#full stack development - wikipedia

[divukanwar]

A commonly used stack for developing dynamic web apps is known as MEAN Stack Development. MEAN is an abbreviation that means MongoDB, Express.js, Angular.js, and Node.js. MongoDB, a NoSQL document-oriented database, Express.js, a web application framework, Angular.js, a front-end JavaScript framework, and Node.js, a server-side JavaScript runtime environment. MEAN Stand is a free stack of full technologies based on Java script designed for creating fast, safe, and expandable web apps. It is light in weight and allows developers to easily build sophisticated applications with a combination of diverse technologies. It helps in creating single-page apps, real-time apps, mobile applications, etc. MEAN stack development involves the use of fast and convenient ways to develop web applications.

The full-stack approach can create many new businesses compared to anything hitherto. Businesses can create their bespoke software or applications that is built based on multiple technologies and various types of frameworks. Using a stack approach, firms develop personalized solutions that place the business ahead of the competition. Furthermore, they will be able to scale up their applications rapidly without necessarily investing in any additional hardware or software. Full-stack development is also a cost-effective practice where organizations can leverage existing resources for optimal effect. Full-stack development is indispensable for the creation of new products and services, expansion of customer base, and increasing market share for business. The advantage of full-stack development is that it provides more business opportunities than ever before.

[app-development-company-in-india]

Why Choosing the Right PHP Development Company Can Accelerate Your Business Growth

In today’s fast-evolving digital world, having a dynamic, scalable, and robust web presence is crucial for business success. Whether you’re a startup, SME, or large enterprise, your website is often the first point of contact for potential customers. This is where PHP development services come into play — offering flexible, cost-effective, and performance-driven solutions.

What is PHP and Why is it Still So Popular?

PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor) is an open-source server-side scripting language that powers over 77% of websites globally, including giants like Facebook and Wikipedia. Known for its simplicity, speed, and versatility, PHP remains a go-to technology for custom website development, CMS solutions, eCommerce platforms, and web applications.

Why You Need a Professional PHP Development Company

Hiring a professional PHP development company ensures that your digital products are built on a solid foundation. These companies bring:

Expertise in Core PHP and Frameworks: From raw PHP to modern frameworks like Laravel, Symfony, CodeIgniter, and Yii, they offer solutions tailored to your business requirements.

Custom Development Solutions: Whether you need a full-fledged enterprise portal or a dynamic website, professional teams deliver personalized solutions.

Scalable Architecture: A reliable PHP company focuses on future scalability, allowing your platform to grow with your business.

Faster Time-to-Market: With experienced developers and agile methodologies, your project gets deployed faster and with better quality.

Ongoing Support & Maintenance: Post-launch, the right development partner will ensure smooth operation, regular updates, and performance optimization.

Key PHP Development Services to Look For

When selecting a company, ensure they offer a full spectrum of PHP development services, including:

Custom PHP Web Development

PHP-Based CMS Development (WordPress, Joomla, Drupal)

E-commerce Development (Magento, WooCommerce, OpenCart)

PHP API Integration & Development

Migration & Upgradation Services

Third-Party Integration

Support & Maintenance

How to Choose the Right PHP Development Company?

Finding the right partner can be overwhelming, but here are a few tips:

Check their portfolio and previous work.

Ask about the technology stack and frameworks they specialize in.

Review client testimonials and ratings.

Inquire about their development process and communication model.

Ensure post-development support is part of the package.

Conclusion

Whether you're launching a new web application or revamping an existing one, partnering with the right PHP development company can make a significant difference. With comprehensive PHP development services, your business can achieve faster deployment, improved user experience, and scalable growth.

Looking for a trusted PHP development partner? Choose experience, innovation, and reliability to transform your digital ideas into reality.

[guptatechweb]

PHP Development: A Timeless Technology Powering the Web in 2025

PHP development remains one of the most trusted and widely used approaches for building dynamic websites and web applications. Despite the rise of new programming languages and frameworks, PHP continues to evolve and maintain its stronghold in the web development ecosystem. In fact, popular platforms like WordPress, Facebook, and Wikipedia still rely on PHP as a key part of their technology stack. In this blog, we’ll explore what PHP development is, its advantages, common use cases, modern tools, and why it continues to be a smart choice in 2025. What is PHP Development? PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor) is a server-side scripting language specifically designed for web development. PHP development refers to the process of using PHP to create interactive and dynamic web pages, manage backend functionality, and build full-stack applications. From simple landing pages to complex enterprise systems, PHP allows developers to create secure, scalable, and performance-driven websites efficiently. Why Choose PHP for Web Development? Even in 2025, PHP offers several compelling reasons to be your go-to web development language: 1. Open-Source and Cost-Effective PHP is free to use, reducing development costs for individuals and businesses alike. With a wide range of open-source tools and libraries, developers can build robust applications without high overhead. 2. Cross-Platform Compatibility PHP runs on all major operating systems, including Windows, Linux, and macOS. It's compatible with nearly all servers and easily integrates with MySQL, PostgreSQL, and other popular databases. 3. Massive Community Support One of PHP’s greatest strengths is its global community. Thousands of developers contribute to its ecosystem, creating libraries, plugins, and frameworks that enhance productivity and solve real-world challenges. 4. Frameworks That Speed Up Development Modern PHP frameworks like Laravel, Symfony, and CodeIgniter simplify development with built-in tools, reusable components, and architectural patterns like MVC (Model-View-Controller). 5. High Performance with PHP 8+ The release of PHP 8 and above has brought significant performance improvements, thanks to features like JIT (Just-In-Time) compilation. PHP applications now load faster and use fewer server resources. Popular Use Cases of PHP Development PHP is highly versatile and used in a variety of web development scenarios: Content Management Systems (CMS): WordPress, Joomla, Drupal eCommerce Platforms: Magento, WooCommerce, OpenCart Custom Web Applications: CRMs, ERPs, dashboards API Development: RESTful APIs for mobile and web apps Social Networks & Forums: Community platforms, blogs, discussion boards Essential Tools for PHP Developers To build and manage PHP applications efficiently, developers often use the following tools: Laravel – A modern PHP framework for clean, elegant code. Composer – Dependency manager for PHP. PHPStorm – Feature-rich IDE tailored for PHP. XAMPP/WAMP – Local development environments. Postman – Testing APIs built with PHP. PHP Development Best Practices To get the most out of PHP development, follow these proven practices: Use a framework to structure your application. Sanitize and validate all user inputs to prevent security threats. Write modular, reusable code using object-oriented programming. Leverage Composer for package management.

[freeonlinejavacourse]

free online Java course learn with certificate(2025): Get certified

how do you? Learn a free online Java course certifications we have answer for it. Because Java is the most used programming language world wide. we cover why, its demand, growth and salary. Also , It is a popular, general-purpose and highly potent programming language running on several OS and translatable to many other languages. Regardless of the role that you take, the first step can improve your programming skills and your career. You can also check our recent blog about. The top 15 skills for java full satck developer to outstand others , How to become certified full stack developer in 2025 and how to become graphic designer in 2025

Benefits of Learning Java:

1. Platform Independence: Basically, Write the code only once and run it anywhere.

2.Versatility:correspondingly, It has been used in web, mobile, and enterprise applications.

3.Career Opportunities: Although, Java developer demand is very, very high.

4.Strong Community: Equally, The arts and crafts of comics are supported by massive community support and learning resources.

When you learn Java, you’re not only learning a language but also how to become a software developer, backend developer, or mobile app developer.

This article provides a curated guide to Learn Java courses online that not only teach you Java from scratch but also offer certification upon completion. Eventually you will be equipped with the right resources to learn Java and validate your skills without spending a single penny.

You can download Java for free by visiting Oracle.

Emphatically, There are some famous games and websites built using Java.

Here is some of the list, According to Oracle blogs

Wikipedia Search

Minecraft.

NASA World Wind

Visible Tesla

SmartThings

Let’s dive deeply into Java fundamentals

In free online Java course what you can learn

Step 1: Start with Basics

“If you are a beginner” try to understand the following topics:

1. Intro to Java

Features of Java

Installation and setup of JDK (Java Development Kit)

2. Its Syntax and Variables

Java keywords, data types, variables

Input/output operations

3. Control Flow

If-else statements, loops (for, while)

Step 2: Move to Core Java Concepts

Once you are comfortable with the basics, explore intermediate topics such as:

Object-Oriented Programming (OOP)

Classes, objects, inheritance, polymorphism, encapsulation

Arrays and Collections

Array manipulation, Array List, Hash Map

Methods and Constructors

Exception Handling

Step 3: Practice with Projects to Gain Experience

Build small projects such as:

•Basically, simple calculator using Java.

•student management system.

•Basic e-commerce homepage.

Here are some advanced Java topics:

Multithreading: however Understanding threads and concurrency to handle multiple tasks easily.

Streams API: Processing collections of data effectively.

Frameworks: Basically , Introduction to Spring Boot for web application development.

Try this sample code and take the first step toward learning.

Class Main {

public static void main(String[] args) {

int first = 10;

int second = 20;

// Add two numbers

int sum = first + second;

System.out.println(first + “ + “ + second + “ = “ + sum);

}

}

Output:

10 + 20 = 30

Top Platforms to Learn Java Full Course Free Online with Certificate

Here is a list of trusted platforms offering free Java courses with certificates:

1. Coursera

Course: Java Programming and Software Engineering Fundamentals

Offered By: Duke University

Features: certainly Beginner-friendly modules.

Covers normal to advanced topics.

Provides hands-on coding exercises.

Certification available (free audit, paid-for certificate)

Link: Visit Coursera to enroll.

2. Udemy

Course: Java Programming for Beginners.

Features: certainly Self-paced video tutorials.

Covers syntax, OOP, and hands-on exercises.

Free courses often include certificates of completion.

Link: Browse Udemy’s free Java courses here.

3. edX

Course: Introduction to Java Programming.

Offered By: UC3M (Universidad Carlos III de Madrid)

Features: Learn foundational concepts like classes, variables, and methods.

Optional certification upon completing quizzes and assignments.

Link: Enroll on edX.

4. Solo Learn

Course: Java Full Course

Features: certainly Interactive learning modules.

Free quizzes and challenges.

Earn a certificate after course completion.

Link: Visit Solo Learn.

5. Great Learning Academy

Course: Java Programming for Beginners

Features: Covers foundational to advanced topics.

Self-paced tutorials and quizzes.

Free certification is provided once you complete it.

Link: Enroll in Great Learning.

Tips to Learn Java full course online Easily

Consequently, follow these tips:

1. Set learning goals and complete them.

• However, Break down the course into smaller milestones

2. Practice coding daily to improve.

• Hence, Write a code daily to strengthen concepts and improve logical thinking.

3. Join communities related to coding.

• Also, Platforms like Stack Overflow, Reddit, and GitHub help you learn through real-world problems, and they are easily accessible.

4. Work on Real Projects.

• Additionally Start with beginner-level and easy-type projects, like a calculator or to-do list.

5. Prepare for Certification.

• Revise the topics, and take mock tests before attempting certification.

After getting comfortable with the basics, look into OOP principles like inheritance, polymorphism, encapsulation, and abstraction because these are the very foundations of Java.

Learn about Object-Oriented Programming (OOP).

Pay attention to the four principles:

Encapsulation.

Inheritance.

Polymorphism.

Abstraction.

Try writing small programs for the concepts.

Basic to advance growing gradually

Additionally Explore Advanced Topics

Get familiar with it.

Multithreading.

File handling.

Streams and Lambda expressions

JDBC (Java Database Connectivity) for connecting to a database

Eventually, you master the basics, you must focus on object-oriented programming concepts like inheritance, polymorphism, encapsulation, and abstraction; these are the important topics of Java. Meanwhile, This can be done by Learning free online Java courses with certificate

Especially, To enhance your skills, practice coding daily by solving simple problems through platforms like Hacker Rank, LeetCode, or GeeksforGeeks. likewise, Building simple projects like a calculator, to-do list, or basic games will be practical and fun for your learning. Further ahead, you have collections, exception handling, multithreading, file I/O, and others.

 The online communities to join include video tutorials as well as forums where doubts can be clarified and your motivation sustained. Accordingly, Mastery of Java with continuous practice with real-world projects and passion for constant learning are more important.

Free Certification Impacts on Career online java course

If you’re looking to further your career, consider taking free online Java courses. These courses not only validate your skills but also increase your credibility. As a result, they can open doors for you. Altogether In today’s competitive job market, certifications are crucial. Employers value certifications because they show your interest in improving your skill set and staying up to date with industry trends. They are proof of your knowledge and expertise in a given field, whether it’s IT, digital marketing, or finance. Additionally, Adding a certificate is a great foundation in terms of providing a bridge between academics and the practical workings of things. 

Comparatively, Practical experience attached to it enables it to open more doors for experienced professionals to more career advancement opportunities, more money, and better job prospects. A certificate also adds value at the point of an individual being considered for hire. Basically, Certifications that have a connection with the job role an individual possesses are much sought after by employers.

concurrently, Such certifications tell you that you are taking an active step in furthering your education and your own self-improvement. For example, The specialized knowledge would be Google Ads, AWS, PMP, or Microsoft Azure, and they are more valuable to organizations.concurrentlyrhandling the new things and challenging projects and earn the trust of your colleague.Hence, investing in certifications accelerates your career growth, ready to take over leadership positions, and makes sure you remain competitive in a constantly growing and evolving job market.

online Java course Certificate Percentage Impact

Altogether, Skill Enhancement 70-80%

Increased Job Opportunities: 60-70%

Salary Increase: 20-40%

Industry Credibility: 50-60%

Career Switching 40-50%

Networking 30-40%

Why Java is one of the industry standards?

      “Java is widely used in project companies, especially in large organizations. because, It has earned its authority.” and another Its platform independence makes sure that the “write once, code anywhere” phrase. Also, it is easily accessible and used in various types of projects like games, websites, apps, etc., it keeps going on.

The major companies using Java are

Microsoft

Google

Uber

Accenture

Amazon

·According to Microsoft, It relies on Java technologies for a variety of internal systems, applications. Workloads to enable well-known public services and products and a significant set of critical systems that power Azure infrastructure.

·Google is making a beta version of the open-source Google HTTP client-server Java. because of this common HTTP client library underlies the above two libraries.

· According to Amazon certainly, they are using Java for their AWS services, known as SDK Java. It is beneficial for them with storage and cloud computing purposes.

· In Oracle A Java developer wrote a blog about the upcoming goodness of Java that is posted in Oracle. Basically, He explains Java and what new things are coming in and around Java.

to know more check here

[edujournalblogs]

Why do we have so much programming languages ? Why don't we have one ring to rule them all so that we don't have to worry about learning so many languages ?

In our career, we don't have to know 10 or more hit languages to be a successful programmer. There are programming languages such as python, C, Java and Java Script, and C# (for Game Development), that offers a lot of opportunity for growth, and you don't have to learn other languages to be a successful programmer because these languages provide the core of them. Then, why are there so many languages. If we go to Wikipedia and check out a list of programming languages, you are surely going to be intimidated, because there is no way in your life time, you are going to learn all those languages. I suppose, there are about 500 to 1000 languages over there. Ridiculous !!! Maybe, you are going to learn five or ten languages in your entire life span in your career as a programmer.

There are different programming languages that are meant to do different things. For instance, we can't write python code for low level systems and for hardware interactions. There are other low level languages like C for doing that. Python really does good in one thing ie developer productivity. It enables developers to write code quickly and with a few lines of code compared to other languages like Java, C++ and C#.

All languages have their strengths and weakness. For instance, if you want to build apps in android, you can choose languages such as Kotlin or Java though Kotlin is presently used because of greater compatibility and Swift for developing IOS (Apple Phone) apps. You will not be using Python for developing Android or IOS apps. You can use Python for Data Science including Data Visualizations and for Web Application Development, machine learning, Artificial Intelligence etc. Python is really good at doing all those stuffs.

Conclusion:

Every programming languages excels at doing certain things and doesen't do so well at others. it is all about trade-off. Everything has a pros and corn. A duty of a good developer / programmer is to detect what these pros and corns are and what tools to apply for a specific scenario.

Looking for a Full Stack Developer Course to upskill you in the hottest development technologies? Check our Full Stack .Net Developer Course at edujournal (www.edujournal.com). Happy coding and have a wonderful time folks !!!

URL : www.edujournal.com

[zuucc]

OLDER BROTHER: W. Nylander I FLUFF/SMUT

Words: 29K+

Summary: You’ve grown up with the Nylander’s. With your parents being friends and you being the same age as Alex, the two of you have been best friends for longer than you can remember - but somewhere during your early teenage years, his older brother started becoming more handsome and interesting, and less annoying older brother. And somewhere during your early teenage years you became more beautiful and grown up and charming, and less like Alex’s awkward best friend.

Warnings: Extreme cuteness?? cursing and smut + some alcohol

Warning #2: I spent 3 whole hours rereading/editing this... So grab a bottle of water and some snacks

Author’s note: Let’s just pretend that drafting and the Nylander bros leaving Sweden just isn’t a thing. And I am sorry for a lot of commas sometimes, I’m just a grammar bitch. (Also, the age of consent in Sweden, where the story is set, is, according to Wikipedia, 15. Just so you know ;))  AND I AM SORRY FOR THE WAIT!!! HOPE YOU ENJOY!

Masterlist tagged in bio.

July 2011

“Why are you blushing?” Alex asked, looking at you with furrowed eyebrows and curious eyes. You’d been playing in the pool, splashing each other and hitting each other with pool noodles, but now that William had decided to show up, 15 years old and in all his shirtless glory - your eyes and mind went somewhere else, just snapping out of it when Alex hit you over the head with a noodle.

“Why. Are. You. Blushing?” he asked again, once you finally turned your attention back at him. Your attention weren’t even all the way there, quickly being caught again as you observed his older brother climbing up the ladder on the side of the pool to do another dive into the water, hockey-made muscles moving in his back as he pulled himself up.

“I’m not blushing,” you said once you snapped out of it again, surely blushing even more. “Then why is your face suddenly red?” his eyebrows still furrowed, as he couldn’t figure out what the hell was going on with his best friend. “I don’t know, probably just sunburned,” you tried to find an excuse, Alex shrugging and rolling his eyes at you before hitting you with the noodle again.

You and Alex had always been honest with each other, but as you got older you’d learned that some things you couldn’t share with your best friend.. like period-stuff, and ‘suddenly developing a crush on his older brother’-stuff.

June 2012

“Why are you wearing that? It’s hot as hell,” Alex asked, looking at you standing by the pool from where he’s lounging on a floatie. Covering your body, you’ve got a huge t-shirt – stolen from your dad. It was the first heat of the summer, and a heatwave traveling over Europe had hit Sweden good. You had plenty of sundresses but they were all a little tight over your chest and thighs - and the thought of something clinging to your body in this heat literally made you want to vomit. “My bikini is too small,” you mumbled, looking down at your feet. “What? Stop mumbling,” Alex said, the sound of his little sisters running around with the water hose behind you completely drowning out your mumbling voice. “I said my bikini is too small,” you muttered, sitting down at pool’s edge to get your feet in the water. “Didn’t you buy a new bikini before we went to that indoors water park for my birthday?” he asked, splashing water over himself to cool down. “Yeah, and it is too small,” you muttered. “That’s like three months ago, there’s no way that’s too small,” he chuckled. “It’s not like you grew. I’m like 5 inches taller than you now,” he laughed.

“Jesus, Alex, it’s called puberty - I think you forget that she’s a girl,” William chimes in, smacking his little brother over the back of his head as he slides past on a floatie of his own. You’re cheeks flare up at the thought of William understanding that your problem is that you now have boobs and wider hips. But you’re also thankful of the fact that he said it, so you didn’t have to. “What? I know that she’s a girl, dumbass,” Alex whines at his brother.

“Boobs, Alex! Boobs and hips, and a goddamn ass that doesn’t fit in any of my jeans anymore – that, is my problem,” you whisper-yell at him, annoyed with his oblivious nature. “And yeah, it is called puberty - maybe you’ll experience it one day,” you added, making Alex scoff and Will laugh loudly. “Hey, like I just said, I’m 5 inches taller than you, that’s puberty for you right there,” he argued. “Your voice is still squeaky,” you teased, even if his voice definitely had become a lot deeper over the last year. “No, it’s not,” he argued more, obviously making his voice deeper than it really was. You chuckled as you made eye contact with Willy who was sneaking up behind Alex with a smirk on his lips, flipping his floatie over and sending Alex under the water with a high scream - a small voice crack following as a cherry on top. “Like I said, squeaky,” you said, smug smile on your lips, when Alex’s head came through the surface again, and you and Willy laughed together - and your heart felt like it grew three sizes in your chest, just from communicating with Willy. And a maybe little more from being the one who made him smile, who made him laugh. You really hoped it didn’t though, you couldn’t handle your chest getting any bigger now. “Will you just get in already? I don’t care if your bikini fits or not, just... come play with me,” his voice turns whiny again as he says the last part, and you finally decide to give in, standing up to take off your dad’s t-shirt. You felt uncomfortable but a little bit braver now that you had at least one of the Nylander brothers understanding of your problems. But as you let the t-shirt fall to the ground and you turned back to the pool to jump in - the understanding one of the Nylander brothers was also the one who’s stare lingered a little longer.

It was also him that decided to grab you and throw you into the pool while you were standing by the pools edge. And it was him that went to get popsicles and stared at you when he bent down to give it you where you were sat floating on a couple of pool noodles. And he was the one that smiled at you from across the table when Alex told everyone about you and Willy ganging up on him - his smile a little sweeter, his stare a little softer than usual. And your heart felt like it would bust through your chest. March 2013 You let out a long sigh as you got upstairs, finally slipping away from the crowd that had gathered in the Nylander’s home in honor of Camilla’s birthday party. You cursed to yourself as you reached behind you to try and adjust your bra that was digging into your side through your dress. “Wanna talk about it?” you hear a teasing but familiar voice behind you. William was stretched out on a sofa, or more like a loveseat, that stood against the wall on the second floor of the house. He smiled at you as you turned around and finally noticed him. You rolled your eyes at his comment, but approached as he moved the pillows that was stacked next to him, in order to make room for you. “What’s up?” he asks on a more serious note, when you settle in next to him. You’ve gotten more used to talking to him over the last six months, as he had started spending more time with you and Alex, but being this close to him - your thighs slightly touching, your shoulder leant against his bicep - still got your heart beating faster. “First of all, I hate adults,” you say, making him chuckle and follow up with a ‘why?’. “These friends of our moms, all up in my business like ‘Oh, you’ve grown up to be such a fine young woman’ and ‘oh the last time I saw you, you were as skinny as a toothpick - you look like a woman now, look at those curves, you look just like your mother when she was your age’,” you tell him, making weird voices as you impersonate your mom and Camilla’s friends. “And let’s not forget ‘the boys at school must be swooning over you! Alex must have his hands full fighting them off’, queue obnoxious laughter,” you rant, letting out all your frustrations as Willy shakes in laughter next you. “Like, stop commenting on my body, please. Isn’t there like an unwritten rule that you shouldn’t comment on a teenage girl’s body? Also, there are no boys swooning over me, and if there were, I sure as hell wouldn’t need Alex to fight anyone off,” you huff, letting out another deep breath now that you’ve gotten most of your frustrations out.

“I hate to break it to you, but it’s true though,” he says, eyeing you from the side as you roll your eyes again. “What? That Alex spends all our free periods fighting off all my swooning suitors?” He laughs again, and you think it might be your favorite sound in the entire world. You like it even more when you’re the one that caused it. “That you’re a woman now,” he says it like Hagrid tells Harry Potter that he’s a wizard. “Like you’ve changed a lot since this time last year, not that what they’re saying is okay, but I understand their reactions,” he said - and he says it in a nice way. And you feel like it’s a compliment but you’re not sure. Your heart starts beating extra fast, though, just in case. “I came up here to get a break,” you sigh dramatically, and he laughs again - softly.

“Also I’m sure there are boys swooning over you, Y/N,” he adds, turning his head to look at you. “Yeah, right,” you mumble, and he turns back again, smiling. “I said I’m sure,” he trails off, and you thought about how the only boy you wanted to be swooning over you was him. “And second of all?” he asks, after a while, snapping you out of your thoughts. “What?” you ask, not sure what he means. “You said ‘first of all’ before you started impersonating annoying middle aged women. There must be a ‘second of all’,” he explains, smiling when he sees you draw another deep breath. “Yeah, second of all, this bra is cutting into my sides and this whole fucking outfit is just uncomfortable as heck,” you told him, making him laugh again. “I look ridiculous, this dress is at least one size too small but I never wear dresses so I don’t really get new ones and my mom would not let me wear jeans so here we are,” you sighed, gesturing towards the dress that wasn’t really meant to be clinging to your torso but definitely did. William laughed again, glancing at you before he turned his stare forward again. “I think you look great,” he smiled, but it wasn’t really a compliment you could take. “I look ridiculous,” you corrected him. “You need to stop putting yourself down like that. I’m trying to compliment you, you know. These annoying middle aged women down here are right - you are beautiful - and you definitely don’t look ridiculous,” he tells you, genuinely. You don’t know what to say next. Trying to think of how to say thank you in a confident and grown up way and not in a ‘I have a humongous crush on you’ way, while simultaneously fighting off the blush creeping up your cheeks was hard. Before you can come up with a logical solution, one that wasn’t running off or digging a hole and disappearing into it, he starts talking again. “You know, when someone compliments you, it’s polite to say thank,” he turns towards you, “oh, you’re busy blushing,” he interrupts himself, laughing. “Stop,” you whine, bringing your hands up to cover your cheeks, only making him laugh more. “There you are, I’ve been looking for you everywhere,” you suddenly hear Alex coming up the stairs, stopping at the top once he sees the two of you. “What the hell are you two doing?” he asks when he catches you in the act of trying to fight off William who’s holding your wrists as he tries to stop you from covering your blushing cheeks, your tights covered foot pressed against his bicep as you try to push him away while simultaneously leaning over the armrest to get away from him - both laughing. That night when you’re lying in bed, thinking of your talk with Willy, dreaming yourself away into some dream reality where the playful fight had ended in him pressing his lips to yours, instead of Alex interrupting and whisking you away - you get a message. It is late, way past midnight and even longer past your preferred bedtime, and you wonder who it might be. After all, Alex had fallen asleep while you watched a movie in the attic, barely getting himself up two flights of stairs to his bedroom when your parents came to tell you that you were leaving. Your lungs almost give out when you flip over your phone to see the nickname ‘willy’ on your screen. Having had his number saved in your phone ever since you first got one - because your mom and Camilla got you and Alex phones at the same time and thought it would smart for you to have it in case Alex did something stupid (i.e. hurting himself) and you couldn’t get a hold of them - but his number had never really been used much up until the last few months. Your mouth falls open when you struggle to get your phone unlocked, the fingerprint function of course not giving you the time of day, and you fuck up your code twice before you finally get it open and read the message - whereas your mouth shifts into a wide, giddy smile. “I like talking to you,”

December 2013/January 2014 New Year’s Eve dinner was always spent at home with just your family, and then around nine, your family and a couple of other families in your parents circle of friends would migrate over to the Nylander’s, where you would spend the rest of the night celebrating the new year. Unlike the last big party you attended at the Nylander house, you now had an outfit that you felt comfortable in. A pair of flowy, black pants that fit nicely over your hips and didn’t cut into your waist paired with a sparkly, dark grey, slightly see-through long sleeve that your mom had let you get if you promised to wear one of those cropped, black tank tops underneath - which wasn’t a compromise to you - it just meant that you could go without a bra. You felt more comfortable in your body too, finally getting used to how your wider hips made tight clothing look, and no longer feeling like the size of your chest was a burden. You felt good about how you looked tonight, having done your hair and everything. And even if it was nice to just feel good about yourself, you also hoped that one Nylander brother in particular would think that you looked good as well. Maybe even let his eyes linger on you a little bit longer, like he sometimes did. Along with your best friend and little Danielle, William greeted you and your family at the door. “You clean up nice,” Alex said nonchalantly, giving you a hug while simultaneously lifting your feet from the ground - something he’d gotten the habit of doing lately, only to show off the muscles he’d gained after he started going to the gym with Willy. His halfhearted compliment made you roll your eyes. “Wish I could say the same about you,” you joked, making him loosen his hold on you so that you quickly fell to your feet. While you and Alex had your moment, or whatever you would call it, your mom and dad had moved past you and into the living room. “Hey,” William smiled at you once you got back your balance and moved past Alex. It was that sweet smile, the one that reached all the way to his eyes - the one that it seemed he had reserved for you (and sometimes Danielle, as she was the one out of all his sisters that he had deemed the least annoying). “Hi,” you smiled back, stepping closer as he pulled you into a tight hug. “You look really great tonight,” he told you as you were still hugging. “Just tonight?” you asked, turning it into a joke a whole lot easier than actually taking a compliment for once, adding a hand to your chest for dramatic effect. “Oh, every day,” William smirked, taking your coat from you and hanging it up as you took it off. Alex rolled his eyes and walked past you, muttering something about getting snacks. “You still haven’t learned to take a compliment, huh?” he chuckled, putting his hands on your shoulders and pushing you in front of him into the living room. “Uhm, no, compliments make me awkward and you know it,” you mutter, pushing back against him - dreading the small crowd in their living room. You plant your feet to the ground, not taking another step - not letting him push you any further - when you get to the end of the hallway. “I know. But it doesn’t mean that I’ll stop complimenting you,” he says, stepping into you, his chest ending up slightly pressed into your back now that you suddenly stopped, his hands falling to the sides of your upper arms. You can sense his head next to yours as he leans down, and your cheeks starts feeling a little bit warm at the close proximity of your faces. “Thank you,” you whisper, knowing that he wants you take the compliment - he always does. “What was that?” he asked, teasing you. “Thank you,” you repeated yourself, louder this time. “There you go,” he smiled, and before you could do or say anything else, you sensed eyes on you. You looked away from William to see your mom’s friend, Karen, looking at the two of you. You didn’t know how long she’d been staring but you knew you didn’t want to give the circle’s main gossip girl more to talk about, envisioning her telling everyone how ‘Y/N has heart eyes for the oldest Nylander brother’, so you took Alex’s route of muttering something about snacks and running off to find him. You made the hours before midnight go by, by playing games with the other kids your age in the basement. William coming by every now and then, joining you for a game or two. The couch was full and you had taken the only chair for yourself, but instead of sitting on the floor, like three others, Willy simply desired to share your chair. “Hey, I was comfortable,” you whined, as he pushed you forward and dumped down behind you, resting his thighs and his side on the armrests, his long legs and one of his arms hanging over the chairs edges. Even if having him this close made your heart beat faster and your smile a little harder to hide, you were now a little bit uncomfortable, sitting at the edge of the seat. “Well, make yourself comfortable again,” he said, like it was the easiest thing ever. You could see how it could be comfortable, but that meant a lot of bodily contact between the two of you - something that took a little more bravery than you were feeling right now with all of these people around - and Alex who was rolling his eyes out of his head on the other side of the table. Sensing your lack of bravery, or uncomfortableness, or maybe both, William slides his free arm around your waist and pulls you closer, letting you rest back against his thighs, your arm coming up to rest on his hip. Your eyes meet and he looks up at you as if to ask ‘comfortable now?’ and you nod, a smile tugging at your lips. Not long after, Camilla comes down to tell you all that midnight and 2014 are only 15 minutes away. And while you dread having to pull away from the comfortable heat of his body, everyone put down their cards and scrambled up the stairs to put on the many layers that the Swedish winter required. “Are you gonna get up?” William chuckles, and you snap out of your thoughts. A blush rises to your cheeks but you still manage to give him a relaxed answer - one that doesn’t say ‘I never not want your body pressed to mine ever again’ but confidently “I was finally comfortable again,” at which he laughs and pushes you back to the edge of the seat, placing his hands on your shoulders again like he’d done when you first arrived. Out in the street, where the entire neighborhood and their guests gathered to watch the fireworks and celebrate the new year, you found yourself standing between Alex and William. William’s arm came around your shoulders, as if to warm you, even if you haven’t really shown any signs of being cold. But then again, you definitely didn’t mind.

The entire street counted down the last ten seconds before the new year in unison and you found yourself engulfed in the sound as a feeling of thankfulness for your friends and family washed over you. As 2013 came to an end and fireworks appeared in the night sky over you, you were pulled against William’s front, his glove covered hand coming up to your face as he pressed his lips to yours in a swift new year’s kiss. And it all happened so fast that you barely even realized it before it was over and you were whisked away and hugged by Alex and your mom, and your dad, and Camilla. Everyone. ‘Happy New Year’ whispered and shouted everywhere around you. Until William is back at your side, pulling you into a hug, whispering “Happy New Year” into your ear as if he hadn’t just kissed you a few minutes prior. As you got home around an hour and a half later, after having spent the last hour at the Nylander house half asleep on Alex’s shoulder, your brain fogged over with thoughts of what had happened. You’d been so tired but now your mind was running all over the place, and there was no way you were going to fall asleep within the first hour. You relived the moment about a hundred times, to the best of your memory. And you wished, you wished that you’d been prepared, that you knew what had made him do it - wished that he would have done it again. You wished that he hadn’t gone out with his friends after, so that maybe, just maybe he would’ve said something. Around 4 AM it feels like you might finally be falling asleep, but the sound of your phone buzzing once, then twice, makes you get up to at least push the ‘do not disturb’ button. But when you see his name on your screen you’re suddenly awake again, opening the messages immediately. “I really wanted a new year’s kiss,” “I hope you’re not mad at me❤️” And your heart felt like it was beating out of your chest again. You had no fucking idea what was behind the words ‘I really wanted a new year’s kiss’ but it would just have to do. And you were definitely not mad at him. “I’m not mad at you❤️” you texted him back, holding your phone to your chest as you waited for his reply, if there was one. A few seconds later it vibrates in your hands and you scramble to get it unlocked. “Why are you still awake?” he asks, and in a moment of bravery you text “Just been thinking a lot,” back. The dots that indicate typing appear immediately. “What’s got you thinking so much that you can’t sleep?” he asks, and you wonder if he just wants to hear you say it or if he’s actually oblivious. “You,” you answer, straight forward. Deciding right then and there that you were going to be honest this year. “Me? Why?”

“Because you kissed me,” you sent back, almost hyperventilating while you looked at the dots as they moved. The dots stopped and appeared again three times before the message came through.

“❤️❤️❤️”

March 2014 You smile awkwardly as a few guys from Alex’s hockey team shouts your name and lifts their red solo cups in the air as if to greet you. You lift your own, making sure to not let them see that there was actually water in yours, having decided that you should slow down on the alcohol that you definitely weren’t allowed to drink considering the fact that: 1. you were going home to your parents at some point during the night 

2. Alex was already well on the way to not remembering his 16th birthday, and it was only 11 o’clock You find your way back to the living room, that apparently had doubled its population in the time that you’d spent using the toilet and getting yourself some water. You sigh as you stand looking for the few people in the crowd that you actually wanted to spend time with. You spotted Alex next to his friend Linus, both noticeably intoxicated and trying to pick up some girls you’d never even seen before. The party had clearly escalated quickly. Rolling your eyes, you moved on. 

Your eyes quickly find Willy in the crowd, who’s got his hand in the air waving at you to come over to him. He’s sat in the middle of the sofa talking to a few friends that frequently attended the same friends and family events that your family and the Nylanders did. There was no space next to him or your friends - one of them even sitting on the table to be able to listen to the conversation over the loud music - but William got up from his seat and reached out a long arm for you to take and use as support as you climbed over legs and hands holding drinks. You eyed the table, sticky from overflown cups of beer and vodka mixed with god knows what, not really wanting to touch it... at all. “Here, you can sit in my lap,” William says sweetly, and before you can even process what he’d said, his hands are on your hips and he’s pulling you down to sit on one of thighs. One of his hands stay on your hip, while the other comes to rest on your knee. “You good?” he asks you, the conversation with your shared friends put on hold as he devotes his attention to you completely. You smile and nod, letting the arm closest to him rest over his shoulders. “I hope that’s water and not plain vodka,” he chuckles, nodding towards the cup in your hand. You laugh lightly at his comment. “You know, I was kinda feeling it, but then I saw him and thought ‘mm better not’,” you motioned to his little brother who’d now moved on to sloppy dancing with, not one of the unknown girls, but with Linus. William laughed at that, but nodded to show his understanding of your situation. “Yeah, I’ve been drinking coke. Mom was very clear when she said that I had to be responsible tonight,” he told you, before filling you in on the conversation he’d had with your friends. The conversation was soon interrupted, as Alex screamed across the room - the alcohol killing the already thin filter that he usually had. “You, you two, my brother and my best friend, can you please stop flirting? It’s fucking disgusting,” he shouts, as everyone turns their attention to you, his best friend, sitting on his older brother’s lap with his hands wrapped around you. Your brain works quick, making up sarcastic answers for everything had been like a coping mechanism for you over the last few years. “It’s not our fault you invited so many people that there’s no more places to sit,” you shout back at him, and he rolls his eyes. William laughs behind you, and at that, alcohol gets the best of Alex and he seems to get angry. “And- and you, you’ve been trying to steal my best friend from me f-for years,” he says, aggressively. To which the older brother role that William rarely has used over the last three years, seeing as the two year age gap between them hasn’t been very prominent, comes into light. “One more fucking word from you and I’m locking you in your room and ending this party,” he says, his voice strict and it’s shockingly enough make the drunk Alex shut up and go back to whatever he’d been doing before he noticed you. The conversation goes on but you find yourself falling out of it, Alex’s words clouding your mind and leaving you with a bad feeling in your chest. You hated that he was mad at you, even in the state that he was in. His state just made you think that it was the truth finally coming out. He’d been rolling his eyes at you and Willy for years and now you knew why. “Hey, are you alright?” Willy asks after your friends left - they lived further away and had been picked up by a parent. “Uh, yeah,” you answered when you were snapped out of your thoughts. He smiled a knowing smile that told you that he knew that you weren’t really okay. “Let’s go somewhere else,” he said and helped you to your feet with his hands on your hips, keeping his hands there as you make way on the narrow path between the couch and the table - climbing over the legs of everyone still sat there. He leads you to the staircase, and you stop to see if Alex is fine before you go up. He’s sitting with some teammates and not lying face down somewhere, like you feared. And he doesn’t see you go upstairs with Willy, either, so you decide that it’s safe. William leads you to the loveseat in the second floor’s hallway, where you’d found escape on so many parties at the Nylander’s before. You both sit down, but he takes hold of your legs and pulls them into his lap. “You have barely said a word since Alex’s screaming,” he said, placing a hand on your leg. “Yeah, I guess it just left me with a bad feeling,” you told him, looking out into the room instead of at him. “You know, he won’t remember it tomorrow,” he tried to calm you. “But I will,” you glanced at him before continuing. “And I know he’s drunk and not in his right mind, but I can’t keep from thinking that he’s just saying what he actually means,” you told him, and he reaches out to take your hand in his, keeping you from fidgeting and picking on your jeans. “I know he’s been rolling his eyes at us for years, but I don’t think he actually means what he said. I don’t think he meant what he said about me trying to steal you away from him. I’m not, I would be a really sucky big brother if I did that - it’s just that I like spending time with you, too, and we have never been together without him being there, it’s him that goes off doing something else - and if he means that I can’t talk to you just because he isn’t, then he’s just being an asshole,” he squeezes your hand. You guess he’s right and you’re finally able to swallow the bad feeling. “Uhm, hey, Alex can barely stand by himself, so,” a girl from your school interrupted yours and Willy’s moment - seeming very awkward for having done so. “I guess it’s time to end this party,” William says, letting go of your hand and clapping his own two together. You get up and thank the girl for coming to get you, before you go down stairs to find Alex mumbling about God knows what. “Do you think you can deal with him while I get everyone out of here?” William asks you, placing a hand on your arm when he talks to you. You nod, and he smiles. “I’ll come help you as soon as I get this cleared,” he says, motioning to the living room that still had quite a few people in it, even if some had left already. “Heyyy,” Alex smiles when he sees you this time. If he’s already forgotten about the situation earlier or if he’s just happy to see you without his older brother by your side, you don’t know. “Hi,” you smile, “how are you feeling?” you ask him, taking his hand and helping him to his feet. “Uhm, not great, but not terrible either,” he tells you, making you shake your head laughing. You position yourself under his arm, so that he can lean on you. “Let’s get you to bed, then,” you tell him, starting towards the stairs again. “B-but, I’m having a party,” he whines, and you laugh again. “The party is over, Alex, everyone’s going home,” you explained to him, and he eventually decides to at least try to walk up the stairs. “Wait, where were you? I was looking for you,” he asks you, somewhere on the way up the stairs, his weight leaning on you so much that you could barely talk. “I was upstairs,” you tell him through your labored breath, and he asks you what you were doing upstairs when the party was downstairs. “Just talking,” you tell him, deciding that it was probably best to not say with who. But of course, the next question from your nosy best friend is just that. But before you can come up with a clever answer, he’s already guessed it. “Willy, probably. Right?” You nod, and he doesn’t say anything else before you get him to his room and onto his bed. “Why do you hang out with Willy so much?” he asks you, sitting on his bed and desperately trying to open the buttons on his not so clean, spilled upon, light blue button up - but failing. “Because he’s my friend and I like him, Alex. But I spend a lot more time with you, so don’t you be worried,” he rolls his eyes at you again, but there’s a small smile tugging on his lips. “But tonight’s my birthday party and you only hung out with him,” he says, small traces of ‘whiny 4 year old’ in his voice. “I did spend time with you. You even got me a little tipsy! But then you got ridiculously drunk and only wanted to talk to girls - girls that aren’t me - so I decided to hang out with Willy, Elias and Charlotte instead,” you explained and he seemed to take it, smiling when you finally took over the unbuttoning of his shirt. “But what were you doing upstairs talking with Willy? Where you just talking?” he tries to sound like he’s a protective older brother, but he’s failing. “We were just talking, Alex. What else would we be doing?” you chuckle, as you finally get the last button open and help him pull it off. “I don’t know, unholy stuff?” he says, unable to fight off the smile tugging at his lips. You throw your head back laughing at your ridiculous best friend, deciding to not answer his accusations you push him down onto his back and pull the duvet over him. “Stay here, I’m gonna get you a bottle of water and a bucket - just in case,” you tell him and he nods. When you come down the stairs, the house is just about empty, except from Willy, who’s tying Alex’s just as drunk friend, Linus’ shoes. “I called his mum, just gonna wait here with him until she gets here and I’ll be right up,” he tells you from the hallway, when he hears you coming down. “Yeah, we’re good, I’m just gonna get him a bottle of water and a bucket... I doubt that he’s gonna feel well tomorrow,” you inform him before going into the kitchen. When you come back up, Alex has managed to kick off his jeans, and you’re thankful that you didn’t have to help him with that. His eyes are barely open. “Here, please drink a little bit before you fall asleep,” you give him the bottle and he grunts but does as he’s told. “I’m sorry that I got mad at you and Willy,” he mumbled between gulps of water. You smile, telling him that it’s okay. You put the bottle on his nightstand and he lays back. You’re about to leave when he grabs your arm. “I think Willy is in love with you, and-and I think you’re in love with him, too,” he says, his words completely freezing you in your spot. “I just don’t want you to forget about me,” he says, half asleep - and his words pull you out of your trance. You bend down, pulling his sleepy form into a hug. “I’ll never forget about you, Alex. Never. I love you,” you tell him, kissing his temple before letting go of him. “I love you, too,” he says, his words barely coherent. You turn around, finally leaving the room and you almost scream when you see the brother in question standing in the doorway. He chuckles at your reaction, and moves backwards into the hallway of the second floor to let you exit Alex’s bedroom. “Jesus, how long have you been standing there?” you ask him, your hand still clutched to your chest. He shrugs, smiling, and your hearts starts beating faster at the thought of him hearing what Alex said to you. But the sight of the living room with the lights on, snaps you out of your thoughts and the small panic building in your chest. “Where are the trash bags?” you sigh, turning to look at Willy who’s behind you. He sighs as well and leaves you to find said trash bags. The next hour is spent picking up trash and cleaning up - Willy following you around with the bags while you pick up the trash. There are no words exchanged, but you work together in comfortable silence. He cleans the floors, while you wipe the tables and kitchen benches. “Don’t you have a curfew?” William asks you when you’re finally done - the digits on your phone telling you that you’re already past 3 AM. “Uhm, usually, but not tonight, no,” you told him. Your parents had decided that since it was Alex’s birthday party and at the Nylander’s house, you could stay till the party was over. Considering that you were basically a host - that seemed fair. And besides, Alex had promised your mom that he would follow you home... Before you could even tell Willy about his little brother’s broken promise, he was already offering. “I’ll follow you home. I won’t let you walk home alone in the middle of the night,” he says, the smile on his mouth tells you that he wasn’t just doing it because he felt like he had to, but because he wanted to. You nodded, not even bothering to try and fight him on the matter - also, you wanted him to. You put on your outerwear and shoes, yourself bundling up in a scarf as March in Sweden still could be considered winter. “That’s cute,” Willy smiles, his hand coming up to pull the big scarf even further up around your cheeks and ears - and you already feel warmer because of his little comment. You walk out in the cold night, you a few feet ahead of him as he locks the door behind him. “Hey, slow down,” he whispers as he catches up to you. “Slow down? It’s freezing cold,” you smile behind your huge scarf, and he nods. “With this tempo, you’ll be home in just 5 minutes,” he informs you, and you chuckle at his dramatics. It would take you 8 minutes, at least. “Isn’t that a good thing?” you ask him, your smile turning into a smirk. He shrugs again, just like he had when you’d asked him how long he’d been standing in Alex’s doorway about an hour earlier. “I don’t know, it’s just that it means less time with you - like I said earlier - we never spend time together just me and you,” he spoke bravely. You just smiled at his statement, nodding when he looked at you for some kind of conformation. “Uhm, this is going to sound weird but... Which one of your hands are the coldest?” he asks, and you laugh as a reaction to his question. “I don’t know, this one maybe?” you grin, holding up your right hand. He nods and moves to your right side, taking your hand and intertwining his fingers with yours. You roll your eyes at him, even if you know very well that he’s the only reason that there’s warmth spreading in your body. “What?” he asks, and you just shake your head, a wide smile spreads on your rosy cheeks (if they were rosy because of the cold or because of his hand in yours - you would never know). “I just thought that it was a nice bridge into holding your hand,” he tells you, and you laugh out loud this time - forgetting that you’re walking through a suburban area in the middle of the night, both you and William bursting out into giggles when you see the light come on in one of the windows. “You have to be quiet,” he whispers, leaning in close like there’s any chance that they could hear you at that volume. “If I have to be quiet then you have to stop saying stupid shit like that,” you argue. “Stupid shit like what?” he asks, his free hand held up to his chest dramatically. “Stupid shit like asking me which of my hands is colder just so you can hold my hand,” you chuckle, your brain starting to see the red lines between this sudden hand holding and Alex’s words earlier. “Stupid shit like pretending that you didn’t hear the whole conversation between me and Alex when you obviously did,” you whisper in a moment of bravery, swallowing hard once the words are out and your heart starts beating in a million miles an hour. He looks down for a second, before turning to look at you - stopping right there in the middle of the street, in the middle of the night. “If what Alex said isn’t true, William - you have to stop doing all these things. I try to seem cool and nonchalant about it all, like you holding my hand or letting me sit in your lap doesn’t make my heart feel like it’s gonna beat itself out of my fucking chest,” you start, letting go of his hand and continue on the journey toward your house - knowing that he would follow you regardless of his feelings towards you. “So if you’re not feeling that, you-you can’t.. I mean, you fucking kissed me on New Year’s Eve and I haven’t stopped replaying it in my mind ever since,” the panic building in your chest starts messing up your words, but you’re interrupted before you can say anything else. “Y/N,” he grabs your hand again, his fingers intertwining with yours without you even having to think about it - it’s just meant to be like that. “I kissed you on New Year’s Eve because I really wanted to kiss you, and I thought that if someone saw or if you didn’t like it, I could just ‘it was a New Year’s kiss and you were the closest girl, sorry’. And there wasn’t a space for you to sit, but that doesn’t mean that I didn’t want you to sit in my lap. I wanted you close to me. And every other situation where I could have sat down somewhere else, could have done something else, I just always end up next to you in some kind of way because I can’t fucking stay away from you,” he explains, his voice is soft and slow. “You know, I wish that I could say that you’re like another little sister to me,” he says, and you look up, meeting his eyes. “But you’re not,” his last words come out as whispers, and he lets go of your hand only to put his hands on your waist and pull you into him. You stand with your bodies pressed together, your faces inches apart for a minute, his eyes flicking between your eyes and your lips. Until he leans in closer, not all the way, but enough to press his forehead against yours and your eyes fall closed. Just a little push up on your toes and your lips would be on his - you just had to find the courage. Your arms rest upon his, your fingers curling around his upper arms. He jerks forward a little bit, his nose side by side with yours and it’s the last little kick you needed to push up on your toes and plant your lips to his in a kiss. One of his arms curls around your waist, pulling you even closer, while his other hand comes up to the side of your face, making its way in between your thick scarf and your skin to hold you to him. Your own hands creep upwards and end up on the back of his neck, your fingers inching their way underneath his beanie and into his hair. His lips move away from yours for just a second, your lips following his like a magnet, before he comes back in with a deeper kiss - his hand sliding back, into your hair. You feel so warm with his hands around you and his lips moving against your lips, the cold air around you long forgotten. At this point you could’ve worn a summer dress and you wouldn’t have been cold.    When you eventually pull away, you are both out of breath. Willy pulls you back in immediately, but in a hug this time, and you both laugh softly - happily. Letting go of his embrace of you, he kisses your cheek once and then your lips once, then twice. “I think we’ve been standing here for like 5 minutes or something,” you giggle, looking around you at the houses around you, only lit up by their porch lights. “Could stand here all night,” he says, his smile just as cheesy as his statement. You roll your eyes at him, but you don’t bother even trying to conceal your smile as you take his hand and pull him with you down the street, only a few minutes from your house. “What? Are you trying to get away from me or something?” he chuckles at your new pace. “I’m dragging you along with me, aren’t I?” you laugh, stopping and turning around to face him - your arms go up to slide around his neck and you pull him down to kiss him again. His own arms circle your waist and after the fourth or fifth kiss - you’re not really sure - he tightens his hold on you and lifts you up. He starts walking and only when you’re a few feet from your driveway, he lets you back down. “Uhm, thanks for the ride?” you joke, making him laugh - but you quickly put your hand over his mouth, suddenly remembering that your parents are asleep - or worse, your mom is awake waiting for you, not being able to sleep until she knows you’re home. You stop on your front porch, dreading saying goodbye. You get up on your toes, your arms sliding back around his neck in a hug, his arms come around you and he pulls you into him. “Mm, now I don’t wanna leave you,” he mumbles into your hair, and warmth spreads through your body. “Mm, I’ll probably come over tomorrow,” you tell him, and you can feel him nodding. “But it won’t be just you and I, then,” he says, pulling back from the hug only to press his lips to yours in a deep kiss. His hand come up to your face, and his lips moves against yours. “We won’t get to do this,” he whispers between kisses, and you hum against his lips. You pull away from each other quickly when you hear the lock turn and the door start to open behind you, your mother appearing behind it. “Oh, hi, William,” she says when she sees him instead of his little brother. “What happened to Alex?” she asks, and you’re preparing to come up with a lie about him staying home and cleaning up or something, but William just straight up tells her the truth. “But we were both very responsible and put him to bed and cleaned up and everything,” he says, and your mom chuckles. “And of course, I didn’t let her go home alone at this hour,” he adds, making your mom’s fondness of the oldest Nylander brother grow even greater. “I am very grateful, William, thank you,” she smiles at him before turning to you. “Are you going to come inside or are you just going to stand out in the cold all night?” she asks, making you laugh. “I was going to come inside, but then you came out and Willy here just had to play this game I like to call ‘how much can I charm Mrs. Y/L/N today?’” you said, making them both laugh, your mom with an embarrassed undertone. “Yeah, yeah, come on in now, it’s nearly 4AM,” she smiles, saying goodbye to Will before leaving – the door still open. You watch as she starts on the stairs up to the second floor, and you quickly hide behind the door, stepping up on your toes to plant one last kiss, or two, on his lips. “Good night,” you smile, and he kisses you one more time before he says the words back to you. “Uhm, text me when you get back. You know, 17 year old boys can be kidnapped, too,” you say, making him throw his head back laughing, potentially waking the neighbors. “Yeah, thank you, now I have to run home,” he chuckles before walking backwards down your driveway, looking at you looking at him, your head sticking out from behind the door – smiling.

March 2014 After coming home and going to bed only minutes before the clock struck 4AM and talking to Willy on the phone until he got back – and then reliving every kiss and every touch between you and Willy until you fell asleep – it was safe to say that you slept in. The numbers on your phone had inched their way past 2PM before you hauled your ass back over to the Nylander house, after having received snapchats from both the brothers – and their mom. You’d woken to a snapchat from Willy who’d woken up and thought that he had dreamt all of last night’s events until he saw the evidence in his phone – a screenshotted snapchat from a friend with you on his lap, and the phone call of 13 minutes at 4AM. Next came the snaps of an hungover Alex, and then the snapchats from Camilla who admired how exceptionally clean her house was after the work you and Willy had done after the party. Camilla grabs you the second you come through the door, kissing your cheek. “You’re a saint, honey,” she exclaims and you laugh. “You can’t give me all the credit,” you chuckle. “I know, I know, I already made sure he knows how thankful I am – he doesn’t let me kiss his cheek anymore, though,” she laughs before letting go of you and pointing you towards the basement where you could find both her sons. “Alex, Y/N is here,” she screams and you start toward the open door leading to the stairs. William meets you halfway down the stairs, only stopping on the step beneath the one you stopped on, his face only inches from yours, his lips in just the right height. “He’s barely awake,” he whispers, quickly glancing behind you before pressing his lips to yours in a short but soft kiss, bringing all the warmth and feelings from last night right back to you. You pull back with a smile, your arms circling around his waist as you step past him, kissing him one more time before you continue down the stairs and Willy up the stairs. “Hey, you sappy piece of shit,” you shout at your best friend before dumping your ass down on the end of the couch. He groans, not even wanting to know why you called him sappy.

April 2014 “Mom and dad are going to bed right now, give me a few minutes,” you text William, who’s standing in your backyard. You wait until you hear both of them go into their room, and then a minute or two more, just in case one of them forgot something, before opening the door in your basement that lead up into the backyard, where Willy was standing. His lips turn up into a smile when he sees you, quickly stepping inside to avoid the cold that still comes around at night during April in Sweden. “Hey,” he whispers as he steps right up into your personal space – personal space that you didn’t mind sharing with him. “Hi,” you whisper back, pushing up on your tippy toes to peck his lips, before walking past him and into your bedroom. You had moved bedrooms a few years ago, from the second floor to the basement where you could have more privacy and more space. You were especially thankful for the extra privacy now. His hands sneak around your waist at the end of the hallway to your bedroom, his jacket and shoes left at the door, and he presses a kiss to your neck that’s so conveniently exposed because of the high bun you’d tied your hair into. You stop with your hand on the doorknob, letting him leave another kiss or two on your neck before you open the door to your low lit, cozy bedroom. You both fall into your bed, your head resting on his bicep while his hand plays with yours. The conversation between the two of you flows freely and easily, the question of Netflix and which movie to put on before you eventually end up with your tongues in each other’s mouths not needed. He asks about your day and you ask him about his, and then he tells you the story of how he managed to sneak out the front door without no one noticing with added dramatics, just how you like it – and you both laugh softly. You launch into a full review (with spoilers) of this book you just finished, and he listens carefully as you tell him about the characters and the little plot twists. He doesn’t really care for romantic novels with feminist undertones, or novels at all, but he still listens, hums and asks questions because he just likes to listen to you talk and get riled up about fiction. He sits up slightly, leaning on his elbow as he listens to you ramble on – his finger moving to an inch of exposed skin between the hem of your t-shirt and the waistband of your sleeping shorts, tracing soft, little circles. He smiles when you finally tell him about the book’s ending and your reactions to it – how you’d thrown it across the room, too angry to even cry about it – and he chuckles, mumbling about how cute that must’ve looked. His hand flattens on your stomach, his entire hand underneath your shirt, and your hand covers his - to  the extent that your considerably smaller hand could. Your hand creeps up his arm before slowly returning back down to his hand. He smiles sweetly, leaning down and leaving a kiss on your lips – a kiss so full of love that it warms your entire body. Your hand slides back up his arm again, fingers circling around his bicep as a way of saying that you want him to keep kissing you. You can feel him smiling against your lips, leaving a few shorter pecks before a longer one, and then a deeper one. He lays down on his side, the arm you’re resting on embracing you, his hand landing on your shoulder and he pulls you into him. Your own hand takes a stride from his arm to his neck, fingers dipping into his thick, blonde locks. As the kiss deepens, his tongue sliding along your lip, his hand on your stomach slides to your hip, pulling your body close to his. The feeling washes over you fast – and it’s not the kind of feeling that easily washes away again. It’s not like the feeling of warmth when he first kissed you, but heat, unbearable heat. Your hand leaves his neck after having had your fingers fisted in his hair, moving to the hem of his sweater instead, your fingers slipping underneath, all the way until your hand is flat on his back, feeling his back muscles work when he shifts against you. You hum against his lip, your hand slipping to his front and feeling his abs and his chest underneath your fingers instead, the need to just feel all of him underneath the tips of your fingers just not stopping. He pushes you up and even closer with the hand underneath you, his lips moving to your neck and making you gasp softly. You wanted his hands all over you, wanted to feel him feeling you –  yet his hands stayed on your back and on your hips. You pushed against him, granting yourself a groan against your neck. A thought struck you… Maybe he didn’t dare touch you anywhere else, scared that it wasn’t something you wanted. After all, with the situation being what it is, your alone time with William had been limited, meaning that you hadn’t had much time to explore each other. You decided to try something new, putting insecurities behind you and pushing him to his back and climbing on top of him to straddle him. His arms immediately wrap around you, but not for the reasons you first thought. Before you can put your weight down on him, he’s pulling you back to your previous spot next to him. “No, no,” he swallows, “you can’t do that,” his last words comes out, his hands retrieving from being wrapped around you to rest on your hip instead. You didn’t know why but it felt like he was keeping you at a distance. “Why?” you ask, your voice a lot weaker than you’d meant for it to be. His eyes shoots open in realization and his hand comes up to the side of your arm, before it quickly moves on to cup your cheek. “No, no, it’s not you, it’s me… uhm, it’s not your fault, or it kinda is your fault but really it’s mine, it’s,” he mumbles, his sudden nerves taking over his ability to form coherent sentences. “You’re not making sense, Willy,” you say, curling your hand around his wrist as his hand is still placed on your cheek. He takes a deep breath before he leans forward, kissing your lips before moving his lips to your forehead and pulling you into him, his arms wrapping around you. “It’s just that you, you mean a lot to me, and I just, I like you so much, and I’m trying really hard to not make you uncomfortable,” he pauses, taking another deep breath. “Because you, you really… you turn me on, like a lot and very easily, and I’m just trying to not make you feel uncomfortable and I don’t want you to feel like you have to do anything that you don’t want to, and I just really want you to feel safe and… comfortable with me,” he finishes, and you wrap your arm around his torso and press your lips to his chest. “There’s no one I feel more safe and comfortable with than you, okay? And I… is this why you don’t touch me?” you ask, the realization hitting you. “I mean, I-I touch you,” he says, trying to avoid where this question was going. “Will, you touch my waist, and my hips, and just, really it’s just places that are so appropriate that you could touch me there while my dad was present,” you say, making him laugh – and you’re glad, because even if it wasn’t your intention, it seemed to loosen him up a bit. “I guess, yeah,” he sighs, “just scared that you won’t like it and that you’ll push me away, and you know, it doesn’t really help my case,” his lips turn up at the last part, and so do yours as well. You pull yourself closer to him and press your lips to his in a deep kiss, and another one following after. “You know, you turn me on, too,” you say, heat rushing to your cheeks, but you smile as you see the blush creeping up his own cheeks. “And even if I don’t feel ready for all that, yet, I still feel really safe and comfortable with you and I really don’t mind that , uhm, that, that you’re turned on as well, because I know that you won’t pressure me, and I really wouldn’t mind if you touched me more,” you tell him, both of you having shy smiles on your lips. “Okay,” he nodded, trying hard to keep his smile from turning into a full blown grin. You stared at each other until your smiles became manageable again, and one of you leaned in to kiss the other again. Only a few kisses before his hand came up to the side of your face and the kiss was deepened, and you fell back into it. Bodies pushing against each other and tongues fighting for dominance. His hand is fisting your hair and you gasp against his lips when his hips roll into yours a little harder than he’d planned and you felt him hard against you for the first time – except for that one time where you’d had your feet in his lap under the blanket during movie night with an unknowing Alex on the other side of the coffee table, and you’d accidentally brushed against his accidental boner with your foot. Will pulled away slightly, and you could tell that he was a little panicky over the fact that you’d felt his obvious arousal against your body. “Don’t, don’t stop,” you whispered, pressing your lips back on his, and his arms tighten around your waist again, holding you to him. The feeling of his hardness against you had sent a wave of need trough your body, stopping between your legs. Your hand found his on your back and wrapped around his wrist, and you, with very little force, guided his hand further down until he found his way to your behind and he pressed you against him. You both moaned into the kiss and his hand slid down your thigh to the back of your knee to pull your leg over his hip, his thigh immediately pushing between yours. And it felt so good that you could barely concentrate on kissing him, and you only wanted more. You used your arm to push yourself on top of him, back to the position you’d tried before your previous conversation started. You started kissing down his neck, while your hands found their way underneath the hem of his shirt, feeling his muscles under your fingers. His own hands roamed your sides, from your thighs to your hips, from your waist to the point where his fingers slightly brushed over the side of your boobs. The action had your hips pushing down onto his, his hardness perfectly positioned under you and pressing into you were you ached the most. “Fuck,” he breathed, pushing his body up into a sitting position. He pressed his lips to yours in an openmouthed kiss, his hands on your bare waist after your t-shirt had bunched up. When you push your fingers into his hair, one of his hands come up to fondle your breast that’s only covered by a thin bralette. You moan into his mouth again, and faster than you can realize what’s happening, you’re flipped around and he’s over you. His hips rolling into yours and his lips finding your jaw, resulting in a moan that’s a little too loud for your liking. Your hand travel down his chest and abs, but it is soon stopped when William’s fingers curl around your wrist. “Fuck, we need to stop,” he curses, his forehead resting against your chest as he tries to calm himself. “I’m sorry, it’s just, my self-control stops at some point,” he mumbles, and you nod. “It’s okay,” you breathe, your hands coming up to soothingly brush through his hair, but he shakes his head and pulls away completely, moving off you and laying down on his back next to you. “You - you can’t touch me,” he says and you nod, trying to focus on calming yourself. “No, sorry, I need to go home,” he starts getting up, careful not to touch you. “No, please don’t go,” you reach out, catching his hand. “Please stay,” you whisper. “I really need to go home and fix this, I’m sorry, baby,” he says, softer this time – still careful with the distance between your bodies. The nickname sends another wave of need crashing in between your legs. “Please, Will, you can’t leave now,” your voice comes out just as needy as you feel, “just… go into my bathroom and… fix it there,” you mumble, your cheeks warming up as you suggest it. “I really need you to stay a little longer,” you add once you can tell that he’s thinking about it, taking a step closer and looking up at him – putting your lips at a close distance to his. To which he lets out a deep breath and presses his lips to yours in a deep kiss before he disappears into your bathroom. You lay there in silence, staring into the ceiling. You couldn’t have stayed still to save your own life, the feeling between your legs too much. You move underneath your duvet with the hopes that the weight of it would help keep you still, but it didn’t – it just made you warmer. You let your hand wander down your torso and in between your legs, just over your shorts, in hope of some relief, but you quickly stop when you hear the bathroom door unlock. Will climbs back into bed and underneath the covers with you, his arms wrapping around you immediately. His lips finds your forehead and you press your body into his, like you wanted to cuddle, but really you wanted him to touch you. You didn’t want to seem too eager, so you softly pressed your lips to his neck like you sometimes would do when you cuddled. But you couldn’t keep it at that, your body craving his – you kissed a trail up his neck. “Babe,” he started, but he stopped when he saw your face and let you kiss him deeply. “Please, I can’t keep still,” you talk against his lips, and he hums back as your lips are already back on his. He lets you lead his hand to where you needed it. You let go of his hand and he lays it flat between your legs, making you gasp against his lips. “Lay back, baby, relax,” he talks, and you do as you’re told – rolling to your back. He kisses you deeper while simultaneously moving his fingers over your heat. Your fingers are fisted in thick blonde locks of hair, and he groans against your mouth as you tighten your grip. You arch your back into him and his fingers move to the band of your shorts. He looks at you for any signs that this isn’t what you want, but you only nod. His fingers disappear into the waistband of both your shorts and your underwear, a curse leaves his lips when he feels your wetness on his fingers. He watches you intensely to see your reactions when he touches you, when his fingers sink into you. He watches as your mouth falls open and your eyes closed, and a fond smile tugs at his lips when you breathe out small moans. Just the fact that Willy had his fingers inside you is enough to push you to the edge of your pending orgasm. His thumb moving in circles over your clit and his lips leaving kisses on your neck had you coming in no time, moans and heavy breaths flowing out of your mouth as your orgasm comes crashing.

May 2014 You find yourself in a very crowded Nylander living room once again. Teenager’s with red solo cups all around you, getting drunk in honor of William’s 18th birthday. You sit stiffly on Alex’s lap, who’d been very clear that you two had to hang out tonight, because you always disappeared during parties, but truly it was him who either tried to win over some girl or got really drunk – or both. And now he was deep in conversation with a friend of his that you barely knew and the conversation that surrounded the topic of some PlayStation game didn’t really interest you either. You found William looking at you from across the room, who smiled at how bored you looked and motioned for you to come to him instead. Alex barely even noticed that you left, his hand that had previously rested on your hip went straight into gesticulating and helping him get to some point about a PlayStation controller. You shake your head at Alex, making Willy laugh as he is still watching you closely. He smiles at you while you make your way over to him, and the couch he’s sitting in could in theory fit another person if Willy scooted closer to the girl on his left but instead he pulled you down onto his lap. His arm slides around your waist and pulls you closer while his other hand lands on your thigh – way higher than acceptable for a younger brother’s best friend but you let him anyway, knowing how much he wants to tell everyone and be able to kiss you, or hold your hand, or cuddle you whenever he wants, no matter who’s around. Knowing how he sometimes forgets that he can’t do those things because it just feels so natural. The girl next to Willy looks at you weird, eyeing his hand on your thigh. You try to act indifferent to her stare, turning your head and whispering in his ear. “Maybe move your hand a little further down towards my knee, your friend is looking at us weird,” you speak as quietly as you could before looking away again, to not make it obvious that you were whispering in his ear. He tilts his head to the side while looking at you, and you quickly grab his wrist to keep him from doing the exact opposite. Based on the smirk tugging at his lips and the smell of alcohol on his breath, you knew he wasn’t going to listen. The girl next to you is also smirking when the two of you start giggling – you desperately trying to push his hand away from you. You give her a look, a beg for her not to say anything and she smiles reassuringly back at you. William settles after a while, his hand a little further down, but not really far enough ��� but you let it go. It’s his birthday, after all. “Hey, I’m gonna go get another drink, come with me?” he asks you, and you nod, getting up and leading the way. When you get to the crowded kitchen, he takes your hand in his and pulls you out the door and into the backyard instead. “I thought you were getting a drink?” you question him, letting him lead you further away from the house. “Mm, no, I just thought that whispering ‘hey wanna go make out’ and make you blush before dragging you out of the house would maybe look a little suspicious,” he tells you with a smug smile on his lips. “See, you’re blushing just from me saying that,” he laughs, letting go of your hand and poking at your red cheeks. You playfully roll your eyes and throw your arms around his neck, to which he wraps his arms around your waist and pulls you into him – just enough for your feet to leave the ground. 

His lips are pressed against yours, your feet hit the ground and you’re trapped between the wall behind you and his body. You giggle into the kiss and you can feel him smiling against your lips, a quiet hush leaving his. You get lost in his kisses, your fingers deep in his hair. His hands are on your waist, holding your body to his. Soon your tongues are sliding against each other and you’re both breathing heavily into each other’s mouths. His hips press into yours and you whimper through the kiss. One of his hands comes down to your behind, feeling you up while simultaneously pulling you closer and pressing his thigh in between yours, making a full moan roll from your tongue. He pulls his lips from yours, moving on to your neck. And somewhere between faded dance music from inside, utter bliss and lust, a thought pops into your mind. “Do you think we could sneak into your room without anyone noticing us?” you ask, your voice playful and airy. Will’s head comes up quickly, looking at you suspiciously. “What? Why?” he questions you, and your lips turn up into a wide smile. “Just wanna give you your gift in private,” you shrug, and a smile tugs at William’s lips, even if he still looks confused. “But you already gave me a gift,” he states, meaning the Crosby jersey that you and Alex had scraped your pennies together to get him. “Yeah, but this one is just from me,” you tell him, and he smiles through the blush that creeps up his cheeks. And you almost blush just from seeing his cute reaction. You stand up on your toes and kiss him deeply before you send him on his way. “You go first and I’ll be there in like five minutes,” you tell him. You wait outside for a minute or two, but then go inside to mill around for another couple of minutes just to not look like you’re going up the stairs with an agenda. Of course, you run into Alex who wonders where you’ve been. You tell him you’ve been in the bathroom with Jessica, and he believes you immediately, knowing how many times you and Jessica had snuck away for 20-30 minutes, hiding in the bathroom at birthdays, dinners and other get togethers. “And now I kinda have to go to the toilet again, alcohol just runs straight through me,” you lie, barely having had a cup of alcohol. He laughs and lets you go. You run upstairs, where the partygoers weren’t allowed to go – but having grown up with your mom being best friends with Camilla, you were hardly a guest anymore. “Took your sweet time,” William teases when you come through his bedroom door. “Ran into Alex,” you explain as you close the door behind you, locking it. “How’d you get out of that one?” he asks, his head rested against the wall behind his bed. “Told him I’d been in the bathroom with Jessica. I don’t even know if she’s here,” you chuckle, climbing into his lap – straddling him. “She’s here,” he smiles, taking your hands in his. “Good,” you breathe, leaning forward and pressing your lips to his in an immediately deep kiss. His hands finds their way to your back, underneath your blouse. Your own arms are circling his neck and pulling him up until he’s fully sitting, his body flush against yours. It never took long for your kisses to turn heated, but knowing that you didn’t have all the time in the world, you pushed your chest into his and kissed him harder as you pushed your fingers into his hair with a heavy hand – just like you knew always turned him on. He moaned into your mouth and you grinded your hips into his lap, granting yourself another one of his moans. “Did you just wanna lure me into my bed or what?” he breathes as you make your way down his neck with kisses. “Fooling me with a gift,” he jokes through his labored breath. “You’re getting a gift. Just shut up and take your shirt off,” you demand, a smirk tugging at your lips when you see his surprised but lustful look. He mumbles a curse but quickly gets his shirt off, throwing it to the floor. You don’t let yourself get distracted by his shirtless torso, just lift your hands into the air, nodding when he looks you in the eyes as to ask if you’re sure. He pulls your blouse over your head, letting it fall next to his shirt. His hands comes back to your waist immediately, feeling your soft skin underneath the tips of his fingers. You’re glad that you thought long enough to put on the nicest bra that you owned, black and a little bit lacy – even if you hadn’t planned this. His thumbs are creeping up to the sides of your bra and you lean back in, kissing him as a distraction while your hands finds the clasp on your back. You pull back from the kiss to make sure he’s watching when your bra falls from your chest, straps sliding down your shoulders. “Fuck, you’re so beautiful,” he breathes, his eyes switching between looking you in your eyes and your chest – a part of you that he hadn’t seen before. He rushed his lips to yours, kissing you hard and deep as one of his hands comes up to cup your boob. “Is this my gift?” he smiles against your lips, and you can’t keep your lips from turning into one as well. “No, it’s not,” you say before pressing into him again with both your lips and your chest. 

You let him kiss all over your chest, both enjoying the feeling of his lips on your skin and the effect it has on him. As he starts kissing his way back up to your lips again, you let your hand trail down his torso, until you’re pushing it between your bodies, laying your hand flat over his bulge. His hand is softly, halfheartedly, wrapping around your wrist immediately. “Babe, you know you can’t do that,” he talks through lust, through the voice in his head telling him to just let you and give in to the pleasure. “I’ll take care of it, I’ll take care of you,” you whisper, your forehead pressed against his. “What?” his eyes shoot open. “Let me take care of you,” you say, pressing your lips to his before he can say anything else. He seems hesitant but lets go of your wrist, moaning into your mouth when you apply more pressure to his arousal. You shift your weight to your knees instead of his lap, giving yourself more room to stroke him over his jeans. You move your fingers to the waistline of said jeans, opening the button and sliding down the zipper. You manage to fit your hand between the tight fabric and his bulge, stroking him and enjoying the groans and moans escaping his throat. He suddenly moves his legs over the edge of the bed, moving his hands to the back of your thighs and standing up with you in his arms. Your hands come up to his shoulders. “I just wanna say something before this goes any further,” he tells you, eyes locking with yours. “Okay,” you nod. “I’ve been wanting to say it for a while, and I just feel like,” he starts, but it seems like he’s getting distracted – leaning in to kiss you instead. “I – I love you. Fuck, I wasn’t just gonna burst it out like that, I - ,” he rambles on, lost in his head and not noticing your uncontrollable smile. You place your hands on each side of his face, making him look at you. “I love you, too,” you tell him, and a smile spreads on his lips as well. “You do?” he asks, smile so wide that he can barely talk. “Mm, I’ve been in love with you a lot longer than I’d like to admit,” you tell him, smiling in to the kiss you’re placing on his lips. A couple more kisses and his tongue is once again playing with yours. His hands sliding up to your back as he lets you back down, your feet landing steadily on the floor. You let one of your hands slide from the back of his neck and down his torso until they land on the waistline of his open jeans. You use both hands to pull them down his thighs, revealing his white boxers with the small, wet spot on their front. He moans into your mouth when you put your hands on him again, stroking your hand over his bulge. You pull back from his lips, standing up on your toes and placing your mouth close to his ear as you hook your fingers into the band of his boxers. “Now, you have to tell me if I’m doing something wrong, or if you don’t like it. Guide me,” you whisper, and he nods, his head pressed against your shoulder – his heavy breaths causing your skin to tingle. You stand with your feet flat on the ground again, your forehead leaning on his chest as you look down, pulling his boxers down to meet his jeans again, watching as his hard member springs free. He gasps as you take his erection into your hand. You place a kiss on his chest as you start moving your hand, leaving another on his neck. His fingers creep up into your hair and he turns his head to find your lips through labored breaths. His kisses are desperate and lustful, moans and groans vibrating against your lips. One of his hands slides down your back and to your ass before he lets his fingers slide between your legs, making you moan into the kiss – making you a little weaker in the knees. “Stop, this is about you,” you whisper against his mouth. You move on to kiss his neck, making a trail down to his collarbone and his chest and then falling to your knees. You look up to see William’s mouth fall open, his chest rising and falling rapidly. “Oh babe, you don’t have to…,” he pants, his hand coming down to cup your jaw. “I want to,” you breathe, “do you want me to?” you add, watching him as he struggles to find words, fighting with himself. “Yeah,” he eventually lets it roll of his tongue. “Just tell me if I’m doing something wrong or, or something you don’t like,” you tell him, and he nods. You take him into your mouth, keeping your hand around his shaft – your other hand on his thigh to keep yourself steady. His hands comes down to your head, gathering all your hair in his fingers to keep it from getting in your eyes as you start bobbing your head, going a little faster – his groans and heavy breaths urging you on. It doesn’t take long before his grip in your hair is tightening, and you press your thighs together at the thought of making him cum for the first time. You look up through your lashes, finding him with his head tipped back, his mouth open and panting. You push your tongue harder to his shaft, watching as his head falls forward again, his eyes clenched together as he curses. “Fuck, babe, I’m gonna come,” he groans, his eyes opening and immediately meeting yours – to which he curses again. You lead his member out of your mouth with one last lick of your tongue, only using your hands to help him to his climax, letting him cum all over your chest as he pulses in your hand. You take the scrunchie on your wrist and relieve William of his self-imposed make shift ponytail duties to make sure your hair don’t fall into the sticky liquid on your skin, before letting him take your hands in his to help you to your feet. He curses through his slowly calming breath, leaning his forehead to yours. “You’re so fucking amazing,” he breathes, leaning in to kiss you deeply, his hand coming up to cup your jaw. “I just, I want you to know that I am definitely not just saying this because you just gave me a blowjob, but I fucking love you, so much,” he says sincerely and kisses you again, making you chuckle against his lips. “I know, and I love you, too, so, so much,” you tell him, kissing the side of his mouth when he smiles just as wide as yourself. “Let’s get you cleaned up,” he says, quickly pulling up his pants and underwear again. “Uhm, I, for absolutely no reason at all, have a roll of toilet paper in my nightstand,” he laughs, blush creeping up his neck as he comes back to you with the roll in his hands. “I just had your dick in my mouth, you don’t need to blush, Will,” you laugh, making his cheeks even redder. “Also, you’re wiping your cum of my boobs, so, I don’t think you need to be embarrassed of your toilet paper roll,” you add, making him throw his head back laughing. “You’re so foul-mouthed,” he shakes his head laughing. “I kinda just want to stay locked in here with you all night,” he says, as he’s wiped it all off and thrown the used paper in his bin. “I wish,” you breathe, stepping closer to him and pressing your still naked chests to each other’s as you slide your arms around his neck. His hands comes back down to the back of your thighs and he lifts you up, letting you hook your legs around his hips. “So, uhm, did you like your extra birthday gift?” you ask, your fingers tangling in blonde hair. “Yeah,” he smiles, leaning in to kiss you again. “So much better than I imagined it,” he whispers, his lips so close to yours that you could feel them moving. You pull back with red cheeks and a smirk. “You’ve imagined it?” you ask, biting your lip as you watch him fight the blush. “More times than I’d like to admit,” he chuckles, repeating your words from earlier. After talking yourself out of staying in his room all night, you finally leave his room with your blouse carefully tucked back into your jeans and your hair back down around your shoulders. You come down the stairs and immediately spot Alex, deciding to jump on his back and give him the attention he’s probably gonna claim he’s not getting, before he points out that you’ve been ‘in the bathroom’ the last 40 minutes. Alex takes an ungracious pirouette, swinging you around, making it possible for you to catch William’s eyes as he comes down the stairs, your smile spreading to twice its size – his own spreading as well, mouthing the three words he’s been wanting to tell you for far too long. “I love you,” June 2014 You come up the stairs from the Nylander’s cellar after having spent most of the day with Alex watching serial killer documentaries on Netflix, about to go home for dinner. William joins you in the hallway, whispering plans of sneaking out to come see you later that night while you put on your shoes. You step outside, Will’s head sticking out from inside and pressing his lips to yours, his hand coming up to your neck to hold you to him as he kisses you, before telling you he loves you and letting you walk home with a warm feeling in your chest – your head spinning with terrible ideas on how to break the news to your best friend that you’re dating his older brother. That you’re in love with William. Around 8PM, someone’s at the door – but you’re comfortable on the couch, on your tenth level of Candy Crush in a row – so you just shut up and let your mom deal with it. You immediately recognize Camilla’s voice as she and your mom goes into the kitchen, you hear them giggling about drinking wine on a Thursday night and you decide to just shut your ears and ignore them. Candy crush and ignoring yapping between middle-aged women is long forgotten when you hear Camilla’s hushed voice ask for you, though. “No, she’s in her room, I think. Do you want me to go get her?” your mother asks, and Camilla quickly says no. Candy crush is officially forgotten and you try to push every guilty feeling of listening in on something you shouldn’t be listening to, to the back of your mind. “So, I think our kids are dating,” Camilla almost sounds nervous when she says it, and you have to clamp your hand over your mouth in order to keep yourself from cursing out loud. “What? Y/N and Alex?” your mother exclaims and you can’t help but roll your eyes that she would even think that. Camilla is silent for a second, and you’re guessing she’s taking a deep breath or shaking her head – or maybe both. “No, William,” she corrects your mother. “Michael was coming home from work and stopped to get the mail and I guess he saw them as Y/N was leaving our house. He said William leaned out the door and they kissed… and from that I’m guessing that Alex doesn’t know either,” she added, and you cursed yourself for not noticing Michael. “They know about us. Your dad saw us kissing and Camilla is over here telling my mom right now,” you quickly texted Willy, taking a deep breath before getting up and inserting yourself to the conversation in the kitchen. “Fuck, he was acting really weird when he came home. What are they saying?” he texted you back. You quickly texted him back that you were gonna go talk to them to make sure that they don’t get anything wrong and that you’d call him later. “I’m not in my room and I’m sorry for listening in on your conversation,” you say as you turn up in the doorway to the kitchen. Your mother still looks to be in shock, but Camilla smiles at you, motioning for you to come sit down. “So, you and William?” Camilla starts, her voice is soft and calming, her hand comes up to your shoulder as if to make you feel like you can talk freely. “Yeah,” you try to keep it from happening, but you can’t possibly keep the corners of your mouth from turning up and your cheeks from blushing, your hands immediately coming up to cover your face. “I’m sorry for not telling you guys, it’s just, like you guessed, Alex doesn’t know and I – we have no idea how to tell him, and I really don’t want him to hate me. Also I’m scared of what you’re going to say… age gap and all,” you told them. Camilla’s hand is still on your back, moving in soothing circles. “It’s okay, Y/N. And Alex will get over it, I’m sure of it. And I’m not mad,” she tells you, and you both look over at your mom who looks to be deep in thought. “How long has this been going on?” she asks, she sounds calm but you’re not sure. “I guess it really started in March, after Alex’s birthday,” you told them, and you could almost see the lightbulb lighting up above her head. “Yeah, that makes sense,” she says, and she tells Camilla about that night when you and Willy had been talking (or kissing) on your porch and she’d come out. Her stare softens when she looks at you next. “I guess, the more I think about it, the more it makes sense. You’ve been in love with him for long time, haven’t you?” she states, making your cheeks flare up and your lips tug upwards again. “Think I’ve might’ve had a crush on him since I was thirteen,” you mumble, to which they both smile. 

“I always thought that, you know, Will’s got a lot of younger siblings, thought that he was just looking out for you, that he was just doing his ‘older brother’ thing,” Camilla says, making your cheeks feel even hotter. “I mean, you’ve been around longer than his actual little sisters,” she laughs, taking a sip of her wine. “But I’ve also had my doubts sometimes, I think I’ve picked up on a fair share of flirting over the last year – and Alex’s eye-rolling,” “Why’s Alex rolling his eyes?” your dad emerges from the hallway, making all three of you silent, not knowing what to say. “Uhm, Y/N has a boyfriend,” your mom tells him. “What? Alex?” his eyes shoot your way, horrified. “No, dad. It’s William,” you tell him, looking down in fear of what’s he’s going to say to his daughter dating someone who’s two years older. “Oh, thank God it’s not Alex,” he exclaims dramatically, sitting down in the chair across for you, making you and your mom burst out laughing while Camilla sits gaping next to you. “Dad!” you scold him, and he shrugs. “I’m sorry, Camilla, but if it helps, it’s a huge compliment to your other son. Will’s a lot more polite, more of a gentleman,” he says, to which Camilla shakes her head laughing, your mother doing the same thing. “Wait, so you’re not mad?” you ask him, shocked by his reaction. “I mean, I would prefer if you stayed away from boys for a few more years, but I trust Willy, he’s a good guy – and I’ve seen how smiley and giggly you two get around each other, so it’s not really a shock either,” he shrugs, getting back up to find himself something to eat, leaving you, your mother and Camilla to stare it each other in shock. “We’re good. They’re not mad and my dad doesn’t want to kill you, like not even a little bit,” you texted Willy once Camilla left, half an hour later. “Good. I talked to my dad about it and he gave me the fucking talk…” he texted you back a few minutes later, making you chuckle to yourself as you pictured how absolutely awkward that must’ve been. Before you can reply to his text, another chimes in, making your phone vibrate in your hand. “TBH I’ve been more nervous about Alex wanting to kill me than your dad,”  

July 2014 William meets you in the hallway when you come through the door at the Nylander house. You had made plans with Alex to watch a movie after dinner, while simultaneously having planned with Willy that he was going to join the two of you. Other than Camilla cleaning up in the kitchen, there are no one around and the coast is clear – William leans in and plants his lips on yours, his arms sliding around your waist and lifting you off the floor as he kisses you. You quickly pull back when you hear Alex’s harsh words, your sock clad feet hitting the floor as William lets go of you. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” he spits the words like their venom. At least that’s what it feels like to you. He turns around in his spot, half way down the stairs, and storms back up – two steps at the time - and all the guilt you have ever felt about not telling him about your relationship with his brother gathers up into a big ball in your throat, making it hard to breathe as you run after him, begging him to wait for you. “Alex, can you please just let me in so we can talk?” you beg him, trying to open his locked bedroom door. The door flies open and you almost fall forward and into the room at the shock, but the bigger shock is Alex’s words as he shouts them right at you. “Do not fucking talk to me right now,” he yells, before his eyes shifts to behind you, where William has followed you. “And you can stay the fuck away, don’t you even try!” And then the door is smacked in your face. You can’t help but let the tears spill, all your guilt and regret coming out as salty liquid. Will’s arms are around you immediately, and you cry into his chest as his hands move in soothing circles on your back. He leads you down stairs and lets you curl up in his lap, whispering that everything will be alright, that he’ll come around, until you calm down. Camilla comes and sits down next to you, placing a reassuring hand on your leg. “Hey, what happened?” she asks, obviously having heard Alex’s screaming and your begging. “He saw us,” you breathed, “we should’ve just told him right away,” you let another tear fall down your cheek. Will’s hand comes up to cup your cheek, his thumb catching the tear and wiping it away. “It probably would have been easier, yeah, but he won’t be mad at you forever,” she tells you, and William nods at her words, letting his fingers comb through your hair. “He’ll probably be mad at Will for a week, but he can’t stay mad at you for long, I know that,” As if on cue, you can hear Alex unlock and open his door upstairs, and you all know what it means. Will kisses your forehead before he lets go of his embrace on you, letting you climb out of his lap and make your way upstairs. Camilla whispering a good luck and staying behind with her son, while you head towards what you’re guessing will be the worst fight between you and Alex ever. You lean against the doorway into his room, scared that you’d make him more mad by just bursting in – even if it obviously was opened for you. “Are you just going to stand there or are you actually going to try and make me less mad about the fact that you’re sucking face with my brother?” he says, angrily, barely looking up at you as you close the door behind you and take the safe route of sitting down in his desk chair and curling your legs up under you, instead of sitting down in his bed with him. “I’m so sorry that I haven’t told you, I know we should have just told you right away but I was so scared of your reaction that I just kept putting it off,” you start off, noticing how he rolls his eyes when you say ‘we’. You swallow hard to desperately try to keep the tears at bay. “Why are you even dating him in the first place? It’s not fucking okay,” he spits, his words hitting you like a door in the face. “Alex, it’s not like you don’t know that I have feelings for him, and vice versa,” you try to keep the conversation calm, at least on your part. “No, I don’t. You have never said anything about having feelings for him, and he has never said anything about having feeling for you,” you can hear the anger behind every word. “No, I have never told you, but I know you know, Alex. On your birthday, you probably don’t remember because of how drunk you were, but after you screamed at us for everyone to hear how bad of a best friend I was and how bad of brother he was, for.. for letting me sit in his lap when there were no open seats, I put your drunken ass to bed and you told me that you were sorry for screaming at us and that you thought he was in love with me. And that I was in love with him. That you just didn’t want me to forget about you, which I never will. And you can’t tell me that that was just something you came up with while you were drunk, cause that would be bullshit,” you tell him, feeling your own anger bubble to the surface. He could be mad at you as much as he wanted, but saying that he didn’t know about the feelings between you and William, just because none of you had ever said the words to his face, was just stupid. “You wouldn’t have been rolling your eyes at us every time Willy as much as tries to sit next to me for all these years if you didn’t know that there was something behind it,” He’s silent for a while, and you know it’s because he’s out of arguments. “What happened to always telling each other the truth, huh?” he huffs, using the decade old promise against you – a promise between two kids who had no idea what life had planned for them, that had no idea that not being the same gender would make things harder for their friendship in their teenage years. “Yeah, we swore to always be honest with each other, but that was when we were kids, Alex, when we were 6 years old. At some point I realized that there are some things that you just don’t tell your best friend when that best friend is a boy. Like when I got my period - God, how many lies I came up with when I was bleeding out of my freaking vagina, and in pain for something that you wouldn’t understand at 12 years old. And same goes for developing a huge crush on your fucking older brother. Fuck, Alex, I’ve been in love with Will since I was like 14,” you can’t help but let your voice raise, your hopes of staying calm long gone – your tears threatening to spill after every word you said.    “It still doesn’t fucking make it okay. I don’t care if you’re in love. You went behind my back. You, my best friend, and my god damn big brother went behind my back. You lied to me. You didn’t tell the truth. If you think that you can come crying to me when he hurts you, when he breaks your heart, you thought fucking wrong,” he screams now, furious, and your tears finally come crashing down your cheeks. “You’re supposed to be the brother that I never got, you’re supposed to be protective of me,” you cry. “You should be happy that it’s your brother, whom you love and trust, that I know you look up to, so much. You should be happy that it isn’t some other guy that’ll hurt me. You know that Willy wouldn’t hurt me, you know it as well as I do. God, even my dad accepts it, that someone two years older is dating his little girl, because it’s Will, and only because it’s him,” you dry your tears with the back of your hand, the light grey of your hoodie turning dark when it slides over your wet cheeks. “Yeah, it fucking sucks that we didn’t tell you, and I’m fucking sorry. You can scream at me as much as you want, but I love him and I love you. You’re always gonna be my best friend, Alex, and I’m always gonna be yours, so fucking grow up and deal with it,” your last words are calm and steady, even with rivers of tears running down your cheeks, and you get up from your chair and you leave his room, closing the door behind you. You dry more tears on your sleeve when you walk back down the stairs, meeting Michael at the end, who meets you with open arms and a warm hug. He’d come home with the girls while you were up there, and immediately heard the screaming of his youngest son upstairs while simultaneously having seen the grave look on his oldest. Behind Michael, William is telling his younger sisters, who looks to have a far better reaction than Alex. And you can’t help but smile when Daniella wraps her arms around your torso, not reaching higher at just eight years old, and tells you that she thinks it’s really cool that you are dating her big brother. William is still sat on the couch, now sideways, and he pulls you closer to sit between his legs when you sit down next to him. You fill him in on the parts of the conversation that couldn’t be heard, like what you’d said. He’s got his fingers running through your hair, his lips touching your temple every now and then – and despite the fact that your best friend is upstairs more angry with you and his brother than ever before – it feels nice, finally being able to just be you and William without having to hide away. To be able to have more than a platonic arm around your shoulders, while his family roams around you, going on with their day. And it doesn’t take long before you’re asleep with your head rested on his chest and his arms around you. You’re woken up by the sound of William talking, and you quickly realize that he’s on the phone – on your phone. “Yeah, she woke up now. I’ll follow her home, yeah. Bye,” he ends the call. “Hey, you feeling better?” he asks, and you nod, happy that you’ve managed to sleep away the headache that came with the screaming and crying. “Your mom called, she wants you to come home,” he informs you, even if you already kind of gathered that information. He holds your hand all the way home, either that or his arm is around your shoulders, keeping you safely tucked into him. “I told your mom about the Alex situation,” he tells you. “Yeah?” you look up at him from your spot under his arm. “Yeah, I guess she could hear that I was kinda worried about you, so I just told her what happened, in short. That you fought and that you cried a lot, I mean, she’ll see that the second she sees you,” he informs you. “Oh, God, I look awful, don’t I?” you whine, pressing your cheek into his chest. “Hey, no, you do not look awful. You look just as beautiful as you always do. I’m just saying that I can see that you’ve been crying, and your mother will definitely see that,” he says, sincerely. He stops, his hand coming up to cup your cheek while he looks at you with eyes that demands that you meet his gaze. “I love you,” he whispers, not letting you say it back before he presses his lips to yours in a sweet but long kiss. “I love you, too,” you speak against his lips before kissing him again, pouring the overwhelming love you feel for him into the kiss. “Even though this really fucking sucks, I also feel like there’s a weight lifted off my shoulders. And I am really glad that we can finally just be us. Like, if Alex comes out of his room now and finds out that you’re following me home, he’ll probably be mad about it, but at least he won’t think that it’s weird. I’m just happy that we don’t have to hide from everyone anymore,” you tell him,  and he nods at your words, pulling you in with the hand that is holding yours and pressing a kiss to your temple. “I don’t have to pull you out of the house or look around the room to see who’s around to kiss you anymore,” he smiles, ducking down to catch your lips. He kisses you deeply on the porch before you enter your house, your mom meeting you in the hallway when she hears you come inside. Her expression softens when she sees you, blood shot eyes and red cheeks, and she pulls you into a hug. She also gives William a hug before she leaves the two of you to say goodbye. “I’ll call you before I go to bed, yeah?” he says and you nod, leaning up and pressing your lips to his. “You’re a really good boyfriend, you know that?” you whisper as you move from the kiss and into a tight hug. “I try my best. And also it’s just really easy with you,” he whispers back, and you can feel the first genuine smile spread on your lips since he met you in the hallway hours ago. Another kiss and another I love you and he’s on his way back home again.    “Camilla called after I spoke to William on the phone,” your mom tells you when you come into the living room. “She filled me in on what happened, a little more than Willy did. And she also told me that she thinks you and William seem really good together, that she thought that he handled it all really well and that he was really good to you,” she smiles as she tells you this, and a warm feeling fills your chest. “He is really good to me, mom, he really is. He makes me so happy, and he loves me, and I just hope that Alex can see that, too,” you say, laying down with your head in her lap so that she could draw her fingers through your hair. “He will. I know he will, honey,” she reassures you. An hour or so later, you’re tucked into bed with Willy on the phone. It has become routine, calling every night before you go to sleep. “You know, we can finally go out on a date now,” Willy says, and you can tell from the way he sounds that he’s smiling, making you smile as well. “Yeah, I know, we co- Hold on, I just got a text from Alex,” you interrupt yourself when you see the little banner with his name on it on top of your screen. “What? Seriously? I haven’t seen him since, you know, he saw us,” he sounds as surprised as you are. “Yeah, uhm, I guess I gotta go, he’s here,” you tell him, getting up from bed and throwing on a hoodie. “Oh, really? Text me after, I’ll probably be awake,” he rounds off the phone call while you send Alex a text that you’ll be right out. “Yeah. I’m just gonna say good night anyway, love you,” and you end the call once he’s repeated the words back to you and wished you good luck. You swallow hard before opening the door to Alex. You’d never opened that door for Alex in the night, it had always just been his brother. “I’m sorry,” he bursts out before you can say as much as hello. “I’m sorry, too,” you say it right back, and his arms are around you pulling you in for a tight hug. “Come in, let’s talk, yeah?” you say once you’ve pulled back from the hug, stepping aside to let him come in. You both settle into your bed, yourself with the comforter over your bare legs. “Can I just talk?” he asks, looking at you by his side. You nod, swallowing all the ‘I’m sorrys and explanations you had prepared for the moment he wanted to talk to you again. “I’m sorry that I screamed at you, I shouldn’t have,” he started. And you wanted to say that he had every right to be mad but you desperately fought the words forming on your tongue, to let him speak his mind. “Of course I know that you’re in love with Will, and it’s even more obvious that he’s in love with you – I just… It just hurt my feelings that you didn’t tell me, you and him both.” You choke back more feelings of regret and guilt, blinking back the tears that wants out just from the thought of having hurt your best friend’s feelings.  Meanwhile he’s pulling his knees up under his chin, looking straight ahead, out into your bedroom. “You’re right in everything that you said today. I was just being immature and irrational because I was hurt and my fear finally came true,” he says, and you can’t help but talk, even if just for one word. “Fear?” you ask. “Yeah, I don’t know what else to call it. I’ve always known that the day would come when you’ll be his and not mine anymore, when he’ll be your first priority and not me, when my mom will introduce you as William’s girlfriend and not Alex’s best friend. I knew the day would come, but I guess I didn’t think it would come so fast. I’m not ready to lose you yet.” “You’ll never lose me, Alex,” you whisper, letting a silent tear fall down your cheek, as you reach out and lay your hand on his arm. His hand covers yours. “I know, I know,” he whispers back. “I know I won’t actually lose you, but you and me both know that things will be different,” he looks over at you, and you nod, your lower lip between your teeth. Things would change, but the fact that Alex is your best friend would never. “I completely understand that it was difficult to tell me. It downed upon me earlier that you have never told me about a crush, never said a word about some boy you liked, even if I’ve told you about every single one of my crushes – and it makes sense now because it’s been Will for as long as crushes has been a thing for you. Because, obviously, you could have told me about your crushes. But it would have been weird because your crush has always been my older brother,” he talks freely, every bit of anger in his voice from earlier gone. “I understand that I haven’t made it easy, with my eye-rolling and, apparently, drunk screaming. And I most likely would have been immature and made gagging noises and rolled my eyes until they nearly fell out if you did tell me, but I do wish that you would have just told me from the start. So that I could have been a part of it, if that makes sense? Because from the looks of what I saw earlier today, this has been going on for quite some time?” he ends his speech with a question, but it doesn’t look like he’s done quite yet. Your eyes meet his, and his expression softens. “I guess I just want your complete honesty from now on,” he finishes and it’s your cue to start talking. “It all started on the night of your birthday,” you took a deep breath before launching into your long explanation. “And I know that that is a hell of a long time to keep it from you, and I don’t have a valid excuse for that, other than I was scared. But, you know, over the last year he’s been flirting with me a lot, and I didn’t really understand that that’s what it was until that night,” you tell him, along with the full story of what really happened at his birthday party and the conversation you had in his bedroom that night. “On our way home, I confronted him about it, because he had obviously heard what you said, and I told him how it affected me when he would do things like let me sit in his lap, because of how stupidly in love with him I was. I am. He also kissed me on new year’s eve without anyone noticing, and other than a few texts that same night, he’d never said a word about it. And I obviously never forgot.” Alex listened intently, small expressions like humming and his eyebrows lifting as reactions to your words. “So he told me about his feelings for me and we ki- you don’t wanna hear about this,” you interrupted yourself, to which Alex shook his head and chuckled. “Well, it’s all gone slowly from there, because we obviously haven’t had the opportunity to spend a lot of time together, alone, with the situation being what it is. When we have spent time together, it’s been sneaking away at parties or him sneaking out of the house after everyone’s gone to bed, you know. And our parents found out just a couple of weeks ago, because your dad saw us kissing when we thought no one was around,” you tell him, and he nods, taking it all in.    He scoots closer, laying his arm over your shoulders and letting you lean into him. “That reminds of something you said today. You said that even your dad accepts it, because it’s Will. And I said some absolute bullshit about him breaking your heart and that you can’t come to me crying, and again, you’re completely right… I don’t think that will happen, but against my strong beliefs, if something does happen, I’ll always be your best friend and I’ll always be there for you, and if I need to, I know I can knock him out,” he says, and you can tell he’s smirking at the last part and you finally let a laugh roll off your tongue. You both fall silent after that, finally feeling calm with Alex’s arm around you and with the words of his forgiveness still echoing in your ears. “Are you going to forgive Will as well?” you whisper, thinking about their mother’s words from earlier, how she’d said that Alex couldn’t stay mad at you for long but that it would take longer with William. “I’ll probably give him the silent treatment for a week,” he says matter of factly, and you can’t help but burst out laughing. “What?” Alex asks, looking down at you, under his arm. “It’s just, that’s exactly what your mother predicted,” you explained, and a smile tugged at his lips. “Fuck, that woman knows me to well,” he jokes and you burst out laughing again. And it felt good laughing again, in a way that only your best friend knew how to make you laugh. “Now I can’t do that. The question is; Do I outdo myself and give him the silent treatment for two weeks? Or do I just forgive him right away so that my mother thinks better of me,” he thinks out loud. “I think you should forgive him right away,” you say after a while. “But I don’t want to,” he whines, but you know he means it. “If someone deserves to be forgiven right away, it’s him. Not me. If it was up to him we would have told you after a week,” you said, releasing a deep breath. You can sense that he’s tensing up, but his arm stays around you. “Why?” he asks, and you take another deep breath. “First of all, I was really scared of what your reaction would be. You know, with the eye-rolling and all that. Also, when you screamed at us on the night of your birthday party, you said that Will had been trying to steal me away from you for years, and I couldn’t help but think that it was how you really felt. But I also wanted to see if it would work out between me and Will before I said anything to anyone,” you told him. “What? Did you not think it would work out? You’re best friends and you’ve known him all your life. And you’ve been in love with him for years, right? It’s kinda disgusting but it’s obvious that you’re like meant to be or whatever,” he said, so low that it could be categorized as whispering. “I never doubted my own feelings, or our friendship. I just couldn’t believe that he was in love with me. But he proved me wrong,” you finished, leaning more into Alex, who stayed quiet. “I forgive you, and I’ll forgive him, too, I promise. But not until tomorrow, at like 4 o’clock,” he says after a while of silence. He manages to get you smiling again, even if you were worried that he would get angry at you again. “Thank you, Alex,” you breathe, your arm moving around his waist and you hug him to you. “Yeah, yeah, just no making out around me and no details that I definitely don’t need, okay?” he chuckles, and you do the same. “Deal,” you tell him, securing the promise with a pinky swear. “Now, I’m gonna go home before you fall asleep on me and I end up sitting here all night with a dead arm, okay?” he tells you, smiling. You roll your eyes at him as he gets up from the bed. “Dead arms and force-cuddling is now reserved for my brother, thank you very much,” he smirks and earns a pillow to the head for the comment. “Excuse me, you like my cuddles,” you tell him as you follow him out of your room. “You’ll see. You’re going to miss them when you’re not getting any,” you add on once he starts shaking his head. It’s all forgotten, though, when he hugs you and tells that he loves you – and good night.

August 2014 Going to the lake with your friends was one of your absolute favorite summer activities. After a period with some not-so-sunny and not-so-hot days, the sun was finally out again and the temperature was back to being excruciatingly hot, which meant that every teenager in Sweden was on their way to the closest body of water. It was the first time that you and William would go out with your group of friends as a couple and it was fair to say that you were a little bit nervous. You were ready with your bikini on, covered by a pair of denim shorts and a t-shirt, when Alex and William, along with four of your other friends, come by your house. And with the usual hollers and greetings while you walked down the pathway from your house to your street, the endless dilemma in your head on how to deal with this new situation was long forgotten. You made your way through the group of friends with various ‘hey’s and a hug or two until you ended up by William, who greeted you with the extra big smile that was reserved for you, and you only, before he pulled you to him, sliding his arm over your shoulders and pressing a kiss to your temple. And you couldn’t help but laugh when you hear Alex speak dramatically; “Oh, you didn’t know? They’re dating. I didn’t either,” Alex seems happy when you jump on his back on your way down the trail to the lake, but also like he was trying to determine if you did it because you wanted to or if you’re just trying to give him more attention because you’re dating his brother. He also tried to pretend that he thinks it’s annoying but you know that he doesn’t. And then he tries to throw you in the lake with your clothes still on, at least he makes you believe that he actually will – to which Willy comes to your rescue – and Alex rolls his eyes and lightheartedly makes a joke about Willy being your knight in shining armor. Alex rolls his eyes again when Will asks you to rub sunscreen onto his back, to which you mutter something about how Alex and his red back better get in line. He rolls his eyes again when Willy rubs sunscreen onto your back, before he makes comment for everyone else’s enjoyment: “At least, now I won’t have to do it.” Time flies by quickly when you’re having fun – running around in the sand with your best friends, jumping from rocks with Alex and occasionally being picked up by Will and thrown into the water. One time he picks you up and carries you out slowly, pretending that he’ll drop you a few times making you squeal or giggle, but then he’ll pull you even further up and kiss you. When he stops up, so far out that you can’t reach the bottom anymore, he lets you lock your legs around his waist while his arms slide around you, holding you while he presses his lips to yours. Behind you can hear your friend Caroline scolding Alex; “Shut up, they’re cute,” Half an hour later you’re sat on top of a big rock in the lake with Alex and Linus, while William is lying on his beach towel back by the water’s edge. You can hear a few more people coming  down to the lake, voices and laughter coming closer. You know them, but they’re more Will’s friends than yours and Alex’s. Also, you haven’t really seen any of them over the summer. “Oh, you better watch out, Y/N,” Linus says, his voice almost sounding nervous. “What?” you open up your eyes after having had your face turned up towards the sun. “Oh,” you say, nonchalantly. Everyone, except your boyfriend, knows that Christine, one of the girls that are now arriving at the lake, has a huge crush on him. And she was never subtle about it. “Oh?” Alex repeats, mimicking you. “I trust him, even if he is completely oblivious,” you tell them, watching as she sits down as close to him as humanly possible without actually sitting on him. The rock that you and the boys are sitting on are close enough to the beach for you to hear most of what is being said. William’s eyes meet yours when Christine touches him for the second time within the five minutes she’s been there. You smile and he smiles back at you – and you think maybe he finally understood what his friend was doing. Or trying to do. He moves away from Christine, in the guise of turning towards all his friends. He sends another smile your way before he starts talking. “I wanted to tell you something. All of you,” he smiles, motioning to the ones that had just arrived. “Okay?” one of them says, before they all turn their attention to William. “I have a girlfriend,” he says, enthusiastically. The questions comes flying after that, from everyone but Christine. And one of them don’t even believe him until he tells them that it’s you. You turn your attention away from what was going on around William, and back to soaking up the sun. But only for a few minutes, though, before you’re turned victim to the Nylander brother’s antics and you’re once again in the water and in the arms of your boyfriend. “Did you finally realize that I’m not the only one with a crush on you,” you ask, your voice low and playful, once you’re out of the shallows. “Uhm, I think I might,” he makes a face as he says it, and you laugh at him. “You’re pretty oblivious, aren’t you?” you tease, and he shrugs, pulling you in for a kiss. “It makes sense now, though,” he says, “also, not be cocky, but I don’t think what you feel for me qualifies as a crush,” he adds, smirking. “Mm, no, haven’t been able to qualify this as a crush since I was like thirteen,” August 2014 Every year the Nylanders would have an end of summer barbecue. You loved these parties because you got to hang out with your friends all night, friends you didn’t see all the time, and of course, Alex and William. But you also hated them because your mom’s friends were extremely annoying and nosy, especially when it came to you. And now, with your mom and Camilla being a little too excited about their kids dating, everyone would know about yours and William’s relationship. And none of them would leave you alone. Less than an hour into the party and you feel like you’re about to explode. It doesn’t really help with the attention, but William has begun to actively be next to you, a hand on your shoulder or on your waist – somewhere – trying his best to keep you sane through it all. Some were sweet, just smiling, maybe adding that you looked cute together or that it warmed their heart or something, but not all of your moms friends were very appropriate, making eyes at you and whispering little things that sent you into a constant state of cringe for 5 minutes straight. You weren’t the only ones that were being bugged about the matter of yours and William’s relationship. Your dad got the question several times, of what he thought about his little girl dating the big shot hockey player of the Nylander family, to which he first just rolled his eyes, but after a while, when the repeated question became annoying, he said; “You know what, I really don’t mind, Willy is really nice to her and that’s all that matters,”. And then at one point, with a smirk, added – “I’m just glad it wasn’t this little fucker,” – while motioning to Alex, who was standing next to him. Alex also got a fair amount of attention because of it but Alex loved attention. “So what do you think about Y/N dating your brother,” someone would ask him, and he would smile and tell them some overdramatic story. “But you know what, I’m happy for them. And it’s not like I didn’t see it coming. I was mad about for about five hours, but as soon as I realized that I’m not the one who has to follow her around the mall anymore, I was completely fine,” he would end, making the circle of middle aged women around him erupt in laughter. “Hey, just ignore them. Let’s just have a good time, okay?” William spoke, sliding one of his arms around your shoulders and pulling you closer to his front while simultaneously cupping your cheek with his hand. The comment made from your mom’s friend, Isabella, had you fuming – you see, she just knew from the day you were born that the boys wouldn’t be able to keep their eyes off you. He looks at you with wide eyes and lifted eyebrows until you smile – making you look away as you try to hide the fact that he has that kind of power over you but failing miserably. A smile spreads on his lips as a reaction to yours. Moving his hand to your jaw, he tilts your head back towards him and pulls you into a sweet kiss. And then one that isn’t that sweet, one that is short but still manages to fill your gut with heat before he pulls back. “What?” you hear your mom’s friend Karen say, the gossip queen of their friend group. She’s in conversation with your mom, Camilla, your dad and few of their friends. Camilla and your mom are obviously telling her about you and Willy. “Are you surprised?” Camilla asks her, to which Karen looks even more surprised. “What? No. Are you? I mean, is this new? Are you just now hearing about it?” This really makes your ears perk up. You and William look at each other with furrowed brows before you both turn your attention back to Karen and the rest of them. “What? We found out about it in June… What do you mean?” Your mom asks, and you can see your dad lean into the conversation he’d probably found extremely uninteresting up until now. “In June? They’ve been flirting for years! And I am 100% sure I saw them kissing on New Year’s Eve,” she tells them, motioning towards you and Willy, who were halfway across the garden but were quite obviously listening in on the conversation. “What?” both your mother and Camilla exclaims, turning towards you, and you and Willy walk over with red cheeks – Willy holding your hand and basically pulling you with him. “I just thought that everyone but me knew about it, so I didn’t mention it,” Karen said, but your parents were turned towards you. “You said you started dating in March,” you mom stated. “And that’s the truth,” Willy argued, but it wasn’t enough. Your cheeks turn even redder. “God… He sprung a kiss on me at midnight, caught me completely off guard, and then ran off like nothing happened and never said anything about it for just about three months, when we actually started dating,” you rambled, making everyone laugh. “Well, I…  Excuse me, but I texted you that night,” Willy argues next to you, making them laugh more. “Uh, yeah, at like 4 AM asking if I was mad at you for it,” you said, your head turning to him. The blush on your cheeks disappeared and you were laughing with the rest of the group. “That shit fucked me up,” you added, making them all laugh, including William – before he pulled you into him, kissing your temple and telling you he’s sorry with a smile and blushing cheeks. “Did it really fuck you up? When I kissed you on new year’s eve?” he asks when you’re alone again, sitting in the swinging bench in the backyard. Your legs are resting across his lap as you sit sideways in the seat, his hand moving up and down your bare calf. You smile at his question. “Uh, yeah, I couldn’t sleep. I had all kinds of thoughts running through my head trying to come up with every possible reason for you to kiss me that wasn’t that you actually just wanted to kiss me – I just couldn’t let myself believe that you wanted to kiss me,” you told him, eyeing him as he tucked his bottom lip between his teeth. “And then I was finally falling asleep, I was so close, and then you texted me and my head was back to spinning again,” you added, laughing lightly when his head fell back with a curse falling from his lips. “I’m sorry, that was really stupid of me,” he apologized, red cheeks and an embarrassed smile. “You’re forgiven,” you told him, laying a hand on his arm. “Good. I just really wanted to kiss you, you know,” he mumbled, and you took hold of his shirt and pulled him closer, until his upper body was over yours and you could press your lips to his. The kiss lasted longer than it should have. And so did the next one – sending sparks of warmth and want for your boyfriend flying everywhere, making your skin feel like it was on fire wherever he touched you. “Yeah, yeah, that’s enough,” Alex says as he approaches you, spreading out in the third and last seat of the swinging bench. By now, Alex is used to seeing you kissing his brother, and actually gave up making gagging noises whenever he saw you about a month ago. Will pushed himself away from you and back to his previous position, and you immediately miss his hands on your skin. They come back pretty quickly, though, but on your calf instead of further up – on your thigh, under the material of your summer dress. Whenever his fingers crawl closer to your knee, there are waves traveling through your body and crashing between your legs, making the pool of want and lust in your panties grow. An hour or so later, dinner is served. Meaning that everyone is lining up next to the grill and filling their plates with various meats, breads, salads and condiments. You and Will are still queued up with empty plates, his body coming closer and pressing into yours as you’re standing in front of him. His free hand comes around your waist and you pray for just an hour alone with him when he presses a kiss or two to your shoulder. You can sense your mom looking at you from her spot by the table, and you can tell by the smile on her face and the soft look in her eyes that she thinks it’s sweet, but both you and Will know that there isn’t anything sweet about his hand flat across your hip and the lingering kisses on your shoulder. There’s nothing sweet about how it makes you feel. There’s nothing sweet about the hand on your thigh when Will’s done eating either, how it travels across your lap and under the material of your dress. How his thumb moves between your thighs and starts drawing circles on the soft and sensitive skin of your inner thighs. There is nothing sweet about your hand grabbing his and leading him inside the house under the guise of having to charge your phone. Nothing sweet about running downstairs hand in hand and being pushed against the wall, his body pressed into yours and his lips following closely after. There’s definitely nothing sweet about your hand sliding down his torso and moving in between your bodies, your palm flat over his hardening member – making his situation so much worse. “Ugh, babe, no,” William presses his forehead to yours, his eyes closed and his fingers wrapped around your wrist as he concentrates on not letting your touch get to him. “Mm, I’m sorry,” you tell him, and he rolls his eyes at you. “No, you’re not,” he mutters, and you can’t help but let your grin consume your face. “It’s just… It’s something about this dress. I can’t keep my hands off you,” he tells you after a few moments of silence. His words earns a gasp from you, making a look of petty revenge appear in his eye before his lips are on yours again. His body slams into yours, his knee pressing in between your legs, while he kisses you hard and deep. His hands roams up your body, from your thighs to your boobs, his thumbs knowing exactly where to find your nipples through both your dress and your lacy bralette. You moan against his mouth and before you know it, his hand is between your thighs, underwear pushed aside and two fingers fully inside you, pressing into your g-spot. A high-pitched moan rolls of your tongue, and just as quickly as his fingers were up there, they’re back out – and he’s leaving you with a ravishing and lingering kiss before he steps back and retreats back up the stairs with his two fingers in his mouth while simultaneously sending you a look that made you want to kill him and tear all of his clothes off, all at the same time. “Oh honey, what did you do? Your dress is all wrinkly!” Your mother exclaims when she sees you only ten minutes later. You’d spent a few minutes in the bathroom desperately trying to calm yourself down, while also making sure your hair didn’t look like Willy just had his hands all up in it while making out with you. Your dress was worse for wear, though, as it was wrinkly after Will’s hands had traveled up your body both over and under your summer dress. “Uhm, I don’t know? I sat down?” you dig out your acting talent that hadn’t been used since your last attendance at the Children’s theatre in 2007. Your mother huffs and tries to straighten your dress with her hands but gives up quite quickly. The ordeal has a smirk on Willy’s lips when you go sit down next to him, stealing his bowl of ice cream and berries, while Alex rolls his eyes and pretends to gag. It is getting later and as the guest with younger kids had left the party, the rest of you were gathered around the biggest of the tables in the garden, glasses of wine and bottles of beer in just about every hand there except yours and Alex’. It was still quite crowded in the Nylander’s backyard, and all kinds of chairs, benches and stools where moved to fit as many as possible around said table, and William had gladly pulled you into his lap, where you now sat sideways – your head rested on his shoulder as one of his arms curled around your back and the other laid over your lap, his hand resting on the back of your thigh. You rarely take part of the conversation going on around the table, mostly just listening to the stories that are being told and relaxing back into Willy’s chest – a feeling of contentment and thankfulness washing over you when his lips press against your temple, causing you to tilt your head back and capture his lips in a sweet kiss. An hour or so later, Camilla hands out blankets for everyone in need of one. You already have Alex’ hoodie over your summer dress, but Will still takes one and places it over your bare legs. Soon his hand moves over your thighs. At first, the tips of his fingers barely graces your skin, but when he hears the change in your breath, they slide in between your thighs with just a little bit more force, inching their way closer to where you’d been wanting them all day. But he stops before they reach your damp underwear, and you don’t know if you’re happy about it or not. It’s enough, though, to send you even further into the desperation for your boyfriend that you’ve been feeling all day. Your mom saying your name snaps you back to reality. You sigh when Will pulls his hand away from you, helping you stand up after having spent the last two hours curled up in his lap. You’re going home, and leaving the warmth of Will’s lap and embrace is the last thing you want to do right now – for more than one reason. You hug Alex goodbye, promising to give him his hoodie back the next day. William follows you to the front yard, shoving you in front of him so that he can walk behind you with his arms slung around your neck, your cheek in perfect position for him to press kisses to it while whispering words that make you want his hands on you even more. Just before you reach the front of the house, you turn around in his arms and press your lips to his in a deep kiss, letting your hands creep up into his hair as your tongues meet. You pull back when you hear your name being called, your parents getting impatient – but lean in for one more kiss before you take his hand in yours and walk the rest of the way. You give Camilla and Michael each a hug goodbye, then you go back for peck on the lips and a final hug with William, whispering ‘I love you’  before you follow your parents home. - “I’m outside,” you read the notification from William, your heart pounding immediately, waves of heat crashing at your core just from knowing he’s outside. You make sure you can’t hear anything from upstairs, that they’re all gone to bed, before you quickly move to the door, opening it to find your boyfriend standing there, impatiently bouncing on his feet. “Fuck, I couldn’t lie still,” he says once you open the door, just before you reach out and grab his hand. “Just come inside,” you breathe, pulling him in and closing the door behind him, just before your lips are on his and your back is pushed against the same door he just came in through, his body pressed against yours. You can already tell that it’s going to be hard to stop tonight. You’re not even sure you’re going to want it to stop. Your hands are far up the back of his hoodie, feeling his muscles move underneath the tips of your fingers as his hands roam your body, stopping at your behind and pushing you against him. You moan into the open mouthed kiss as you can feel him already starting to harden against your lower stomach. You move your hands to his front, sliding your arms around his neck and kissing him harder. “My room,” you barely get out between kisses, and his hands are at the backs of your thighs immediately, hoisting you up and you’re being carried to your room. The door is kicked shut and your back hits the mattress of your bed, his body rolling over yours and your hips meeting in a desperate hope for release. Your fingers find the hem of his hoodie and you don’t waste time ridding him of it. With his lips on yours for as long as possible, he moves your t-shirt up your sides slowly, letting the tips of his fingers slide over the soft skin of your waist, before he finally lets go of your lips and pulls the garment over your head. He buries his head in your chest immediately, kisses left all over your bare breasts, until he closes his lips around one of your nipples, sucking it into his mouth. The action causes a moan to escape your lips and an arch of your body, to which he hums, sending even more lust to build between your legs. Your hand finds its way between your bodies, landing flat over the bulge in his shorts, applying pressure to it and causing another groan from his lips. You moan his name, and he finally comes back up to you, his lips pressing to yours, open mouthed with your tongues immediately connecting. One of his hands finds the drawstring of your pajama shorts, and he loosens the knot, making room for him to stick his hand into your shorts and underwear, and feel your wetness on his fingers. “Fuck, baby,” he breathes as he pulls back, not just from your lips but from you entirely, his hands working on getting your clothes off completely before his feet even touch the floor. He sinks to his knees by the bed’s side, and you’re pulled to its edge and your thighs are being placed on his shoulders, his face buried between your legs. He’d only gone down on you for the first time a few weeks ago and it had proved to be your new favorite thing, loving the way his tongue felt as it slid across your folds and dipped inside you. His hands caress your thighs while he dives in, closing in on your clit and giving it the attention he thinks it deserves – which is a lot. The little moans and curses that leave your mouth only urge him on, and his finger comes to help, sliding inside you and pressing against your G-spot, while the tip of his tongue works against your bundle of nerves. Your fingers are deep in blonde locks, your grip hard as he makes moans roll of your tongue along with every breath. You’re nearly thrown over the edge when his tongue slides in next to his finger, making his name roll of your tongue like a whimper and your fingers fist in his hair. The action has a groan leave his throat and in the matter of seconds he’s in the bed, over you again, his lips on yours in a heavy, open mouthed kiss – his tongue replaced by another finger and his thumb moving in quick circles on your clit. Your head falls deeply into the comforter under you as your lips leaves his again and your body arches into his, and with another thrust of his fingers and his lips to your jaw, you finally hit your climax. His face is pressed to your neck as he waits for you to calm down, taking in and committing every moan, whimper and pant to his memory. His hand moves soothingly up and down your thigh and his lips press little kisses on your neck every now and then – until your hand comes up to his neck and you bring your lips back to his in a long kiss. “You’re amazing,” you whisper against his lips before you press your lips back on his. With a hand to his chest you push him to his side, your fingers traveling down and into his shorts as he let’s your tongue meet his. Your hand closes around his hard member and you start stroking him and giving him little tugs. His free hand roams your side, starting the trail with a grip of your butt and moving on to your hip – fingertips skating over your waist, until his hand cover your boob, massaging it. You let go of him and give him a little shove to make him roll to his back. You start working on his shorts immediately, pulling them down his thighs along with his boxers and letting them fall to the floor with the rest of your clothes, while he throws off his hoodie and t-shirt. You stay by his side, reaching out and letting your hand stroke over his balls and erection while you leave kisses on his torso. His fingers takes little strides up your back until they’re in your hair, finding the hair tie that barely held it up into what had once been a bun and pulling it out. With his hand fisted in your hair he guides your lips to his and you kiss while your hand moves up and down his shaft. As his lips connect to your neck and his hand slides back down to your ass, you can’t help but throw your thigh over his lap and straddle him, letting go of his dick and enjoying the feeling of it pressed against your wet folds instead. You’d never sat like that while both naked before and the new sensation feels amazing – and brings certain desires to the absolute surface as you rock against him, feeling him slide between your lips. 

His mouth has fallen open and so has yours, and with his hands on your hips, he sits up and presses his forehead to yours. Your eyes fall closed after staring into each other’s eyes for a while, and both your breaths come out as pants. “I love you so much, baby,” he talks against your lips, before launching into a heavy make out, your lips slotting together in desperation. His hands on your hips help you keep your hips moving in a steady rhythm, and your arms slides around his neck. “I want you, I want this,” you talk into the kiss. “I love you, all I want is you,” you add, your words not well thought out but exactly what you mean. “Me, too, baby. So bad. Want you so bad,” he tells you, his forehead pressed against yours as he talks. He plants his feet to the floor, getting up with you in his arms, your legs locked around his waist and your arms around his neck. He pulls back your sheets and climbs back into bed with you still in his arms. His lips are moving across your neck and collarbones as soon as you’re both back in bed. He sucks one of your nipples into his mouth, your eyes meet in the process and he comes straight back to your lips once he lets go. “I have condoms in my nightstand,” you tell him, your lips moving against his as you talk. If the sound erupting from his throat next is a curse or a groan, you’re not sure, but he reaches out and finds one in your drawer. You take the condom from his hand, and he lifts himself up on his arms. “Why do you have condoms?” he whispers teasingly, as you rip the packaging open. “Mm, because of you,” you tell him, letting a smile spread on your lips. You hadn’t really talked much about sex, you just let things happen when you felt ready for it – and William never said anything, just let you move at your own pace. “Got them from the school nurse’s office on the last day of school,” you tell him, reaching out and stroking his hard member – watching as his chuckle turns into a moan. “You know, when I made you sneak over here that night, I’d been thinking about you all day,” you smirk, tapping his thigh to make him stand up straighter on his knees to make it easier for you to slide the condom onto him. Two of his fingers dip into you, scissoring them inside you to hopefully make the experience less painful for you. “I’m ready, I can’t wait any longer,” you breathe, stretching your neck up and connecting your lips to his. His body crashes down on yours, and he kisses you deeply as he lets his fingers slide out of you and wrap around himself instead. He positions himself perfectly between your legs, placing the tip of his member at your entrance. You moan at the feeling and he pushes all the way in, making you take a deep breath. His forehead presses against yours and you both breathe heavily. “Are you okay?” he asks, his voice soft but a little strained. “Yeah, babe, I’m good, just go slow,” you answer, letting your hand move from his shoulder to the back of his neck. His lips press against yours as he starts to move, finding a slow but steady pace. As soon as he finds the perfect rhythm, one of his hands find their way back to your body. He starts at your side, moving from your hip and slowly up to the side of your boob. He massages it, slow but firm, making you release a moan when he pinches your nipple between his fingers. Your lips slot together as your hands roam his back, your nails digging into his skin when he speeds up a little bit. “You feel so good,” he groans into your neck once his lips parts from yours, before he moves on to leaving kisses all the way down from your jaw to your collarbones. You only moan in response, letting one of your hands trail from his back and up into his hair, fisting your fingers in it. “It’s good for you as well, right?” he asks, lips moving against the skin of your neck – and you can hear the slight panic in his voice. Before you even process what he said, his head flies up. “It doesn’t hurt, does it?” he asks, stilling inside you. “No, no, it doesn’t. You know I would tell you,” you tell him, finally snapping back to reality. “And it feels amazing, I promise,” you speak, cupping his cheek with your hand. “I’m- I’m not used to you being so quiet,” he mumbles, his cheeks turning red as he says it. You can’t help but smile at that. “Will, you’re doing amazing – don’t worry. And I was kinda trying to not be so loud,” you tell him, feeling your own cheeks heat up as well. He’s got a smile on his lips when he starts moving again, his hand coming down to lift your leg up, hooking it over his hip. “I like it when you’re loud,” he says before he connects his lips to yours again, and just those words alone has you moaning against his lips. “There you go,” he sounds smug, his lips moving against yours as he speaks. He speeds up, and that, along with the new angle, has moans rolling off your tongue left and right. You tug at his hair, like you know he enjoys – he’d groaned loudly the first time you did it – and his moan vibrates against your lips. His lips are soon pulled from yours as he tucks his face into your neck, eyes clenched shut as he concentrates on making you reach your orgasm before he does. He lifts his body from yours slightly, his hand moving between your bodies, where his thumb expertly finds your clit. A loud moan escapes your lips when his thumb reaches your sensitive nub and his head comes up from hiding in your neck and hair, his forehead leaning against yours. He watches your reactions closely as he touches you and fills you up again and again.   “Baby,” he mumbles, his voice strained. You moan as a response and his lips press to yours in a short but deep kiss before he speaks again. “Please tell me you’re close,” he begs, kissing you again. “Mm, I am,” you breathe, and he kisses you once more before he presses his forehead against your chest and ups the movement of his thumb, letting it rub in fast circles on your clit. He can both hear and feel that you’re coming closer to the edge, your moans more frequent, your breath harsher and your insides starting to clench around his member. When your legs tighten around his hips and your fist in his hair tenses, he knows you’re about to come. He leaves your clit to give himself some extra support as he speeds up his thrusts, pressing his lips to yours as you fall apart beneath him. The soft moans resulting of your orgasm and the clenching of your insides around him has him coming just seconds after you – before collapsing on top of you. 

Your hands stay in his hair, but instead of having a fistful of hair clenched between your fingers, you start drawing your fingertips through it instead. His breathing slows down and he pushes himself further up your body, his face nuzzling into the nook of your neck. A happy and content sigh falls from your lips when you feel his mouth press to the skin of your shoulder. His weight lifts from your body as he plants his elbows in the mattress beneath you, lifting himself up slightly while leaving kisses up your neck and on your cheek. You giggle and let your hands fall to the back of his neck. “I love you,” he whispers, finally letting his lips touch yours again in a sweet and loving kiss. “I love you, too, Will,” you smile into the next kiss. “I’ll be right back, okay?” he speaks, his voice soft as he places another kiss to your cheek before he slowly pulls out his softened member, his eyebrows shooting up when you gasp. “Are you sore?” he asks, making another smile stretch your lips. “No, don’t worry. I’m just sensitive,” you calm him, and he smiles, leaning down and kissing you once more before he leaves your bed for the bathroom. He comes back just a few minutes later, without the condom but just as naked. You both blush a little when he catches you looking and you both laugh lightheartedly when he steps over the clothes on the floor and crawls back into bed, letting you place your head on his chest and tangle your legs with his. “I can’t even tell you how extremely happy you make me,” you mumble into his chest, your arm stretching across his torso and hugging him to you. “I know the feeling, babe,” he chuckles, pressing his lips to your forehead. “Did you get any comments on your picture?” he asks after a while of resting in complete and comfortable silence, only your breaths and his heartbeat under your cheek to be heard. You hum against his chest and motion for William to fetch your phone from the nightstand. You roll to your back, using Will’s arm as a pillow, so you both can see your phone screen. Your mother had taken a picture of the two of you in the chair earlier that night, when you were curled up in his lap. She’d captured the exact moment when his lips pressed to your temple and your eyes fluttered closed – everything about it was perfect – his arms around you, your hand tracing little circles on his arm that laid across your lap. You’d posted it to your Instagram when your mom sent it to you – the first you’d posted of the two of you as a couple. “Okay, that’s a lot,” you say, smiling as you look to your side, meeting Will’s eye. Your phone screen is filled with Instagram notifications and you open up your phone and the app in question. You look at the comments on the post together, smiling at the sweet comments of how you were cute together, “I knew it!” and “It had to happen!”, cringing at your mothers comments of young love and heart-warming, and lastly, laughing at Alex’s comment reading ; “I love you but YIKES”. You plug in your phone charger and leave it at your nightstand, turning in William’s arms and cuddling up with him again – your nose rubbing against his neck as you slide your arms around his neck and hugging him to you, your bare body pressed to his. His arms comes around your waist and embraces you, his hands moving in soothing circles on your back. “How early do you think I need to get up to both sneak out of here and back into my house without any of them noticing?” he asks, leaving a kiss on your shoulder. You pull back, placing your hands on each of his cheeks, cupping them. “The biggest problem is your house, really. Here, you’re fine as long as you don’t leave at the exact same time as my mom or my dad. So, I guess the question is when your parents get up,” you add to the conversation. “Ugh, I should probably be home before 7 to be safe,” he sighs. “I really want to stay here as long as possible,” he adds, kissing you on the lips. “Mm, and it’s not like I’m letting you leave,” you tell him, pressing your lips to his in a deeper kiss. With his arms still around you, he rolls you both to the side. And you lay there, just kissing, for what feels like forever. “Are you happy we did that?” he asks unprovoked after having laid in silence for a little while. “Yeah, of course I am,” you smile, reaching up and pushing his hair out of his face. “Good,” he smiles, looking down between your bodies as the familiar pink blush appears on his cheeks again. “Stop worrying about these things,” you tell him, kissing him. “I am very much in love with you and for as long as I’ve thought about sex, I’ve always thought about it with you. I’ve always imagined and hoped that it would be with you,” you tell him, sincerely, ignoring the voice in your head that wants you to think that it’s embarrassing to tell him. “Really?” he smiles, the shy smile that was previously on his lips almost becomes cocky. But just almost. “Yeah, you’re my first crush, you know,” you say, letting your lips fall into a grin that matches his. “I remember being thirteen and spending the summer in your pool and blushing every time I saw you – because you were shirtless,” you chuckle, biting your lip when Will laughs sweetly. “And then the next summer, Alex didn’t understand why I was uncomfortable in my bikini and had to get a new one every two months because my body was changing – but you did, and, I don’t know, I fell so stupidly in love with you that I had a hard time functioning every time you were near me. My heart was racing every time you talked to me,” you let your cheeks warm up this time, turn a little red, just at the thought of how you felt every time he was around back then. To think you were naked and tangled up with him in bed now, was a little surreal. “I started talking to you a lot, didn’t I?” he chuckles. You hum, and he adjusts you in his arms, letting you lay your head on his arm and press your back into his front as he spoons you. “I mean, I always thought you were cute, but that summer… That year, I guess, I just realized that you weren’t just cute and my little brother’s best friend anymore. You were funny and beautiful. And I was fifteen, so, I had a really hard time keeping my eyes off you that summer,” he chuckled. “Hm, I noticed,” you smiled, turning your head slightly, letting him place a kiss on your cheek. “Yeah, and I wasn’t completely oblivious either. I knew you had a crush on me, but then you stopped blushing every time I looked at you or spoke to you, so I figured you’d stopped crushing on me – which is why I was worried that you’d be mad at me for kissing you on new year’s eve. I wasn’t sure if you liked me at all,” he explained, making you laugh. “Oh, I liked you,” you smiled, turning in his arms again and pressing your lips to his in a deep kiss. His hand came up to your face, cupping your cheek and holding you to him while simultaneously supporting your head. Your fingers trace a line from his chest to his shoulders while you kiss him, then from his shoulders to the back of his neck, where they’re engulfed by thick, blonde hair. You tighten your grip in his hair, just a little bit, and he hums against your lips. You pull back slightly, just to get a little air, but his lips follow yours like they’re magnetic. You smile against his lips before deepening the kiss, loving the effect you had on him and how his hands moved further down your body. You let your lips fall open, and his tongue was immediately pressed against yours, his hand coming down to your ass, gripping it, while you fisted your hand in his hair – this time making William moan and push your body against his. Pulling your lips from his, you swapped out the hand in his hair, letting your free hand move down his chest and abs while you placed kisses on his neck. Pushing your hand a little bit further down and under the covers, you examined the damage you’d done, enjoying the sound of his breath turning heavy when you let your hand wrap around his erection. He places his hand on your cheek, pulling you back to meet his lips again, before pushing a hand between your bodies – both of you reacting audibly when he moved a finger to slide through your wet folds. Soon, your hand stills on his shaft, the sudden pleasure taking over your body, when Will pushes two fingers inside you, scissoring them, essentially telling you that you had the same thought. You move your hand from his shaft to his chest, supporting yourself as you throw your leg over his hips, not letting yourself get distracted by his hard member so close to where you needed him most, but reaching out to get another condom from your nightstand. Sitting back, your arousals finally meet, and you grind down, making it hard for the both of you to keep your moans and groans to yourselves. Will’s hands moves to your hips, pushing you back. Desperate to be back inside you, he makes room for you to slide the condom onto him. Once it’s on, he sits up, pushing his lips to yours in a desperate kiss while his arm slides around your waist – helping you lift your hips from his thighs and using his other hand to align his member with your entrance, letting you slide down at your own pace. A deep breath falls from your lips when he’s fully inside you, your forehead leaning against his. You press your lips to his in a hard kiss before you place your hands on his shoulders, pushing him down to lay on his back. His hands rest on each of your hips and you place yours on his chest, to support you when you finally start moving your hips. With his hands firmly gripping your hips, he helps you keep a steady rhythm. With soft touches, passionate kisses and naked bodies so smoothly sliding against each other, you’re both quickly brought to your climaxes – foreheads pressed together as you both express your love for each other between labored breaths and throaty moans. You spend the next minutes catching your breaths, your cheek pressed to William’s chest as his fingers slides through your hair. “Don’t fall asleep on me, now,” William whispers, making your lips tug up into a smile. “Mm, I won’t,” you breathe, finally finding the strength to push yourself up. He sits up as well, kissing you before he slides an arm around you waist, lifting you from his lap to let himself slide out from inside you. You sigh at the loss of contact, leaning in for another kiss and then getting out of bed. William follows you to your bathroom, and you both go though your nightly routines, which for Willy is mostly watching you in the mirror as he stands behind you, arms around your waist and chin rested on your shoulder. You crawl into bed without bothering to put on any of the clothes left on the floor earlier in the night. It’s ridiculously late and you almost want to cry at the alarm William sets for the morning, just a few hours away. “I love you, baby,” he whispers into your hair, your face buried in his chest and your legs tangled with his as you’re already drifting to sleep. “Mm, I love you, too,” you breathe, then adding a soft “baby,” – smiling lazily as you hear him chuckle. Deep sleep finds you within minutes, exhaustion from the previous day and night along with Will’s body underneath you and arms around you, soothing you to sleep. You wake to your mother’s voice, but she isn’t talking to you. “Yeah, I found him. And his boxers… on the floor,” she sighs, and you suddenly realize that your mom is talking to Camilla on the phone in the room where you’re clearly naked underneath the covers with Will. And it’s probably way past 7 o’clock.  “Camilla, you’re not responsible for keeping your 18 year old son out of my daughter’s bed. Don’t apologize,” she says as a matter of fact. You didn’t hear what Camilla said through the phone, but you had your guesses. “Oh, you’re awake,” she says to you, having seen you move your hand to cover your face. “I’ll make sure he comes home… Once I’ve had my talk with them,” she tells Camilla, making sure you both hear her clearly. She hangs up the phone and decides to sit down on the desk chair in your room, not far from your bed. “Mom, can we please get dressed before we have this talk?” you beg, feeling the blush rush to your cheeks. “No, I’m not giving you a chance to escape,” she huffs, and you and William adjust in the bed, sitting up more but making sure the covers hide your naked bodies. “I’m sorry, Mrs. Y/L/N,” William starts, but is soon interrupted. “Oh, don’t Mrs. Y/L/N me now, mister,” your mom nearly laughs. She takes a deep breath. “You don’t need to apologize for,” she pauses, bracing herself, “having sex. It’s fine. You’re both old enough, and I obviously can’t stop it from happening. It’s just,” she pauses again, taking another deep breath. “It’s not a problem if you want to stay over, William, I would just like to know first – and I’m sure your mom would like to know as well. I mean, she called me quite worried,” she says, and you’re thoroughly surprised at her handling of the situation. “Yeah, I’m sorry, I was supposed to get up early and go back home but I must’ve slept though the alarm,” William speaks again. Your mother nods, looking around the room as she thinks about her next words. She turns her attention to you. “I was literally going to have the talk with you tonight,” she sighs, and you can’t help but smile. “Obviously I should’ve done it a lot sooner, but you know, not my favorite kind of past time, and then I saw you yesterday and I realized that I had to do it sooner rather than later,” she mumbles the last part. “Did you at least use protection?” she asks, once she’s out of the chair, hand already on the door handle. “Yes, mom,” you answer, hiding your blushing face and smile behind your hands again. She turns around. “Will, go home and apologize to your mom. And if you want to stay over, just ask, and it’s fine. And you, I’m getting you a doctors appointment first thing in the morning. You’re getting birth control.” She leaves the room and you both sink into the bed, bodies turning to the other. “Well, that’s embarrassing,” William mumbles, making you laugh. You scoot closer to him, placing a kiss on his cheek. “Yeah,” you breathe, looking up at him with a smile, and he leans in for a kiss. Or two. “But this is a good thing, right? We don’t have to sneak around anymore, and you can stay over,” you smile, and a smile spreads on his lips as well “I know,” he kisses you again, deeper this time. It is hard to pull away with his naked body over yours, wanting to have his body next to yours all the time – his skin pressed against you. He’s already semi-hard and pressed against your heat, when he pulls away. “I should probably leave,” he sighs, a smile adorning his lips anyway. “I know,” you breathe, loosening your hold on him to let him climb off you and out of bed. You sit up, pulling the sheets around your bare body, as you admire his while he pulls on his clothes from last night. He comes back to you once he’s fully dressed, pushing you back down and climbing on top of you. Your giggles stop quickly once he presses his lips to yours, kissing you deeply and passionately. “I love you, so much,” he smiles, placing a kiss on your cheek as you smile back. “Mm, I love you, too – and I’ll see you later, yeah?” you kiss him again. “Yeah, if my mom doesn’t kill me,” he jokes, climbing off of you again after having left one last, lingering kiss on your lips. “Hm, she wouldn’t do that to me… she likes me too much,” you joke back, making him laugh as he exits your room, eager to get home just so that he could get back to you again.

[huesofblue]

A Dive Into Artistry and Athleticism (Pt. I)

When people get asked about what sports they think are done on a swimming pool, some of them would immediately go and say “Oh, don’t athletes do like breast strokes, back strokes, and butterfly moves there?” And while that’s not entirely false, there is also another portion that would say, “Other than the usual, athletes also do synchronized swimming.”

But, what exactly is synchronized swimming?

According to the Tokyo Olympics web site (2020), synchronized swimming is “a women’s Olympic discipline which combines technical perfection, synchronization, choreography, artistry and expressive power.” In 2017, the Fédération internationale de natation (FINA) decided to formally change the name of synchronized swimming to artistic swimming, that which has been adopted by numerous federations worldwide following the announcement (Keth, 2017). Artistic swimming, as stated in its designated Wikipedia (2021) page, is an athletic discipline that mixes swimming, dance, and gymnastics.

With that being said, for today’s blog post, we will be reviewing the Full Team Event of Artistic Swimming at the 2016 Rio Olympics. And, like the routine we’ve adopted throughout this series of reviews, we will first be diving (*wink*) into the basic need-to-know information about the sport before we flow into the actual review itself.

[all rights reserved to the original owner of the graphic: Sports Illustrated]

Court Dimensions

In the Olympics, artistic swimming is conducted in a pool that is at least 3 meters in depth, 25 meters in width and 25 meters in length (The Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, 2020). In a blog written by Amrian Johnson (2018), it was also stated there that FINA, however, only requires the pool to be of a minimum area measuring 12 meters by 25 meters. FINA also recommends the pool depth to be a minimum 8’2” on the deep end and 5’9” on the shallow end.

The sport does not utilize the lane ropes found in a standard athletic pool. Moreover, the temperature of the water in the pool is usually cold, between 26.11°C and 27.78°C, because synchronized swimmers want a cooler pool that is not too cold that it tightens their muscles and not too hot that they overheat easily and use too much energy. Not only that, but the deck space should also at least measure 6 feet as it surrounds the entire pool, leaving one end free from obstacles for team entry (Johnson, 2018).

[all rights reserved to the original owners of the graphics: PNGEgg and Swim Outlet]

Equipment

In artistic swimming, there are only a few equipment that athletes need to properly carry out performances without any hindrances. Those equipment are namely a nose clip, goggles, swimsuits and, of course, the underwater speakers. The following descriptions of said equipment were taken from Hebergement Webs (2020), so the full credit goes to their writer/s.

Starting off, the nose clip is a small piece of hard plastic or wire with a thin rubber coating that pinches an athlete’s nose closed to prevent water from seeping into it and, thus, helping them avoid dangerously choking while they are underwater. The next piece of equipment is the goggles, and these are basically underwater glasses that protect the athlete’s eyes from irritation as they move continuously underwater. They are, however, not allowed to be used in official competitions, so this means that synchronized swimmers can only use goggles during training. After that is the swimsuit, and these are non-transparent comfortable wear for athletes that are generally made of nylon and lycra/spandex material. In body shape tests, black-colored swimsuits are recommended, but some teams use colorful suits that fit the theme and music they will be utilizing for their performance. The last equipment is the underwater speakers, and these allow the athletes to hear the music throughout the whole performance while they are submerged underwater. Since artistic swimming is a rhythmic sport, the music is heavily important and has to completely be audible underwater.

Aside from those pieces, there are other essential equipment needed such as the swim cap (which protects the athlete’s hair from the chlorine in the pool and reduces the drag in the water caused by loose hair, but it is not recommended to be used in official competitions); ear plugs (which prevent water from intruding in the athlete’s ears and protect them from potential diseases); and lastly, gelatin (which is applied to the hair to make it stick to their places and not hinder the athlete in their movement) (Sportsmatik, n.d.).

[all rights reserved to the original owners of the graphics: Sportsmatik, ANA Synchro, Sports Depot, Decathlon, TYR, and Colorado Time Systems]

Basic Skills

Looking to start off a possible career or develop a hobby in artistic swimming, an individual would only need to know about two basic skills: the sculls and the eggbeater.

According to ActiveSG (n.d.), the sculls are “hand movements used to propel the body and are essential to synchronized swimming.” They are also the most often used type of skill, with its types being: support, standard, torpedo, split-arm, barrel, and paddle scull. The movements are made up of two repeated movements that consist of holding the upper arms against the body, with the forearms at a 90-degree angle, and moving them continuously back and forth to create enough water pressure to hold the legs up.

Also in the same material from ActiveSG, the eggbeater is a movement that consists of rotating one leg in a clockwise manner while rotating the other leg in a counter-clockwise manner. It is said that this kick is used to leave the hands free to perform strokes. It is also “a stable and efficient way for swimmers to attain the necessary height to perform moves above the water.”

[all rights reserved to the original owner of the graphic: SportSG]

Technical Skills

To further enhance the specialties to be developed when getting into artistic swimming, an individual can learn and master a variety of technical skills executed in the sport, those of which will be taken exactly as is from the Wikipedia (2021) page for artistic swimming.

Lifts or highlights are skills wherein the members of the team propel another teammate relatively high out of the water.

PARTS OF A SUCCESSFUL LIFT:

The flyer is the person jumping off the lift and is usually the smallest member of the team with ample agility and flexibility.

The base is a person of average size with intense leg strength and a solid core as well as the ability to hold a squat position.

The feet/lifters/pushers are the team members who provide the force for the base to explosively stand up, and the flyer to gain height out of the water.

COMMON TYPES OF LIFTS/HIGHLIGHTS:

Platform lift – is the oldest form of highlight. In a platform, the base lays out in a back layout position underwater. The top sets in a squatting position on her torso and stands once the lift reaches the surface. The remaining teammates use eggbeater to hold the platform and the top out of the water.

Stack lift – is the most common form of lifts in synchro. The base sets up in a squatting position a few feet underwater, with the lifters holding her legs and/or feet. The top then squats on the shoulders of the base. As the lift rises, lifters extend their arms while the base and top extend their legs to achieve maximum height. A common addition to a stack lift is a rotation while it ascends or descends.

Toss or throw – is set up exactly like a stack lift. However, when the lift reaches its full height, the "flyer" on top of the lift will jump off of their teammate's shoulders, usually performing some sort of acrobatic movement or position. This is a very difficult lift and should only be attempted by experienced swimmers.

Basket or bunken toss – is a newer form of highlight that utilizes a small platform created by the interlocking hands of two "feet" persons, with the flyer standing on their hands, and the base inverted standing on the underside of their hands. There will be one person lifting each of the "feet" persons waists, and another person deep under the highlight assisting the base in remaining vertical. These highlights are often used by national teams to achieve exceptional height out of the water for the flyer.

Aside from the lifts, there are also regular positions that can be created from a multitude of combinations. To be mentioned here are only the basic and commonly used ones:

Back Layout is the most basic position. The body floats, completely straight and rigid, face-up on the surface while sculling under the hips.

Ballet Leg begins in a back layout, one leg is extended and held perpendicular to the body, while the other is held parallel to the surface of the water.

Bent Knee (or Heron) is done by: while holding a vertical body position, one leg remains vertical while the other leg bends so that its toe is touching the knee of the vertical leg.

Crane (or Fishtail) is done by: while holding a vertical body position, one leg remains vertical while the other is dropped parallel to the surface, making a 90-degree angle or "L" shape. More specifically, a crane position requires the 90-degree angle in the legs (even if the bottom leg is submerged), while a fishtail requires the bottom foot to be at the surface which may or may not create a 90-degree angle in the legs depending on height.

Double Ballet Leg is similar to ballet leg position in that both legs are extended and held perpendicular to the body.

Flamingo is also similar to ballet leg position in that the bottom leg is pulled into the chest so that the shin of the bottom leg is touching the knee of the vertical leg, while remaining parallel to the surface of the water.

Front Layout is much like a Back Layout, but the only difference is that the swimmer is on his/her stomach, sculling by his/her chest, and not breathing.

Knight is done by positioning the body in a surface arch position, where the legs are flat on the surface, and the body is arched so that the head is vertically in line with the hips. One leg is lifted, creating a vertical line perpendicular to the surface.

Side Fishtail is a position which one leg remains vertical, while the other is extended out to the side parallel to the water, creating a side "Y" position.

Split Position is done by: with the body vertical, one leg is stretched forward along the surface and the other extended back along the surface, in an upside down split position.

Tub is done by pulling up both legs to the chest with the shins and tops of the feet dry and parallel on the surface of the water.

Vertical is achieved by holding the body completely straight upside down and perpendicular to the surface usually with both legs entirely out of water.

[all rights reserved to the original owner of the graphic: SportSG]

Tactical Skills

Because artistic swimming is a sport that involves only a team that competes without direct confrontation with opponents (no passing nor receiving, for example), the tactics are directed mostly to the athletes themselves.

According to a Swim Outlet (n.d.) guide blog, it is important for synchronized swimmers to keep track of time, as well as to listen closely to the music. These two go hand-in-hand in order to provide the swimmers the ability to synchronize well with each other in the midst of movements and actions – “The more you listen to your routine music, the better you will be able to memorize exactly how long that one silent part lasts in the middle or when, precisely, that giant symbol breaks up the beat.” Not only that, but it is also an essential skill to know how to stay in your pattern because it will prevent incessant nagging from the coaches as well as make the individual a better teammate because they will be able to keep up with everybody else in the team. In the guide blog, it was stated that “Patterns are best when they're done one of two ways: with eye-catching creativity and skillful transitions; or with such precision that they essentially go unnoticed. If you are out your line, diagonal, falling behind or racing ahead, those watching will focus more on the pattern problems you are causing than the part of the routine being done well.”

As a sport, artistic swimming also requires advanced water skills, great strength, endurance, flexibility, grace, artistry, precise timing, and exceptional breath control when upside down underwater (Wikipedia, 2021).

[screenshot taken from official Youtube channel: Olympics]

Rules of the Game

The following rules were taken exactly as is from the Swim England Artistic Swimming website (n.d.):

No Touching The Bottom One of the things which makes the lifts all the more impressive is that artistic swimmers are not allowed to touch the bottom of the pool at any point during their routines.

No Bling Presentation is a unique and important part of artistic swimming but there are certain restrictions on what swimmers can wear. For example, artistic swimmers are not permitted jewellery, theatrical make-up, or inappropriate costumes.

No Goggles Another restriction during artistic swimming routines is goggles. However, swimmers in figures competitions are permitted to wear them.

Team Means Team Teams normally contain eight swimmers, but the minimum number for a team is four. Teams lose marks for every swimmer they have under the full complement because it is easier to synchronise the fewer people there are in a routine.

Stick To The Schedule Routines can be anything from two and a half minutes to five minutes long, depending on whether they are performed alone or as part of a team. However, swimmers are penalised if they take 15 seconds fewer or longer than the specified time.

In most senior competitions, swimmers perform two routines for the judges, one technical and one free.

The next rules to be mentioned were taken exactly as is from the article written by Mat Luebbers (2017) in a website called LiveAbout:

Team Event

eight swimmers on a team

one alternate swimmer

Technical Routine

2:50 time limit ( + or -15 seconds)

Perform a set routine of specific moves in a specific order

Free Routine

4:00 time limit ( + or -15 seconds)

Perform a self-choreographed routine with no specific requirements

Duet Event

two swimmers

one alternate swimmer

Technical Routine

2:20 time limit ( + or -15 seconds)

Perform a set routine of specific moves in a specific order

Free Routine

3:30 time limit ( + or -15 seconds)

Perform a self-choreographed routine with no specific requirements

The rules for scoring were also taken exactly as is from a Realbuzz (n.d.) article:

The highest and lowest scores within each group (technical merit and artistic impression) of five judges are discarded, and the remaining three for each group are averaged out.

The average score for technical merit is multiplied by six (since it is worth 60 per cent).

The artistic impression score is multiplied by only four (since it is worth 40 per cent).

The total of those two numbers (technical merit score and artistic impression score) equals the overall for that one routine.

Determining the overall winner is done by two routines scores (technical and free routine), being weighted at 35 and 65 per cent respectively, so that the free routine is of greater importance.

The technical-routine score is multiplied by 0.35.

The free-routine score is multiplied by 0.65.

The two figures added together finally give the absolute overall score.

PENALTIES:

Voluntarily stopping during a routine (disqualification).

Deliberately touching the bottom of the pool (two points).

Missing the time limits on deck-work or routines (one point).

Omitting a required element from a technical routine (half a point).

[all rights reserved to the original owner of the graphic: Swimming.org]

Who officiates the sport? And how do they do it?

The rules of a sport cannot be maintained without the officials who uphold and enforce it. Those officials, specifically the people tasked for artistic swimming, will be discussed here one by one.

According to Edinburgh Synchro (n.d.), there are 5 types of officials that help govern the sport of artistic swimming. The first type is the timekeeper, and they are responsible for checking and recording the overall times of a team’s routines as well as their deck movements. They also advise the referee whenever a team’s deck work exceeds or deviates from the permitted routine time allowance. The next type is clerk of the course, and what they do is they organize the competitors to prepare them for their events at the required time. They also ensure that the swimmers are in their correct order to perform their figures. After the clerk is the scorer, and they are responsible for recording the marks that judges make and making the necessary computations for each routine. Under the scorer are two types: the national scorer (who writes down and manipulates all the scores that come in for figures and routines) and the chief recorders (who are in charge of scoring at synchronized swimming events and managing related computer results systems.)

Following the scorer is the referee, and they oversee and hold the control of a synchronized swimming competition. They make sure that the event runs smoothly and that it follows the rules set by FINA for the sport. The last type of official is the judges, and according to the Realbuzz (n.d.) article where the scoring rules were taken, a synchronized swimming event has two 5-member panels of judges; where one panel is in charge of scoring based on technical merit (execution, synchronization and difficulty) and the other panel scores based on artistic impression of swimming (choreography, music interpretation and manner of presentation). However, in other events like the Olympics, there can be three panels.

Please direct yourself to the second part of this blog post in order to find the actual review. See you there!

References

ActiveSG. (n.d.). Basic skills and positions in Synchronised Swimming. Retrieved March 22, 2021, from ActiveSG: https://www.myactivesg.com/Sports/Aquatics/How-To-Play/Synchronised-Swimming/Basic-skills-and-positions-in-Synchronised-Swimming

Edinburgh Synchro. (n.d.). Officials in synchro. Retrieved March 23, 2021, from Edinburgh Synchro (powered by WordPress): http://edinburghsynchro.co.uk/officials-in-synchro/

Hebergement Webs. (2020, November 21). Synchronized Swimming - Equipment. Retrieved from Hebergement Webs web site: https://www.hebergementwebs.com/synchronized-swimming-tutorial/synchronized-swimming-equipment

Johnson, A. (2018, January 10). From Swimming to Synchro. Retrieved March 22, 2021, from Counsilman-Hunsaker: Aquatics for Life: https://counsilmanhunsaker.com/from-swimming-to-synchro/

Keth, B. (2017, July 22). FINA renames synchronized swimming. Retrieved March 22, 2021, from SwimSwam: https://swimswam.com/fina-renames-synchronized-swimming/

Luebbers, M. (2017, May 24). Synchronized Swimming Rules and Judging. Retrieved March 22, 2021, from LiveAboutdotcom: https://www.liveabout.com/synchronized-swimming-rules-and-judging-3170126

Realbuzz Team. (n.d.). Synchronised Swimming Judging And Points Scoring. Retrieved March 23, 2021, from Realbuzz: https://www.realbuzz.com/articles-interests/sports-activities/article/synchronised-swimming-judging-and-points-scoring/

Sportsmatik. (n.d.). Sports Equipage for Synchronized Swimming. Retrieved March 22, 2021, from Sportsmatik web site: https://sportsmatik.com/sports-corner/sports-equipage-list?n=synchronized%20swimming

Swim England. (n.d.). An introduction to artistic swimming. Retrieved March 22, 2021, from Swim England Artistic Swimming web site: https://www.swimming.org/artistic-swimming/introduction-to-artistic-swimming/

Swim Outlet. (n.d.). Top 5 Must-Have Skills for Synchronized Swimmers. Retrieved March 22, 2021, from Swim Outlet: https://www.swimoutlet.com/guides/top-5-must-have-skills-for-synchronized-swimmers

The Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. (2020). Artistic Swimming. Retrieved March 22, 2021, from Tokyo Olympics 2020 website: https://tokyo2020.org/en/sports/artistic-swimming/

Wikipedia. (2021, February 2). Synchronized swimming. Retrieved March 22, 2021, from Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synchronized_swimming

[autoirishlitdiscourses]

Discourse of Monday, 26 April 2021

See Wikipedia's article on poitín for more sections like these two texts and look at. What does this similarity matter? I disagree with the latest selection from The Butcher Boy, you'd just need to score less than thrilled at this point is more likely to be more specific thesis statement expresses, and I won't calculate participation until the end of that grade and that missing more than merely plausible, which were strong last time you were perhaps a little below the mechanics of getting people to go. You've done a lot of really productive ways or it might be thought to be a difficult text, and especially of An Spalpin Fanach. You picked a difficult line to walk, especially if the way that the professor an email no later than Friday afternoon.

There are many many others. Of course!

Drop if you wanted to remind people. There were some amazing performances on it, your delivery was sensitive to the audience so that we have a proclivity for rather dark humor and deal thematically as a writer. Scoring at least some background on Irish money if you want the experience to be absolutely sure that I would say the smartest way to push your own argument even more would have helped to have dug into these topics.

It's just that, in part because its boundaries are rather difficult, and don't have a positive thing, I realize. Again, I can't go over, and it will help you punch through to an X and/or may not, but because considering how best to get a passing grade; I feel like is currently better developed and more focused. So thinking about which I'm ready to go back through the writing process is a policeman.

Let me know if you have any questions, and structure may be productive. All in all, you must recite a selection that you told your aunt in Ohio, who harangues Bloom and/or recall problems. I think the fairest grade to your presentation notes would be to say that, I promise to keep it up or down by much. One implication of this offer to you. Please send me your plans by 10 a. I'll see you in section. You're welcome! It would have paid off quite a bit. However, I do tomorrow, but certainly not going to be posted to the connections between the excellent interpretation that you've tried to point people when looking at the end of the University, and I'll get you feedback on your sheet so I can't tell for sure. It's a very strong work here, I will call life which is fantastic and well tied to the poem, specifically, you are trying to get people to pursue the topic. Stoddard, O'Casey, Act IV: Chorus sung: John McCormack singing It's a two-minute warning by holding up the last minute.

To have one extensive monologue from someone who is a really good ideas in an A-for the quarter, and quite engaging. 415 B-range paper grades discussed in more detail, I am not asking you to perform suboptimally on the most directly productive here would have paid off to have had Cyclops suggested to them effectively, demonstrated a strong preference and I'll stay late. It's all yours! All in all ways, and the historical situation. Similar things could be set against each other personally. Let me say some general things, you should focus on the assignment, and exploring additional related issues, focus your analysis what is short-sighted or otherwise need to expose your own writing, get an incomplete would also require the professor's miss three sections, get an A-territory with 1 point out, it's insightful—but being flexible may be that your choice of a number of particular interpretive problems for Ulysses none of these are true. So, you would like to see Dexter as a first draft and allow for real discussion with the assumption that the more egregious errors in the biggest payoff possible sometimes you have any further questions, and my guess is that the Irish as postcolonial subjects; probably others. Another potential difficulty is that you did a good night, due to midterm-related questions?

I can attest from personal experience it can feel to a natural move is to find that this is a very strong essay in a comparative manner over time, and I quite liked a lot of ways. This is already an impressive move, and modeling this for everyone, Having just checked my stack of midterms against my other section is engaged and engaging despite my sometimes rather nitpicky comments, but more general discussion of The Butcher Boy; Stephen Dedalus's rather morbid and misogynist fixation on the Mad Hatter's hat in Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland. I suggest that Dexter is X, whereas Y is like A, for free: Chris Walker and the ideas and your boost from your section self-addressed, stamped envelope with enough stamps to make sure that I'll be in my box South Hall 1415. You picked a very small number of ways here: you had an accommodation through the writing process is itself the immediate, direct, personal interest in the first seven that the song. Often, a profitable manner, and it shouldn't be too hard to avoid thinking that an A, in case they ask you questions for discussion.

I do not overlap with yours, but I also think that it's actually not that you were reciting and discussing the selection you picked to the course's discourse about Shakespeare every day, because unless you are, I think. Reminder: if people aren't getting quite full credit on author, title, date, you really have done. One would have helped you to ten pages long; this counts everything including participation and attendance that is excerpted in Plough. Let me know what you're going, and you managed to articulate as fully integrated parts of your quarter! If you have done quite a challenge, and want to make sure that you just need to be aware that you just need to make huge conceptual leaps immediately. If you happen to have a good student and I will take this into account. Still Life-Le Jour. Have a good performance even though this is potentially profitable idea, but may not be able to give you a grade somewhere in the front of me wanted to demonstrate that you score at the top of the first three and four the other students were engaged, and the Stars: Nora Clitheroe, The Stare's Nest again so that I can. You had said to other people talking. A-for the quarter winds up being more successful in any way that helps to further your analysis and perhaps point him toward your larger-scale details and of putting them next to each other. Similarly, looking at the Recitation Assignment Guidelines handout. You're got a perfectly acceptable to cite poems by Eavan Boland, and would have needed to happen for this particular passage. If you don't have a hard line to walk, and it's completely up to this page:. Can you confirm she was having. Make sure that your formatting is impeccable. I felt the same degree that you gave quite a nice touch, too. Let me know if you want to know how GOLD looks for undergrads, I'm dying for it and so this hurts your ability to appreciate the argument in a productive exercise I myself tend to think about how you achieve full and open honesty about where you need to be this week. I'm sympathetic here. Not mine. Yes, that's fine provided that the one that the professor is a mid-century American painter Willem de Kooning's Woman series is full. My current plan is to think about what audiovisual and historical issues at stake. Looks like you. Picking a selection from each paragraph, you have any questions, OK? The assignment required and gave what was overall an excellent sense of the several topics that each of you effectively boosted the other's grade while you write, and have moved forward even more specifically on the section guidelines handout. I say thank you for being a good job here. The first of these guidelines with you. Soon to be fully successful. Yes/no pass, knowing where you are nervous about possibly having accidentally leaked confidential information, but rather to help you to think about how recruiting works and the marketplace, and is able to avoid. And your writing is quite enjoyable. Have a good move here, I can find a recording of your group, and your health allows. What this relationship between these texts in an otherwise dull day. Again, please read September 1913. Com that you are attentive to what other students in great detail, I absolutely understand that this is unfortunate because they tend to do that metaphorically. If he lets you expand or drop material if that doesn't work, might be surprised if they cover ground which you are planning on getting out of your recording early. Needing to study for a more impassioned which may differ in some form, even if only because they're also doing Wandering Aengus—6 p. I'll be on campus today, actually.

The Butcher Boy song 5 p. 57. It's absolutely OK to depart/intentionally/from the syllabus pretty well, you should come to each other. But analysis requires moving outside of your outline will be. Thanks for your section this week. I'm glad that it never really rises far above the compare/contrast paper which is to make it support that negative value judgment: that you could be squeezed in most places is basically structured in a moment. Good luck on the edge of something genuinely wonderful job of moving between the texts are primarily theoretical, critical, or it becomes apparent that more supports your specific point, just as Shakespeare doesn't necessarily have to make this transition which you dealt. I'm terribly sorry and embarrassed. On James Joyce's Ulysses: discussion of a topic of your skull with the same names to denote the same time, and your visual texts, how does this statement relate to the class's actual level of knowledge and their outline doesn't bear a lot of the recording of your own notes for week 3. Plan for Week 8: General Thoughts and Notes 23 October in section; we talked after section, and perform the resulting articles and see what other people to dig into in conversation. Kilmainham p. Other administrative issues? It sounds like a fair number of good news. Nothing immediately proposes itself to me, but I completely forgot. Recitation/discussion 5 p. It turns out, it's a beautiful little gem that is particularly relevant here; but make sure neither of those finals. Is that Walter definition of race were like, or historical in nature. Hi! Tonight's paper-grading rubric above. Your paper is that the paper is due or a bit more so that I have never been a pleasure to read and thought about the course syllabus that reciting twelve lines of text may only be minimal changes later tonight, a productive way to avoid a assuming that everyone in class. Alternately, if you'd like to know tonight instead of discussion. So I hope you won't have time to meet me. Still Life with Four Apples; probably others. They are presented in the class and the group develop its own; I will still be elusive at this point is that you will receive at least 70% for a student whose final grade at your main ideas. One thing that will help you to give a paper to pay off in terms of the top eight or so of all but the group may help you here. Be sure to give quite a good selection, and apply it with a selection from Ulysses this Wednesday.

Again, thank you for a job well done. Some suggestions: Georges Braque painted food-related topics not only contributes to a natural end or otherwise set up to you after I qualified it by then. I looked at them, but perhaps it would be helpful, I think that you wanted the discussion as a section you have questions about Cyclops or it becomes apparent that more information about just to pick up a fair grade for the historical and literary readings are passionate and engaged and engaging, and some broader course concerns and did a good choice on topic.

You should aim to do so by 10 p. Just send me email since then, is perhaps not easy deal for you, I will still be elusive at this point, if you want to examine, because I think? TA Christopher Walker and the Stars: Nora Clitheroe, The Butcher Boy can best be read in ways other than that, taken together, then looking at his wife, Annie, in part because it's an appropriate analysis that supports your larger-scale payoff … but as a section you have any questions, which is fantastic and free! Let me know. You're very welcome to sit down on Wednesday can you make the switch function in GOLD you should email me and holding eye contact in that relationship can make your own readings within the realm of possibility for you. There were some pauses for recall and retraction/corrections, but want to prepare a set of ideas in here, though this is really successful paper at an IV coffee shop on lower State, but the power company left me reading by candlelight for several reasons, including class, but not past your level of familiarity with the group to list their impressions of how your questions touches on. Hi! So, for instance. It took the midterm and the text, and the 1916 Easter Rising, the F on the final, too, that there will only be recited during our first section; got the lowest score was 46%. Make sure to do you mean by talking about. In particular, for instance, you will leave me with a worn pick, OK? However, if you want to make it productive to look at the performance, and I think that there are a lot of material. You need to focus on whatever revs your engine, intellectually speaking, but you handled yourself and your readings are often primarily just due to my office door SH 2432E, or unclear. You're welcome to leave your paper. Let me know what works best for you if I try very hard to avoid explicating yourself as the audio or visual component of your mind until you recite more than 100% in section. Similarly, the nude painting Fluther & Peter are tittering over in O'Casey, both of which revolve around a male visions of beautiful women, his understanding of the test, but some students may not have started reading Godot yet if they're cuing off of the Wandering Aengus Performed 16 October 2013 Thus, love of a letter grade; made an excellent job!

This doesn't change the way of thinking about it not perhaps rather the case and I appreciate your quick response! Like It, Orlando, in our backgrounds. Overall, you could engage in related to the reader/viewer, and you met them at their level of familiarity with a lifetime's regret; d it's YOUR JOB to make his slide show available to, you're about in lecture tomorrow! Of course.

[rw-infotech]

List of Top JavaScript Frameworks 2020 For Front End Development

JavaScript is defining the future of the tech world with its wide genre of competent frameworks, which are capable of accelerating the development of applications in many ways. How to choose a certain framework in JavaScript is based on the company’s goals, project requirements and how certain frameworks can be used in different scenarios.

JavaScript, one of the most surreal and beautiful programming languages, enwrapped by the intriguing fact that even though it is named “Java” Script, it doesn’t have any association with Java. In mid-1995, when JavaScript came into existence it was disguised as the name Mocha and later it was named as “LiveScript” and when Netscape and Sun did a license agreement it was finally renamed to “JavaScript”. Nobody had even imagined in its initial form that it would be such a revolutionary programming language and would be entitled as one of the major languages to learn. The world is pacing fast with the ever-changing technology and programming languages being the pillar of technology. JavaScript is surely defining the future with its compelling and competent frameworks.

What are the Frameworks?

In general, a framework is a prototype or conceptual structure intended to serve as a support or guide for the building of something that expands the structure into something useful. According to Wikipedia ” A software framework is an abstraction in which software providing generic functionality can be selectively changed by additional user-written code, thus providing application-specific software.”

JavaScript web frameworks are cheat codes for quick web application development. They serve as a skeletal frame for single page application development and allows developers to worry less about code structure or maintenance and help them in focusing more on the creation of complex interface elements and expand opportunities of JS and plain HTML.

So, Which frameworks of JavaScript are most popular and why?

Below is the list of a few Javascript frameworks:

1. AngularJS- AngularJS is an open-source framework used in frontend and is maintained by Google. It is mainly used to subside and sort the problems encountered while creating single-page applications usually have, as it simplifies both development and testing of such application by providing a framework for client-side model view controller (MVC) and model view-view model (MVVM) architectures. For now, it is known to be the most used JavaScript framework for single-page applications and have the largest community of developers.

2. ReactJS- ReactJS camouflage itself to be JS framework but it is more of an open-source JS library, which has huge names like Facebook and Instagram behind it. React was built by a software engineer at Facebook. In 2011, it was first deployed on Facebook’s newsfeed and later on Instagram in 2012. React Js emerges in an ecosystem of complete frameworks, but it’s just the view. In MVC(Mobile-View-Controller) pattern, React.js acts as “V” and can be smoothly integrated with any architecture.

A fully functional dynamic application can’t be built with React alone. Recently, On April 18th 2017, Facebook announced a new core algorithm of React framework library for building user interface named React Fiber, which is said to be the foundation for future development and improvement of ReactJS.

3. Ember JS- A few years back, in 2015, EmberJs was considered to be the best framework leaving React and AngularJS behind. It does two-way data binding as same as AngularJS keeping both view and model in sync for all the time. Emberjs is commonly used for complex feature-rich web applications and website. LinkedIn, Netflix, Chipotle, Blue Apron, Nordstrom are one of the few of the top names that have incorporated EmberJS.

What works in its favour is that it is easy to learn and have many tutorials online which helps to learn it with ease.

4. Vue.Js- Vue.js is considered to be one of the best solutions for cross-platform development. The development of Vue.Js is considered by taking the best qualities from Angular, React and Ember such as Vue.js offers two-way data binding (same as in AngularJS), server-side rendering (like in Angular2 and ReactJS), Vue-CLI (backbone tool for quick start) and optional JSX support. and all the altering flaws in prior three.

5. MeteorJS- MeteorJS is a free and open-source framework, which is well-equipped with tons of features for back-end development, front-end rendering, DB(database) management and business logic. Being a full-stack platform, it has the quality that its name suggests which is being fast. If you’re looking to rapidly develop smaller, reactive applications on the Node.js platform, Meteor is definitely an excellent choice.

Due to its modular structure, all the packages and libraries can be used at a high pace. In terms of performance, all the changes in the database are transmitted to the UI in the shortest time possible and in conversely with no evident time losses caused by different languages or server response time.

The consideration of a JavaScript framework is based on the company’s goals, project requirements and how certain frameworks can be used in certain scenarios. JavaScript is portraying the whole new depiction of the future of technology as it backs the prompt development and prototyping.

These frameworks and libraries have already reshaped the way how JS collaborates with HTML and CSS to compile views both in browsers and now even on native platforms.

[rabbitcruiser]

Architecture, Manhattan (No. 2)

56 Leonard Street is an 821-foot-tall (250 m), 57-story skyscraper on Leonard Street in the neighborhood of Tribeca in Manhattan, New York City, United States. The building was designed by the Swiss architecture firm Herzog & de Meuron, which describes the building as "houses stacked in the sky. "It is the tallest structure in Tribeca. 

The building has 145 condominium residences priced between US$3.5 million and US$50 million. Residences range in size from 1,418 to 6,400 square feet (131.7 to 594.6 m2) and include 2 to 5 bedrooms all with private outdoor spaces.

As of May 2013, 70% of the building had sold. According to building developer Izak Senbahar, the building was 92% sold in seven months. In June 2013, a penthouse at 56 Leonard went into contract for US$47 million, making it the most expensive residential property ever sold below Midtown Manhattan. The building was completed in 2017. 

Alexico Group’s Izak Senbahar purchased the land and the air rights in 2007 from the New York Law School for US$150 million. Construction began that same year. Foundation work on this tower began in 2008, but was shut down before the end of the year when the project was put on hold. After nearly four years, construction finally resumed in October 2012. 

In 2013, the developers secured a US$350 million loan from a syndicate led by Bank of America.

56 Leonard is designed by the 2001 Pritzker Prize winning Swiss architecture firm Herzog & de Meuron. Anish Kapoor, known for the public sculpture Cloud Gate in Chicago, designed a similar sculpture to sit at the base of the building. Herzog & de Meuron also designed the building’s interiors, which include custom designed kitchens, fixtures, bathrooms, and fireplaces. Goldstein, Hill & West Architects LLP is the architect of record. 

There is 17,000 square feet (1,600 m2) of amenity spaces on the 9th and 10th floors, including a 75-foot pool, a 25-seat screening room, a private dining room, and a children’s playroom. The building has a total of ten elevators; owners will share a hallway with at most one other apartment. The developers also figured a generator on the ninth floor into the plans. 

There are eight full-floor apartments at the top, ranging from 5,200 to 6,400 square feet (480 to 590 m2), with 14-to-19-foot-high (4.3 to 5.8 m) ceilings. In addition, the building features a double-height lobby sheathed in "gleaming" black granite.

2017 Engineering Excellence National Recognition Award by ACEC

2017 Best Projects Winner in the Residential/ Hospitality Category by Engineering News-Record

Source: Wikipedia

[datamattsson]

A Vagrant Story

Like everyone else I wish I had more time in the day. In reality, I want to spend more time on fun projects. Blogging and content creation has been a bit on a hiatus but it doesn't mean I have less things to write and talk about. In relation to this rambling I want to evangelize a tool I've been using over the years that saves an enormous amount of time if you're working in diverse sandbox development environments, Vagrant from HashiCorp.

Elevator pitch

Vagrant introduces a declarative model for virtual machines running in a development environment on your desktop. Vagrant supports many common type 2 hypervisors such as KVM, VirtualBox, Hyper-V and the VMware desktop products. The virtual machines are packaged in a format referred to as "boxes" and can be found on vagrantup.com. It's also quite easy to build your own boxes from scratch with another tool from HashiCorp called Packer. Trust me, if containers had not reached the mainstream adoption it has today, Packer would be a household tool. It's a blog post in itself for another day.

Real world use case

I got roped into a support case with a customer recently. They were using the HPE Nimble Storage Volume Plugin for Docker with a particular version of NimbleOS, Docker and docker-compose. The toolchain exhibited a weird behavior that would require two docker hosts and a few iterations to reproduce the issue. I had this environment stood up, diagnosed and replied to the support team with a customer facing response in less than an hour, thanks to Vagrant.

vagrant init

Let's elaborate on how to get a similar environment set up that I used in my support engagement off the ground. Let's assume vagrant and a supported type 2 hypervisor is installed. This example will work on Windows, Linux and Mac.

Create a new project folder and instantiate a new Vagrantfile. I use a collection of boxes built from these sources. Bento boxes provide broad coverage of providers and a variety of Linux flavors.

mkdir myproj && cd myproj vagrant init bento/ubuntu-20.04 A `Vagrantfile` has been placed in this directory. You are now ready to `vagrant up` your first virtual environment! Please read the comments in the Vagrantfile as well as documentation on `vagrantup.com` for more information on using Vagrant.

There's now a Vagrantfile in the current directory. There's a lot of commentary in the file to allow customization of the environment. It's possible to declare multiple machines in one Vagrantfile, but for the sake of an introduction, we'll explore setting up a single VM.

One of the more useful features is that Vagrant support "provisioners" that runs at first boot. It makes it easy to control the initial state and reproduce initialization with a few keystrokes. I usually write Ansible playbooks for more elaborate projects. For this exercise we'll use the inline shell provisioner to install and start docker.

Vagrant.configure("2") do |config| config.vm.box = "bento/ubuntu-20.04" config.vm.provision "shell", inline: <<-SHELL apt-get update apt-get install -y docker.io python3-pip pip3 install docker-compose usermod -a -G docker vagrant systemctl enable --now docker SHELL end

Prepare for very verbose output as we bring up the VM.

Note: The vagrant command always assumes working on the Vagrantfile in the current directory.

vagrant up

After the provisioning steps, a new VM is up and running from a thinly cloned disk of the source box. Initial download may take a while but the instance should be up in a minute or so.

Post-declaration tricks

There are some must-know Vagrant environment tricks that differentiate Vagrant from right-clicking in vCenter or fumbling in the VirtualBox UI.

SSH access

Accessing the shell of the VM can be done in two ways, most commonly is to simply do vagrant ssh and that will drop you at the prompt of the VM with the predefined user "vagrant". This method is not very practical if using other SSH-based tools like scp or doing advanced tunneling. Vagrant keeps track of the SSH connection information and have the capability to spit it out in a SSH config file and then the SSH tooling may reference the file. Example:

vagrant ssh-config > ssh-config ssh -F ssh-config default

Host shared directory

Inside the VM, /vagrant is shared with the host. This is immensely helpful as any apps your developing for the particular environment can be stored on the host and worked on from the convenience of your desktop. As an example, if I were to use the customer supplied docker-compose.yml and Dockerfile, I'd store those in /vagrant/app which in turn would correspond to my <current working directory for the project>/app.

Pushing and popping

Vagrant supports using the hypervisor snapshot capabilities. However, it does come with a very intuitive twist. Assume we want to store the initial boot state, let's push!

vagrant snapshot push ==> default: Snapshotting the machine as 'push_1590949049_3804'... ==> default: Snapshot saved! You can restore the snapshot at any time by ==> default: using `vagrant snapshot restore`. You can delete it using ==> default: `vagrant snapshot delete`.

There's now a VM snapshot of this environment (if it was a multi-machine setup, a snapshot would be created on all the VMs). The snapshot we took is now on top of the stack. Reverting to the top of the stack, simply pop back:

vagrant snapshot pop --no-delete ==> default: Forcing shutdown of VM... ==> default: Restoring the snapshot 'push_1590949049_3804'... ==> default: Checking if box 'bento/ubuntu-20.04' version '202004.27.0' is up to date... ==> default: Resuming suspended VM... ==> default: Booting VM... ==> default: Waiting for machine to boot. This may take a few minutes... default: SSH address: 127.0.0.1:2222 default: SSH username: vagrant default: SSH auth method: private key ==> default: Machine booted and ready! ==> default: Machine already provisioned. Run `vagrant provision` or use the `--provision` ==> default: flag to force provisioning. Provisioners marked to run always will still run.

You're now back to the previous state. The snapshot sub-command allows restoring to a particular snapshot and it's possible to have multiple states with sensible names too, if stepping through debugging scenarios or experimenting with named states.

Summary

These days there's a lot of compute and memory available on modern laptops and desktops. Why run development in the cloud or a remote DC when all you need is available right under your finger tips? Sure, you can't run a full blown OpenShift or HPE Container Platform but you can certainly run a representable Kubernetes clusters where minishift, microk8s and the likes won't work if you need access to the host OS (yes, I'm in the storage biz). In a recent personal project I've used this tool to simply make Kubernetes clusters with Vagrant. It works surprisingly well and allow a ton of customization.

Bonus trivia

Vagrant Story is a 20 year old videogame for PlayStation (one) from SquareSoft (now SquareEnix). It features a unique battle system I've never seen anywhere else to this day and it was one of those games I played back-to-back three times over. It's awesome. Check it out on Wikipedia.

[codingninjasofficial]

Coding Ninjas

coding ninjas

coding ninjas near me

coding ninjas jobs

coding ninjas quora

coding ninjas scholarship test

coding ninjas vs coding blocks

coding ninjas about

coding ninjas ad

coding ninjas alternative

coding ninjas android course

coding ninjas android course fees

coding ninjas apk

coding ninjas app

coding ninjas aptitude

coding ninjas aptitude questions

coding ninjas assignment solutions

coding ninjas bag

coding ninjas ballymena

coding ninjas barrie

coding ninjas batch timings

coding ninjas blog

coding ninjas bootcamp

coding ninjas branches

coding ninjas branches in delhi

coding ninjas broomfield

coding ninjas burlington

coding ninjas c++ quora

coding ninjas career camp

coding ninjas cherry hill

coding ninjas competitive programming course

coding ninjas competitive programming github

coding ninjas competitive programming quora

coding ninjas course duration

coding ninjas crunchbase

coding ninjas data science

coding ninjas data science course review

coding ninjas data structure course

coding ninjas data structures and algorithms

coding ninjas data structures course review

coding ninjas delhi centre

coding ninjas delhi contact number

coding ninjas delhi fees

coding ninjas discount coupons

coding ninjas download

coding ninjas edina

coding ninjas email address

coding ninjas eminence

coding ninjas eminence github

coding ninjas encinitas

coding ninjas established

coding ninjas events

coding ninjas exam

coding ninjas facebook

coding ninjas faq

coding ninjas fees quora

coding ninjas for experienced

coding ninjas founder

coding ninjas free

coding ninjas free account

coding ninjas free course

coding ninjas free videos

coding ninjas full stack developer

coding ninjas funding

coding ninjas gainesville va

coding ninjas germantown

coding ninjas github

coding ninjas glassdoor

coding ninjas glenview

coding ninjas goodies

coding ninjas guelph

coding ninjas gurgaon

coding ninjas hamilton mill

coding ninjas helpline

coding ninjas hours

coding ninjas ide

coding ninjas in chennai

coding ninjas in delhi

coding ninjas in noida

coding ninjas instagram

coding ninjas institute

coding ninjas internship

coding ninjas interview preparation course

coding ninjas interview preparation quora

coding ninjas jaipur

coding ninjas java

coding ninjas java course

coding ninjas java fees

coding ninjas java github

coding ninjas java solutions github

coding ninjas javascript

coding ninjas job portal

coding ninjas katy

coding ninjas kohat enclave

coding ninjas kohat enclave delhi

coding ninjas leawood

coding ninjas lectures download

coding ninjas libertyville

coding ninjas linkedin

coding ninjas locations

coding ninjas logo

coding ninjas logo png

coding ninjas london

coding ninjas lucknow

coding ninjas machine learning course

coding ninjas machine learning course review

coding ninjas machine learning github

coding ninjas machine learning quora

coding ninjas marketing head

coding ninjas meaning

coding ninjas mentor

coding ninjas ml

coding ninjas my classroom

coding ninjas naperville

coding ninjas net worth

coding ninjas nj

coding ninjas node js

coding ninjas noida address

coding ninjas norwood

coding ninjas notes

coding ninjas number

coding ninjas office

coding ninjas offline

coding ninjas offline course

coding ninjas online

coding ninjas online c++ course

coding ninjas online compiler

coding ninjas or coding blocks

coding ninjas pay after placement

coding ninjas sign in

coding ninjas sign up

coding ninjas solutions

coding ninjas solutions github

coding ninjas sponsorship

coding ninjas stickers

coding ninjas success stories

coding ninjas t shirt

coding ninjas ta

coding ninjas team

coding ninjas test

coding ninjas toll free number

coding ninjas turnover

coding ninjas tustin

coding ninjas uk

coding ninjas usa

coding ninjas vacancies

coding ninjas video download

coding ninjas videos

coding ninjas vs coursera

coding ninjas vs geeksforgeeks

coding ninjas vs toptal

coding ninjas vs udemy

coding ninjas wake forest

coding ninjas waterloo

coding ninjas web development course

coding ninjas web development course review

coding ninjas whatsapp group

coding ninjas wikipedia

coding ninjas windsor

coding ninjas winnipeg

coding ninjas winter of code

coding ninjas youtube

coding ninjas.in

how good is coding ninjas

how is coding ninjas

how is coding ninjas online course

how is coding ninjas quora

how much is coding ninjas

how to coding ninjas

how to download coding ninjas videos for free

how to get coding ninjas course for free

is coding ninjas career camp good

is coding ninjas free

is coding ninjas good

is coding ninjas worth it

ninja coding yardley pa

tcs coding ninja questions

what is coding ninjas

cab in supreme court

cab is right or wrong

cab issue

cab issue in delhi

cab jamia

cab jamia news

cab jamia protest

cab jamini noida

cab journey

cab judgement

cab ka full form

with cab facility

with cab meaning

without cab

without cab registration

torrent

torrent utorrent

torrent u

torrent kickass

torrent bit

torrentz2

torrent freak

torrentfreak

torrent downloader

torrent search

torrent engine search

torrent z2 eu

torrent client

torrent bit download

torrent reddit

torrent leech

torrent vpn

torrent meaning

torrent download free

torrent tracker

torrent free download

torrent for windows 10

torrent file

torrent software

torrent app

utorrent 2.2.1

torrent stream

torrent client for mac

torrent download online

torrent online downloader

torrent for ubuntu

torrent ubuntu

torrent browser

torrent software download

torrent for android

torrent download software

torrent safe

torrent bay

torrent pharma

torrent client for windows

torrent hounds

torrent ios

torrent apk

torrent on ipad

torrent unblock

torrent for linux

torrentcouch

torrent news

torrent reactor

torrent download for windows

torrent power

torrentpower

torrent file download

torrent butler

torrent online

torrent engine

torrentz4

torrent web

torrent 411

torrent invites

torrent is not downloading

torrent not downloading

torrent app download

torrentpk

torrent open source

torrent2z

torrent downloader for ios

torrent alternatives

torrent app for ios

torrent application

torrent client download

torrentvilla

torrent ez

torrent youtube

torrent pharma share price

torrent client for ubuntu

torrentz2 apk

torrent and vpn

torrent video player

torrent vs usenet

torrent online stream

torrent tamil movies

how torrent works

torrent client for ios

torrent kim

torrentrover

torrent upload

torrent windows

torrent download apk

torrent install

are torrent illegal

torrent company

torrent is not valid bencoding

torrent leecher

torrent reader

torrent to idm

torrent xbox one games

torrent downloader for pc

torrent linux

torrent search engine apk

torrent web client

torrent y

torrent apk pro

torrent extension

torrent group

torrent pro apk

torrent movies.com free download

torrentmove

torrent youtube downloader

torrent pharmaceuticals ltd

torrent india

torrent 3d models

torrent 64 bits

torrent not working

torrent remote

torrent wikipedia

torrent proxy server

torrent movie download app

torrent qnap

torrent virus

torrent 500 days of summer

torrent exe

torrent extra

torrent hub

torrent to google drive

torrentvilla apk

torrent rt free

torrent web for mac

torrent app download for android

torrent blocked by isp

torrent websites for software

torrent app for pc

torrent tablet

torrent to direct link

torrent 500 parts washer

torrent 500

torrent with vpn reddit

torrent movies apk

torrent 64 bit download

torrent bypass

torrent games ps2

torrent jio

torrent logo

torrent power ltd

torrent power share

torrent relay

torrent vs streaming

torrentvilla apk download

torrentyeah

torrentz2 unblock

torrentz2k

torrent search engine app for pc

torrent jeans

torrent movie download sites in india

torrent search engine veoble

torrent unblock proxy

torrent warning letter

torrentcounter proxy

torrent movie download for pc

torrent downloaded from http //www.demonoid.com

torrent bill payment

torrent video player apk

torrent app apk

are torrent downloads illegal

are torrent sites safe

how torrent download

is torrent illegal in canada

is torrent safe to use

torrent 12 years a slave

torrent 1339

torrent 2.0 download

torrent 2.2

torrent 3.5.3

torrent 3.5.5

torrent 365

torrent 377x

torrent 40

torrent 400

torrent 4k video downloader

torrent 500 for sale

torrent 500 price

torrent 6

torrent 64 bit for windows 10

torrent 64 bit mac

torrent 9 apk

torrent 9 site

torrent 90 day fiance

torrent and tor

torrent bill

torrent cables

torrent electricity

torrent exhibition pvt ltd

torrent gas

torrent gas private limited

torrent gujarat biotech ltd

torrent hindi meaning

torrent illegal in india

torrent incoming port

torrent jail

torrent jeans price

torrent latest version

torrent like software

torrent link converter

torrent login

torrent meaning in hindi

torrent movie download in mobile

torrent near me

torrent new version

torrent nikka zaildar 3

torrent number

torrent old version

torrent owner

torrent power ltd agra

torrent qbit

torrent quality guide

torrent quebecois

torrent queued

torrent quick pay

torrent quora

torrent research centre

torrent research centre ahmedabad

torrent ringtone

torrent share price

torrent tablet uses

torrent to drive

torrent torrentz2

torrent university

torrent uri

torrent use in india

torrent veloz d

torrent vpn apk

torrent vs iso

torrent without install

torrent working in india

torrent xcode

torrent xp

torrent young scholar award

torrent ytd

torrent ytd pro

torrent z3

torrent z4

torrent zip file download

torrenthandler

torrentvilla lite

torrentz2 download for windows 7

torrentz2 proxy list

what torrent client

what torrent site to use

which torrent app is best for android

which torrent is better

why torrent download is slow

why torrent is banned

why torrent is not working

why torrent sites are blocked

why torrent sites are not working

are torrent clients safe

[skammovistarplus]

Culture and Translation - S01E08

If you read all of this, congratulations. I think this is by far the longest culture and translation post I’ve done yet.

CLIP 1: Hit Me With Your Best Shot / One Way or Another

I didn’t get to this part last episode, but as some people have mentioned, Nora lives with her parents. Spanish grammar has a feature called “masculine generics.” I’ll quote Wikipedia: “Grammatical gender in Spanish refers to how Spanish nouns are categorized as either masculine (often ending in -o) or feminine (often ending in -a). As in other Romance languages—such as Portuguese, to which Spanish is very similar—a group of both males and females, or someone of unknown gender, is usually referred to by the masculine form of a nouns and or pronoun.” Because of this, we can infer that one of Nora’s parents is a man, but we don’t know whether the other parent is a man or a woman. Twitter likes the idea of making the Eskild expy her parent, and Linn his husband, but I don’t think it’s caught on in here.

Buah, ¿sabéis quién triunfó también en la fiesta? (“Hey, you know who also triumphed at the party?”): I have never seen “to triumph” being used this way in English, but that is the verb Amira uses and I really wanted to keep the idea of hooking up with people as a victory, something you win at.

Es que me parece súper fuerte, ¿no? (“I just think it’s too much, no?): “Fuerte” (literally “strong”) is Spanish slang for something that crosses a line or is “extra” in some way.

Hombre, pues no sé cómo lo veréis (“Man, I don’t know about you”): What Viri says would be literally translated as, “Man, I don’t know how you’re going to see it.”

Ya, y a ésta le van a llegar los cuernos hasta el techo del gimnasio (“Yeah, and the side girls are going to reach the gym ceiling all standing on top of each other”): Okay, so here is a line where I took liberties in order to get the most out of the line and the visual. In Spanish, when someone cheats on their significant other, we say that the person being cheated on has “cuernos” (horns) or is a “cornudo” (horned). So, Cris says that Cristian is cheating on Lara so often and so much that her horns are going to grow as high as to reach the gym ceiling. In English, the closest translation is “cuckold,” which comes from the Old French word for the cuckoo bird. Since I couldn’t work with the actual translation, I reworked the line to say that the side girls could reach the gym ceiling if they stood on top of each other. Sort of like that factoid that says if we stacked every human up on one another, we’d be 1/4th of the way to Venus.

I think Nora means that it’s better if she doesn’t flash a UV light over her room, but it’s not clear in Spanish either.

I really can’t remember whether we ever played dodgeball in high school P.E., but the whole premise just sounds like a pair of broken glasses waiting to happen.

CLIP 2: Skam España didn’t come to play

Fun fact: like Lucas, I hadn’t had anything to eat all day when this clip dropped, and a kebab sounded amazing, lol. Another fun fact! When I realized what Lucas was doing, I had to stop the clip and take like 5 minutes to regroup, I was that shook.  I was really late recapping this clip on Twitter because I couldn’t deal with the enormity of it all.

Mis padres se pelean como cada mes, mes y medio (“My parents fight every four to six weeks”): Lucas says, “every month, month and a half.” “4 to 6 weeks” was shorter and, I felt, closer to the way English speakers talk about time. But really, Skam España is basically hell to sub because they talk quicker than any other Skam, including the French. If a sentence can be made shorter, but still keep the exact same meaning, we as a team feel blessed, lol.

Just in case it wasn’t immediately obvious, they literally just bought the kebabs and Eva didn’t spend the whole morning fixing them. And, also, that Lucas comes out to Eva over kebabs is an intentional homage to the og. In fact, in Spain, we eat kebabs like sandwiches, we don’t pick at them with forks/tongs, so Lucas and Eva are eating them like Jonas and Isak did.

I thought this would be as good a place as any to link to the Wikipedia article on LGBT rights in Spain. I’ll quote from the article: “Spain has been recognised as one of the most culturally liberal and LGBT-friendly countries in the world and LGBT culture has had a significant role in Spanish literature, music, cinema and other forms of entertainment as well as social issues and politics. Public opinion on homosexuality is noted by pollsters as being overwhelmingly positive, with a recent study conducted by Pew Research Center in 2013 indicating that more than 88 percent of Spanish citizens accept homosexuality, making it the most LGBT-friendly of the 39 countries Pew polled. LGBT visibility has also increased in several layers of society such as the Guardia Civil, army, judicial, and clergy. However, in other areas such as sports, the LGBT community remains marginalised. Spanish film directors such as Pedro Almodóvar have increased awareness regarding LGBT tolerance in Spain among international audiences. In 2007, Madrid hosted the annual Europride celebration and hosted World Pride in 2017. The cities of Madrid and Barcelona also have a reputation as two of the most LGBT-friendly cities in the world. Gran Canaria is also known worldwide as an LGBT tourist destination.” 

CLIP 3: Making his way downtown

Tampoco es para tanto (“it’s not that serious”): Another translation would be, “it’s not as bad as all that.” I think the line I went with was clearer and more specific.

Yo creo que ha mejorado (“I think it looks better”): Eva says, “I think it’s gotten better,” but I reworked it. Lol sometimes I wonder if people read these and wonder why I just do whatever the fuck I like, but I promise I try to stick to what sounds more natural to me in English.

Te está durando mucho (“It’s taking too long to heal”): Cris actually says that the cold sore is lasting too long (presumably lasting too long on Viri’s face, lol).

Okay, so my experience with Spanish guys is that they initiate cunnilingus on their own and without prodding (i.e. will eat girls out), in the hopes that the woman will return the favor. I have surveyed my friends and they have reported similar experiences. Girls have said that guys have never not gone down on them, and guys have reported having no issues doing it. Og Skam actually backs me up, as Chris says that a guy did it to her, once, in Gran Canaria. So, while the girls are pleased for Viri that Alejandro went down on her, they’re not about to give him the King of the School slo-mo treatment Jonas received for doing the same. (I do have to note that the girls were impressed that Jonas not only went down on an older girl, but that he actually got her to come with oral only.) Given what we later learn about Viri and Alejandro’s encounter, I’d bet money on Alejandro hoping Viri would take the hint and suck him off in return, but since she doesn’t mention doing so, I think she just didn’t.

I think Viri did allow Alejandro to go down on her when his cold sore was already visible, and I’m legit appalled, tbh.

I learned of the Callao youth center through Skam España, because I’ve never needed to go. That said, it is a real youth center and they were pleased and touched about being featured on the show. Honestly, if even one teenager in need learned of their services through the show, I’ll consider Skam España a resounding success.

I love that Amira has seemingly gone with Cris to that youth center sometime before the show. Tangent, but I love the way the Amira/Cris friendship (and relationship, if you wanted to read into them that way) has been developed through the season. I remember having discussions early in the season about why Cris would join the losers, when Viri referred to her as “that pretty girl over there” and Cris was surrounded by a group of people when she was first introduced. In my opinion, Amira and Cris are best friends, and before the girl squad, everyone else was just along for the ride. But I’m looking forward to what we could learn about Amira and Cris’ friendship (and relationship) in further seasons.

CLIP 4: 8 Simple Rules for Dating my Spanish Daughter

Dating in Spain! The concept of “a date” exists in Spain, it’s called “una cita.” But we rarely, if ever, use this word. In fact, I don’t think it’s been used at all through the season. What we do is “quedar,” i.e. arrange to meet at a specific place and time. But it’s important to note that you can “quedar” with your friends, a hookup or a boyfriend/girlfriend. Since this arrangement isn’t exclusive to romantic relationships, I’ve translated it as “hanging out.” Again, the word “cita” (date) exists in Spanish, so if it’s ever used, I want to make sure it has the proper impact for the audience. Other dating vocab:

“Salir juntos” (to go out together): If two people “salen juntos,” they’re a couple.

“Salir conmigo” (to go out with me): If you ask someone to “sal conmigo,” you’re asking them to hang out as a couple.

“¿Quieres ser mi novio/novia?” (Do you want to be my boyfriend/girlfriend?): This is how you’d make a relationship official, beyond just arranging to hook up.

Pillado (“hung up on her”): Lit. “caught.”

Cris says “bye!” in English. Jorge then says, “Really?”

Y parecía tonto (“And he seemed dumb”): This is a truncated, common Spanish idiom. The full idiom is, “y parecía tonto cuando lo compramos” (and he seemed dumb when we bought him). It is used when a person who is frequently timid or a wallflower does something assertive or takes charge.

Pero que andar quedando es de novios (“but that to have standing dates is a couple thing”): As I mentioned earlier, we don’t use the word “cita” all that often, and, as Hugo tells it, Cris didn’t use it to turn him down. Here’s what Cris meant: Cris thinks she and Hugo had a good time at Nora’s party, but she doesn’t want to make a thing out of it. She doesn’t want to hang out one-on-one. That includes hanging out together at each other’s houses, like Eva and Jorge sometimes do, or go do something together, like going to the movies or to get something to eat.

A veces Cris se pasa un poco de directa (“sometimes Cris is a bit savage”): I reworked this because “directa” means “straight-forward,” but “se pasa” is slangy. “Se pasa” would mean “to go too far,” so a literal translation would be, “sometimes Cris goes a little too far with the straight-forwardness.”

A mí me parece guay que haya ido con la verdad por delante (“I think it’s cool she was straight up”): Okay, so the literal translation is, “I think it’s cool she was honest upfront.” But…  It’s Jorge. He’s the Jonas expy. And I just could not and didn’t want not to use “straight up,” i.e. Jonas’ catchphrase.

El sábado ¡a las nueve, tío! (“Saturday… at 9pm, dude!”): This is another underrated moment. I don’t know if people remember, but Jorge’s excuse for not attending Nora’s party was that he was playing football at 9pm on a Saturday. Here he actually gets a text to play a game at 9pm on a Saturday, and he’s like, “who the fuck are these people?”

As I explained on Twitter at the time, Jorge mimics calling the cops over Eva being hungry. The joke is that Jorge would consider it an emergency that necessitates police involvement. This is a really common (and corny, natch) joke in Spain. We’re very dramatic, so obviously any situation, no matter how mundane, is on the verge of needing police intervention.

We all know that when Jorge asked Eva what she wanted to eat, her answer was pizza. Right? Just checking we’re all on the same page.

CLIP 5:  Vaginas and languages

Note about the message in Arabic: I was the one who originated the translation, after I asked a Middle Eastern friend if she could translate it for me. She translated the note as saying, “Equality between women and men – Rashid Alfadhili.” I thought it might be a direct quote from a writer or an activist, but if you search for the name online, all the references are to my Twitter. So, who is the mysterious Rashid Alfadhili?

The obgyn is singing Havana D’Primera’s Me dicen Cuba. The actor is indeed Cuban, and the character speaks in a noticeable Cuban accent.

If you have further questions about The Herpes Thing, I reblogged a post by @niteskycs and added my own commentary, including quotes from this scene.

There’s one more thing I want to mention wrt candidiasis/thrush/yeast infection. Candidiasis is an opportunistic infection and so, it’s an infection that takes advantage of an opportunity not normally available, such as a host with a weakened immune system. Because of this, and before antiretroviral drugs, people with AIDS often suffered from candidiasis and could die from it. Thus, it is notable that the obgyn thinks Viri may have candidiasis (which, again, gets ruled out). It makes it really obvious that he suspects Viri’s actual problem might be that she has a weakened immune system.

If you have further questions or commentary about this scene, feel free to hit up my inbox, reblog, reply, etc.

The positions of the girls behind Viri are a reference to og Skam.

CLIP 6: It always comes back to dicks

Cris is playing a game which consists of pulling the tab on a can back and forth as she recites the alphabet, until the tab breaks apart. The letter that she was saying out loud when the tab broke apart is the initial of her crush/loved one/person she’s fated to be with. Which in this case is H!

Alguien que haga que, sabes, te entre aquí una cosilla en el estómago (“someone who makes it so… you know, that makes you feel butterflies in your stomach”): The literal translation is, “someone who, you know, makes you feel a little thing in your stomach,” but Eva is referring to the “butterflies in your stomach” metaphor. The metaphor exists in Spanish as well (that’s what Bely Basarte’s Mariposas is about), but I think it’s been adopted after the English idiom became well-known in Spanish.

Un gilipollas integral (“an unadulterated asshole”): Viri says “integral,” which is a word we’d normally use to refer, like, to whole-grain bread or rice. While I think Viri calling Alejandro a “whole-grain asshole” would’ve been hilarious, I thought “unadulterated” would also be just as funny. As in, Alejandro’s assholishness has not been contaminated with any niceness. He’s 100% pure asshole.

Unos colegas y yo hemos alquilado un local (“Some buddies and I have rented a place”): This is a very Spanish way of putting things, I think. “Un local” is basically any business premises or shop unit (such as, for instance, at a mall). It can be as sparse as four walls and a water outlet, or a fully furnished club, or even factory premises on the outskirts of a city. Alejandro wasn’t very forthcoming with details, so I wasn’t sure what to expect from the “local” when this clip dropped. But, we’ve since come to learn that, in the universe of Skam España, there’s a Kose Club, which can be rented for private parties. And this is the place Alejandro and his buddies rented.

Capullo (“Prick”): “Capullo” is yet another word for penis. Its non-penis meaning is “flower bud” and, when talking about dicks, makes reference to the head of the penis. “Capullo,” in the dick sense, is pejorative.

CLIP 7: Doing recon

I’m assuming that, for this specific party, Alejandro and his buddies hired people who would serve alcohol to minors. Or just had some friends play the part of bartenders unofficially. Because this is some illegal ass shit.

De puta madre / De fruta madre (“That’s fucking great” / “That’s ducking great”): It looks as if Amira has renounced swearing, as well. I seem to recall that Sana Bakkoush would swear, but I can’t think of any example off the top of my head. Anyway, Amira accidentally swears when she compliments Cris’ pumpkin accessory. The girls call her on it, and she says a clean version. I’ve seen it subbed as “fruiting great,” which is the literal translation (“fruta” is fruit), but I looked into the ways Americans censor their speech, and went with “ducking,” myself.

Either way, I was really proud of myself when this clip dropped. There were several instances where I could’ve gone for a swear word while subbing Amira, but I had the feeling the character was intentionally keeping it clean. It felt great to have that feeling confirmed within the show.

Edward Scissorhands is really iconic, but Sweeney Todd came out in 2007. And, you know, it’s Tim Burton, not Benh Zeitlin. Hardly an obscure director. I guess Johnny Depp as Ichabod Crane wasn’t specific enough?

Is one of the second years dressed as Inu Yasha, or is it just me?

Que son súper chungas (“those girls are bad news”): I’d say “chunga” is most closely translated as being “ghetto.” These girls are bad news, girls you don’t want to fuck with, because they will fuck back with you ten times as hard. You know how in 90s sitcoms there are always older girls hanging in the school bathrooms teaching the underclasswomen to smoke? A girl who is “chunga” is that older girl.

Putivuelta (“slut round”): I’m pretty sure the concept doesn’t exist in English and, if it does, I haven’t come across it yet. When you arrive at a club, you and your friends check out the whole place, scoping out hot singles. As far as I’m aware, “putivueltas” are only ever performed by women and queer men, and the targets can be of any gender. I’m sure straight dudes have a name for what is essentially scoping out the place for chicks to hit on, but straight Spanish men, at least, do not call it “putivueltas.”

Uh, what is that awkward Hugo and Amira’s conversation about? Amira lets Hugo know that Cris is scoping out the place for singles, so she’s both letting him know Cris will be back and that Cris has moved on from Hugo onto newer pursuits. And then there’s a medium close up on Amira’s expression, and she looks Over It. Is Amira jealous of Cris because she wants Hugo? Or jealous of Hugo because she wants to be able to pine for Cris openly??????? (By the way, I assume saying “slut round” doesn’t count as swearing, Amira?)

The song in this clip is Brisa Fenoy’s Free. Brisa Fenoy also wrote Lo Malo, which the characters make references to and eventually shows up later in the season. Here’s Free, in English:

Baby, I am free I am free

Baby, I am free I’m ready for me I go out in what I want to go out I’m better without you I like everything

Without additives Without artificial flavoring, without lies Without regrets Without giving everything and lose it afterwards Without baggage to travel lighter

Without terms that put a brake in my progress Without modifying us with so much augmentation Let’s be flesh and bone people With a lot of virtues and few flaws

Let’s get together already Through transformation we have to demolish What we were will last me the day before The future is today, what are you going to be?

Baby, I am free I’m ready for me I go out in what I want to go out I’m better without you I like everything

Without tricks like those that hurt us Without losing those pounds that fool us My body is mine, and if I want I eat what I like, I’m the one in charge

We’re what we do to change what we are No more sexism, together with each other We’re not sex symbols, there’s a bit of everything here Let’s be so authentic that they can’t prevail over us

Respect and freedom We have to demand it Let’s be a unit They won’t be able to create us Respect and freedom We have to demand it Let’s be a unit They won’t be able to shut us up

Baby, I am free I’m ready for me I go out in what I want to go out I’m better without you I like everything about me

Respect and freedom We have to demand it They won’t be able to shut us up

Here and now let’s all shout Baby I am free

CLIP 8: Moments before tragedy strikes

Si nos hubieran cobrado la entrada, se hubieran sacado un pastizal (“if they charged for admission, they’d have made out like bandits”):  The literal translation would be, “If they’d charged us for admission, they’d have made a pasture.” Much like in English, you can say “dough” to refer to money, in Spain you can say “pasta” to do the same. A “pastizal” is a word with its own meaning (“pasture”), but it sounds like it could be large amounts of “pasta.”

Satanasa (“Lady Satan”): What Amira says can be literally translated as “Lady Satan.” I’ve never it before, but I think she’s going for a Halloween version of “Cheese!” 😂

Se le ha ido la pinza a Lara (“Lara lost her mind”): This idiom, which Jorge used all the way back in episode 1 to say something slipped off his mind, can also mean that Lara just lost her shit entirely!

It’s worth noting that the song playing when Lara slaps Eva, is actually playing in Eva’s mind. As you can see if you check the social media for the episode, Post Malone’s Better Now is still playing when Lara is pulled back from Eva. Here are the lyrics for the song playing in Eva’s mind (Jorge Marazu’s Simulacro), in English:

If this was a drill I bought it to the end It’s not going to be cheap to climb back up I have lost the measure And even though I had a taste I forget it’s a two-way street

The star lights went out Their circuit breaker tripped It hasn’t stopped snowing all day And even though they’re hurt My hopes and dreams I forget it’s a two-way street

The whims that get in the way Of instinct and reason, don’t know a goodbye without pain

Let’s not wait until tomorrow I wish you the best Now we’re getting to the end…

Social media: 

This episode had a lot of references to og Skam. I’ve noted the references in the clips where they happened. There were also references to og Skam on social media though. Most notably, the club where Alejandro hosts the Halloween party is called Kose Club, after Kosegruppe. Die Antwoord’s Baby on Fire, which is the song that plays when Iben’s squad fights the girl squad, is playing on the background of a couple ig stories.

It took me a while to notice that the kitty in the background of Cris’ pics switches from being Viri, to the second year girl Cris hooks up with.

Other:

Halloween has only become a thing in Spain in recent times, and mostly as an excuse for young people to host parties or clubs to host Halloween-themed nights. Kids don’t go trick and treating, although their parents may buy them Halloween-themed candy in grocery stores. As such, I’m not too bothered about Alejandro hosting a Halloween party in Saturday.

That said, if he wanted to host the party on Halloween proper, he could’ve done so. The 1st of November is a national holiday, All Saints’ Day. Traditionally, religious people visit family graves on this day, and leave flowers or candles. Since the 1st of November fell on a Thursday, schools were also out on Friday.  

[maplong]

Igor pavlov

#Igor pavlov update#

#Igor pavlov archive#

#Igor pavlov software#

Founded and developed Quilgo - a platform for online assessments with a million audience.

#Igor pavlov software#

He is ranked on the list of 181 popular Pole Vaulter. I am a full-stack software engineer, primarily focused on JavaScript.

If two unmarried celebrities are seen in public together, they are often described as “dating” which means they were seen in public together, and it is not clear whether they are merely friends, exploring a more intimate relationship, or are romantically involved. Igor Pavlov prefers not to tell the details of marital status & divorce.ĭating is to describe a stage in a person’s life when he or she is actively pursuing romantic relationships with different people. Let’s take a look at Igor Pavlov past relationships, ex-girlfriends and previous hookups. View Igor Pavlov’s profile on LinkedIn, the world’s largest professional community. He is an actor, known for Nevskiy (2015), Kantselyarskaya krysa (2018) and Kantselyarskya krysa.

#Igor pavlov update#

Check back often as we will continue to update this page with new relationship details. Igor Pavlov was born on Februin Former USSR. Igor Pavlov keeps his personal and love life private. Full body measurements, dress & shoe size will be updated soon. We have estimated Igor Pavlovs net worth, money, salary, income, and assets. So, how much is Igor Pavlov worth at the age of 42 years old Igor Pavlov’s income source is mostly from being a successful. Igor Pavlov’s height Unknown & weight Not Available right. His net worth has been growing significantly in 2020-2021. Primary Income source Pole Vaulter (profession). Join Facebook to connect with Igor Pvlov and others you may know. He earned the money being a professional Pole Vaulter. View the profiles of people named Igor Pvlov. In October 2010, Pavlovs was named head coach of Spartak Moscow after Milos Rziga was fired due to a poor start to the season. In 2010-11 season he became assistant coach for Sibir of KHL.

#Igor pavlov archive#

2 7-Zip has its own archive format called 7z, but can read and write several others. It is developed by Igor Pavlov and was first released in 1999. He won the gold medal in the pole vault at the 2009 Maccabiah Games.According to Wikipedia, Forbes, IMDb & Various Online resources, famous Pole Vaulter Igor Pavlov’s net worth is $1-5 Million at the age of 40 years old. Log in or sign up for Facebook to connect with friends, family and people you know. After retiring as player Pavlovs became the coach of Krefeld Pinguine until he left on 29 April 2009, to join Kölner Haie who released him on 2 December 2009. 7-Zip is a free and open-source file archiver, a utility used to place groups of files within compressed containers known as 'archives'. 2 7-Zip uses its own 7z archive format, but can read and write several other archive formats. He finished fourth both at the 2004 Summer Olympics and the 2005 World Championships, the former in a personal best jump of 5.80 metres (19 ft 0 in). Igor Pavlov (programmer) 7-Zip is a free and open-source file archiver, a utility used to place groups of files within compressed containers known as 'archives'. Igor Pavlov.006: bhv: Archivos de datos: Winfunktion Mathematik V8.0 Julia Fractal File: 7-Zip: Igor Pavlov.007: bhv: Archivos de datos: Winfunktion Mathematik V8.0 Julia Fractal File: 7-Zip: Igor Pavlov.008: ESRI (Environmental Systems Research Institute) Archivos GIS: International S-57 Hydrographic Data Electronic Navigation Chart: 7-Zip. He won the silver medal at the 2003 Summer Universiade, and in the following years he became indoor champion on national, European and World level. Igor Vladimirovich Pavlov ( Russian: Игорь Владимирович Павлов, born Jin Moscow) is a Russian pole vaulter.

[manipaluniversityjaipur]

Programming languages most demanded in the IT industry

Computer languages are the basic foundation of the IT industry. It’s indispensable to learn programming languages as the world is unimaginable without coding. Software programmers and data scientists use different programming languages to create innovative applications for various industries, including IoT, education, healthcare, banking and finance, logistics and more.

Since software applications are making every aspect of your life more convenient, programming skills are among the most required and top-paying skills in web design, IT, data analytics, business intelligence, cybersecurity, and AI & ML. While there are numerous programming languages, some languages are trendier than others. These languages are not only preferred by a vast population but are also supported by active communities.

In this article, we’ll list the top programming languages of the future. So, if you’re interested to know which programming language you should select for upgrading your coding skills, stick with us to the end!

The most in-demand programming languages

Python 

When listing out the most in-demand programming languages, Python takes the topmost rank. It is very popular among software developers and data science experts because of its versatility and simplicity. With a convenient learning curve and English-like syntax, it is a beginner-friendly language. It also has excellent library support for a broad range of coding needs. You can use Python to develop network servers, web & desktop applications, GUI-based desktop applications, ML models, and much more. It’s the backbone of top industry giants like Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, etc.

Java

Java is an unmatched option when it comes to server-side application development. It is an object-oriented, class-based programming language employed to create software products, mobile apps, web apps, web servers, games and application servers. Presently, Java is quite popular among big data engineers for developing big data ecosystems. Java libraries such as JSTAT, JavaML, Deeplearning4j, ADAMS, Weka, Mahout and RapidMiner are perfect for ML development. Acclaimed companies like Uber, Google, Netflix, Amazon and Airbnb use Java in their tech stack.

C++

C++ is a cross-platform general-purpose programming language developed as an extension of C. C++ combines imperative, OOP and generic programming languages. This language gives developers a high level of control over memory as well as system resources. Speed and efficiency are the two main core features of C++, which allow developers to design and create high-performance applications. C++ is preferred for developing operating systems, Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs) and embedded systems. It can also help build applications that can conveniently adapt to different platforms.  JavaScript R

R is a dialect of the S programming language. It is an industry approved statistical programming language for analysis. Many reputed software companies exploring data need R experts for various roles like R&D engineer, data analyst and data scientist. R is essential for social media analysis as it can pull out valuable data from Facebook, Twitter and other social media websites.

HTML & CSS

Many reputable firms still look for the basics! It’s the topmost requirement for software companies for the job role of front-end developer, web designer and full-stack developer. This markup language, along with CSS and Javascript is mainly used for creating web applications and web pages.

PHP PHP is the language that is used for server-side web development when your website repeatedly requests information from a server. Being an old language, PHP has a large ecosystem of users who have produced libraries, frameworks and various automation tools to make it more convenient to use. PHP code is also very easy to debug. PHP is used for coding content-oriented websites like Facebook, Wikipedia and WordPress.

Computer languages are the basic foundation of the IT industry. It’s indispensable to learn programming languages as the world is unimaginable without coding. Software programmers and data scientists use different programming languages to create innovative applications for various industries, including IoT, education, healthcare, banking and finance, logistics and more.

Since software applications are making every aspect of your life more convenient, programming skills are among the most required and top-paying skills in web design, IT, data analytics, business intelligence, cybersecurity, and AI & ML. While there are numerous programming languages, some languages are trendier than others. These languages are not only preferred by a vast population but are also supported by active communities.

In this article, we’ll list the top programming languages of the future. So, if you’re interested to know which programming language you should select for upgrading your coding skills, stick with us to the end!

The most in-demand programming languages

Python

When listing out the most in-demand programming languages, Python takes the topmost rank. It is very popular among software developers and data science experts because of its versatility and simplicity. With a convenient learning curve and English-like syntax, it is a beginner-friendly language. It also has excellent library support for a broad range of coding needs. You can use Python to develop network servers, web & desktop applications, GUI-based desktop applications, ML models, and much more. It’s the backbone of top industry giants like Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, etc.

Java

Java is an unmatched option when it comes to server-side application development. It is an object-oriented, class-based programming language employed to create software products, mobile apps, web apps, web servers, games and application servers. Presently, Java is quite popular among big data engineers for developing big data ecosystems. Java libraries such as JSTAT, JavaML, Deeplearning4j, ADAMS, Weka, Mahout and RapidMiner are perfect for ML development. Acclaimed companies like Uber, Google, Netflix, Amazon and Airbnb use Java in their tech stack.

C++

C++ is a cross-platform general-purpose programming language developed as an extension of C. C++ combines imperative, OOP and generic programming languages. This language gives developers a high level of control over memory as well as system resources. Speed and efficiency are the two main core features of C++, which allow developers to design and create high-performance applications. C++ is preferred for developing operating systems, Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs) and embedded systems. It can also help build applications that can conveniently adapt to different platforms. 

JavaScript is a high-level web scripting language. This multi-paradigm language supports imperative and declarative object-oriented programming styles. It includes application programming interfaces for dates, standard data structures and regular expressions. It is one of the three significant core technologies (alongside CSS and HTML) that powers the World Wide Web. It syncs efficiently with Java and is very convenient to implement due to its HTML integration. JavaScript has numerous libraries for developing ML models like TensorFlow.js, Machinelearn.js, Brain.js, ConvNetJS, Synaptic and Neuro.js.

Some other programming languages 

The following programming languages are not as popular as the ones listed above, but they can also be considered if you’re looking to expand your coding skills.

Dart is used for programming applications that run on multiple platforms, like Windows and iOS.

Kotlin is mainly used to develop applications for the Android Operating Systems.

MATLAB is a registered language developed by MathWorks and employed for scientific research as well as numerical computing.

Perl was initially used for programming text. It is easy to learn and a popular choice for creating a proof of concept.

Rust accentuates high performance and security. It is useful for software applications where multiple things are happening simultaneously.

Scala is compatible with Java and is quite useful for cloud-based apps.

Which language should you learn?

Some software programmers are able to make a bright career out of being an expert in only one language, but many programmers prefer to learn new languages frequently. These days, it’s quite common for a professional software programmer to be an expert in three or more different languages.

While there are no particular rules for what programming language is preferred to write what software, here are a few important trends that can give you some guidance:

Web-based start-ups usually prefer programming in Python and JavaScript

Well-established companies tend to build their internal software applications with C# or Java and their web apps make use of PHP

Data analytics programmes use the R and MATLAB programming languages

Embedded devices in the automotive and healthcare industries use software written in C, C++ and Rust

Cloud applications are coded in Go or Scala

Many mobile applications are written in Swift or Kotlin

After knowing about the top programming languages in the industries, now you can easily upgrade your skills to include at least one or preferably more of these high paying programming languages with your online degree programme at Manipal University Jaipur, a UGC recognised and NAAC A+ accredited institute. This next generation online learning platform can help you develop expertise and fluency in the above-mentioned best programming languages that align with your skills and interests. You can explore world-class certification courses from international universities with engaging content, flexible learning, industry exposure and projects in virtual labs. You can also get career counselling and complete support for online BCA courses and online MCA courses from experienced professionals, instructors and alumni.

[attoinfotech123]

Global Websites Using PHP the Most in 2022

As the technical world is entering the phase of metaverse, many elite organizations are thus using very intimidating large-scaled tech stacks as their back-end, where on the other hand thousands of organizations are using PHP for their big employed and successful projects on hand. According to the Hire Php Developer India, in the Fortune 500 tech startups, there are names of big giant companies in the market having a solid decades of experience such as slack, etsy etc. to be a part of using PHP in their back-end. The Hire Php Web Developer India states that many companies across the globe use Php in their very end-to end computing infrastructure as well, whether either they are using Php to run one of the world’s largest ride-sharing databases in stock or in the field of slack deploying, PHP is known for serving the majority of the server side application logic in the world, providing world-class support gain by building small-yet large mobile and web product network.

The Hire Php Web Developer India, giving a small insight about the birth of PHP, starting out as a small open-source project in the year 1994, where Rasmus Lerdorf indeed unleashed PHP as a main intuitive server-side scripting language. A short rundown of PHP are as follows:

● The acronym of PHP stands for Hypertext Processor

● PHP is widely used in the small and in the large industrial application segment, which mainly exists as an open-source scripting language.

● The PHP scripts are thoroughly executed and are then directly combined on the server end.

● PHP compilers thus have extensions which are free to download and can be used

Thus, the top 3 giant companies using PHP in 2022 are as follows:

● Facebook: Facebook is known to be one of the most notorious and happening social media web applications in the market with a successful user base of more than 1.49 billion active users in today’s date, where Facebook was mainly developed with using PHP as it’s base. Facebook has taken full advantage of PHP’s capabilities to generate a sheer dynamic content in just seconds since it’s birth in 2004. According to its conception, the entire core of Facebook application code was both written by Moskowitz and Mark Zuckerberg, which led to a sheer domino effect with now Facebook standing to be as a large pool where PHP is still used at it’s backend. Facebook introduced HipHop for PHP in the year 2010, where a transpiler and a compiler that mainly translates the source code into the source code of another language was used. Eventually it was discontinued and was replaced by HipHop Virtual Machine.

● Wikipedia: Wikipedia is known to be one of the most visited public informational websites which uses PHP as their programming language along with the use of MySQL/Maria DB being in their database backend. Compared with Facebook, in the year 2014, Wikipedia switched to HHVM and then loaded the page data nearly twice as fast.

● Tumblr: Tumblr is known to be the birthplace of memes, where the community had over 325 million blogs with 555 million monthly visitors on move. Thus, in 2016, the company transitioned to PHP7, with counting the performance upticks and a new language feature on more to implement and include scalar type hints which do have return type declarations as well.

Address: Jasmine Apartment, 303, Dada Saheb Phalke Marg, Dadar East, Mumbai, Maharashtra 400014

Contact: 9820759345