#I've been sat waiting for my notifications to load for two full minutes

[chaosintheavenue]

Tumblr's functionality and speed have absolutely tanked for everyone the past week or so, right?

[rebelcap]

We are not just friends —Part 12

Chris Evans x bi!latina!character (Sofia is a people of color, she's brown.)

Chris and Sofia meet when their best friends started dating, it all started at friends with loads of bumps on the road.  

Warnings: drinking, smoking, drug use (weed), assault, Chris being Steve Rogers, commitment issues, my girl Sofia kinda messy, lots of fucking (eventually) 

This is slow burn at its best, at least emotionally. 

Series masterlist

"You know friends with benefits never work, don't you?" Amanda told Sofia as she rolled her eyes and sigh.

"I don't wanna be his girlfriend," Sofia shrugged, setting her phone in silence as the Twitter and Instagram notifications kept coming. Apparently, people found out who she was and they were blowing up her phone. Obviously, she didn't acknowledge it.

"Says no woman ever,"

"I know, but—look," Sofia sighed again and sat straighter on the couch facing her friend, she looked around because they were in Amanda's parent's house about to lunch. "He's the first queer, nonwhite, Latina, immigrant woman he ever wanted to date, I mean look at all of his exes."

"Okay, he's definitely into brunettes and white,"

"Yes, there's a part of me that's thinking that maybe he's…" Sofia tried to think of a subtle way to say it. "experimenting, and there's going to be nowhere and that left me high and dry when he realized that he's not that into me that much."

"Have you asked him?"

"No," She answered and Mandy just looked at her with a raised eyebrow. "He's going to say that's not true."

"Because it's not. Why does it seems like I know him more than you do, he never said anything remotely like that." She now rolled her eyes at her. "This is you sabotaging yourself, as usual."

"No, it's me trying to protect myself. I don't wanna fall in love with him and shit,"

"Again, talk with him. I'm sure he'll compromise with you at some level,"

"He's away all the time and I hate flying, I hate LA,"

"Oh my God,"

"I'm going to get all weird seeing him kissing other people," Sofia explained. "and he's going to think I'm an insecure, immature little girl that can't handle that." Sofia pouts and crosses her arms.

"Sofia," Her friend scoot closer on the couch and looked at her. "I heard you, about everything and I'm not trying to invalidate how you feel about it, but you need to communicate if you what this to work out for you."

"I'm scared Mandy, because I really like him," Her eyes got all glossy. "I know he's a good man but I'm scared shitless. I can't physically take another loss. You know how hard it was for me to leave my ex, just because of that and it got so fucking ugly on the end."

"I know, I was there," She said and her bottom lip tremble. " crying with you non stop for two years, I know but you know she's a piece of shit and took advantage of you because you were in a very vulnerable position."

"Yeah, I know," Sofia wipe her tears with the back of her hand and sighed, "Stop crying, you're making me cry,"

"I just want you to be happy, you're my best friend I love you so much," Amanda was full-blown sobbing hysterically as Sofia was holding her and chucking. "Capitan America wants to be your boyfriend stupid bitch," She kept sobbing and Sofia laughed.

"I know, I'm just emotional and I'm about to get my period, hormones."

"Your period?" Amanda asked separating and looked at her, pensively. "wait, what date is today?"

"It's the fourteen,"

"Oh,"

Sofia sat down straighter and give her a look. "Are you late?"

"Yeah," Amanda said looking down at her stomach. "Like, three weeks late."

Sofia looked at her belly and mutter. "Jesus, Maria y Jose."

"Holy shit." Amanda blinked a few times and they stare at each other for a full minute.

"Your dad it's going to fucking kill Luke."

~~~~

It's been around a week and a handful of days since the last time Sofia saw Chris, he was already in town since last night but he slept on his mom's house.

Also, Amanda was fucking pregnant.

You up?

She texted Chris at two am. Of course, he wasn't because he was an old man.

I gotta tell u something.

It's important and I need to tell someone I'm really bad at secrets, I just can't.

But you can't tell

I'll literally kill u,

And I'm getting away with it because I know too much about murder men, it's insane.

I'm up, I'm up. I'm watching a movie with Scott, he says hi and also wants to meet u and plot murder.

Also, what's the juicy secret?

Amanda is pregnant and your brother is way handsome than you.

Chris was calling almost immediately.

"Excuse me?"

"Amanda is having a baby,"

"No, about Scott being handsome than me," He asked and Sofia let out the loudest laugh, God she needed that.

"Oh my God, you're an idiot," She laughed. "I miss your face."

" I miss you, too." He laughed.

"Is Scott there?, we follow each other on Twitter and made fun of you."

"You two what," He asked and she could hear Scott laughing on the background. "You made fun of me with my girl?"

"Yeah, I slide in her DMS." Scott laughed and Chris was red as a tomato.

"Dude," He said and Sofia heard a lot of ow's and she laughed. "And about the other things, what the fuck?"

"Yes, I'm freaking out. Mandy's at Luke's house now but I don't know, she didn't text me. I can't sleep," She groaned and Chris stood quiet for a moment.

"Want me to come over?"

"Please?"

~~~

"Oh, hi," Sofia exclaimed as soon she opened the door, Chris grabbed her face and plant a quick kiss.

"Hi," He smiles, still cupping her face. "Hello," Chris kissed her again making her laugh.

"You dork," She said as she took his hand and took it to the kitchen, "Want something? I'm about to stress bake."

Chris laughed while he sat on the high chairs. "Mandy didn't text u?"

"No, dude. I'm freaking out, I know Luke it's the sweetest," She said giving her back to Chris as she measures some flour.

"He's going to be over the moon, I'm not supposed to tell you this but he's been thinking about proposing,".

Sofía was taken aback for a moment there but a huge smile, she turned around and look at him.

"Are our best friends getting married and having a kid?"

Chris laughed and nod, "Yeah, guess so?"

"Yeah," She smiles. "So weird," She turned around and Chris walked up to her, leaning on the counter beside her.

"Why?"

"Don't know, I'm happy don't get me wrong, I just. It's weird for me because it's," She stumbles over her words a little. "it's the first time I'm seeing this going right for someone I deeply care about."

Chris made a face and she laughed.

"I have really shitty examples on my life," She went again to her baking. "My mom and dad fought a lot, they had to get married because they were having my brother—

"Wait, you have a brother?," He asked, surprised. "You never mentioned him."

"We don't really speak, well I don't speak to him,"

"Why?"

Sofía pursed her lips together and give Chris a look, she didn't want him to think less of him or him judging her about what went down.

"Can we skip that part?"

Chris quickly nod, "Yeah, of course," He said putting a hand on her shoulder. "whenever you're ready,"

"Okay," She nod too and remained silent. "it's just, I'm sorry." Sofia took a deep breath and wipe a tear. "I've never had a normal family dynamics until I've meet Mandy's family and a still feel so out of place sometimes, it's weird—" She chuckles. "I'm weird."

"It's not weird, you're not weird. I've gathered that you went through some shit that no kid should go through," Chris said and Sofia stopped moving and looked at the bowl in front of her. "things that obviously hurt you still."

"Stop." She told him trying not to cry and took another deep breath trying to pass the lump on her throat but her lower lip was trembling.

"Hey, hey," Chris grabbed her and hugged her, but she pushed him away and went back to the counter.

"You like muffins?" She asked in a small voice and Chris just stare at her, he just shut him out on whatever it's going up with her. "Do you?"

"Yeah, yes. Are you okay?"

"Yeah," She nod.

Sofía was feeling like an idiot, she didn't want to be crying on his arm about her shitty life, to someone that obviously couldn't relate because he also had the perfect family, the perfect brothers. His fucking life was perfect. She didn't want him to see her like a wounded little girl.

"Sofia?"

"Just drop it, forget about it." She said going to the fridge and grabbed some milk.

"What? come on baby, you know you can talk about me about anything," Chris told her and she just chuckles. "Is this funny to you?"

"I can't talk to you about everything, there's a lot of things we can't relate to Chris." She quickly answered him.

"I know that, but I can listen. You can open up with me for fuck's sake," Chris said frustrated and Sofia sigh. "You're always shutting me out when we even slightly touch a subject you don't like, I've known you for like almost two years and I right now found out you have a brother. You know everything about me, you know my fucking whole family,"

"Yeah, and now you're now throwing it back at my face."

"I'm not throwing it back at your face, you can tell me anything, Sofia." He said and she shook her head.

"Why do you wanna know so bad? I'm just some girl you're fucking." She asked him and Chris was taken aback.

"You're not—is that what you think of me?, that I'm so guy you're fucking?"

"Are you not?" She asked nonchalantly and Chris lost his shit.

"Woow, that's how it is?, like I'm nothing to you." He said taking a step back.

"Why the fuck are you pushing this so much? what are you gonna do? I don't want your fucking pity and I don't fucking need you either." She was spitting venom at him, feeling attacked at everything he was doing.

"You're being a fucking asshole right now," He told her and Sofia rolled her eyes. "I just wanna know my fucking girlfriend."

"I'm most definitely not your girlfriend, I won't ever be your girlfriend" She answered and Chris just stared at her, feeling hurt.

"You know what, fuck you," he muttered angrily and turned around, nervous.

"There we go, pretty Chris don't get what he wants and he lashes out," She mumbled and pointed at him. "And now you leave,"

Chris rubbed his beard and grabbed his phone. "When you want talk this shit out, let me know. I'll be staying two more days and then I'm back in LA, you know I'm leaving for three months. Because I tell you all the shit I do," He pointed out again and Sofia just shrugged.

"Whatever, you know where the door is." She didn't even look at him, Chris was fuming. Sofía flinch when she heard the door shut.

~~~

Well, shit.

Tag list:

@smediumsmeatbae

@lunaticbarnes

@firstangeldragonranch

@lovepeacefood

@thegirlwithpaperheart

[mkilleen2]

Three weeks in the Philippines

Some views in the Philippines are easily the most breath taking I've seen, with shards of rock jutting skyward from the crystal blue waters, adorned with lush gravity defying foliage, and dotted with powder white sand beaches. Am I getting a bit poetic? Maybe it's appropriate.

Here's some snippets from our experiences. We didn't spend loads of time researching but with tips from some previous visitors tips and an afternoon in Japan, we put together a plan for almost three weeks. 

Cebu (1 night)

We flew into Cebu city, deciding that we didn’t want to take any days in Manila. Cebu is bustling but dusty and haphazard - I couldn't see myself staying here for long, but a good central point for some of the islands and we got a cheap taxi from the airport to the centre. We booked one night at The Red Planet hotel as our flight was getting in late. The hotel was perfectly adequate, basic room and good location near the Ayala mall. They have tons of shops if you want to get any last minute clothes or holiday accessories. We also got a local SIM here as we had read that WiFi was almost non existent and a SIM would prove useful. I actually found the WiFi was okay in most places we stayed - not enough to stream but fine for doing some research and checking things out on Google maps. The SIM (we got the SMART one, maybe other brands are better) seemed only capable of sending notifications to my phone, but anything I clicked on wouldn’t open and I couldn’t search anything in Chrome or Maps for example. 

I did some research on the buses from Cebu to Oslob and there seemed to be loads of options with different times, air con/no air con - so we just headed to the South Terminal around mid day to try and find the next one leaving with air con. I read one blog post saying that the bus terminal was pretty organised, somewhat like an airport. This is not the case :-) There’s no ticket desk and we just found a bus with the destination on the front and got on with some coaxing words from bystanders. Aboard was chaotic to say the least, with four or five guys trying to sell burgers/pizza/biscuits/drinks to the passengers. No sign of a driver or bus conductor. We pushed through anyway and sat at the back, the air con wasn’t great but we waited patiently, sellers coming and going for about 40 minutes before a driver and bus conductor arrived. The bus got going, it definitely was not luxury travel but for about 250PHP each we managed the five hour trek to Oslob before they dropped us by our hotel. 

Oslob (3 nights) 

We wanted to do whale shark watching, cayoneering at Kawasan Falls and visit the Tumalog Falls - so we figured Oslob would be a central point to base ourselves. It’s a tiny village/town and its not very developed for tourists - e.g with restaurants or bars so we mostly stayed in the hotel/hostel and went to bed early. Probably for the best as the nearby roosters were waking us at about 4:30am and they seemed to be commonplace around the villages. There are no beaches along here so maybe it would have been worth going to Moalboal or one of the other areas - even from Panglao you could probably day trip over for the activities. We stayed here three nights but two would have been plenty as it turned out we did the Whale Shark watching and Canyoneering before lunch on our first full day! 

We stayed at Sascha’s Lodge. It had a nice deck with sea views and some rocking chairs for chilling out. They also served food, which was grand if you are hungry, but you are not in the Philippines for the cuisine :-) We had a spacious double room with air con, apart from the early and frequent cock-a doodle-doooing - everything was pretty dandy. 

Some people might opt out of the Whale Shark watching for ethical reasons - and I was a bit torn - the fish are fed small amounts by the locals to keep them in the bay for the morning so that tourists are guaranteed to see them. There are questions about the affect to their diets and also their migration patterns - but I guess its better than hunting them. Also it has brought some prosperity to a very poor area - my thinking is that people will realise how valuable these creatures are they will do all they can to protect them. They already give tourists a run down of rules before getting in the water like not to touch or upset the animals and I would say of the Filipino people in general, they are quite environmentally conscious.

As we were staying close by we were out by 5:30am (already well roostered awake!) and in the water just after dawn with about six or seven boats. We had snorkel gear and life jackets so that we could view these graceful fish. It’s amazing how close we were to these beautiful animals, they looked so huge under water and David managed to get some pretty cool videos on his underwater camera. One actually hit him with its tail when swimming past. An experience to remember for sure!

After some breakfast nearby we went Canyoneering at Kawasan falls. I was a bit traumatised at the prospect of jumping from 8/10 or even 2m into waterfalls along this route but our guide was really friendly and being on the back of the motorbike up to the start of the route was probably the most dangerous part. We opted to do the new zip line at the start which was pretty cool with great views of the forest/jungle below. It took me some gentle coaxing but I got into the whole jumping-in business eventually and even did the ten metre jump (I did chicken at the last one) but David did all of them and honestly the whole day was one of the best things I’ve ever done! There’s usually a way around most of the jumps but I think there are a couple of the smaller ones that you need to slide through for example - so it's not so scary if you really don't want to do the big jumps and a fun way to explore the beautiful countryside!

Next day we planned to visit the Turmalog Waterfalls but the local guides informed us that there wasn’t much water at the moment so they wouldn’t be good to visit. Not something I would have expected after rainy season... So we decided to go to Sumilon island. There’s a private resort on here and you can go for a day trip of lunch and activities which I read online was equivalent of about 25EUR each. However when we arrived to catch the boat at the Bluewater (resort) pier, it turned out to be 50 each. We decided to get a local boat instead and go to the sandbar and beach on the island which is the only part that is not part of the resort. Not sure if this was the best solution really - and we ended up getting sunburnt badly because the morning was cloudy. Turns out the strong tropical sun can burn through. After sun at the ready!

Bohol (3 nights)

We took the ferry over to Panglao at the bottom of Bohol and stayed at the Venezia Suites hotel, which had a nice enough pool but was about 5 min on a trike/bike to Alona Beach. They advertise island tours from here but as we were so sunburnt, especially David, (he was still red/peeling two weeks later) so we took the first day off and just strolled along the beach and did a few chores like laundry and sorting out an issue on our cameras SD card in the local Internet cafe. We did one of the inland island tours on the second day - it's a pretty standard route with about nine or ten stops. We just had a driver and then we could choose which stops to go into or if we didn’t want to we could opt out and wait for the others to come back. We ended up having a look at everything - highlights included photos with pythons, a tasty but strangely song filled floating lunch on the Loboc river and the Chocolate Hills which were not so chocolatey but still a stunning view. 

We managed to find two places with decent food along the beach at Alona - Oasis Resort which we went back to for dinner a second night and the Buzz Cafe. Everywhere else and in Oslob was pretty poor although I would say that sticking to local options from the menu usually turned out better - e.g curries/stir fries instead of pizza, burgers or pasta. 

El Nido (5+2 nights)

We were advised to prioritise this stop and initially booked four nights, planning to return after Coron depending on how that was going. We took an Airswift flight from Panglao to El Nido - cost about 100EUR each and saved about a days worth of boats/buses. We found a good deal at a nice hotel (it was only about 8EUR more than the bunk room in Spin Hostel that everyone seems to rave about) called Cuna which was right in town and had an amazing view from the rooftop restaurant and pool. Happy days! Our “budget” room had a view of the back yard but the bed was super comfy and the shower was powerful, so no complaints here! We booked two tours but unfortunately a storm was brewing and all travel was cancelled on our first full day. And the next day. And the next day! The wind and rain was pretty heavy so mostly we moped around some of the bars and took refuge in our hotel. We managed to make it out to Las Cabanas (also called Vanilla) beach two afternoons for a swim and to watch the sun go down. There are a couple of nice bars along the beach here and you can have a swim in the water although it's a bit cloudier than some of the other beaches. The beach in El Nido town is not so nice and not for swimming so if you are stuck here there isn't much to do.

We originally booked a ferry to Coron for the Friday but this didn’t go until Sunday. Luckily by the Saturday (as we found out in our hasty retreat from checking if the Coron ferry was running) most island tours were able to go and we booked into Tour A. This experience was amazing - the views are breathtaking, the water is clear, I think 7 Commandos beach is one of the best I’ve ever seen, snorkeling and kayaking around for the day, amazing! The boats are pretty standard and you get a nice lunch cooked by the crew, not 5 star or anything but adequate. We definitely would do a second tour if things worked out differently with the weather - something to take care for especially if only going for a two week holiday.

We stayed at Peak House Garden Pension, just around the corner from Cuna, when we got stuck here for the extra days. A reasonably priced option with a private air conditioned room - basic but perfectly fine when you are out and about during the day. Breakfast was also included and the lady was very helpful. 

After Coron we returned for two nights to El Nido as our flight to Manila was going from here. Initially we probably would’ve tried to fit in an extra island hopping tour but after 6 days in a row on boats we wanted a break from the sea! We rented scooters and drove about an hour out to Kuyawyaw Falls. There’s three falls and you do a short hike (with guide) up to each one, where you can swim and take photos at your leisure. The water was lovely and refreshing and there aren’t so many tourists so most of the time we were in the water on our own which was pretty amazing. 

There’s a few decent options in El Nido for food/drinks. We thought Happiness, Angel Wish (50/50), ArtCafe, Scape (top floor of Cuna), Big Bad Thai, Holy Smoke were all decent food wise. ArtCafe and Happiness are good for drinks too and we most liked the Rooftop bar as well. We also went to the famous Altrov’e on our last night - there’s a queue every night and usually we are starving - but the queue actually moved pretty quickly and our pizza and pasta were definitely the best things we’ve eaten here! Also had a glass of wine which was a welcome break from the San Miguel!

Coron (4 nights)

Our ferry finally left on Sunday and of our original five night booking, only three remained. After checking online and speaking to the staff we managed to wrangle an extra night at the original price. We stayed at the Coron Westown Resort which had stunning views of the hills, three pools, a jacuzzi and our bedroom was massive. Still had a bit of a damp smell - I think its the rain and the finish could do with some maintenance but it was great value and we felt we were really living it up. The restaurant was okay - local dishes were always better, and the bar was nice with live music every night. 

We were mostly here for the diving - David to do his PADI and I was going to give one day a go for a “discover” experience. We found the Reggae Dive centre on Trip advisor and they were extremely helpful and friendly especially when I was getting panicked under water! Things can be a bit disorganised in the mornings trying to get everyone out onto the boats with all the correct gear but once we set off, all was good. The PADI is pretty full on activity wise so it's a busy day with getting the gear ready and prepping between each dive location. On the second day I basically went along to go snorkeling at the dive locations which were still quite shallow. We had only a small group aboard so I could chill out on the boat reading and sunbathing if the others were finishing their diving skills. David really enjoyed the diving - some skills were tough enough but he seemed to take to it pretty well and the instructors are patient if you need a couple of gos to get something right. There are loads of shipwrecks from WWII around the islands here so there’s plenty to explore if you are a novice or a more experienced diver. David’s videos look great and he loved swimming through the wrecks and being so close to the marine life. 

Overall

Most people who had been to the Phillippines had warned us about getting sick but we managed to make it through without any issues. We were quite cautious avoiding ice, lettuce and brushing teeth with bottled water. Although by mid "stranded in El Nido week" we finally had some icy cocktails in Happiness bar and survived! Most “good” places use service (locally treated) water for ice, cocktails etc. so it should be okay - but we still stuck to buying bottled water in most places and avoided any “street” food. I don’t think we were missing much! :-)

This is a great place to visit if you like being in water, being outdoors and don't mind leaving some luxury behind. There are some amazing looking resorts if you want to splash out (not expensive really compared to Europe!) and even most of the places we stayed were actually pretty nice on 10-25 EUR each a night budget. The people here are naturally friendly and helpful (one guy drove his motorbike after us so he could show us where we could get our flat tyre fixed) and I felt like although people are obviously trying to sell their wares to tourists, they don’t pester you and aren’t trying to scam you. Also, I felt safe everywhere we visited. Everywhere is still a bit rough around the edges, but I didn’t witness any fighting or suspicious behaviour, people seem to go about their lives with a smile on their faces. I don't think it will be too long before a lot more tourists discover this gem.