#country rooooooads

[buddyhollyscurls]

Forever going to wait for my whisper of the heart moment where a guy notices me but fails to get my attention and when he finally does its bc I noticed he and I have checked out the same books from the library

[pink-pone]

Thank goodness y’all like my daily old sketches cause I literally have no energy to draw this week, and it’s the one constant thing I can post 😩 cannot stress enough just how ready I am to be done with classes this semester 😳

[bitchapalooza]

Me when the southern accent slips out

[beemuffins]

Y'all the neighbours kids scream-singing 3 lines of country road for almost 5mins now

West Virginiaaaa 🎶🎶🎶

Mount'n mamaaa 🎶🎶🎶

[bit-odd-innit]

"Oh hell yeah." Argyle tips his head down to hang between his knees, clapping reverently and in time as he rises to the next song on Jonathan's mix. "Let's fuckin' goooooooo." Jonathan's nose scrunches around a laugh. "You don't strike me as a John Denver fan." Argyle's arms are up above his head, swaying elegantly in sync with the wind-swept branches above them. Robin is on her feet too, mimicking him, looking like an ancient aunt at a wedding attempting the YMCA. "As far as I'm concerned, dyood," he grabs Robin's wrists and maneuvers her to be somewhere in the neighborhood of the rhythm. "Anyone who's cool with the Muppets? S'cool with me. COUNTRY ROOOOOOADS—" Tonight was meant to be a relaxed night, an evening where the older kids could unwind, but there's an unshakable Finality to it. Jonathan and Argyle are shipping back to California in a few days, and it's a matter of weeks before Robin and Nancy head east for college. Steve's parents at last sold the house (well under asking, his mother loves to remind him) so he's crashing at Eddie and Wayne's Bright Shiny New Ranch for the foreseeable future. Steve's chest sinks. He's never going to be with these people, in this place, ever again.

Beside him, Eddie giggles.

"You amused, Munson?" He asks, rolling his head to the side. They're all more than a little high and more than a little drunk, but Steve and Eddie are the only ones who have fully laid back in the high grass behind the Hopper-Byers home. Steve thinks, briefly, of ticks. The bonfire he and Jonathan cobbled together flares orange, illuminates Eddie's cheekbones. Steve watches his plush pink lips silently mouth the words of the song, eyes closed. Steve's heart clenches. "Big fan of the Muppets, I assume," he says instead of you're everything to me. Eddie's whole face pinches in on itself, caught. "Are you surprised? I'm friends with Henderson, am I not?" Steve's laugh pulls him upright, his fist twisted in Eddie's tee shirt dragging him along for the ride. He's more than a little worried about ticks. Eddie follows him, still giggling, face pushed into Steve's shoulder. Across from them Nancy and Jonathan slow dance. There's something mournful about it; Nancy's hand curved around the back of Jonathan's neck, eyes and jaw hard; Jonathan rubbing his thumb on the small of Nancy's back, eyes watery and set somewhere far in the distance. Nancy's arm flies out and Robin is there at once, curved into her side. Argyle is there too, crushed against Jonathan's back, one hand still wrapped around Robin's wrist.

"Where you from?" Steve asks, feeling as stupid as the question sounds. Eddie squints. "Where d'ya think I'm from, baby?" And ah, God, fuck, shit. Because baby started as a joke. Baby built off their goofy innocuous teasing of darling and sweetheart and my love because they're friends and friends tease, but Eddie called Steve baby and his entire circulatory system collapsed, could only recalibrate by calling Eddie honey, watching his dark eyes go liquid soft, his body melting against him. They're friends. "You're from..." He gestures vaguely. "Not here?" Eddie laughs again, his breath warm against his collarbone.

"I'm from Kentucky," he lets his voice dip into his natural accent and Steve shivers. "I moved here in middle school when Wayne got the job at the factory."

"You miss it?" He tips his head so he mouths the question into Eddie's hair, in the space above his ear. Eddie hums and Steve digs his nails into the underside of his thigh to stop himself from jolting. "I don't remember enough about it to miss it," he says. "But I love this song, and it makes me miss something I don't think I ever had. Does that make sense?" Argyle, who is the closest he's ever been to the East Coast, tips his head back to face the canopy of trees and screams, "WEST VIRGINIAAAAAAAAA—"

Steve leaps to his feet, dragging Eddie with him.

"Dance with me."

Eddie's fingers curve around Steve's. "What about your girl?" "She's fine." Behind them, Jonathan Nancy and Robin kick out the square dance they learned in middle school gym class. Robin is one step behind, dragged along by the elbow Nancy has hooked around her bicep. Argyle watches, nodding and fascinated. Steve pulls Eddie in, chest to chest, hand crawling up to cradle the back of his skull, and murmurs, "take me home..."

He doesn't remember a lot after that. He remembers the thrust of Eddie's body, the soft press of his mouth. He remembers Nancy's squeaky "Oh!", Argyle's affirmative hum, Robin's hyena-like cackle that said he was going to get destroyed tomorrow, and the buzz against his lips. Eddie giggles, pulls him closer. "Take me home," he sings, and Steve thinks, we already are.

[chadchadington]

Country rooooooads

Take me hoooooome

To the plaaaace

I beloooooooooong

[occasionally-intelligent]

i'm living my peaceful little life, listening to an "instrumental hiking" playlist on spotify made my some random person, and all of a sudden, my brain pays attention to this harmonica song.

someone decided to make an instrumental harmonica cover of COUNTRY ROOOOOOADS, TAKE ME HOME TO A PLAAAAAAAACE I BELOOOOOOONG

[theogprofessorbooty]

STORY TIME

Yesterday I was getting a sports massage (I do martial arts) and I got a male masseuse and we really vibed in a kindred spirit way. I know a lot of people don’t talk to their masseuses but I’m chatty and it makes it less awkward and I love hearing people’s stories as a writer.

He’s into martial arts too and used to have a dojo. I was dressed in my normal people clothes, but he picked up I was an “old soul hippie and a punk” and we chatted about all the cool hardcore bands we’d seen. Guy met Danzig. He also surfs. We talked about cosplay. Whole nine yards. Okay, that’s not the important part here….

Guy used to be a local cop, which I really didn’t see coming based on his résumé. He’s got long hair and 100% was aligning my damn chakras during this session while wearing a hardcore band hoodie.

Ok…but he wasn’t just a cop. He specialized in CULT CRIMES.

Okay, by this point I am sold. I am 100% booking with this guy again even if the massage is just okay because I just want the tea.

(For context: I listen to conspiracy shows, supernatural shows, and have written extensively about disinformation, propaganda, & cults in an academic and journalistic context.)

So…he tells me that in West Virginia… like COUNTRY ROOOOOOADS TAKE ME HOME… West Virginia by God—there was a black mass in the 90s with like 60 people and an attempted virgin sacrifice.

But for some reason, that wasn’t the most shocking story he told me.

It was the one about the cultist casting black magic IN THE OUTBACK STEAKHOUSE ON COURT STREET (ATTACHED TO THE DANG MALL).

In front of the bloomin onions and everything.

#notthebloominonions

[holtbys-left-eyebrow]

COUNTRY ROOOOOOADS

[violetvisionss]

Take Me Home

Photo 4 of 5

From Collection: Stagnant State

May 19, 2018 | Texas Country Railroad

Captured with canon raw and colorized in davinci resolve

[paracosm-photography]

Meandering country roads

[andromedaa-tonks]

my goal for 2022 is to always have the positive energy of a drunk girl you’d meet in a bathroom

[stephen9260]

To the plaaaaaace

I beloooong

[likerice]

Forever Mud

And when it's not mud, it's still ice.