#and debbie is a dam about to burst

[crismakesstuff]

the house looks so different now it’s so pretty but I can’t help but think

the house is covered now in the colors of nolan’s omniman costume with the pale greyish-blue and red tones. i have never seen a character haunt the narrative as much as that man

[theitgirlnetwork]

Hi! I love your writing soo much! Especially your" Better" series. Do you think you could write something where Lip is a single, teen dad who has a daughter? I really want to see him as a girl dad!

Hii!!! Thank you so much! I'm glad you're enjoying! I appreciate this so much. He is very girl dad coded to me so I love this. I also think being a dad, particularly a teen one would bring out some complex feelings in Lip. Also there's a bonus at the end that people who don't like Charlotte (the OC from Better) should skip. It's short and sweet, but let me know if you guys want more from Phoebe Gallagher.

warning: strong language

“I’m fucked.”

That was the first thing Lip said to his little brother Ian, blowing smoke into the air of their shared bedroom when he got home from seeing his…girlfriend…bestfriend…? Babymama. 

When Karen had invited him over to her house earlier that day, he’d assumed he was gonna get to fuck. Or at least get some head. He’d had a long day in the two classes he’d attended, a blowie was exactly what he’d needed. And to her credit, that’s what he’d gotten. Except immediately after she spit into one of her mother’s doilies and got off of her knees she unenthusiastically announced to him, ‘I’m pregnant.’ And then she started flipping through a magazine. 

Lip sat on the edge of her bed for a solid twenty minutes just opening and closing his mouth. Finally swallowing down the lump that immediately formed in his throat and fixed his wide blue eyes on her.  “You…gonna keep it?”

It’s fair. That Karen kicked him out. He understood. 

But shit. He was just a kid. He wasn’t ready to be a fucking dad, he’d been carrying around the same $30 for the past week in an attempt to replenish he and Ian’s weed supply. Fiona was gonna fucking kill him. He was gonna fucking kill himself.

Lip dragged himself home from Karen’s, ran upstairs, ignoring the calls from Debbie to help her with her homework and slammed the door. Ian had made his way in a lit a blunt for them to share, pushing open their rickety window, sitting with him in silence until the dam finally burst and Lip started confessing. 

“Yeah, you are.” Ian blows a cloud of smoke from his nostrils, snorting as Lip kicks his leg with his own. “I don’t know why you’re so worried man, there’s no way Karen’ll keep it. Even if she does, any person with a dick within a 40 mile radius could be the dad.” 

“Fuck you.”

“You’re gonna have to clean up that language when the baby gets here.” 

After Lip climbed over the bed and kicked Ian’s ass, he rolled back into his, gritting his teeth to himself. He was at an impasse. He couldn’t believe he’d fucked up like this. Sure he’d hit raw a couple of times, but he’d thought they were good. He mostly pulls out. And Isn’t Karen supposed to handle that? And he’s not a fucking idiot. He knows Karen is a hoe. But the intimacy he’d had with her, he can’t believe she shares with everyone else. They’re best friends, and they love each other. There’s no way she’d let him believe the baby was his if it wasn’t.

So he’s having a baby. So what? Lip is living in a modern era. There are…options. Before the baby is born and after. If Karen keeps it, they can put it up for adoption. They could give it to a family who really wants it, who will take care of it. They could give it a good home, away from it’s shitty parents. It wouldn’t get stuck being a Gallagher with an addict and bum for a father. His baby…the baby…it could be loved and cared for. And Lip could go about his business. He could live up to his potential, without any baggage holding him back. 

He’d really believed that to be true, too. He thought he’d be able to see that baby one good time, and pass them off without any regret, content to know that any responsibility he had for it had dissipated. 

But then he saw her. 

Lip was standing there, in oversized scrubs, and clutching Karen’s hand when he first heard her take her first breath. She’d let out a wail so loud and Lip felt his heart ache at the sound. He hadn’t even noticed that he’d let go of Karen’s hand. His feet moved without his permission, guiding him over to the sinks where the nurses were washing her off. He trailed after her to get a good glimpse, and when he did, the world changed. 

Large blue eyes. Little wisps of hair. Her cries slow to small hiccups. 

Lip was in love. 

The older nurse rocks the newly swaddled baby slowly, smiling brightly as she makes her way back to where Karen lies in the bed. “Well, Mom, your beautiful baby girl has arrived. Let me let you hold her-”

“No.” Karen cut in sharply, her tone startles Lip and all off the nurses. The teen girl grips the railing of the bed, grunting as she scoots up, looking at everyone but the little angel squirming in the nurse’s arms. “I…don’t wanna hold her. I don’t want to see her. Give her to the agency lady.” 

“But-” the nurse stammers, looking between her and Lip.

“Honey,” the doctor lowers her mask, bending to make herself level with Karen. “You can change your mind. You can still decide that you’d like to keep your baby.”

“She’s not my baby.” Karen breathes, screwing her face up in determination. 

Lip doesn’t understand. He can’t understand. How could she be here, in the room, with that baby…hell, carry her for 9 months, and choose not to even look at her. Even hold her. He could respect not wanting to be a mom yet, not being ready. But right now, the way Karen was acting, she’s never reminded him of his own parents more. 

That little girl deserves better. She deserves love. She deserves someone who would love her more than anything.

“Um, excuse me,” He hears himself say. His hands extend toward the nurse as everything else in the room becomes blurry except the new little human that was half of him but just that fast, all his. “I’d…um…I’d like to hold her.”

“Phoebe, baby, it’s good. Watch, Daddy likes it.” 

Lip brings the pink rubber spoon to his mouth, spooning a small scoop of his daughter’s turkey puree baby food into his mouth. As soon as the taste hits his tongue he gags, dropping the spoon to the table and shooting up. “Motherfucker!”

Phoebe squeals, giggling as her father darts over to the sink, sticking his head under the faucet and attempts to flush out the foul taste. 

“That shit is fucking nasty, Daddy’s sorry he tried to give you that.” He coughs, lifting the girl out of her highchair and into his arms. The blond buries his face into his daughter’s chubby cheeks, nosing her golden curls out of the way before kissing her cheek repeatedly. 

“Are you still here?” Fiona asks, tilting her head and crossing her arms in disapproval as she watches their display. She’d been surprised when her brother had stopped his ex-girlfriend from putting their baby up for adoption last year. He’d been determined, filling out the necessary paperwork for full custody before completely ex-communicating Karen. He'd not asked Fiona about moving the newborn into their home when he asserted he’d be raising her himself. He was undeterred by her declaration that he’d be on his own, and the baby would not at all be her responsibility. He’d simply adjusted the baby carrier on his hip, flipping her off before carrying the little girl up to his room. 

His academic excellence was the only thing that encouraged teachers to be understanding about his almost constant absences. “I, uh, I gotta skip today, Phoebe has a doctor’s appointment.” He says, smoothing a hand over his daughter’s cherub cheeks, brushing away remains of the baby cheese puffs he gave her while he’d gotten her food out. 

“This is the third time this week.” Fiona sighs, crossing her arms. “Lip-”

“It’s fine, fuck it, it doesn’t matter.”

“It’s your senior year. There’s limits on how many days you can miss before they stop you from graduating.” Fiona nods to herself, mumbling an ‘okay’ under her breath. “I can watch her today. I don’t work until tonight, alright, I’ll take the baby, you go to school, we’ll figure out a schedule later.”

Lip wants to accept. He does. He’s done a year of being a father without accepting any help, mainly because no one was fuckin’ offering, but also because no one would take care of his baby quite like he would. He stops by the school and picks up his work. Hell, some days, he brings her with him, the ghetto ass district he lives in isn’t exactly strict, how could they tell their most promising student he couldn’t bring his very well behaved baby with him.  He glances down at the baby girl in his arms and feels his heart grow with the innocent little smile he receives back. 

And the thought of leaving her feels unappealing as ever. 

“Nah, I got it, thanks though.”

Something about Lip being a dad shocked the whole neighborhood. No one was surprised that he’d knocked someone up, it was only a matter of time the way he was going. And only a few had raised a brow at the fact that he’d promptly told Karen to fuck off and kept the baby to raise himself. With how he grew up, anyone could guess he’d have a thing about abandonment. No, what shocked them was the way that suddenly, Lip Gallagher was some kind of family man. 

No parties. No weed. No dealing. 

No hookups.

Lip got hit on way more than he did back before Phoebe took over his life. When he was at the store or in the park, his baby cooed broken words as he carried her on his shoulders, pointing at small trinkets that she whined for. Easily pocketable things that occasionally magically appeared in his pocket to give her when they got home. Girls would come up to them, fingers in their hair, chests as pushed forward as they squawk about how adorable Phoebe is, how sweet it is that Lip is actually taking the time to raise his own daughter, and how they’d like to help him in any way they can. 

Usually, he would just leave it at no thank you before turning away. The more persistent ones would get a curl of the lip and head shake before adjusting his baby and pushing past. 

See, Lip was fucking strict as a dad. He didn’t give a fuck what other people thought about him and the life he lived before, everything changed when Phoebe showed up. 

“Hey, I uh, really don’t give a fuck what you do, but keep that hoe shit to a minimum when you’re over here, okay? My fuckin’ daughter can see you.” 

More than a few neighborhood girls had stormed their way out of the Gallagher house with hot, fat tears of embarrassment streaming down their face as they declared they’d never talk to Debbie again. Because…you know… her brother’s an asshole.

By the time Lip is 17 and Phoebe is 2 it’s a well known fact that the Gallagher Princess is spoiled rotten. She’s clingy, and whiny, traits that the blond teen had never been known to tolerate but suddenly had all of the patience in the world for. She barely could stand to be held by anyone else, constantly in her father’s arms or wrapped around one of his legs, holding on as he walks for them both.  The only people he really let's watch Phoebe are Ian and Mickey. For some reason, Mickey seemed to have a soft spot for Phoebe. Maybe it was because they understood each other. They're both cute, and bratty, and bite. It was ironic considering who Mickey is, and his distain for Lip but when the blond teen had been overwhelmed one day and passed out on the couch with his books after school, his brother's boyfriend had been the one who stepped up. He'd been in the Gallagher home in search of some cheap weed Ian had promised him, but he saw the little girl whining and after a failed attempt wake Lip, made her a bottle his damn self. When Lip had woken, he found Mickey rocking the squirming little girl in his arms, trying to pretend he wasn't enamored with her. After that day, Mickey proclaimed himself the girl's favorite uncle, and got damn near violent if anyone even tried to so much as give her a tap on the wrist. Lip appreciated it considering he felt the same.

Other parents fucking dread when they see the father-daughter duo making their way to the park because it immediately means that play was over for all of the other kids.

Timmy Keeves had learned the hard way. The little boy was all but 5 when he first encountered the terror that was Phoebe Gallagher. She was a 3 year old terror and loud and bossy as ever. Her blonde curls and bright blue eyes gave her the appearance of an angel, so Timmy hadn’t been alarmed when she’d walked slowly, but confidently over to the swing, his swing at the little run down park a couple streets over from his house. She was holding hands with a little black boy who looked a little older than her, but not by much.

Timmy had waited his turn, really. The other kid before him had swung five whole minutes before he had climbed on with great effort. “Hi!” He’d chirped down at the kids in front of him. 

“Hi.” the little boy said back.

Not the little girl. No, she pointed at the swing with her free hand, mouth spreading into a wide smile, revealing one missing tooth.”My turn!”

Timmy’s eyes had grown wide and he gripped the chains a little tighter. “No! I just got on it!”

It happened fast.

In a matter of seconds. Timmy hadn’t meant to nudge her out of the way with his foot. Really. He’d already been swinging and she’d moved in his way. But before he knew it Phoebe Gallagher had plopped onto the rocks and clay in front of him, and suddenly he felt his back hitting the ground.

“Hey!” Timmy wails as his own father storms his way over and some young blond guy comes running up. “Gallagher, your fuckin’ kid just pushed mine off the swing!”

The blond man flicks his cigarette on the ground and shrugs. “I didn’t see it. You push him Liam?”

“He pushed Phoebe first!” 

“It was an accident!” Timmy hollers.

“Sounds like the little fucker deserved it. Don’t push girls, kid. Or next time I’ll knock you on your ass.”

“Are you threatening my kid?”

“What’re you, gonna hit me?” Lip snorts, picking his daughter up and brushing off her skirt. “I’m a minor.”

“You need to get those hoodrat kids of yours in order!” 

“What you need to do is stop whining like a little bitch, it’s rubbin’ off on your kid.” The teen adjusts the girl on his hip, grabbing his little brother’s hand on the other side and guiding them away. 

So, Lip wasn’t a great disciplinarian. As far he was concerned, his daughter was still a good kid. She’s fuckin’ smart like him. And sweet, like Debbie and Ian. Funny like Carl. Determined like Fiona. She makes him want to be better. He finished high school so she could see how important learning is. He put off college a little bit, just because he’d rather use that time to make money to take care of her. Besides, when it came to Phoebe, there was nothing more important. He didn’t want to miss a thing.

“Daddy?” Phoebe whispered from her spot between his legs. She was watching Little Bear on the tv as Lip rested the book he was reading atop of her head, sloppy pigtails that he’d forced into her blond mop that morning. “How come there’s three?”

“Three what, angel?” he asks without looking up from the pages, snorting to himself at the philosophy of Thoreau in Walden. 

“Three bears.” Little fingers push at his face, trying to force him to look at the screen. “Look.”

“Okay, shit, okay. What?” He asks, leaning forward to rest his head on top of hers and dropping the book to the couch. 

“Th-there’s a daddy bear, a baby bear, and a mommy bear. We only have two. Daddy,” she places her hand on his stomach, turning in his grasp, “and I’m the baby. Except I’m a big girl.” 

Lip’s heart squeezes at where he knows this conversation is going. His baby is smart. She’s always been smart. He should’ve seen this coming. But for some reason he hadn’t prepared yet for this question. “We uh, we have more than two. We’re Gallagher’s, there’s too many of us. Like, Fiona, Ian, Debbie, Carl and Liam. There’s a lot of us.”

“But no mommy, right?” Phoebe’s little brows furrow as she runs through the list in her head. 

All Lip could do was open and close his mouth as he searched for words. He was only 18 when this conversation came. Still a kid himself, he’d just stopped giving a fuck that the closest thing he’d had to a mom was his own older sister. Sometimes he still felt bitter. Unwanted. Cheated. That was the last thing that he wanted his baby to feel. He’d spent the first two years of her life trying to ensure she wouldn’t notice. To do everything he could. Fill every space. She didn’t need anyone but him, because he was so fucking here. Every girly dance, every beauty salon, every tea party, he took the time to do. Because he didn’t want her to feel the sting of having a parent that didn’t give a fuck about you. He didn’t want the look in her eyes that he saw in his siblings, the one he refused to acknowledge reflecting back at him in the mirror. Going above and beyond what an adult man could do as a child himself. All for her.

Yet here she was. Wondering where mommy was.  

Lip could fucking kill Karen. If she wasn’t the one who gave him Phoebe.

He must’ve not hidden his face well. Because as advanced as his daughter was, the face that slipped onto her own was nothing but that of a child. Her eyes widened as she observed him and little hands squeezed his forearms. “It’s okay, Daddy. I like just two. It’s okay.”

Lip could kill Karen. But for now, he was going to focus on his daughter.

Bonus: Lip: 20yrs Phoebe: 5yrs

“And if someone fucks with you?”

“My dad will kick your ass.” Phoebe smiles, swinging Lip’s hand as she holds it in her own. “But no one is gonna be mean to me, Daddy. I’m a pretty girl.”

“Yeah, well I’ll kick their ass if they’re too nice too. Hold on, angel lemme get the keys from Kev.” 

“Kay!”

It was Phoebe’s first day of school and to say they were both nervous and excited was an understatement. Lip had saved up for three months for new clothes for Phoebe to wear to school. They’d used the flashcards at the library for the past year to give her a head start. Lip was finally starting college too. He’d do two years at community college to save up more money until he could transfer his credits and get a place for him and Phoebe closer to the university. But all of that was the future. Right now, he just had to survive dropping his baby off to school. He’d always been stingy with Phoebe. She was something that was his alone. Yes, they had family but he kept her far away from Frank and left the house altogether whenever Monica tumbled into town. He never offered for Karen to see her, even when she came back, only accepting the occasional child support check from Sheila and spending it solely on Phoebe. Now he’d have to share her with the world and ask (demand) for it to be kind to her.

“I wanna ring it!” Phoebe hollers, lifting her arms for Lip to hoist her up to ring Kev and V’s doorbell. He grunts dramatically as he lifts her, cherishing her giggles as she presses the bell over and over again.

Lip’s brows furrow when he hears a sweet voice calling from inside of the house, ‘I’m coming, I-jeez I’m coming!” 

Phoebe’s gasp echoes Lip’s inner thoughts as the door swings open, revealing a young woman who is definitely fucking not Kev or V. The girl smiles brightly, keys to Kev’s truck dangling around her dainty, manicured finger. Long lashes flutter around pretty brown eyes that glance at him politely before focusing on his daughter.

“Daddy! A princess!” Phoebe grins, tugging at the collar of his shirt.

The girl just smiles wider, brow lifting as she places her hands on her hips. “Well I was just about to say the same thing. Pleasure to meet you, your highness.” she dips into a brief curtsy, causing his daughter to squeal and kick her little legs. Those same pretty brown eyes lift to meet Lip’s again and he realizes he’d just been staring at the exchange, mouth agape, like a fucking idiot. “I’m Charlotte.”

Lip knows scientifically he doesn't have ovaries, but if they did, the way his daughter was looking at this girl would’ve made his burst. 

“Lip.”

[curtiscroachblog]

Be tender-hearted

Word for Today written by Bob and Debby Gass

Thursday 20th February 2025

'Be kind to one another, tender-hearted.' Ephesians 4:32 NKJV

In his best-selling book 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, author Stephen Covey describes an experience he had on a subway in New York. A man and his children boarded the train, and the children were so loud and rambunctious, they disrupted the entire car. The man sat down beside Covey, seemingly oblivious to the situation. Covey finally said, 'Sir, your children are really disturbing a lot of people. I wonder if you couldn't control them a little more?' The man looked startled. Then he said, 'Oh, you're right. I guess I should do something about it. We just came from the hospital where their mother died about an hour ago. I don't know what to think, and I guess they don't know how to handle it either.' Covey's attitude instantly changed. Looking back on it later, he admitted that he learned a valuable lesson: seek to understand before seeking to be understood.

Sometimes the people who irritate and hurt us do so because they themselves are in pain. They're dealing with issues we don't know about. And when they lash out, it's just the burst dam of personal frustration. And it calls for looking beyond their words and actions and trying to see their hearts.

The Bible addresses this: 'Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamour and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. And be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you' (Ephesians 4:31-32 NKJV). If you have been grumpy towards those you live with and work with, the word for today is - practise being tender-hearted.

[sophsun1]

Justin and Brian never bringing up anything regarding the Pink Posse arc is one of my biggest irritations with the show, Brian spent multiple episodes worried about Justin saw him with a GUN and then it just never gets brought up again my only explanation is because they were jumping into Brian's cancer arc so soon after it they just wanted to skip over what should of been some pretty important follow through

Hey anon!

Well my 'shows refusal to deal with Justin's trauma' dam has burst and I'm just gonna list my issues with the way they handled his character from my perspective.

Throughout his time on the show Justin goes through so much stuff starting out with losing his virginity, coming out not only to his parents and the trauma of having a homophobic father, but coming out at school and facing homophobia there from both the students and the teachers. Getting gay bashed and nearly dying, navigating dating (1) Brian Kinney the most emotionally repressed man he could meet and all their relationship troubles. Going through adolescence he's only 17 when we meet him and 22 when the show ends. He's still a baby adult at that point and yet he's lived a lifetime! Here's a list of feelings™️ I have about Justin Taylor that no one asked for :)

He moves home so many times on the show it's kinda sad that he never really settled into a place before they had him move on. Firstly he gets kicked out of home and goes to stay with Brian, runs away then lives with Debbie. He moves back in with Brian then they split he lives with Ethan, they split he lives with Daphne. Gets back with Brian and is supposed to move in with him in the most romantic way and then voila he's in LA and he comes back moves in with Brian. Then they split again.. he lives with Michael and Ben and then gets a small apartment of his own. Is engaged and is gonna live in a new home together with Brian that's theirs and then.... he's off to New York to live in some tiny flat there to make it as an artist. Insane?!

Post the bashing he's lost his memory of the most romantic night of his life where the man he's been in love with for a whole season does a big grand gesture. It looks like they're finally getting somewhere, then he's attacked, in a coma left with a disability and he has to not only deal with helping Brian's PTSD and guilt from the bashing helping him forgive himself but his own which is mostly swept under the rug.

I've covered my thoughts on the pink posse arc, in a nutshell he's traumatised they traumatise him some more. No one ever mentions it again. To be honest anon there's no excuse for them skipping over it this was supposed to be them making up for skipping it in Season 2! Brian saying nothing not even one line or a dumb sarcastic I told you so, they were trouble just inexcusable.

Then after that they go headfirst and throw him into someone else's trauma. Brian keeping him in the dark over the cancer, finding out about it. Michael gaslighting him over keeping it a secret then Brian dumping him! It felt like Brian's trauma was more important to the writers than Justin's at times. It's no secret that Brian was their favourite character so they usually put him front and centre though they gave him enough plot issues too.

Going to LA having his dreams crushed, coming back and the dreadful Season 5 nonsense with britin being on/off/on/off. Getting engaged, buying a home, engagements off, he's leaving the love of his life when they're at their most happiest to become a struggling artist in New York.

There's probably loads more but essentially Justin was always a support for others especially Brian not that he didn't give it in return, but Justin went through a lot and he was so young. The show treated Brian's trauma awfully aswell but at least they gave some insight into how he was that way, they let him express his pain. Justin unfortunately didn't get the same treatment. I have love for the show but it did fall down in many respects too.

[h-e-l-l-b-r-o-k-e]

In So Deep [B.H. x you]

Series: part 2 of Without a Doubt

Summary: It’s Halloween, yet old wounds are peeled open.

Inspiration: What About Love by 'Til Tuesday

Word Count: 1721 Warnings: profanity.

Written Date: 11/20-22/2019 Posted Date: 11/27/2019

Parts: [1] [2] [3] [4] [MASTERLIST]

Every teenager in town could only be found at one place on this special night of the year, and that was at Tina’s dazzling abode where being “sheet-faced” is an absolute right to its underage attendees. That year’s Top 40s hits raged through her father’s beloved speakers while the spiked punch was made from her mother’s not-so-secret stash. Yet, Tina, who surprisingly got along with everybody, was nowhere to be found.

“She’s upstairs boning her second college honey,” Samantha closed her compact mirror with a click after checking on her Siouxsie Sioux styled make-up. “It’s like slutty witchcraft or something. I’m kind of jealous.”

“Way to go, Tina,” Y/n, dressed as a less revealing Mistress of the Dark, replied sarcastically. She didn’t even want to be at this stupid party, but Samantha, yet again, had somehow managed to drag her along.

Concerned, Samantha crossed her fish-net covered arms beneath her chest. “Hey, come on, now. None of that debbie downer crap, it’s Halloween.”

And it clearly was. Nearly everyone was donning at least some resemblance of a costume even if most were half-assed. A couple fake spiderwebs occupied the corners of the living room and white streamers hung down from the ceiling. It was minimal effort, but it didn’t matter once heavy liquor coursed through everyone’s veins and clouded their vision. Many were only here for two things: free booze and a hookup.

“I’m gonna go get us some drinks, loosen ourselves up a bit.” Samantha laughed as a thought popped up in her head, “Who knows, maybe one of us will get lucky with one of ‘em college boys.” And, she walked off chuckling to herself, leaving Y/n to stand by herself beside the banister.

Among the dense crowd of familiar and not-so-familiar people, and in-between drinking and basking in the presence of their respective company, two men have had their eyes on the unassuming girl from opposite ends of the house.

Billy Hargrove took turns chugging kegs in the backyard and making rounds inside the house so no one would forget who the new crowned kings was. This routine he established was ordinary; no one would suspect that the grin that would creep up his lips were because of the thought and sight of one girl in black. Even on a night like Halloween, Y/n was a fly among white china.

He has yet to see her tense muscles flail around the makeshift dance-floor without a care. At least she wasn’t glued to a window this time, though a railing that leads up to the less than innocent affairs wasn’t any better.

And then there was Steve Harrington whose sunglasses obscured the obvious staring from his end. He kept a close eye on Billy, whenever he got too close to Y/n for his comfort, making sure he wasn’t shoving some drink into her hand or getting her to venture up the stairs with him. But, then, his eyes would land on her and he’d stop what he was doing.

Guilt would wash over him like a bucket of cold water, and he’d stay like that until Nancy would either drag him out to dance when one o her favorite pop songs came on or sucker him in some conversation about college apps or the party. He couldn’t immerse himself into any of his girlfriend’s topics for he was a guy on a mission.

When Nancy went to get herself something to drink, Steve once again found himself looking across the room at the spot Y/n had been occupying for the past half hour but Samantha was nowhere to be found. This was all almost too good to be true.

Steve had promised himself that he’d just warn his ex-girlfriend about the son of a bitch and then back off. That’s it.

And before his mind could even second guess itself, his long legs strolled over to her on autopilot. Steve never thought he’d ever see Y/n in this light again, but the nostalgic sensation is over too soon when painted eyes land on him.

“What the fuck do you want?”

The sunglasses slid down the tip of his nose as he gazed down at her, and his fingers reached to pluck them off and hook a leg over the crew of his T-shirt. He was an idiot for not expecting Y/n’s hostility, but he tried anyways. “It’s been a while.”

A veil of wariness tightened around her features as she searched around the setting of the party for Carol’s smirking face, Tommy’s obviously feigned oblivion or others glancing over their shoulders, watching this screwed up encounter but she couldn’t even spot one of Nancy’s glossy brunette strands in the pack.

“What are you suppose to be? A vampire?”

Her eyes cut back to him as if he’s a carrot on a chopping block, narrowing down on his moving lips.

Steve sighed, “I guess there’s no beating around the bush, huh?”

The threat wasn’t anyone else, Y/n observed, but Steve. He has gone rogue.

“There’s something I should tell you…” her eyebrows knitted together as the boy she wished to never speak to again spoke, “How do I even go about this?”

“Easy. Don’t,” the wooden banister had begun to dig into her spine, “Ignore whatever thought is snaking through your head like you did with everything else.”

Samantha’s saving grace was nowhere to be found and everyone was either too high on coke or too drunk from too many shots to notice this tension between the once “it” couple of Hawkins. It was as if nothing had changed, as if she was still sixteen wearing corduroy skirts. This only made the suffocation worse.

Steve’s always been stubborn, and if it wasn’t for his longer hair Y/n would have been hook, line, and sinker back to those intimate moments of the past.  “Look—”

“I don’t want to hear it, Steve!” thousands of phantom pins pricked her nerves, “If it’s some bullshit from a year ago—”

“Okay. Okay,” Steve ran his fingers through his voluminous locks, “I get it. The past is in the past, but…”

As he peered into her eyes, time became nonlinear even though she no longer resembled the soft girl who’d be wrapped under his arms. His dimension warped, transcending back to 1982 when most of what he knew was her. But, Y/n wasn’t caressed nor suckled in by these old sensations. She was over the effects they had had on her, but to Steve, they were now almost pined for.

He blinked a couple times and took her silence as a means to continue. “There’s this guy. I think he has a thing for you; he had that band, you know, the one you’d sometimes play in my car, written on his hand,” Steve swallows the saliva on his tongue, “Billy’s not good news.”

“Billy?” Y/n asked incredulously. “The new kid? The guy who struts down the halls like he owns them like..like you once did?” Y/n scoffed, “You’re just playing me.”

“This isn’t a joke,” the desperation that laced his words tasted bitter, “Y/n, I just don’t want to see you hurt…”

“What? You mean—” she held back a sob and shook her head “—you mean, like you hurt me?”

Nothing else existed during this meeting between old lovers, only emotions that have been deeply suppressed under forced blindness and deafness. Like lava bursting out of a volcano, old emotions crumbled through the walls Y/n had spent months building around herself. She was pissed. Beyond pissed that Steve still had the power to make her cry.

But, then a soft whisper broke through the smothering music, swishing through her crumbling dam. “I never thought it was bullshit, Y/n,” his fist were kept clenched by his sides, oppressing their natural instinct to wipe away her tears, “even when I was acting like a dick, it’s not bullshit.”

Steve then realized he hadn’t done what he told himself he’d do—warn her, then go back to a thoughtless night with Nancy. His sneakers were glued onto the floor before Y/n and a part of him needed to know how this thing with the girl he had soiled would end. He was tipsy under Y/n’s teary gaze, though he had yet to enjoy a sip of alcohol, hoping for some deeper reconciliation between the two of them. Perhaps, involving the innocent molding of lips. However, he knew he’d be ashamed tomorrow if he did the same thing to Nancy tonight that he had once done to Y/n.

Y/n sniffled. “Go back to Nancy, Steve.”

Steve watched her go. Watched as she ran away before the cracks of her makeshift wall could lead to a bigger spill. Cutting and shoving through people who stared after her either in confusion or annoyance, Y/n didn’t care. She was alone in a house full of people she had grown up with in this town, and Samantha never came back to her with the drinks she had promised.

A beer can held up near his lips, Billy caught the pain on your features as you ran past him and out Tina’s front door. He didn’t know what was going on, but he soon found himself following Y/n’s tracks.

A/N: And then of course, the moment you walked away from Steve was followed by the scene in which drunk Nancy confesses that their relationship is bullshit, but hey, things will be looking up for you! ANYWAYS, there’s for sure gonna be another part to this. I had to stop here because I didn’t want this to be too long.

[coin-news-blog]

No Inflation? Here It Is – Hidden in Plain Sight

New Post has been published on https://coinmakers.tech/news/no-inflation-here-it-is-hidden-in-plain-sight

No Inflation? Here It Is – Hidden in Plain Sight

No Inflation? Here It Is – Hidden in Plain Sight

Popular among politicians, media, and central bankers alike is the claim that in spite of all the quantitative easing (QE) and zero-leaning or negative interest rates of current times, inflation is under control. As the statistics show, nothing could be further from the truth. There are some very sly ways governments attempt to mask inflation and these are hidden in plain sight. Should the refusal to look at this ballooning elephant in the room continue, dire economic consequences may become unavoidable.

No Small Problem

The best hiding places are sometimes right out in the open. While central banks like the U.S. Federal Reserve, financial media and global monetary policy groups often point to metrics like the Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index (PCE) and consumer price index (CPI) as basic metrics for inflation, this approach is argued by many to be inadequate. There are several types of inflation affecting the money supply, as it is not an isolated phenomenon only touching select consumer purchases. In fact, the foundational mechanics of fiat money itself (government issued and mandated money like the U.S. dollar) are inflationary at base, and the issue is compounded outward from there in virtually endless permutations.

Before the advent and widespread use of inflationary paper money by governments and rulers, inflation took the form of monarchs diluting coinage. The value was thus reduced. This practice had serious limits though, and paper currency provided a much more exploitable system. In similar fashion to the mixing of metals, inflation occurs today in hidden places, while prices and face values of the “diluted products” remain the same.

Target Inflation

The Fed has set a target inflation rate of 2%, stating:

The FOMC [Federal Open Market Committee] noted in its statement that the Committee judges that inflation at the rate of 2 percent (as measured by the annual change in the price index for personal consumption expenditures, or PCE) is most consistent over the longer run with the Federal Reserve’s statutory mandate.

The mandate referenced is the 2012 institution of a target inflation rate. In spite of the rate and stable appearance of charts and data, however inflation is hiding elsewhere.

Shrinkflation and Spun Stats

Whether it’s the shrinking size of Little Debbie snack cakes or the measurements of toilet paper, the effects of inflating the money supply can be seen everywhere. Companies are forced to lower the quality or quantity of their products to keep up with an inflating — and thus weakening — currency. This phenomenon is known as shrinkflation. The gradual loss of value is born by the business (imagine replacing newly inflated stock according to old prices on the books) and the consumer. No matter how stable the inflation rate may be said to be by officials, a real value hemorrhage is occurring.

Further, while politicians and financial media often point to the increasing affordability of tech, losses in affordability of critical goods and services hide inflation in plain sight. Education, healthcare, housing and food have all become markedly less affordable over the past two decades. But hey, at least you have an iPad.

Assets Tell a Darker Tale

At the Federal Reserve’s meeting on October 30, Fed Chair Jerome Powell stated:

The reason why we raise interest rates, generally, is because we see inflation as moving up, or in danger of moving up significantly, and we really don’t see that now.

Powell may not see it, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t there. While popular figures such as American presidential candidate Andrew Yang may say things like “The federal government recently printed $4 trillion for bank bailouts in its quantitative easing program with no inflation,” this simply is not the case. Newly created stimulus money lurks in banking reserves and often remains confined there, or limited to financial markets, thanks in part to interest rates set by the Fed designed to discourage banks loaning out the reserves to the wider market. As the New York Fed website details:

The other component of IOR [Interest on Reserves] is Interest on Excess Reserves (IOER), which is the interest paid on those balances that are above the level of reserves the DI [depository institution] is required to hold. Paying IOER reduces the incentive for DIs to lend at rates much below IOER.

However, this is much like telling a child to guard a bag of marshmallows and not eat them. Fed policy moves slower than the market, and if IEOR isn’t set appropriately to encourage banks and lending institutions not to lend, that excess cash can come out in a deluge before the Fed can raise rates to discourage it. Thanks to inflation, the money is most useful to the first holders and the expanded monetary based is dammed up and ready to burst anytime on a populace who will be further down the line in the inflation scheme, and thus easy to trap into agreements with the new “cheap” money.

While economists, politicians and other government talking heads say we’re doing alright, it just isn’t the case, as the Federal Reserve’s own data show. The graph below shows a growing household net worth in spite of massive QE in the wake of the global downturn beginning in 2007. Since the Great Recession, the monetary base has increased by around $3.5 trillion. It shot up to all time highs in 2014, tapered off again down to 2013 levels, and, not producing the effect the Fed wanted, is being given another shot in the arm in this latest round of “not QE.”

  While the high pressure of massive and prolonged Fed stimulus pushes on the doors and seeps through the cracks of lending institutions, commercial real estate prices have doubled since 2009. Asset values have rapidly grown, inspiring lending institutions to provide more loans at lower rates with these inflation-distorted assets as collateral. The bubble created by inflation, in other words, is ready to burst.

Round After Round

In his book “The Constitution of Liberty,” renowned Austrian economist Friedrich Hayek writes:

Inflation is probably the most important single factor in that vicious circle wherein one kind of government action makes more and more government control necessary. For this reason all those who wish to stop the drift toward increasing government control should concentrate their effort on monetary policy.

The very idea that an increase in money supply would not devalue that same money is asinine on its face. Government cites deflation and other pressing matters — problems centralized economic meddling itself has created — and refuses to let the market correct failure and reward success organically. In the end, it’s like watching a man with a terrible hangover go on binge after binge to cure his pounding headache. He only finds himself in a worse position the next day. If the man is the Fed, then he further blames his sober friends for the imposition. There’s nothing non-existent about that coming pain after stimulated stupor, it’s just waiting to strike the following day. In the Fed’s case and that of the world economy, the next time may be more of a visit to triage than a mere headache.

Source: news.bitcoin