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blackandgoldandeverythingnice · 3 years

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among the fields of gold - c. mcavoy

Pairing: Charlie McAvoy x female!OC

Summary: A little sneak peek into the future of charlie and nellie from i’m so glad to know as they attend the 2026 Olympics

Word Count: 4,682

A/N: Just the most self-indulgent little fluff I could come up with because I love writing them.

Warnings: none! the smallest hint of adult content but that’s about it.

“This is so fucking cool – did you ever actually tell me how cool it was to be at the Olympics?” Charlie was bouncing along the streets of Milan and swinging Eleanora’s hand as they went, a couple of other Team USA players behind them as they used the off day to do the touristy things they hadn’t yet been able to do during the first round of games.

“You’ve done plenty of World’s before, it’s almost the same.”

“It absolutely is not.” He argued back, glancing down and smirking at the little scowl on her face. He ignored the groans of a couple from the guys at the fact they were about to start bickering. It wasn’t their fault; he didn’t invite the idiots to come with them.

“You’re just excited because you’re staying in the Village and there are a bunch of girls there too – you don’t get that at World’s.”

“Yeah, I’m there for the girls.” He rolled his eyes and squeezed her hand before leaning over to kiss the top of her head.

The team was housed on their own floor in the dedicated USA building and it was like being back on a road trip in Peewees. They’d cruised through the round-robin, winning every game in their group and were heading into the elimination games. A lot of the guys had played together for years through development camps and national teams and they felt good about their chances.

They’d been wandering the streets of Milan, seeing as much of the sites as they could since all they’d seen were the inside of rinks. While Charlie had wanted to spend it just with Eleanora, some of the guys had caught him in the lobby with her on their way back from breakfast and insisted on joining them. She had pretty much become their team mascot: at every game, made a new sign for each and chatted with all the families happily. It made something in him burst in pride at the sight of her fitting so seamlessly into his life now. It hadn’t been an easy road to get there.

“Can you two not?” one of the Hughes brothers interrupted.

“Yeah, let’s stop this before it really gets rolling.” Matthew Tkachuk cut in, sweeping past Charlie with a smirk as he hit his shoulder and made his way across the square towards the Duomo. A few of the other guys sped passed them, running around the square and changing pigeons.

“And for a former Olympian, could you walk any slower?” Auston Matthews teased as he came right up close behind them.

Annoyed, Charlie shoved his teammate away just as Eleanora pinched his side. “I’m sorry, put some respect on the only gold medalist in this little crew right now. Also, I’m six months pregnant, dick head – you try carrying a bowling ball around your middle on these cobblestone ass streets.”

“Technically, a McAvoy has a gold medal – shouldn’t have changed your last name, babe.” Auston grinned, wrapping an arm around her shoulders but making sure to gently guide her as they walked around the various tourists and other athletes who had done the same thing they did.

“Can you get the fuck away from my wife?” Charlie groaned, checking Auston away so he could pull Eleanora into his side.

The rest of the guys walked ahead, leaving the two of them alone. Charlie smiled down at the way Eleanora was basking in the bright, cold air, her cheeks flushed and nose a little pink. There was a visible glow around her. He’d always thought it was bullshit when they said pregnant woman glowed but since the second she’d taken the test, there was a light happy aura around her. Walking with her tucked into him like she was slowed them down but Charlie liked making sure Eleanora was okay, to the point that she might kill him at some point if he asked her again how she was feeling.

“How are you – ”

“Don’t you dare ask how I feel right now, Charlie McAvoy.”

He pouted down at her. “It’s a valid question, they keep you scheduled so late for some of the media shit.”

“It’s called my job, babe.” She hip checked him gently. She’d stayed involved in the figure skating community and this year they’d invited her to provide commentary for the ladies’ singles. Turns out she was incredibly personable in front of the cameras and enjoyed talking to the young skaters. “I’m just happy none of your games conflict with the skating. I don’t think they’d love me ‘calling out sick’ only to have me show up on TV on the glass yelling at you to play better.”

“Excuse you, I have the most minutes played and highest rating.”

“Yes, baby – you’re very highly rated.” She snuggled into his side, and he laughed when she slid her hand into his back pocket and squeezed his ass.

The pair of them walked slowly around the square, laughing at the guys as they ran around. A few of Team Canada showed up along with a few of the Czech players. Since most of the teams were made up of NHLers, all the teams were friendly off-ice and trying to control them was like corralling kids at their first away tournament. A few fans stopped them as they went but most of them were interested in getting pictures with Eleanora rather than any of the guys, something the team loved to tease Charlie about. Joke was on them, he couldn’t be more proud to watch the way people adored her.

“How’s my boy doing?” he changed tactics as a group of young girls walked away after spending five minutes taking pictures with her and asking what it was like to win gold.

“I think he wants pizza and pasta.”

“Pizza and pasta? Not or?”

“You’re really gonna ask how I feel then judge your pregnant wife for wanting all the food?” the glare she shot him was enough to have him throwing his hands up in defense.

He leaned down to kiss her but she dodged him. “No way, bud – find me food then you can kiss me.”

“In my defense, I asked what my son wants to eat – you’re incidental to me checking up on him.”

“Do you want to die? Is that your plan? You want Team USA hockey to lose the gold because their captain was murdered by his pregnant wife?”

“Why’s Goldie threatening your life?” Jake popped up behind them, scaring the shit out of Charlie while Eleanora had seen him coming.

“He’s judging how much I want to eat.”

“Well, come on my fellow sewer rat – if Chuckie won’t love you right, I will.”

Jake offered her his hand and she took it, tossing a teasing smile behind her as the two of them started towards one of the side streets to find a suitable restaurant leaving Charlie to scurry after them.

--- ---

Eleanora chewed distractedly on her cuticle, staring at the clean sheet of ice waiting for the guys to step on for warmups. As she had for every single game, she was standing on the glass at the corner where her and his family had sat for the entirety of the tournament. The jersey of Charlie’s she had on barely fit over her belly and the maternity leggings made her feel like a sausage. Bouncing on the balls of her feet anxiously, she was as nervous as she’d been for her own gold medal skate.

“How’re you feeling?” a voice interrupted her nervous thoughts and she glanced over to see her father-in-law sliding into the seat next to her. After the first win, they’d sat in the same order they’d been in for every other game that followed. While Charlie wasn’t overly superstitious, Eleanora was and there’d been half a dozen little rituals she’d come up with for this Olympics.

“Jesus, your son ask you to ask me that?” she teased back at Charlie Sr. She rubbed her belly slightly and tried not to wince at the pain in her back. “Pretty sure this asshole is sitting right on my sciatic nerve.”

“Can you not call my first grandson an asshole?” Charlie’s mom appeared on her other side, looping her arm through hers. “But seriously, you alright?”

“No pain I haven’t dealt with before but this kid is already putting me through the wringer. I have to do this for 3 more months?”

Mrs. McAvoy frowned sympathetically and rubbed her arm softly. “Sorry, Ellie but yes. It’ll be worth it though.”

Just as she spoke, the guys stepped out and Eleanora zeroed in on Charlie leading the way, pushing the pucks off the edge of the bench and onto the ice.

“I can’t believe this – my son is going to be an Olympic medalist no matter what.” His mom said, sniffling slightly as she watched them start skating.

“We want gold, Jen – right, kid?” Senior nudged her in the side.

Eleanora smiled slightly. “I just want him to do the best he can.”

“Bullshit, you’re more competitive than he is. I saw you cursing him out last game for - and I quote - ‘a bullshit lazy turnover’.” Holly added as she joined the conversation, pushing her mom out of the seat next to Eleanora so she could keep the right lineup.

They all laughed while she just shrugged. “No one plays for second place...although I do kinda like being the only gold medalist. It’s how I get him to do things for me when I think I deserve them.”

The noise in the arena started to swell as the Canadians took the ice and Eleanora felt the familiar buzz and thrill of the pressure building. She hadn’t been able to see Charlie this morning, only getting a quick FaceTime as she’d been wrapping up interviews with some of the figure skaters who were getting ready for their final performance the following day.

“How was he this morning?”

Kayla shrugged. “Quiet. He missed you.”

She frowned, cursing herself for not having been there. It was their routine for the last few years, she was always the last person to see him before he went into the locker room for a big game. It felt like a bad omen that she’d missed giving him a last kiss before the biggest game of his career.

But just then Charlie skated by them for the first time, helmet off and his hair flowing behind him. He tapped the glass as he went by but kept skating in loops. After a couple laps and drills, he returned to the corner and stopped in front of her.

She couldn’t hear him over the crowd but he was pointing at her and gesturing halfway across the rink to where there was an opening in the boards. She followed where he was pointing to see one of the arena staff standing by the entrance to the locker rooms and she got the hint, squeezing through the seats as fast she could. The belly didn’t exactly help her move quickly or the people that kept trying to stop her.

He was already waiting for her by the time she reached the space, his gloves off and resting on the side. He reached out for her and she stepped eagerly towards him. On skates he was so much taller than her that she had to stand on tip toe just to wrap her arms around his neck. She was cognizant of the eyes of those in the area on them and she was sure there were cameras zooming in too.

“I couldn’t play the biggest game of my life without getting my good luck kiss.”

The stares and camera clicks faded away as she stared up at him. Knowing how the media was obsessed with “Their Story”, this was bound to be everywhere in no time. It’s why they liked their moment to be private before a game but right now, Eleanora couldn’t quite care because all she wanted was Charlie to win.

Gently, he brushed her stomach and just as he did, the baby gave a hard kick. Charlie grinned, leaning down to press his lips firmly to hers and she smiled into the kiss. “I think someone’s telling you he wants you to win.”

“I plan on winning it for his momma, gotta impress her.” He smirked, his face still inches from hers.

“I love you, baby – so fucking much.” She pressed one final kiss to his lips. “I’m not gonna tell you just making it to the gold medal game is an achievement – even though it is. You know what you need to do. Go fucking win it.”

“I shoulda had you do the pump-up speech for the boys.” He kissed her nose quickly before pulling back and grabbing his gloves to return to warmups. “I love you, babe – see you on the ice after.”

She watched him skate away, her palm flat against her belly and she felt another strong kick. Rubbing her stomach she looked down at the USA stretched across her front, smiling softly as she whispered to herself.

“Don’t worry, little man – daddy’s gonna win it for us.”

--- ---

The second period started with the game tied at two. Charlie had an assist and had already spent almost twelve minutes on the ice. Despite most of the off-ice friendships and even teammates who were playing against each other it was getting chippy. They all clearly wanted it and weren’t holding back. Tkachuk had managed to draw three penalties while only going to the box once himself.

Eleanora felt like she was going to lose her voice the amount she’d been screaming throughout the game. It seemed like part of Team Canada’s game strategy was to go after Charlie as much as possible. They’d been hitting him hard and there’d been one particularly nasty penalty he drew when Chabot leveled him with a late hit. Charlie had been slow to get up from that one but within the first thirty seconds of the powerplay, he’d put a pass right on Auston’s tape for the tying goal.

There had always been something both exhilarating and nerve-wracking about watching Charlie play. When he was on the ice, she only watched him, not even noticing where the puck was or what action was happening unless he was involved.

It was partially how she was able to react a second before the rest of the rink when she saw Chabot coming from behind him, hitting him hard and sending Charlie headfirst into the boards. He was splayed out flat on the ice while his teammates immediately rushed to his defense, Auston and Tkachuk jumping Chabot before Auston was pulled away by Dougie Hamilton. Eleanora felt like climbing over the glass to get to him and Kayla was gripping her arm tightly.

“Get up. Get up. Get up, Junior.” His dad was begging while Eleanora just kept staring in horror.

After what felt like hours but was probably only a minute, he slowly tucked his legs up under him and managed to get to a kneeling position just as the team doctor reached him. He was clearly still dazed, holding one hand on his helmet as he slowly got up. Gaudreau had come over and was kneeling next to him, offering to help him up but Charlie waved him off.

The arena applauded as he stood up, but Eleanora couldn’t feel the relief everyone else did as she watched them lead Charlie to the locker room.

“He’s okay. He got up on his own. They just have to check him out for protocol. He’s okay.” Kayla was chanting and all Eleanora wanted to do was rush to the locker room. Instead of watching the rest of the game, she stared at the locker room entrance, praying Charlie would return to the bench.

They ended the second period down by one and only during the intermission did she let herself pull her phone out to find the replay of the hit. They all huddled around together watching intently, only slightly reassured that Charlie had gotten up on his own and made his way quickly down the tunnel without support. It felt like time was moving in slow motion as the ice was cleaned. Finally, the lights dimmed again and the players started back out on the ice.

It felt like a weight was lifted when she saw Charlie hop out last, doing quick laps to warm back up as he shook his legs out. As he went by them, he tapped the glass and Eleanora felt like she was going to cry just from the quick wink he gave her.

“Thank god.” His mom sighed a breath and Eleanora felt lightheaded as she rubbed her stomach aimlessly. The baby had been active all game, bouncing around and kicking more than usual. It’s like he could sense what was happening around them.

The third period wasn’t any less stressful, Team Canada was clearly content to play defense while Team USA threw everything at them but couldn’t seem to find the back of the net. But then in the last 27 seconds of the game, Charlie caught a pass from Quinn Hughes and buried it in the top corner of the net to tie the game. The roar of the arena felt deafening as they all jumped up and down, screaming happily while the players mobbed their captain. The crowd clearly expected overtime, neither team wanting to give one up in the remaining seconds of the game.

But then Conor McDavid of all people misplayed the puck in the neutral zone and it landed on Jack Eichel’s stick who shot down the ice on a breakaway with only 7 seconds to go, shifting to his backhand as he slid the puck between the goalie’s legs.

If it was possible, the roof would’ve blown off the top of the arena. Team USA hadn’t won since the 1980 Miracle on Ice game and the place was shaking with excitement. USA gear and equipment was strewn across the ice like confetti while Team Canada stared on in disbelief, some kneeling together watching while others had already started to make their way towards the locker room.

People were hugging her tightly and screaming in her ear. Eleanora wasn’t even sure they were all people she knew. Charlie Sr. pulled her away from whoever was holding her and into a tight hug while the rest of the family crowded around jumping as they celebrated. She didn’t even realize she was crying until she tried to spot Charlie on the ice but her vision was blurry.

Sobbing into one hand, the other pressed tight against her stomach she felt another strong kick which only made her sob harder. It was better than her own win because she hadn’t had any true family to celebrate with besides her coaches who had become replacement parents to her. This was entirely different and felt like they’d all won it.

The celebrations continued on the ice as the McAvoys all made their way towards the same opening Eleanora had talked to Charlie before the game start. Other wives and families were already there, pulling each other into hugs, most of the moms crying happily while a few of the dads tried to fight their own tears except for Jim Hughes who was openly crying as he held his wife tightly to him.

Standing on the glass so she could watch, Eleanora scanned the sea of blue jerseys to try to find Charlie, biting her lip to try to stop crying. She was still contemplating scaling the glass but knew the guys deserved to celebrate with their team first.

Finally, her impatience grew and Eleanora, just popped the door open and started to make her way onto the ice. Once the dam broke, the rest of the families followed, ignoring the staff asking for them to stay off the ice until they had carpets laid down.

It was decidedly difficult to maneuver on the ice in sneakers and a pregnant belly but she moved as quickly and carefully as she could towards her target. Their eyes locked and Charlie broke away from the guys to get to her. When he reached her, he went right for her waist, dragging her up and off the ice as he twirled her around as she held tightly to him.

Neither of them spoke at first as Eleanora pressed kisses all over his face as he laughed until he could kiss her back. It was awkward to be held up so Charlie carefully set her down on the ice, one hand tucking protectively against her back so she wouldn’t slip and the other pressed gently on her belly as he leaned down for the sweetest kiss they’d ever shared.

“I told you I’d win it for you.” He whispered, pressing his forehead against hers.

“Not before scaring the shit out of me first.” She shot back but squeezed his waist tightly, her face landing in the sweaty material. “I’m so fucking proud of you, Teddy.”

She stared up at him, and despite the fact that he had just won the biggest game of his life, he was staring at her like they were the only two people in the world.

“This is almost as good as our wedding night.”

She gave a watery chuckle in return. “Just the wedding night not the wedding itself?”

“Eh, that was okay too.” He teased just as the rest of his family joined them. Reluctantly, she released him so he could hug his family, stepping back to give them a moment.

A few of the guys paused to hug her as they went by but mostly she just stood there watching Charlie beaming at everyone around him. The camera crews were starting to show up as the staff worked to get the carpets out and set up the podiums. Eleanora knew they wouldn’t get a private moment together for hours and she tried to melt into the background but Charlie was having none of that, snagging her hand and dragging her towards him as they started to interview him.

From her position under his arm, she stared up at him as he spoke, beaming proudly as he talked about the win and how special it was for them. She was so focused on him she didn’t realized they’d asked her a question.

“Nellie.” Charlie whispered, nudging her with a nose to the top of her head and she glanced at the reporter who was beaming at her.

“I was just asking how this compares to your own gold medal win just four years ago?” they repeated the question.

Eleanora grinned and squeezed his side tighter. “There’s no comparison.” She started, enjoying some of the frowns that followed before continuing. “What Charlie and the boys did was so beyond historic and I’m so proud to have been able to watch it happen. This team worked so hard and never gave up. I’m just thrilled I was able to share in it. Although I’m pretty pissed that I can’t win arguments anymore by saying ‘well I have a gold medal so you have to do what I say’.”

Everyone laughed in response, Charlie squeezing her side lightly.

“I’m sure you guys haven’t seen yet but the video of you two right before the game has become quite popular.” Eleanora flushed slightly as they continued. “Charlie – did you get any last minute advice?”

She pinched his side, hoping he’d lie but the smirk on his face already told her differently. “She pretty much told me that just getting to the medal game wasn’t enough and that I knew what to do. Pretty sure the exact words were ‘now go fucking win it’ and honestly, I can’t really say no to my wife so I did.”

--- ---

It was nearly three hours later by the time Eleanora and Charlie were walking into her hotel room and shutting the door so they were finally alone. They were planning on changing then meeting up with everyone to celebrate. Most of the guys’ flights weren’t for another day or two so they planned to enjoy what little remained of their Olympic break before they’d have to return to their teams for the rest of the season.

Charlie face planted onto the king-size bed. “Fuck, you’ve been sleeping on this for two weeks while I’ve been on the worst twin mattress in the world?”

Eleanora giggled, pulling her jersey off leaving on her loose t-shirt, she slipped out of her sneakers and kicked them towards the door so she could sit and join him on the bed. Despite how happy she was, she was exhausted and the pain in her back went from dull to stabbing on a dime. It took a little effort for her to climb up onto the bed and get comfy as she curled up on her side.

Charlie inched up so his nose was brushing against her swollen belly. Her hand immediately fell to his hair, running her fingers through gently and scratching his scalp. He brought his arm up so he was hugging her middle and pressed his lips against her.

“Hi, Tripp.” He whispered causing Eleanora to tug his hair gently.

“Baby, no. Even if he ends up Charlie the third, we are not calling him Tripp.”

Charlie ignored her. “Ignore mommy, I’ll make sure you get a cool nickname.”

She rolled her eyes but he kept talking. “I don’t know if you heard all that noise but now you have two parents with gold medals. We’re pretty big deals.”

“Kid was bouncing all over the place for most of the game before settling directly on my sciatic nerve so I couldn’t get comfortable.”

“Be nice to mommy, sweet boy.” He mumbled and pressed a kiss to her stomach before turning up so he could stare at her. “I think I won because of you.”

“You won because you’re an amazing hockey player and leader. You did this. Next up you can win us a Cup.” She smiled softly, stroking his hair as he crawled up so their faces were level. They lay there quietly together, staring at each other and enjoying the peace. They’d both turned their phones off, telling his family they’d see them at the restaurant that USA hockey had reserved for them. For now, they just wanted to be alone.

Carefully, Eleanora brushed Charlie’s hair off his forehead. “Your head okay? I might kill that Canadian fuck.”

Charlie laughed but cringed slightly. His head hurt more than he let on but he passed concussion protocol and had a few days off before he’d have to be back on the ice for a game.

“Are you okay? I know when you’re in pain, Nellie.”

She winced despite trying to smile as he tucked his hand under her top to lay on her bare skin, soothingly running his thumb along belly.

“Just pregnancy, or so I’m told. I need to figure out how to get him off this nerve or I’m gonna spend the flight pacing the aisles because I won’t be able to sit.”

Charlie frowned. “I hate seeing you in pain. And I’m worried you won’t want the five that I want if this one is such a pain in the ass.”

She snorted, inching forward to kiss him softly. “Let’s get through meeting this little man first then we’ll talk more, kay?”

“You’re the love of my fucking life, you know that?” he gripped her neck gently.

Smiling, she leaned forward to steal another kiss. “Lucky for you, it’s mutual. Now…I bet we could find a comfy position for you to fuck me in before we have to go to the restaurant.”

A slow smirk spread across Charlie’s face as he rolled her carefully onto her back so he could lean over her.

“I can definitely do that.”

#charlie mcavoy #nhl writing #nhl fic #nhl imagines #charlie mcavoy fic #boston bruins #me writing hockey fics #hockey fic #my writing #hockey imagines #hockey blurbs #annnnd we're back #because i'm just gonna keep writing these two #because it's fun for me #I hope you like it!#let me know if you have requests or feedback

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atlafan · 5 years

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Take it Slow - Part Fifteen

a/n: okay this is my first shot at a harry:y/n fic, and it will be multiple parts. y/n had a bad experience with an ex over a year ago, and finally accepts her coworker and good friend Niall’s invitation to go on a blind date with his friend Harry.

(This part is loooong fam, but I promise it delivers. Fluff and smut.)

Part One Part Two Part Three Part Four Part Five Part Six Part Seven Part Eight Part Nine Part Ten Part Eleven Part Twelve Part Thirteen Part Fourteen

Masterpost

You told all your friends about your upcoming weekend with Harry. Niall was just as excited for you. You didn’t bother telling your mom, and you certainly haven’t told your siblings. You still hadn’t updated your Facebook status. You found yourself using social media less and less the more you hung out with Harry.

You didn’t want to pack too much, but you also wanted to have enough options with you depending on the weather, Harry had been really busy these last couple of weeks. Everyone was trying to get in Fall photoshoots while the leaves were changing. You decide to pull out your small carry-on bag with wheels.

One night after work you went to a lingerie store to pick out something cute to wear. You found a silk, short night gown. It was blush pink with black lace over where your breasts would sit. You pack that first. You pull out some black booties and a couple different pairs of skinny jeans. You decide on a pair of leggings for the drive, you’d be going up Friday afternoon.

Next you had to tackle your toiletries. You had a bag for makeup, a bag for facial wash and moisturizer, and your travel body wash. Once you were satisfied with everything, you left it all near your door, so you could grab everything easily.

You leave work around 3PM to get back to your apartment to change. Niall wished you safe travels. You weren’t sure what was going to happen this weekend. You still weren’t ready to have sex with Harry, but you felt like you needed to give him more. You knew he wanted to use his hands more by the way he would grab at you. Would it be so bad if he fingered you? Your therapy has been helping a lot. Dr. Mara has helped put you back at ease. Jake can’t hurt you ever again. This was Harry, your Harry, who treats you like an absolute princess.

While you’re changing into your leggings, you hear the rustling of your door. Harry walks in with a beanie on. You trot over to him, and wrap your arms around his neck. He kisses you and smiles.

“I’m so excited Harry.” You squeak.

“Me too, I feel terrible I’ve been so busy.”

“It’s okay, it’s nice that you get so much extra work.”

He grabs your bags and brings them down to his car. It would be a little over a two hour drive up to New Hampshire. He let you pick the music. You put an RnB playlist on from 2014. You told him these were some of your favorite songs your sophomore year of college. Once in a while one of you would shout that you loved a certain song, or that you forgot it existed. Eventually you switched to some other playlists you had. You made a playlist with a bunch of songs you would listen to with your mom on long car drives. It had a mix on Bon Jovi, Journey, Barry Manalow, Gary Pucket, Eddie Money, and the Righteous Brothers. Harry was surprised you liked any of that type of music.

“How do you know all of these songs?”

“Well, my mom used to take us on a bunch of road trips and long car rides. She had these two huge CD cases in the car. She would let us pick which ones we wanted to listen to, and she would turn the volume like all the way up. We would just jam out and sing at the top of our lungs.” Shakin’ by Eddie Money comes on next. “Shit, I love this song, mind if I turn it up?”

“Go for it.”

You turn it up, and start singing along. Harry has never heard you really sing before. You didn’t have the greatest voice in the world, but you still sounded good. You could sing on key and in tune. You had sung this song enough times to know how to sing it right. Harry smiled while you sang, stealing glances when he could.

You made pretty good time to the inn. Harry only lets you carry in one of the small bags, while he carried the rest. He goes up to the check in counter, and you take the two room keys. You’re up on the second floor. As you walk in you’re in awe of how beautiful the room is. You put your bag on the floor and flop onto the bed. Harry laughs, but follows your lead.

“This bed is sooo comfy.” You sigh. “What time is it babe?”

“Just about six. We could just order room service tonight so we can relax. Go check out the bathroom, there’s a little surprise.”

You get up, and go into the large en suite. There’s a giant Jacuzzi tub that is begging to be filled. You walk back out to Harry who has a cunning grin on his face.

“Good thing I brought a bathing suit.” You wink at him.

“You don’t need a bathing suit to wear in a tub.” He wraps his arms around your waist.

“I brought a cute bathing suit, I intend to wear it.”

You unpack a bunch of your things while Harry orders room service. Twenty minutes later, a bottle of wine, two salads, and a side of fries are delivered to your room. The food is delicious, and the wine is perfect for an after dinner treat.

“Alright, let’s see that bathing suit.” Harry says while you pull your hair up into a messy bun.

“Let’s see yours.” You raise an eyebrow at him.

You go into the bathroom and change into a blue string bikini. It had a cheeky bottom, and the top just covered your breasts enough. You rarely wore it, but knew it would drive him wild. You turn the bath on to fill it up, and open the door to peak out. Your eyes grow wide when you see Harry wearing a pair of short yellow bottoms. You cough to get his attention, he whips around to look at you.

“Holy shit.”

“Told you it was cute.” You say, sauntering towards him.

“Do you wear this a lot?”

“God no, it’s way too revealing, this is a special bathing suit.” You look down at his shorts. “Yours is very cute.” He scoffs at you.

“C’mon, let’s not let those jets go to waste.” You grab the wine and your glasses.

You both get in and sigh immediately. The jets feel incredible. At first you’re sitting across from him, sipping on your wine.

“I’m so glad we did this, a perfect way to spend a long weekend.” You say.

“Yeah, it’s nice to get away once in a while. If you could go on any holiday what would it be?”

“Well, I usually go to Florida to visit with my Nannie. She has a house on the west coast, in this little community. There’s a pool and a rec center. Sometimes I’ll go with her to her jazzercise class, it’s a lot of fun. Honestly, it’s my happy place.”

“You’re really close with her, aren’t you?”

“Yeah.” You want to change the subject. You’re not ready to dive in about your relationship with your grandparents, in fear you may cry. “But I suppose for like a real vacation, I love getting to go to Aruba. I’ve been twice. Oh! I went to Israel my senior year of college for a birthright trip, I’m desperate to go back there.”

“Wow, Israel, that’s incredible.”

“My sister and I went with a group, it was amazing. Honestly, my ideal vacation is just somewhere warm. I love going to the beach and getting to be lazy. I’m not into like the backpacking across a bunch of different countries thing. I bet you’ve been all over Europe.”

“Sort of. We lived hours outside of London growing up, and I never went until I was like sixteen. We didn’t have a lot of money, and going there was something the like rich kids did on the weekends. I like going to the beach too.”

“You definitely tan well, you were practically golden when you came back from New Mexico.”

“How nice of you to notice.” He takes a sip of his wine. “You’re too far away, c’mere.” You giggle and go over to him, straddling his legs so you can sit in his lap. “Much better.” You press your chest against his so he can feel you.

“So, what did you go to Aruba for?”

“Hm?”

“You mentioned you’ve been there a couple times? Was it a cruise or something?”

“Oh, no…my grandparents have a time share there. I got to go the first time as a sweet sixteen type thing. It was the most relaxing trip, but I’m always relaxed with them. The second time I went was last April with my mom and Nannie. It was the first time she had been back since I went.”

“Why’s that?” Your eyes droop, your lips form into a frown. “Sorry, I’m being nosey.”

“No, it’s okay. Um, it’s just hard to talk about is all.” You sigh. “Not something I want to dive into this weekend.”

“Alright…sorry again.” He smiles at you.

You run your wet hands through his hair while he presses his hands into your lower back. You lean down and brush your lips against his.

“You’re so handsome.” You scrunch his hair in your hands. “And your hair is always so soft.” You feel the wine hitting you more now. You lean down and kiss him, him happily taking your bottom lip into his mouth to suck and bite on. “Harry?”

“Mm?” He says, working his mouth to your jaw to plant kisses on.

“I really wanna cuddle tonight, can we do that? Just hold each other?” He looks up at you with his green eyes. His pupils are dilated.

“Of course, love. We can do whatever ya want.” You sigh happily, and set yourself so your back is to his chest.

The two of you continue to talk, and share travel stories. You learned that Harry loved when he could go to Jamaica, and he had spent one of his winter breaks in Japan all by himself. You told him more about your week in Israel, and how you’ve always wanted to go to Greece. When the water started to cool, and you both started to get pruney, you decided it was time to get out of the tub.

Harry changed into a pair of grey sweatpants, while you rummaged in your suitcase. You only brought the sexy nightgown for bed. You wanted to wait until tomorrow night to show it to him.

“Um, Harry?”

“Yeah babe?”

“Could I borrow a t-shirt for bed?” He smirks and hands you the one he had on earlier.

“Hope you don’t mind it bein’ used.”

“Not at all.” It smelled just like him, how could you mind? You wiggle on a pair of cotton panties, and climb onto the bed with him. “Why are hotel beds always so comfy?”

“I think it’s a scheme to make people come back.” He says with a half smile, and a yawn. He must be tired from the long drive. “I’m gonna turn the light off.”

“Sounds good.”

You turn over, pull is arm with you, and he wraps it around you. He nuzzles into your hair and lets out a sigh. You wiggle your butt to adjust to his shape while his legs tangle up with yours. You felt small yet safe in his arms. His body was so much bigger than yours, but it didn’t over power you. He was always so gentle and caring. You hear his light snores in your ear, and it makes you smile. He was just as comfortable with you as you were with him.

The next morning, your eyes flutter open, almost forgetting where you slept. You were laying on your back with Harry’s head nestled into your shoulder. You detach yourself from him so you can go have a shower. You needed to wash your hair today. You grab your toiletry bag, and head into the giant shower that had a waterfall head.

Harry woke up to the sound of your blow dryer, confused that you weren’t still in the bed with him. He felt sweaty, having fallen asleep in his sweatpants. He gets out of bed, and pears through the crack in the door, lightly opening it further. Your towel is wrapped securely around you, and your head is flipped over so you can properly dry the back of your hair. You flip it back over, and for a second Harry sees you in slow motion, like a movie star or something. You don’t notice him in the doorway. Your eyebrows are furrowed as you use your brush to smooth out your hair. Running your hands through, you’re satisfied with how dry you were able to get, and you turn the dryer off. You jump when you see him.

“Jesus, you scared me.” You giggle.

“Sorry ‘bout that, you just looked cute doin’ your hair.” He walks into the bathroom, and kisses you on your cheek. He grabs his tooth brush and brushes his teeth. “Was thinkin’ today before we head to the spa we could walk the property. Get some shots of the trees.”

“That would be great! What time is our appointment?”

“Not til this afternoon, plenty of time.”

You grab a pair of light washed skinny jeans that have a few rips in them, and put them on. Next you decide on a light green sweater. You plug your curling iron in, and put some makeup on while you wait for it to heat up.

“How come you’re doin’ all that?” Harry asks, sliding his black jeans up his legs.

“Well, if you’re gonna take pictures I wanna look nice, just in case I happen to be in one.” You smile at him, beginning to add curls to your ends. “Besides, you’re getting an insider look at my morning routine. Usually you’re dead asleep while I’m doing this.”

“Very true.” Harry puts on a black sweater and his beanie. He slings his camera over his torso.

“Okay, all done.” You slip on your booties, and take his hand. “I heard this place has really good breakfast.”

You settle on a waffle and some eggs for breakfast. Harry had some oatmeal with fruit in it. You both enjoyed a nice cup of coffee before heading outside. The inn sat on fifteen acres of land. Not the biggest, but not the smallest either. There were a ton of trails and paths marked out for people to walk on. The foliage was at its peak, Harry watched you gaze at the different colors on the trees that surrounded you. You hear him snap a photo.

“Harry.” You look at him rolling your eyes.

“You said you wanted your picture taken.” He laughed. “And a candid one is way better than some staged photo.” He gestures for you to look. “See, look at how beautiful you are.” You blush and kiss him on the cheek.

He continues to snap photos of the trees and leaves on your walk. You use your phone to take pictures as well. You take a couple of him while he took pictures of other things. You attempted to take a selfie, but he just took a photo of you instead with his camera.

“I want to be able to post these later.”

“You’ll be able to. I brought my computer so I can load the SD card right in.”

“Lemme take some pictures with your camera.” He takes it off himself and hands it to you. You fidget with some of the controls until everything’s set how you like it. “Go stand over there, the lighting is perfect.” He does as you say. He sticks his hands in his pockets and looks right into the lens. “Jesus, Harry, you look like a model.” You snap a picture. “Now, could you smile for me?” He laughs while his cheeks go red at both of your statements. You snap one while he laughs.

“There’s a timer on that, I could prop it up so we can take a picture together.” He says walking back over to you.

“Or we could take a selfie.”

“But then we won’t get the full effect of the background.” Another couple walks by and sees you two struggle to figure out your photo.

“Would you two like a picture?” The woman asks.

“That would be great.” You go to hand her your phone, but Harry hands her his.

“Mine has a bit of a better camera, love.”

“True.”

You both stand together between two large trees. He hooks an arm around you, and you snake one of your around his back. Your other hand is pressed to his chest. You both smile.

“Okay, ready?” The woman asks. You see her tap the phone a couple of times, and she moves around to get a couple different angles. You both start laughing, which makes for even better pictures. “Alright, that should give you enough variety.” She hands Harry back his phone.

“Thank you so much!” You say as the woman and the man she’s with walk away. “Don’t put that in your pocket, I wanna see how they came out.” Harry rolls his eyes playfully and hands you his phone. “Oh! These are so cute, she did a great job. Oo, I like this one of us laughing. That is going on insta for sure.”

“Insta?” He mimics your accent. You realize now how young you must sound when you say stuff like that.

“Yes, insta. That alright with you?”

“Sure, show me off all you want.” He winks at you.

Between the two of you, you must have taken well over a hundred pictures, but the trails were just too beautiful. You were in awe of Harry, basically watching the master at work. You both go up to your room to change into comfier clothes before your massage date.

“Oh my god!” You say looking at your phone with a big smile. Harry comes out of the bathroom and rushes over to you.

“What?!”

“Sorry, just, Sarah and Niall changed their Facebook statuses!” You practically shove your phone in his face. “That is so exciting!” You love the status and say congratulations with a heart emoji. You realize then that you still hadn’t changed your status. “Maybe tomorrow when I post some pictures I’ll finally change mine. That’ll give people some context of who I’m with.” You smile at him.

“Sure.” He shrugs his shoulders. You had to think back to the date of which he actually asked you to be his girlfriend. It was either the middle or end of September.

“Are you okay with that? I don’t have to post anything to Facebook.”

“Yeah, no, it’s fine. I thought you already changed your status is all, like over a month ago.”

“I haven’t really been on Facebook, or any social media for a while. It just slipped my mind.”

“Oh.”

“That came out wrong. What I meant was-“

“This is exactly why I got off Facebook in the first place. All these little societal rules make things so complicated. I know you’re my girlfriend, but for some reason, I need like everyone to know.” He groans. “I don’t want anyone to think you’re available, (y/n). I could reactivate my account so you could tag me in the post.”

“Harry, you don’t have to do that.” He was sensitive, he tried to hold it back as best he could, but he was your sensitive boy, and his feelings were clearly hurt.

“When we get back from the massage, we can look at all the pictures, and you can pick which ones you want to post, then I’ll airdrop them to you, and I’ll reactivate my account.”

“Why did you deactivate it in the first place?”

“I just thought it was unprofessional, but to be fair I used to post a lot of stupid shit on there. Besides, it could help me grow my freelancing more.” He sighs. “I just don’t want anyone to think they can have you, and I know how possessive that sounds, but it’s how I feel.” You put a hand on his cheek and he leans into it.

“It’s not possessive, I get it. I’m all yours, Harry. No one else’s.” He kisses you tenderly, just for a moment.

“We better get down to the spa. Our massages our first, then our nails.” You perk up.

“I thought we were just getting the massages.”

“I thought this would be a nice treat, it was all part of a package.”

A woman who works at the spa gives you each a robe and some sandals. You’re called into the couple’s room where two women are waiting for you. You told Harry to request that women give the massages because you didn’t like the idea of a man touching you that way that wasn’t him. They give you a moment to disrobe and get onto the massage tables. The music is relaxing and the room smelled like lavender. The second you feel the hot oil hit your body, your muscles immediately relax. It had been ages since you had done so much self-care like this.

The woman kneads into you, and you feel every knot in your back come undone. You just about fall asleep on the comfy bed until you feel hot rocks placed along your spine. They feel incredible, and you can’t help but smile at the fact that Harry asked for this specifically. After a few minutes of that, you’re told to flip onto your back. The woman places a clip in your hair so she doesn’t get it oily while she rubs your neck and shoulders. You feel like you could melt into the table, and only hope that Harry is feeling the same.

The hour is up before you know it. You’re told to both take your time, and to come out when you feel ready. You rub your eyes, and take the clip out of your hair while you slowly sit up. Your eyes grow wide when you look over at Harry. His chest is shiny with oil, he looks over at you and you blush.

“How ya feelin’, love?”

“Mm, really good.” He hands you your robe. You feel wobbly when you get up, and use him for balance.

You both walk out, and are lead to where your pedicures are. Your feet sink into the warm bubbly water, feeling relaxed once again. You pick out a really dark blue for your toes, and tell the woman you’ll decide on your manicure later. Harry picks out a peach color for his toes, and it makes you smile. He holds your hand during the pedicure, rubbing his thumb on you once in a while. You lean your head back and close your eyes. You feel yourself drifting off when he nudges you.

“Babe, time for the manicure.” You yawn and stretch.

“Alright.”

You both walk over to the seats at the manicure tables. You decide on two different colors. You always like the way white nails look, and you decide on the dark blue as well. You take a page out of Harry’s book, and ask to have the colors painted on every other nail. Harry goes for the same peach that’s on his toes and black. He asks to just have his thumbs and forefingers painted black, and the rest peach.

You’re very happy with how your nails came out, and you see that Harry is too. You both go to change back into your clothes, and return the robes and sandals. Harry gives you a piggyback ride back up to your room as you feel too tired to walk. He rests you gently on the bed.

“What time is it?”

“Only four.” He coos, lying next to you.

“Quick nap before dinner? I can barely keep my eyes open.”

“Sure, I’ll set an alarm to wake us in like forty-five minutes.”

“Perfect.”

You fall asleep only a second after. You find yourself dreaming about a forest. You can hear every crunch of every leaf you step on. You walk up to a tent and go inside. You see a beautiful bed only with white blankets and pillows with rose petals all over it. You look in a mirror and find yourself to only be wear a t-shirt, Harry’s t-shirt. He appears suddenly, taking your hand in his. His other hand slips into your panties. You don’t say anything you simply watch as his fingers rub against you. Your chest rises and falls quickly from his touch. Just as he’s about to curl a finger up inside you, you’re jolted awake. The dream fading away.

Harry had woken up about twenty minutes into the nap. He took the opportunity to have some alone time in the bathroom. He chuckled at himself when he saw that you had left a little bottle of pooperie near the toilet. He laid back down next you when he was done, and noticed your face was scrunched up, and your mouth was parted. You were breathing quickly and beads of sweat were starting to form at your brow line. Usually, you slept pretty peacefully. When you started grunting, he figured you were having a bad dream or something, so he shook your shoulder.

Your eyes burst open as you try to catch your breath, you look at Harry who has a concerned look on his face.

“Alright, love?”

“Um, yeah, why?”

“Looked like you were havin’ a bad dream. You were breathin’ heavy and makin’ all this noise.” Your face flushed. You couldn’t tell him you were basically having a sex dream about him. Actually, it’s something he probably would like to hear, but you’re far too embarrassed.

“Oh.”

“What were you dreamin’ about?”

“I, um, can’t remember.” You sit up and run your hands through your hair. “I’m starving.”

“Probably because we forgot to eat lunch.”

“Well, let’s get ready for dinner then.” You smile. You go to the dress you hung up last night, and take it into the bathroom with you.

Harry puts on some khakis and a dress shirt while you slip on your little black dress. He beams at you when you walk out.

“You wore that on our first date.” He gets up and wraps his arms around your waist.

“You remember?” You giggle, knowing he would.

“Course, how could I forget how good you looked?” He gives your bum a little tap. “Let’s head down.” He walks in front of you, and you can’t help but notice how great his butt looks in those khakis. You walk by him quickly, giving him a little pinch, and get into the hallway before he can do anything. “Oi, there’ll be none of that before dinner.”

“Oh, so after dinner I can pinch your butt as much as I want? Good to know.” You wink at him.

The restaurant attached to the inn is breathtaking, you were both thankful you brought nice clothes to wear. Harry pulled your chair out for you like he always did, once you were brought to a table. You each ordered a cocktail, you a vodka-tonic, and him a gin and tonic. Bread was brought over, and you practically attacked it the second you could.

“What do you think you’re gonna get?” He asks you, furrowing his brows at the menu.

“Hmm, I’m not sure yet.” You had a big night planned for him, and you didn’t want to risk anything upsetting your stomach. “Maybe this pasta dish?” You point to it and show him. “Looks like you can get it with black bean noodles if you want.”

“Oh, that looks good, maybe I’ll get that too.”

You each order once the waitress comes back. Midway through the meal, she brings you more drinks, which was perfect because you were starting to feel nervous.

“Love, how ‘bout a dessert tonight?” It was something you rarely did, but since he offered you didn’t want to decline.

“See something you like?” You ask innocently. He gives you a sultry look, and you cough to shake it off. “Oh, look they have a plate of assorted fruits with chocolate drizzled on it.” Normally you would just pig out and get a sundae or a brownie with ice cream, but you figured the dairy would bother you.

“That sounds perfect.” The waitress bring the dessert over quickly, and Harry tells her to just charge the meal to the room. You roll your eyes full well knowing he’s not going to let you pay for anything. “Mm, good choice. Although, I wish I could feed this to you like that other time.” You blush. It’s sweet that he’s been bringing up such nice memories.

You’re absolutely stuffed, you both are. You don’t want to dive into anything with him yet.

“Harry, can we look at the pictures?”

“Sure!” He grabs his laptop once you’re back in your room. You both sit on the small loveseat.

“These are incredible, god you’re so good.” He smiles at you and you press your nose to his for second.

“Lemme see the ones you took on your phone.” You show him a couple. “You have quite the eye yourself. Here, let me airdrop the ones you like to you so you can post them or do whatever you like with them.” You see him open his browser to Facebook.

“Harry, it’s really okay…”

“I want to, plus like I said, it could help with the freelancing.” You watch him log in, your jaw nearly hitting the floor.

“Holy shit, your hair was so long!” He smirks at you.

“Yeah, I grew it out for nearly two years. You like it?”

“Not a lot of people can pull that off, but it suits you. Although, I won’t lie, I love the length you have it at now.” You run a hand through it.

“Me too. Doesn’t get in my way as much when I’m out shootin’. Could ya send me the one you took of me takin’ a picture, I think I’d like to make that my profile picture.” Your heart could burst. You text it to him quick, and he opens his iMessages so you can save it. Before he reactivates it, he goes through his friends list and deletes a whole mess of people. He updates a bunch of his information, and adds a link to his professional Instagram. “There, all cleaned up.” He reactivates the account and sends you a request. You accept immediately.

You create a new album to put all of the wonderful pictures into, and tag him in the ones he’s in. Then you go to change your Facebook status.

“This profile picture is so cute, where were you?”

“Oh! Yikes, I should really change that. It was from my birthday party over the summer. Would it be cheesy to change it to this one of us?” You point to the picture of the one the woman took for you. “The one of us smiling, not the one laughing.”

“I don’t think it’s cheesy at all.”

You change your picture, and then, finally, go to change your status. You back track the date to read September, making him smile. You request him in the post, and he accepts, thus updating both of your statuses. Between adding the pictures, changing your profile picture, and updating your status, you get an influx of notifications. Both Sarah and Rachel leave comments, and you see a liked notification from Kate. Niall leaves a comment as well, just a wink emoji, but it makes you smile. A bunch of people like and comment on your profile picture.

“Sarah and Rachel both just friend requested me.” He looks at you.

“Is that weird for you?”

“Guess not.” He accepts both.

“Shit.” Your siblings liked your status.

“What?”

“My siblings are liking and now commenting, wonderful.” You roll your eyes.

“What’s wrong with them knowin’?”

“Nothing. They just always find a way to treat me like a baby.”

“Well, isn’t that their job as older siblings?”

“Does Gemma ever leave embarrassing comments about having changed your diapers? I had to block my oldest sister from like half of my posts. She’s the reason my insta is private.”

“You got me there, Gem was too close in age with me to help out with diapers.”

“Okay, I am putting this thing on do not disturb before one of them calls me.” You get up and put your phone on the side table next to the bed. You’re feeling less bloated, and very close to him. You grab your bag and go into the bathroom. “Just gonna change into something more comfortable.”

Harry untucks his dress shirt from his khakis. He scrolls through the countless comments on his own Facebook. Many friends happy to see his return to the online world. He had wanted to unzip your dress for you, and watch it fall to your feet, to see what underwear set you might have worn. He didn’t want to push you though. You were having such a nice weekend together.

You take out the nightgown and stare at it. It really was cute with the black lace over the blush pink, and you knew it would hug you tight where you wanted it to. You slip out of your dress, and go into your bag for a black lace pair of cheeky panties. You wanted to be as fresh as possible. You slip the short gown over your head, and adjust your breasts in the lace cups. You could just faintly make out your piercings that you knew he loved so much. It was a little tight around your butt and thighs, but that was the look you were going for. You open the bathroom door as quietly as you can so he won’t notice you. You creep up behind him, and cover his eyes with your hands. He smirks and closes his laptop, setting it on the coffee table.

“What are you doin’?”

“Nothing, just have a little something for you. Can you stand up without opening your eyes for me?”

“Mhm.” He stands up, and lets you guide him to you so he’s facing you. “Can I open now?”

“Yes.”

“Fuck.” He whispers as his eyes pop out of his head. “I mean, wow, no fuck, you look fucking amazing.”

“Really? You like it?” He walks around you to get a good look, and comes back face to face.

“I love it. You got this for me?”

“Mhm.” You nod your head. He moves to touch you, but you back away. His face falls slightly. “I’m still not ready for, well, you know. But, I think I’m ready for these.” You take his hands in yours and kiss his fingers.

Harry is sweating. You look amazing, he can’t figure out where to look afraid he’ll miss even a second of your beauty. What he really wants to do is stick his fingers into your mouth for you to suck on, but he’s not about to scare you off. Instead, he leans in to kiss you. Your drop his hands and put yours right through his hair. His hands travel down to your hips, and his fingers press into you harshly. They travel down to the backs of your thighs so he can pick you up. You wrap your legs around his waist, and he carries you over to the bed. He stands between your legs while you unbutton his shirt. He undoes his buckle and lets his pants drop to the floor. He nearly rips the t-shirt he was wearing off. He takes your face in his hands and sticks his tongue in your mouth. You suck on it and taste the mint from the gum he had chewed after dinner.

You skootch back on the bed, bringing him with you. You feel your head hit the pillow, and his hands go to your breasts while he straddles you. You let out a small moan when his mouth travels to your neck and down to your chest. He takes the piercing in your right breast through his teeth, careful not to tangle it in the lace. He bites down on your nipple, causing you to arch up into him. He looks down at you.

“What is it?” You say, almost in a whisper.

“I can’t decide if I want to leave this on or off. You look so fuckin’ sexy, but I wanna be able to see your body at the same time.”

“Here.” You lift your back a bit, and slide the straps down, bringing your arms through, you tug the top down just a bit, letting your breasts go free. “Meet ya in the middle.” He gazes down at your large breasts, and dips his head back down.

Harry takes as much of your left breast as he can into his mouth. Licking circles around your hard nipple. He sucks on you while kneading its twin. You put an arm over your mouth to help stifle your moans, you were in a hotel after all. He pushes the bottom of your gown up to your hips, revealing your lace panties, leaving a smirk on his face.

“These new too?”

“Maybe.” You take a deep breath, and spread your legs apart for him, only a little. He scoots down a bit to get between your legs.

“(y/n), if at any moment it gets too intense, please tell me to stop. I don’t want you doing something just because you know I want it.”

“I will, Harry. Don’t worry, I want this too.” You say, leaning up on your elbows so you can look at him properly.

Harry starts by pushing your legs a letting farther apart. Next, he brings his thumb to your clit, and rubs you slowly through the lace material. You know you’re already wet, that’s a given any time he sucks on your breasts. He dips his lips down to your right thigh, kissing you closer and closer to your center. He brings his mouth to where you’re dripping, and kisses you through the material while still rubbing you with his thumb. You let out a small groan at his teasing. He stops kissing you, and slides his thumb slowly down to where his lips just were, pressing lightly into your warmth.

“Is this okay, baby?” You nod your head yes. You can feel sweat forming on your forehead. “I need you to use your words.”

“Yes, yes it’s okay.” You muster out.

“I’m going to take these off now, alright?”

“Alright.”

You lift your hips slightly, as he tugs the panties down your legs, tossing them onto the floor. He dips his head back down between your legs. What he does is familiar, and feels amazing. He flattens his tongue against your clit, and drags it up and down slowly, then making circles around it. He starts sucking and nibbling on you.

“That feels so good.” You say through greeted teeth.

He smirks, looking up at you, as his tongue moves down to your folds. He licks you all over, and sticks his tongue inside you. Your hips lift to meet him closer, your hands diving into his curls. His hand moves up to your clit, his thumb rubbing furiously on you as he licks and sucks. You feel hot all over. Is he really going to make you come already?

“Harry, Harry, I’m going to-“ He rubs you even faster. “Shit!” You come undone all over his tongue. Your chest is heaving. You make eye contact with him as he sits up to wipe his mouth. “Wh, why did you?”

“I wanted to make sure you were nice and wet f’me.”

He takes his middle finger into his mouth, and sucks on it. If you had more courage, you would have sucked on it for him. But you were nervous as fuck. This was the first time you were going to let someone up inside you in over a year. You watch him take his finger out of his mouth, and he smiles at you.

“Ready baby?”

“Mhm.”

He leans down to kiss you, taking your bottom lip into house mouth. His lips were swollen from sucking on you. You feel his hand brush over you, and you flinch. He looks at you, but you give him a nod to assure you’re alright. At first, his wet finger just lightly grazes over your slit, moving up and down. This wasn’t so bad.

“Need ya to open up for me a little more.” You take a deep breath, and spread your legs for him. You have a hand on his shoulder, and the other in his hair. His head goes into your neck as he slowly slides his middle finger into you.

At first, you squeeze completely around him, not letting him move. Your breathing is quick and you feel slightly scared at the sensation. He picks his head up a little so he can whisper into your year.

“It’s me baby, just me. I’m not gonna hurt you.” Your grip loosens around him a little as you take a deep breath. “I’m gonna move a little now.”

He slowly brings his finger in and out of you, just to loosen you up a bit. You were ridiculously tight. It was a major turn on for him, but he didn’t want to say it out loud because you were only this tight because you were afraid to let someone in. He wouldn’t be able to get more than one finger in tonight, but he was okay with that. That’s not really what it was about. You felt amazing around his finger, and it was turning him on the way you would loosen and then tighten around him. He continued his slow motions, making you more and more wet. It was starting to feel good the more you relaxed. He curled his finger up in a “comer here” motion inside you, causing you to moan.

“Ohhh my god.” You say arching your back in pleasure.

“M’gonna use my mouth at the same time now.”

“Yup, okay.” Your chest is moving up and down fast. You can’t believe how good this feels.

Harry adjust so his mouth is back down on your clit, his middle finger pumping and out of you. He’s picked up the pace, only a little. The curling motion becoming more apparent. His dick was so hard it was starting to ache, but he tried to ignore it. He just wanted to focus on you, and make you feel good. His tongue made quick flicks up and down on your clit, while his finger pumped faster. You feel your stomach start to tighten.

“Harry, Harry!” You moan his name over and over between gasps. You put your arm back over your mouth and bite down on yourself. Your other hand grasping at his hair, and yanking hard.

The vibrations from Harry’s groans fucking send you.

“I’m gonna ohhhhh ahhhhh…” You come, you come so hard. Harder than he has ever made you come before. Your face and chest is drenched with sweat, and he continues to suck on you and pump slowly while you ride out your high. Your back came fully off the mattress when you arched from the pleasure. Tears started to roll down your cheeks.

Harry slowly takes his finger from you, and sucks it clean. You’re in absolute awe of him. He truly loves the taste of you. You were sweet to him. He looks down and notices your tears. He cups your face in his hands and searches your eyes for answers.

“Shit, are, are you okay? You came pretty hard, I thought it felt good-“ You yank him by the back of his neck and crash your mouth to his, forcing your tongue inside to meet his. You put your hands on his cheeks and pull away.

“That was the greatest orgasm I have ever had.” You say with a scratchy throat. He kisses you again. “Please, take this thing off me.” You lift up so he can pull the gown all the way, revealing your entire naked body. You take his shoulders and pin him to bed, straddling him in the process.

“What, um, what are you doing?” He has woken something up inside you that has been dormant for a long time. You remember how you used to be before. You remember how sexy you used to feel in bed with a guy.

“I’m going to take this.” You say, palming him through his boxers. “And suck you dry.” You feel him twitch in your hand. “You’ve been so good, so patient tonight, letting me feel good first. But now it’s your turn. Gotta get rid of these pesky things first though.”

#take it slow #harry styles #harry styles imagine #harry styles fic #harry styles fluff #harry styles smut #harry styles x reader #harry styles y/n #harry styles smut fi #harry styles fluff fic #harry styles y/n fic #this is so long im sorry #i knew i was gonna cut it before she did him and i was considering breaking this in half #but i didnt wanna make yall wait for this moment

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charonsbudgetpsychopomp · 5 years

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My life is a fanfic

So, my reblog earlier about how my wife and I are the slow burn relationahip that got married trope got us talking, and she encouraged me to tell the story in more detail.

We met in a college mythology course. We met several other people as well, some of which we are still frienda with, some of which we drifted away from, some of which we dropped without ceremony. We actually both dated the same guy from that group at different times.

We drifted for *years,* running into each other in passing, always friendly, always able to connect like there was no time missed. But never relationship vibes.

Enter: the sweetest, dumbest cat I ever rescued.

I was at a low point of my life and trying to recover from several traumatic blows that happened in rapid succession. Like, 'ready to drop out of college and check myself in to the hospital' low. I went on a walk to clear my head and returned to several frantic voicemails from a different group of friends about a cat they found.

They knew I was doing animal rescue and didn't want to take it to the shelter. I decided I could use a pet project (heh) to keep myself out of my own head.

They brought me a senior siamese cat with no teeth who looked like she had swallowed a bowling ball. It took a week for this poor cat to come out from under my bed.

I was searching for a home for this cat and while she was sweet, she was...dumb. nothing neurological or anything. She would just up and do things like fall on her face because she forgot how to sit. The vet said this poor cat was the dumbest animal they had seen in their 30 years of business. She needed a patient adopter who knew how loud Siamese cats can get.

Enter my wife's family.

They adopt the cat and the cat fits in perfectly.

A side effect: this one-time classmate is suddenly coming over every day after work/class to just chill.

We also got into some fun adventures over the proceeding few months. Her roommate at the time was a fetish model, and I helped act as her body guard during a work event that was open to the public. We went on a week-long beach vacation and the B&B only had one bed.

At one point she flew halfway across the world for a wedding. We shared our first kiss right before she left. Like, she was driving to the airport and was already running late level of right before she left. She had no reception and had to really search to make phone calls, so we didn't really talk for two weeks. This was August.

Our next kiss wasn't for another several months.

You may think our next kiss would have been Halloween night when we stripped naked and ran around the local haunted mill with a friend, but no. We ran back to the car and got the hell out of there.

You may think that, a few months after that, as we were shopping for holiday gifts on Thanksgiving weekend for our friends and a long, drawn-out joke that ended in me suggesting we date and she said sure, but no. That wasn't even when we realized we were dating.

It was an accidental brief brushing of our lips in Wal-Mart when she went to playfully kiss my cheek at the same time I noticed the pumpkin spice bagels and turned my head to stare at them. We both pretend like it didn't happen for months.

The next intentional kiss was almost a year after our trip to the beach. Even then, we were in. this weird, grey, "I don't know if this is a relationship or we're just good pals" phase. This was in April.

You may think it was when she picked me up from the airport when I came back from a cruise after getting dozens of "I miss you" texts while I had my phone off to avoid international roaming charges, and you would be wrong. I had decides to sleep on a screen porch in a thunderstorm on the last day of the cruise. I had never felt more alive, but I was beyond sleep-deprived. I drank several cups of coffee, bought more incense than reasonable at the local metaphysical shop, and passed out when we got back to the car.

It was a week or so after that, because we felt like it.

Queue a few more months of obliviousness and lack of willingness to commit to our own feelings.

One of our close friend's father committed suicide that October. I was the first person to come help the family. A different friend stayed with them for a week. I went over as much as I could. After the funeral, said friend and I came back to my house and just held each other and cried. We talked about how helpless we felt and how much we wanted something to take our minds off everything. As consenting adults, we could both see where this was headed.

And I just...stopped. It was in the middle of mourning I realized I was in love with my now-wife, and distraction sex wasn't going to help me in any direction.

Anxiety brain explained all of this out loud before I could stop myself. My friend was happy for me, thankfully, and shortly thereafter realized she was in love with the woman in her life ahe had the same type of relationship I had with my now-wife.

(They also got married in the end.)

We dated for five years before I wound up proposing to her over a Buzzfeed quiz result. On Valentine's Day. We had dinosaur chicken nuggets for dinner. Yes, really. I'd picked out the ring the previous November and was waiting for the right moment.

We got married in our front yard. My favorite uncle got ordained to marry us. My parents, who divorced on bad terms, were cordial and got on like friends. My sister brought her little dog, who almost stole the show. We wrote our own vows and cooked all the food and handled all the decorations ourselves.

(Side note: two days before the wedding our then-roommate came home to find me almost asleep over an indoor grill.)

Less than a month later we flew across the country so she could meet the rest of my family. I wanted so badly for her to fall in love with the Pacific Northwest, and she did. She told me so on the 4th of July while a bunch of young children lit barely-legal fireworks on the top of an empty oil drum. I felt two parts of my heart merging to the sound of the miniature rockets igniting.

We moved two weeks after we got home, fearing our roommate's sudden mood changes and aggression. We left with an air mattress, our two cats, some clothes, and some absolutely irreplaceable posessions. We did wind up getting most of our stuff back, but there were two weeks where all we had was each other and the cats. We ate on paper plates and washed the same two cups over and over. My mother bought us two oversized bean bag chairs so we didn't have to sit on the floor.

We told stories until we fell asleep every night.

About six months after our wedding, the whole "I married my best friend" thing hit for real. It was wonderful but overwhelming.

It's been a little over two years since we've gotten married, and we've definitely ticked several other trope boxes: loving through crisis, chronic illness, death in the family, family disownment and developing a chosen family, unemployment, to name a few.

I guess the ultimate point here is your life is a hell of a story, but underatanding what type it is isn't something you can understand while you're going through it.

And no matter how impossible it seems, sometimes all it takes to get your life on the best possible track is a vet-certified Really Dumb Cat.

#styx rants #story time #life story #married life #the course of true love never did run smooth #cat rescue #you cant make this up

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kazmorosov · 6 years

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|| bill skarsgard, cismale, he/him || ( kazaran morozov ) is a ( 25 ) year old ( senior ) at rockport university studying ( business + literature [TA] ). people say they are ( ardent ) but also ( stoic ), and remind others of ( coffee rings on crisp paper, losing their sense of reality, hushed arguments ). bet they sure didn’t expect anyone to know about ( his plagiarizing to succeed and honor his terminally ill mother he killed ) but someone does, and ( kaz ) better cooperate if they plan to keep their lives. || james, 20, EST ||

hi i’m so sorry this took a long ass time to put out but im herE lmao here’s my baby

tw; murder, addiction/substance abuse, abuse mentions,

gen. info:

full name: kazaran nikolai morozov

nickname(s): kaz

b.o.d.: december 14th

label(s): the escapist, the academic, the fallen, the philanthropist, etc.

height: 6′4″

hometown: bangor, maine

sexuality: str...aigh...t ? question mark ?

biography:

born to a self-made businessman and a philanthropist with a penchant for odd names

his father’s a russian who moved to the u.s. in his childhood who still has many...unique, ties, to the country though none of those are important

his business involves military equipment and he works closely with the u.s.’s military (ahsdfghk conspiracies ?)

and his mother was a plain jane (literally--her name was jane) from a family of politicians; his uncle’s a senator

kaz is the eldest out of seven children (christ) and yes all of their names are just as excessive as ‘kazaran’

grew up with the pressure of the ‘golden child’ title; kaz had to be perfect at everything he did, from his grades to after school activities to manners and presentment

was always expected to follow in his father’s footsteps and like ?? partner with him once he was old enough?

which is fine and grand except kaz had never given a shit about his father’s business; his real passion had always been for the arts, particularly literature and even more particularly poetry

he found that the arts was probably the most...free, kaz could get, without actively rebelling against his father

b/c god . . . his father is a force to be reckon’d w/

very strict man, likes to be in control constantly, not the...best, emotionally towards his family. or verbally. sometimes physically. y’know.

this really only...amplified, kaz’s perfectionist attitude. it was mostly out of fear of repercussions than much else

kaz has, however, always loved his mother.

jane is the opposite of their father, a woman who loves the world and everybody in it with this...heart of gold, and best intentions in mind

the only problem was that she was horribly submissive to her husband

aNYWAys okay, kaz grew up fairly unscathed but only because he was so...conformist, y’know?

loves his siblings and would die for them, but god--he’d have to side with his father just for his own sake, which definitely strained his relationship with a few of ‘em

AnywAys again; was pretty well-known in his high school

for being like, intimidatingly tall but also was fairly popular? star of the track team, student gov president, in DECA or whatever.

went to rockport just because it wasn’t...too far from home, and partially because he wasn’t allowed to go out of state.

and he was fine w/ it, man

his mother got sick his freshmen year, however, it wasn’t...horrible, at first

it was concerning, yes, but the doctors said she was going to be fine

jane was pretty...adamant about not letting her condition effect her children, too, so she acted as if she was fine

kaz, being a dumbass, was like alright fine this is fine and went on w/ life

sophomore year he met his soulmate; a future veterinarian named freya

n i mean he just...fell for her immediately, y’know ?? n ig she felt similar enough b/c they started dating immediately

it was really...good, for him; especially as his mother’s heath had suddenly taken a turn for the worst

kaz wound up taking two years off of school to care for his mother; his father was gone more often than not, and he felt as if his younger siblings shouldn’t have been burdened with the task

and well...jane never got better, only worse

it was at the point where the doctors had sent her home, knowing that nothing else could be done--she was confined to her bed, and miserable. in pain, really.

one...day, as kaz was tending to jane, she broke down. i mean, just, a full on emotional breakdown, a complete episode, begging him to just...put her out of her misery.

and, god, kaz had never disobeyed his parents (minus his studies in literature but y’knw what. . . not important rn) but that was so ?? morally ?? conflicting ??

they cried together for a long time until y’know. deciding what to do.

as soon as she had fallen asleep, kaz put a pillow to her.

he was never...caught, tho that may have involved some bribery on his father’s end who knows

the day after the funeral, kaz proposed to freya and she agreed.

and it really should’ve been fine if kaz’s mental health didn’t rapidly deteriorate like...he was not handling it well

freya helped, yes, but she could only do so much

turned to drugs, particularly painkillers after a minor car crash and just...a mix of shit, y’know.

probably stole drugs from his fiance’s job tbh

got on antidepressants, which only worsened his shit b/c he started ?? occasionally hallucinating his dead mother ??

his creativity had also just. shat on itself. he couldn’t write, no matter how hard he tried

his mother had really wanted him to pursue his dreams, and god, he was too far in his degree to drop literature

so he started....plagiarizing, his works, b/c kaz is a whole ass idiot. but he hasn’t gotten caught yet, somehow

his fiance thought the cruise program would be a great way for kaz to possibly, recover, since she could see how bad he was doing so he weNt because of her

also yes at this point he had gone back to school; had even gotten a TA position because he used to be...one of the best in his class, y’know ?

anyways yeah im paraphrasing this all horribly but idc u get the point

drug addict, mercy-killed his mother, loves his fiancee, tortured soul, y’know all that

personality:

likes to pretend he’s much calmer than he actually is, y’know

likes the whole aloof and distant thing b/c it’s already so easy for him to be intimidating

he can b a lil snarky, a lil sarcastic, but he’s overall always been really well meaning?

can be extremely passionate about his hobbies, or his future wife, or really...anything he mildly likes, tho, y’know?

gOD is he always feeling so guilty, tho, it really weighs him down

but he’s also like...usually high, sometimes u can tell but more often than not u can’t ??

because he’s obsessed w/ seeming okay. and doing okay. and being that average dude next door, y’know?

he wants to be normal, to feel normal, but he’s got this wave of emotions crashing into his chest and he’s in sm pa i n constantly

like he’s got major anxiety but u won’t know unless u catch him in midst of a panic attack and like he’d rather die than somebody see that

probably journals as a way 2 like...cope, and keep himself calm

uuhh he’s like lowkey a huge softie. will cry at sad movies and won’t care tht he’s crying about it

takes teaching rly seriously but he’s also always concerned somebody’s going to figure out that he’s just. a fraud.

smart, with dumbass energy

like he just...sometimes doesn’t think ??

loves his fiancee a whole bunch but this distance thing is...sm harder than he thought it would be. she’s his anchor and he’s just ?? floating aimlessly now

but yeah he’s always acting like he’s okay, like he’s gucci.

uuuhhhh god i dont know what else to say tbh ?? he’s just. a mans. being a mans.

probably doesn’t sleep super often b/c not only is he a TA, but he’s got some mf nightmares man

wanted connections:

got a girl best friend but he needs a...dude best friend?

other friends in general, honestly

professors he’s got some sort of relationship with b/c he’s working for penelope rn

a flirty unrequited thing, where they keep tryn but kaz is like nO i am TAKEN look at this photo of my beAUTIFUL FIANCEE

ppl pissed at him for the grades he’s given them LMAO

people...concerned? for him?

bad mf influences who are like LET’S GET FUCKED UP

a dealer y’know. somebody on the ship who can give him what he wants which is a Lot

uuh let’s brainstorm together, bb

like srsly just. gimme a like, i’ll pop into ur dms w/ my messy tall son and be like let’s fuck him up !

#rockportintro #sorry this is also . . . lame

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putabourqueinit · 6 years

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Fear of failure or failure because of fear.

It has taken me a really long time to get my blog up and running. There are so many things I have to say, but really who cares what I have to say? Are blogs the old yesterday and podcast the new today? I somehow found myself getting a podcast before starting my blog and that was by pure happenstance. I started writing on Facebook. It isn’t the best platform to delve deep into your soul and share stories, although I do. It is great for immediate gratification or for immediate criticism, therefore it taught me a lot about self awareness of what I wanted my words to represent. If I was going to have a “following” per se what is it I want them to know or feel? How far will I go with sharing-- just a little, everything, somewhere in the middle? Or do I just share the good stuff and leave the rest to others imagination? I decided to be an open book at least when it comes to me and my life.

I am for now putting fear in a corner and taking a chance my words will be worth reading.

I realized recently for the most part I haven’t truly lived in fear. I would say most things came easy to me naturally. That is until fear found me. I remember when I was in preschool, my teacher published a book on phonics. She chose me to go with her on her tour and she would demonstrate with me. I felt like the special one, but I was 6 or so and I had no idea what this meant on an academic level. I ended up being an under achiever in academics from then on. I did what I needed to do to pass, but honestly I was not pushed in this area and therefore apathy set in. I’m not saying it was my moms fault- she was a single mom and did the best she could, but somewhere in me I feel if I would have met the right teacher or found the perfect class to inspire me I could have been a much better student and loved learning as I do now.

Flip-flop

I found gymnastics early on. I was in dancing with all the other 4, 5, 6 year olds for about 3 years, Eventually it became clear I excelled in tumbling. My mom enrolled me in a gymnastics class. I moved up the ranks pretty quickly. I qualified for meets locally and state wide. My first memory of my first meet was when I was about 6. My father adored me, but he adored drinking and gambling just a tad more. I have a vivid image of me being in my gymnastics uniform with piggy tails and him crouching down on one knee and telling me the reason he would not be attending my first meet. He had a golf tournament and because it was my first meet he knew I wouldn’t place. Well of course I placed first and my dad was not sitting in the bleachers to cheer me on. It took me a long time to process this and probably didn’t until my 30′s how disappointed I really was.

I went on to become the youngest of our team to qualify for State. Beam was my favorite- I was fearless on the beam. At 7 years old gymnastics consumed my life. It was my every afternoon while others were running around the neighborhood splashing through muddy ditches. It was my “aw man, I just want to stay home and watch The Brady Bunch” instead of going to practice. Of course I loved it when I got there and it became my identity. My family and friends would always make me do tricks. “Leslie do this....Leslie do that.” I was continuously on my hands...flip flopping my way through life.

Stepping into the Unkown

Going into 7th grade I found....BOYS! I was asked to try out for cheerleader. I knew this was impossible because the #1 rule was if you were on the team you were forbidden to do another sport. I also practiced everyday and meets were on weekends. I would hear my friends talk about the parties they were going to and I was jealous. I decided to try out for cheerleader knowing this was taboo. I was conflicted as what to do if I made it, but thought I would never know if I didn’t try. I was so nervous my coach would find out and not understand that I wasn’t for sure on being a cheerleader. I made it. He found out. He called me into his office and we had a heart to heart. I said I didn’t know what to do. He said “well you have to choose.” I cried my eyes out and said “I’m going to go be a kid.” I still wonder where that road would have taken me if I stayed, but I never regretted that decision. Ever.

So now I was a cheerleader and found all that comes with it- friends, popularity etc. I was petite and had all the athletic qualities it entailed. My senior year I was chosen at cheerleading camp as an “All Star” and was eligible to march in the London New Years Day Parade. My mom and I went to London and joined hundreds of other cheerleaders from America. It was pretty great to represent my country on this platform. I figured that was the end of my cheerleading days. I didn’t have aspiration or influence to try out for college. I went to USL (my hometown University) and did not try out for cheerleader. I still don’t know why. I think fear crept in a bit and also I found a new love- Delta Delta Delta. I was emerged into the social aspect of college life and thrived. I got a call summer before my freshmen year from the USL cheerleading coach that they wanted me to be a part of the squad. I had to follow protocol and try out. I made it. I was now a college cheerleader. I cheered for the Ragin Cajuns and it was one of the best experiences of my life.

To Be or Not To Be

I checked off that chapter of my life and moved to Hollywood on a whim after I graduated. My mom asked a question over adult beverages on a cruise to my brother and myself:

‘If you could be anything in the world what would you want to be?” My brother had it figured out, because he was a wake boarding champ and wanted to go to Colorado to discover snowboarding. My mom drove him there. I said I wanted to be and actress...softly under my breath. I had been watching movies of Audrey Hepburn and Natalie Wood and I had some desire to do what they did. My mom took me to Hollywood and 2 weeks after our trip I drove my self to my new home in Los Angeles.

My first job was a production assistant on the Sony Lot. The Sony Lot is a place where old movies were made and when you walked onto it you could feel movie magic. I was essentially a gopher and would deliver papers around. At one point while making my rounds a higher upper asked me to sit down and give him the 3 minute rundown of who I was. I was shocked that he had taken notice and more befuddled as to what to say. I was just weeks into my ‘Hollywood” experience. I said “ I am from Louisiana. I just moved here and I think I want to be an actress.” He said “Take some classes and come back to see me.” I never went back to see him unfortunately. I did take many classes. I studies this craft like it was my bible. I worked at restaurants and wore awful palm tree ties to make sure I could afford headshots and all the expensive things required to pursue, pursue, pursue. I auditioned my butt off and booked some jobs which kept my juices flowing. I ran around Los Angeles for years chasing the dream, Then it hit me...at an audition with the camera pointed at me and the red light lit--I couldn’t do it. I didn’t have that component of me to get the job. The camera scared me. I was filled with fear. I quit immediately and there went my dream on a dime. My dime. So many of my dimes down the drain. My first round with failure.

Taking Failure by the Horns

It wasn’t a good feeling to realize this. I became a fitness trainer in Los Angeles and although it wasn’t my career of choice it was easy and again came to me effortless. I had high profile clients and made a shit load of money. I loved my job and my clients became my best friends who were paying me. I did this for 13 years.

I dabbled in writing. I observed a lot and wrote about what I saw. People tuned in and cheered me on to write more. I decided to attempt to hone this skill and take a writing class. I was awful and I wanted to literally throw up every time I had to write something. I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t find the words. Where were they? I just froze full of fear and cried literally in class. I couldn’t find the way to be me. The me I wanted to be. So I quit. Round two with failure.

Mommying is Fun, but what else....

I fell in love and this love founded the birth of my two kids Amélie and Hud. I am not a perfect mother nor do I want to be. We have a really fun life the 4 of us--full of adventures and endless discoveries. I decided to write about us on Facebook. Just sorta put it all out there and not care what people thought. It was liberating to be real and be true to myself. I became involved in politics in the most bizarre way and I tend to voice my opinions often. I get a lot of slack and I am actually ok with it. I can’t imagine censoring my thoughts for praise and I just want to be as genuine as I can be.

For the Love of God-- Fearless

Now I am here-right here in this moment. And guess what.... I feel fearless.

I was asked a question once in an interview--”What do you say to yourself when you doubt yourself?” My answer was “I don’t say anything. I open my computer and let the words talk for me.”

What do you do when you are full of fear or in doubt?

#fear failure writer gymnastics cheerleader belief chances

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gutterdreams · 7 years

Text

run away [b. hargrove head canon]

“Let’s just leave.”

Billy was manic.

Before he said a word, you could see the hyper feeling dilated in his eyes.

His hands were shaking eagerly at his sides

His usually planted feet, bouncing.

The panicked knock at your door was alarming

It was only 10:10 PM.

Mom in the kitchen, drying dishes.

Dad upstairs in the shower.

You opened it and stared stunned at the anxious Billy on your porch.

He was always high strung, but this was a new level of stress that he had never worn around you.

“Let’s go.” He gasped again and reached out for your hand.

You were completely caught off guard.

“Go?” What was he talking about?

He skipped after lunch today, so the last time you saw him, he took a bite out of your apple and took off with Tommy.

He kissed you

Teased you for listening to Bob Dylan on your Walkman

Then left.

Everything seemed fine.

He was going to go hotbox in the Camaro with his buddy.

Now he seemed totally fucked up.

“Go where?“

You two snuck out before.

It was generally more arranged.

At school Billy would tell you what time he would come over by, park a block away, and you would tip toe out of your house in the dark.

It was fun.

This did not feel fun.

"Go go.” Billy took your wrist, but you stepped over the threshold on your own and shut the door behind you.

It occured to you then that he wasn’t just talking about parking in the woods or going for an impromptu date to the new BBQ restaurant.

He meant ditch Hawkins

He talked about it all the time, but it was passive

He talked about it the same way you talked about being a world famous anything

It was just dream-talk on rainy Sundays.

“What’s going on?"

Your hand left his and you leaned against your shut front door, hugging yourself to keep warm.

"I got a bag in the car. Go get some of your shit. We can go.”

His breathing was everywhere, jagged.

His eyes open on a dedicated buzz.

It hit you then how serious this was.

He didn’t just want to blow some steam off

Cruise around at high speeds

He had a bag packed.

He wanted to leave.

“What happened?"

If you were going with him, it wouldn’t be without some back story.

"I’m just done. This town is bullshit and I’m getting out.” He jogged down the three steps of your porch and threw his arms under his leather jacket around.

He turned around, but only to look you up and down.

Messy hair to bare feet.

“You have to come with me.” He hissed through the darkness.

“Billy, I…I…can’t…” You looked down at the wood porch beneath your feet and then back up at him.

Both of your faces matched with their expressions of disbelief.

“You said you would.” He sounded angry, like he saw you as a liar all of the sudden.

“I said we could go away for the summer and figure things out. We have to finish senior year.”

Were you being unreasonable?

He threw his head to the side as if you were.

“What happened? Why do we have to leave right now?” You took each step of the porch slowly and hugged yourself at the bottom one.

For some reason, it was easy to be the calm one when he was this worked up.

You didn’t freak out.

You stayed level even if internally you are on edge.

“My fucking dad - ”

It shouldn’t have been news to you.

When Billy was this crazed, Neil was always the one to trigger it.

“He has been on my ass all week and I’m done. I don’t need him telling me where to go, what to do, to watch Max, to clean his fucking house - "

Billy left out the berating, the insults, the shoving, the humiliation.

He wanted to appear tough and together.

Cool guys don’t get bullied by their parents.

Cool guys have cool dads who they do cool stuff with.

"Do you want to crash here tonight?”

You offered, but Billy wasn’t listening.

He had one hand in his jacket pocket, shaking his keys around.

His other hand was flipping the carton of cigarettes open then close in his other pocket.

“Or this weekend? Why don’t we drive to Fort Wayne or something for the weekend?” You had a bunch of birthdays money.

You could find a cheap motel.

Just get away for a little bit.

“I can’t believe you won’t leave with me!” Billy ignored your suggestion and picked a fight.

He held out his jacket and scoffed in your face.

As if you were the person in his life causing him distress.

“Billy?” In return, you looked at him like he was nuts.

You climbed onto your feet and followed him as he paced towards his beloved car.

“I can’t pack up my stuff and leave because your dad is a dick! I have a biology quiz tomorrow.”

“You would come with me if you wanted to.” He grumbled and stomped to his side of the car.

“I do want to!” You threw your arms above your head, but you saw into his backseat then and there.

There was a duffel bag.

There was a pile of cassette tapes.

There was a blanket.

He wasn’t just upset.

He was serious.

“Billy…” With your heart breaking, you whispered his name.

Your eyes didn’t leave the backseat.

“Please, don’t go…” “I can’t run away with you…” “Please, come inside. We could talk.”

“I’m leaving. I’m done."

Billy had already screamed those words at his dad. He couldn’t go back now with his tail between his legs.

Billy neglected to share with you how rough things could be between him and his dad.

He never told you how he beat his mother.

One time so bad that she miscarried her pregnancy.

A baby brother that Billy decided would be a Rob or Richie.

One time Billy watched from the back seat as he screamed at her until she took off her seatbelt and jumped out of the moving car.

He never told you those stories.

He said they got divorced because she met somebody else.

Which was true.

He said she moved to New Mexico which was also true.

He said she lost her job so he had to live with his dad.

Which was kind of true.

She gave up being a receptionist to be a homemaker for her new husband, an accountant that Billy couldn’t get along with if he was paid to.

Also Neil took Billy with him to spite his ex.

Billy kept it all to himself and just told you that he hated his old man.

"Can you come inside? Please…”

He didn’t budge.

He was about to light up a smoke.

“I can’t change your mind if you want to leave, but give me a proper goodbye…"

Your voice was linen and your eyes were pleading.

He gave up, let go of his keys and cigarettes, and walked back around the car.

You took his hand and pulled him in.

You kissed him the way he usually kissed you.

Effortlessly forceful.

Needy and dominant.

Once you two were inside, you went to your bedroom.

Passionately, you made out with his hands everywhere.

Once he finished, pulling out onto your stomach, you cleaned up and laid in the dark together.

He told you about his mom finally.

The truth about his upbringing.

Mid-senrence he fell asleep.

You stayed awake, playing with his hair as he used your breasts as a pillow.

When the sun woke him up, you were right there with blood shot eyes.

You were too scared he wouldn’t be there when you woke up otherwise.

"Are you coming to school today?"

Billy was groaning and rubbing sleep from his eyes before he tossed his legs over the side of the bed.

There was silence.

You didn’t know what he was going to say.

"Yeah…maybe, we could get breakfast here.” He suggested while pulling his white shirt from the night before overhead.

“I’ll bring you something to the car.”

You couldn’t let your parents know he stayed over.

You could bring him a granola bar and bacon though as well as pack him a lunch.

Billy pushed open your window, his exit door, and then shuffled into his pants.

“Hey, were you serious about getting away this weekend?” He came closer to you as he fumbled with the fly of his tight jeans.

“Absolutely.” Kissing him on the lips and then the tip of his nose, you agreed.

He needed to get away.

#billy hargrove fic #billy hargrove #billy hargrove headcanon #billy hargrove head canon #billy hargrove meme #billy hargrove au #billy hargrove stranger things #dacre montgomery stranger things #dacre montgomery imagine #billy hargrove imagine #billy hargrove x reader

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stevedonnellyfaith-blog · 5 years

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Under Contract (Post 100) 8-5-15

My VA loan came through after being bureaucratically stymied for what seemed like forever. I waited patiently and looked at houses with a realtor that my brother Sean had recommended. My dad had picked my banker. Both are nice people; Cindy, our realtor, is a member of a Catholic parish in Cuyahoga Falls called IHM. My life seems to balance that way.

Looking at houses was a balancing act as well. It seemed silly to be looking for a four bedroom house at a point in my life when I feel I should be jettisoning my attached material possessions rather than collecting more. It makes sense on one level; it is not like I can move into a senior community as long as Stephen Jr. lives with me … well, at least not for another 25 years. I received lots of advice concerning my house choice, a subject to which I remain largely ambivalent although I do have a strong preference not to live in a yurt.

Stephen’s needs were a consideration in where I was shopping for property. It looked like Kent, Ohio was one community of my three targeted locals that fit his needs the best. It is a college town with plenty to do and public transportation. On the other hand, Streetsboro was a good choice for Natalie and Nick. A Streetsboro house would mean that Natalie would not have to change schools and it is pretty close to where Nicholas starts college in a couple of weeks. My father lobbied heavily for Streetsboro. Abby reserved a personal veto for anything in the town of Ravenna, which was the closest to my work and seemed to present the best value with regard to pricing. She argued that my dad-bod would not look presentable in the white muscle shirt that seemed to be mandatory for shirt wearing men in Ravenna Township. I got uppity for a while, but eventually I realized that I really didn’t care enough to pipe my part of the tune in a duet of discord. I preferred to let Jesus decide.

The process itself had become a barefoot marathon through a cactus desert. Once the VA finally approved my loan, immediately, for some unexplained reason, the balance in my checking account began to hemorrhage. My cash flow seemed fine for a house purchase with the salary I now make and my expected expenses, but there was no way that I was going to buy a house without understanding where my money was leaking to. I understood that I had made several recent weekend trips that were not freebees, but my dad was only charging me rent in Dairy Queen Dilly Bars so that ought not to have been a problem. Despite my predicament, I went ahead and scheduled a last look through the properties that most interested me (mostly in Ravenna,) two in Kent on waterfront properties and a couple in Streetsboro, a town where the worthwhile buys tend to disappear like vapor almost as soon as they appear on the market. Out of the ten properties I requested to view, only three made the docket for the Tuesday afternoon tour-de-force on which Nick and my brother Sean offered to accompany me.

The property that most interested me was a Ravenna home that was priced really low because of some apparent damage that didn’t seem to amount to a hill of beans. Because my bank account had suddenly turned into angel food cake, a value property seemed the most sensible choice. Neither of the waterfront properties had made the list anyway, so I had already settled on continuing my life as a landlubber. I did have fantasies about canoeing myself back into shape while humming the theme from Hawaii Five-O, but my aquatic dream had been scuttled in untimely fashion by someone else’s similar nautical interest.

One Streetsboro property made the list as well, but it was located in a development that I had previously scoured clean without finding anything suitable. Still I always tried to look at any Streetsboro properties that showed up on the three realty search engines that Sean had steered me towards. I expected 1175 Delaware Trail to be another dud, because it had stayed on the market for a week and a half, something that does not happen with desirable Streetsboro homes. Nevertheless, I had high hopes for the Ravenna property on Bent Oak Trail, with its strange support braces in its basement.

Meeting the realtor’s assistant, Dee, at the first property I found that it needed quite a bit more work than I was willing to commit Nicholas to accomplishing so I ruled it out immediately. On Home Hunters International and all the other house search shows that my Dad binge watches when Dancing With The Stars is out of season, the couple never seems to like the first house much so I was unconcerned. I knew that the next house was the one I wanted anyway. It had everything that I thought we needed plus a low price with only the basement issue that I could let the house inspector tell me more about. I pulled out of the first driveway with a feeling of confidence.

As I cruised triumphantly into the driveway of the Bent Oak Trail property that I had been thinking about for weeks, I was immediately perplexed. There was no coy pond. I thought I remembered that the property had one of those over-sized outdoor fish tanks that end up getting all mucked up from the overhanging trees, but I couldn’t see a “water feature” as I approached the front door. Sean and Nick met me at the entry where Dee was fiddling with the combo lock on the door knob. They had missed the first property, but I explained that it wasn’t a viable property. I asked Nicholas about the missing pond as I believed that he had previously looked at the basement damage house with Abby on a trip when I was tied up at work. He explained to me that I was thinking of a different property just as Dee swung the door wide and opened the book to the second chapter of my disappointment. This address on Bent Oak was a property that I had looked at before but it was not a very interesting one to me. It was an obvious foreclosure where even the kitchen stove had been removed – another fixer upper that I had no energy or funds for repairing.

Strike two left me in a fog. I hadn’t seen anything viable and we were headed towards a neighborhood where the predominate decorating style seemed to be a last pocket or resistance by a misguided clan of people who were way too nostalgic for the set of the original Brady Bunch. My “original” caveat is in place because I can no longer keep track of which shows have not been recycled and updated by lazy screenwriters to populate an increasingly pregnant channel line-up over bloated with specialty programming including unnecessary channels auctioning jewelry and kitchen gadgets. I remain hopeful but not terribly optimistic that some charitable soul has bought the rights to Gomer Pyle USMC and Green Acres with the express purpose of preventing the victimization of a modern television audience with rehashed subject matter that was vapid the first time and for which there is positively no need to redecorate with new window-dressing.

So my expectations were pretty low for 1175 Delaware Trail; I was hoping for Petticoat Junction, but more than expected Sanford and Son or Chico and the Man (I really watched a lot of bad television growing up.) The house looked pretty small from my caboose position in our four car caravan. It seemed like we were headed towards another underwhelming experience. Dee opened the door and I entered with my hackles at the cringe-ready, and discovered that everything was very good. The house seemed to be well-kept with an adequate place to stash all the kids and dogs. It was the first good happenstance with regard to my house search in several days. The experience totally confused me. My brain now had only half a migraine. I had been praying for a clear choice and my menu had now been limited to one entrée in a location heavily favored my youngest daughter and her grandparents.

I decided to go to Adoration a day early to contemplate the purchase and my financial dilemma. Stephen, Nick, Natalie and I went the next night, a Thursday. As I relayed last week, I felt very peaceful about making the purchase even though the money issue remained unsolved. Natalie’s prayerful impression was also that the Delaware Trail residence would be a good house for us even though she had never seen it herself. So I trusted in God and told Cyndi, my realtor, that night that I wanted to make an offer on the house. She confirmed that her feeling also was that it was the right house for our family. She would prepare the paperwork for me to sign the following afternoon.

Nicholas called me the next morning early as I sat at my desk working on a PowerPoint presentation that I planned on inflicting on some unsuspecting people the following week. He had been reviewing our bank account and had discovered that my last two paychecks had not been direct deposited into our account, a likely root cause of my mysteriously plunging net worth. We investigated and discovered that my direct deposit had somehow inadvertently been turned off, and my payroll department apologetically advised me that they had unknowingly issued me live checks instead of deposit slips. Nicholas located the unopened envelopes and made an immediate deposit with a handy application on his cell phone. So my prayers were all answered neatly in an organized fashion that resembled cards being shuffled and bridged. I had been tested and apparently passed most probably because this realty search was purely for a nice place for our family rather than for a status symbol – I remember dancing to that cacophonous other song back in my so-called other life.

Because this process seems to be being steered with a hand other than mine on the rudder, I don’t have much worry about whether this is an exercise in materialism. As far as I can tell, Jesus has approved of what I am doing, or my path would have been blocked not bumpy. After I was under contract, one of the waterfront properties in Kent that I had originally preferred popped back up on my search engine. I chuckled about its sudden reappearance. Somebody else’s contract had been created and dissolved in a convenient way that had placed me in Streetsboro where I can enjoy a close relationship with my parents, two siblings and three nieces. I guess I didn’t get brought back across the country to see everyone just on the weekends. Figure that.

#God #Jesus #The Holy Spirit #grace #hope #faith #love #IHM #family #choices #Eucharistic Adoration #prayers #materialism

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femmescripter · 7 years

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Neighbor Types of the Voltron Team Headcannon

•Shiro = The flirty/crazy twenty-something. By chance Shiro moved to a housing complex where a lot of people his age lived. He moved to this area mainly because it was close to the fitness center where he worked as a self defense teacher. One particular neighbor Shiro has is very flirty twenty-something year old woman. Almost every day she would use various tactics to convince Shiro to go out on a date with her, however he would often make up excuses not to go. Finally he let her down in as nice a way as he could. But even though he was a gentleman about it the rejection still made the woman snap and she quickly went from flirty to cray-cray. She sent Shiro stalker-ish letters on a daily basis for a week until she finally went too far and broke into his house with a knife to carve her name into his chest! Luckily though Shiro’s service dog Angelique the Pomeranian chomped on the wench’s leg and bit the hell out of her. Shiro then called the police and the raving woman was carted off.

•Pidge = The young at heart elderly couple. It’s a known fact that Pidge doesn’t like hanging around those of her generation, not counting her friends. So she decided to move to an apartment complex that consisted primarily of senior aged residents. Pidge actually got a long with a lot of her older neighbors and often helped them set up their Internet modems or fix their electronics. But her favorite neighbors was a tech savvy, oldie but goodie couple. Pidge often hangs out with them and plays multiplayer games with them or attend technology conventions together. Sadly though Pidge had to move to another state in order to apply to work at a tech firm. Her young at heart neighbors understood and actually made a surprising reveal to Pidge; their daughter is an executive at the firm Pidge is going to work at. So they tell her all about Pidge’s work and the daughter gladly accepts Pidge as an employee. Pidge remained close friends with the parents of her new boss, and even attended their funerals when they died.

•Allura = The social climbing opportunist. Because she is from a rich family, many people try to become friends with Allura for their own personal gain. It’s not uncommon for people to try and borrow money from her or attempt to freeload in her house. But Allura always turns them down, being a great deal more streetwise than folks give her credit for. After she moved to a new town she tried to keep a low profile so that no one knows her esteemed background. But this one neighbor did, and he was the worst kind of person she could ever deal with. He was a social climbing opportunist pushing forty, which meant he was at the end of his youth and thus couldn’t charm women like he used to. Even teenage girls were now looking at him with disinterest. So when he learned he was living next to a wealthy heiress he thought he hit the jackpot. He tried many methods to squeeze himself into Allura’s inner circle. Even going as far as to blackmail her for money. But rather than give into his demands Allura decided to look into the man’s background and learned that he jumped bail for fraud, extortion and embezzlement. Needless to say Allura didn’t have to deal with that annoying opportunist anymore after an anonymous call to the police.

•Hunk = The nice diverse family. There’s just something about Hunk that just draws people towards him. Maybe it’s his warm, nurturing personality. Or maybe it’s his delicious baked goods. It could even be both of them. Either way neighbors can’t help but visit Hunk’s house. One bunch of neighbors that he enjoyed having was this small blended family. What made them so unique was that they were all from different nationalities. The mother was American, the father was Chinese, their adopted oldest daughter was Greek and their adopted youngest son was Australian. Given that he was interested in various cultures Hunk enjoyed chatting with the family and asking about their homelands. He also liked tasting their different native foods. It was common place for the neighbors to exchange stories and recipes on a regular basis. And whenever any of them dealt with ignorant and or flat out racist idiots they always had each other’s back. Meeting his blended family neighbors has even given Hunk the opportunity to travel as they invite him to special festivals that occur in Europe, Asia, Australia and hip locations in America. Hunk can honestly say that when it comes to his neighbors he hit the jackpot.

•Coran = The childhood crush/friend. Growing up as a teenager Coran actually went through a rebellious stage. Many people would be surprised given how clean cut and well mannered he is, but in the past Coran was a cursing, buzz-cut, jagged crop top and spiked boot wearing punk. And his edgy phase didn’t end at having the look. He walked the walk and talked the talk. Coran would break store windows, key cars and blared loud music as he cruised down the road in his old man’s car. But he didn’t wreak havoc on his own. He also had an accomplice; a pretty bad girl who’s cuteness masked just how bad to the bone she was. Along with being his fellow rebel the girl was also Coran’s friend and his first, big crush. They got into all sorts of trouble together until her parents decided that she needed a change of scenery to hopefully purge the rebellion out of her. So the pretty bad girl moved away and all Coran could do was give her his favorite spiked wristband as a memento and she gave him her skull ring. But even as they bid goodbye Coran never told her how he felt. Years later, when Coran has grown up to be a polite gentleman, he moves into his new house and literally runs into one of his neighbors. And it turned out to be his old rebel friend and crush who likewise has matured into a respectable lady. Further more she was 100% single. After that fateful encounter Coran finally expressed the feelings he didn’t say years before and the pair went out on a date. And many more dates came after that.

•Lance = The retired Hollywood star. As much as Lance is a live for the moment type of person he also respects the past. Especially past movies and their actors, for he finds them to be very inspirational. One actor that was particularly inspiring to Lance was a versatile method actor who has played roles from action to dramatic to comedic. He has all of his movies in his DVD collection and also posters of the actor dressed as the various characters he played as. And when Lance learned that he disappeared and was presumed dead after a fire at the studio he worked with five years ago he was pretty sad. He really hoped that he was still alive and that he could get his autography. Then one day, after Lance moved into his college dorm, he realized that an older college student seemed odd. He was a theater major and lived in Lance’s dorm but there was more to him than that. Whenever he would work out the acting exercises their drama teacher gave he would perform like a pro. So much so that he could give the actual teacher lesson. Though it was extraordinary Lance didn’t think much more about it. That was until he watched a scene of his favorite late actor from one of his movies on his cellphone and saw the older college goer performing alone on the stage in the drama class in his peripheral vison. It was then that Lance realized that this student was his favorite actor and he was very much alive. When he confronted the man about this he confirmed Lance’s suspicions and explained that he faked his disappearance in the fire as a way to retire so he could earn his college degree, which he never got to do after his career took off. Then after he graduates he will reveal that he is alive. Lance understands his reasons and promises not to reveal his identity. In return for this the actor autographs all of Lance’s movies and posters he has of him in his collection.

•Keith = The nosy spinster. Remember the saying of “you can pick your friends, you can pick your nose, but you can’t pick your friend’s nose”? Well that saying likewise applies to neighbors. But boy does Keith wish that it didn’t. Now he isn’t the type of person who complains or bashes about his neighbors. In fact in all of the places that he’s ever lived in he never really thought much of his neighbors because he kept to himself. And the neighbors never bothered Keith much outside of asking him to attend a big barbecue party. But when he moved to the house left to him by an old aunt he met a neighbor that really tested his patience as a human being. It was an incredibly nosy spinster lady who was known to get into everyone’s business by spying on them. In addition to that she would loudly and publically criticize anyone she saw walking by. As you can expect this made the spinster lady very unpopular among the neighbors. And when Keith moved there he learned that she and his late aunt were mortal enemies. So it was no surprise that she turned that hatred onto Keith. She always had to have something to say about how the young man lived his life and how he dressed. The old bag even critiqued him on how he freaking walked! As much as Keith wanted to move he liked the house and wasn’t going to bow down to this crank. One especially annoying thing she would do was give him judgmental looks whenever Lance came by in the evening to spend some time with Keith and then leave in the late afternoon the next day. Fortunately he wouldn’t have to deal with this crap for much longer after the spinster lady moved across town. The reason? It turns out that the store near their neighborhood discontinued selling a particular brand of bread that was the only acceptable type she ate. But another store across town did carry it so she moved there to avoid making long commutes. Never in his life was Keith more grateful to bread than he was in that moment. Although he did feel sorry for the folks who will have to deal with that old bag as a neighbor.

#voltron legendary defender #takashi shirogane #pidge holt #princess allura #hunk garrett #coran #lance mcclain #keith kogane #neighbor types #implied slash

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187days · 7 years

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Reflections On My Spain Trip

They say that after traveling one should sit with the experience for a bit before writing anything down, so- aside from tweeting about it a couple times- that’s what I’ve done. Now, though, it’s time to write...

I think it was a fantastic trip, overall. For me, it was a chance to return to a country I'd visited when I was in high school, to share my favorite things with my students, and also to see new things with them. For Mr. W, I think it was largely the same. And, for the students, it was just a massive experience. They’re small town kids. Most of them had ever been to foreign countries before, and none of them were really used to traveling in cities. But they all embraced the adventure wholeheartedly; they took in all the opportunities to learn, they tried everything, they spoke in Spanish... I’m very proud of them for that.

We flew into Malaga, a beautiful beach town on the Mediterranean with perfect weather (at least while we were there). It’s a slow-paced place, and we were free to wander around, hang out at the beach, listen to live music, etc... until dinner that evening. That’s when we met our tour guide, Laura, and the other two groups we would be traveling with. Unfortunately, our students didn’t really gel with the others (ours were a little older, more capable of speaking Spanish, and- how do I put this?- markedly less privileged), but they didn’t really mind. And Mr. W and I did get on well with two of the other teachers, which was nice.

In the morning we traveled from Malaga to Granada to see La Alhambra, which I was super excited about because I’d never seen it before. I think that was one of our students’ favorite sites, too, because it’s so stunning. We had a great tour guide, as well. She was really good at explaining things in an engaging way. Lunch in Granada was also amazing; we were seated on the rooftop of this cool little restaurant that made awesome tortilla espanola (I assume they made awesome everything, but that’s what I ate).

That evening we headed to Sevilla, which is one of my favorite cities. The other two groups opted to do a river cruise thing after dinner, but we decided to stay on land and have a wander. One of our boys, amusingly, found a Dunkin Donuts and ran in to see if it was any different from the ones here, but otherwise we stayed away from American things. The only bad bit: I discovered that in the summer (I’d only ever been there in the winter), Sevilla is full of horse-drawn carriages. For those of you who haven’t been following along at home, I have a severe allergy to horses (the kind I need an epi pen for), so I had to be pretty ninja in avoiding them. Bless my students for their patience, and for looking out for “los caballos” every time we went somewhere new.

I got really nervous the next day when we went to La Catedral de Sevilla and ALL the carriages were lined up right outside. Buuuut I had an allergy mask, Benadryl, and a guide who convinced the ticket folks to let me cut the line and get inside quickly. So, y’know, I managed. And I got to climb La Giralda again. That’s the old minaret that’s now the cathedral tower. In high school, me and one of my idiot friends actually ran to the top. It was too crowded- and I’m too old- for that this time, but the view was as amazing as I’d remembered it being.

After we climbed down, our group decided that we wanted to get away from the super touristy area around the cathedral (and away from los caballos!), so Laura took us on a search for awesome tapas. She asked random locals on the streets to give directions to their favorite places, and we did our best to hit all of them. The hands down best place, according to our students, was called La Gitana Loca. But there was also this gorgeous restaurant on some random side street- low lighting, artwork everywhere, and a flamenco stage that they let us climb on for pictures- that served us fabulous oxtail stew. That may not sound good, but IT IS. And the waiters were so nice! One of my students said that if we’d been at home, she’d have figured they were being nice to get a good tip, but there is no tipping in Spain, so they were genuinely being that nice to us. I said it’s because good travel manners go along way; we were speaking the language, appreciating the food (and the rest of the culture), behaving politely... All of that is important, and it has a big impact on one’s interactions.

So that was a great lesson.

From Sevilla, we travelled to Madrid, with a stop along the way in Cordoba to visit La Mezquita. Cordoba is a fun place to wander around- all narrow streets, white walled buildings, and little shops- and I think we all bought a lot of souvenirs there. I got my oldest nephew a chess set similar to one I’d gotten my brother back in high school; he gave his away to another friend of ours years ago- with my blessing- so I figured it would be a cool thing to get.

After few hours on the bus- during which Mr. W and I chatted with Laura and our James Bond-y (so our students said) driver, Alfonso- we reached Madrid. This is my favorite city in the world; it’s a treasure trove of history and culture, the site of some of my best high school adventures, the home of my favorite soccer team (Real Madrid)... It’s always going to have part of my heart, you know?

We arrived during Pride, and there was a metro strike (if you want a fun teaching moment, take kids who have never ridden a subway ever onto a jam-packed one in a foreign country), so it was crowded, chaotic, and totally awesome. The structured tour time was pretty cool; we went to the museums (I loved that way more than Mr. W because I love art and got to geek out about it to our students), the monuments, the palace- and it’s all beautiful. There was one day when we were exhausted because we’d stayed up super late eating junk food and playing games, so that made the pace feel a little rough. No regrets, though. And that night we had a really cool dinner at this place on the outskirts of the city that teaches Spanish cooking- the chefs had the students cook and serve all of us teachers- and we all perked up.

Our free time was the best because, with Pride going on, there were all these cool events everywhere. Our group actually got one whole day free (the other two groups went to Segovia), so went to Santiago Bernabeu so Mr. W and I could get our Real Madrid fix. Then we went into Plaza Mayor, and Mr. W and I found a table where would could sit, drink some tinto, and people watch while the students explored (with boundaries and using the buddy system) on their own. I think we all loved that.

We spent our final day in Toledo, which I only had vague memories of from my high school visit. I don’t know why it didn’t stick with me more because it’s amazing. Nothing else looks quite like the old city. I love, too, that inside the Cathedral’s sacristy there are a bunch of Greco paintings just kind of there. I think the students’ favorite part was the damascene workshop (I think it was Mr. W’s favorite, too, because he could buy knives there). I did remember that from my previous visit; I still have the damascene jewelry I bought back then. I bought some new bracelets, and an icon of La Virgen for my friend who is a priest. Then we had lunch near Puente de San Martin. The restaurant served us lamb and potatoes, and it was delicious. I think that’s my favorite meal.

I did have some killer gazpacho back in Madrid that night, though, after a final wander around the city. There were mounted police out (there were lots of police in general, but, y’know, I’m not allergic to them if they’re not on horses), so I was a bit twitchy and irritable- and I’m sure I annoyed our students- at first. But we found a concert in Puerto de Acala, we danced, we laughed, and then we had that awesome dinner. So it was a good way to end our trip.

Wv flew home the next day, and went back to our little lives. I’ll close by saying again how proud I am of our students, and how happy I was that I was able communicate in Spanish myself. I hadn’t studied it since AP class my senior year of high school; the other chaperons had all studied the language in college- and Mr. W is a native speaker- so I was worried about my ability to keep up. It was difficult to follow conversations, at first, but after about half a day I acclimated. I probably said a few things incorrectly, and I know I spoke more slowly than anyone else did, but I did it. Woot.

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news-mashable-yahoopartner-blog · 5 years

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15 prom horror stories that will make your skin crawl with embarrassment

Prom night is supposed to be a magical milestone of high school. You're dressed to the nines, you dance the night away, and make memories that will surely last a lifetime. Right?

Prom is often as much of a sweat-filled, hormonal nightmare as any other school dance, just with more expensive clothing and the massive anxiety spike that comes with expectations to have the best night of your life.

Nobody's prom was perfect for everyone. Maybe someone spiked the punch at your prom and you didn't even catch a buzz. Maybe your prom dress caught on fire, or your date ended up making out in the bathroom with someone else.

SEE ALSO: 'Take Back the Prom' campaign aims to end prom discrimination

Here are the best prom horror stories that will, if you've had one, maybe make you feel a little better about your own prom experience.

1. Totally twinning. 💃💃

"Mine is so boring and not at all spicy, I was wearing the same Jessica McClintock [dress] as my date's ex girlfriend. She offered to meet me out side to talk it out and I declined." — Samantha C.

2. Well, at least he wasn't your date.

"My friend got stood up and my brother had to come to my prom. He wore my dad's suit. I was more humiliated than my friend 🤦‍♀." — Megan J.

3. But did you get to sing "Heart of Glass"? 🎤

"A bunch of us went to a karaoke place for after prom. A lot of people got drunk and spilled ice on the table and thought they broke glass, [and] got us kicked out of the place. I'm still worried about going to karaoke places in K-Town to this day." — Emily Z.

4. They took the midnight bus going... nowhere.

"The party bus I was on didn't clear a porte-cochère at the hotel our prom was at. It got stuck, and our parents had to come pick us up." — Alex F.

5. Really "Made" that prom experience awkward for everyone.

"MTV Made came to my high school and a girl performed a choreographed dance at my prom since she got "Made" into a hip hop dancer... It was really bad." — Jeremy C.

6. Only the best in mood music.👌

"My friends put me in charge of music on the way there and I ended up breaking the radio in the back of the limo while we were still in the driveway and after 20 mins of the driver trying to fix it he said 'I'm sorry, there's nothing I can do but i have a CD if you want me to put that on.' And then we had to listen to Californication by Red Hot Chili Peppers as our hype music." — Nicole G.

7. I thought we left duct tape prom dresses in the '00s?

"There were definitely two girls from what I remember whose dresses almost fell apart, but nothing good old duct tape couldn't fix ✂." — Elvie Mae P.

8. Wow. 😧

"All was fine and dandy until we learned that a girl in our prom group had taken acid when she tore her dress off and went crazy at the actual dance. She got carried off (and we later learned that the stunt got her prematurely kicked out of the college she'd been accepted to). Once we got back on the bus, parent chaperones came on to tell us that the cops would be searching us to make sure we didn't have any more acid and that we should get rid of anything illegal. A couple of us sheepishly walked off the bus and disposed of flasks and weed-related items. I threw away a pot brownie I was saving for the afterparty. The cops never came and searched us." — Harry H.

9. Honestly, they finessed that.

"My boyfriend senior year got mad at me because I was on prom court and had to slow dance with one of the guys on the court. (The guy I danced with was gay.) Also, all my friends realized the event hall where our prom was [held] never closed the kegs, so they all got beer from the taps and our school wasn't allowed back there." — Miller K.

10. Oh boy, buried treasure!

"The boys in my prom group buried beer in their parent’s backyard to be retrieved at a later date, then forgot where they buried it." — Ruby L.

11. Oof, they should not have let them go. ❄

"Two popular girls somehow convinced the prom committee to stop the music/dancing in the middle of prom to perform an acoustic duet of “Let It Go” from Frozen… and they let them do it." — Sage Anderson.

12. Boats and prom? No thank you. 🛥

"In my high school's attempt to curb drinking/after parties, they organized a big boat post-prom to cruise Lake Michigan for a few hours. While there wasn't any drinking, we were formally allowed to smoke cigarettes and and cigars. Nobody knew how to smoke cigars (a lot of inhaling) and multiple people got sick from smoking too much." — Scarlett A.

13. Bonnie and Clyde whomst?

"After prom my date and I went to a bonfire at a trailer park where they threw so much wood into the pit that they created a fire that was unsafe and terrifying. While everybody was trying to put out the fire my date decided to go into these trailers and steal people’s shoes, and then had me drive her out of the trailer park as everyone was dealing with the fire. I had a major crush on her (she was a senior and I was a freshman) so I had no problem being her accomplice while she enacted this trailer park shoe heist." — Garrett K.

14. Guess you weren't ship-shape. 🚣‍♀

"I didn’t drink in high school, but my friend was dating one of the more popular guys on the soccer team. One of the soccer team jocks had a rager at their house after prom. I went to look after my friend because I knew my crush would be there. Anyway, my crush made me a very strong drink which I drank (although I was not an experienced drinker). Needless to say I woke up feeling very sick then had to sneak out at six in the morning the next day because I was on the sailing team and had to go to a regatta. Boats and hangovers do not mix, people." — Charlotte R.

15. Buckle in folks, this is one rollercoaster of emotions. 😬

My senior year of high school I knew a guy. (Let's call him Matt.) Matt and I had gone to the same elementary school, middle school, and now high school. We weren't exactly friends, but he was one of those guys I was exceedingly nice to considering I'd known him since we both wore pull ups. We worked on AP psych homework together a lot and occasionally chatted between classes.

Anyway, it became apparent that Matt thought I was just the cat's meow and wanted to date, date, date about two months before prom. I agreed to go out with him once and it was not so awesome. (Think him reclining his driver's seat chair in my parents driveway and asking if I wanted to make out before we went on the actual date and then getting kind of angry when I said no.)

So it was a pass from me. But Matt kept asking me out. Every class we had together, he'd ask about my plans and follow up about a second date. He'd text me incessantly, etc. Then, about two weeks before prom, he got suspiciously quiet. I noticed the change, but figured he'd finally gotten the message — I hadn't been subtle about my disinterest. Then, he showed up to the morning announcements.

Every day at the start of classes I would recite the morning announcements with my co-host over the loudspeaker. One Thursday, when I was offering up details on the upcoming Russian class field trip, Matt and the entire football team showed up outside the glass announcement booth with a big sign that said, "Prom?" and a whole bunch of roses. I quickly put together that if I could just get through the announcements and hang up the phone connected to the loudspeaker, I could quietly reject him in front of the team (still about 30 guys) and not the entire school.

But as the words, "That's it for today, enjoy your classes" left my lips, my co-host grabbed the phone and shouted "Matt asked Ali to prom!" broadcasting the news to the whole school. He went to hang up the phone and I bubbled over with panic and embarrassment. Before the phone hit the receiver, I could be heard on the loudspeaker saying in the background, "Why would you do that? I'm gonna say no."

Matt looked wrecked, having heard the news along with the rest of our 800-plus peers over the speaker. I have never felt like a more terrible person. I came outside and we talked about it and I apologized. Ultimately, he asked a very nice sophomore and I went with a guy named Nick who said the word "totally" about 5 times per sentence. So it worked out, but still haunts me." — Ali F.

Yikes.

If you're someone who hasn't yet attended prom, just know that there's no pressure to make this the greatest night ever. You will have many more nights in the future make a fool of yourself or witness others being whole, entire fools.

WATCH: Alfonso Ribeiro denied copyright of "Carlton" dance used in Fortnite

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cnfhumss12a-blog · 5 years

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Recollections of a Warm Day in Binondo

By Abraham Diaz

Under the sweltering heat of the midday sun; wearing a thick bright yellow pull-over sweater in Binondo might not have been the best decision to make. After all, with the hustle and bustle of street merchants along with old Chinese men wearing nothing but white Sandos, prove that even the local residents of Binondo notice the warmth of the urban jungle they dwell in.

More than the humid air that permeated all throughout the vicinity, there was a sense of warmth that entered my heart as I walked the hallowed streets of Ongpin. Growing up, my parents would frequently go to Binondo. I’d either accompany my mother for business related activities, or we’d visit my father’s Chinese relatives. Regardless, the outcome was the same; I would get to explore the labyrinth of China town, and feast on scrumptious Chinese food.

For me, walking around these streets is like walking back in time; I see old buildings, and familiar stores we’d frequent long ago, juxtaposed by a skyline filed with the progression of unfamiliar new developments such as high-rise condominiums and strip malls. As cliché as it might sound, Binondo truly is a melting pot of culture — a hodgepodge of relics from a nostalgic past, and new surprises presented by a progressive future. Like my trips here during my younger years, I’m eager to get into the heat of the action.

My friends and I started our journey by looking for the best way to reach Binondo. We asked a security guard working in a condo around Taft for directions, and he told us that the best way to reach China town was via Jeepney. While we considered taking the LRT or UV vans, given the tropic afternoon heat, we went with riding the Jeepney, One, because it was one straight ride to Binondo. Two, it was the cheapest commute. Being broke-ass senior high school students, we already knew we were going to burn a hole through our wallets with our China town adventure, so we chose the most efficient form of transportation.

Cruising down Jones’ bridge after a short Jeepney commute through Manila, we were greeted by the iconic Filipino-Chinese friendship arc that welcomes you to Binondo. Immediately we noticed the Chinese letterings that garnished the façade of establishments and institutions. Food stalls, medicine shops, and fruit vendors were sporadically seen all throughout the area. Despite the seemingly topsy-turvy state of disarray that was evident in China town, there was a chaotic order to things. Where seemingly foreign concepts coexist with one another; A Catholic church meters away from a Buddhist temple, a traditional Chinese medicine shop that sold herbs, and crystals as cures to debilitating disease right beside Mercury drug store, and a vegetarian restaurant adjacent to a Peking duck stall that slaughtered fowls daily. For the average reasonable person, Binondo might be jarring and overwhelming, but these quirks lead to warm encounters that are truly memorable.

We definitely didn’t expect to find mouthwatering food right beside a river of sewage and garbage. Running on a limited budget, we asked around where we could find authentic Chinese food at good prices. People pointed us towards a place called Estero, an alley filled with Chinese food stalls and restaurants right beside a creek. The stench from the murky waters of the Pasig River didn’t aid in selling the idea that this was a place that sold appetizing meals. Regardless, we were persistent to try what these hole-in-the-wall food stalls had to offer despite the unorthodox ambiance.

The waitress of Estero fast food ushered us to their air-conditioned dining room that shielded us from the elements of the creek. The room was small and covered in bright pink linoleum; they had sparse décor, and we ordered from a laminated menu. We decided to get Spicy chili prawns, Yang chow rice, beef broccoli, and fried spareribs. While we were waiting for our food, they gave us complimentary tea; it was hot and soothing, but it lacked flavor. One of my friends commented how it tasted like warm tap water.

When the food arrived, we were surprised by the large portions, considering how we ordered medium platters for all the dishes. We expected that it would suffice for four people; evidently the food could have fed six people easily. The food tasted alright, it wasn’t anything mind blowing, but it was enough for our group to lick the plates clean. My favorite dish was the Chili prawn, given how it was sweet and savory with the right amount of spice. The shells were soft and easy to take off, and the meat was well cooked. The spareribs were a close contender, with how soft and crunchy they were, it had massive portions, so much so that we had a bunch left over, even after gorging ourselves full. My least favorite was the beef broccoli. It was bland and chewy, and I didn’t go for a second portion after tasting it. Overall, the food in Estero was acceptable, what they lacked in overall taste was offset by their huge portions, considering that the four of us each spent less than 180 Pesos , the amount of food we got was ridiculous.

We continued our adventure through Binondo by exploring the various streets that encompass the district. We passed by a shop called Dragon Phoenix enterprise, a store that sold Chinese trinkets and knick-knacks that helped promote good fortune. Large Jade crystals and Statues of Buddha stood throughout the store, some costing hundreds to thousands of Pesos. A store clerk told us about the Bagua, a Feng Shui symbol in the shape of an octagon with a mirror in the middle; it represented the eight fundamental principles of Taoist – Cosmology, and was a source of good fortune. Looking into the beautiful Baguas we asked the clerk if staring into the mirror caused death like in Kris Aquino’s block buster film Feng Shui. Much to our relief, he reassured us that only good fortune comes from their products.

As we got deeper and deeper into the belly of China town, we noticed the various shops spread all throughout: stores that sold stationaries, shops that stocked Hello kitty toys, and hardware stores ran by old Chinese men. The heat of the mid-day sun forced us to loiter in shops with air-conditioning. With that, we decided to look for refreshments, we settled on some Mango Sago from the famous Salido restaurant. Salido was back in Ongpin while we were already on the opposite side of the district near Reina Regente Street; exhausted, we decided to hail a Pedicab to take us there. The drivers offered to take us for 200 pesos, I haggled with him, and eventually he agreed to take us for half the amount. The Pedicab ride was long and traffic laden, the tight streets of Binondo favored legs over wheels, eventually we arrived at Salido’s and realized that we had already passed the restaurant when we arrived at Binondo earlier that day.

Salido’s had an unassuming façade that you wouldn’t find unless you were actively searching for it. Its small entrance led to a diner-esque café on the second floor that felt like taking back a step in time. Right from the get go, you could see that not only was the building itself vintage, but the majority of its patrons could pass off as terracotta warriors if you didn’t know better.

We were served warm tea as we were waiting for our mango sago, and we asked the waitress if we could get an interview with a local resident. The waitress pointed towards the very corner of the restaurant, where her boss sat and read his newspaper. At first we were intimidated by his appearance, because he looked like a brooding Dragon who didn’t want to get bothered, but she assured us that he was a big softie more akin to a Panda bear. The owner’s name was King Arthur, a name fitting for a man who owned a restaurant filled with round tables. King Arthur grew up in Binondo, managing Salido’s as it was passed down from his grandfather, the original owner of the restaurant. He recounted how their restaurant started as a karinderya or a turo-turo, before it was destroyed during the bombing of Manila in the course of World War II. Despite the adversities faced by Arthur’s family, they continued to persevere and as Binondo prospered so did their eatery; transitioning from a wooden structure to a one made of cement. King Arthur told us about his various patrons— Manila Mayor’s such as Erap and Atienza would frequent the shop every Sunday; the old Terracotta warrior-esque men on the other side of the room were his childhood friends, He told us that the bald 92 year old Chinese man adjacent to us was a drunkard and a ladies' man, but was also the owner of Ace Hardware in the Philippines.

As the warm rays of the dusk strike my neck as I ride a Jeepney back to Taft the lingering heat of Chinatown, leaves a mark not only on my skin, bit on my soul. Much like the hot tea and weather in Binondo, there is layer of warmth for the history and culture that is present in the area. The tinge of red lanterns, the smell of oriental spices, and the various hidden gems spread all throughout the area, add character to a place that has been the focal point for various lifestyles. Only in Manila’s Chinatown can you see Spanish architecture, Chinese traditions, and Filipino people seamlessly intermingling with one another. When worlds collide, you expect there to be friction. However, the friction and heat present in Binondo creates a cultural energy unlike any other. Although I regret wearing my thick bright yellow pull-over sweater during our China town adventures, I will never forget the warmth of Binondo, and the heat it has kindled in my heart.

Gallery: https://cnfhumss12a.tumblr.com/tagged/Abraham

#english #Abraham

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floating-through-cosmos · 8 years

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Y’all, I was just being self-centered for a while and reading all my old posts and it dawned on me that I haven’t updated about my life hardly at all since I stopped working at Dairy Queen. I have a funny feeling that no one actually gives a shit but just to pump my ego I’m going to pretend that I have followers who legit read my crap and are interested so here is the official last six months update and it’s probably going to be really long.

So I stopped working at DQ and had that job as a cashier at Superwalmart starting in April and the job was cool at first (as most jobs are). I went from fast food where everyone is just angry all the time to people actually greeting me when they’d come to my line. Also in fast food, you do not leave work until you are permitted to do so whereas at Wally World, once my shift is over I walk my happy ass to the breakroom and clock the fuck out whenever I want (this proved to fuck me over in the end, more the come on that though) and that was very cool I thought. Then as it always goes, the job got shittier. The managers are real fucking up your ass when it’s slow and there’s literally NOTHING to do apart from zoning (straightening up the candy/magazine displays by your register) or cleaning your register but then when you actually need for something they disappear. You have to wait for permission to use the bathroom which is crap because there was another girl I worked with who had bladder problems due to a freaking miscarriage and she HAD to use the bathroom frequently but she would get in trouble for it. And my final point involving managers is about ordering money because shocker sometimes you run out of singles or quarters or whatever and you have to type in the code and order more but they take their sweet damn time getting it to. It was really bad one night when I had an 11 shift and there were only like 4 registers total open but I was LITERALLY rejecting people paying in cash because I only had 20s and 100s and nickels in my drawer and the fucking managers WOULD NOT listen to my calls for help.

I graduated from highschool (yay) and went on a bomb ass senior trip (a cruise to Belize and Roatan Island and one other place that I legit cannot remember rn) with three of my best friends and one of their families.

The day I got home from the trip I told my dad that the following day I’d be moving out. And here comes the next long ass part. So if anyone remembers my dairy queen tales posts, they’ll remember the oh so important cute guy from work. well guess what, we didn’t end up becoming a thing, disappointing, I know. But interestingly enough, I did end up with another ex DQ person. While working together, we always flirted and shit to the point where other coworkers (MORE THAN ONE) straight up asked me if we were a thing. His Name is Allan and he is...wait for it...33 years old. I was actually 17 when we first started working together so nothing happened AT ALL until I became legal and even after that, hardly anything happened until neither of us worked there anymore. We became official about a week before I graduated and we are still an item. So he is the mystery man that I moved in with. He actually has a daughter also and she is 14. It sounds super weird but we all coexisted perfectly fine. my parents were obviously not cool with this guy but I’m not going to get far into that shit. All I’m going to say is that for the first month of living with him, my father and I didn’t talk and at least for that time I think it was better that way.

We were part of a pretty scary accident on June 9th (I believe that was the date) Me, Allan and his daughter were out walking our two dogs (a 2 year old white pitbull and a 5 year old rat/jack terrier) and a 17 year old girl going around 40 the opposite direction drifted too far towards the grass line and clipped my right arm with her passenger side mirror and with the very same mirror clipped Allan’s daughter in the forehead and threw her back in a ditch. She also hit the pitbull. His daughter’s injuries were actually really bad and she had to be brought by helicopter to a hospital in Galveston, fractured skull, broken arm, broken nose orbital fracture in her eye and jaw broken on either side (and a lot of bumps and bruises and scrapes from when she fell of course). She spent a few days in the hospital and then when she came home she stayed with her grandma for a bit because I wasn’t comfortable taking care of her (she REALLY needed care still when she got back) and it was too much for me. Apparently the hospital didn’t take great care of her hygiene-wise because she ended up having to buzz her hair completely because it was SO dirty and there were still leaves in it from the accident like two weeks later when they buzzed her. of course with a buzzed head she didn’t look good, but now that it’s grown out a bunch, she actually really likes having short hair (The first like three times I met her, she always said how much she liked my pixie cut) so we think she’s going to keep it short for a while. She’s doing fine now, started her second semester of freshman year last week but she’ll have a scar that takes up about half her forehead forever probably, she’s not self-conscious about it (at least so she says) which I am really happy for. The dog that got hit ended up needing to be put down, he had a lot of internal stuff and it just isn’t practical to spend as much money as it would've taken on a dog when your daughter is also in the hospital so Allan made the tough decision and put the puppy down. But when we put him down, we got a new replacement puppy from the same doggie parents (more to come). And finally my injuries were not bad. At all lol. I sprained my wrist when I fell and got bone bruises (one step below anything qualified as a break) where the mirror connected with me. And I’ll have a tiny scar probably forever and idk if it’s actually discolored or if it’s just the angle I see it from but it looks like there’s still discoloration from the bruise but like I said idk. So I am now able to add “hit by a car” to my resume.

I got fired from Walmart in (i think) September because at the time, I had just gotten a new script for birth control and the pills were making my stomach upset so I racked up points on my record from leaving early too many times. so that ended that.

Not much happened up until like 2 weeks ago when I moved to New York state to live with my aunt and go to college which starts in a few days and I am excited about.I am taking a math class, a biology class, a class about preventing war and stuff like that and I had an English class but it got cancelled so I signed up for women's studies instead and I think it’ll be good. No job yet, I want to get into the swing of school first to see how much work I’ll be able to balance with it. MA and Allan are currently texting and I am listening to my old music on my ipod touch that I found a charger for yesterday.

You are now caught up.

#wow #here we go #time for tags #mine #post #my post #text #text post #long #long read #good luck #updates #my life #walmart tales #and more #accident #dogs #personal #personal story

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votives · 8 years

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2016 in Review

Last year I wrote a month-by-month summary of 2015 for my own benefit. I found it last week and it was really fun to see what happened in my own personal life. This is that, but for 2016. A lot happened in the world, but this really is just about my own personal life for me. If for whatever reason you care, feel free to read on. Cheers to 2017!

January: I rung in the new year with my friend Edel and two of her long-time friends, which was casual and fun and a great way to kick-off a year that I wanted to base on self-improvement and self-love. Nearly as soon as I got back to school, I got a job at my favorite coffee shop (which I’ve been working at for almost a year!) Not even a week later I was on my way home from d-hall dinner with my gal pal WXJM friends I made in fall ‘15 when my former roommate called me and told me that there was a package waiting for me when I came home. When I got home and opened my bedroom door, I was sprayed with confetti and a group of strangers (who just spent time in my horribly decorated room complete with a Rupert Grint cardboard cutout) sang the JMU fight song to me — I got into Student Ambassadors! Winter Storm Jonas barricaded me in my apartment allowing me to catch up on all my favorite movies, but also made me shovel several feet of snow out from around my car so I could drive to my first day at work.

February: I started having friend-dates to find a mentor in SA and knew within 10 minutes of my coffee date with my friend Taylor that I needed her as my mentor. Emma came to visit one weekend, which was significantly less messy than the time she visited the semester before. A little later, at the mentor/mentee reveal, Taylor and I found out we got each other and pretty much became friend soulmates. (Things have continued as such). We started going to weekly yoga together. I had my first tour and became polo official. This month was heavy in that organization. It was also during this month that I absolutely crushed hard on this guy in one of my writing classes. We had the same political views, he was incredibly well spoken and funny, and he was literally a surfer from Hawaii. We went to a house show together, got lunch once or twice and hung out at the library on several occasions, but at the end of the day it didn’t go anywhere.

March: Meredith, my parents & I went on a cruise for spring break. The first cruise Mer or I had ever been on. Was less then great, as one of our stops got cancelled (we were supposed to go to the Ernest Hemingway house) but it was still absolutely amazing to spend a week exploring with my best friend. Highlight: cave-diving in Mexico with Mer & my parents. I had my one year mark with The Breeze. I think everyone was a little shell-shocked when I didn’t apply for editor the month before, but I had just gotten the job and the organization and didn’t want to be overwhelmed. I was getting over Hawaiian boy when my friend suggested I go for this really outgoing boy I met a house show. He was a ball of energy and made me look quiet. With her help, he and a few of his friends became a part of our growing friend group and I tried to spend more time with him. Macrock happened which was 1. amazing 2. horrifying. I missed more of it than I would have liked to, but it was because I was having so much fun with my friends. I volunteered to help at the door of a random show, and ended up working the heavy metal show, also.

April: Either mid-March or early April I got really close to a handful of seniors in SA, which was the most devastating thing I could’ve done. I spent a lot of this month at the library or d-hall with them, and I spent a lot of weekends at their houses. It was around this time that I also developed a crush on a senior in WXJM who was planning to stay another year, which was good timing because I realized that my friend had slept with the boy she was helping to set me up with. I was named top writer in my section for The Breeze, and spent a growing time with my SA friends as I got disenchanted with WXJM for a little. We found out that our fourth-roommate, who we thought was living with us this current year, never signed the lease. I don’t think I ever actually said goodbye to her in person.

May: I went to the beach for a week with a bunch of friends which was partly horrible and partly amazing. There was a ton of unavoidable drama, but I also learned that sharing a pullout couch with two other people makes you really close. I adopted a Jimmy Buffet mentality for the week and spent the entire week trying to be as happy and carefree as possible, and it worked. My parents, during this time, were moving from our 2015 residence to a house we’re currently renting closer to my dads work. When I got back, I interviewed for and got an internship for the summer. I’m a sneaky ass, so when I hung out with a bunch of friends the day before my birthday I decided to not mention my birthday to any of them. One of my closest friends, Lizzet, knew though and had secretly brought a gift. I got a bunch of angry texts at like 1 in the morning from friends mad that I didn’t remind them. The morning of my 20th birthday my mom informed me that the night before, my little cousin had been diagnosed with Leukemia. I cannot explain how devastated I was and still am about that. Later in the day, Meredith & Josh drove up to visit and spend several days with me. We went to DC, Great Falls, and watched a ton of Gossip Girl & Parks and Rec.

June: I started my internship. I got surprisingly into Gossip Girl. Edel and I started to get lunches fairly often to discuss the weirdness of being a 20 year old but also having a business-casual job. My godson, Ben was born! We sold and moved out of our lakehouse of eight years, which was weird to say the least. I went to visit Emma, Autumn & Emily in Richmond. A lot of it didn’t go according to plan, but some highlights: I spent a TON of time with Daniel, Junaid, Ian & Dan (the senior friends and their roommates from April) and Autumn & I met fuckin Josh Radnor (aka Ted Mosby) when we were out to brunch. Had a mUCH needed catching-up session with Lizzet when I got back.

July: We moved into our new lakehouse! The goal is to move out of the rental next year and my parents will move full-time to the lake. I went to my school apartment for a weekend to move-out and got to spend much needed time with Taylor and a friend Maddie who left my organization. Moving out of my apartment was weird, because I hated it but it had a lot of memories. Edel and I started a food instagram. Autumn came to visit me at the lake, which included trips to get icecream, kayaking ventures, tubing and trying to watch the stars. I went to NC for a weekend to see my much-missed high school friends. It was overwhelming and amazing and I could’ve spent another week easily.

August: Met up with a friend from high school who happened to be interning in DC and went to my first ever Nats game. Meredith and Josh came to the lake for a weekend, the third time I got to see her this year which is honestly a miracle. Autumn and I moved in to our apartment on the same day, after only being assigned it like three days before after a summer of roommate assignments that fell through. We spent a lot of the night cleaning, then the rest of it unpacking and trying to get ready for orientation (We were FROGS: First Year Orientation Guides). My FROG group was amazing: my partner was a perfect contrast to me, and we ended up having a ton of mutual friends. My entire group of FROGs got really close together, and I particularly bonded with a friend named Taryn who is honestly just me. We’re pretty much twins. We also were both trying to start being some form of vegetarian at the same time, which is how we initially bonded. My first years kind of hated me at times and I didn’t have the same experience as most of my FROG friends, but I’m still really grateful for it.

September: First few weeks of school were super fun because none of my responsibilities had really kicked in yet, so I could do whatever. I went to my first JMU tailgate which was incredibly fun, and I got to go to several games in the beginning of the season when I missed all of last season. Bikash and I started our third season at WXJM, Bear Necessities. I had dinner at the university presidents house. Emma and I became friends again, after a little bit of a hiatus.

October: Realized that I have a crush on a good friend, which always sucks. Didn’t do anything about it. Taylor and I saw Chance the Rapper live, which was super weird and super amazing and the most fun. Taylor took me to the lavender farm because she just gets me. We went with the boy who ghosted me, which was weird, but it’s ok. Autumn turned 21! We had a bunch of people over to our apartment. It was so fun. I got a little in WXJM and she’s perfect. She’s my year, she’s cooler than me, and she’s incredibly vocal about the phenomenal things that she is passionate about. I went to Minnesota one weekend for my cousins wedding and got to see my moms side of the family, which I always miss. I impulse bought a razor scooter, which I once rode to work to make fun of my coworkers. Meredith and Josh came to visit JMU for Hallow-homecoming! A bunch of my alumni friends were also visiting that weekend. I didn’t get to see a lot of alumni, but I had a ton of fun with Mer and Josh: highlights include briefly going to a tailgate, going to Rocky Horror and going to Benny’s.

November: Lizzet turns 21! I went to see Beach House in Charlottesvile, which was an amazing show and an interesting night. I got enough confidence to ask my lingering crush from last semester out to get pizza, but I’m pretty positive it was just as friends because that was the last time we talked even though it couldn’t have possibly gone better. The election happened, which was depressing. I participated in a live discussion on feminism for The Breeze, which was great. There was an armed man barricaded in my apartment building one morning and my roommates and I were told by a police officer (one of many surrounding my building) to evacuate and run to the clubhouse, where I stayed for several hours (not forced) to get updates. It ended peacefully. Mer turned 21 and I missed it, which sucked. For Thanksgiving we went to NC for like 4 hours, which was nice but brief.

December: Taylor’s birthday! I got her a stuffed goat from You’ve Goat Mail for Christmas and I’m still absurdly proud about it. Lizzet took me to the Smallpools Concert for free, but we accidentally missed the meet & greets. I went to a Christmas Cocktail where I only knew a few people and walked away with a bunch of new friends: namely, a house-dog. I either got food poisoning or the stomach bug, who’s to tell. Operation Santa Claus happened and was super fun. After months of stress, I was accepted into a study abroad program in Italy, which my friend Emily is going on too. I had a really stressful academic end of the semester, but left for break feeling really good about the next semester. I have every intention to apply to be a section editor for The Breeze. I still have a crush on my friend that I realized in September and still haven’t acted on it. I’m torn between going for it or letting it go. Time will tell. A bunch of my family got sick over Christmas, and somehow I didn’t. So I’m either a huge successful germaphobe or I already had the bug. We binge watched The OA, and wow. My brother gave me a ton of records and my mom made some new pillows for me, so I decided to transform my room since we’re staying in our apartment.

for 2017:

Looking forward to applying for editor

Looking forward to hitting one year @ black sheep

Looking forward to getting my own mentee in SA

Looking forward to studying abroad

Looking forward to turning 21

Hoping my cousin becomes cancer free

Hoping we get to go on last year’s planned NYC trip, which we delayed

Hoping I either make a move or give up on that boy

Hoping I get back into yoga & stay relatively healthy

#about #self

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National Examiner, April 26

You can buy a copy of this issue for your very own at my eBay store: https://www.ebay.com/str/bradentonbooks

Cover: Queen Elizabeth's royal rage

Page 2: Playing House -- famous best buds who shared the rent -- Dustin Hoffman and Gene Hackman, Ryan Reynolds and Michelle Williams, Robert Downey Jr. and Kiefer Sutherland, Danny DeVito and Michael Douglas

Page 3: Justin Long and Jonah Hill, Ving Rhames and Stanley Tucci, Eddie Redmayne and Jamie Dornan, Jason Priestley and Brad Pitt, Holly Hunter and Frances McDormand, Rob Lowe and Tom Cruise

Page 4: Matt Damon's roles and costumes

Page 6: A Delaware state trooper went above and beyond the call of duty when he surprised a little boy with a brand-new pair of Steph Curry sneakers -- Trooper Joshua Morris and nine-year-old Ra'kir Allen got to be pals when they played basketball together, along with other youths in the area and when the good-hearted cop learned that Ra'kir thought NBA star Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors was his idol, he got an idea, and after running the idea past Ra'kir's mother, the cop presented the aspiring sports star with his own pair of shoes -- Morris says cops should never be strangers to the people they protect, and he lives his belief every day

Page 7: Screen legend Bette Davis believed she had psychic abilities, says her assistant Kathryn Sermak, who met the legend in 1979 and was hired within five minutes of meeting her -- as her personal assistant, she was at Bette's service 24 hours a day, but the star was also very generous like if they were going to a film set, the job was seven days a week, but when it was over, she'd give Kathryn a paid vacation anywhere she wanted for as much as six weeks -- few people know that the screen idol loved to pull practical jokes on people; for instance, at cocktail hour, Bette would serve drinks in gag glasses that dribbled, and then when the liquid would pour onto her guests' expensive dresses or suits, she would innocently ask if they were okay -- the assistant also knew Bette's only child, Barbara Davis Hyman, known as B.D., whose father was Bette's third husband, Grant Sherry. Bette and her next husband, Garry Merrill, her co-star in All About Eve, also adopted two more children, Michael and Margot Merrill, but diagnosed with brain damage at age three, Margot has spent her life in institutions

Page 8: Saving Face -- take years off with simple makeup and skincare tips

Page 9: Vax Reax -- prepare for possible COVID jab side effects

Page 10: Billy Adams really knows how to get his daily steps in as the software exec walks 12 miles around Washington D.C. every day, picking up trash by hand -- during the lockdown, Billy took advantage of working from home to find a daily routine that was good for his physical and mental wellbeing, and helps beautify the city he loves -- starting in June, he began to choose a different 12-mile route every day, no matter the weather, Billy crossed from his Maryland home over into D.C. for a three-hour loop, starting at 8:30 a.m., and he picks up trash along the way and dumps bags of it into garbage cans on his route

Page 11: Tips for getting a restful night -- some tried-and-true tips for getting some rejuvenating rest

Page 12: Olivia Newton-John knows a thing or two about survival: she's had breast cancer three times over the past 28 years and has worked tirelessly to save her own life and the lives of others with her extensive research into natural remedies -- the 72-year-old Grease star says she and her husband John Easterling, who founded the Amazon Herb Company to help the world recognize the benefits of the Amazon Rainforest plants, have developed an approach called integrative medicine. It's a mix of doctor-recommended treatments and those from their own research

Page 14: Dear Tony, America's top psychic healer Tony Leggett -- never too late for romance, it will take work

Page 15: Tom Cornish is 96 years old, but age hasn't slowed him down from knitting up a storm of kindness -- over the past year, the Minnesota World War II veteran has donated nearly 500 winter hats in eye-catching colors to the Salvation Army, where he does volunteer work, and he hand-made each and every one of them

Page 16: Keeping the Peace -- TV has its share of great cops, but here are the ten best TV cops of all time -- T.J. Hooker, "Pepper" Anderson, Joe Friday, Andy Sipowicz, Richard "Hutch" Hutchinson, Kate Beckett, Lennie Briscoe, Olivia Benson, Frank Reagan, Sheriff Andy Taylor

Page 18: When a North Carolina school entered custodian Raymond Brown in the state's School Hero Award, he lost to someone else, so they made their own ceremony and gave him $35,000

Page 19: A group of ATV riders got the scare of their lives when one of their dogs stepped off the edge of a steep cliff and kept going, according to Steven Hawkins, president of the Utah ATV Association, who call themselves The Wild Bunch -- they immediately swung into action action to rescue stranded pooch Summer and got together and each took a hold of a rope with Steven at the end, climbing slowly down the face of the rocks as the others held on while looking on in horror, but in the end, the group found the strength to pull man and dog from the cliff face to safety

Page 20: Cover Story -- Queen Elizabeth is on the warpath -- palace aides are walking on eggshells around Her Majesty ever since Prince Harry and wife Meghan Markle dropped the bombshell on American TV that the royal family is a racist mess who completely ignored Meghan's mental health problems, among other horrifying accusations, and the queen will never get over the fact that Harry, without warning, turned his back on his own country and the people Elizabeth has served every day of her 95 years and she's also terrified the royal family's circus-like antics will bring on the end of the monarchy

Page 22: A California couple who were just about to retire drastically changed their plans when they adopted seven children -- Pam and Gary Willis have five children of their own and have been foster parents to many others and just as their last child was about to leave home, Pam spotted a Facebook advertisement searching for a forever home for seven kids from ages 15 to 4 whose parents had been killed in a tragic car crash -- Pam says she couldn't stop staring at their faces, saying she can't explain it, but she just knew she was supposed to be their mom and when she told Gary, she thought he'd call her a wacko because they were just about to retire, but surprisingly he agreed and they both felt it was what God wanted them to do

Page 24: High school senior Dasia Taylor is only 17, but she's going down in medical history for inventing sutures that detect if a wound is infected -- the brilliant student was named as one of 40 finalists in the Regeneron Science Talent Search, the nation's most prestigious science and math competition for high school seniors -- Dasia's sutures, which took a year to perfect, work by changing colors if the patient's PH level alters and the level changes quickly when a wound is healing and goes bad, so she began experimenting with beets, and she found that beets changed color at the perfect PH point and that's perfect for an infected wound -- the color changes from bright red to a dark purple when a wound becomes infected so it's easy to see with the naked eye and Dasia envisions the stitches being used in developing countries, so that infection can be detected with no advanced equipment -- Dasia's goal is to attend Howard University and become a lawyer

Page 25: 4 signs you may have weak bones

Page 26: Sentimental baseball fantasy Field of Dreams hit a home run with its poignant story of second chances, and as the one-of-a-kind movie celebrates its 32nd anniversary, here are some of the secrets behind the classic motion picture

Page 28: Wisdom of the stars -- inspirational quotes to light your way -- Javier Bardem, Tom Cruise, Leonardo DiCaprio, Michelle Obama, Brad Pitt, Diana Ross, Justin Timberlake, Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway

Page 29: Beyonce, Barack Obama, George Clooney, Sidney Poitier, Katy Perry, Taylor Swift, Rihanna, Will Smith, Matt Damon, Ariana Grande

Page 32: Get Insects to Bug Off -- save your picnic and your sanity with DIY tricks

Page 40: Chakras -- Your powers begin within -- what chakras are and what they do

Page 42: 10 facts about Law & Order: SVU

Page 44: Eyes on the Stars -- Blake Shelton says he's hoping for a summer wedding with fiance Gwen Stefani, Sylvester Stallone is writing a potential TV prequel to his Rocky film franchise, Tara Reid recently wiped out on the red carpet in six-inch platform heels, Evelyn Sakash who worked on art direction on Mermaids was recently found dead in her NYC home months after she was reported missing in September 2020, Dancing with the Stars pro Sharna Burgess recently made her red carpet debut in Malibu with beau Brian Austin Green, Jeffrey Dean Morgan admits he's still shocked about The Walking Dead coming to a close later this year, Martha Stewart made waves last summer when she posted a sultry selfie on social media and admits she got so many proposals and so many propositions

Page 45: Rita Moreno attends the SAG Awards via video (picture), Selena Gomez and Martin Short shares some giggles on a NYC set (picture), Mary Steenburgen playfully serenades husband Ted Danson (picture), Helen Mirren (picture), Joe Giudice recently met Luis "Louie" Ruelas who is the current boyfriend of his former wife Teresa Giudice, Salma Hayek has joined the cast of House of Gucci playing clairvoyant Pina Auriemma, Ben Affleck gushed over ex Jennifer Lopez in a recent interview

Page 46: Two best friends are even closer after one rescued the other using CPR, a single day after she completed a course on how to administer the life-saving technique -- Torri'ell Norwood, age 16, was at the wheel when a speeding driver rammed her car, sending it hurtling smack into a tree and the St. Petersburg, Florida teen climbed through the window to safety when her door wouldn't open, and two of her three passengers also managed to get out, but her BFF A'zarria Simmons was still inside the wreck unconscious -- Torri'ell had just completed her CPR training the day before and knew what to do so she pulled her pal from the vehicle and, when she couldn't find a pulse, administered 30 compressions and two rescue breaths until A'zarria regained consciousness and paramedics soon arrived and rushed the girl to a hospital

Page 47: Get out of the wind and rain, or just find some shade, while you wait for the next bus in these quirky, fruit-shaped sculpture bus stops -- the idea began in Japan and is now spreading to other countries, so don't be surprised to see a super-sized piece of fruit at the end of your block in the near future

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