matriculate into the university of eternal life. – Martin Luther • The greatest attribute of God is Love. The Tree of Life is located in the very depth of our soul. The most perfect and abundant fruit that grows and ripens is Life giving Love; it is the great healing force in the world. Love never fails to meet every demand of the human heart. The Divine principal of Love may be used to eliminate every sorrow, infirmity, in-harmony, ignorance and all mistakes of mankind. Love is God; eternal, limitless, changeless, infinite. It is the pulse of the world, the heartbeat of the Universe. – Baird T. Spalding • The heartbeat of your originality is deep within a body of thought that continually wrestles with the contradictions and limitations that we’re constantly trying to overcome, the curiosities and the ignorances of the people we seek to help. – Michael Eric Dyson • The myth of this world is that the way to transformation is through power, but God choose to enter the world in a weak manner, gentle and tender through the heartbeat of a child. – Rick Dees • The phone is gonna disappear. Maybe it will be a bracelet. After the bracelet it will be a blood cell sized device that maybe gets installed. We already have people with Parkinson’s that have chips installed in their brain to control their tremors. We already see people have pacemakers to help their heartbeats. I mean we’re already putting these technologies into our bodies. It is only going to deepen. – Jason Silva • The principles of the United States Constitution are, because of Senator Byrd, still the heartbeat of the US Senate. – David C. Hardesty, Jr. • The revolution is like a vessel filled with the pulsating heartbeat of millions of working people. – Ernst Toller • The secret of it all, is to write in the gush, the throb, the flood, of the moment – to put things down without deliberation – without worrying about their style – without waiting for a fit time or place. I always worked that way. I took the first scrap of paper, the first doorstep, the first desk, and wrote – wrote, wrote…By writing at the instant the very heartbeat of life is caught. – Walt Whitman • The soundtrack in the poetry is the soundtrack from your own heartbeat. – Russell Simmons • The thing about physicists is that they tend to think that everything is physics. I don’t. That’s not what music is to me. You can explain aspects of it in physical terms, including the physics of anatomy: how our bodies move, the torsional moment of inertia, the way you move your body to a beat, the inherent periodicities of the heartbeat, the gait. That’s physics, too, I guess – maybe they’d call it biophysics. – Vijay Iyer • The truth is, we live in deeds, not days; in actions and thoughts and feelings, not heartbeats. – Michael Mullen • The type of girls that would sleep with you in a heartbeat aren’t the type of girls I’d want to take home anyway. – Niall Horan • The whole universe was stilled as if listening for a voice. For the space of one heartbeat there was peace on earth. For one fraction of a moment there was no deed of violence wrought on earth, no hatred, no fire, no whirlwind, no pain, no fear. Existence rested against the heart of God, then sighed and journeyed again. – Elizabeth Goudge • The young earth-solution to reconciling the order of creation with natural history makes good exegetical and theological sense. Indeed, the overwhelming consensus of theologians up through the Reformation held to this view. I myself would adopt it in a heartbeat except that nature seems to present such strong evidence against it. – William A. Dembski • There are people we meet in life who miss being important to us by inches, days, or heartbeats. Another place or time or a different emotional frame of mind and we would willingly fall into their arms; gladly take up their challenge or invitation. But as it is, we encounter them when we are discontent or content and they are not. Whatever they are, we are not and vice versa. Two trains going in different directions that pass for a few powerful moments at full speed, blasting noise and wind but then they are gone. Whatever serious chemistry might have been possible if, isn’t. – Jonathan Carroll • There came a moment in the middle of the song when he suddenly felt every heartbeat in the room & after that he never forgot that he was part of something much bigger – Brian Andreas • There is never a time or place for true love. It happens accidentally, in a heartbeat, in a single flashing, throbbing moment. – Sarah Dessen • There is no other closeness in human life like the closeness between a mother and her baby – chronologically, physically, and spiritually they are just a few heartbeats away from being the same person. – Susan Cheever • There was something unbearably sexy about cars at night, Ronan thought. The way the fenders twisted the light and reflected the road, the way every driver became anonymous. The sight of them knocked his heartbeat askew. – Maggie Stiefvater • There would be no chance at all of getting to know death if it happened only once. But fortunately, life is nothing but a continuing dance of birth and death, a dance of change. Every time I hear the rush of a mountain stream, or the waves crashing on the shore, or my own heartbeat, I hear the sound of impermanence. These changes, these small deaths, are our living links with death. They are death’s pulses, death’s heartbeat, prompting us to let go of all the things we cling to. – Sogyal Rinpoche • There’s no conscious thing on the face of the world that doesn’t know dread more intimately than its own heartbeat. – Clive Barker • There’s a heartbeat in any country that carries on regardless – at least in Europe. That’s what worries me about America, because I’m not sure what that heartbeat is – unless it’s the heartbeat of someone who’s just arrived, who just ran over the border two weeks ago. – Helen Mirren • There’s a moment on the arch of a jump, when you are neither rising nor falling. All you can see is the sky. All you can feel is the air and all you can hear is your heartbeat. That is all you are. Muscle and motion. It’s called the deadpoint. I live for that. – Rhianna Pratchett • Things could change so entirely, in a heartbeat; the world could be made entirely anew, because someone was kind. – Jo Baker • This body is fragile. It is just flesh. Listen to the heartbeat. Life depends on the pumping of a muscle. – Stephen Batchelor • This country will kill you in a heartbeat and still people love it. • This is my heartbeat like yours, it is a hatchet It can build a house or tear one down. – Andrea Gibson • Time becomes a stutter-the space between drumbeats, splintered into fragments, and also endlessly long, as long as soaring guitar notes that melt into one another, as full as the dark mass of bodies around me. I feel like the air downstairs has gone to liquid, to sweat and smell and sound, and I have broken apart in it. I am wave: I am pulled into the everything. I am energy and noise and a heartbeat going boom, boom, boom, echoing the drums. – Lauren Oliver • To be in a body is to hear the heartbeat of death at every moment. – Andrew Harvey • To listen to the silence is to hear the heartbeat of the Universe. – Laurence Overmire • Together, we can bring our planet’s heartbeat back. – Ian Somerhalder • True observers of nature, although they may think differently, will still agree that everything that is, everything that is observable as a phenomenon, can only exhibit itself in one of two ways. It is either a primal polarity that is able to unify, or it is a primal unity that is able to divide. The operation of nature consists of splitting the united or uniting the divided; this is the eternal movement of systole and diastole of the heartbeat, the inhalation and exhalation of the world in which we live, act, and exist. – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe • Vishous’s chest expanded. . . and his diamond stare slowly swung to Butch. There was a heartbeat of intensity. Then V reached out and repositioned the cross so it once again hung over Butch’s heart. “You did well, cop. Congratulations, true? – J.R. Ward • Vulnerability is the absolute heartbeat of innovation and creativity. There can be zero innovation without vulnerability. – Brené Brown • Waves are the voices of tides. Tides are life,” murmured Niko. “They bring new food for shore creatures, and take ships out to sea. They are the ocean’s pulse, and our own heartbeat. – Tamora Pierce • We all have music in us – your heartbeat is your drum, your voice is your sound – and music is supposed to put you in tune with nature. – Randy Weston • We are born to love as we are born to die, and between the heartbeats of these two great mysteries lies all the tangled undergrowth of our tiny lives. There is nowhere to go but through. And so we walk on, lost, and lost again, in the mapless wilderness of love. – Tim Farrington • We are tiny flames, Helikaon, and we flicker alone in the great dark for no more than a heartbeat. When we strive for wealth, glory and fame, it is meaningless. The nations we fight for will one day cease to be. Even the mountains we gaze upon will crumble to dust. To truly live we must yearn for that which does not die. – David Gemmell • We conclude that the concentration of wealth is natural and inevitable, and is periodically alleviated by violent or peaceable partial redistribution. In this view all economic history is the slow heartbeat of the social organism, a vast systole and diastole of concentrating wealth and compulsive redistribution. – Will Durant • We each have a finite number of heartbeats, a finite amount of time. But we have enough heartbeats and enough time to do what is important. – Susan L. Taylor • We have our own little heartbeat, too. We already have what I would call polyrhythms going on. – John Densmore • We left no doubt that we are one heartbeat And something like that is pretty hard to stop Once it gets going – Oscar Lua • We like to think of life as a constant … Yet it can be ended in a heartbeat. – David Gemmell • We tell stories. We talk about statistics. And in 1978, we added an element of the show that gave it its heartbeat: the long distance dedication. – Casey Kasem • What interests Sam Mendes are characters and relationships, and he was a genius at giving you the freedom to create the type of character you want, and also to explore and have fun with your fellow actors. For him, characters and relationships are really the heartbeat of the film, and then the action is the backdrop. By developing the characters, he makes you care that much more about the action and going on a journey with the characters. – Naomie Harris • What was time itself but the bloom, the sheath enfolding experience? Within time, and with time alone, there was life – the gleam, the quiver, the heartbeat, the immeasurable joy and anguish of being. – Ellen Glasgow • When I was nine, I was diagnosed with an irregular heartbeat and was prescribed beta blockers, which had the side effect of turning my skin green. Looking like Shrek’s little sister at school wasn’t the easiest thing. – Jessie J • When we have heartbeat and brain waves, we refuse to accept it as the presence of life – this lack of logic of which we approach this issue because we like and we favor convenience over ethics. We favor convenience over the hard parts of life that actually make us grow. – Tom Coburn • When you do take the home pregnancy test, it doesn’t quite seem real. But when you see the baby and the heartbeat on the ultrasound, it’s so incredible. – Danica McKellar • Yes, God wants you to do signs and wonders. But the love of God manifested through you is what people really need. So you first must see His face. You must become so close to His very heartbeat that you can feel what others feel. – Heidi Baker • You are in a place that has not been seen for tens of thousands of years, because it was so sealed off. There is such silence that when you hold your breath you can hear your own heartbeat. Everything is so fresh that you have the sensation that the painters have merely retreated deeper into the dark and that they are looking at you. – Werner Herzog • You can hear the Celtic heartbeat all over Europe and America, from Bing Crosby to Jack White, from the Smiths to My Bloody Valentine, from House of Pain to Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch. – Rob Sheffield • You can hold a secret, hold it so far in that it drives nearly every thought and every move you make- your very heartbeat, almost. – Deb Caletti • You had me tied in knots. You saved Belen’s life, and I wanted to kill and thank you all at the same time. And during those nights when we didn’t know if you’d live or die, I went from being angry, to worried to frustrated to scared all within a single heartbeat. If you had die, I would have killed you.- Maria V. Snyder • You kind of can’t help who you’ll fall in love with. I’d date someone who isn’t in the business in a heartbeat. – Selena Gomez • You know love is everything you say A whisper, a word Promises you give You feel it in the heartbeat of the day You know this is the way love is – Enya • You must learn how to hold a team together. You must lift some men up, calm others down, until finally they’ve got one heartbeat. Then you’ve got yourself a team. – Bear Bryant • You must never check for a person’s pulse using your thumb, or you’ll feel your own heartbeat. Actually, I plan on doing that if I’m the one who’s here when Ruth dies. I plan on giving her my heartbeat before I let her go. – Elizabeth Berg • You think I’d cheat on you?” I demanded with all the innocent outrage I could muster. “With another guy, no. With a cheeseburger . . . in a heartbeat. – Lisa Kleypas • You turn on the television, it’s like, “Woah is me! God almighty, we’re awful.” We are so down and out we are – name me a country in the world, name me one leader anywhere in the world who wouldn’t trade places in a heartbeat. We by far, we’re going to own the 21st century. – Joe Biden • Your mother’s heartbeat is the first sound you ever hear and your own heartbeat is the last. – Dave Brubeck

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[silverhands-etcetera]

Walking After Midnight.

I am so dehydrated. I took pretty good care of myself for the first three days of the tour. Water, exercise, etc. Things fell off on that first Sunday -what happened then? oh yeah, let’s blame France..

Switzerland was all sunny skies and parasailers as we split from Interlaken. In a couple hours we were back in France, and in a heavy rain out on the highway. We got a tray of sandwiches from the gig, so we avoided paying Switzerland prices for lunch, and headed back into the land of the Euro, -specifically, France again. on the way to Saarbruken, Germany.

Bottles of water inside the van & torrents of rain outside. It’s all grey and we’ve got PJ Harvey setting the audio moods, it’s working perfectly. I know that all of us in the band don’t meet in the middle on every kind of music. When we crossed into France the first time, coming from Germany, Aimee & I were in the front seat, she was driving (3rd position) and we were cranking out the Scorpions as a last shout out to Germany. In fact, we were listening to “Blackout” at the moment we crossed the border. I love the Scorpions. I’m not certain that everybody (or anybody) who was in the back seat at the time can even stand them.

We listen to a lot more music in this van than most band vans I have been in. Tastes vary, but I think everybody in here is gonna be cool as long as nobody plays the Eagles. There’s a world of stuff out there that I don’t know well, or know about at all. I don’t even have much music on my phone & I rely on these guys to curate the playlist for the long drives. I don’t take the time to listen to music on my own anymore, it’s a thing I need to change in my life. I count on time with my friends to keep music flowing into my ears.

—

By the time the roads straightened out & the mountains were down to reasonable levels, the sun was poking through the clouds. We were back in Germany -basically in Saarbrucken and it was early afternoon. The town is just minutes across the French border, and we were booked to play an Irish pub. Showtime wasn’t until 10 pm, and we were rolling in at 3:30. Idle hands..

The road into our part of town had us passing by a little platz with a Woolworth, a pharmacy, a bratwurst stand & a couple other odd stores. Streets extended out in every direction from the square, with retail possibilities on every corner, and then some. The town had a lot to offer, it seemed.

We checked into a bnb just up the street from the platz, and were hit by a deafening odor of sweet rot as we cleared the threshold of the building, that followed us up the stairs to our top floor room, but mercifully did not permeate our dwelling space. Every trip up & down the stairs was an exercise in lung capacity, as we all held our breath for the whole duration of the space between our apartment door & the street.

The lodging itself was lovely, modern & clean. But talk within the band centered around speculation over what the source of the odor in the hallway was. Best we can tell, it was a pile of garbage/dead things, or spoiled kimchee. Jokes about stinky things are the best. Basic humor that you can loop back around to with every new turn in a conversation.

—

Sherri & Aimee & I set out walking down to the little platz that we passed on the way in. I saw a Woolworth’s down there (I know, right?) and I wanted to look for a belt. I thought I could do without one on this trip, but my new jeans were a little contrary to this. Aimee saved me early on in the trip by offering me the one that she brought with her, and I was making it do. But everyone’s gotta keep their own pants up, so I needed to find my own. I wouldn’t wanna make my bad planning be responsible for somebody else’s saggy britches, we need to all look our tip-top, rock & roll best every day on this trip.

The Woolworth’s was a bust for good belts for me, but Sherri did find a cool backpack, and we kept on moving down the street. Lots of wonderful looking bakeries & candy shops all around the square, but no groceries visible to us. Down one of the side streets was a €1 store, and there was a rack of nylon strap belts right at the door. Nothing to write home about, but I reckon it’ll keep the gravity off of my pants until I get home, and the sign on the rack said it was only €1. I picked a grey one & took it to the cashier, who rang it up and gave me a number that was definitely not 1, or 1 plus tax. We had a very short talk in two languages where she tried to explain to me why it was so, and I tried to tell her I wasn’t gonna be buying the belt.

We went back out to the street, where the proprietor of the next shop had a rack of clothing out on the sidewalk, and a beautiful grey/brown Labrador was lounging unperturbed on a long bench. It was a second hand store, and most of the stuff on the rack was just random women’s clothing, but hanging on the end was an old black leather belt, with a simple chrome buckle. It might be just a large child’s belt, and it has been modified with extra holes to extend its grasp a few inches from its original design, but it fit me perfectly on the center hole. I told the shopkeeper that I would buy the belt if I could take a picture with her dog, and she more than happily obliged. I got to make a new friend. She was a quiet & noble dog who left me with a kiss on my ear as I snapped the photo.

With my new-found trouser security, we carried on down the street to see what else the town had for us. Plenty of bars, and a few closed restaurants, still more bakeries. We’d passed a vegetable shop on the way, & we decided to head back to round up some healthy fixings to take back to the apartment. An older couple were working the counter together, where we made our requests deli-style, through bits of English & French answered to us in German by the sweet woman who was gathering and carefully selecting every potato or onion as though her livelihood depended on our return business. We managed to pull together all the components for a supper & a breakfast, paid our order and asked her where we could buy some beer.

“ah, bier!” she said, and waved us outside. Pointing back to the square she said “to the Voolvorth, in the basement”

The Woolworth’s was actually just the street level of a larger shopping center, an entrance to the side put us on an escalator (descender?) going down to a discount grocery store. We were just looking for something to drink with supper, and our bargain sniffing tendencies sought out the cheapest Pilsner in the stack, which was on a special sale. I selected two or three bottles, and then reconsidered. This is a pretty good deal, we should get more. As I was mulling this over, Aimee spoke up & asked “should we just get a whole case?” (Case=20 one-liter bottles) Of course, she was right to ask this, and wise in making such a suggestion.

A little quick math & conversion told me that we were looking at a transaction of roughly five gallons of beer for about seven dollars. At these prices we would be foolish not to spend the money we saved on a bottle of their finest $6 whiskey.

Nothing to see here, just three smallish americans carrying 20 liters of beer about seven blocks up to their rental flat for supper.

—

Saarbrucken is actually a bigger town than it appeared to be on our little walk around the square. GPS directions in the van put us out on a highway for several kilometers and dropped us in a totally different town square with a completely different feel. This place was bustling, Lots of high fashion shopping and bars that were leaning closer to the nightclub side of things than the local taverns we saw earlier.

We’re at Old Murphy’s, an Irish Pub, -which apparently any country can have. They share a pedestrian square with several other bars, and there’s no way to get a car within two blocks of the place. Michael pulled into the taxi lane & put on the flashers while the rest of us started hauling gear into and across the cobblestones, past the shops and their window dressings with ten foot tall models in their underwear staring us in the eye like vacant, capitalist Mona Lisas, and the early drunks reveling among the tables & chairs all across the square. The ground was still damp from rain, but the evening was warm. The carrying was fine, but rolling the big amp cases across the uneven stones had to be done frustratingly slowly. It’s all good though, the lengths it takes to get to and from the gig are what I feel like I get paid for. Once we go on, I’m just happy to be there.

The stage was in the basement, in a little cavern of a room with arched ceilings and stucco walls. PA speakers were already hung and a SUPER basic powered mixer was set up. Aimee had to move & stack a row of full beer kegs to build herself a bunker to set the drums up in, and once she was settled in, the only access or egress was made by climbing over the kit. We tucked Michael’s amp halfway under the ride cymbal, put the bass amp on the floor under the crash, and set Sherri’s amp on top of it, so I had a full stack of amps to lean against.

The staff was all hip, edgy-looking young dudes, with the right tattoos, and they set us up with a round of beers. After the first set, the younger looking one with the bun in his hair, told us that they’d never had a band as “huge” as us there before. I’m not sure if he meant huge measured in size, or in decibels, but he really loved us, so we took the compliment and he took the tip jar around the room to get us some extra cash.

People filed in and out of the packed basement all night, but the first three tables stayed glued to their seats watching the show. I reckon we were pretty loud for that space, even filled with bodies and chatter, as it was almost the entire evening. But I was enjoying opening up the songs a little, and I loved the proximity to the drums. I could feel a little concussion of air pushing onto me every time Aimee hit the rack tom. Sherri’s amp was actually shaking me as we played. The music was a physical experience. It was another marathon set, all the way to 1 am, and the boys at the bar kept the pints of Guinness coming.

—

We broke down the gear and Sherri sold a few records to the folks at the front tables. I never got their story -were they already fans? did they find the show by accident?

We rolled all the amps & gear out in about five trips, and came back to do one last check. I asked one of the bartenders if they could spare us a pitcher of ice, and he was kind of perplexed and asked my why. I told him we had a bottle of bad whiskey back at the house, and he gave me a solid nod.

I waited by myself with the last armload of gear until the bartender came back with our ice, in a plastic grocery bag, full to the top and tied off. Then off I went, some random american, carrying the shittiest functional hi-hat stand on the planet, & a rented yamaha drum throne over his left shoulder, with a bag full of ice in the other hand, walking alone across a square in Saarbrucken to his waiting friends.

[ultralifehackerguru-blog]

New Post has been published on http://www.lifehacker.guru/48-celebrities-no-idea-related/

48 celebrities you had no idea were related

You likely already know about the Olsen twins and their younger sister Elizabeth, as well as Dave and James Franco or Luke and Owen Wilson. And you’ve already learned about all the celebrity pairs that are best friends, but there are quite a few famous faces that you probably didn’t know were all in the same family.

Keep reading to see the 48 celebrities you probably never knew were related.

Amy Daire contributed to a previous version of this article.

New York Senator Chuck Schumer is cousins with comedian and actress Amy Schumer.

Chuck (left) and Amy Schumer (right) in 2015.

Andrew Burton/Getty Images

Senator Schumer is a first cousin to Amy Schumer’s father, making them first cousins once-removed. They don’t make a ton of appearances together, but they do use their joint star power every now and again.

The two Schumers spoke at a joint press conference for gun reform in 2015 after a fatal shooting which happened during a screening of Amy’s movie “Trainwreck.”

Then in 2017, Amy publicly defended Senator Schumer after President Donald Trump called him “Fake Tears Chuck Schumer” in a tweet.

Emily Blunt is Stanley Tucci’s sister-in-law, which means John Krasinski is Tucci’s brother-in-law.

Emily Blunt (left) and Stanley Tucci (right) in 2010.

Jason Merritt/Getty Images

Emily Blunt inadvertently played matchmaker when her “Devil Wears Prada” co-star Stanley Tucci met her sister, Felicity, at Emily Blunt and John Krasinski’s wedding in 2010.

Tucci married Felicity Blunt two years later, and the happy couple have two children together (just like Emily Blunt and Krasinski). All four siblings-in-law recently walked the red carpet during the premiere of Krasinski and Emily Blunt’s new hit movie “A Quiet Place.”

Singers Ray J and Brandy are siblings, but they are also cousins to rapper Snoop Dogg.

Siblings Ray J (left) and Brandy (center), and their cousin Snoop Dogg (right).

Jemal Countess/Getty Images and Jag Gundu/Getty Images

Singers and siblings Brandy and Ray J have made their typical brother-sister relationship pretty public. Like most siblings, they post pictures of one another to their social media accounts, walk the red carpets together, and sometimes they even talk or argue over Twitter.

Meanwhile, the pair are also close with their cousin Snoop Dogg. Snoop has collaborated with Brandy and used her in a music video, and he had Ray J as a guest on his YouTube show where he introduced him as “my cousin, my family, my familia.”

Singer Lily and “Game of Thrones” actor Alfie Allen are brother and sister.

Siblings Lily (left) and Alfie Allen (right) in 2007.

Claire Greenway/Getty Images

Talent clearly runs in the family seeing as she’s a famous singer and he’s made waves as Theon Greyjoy on “Game of Thrones.” Like most siblings, they seem to have a love-hate relationship.

The singer once wrote a song about her brother needing to get a job and several years later slammed “Game of Thrones” during a Reddit AMA saying that she was offered a incestuous cameo to play his sister on screen. Alfie then denied that fact.

“The only thing I’m going to say on that is that it’s not true,” he said to Vulture. “And also that Gemma Whalen was always their first choice for the part. And she’s fantastic. And that’s the one thing I’m going to say about that.”

Since then he’s “banned” her from discussing the show at all.

Jason Momoa is the stepfather of Zoë Kravitz.

Jason Momoa (left) and Zoë Kravitz (right) became family members in October.

Neilson Barnard/Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images

Momoa has been with Kravitz’s mother, Lisa Bonet, for 12 years. The happy couple got married in a quiet ceremony this October, making Momoa the official stepfather of Kravitz. The new family members have shared sweet Instagram photos of themselves together, including one where Kravitz called Momoa “papa bear.”

Momoa and Bonet also have two other children together — Nakoa-Wolf Manakauapo Namakaeha Momoa and Lola Iolani Momoa.

Speaking of the Kravitz family, TV personality Al Roker and singer Lenny Kravitz are distant cousins.

Al Roker (left) and Lenny Kravitz (right).

Ilya S. Savenok/Getty Images and Mike Windle/Getty Images

On an episode of “Today,” Roker and Kravitz discussed that they both have the Roker genes in them. This led Roker to do some investigating, and he later revealed that their grandfathers were actually cousins. They have quite a few people between them a far as the family tree goes, but blood is blood.

“All I know is I’m going with it,” Roker said on the show. “Kids think it’s cool.”

The Coppolas and Schwartzmans are all related to Nicolas Cage.

Francis Ford Coppola (right), Jason Schwartzman (center), and Nicolas Cage (left).

Getty Images

This is one famous family. Francis Ford Coppola, who directed “The Godfather” among other films, is the uncle of the Schwartzmans. Jason Schwartzman earned his fame in movies like “Rushmore” and “Moonrise Kingdom,” but his younger brother is also recognizable. Robert Schwartzman was in “The Princess Diaries,” though he’s given up acting since.

Francis is also the father to Sofia Coppola, who directed “Lost in Translation” and “The Bling Ring.”

All of these people are also related to actor Nicolas Cage, who changed his name from Coppola to avoid any nepotism in the industry. Francis is Nic’s uncle, making the Schwartzmans are his cousins.

Jenny and Melissa McCarthy are cousins.

Cousins Jenny (left) and Melissa McCarthy (right).

Jason Merritt/Getty Images and Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images

The famous actresses may share a last name, but many never made the connection. Jenny has even shared a throwback picture of the two of them when they were children.

The actresses might be in the same business, but their careers haven’t overlapped and the two don’t seem to be very close. Melissa, for example, didn’t attend Jenny’s wedding back in 2014. That might have something to do with a report claiming that Jenny thought her cousin needed to lose weight to make it in Hollywood, even though Jenny firmly denies it.

“There is a crazy story going around that I once told my cousin, Melissa, that she would have to lose weight in order to get into show business. Nothing could be further from the truth,” Jenny told PEOPLE.

Joan and John Cusack are siblings.

John (left) and Joan Cusack (right) in 2013.

Timothy Hiatt/Getty Images

John and Joan Cusack have both made names for themselves in the movie industry and have been in 10 movies together. Yet many don’t realize that they’re brother and sister.

Joan gives credit to her brother for encouraging her throughout her career in the hectic industry.

“I think it helps to know another person in the business, because everything is such an illusion, so it’s great to be able to go, ‘Oh, my God! This is how it really is!’ or ‘This is how it happens there!'” she told AV Club. “You know, ’cause nobody knows any of it. People know more now in general, I think. So I think it was helpful to have each other.”

Actors Warren Beatty and Shirley MacLaine are siblings as well.

Warren Beatty (left) and Shirley MacLaine (right) at the 36th AFI Life Achievement Award which honored Beatty.

Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images

These actors don’t share a last name because Shirley uses her middle name MacLaine. The two also don’t share any movie credits and MacLaine recently noted that they likely never will.

“Oh, I don’t think we’d be a good team,” she once told Closer at the TMA Heller Awards.

As for Beatty? He doesn’t think so poorly of the idea.

“Not a bad idea,” he said on “CBS Sunday Morning,” with one exception: “I think we shouldn’t play man and wife.”

“Grey’s Anatomy” actress Jessica Capshaw is director Steven Spielberg’s stepdaughter.

Jessica Capshaw (left) and Steven Spielberg (right) in 2012.

Michael Buckner/Getty Images

The “Grey’s Anatomy” actress didn’t exactly grow up with Steven Spielberg, but since her mother married him in 1991, they’ve gotten close. With such a big name in the industry, you’d think that he was to thank for her start, but according to her, it wasn’t so easy.

“In a lot of ways it was actually not helpful to have famous parents because there is definitely a very human feeling of, ‘Well, when you come from all that, who wants to see that girl succeed.’ You want to see the underdog succeed, the girl who spent her last two dollars on the bus ticket,” she said in an interview with USA Today.

Actors Hallie and Jesse Eisenberg are brother and sister.

Hallie (left) and Jesse Eisenberg (right).

Andrew H. Walker/Getty Images and Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images

Hallie Eisenberg had one of the most recognizable faces in the world in the late ’90s. She was practically the face of Pepsi, not to mention she landed leading roles in movies like “Bicentennial Man” and “The Miracle Worker.”

She’s taken a leave from acting since then, but her older brother is still making the family name known in Hollywood. He’s Oscar-nominated and famous for roles in several movies, including “Batman v Superman” and “The Social Network.”

Jesse recently revealed on “The Tonight Show” that they’re living together. Jimmy Fallon asked him about his sister’s boyfriend Owen Danoff, who was fighting for fame on season 11 of “The Voice,” and Jesse told him that they’re all roommates.

“He is my sister’s boyfriend, but also my roommates, ’cause, I mean, they live with me,” he explained. “We have separate rooms but essentially he’s a roommate.”

Actor Martin Sheen is father to actors Charlie Sheen and Emilio Esteves.

Emilio Esteves (left), Charlie Sheen (center), and Martin Sheen (right) in 1996.

Getty Images

It’s known pretty far and wide that Charlie Sheen is Martin Sheen’s son. After all, they share both a name and a striking resemblance to one another. However, many people might not known that Martin Sheen has another famous son, Emilio Esteves.

The trio of Sheens have had their ups and downs. Many speculate that it’s a battle between brothers, but their dad is proud of them both.

“This morning, as I watched him alone, reveal his deepest, darkest secret, I couldn’t believe the level of courage I was witnessing, and that it was my son,” he said after Charlie revealed that was HIV-positive to Matt Lauer. “I left him a message, and I said that if I had that much courage, I would change the world.”

He also worked side-by-side with Emilio on 2012’s “The Way,” and claims that there’s no one better to work with,

“From my point of view there’s nothing better,” he said in an interview with The Guardian. “I’d work with him for the rest of my life, frankly.”

Swedish actor Stellan Skarsgård is father to Bill and Alexander Skarsgård.

Alexander Skarsgård (left) and his father, Stellan Skarsgård (right).

Kevin Winter/Getty Images

Stellan Skarsgård has several credits under his belt. He’s been in “Good Will Hunting” and “Mamma Mia!” as well as Marvel’s “Thor” and “Avengers” films. His son Alexander is stealthy competition though. He hit fame with his steamy role in “True Blood” and has starred in “The Giver” and HBO’s “Big Little Lies.”

Stellan and Alexander went head-to-head on Fourth of July weekend in 2016 when Stellan’s movie “Our Kind of Traitor” opened against Alexander’s “The Legend of Tarzan.” According to Los Angeles Daily News, Stellan was pretty thrilled about the competition.

“I think he’s got more backing and more screens,” he said in the interview. “Still, it’s fun.”

In the end, Alexander got the bragging rights.

Then Alexander’s younger brother, Bill, had a breakout role in 2017’s reboot of “It” where he played Pennywise the Clown. The movie became one of the highest grossing horror films of all time.

Actresses Blake and Robyn Lively are half-sisters.

Blake (left) and Robin Lively (right) at the 2017 People’s Choice Awards.

Christopher Polk/Getty Images

Serena van der Woodsen and the Teen Witch herself are truly sister goals. They’re often seen together at award shows and fashion shows, and Robyn is the godmother to Blake’s kids.

Robyn and Blake even joke about whose kids are whose.

“She has my children and I have her children, [and] we’re like, ‘No, those are my children!’ She’s like, ‘No, your children are my children.’ We always argue about it. She’s the best,” she recently said to ET.

“Fantastic Beasts” actress Katherine Waterston is the daughter of actor Sam Waterston.

Katherine Waterston (left) and her father, Sam Waterston (right).

Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images

You probably recognize Sam from his roles in hit shows like “Law & Order” and “The Newsroom.” His daughter became an actor, too, but she’s usually seen on the big screen. Most recently she played Tina Goldstein in the “Harry Potter” spin-off “Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them.”

Despite this huge success, her acting career wasn’t as easy as you’d think it would be for the daughter of a famous actor.

“When you are the kid of an actor, it’s always a very inviting world,” Waterston said in an interview with The Sydney Morning Herald. “Everyone is nice to you, the hair and make-up people braid your hair and play with you, and the costume department makes outfits for your teddy bears. It’s really misleading, because then when you actually go to pursue a career in acting, you realize that people aren’t so friendly.”

In fact, she couldn’t even land a role on her dad’s “Law & Order,” a show that “every actor in New York” can get a credit for.

Superstar Tom Cruise and “Lost” actor William Mapother are cousins.

Cousins Tom Cruise (left) and William Mapother (right).

Michael Loccisano/Getty Images and Ken Ishii/Getty Images

Tom Cruise is one of the biggest international movie stars, but he’s not the only actor in the family. His cousin William Mapother has starred in shows like “The Mentalist” and “Lost.” Mapother has also had cameos in three of Cruise’s movies and small roles in two others.

Unfortunately, Mapother doesn’t discuss his cousin very often.

“I’m not answering any questions about him because I’ve learned that unfortunately, nearly anything I write/say about him gets taken out of context,” he wrote in a Reddit AMA two years ago. “So it’s easier and safer to say nothing.”

Actor Antonio Banderas used to be actress Dakota Johnson’s stepfather.

Dakota Johnson (left) with Antonio Banderas (right) and their family as he was honored on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Stephen Shugerman/Getty Images

The “Fifty Shades of Grey” actress is no newbie in the film industry. She grew up with Antonio Banderas after he married her mother actress Melanie Griffith when she was just a child (her dad is none other than actor Don Johnson).

With a family like that, it’s almost impossible not to get into acting.

Griffith and Banderas were together until 2015, but despite the split, he has nothing but kind words and admiration for his former stepdaughter and her career.

“Dakota didn’t want our help. Every time that she was called for a movie [she said] ‘I don’t want you guys to be there, I don’t want them to know that you are my mother’ or who [is] her real father, her biological father Don [Don Johnson]. She didn’t want help. She has been very honest in that aspect,” he said during a guest appearance on ITV’s “Loose Women.”

Actor Christian Bale also had a famous stepparent — he used to be feminist icon Gloria Steinem’s stepson.

Christian Bale (left) and activist Gloria Steinem (right).

Frazer Harrison/Getty Images and Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images

He’s an actor with a rumored anger problem and she’s a feminist icon and hero. You probably wouldn’t have suspected that their paths had ever crossed, but she’s actually his stepmother.

Steinem married Bale’s father David when Christian was well into his twenties. They were married for three years before David passed away in 2003.

Steinem still thinks of Christian affectionately though.

“He is a very good person, a great lover of animals, and an immensely talented actor. He’s married with two children and lives in California,” she said in a piece for Daily Life. “I don’t see him that often, but we’re in touch from time to time.”

Actress Julia Roberts is actress Emma Roberts’ aunt.

Julia Roberts (left) and Emma Roberts (right) arrive at the premiere of “Valentine’s Day.”

Kevin Winter/Getty Image

These leading ladies have been very public about their familial ties. They speak about each other in interviews, post heartwarming pictures of each other, and according to Julia, spend lots of time together.

“She’s so lovely,” Julia said during an interview with Allure. “We spend a lot of time together. Emma is a remarkable girl.”

Even though they spend so much time together, there’s one thing Julia will never do: take a part in or watch Emma on “American Horror Story.”

“I can’t even get though the commercials,” Julia once said to E! News. “I am the most fitful scaredy cat.”

Actress Bryce Dallas Howard is filmmaker Ron Howard’s daughter.

Bryce Dallas Howard (left) with Ron Howard (right) as he was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images

Ron’s face might not be quite as recognizable as his daughter’s these days, but only because he spends his time behind the camera rather than in front of it. After acting in “The Andy Griffith Show” and “Happy Days,” Ron switched over to directing. His work includes “Apollo 13,” the Oscar-winning “A Beautiful Mind,” and “The Da Vinci Code.”

His daughter stayed in the family business, but took a different route. She’s acted in “The Village” and “Jurassic World.” But despite their different roles in the industry, he’s still an inspiration to her.

“He’s a dad, but also this extremely impressive individual. I really look up to him,” she said during an interview with UK’s Express. “It was a wonderful gift, growing up having a beautiful relationship with my dad.”

Actors Liev and Pablo Schreiber are half-brothers.

Liev (left) and Pablo Schreiber (right) circa 2006.

Brad Barket/Getty Images

Pablo Schreiber is easier to place if you imagine him with a big mustache. He plays Mendez on Netflix’s “Orange is the New Black” and he’s the half-brother of Liev Schreiber, who’s starred in “Defiance” and “X-Men Origins: Wolverine.”

They’ve only acted in one movie together, but they spend time together off-screen. Liev recently tweeted a picture of one of their family outings.

(C)

[megadarkbouquettidalwavethings]

Women Still Rule the Coyote Ugly Saloon, 25 Years Later

The Coyote Ugly Saloon, the East Village bar that became an early 2000s cult film, proved it takes work to keep a wild reputation alive. On a Sunday in January, about 350 guests celebrated the bar’s 25th anniversary at a party that included appearances from a contortionist, Times Square’s Naked Cowboy and a performance from the rapper Justina Valentine.

“It’s the year of the woman,” Ms. Valentine declared from atop the bar to the crowd of former bartenders, regulars, some who have been patrons since the 90s, and fans of the film. “It’s the decade of the woman.”

The owner, Liliana Lovell, was there catching up with the customers who frequented her saloon 25 years ago, when she was the one dancing on the bar. “It’s like getting into an old shoe,” she said about being back.

After Ms. Valentine and two backup dancers performed a few songs from on top of the bar, a bartender slipped her a note to “roast the crowd,” something she’s used to doing to her castmates on M.T.V.’s “Wild ‘N Out,” a hip-hop comedy improv show.

Ms. Valentine took aim at the men in the room. She said one guest looked like Bill Nye the Science Guy and called another one Mr. Clean. After technical difficulties with the music, she joked that the man in charge of the audio system at the bar couldn’t do his job.

Liliana Lovell (left) at Coyote Ugly’s private anniversary party. CreditDina Litovsky for The New York Times

Men were the butt of the jokes, but women were the stars of the show. “Women are on the stage dancing, having fun, living their best life,” said Ms. Valentine before her performance. “They’re embracing their sexuality, their womanhood. I’m so looking forward to getting on the bar and experiencing this.”

The night life industry is notoriously male-dominated, and female bartenders are often harassed on the job by bosses and patrons. Ms. Lovell is no stranger to that. At one restaurant where she worked before opening Coyote Ugly, she suspected that one of the owners was sexist and did not want a woman bartending. After he accused her of stealing from the register, she quit.

“I don’t know if it was just in my mind, or how I was raised, but it never occurred to me that I was a woman in a man’s world,” Ms. Lovell said. “I was kind of a powerhouse. Nobody was going to put me down.”

In 1993, after a year on Wall Street and three years of bartending full-time, Ms. Lovell had saved up enough money to rent a vacant space on First Avenue in the East Village, across the street from the now-closed Village Idiot where she worked. With the help of funding from an investor, the Coyote Ugly Saloon was born. Ms. Lovell didn’t have to follow anyone else’s rules anymore.

Justina Valentine.CreditDina Litovsky for The New York Times

Coyote Ugly became famous for women dancing on the bar, which is how Ms. Lovell bartended. But the bar she opened should not be confused for a strip club or even a boys’ club, as one bartender pointed out. Nor is it a bar where the customer is always right. At Coyote Ugly, the customer is wrong if a Coyote thinks they are wrong.

The bar doesn’t have a lot of rules, but there are a few. One being men aren’t allowed on the bar, because “dudes look stupid on a bar dancing,” Ms. Lovell wrote in an email.

That rule also allowed women more freedom.

“We want women to feel comfortable getting on the bar, letting their hair down,” said Paula Dinoris, Coyote Ugly’s general manager of two years. “We love women. We take care of them. We are women.”

Safety is still a priority. Ms. Dinoris said the bartenders are walked to a car at the end of the night and they have a strict no-touch policy. It would be naïve to think that men don’t come to the bar to watch women dance, but the bouncers are quick to enforce boundaries and help create a safe space for both the employees and the guests before something happens, not after the fact. These preventive measures are part of what helps Coyote Ugly attract female guests from around the globe.

Lisa O’Hanlon and Shen Salvage from Brighton, England, were at the bar in January with a group of friends celebrating their birthdays. The movie brought them there, but the atmosphere hooked them. “They’re super confident,” Ms. O’Hanlon said of both the bartenders and the customers who get up on the bar. “We feel comfortable here.”

Coyote Ugly’s private anniversary party. CreditDina Litovsky for The New York Times

Elizabeth Gilbert, who was a Coyote in her early 20s, chronicled her experience in a 1996 article for GQ. She described an environment where the women ruled and were worshiped by customers, usually regulars who were on a first-name basis with the staff. Their favorite bartenders were the ones who not only made stiff drinks and handled the antics of the customers, but those who could insult patrons up and down.

“I made the mistake of saying to a customer, ‘Here’s your beer, sir,’” Ms. Gilbert wrote. “Lil overheard and shouted, ‘Don’t even [sic] call anyone in this place ‘sir’!’”

Soon after the article came out, Jerry Bruckheimer bought the film rights to Ms. Gilbert’s story. The film tells the love story between the struggling songwriter Violet (Piper Perabo), who gets a job at Coyote Ugly when she moves to New York, and the Australian transplant Kevin (Adam Garcia). Some details from Ms. Gilbert’s article made it into the movie, like secretly spitting a shot back into another drink. The writers would also call Ms. Lovell for details or hang out at the bar themselves. Eighteen years later, the cult film’s legacy still draws in customers yearning to dance on the famous bar.

The why is clear: “It’s about a girl who takes charge of her life and makes it happen,” said the Coyote Ugly bartender Dawn Slocum.

“Coyote Ugly does flip the script and gives the power to the women,” said Lynnette Marrero, a co-founder of Speed Rack, an all-female speed bartending competition. Ivy Mix, her co-founder, said that while there might be more female bartenders than males, sexism remains a problem in the industry.

In 1970, women made up only about 21 percent of bartenders. By 1990, that number rose to 52 percent. Today, almost 60 percent of bartenders in the United States are women, according to the Current Population Survey.

“After ‘Coyote Ugly’ came out, there was a shift in the entire industry,” said Lee Killingsworth, chief media and retail officer of Coyote Ugly, in an email. In 2000, Mr. Killingsworth was a bartender in Las Vegas, where he said it was common to see only one or two women working in a bar. Ms. Lovell, he said, “helped shatter a glass ceiling in a profession dominated by men since the birth of bars and saloons.”

Coyote Ugly became famous for women dancing on the bar.CreditDina Litovsky for The New York Times

The bar still stands in its original location on First Avenue, though Ms. Lovell lamented that the rent has been raised five times since its opening. Its atmosphere has relaxed somewhat. There’s no more lighting bar tops on fire, and as the former bartender Shirer Burkett said, “I wore polyester leisure suits and made people drink out of my platform shoes. It’s more Disneyland now.” But women still rule, and on any given day, you’ll find female guests living out their Coyote Ugly dreams.

Ty Dunaway who has bartended at Coyote Ugly for four years, said one of the best parts is watching women come in who are shy or reserved eventually let themselves get up and dance. The song that usually does the trick? The movie’s “Can’t Fight the Moonlight,” by LeAnn Rimes.

MEDEA GIORDANO

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