#and all evidence points to him having called Ashton 'Father'

[tmae3114]

I think probably one of my favourite things with Diath and Evelyn is how they each have the speech pattern that you would expect the other to have

That’s just. a really neat bit of mirroring between them.

[absuuuurdstarkid]

My personal highlights of the Starkid Broadway Whodunit 4/10/20

Strap in this could be long...

Lauren’s character is pregnant and she has the biggest most fake looking bump I’ve ever seen

Joey is wearing a baby carrier even though the baby isn’t due for another MONTH

James is amazing and so convincingly nervous as has character, I think he was the only one who didn’t break the whole time

Jaime is playing herself and controlling her puppet (you know, the sweet one Nick made for her wedding) but the puppet keeps saying wildly inappropriate things - think Trekkie Monster from Avenue Q

Jaime’s character later murders the puppet, cause why not

Meredith looks BEAUFITUL and her character wants to be an actress so every time she’s asked a question she turns it into a really long monologue about her upcoming one woman show

Meredith’s character (who was called Denise, love it): “I taped my breasts together with duct tape earlier and I’m worried my nipples will fall off” *drinks wine* *Andrew breaks*

Joey and Lauren used their tgwdlm newsreader voices the whole time, and Lauren was just hanging off Joey’s shoulders

Walker was playing a like 20 year old and just kept saying Dope, Dope about everything

Corey’s character was obsessed with Lauren’s (and turns out was the father) and every time he appeared Lauren moved rooms and ditched him with an UGH

Joe’s character also had a TikTok and Joe did not sound sure than he knew what TikTok was

Everyone left Joe alone in the room and he looked so offended

Lauren disappeared to ‘go pee because of the baby’ about 6000 times

Jamie Burns’ wig was even more wild than Chorn

Brian: “Can sesame street go away please” “Vicki BEAT IT”

Joe: “YEAH I am a teenager, have you SEEN my TikTok???”

Everyone had their character’s names at the bottom of their screen but there was a glitch so every time they moved rooms Lauren and Joey’s just said laurenlopez

Corey’s character Danny appeared in a ‘disguise’ which was just some sunglasses he was also wearing earlier, everyone sees through it apart from Brian

Jamie’s character was an infomercial star and came up with a product called the Butt Clamp which would stop you needing to use the toilet - everyone else kept calling it a butt plug and Jamie got increasingly angry the more this happened

Corey to Joe: “ThEy’Re GoiNG tO caNCeL YoU oN tHE inTeRNeT”

Joe’s character gets shot and dies, Lauren “He died of old age?!!!”, Brian “He looks like he has a butt clamp in” *everyone accuses Vicky of murder by butt clamp*

Andrew “I’m gonna call a private investigator”, Brian “Why don’t you call 911?”, Andrew “No!”

Andrew on the phone “please come figure out what happened”, Joey “finger who?!” *Lauren and Mere break*

Lauren “Ya butt clamp’s defective Vicky” “Yeah cause your not meant to use it on your vagina!” *Lauren, Brian and Robert all hide off camera they’re laughing so much*

The Investigator arrives aka Joe with a drawn on moustache, Jaime immediately “Is that sharpie on your face?”

WHAT THE FUCK DID THAT PUPPET JUST SAY?!!

Joe says some lines as the investigator so everyone can keep up with the plot, Brian “Are you reading this off of something?” “NO! what kind of question is this?!” “well your talking very robotically” “Yeah does feel like it was written” “Are you done?”

Joe “I’m going to introduce myself now, my name is...investigator ..moo-stache” everyone breaks, Joe can’t get through the line

Jaime “Are you sure sure your name isn’t investigator Sharpay?” *Andrew is so gone he gives up trying to hide his laughing, Lauren and Meredith fall out of frame*

Brian makes a suggestion, Joe “are you the investigator here or am I? SHUT UP”

Joe gets some words wrong and corrects himself, Lauren “See this makes be think you’re reading it off somewhere” “Yeah stick to the script”

Jamie Burns “Put a but clamp on your mouth and shut the hell up Mr Moustache” Joe in an incredulous voice “What did you just say to me? put an ass clamp on my mouth?!” “A BUTT CLAMP” *more people have broken than are still in character* Joe “I’ll have to come back to that one”

Lauren “Can you at least make eye contact when you’re talking to us, you’re looking at your shoes”, Brian “Listen, put whatever you’re reading more up by your camera and then It’ll look more like you’re not reading it” *everyone breaks, Andrew, Joey, Lo, Mere, James are all on the floor* Joe “I am remembering it, I have to look at my shoes to remember!”

*everyone heckles Joe, looks like he’s about to explode/have a breakdown*

Joe is now reading it higher and desperately trying to keep looking at the camera

Jamie “You’re a hack... I could figure out this whole investigation with my eyes closed and my butt clamped” *mass breaking*

Andrew announces that all the butt clamps in the world have been sold in an attempt to end this joke. It does not work.

*Inspector asks who people thing the murderer is* Meredith “Well let me look at... my thoughts that I’ve been writing down”

Joe uses the sharpie he drew his moustache on with to pretend to take notes

Andrew’s character “Can I tell you the truth”, Joe “You actually are compelled by law to to tell me the truth yes”

Brian to Joe “We have a lot in common actually, I mean...I went to the Apocalyptour too” (The poster is behind Joe on the wall) Joe, desperately trying not to break “my daughter dragged me”

“He’s not the murderer, he’s just stalking the fuckin butt plug lady”

Joe “I’ve just... got to check the notes on my shoes”

Joey desperately wants to name the baby after the murdered puppet

Lauren accuses Mere’s character of being pregnant, Meredith “Am I PREGNANT?! Is that why my breasts look so good?!”

Brian “Is that like an air drop? DID YOU AIR DROP A BABY IN HER?!” *Andrew corpses*

Corey tries another disguise, but he’s just wearing a baseball cap backwards

Turns out Joey’s character had been fucking the puppet “The thing is it’s got a big hole in its ass” *Lauren and Joey both start laughing*

Jaime “I’ve only killed one non human thing today” Joe “You killed a puppet made out of menstrual blood”

Lauren can’t remember her character’s surname and she and Joe break

*Brian tries to show something on an ipad* “I don’t know if you can see that” Joe “Yes, yes, the camera is auto adjusting the white balance I can see it perfectly” *Lauren hides laughing behind her hands*

There’s a TWIST that Robert isn’t French and called Luis (loo-E), he’s actually called Lewis but everyone had been called him Lewis all night anyway so it didn’t really work but was funny and Meredith felt so bad about it

Joe says the same thing twice and everyone accuses him of reading again “I’M THINKING, I HAVE TO LOOK AT MY SHOE WHEN I THINK AND REMEBER”

There’s a beautifully photoshopped ‘evidence picture’ of Joey and the puppet

Meredith is convinced Brian is the murderer, decides to strangle him

The proof that Brian isn’t the murderer is that in a video he doesn’t know how to use a gun

Robert accuses Lauren’s baby of being the murderer, Joey and Lauren are busy kissing Diane

Joe’s explaining the final plot points and pauses to find the next bit of paper to read “Sorry, one sec, I’m REMEMBERING” *everyone breaks* “LOOK AT YOUR SHOE!”

FINAL PLOT TWIST turns out Joe’s investigator was really the long lost triplet Gaston to the murdered Ashton and Sebastian THE END

Joe “You might think that because I was a triplet this moustache is fake, BUT IT’S NOT, IT’S REAL”

They all take their wigs off, Joe out of character sums it up: “I truly did not know what was going on”

[mulletcal]

if walls could talk -- ceo!calum chapter 1

description: calum is the son of a very powerful ceo / owner of a PR firm - they had an agreement that calum could live his life as a young adult until his father retired.  calum didn’t expect his father to retire so soon, nor did he expect to meet a woman who would spill out all of her deepest, darkest secrets all because of some turbulence.

warnings: light mention of sexual situations, other than that nothing much.

word count: 3.4k

a/n: this is something i’ve wanted to post for so long.  i attempted a majority of a rewrite at one point, but here we are! please let me know what you guys think? also huge thank you to @softbabiestan​ and @calum-uncrowned​ for reading / suggesting edits along the way 

------

“This just doesn’t feel like the right time to do this.”

Those words had been said to Charlotte more times than she could count, in both her personal and professional life.  This time, it was the former, but that didn’t make the blow to her confidence any smaller.

Charlotte had been sent to New York in hopes that maybe she could convince this firm to sell to them.  The PR firm that she worked for was the top in the country, but they didn’t get there based solely on the fact that they were an amazing company.  Anytime another PR firm seemed like they were about to overtake them for the top spot, Everyday Joy Communications would make them an offer they’d be stupid to turn down.

“Please, Mr. James, if you’d just look at the graph that we’ve done up for you--” Charlotte started, but she was cut off by the man standing up abruptly. 

“Your company has been trying for over a year now to buy us out, and each time we’ve said no. It’s very clear to us that your company’s morals don’t align with ours, I’m sorry you wasted your time in coming here today.” Straightening out his jacket, Mr. James moved around the table to shake Charlotte’s hand once more, clearly eager for her to leave.

She had gathered her things in silence, but as she turned to leave she heard Mr. James clear his throat. “Miss--” he began, inhaling deeply before continuing, “You may want to tie your jacket around yourself. It appears your skirt ripped.”

Nodding her head, she left the room without so much as a ‘thank you’, the embarrassment crashing over her in a wave.

As if this day couldn’t get any worse.

***

The CEO of Everyday Joy Communications has announced his retirement.

One would think that in the occurrence of a life-changing event, you’d at least get a call beforehand.  But that wasn’t the case for Calum, the article reading as a slap in the face to him.  Calum was supposed to be allowed some warning, something that would allow him to get his life in order before he was set to take over, but no.  Here he was, receiving numerous texts, calls, tweets, and e-mails from those he knew asking what the next steps were, and if Calum was finally going to step forward and ‘actually contribute’.

When his father’s company first started gaining success, Calum had chosen to live in New York, rather than stay in Los Angeles.  He enjoyed the bustle of a busy city, but LA was full of people who wanted what was in your pockets instead of what was in your head.  Opinions didn’t matter unless they were linked to some financial gain, and it never sat right with him.

He was pulled from his thoughts by his phone ringing, his father’s contact info flashing across the screen. “What do you want, Dad?” The words were dripping with false affection, his father’s sigh evident on the other line.

“I wanted to tell you, Calum, I--”

“You seemed to be able to figure out how to pick up the phone now, how come you couldn’t before?”

The silence on the other end was deafening before his father offered another sigh, “You still have a week to catch up on things before you fully take over.  And you know that I’m just a phone call away.”

“Yeah, and what time would be best to call you? In between tee-times, or before you go in for your deep tissue massage.” Calum had come to the conclusion to hang up before his father had a chance to answer.  Buying a plane ticket and facing this head on would be better than working himself up in his loft.

As if sensing his distress, his dog Duke came padding into the kitchen, looking at him quizzically.  It wasn’t often Calum had an angry tone to his voice, and it confused the small dog.  Scooping him up into his arms, he sighed as he pressed a kiss to the side of the dog’s head. “How do you feel about moving to LA buddy?”

---

“Hello?”

“Ash, guess whose ugly mug you’re gonna see a lot more?” The overly excited tone in Calum’s voice was very much not him, and it gave away everything Ashton needed to know in that moment.

“Mm… Gonna take a shot in the dark here and say you?” Ashton spoke with a soft chuckle. Calum could hear the click of his phone, and he was assuming he was either turning his volume up or down - if he had to guess it would be down, because he knew that Calum was frustrated.

“M’sorry there’s no prizes involved, but you’re absolutely right!  I don’t know if you’ve read, but my father is headed into an early retirement, which means-”

Before he could continue, Ashton finished his sentence for him, “- You gotta break out the big boy pants, I know.  Is he expecting you to take over right away?”

Calum let out a sharp exhale from his nose, fingers dragging softly through Duke’s fur as he sat cross-legged on his couch, “I have a week to settle in before I take over fully.  I don’t understand how he thinks a week is enough time to shadow him in the office before I just…  Take over.”

“You did work there in the summers when we were in high school though, didn’t you?”

“Yes, but I don’t feel as though it’s quite the same.  Plus, that was eight years ago now. The things have changed at the office - expanded departments, new protocols.” Calum sighed, leaning his head to rest against his couch.  “It’s just a lot.”

“I know, but hopefully your staff will cut you some slack, plus you have the best coffee in the world less than a block away.” Ashton was right, that was a very small benefit - he was sure whenever was something was overwhelming he could sneak away to his friends cafe for a coffee.

The rest of the conversation was uneventful, Ashton trying to take his mind off of his impending flight later that evening.  The conversation went on for longer than Calum had expected though, because his alarm went off to remind him to drop Duke off at the Doggy Daycare he would be staying at as he moved his life away.

“Shit dude, I gotta head out to go take Duke to his lil’ doggy hotel,” Calum joked, ignoring the tugging at his heart strings at the fact that he would have to leave his baby behind for now.

“Okay mate, I’ll see you soon, yeah? Bring Duke by as soon as he gets in from his week away from his dad.” Ashton teased, them finishing saying their goodbyes before hanging up the phone.

***

‘Now boarding flight 32C to Los Angeles, California…’

“Finally,” Charlotte murmured to herself, gathering her carry on and making her way towards her gate.

There had been a three hour delay, and at that point Charlotte was ready to be home, curled up in bed watching shitty rom-coms.

As she stepped onto the flight, the stewardess looked her up and down with a sympathetic smile. “Long day?” She asked, placing her hand on Charlottes’ forearm.  Any other time, the gesture would annoy Charlotte, but she wasn’t one to take out her bad day on others.

“That obvious, huh?” Charlotte deadpanned, shoulders sagging ever so slightly.

“How about an upgrade to first class? No one checked in for that seat, and it’ll be our secret.” 

If angels existed, this woman - Angie - would be one of them.  With a small smile, and a squeeze of the hand on her forearm, Charlotte headed to the seat she had motioned to.

When she got to the seat, she saw a man on the outside of the aisle with his hat pulled low over his eyes. His strong jaw seemed tense, only relaxing as soon as Charlotte let out a soft ‘excuse me’.

Then, strong jaw man was talking, and Charlotte thought it had been to her.  “Do you wanna get drinks, then?” The man had asked.

“Oh, yeah I’ll--”

That was the first time she saw the man’s eyes, deep brown and looking up at her in confusion before motioning to his Bluetooth ear piece.  

What idiot still used those? 

Charlotte’s head ducked in embarrassment until he eventually hung up.  “I’m sorry about that, I thought you were talking to me…” Her words were meek, almost inaudible as she angled her body towards him.

“S’fine, you didn’t see the device.” The more he had spoken, the more Charlotte wanted to hear.  His voice was enticing, the type you knew could command a room if the occasion called for it. She kept thinking of ways to potentially get the man to speak to her again, but she was at a total loss for words.

All was well when the plane actually took off, and Charlotte was content to enjoy the rest of the flight in moderate silence until a violent shake of the plane jolted her eyes open.

 “Oh my God, what was that?” She asked, turning to look at the man beside her whose brows were furrowed in confusion.

‘Ladies and Gentlemen, this is your captain. We’re experiencing some slight turbulence. If you could please remain seated with your seatbelts on until the light turns off. Thank you.’

“See, it’s just some turbulence --” he started to say, his calm voice being cut off by her exhaling sharply next to him. “Do you really think he’d tell us if we were about to die, dude?” Charlotte snapped, trying to focus on anything but the fact that they were about to die. 

“I think… I think he’s legally obligated to, no?” The man’s thick brows furrowed further, the tiniest quirk of a smile playing at his full lips.

Charlotte narrowed her eyes at the man, this logical, beautiful man. Another particularly violent rock of the plane had her gripping on to the mans’ arm.

“I can’t die. I’m too young -- I haven’t accomplished anything with my life,” Charlotte breathed, squeezing her eyes shut.  “I mean, I haven’t had kids, I’ve never even been in love. My boyfriend is a joke to human kind. I don’t even know if I have a G-spot…” She definitely regretted the words as they slipped out, her hand tensing even more.

“Excuse me?” There was an almost comical tone to the man’s voice as he cracked a small smile.  As if he couldn’t get more perfect, his teeth had to be straight and white too?

“That’s not important--”

“It seems like something you feel is extremely important to you.” Who was this smug stranger beside her? And why did he find such joy in her discomfort? “My boyfriend -- He… Doesn’t know how to use his mouth. The way he uses his tongue, I told him I liked it. I told him that I’ve never experienced anything like it. Which is true, but it’s a dreadful experience…”

The conversation continued like that, and somehow Charlotte found comfort in telling this complete stranger her secrets. Especially about the meeting she completely messed up earlier in the day, how her skirt had ripped, and how much she hated her co-worker. It wasn’t until she overhead the stewardess speak did she realize that not only was the turbulence finished, but so was the flight itself.

“Why didn’t you tell me we had landed?” Charlotte asked, almost breathless from her constant monologue.

“It seemed like you had a few things you wanted to get off your chest. And let me tell you, I don’t think I know any of my friends as well as I know you, especially not even knowing your name, doll.”

Charlotte was about to tell him, but the man, this stupidly handsome mysterious man was up and out of his seat before she could even open her mouth. 

“Darling, we’ll keep this between us. I don’t need to know your name. Thanks for sharing all your dirty little secrets,” He had said with a wink before leaving the plane completely.

What the fuck did she just do? ---

Monday morning wasn’t any easier for her, memories of the plane ride haunting her thoughts the entirety of Sunday.  Charlotte wasn’t sure she’d be able to maintain her focus when meeting the new CEO if she could barely be attentive enough to brush her damn hair.

It was amusing to overhear the rumours that made their way around about the new CEO, and if Charlotte was having a better morning she likely would have joined in the fun. Sipping her coffee quietly, she glanced over at her friend as she began to speak.

“I heard once that he has a rolodex of prostitutes that he keeps for when he feels in the mood, doesn’t do relationships.” Charlotte rolled her eyes at Rachel’s words as they watched out of the large windows for the man’s arrival. “Holy shit he’s even hotter than people said he was…” 

It wasn’t long before the rest of them ran to their desks, appearing as though they were doing work as the new CEO headed up the elevator. When the elevator doors opened, they seemed to take the air from Charlotte’s lungs with them.

It was him. She saw his profile first, and she could have recognized that jawline from a mile away, or the seemingly ever present pout on his full lips. It was the handsome stranger from the plane, the one who now definitely knew about all the shenanigans that went on around the office when they all thought the person above them wasn’t paying attention. The stranger she spilled all her deepest, darkest secrets to. Their Director of Operations, Beth, came out of her office, a bright smile on her lips as she embraced the man.

 “Calum, the last time I saw you, you were just graduating high school --” she recalled fondly, the smile on the man -- Calum’s face was radiant as she pinched his cheeks. “Alright everyone, listen up. This is our new CEO, Calum Hood. As you know, he is David’s son, and he’ll be working from our offices to ensure everything is running smoothly.  You haven’t let me down before, don’t start now.” The words were said with a sweet smile, but everyone knew you didn’t mess with Beth.

“Thank you, Beth --”

A whisper from behind her did not fall on deaf ears, “His fucking accent though…”

“Keep it in your pants, Rachel,” Charlotte whispered back, her attention going back to the warm brown eyes that had now landed on her.

“-- I may be my father’s son, but I most definitely am not him. This company, at the very least, should have some fun. So if any of you have a suggestion or two on how we can improve, I’ll be in my office all day getting myself sorted.” Calum’s eyes scanned the room, freezing when they landed on Charlotte. Giving her a simple nod, the man’s warm smile was replaced with a tense one before he turned to walk into his office.

***

After seeing her, there was no way for Calum to focus. He’d hate to admit it, but ever since that plane ride he hadn’t been able to stop thinking about that girl. The confessions she made to him left him wondering so many things -- at least if she stopped in he could thank her for exposing so many secrets of the office.

Throughout the day, various people stopped in his office to introduce themselves; each woman coming across more desperate than the last.  He supposed he shouldn’t think that when these women were working for him. He’d be stupid, though, to pretend like he didn’t notice each lingering glance they’d give, or each lean forward to try and show off their clevage. 

A soft knock on his door towards the end of the day was the one who held his attention the most -- because it was her. He still didn’t know her name, but seeing her today, he felt a strange pang in his chest that made him want to know it. Calum knew he should have let her tell him on the plane, then maybe in another world if they hadn’t serendipitously worked together he’d be able to find her.

“Mr.Hood?” Her voice was softer than he remembered, but maybe Calum was just thinking of it in the form of terror she had expressed to him the other night.

“Call me Calum, please. And your name?” Calum asked with a quirked eyebrow, a small smile forming on his lips. 

“Charlotte,” she stated with a small smile as well, stepping into his office further. Her outfit was more indicative of her personality than her travel clothes had been -- her blonde hair pulled into space buns with wisps of hair falling into her face, the front of her pastel pink button up tucked into a pair of bright blue floral pants. Pastel pink and blue were not exactly a colour combination Calum would have gone with personally, but it suited her.

Calum realized then that he was checking her out, and by no means in a subtle way. “Uh, sit, please,” he gestured to the chair across his desk, wanting to make her more comfortable.

“I wasn’t sure I even really needed to come in here today, given the circumstances of the other night. But Rachel told me it’d be weird if I didn’t come to introduce myself to our new boss…” Charlotte had begun to ramble, and Calum couldn’t bite back the smile that pulled at his lips, the genuine kind that always made his eyes crinkle at the corners. Something about the smile made Charlotte’s breath catch in her throat, her body almost visibly stilling.

“It probably would have been weird to your co-workers, but if you’re uncomfortable here working directly with me, I can arrange it so you’re transferred to a different office,” Calum’s response was more an HR response than anything, wanting to make her more comfortable. But also maybe, just maybe, Calum was itching to reach up and brush the blonde hairs from her face. Transfer so that she wasn’t directly under him in the business sense, but could be directly beneath him in other ways.

He was pulled from his thoughts by the woman speaking up once more. 

“No, no. It’s not that--” Charlotte started, pulling her lip between her teeth. “I just don’t want it to be weird for you. I did after all tell you a lot about myself.”

“Speaking of a lot -- How’s your boyfriend?” The question was out before Calum could stop himself, the topic itself completely catching Charlotte off guard as she stilled for the second time in a span of 5 minutes.

“He’s uh, good. He works here also, in the IT department. I don’t know if I told you that part.” A blush spread across the woman’s cheeks, and Calum found the whole interaction endearing.

“You didn’t happen to mention that, no.”

“Yeah, you��ll probably meet him as you work your way through meeting the rest of your staff--” Her sentence was topped off with a shaky laugh, brushing a stray strand of hair back behind her ear.

Calum wondered very briefly if she was nervous around him because of the things he knew about her, or because she happened to be as attracted to him as he was to her. It was inflating his own ego, of course, to think the latter. Who said having high hopes were a bad thing though? “Anyways,” Charlotte said, standing up abruptly, “I should go. Getting towards the end of the day, and I promised my roommate we could binge season 2 of Sex Education.”

The irony of that statement was not lost on Calum, what with her exposing rather intimate details about her sex life to him only a couple days prior… And now she was going to go and watch a show called Sex Education? 

“Hold on,” The words sounded choked as they came from Calum’s mouth, likely conveying how desperate he felt to keep the conversation going. “What’s uh -- What’s his name? Your boyfriend, that is. I’d like to be aware of the relationships going on in the office.”

Charlotte grinned then, a mischievous glint in her eyes that had Calum sweating, “While we don’t have time to unpack all the relationship drama going on here, my boyfriend’s name is Gavin… Goodnight Calum, I’ll see you in the morning.”

With that, she was gone, as if their whole interaction had been a dream. and Calum was so fucked.

tag list:  @cals-wildflower​ @talkfastromance4​ @softbabiestan​ @roseycal​ @calum-uncrowned​ @boyfriend-cal​ @wildflowerirwin​ @irwindoll​ @gosh-im-short​ @atlcalm​ @thesubtweeter​ @heavenisapeach​ @ridingcthood​ @loveroflrh​ @wokeupinjapanisabop​ @talkfastdrummer​

[perriewinklenerdie]

The secrets are out (Ethan Ramsey x MC)

Open Heart, Ethan Ramsey x MC

Author’s note: Hello, hello, hello! Anyone remember me? The last thing remember is wanting to post the next part of my AU on Christmas and now it’s the middle of February and I feel like a fool. I was literally in a hole of uni, time was not even a concept. I’ll try to get some fics more often and you know… OPEN HEART 2 COMES IN LESS THAN TWO WEEKS SO IT’S GONNA SPARK MY BRAIN. It’s not going to be as often as it used to be, but I’ll try my best to give you what I feel you guys deserve.

This fic right here fits into the timeline in which Ethan and Claire are married before she works with him.

AO3 link:

 https://archiveofourown.org/works/22760494

  Tag list:   @paleweasels , @lilyofchoices , @hopelessromantic1352 , @aloehasrose , @valiantlychaoticbarbarian , @radlovedreamer , @usuallyamazinglyaverage, @palestazure, @cordoniaqueensworld, @universallypizzataco, @princess-geek, @faithhasnowords, @mightyfangirlofthefandoms, @drakewalkerfantasy, @timmagicktoad, @laceandlula, @greywitchyshots, @llamasgrl, @gingerjane15, @bucket-harrington , @marywrites-things , @ethanplaysfavorites , @mfackenthal , @betelgeusebee , @simsvetements,  @i-only-signed-up-for-fanfiction, @buzz-bee-buzz, @owleyes374, @cora-nova, @aworldoffandoms, @l822, @cream-ray, @ughhhxjazzy, @silverlitskies, @justendlesssummerfeels, @togetherwearerapture, @desmaranj, @edgiestwinter, @friedherringclodthing, @daisy-ashton, @waytooattuned, @choicesgremlin , @lapisreviewsstuff, @the-soot-sprite, @writerapprentice, @chasingrobbie, @choicesobsessedd, @cassiusownsmyass, @x-kyne-x, @thisperfectmemory, @drakewalker04, @rookie-ramsey, @jlynn12273, @thepinknymph @dr-brianna-casey-valentine, @a-i-n-a-a-s-h

Enjoy! <3

----------

They knew the day was coming. While at first it wasn’t hard to hide the fact that they were married, it became increasingly difficult to disguise the looks they were giving one another, the familiarity they felt when they were together.

Claire teased him about how he had to try and be more stern with her at times, that other interns were commenting on how he was a lot less angry with her. He smirked, saying how if she wanted him to be rude to her, she should have just asked, and then ripped her apart at morning rounds. So much so that she even had a single tear sting her eye for a moment. Later that night he told her that it was the worst thing he ever had to do, apologized, said that he felt horrible for the rest of the day and that she just had to be brilliant so he wouldn’t have to do it again.

“That is, more brilliant than you already are… if that’s even possible.” He muttered into her ear, earning him a bright smile on her face.

They had it all figured out. How to act around one another to not seem suspicious, how to talk to not sound like two lovestruck idiots that they definitely were. Things were about to get much more complicated for both of them, and they didn’t even think about setting up a game plan just in case.

Two lines.

She didn’t see him cry often. Come to think of it, she has seen him cry about two or three times. The first time was when he proposed, and she was in such a state of shock that she didn’t answer him for solid two minutes. The broken expression on his face broke her out of her trance, causing her to cry as well when she managed to choke out a breathless ‘yes’ and they were both an engaged mess that night. The second time Ethan Ramsey cried was when he saw her in her wedding dress. Admittedly, it wasn’t the traditional way that it happened, he stumbled into her room by accident and as soon as he saw her in her white gown, tears gathered in his eyes, and he needed at least two tissues.

“Good thing you don’t have any make-up on, or Louise would have had to kill you for crying.” Claire laughed as she helped him with wiping the tears off his face.

“Now I feel like a fool. How come I’m the only one crying and you’re holding yourself together?” he responded as he wrapped his arms around her gently, taking a closer look at her face.

“Sheer willpower to not get killed by my sister before I marry you.” she whispered, pressing her cheek to his delicately.

“If I say I was hoping for a kiss, would you laugh?”

“You’ll get one soon, have some patience.” She did laugh, as she pushed him out the door with a wink.

And now the third time. She could pinpoint the exact moment in which his brain registered what was happening, his eyes got glossy and a choked sob escaped his lips. He pressed his palm to her still flat stomach, touching the back of her head softly as he kissed her forehead, crying silently.

At that exact moment they didn’t know just how difficult for him it would be to keep himself away from her at work. The first few weeks seemed to fly, and they both seemed fine. That is, if one was to overlook how Ethan insisted on helping her walk the stairs any chance he got when they were alone or how he insisted on doing everything for her when they were at home. It seemed as though he was more terrified about the pregnancy than her.

Keeping quiet about it would prove to be more difficult than they both previously thought it would. Ethan had no self-control when it came to her wellbeing. All it took was for her to bump her shoulder into another doctor and he was all over her, checking urgently if she was hurt. If she thought he would calm down as time went on, she was in for a surprise. He didn’t. If anything, it got worse.

As she began showing, and her clothes had to become more loose, he began thinking how the hell were they going to explain it to basically everyone that she was pregnant without revealing their marriage. The thought of coming out with their relationship crossed his mind briefly, but after a conversation with her, they decided to put it off as much as they could. Or as long as mother nature would let them.

Her friends found out by accident. She made sure to change her clothes when no one was around, but that one time Sienna and Jackie came back for Sienna’s bag and they saw her stomach. A very weird conversation followed, and she had no choice but to tell them. As far as they knew she had a one-night stand and got pregnant by accident. They were all supportive and offered her their help, even if the urge to know who the father is was killing them on the inside.

Ethan thought it was the most sarcastic joke that the world could pull off. Claire found the whole situation more funny than concerning, but their secret was out. Just like that. He wanted to do it on their own terms, but as always, the universe had different plans.

Running kids were not a normal thing in the hospital, but as much as staff and parents tried to minimize that activity, there was only so much one could do. And if one wasn’t careful enough, there was bound to be an accident, much like the one Claire experienced. Everything happened so fast that most of the people in the hall didn’t even see the whole incident.

A kid was running from his friend, and as he was turning around to shout something, he bumped into Claire, sending her onto the floor with a surprised gasp. All she felt was a slight pain in the lower part of her back, but she was seven months pregnant so there was a possibility of damage to the baby that had to be considered. Before she could even think about getting up, she heard Ethan call her name with concern and horror coloring his voice. Not even a minute passed before he was by her side, running his hands all over her, making sure that she was in one piece before picking her in his arms.

“Those kids…” he muttered under his breath, causing Claire to giggle quietly.

“You do know that we have one of those on the way, right?”

“Oh trust me, I’m aware. But they’re not going to be knocking pregnant women over.” Ethan nudged his nose against her forehead, the lines of his lips turning into a teasing smirk that was barely visible.

While Ethan arranged a doctor to get Claire checked out, the hospital began gossiping, and by the time they were done with the appointment, everyone had their own theory about what exactly was between the two doctors. Them having an affair was the most popular one.

Naveen, being Naveen, knew about all the rumors, and called both of them to his office to figure out what they would do. He wasn’t the only one aware of what was happening, as Harper, Ines and Zaid knew too, but he didn’t see the need to call the other three for the meeting, as the whole circumstance didn’t concern them.

“We all know what’s about to happen. The question is, what do you want to do about it?” he started, leaning back into his chair, looking at the couple before him. Ethan’s arm was draped over Claire’s shoulder, stroking her arm gently, while his other hand was curling into a fist and relaxing. She saw his frustration and covered his hand with hers, smiling gently to offer support.

“How bad is it?” Claire’s voice was quiet, with underlying sense of pensiveness and weariness. It wasn’t easy to be that careful about her pregnancy, not to mention how cautious they had to be about their relationship, and now it has finally reached its peak.

“Half of the hospital thinks you two had an affair. Some people think you used her.” He pointed to Ethan, watching how his friend’s face stiffened, anger evident in his features. “Others think you’re the one that used him.” his focus shifted to Claire, which unsurprisingly got her even more upset. “Some of them don’t know what to think, and there are also us normal people, that are waiting for some explanation before making their mind up.”

“We don’t owe them a damn thing.” Ethan seethed, his teeth clenched as he got more and more outraged.

“It’s your decision. It’s up to both of you to make the decision. I’ll support you, whatever you two decide to do.”

Ethan stood up, pacing all over the room, pinching his nose as he tried to come up with something, anything, that would not end up blowing up in their faces. His own stupidity frightened him, he could feel frustration rising in his chest, threatening to suffocate him. How could he have let it happen? How was it possible that he, Ethan Ramsey, a man that had a strategy for most of the scenarios that could occur in his life, didn’t think how to handle the most important part of his life, that would very obviously cause confusion and possible problems later on should anyone find out the truth. How could he be so irresponsible?

“Ethan.” His spiraling thoughts were interrupted by his wife’s voice, breaking through the tempest of his insecurities and raging anger. He stopped pacing, the sweet silence fell upon his mind, and suddenly there was only her. There was nothing else in the whole world for him, nothing else mattered, only her and the immense love he had for her. She approached him slowly, her back hurting her more than before, resulting in the necessity for her to press a hand to the small of her back. Her feet touched his when she stood in front of him, but he was still not looking at her. He was ashamed, he felt like a failure; she could see it very clearly, and the closer to him she got, the more signs she noticed.

She placed her hand on his shoulder to keep herself balanced, brushing her other palm against his cheek, turning his head so their eyes would meet. Never before in her life had she seen him so upset, he was looking at her with so much shame that it almost overpowered the love she could still see there. Ethan leaned down, pressing their foreheads together in a moment of tender hush. The world could be falling apart and he would not notice, as long as he had her in his arms.

“I’m sorry.” He murmured, wrapping his arms around her slightly, careful to not cause her more pain. Claire shook her head, leaning back to look at him properly.

“I have no idea why you’re apologizing. You didn’t do anything… well, that’s not true. You are responsible for half of this baby, so there is that. And you’re also half of this marriage, so there is no walking out of that one either. And no, I don’t want you apologizing for either of those.” She teased him, achieving her goal to make him laugh. Pressing her lips to his cheek briefly, she walked them both back to their chairs.

Naveen remained quiet, watching the scene in front of him unveil. He’s spent enough time with the two to know that it was only a matter of time before Claire would figure out what to do, and then pull Ethan right along with her plan. He was stubborn, but when his wife was involved, the younger man transformed into an entirely different person.

“I’m tired of all that nonsense. I want to be able to hold your goddamn hand if I want to, I want to kiss you when I please and I don’t want to restrain myself. You’re my husband, but we’re acting like a pair of high schoolers that are scared of getting caught making out. We’re having a baby, there is no way I’m keeping you being a father a secret. So…” she spoke clearly, her hands gesturing lively. Turning to her husband, she took his hand in hers and laced their fingers together, squeezing gently. “We’re gonna walk out of here, holding hands, and we’re not going to be trying to pretend like we barely know each other. We’re going to be together. We’re gonna be a family.”

“I quite like the sound of that.” He let out a relieved laugh, his expression softening when he saw Claire take her wedding ring off the necklace that she wore and handed it to him. He put it back on her finger, where it belonged, then kissed it, looking up at her with warm gaze. He let her pull him up from his chair and out the door. “Naveen?”

“Oh I’m definitely going with you. There is no way I’m missing that”

Ethan and Claire walked ahead of Naveen, giving the older doctor a chance to gauge reactions from people they passed by. Ethan’s arm was wrapped around her gently as the two spoke in a quiet manner, smiling brightly at an inside joke. From what The Chief of Medicine could notice, most people had to do a double take. A wave of whispers followed the three of them, which was to be expected, but it did nothing to put them at ease. There was no way of knowing how people would react, but as far as Naveen could see, neither of them seemed to notice the commotion around them.

Harper was standing by the nurse’s desk, signing off some paperwork, when a sound of whispers and gossip, like a wave, crashed into the room. From the scraps of the conversations around her she could vaguely make out what was happening, and once she saw Claire and Ethan walking down the hall, all was clear to her. Smirking to herself, she decided to help the pair along and make it a bit easier for everyone in the hospital.

“Claire! I heard you had an accident.” She called out to the blonde as she approached them, running her eyes along Claire to make sure she was fine.

“It wasn’t that bad, we’re fine. How could we not, Ethan didn’t let me make a single step without him by my side.” Her green eyes sparkled with confidence, turning to look at Ethan, whose eyes were already on her, one of the gentlest expressions taking over his features.

“Oh, right, you two are married. It’s kinda hard to remember that when you two are acting all…” Harper raised her voice a little, making sure to be heard, shaking her hand as though she was searching for a word to finish her sentence. “… professional.”

“Someone around here has to.” Ethan spoke up, looking away from his wife just in time to see Harper roll her eyes sarcastically.

“Sure. You are the most professional one here. I would never be able to pretend like I don’t know my spouse, let alone keep each other at the arm’s length once you ‘get to know each other.’, so you two are my heroes.” She looked between the two and then walked around them to stand next to Naveen. “That being said, I would never be able or willing to do that.”

Their conversation sparked interest among their surroundings, and in her peripheral vision Claire could see her friends, walking towards them with confusion on their faces. She excused herself, pointing towards the group, and Ethan pressed his lips to her forehead before letting her go, keeping a close eye on her in case something happened.

Sienna jumped to her side, helping her walk to the rest of their friends, smiling reassuringly at Ethan. Claire gave her a look of mock annoyance, knowing exactly what she was doing. Her friends were looking at her with confusion overtaking their faces, clearly waiting for some sort of an explanation.

“I’ll say it as simply as our current circumstances and amount of time allows me. I promise I’ll explain it further later, it’s just that we don’t have time now, and I need you to know what’s going on, okay?” Claire took a deep breath when all her friends nodded in agreement.

“Take your time… kind of.” Bryce nudged Jackie’s arm with her elbow, her form shaking in a quiet laugh. Claire joined her, nodding her head slightly.

“Okay, so… I assume you already know at least part of it. The pregnancy was not an accident… well, it wasn’t exactly planned either but-“

“Herondale, breathe. We get it, you didn’t plan on it but it happened and you’re happy, good for you. Who’s the father?” Jackie interrupted her, waving her hand in the air impatiently in the gesture to hurry her up.

“Ethan.” His name burst out of her lips before she could think of a way to deliver the news, but maybe it was for the best. Her friends had the reaction completely opposite to what she was expecting. They seemed… fine with it.

“Can’t say I didn’t expect it, honestly. I did catch him looking at you with something tender in his eyes but didn’t pay much thought to it. Guess I should have asked.” Elijah smiled teasingly at her, causing her cheeks to flush.

“There is something else.” Claire added, earning a collective groan from the group.

“Seriously, what else could there be?” Jackie whined, falling against the wall theatrically. It was at this exact moment that Ethan decided to join them, wrapping his arm around Claire’s back, asking quietly if she was okay. She nodded, leaning against him a little.

“I was just about to tell them about us.” Explaining, she nudged his side with her finger, indicating that he should be the one to break the news. Seeing him being reluctant, she whispered something about her telling them about the baby, so he didn’t really have a choice.

“Very well. We have been married for the past three years.” He tried to keep his tone still, but it proved to be impossible. Being able to finally say it felt liberating, like he was able to breathe again. Her friends were going through quite the opposite process at that exact moment, and there would have been more questions if it wasn’t for the fact that their pagers went off at the exactly same moment, summoning them to the opposite parts of the hospital.

“I’ll explain later, I promise!” Claire called out after them as they left the room, laughing under her breath, relief flooding her body.

Ethan observed his wife with curious eyes. He couldn’t remember the last time she was this relaxed, despite everything that happened that day. An idea formed in his mind and he smirked as he approached her. Not giving a damn about who saw them being a married couple felt like everything would be alright. Wrapping his arms around her, he leaned down to kiss her gently before whispering, their eyes locked.

“Does that mean that you’ll finally let me escort you everywhere, so I’ll know you’re safe?”

“Absolutely not.”

[littleredroseonthevalley]

Land of the Blind

Summary: Nathan is caugh on a DUI and is sentenced to comunity service. There, he meets someone who can change his life.

Rating: T - Suitable for teens, 13 years and older, with some violence, minor coarse language, and minor suggestive adult themes.

Words: 5400

Notes: So, Natey-boy again. Who hasn’t gotten over him yet?

בשוק סמייא צווחין לעווירא סגי נהור

In the street of the blind, the one-eyed man is called the Guiding Light

*_*_*_*_*

"Nathan Sterling! Come over here, bro!" Beau Han bellowed, causing several heads in the party to turn, but he remained uncaring, as he went on to wave his bottle of beer as a half-hearted greeting.

Nathan sighed, shaking his head in frustration at the closest thing he could call as best friend. His boorish antics got old fast, and he had to take them for years now. However, it did not keep the young, blond man to slip into the seat next to him and grabbing a bottle of beer.

They had met in college, when they pledged the same fraternity. They both came from privileged upbringings, with the difference that Beau was nouveau riche, while Nathan was a Boston Brahmin. The Asian boy, because of that, submitted himself to be his faithful lapdog, and he did not care for the difference between that and “true friendship”.

"Anything fun going on around here?" Nathan asked, unamused.

Beau gave a casual shrug, before pulling a face. "No hot girls are allowed here, apparently."

He craned his neck then, as if looking for something. Nathan frowned, opening his mouth to question him when Beau beat him to it. "Eh, Nathan? Where's Becca? I thought she was your conquest for the week?"

Nathan flicked his finger dismissively, before downing the bottle of beer. The voluptuous girl was not bad-looking, on the contrary, but she really was just really bossy and nagging, and her name was tarnished since her parents divorced and cut her off, it was no fun.

Not to mention, she wanted commitment, too. She wanted to raise herself from the filth she was thrown in. It was a big no-no for Nathan. He did not, under any circumstances, do commitments. Anytime a girl seemed to imply that, she was out. Especially the social-climbers.

"She's old news already, Beau.” He responded, lazily. “I can't seem to find anyone else up to my standards."

"Your standards must be reaching heaven, my dear friend." Beau shook his head as he chugged his beer, before wiping the corner of his mouth to clean himself of the trail of white booze. "I'm pretty sure dear Katie would be glad to lecture you again."

Nathan sighed, shaking his head. Katie was the exact reason why he is so averse to commitment. She was his cousin’s wife, daughter of a fisherman from down at the harbour, and seemed to think they were a loving family just because they were around the same age. She firmly believed in love and that Tanner was her One and Only.

To him, it all sound either naïve or malicious. She knew he was cheating on her with the Emersons’ slag, Scarlett, but she took it because parting with the Sterling fortune was too much to bear. Not that she will ever really have to, having birthed a daughter already.

He almost scoffed at just the mere idea of fairy-tale love. Pick any marriage on his lineage, from the very day the first member of his family set foot in America hailing from Norway, and they would be a good example that love did not exist. Including Kate and Tanner’s.

“She can’t lecture me if she doesn’t know, and evidence shows it isn’t that hard to hide things from her. She is pretty stupid.”

"Damn, you're bad!" Beau chuckled heartily before pulling Nathan up from his seat, gesturing to the platform set up for the party. "Let's go dance, and maybe pick up some hot girls, yeah?"

The corner of Nathan's mouth lifted slightly. Yes, that was exactly what he needed.

"Yeah, you're on."

*_*_*_*_*

"Nathan, you honestly shouldn't… " Beau stopped in the middle of the sentence, hiccupping for probably the umpteenth time. "Drive the car in such a state. You might get into an accident."

"Shut up, Beau, unless you’d like to walk." Nathan threatened. He was sure that he could handle liquor well, Beau was totally underestimating him. "I'm pretty sure you're the one who needs help getting home. Whose party is this again? Elliott's? I'm sure he'll be glad to drive you home."

"Yes, see that horn over there?" Beau hiccupped again, before chuckling and pointing at the roof of the house. "It’s Elliott's!"

"Damn, Beau, you are drunk." Nathan shook his head. Beau really seem like a stupid teenager at times. He muffled a sigh. “Call yourself an Uber. I know you like to spite your mother.”

"No need. Beau's going home with me." A familiar voice stated from behind the said male's bulky form.

Nathan's eyes widen by the tiniest bit, before he recovered, trying not to laugh. Trying to make him jealous? With Han? How quaint. Too bad it would not work.

"Oh, alright then." Nathan said, grinning as he saw his friend's face morphed into one of horror's, but he paid him no heed. He was apparently still sober enough to realize what he was getting into. "Have a nice night, Claire."

Without another word, he silently washed his hands from Han before he slipped into his Ashton Martin and sped off. The adrenaline was coursing through his veins, most probably a side effect from the consumption of beer. It had actually been a while since he had gone home with a girl, and for this moment, this silence was actually rather nice and peaceful.

He took a deep breath before he relaxed against his comfortable leather seat.

The sirens of police cars suddenly broke him out of his reverie, and he immediately swerved to a stop in an unconscious move.

Ugh, Nathan, you moron! What did you stop for?

He suppressed his grumbles as he rolled down the window of his car to come face-to-face to Officer Silverhawk. He muttered a curse under his breath. Of all people... Of all days...

"Good evening, Officer Silverhawk." He greeted grudgingly.

"Yes, Nathan." She sounded displeased. "What're you doing out here that late at night? Is that alcohol? You reek of it!"

"No, of course not, ma’am." Nathan lied smoothly. "I wouldn't do such a dangerous, reckless thing."

“You certainly would.” She said, unbelieving. “Give me your keys. I’ll pull up your record.”

"Don’t get your panties on a twist, Officer Silverhawk." He muttered.

Officer Silverhawk looked up from scrolling through the records at the mention of her name, but Nathan waved his hand like it was nothing.

"Well, Nathan…" She said, sounding gruff. "It's not the first time you've been caught speeding. In fact, this is the fifteenth time, and there's another few which was after consuming alcohol."

Again, shit.

"Well, I'm afraid you'd have to go to the police with us. Don't worry, you will most likely just have to serve community service if it comes to that." Chief Silverhawk seemed to meant for her to sound reassuring.

However, she seemed smug and Nathan noted irritably that her upper lip seemed to twitch slightly at that comment.

Fuck was the only thought echoing through his mind. His parents were going to kill him.

*_*_*_*_*

“You are a disgrace, Mr. Sterling. You are a smudge on this town prideful tradition, and a shame to your surname.” Judge Rhodes said, sternly, from his bench. “I am very glad that I was able to shield my stepdaughter from the likes of you.”

Nathan used much of his willpower not to roll his eyes at that comment. Judge Rhodes was obsessed with his wife and stepdaughter, to the point it was nauseating.

The man congratulate himself into making a “safe” town for his family to live, as if he would ever be interested in Emily Harper. She was a very creepy character, and he is not alone in thinking that. Yes, she was his neighbour, but they just never interacted anymore.

He could remember that, before Queenie Harper married Dr. Rhodes, before even Evan Harper died of a heart attack, him and Emily would spend a lot of time together. Mrs. Harper would have him on their home to relieve his nannies, and the two kids would spend the Summer afternoons together.

Over Winter, while he was away in New Haven with his parents, however, Mr. Harper passed away and Queenie moved away with Emily to God knows where. They returned years later, when the old bat had already remarried, conveniently, with the new county judge.

Every time he sees her, which was actually quite rare, she would be wearing a long dress and she would be wearing a sunglass with Zigmund Ortega, if he remembered correctly, the felon son of their housemaid, or with either of her parents by her side.

“I would prefer to send you away for a month at the county jail. That ought to straighten you out. However, the laws of the state of Massachusetts do not allow me.” The judge continued, doling out the punishment. “Therefore, I hereby sentence you, Nathan Sterling, III, to ten weeks of community service. I really hope this would be of help to your behaviour."

The gavel went down, he was taken away from the courtroom to where his family was restlessly waiting, no doubt anxious to give him a piece of their mind. He almost wished that Rhodes had locked him away.

“A DUI, Nathan, honestly.” Lois Sterling, his mother, admonishes coldly. “Why don’t you just piss on your great-grandfather’s statue at main square while you’re on it, huh?”

He limits himself to a glare. His mother really knows how to make a bad situation worse just by standing in the room.

His father, in turn, merely sighed, patting Nathan's stiff shoulder. "Learn something there, son."

"Nathan, you're an idiot. I swear, you are!" Katie huffed, looking very much like an angry poodle dog. "But I really feel like something good may come out of this whole mess, so don't go messing things up."

He rolled his eyes. "Whatever you want, Cinderella."

All he got was an answering smack.

*_*_*_*_*

"Well, now what am I supposed to do?" Nathan asked, refraining from groaning as he looked at the peeling layers of wallpaper in the room of the orphanage.

The matron of the establishment narrowed her beady, black eyes at him, as if threatening him, before she pushed the grey bun on her head up higher. He stared at it for a moment, fascinated, before turning to face her. "I'm sorry, Ms..."

"Mrs. Higginbotham." She snapped, her lips twisting to a grimace. "You weren't listening."

"I'm sorry." He shuffled his feet and stared at them for a moment, trying to deceive her into thinking he was feeling guilty, which he obviously was not.

She released a sigh. "It's alright, boy."

Some people just were so easy to deceive. Most people, in fact, were easily thwarted by him. Call it a congenic trait.

The older woman motioned for the wall. "You need to peel of the wallpaper of this entire room before repainting it. A few older children will be coming in to help you out later, so don't worry about the workload."

He nodded.

She mimicked his movements, looking satisfied before leaving him with the appropriate tools.

He sighed, pulling his sleeves up and dreading the loss of a shirt. "Better get to work now, I guess."

"Hello!" A cheery voice disrupted his concentration, and he turned to face her after scraping off the last peeling layer of white from the ceiling.

What he saw was an assorted group of approximately thirteen-year-old teens standing there and looking at him. He fought back a grimace, before he raised his hand in an awkward wave.

"Uh, hi?"

"We heard you were here to serve your sentence." One of the boys blurted out.

The boy beside him smacked him.

"Not a sentence, Nicky. That's such an exaggeration!" He paused, before giving Nathan a curious look. "Or is it?"

"Alright, boys." A girl who was obviously the leader of the group of five stepped out, holding her palms up for silence. "Enough. We are here to help."

The two boys bowed their heads in resignation. "Sorry, Vanessa."

She nodded her head in satisfaction before turning her attention to the gaping Nathan. "What do you need help with, sir?"

"The scraping of wallpaper at the rest of the walls, I guess. I already did the ceiling. Then we can paint this room." He replied after recovering quickly. "And don't call me 'sir', please. It makes me sound old."

Vanessa grinned.

"Okay. Let's get to work then!"

This kid must be something to control them like that. Blonde curly hair, bright blue eyes, clearly a strong-willed kid. Had not been for the crude demeanour of her posture, one would say they were siblings. He found he rather liked her.

A few minutes after they started work, Nicky, if he remembered correctly, suddenly asked. "Brad, aren't you looking forward to the afternoon?"

The boy who smacked Nicky turned, his eyes bright as a cheeky smile surfaced, accidently scratching the wall with his tool in his carelessness, but he paid it no heed.

"Like, duh! Emmy is coming!"

"Emmy?" Nathan could not help himself from asking.

All eyes in the room turned to look at him, looking shocked before exclaiming in unison, "You don't know who's Emmy?"

“No, not really.” He responded.

“Emily Harper.” Vanessa supplied, helpfully. “She’s a voluntary teacher here. The kids that have been here the longest call her Emmy.”

“Oh! She’s my next-door neighbour.” He gasped in recognition. "Um, well, we’ve met, years ago, but we’re not close anymore. She's kind of... I don't know… "

He tried to untangle himself out of the situation, noticing how everyone seemed to stiffen at his words.

"You're one of those creeps who look down on her, right?" Nicky yelled, his face red with anger as he fisted his hands, stepping forward and looking as if he was about to hit him.

"Nicky." Vanessa's soft voice stopped him, and he bit his lip before muttering an apology.

"I'm sorry, Nathan, we're rather protective when it comes to Emily." She managed a smile. "I sure hope you aren't one of those who look down on her. She is a lovely person. She really brightens up our day."

He smiled back, unsure of what reply to give.

After that exchange, the room's atmosphere seemed to escalate to a freezing region, where everyone talked among themselves, occasionally only speaking to Nathan when they need to.

It seemed hours to him before Mrs. Higginbotham came, looking very pleased with their progress. "Well, you are almost done, ain't ya?"

All the teens nodded their heads eagerly, excluding Nathan.

"Well, I suppose you all can go for your break." She turned to leave before she angled her face back to face them once more, a twinkle in her eye. "By the way, Ms. Harper has arrived."

It was a moment after she left, before all the children threw down their tools and dashed out, pushing against each other as they stumbled along the corridor. Nathan blinked once in bewilderment, before he decided not to follow.

He continued working on his part of the room for a few more minutes, before his stomach growled. He bit the inside of his cheeks, before resigning. Now, he would have to find the canteen by himself.

How pathetic. Why did he have to stop his car when Officer Silverhawk signalled him to? Walsh would never let her come after him, anyways. There were so many better ways to spend his precious time, to the point he is willing to go work with his father.

Pulling the towel off his neck, he jumped down from the stool before trudging out of the room. The county orphanage could not be that big; he was sure of it. It should not be too hard to find the canteen.

He yawned, rubbing his eyes. This work really was exhausting.

As he walked down the hallway, commiserating with himself, a beautiful melody drifted to his ears then, and he immediately perked up. Someone was playing the violin, and that person was really good at it, too.

Unknowingly, his feet followed the source of the music, and he stopped in front of a door at last.

Placing his hand on the doorknob, he debated for a while whether he should go in or just leave it be. But the curiosity of knowing who was inside overwhelmed him, and he twisted the knob as softly as he could before he poked his head to the room.

A redhead with long, flowing curly hair tumbling down to her waist was on the middle of a mostly empty room, holding the instrument. She was wearing a white floral dress that reached over her knees. He watched, transfixed as her fingers danced over the strings, her eyes closed and her full lips in a concentrated pout.

"Nathan?" Mrs. Higginbotham's voice broke him out of his entranced stare.

The music abruptly got cut off and the girl turned to face him. His jaw almost fell to the ground.

"E-Emily?" He managed to get out.

She smiled a breath-taking smile, standing up from her seat, her eyes still closed as she tilted her head to the side for a moment.

"Hi, Nathan."

"Hi?" But it sounded more like a question. The beautiful girl playing the violin just now... Was actually Emily Harper? The ghost of Birchport? The bratty child of the county judge?

He swallowed, watching as her long, elegant fingers pressed against her full, red lips, looking embarrassed.

"Did you hear me play?" She asked, a soft stutter on her words.

"I did. It was beautiful." He breathed, still looking utterly entranced, his emerald green eyes lighting up as they stared at her.

Red coloured both her cheeks as she fidgeted even more, seeming to feel the weight of his stare. "Thank you, you’re too kind."

Suddenly, someone coughed in the room, and Nathan realized they were not alone. The entire roomful of teens and children and Mrs. Higginbotham were looking at him, seemingly in amusement and curiosity.

"New brother!" One of the younger kids squealed before clapping his hands together, looking very happy.

Nathan stared at them with a completely bewildered expression.

"Well, Nathan, how nice of you to join us." Mrs. Higginbotham said, motioning for him to take a seat and snapping him out of his thoughts.

"Thank you, Mrs. Higginbotham."

"Sorry, Nathan. I really thought you were one of those creeps who look down on Emmy." Nicky whispered to him from in front and Nathan tilted his head to the side. Why would anyone look down on her? She was beautiful, and she played such beautiful music.

Before he could ask, though, Emily had already picked up her instrument and placed on her neck, measuring the tempo for a new song. She seemed tense now, her fingers stiff. Was it because of his presence?

He wondered about it, before shaking it off. Impossible.

Her first note was slightly shaky, before it was followed by a firmer tone. As she continued on, her confidence began to grow and the music slowly crawled to a crescendo, her fingers flying over the strings.

He could not help but gape. She was the epitome of beauty and class. Maybe she would be deserving to be his next conquest.

"Beautiful, isn't she?" Mrs. Higginbotham murmured from beside him.

He nodded, not speaking, transfixed by the song.

"You can't even tell that she's blind." She said softly and Nathan whirled to face her in shock.

"What?"

"Why, yes, Nathan. She's blind." She said, a little surprised. “I thought you knew. Most people in town do.”

“I… She wasn’t blind back when we were close.” He responded lamely.

Higginbotham tutted, lost in thought. “She did lose her sight, just after her father’s death.”

“How did it happen?” He asked, curiously.

“You’d do better asking her yourself.” She answered with a tone of finality.

That night, as he went out with Kassidy Marquez, his mind was elsewhere; thinking of a certain redhead with a lovely blush.

Soon, he broke off with a shocked and angry Kassidy, because he simply could not stand the heaviness in his heart.

*_*_*_*_*

Emily teaches music to the children at the orphanage, or at least tries to. Their music room was on the bare side, so their lessons are mostly consisted of her playing for them to hear. After every break she plays, she would tell the children the stories of her life, and Nathan would sometimes be one of the characters.

When she was feeling particularly wicked, she would tell some humiliating story of the two of them when they were kids, which would always finish with him red as a tomato and mumbling, “That’s so not what happened…”

She, however, never told them about the time she spent away from Birchport, curiously enough. She never told them how she lost her sigh, nor where she had been or what she had been doing. It was mysterious.

Every day, after clock out, Nathan would go home alone looking dazed, and Katie would be waiting for him on the foyer, just to pester him as always, wondering who the girl was.

She sure was not the only one wondering.

He stopped going out at night, he stopped dating different girls at the time. In a nutshell, he stopped doing everything like he would always do. Instead, he would always go to their library to play the piano when he had any free time.

There was a time he loved playing the piano. His mother had commanded him to chose an instrument, and he took to that. He even had quite a deal of talent, but on his Senior year in high school, Lois barred him from playing and at Hartford was impossible. By the time Summer came and he returned to Birchport, he had long forgot it.

The change of his personality within such a short period of time was shocking, to say the least. It was a pleasant one, though, of course.

He would always look out of his bedroom window, gazing beyond the gardens, wanting to see her, but he would never have the chance to. So, he had to wait every day until he reached the orphanage.

*_*_*_*_*

"Nathan, it's your last day of community service today, right?" Katie declared, over breakfast. "It must have been a long two months and a half."

He shook his head, but refrained from a snarky comment. Nathan had been more patient with his cousin by marriage these days. In fact, he had been more patient and mindful with just about everybody, with the notable exception of his mother.

Happy people want for everybody to be happy too, he reasoned. Since he felt more comfortable in Emily’s company, he stopped to be so cynical about everyone’s angle when talking to him, he became more trusting. He was even beginning to accept that Katie was just a good person, after all.

"It's not long at all." He murmured, the corner of his lips tugging up slightly. "Not long at all."

Nathan, Snr., stared, seeming shocked, but said nothing. An approving smile was on his face. They simply have to meet this miracle-worker.

Lois, in turn, glared at her son. “I hope you’ve learned your lesson, boy. The next time you pull out something like that, you won’t be getting off so easily.”

The young man shrugged and got up to his feet, leaving the house with no further words. He jumped into his car and drove as fast as he could to the orphanage, getting straight into work as soon as he arrived.

He watched her as he ran his errands, during every break of that week, watching the beautiful girl playing music that touched his very soul. He was captivated, he was entranced, and he was completely falling to the grace of it.

Not only to the violin, but to the girl playing it.

The slight furrow between her brows as she contemplated something; how she pressed her fingers against her lips when she was embarrassed; how her hands would wrang together when she was nervous; how she would bite her lip when she was frightened; how...

Fuck, how did he know these things?

He buried his head into the crook of his arm. It was the last day of his community service, and he was actually here, obsessing over a girl. A girl who barely knew him and would certainly hate to.

"Nathan?"

It was then, did he realize that Mrs. Higginbotham has been calling him for some time. She looked rather displeased. Again.

"I'm sorry."

"It's alright." She smiled. "As I was saying, I've seen in your information that you're rather talented in the piano. Why don't you two play a piece together? As a farewell?"

"You're leaving?"

A slight furrow could be seen from his view and he smiled, though he knew she would not see it. She actually looked concerned. He almost laughed at the irony of Judge Rhode's words on his sentence. Well, it certainly backfired.

He nodded slowly, out of habit. "Well, yeah. It's my last day of community service."

“I’ll round up the kids, while you decide on a song.” The matron declared, excusing herself. “I’m sure it will be beautiful.”

A pause.

"So, would you like to play a duet with me?" He asked, his tone velvet and smooth.

He would not talk to her anymore after this. Perhaps he would, they were neighbours, but it did not seem likely. It would not be like it was now, in these hallowed rooms, away from their families and away from the prying eyes of the community.

As he spoke, he took big strides, reaching her quickly. He took her hands that were wrung together on her lap before taking one of them to his lips, pressing his lips against them gently. She blushed deep red.

He felt his crooked smile on his face. His real smile, the one born out of legitimate joy, that he almost forgot he had. He frowned at that thought, dismissing it away quickly.

"A duet, my Lady?"

"Sure…" She stammered, a blush still on her cheeks.

He sat on a bench and stretched his hands to play the old piano that the institution kept and he had tuned earlier that month.

There was a silence as they shifted to make themselves comfortable, before he blurted, “Where were you?”

“What?” She asked softly, in confusion.

“We were friends, Emily. It might have been long ago, but I remember that much. I left for New Haven after Labour Day one year, and when I came back in the Spring, you were gone.” He said, rather feverishly. “Then, as suddenly as you left, you came back, and now you are blind. What happened?”

The girl turned her face away, trying to hide the tint on her cheeks. “It was entirely too sudden. My dad died, and then we moved right away. I didn’t know until I heard the movers come into the house.”

“Why, Emily? What happened?” He insisted.

“My dad, he had a heart attack while driving. He hit a tree and died from the impact. I was on the car with him, and the glass shards from the windshield cut my eyes.” She explained. “The doctors in Boston said I wouldn’t be able to see anymore, so my mother moved us to New York, so I could attend a school for the blind.”

“I see.” He nodded, sober. “And Judge Rhodes?”

“My mother met him in New York. He is a good man, just a little overbearing. He thought it would be better to live in a small town, that it would be safer, so when I got into Boston Conservatory, they decided to relocate to Birchport for me to commute.” She finishes her story with a soft voice, barely perceptible.

“I see. Thank you for telling me.” He responded, a little ashamed of himself. He should not have pressured her that way.

“It’s okay, I’ve been meaning to, actually.” Emily said, smiling again. “I was honestly quite intimidated by you in the beginning. You seemed always so angry and frustrated.”

Nathan chuckled. “It’s because I was.”

“You’ve mellowed out since.” She concludes. “I’m glad. You have a nice voice when you’re happy. I like it.”

“I have a pretty voice…” Nathan teased. "I must be pretty hot, huh?"

She giggled softly. "Yeah. You seem to be, if I remember you right."

"You aren't the only girl who say that."

Her smile melted away then, and Nathan berated himself for saying such a thing.

“You’re very perceptible. I live in a house full of perfectly seeing people, and none of them identify what I think or feel.” He smiled sadly, trying to cover up his slip of the tongue.

“I’m sorry for that, Nathan. You shouldn’t be made feel this way.” She raises her hands to him. He picks them up and cradle them on his. “People are good in hiding emotions in their faces, but not on their voices, not on their bodies. If there is one good thing about being blind is that it is difficult to be lied to.”

They took a minute to enjoy each other’s bodily presence, one that was too soon interrupted by a loud cough from Mrs. Higginbotham. All the older teens behind her stifled their laughter, seeming to know what was going on.

"What piece then?" Nathan questioned, a smile seeming stuck on his face. He just could not stop smiling.

"How about Dvořák?" She offers. “The fourth duet.”

"I like it." He murmured, watching as she fumbled with the stacks of scores for a moment before pulling out the desired one.

"I hope you'd have no problem with it. Um, no, I'm not underestimating you, it's just..."

He laughed. "No worries, Emily. I can cope, and I know you're not."

He could not help the arrogance that slipped through, but it was him, after all. He was not called a piano prodigy for nothing. His thumb brushed her warm cheek casually before they turned to the score before them.

He counted softly under his breath before his fingers swept over the keys in a beautiful, enchanting dance. The soft, soothing melody filled the room, their music interacting beautifully on the dusty air, and a smile would surface on both Nathan's and Emily's face as a surge of electricity run through their veins.

"Beautiful piece, isn't it?" Emily whispered, almost too soft for him to hear as their fingers choreographed a breath-taking dance, without any rehearsals or practice. They felt whole.

"Yes." Nathan murmured, unable to stop the next sentence from slipping out. "More beautiful when it's played with you."

He knew that out of all the girls he had been with, she, Emily Harper, the ghost of Birchport, brought out the best in him. He did not need to look at her to know she was smiling a timid smile.

They struck a final chord and simultaneously turned to face each other; though Emmy could not see him, before breaking out into a joyful laughter. The people in the room started laughing too.

The younger children had no idea what was happening, but they joined in, clapping their hands and squealing, immersing themselves in the happy and light atmosphere.

The fingers that were once dancing over the keys were now interlaced with each other tightly.

He knew it then, as he swept a strand of brown hair away from her closed eyes, a beautiful smile on her face; that he wanted her to love him; that he wanted them to be together.

"Emily." He murmured, cupping her face gently in his hands, before he pressed a soft kiss against her full, pouty ones, watching as a familiar red coloured her cheeks.

"Yes?" She answered breathlessly.

He smiled. "I promise I’ll share my eyes with you, if you promise to always be with me."

He watched a tear escape from the corner of her closed eye, before leaning forward and capturing it with his finger.

“I promise.” She whispered.

The children cheered while Mrs. Higginbotham looked at them with a berating eye-stare, scolding them for the display, but she could not stop a soft smile from spreading across her face, either.

*_*_*_*_*

TF Masterlist

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[numbandhigh]

About Jae

MICHEAL JAE BARRONS is a 345 year old BISEXUAL, MALE, HE/HIM here in Upper America. People say they look a lot like SIMON BAKER. They are FUN LOVING but can be EASILY-AGITATED. They are a CIVILIAN. They do not belong to one of of the Noble Houses and work as a BOUNCER AT THE POINTED FANG.

Micheal Jae Barrons

Age:345

Height: 6’5

Appearance: Standing at 6’5 Jae had a broad build with clear muscle definition and mass. He works out regularly which helps keep him in shape. His skin is tanned, with one full sleeve tattooed on his left arm, the detailed illustration of a dragon taking up most of his arm. The thing starts with its tail at the base of his shoulder blade, dark scaled body winding down his full arm in a coiled motion before coming to a stop on top of his hand- the thing sneering viciously. His hair is a golder blond mess of unbrushed curls that he sometimes ties back in a ponytail.

His eyes are a bluish green hazel color with think blonde lashes running along the outer border of his eyelids. While inherently handsome and charming the male has a kind of edge about him that hints to something dangerous and unseen. Though very few people have really seen the side that he barries with drugs.

—-

Jae on the surface is a charming and playful individual. He enjoys flirting and exchanging light-hearted banter and all and all has a very relaxed personality. Though, this is generally due to him being high on something, he dislikes talking about his family and especially his sister. He partially blames his parents for not forcing dahlia to leave her abusive husband while he was away, though most of his anger is pointed inward in silent selfloathing. A part of him wished he could take her place, to give his sister a second chance to find true happiness and live as she wanted.

No one knows about these thoughts though. Not even his good friend darius, he keeps that subject buried and intends to keep it that way.

—–

The Firstborn of a higher level civilian family Jae grew up in a rather comfortable home, his father was a rather well-known law attorney, having headed several high profile cases in the past earning the Man both respect and pretty wealthy living. Jaes mother though she didnt have to- worked as an organizer at the local library, always having a love for books.

Hed always looked up to his father and wanted to follow in his footsteps working for upholding justice and preserving the peace. Though decided that being a lawyer just wasnt for him and chose the path of a blood knight instead. Which his parents wholeheartedly supported. He was in the academy when his younger sister Dariah was born, and instantly when the pair met they developed a close bond and became inseparable.

While Jae had taken after his father, in both looks and attitude, Dariah was soft-spoken and shy much like his mother- an easy target for bullying in school. Leading jae to feel particularly protective over her, hed walk her to school in uniform and pick her up when needed. When she got older he was against her moving out- after all their home had plenty of space and it was safer. But she insisted she needed her own place and against him and his fathers wishes, she left.

While they still stayed in touch- Dariah kept her brother at an arms-length, insisting he was suffocating her with his protectiveness, causing the siblings to only speak a couple times a month. When it was announced that Dariah had been engaged the family rejoiced, a bloodknight in the year above Jae whom shed met working with her mother. Jae had never met the male but was happy for his sister. Giving his blessing.

Though, when he started noticing the bruises. His opinion of the male soured fast. It went on for a few months, Jae had suspicions of his sister being abused but no real proof or evidence. Vampires healed fast after all and Dariah had been protecting her fiance and claiming nothing was happening.

But Jae knew his sister. Knew when she started acting different and closing out their family even more then normal that something wasnt right.

One night, he went to check on her- he was on shift and just wanted to do a house check. She hadnt been answering his calls and jae had a sick feeling.. He found Dariah on the floor of her bedroom, unconscious and beaten severely, her body had already gotten to work healing the wounds but based on the severity.. It was clear this had been intentional- a punishment,

He took her to their family home and went back to the BK Headquarters. Her fiance was at his desk, talking on the phone as if he hadnt just beat jaes sister within an inch of her life when he found him. The male took one look at the bastad split knuckles and saw red.

Jae didnt remember the attack, Hed approached the males desk and saw his hands- and then…it was a blur, a rush of emotional fury and violence that ended with him being hauled off of Dariahs unconscious battered and bloody fiance and restrained on the floor. The males face looked like someone had taken a bat to it- over and over, barely recognizable to anyone.

Jae had broken his nose, his jaw- shattered his teeth and had cracked several of the officers ribs. Leaving the man SEVERELY fucked up. Assaulting a commanding officer so brutally and while in uniform, Jae didnt have much hope for escaping without some prison time. Adding onto the fact that the male had ties to nobility in some regard.. Even his father couldnt bail him out.

Stripped of his status and hauled away for several years, jae didnt regret his decision. However..his sister once she recovered and found out what hed done to her fiance was horrified, she called jae a monster and ran back to the arms of her abuser. She stayed with him for 5 long years, until she ended up taking her own life. He was in prison at the time and couldnt even attend her funeral.

He blamed himself, feeling as though hed failed to protect her, and let that bastard slip through his fingers. Hed wished hed killed the man that night…but when Jae was finally released. The abuser had slipped town and was gone, without a trace. His parents though heartbroken slowly moved on, though Jae never really could. Not without a little help.

Having been introduced to drugs in prison he became dependant on the stuff, and eventually, this led to his parents kicking him from the home and forcing him to live on his own. Which is how he found his way to The pointed fang. His large body and strength made him a prime candidate for the open bouncer position, hes been working there for a good amount of time now and is good friends with Darius Ashtons- another bouncer that works there.

Hes just getting by these days, watching the clock tick by until his time comes.

[zibizuba]

12 TV Couples Who Absolutely Hated Each Other In Real Life

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Many individuals have a coworker they only don’t like. Generally, it’s a problem of personalities not clicking or an out-and-out distinction in pursuits and ideologies. However what occurs in case you’re compelled to love that coworker? Like, it’s actually your job to fake you like that particular person? This was the dilemma confronted by well-known TV {couples} who hated one another off-screen.

All cherished TV twosomes give their finest impression of being completely happy, lovey-dovey companions. Whereas there are some TV {couples} who bought collectively in actual life, there are many different actor pairings who hated one another in actuality. Many individuals look to tv for leisure and escapism, so it’s simple to neglect that the actors you’re watching are literally working their jobs proper there – and never each job, work atmosphere, or colleague goes to be a cakewalk.

These professionals, who needed to fake to love somebody they despised, needed to take their performing talents to an entire new stage. Generally, they have been profitable in making followers imagine they beloved their TV companions. Nonetheless, off-screen espresso breaks, vacation events, and downtime have been in all probability fairly brutal – simply ask these TV co-stars who hate one another.

  Mila Kunis & Ashton Kutcher – That ’70s Present

Kunis and Kutcher are fortunately married now, however their relationship wasn’t always so sunny. After they met on the set of That ’70s Present, the place they portrayed Jackie and Kelso, the 2 actors couldn’t stand each other. For all their scenes, Kunis and Kutcher needed to fake to actually like one another after they really despised each other.

It might be chalked as much as a maturity difficulty or perhaps a era hole: Kunis was simply 14 when That ’70s Present began, and Kutcher was 21. Co-stars have been a bit stunned the 2 ended up collectively in actual life, however in a twist of candy irony, Kutcher turned Kunis’s first kiss – in character as Kelso and Jackie, in fact.

Stana Katic & Nathan Fillion – Fort

The celebrities of Fort were once said to “fully despise one another.” Rumor had it that Katic, who performed Kate Beckett, and Fillion, who performed Richard Fort, refused to talk to 1 one other after they weren’t in entrance of the digital camera. However issues on the set apparently bought so unhealthy that Katic was breaking down in tears due to Fillion’s conduct, and producers compelled the 2 actors into precise {couples} counseling. Each actors have dealt with the reputed discord with professionalism: Katic has by no means publicly acknowledged any stress between Fillion and herself, and Fillion has tweeted his support of Katic.

Lauren Graham & Scott Patterson – Gilmore Ladies

Stars Hole’s favourite couple, Lorelai (Lauren Graham) and Luke (Scott Patterson), might not have been as star-crossed as viewers had hoped. Although each Graham and Patterson have labored arduous to disclaim any friction between them, rumors persist that the 2 Gilmore Ladies stars weren’t precisely the perfect of mates. Or mates in any respect, actually. When requested in an interview if she and Patterson have been mates off the set, Graham replied with what gave the impression to be an emphatic, “No.” The 2 did publish an all-smiles selfiewhen Gilmore Ladies wrapped, however have been they only completely happy as a result of they by no means needed to see one another once more? Followers might by no means know.

Nina Dobrev & Ian Somerhalder – The Vampire Diaries

The swoon-worthy stars of The Vampire Diaries dated for 3 years through the present’s run. Their breakup was rumored to be ugly, however Dobrev’s Elena and Somerhalder’s Damon have been additionally a pair on the present. This made for some extraordinarily troublesome and more-than-a-little awkward stress on-set. Finally, Dobrev left the sequence. She appeared to look again on all of it in stride. “Sure, we’re skilled and that’s advantageous,” she mentioned in 2015 of her rocky relationship with Somerhalder. “We have been mates lengthy earlier than we dated and we nonetheless at the moment are.”

Gillian Anderson & David Duchovny – The X-Information

Not the much-loved Scully and Mulder?!? Sure, it’s true. Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny of The X-Information have stored the reality on the market: as co-workers, they’ve had their share of ups and downs. “There have been durations after we hated one another,” said Anderson, who, tellingly, uncared for to thank her co-star in her Emmy acceptance speech. Duchovny has additionally confirmed that the 2 had no actual relationship off the set.

Nonetheless, it’s additionally vital to level out that each seem to have been skilled regardless of their variations, and so they proceed to work collectively in varied X-Information incarnations within the 21st century. According to Duchovny, they now “have a profitable working relationship and that’s one of the best ways to go about this job.”

Vivian Vance & William Frawley – I Love Lucy

Maybe probably the most well-known and beloved TV couple sidekicks in historical past, I Love Lucy‘s Fred (Frawley) and Ethel Mertz (Vance) have been arguably simply as in style as Lucy and Ricky Ricardo. However Frawley and Vance detested each other. It began when Vance, who was 22 years youthful than Frawley, began voicing her displeasure about their age distinction (“No one will believe I’m married to that old coot!”) and about how imply and crotchety Frawley was.

And by all accounts, he was one thing of a crank, saying Vance appeared like “an outdated sack of doorknobs.” Years later, Vance was eating at a restaurant when she heard Frawley had died. She ordered celebratory champagne for your entire place. Evidently, the 2 by no means made peace, regardless of their pitch-perfect chemistry and comedic timing.

Jean Hagen & Danny Thomas – Make Room For Daddy

In the course of the first three seasons of the basic sitcom, Make Room for Daddy, Danny Thomas’s character, Danny Williams, was married to Jean Hagen’s character, Margaret. Plotlines typically revolved round Margaret managing the family and elevating the youngsters whereas Danny was out incomes a residing to assist the household. On the time, it was a novel idea that proved profitable, due in no small half to Thomas and Hagen’s chemistry (she was nominated for an Emmy for every season she was on).

But not the whole lot was good in classic-sitcom land. Thomas and Hagen reportedly clashed on the setand didn’t care that a lot for each other. Hagen uninterested in the present and of Thomas, and left on the finish of the third season. Thomas was apparently so incensed at her leaving that he demanded the writers kill off the character, making Margaret Williams the primary main sitcom character to die.

Patti LuPone & Invoice Smitrovich – Life Goes On

Life Goes On was a kind of reveals that felt revolutionary on the time, however, one way or the other, wasn’t remembered kindly years after it aired. When it debuted in 1989, the weekly drama chronicled the lifetime of the Thatcher household within the Chicago suburbs: mom Libby (the legendary, Tony-winning LuPone), father Drew (Smitrovich), daughters Becca and Paige, and son Corky.

Corky, portrayed by Chris Burke, had down syndrome and plenty of early plots revolved round him; a principal character (and actor) with down syndrome in a significant tv present was a giant deal on the time, and it’s sadly nonetheless fairly unprecedented. Because the present went on, the main target shifted to Becca and her relationship with an HIV-positive classmate (Chad Lowe), one other pioneering transfer throughout that point interval.

However the two actors who presided over the Thatcher household couldn’t stand each other. In her self-titled autobiography, LuPone describes she and Smitrovich as “oil and water…from the very starting,” calling him a “self-absorbed bully.” “If solely he had been a proficient or beneficiant actor, his conduct may need been justified,” she writes. Because the present went on, the 2 stopped talking altogether outdoors of their on-camera dialogue. LuPone summed up the animosity in her sometimes ballsy approach:

“We performed love scenes, we performed parenting scenes, we kissed, we hugged, and when the director yelled ‘Reduce,’ we by no means even checked out one another. That’s performing. (On my half. He simply stunk.)”

Shelley Lengthy & Ted Danson – Cheers

Ah, these good ol’ “artistic variations.” They have been considered one of many predominant causes Shelley Lengthy left her position as Diane Chambers on Cheers. It was extensively reported that she and Ted Danson weren’t getting alongside, leading to Diane leaving Danson’s Sam Malone on the altar within the Season 5 finale. What, precisely, defines a artistic distinction? Is it a easy disagreement on tips on how to play a scene? Or is it an awesome need to scratch your co-star’s eyes out? Nobody is aware of the reply, however Lengthy, acknowledging some friction between Danson and herself, insists they really got along well.

Julie McCullough & Kirk Cameron – Rising Pains

On the fourth season of Rising Pains, Mike Seaver (Kirk Cameron) fell arduous for nanny Julie Costello (Julie McCullough). A wedding was within the works, and McCullough had accomplished filming eight episodes when she was abruptly fired. The explanation? Cameron, a born-again Evangelical Christian, had issues with McCullough posing nude in Playboy, which really occurred three years previous to her Rising Painsrun.

Ten years handed earlier than Cameron apologized and cited his immaturity on the time, seemingly taking duty for the firing. But in his autobiography, he blamed showrunner Dan Guntzelman, who in flip mentioned McCullough was let go for storyline causes. Producer Mike Sullivan confirms Guntzelman’s account. Nonetheless, including appreciable doubt to Cameron’s story is the truth that McCullough was changed on Rising Pains by none aside from Chelsea Noble, who was Cameron’s then-girlfriend, now-wife.

Joan Collins & John Forsythe – Dynasty

Within the 1980s, Dynasty was the peak of sophistication and scandalous cleaning soap opera. On the epicenter of all of the shoulder pads, large hair, catfights, and melodrama have been Blake Carrington (Forsythe) and Alexis Colby (Collins). Blake and Alexis have been divorced, however their ongoing feud was one of many predominant plot factors that drove Dynasty for many of its 9 seasons on the air. And the detest appears to have continued when the cameras weren’t rolling.

Collins has admitted that Forsythe was cool to her after they weren’t filming, and he even went as far as to not speak to her at all for an entire season – outdoors of the dialogue they shared in scenes, in fact. Fortunately, as time went on and Dynasty receded additional and additional into the rearview, the iciness melted: Collins was one of many first individuals to pay tribute to Forsythe after his 2010 dying.

Naya Rivera & Mark Salling – Glee

Within the early seasons of Glee, it was frequent data that Rivera and Salling have been a real-life merchandise. Nonetheless, issues ultimately soured and the 2 broke up. Sadly, they nonetheless needed to play the on-again, off-again couple of Santana and Puck. The rumor mill claims that Salling cheated on Rivera and she or he bought even by keying his automobile. Later, after Salling was arrested on youngster pornography prices, Rivera wrote in her memoir that she wasn’t at all surprised, primarily saying he was at all times a jerk.

Associated

Artykuł 12 TV Couples Who Absolutely Hated Each Other In Real Life pochodzi z serwisu PENSE LOL.

source https://pense.lol/12-tv-couples-who-absolutely-hated-each-other-in-real-life/

[itsluhsbitch]

maybe one day

a/n: so the title is super unrelated. And I was just feeling things and this just kinda happened. Hopefully ya’ll don’t hate it.

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

You smiled as you watched your cousin, Mia, and her husband share their first kiss, binding their marriage. Your heart warmed watching as they pulled apart, smiles on both their faces. You’ve met her husband, Luke a number of times, and he was nothing short of a gentleman. It warmed your heart to see them together, and when you heard they got engaged you were ecstatic, happy that she had found a good one.

The reception was beautiful, your favorite part however was the open bar. You were on your second drink, going to sit back at your table as Luke and Mia had their first dance. You sighed a bit, watching how in love the two were, jealous of it. You were 22 and not once have you had a relationship that lasted longer than 3 months; you catching the guys lying, or cheating, or just couldn’t be bothered to entertain them and their childish ways.

Your parents had went out to dance as well, leaving you alone. You got up to get another drink, your third one of the evening, when Mia ran up behind you.

“getting a few drinks in you before I drag you out to dance” Mia spoke, causing you to turn and smile at her, immediately throwing your arms around her.

“you know I don’t dance Mia” you laughed, you two separating from your hug, your hands on her shoulders “or should I call you Mrs. Hemmings now?” you smiled, watching her blush.

“I still can’t believe it.” she shook her head in disbelief, a smile on her face.

“me either. although, this isn’t quite the barbie fairy princess wedding you dreamed about when we were little” you smirked, causing her to laugh.

“come on (y/n)! I was 7!” she defended herself, the two of you laughing.

“for real though Mia, congratulations. I’m really happy for you.”

“thank you, and don’t worry, one day you’ll find your Ken too” she teased.

“hopefully” you sighed, taking another sip of your drink.

“well, I should go find my husband” Mia spoke, smiling as the words left her lips, “but don’t think I won’t get you out on that dance floor before the night is over!” she giggled, turning and running off to find Luke.

You headed back to your table, sitting down and just watching everyone. You took your phone out and snapped a few pics of Mia and Luke dancing; you even got a few of your parents dancing as well.

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

Calum was in the middle of talking to Luke when he saw his wife, Mia talking to some girl, Calum immediately zoning out of the conversation with Luke.

“Calum are you even paying attention?” Luke spoke, noticing the boys distant stare.

“sorry mate, but who’s that Mia’s talking too?” Calum asked, Luke turning his head in search for his wife.

“Oh! That’s her cousin, (y/n).” Luke answered, turning back to his friend. “why?”

“Just curious” Calum played it off.

“yeah, she’s really cool. I’ve met her a few times”

Just then Mia came up and wrapped her hands around Luke, a smile on her face.

“hi husband.” she giggled, “hi Cal, can I steal him for a bit?” Mia asked, looking at Cal with big eyes.

“yeah it’s fine” he laughed, Mia and Luke’s hands linking together and walking back to the head table.

Calum turned and looked back to the bar only to see you no longer there, scanning around looking for you to see you back at a table, your phone out.

“go talk to her mate” Calum heard beside him, causing him to turn and see Ashton, who offered him a small smile and a nod before turning and sitting back at a table with Mike.

Calum sighed, looking back over to where you were. He knew his friend was right. He thought you were so beautiful, and he knew he would beat himself up if he didn’t talk to you. 

Calum walked to the bar, got himself a beer, and then pointed at you, asking the bartender what you had been drinking, and getting one of those as well, walking towards your table.

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

“is uh- is anyone sitting here?” you heard beside you, causing you to turn and look at the source of the voice, and your breath hitched when you met the most gorgeous pair of brown eyes you’ve ever looked into.

“um n-no.” you stuttered.

the boy slid the chair out and sat down, placing a drink down on the table and sliding it towards you, causing you to raise your brow.

“I uh, I noticed you earlier, and just asked the bartender what you were drinking.” he spoke, his accent a little more evident.

“well, thank you” you smiled.

“I’m um, I’m Calum by the way.” 

“That’s different. I like it” you smiled “I’m (y/n)” you replied,  taking a sip of your drink before looking him in the eyes again. “Mia’s cousin” you finished.

“so I’m assuming you know Luke?” you asked.

“oh yeah. We’ve uh, we’ve been friends for a while.” Calum answered, going on to talk about them going to school together, and starting a little garage band and that they had uploaded videos on youtube with their other two friends, to which you immediately begged he show you a few.

“you look so cute here” you muttered as you two were huddled closer to see the video, biting your lip as soon as it slipped past your lips. You and Calum had a few more drinks in the time you two had been sitting there and talking, a light buzz hitting you both. You honestly couldn’t help but let it slip. He looked so different now than 6 years ago when he was 18.

Calum felt his cheeks heat up, and he wasn’t sure if it was just because of the small little compliment, or the fact that you two had scooted so close to one another.

“do you guys still play?” you asked, turning to look at him.

“yeah, here and there.” Cal smiled.

“so this means I’ll have chance to get to hear you sing?” you asked, smiling at him, eyes beaming.

“maybe one day.” Calum spoke.

“I’m looking forward to it.” you flirted.

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

Luke walked up to the table the boys were seated at; a beer sat in front of him as soon as he sat down.

“thanks mate” Luke nodded at Mike before taking a sip. Luke looked around, noticing Calum wasn’t there.

“where’s Cal?”

“he went off to talk to some girl like two hours ago. Haven’t seen him since” Ashton spoke.

Just then Calum walked up to the table, a smile on his face.

“there he is!” Mike nodded behind Ashton, all the boys’ heads turning to look that way, Cal smiling and sitting down before his friends started asking questions about the past 2 hours.

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

You and Calum had stopped watching videos of him and his friends garage band, much to your dismay. You thought he looked absolutely adorable in the videos. But you two quickly dove into conversation, getting interrupted when your dad came up to ask you to dance for the father, daughter dance.

You looked at Calum, who just nodded in understanding. He stayed at the table as you and your dad headed out to the dance floor. Calum watching as you and your dad started dancing, Calum getting up and heading back to his friends table.

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

You looked over your shoulder and saw Luke cutting in to dance with Mia, your dad muttering to you “that’ll be you someday”

You were about to reply when a voice you’ve grown to know spoke beside you.

“excuse me sir, do you mind if I cut in?”

Your dad couldn’t help but notice the smile that made it’s way onto your face as soon as the boy spoke.

“sure” your dad spoke as your hands let him and Calum stepped in.

“you gonna stand on my feet too?” Calum chuckled as his hands settled on your waist and yours found their way around his neck.

You buried your head in his chest.

“oh my gosh” you groaned, embarrassed he saw that.

“what? I thought it was cute” he teased, squeezing your sides a bit making you squirm, a small little laugh slipping past your lips as the two of you swayed back and forth.

After you two danced, and the song had finished, the dance floor was cleared for Mia to throw the bouquet, all kinds of girls standing around ready for her to toss it.

“you’re not in there?” Calum asked beside you, a drink in his hand.

“are you crazy? those girls don’t play around when it comes to catching that bouquet.” You spoke, watching as it was thrown behind her, and three grown women fought to catch it.

“oh damn, you’re right” Calum winced, seeing on of the girls pulling at another’s hair.

“so I was thinking.” Calum spoke, causing you to look at him, “maybe you’d wanna get outta here?” he asked shyly.

“and what exactly did you have in mind?”

“well, my mates and I were probably gonna leave soon and go back to our place, order a pizza, hang out, drink a beer or two.”

“I think pizza and a beer or two sound great” you smiled.

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

part 2?

[unkindnessofone]

Keep Up

It’s been awhile since I’ve written these little families. Just sat down and wrote what came to mind. I hope you like it. 

Even though no one was talking directly to her about it, Molly could sense things were changing. She was no longer the center of her parent's universe since she now had a sibling, a baby brother with wispy blond hairs on his head that her mother referred to exclusively as 'spun gold'. The lazy days at home in their London loft were becoming busier and the schedule had shifted from routine to packed. The afternoons where her dad would bundle her up in blue knit cardigan, Burberry as chosen by her mum, and walk with her to Regent's Park with their golden retriever had become less and less. It was something she could on happening before dinner every day and now it was a surprise, her father poking his head into her bedroom to interrupt her playing with the offer. He used to do it to give her mom a break, leave her alone with Connor or to nap, but now he was doing it for his own gain. He wanted private time with Molly, yearning for closeness, as their quiet life was headed to an end.

Fashion Week in London was a few months away and it collided with the album release for Ashton's band, the first record they had put out in years, the last one coming out right after Emmeline was born. He was going to be occupied with press before embarking on an exhausting tour while his wife was tending to her own new collection. Molly didn't know what changes were coming or what her life was supposed to be, she could just sense a shift in the apartment. The fact that many of their things were being packed up and her parents were always having their own conversations right above her frizzy head of hair was giving it away.

She was laying on her belly, legs folded in the air behind her, and playing with a container of plastic fish toys on the floor of Simone's home office. Molly had no interest in gemstones and shiny objects. She liked to create make believe worlds inside jungles and underneath seas. She always wanted to feel the texture of things whether slimy, rough, or smooth. Molly was not a pristine porcelain doll of a little girl. She was a concoction of her mother's focus and poise and her father's curiosity and edge. The only thing they both gifted her with was creativity which she had coursing through her veins constantly, even when she slept. As she played on the floor, giving the fish voices under her breath, her mother was clicking around on her laptop, deep in her work.

“Your mum's on her way.” Ashton appeared in the doorway, shaking his phone face first towards his wife. Simone's mother had texted them both, but Ashton knew that Simone would be concentrating on work too much to notice any buzzing or beeping from her phone by her side. She could tune out anything except the high pitch screams of her newborn.

“Great.” Simone said automatically before glancing at the time. “She's early. We weren't going to-” She peeled her eyes off of the e-mail she was proofreading and brought them to Ashton with alarm.

“I know.” Coyly, he admitted and then pointed out Molly on the floor between them with a cock of his head. “I wanted a little more time.” He was leaving in a few days, off to California to start press ahead of the first single's release. When he first found himself falling in love and finding more in his life that held promise outside of parties, music, and models, Ashton started to find it hard to go back to his hectic life as a rockstar. When Molly was first born, she was raised by a village of crew and band members, it was simple to stuff her in a Baby Bjorn and wander around the world. Now, he had a firm family and Simone wasn't taking any time off, Ashton felt like he was tearing in two. He was going back to his first love, music, that he had taken a needed rest from, but he was also leaving part of himself behind.

Molly was three and talking to her toy fish, unaware that feet away from her, her father was breaking in two.

Understanding, Simone nodded. She pushed herself away from the glass desk and folded her hands over her lap, watching Ashton as he gazed down at Molly with heavy and evident sadness in his eyes. He was horrible at goodbyes, something that before his daughter he had been almost too good at.

“I can  let my mum in. I'll handle Connor.” He was asleep, but nobody knew how long that would last. He had a set of lungs on him that Ashton was very proud of. The boy didn't keep quiet for very long for anyone, but Simone's parents.

Ashton nodded at Molly and then smacked his hands together, swinging his arms in front of him, for her attention.

“Do you want to go to the park with me?” He asked, trying to be casual and not give her any indication to how emotionally conflicted he currently was.

Feverishly, Molly nodded right away and then climbed up onto her feet. She was ready to go, a thin lipped smile spreading across her face like nutella over fresh toast.

“Put your toys away, okay?” Out of habit, his hand wrestled softly through his mess of hair. “I'll be at the door with your boots and jacket.” He told her without letting her go, his large hand still over the top her head.

“You, me, and dad. We're going to have a little date after, okay?” Simone informed her from her desk, rolling the chair close to the edge again. “So, after the park you'll come back, we'll brush our teeth and hair, we'll go out.” Simone and Ashton had not had isolated time with Molly since Connor was born, but it had been Ashton's idea to do something small and special with her before he left. They were just going to go have pizza together at a little hole in the wall spot Simone loved in Maida Vale where they lived, but to Molly it was as fancy and wonderful as a five-star Grammy's after-party.

With all the excitement she could muster, Molly bounced around as she collected her toys in their proper pail. She tidied up as fast as she could and met her dad at the front door. Just as promised, he was ready to go with her little Burberry coat open in both hands and her red rubber wellies right by her mother's.

“I didn't run because Connor is sleeping.” With a finger in front of her mouth, Molly proudly whispered to her dad. Her tongue slightly tripped over her words, but she spoke well for a toddler. Ashton had to credit that all to Simone who had always spoken to Molly as if she was a petite adult even when she was first born. Ashton had been the one who rubbed his nose into her belly and spoke to her like he didn't know how to pronounce the sound of the letter 'R' or as if he had been raised around Sesame Street.

“That's very nice of you. You're a nice big sister.” He assured her as she turned around and slid her arms clumsily into her coat.

Molly ran out into the hall and carelessly for the elevator doors, Ashton staying back and locking the flat door behind him. Even though Simone was home, he was protective and didn't leave anything to chance. He had cameras in certain rooms of their place that both he  and his wife could check on from their phones. It wasn't because they didn't trust one another and needed to keep tabs on their private lives, but it was out of Ashton's need to be the great protector of his family. When he was away, he hated feeling helpless. He wanted to know what was going on. It was something of a life jacket for him.

“Molly, wait!” He called at her from the door, sensing without looking that she was reaching up to stab the elevator call button. Molly was incredibly well-behaved. She had always followed the rules set out for her without any problem, but she was like any little kid when it came to elevator buttons. She just had to touch them.

Once they were leaving their guarded building, Ashton opened up his hand and Molly instinctively put hers inside of it. His own hand practically engulfed all of her fingers, but Molly didn't notice. She was too busy counting the red buses that passed them as Ashton led her down the same walk they always took. He pointed out the streets to her as they passed each block, asking her to guess. He wanted to know that if they were ever separated, Molly would be able to make her own way home. Blomfield Road came before Randolph Mews then Clarendon Gardens and then Clifton Gardens.

They arrived at the park later than usual. They didn't bring their dog to pull on them and eagerly lead the way. Ashton also paid more attention on quizzing Molly on their surroundings than he usually did on keeping her focused on walking at a regular pace. This time, they walked was as if they were both her size.

Usually, Molly charged through the gates of the park, finally allowed to let go of a parent’s hand, but this time, she squeezed Ashton's hand tighter and didn't let go. Ashton decided not to question it though and just kept strolling with her, on their way to the lake or the playground, taking in the greenery quietly.

“Daddy?” With her head tilted all the way back, Molly looked up and interrupted the soft breeze between them. She could barely feel it while it was right in Ashton's face.

“Hm?” Looking down, Ashton let her know she had his attention before looking forward down the path again.

“Why do you have to...go?” Her bottom lip made her question sound like it splattered as it came out, but Molly's eyes squinted as she asked him sincerely. Ashton thought she was sizing him up, but in reality nobody had deduced that she needed glasses yet.

Ashton was stunned silent though and let out a disappointed sigh that deflated his chest. He tightened his jaw as he wrestled with the truth. Molly was too intuitive to not pick up on what was going on. She heard all the adults around her yammering about the upcoming tour, peppering both her parents with questions about their conflicting schedules. She knew change was afoot whether or not anyone consulted with her about it.

“Well, Molls, my job involves a lot of travelling.” He decided to say, thinking it was a truth that she could comprehend. “I took a little break so I could be at home with you, and mum, and your brother, but I have to go back.”

“When do I... see... you now?” Confused, she kept interviewing.

He wanted to tell her that she could see him whenever she damn well pleased. Ashton strived to be a much better father than he had had. Even though Molly could call and Skype him whenever she wanted to, it didn't feel like enough. Ashton knew that he wasn't going to actually be there to tuck her in, answer her a hundred questions about trees, human bones, and hammerhead sharks, and he wouldn't get to see her growing like a weed right before his eyes. She wouldn't be able to crawl all over him when they were playing on the floor together and she would hear his voice only through the radio or computer now.

“Mum and I have sorted it out. You're going to come visit lots and we're going to take a trip to see Nana Anne in a little bit.” Ashton had been a nightmare for his managers, refusing to go longer than two and a half weeks without a weekend break for him and Simone to meet up, for real chunks of time to catch his breath and be more than just a drummer.

“I'll miss you.” Sounding as sad as his face looked, Molly confidently told him. She knew some things to be facts. Fish swam, birds flew, dolphins were carnivores, and she was going to miss her father.

It was a verbal nudge in the ribs for Ashton and he stopped right away. Rubbing his lips together to hold back another weighted sigh, Ashton bent down to his knees and brought Molly in with both  hands, one of his over each of hers. His fingers held her in place tightly and he gave himself a few seconds to just take her in. Each time he blinked, it was a mental snapshot of her soft features. She was never going to be this little again. He wanted to tell her that he would miss her as well, that he didn't want to leave, that he wished he could fold her like a t-shirt and take her along with him, but before Ashton could sort out his words he noticed her bottom lip begin to warble and her nose squish up. She was on the verge of tears.

With both hands, he pulled her in close and then allowed her fingers to wiggle free so she could wrap them around his neck. Once Molly had the toggles of her peacoat against his sweater clad chest, she crying into his neck. Ashton held the back of her head with a firm hand and breathed her in, her organic shampoo and skin a familiar and comforting scent. He closed his eyes and listened to her cry, feeling like a forlorn jerk.

“It's okay, baby.” He assured her with voice like velvet even if his throat was tightening and beginning to feel like linen inside. He rose from the knees and carried her, letting her sob into his shoulder as he kept them going down their usual path. Molly wasn't the temper tantrum type. He knew she would calm down eventually. When he was feeling as heartbroken as he currently was, he couldn't tell  her to not feel all her emotions. This was going to be something she had to learn to handle for the rest of her life. Some people had routine and solidarity, the Irwin family had distance.

[tabloidtoc]

National Enquirer, July 27

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

Cover: Prince Harry trapped in marriage from hell to Meghan Markle 

Page 2: Mariah Carey has slimmed down again and the formerly plump pop star’s recent pics have stunned doctors who believe she’s lost at least 60 pounds in the last year and experts believe the recent weight drop may have come with some medical assistance plus experts warn the star’s constant weight swings have placed her health at risk 

Page 3: Paris Jackson bravely reveals suicide ordeal -- admits many attempts after losing dad Michael Jackson 

Page 4: Shia LaBeouf got his whole chest permanently inked to get into character as a vicious gangster for his new movie The Tax Collector 

Page 5: Head-over-heels Ben Affleck is raring to have a baby with girlfriend Ana de Armas, Ashton Kutcher has rushed to the rescue of Hollywood pariah Lea Michele and now he’s on the outs with wife Mila Kunis -- Lea has been blasted as a despicable and cruel and entitled bully by former castmates on Glee and Broadway but Ashton who was paired with Lea in the 2011 rom-com New Year’s Day thinks she’s gotten a raw deal while Mila thinks Ashton is crazy for sticking his neck out for someone he hasn’t seen that much over the last decade 

Page 6: The bizarre marriage of Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith has hit a crisis point over another man and the blowback may push them toward a $270 million divorce -- both Will and Jada have denied humiliating reports that she was involved in a torrid two-year affair with their son Jaden Smith’s pal singer August Alsina with Will’s blessing 

Page 7: Christina Ricci’s domestic battery call was just round one in what promises to be a bitter divorce brawl with husband James Heerdegen -- Christina secured an emergency protective order against James after cops were called to the couple’s Woodland Hills home after he allegedly spit at her and now Christina has filed for divorce and sole custody of their five-year-old son Freddie, Sarah Palin and husband Todd Palin quietly finalized their split 

Page 8: Lonely Caitlyn Jenner has lost hope of making a love connection with 24-year-old live-in Sophia Hutchins and she’s on the hunt for romance and the 70-year-old longs for a partner to give her the affection she craves

Page 9: Tubby Adam Sandler and dumpy Denzel Washington have packed on the pounds during lockdown and now docs fear the Hollywood heavyweights may be digging their graves with a fork and spoon -- Denzel weighs close to 250 pounds and Adam is five-foot-ten and weighs 230 pounds 

Page 10: Hot Shots -- Brooke Shields in the Hamptons wearing a patriotic bikini,  Brooke Burke on a swing in her backyard, pregnant Sophie Turner out for a walk in Encino 

Page 11: Lara Flynn Boyle stepped out in L.A. during quarantine to stock up on essentials including a bottle of vodka but with sagging jowls and a puffy trout pout the actress was nearly unrecognizable, Tom Cruise is a dominant individual who left costar Thandie Newton terrified and insecure while filming Mission: Impossible 2 and Tom has since sent her Christmas gifts linked to his controversial religion of Scientology 

Page 12: Straight Shuter -- Millie Bobby Brown with alien balloons (picture), Alicia Keys and Beyonce have both struck a sour note with their Black Lives Matter music tanking -- Alicia’s Perfect Way to Die is nowhere on the charts and few are lining the streets to cheer Beyonce’s Black Parade, Chris Pratt needs to finish filming Jurassic World: Dominion in London in the next few months just when he and wife Katherine Schwarzenegger are expecting their first child so Chris will have to make a choice between work or his wife and new baby -- Chris is contractually obligated to be on set when they start although every effort will be made so he can take the 11-hour flight home on weekends, producers of RHOBH have discouraged the housewives from being political on the show because the audience is far more interested in personal drama and fights between the ladies but Lisa Rinna intends to change all that when the show starts filming again and she plans to use her platform to push her views on climate change and other issues, despite the raging pandemic The Bachelorette Clare Crawley won’t be wearing a mask and neither will any of her suitors because the show is about escape and people watch it to forget their troubles 

Page 13: Kanye West’s bizarre pronouncement that he’s running for U.S. president has the entire Kardashian family quaking in fear about the can of worms his candidacy could open -- Kardashian momager Kris Jenner is furious because it’s likely to trigger media scrutiny and probes by political opponents into the family’s private lives and business deals 

Page 14: True Crime 

Page 15: Cradle-robbing Mary Kay Letourneau’s scandal-scarred life came to a tragic and lonely end at 58 as she died of cancer after being dumped by her husband and reduced to living in squalor 

Page 16: Jeffrey Epstein’s galpal Ghislaine Maxwell’s arrest has big shots shaking -- with Ghislaine behind bars there is growing concern their high-powered pals will try to quash evidence in the explosive sex scandal 

Page 18: Real Life 

Page 19: Jim Carrey has written a fictionalized autobiography but he was too scared to confront his biggest demons -- Jim was not eager to tackle sensitive subjects like his bitter divorce from first wife Melissa Womer and the 2015 suicide of his ex-girlfriend Cathriona White, activists have demanded the removal of the Confederate flag across America but that’s not stopping an Illinois museum from proudly displaying a piece of television history emblazoned with it -- the last surviving 1969 Dodge Charger known as the General Lee used in the comedy classic Dukes of Hazzard 

Page 20: In a plot twist fit for one of his mystery thrillers novelist Dan Brown’s ex-wife Blythe claimed he lived a life of lies and charged he financed numerous secret affairs with their joint $178 million fortune, Julian Lennon is determined to get what he’s been denied by his stepmother Yoko Ono before she kicks the bucket -- Yoko is 87 year old and in a wheelchair and very ill plus she’s set to leave her son Sean Lennon who’s Julian’s half brother all of their father’s massive fortune -- Julian only wants what he thinks a son deserves and he pleading with Yoko to do the decent thing and give him a reasonable share 

Page 22: Health Watch 

Page 25: Denise Richards is so spooked by the coronavirus she refuses to do love scenes on The Bold and the Beautiful unless it’s with her husband -- she’s had her holistic healer husband Aaron Phypers added to the cast of the soap as a stand-in during intimate scenes, the Duke of Edinburgh has a shocking secret he’s hidden from the royal family for decades: he’s related to a busty pair of twin Playboy models -- Queen Elizabeth’s elderly husband Prince Philip was born into the Greek and Danish royal families but his wider familial ties extend to the U.S. which is home to Carla and Carmen Morrell

Page 26: Cover Story -- Heartsick Prince Harry trapped in living hell -- Meghan Markle’s demands leave him alone and miserable -- Harry feels lonely and directionless living in Meghan’s shadow as he struggles to find meaning in his life with a series of charity appearances designed to bolster the royal renegades’ image 

Page 28: Assistants Air Stars’ Dirty Laundry -- Britney Spears, Ariana Grande, Frank Sinatra 

Page 29: Ryan Gosling, Lady Gaga, Jennifer Aniston, Christian Bale 

Page 31: Miley Cyrus has donated over $1.6 million to help homeless teens and vulnerable families though her Happy Hippie Foundation 

Page 32: Dying Ethel Kennedy has secretly ponied up a $1 million bounty to find the killer of Connecticut teen Martha Moxley in a bid to prove the innocence of her troubled nephew Michael Skakel

Page 34: Lizzo’s secret half-brother Brandon Johnson desperately wants to end a family feud with the singer 

Page 36: Scandal-scarred Johnny Depp was forced to walk the plank and exit the blockbuster Pirates of the Caribbean film franchise and Guardians of the Galaxy bombshell Karen Gillan has been asked to helm the next Pirates voyage and is set to snag a massive amount of money for the starring role 

Page 38: Gavin Rossdale seems to be pining over ex-wife Gwen Stefani five years after their split admitting he still thinks she’s incredible, Hollywood Hookups -- Jennifer Grey and Clark Gregg split, Lily James and Chris Evans are on, Josh Brolin and third wife Kathryn Boyd are getting ready to welcome baby No. 2 

Page 42: Red Carpet Stars -- Margot Robbie 

Page 45: Spot the Differences -- Jay Leno with his vintage Lincoln Continental 

Page 47: Odd List 

[babylon-bitch]

Just Friends ~ First Love (part 45)

Harper White is best friends with Luke Hemmings, they always have been. Not only is she friends with the rockstar, but with the rest of 5 Seconds Of Summer, as well as a really nice girl named Erika.

Harper has a few secrets, she can play all the instruments the boys play and many more. It’s a talent she has kept hidden, only very few people know.

What will happen to the six teens, wondering around the world together?

***

Throwing my phone across the room and hearing it clatter to the ground. “Fuck,” I mutter and sit on my bed, my head inmmy hands.

“Luke?” The voice of Ashton asks.

“What?” I snap.

“Do you wanna talk about it?” He asks from behind the door

“No.” I say and lean back on my bed.

“Come on Luke, you can’t just bottle this stuff up, as you’ve told her many times. Take your own advice.” He tells me and I roll my eyes.

Standing up I walk towards the door and swing the door open. “There’s nothing to talk about, I fucked up, she’s mad and upset at me for it, and is blaming this all on me, she has a point, and I see that but I just don’t want to believe it. She said she regrets dating me for a year and being friends with me for 18 years. Do you know how much that hurts to hear? Especially coming from her. I loved her, man, I still do. We promised we’d always love each other, I don’t know about her, but I’ve definitely kept my side of the deal up. Even 10-20 years from now, I can still see myself loving her, even if I’ve found a new girl and she is my wife, I have a couple kids, I’ll still love her. I think with ever big milestone in my life, I’ll always expect her to be there, if I’m getting married to a different woman, I’m gonna be convinced she’s gonna be there, either to object or just be there watching. I love her, you know that, but I miss her as a person, always being there. If I can’t have her as my girlfriend, I’d take her as my bestfriend. I want to go through life with my bestfriend if I can’t have her as my girlfriend, having families of our own and living next door to each other. We’ve made all these plans together as best friends before we were even dating, and now I don’t have anyone to do all these things with. I had my whole life planned around her and now that she’s gone, it’s all come tumbling down.” I let it all out. “Fuck it, fuck her, fuck this.”

“You’ll find somone, trust me.” Ashton says.

“I don’t want anyone, I just want her.” I admit. “Maybe I should regret all these years too, even if she was my first love.”

“I think your first love will always manage to stick with you. Whether it’s them or the experiences. Your first, wow. And your firsts are unforgettable. The first time for absoloutly everything. For loving, caring, giving your heart out. Experiencing sadness, grief, and betrayal. It all comes back to that one person who made you see these aspects of life. So no matter where you end up, always know that you should be grateful for the first person you passed when you realised what love truly is. Because it doesn’t matter if it didn’t end well, at least you learnt everything you needed to. In a couple weeks, months, years, whatever the amount of time it takes to get over Harper, those experiences were needed and the person was needed.” Ashton wisely states.

Harper’s P.O.V.

Harshly connecting my charger with my phone and slamming it onto my bedside table, I go get dressed into somthing more suitable to go out in. Just some leggings, an old band t shirt, and slipping on my leather jacket as I walk out the door.

Stepping inside of the elevator and pressing my head against the wall, after I’d pressed the ground floor. This elevator has always smelt weird, a bit of chicken and a milkshake, as well as shoe polish. If somone dropped their dinner in here once, I don’t think it was gonna be very nice anyway.

The elevator doors open and I step out, being met by silence and absoloutly nothing.

Pushing the doors open and I brace myself for the cold wind. “Ah fuck.” I hiss and stuff my hands into my pockets. I don’t have any specific destination, I’m just gonna walk till my mind is clear, which might actually take me all the way back to Australia and back 73 times.

I’m gonna have to face all my friends, knowing they’ve seen me in that way. They’re always on Twitter, so you can bet your ass they will see it. I’ve also got everyone at uni, who will also most likely see them.

There’s not just pictures of those sorts, they’ve got private photos of us. We weren’t too private about our relationship, but we also weren’t too public. Sure, there were always pictures fans or people had taken every fortnight or somthing, and we’d be holding hands, a little affectionate kiss on the cheek or forehead, but we’d rarely post pictures of us being couply and gross.

I remember the first time Luke posted a picture of us after we’d (well Michael) just announced it. It was a picture of us cuddling and the caption was ‘after show vibes’.

“Blake?” I question.

“Harper?” The voice questions back.

Here Blake sits on a bench, opposite his apartment building, on his phone. “What are you doing out this late?” You ask.

“I could ask the same.” He smirks.

“Touchè.” I mumble and take a seat next to him.

“You’re really pretty.” He says and puts a hand on my shoulder.

“Are you drunk, Blake?” I question and stand up.

“Maybe.” He giggles and reaches out for me.

“That explains why you are out here.” I mutter. “Come on, let’s go home.” I tell him and grab his arm, but stop when he holds my arm too.

“You have a tattoo? When did you get that?” He asks and brings it closer to his eyes.

“I’ve had it for ages.” I confess and glare at the ink.

“What does it say? I can’t read upside down.” He giggles again.

“Uh, it says Luke.” I tell him, my voice waving a bit.

“He’s your ex-boyfriend, right?” He asks.

“Um, y-yeah.”

“I don’t know him, but he didn’t deserve you. No one deserves that.” He says.

“Let’s just get you to your house.” I ignore his statement. “How drunk are you?”

“I don’t know.” He laughs and stands up. “Not enough so I can’t get up.”

“Evidently.” I roll your eyes.

We manage to cross the road easily, with him holding my hand and giggling almost the whole time. I’m guessing he’s a happy drunk.

“Where even were you?” I ask and I press the button to open the elevator doors.

“I was at some guy’s party, I can’t miss it, I’ve got a reputation to keep up.” He explains as we walk into the elevator, pressing his floor.

“Blake, this isn’t high school anymore.” I point out as we both lean on opposite walls.

“But partying is fun! You’re such an old lady.” He teases.

“Yeah, partying can be fun, but not every single fucking week. Don’t you get tired of seeing the same people, seeing the same people getting shit faced, probably waking up in some chicks room?”

“Ohhh, sassy, Harper, is here.” He laughs. “I don’t fucking know, I just want some cheese.” He whines.

“You don’t like cheese.” I point out.

“I do when it’s melted.” He says as if it’s the most obvious thing.

“So you want a bowl of melted cheese?” I ask.

“Ewww, no, I hate cheese.” He whines.

“I will hit you.” I threaten when the elevator doors open.

“Oh my God, how about melted cheese on pizza!” He excitedly exclaims.

“Melted cheese is on pizza, Blake.” I tell him.

“Can we get pizza?” He begs when we reach his door.

“You can get a pizza, Blake, but I won’t be joining you.” I inform him.

“But who else is gonna eat and watch cartoons with me, and has a pretty face?” He questions.

“What if I was ugly?” I ask.

“Well nothing about you could be ugly, I mean look at you.” He says.

“That doesn’t really answer my question, but okay. Where is your key? And I’m not reaching into your pockets.”

“You’re always welcome in my pants.” He winks and I glare at him.

“Come on.” I rush him.

“I would try and come but you haven’t even done anything yet.” He smirks.

“I will not hesitate to to turn around.” I warn him.

“Fine, geez, not a fan of sexual activities, I get it.” He puts his hands up in surrender and pulls out his key from his pocket. “Are you a virgin?” He questions as he opens his door.

“Blake!” I hit his chest, causing him to laugh.

“Well, are you?” He repeats.

“Uh, no, if you have to know.” I sigh.

“Ohhh, scandalous. When did you lose it?”

“When I was 17. You probably lost it when you were 7.” I laugh.

“No, 16. Was it good?” He asks.

“Why am I having a conversation about sex with you?” I ask in a groan.

“Because I’m a sex God.” He claims.

“And an ego the size of Kim Kardashian’s ass.” I say.

“When was the last time you had sex?” He asks.

“I didn’t sign up for a quiz about my sex life.” I sigh and we sit down on the sofa.

“When was the last time then?” He ignores me.

“Uh, Christmas time.” I shrug.

“That’s less than three weeks ago, damn.” He laughs.

“Let me guess how many people your fucked since then. So, 15, and you’ve probably fathered at least two of them, haven’t called any of them back, and already have another 15 lined up, pun not intended.” I tell him.

“I’ve been with about 3 or 4 people, no one has really come back. Every on has come back today, hence why there was a party. There are a few girls that don’t wanna get with them.” He corrects.

“Yeah, they’re smart girls. Who are they?” I ask.

“Juliet, Izzy, Tori, and you.” He answers.

“Well, sorry to crush your dreams, babe, but it’s gonna stay like that, at least with me.” I inform.

“The offer is always there.” He smirks.

“Gee, thanks, you’re so generous.” I reply.

“Or, I could always, hook you up with somone and then they could tell me what you’re like in bed.” He says.

“I’m so over this conversation.” I laugh.

“I’ve missed you.” He giggles and lays his head on my lap.

“You saw me last week.” I point out.

“Well it’s not yesterday.” He moans.

“I don’t think I could handle being with you everyday.” I tell him and run my hand through his quiff.

Luke’s P.O.V.

“Do I make this professional or ‘casual’?” I ask.

“Meaning?” Calum ask.

“Like, do I put, ‘I regret to inform you, but I fucked up my relationship with my girlfriend, now ex girlfriend, sincerely yours, Harper’s dick of an ex boyfriend’ or ‘Harper and I have broken up, sorry to burst your bubble, - Luke’ somthing along the lines of that. Which one?”

I’ve currently got my phone in my hands, constantly typing then deleting what I’ve written in my notes. I’m trying to figure out how to tell the fans that Harper and I are no longer together.

“I think casually.” Erika says.

“I agree, but not like really casual, add a little sophistication.” Ashton adds.

“Casual it is.” I purse my lips. “Can you check it after I’m finished?”

“Yeah, of course.” Michael smiles.

They start to talk about some kind of tv show, but my mind drifts elsewhere.

I’m sad to announce, that Harper and I aren’t together at this moment in time. We’d appreciate it if you gave us some privacy for a while, we will be back soon enough, but we both need some time to step away from the internet and stuff. You’ve also probably seen some pictures of us, we’d appreciate if you didn’t make a big deal about it. Maybe we were meant to be, maybe we weren’t, but it’s just another chapter in our life, it might be painful to tell, but it was one of the best experiences of my life. Love you guys, sorry to bring this awful news to you, but everything happens for a reason. Be back soon

- Luke xxx

“Um, d-done.” I say and pass my phone to Maddie.

“Yeah, I think that’s alright.” She nods after a while and passes my phone to Erika.

“Yeah, that’s absoloutly fine.” Erika smiles, passes my phone to Calum.

“Good job,” he tells me and gives Michael my phone.

“Well said.” Michael agrees, throwing Ashton the phone.

“Cool, are you just posting it to Twitter?” Ashton asks and returns my phone.

“Probably.” I say and screenshot it, before going to the Twitter app. I add a little heart as the caption and hover over the tweet button but I just can’t find myself doing it. “Should I send this to Harper first?”

“If you really want to, I don’t really see the point in it. She asked you to tell everyone, so here you are.” Calum says.

“Fuck, I can’t do it, somebody do it for me.” I sigh.

“I’ll do it.” Ashton volunteers and I pass him my phone. “Done.”

“Oh my God.” I mutter.

Harper’s P.O.V.

“Okay, bye Blake, I’ll see you later or somthing.” I say as I walk out the door.

“Bye, thanks for the food, you absolute godess.” He calls, making me laugh.

“Any time. Actually don’t take that seriously, or I will be here all he time.” I tell him and I close the door behind me

I make my way all the way down to the ground floor and and into the really fresh air. It’s still dark and dead out here, an occasional car going by every now and then.

Pulling my phone out of my pocket and scrolling through Twitter, I’ve got nothing better to do, other than stare at nothing, thinking about how it all went wrong.

Suddenly I freeze as I notice a tweet from Luke; the guy who broke my heart. He’s told the fans about our break up, I didn’t expect him to do it right away, I thought it would at least be in a few days or a week or so, not now. I didn’t prepare myself for it, I didn’t get a warning, nothing.

I re-read the tweet over and over, by the 15th time I’ve read it, I’ve got a fucking waterfall in my eyes.

***

It’s the next day now, well, I say next day, I mean it’s the morning and I’m in broad daylight.

I’m in my bedroom messing around with my acoustic guitar. I’m kinda writing a song, but also just jamming out. Placing a pen in my mouth, both ends of the pen coming out of my mouth, as I just finished a whole verse and try and come up with a way for the music to go well the lyrics.

After a couple hours, I finish the song, which I will say myself, I’m very proud of it. It really portrays how I feel right now, I couldn’t possibly say I’m happy, it would probably be the biggest lie I’d ever told.

Deciding to play it through for the second time, I place my fingers on the frets, before taking a big inhale.

“Well I’m so tired of the rain falling softly on the ground, Just enough to get my feet wet but not enough to let me drown. I’ve been laying in my bed wishing I had never woken, Begging god to rid my head of every word you’ve ever spoken. Broke my knuckles on the wall because I thought about the call Where you said you’d always love me, do you not tell the truth at all? Well if I ever cross your mind, make sure you write down the times So I will know the moments I was eating you alive.

Now I lay here waiting with the hope that I might find some sleep I need some sleep tonight, Cause I’ve been waiting on your call but I know it will never come but I’m still waiting by the phone.

And don’t you dare, don’t you dare, Say you ever loved me or even tell me that you cared Cause you knew what you were doing and you know just what you’ve done How dare you say you miss me with your spit still on her tongue. I am broken. I am beaten. I’m mistreated and I’m torn. I am cold with no direction but I’m lost without your warmth. I’m trying hard to find some hope that I might get the chance to breathe. Get off my mind, give back my heart and get the fuck away from me!

I know I couldn’t give you much, but I know I gave my best, I was always your princess, and now you’re sliding up her dress And I know I gave the world everything I’ve ever had, Johnny Cash said love would burn, I never thought it’d hurt this bad.

Well I’m so tired of the rain falling softly on the ground, Just enough to get my feet wet but not enough to let me drown. I’ve been laying in my bed wishing I had never woken, Begging god to rid my head of every word you’ve ever spoken. Broke my knuckles on the wall because I thought about the call Where you said you’d always love me, do you not tell the truth at all? Well if I ever cross your mind make sure you write down the times, So I will know the moments I was eating you alive.

You are the itch that’s on my back. You are the gum under my shoe. You are the horrors of my past. You are the chill that haunts the room. You are the creaking on my steps. You are cancer. You are plague. You are regret. You are disease. I wish that you would go away.”

I play the last the last sting and take my fingers off the frets, which now have little line indents on the tips.

“Wow, I didn’t know you could sing, let alone play guitar.” A voice makes me jump.

Whipping my head round, surprised my head didn’t fly off to France. Standing by my bedroom door is Tori, Izzy, Blake, Juliet, and three other people that are friends of Blake.

“Oh, uh, hey guys.” I awkwardly wave, before I hang the guitar on the stand.

“Is that an original?” Juliet asks.

“Yeah.” I nod.

“How long have you been writing?” Tori asks.

“Probably since I was 13, 14. When did you get home?” I ask, trying to change the subject

“Around 9 this morning.” She shrugs.

“You, Izzy?”

“Last night, I can’t quite remember I just face planted my bed, didn’t even get changed.” She laughs.

“So uhm, Harper, these pictures, you are looking hella fine.” James smirks. James is one of Blake’s friends, I’ve met quite a few times at parties or over at Blake’s house.

“What?” Blake questions.

“Have you not seen them? They’re trending on Twitter.” James says and passes Blake his phone.

“Holy shit, Harper. Did you post these?” He questions and passes James’ phone to Tyler, who is also here.

“Of course not, my um, ex boyfriend’s phone got hacked into and some pictures leaked.” I glare at the boys.

“Ex?” Tori questions.

“It’s bound to be trending too.” I snap slightly.

“The pros of having a famous friend.” Alex laughs, another one of Blake’s friends, I’ve only seen him at parties and I think I have a lecture with him.

“I’m not famous!” I exclaim.

“The verification mark says differently.” Tyler smirks.

“Babe, I’m so sorry.” Izzy says and pulls me into a hug.

“It’s fine, I’ll get over him.” I sigh.

It’s not fine and I won’t get over him, ever.

[ripple-rp-blog]

MARCIA HUMPHREY, 22                                      GLENDALE COMMUNITY COLLEGE CLASS OF ‘18

———————— “What is the point of being alive if you don’t at least try to do something remarkable?”

Marcia Rose Humphrey was born to Juliana and Frederick Humphrey on July 17th, 1995. Bright eyed and smiley from the moment she entered the world, most parents would be ecstatic to have given birth to such a loving and caring daughter. However, Marcia’s parents didn’t seem to harbor that sort of appreciation for their child. This was evident from the moment they laid eyes on her; Marcia was supposed to save their crumbling marriage, but instead, she just seemed to make all of their problems worse.

An only child, Marcia quickly became excellent at learning how to take up the least amount of space possible. She would always clean up after herself, never ask for seconds at the dinner table, and got the best grades she possibly could, striving to be the perfect daughter. However, nothing she did seemed to be enough, so she quickly came to terms with the fact that her parents would probably never give her more attention than was necessary, and she began to find joy in artwork.

Marcia was aware that parents were supposed to love you, so for the longest time, this was what she thought love was; doing things for other people without being acknowledged for it. It wasn’t until she was first told the words “i love you” that she understood the difference between her parents “loving” her because they had to, and someone loving her because they wanted to.

In school, Marcia excelled in academic classes, but also took to art class. While the kids around her were scribbling outside the lines, Marcia’s drawings as a child were the type that, in a normal house, would be hung on the front doors of the refrigerator and kept there long after the child artist grew up. 

The need to please other people stuck with her throughout her childhood and into her teenage years. For example, if she ever noticed someone copying her test answers in middle and high school, she would angle her paper so that they could see her writing better. This meant that her kindness often got taken advantage of, but she didn’t let others’ manipulation break her spirits.

It was sitting in her sophomore photography class where Marcia was first introduced to her one true passion, photography. Somehow, this art form managed to combine her three favorite things; art, math, and other people. She became the school’s go to photographer, taking pictures at football games and dances and people would constantly ask her to take headshots and senior pictures for them ( maybe because she was good at photography, but also maybe because she would rarely charge people )

In her graduating class, Marcia was by far the most optimistic person around. Everyone knew that she always had a smile on her face, so her having big post-grad plans was no surprise to anyone. Her hard work throughout her years of school finally paid off when she was rewarded with a full ride to an art school in California. She was ready to leave, ready to finally grow a spine, ready to start a new life without worrying about pleasing other people. However, those plans were quickly derailed two weeks after her graduation.

Marcia’s mom had always had problems with her memory. Sometimes, she would forget the name of an old classmate she had known a few days before, or would put her keys in a different spot than usual and lose track of them the next day, but Marcia and her dad never thought anything of it. But it was the fit that Marcia’s mom threw at her graduation party that changed Marcy’s opinion on her mother’s behavior. Marcia wasn’t sure what triggered it, but Juliana very publicly began to scream at Marcia and her father, calling both of them mistakes, telling her father that she should’ve left him when she had the chance and telling her that she wished Marcia was never born. It was embarrassing and heart-wrenching, and Marcia’s dad packed up his things and was gone by morning, no trace of him to be found.

Frederick thought it was just part of Juliana’s normal behavior ( the two fought fairly often, although never as serious as this fight was ), but Marcia knew it was something deeper than that. She somehow convinced her mom to go to the doctor, and after a long and emotional appointment, Marcia’s mom was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's. Without asking her mom what she wanted Marcia to do and without reaching out to her father to explain the situation, Marcia emailed her school and pulled out of the fall semester that night. To Marcia, there was no question. Juliana was her mom and Marcia had no choice but to take care of her.

Nowadays, Marcia has fallen into a pattern. Juliana will have good days, where Marcia can take her out of the residential facility she is in and make her a home cooked meal or take her out to see a movie. But usual, the days are hard and emotional, Juliana taking her deeply rooted anger and frustration out on her daughter. Although sometimes, it’s hard to remain positive, her tenacity and optimism continues to shine through.

Since high school, Marcia has grown a bit more confident in herself. She has switched stumbling over her words for rambling, and has begun showing her work to more people. She currently works at an a.c. Moore while doing freelance photography as often as she can. While she’s not the world’s most famous photographer ever, people tend to like her work and that is more than she could have ever asked for.

This reunion is exciting for her because she cannot wait to reconnect with the people she cared about in high school and because she wants to honor the memory of someone she truly cared about in the way he always wanted to be remembered.

Marcia is in school! she attends Glendale Community College (mostly night classes) and is studying both journalism and photography with the hopes of one day being a photojournalist.

She would love to be a successful photojournalist and travel around the world a bunch. She loves learning new things and loves photography, so traveling and reporting via photos would be her absolute dream. She also would like to get married, have kids, etc., but in the back of her mind, she knows that all of this is second to taking care of her mother.

Marcia’s favorite candy is heart gummies, but peach o’s are a close second.

If Marcia was a crayola crayon, she’d be the color sunglow!! Not only is it yellow (a bright color that just reminds me of Marcia in the first place), but it’s also a milder yellow than some other ones out there, showing that she’s a bit more mellow than most other people.

Let me talk to you about Marcia and her boyfriend. The two of them met when they sat next to each other in English class their sixth grade year, and became fast friends. Their friendship was awkward and weird (as most middle school friendships are), but they managed to remain friends long enough for Ashton to ask Marcia out the following year. Somehow, the two of them are still together to this day. They’ve been together through awful fights, Ashton being arrested, Marcia’s mother getting sick, literally everything, and they don’t plan on separating any time soon. Each of them means the world to the other, and they are extremely dedicated to making their relationship last.

Whenever Marcia gets nervous, she has the tendency to chew things. If it gets bad enough, nothing within close proximity to her is safe. She’ll chew pencil erasers, bottle caps, the tops of pens, the ends of her hair, the inside of her cheek, her lips, the collars on her shirts, anything except for her fingernails. For some reason, she has never once chewed her fingernails and probably never will. Her hands are too important to her to be ruined, and in fact, she spends extra time cleaning under her fingernails in order to remain as presentable as she can be at all times.

Marcia plays as toad when she plays Mario Kart/Party.

 Marcia has a golden retriever puppy named Ralph!!  She just adopted him from a local shelter a few months ago because he had a respiratory infection and was going to be put down so she rescued him and gave him a loving home and now he’s feeling a lot better!! Ralph sleeps in the bed with her every night even though he has his own bed on the floor.

Marcia is a hardcore morning person. She wakes up around seven every day without trying and is just a fine of getting up and seeing the sunshine and hearing the birds chirp.

Marcia loves coloring the tips of her hair!! She’s done green, pink, purple, red, blue, and blonde. It’s an easy way for her to express her creativity, and as soon as she’s not feeling it anymore, she can just chop it off.

Marcia actually likes cleaning?? Everything in her room has to be clean before she goes to sleep at night or else she can’t  sleep, and she’ll often reorganize her closet or her drawers to calm down after a stressful day.

Marcia’s favorite date/hangout is doing escape rooms!! Not only do they let her solve puzzles and use her brain, but the aesthetics and the work put into the design of them are usually super cool. Marcia and her boyfriend currently hold the record for the fastest time at three of their hardest rooms at local escape rooms.

[alexsfictionaddiction]

Review: One Of Us Is Lying by Karen M. McManus

When I first heard about the release of this book, I was extremely excited for it. The Breakfast Club meets Pretty Little Liars? I was signed up instantly! I was even more excited when I was approved for a NetGalley copy of it.

Five teenagers -a brain, a princess, a jock, a criminal and an outcast- are in detention together but only four of them come out alive. Simon Kelleher, the outcast, runs an app called About That which publishes juicy gossip and secrets about his classmates. Everything that has ever been revealed on About That has eventually been discovered to be true. So when he dishes up some dirt on Ivy League cert Bronwyn, troublesome drug dealer Nate, pretty popular Addy and rising baseball star Cooper, they all seemingly have a motive for wanting him out of the way. When Simon dies in mysterious circumstances during detention, who -if anyone- is lying?

“Some people are too toxic to live. They just are.”

We get the story from the perspectives of all four of the suspects so naturally, we are constantly looking for evidence in their narratives that might give them away as the culprit. Indeed, all of them make a suspect comment or two at some point and I was constantly conflicted as to who was responsible, if anyone. There are a few side characters who appear to know more than they’re letting on too, so all of this confusion really makes for a very unpredictable exciting story.

As the brains of the operation, Bronwyn takes it upon herself to do the detective work into what has really happened. She is relentless in uncovering the truth in order to save all four of their reputations. Although she has no loyalties to any of them initially, she shows a voracious hunger for justice and a determination to clear all of their names. Despite knowing her for most of his life, Nate eventually realises how selfless and smart she is and their blossoming relationship is one of the most touching aspects of the book. I was rooting for them so much and desperately wanted something great to come out of the traumatising experience they were all going through.

Nate comes from a very troubled background. His father is an alcoholic, his mother has been largely absent for the majority of his life and he has a reputation as a dangerous bad boy. Known by the police for his dealings with drugs, he is instantly deemed to be the most likely to be guilty. However, I never suspected him for a second. Sometimes he reads as a misogynistic idiot (see above quote) but often he reads as a lost soul who has all of the capability of gentleness and romance. My heart went out to him on several occasions and I really wanted everyone else to finally see the real Nate.

There is a lot more to Addy than meets the eye. Pretty and popular, she is the quintessential prom queen but her life is not as perfect as it might seem. She is dating Jake, who appears to be pretty controlling but Addy is switched on enough to eventually realise this. Her close relationship with her older sister Ashton is beautiful to watch and it’s Ashton who eventually helps Addy to see the light. Her transformation throughout the book is definitely the most drastic and by the end, she’s a bit of a badass. Although ultimately a boy has died, the case is a great character-building exercise for Addy, as it forces her out of her naivety and comfort zone into a much stronger and healthier head space.

Perhaps the suspect with the biggest, life-altering secret is Cooper. As a star baseball player and boyfriend of the beautiful Keeley, Cooper seemingly has it all and a glittering future ahead of him. However, Simon knew his deepest darkest secret and Cooper is terrified about it coming out. He constantly struggles with his true self and the pressures from his father to make it in baseball. I just felt so much love for him and I found myself constantly wanting to hug him and let him know that it was OK! When he did eventually let his secret out, I was so proud of him and happy that he had finally come to terms with who he is.

One Of Us Is Lying constantly springs surprises on its readers. Unpredictable and gripping, it’s four self-growth stories that can all be traced back to the same tragic event. Yes, Simon is dead but his death spirals hugely beneficial changes in the lives of those accused of killing him. If you like your fast-paced intrigue stories that constantly keep you guessing with characters that you’ll really root for, One Of Us Is Lying is a great pick for you.

“Everybody’s got secrets... Right?”

[swipestream]

New Release Roundup, 6 October 2018: Science Fiction

A futuristic Los Angelese skyscraper implodes, the Four Horsemen return, and the Salamander of Manticore unleashes her fury in this week’s roundup of the newest releases in science fiction.

Dust & Iron (The Adventures of the Starship Satori #9) – Kevin McLaughlin

Charline Foster was marooned on a desert planet during an alien attack.

Taking command of the handful of people stranded with her, she struggles to survive a desolate and hostile world. But the predators stalking them are the least of their worries. The aliens who forced the Satori to flee return, seeking the survivors.

Charline must forge her small band into an effective fighting force and engage the enemy. Together, they must strive to do the impossible if they want to ever see Earth again.

Forerunner – Isaac Hooke

Jain was the lieutenant commander of an elite SEAL team. He was accustomed to order and discipline, which he used to give the men under his command that particular brand of killer instinct his unit was known for.

But one day that semi-comfortable, ordered life ended when he opened his eyes to find his body replaced by a starship. His mind had become its AI core. He is somewhere in deep space. Most of his systems are badly damaged. He has no memory of how he got here, or what his mission is. Evidence points to an attack by an unknown entity. He finds other damaged vessels in the vicinity and reactivates them. They, too, have no memory of the events leading up to their current situation.

Jain, thrust into a leadership role, soon learns that commanding a fleet of starships isn’t all that different from leading a platoon of SEALs. It helps that his database is chock-full of tactics and military strategies gleaned from every space battle humanity has ever fought.

As he and his fleet explore their surroundings and slowly piece together what happened to them, they realize their attacker is not from any human system. And that any misstep means not only the loss of his fleet, but potentially the destruction of humanity itself.

Losing Mars – Peter Cawdron

Disaster strikes in orbit around Mars.

A Chinese spacecraft is disabled, stranded near Phobos. Well over a hundred million miles from Earth, their only hope for rescue comes from the American base on the edge of the Vallis Marineris on the surface of Mars.

The Americans need to decide, do they lose Mars or their humanity?

Peter Cawdron sees hard science fiction as simply plausible science fiction, fiction that is written in such a way as it conforms to the known laws of science, and that makes it more interesting, as there’s no magic wand the protagonist can wave to get out of trouble.

The Singularity Trap – Dennis E. Taylor

The number one best-selling author of the Bobiverse trilogy returns with a space thriller that poses a provocative question: Does our true destiny lie in ourselves — or in the stars?

If it were up to one man and one man alone to protect the entire human race – would you want it to be a down-on-his luck asteroid miner?

When Ivan Pritchard signs on as a newbie aboard the Mad Astra, it’s his final, desperate stab at giving his wife and children the life they deserve. He can survive the hazing of his crewmates, and how many times, really, can near-zero g make you vomit? But there’s another challenge looming out there, in the farthest reaches of human exploration, that will test every man, woman and AI on the ship – and will force Ivan to confront the very essence of what makes him human.

Sting of the Mustard Mines (Space Team #10) – Barry J. Hutchison

Having journeyed through time in order to restore peace to the galaxy, Cal Carver and Space Team are a little dismayed to find out they may have inadvertently made things even worse.

Whoops.

Captured by an unfamiliar alien species, the crew is banished to a life of slavery in the Mustard Mines of Moktar, where they come face to face with the sinister Manacle – a terrifying new enemy whose diabolical agenda is worse than any they have encountered before.

With the clock ticking and thousands of lives at stake, Space Team must race across the galaxy, stop Manacle’s evil scheme, and save the day once more.

But first, they have to escape…

Street Freaks – Terry Brooks

It begins with a dire call-right before his father disappears and his skyscraper home’s doors explode inward. It is the kind of thrilling futuristic story only Terry Brooks can tell.

“Go into the Red Zone. Go to Street Freaks.” his father directs Ashton Collins before the vid feed goes suddenly silent. The Red Zone is the dangerous heart of the mega-city of Los Angeles; it is a world Ash is forbidden from and one he knows little about. But if he can find Street Freaks, the strangest of aid awaits-human and barely human alike. As Ash is hunted, he must unravel the mystery left behind by his father and discover his role in this new world.

Brooks has long been the grandmaster of fantasy. Now he turns his hand to science fiction filled with what his readers love best: complex characters, extraordinary settings, exciting action, and a page-turning story. Through it, Brooks reimagines his bestselling career yet again.

  Tales from the Lyon’s Den (Four Horsemen Tales #4) – Edited by Mark Wandrey and Chris Kennedy

Do you have what it takes to enter the Lyon’s Den?

Welcome back to the Four Horsemen universe, where only a willingness to fight and die for money separates Humans from the majority of the other races. Edited by bestselling authors and universe creators Mark Wandrey and Chris Kennedy, “Tales from the Lyon’s Den” includes eighteen all-new stories in the Four Horsemen universe by a variety of bestselling authors—and some you may not have heard of…yet. Want to know what it’s like to do search and rescue while a battle is going on or what to do with that new manufactory you just won in a card game? Better learn the rules to the Lyon’s Den…and then step inside!

Uncompromising Honor (Honor Harrington #19)- David Weber

Honor Harrington has worn the Star Kingdom’s uniform for half a century and served her monarch and her people well. In the course of those years, the woman the newsies call the Salamander has grown from a tactically brilliant but politically naïve junior officer to supreme fleet command and a seat on the highest military and political councils of the Grand Alliance.

Very few people know war the way Honor Harrington does. Very few have lost as many men and women, as many friends, as much family, as she has. Yet despite that, hers has been a voice of caution. She knows the Mandarins and the Solarian League Navy are growing increasingly desperate as the truth of their technological inferiority sinks home, but she also knows the sheer size of the League. And she knows how its citizens will react if the Grand Alliance takes the war to the League, attacks its star systems, destroys its infrastructure . . . kills its civilians. Today’s victory, bought on those terms, can only guarantee a future war of revenge against a resurgent Solarian League and its navy.

But the Mandarins have embraced a desperate new strategy, and in pursuit of that strategy, the SLN has committed atrocities such as the galaxy has not known in a thousand years. The League have violated its own Eridani Edict against mass civilian casualties, violated the Deneb Accords prohibition on war crimes.

And they have finally killed too many of the people Honor Harrington loves.

The Salamander is coming for the Solarian League, and Hell is coming in her wake.

New Release Roundup, 6 October 2018: Science Fiction published first on https://medium.com/@ReloadedPCGames

[austenmarriage]

New Post has been published on Austen Marriage

New Post has been published on http://austenmarriage.com/modest-proposal-might-spinster-married/

A Modest Proposal: Might the Spinster Have Married?

As reported in last month’s blog about Jane Austen’s romantic attachments, biographers dutifully recount the story of Jane’s acceptance/rejection of a proposal by Harris Bigg-Wither, a young, brash man six years her junior, on Thursday-Friday, 2-3 December 1802.

The story goes that Jane and Cassandra journeyed to Manydown, the Bigg-Wither estate, for several weeks of leisure with the family. The Austen ladies were good friends with Harris’s sisters, especially Caroline and Alethea. On 2 December, Bigg-Wither surprises Jane with a proposal. Overwhelmed at the prospect of becoming mistress of a large estate, Jane accepts this proposal from a person with little to recommend him except wealth. She reconsiders overnight; recants her acceptance in the morning; then flees back to Bath in humiliation. (A woman could accept and reject a proposal then; a man could not withdraw one without the woman’s consent.)

What is distinctly odd about this history, however, is that this purported engagement and refusal, which would have created a scandal, does not appear to show up in any surviving contemporaneous letters or journals by anyone who knew Jane.

When I began to analyze the details of Austen’s life eight or nine years ago for historical fiction based on her life, I recognized that the references all went back to Caroline, daughter of her brother James and sister-in-law Mary, “the Steventonites”—so called because they replaced the Austens’ father and his family at the Steventon rectory when the elder Austen retired to Bath in 1801. I knew Caroline sourced the story to her mother, but it wasn’t until some years later, when it hit me that Caroline was one of Austen’s youngest relatives, that I checked and learned that Caroline had not even been born when the proposal is supposed to have happened!

Manydown Park, where Jane Austen attended many balls, flirted with Tom Lefroy, and according to one niece accepted and rejected a marriage proposal

Recently, Helena Kelly, in her book “Jane Austen: Secret Radical,” points out the same odd circumstance: this major biographical event is reported only by Caroline, and only in 1870—68 years after the supposed incident—a lifetime! (I am in general agreement with Kelly’s take on Austen and her work in society, though I find her interpretations of the novels to be eccentric.)

Supposedly, after the disaster with Bigg-Wither, it was James who escorted the Austen sisters to Bath, so Mary would have been aware of the situation. Mary, however, was never close to Jane and died herself in 1843—26 years after Jane died, 41 years after the event, and 27 years before Caroline’s telling. Caroline was only 12 when Austen died—she recounts her last sad meeting with her aunt. Even if the Bigg-Wither topic arose in the sad conversations after her death, that still would have been 15 years after the events. Considering the reticence people have about speaking “ill” of the dead, it is easy to believe the topic well might not have come up until much later.

How is it this story is handed down by a niece too young to have known about it directly but not by the many other nieces and nephews who were alive? James Edward, her first official biographer, was 19 when Jane died–he attended her funeral on behalf of his father–yet he sources his younger sister for the tale of the botched proposal! Wouldn’t he have heard the story from his parents himself?

Stories have become legends in less time than the gaps in this recounting!

Further, descriptions of Bigg-Wither by Caroline do not seem to match to the one or two portraits of him—he is supposed to be a very large, heavy young man, but the visual evidence shows him as relatively slim. See the image at the top, by the headline–he does not seem to be the hulking, brooding young man of Caroline’s description.

Notice something else: Cassandra, an actual witness to the mysterious coastal suitor, who was going to propose to Jane in the summer of 1801 but died unexpectedly, as described in my last blog, provides almost no details about the man. Nor does she mention Bigg-Wither’s proposal in 1828 when she’s reminded of the other (expected) proposal.

Cass seems to have relayed just enough information about Jane’s coastal “romance” to confuse rather than enlighten. Cass also destroyed the vast majority of Jane’s letters from this period, leaving no other evidence of the events. We know nothing about the letters except that Caroline calls them “open and confidential”–but she gives no indication she has seen them. Why would Cass have kept the letters about Tom Lefroy, which support the idea that he (or his aunt) had dumped Jane, while burning those about those later relationships—unless at least one of those relationships was even more serious?

Though the story of any embarrassing Bigg-Wither encounter likely would have circulated for years in the “Steventonite” family (niece Fanny coined the name), the incident is too specific for one being recounted twenty, thirty, or forty years later, as likely happened. Mary provides too many details. How would she have remembered the exact date of a proposal so long before about a sister-in-law she was not close to? (Mary did not seem much fond of anyone, though in fairness she did help Cass tend to Jane during Jane’s final illness.)

Meaning the provenance of this story is suspicious, at the very least.

(The oafish Bigg-Wither married someone else in 1804 and sired ten children.)

Now that we’ve covered all the proposals, what about a possible marriage? Shocking! But the question brings us to the one letter in which Jane Austen identifies herself as a married woman, the 5 April 1809 letter to the publisher Crosby (she spells it “Crosbie”) in which she demands they either publish “Susan,” which they had bought six years earlier, or she would sell it to someone else.

The publisher quickly replies that they paid for the book (though not required to publish it) and if she sold it to anyone else “we shall take proceedings to stop the sale.” End of correspondence—though years later her brother Henry did buy the book back for Jane for the original 10£, enabling it to be published as “Northanger Abbey.”

Jane signs her letter to Crosby “Mrs. Ashton Dennis,” care of the Southampton Post Office. The publisher does not know her name—Henry handled the sale, and she was identified only as “A Lady.” The thinking is that she uses a different name to remain anonymous, and the one she uses spells out “MAD” to indicate her unhappiness at the delays. (And what prompted to her write the abrupt letter six years after the fact?)

That leads to an interesting problem. Jane has been in Southampton for some time; the post office knows her. In the autumn, she kept up a steady stream of correspondence with Cassandra, then at Godmersham, when Edward’s wife, Elizabeth, died unexpectedly after childbirth. How is Jane going to pick up a letter for a “Mrs. Ashton Dennis” unless that is now her name? Isn’t it also strange that, while Jane’s life is relatively well-known, the two proposals that have very poor provenance come in the period in which Cass destroyed almost all of Jane’s letters?

In this time, we have a three-and-a-half-year gap of Jane’s letters, 1801-1804; a year-long gap, mid-1805 to mid-1806; and a 16-month gap, February 1807-June 1808. We have only 13 letters—not quite 2 a year—from 1801 to 1808, where they begin again with some regularity. Besides the occasional passing reference to her in other people’s letters and diaries, we know nothing of Jane’s whereabouts or doings for this time.

Considering the confusion and inconsistency in reports of who she was involved with, and when—too many specifics in one major encounter (Bigg-Wither) and far too few in another (the mysterious clergyman described last time)—one must ask what was really going on. Were there multiple romantic encounters, each one ending disastrously, or perhaps one relationship that these inconsistent stories point to—or are designed to point away from?

When she signed her name as a married woman in 1809, was she MAD at the publisher about not publishing the book “Susan,” or MAD about some man the family sought to hide?

There is still time to enter the quiz and giveaway for a leather-bound collection of Jane Austen’s works.

[unkindnessofone]

Primal

This is a long one. There will be a part two. It’s the first story like this I’ve posted in a long time and I AM VERY NERVOUS. Fingers crossed. I hope you enjoy.

The time on his phone seemed impossible. Ashton could not believe that his two year old boy had cried for over an hour straight without any interruption. He started  as they left his grandparents place and continued the entire car ride to the penthouse they were renting while in England, visiting Simone's parents for her their anniversary party. At one point, between his boiling red face and the volume of his squealing, Ashton wondered if there was actually something medically the matter with Connor. He had his tantrums before and some teary eyes here and there, but this was completely off the charts. 

Ashton panted as he embraced the silence in their makeshift home. Had he really made it out alive? All he was thinking about was how much he would love a cigarette even if he gave up smoking years ago, a decision he made around the time Simone was expecting Molly. 

"Now that he's cried himself to sleep, I'm opening that bottle of wine." Simone half laughed at herself, despite how serious she was, as she cautiously shut the door on Connor's room. She placed her hand on the small of Ashton's back in front of her and snuck by. "Thanks for the help." She was used to handling those moments by herself, but Ashton was always very hands on when he wasn't in the middle of a tour. 

Simone took his soft smile as 'you're welcome' and then moved to the kitchen. She loved her children, but a glass of wine in the middle of the afternoon might have been her first love. She and Ashton had talked about waiting to open the gifted bottle tomorrow before going out, but Simone felt she needed it now.

Checking his phone again, Ashton followed behind. He didn't favor wine like his wife did, but their fridge was full of beer. Once he made it to the kitchen, he noticed Simone had already left for the balcony, leaving the bottle of Shiraz on the counter for when she had room in her glass for another round. 

Ashton cracked open a can and went to head to the living area. As much as he needed the break from nonstop travelling and performing every night, he found that after a weekend of rest that his body was full of music to release. It was innate inside of him. With Connor out, he excused himself to sit fiddle on an acoustic guitar for a while. 

"Hey Molly Moo, do you mind if I play around in here?" He asked his oldest as she had set up shop on the very expensive glass coffee table. She had her stuffed Hammerhead Shark laying on its back as she fumbled with her red plastic stethoscope, ready to check for its make believe heartbeat before performing surgery. 

"Nope." Merrily, she peeped and shook her head. She had sat through the whole car ride with her screaming brother without complaining or even groaning in exasperation. As soon as they arrived back at the apartment, Molly just excused herself from her frazzled family to her room where her toys were and then went to play on her own. People always commented that she was a good big sister, but Molly was also very good at knowing how to disappear. Her parents lives were so large and on display that it was an incredible ability to be able to go unnoticed sometimes. She was chatty, but sometimes she only really wanted to talk to herself. 

Ashton placed his drink can on a side table before turning a lamp on and grabbing the guitar by its neck as it was resting on the leather couch's arm. 

He maneuvered it over his lap, but instead of placing his fingers properly on the right frets, he found himself just staring at his little lady. She had her flaws, but right now, Molly seemed perfect. A living and breathing mini Mary Poppins, practically perfect in every single way. 

Luke had his hands full with a most stubborn and fearless Penelope Hemmings always one second away from running into traffic or forgoing her life jacket. He now had two twin baby boys that left him without any free hands to crack a beer, strung a guitar or even just run his fingers through his hair. Michael, who seemed to always pretend he was the most fun loving Dad and Uncle, also had to keep his eyes on his kids. He had Emmeline who needed to get her way and be the centre of the Universe at all times and Iden, who really just wanted to follow his sister like a shadow into all her schemes and productions. Calum was a brand new Dad too and even though Daphne seemed to rarely cry or make any noise at all, the bassist was still brand new to the whole "this life depends on you" thing. It truly made Ashton appreciate Molly. He pulled out his phone to take a picture of his daughter as she adjusted her glasses before proceeding with surgery. He had forgot that he didn't have the sound off and accidentally called her attention to him, her blond hairs stray from her ponytail flying behind her as she looked up.

"Ah, you caught me." With a sheepish smile, Ashton admitted. He looked over the picture quickly before resting his phone down on the side table by his drink. 

"That's okay." Molly shrugged and put her stethoscope back in her ears again. "What are you going to play?" Curiously, she asked without even looking up from her stuffed toy's tummy as she dragged her fingertip over it - just like a real surgeon. 

"Going to try to write." Ashton shared, placing his fingers on the strings and strumming across to see how badly the instrument needed to be tuned. 

"What about?" 

"I don't know yet. Got any ideas?" Keeping his focus on the guitar, he engaged, asking her as a joke. Connor had exhausted Ashton of all his ability to interact, but Molly, when not wound up, could always entice him. When one child was sour, the other was always sweet. That's just how his babies were.

"Hmmm..." Molly stopped dragging her finger scalpel over the shark and tapped it against her chin, rubbing her lips inward together to help produce a thought. "You said you got to write from your heart." He had told her that once at dinner when she was picking his brain about his job. The girl was always looking to learn. "My heart is full of animals and you, and mum, and Connor even when he is crying." She rattled on to give him ideas. Instead, Ashton was completely amused. She was his perfect girl. For as long as he had her, he was convinced things would be okay. “What's in your heart, Daddy?” Innocently, she asked before returning to her very important shark surgery.

The kettle was screaming to be removed from the stove top. Ashton was only a single step away, but he didn't even register the noise. He didn't so much as flinch to adjust his glasses from slipping down his nose. He, just like his world, was still as he stared directly across the kitchen at his tablet, propped up and playing different headlines. Both his dogs began barking at the stove, Rocco even jumping at Ashton's legs, but the man still couldn't be moved.

"What is going on?" Simone, with a violet face mask on, rushed out of the main floor bathroom of their Australian home and hisses as she entered the kitchen. She had a thousand things to accomplish today before her upcoming trip to England and the all the chaos coming from the kitchen was not helping her focus. She tightened her bright red robe around her body and shut off the stove as soon as she entered the room, even reaching around her husband to move the kettle to a different element. She remembered now why she was always the one to make tea. 

"What happ - " Nearly chuckling, Simone was ready to poke fun at her husband when she turned around and saw the same screen he was entranced by. Stunned silent, Simone joined Ashton in pausing all her senses before the screen changed and their view was replaced by an advertisement for toothpaste. "We have to go." Simone jumped right out of the trance and into her businesswoman role.  

By the time Ashton snapped out of it Simone was already back in the bathroom and washing off her face mask. He only realized then that he was standing naked still in the kitchen. When Connor recently gone on tour and Molly away with her friends in Canberra for the last week before school started again, Ashton and Simone were relaxing naked in their house like they used to when they first bought it together as newlyweds and even how they spent their first year of Molly's life, hiding away from their busy worlds like hippies, comfortable and happy. 

Ashton heard his phone buzzing on the counter by the tablet. It had been going for minutes straight, but he headed upstairs instead to throw on the first clothes he could find. A thin and wrinkled plaid shirt and a pair of Koala grey shorts. When he made his way back down, Simone had her hair pinned back at both sides, a thin rose patterned sundress on, and her purse over her shoulder. She had just hung up her phone and was ready to jump out the door.

"Skye is going to come get the dogs." She informed her husband in a huff, typing madly on her phone. Ashton had only ever seen her like this when she was in a cab between meetings. "I got us on a flight. We need to leave now." Simone tossed her phone into her purse and looked up at him with narrow eyes. "I just texted you your boarding pass." She moved by him to head up the stairs. She needed her passport and phone charger. "Can you call the lawyer?" 

"Simone?" Staring forward as if she was still in front of him instead of six steps away Ashton mumbled. He heard her fast pace halt and he checked over his shoulder to see her looking down at him, both of them finally catching their breath. 

"It's going to be okay, honey. We will work it out." Simone tried to promise. The fear and heartache was evident in Ashton's eyes. He looked completely lost, a newborn alien waking up on planet Earth. 

Usually, Ashton was a pillar of strength. The year Simone's holiday collection was rejected by every department store, he convinced her to take it with stride. When her father was diagnosed with prostate cancer, he was her rock. When it came to his kids though, Ashton was a puddle. He was instantly overemotional and couldn't think straight when one of his babies was in distress. He was pretty much useless when they were small and getting their shots at the doctor's office. 

* * * * * * * * * *

The flight to Canberra was delayed by forty minutes, adding more time for Ashton sit still on the plane and drive himself crazy. He kept wondering how this could have happened. The news barely gave him any information beyond "Molly Irwin, daughter of famous Aussie rock star and beloved jeweler arrested this morning with four other Bond University students." They said the story was developing, but so far Ashton was starved for details. His own lawyer barely had sent him any worthwhile messages besides the right police station his daughter was being held at. In order to pass the time, Ashton just stared at her mugshot that was easily found with a quick Google search. Even his own mother had texted it to him when they were on their way to the airport. She looked like his Molly, frizzy hair, playful freckles, and hazel eyes that were a shade he had only seen in autumn leaves before, but Ashton just couldn't understand how this was his Molly. She was the good girl. She was studious, sharp, and mindful. He had worried about car accidents, heartbreak, and anxiety attacks, but he never even considered his daughter in an orange jumpsuit with stretched open eyes. 

He looked over his shoulder over and over as he fidgeted during the flight, but Simone was calm. She had channeled her dismay into work ethic, a trait she had given to Molly, and was focused on answering emails for work. It helped right now for one of them to still be calm. 

"The silver lining in all this is we got to go on one last little getaway before the end of summer." Simone mused as they walked through the airport, both of their eyes rushing around to find a car rental sign. She smiled at herself and reached for Ashton's hand to hold as they cruised. She knew he needed comfort over amusement. They knew each other like the back of their hands. Grace and Michael had always been touch and go, Luke and Cagney had their dark period, but Ashton and Simone were always in sync. Before one another, they laughed deliciously at the thought of soul mates. 

"Ash?" Her accent sticking out more so when she said his name, Simone peered up and leaned forward. His eyes were glassy and the sight made the knot in her stomach tighten. She squeezed his hand twice and brought up both their knuckles in order to kiss his. "Do you want me to go get her? You could find somewhere to hang out." Who knew how long they would be waiting for her to be released anyway? Neither of them had any experience with this process. Simone kept it to herself that she imagined now they would be helpful to their friends when March or Emmeline were inevitably arrested. 

"No." Stoic, which was not a usual trait for him, Ashton replied instantly. "I got to be there." Though he didn't know if that was for him or Molly. He still didn't know how his daughter was. Was she scared? Had she been hurt? 

****************************

Together, still holding hands, Ashton and Simone cruised slowly through the parkade looking for their rented hatchback. The last thing either of them wanted was to bring attention to themselves. 

"Finally." Simone hisses as she dropped Ashton's grip and began to walk and wrestle with her purse to pick out her phone that she could feel buzzing. "Hello. What do you know?" She answered with haste. There was no time for small talk. "It's Craig." Tilting the phone away from her mouth, she mentioned to Ashton prompting his eyebrows to lift. He leaned down and tried to hear her lawyers voice through the bottom of her phone. He couldn't make out a single word though and impatiently waited for her to fill him in. "Okay, okay." Simone nodded along, driving her husband nuts. "Of course." She waved her free hand through the air in a gesture to show how much she understood. "Ashton is with me. We both can do that." Without knowing what they were talking about, Ashton shot her an agreeing thumbs up and enthusiastic nod. "Thank you, Craig. We appreciate it." Simone stifled her tired sigh and hung up politely. 

"What do we know?" Anxiously he almost jumped at her before she began to walk forward again, texting rapidly.

"Grace says we should get snacks and coffee. The wait at the station could be hours and all cop shops have notoriously bad coffee apparently." Simone shared.

"How would she know?" His face scrunched together in tight puzzlement.

"Her mom was arrested a couple times, I think." 

"Hey! Why didn't she text me?" Ashton hadn't forgotten about the matter at hand, he only realized then that Grace Clifford hadn't said a word to him in weeks. 

"She thinks you're taking Michael's side in the divorce." Simone finally put her phone away in her bag and smiled lightly, almost barely at all. She noted how her comment made Ashton's brows meet in the centre and raised her own in return, "Aren't you a bit?" 

"Maybe. I don't know! What did Craig say?" The two of them had talked about the Clifford's impending divorce a couple times, but for now they had bigger truths to handle. 

"He told me why Molly's been arrested and is being fine five grand." Even though Simone had been living primarily in Australia for two decades, she still had to do the math to Pound Sterling. "It's the most Molly reason I can ever imagine." She muttered, annoyed more than anything else. 

Ashton's mind went blank. There was no Molly reason to him that would lead to her being dragged away in handcuffs in trouble with the law. His perfect angel could not have done anything wrong. 

"She was protesting the demolition of a park here." 

"It was probably peaceful." Letting out a large exhale of relief, Ashton excused his daughter. 

"She tied herself to a tree for three days." Suddenly, it made sense to both Simone and Ashton why she hadn't returned their most recent texts. "It was something to do with saving the wildlife that calls the park home."

The pair made it to the car, Ashton heading to the driver's side. Simone stood still at the trunk though, gaining his attention.

"Should we even be going to pick her up?" She asked, sounding defeated.

"Of course!" Ashton shouted. "Why wouldn't we?" 

"I don't know. She's an adult. If she's going to be making choices,l like this, she can deal with them on her own." 

"Simmie, she was protesting. She didn't rob a 7/11." Ashton leaned against the car and argued. He couldn't believe they weren't in agreement on this. 

A silence shone between them. Ashton kept his gaze tight on his wife's face as she looked down at her sandals in deep thought. She didn't know what the right thing to do was. 

"I always knew her passion could get her in trouble but I never thought she would be stupid." That was not an adjective anyone had ever used to describe Molly Irwin before.

"I'll tell you what," Ashton stepped closer, reaching out his hand to hold hers. It was his turn to be comforting. "Next time, we won't board the first flight. We can leave her in for a day." He tried to make her smile even if they both knew he was lying. He would never make an hour before springing into action. 

"Alright." Deeply inhaling, Simone agreed. "Let's go get our criminal." Ashton kissed her softly and let go of her hand in order to send them on their way. Somehow, he felt a touch calmer knowing his daughter hadn't accidentally murdered someone even though his stomach was still a tangled mess of yarn knots. 

* * * * * * * * * * * *

"Oh no. The worst was at that hotel in Houston, remember?" Simone stuck up her finger and recalled. As the second hour of waiting at the station started, Simone and Ashton had taken to recall the worst coffee they had ever had instead of wishing they had gone to pick up coffee and snacks like their friend suggested. It occurred to them that one could leave to pick some up while the other waited for Molly's release, but neither were willing to risk missing their daughter. "I was pregnant with this little troublemaker and I was only allowed one cup a day and you made that swamp water sludge in our room." She reminded him, causing a smug grin to spread on his face, while she helped herself to a bite of his chocolate bar from the vending machine.

"It wasn't that bad. Your taste buds were compromised." Just like he defended it had the time, Ashton said. "The worst was at the gas station in Manchester." 

"When?" 

"You were debuting a counter at their Selfridges out there. I was bringing you a coffee like the incredible husband I am." 

"I don't remember." Shrugging, Simone mused before hanging her head back and groaning. "What do you say to your kid when they are released from police custody?" She asked the unforgiving lights hanging above them.

"I don't know. I mean, I like that she's standing up for what she believes in." Ashton babbled, finishing his treat. He didn't notice his wife's eyes sliding over to look him over in a most unimpressed fashion. "I just want to make sure she's okay."

"I just wish she wasn't arrested." Simone sighed before a rush of loud footsteps caught her attention and she watched a masterpiece of a young man approach the desk in a hurry. He was the very definition of a beefcake. Tall and thick, but sturdy. In fact, Simone was positive she had seen a palm tree with a trunk as thick as his thighs last time she was in Las Vegas. He looked concerned even with a charming smile. She sat up straight and observed him as he talked to the officer at the front desk while stroking his very stubbly chin. 

"I think that guys a Wallabie." Sounding more Australian than usual, Ashton noted while looking the guy over along with his wife. Truthfully, Ashton knew he was. The team was having a pretty good year. "He's a hooker. Flynn O'Malley." He informed his wife. Neither were saying it, but he was very fit. 

The rugby player had barely sat down when he had to rise up again, heading to the hallway. As Ashton watched him, he spotted Molly heading out and he jumped onto his feet so quickly that he nearly knocked off his slip on sneakers. She was still his Molly, all limbs and her thick hair tamed into a Dutch braid, frizzy from days without shampoo. Suddenly nervous, Ashton waved at his daughter as she picked up the pace. He slid one hand into his pocket and let fingers fidget freely. Simone was gathering their mess and her purse, ready to leave. 

"Wha..?"

As quickly as they had feasted their eyes on their daughter, she had disappeared. Flynn O'Malley's arms wrapped around her shoulders and his massive biceps devoured her head with one bite. Her body hid inside of his. At first, Ashton told himself to remain calm. Nothing good could come from him losing his cool. Besides, he could be a great friend. Miles Hemmings was an athletic guy and he and Molly were always very close in a most platonic fashion. However, as soon as Flynn's chin dipped and his lips went on top of what little was left of Molly's head, Ashton forgot all about keeping his heartbeat at a normal pace. From behind his specs, his eyes jumped open and he took off charging towards his daughter. He had half a mind to just shout, 'Unhand her!' across the room. Ashton couldn't believe he wasn't his daughter's one phone call or that she had a boyfriend that she never told him about. They had always been best friends. How could she have secrets from him? How could she not have reached out to him for help? What else was she keeping from him?

“I brought you a change of clothes.” Flynn mumbled like his mouth was full of marbles as he dragged his hand over Molly's head.

She was just about to thank him again when Molly noticed her parents just inches away. She waved cautiously and tilted her head to the side. Automatically, as if she was a toddler again, she stepped back from Flynn.

“Hi. What are you guys doing here?” She had seen them once in the summer, but she had hoped somehow this would be something that she might not have to mention.

“Well, when your daughter's mugshot is all over the internet, naturally you jump on the next plane to Canberra.” Sarcastically, even if she did sound more posh above all else, Simone mused and wrapped her daughter in a hug. “Are you alright?” She grabbed Molly's face in her hands and looked her over. “Are the birds alright?” Judging by the font on Molly's wrinkled shirt that read 'PROTECT OUR BIRDS', the question was warranted.

“I don't know, Mum.” Molly shrugged and answered in a voice the size of a raindrop. She kept sheepishly trying to catch her father's eye contact, but he was in a daze. He was always looking either at his shoes, Flynn's arms, or just off in the distance.

“I'm Flynn. It's so great to meet you guys finally.” Flashing a smile as big as the rest of his body, Flynn interrupted the mother and daughter and extended his hand. He directed it at Ashton who did his best impression of a high school mean girl, looking at it and then looking away. “I had no idea you guys would be coming.”

“Hello.” Simone took his hand and gave it her best business shake though she assumed to someone as strong as him it felt like a wet spaghetti noodle. She had thought that Molly was seeing someone else, a boy in one of her science classes by the name of Moe, but Simone figured it was best to not bring that up in front of both Ashton and the muscle man. She knew that Ashton was currently trying to survive this moment in his own personal Twilight Zone.

“Ashton, this is Flynn.” Simone turned her back to the two younger adults and locked her teeth together, giving Ashton a look that silently said, 'Speak, please'. “He's Molly's friend.”

Before Flynn correct her, Ashton finally decided to jump into the conversation, “What do you think you're doing getting arrested in Canberra, huh?” So much for hugging her and being supportive. It happened so very rarely, but Simone flinched every time it did. Ashton had snapped. “Do you know how disappointed your mother and I are? And you don't even call us? You call some rugby dirtbag.”

“Whoa - “ Simone went in to stop him. She moved between Molly and Flynn, putting a hand on her daughter's back as a gesture of support. It had been Ashton who talked her out of laying into Molly and now, here he was, doing just that. “Molly just - “ 

“Do you think a bunch of fucking birds would risk arrest for you, huh?” Ashton was out of his body. He didn't even hear himself or how silly his question actually was. “Do you?”

Molly couldn't remember the last thing her father raised his voice at her. In fact, she was positive it had never actually happened. Sure, when she was a kid and they were walking across the street, he would whistle at her to slow down or wait for him on the other side, but that was hardly the same thing. If she hadn't just been in a holding cell with a woman who had a neck tattoo that had 'money before hoes' misspelled on her neck, she might have been shocked, but Molly knew her Dad very well. He had been her best friend for all of her life. This was so out of character for him that Molly knew that it was an adult man equivalent to a temper tantrum. He was hurt because she was growing up and forgot to tell him.

“Personally,” Cool as a July breeze in the morning, Flynn spoke up without any hesitation. He had taken head on tackles from people twice the size of the Australian drummer and who liked him far less. Flynn wasn't what he appeared to be at first glance, but he also wasn't easily spooked. “I think Molly's passion is very cool. When she told me, she was coming out here, I was a hundred percent on board. She's a someone who knows what she believes in.” He was surprised that Molly's parents didn't seem more proud. Of course, he didn't have any children to hypothetically bail out of jail and he didn't know how he would respond to finding out his daughter was seeing a professional athlete with eight years on her. “I would really love to take you all out for dinner.” Genuinely, he offered before reaching for Molly's hand and lacing his fingers between hers. “Molls has spoken so highly of you both.” That much was easy to believe. She always did worship her parents even if it made her an easy target to tease. It was why she had always been picky about who she spent time with. She wanted a love like her parents had. It couldn't just be lust or easy. It had to have a solid foundation that could remain concrete under any pressure or through surprise conditions. Her parents, to her, were jigsaw pieces that couldn't even be entertained for other puzzle parts. They were so clearly supposed to be sitting side by side, locked in  place, and making a stunning picture. Molly was smart and she wouldn't just accept the first person to tell her she was pretty.

There was nothing, but silence coming from Ashton. He was finally staring at his daughter through his glasses, a look that was loaded and tight on her returning gaze. She was pleading silently for him to be nice, to give Flynn a chance, but right now, after Ashton's outburst, she really didn't know what reaction she would receive. This was the first time with him where she didn't know where she stood.

“You know, Flynn, it's been a really crazy day so far...” Simone started, watching Ashton as she began to spoke for them both. “I think we need to settle into a hotel and spend some time with Molly.” She nodded along, agreeing with herself as she was speaking as she was thinking. It was something that all of her years running her own business had taught her how to do without much effort at all. She could probably negotiate in her sleep at this point. “Maybe, a late dinner? Does that work for everyone?” She peeled her eyes away from her husband, trusting he wouldn't go on another tangent, and checked in with the rugby player.  

“Absolutely. Ashton?” Flynn leaned in closer to Molly, feeling her hand tighten in his. She was grateful for how kind he was being and how much effort he was already putting in. This whole awkward situation felt like her fault. She had wanted to figure out her relationship with him before telling anyone, including her family. It had been embarrassing when she was ghosted by the last guy out of nowhere and she had to deal with her mom asking questions about him. It wasn't that she wasn't sure about Flynn, she was just protective of what they were building. Molly, for the first time in her life, owed a round of apologies and they were all to her favorite people.

“It's Mr. Irwin.” Glaring with such purpose that his eyes tightened into a squint, Ashton told him, finally extending his hand for a shake. He had always imagined he would be a cool dad when Molly brought someone she cared about home, but this had caught him completely off guard. He had no idea what was going on. Ashton had thought he was picking up his daughter, but instead he was standing in front of a stranger.

“I’ll text you in a bit.” Molly finally peeped as she watched the two most important men in her life pull out of their handshake. Flynn wasn’t used to his girlfriend being so timid. He knew her as the girl who threw his litter at him after watching him casually drop it in the parking lot. His favorite thing about Molly was how unafraid she was to be herself. He tried to understand that right now she was overwhelmed. He had never been arrested before, but he had been pulled over with his grandmum in the passenger seat.

“Excellent! Alright, let’s go!” Simone was dying to leave the station. She couldn’t wait to have faster WiFi, better lighting, real coffee, and some real time with her daughter to catch up on everything from the arrest to the handsome rugby player her father wanted to kill. “Look, your mugshot makes a great lock screen.” She flashed the front of her phone to her daughter as they began to walk away, but Molly was barely amused. She was too busy watching her father stroll ahead of her, not at all paying attention to her. She hadn’t meant to fuck up so royally. She didn’t call them because she wanted to be an adult. She didn’t want them to be disappointed, but she knew now that was what she had done. “It’ll be okay. A little shower, a little chat. We’ll work it out.” Simone pulled her daughter closer as they walked through the door Ashton was holding for them.

“Thank you.” Molly stopped to tell him, turning to let her eyes and weak chin plead for forgiveness from him, but Ashton just let go of the police station door and continued on his way. He had lifted the corner of his lips limply at her, implying nothing and everything all at the same time. 

TO BE CONTINUED