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taexual · 5 years

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HOLIC - 44 | jb x reader

pairing: Im Jaebum x Reader

genre: enemies to lovers au | roommate au

warnings: it’s just raw angst

words: 7.2k

disclaimer: i do not own the gif, please let me know if it belongs to you, so i can give proper credit

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It only took you a few days to finish editing all of the pictures you’d taken of Jaebum that night. You ran them by him first – and smacked him when he tried to make you swear he’d always be your only model – and then emailed them to his agency. You still needed their approval so, even though Jaebum had insisted you take these pictures, it was possible that his employers were going to end up hiring someone else, after all.

Except, as you learned on your way to work that Friday, they didn’t. As it turned out, the only problem Jaebum’s producer had with the pictures you’ve taken was that he couldn’t choose one. It felt like the biggest compliment you’ve ever been told.

The entire day would have been wonderful – Fridays already carried a certain aura of just being plain great – had it not been for a text Jiho sent you right when you were wrapping up, ready to head home. Apparently, his old friend was holding an exhibition at one of the out-of-town galleries he’d worked with before so you needed to keep your Saturday free.

Grateful that he’d warned you—sort of—in advance this time, you texted back in confirmation and were surprised to learn that Jiho actually expected you to bring your camera to the exhibition. For a moment, you thought he’d found out you’d taken Jaebum up to the balcony and had completely stolen Jiho’s photoshoot spot, so he was now going to get back at you by taking your camera and locking it away or something equally as unrealistic. But then you realized that made no sense – even if he had learned about your impromptu photoshoot, why would he try to get back at you? You’d done nothing wrong. Quite the opposite, actually.

Getting the approval of Jaebum’s agency provided you with a huge boost of confidence that you obviously needed. They liked your pictures so much, they didn’t know which ones to use – that had to mean you were, at least, somewhat better than average at what you did. What was more, that had to mean that, perhaps, you’d been too pessimistic about the number of opportunities you would get to make yourself known. Maybe you wouldn’t have to completely rely on Jiho to get your name out there, after all.

In the time leading up to the exhibition you had to attend with Jiho that Saturday night, you couldn’t get the memory of the photoshoot with Jaebum out of your head. Taking pictures of him had been nothing short of wonderful. You both had fun – although you did nearly freeze your hands off – and just seeing him through the lens of your camera inspired you so much, you had come up with three new ideas for a photoshoot if this one didn’t work out. But it did work out. Not only did you thoroughly enjoy the photoshoot itself, but the end result was also splendid. You couldn’t have been happier.

However, ruining the utter bliss of your routine with Jaebum as the two of you munched on pizza in his bed that Friday night, you got a call from Hyojin who was demanding to see you immediately. Normally, you’d have turned any offer to go out down – there was simply nothing you’d have rather done that what you’d already been doing – but because she was one of your best friends and, frankly, she sounded absolutely terrifying on the phone, you forced yourself out of bed.

“Are you seriously leaving right when Johnny Depp discovers the—”

“Oh, no,” you stopped Jaebum by extending your hand in front of his face. “Just because you’ve seen Sleepy Hollow before doesn’t mean you get to spoil the ending for me. Or watch it without me. Pause it, I won’t be long.”

“That’s not the ending, it’s barely even the middle,” he mumbled, pausing the movie nevertheless. “And are you saying I’m going to have to stare at the ceiling while I wait for you?”

“It’s just fifteen minutes,” you said. “Jacob’s dropping her off in front of our building. There’s no way Hyojin will make him wait for very long.”

“Why is she coming all this way over here, anyway?” he asked, already knowing all about your friends and their boyfriends. “And, at this hour, nonetheless?”

“It’s nine on a Friday night,” you said matter-of-factly. “She was probably out drinking like normal people do. It’s just you and I who get drunk on a Monday night instead.”

Jaebum grinned at the jab. “Fair point. I’ve paused the movie for you – consider that when you’re out and don’t keep me waiting for too long.”

“I will keep your sacrifices in mind,” you leaned over to kiss him and then stumbled out of his bedroom, your jeans still only halfway on.

Hyojin hadn’t been to your neighborhood before and it showed – she had her boyfriend drive around the block three times before she called and got you to come to the building they’d eventually parked outside of. But even despite getting lost, she looked like she thought that coming all the way over here was worth it.

“It’s great to see you,” you told her after the two of you hugged hello. “But, seriously, what’s up? You’ve never driven this far for me before, usually we just—”

“No, I know,” she cut you off, pulling her phone out of her pocket. “But you need to see this. I couldn’t text you the link because, well, yelling at you over text is not the same as yelling at you in real life. So, here. Look.”

She pressed something on her phone and then passed it on to you.

From the looks of it, Hyojin had opened up a tabloid site – with some very bad formatting that warped the text in every second paragraph – but you didn’t get to check what kind of site because your eyes immediately caught Jiho’s name in the headline. And then your name following right after.

“Oh, shit,” you muttered under your breath, reading on.

The article seemed to be a quick recap of the dinner you’d attended with Jiho earlier this week. It was accompanied by some high-quality pictures of the people who were there – and thus, you realized that this wasn’t actually a tabloid site at all, this must have been a blog-like website by one of the dinner guests – but its’ main focus, without a doubt, was the “budding relationship between the most promising young photographer” – Jiho – “and his muse” – you.

“I’m not—this wasn’t supposed to—oh, fuck,” you tossed around helplessly, handing Hyojin her phone back. “How did you even find this?”

“I didn’t. Jacob showed it to me,” she replied, her face executing every sign that she was about to scold you good. “One of his friends from publishing was at that dinner, so he was showing Jacob the pictures and Jake thought he’d recognized you. Turns out, his friend was actually looking forward to meeting you. He’d referred to you as “Jiho’s girlfriend.”

“God, no, it’s not—”

“Yeah, I sure hope it’s not,” Hyojin continued, too fired up to let you finish, “because this implies that you’re still in touch with that asshat and, not just that, but you’re also dating him.”

You momentarily recalled your last conversation with May at Mark’s bar. Evidently, she’d kept quiet about the revelation that your entire future depended on Jiho, so Hyojin was completely in the dark about it all.

“I’m not. I swear, I’m not. I would never! Jaebum—he’s right upstairs, waiting—God, this is messed up,” you brought your hands over your face in an attempt to collect your thoughts so you’d finally form a coherent sentence. “Listen, you can’t tell anyone because I’m not sure if I’m allowed to speak about this – at least not to the press – but—”

“Well, go right ahead,” she urged, “I’m not the press.”

“Yeah, but Jacob is,” you nodded your head towards the car Hyojin had just stepped out of – or, perhaps, sprinted out of would have put it more accurately since she hopped right out, slamming the door shut before you even got a glimpse of her boyfriend.

“He’s not that kind of press,” Hyojin rolled her eyes. “He doesn’t care about some photographer that’s fresh out of the womb. No one does. No offense.”

You didn’t take offense – she was right. As Mark had pointed out in his bar the other day, the only people who cared about photographers were other photographers.

“Right,” you swallowed. “Well, this was Jiho’s idea. He thought I should get some exposure before my exhibition.”

Hyojin frowned. “Why does he get to decide that?”

God, you thought you appreciated May for not telling the rest of your friends about this – she must have thought you should have been the one to do that – but now you wished she had, just like she revealed the truth about who your roommate was. You’d planned to keep Jaebum’s identity a secret but ended up spilling it all to her while wine-drunk and, in turn, May had told the rest of your friends. If she’d done the same thing now, perhaps you wouldn’t have had to face Hyojin’s judgemental eyes.

“Because,” you closed your eyes, “it’s his gallery.”

“What?”

“Yeah,” you groaned, your fingers suddenly very drawn to your scalp and, particularly, ripping your hair out of it. “God, it’s a long story.”

“Honey,” your friend put her hand on your shoulders, a very determined expression on her face, “I’ve got all night.”

Jacob pulled his window down, having overheard her say this. “You really don’t, love. We have a movie to catch in half an hour. Hello, by the way.”

“Hey, Jake,” you gave him an awkward wave which he acknowledged with a nod and then slid his window back up, giving you and Hyojin some privacy – even though he could, clearly, hear everything from inside of the car anyway. “You should go, Jin. I swear nothing’s happening. His gallery reached out to me and offered me… something. It’s not just an exhibition, it’s a whole ton of other stuff, too. It’s a great contract, really. But before I get to lay claim to any of those perks, I have to become more well-known so that my first exhibition isn’t a complete bust. That dinner is a part of a-a PR stunt, you know? Like, we were supposed to appear together as two photographers, having dinner—”

“Is that not what you did?” she asked, interrupting you.

“It is, but—well, they’re calling me his muse,” you replied. “Not his colleague. So, that’s not exactly what was supposed to happen but, I guess, it’s still exposure.”

“Are you going to do something about this, then?” she continued.

“I don’t know what I can—”

“And what does Jaebum think about this wonderful stunt?”

Her questions already made it difficult to catch your breath but this last one seemed to punch you right in the lungs.

“He doesn’t know,” you wheezed out, not raising your eyes from the pavement.

For the second time that night, Hyojin’s jaw opened and froze in that position. “What?”

“N-no, I mean, he knows I’m doing these events for publicity,” you tried to explain, guilt flashing all over your face. “He just doesn’t know—”

“That they’re with Jiho?” she raised her eyebrows in an oddly accusing manner. “Babe, what are you doing?”

“I’m—”

She shook her head, choosing not to listen to another excuse. “You have to tell him.”

“I will!” you said, sounding far too exasperated. You’d already told everyone but Jaebum and the constant promises you made about telling him were starting to weigh down on your consciousness. “He’s just been so happy, getting that contract with an agency, and all. Everything’s going so well, it just doesn’t feel right to piss on his parade. He wanted this for so long.”

That sounded like an excuse and both of you knew it.

“Don’t think you’re doing him a favor by not telling him,” Hyojin reprimanded immediately.

“I know I’m not,” you said. “And I will tell him. Just not right this moment.”

“Well, if he sees the article, it will be too late, won’t it?”

“He won’t see it,” you said and then, after a moment of panic, added a fearful, “will he?”

Hyojin sighed. “Honestly, no, he probably won’t. The only reason Jake even saw that was because of that co-worker who showed it to him. There are probably, like, six people who read that website and I don’t think Jaebum is one of them. I hope that isn’t the kind of publicity Jiho meant.”

“I hope not,” you echoed. “Although it makes sense that no one cares about this. We’re irrelevant.”

“No, he had one thing right – people don’t care about these dinners but they do care about who’s dating whom, even if the people in question aren’t too famous,” she said. “Sex sells—”

Your eyes widened. “Sex?”

“You know what I mean,” she waved your surprise off. “People care about that shit. They want to know who’s sleeping with—”

“It’s just—just a few events,” you cut her off, just the mere mention of anyone assuming you and Jiho were having sex enough to send your stomach into a panicked frenzy. “Any publicity is good publicity, right?”

“Well, Jake would disagree but he’s not trying to become a celebrity. He just writes about them.”

“Right,” you nodded, allowing the looming awkward silence to finally engulf you both.

“Are you sure you’re doing the right thing?” Hyojin asked another uncomfortably long moment later.

“No. I’m not sure about anything,” you replied honestly. “But I want that exhibition and if that’s the only way—”

“You know it’s not,” she disagreed right away. “And, frankly, faking a relationship with someone doesn’t seem worth it.”

You continued to count the tiles on the pavement, feeling – and looking – like a scolded kindergartner. Any other time, you’d have felt like she just didn’t understand your situation. Merely a few days ago, you were convinced you weren’t good enough to find a place to host your exhibition some other way, but now you’d achieved a huge breakthrough with the pictures you’d taken for Jaebum. Now you believed in yourself a little – oh, alright, a lot – more.

“This isn’t long-term,” you decided to say. “It’s just a few weeks tops. That’s two or three more events and I’ve got another one tomorrow night. It’ll all be over before long: I’ll have my exhibition and then I can forget all about Jiho.”

“Hmm,” Hyojin had crossed her arms and was now looking decidedly skeptical. “And, I suppose, you’ll tell Jaebum about this another decade later, yeah? I don’t really understand why you—”

“I’m afraid,” you cut her off. She didn’t seem to understand why you sounded so agitated so, after sighing so deep, your whole chest began to ache, you explained, “I don’t want to lose him. I’ve already fucked up before and it lead to some hefty arguments. But that was before we were together, so they weren’t as significant.”

“When are arguments ever not significant?”

“Fine, they were significant,” you said. “But they never posed a threat to our relationship because there wasn’t one. And now that there is, I’m afraid that if we fight, it will break us up.”

“So, what, you’ll spend the rest of your life walking on your tip-toes, avoiding arguments with him because you’re afraid?” Hyojin asked. The more she talked, the less your words made sense to you. Suddenly, you couldn’t understand why you kept talking at all.

“No,” you said awkwardly. “No, that’s just stupid, I can’t avoid arguments with him for the rest of my life, but it’s so soon. We’ve only been together for, what, a few weeks, a month—”

“When did you move in with him?”

“I-I don’t know, a few months ago,” you blinked, not sure how this question was relevant. “Maybe three, three and a half—”

“Alright, so you’ve been with him for three and a half months, then,” Hyojin concluded.

“No, but we weren’t together before—”

“No,” she declared louder so she could talk over you – just like she seemed to do the whole night tonight. “No, babe. Every argument you’ve had with him since the day you moved in was equally as significant, and yet, not a single one posed any threats to your relationship. Not-a-single-one, you hear me? Because, from what you’ve told me, you and him have gotten pretty intense with each other before and yet, neither of you moved out. Not even when you didn’t think you were going to end up together. You have some real stuff between you, you know what I mean? The kind of stuff that can’t be broken by arguments… but might get irrevocably stained by secrets.”

You didn’t have a response to give her and sighed instead but Hyojin understood everything you couldn’t say just from your breath.

“You don’t want to do this with Jiho, either,” she said gently. “So, don’t put yourself through something you don’t want to do. Do it your way. So what if it takes longer?”

It wasn’t the first time someone had said that to you and it certainly wasn’t the first time that you considered the weight of these words. They were heavy but that was the case with the truth – it weighed you down until you could barely move.

“We said we were going to do this together,” you whispered under your breath, the engine of Jacob’s car nearly drowning your words out. “So, if I don’t do this, I’ll just have to watch him walk away from me.”

“Walk away from—honey, no,” Hyojin sighed, wrapping her arms around you, her sweet perfume so familiar, you almost started to cry. “He wouldn’t.”

“He wouldn’t have a choice,” you insisted. “That’s how life works sometimes. I don’t want it to. I don’t want him to—I just want us to do this together.”

“And you will,” she promised, pulling away slightly so she could look at you. “But maybe at different speeds. But who the hell cares? You were together before fame and you’ll be together after. You’ll wipe your stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame together and then walk into the sunshine, hand-in-hand. Who cares if you’ll host your exhibition a month, or a year after he releases his album?”

You cared, sniffling as you refused to meet her eyes. “A lot can happen in a year.”

“And a lot will,” she nodded. “But you two had already gone through so much, you might as well go through a little bit more.”

“What if that’s where the breaking point is? What if we don’t have a year—”

“Sweetheart,” she stopped you, suddenly grave serious. “What if I reach down inside of you, grab that paranoia of yours, and strangle it so it no longer bothers you, hmm? That would save us all a lot of time.”

You couldn’t control the snicker that passed your lips and got Hyojin to smile as well.

“Go back,” she told you then. “And don’t forget where you’re going, okay?”

Your eyebrows furrowed. “What do you mean? Where am I going?”

Hyojin smile meaningfully. “You’re going home.”

Hyojin’s last words helped you more than you’d realized at first, and you woke up the next morning with a decision – tonight was going to be the last event you’d attend with Jiho. Once it was over, you would sit him down and tell him that you had to find another way because you simply couldn’t approve of this one. He’d have to agree to let you host your exhibition right now and not “when you were more popular.” You’d tell him about the pictures you’d taken of Jaebum and how much his agency liked them if he refused to listen to you.

And then, if he’d agree, you’d go home, talk to Jaebum, host your exhibition, and live happily ever after. And if he wouldn’t, you’d still go home, talk to Jaebum, and find a way to live out your happily ever after without getting your exhibition.

You hoped for the former but, as you applied your make-up for the night, you braced yourself for the latter. You knew that the chances of Jiho agreeing to just cut straight to your exhibition were slim – you and him were only seen together twice; surely, that wasn’t going to be enough in his eyes – but you trusted your ability to sound convincing. He’d insisted the gallery wanted you for your potential, so, maybe he’d fight harder to hold on to you and agree to your terms, after all.

In the end, whatever happened tonight, this was going to be the last time you were out with Jiho for publicity.

You nearly blacked out when, after leaving a note to let Jaebum know you were off to a photography event, you walked out of your building and saw Jiho step out of a limousine. A sleek black limousine – as if you two were headed to your wedding or something.

“W-what is—” you began but didn’t get to finish before Jiho’s bright laughter cut you off.

“I thought we’d arrive in style! What do you think?” he asked. You thought he was a lunatic. “Attract some more attention, hmm? Come on, get inside – got your camera? Good! – there’s champagne.”

You felt like you’d just skipped through, at least, three chapters of your life when you climbed into his limousine. Who were you, exactly, to have this expensive ride with undoubtedly equally as expensive glass of champagne thrust into your hand as soon as you sat down?

It was impossible to understand what was happening – although, from the laid-back way Jiho was acting, you’d have thought he took the limo to go to work and do his grocery shopping, so this wasn’t weird to him in the slightest – and, what’s more, it was impossible to figure out what would happen next.

As it turned out, what happened next was silence. Jiho was texting someone on his phone, so the only sound in the car was the rapid click-clacking of his fingers against his screen and the ever-so-often sip of champagne. You, on the other hand, refused to drink and remained completely quiet and overly alert the entire ride. When thrust into a situation you’ve never experienced before, it was probably best to stay sober and aware of your surroundings.

Once the limousine stopped – tossing your heart from your chest to your heels – about fifty minutes later, Jiho finally put his phone away and turned to look at you.

“Here’s the plan,” he declared in a way that made it seem as though you two were about to rob a bank Bonnie-and-Clyde style. “I didn’t tell you to bring your camera just so people would know you’re a photographer. That will come up anyway. I asked—”

“Will it?” you cut him off reflexively.

“What?”

“Will it come up?” you repeated, deliberately this time. You had decided to tell him you didn’t want to do this – even though he had to know that himself already – and you were going to stick with that decision. “Because, judging from the article written about us after the dinner, I’m not actually a photographer at all. I’m just a girl on your arm.”

Jiho, for some reason, hadn’t expected you to have read the article. Once the initial surprise wore off, however, he looked pleased that you’ve seen it and was almost inclined to ask who’d shown it to you. Clearly, you had your own sources and he was all the more curious to know who they were.

“Right, but that’s where it starts,” he insisted. “Slowly, more and more people will stop focusing on the fact that we’re together and, instead, will start to focus on us as individuals. I mean, come on, there are only so many speculations that can be made about the relationship of two people. Sooner or later, people are bound to get bored.”

“If they’re bored, they’ll ignore me and focus on you,” you said, “and I will still be the girl—”

“Quit thinking I’ll be quiet through it all,” he cut you off, showing you, for the first time since you’ve met him, that he also had the ability to get annoyed. “I’m doing this for you—for the gallery. Obviously, I will do everything in my power to make it clear that we are both photographers. Hence your camera here, tonight. I want you to capture this event from your own point of view. I will use one of your pictures in my review of tonight’s exhibition – with proper credit, of course – and that’s how everything will kick off.”

You bit your lip, looking down. If he’d told you of this plan earlier, perhaps you’d have felt less revolted riding this limousine with him. Still, though – was the expensive car so necessary?

“Fine,” you said, choosing to leave the conversation about how you wanted to finish doing these events until after the night was over. You were sort of an expert at postponing potentially complicated conversations. “Let’s just get this over and done with.”

Jiho smiled in response – the smile, that was most likely fake, looked so real that you started to wonder if he’d been faking this nice exterior the whole night tonight – and, opening the door of the limo with one hand, extended his other one to you.

“What do you want me to—”

Not waiting for you to start questioning his motives again, he took your hand against your wishes, and helped you get out of the car. There were three people taking pictures of the guests arriving at the exhibition and all three of them suddenly had their cameras on you and Jiho, eager to capture you two stepping out of the car, hand-in-hand. It was almost blinding and most surreal.

“Good to see you, Jiho!” one of the photographers hollered, his flash going off every two seconds. You were sure you had your eyes closed in every single picture he took. “Is that the missus?”

You cringed – but hoped it wasn’t too noticeable – and tried to pull your hand out of Jiho’s grip now that you were out of the car, but he didn’t let you.

“Wouldn’t you like to know,” Jiho replied sneakily, shooting a wink in the direction of the camera. “I’m here to have a grand night, admiring the artwork of a dear friend with a dear friend.”

“Is she just a friend, then?” another one asked. You felt yourself clutch the camera in your hands tighter in hopes of drawing more attention to it. “A close friend, perhaps?”

“She’s all of that and a lot more,” Jiho replied and you felt a cold wave wash over your entire body at his words. “And she’s one of the most talented young acts I know. Careful, boys, her pictures tonight might just overshadow yours.”

“We’re looking forward to it, Jiho!” the photographer said as Jiho lead you inside. Your feet were nearly frozen solid. “Have a great night!”

“You, too!” Jiho wished with a gentle wave of his hand and the two of you finally escaped the cameras by entering the building.

As soon as the photographers were behind you, you pulled your hand out of Jiho’s a little more forcibly than you’d intended and gave him a horrified look.

“What the hell are you saying to them?!” you demanded, not even trying to keep your voice down. “You told me you’d leave our relationship up for speculation and then you went ahead and—”

“And what?” he snapped, your sudden outrage frustrating him much more than your persistent doubts in the limo did. “What was it that I said to them that wasn’t precisely that? I’m planting the seeds of doubt—”

“You’re planting rumors!” you disagreed vehemently. “Do you really think they’ll care about my photographs now that you’d made it seem as if we’re together? As if we’re in love?”

“Of course, they will—”

“They couldn’t care less about that shit!” you continued, noticing how each swear word out of your lips made Jiho cringe and look around to see if anyone heard. “All that their cameras focused on was you holding my hand. I’m nothing to them—”

Jiho cut you off by taking a threatening step towards you, his face dangerously close to yours as he whisper-yelled through clenched teeth, “how do you expected to be something when you haven’t done anything? Popularity is earned. I’m earning it for you so show more gratitude and stop making a fucking scene.”

He stepped away a second later and, if you hadn’t been there, listening to him curse and put you down, you probably wouldn’t have believed it. Jiho was a fantastic actor, truly – the way he kept his composure around you all of this time was admirable. But there had to be a reason why you were so adamant to get away from him at all times; clearly, it wasn’t just because you’d misunderstood his intentions the first time you met him. It was also because somewhere deep in your subconscious, you figured he was just playing a role of Jiho, the sweet and eager-to-help photographer, while his real personality was buried deep underneath.

Well, you’d caught glimpses of his real face just now and, when he told you to straighten up and proceeded to wrap one hand around your waist to enter the exhibition hall, smiling as if you hadn’t just argued, you knew that the decision to drop everything, cancel the contract, and find another way to get your name out there was the right one.

“Jiho, I—”

“Shh,” he hushed sharply. “I need you to stay quiet right now. I’m looking for the host, I’m going to introduce you and then off you go, taking your pictures. Got it? I’m not in the mood to talk to you right now.”

“Me neither. I was just—”

His grip on your waist tightened. “What did I just tell you?”

His voice sounded like it came straight from hell and yet, instead of feeling intimidated, you felt incredibly relieved. You weren’t wrong, Jiho may have just been the devil incarnate with some very well-trained – albeit pretend – manners.

You stayed quiet, allowing him to search for the host of the night because you figured that if you had to end the night without a contract – you didn’t think it was possible that Jiho would agree to cut short to your exhibition instead of just dropping you right away – then it’d be great if you would get to meet a few more influential people beforehand. They probably weren’t going to help you out, knowing their relationship with Jiho, but it wouldn’t hurt to have them learn your name.

As soon as you shook the hand of the photographer whose pictures hung on the walls of the hall around you – your face hurt from all the fake smiles already, even though you’d only been here for less than twenty minutes – something happened that made you regret leaving your house tonight even more. You should have bolted in the opposite direction as soon as you saw the limousine approach, really.

“Hello,” an awfully familiar voice sounded next to you. You thought you experienced what falling from the twentieth story of a skyscraper must have felt like when you turned around to meet Jackson’s eyes. “I didn’t expect to see you here.”

“Oh. H-hey,” you choked out, painfully aware of Jiho’s hand still on your waist. “I’m here with—”

“Hello,” Jiho turned around as soon as the host of the exhibition walked away. You may have feared Jaebum meeting Jiho but you couldn’t even begin to imagine what was going to happen when one of Jaebum’s best friends met him instead. “I don’t believe we’ve met. I’m—”

“Could you excuse us for a moment?” Jackson asked, his hand coming to rest on your waist instead.

Taking advantage of Jiho’s confused features, Jackson pulled you away from him and – before you could protest – walked you to the closest bathroom he could find, closing the door behind you.

“I’m sorry for cutting it straight to the chase,” he spoke as calmly as he could given the situation, “but, shit, who the hell is that?”

“T-that’s Jiho. He’s—”

“A scumbag that’s about to get his ass kicked, I hope?” Jackson finished for you. “What are you doing here with him?”

“I’m—God, it’s a long story,” you said, the exhaustion you’ve felt since you signed the contract showing in your voice. “I’ve signed a deal with his gallery, so I have to—”

“Does Jaebum know you’re here?”

“Jackson—”

“Because, I swear to God, I have no idea what you’re doing but I—”

“Jackson!” you said louder, suddenly afraid of the fire behind his eyes. He looked frantic. He looked like he was going to knock Jiho out right after he left the bathroom and his hand was already reaching for the door handle. “Please listen, I’m just—I came to the exhibition. I’ve signed a contract with a gallery Jiho represents and I need some exposure—”

“Some exposure?” he frowned, the look on his face depicting every frustration you were feeling inside. You were afraid to look him in the eyes. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

“It means I can’t host my exhibition while no one knows who I am,” you answered. “I need to—”

“That’s bullshit!” Jackson snapped. “How are you supposed to get exposure without hosting any exhibitions? Did he convince you this was a good idea?”

“No, I don’t think this is a good idea, I—”

Jackson threw his hands in the air, startling you. “Well, then what the fuck are you doing here?!”

“I’m trying to get my name out there!” you replied in agitation. Jackon’s accusing tone and the questions he was firing at you confirmed that your raised voices in this bathroom were going to be nothing in comparison to the storm this would cause with Jaebum. “Fuck! I’m just—I’m trying to get some publicity. That was part of the contract.”

Jackson scoffed. “That guy has you pressed against his side like you’re his trophy wife. I don’t know what kind of publicity you’re seeking but I can assure you, this isn’t it. Jaebum—fuck, is he on board with this?”

You almost flinched when he mentioned Jaebum again.

“Of course he’s not—actually, uh, he doesn’t know the—”

“He doesn’t know?!”

To say that Jackson was appalled would have been an understatement.

“He doesn’t know the details!” you tried to explain, feeling yourself tear up but desperately trying to remain calm – or, well, as calm as you could with Jackson looking at you like you’d just killed your way through the West Coast. “He knows I have to attend these events for a little while, he just—I didn’t tell him about Jiho. The three of us go way back, he hates the guy.”

“Oh,” Jackson said in an uncharacteristically high-pitched voice. It was scary to hear his deep, somber tone take such a sarcastic chirp turn. “So, that makes all of this better!”

“It doesn’t,” you tried. “And I’ll tell him—”

“Like hell, you will.”

“W-what?”

“If you hadn’t told him yet, clearly, you’re not that eager to tell him at all,” he stated.

“No, I want him to know,” you insisted but you weren’t sure if you meant it. Hearing Jackson voice your real intentions was the ultimate turning point and every single ounce of guilt came pouring out of your eyes in tears. You really didn’t want Jaebum to know. “I-I just don’t want to fight with him about this—”

“Then maybe don’t do this!” Jackson continued, still as loud as before but gentler now that you started to cry, “if you’re doing something that’s going to start a fight with your boyfriend when he finds out, then you’re probably stepping out of line in a major way, don’t you think?” he paused as soon as he realized how riled up he was. He brought his hands through his hair to calm himself down. “God, I’m sorry, I can’t—I seriously have a hard time understanding this. W-why did you think this was a good idea? How the hell did you think faking a relationship with someone was going to go under your own boyfriend’s radar?”

You sniffled, trying to focus on your breathing so you wouldn’t sob out loud, “I’m not faking a relationship—”

“Oh, okay, well, don’t worry about that – that guy out there is doing it for you,” Jackson countered.

“No, I—this,” you felt yourself hiccup, “it w-wasn’t supposed to be like this.”

“Fuck, what was it supposed to be like?” Jackson asked. “Because last time I was on the phone with Jaebum, he was in my studio, writing a fucking song about you. I definitely didn’t think I’d hang up the phone, turn around, and see his girl walk right past me with another guy.”

You barely had enough time to process what he had just said when a knock came on the bathroom door.

“Is everything alright?” Jiho’s voice called out. “I hate to bother you but we should probably get back out here. We’re here for your benefit, after all.”

“In a moment!” you replied through a stuffed nose. Jackson sighed, his hands on his hips and his eyes focused on the floor. The fact that he couldn’t even look at you felt like a whole new stab of pain. “Look, this is the last event I’m doing. I’m ending it tonight. If they won’t let me host an exhibition, I’ll find another solution. I won’t do this anymore.”

You wiped the tears from your cheeks and tried to steady your breathing.

“How many events like this have you done already?” Jackson asked another moment later. He may have been angry with you but he hated to have been the reason why you started to cry.

“Just a few, it hasn’t been that long—”

“And how long were you planning on doing this for?”

“N-not long,” you said, your breath hitching again. You exhaled slowly before finishing, “ideally, I want to end this tonight.”

“But you’ll still work with him – with a guy who’s obviously very interested in making the public think he’s dating you – and Jaebum will still not know about it, is that what you’re planning?” Jackson continued, watching your eyes fill with tears again but not being able to stop himself. He’d have put his life on the line for his best friend and it was starting to feel like that was exactly what he was doing right now because he knew he was going to wish he was dead as soon as this blew over. The sight of you crying because of the things he’d said was too awful to bear. “Jaebum will come to your exhibition, not having the slightest clue that there’s a guy who’s—”

“I’ll tell him!” you shouted desperately, pain spilling from your eyes without the slightest intention of stopping. “God, I will! I’ll tell him everything.”

“Will you? Will you, really? Because he’s my best friend. I can’t just stand here after I learned about the shit that he doesn’t know but should know. Fuck. I think you’re great, I really do. And, God knows, I’m so sorry I’ve made you cry tonight,” he added and then, even despite all that he’d just said, stepped closer to provide you with some comfort by carefully wrapping his arms around you, “I think the two of you are perfect for each other but, fuck…” he sighed after hearing you sob against his shoulder, “you know his heart better than I do, but even I can tell that you’re walking dangerously close to breaking it.”

“I wouldn’t,” you whispered, pulling away from him to look him in the eyes. “I couldn’t. I would never, I-I—”

“I know you probably don’t mean it,” he said softly, releasing you. “But he’s going to hate the fact that you’re keeping this a secret.”

“I know he is,” you nodded, stepping away from him and sniffling before slowly bringing your index fingers under your eyelids. Your make-up was most definitely destroyed but that was the least of your worries right now. “That’s w-why, the longer I stay quiet, the harder it gets to find a way to tell him.”

He sighed again. “You know someone has to.”

“J-Jackson, I—”

“Just go, okay?” he asked, turning away from you and resting his hands on the sink, his head hanging low. It was you who felt beyond ashamed and yet he looked like he was the one making the biggest mistake of his life. “That guy’s waiting for you out there.”

“Please, I’ll tell Jaebum about this, I just—”

“Go,” Jackson repeated. “Please.”

You reached the door but turned around as soon as the last tears slid down your cheeks. You waited for him to turn around to look at you but he wouldn’t.

“I don’t want to hurt him,” you said slowly, the ball in your throat from the tears and the pain and the guilt suffocating you. “I love him.”

Jackson whipped his head to face you. “Does he know?”

Looking down again, you didn’t even dare to shake your head – and you didn’t have to, Jackson knew the answer already. This was another thing you’d never gathered the courage to tell to Jaebum.

Jackson looked away again and, after another torturous moment, you dared to exit the bathroom, closing the door behind you and feeling yourself tear up yet again as soon as you saw Jiho’s polished shoes.

“What was that about?” he asked you right away.

“Jiho,” you said sternly, your vision clouded with tears. You thought you saw him take a small step back in shock once he saw your puffy red eyes. “I won’t do this anymore. I need an answer right now – can I host my exhibition at your gallery or not? Because if not, I’m ending the contract right this moment.”

“Well, of course, you can,” Jiho replied, surprised. His fake face was back on and you wished nothing more than to claw it off. “You just need a little bit more exposure and—”

“No,” you shook your head. “I don’t like this. I didn’t like the article written about us, I didn’t like what you told those photographers out there, and I don’t like the fact that we’re, essentially, pretending to be in a relationship. I’m not—I don’t want to do that. Either, I host the exhibition now or I’m leaving.”

“Well—that’s—where is all this coming from? I thought we’d reached an agreement. You’re so close to—”

“The only thing I’m close to is ruining the only thing that makes sense in my life,” you were the one who kept cutting him off this time. It was nice to have the upper hand for a change even if you had a feeling it would backfire. “So, tell me right now: will I have the exhibition at your gallery or not?”

“I-I can’t give you an answer immediately,” he replied. “I need to check in with the gallery and we need some time to consider this.”

“Okay. Consider it, then,” you said, exhaling shakily as you turned around towards the front door of the hall. “And give me an answer as soon as possible.”

“Wh—right, but where are you going?”

You didn’t stop as you answered curtly, “I’m going home.”

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cluttermind · 4 years

Text

Without A Parachute (7/15) - Silver, Gold, and Secrets

Summary: Emma worked tremendously hard to give herself a better chance. From group homes, to living in her car, to ivy league student, this English Major’s only solace was escaping her reality through books. One night, Emma comes home to find a small package with only her name on it written in beautiful calligraphy. The package contains a thick, brown leather journal. Emma soon learns that the fiction she writes in the journal eventually becomes reality. Will Emma learn to control this gift, or will she fall too fast into the temptation to change too much? With the help of her good friends August, Robin, and Elsa, and the mysterious, intriguing bartender of The Jolly Roger, Emma discovers just how easy it is to lose control, and how difficult it is to pick up the pieces.

Rating: M

Words: 31,139 total / 6,952 Ch 7

Read on ao3: Beginning | Current

A/N: Sorry again for the inconsistent posting schedule! I'm trying so hard to stay on track. Here's a LONG chapter with a whole lot happening to make up for it :) Enjoy some fluff, plot, and smut!

Also the formatting is better on ao3 so I’d recommend reading there :)

I dreamt I saw you walking up a hillside in the snow

Casting shadows on the winter sky as you stood there counting crows

One for sorrow

Two for joy

Three for girls and four for boys

Five for silver

Six for gold and

Seven for a secret never to be told

- Counting Crows, Murder of One

Cold, Emma rolled over to snuggle closer to Killian. Instead she rolled flat onto her stomach. She blindly reached out, slapping the empty mattress next to her trying to find him. Groaning when she concluded he wasn’t next to her, Emma rubbed the sleep out of her eyes, checking the clock next to her. 9:30 am . Sighing, she dragged herself out of bed and made her way downstairs. Halfway down the stairs she spotted Killian in the kitchen. His phone was in his hand. His ear buds were in. And he was dancing . Like an idiot. In boxers and a t-shirt. His hair still messy from bed. God, he was awful. But fuck he was sexy.

He clearly didn’t notice her because he didn’t stop, only slowed a bit to fill the coffee maker with water. So Emma snuck up behind him and joined his ridiculous dancing. Eventually he turned around, saw her, and broke out into a fit of laughter.

“What’re we dancing to?” Emma yelled so he could hear her over his music. It was so loud she could hear it faintly from where she was in front of him. In response, Killian connected his phone to the bluetooth speaker on the counter and blasted Your Such A Mystery by Bleachers.

To anyone on the outside of their bubble they looked ridiculous. To Emma, it looked like what love should be. Or, at least, what she had always imagined it to be. Jumping around the kitchen at 9:30 in the morning in their pajamas, everything felt comfortable and wonderful. Maybe it was the endorphins talking but she felt like she was on cloud nine. And when Killian pulled her close to him to kiss her passionately, she believed that this must be the high people tried to chase with drugs. Who needs drugs when they have a Killian?

When the song ended, Killian pulled back. “Coffee, love?”

“That depends. It’s not the same crap you have at the pub, is it?” Emma teased. Killian lowered the music so they didn’t have to scream to have a conversation when they were standing in each other's personal space.

He chuckled. “I promise it’s not. It’s local and it’s sweet. You’ll like it.” Killian poured them each a mug of coffee. He was right, she did like it. There was a hit of chocolate that did, in fact, make the bitter drink a little sweeter. She hummed softly, enjoying the comfort of the warm mug in her hand as the coffee started to bring her back to reality.

“What is it?”

“Ithaca House Blend from Ithaca Coffee Company. It’s fair trade and organic.” He explained, taking a sip from his mug.

“Why don’t you serve this at the Jolly?”

“Because it’s not cheap and I spend money on alcohol. You and maybe 2 other people have ever ordered coffee there.”

“Maybe that’s because they know you serve shit coffee.”

Killian chuckled. “Maybe.” Emma hopped up to sit on the island while Killian leaned back against the counter across from her. They drank their coffee for a moment in comfortable silence, listening to the music coming softly through the speaker on the counter. “How are you this morning?” He asked, tentatively. Concern blanketed his words, silently asking whether he hurt her, whether she regretted it, whether she enjoyed it. He was familiar with the buzz that an orgasm left him in and the way it sometimes, or more recently the way it often, faded the following morning. That morning, however, he woke up happier than he had ever been. Killian, who was much more of a night owl than an early bird, nearly sprung out of bed dancing while he replayed every glorious moment of the previous night a little too graphically according to a certain part of him that was more awake than the rest of him. That’s how he ended up dancing alone in his kitchen. Partially because he was happy, partially because he needed to work off the stress that started to settle in his stomach when he remembered the countless nights he regretted the morning after and wondered if that was how Emma would feel.

Emma knew. She knew exactly what he was asking when he spoke. “Cold. I did wake up alone while someone was having a dance party without me.”

Killian chuckled, set his mug down and moved to wrap his arms around her. Emma’s legs wrapped around his waist and his arms around his neck. “Better?”

“Much,” she said, nuzzling her face into the crook of his neck.

“I have to pick up a few things from my apartment today and I assume you need some things from yours. I thought we could get that out of the way this morning, binge some Netflix or break out the DVD collection,” Killian’s voice dropped, “maybe jump in the hottub later?”

Emma sighed, heat pooling in her belly. “That sounds wonderful.”

They finished their coffee and made their way upstairs to get dressed during which Killian spent more time staring at Emma than actually pulling his own clothing on and Emma spent more time staring at Killian than actually pulling on her clothes and if it wasn’t for that lingering, delicious, ache between her legs reminding her of the previous night’s activity there likely would’ve been a repeat.

“Later,” Emma purred as she walked past him and out of the bedroom carrying her bag with her. Like a puppy, he followed her, hanging on each syllable that fell from her mouth.

They hopped in Killian’s car and drove back to Collegetown. In the daylight, the view from their drive was wonderful. Half the way back Emma could see the lake. She let her mind drift as she stared off into the distance, Killian tuning the radio to the local college modern rock station - WICB 91.7 FM. Emma’s eyes drifted to sleep from the soft vibrations of the car. Unfortunately her nap, which was more like sleep part 2 considering she had only been up for about an hour, was quickly interrupted by Killian gently shaking her shoulder. He had parked right outside the Jolly Roger.

“Swan, wake up, love.” He placed a kiss to her temple as if he was bribing her to open her eyes.

“Five more minutes,” Emma grumbled.

“You can go right back to sleep when we get back to the house but right now I need you to pack.” Emma groaned, refusing to open her eyes. “Or else.” Killain smirked

“Or else what?”

“Or else I’ll withhold sex from you all week.” He toyed.

Emma opened her eyes for the sole purpose of glaring at him. If looks could kill, Killian surely would’ve been dead in that moment. Then she closed her eyes again. “Okay goodnight.”

Killian scoffed. “Fine. Then I won’t buy you breakfast.”

Emma’s ears perked up and she instantly opened her eyes. “CTB?”

“If I say yes will you please go pack?”

“Yes.”

“Then yes.”

Emma jumped out of the car, slamming the door a little too hard in her excitement. Killian mentally noted that she was significantly more food motivated than sex motivated and went to his apartment to pack his own things.

In her bedroom Emma stared at the handful of clothes she owned. She grabbed a few pairs of jeans and leggings and a pair of sweatpants, her favorite Cornell sweatshirt and long sleeve (which together may as well have cost her an entire week's pay), a nicer sweater, and some long sleeves. Remembering that Killian mentioned a hot tub, she tossed in the simple black bikini that Elsa made her buy back in September when the weather was still nice enough to go gorge jumping. But when it came to lingerie, Emma was stuck.

Emma Swan: When you’re back we need to go shopping.

Elsa Agnarr: FINALLY!

Elsa Agnarr: where?

Emma Swan: That mall in Syracuse you always try to get me to take you to?

Elsa Agnarr: really?! i mean im not complaining ;) why the sudden desire to take a shopping trip?

Emma Swan: Oh nothing. I just need some new bras.

Elsa Agnarr: and you felt the need to text me a week in advance to plan a shopping trip for just some new bras…

Emma Swan: I slept with Killian.

Emma’s phone rang and Elsa started speaking the second she answered the FaceTime call. “You did what?”

“I told you.”

“Were you safe?!”

“Elsa!” They laughed. They were the cautious two of the group, nearly mothering over August and Robin whenever they could. Of course Emma was safe.

“Was it good?”

“Oh my god.” Emma blushed furiously.

“Oooooo I knew he’d be good in bed.”

“Elsa!”

“Oh come on! Even though we don’t play for the same team, anyone with eyes would bet that Killian Jones is good in bed.”

Emma sighed, an unfamiliar green-eyed monster rearing its ugly head in Emma’s mind. “Don’t remind me.”

“So are you guys together?”

“I don’t know.” Emma admitted. She wanted to be. To call Killian Jones hers? That’s a dream Emma hadn’t allowed herself to have. No matter what, Killian had been there for her. To lose that, to lose her friend if none of this worked out, might kill her. He deserved someone better, someone less damaged . And the familiar spiral began tightening in her mind.

“Don’t overthink this Em. You deserve to be happy and he clearly makes you happy. I see the way you smile every time his name pops up on your phone.”

“I just don’t want to ruin what we have.”

“I think you ruined what you had when you slept with him. There’s no going back from that. You need to talk to him.”

“I know.”

“Elsa! Elsa!” Emma heard a familiar voice shouting on the other end of the line. Elsa giggled.

“Sorry I have to go. Anna’s been forcing me to help her make some pro/con lists for the college’s she’s been accepted to.”

“Well she can’t go to Harvard. That’s a given.”

“Can’t go to Penn either.”

“Guess it just has to be Cornell.”

“ Far above Cayuga’s waters - ” Elsa started singing loudly so Anna could hear the alma mater every Cornell student knew by heart by the end of their first semester.

“ With it’s waves of blue-” Emma joined in. “ Stands our noble Alma Mater, glorious to view. LIFT the chorus, speed it onward, loud her praises tell, hail to thee our Alma Mater - ”

In the background Anna groaned. “Not again.”

“ HAIL, ALL HAIL, CORNELL! ” They screamed, bursting out laughing.

“I’m going to Harvard if you don’t stop.” Anna threatened.

“No you’re not.” Elsa turned her attention back to Emma. “I’ll talk to you later?”

“Talk to you later.” They hung up. Emma’s lingerie problem, however, will have to wait another week. She shoved the nicest things she owned into the duffle bag she packed, stuffed her laptop and her journal into her backpack, and finally left her apartment to meet Killian at the car.

He was sitting against the edge of his open trunk, reading something on his phone when she reached him.

“Reading anything interesting?” She asked to get his attention.

“Nope. Just doing some online shopping, love.” Killian kissed her cheek as he took her bag from her and placed it in the trunk. He had a black backpack and his guitar secured in its case. “Breakfast?”

“Please.” Emma was starving and entirely unprepared for the way he took her hand in his after he closed the trunk of his car, nonchalantly, as if this was their normal, their comfortable, their them .

They walked to CollegeTown Bagels, their joined hands swinging gently between them. When they arrived, they got on line as Killian told her a story about one Summer he spent with his grandparents as a kid. His thumb rubbed softly over the back of her hand, engrossed in his own story. Emma, however, wasn't paying any attention.

At the front of the cafe, there was a brunette, a ghost from Emma’s past. Or, at least, she looked like a ghost from Emma’s past. Emma couldn’t quite make out the girl’s face. She was looking down at her phone, her hair blocking Emma’s view. Suddenly her past was flashing before her eyes, unfolding like a horror story where the victim runs into the house and the audience screams stop. But there’s no stopping the spiral Emma’s mind falls into.

A security guard was at the end of the aisle, clearly noticing the PopTart box Emma was shoving under her sweatshirt. The guard cleared her throat when Emma noticed her.

“Are you going to pay for that miss?”

Emma was panicking. She couldn’t pay for it. She didn’t have money. All she had were a few hand-me-down clothes in a backpack and a bruise on her cheek from her last foster home she was trying to escape from.

Thankfully, a brunette around her age came to stand beside her and held up a credit card. “Yes, ma’am. Our Dad’s in the car just outside.” The guard nodded and left them to be. The girl turned to Emma. “The key is swiping one of these.”

Emma nodded. “Thank you.”

“I’m just like you, you know. Trying to get away. I’m Lilly.”

Emma’s grip on Killian’s hand tightened like a vice grip.

“Swan?” KIllian asked, concern blanketing his voice. “Are you alright, love?

But Emma didn’t hear a word he said.

Emma and Lilly shopped for a bit. They became fast friends. When they checked out and left, however, a car not too far away started honking and driving after them. Emma figured this was the man Lilly swiped the card from. So they ran.

They lost the car and Lilly led her to a beautiful lake house that was empty for the season. And they promised to be friends forever, no matter what. Emma told her everything about her life, about moving between foster homes, about the abusive man that ran the last group home she was in, about how alone she felt all the time.

And Lilly pretended to understand. Because, in fact, Lilly couldn’t truly understand what Emma was going through. Because when they were caught later that night, it was Lilly’s father who caught them. Because this was Lilly’s family’s summer home.

Killian’s hand was starting to hurt under Emma’s grasp. It was their turn to place their order and Killian stepped up to the register, taking Emma with him.

The brunette looked up when she stood to throw away her empty coffee cup. It had to be Lilly. But what was she doing in Ithaca? Emma nearly started hyperventilating, wanting to call out to her but being unable to find her voice.

“Swan, what do you want for breakfast?”

Emma watched the girl she assumed to be Lilly leave. “I’m actually not hungry anymore. I think I’ll just meet you outside,” She said, without turning to look at him. Emma let go of Killian’s hand and dashed out of the cafe.

There was already distance between them. Emma just stood there, shocked. She didn’t know what to say or whether to say anything or whether Lilly still hated her. And even though Emma was standing alone, now nowhere near Lilly, she was working herself up to a panic attack. Her entire body was shaking. Killian followed shortly after.

“Emma?” He quickly noticed her panicked state and pulled her into his arms, placing a comforting kiss to her forehead. “Come on, love. Let’s go.”

***

Back at the house, Killian made tea for Emma and opened a package of PopTarts to put on a plate. From the kitchen he felt the weight of Emma’s thoughts, but she hadn’t said a word to him since the cafe. Something happened there, but he couldn’t figure out what. Was it him? Was it another guy? Was she having second thoughts? Was she starting to regret what they did? Was she starting to regret what they were, what they had become, what was so strong between them?

She was curled up on the couch, staring at the TV which was turned to the local news channel. It was Ithaca. It was grey, cold, probably some form of precipitation was expected at some point in the day, some local business was probably doing something for charity, the university students were probably protesting or petitioning something, and there was probably news about music or theatrical performances. Every now and again something major happened at one of the colleges and that was actually newsworthy. All of this to say that if you need something mindless to watch, local news in central New York was the place to turn.

Killian brought the tea and plate over to Emma who graciously accepted the mug but ignored the plate. Killian sat next to her, keeping some distance between them in case he was the reason she was upset. “Talk to me, love,” he urged her, gently.

Emma took a sip of tea. “It’s nothing, Killian.”

“Swan, you’re clearly upset about something. You’re an open book to me.” He sighed. “Did I do something? Do you regret last night?”

Emma looked at him, wide-eyed like a deer in headlights. “What?! No! Killian, no.” She set the mug down and laid down, resting her head in his lap. He stroked her hair, playing with his softly. Instantly she felt relaxed, her heart fluttering slightly, her entire body tingling in bliss from the feeling of Killian’s fingers running through her hair.

“You know you can tell me anything, love.”

Emma sighed. “I thought I saw an old friend. I guess she’s more like a former friend. I’m not really sure anymore, to be honest.” Killian stopped his motions and looked at her. “Don’t stop,” Emma nearly whimpered.

Killian chuckled and resumed playing with Emma’s hair. “What happened?”

“Lilly and I met when she saved my ass while I was trying to steal PopTarts from a convenience store.”

“Ah the shoplifting PopTarts story.”

Emma looked up at him. “You remember that?”

Killian blushed. “Aye.”

Emma could’ve kissed him senseless in that moment. Finally, for what felt like the first time in her life, someone genuinely listened to her. And this wasn’t the first time Emma had this realization about Killian. She noticed every time he heard her answers to how her day was. She noticed every time she ranted about school or told him what she learned. But something about this time meant a little more to her.

“Yeah. The shoplifting PopTarts story. Anyway, she made me feel like she was like me. Like she was also a foster kid, bouncing around from home to home. It was a particularly bad time. I was running away from a home that didn’t treat any of the kids right. There was always a reason for the guy running it to hit us, always something we did wrong, something we did to aggravate him. So I ran and I was hungry and I was about to get caught and Lilly stepped in with a credit card and said that our dad was waiting for us outside. She told me she swiped the card from some stranger, that she was also running from the system and brought me to this empty lake house which, by the way, was her family’s lake house because she wasn’t running from the system because she was never in the system and she tricked me into thinking she understood but she couldn’t understand. No one could understand what it’s like to constantly be running as a child, to not have a home, to sometimes have a roof over your head but never be at peace and never feel safe. No one could understand what it’s like to want to get the fuck out so fucking bad that you spend two and a half years living in a car you worked overtime to be able to buy just to have consistency in your fucking transcript so ivy leagues don’t immediately reject you. No one could understand unless they fucking experienced it.”

Emma was screaming by the time she finished. Tears streamed down her cheeks as she bared part of her soul to a man she realized she didn’t want to live without, a man that made her feel loved and at peace and at home, a man who would stand so fiercely beside her through anything life threw at her.

And in that same moment of realization for Emma, Killian fell in love with her.

“Emma . . .” Killian whispered, silently making promises to himself that he dared not speak out loud for fear that she’d run from the sheer intensity of the way he felt for her. No longer would he ever allow her to be hit or hurt. No longer would he ever allow her to feel alone or hungry. No longer would he ever allow her to not have a home or someone she would call family or someone she could turn to when everything was crashing down around her or simply getting too much for one person to carry. No longer would he ever allow her to feel unloved.

He didn’t want her to ever have to run from something again. He wanted to be what she ran to.

“There’s more. I’ll tell you the rest another day.” Emma sat up so that she could curl up against Killian’s side as he engulfed her in his arms. He held her tightly against him and they sat silently for a while. Eventually, they both fell asleep.

***

They were sitting on the floor on either side of the coffee table in the living room, Emma’s back against the couch as she lost yet another game of chess to Killian who broke out his grandfather’s marble chess set. He had even tried to let her win on multiple occasions but Emma was too distracted by his deep blue eyes to pay any mind to the game in front of her. She missed easy takes and fell easily into his traps. Fitting, really, considering how easily she fell for, fell into, him .

“Alright, alright, I surrender.” Emma tapped her foot against Killian’s thigh. “I believe that you promised me a dip in a hot tub?” She asked, smirking at him.

If it were possible to undress someone with your eyes, Killian would’ve been naked in an instant with the look Emma was giving him. He waggled his eyebrows at her, entirely up to play this game she started. “Did you bring your swimsuit, love?"

“Do I need one, Captain?” Emma teased.

“You little minx.” Killian growled, his cock already starting to harden simply at the words falling off her tongue, and the image they created in his mind. “You go change, or strip, either works wonders for me, love, and grab some towels from upstairs.”

Emma giggled and bounded up the stairs to change into her black bikini. She pulled her hair up into a bun on the top of her head, grabbed some towels, and rummaged through the dresser drawers to find a pair of Killian’s swim trunks for him.

She found him in the kitchen, pouring two glasses of red wine. Killian was nothing if not a romantic.

“I hope one of those is for me,” she toyed, wanting to get his attention and catch him off guard while she wore nothing but her bathing suit.

The second he saw her, Killian’s eyebrows shot up. “Wow,” was about all he could manage.

Emma threw his swim trunks at him. “I brought you these.” He caught them, easily.

He handed her a glass and kissed her softly. “Outside on the left end of the deck. I’ll meet you there, my love.”

The cold air nipped at Emma’s skin as she quickly walked towards the hot water, careful not to spill her wine. It was a long day that tested all of her emotions. Quite frankly, she was exhausted and stressed. Killian tried all day to keep her mind busy, tried to help her relax. As graceful as we were for him, none of it worked. Her past with Lilly kept replaying over and over like a broken record or a film on loop. Sinking into the warm bubbly water, her back against a few of the jets, finally she felt herself relaxing. The jets felt so good against her back she was nearly moaning by the time Killian joined her. She actually didn’t even notice him slipping into the tub across from her until he chuckled.

“Enjoying yourself, love?”

“This might be better than sex.”

Killian threw his head back and laughed. He could have come up with a cheeky line, but he knew she needed this. He knew she needed to really relax, to turn her mind off for a second. He’d follow her lead on where this went.

“Come here, Swan.” He took a sip of his wine and set it down on the ledge behind him. Emma moved to sit between Killian’s legs. He placed a sensual kiss on her shoulder and his hands trailed up her arms to rub her shoulders, working at the knots that had formed there likely from stress.

Emma moaned softly. “That feels nice.”

“All I want is to make you feel good.” Killian whispered against her ear, nipping teasingly at her lobe.

“Mmm you’re succeeding.”

He trailed kisses slowly down her neck, stopping at her pulse point to suck gently at her skin. His fingertips ghosted down her sides, tracing the curves of her breasts and her waist. “I’ve wanted you since the day I met you, Swan.”

His words sent a shiver down her spine as he spoke in that timbre she learned was reserved for only the sultriest of remarks, the dirtiest of phrases, the sexiest of sayings.

“Well now you have me . . . And I’m all yours, Killian.” Emma’s hands rested on Killian’s thighs. As much as she wanted to turn to face him, to straddle his legs and grind into him, to tell him to take shed them of the few clothes creating a barrier between them, Emma was quite enjoying this teasing game.

“And I, yours, love.” Killian pulled her back against him so she could feel the effect her words had on him. “Just hearing you say that is enough to turn me on.”

Emma wiggled her ass back against him which elicited a hiss from Killian behind her. “I quite enjoy having this effect on you, Captain.”

“Oh do you now?”

“Aye,” Emma said, mocking his accent.

Killian chuckled. “You think you’re funny?”

“Aye,” she mocked again, a devilish grin plastered on her face.

In response, Killian nipped at her pulse point, dragging his teeth teasingly over her skin, sucking to leave his mark on her. Not expecting how incredible that would feel, Emma gasped. “Not so funny anymore, are you, my love?”

Taking a deep breath to attempt to calm her racing heart, Emma hummed softly. “It’s hard to think straight when you’re doing such salacious things to me.”

Killian trailed his fingertips underwater over her stomach, whispering in a sultry tone against her neck between wet kisses, “Close your eyes, Swan.”

“Why?”

“Do you trust me?”

Emma closed her eyes. “With all my heart.” She let her head fall back against Killian’s shoulder.

“Imagine I’m kissing down your body,” Killian whispered, trailing his hand between her breasts and down her stomach to the waistband of her bikini bottoms. Emma hummed in response. “Teasing just above where I know you want me.”

Dancing his fingers over her skin, he turned his attention to her breast. “You’re wearing far too much clothing, love.”

Emma reached behind her neck and untied the top while Killian untied the back, tossing the material to the ground beside the tub. “Better?” She teased.

“Much,” Killian smirked, cupping her breasts in his hands, massaging gently.

Emma moaned, heat pooling in the pit of her stomach. “Killian . . .”

“Does that feel good love?” He purred.

“Fuck, Killian. Yes,” Emma groaned, arching her back as if her body was begging for more of his touch, more of his voice, more of his everything.

He placed a kiss on her shoulder. “You’re so beautiful, Emma.”

Emma hummed softly. “Don’t stop.”

“Don’t stop what? Talking?” Killian teased.

“Don’t stop talking,” Emma affirmed, the simple way each word teasingly fell off his tongue sending chills down her spine.

“As you wish, my love.” One of his hands grazed over a sensitive spot on her side.

Emma broke out into a fit of giggles. “Killian! Stop!"

Killian chuckled, purposely tickling her. “Stop?”

“I’m ticklish!” Emma nearly bucked back against him, her laughter uncontrollable. Killian grins, the carefree nature of her genuine laugh warmed his heart. For once today, after a long, stressful day, it looked like Emma was relaxed. But he stopped, lifting both of his hands off of her body, complying with her request.

“Wait, no,” Emma whimpered.

“No?”

“Come back.” She reached back and grabbed one of his wrists, bringing his hand back to rest on her stomach.

“I’m here, Swan. Wherever you need me.” He lowered his lips back to her neck, over the mark he had left earlier. Once again, his hands were roaming her torso, dancing over her stomach, careful to avoid her ticklish sides, caressing her breasts beneath the water, teasing her nipples.

Emma groaned, his name slipping effortlessly from her lips as her eyes close and her head resettles against his shoulder. “More,” she whispers, as if saving that word only for him.

“How about,” Killians hands trailed down her body to her thighs, “here?”

Emma inhales sharply, his fingers dangerously close to where she so desperately needs him. “More,” she repeats. “Killian, please.”

She can feel him smile against her throat, grinning like a madman.

“Where?” He asked, as if he didn’t already know, as if he didn’t already know where she was aching for his touch, as if he wasn’t aching to give her everything she needed, everything she wanted.

Emma rested her hand over his, guiding him to rest above where she needed him over her bikini bottoms. He strummed his fingers over her clit. “Oh god.”

“Killian will do just fine, love,” he joked, chuckling as he continued his teasing.

If Emma could do anything other than moan she might’ve - would’ve - rolled her eyes at him. Instead, she played along, giving him exactly what he asked for. “Oh Killian.”

He hummed softly. “I love the way you moan my name, letting the world know who’s turning you on, who’s making you feel this good.”

Grinding her hips into his hand, Emma was reaching the point of begging. “Killian,” she pleaded, “more.”

Killian grinned, having found the perfect opportunity to mention one of the ridiculous pickup lines he had spent hours looking for on the internet after they had first met when she was studying for economics. “Are your legs available for some open market operations, Swan?”

Emma’s eyes shot open and she turned around to playfully hit his chest.

“What? Not up for a conversation about open markets, Swan? I thought you’d be an expert after all that studying you’ve been doing.” He smirked, clearly enjoying this game they’ve been playing.

Emma glared pointedly at him, a smile tugging at the edges of her lips. “You almost ruined the mood.”

“Almost?” Killian raised an eyebrow at her.

Emma shifts to straddle his legs, now facing him, finally able to see the storm in his eyes. Killian dragged his nails down her bare back, scratching gently. Her hands tangled in the hair at the nape of his neck and her lips captured his in a passionate kiss she had been longing for since this dance began. His tongue slipped between her lips, finding hers as he held her close to her. Instinctively, Killian groaned into her mouth as her hips rolled over his straining cock.

Emma grinned against his lips. “You like that, Captain?”

Killian hummed, his hands now resting on her hips, edging her down harder on him as she resisted. “More, Emma,” Killian pleaded.

“My, my, how the tables have turned.” Emma listed her hips off him entirely, eliciting a groan from the man beneath her.

“You’re killing me, love.” His hands ran over her ass, squeezing.

“Hmmmm maybe I’m feeling a sense of sympathy,” Emma teased, her hands toying with his hair, “for those swim trunks.” While her eyes portrayed the utmost innocence, her words insinuated that her intentions were anything but.

Killian smirked, waggling his eyebrows at her. “A growing sense?”

Emma giggled. “Well something’s growing.” She ran her hands down his chest until her fingers were brushing along his waistband. Killian leaned back, giving her the room she needed, groaning and laughing softly at the utter bliss rippling through his body at every brush of her fingertips.

Her hands grazed over his cock, clearly hard and ready for her. “Why don’t we move this into the bedroom?” She whispered salaciously against his lips.

“Swan, you read my mind.” She left him with a quick kiss, hopping out of the tub and wrapping a towel around her as she raced towards the back door to escape the cold, Ithaca night, with Killian following closely behind.

***

The past few days had been more than Emma ever could have dreamed of. Falling asleep wrapped in Killians arms holding her closely against her, waking up to freshly made cups of coffee, spending days playing games and reading and telling nonsensical stories, spending evening curled up on the couch watching whatever seemed interesting on Netflix, and spending nights making out on the couch like hormonal teenagers was simply perfect.

It was Wednesday. Spring break was halfway over and Emma dreaded having to go back to the reality of classes and studying and being apart from Killian. Her eyes fluttered open, sighing as Killian trailed butterfly kisses down her body. He had pushed the covers away, needing to see her face for cues. They hadn’t bothered getting dressed from the night before and had fallen asleep shortly after cleaning up from a delightful rendezvous.

She gripped the pillowcase with one hand while her other ran through his messy hair. A sleepy moan escaped her lips when he kissed her inner thigh. “Well this is a nice way to wake up,” Emma purred.

Killian grinned against her thigh, his stubble scratching gently against her only turned her on more. Unfortunately any endeavour he had planned for that morning was interrupted by Emma’s phone. He groaned, resting his cheek against her thigh, looking up at her with pleading, piercing blue eyes. “Please don’t answer that,” Killian begged. He’d been wanting to taste her all week, but they always seemed to get a little caught up in the moment.

Emma checked her phone, thinking it might be Belle asking her to come in a day or two to help out this week. “It’s August,” she said, confused. August never called her. His preferred method of annoying her was sending a million and a half text messages in a row until she answered. She gently swatted Killians face away from her, a move that was met with an even louder groan as he flopped onto his back. Emma answered the phone. “August?”

“Ems, I don’t fucking know what I’m going to fucking do,” August said, his voice sounding absolutely wrecked on the other end of the line.

“What happened? What’s wrong?” Emma asked, concern so clearly blanketing each word that Killian was no longer pouting like an incessant child and instead tossing her his t-shirt from the floor before grabbing a clean pair of boxers from the dresser for himself.

“I can’t fucking believe this is happening. Everything is falling apart.” It sounded like August, someone who had been her rock through the stress of their first semester, was crying. Emma quickly pulled Killian’s shirt on.

“August you have to talk to me. What happened?”

“I didn’t get the fucking internship.”

“The one with the publishing house in New York? I thought the final interview went well! The HR rep basically told you that you got the job.”

“Don’t you think I fucking know that?!” August screamed. Emma winced. “Fuck, Ems I’m sorry.”

“What happened?” Emma asked softly.

August sighed. “I have no idea. I got great feedback after every round and they basically handed me the job after the last round but I must’ve fucked up something because I got a rejection email this morning.” He choked on a sob. This was his dream internship. He had worked his entire life for the chance to be at this publishing house. He spent countless hours prepping and forcing Emma to ask him interview questions he had complied from random internet sources and previous interns he connected with on LinkedIn.

“August, I’m so sorry. You have that other interview right?”

“I turned it down. I turned it down after the empty promises HR made.”

Emma’s heart broke for her friend. “Fuck August. I’m so sorry.” Killian came out of the bathroom after brushing his teeth and flopped back into bed, throwing his arm over his eyes. Emma reached over to play with his hair with her free hand.

“I don’t know what to do.” August whispered.

“We’ll figure this out. There are still applications open and great publishing houses to start at. Check Nashville. If you’re feeling adventurous check London.” Emma paused. “We’ll figure this out, August.”

“I just wish I knew what I did wrong.”

“So send an email. You had a good relationship with that guy in HR, send him an email and ask for some feedback so that you can come back next year and do better.”

“Yeah. You’re right.” August sighed heavily. “Thanks Ems. I better go. Sorry for bothering you.”

“I’m always here for you, Gus.”

August snorted. “I hate you.”

“Aw, I love you too!”

Killian smiled next to her, partially because it felt damn good when she ran her hand through his hair like she was doing and partially because it warmed his heart to hear how much she cared about her friends. And he would have been lying if he didn’t admit that he was imagining what it would be like to be on the receiving end of her “I love you.”

Emma hung up the phone after saying goodbye and sighed.

Killian uncovered his eyes to look up at her. “Everything alright, Swan?”

“Yeah. Something happened with August’s internship and he’s back at square one.”

Killian rolled onto his side, propping himself up on his elbow. “Why do I sense there’s something else? You forget you’re an open book to me, love.”

“I just . . . I haven't even thought about what I was going to do this summer.”

Suddenly, Killian’s heart was in his throat, realizing that Emma might choose to spend the Summer in a glamorous city working for an incredible publishing house . . . away from him.

“What do you want to do?” He asked, tentatively but ready to fully support whatever dreams and goals she had. If only she knew how deeply he was in this thing that they started, how fiercely he’d stand beside her no matter what, how no matter where in the world she was he’d either wait for her or follow her. Killian, he was realizing this week, would follow her to the end of the world, or time, if that’s what it took to be with her.

Emma smiled down at him, shifting so she was no longer sitting up next to him but laying down facing him. “I want to write. I really want to write.”

Writing . Writing was something she could do anywhere. Writing was something she could do in Ithaca. Writing was something she didn’t have to leave him to accomplish. Killian grinned before showering her face in kisses.

Emma giggled, rolling onto her back so that Killian was taking his place atop her. “What's all this for?” She asked between fits of giggles, pretending like she didn’t know why Killian was happy - ecstatic really. Her whole life she wanted to be a writer, to tell stories like the ones that got her through the worst moments of her life, the ones that provided her an escape even when she was too tired to run, the ones that gave her hope and showed her love and captured her wildest imaginations. Writing suddenly had an added benefit. She could write wherever she wanted to write. She could write from Ithaca. She could stay near Killian. Emma didn’t need to give up her heart to follow her dreams.

“I just -” Killian paused, his heart racing as he smiled down at Emma beneath him.

“What, Killian?”

His heart skipped a beat when she said his name. Granted, there was nothing he adored more than the way Emma said his name. This time, however, she spoke his name as if she was claiming him as her own. “I just really didn’t want you to be away from me.”

“I think you’re stuck with me.” Emma pulled him close to her. “If you’ll have me, that is.”

“Emma, I am always yours.”

Neither of them could imagine, in that moment, a life without each other. And so they didn’t.

#without a parachute #cs ff #cs fanfic #smut #fluff #captain swan #killian jones #captain hook #emma swan

11 notes · View notes

hypnopompik · 4 years

Text

1. What’s your middle name? Evangeline

2. What are you listening to right now? Debussy La met

3. What was the last thing you ate? Chicken salad

4. Who was the last person you talked to on the phone? Brother

5. Do you drink? Occassionally

6. Do you smoke? Never

7. What is the first thing you noticed in someone? Smile/Eyes

8. What is your hair color? Black

9. What is your eye color? Brown

10. Do you wear contacts/glasses? Nope

11. Dogs or cats? Both

12. What’s your favorite animal? Giant Panda

13. What’s your favorite television show? Game of Thrones or The Office

14. What’s your favorite movie? Lord of the Rings

15. What’s your favorite band/singer? Hozier/Aurora

16. How old are you? 24

17. Do you have a crush on anyone? Yes 🥰🥺👉🏻👈🏻

18. What’s your sexual orientation? Biromantic Asexual

19. What’s your favorite color? Pink/White/Silver

20. What was your most embarrassing moment? Falling over in a fountain in the middle of a theme park

21. Do you ever wish you were someone else? No

22. What were you like when you were a kid? Happy

23. What would your dream house be like? A cottage with large windows and a large garden in a small village surrounded by lots of fields

24. What last made you laugh? Probably The Office

25. What is your favorite word? Sacrilegious or Interesting

26. What is your least favorite word? Moist or Bowl

27. What turns you on? Kindness and neck kissing

28. What turns you off? Rude people

29. What is your star sign? Libra sun, Aquarius moon, Capricorn rising

30. What are your favorite books? I have such a long list

31. Do you have any siblings? Yes, brother and sister both younger

32. Do you like to dance? Yes I love dancing I used to dance professionally

33. What is your definition of cheating? Any physical act with another person other than your partner

34. Have you ever cheated on someone? Never

35. Do you regret anything? Nope

36. Do you have any phobias? Thunder and lightning, insects, some birds and

37. Ever broken any bones? Collarbone a few toes and a few fingers

38. Ever come close to death? Yes

39. What is your religion, if any? Buddhism and also I practice witchcraft

40. Have you ever been to a psychiatrist/therapist? Never.

41. Are looks important in a relationship? Nope (im asexual)

42. Are you more like your mom or your dad? Neither

43. What is your favorite season? Spring

44. Do you have any tattoos? No but I want

45. Do you have any piercings? Several; lips, 4 on my ears.

46. How many boyfriends/girlfriends have you had? 0 official

47. Have you ever had a crush on a fictional character? Yes

48. Who is your celebrity crush? Snoop Dogg and Johnny Depp

49. Are you a virgin? Nope

50. Do you get jealous easily? No never

51. What is your favorite type of food? Italian

52. Do you ever want to get married? Yes

53. Who was your first kiss with? Not happened officially

54. Have you ever been cheated on? Yes

55. What is your idea of the perfect date? Long walk in a park with a picnic, museum and art gallery, then a long drive to the countryside at night see the stars

56. Are you an introvert or an extrovert?

57. Do you believe in aliens or life on other planets? Of course

58. What talent do you wish you’d been born with? Singing and musical abilities

59. What is your saddest memory? My grandfathers deaths

60. Do you believe in love at first sight? Yes

61. Do you believe in soul mates? Yes I am pretty sure I’ve already met them

62. Have you ever dyed your hair? Yes, multiple colours

63. Has someone ever spread a nasty rumor about you? I don’t think so I can’t remember.. oh yeah someone spread a rumour that I had a list of people I was going to kill ... I was 13

64. Would you go against your moral code for money? No

65. What are three things most people don’t know about you? I’m asexual, I’m a witch and I’m ambidextrous

66. Who are you jealous of? I don’t get jealous very easily.

67. Do you sleep with a stuffed toy? Yes, his name is Freddie

68. How long was your longest relationship? 0

69. Is the glass half empty or half full? Half full

70. What is the sexiest thing someone could ever do for/to you? Buy me sexy underwear/lingerie and cook a nice meal and then a nice movie in a cuddles

71. Who is your most loyal friend? Lukas

72. Are you in a relationship? Nope

73. If you have a boyfriend/girlfriend, what is your favorite thing about him/her? I don’t

74. Are you a bad person? Yes I can be

75. Are you a lover or a fighter? A lover

76. What did you do on your last birthday? Party and movies with my family

77. What is your favorite quote? ‘I always love finding a new place to wear diamonds’ - Marilyn Monroe in To Marry a Millionaire

78. If your best friend died, what would you do? Organise an amazing wake, funeral party

79. If you had to go back in time and change one thing, what would it be? I’d stop Hitler getting to power

80. If you only had 24 hours to live, what would you do? Tell my friends and family and just spend time with them

81. What is the strangest dream you’ve ever had? THE STEVE MARTIN DREAM

82. Are you happier single or in a relationship? Idk I’m happy single

83. Who were you in a past life? I’m not sure

84. What is your happiest childhood memory? I have so many good moments especially with my siblings

85. Have you ever experienced unrequited love? Yes

86. Have you ever had an imaginary friend? No I don’t think so

87. If you were the president, what would you do? The opposite to whatever trump is doing

88. What is your ideal career? Owner of a bakery/cafe/florist/bookstore

89. What is your political affiliation? Irk

90. Are you conservative or liberal? Liberal

91. Is the male or female body closest to perfection? Female

92. Do you like kissing in public? Never did it but I don’t mind it

93. If you could change one thing in the world, what would you change? I’d try to change racism/transphobic/sexism/feminism/save the planet/animals/

94. Where would you like to live? Norway/France/Italy/Belgium/Netherlands

95. Where would you go on your dream vacation? Anywhere

96. Describe yourself in one word. Passionate

97. Describe yourself in one sentence. Short, curvy, English girl with black hair and honey eyes with a positive optimistic and bubbly outlook on life

1 note · View note

werewolfharrington · 5 years

Note

Flower ask: also all of them. you get to suffer with me >:3€

oh darlin’ we’re in it now huh

Alisons: Sexuality?

homogay

Amaranth: Pronouns/Gender?

she/they | all gender will be shot on sight

Amaryllis: Birthday?

sept 23rd

Anemone: Favorite flower?

monkshood

Angelonia: Favorite t.v. show?

stranger things or ghost adventures

Arum-Lily: What’s the farthest you’d go for a stranger?

like? distance? a couple miles probably

Aster: What’s one of your favorite quotes?

“We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little lifeIs rounded with a sleep.” William Shakespeare, The Tempest

Aubrieta: Favorite drink?

wild cherry capri sun

Baby’s Breath: Would you kiss the last person you kissed again?

ima change that to ‘kiss the last person u thought abt kissing’ bc YES

Balsam Fir: Have you ever been in love?

*jenna marbles voice* hell yeah!!

Baneberries: Favorite song?

waiting for the end - linkin park

Basket of Gold: Describe your family.

chaos

Beebalm: Do you have a best friend? Who is it?

i have too many to list !!! brandi, kasey, you, liz, ivy, nick , just to name a few!!

Begonia: Favorite color?

blue uwu

Bellflower: Favorite animal?

foxes !! and opossums

Bergenia: Are you a morning or night person?

night time babey

Black-Eyed Susan: If you could be any animal for a day, what would it be?

either a fox or an opossum or a raven, i think

Bloodroots: When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?

i wanted to be a vet !!!

Bluemink: What are your thoughts on children?

theyre ok as long as theyre not screaming and/or mine

Blazing Stars: What are you afraid of? Is there a reason why?

i don’t liike vomit bc. nastey (trauma i think) and i don’t like old ppl well. i dunno why? they’re just so old and fragile and helpless and sometimes they’re really mean and idk i think it’s like something to do w death or something LMAO idk. also i just hate the idea of becoming old and having to rely on other people ?? hhh

Borage: Give a random fact about your childhood.

i was bullied a lot

Bugleherb: How would you spend your last day on Earth?

realistically? probably playing dead by daylight with my girlfriend ADFSGRHYUTR

Buttercup: Relationship Status?

happily taken

Camelia: If you could visit anywhere, where would you want to go?

ireland, scotland, alaska, greece

Candytufts: When do you feel most loved?

whenever my friends or family tells me they love me but esp when u text me goodmorning or when we say our goodnights sorry im gay haha

Canna: Do you have any tattoos?

i have. uuuuhh 6

Canterbury Bells: Do you have any piercings?

no!!! i want some tho :(

California Poppy: Height?

i think im like. 5′5 or something? give or take an inch ?

Cardinal Flower: Do you believe in ghosts?

oh absolutely. my house is haunted as we speak

Carnation: What are you currently wearing?

bmth hoodie and pajama pants w foxes all over them. i just woke up lol

Catnip: Have you ever slept with a nightlight?

yeah i always keep one on in the bathroom

Chives: Who was the last person you hugged?

my sister bc she came home from college yesterday

Chrysanthemum: Who’s the last person you kissed?

ask me in like. a little over a month from now ;)

Cock’s Comb: Favorite font?

FONT??? the animal crossing font

Columbine: Are you tired?

oh absolutely

Common Boneset: What are you looking forward to?

thanksgiving, christmas, seeing my gf, magfest

Coneflower: Dream job?

idk if it’s a job but i just wanna own like. a ranch that takes in all sorts of animals and takes care of them

Crane’s-Bill: Introvert or extrovert?

introvert

Crocus: Have you ever been in love?

ooooh yeah

Crown Imperial: What’s the farthest you would go for someone you care about?

i mean. depends on what they want/need. distance wise? i’d travel the known universe for u

Cyclamen: Did you have a favorite stuffed animal as a child? What was it?

he was a plaid teddy bear his name was Stanley!!!! i miss him :( but now i have Little Moon God as my favourite stuffed animal

Daffodil: What’s your zodiac sign?

Libro

Dahlia: Have you done anything worth remembering?

Working in Yellowstone is something I’ll never forget

Daisy: What do you feel is your greatest accomplishment?

well. hmm. i was gonna say flying to yellowstone but maybe driving to north carolina by myself bc driving long distances alone to places i haven’t been before gives me hella anxiety (i’m better now)

Daylily: What would you do if your parents didn’t like your partner(s)?

i don’t pay rent in this house to listen to their opinions lmao.

Dendrobium: Who is the last person that you said “I love you” to?

you, i think, when we said goodnight last night!!! EDIT: you this morning!!

False Goat’s Beard: What is something you are good at?

being bad at dead by daylight

Foxgloves: What’s something you’re bad at?

dead by daylight

Freesia: What are three good things that have happened in the past month?

(little over a month now but uhhh) GOT A UH ......GIRL.....FRIEND ...... GOT TO VISIT GIRLFRIEND ........ and got the windshield finally replaced in my car

Garden Cosmos: How was your day today?

i dont know! so far ive laid in bed now im at my computer answering this. not too bad. my shift is only 4 hours today.

Gardenia: Are you happy with where you’re at in your life?

for the most part, i’m pretty content, yeah

Gladiolus: What is something you hope to do in the next year or two?

MOVE OUT

Glory-of-the-Snow: What are ten things that make you happy/you’re grateful to have in your life?

my friends, my mom, my sisters, my girlfriend, my bastard dog

Heliotropium: What helps you calm down when you feel stressed?

metal

Hellebore: How do you show affection?

what does this mean. physically, i’m very affectionate, i just. don’t show it alot bc anxiety/i overthink. that and i constantly tell ppl i love them and what they mean to me

Hoary Stock: What are you proudest of?

whoever is reading this

Hollyhock: Describe your ideal day.

wake up next 2 a cute girl. take way too long to get up. go climb mountain w cute girl. vibe on mountain w cute girl. go to waffle house 2gether. gome home and vibe. play video games or watch a movies/tv w cute girl.

Hyacinth: What do you like to do in your free time?

i like to make art or play bideo jame

Hydrangea: How long have you known your best friend? How did you meet them?

oh gosh i dunno. the ones i’ve known the longest are kasey and brandi, and i’ve known them both around/over a decade i think. we met in middle/highschool!

Irises: Who can you talk to about (almost) everything?

you, ivy, liz

Laceleaf: How many friends do you have?

so many

Lantanas: What’s the best compliment you’ve ever received?

idk man but i remember when you said u had a crush on me and then i posted a selfie and u were like ‘OH NO SHE’S CUTE” and like ??? idk i think that was definitely the first compliment to ever shock me LMAO

Larkspur: What do you think of yourself?

6.9/10

Lavender: What’s your favorite thing about yourself?

my tattoos

Leather Flower: What’s your least favorite thing about yourself?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGGViLwHEUk

Lilac: What’s something you liked to do as a child?

i liked to play zombies ate my neighbors on the sega genesis !!!!

Lily: Who was your best friend when you were a kid?

eliza !!!! we lost touch a few years after i moved away :(

Lily of the Incas: What is something you still feel guilty for?

ima be real everything makes me feel guilty

Lily of the Nile: What is something you feel guilty for that you shouldn’t feel guilty about?

aaaaaa the whole abi/moon incident

Lupine: What does your name mean? Why is that your name?

my name is fox. it means i like foxes

Marigold: Where did you grow up? Tell us about it.

northern virginia babey !!!! that place fucking sucks!!! but everyone who lives up there thinks they’re hot shit.

Morning Glory: What was your bedroom like growing up?

i had a bunkbed and i think the walls were pink

Mugworts: What was it like for you as a teenager? Did you enjoy your teenage years?

😬 i’m just gonna say i’m much happier now and i’m coping with life and shit a lot better

Norwegian Angelica: Tell us about your mom.

she’s sweet and funny and i love her so much!! she always does the Most for everyone, sometimes to the point where she isn’t concerned abt herself and i see where i get it from. but yeah my mom is great, my dad doesn’t deserve her

Onions: Tell about your dad.

source of a lot of trauma and why i have so many issues regarding men. i don’t wanna talk about him anymore LOL he doesn’t deserve the attention

Orchid: Tell about your grandparents.

my dad’s mom is becoming senile and i think she’s racist and queerphobic. my mom’s parents disowned her a few years ago so we don’t talk to them anymore

Pansy: What was your most memorable birthday? What made it be so memorable?

i dunno. i don’t try to remember my birthdays. whenever i can go to busch gardens for my birthday i usually have a lot of fun there.

Peony: What was your first job?

if you don’t wanna count working w my mom as a florist, target was my first job back in 2016. i found my name tag the other day , actually

Petunia: If you’re in a relationship, how did you meet your partner(s)? If you’re not in a relationship, how did you meet your crush/how do you hope to meet your future partner(s), if you want any?

WELL, i know you followed me on here first. and then twitter?? but we didn’t really start talking until stranger things 3 came out (thank u stranger things) PHYSICALLY, we didn’t meet until fursonacon (haha. i remember when u texted me that u got to the hotel and i came down to help n i saw u unloading yr car and it was then that my brain was like OH NOOOOOOOO and my heart was like OH YEEEEAAAAAAAH)

Pincushion: How do you deal with pain?

physical, mental, or emotional? i play a video game or listen to loud music

Pink: Where is home?[

somewhere in appalachia i can feel it in my stupid soul

Plantain Lilies: If you could go back in time, what is one thing you would stop/change?

idk man i’m pretty content w where i’m at now so

Prairie Gentian: Who is someone you look up to? Describe them.

chester bennington

Primrose: Describe your ideal life.

i have a waife and we have many great pets and we live in a log cabin in the mountains or in a nice victorian in a small town or something IDK but we’re happy and that’s all that matters

Rhodendron: What is something you used to believe in as a child?

God

Ricinus: Who’s the most important in your life?

my mom, me best friends, my girlfriend

Rose: What’s your favorite sound?

my girlfriend’s laugh because it’s THE cutest shit and then when she giggles??? oh my heart

Rosemallows: What’s your favorite memory?

oct 23rd, 2005, we brought Fat Boy Zack home !!!!

Sage: What’s your least favorite memory?

July 22nd, 2016. i was 2200 miles away

Snapdragon: At this moment, what do you want?

to be holding my girlfriend >:(

St. John’s Wort: Is it easy or difficult for you to express how you feel about things?

hhhhhhhhhheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Sunflower: What is something you don’t want to imagine life without?

those i hold dear

Sweet Pea: How much sleep did you get last night?

enough, i guess?

Tickseed: What’s your main reason to get up every morning?

my girlfriend

Touch-Me-Not: How do you feel about your current job?

it’s fucking BORING and TOO EASY and they don’t pay me ENOUGH but i can get away with so much shit there so ima still go, ima still go

Transvaal Daisy: What’s your favorite item of clothing?

all of the flannels currently in my possession

Tropical White Morning Glory: Describe your aesthetic.

mountains, woods, forests, cabins, autumn, cryptic, occult, victorian, edwardian

Tulip: What would be the best present to get you?

if someone gets me a gift i’m legally required to execute them

Vervain: What’s stressing you out most right now?

this 40hr workweek i got coming up

Wisteria: How many books have you read in the past few months? What were they called?

i have not read in So Long

Wolf’s Bane: Where do you want to be in life this time next year?

Moved out away from here lol, we’ll see

Yarrow: Do you know what vore is?

Zinnia: Give a random fact about yourself.

i’m a furry

that was SO LONG im sorry i also put you through that but THANK YOU ENJOY READING ILU

#littlecation #ask #long post

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goodgodbean · 7 years

Text

Written On This Skin - Soulmate! Luke Hemmings

A/N - Hey! This is a complete version of my series of Written on this skin, which was a 13 part series. This is 13,447 words. I’m sorry for those who don’t want to read this and have to endure endless scrolling.

Masterlist

+++

“‘History test - Tuesday, Psych hw pages 120-124’, and oh look ‘coffee with Tom 5pm.’ Its like she forgets she has a Soulmate!” Luke wines to his bandmate, Ashton. Ashton was the only one left who would listen to his nagging about a soulmate.

Once your soulmate is born, whatever you write on your skin will appear on their’s. With the annoying exception of specific locations and full names. Luke particularly didn't like that rule, because whenever he tried to write to his soulmate he could never put his full name down.

Trying to communicate with your soulmate through writing is very common, and most of the time people find loopholes to the system, song lyrics for example. But Luke’s soulmate was not having it. She wouldn't respond to anything he wrote. Instead just putting little notes for herself on her body. It drove Luke crazy, looking at all these little notes about her life, but not being able to be there with her.

“Ashton, I’m never going to find her,” Luke whines. Ashton shakes his head, “Maybe its not a her” He says with a smirk

Luke groans at Ashton’s antics. “Let me check…. Yeah I’m positive its a her.” Luke snaps back, causing Ashton to laugh. “I just wish i could be like… Hey its me Luke Hemmings and then like meet her at a concert or something,” Luke dreams

“You’re so lazy.” Ashton accused. “It should be more natural than that. ‘Hey Im Luke Hemmings come find me’” Ashton says, mocking the boy next to him.

“But that’s exactly what you did. You told Emily that you were the drummer in 5 seconds of summer, and you met at a concert” Luke accused back at the drummer.

“So? You can’t just take our story” Emily says coming into the room. The rest of the boys from 5sos had already found their soulmates, Luke is the last one still stuck wondering. Luke liked the rest of the girls, they were down to earth and they are all fans of 5sos previously.

“Hey, Em, How should I get my soulmates attention?” Luke asks the girl, who sat down next to Ash. It’s common to have the girls on tour with them since after a few days of not seeing your soulmate, you will get ill or be in physical pain. Emily contemplates the question for a second before saying, “Have you tried to write her some song lyrics?” “You mean like Michael and Jackie?” Luke asks, trying to remember their soul story.

“Damn, I forgot about that!” Emily yells, causing a scolding from Ash for swearing. “I don't know, do what feels right”

“What feels right right now is to call her out on stage,” Luke mutters, but Ashton and Emily hear him.

“Do what?”

“Thats a bad idea” Emily and Ashton say this at the same time, causing them to look at each other and smile. Then they are back to serious-problem-solving-couple.

“Have you never read a fanfic?” Emily asks, her eyes wide.

“Not really,” Luke answers scratching the back of his neck.

“Well, I’ll tell you how this ends. Thousands of girls are going to claim to be your soulmate, and then you are going to actually think one of them is, and then one day your going to discover that they aren't and you and your soulmate are going to be heartbroken. Trust me Luke. Let fate do its thing.” Emily explains to Luke. Luke doesn't have a comeback this time.

He stares angrily at his skin.

Y/N stares angrily at her skin.

She wishes she was clever enough to come up with song lyrics to tell him where she was and maybe who she is. When Y/N was younger she claimed that she wanted her soulmate to come naturally. No loopholes, no nothing. So here she was stuck writing stupid notes on her hand, so he at least knows she exists. He used to write back, with clever lyrics. It killed her to not respond.

Y/N gets a text on her phone suddenly. It’s her best friend. She had been blabbering on about a concert in a couple days that she couldn't get tickets to. You were a fan of the band but not a huge fan. She just texted you that she won some tickets. You decide to write a quick note on your arm about the concert

Luke is surprised when he sees whats written on his arm now.

“Guys look!” He yells, calling his bandmates and their girlfriends over. They all ooh and ahh at the ink on his arm.

+++

“5sos Thurs. 5pm” was written on Luke’s arm. He couldn't be happier. He was going to meet his soulmate in two days. His heart hasn't stopped beating wildly for the past hour when the note showed up. Maybe this is her way of communicating? Maybe she wanted him to come… well jokes on her he’s performing.

“How am i going to find her though?” Luke asks the group… again. When the news spread among the band that she was going to be at the concert everyone was excited and jumping around. Now, an hour later, everyone has dulled a little, well except for Luke.

This will complete everything that Luke has ever wanted. Luke wanted to be in a good band with his best mates, check. Luke wants a soulmate to share his success with. He wants someone who he can bring along on tour with him and will enjoy it. Luke wants to give someone the world.

“Should I write back?” Luke asks his friends. They all perk up at the new proposition.

“Um Fuck yeah!” Yells Emily, Ashton’s soulmate.

“Don’t fucking swear” Ashton scolds, just as he did to the band in the early days.

“I don’t care… Im punk rock!” Emily yells, stealing Michaels infamous line. She throws her hands into the air. Ashton takes the chance to squeeze her sides making her giggle like a little girl. Luke watches this all go down, excited that one day soon he will have that. He will have a girl that he can tease, and love. And she will love him back too.

“Hey thats my line!” Michael yells playfully.

Luke turns to the rest of the group, “What do you think?” Everyone nods in agreement with Emily. Luke is practically jumping in his seat now. “what should i write?”

“Something mysterious,” Says Jackie, Michael’s soulmate. She pops a can of soda open and take a huge gulp. Michael reaches to the bottom of the can and pretends to lift up. The rest of the group laughs at what could’ve happened if Michael decided to shove the can.

“How about something simple, like hey ima be there too,” Calum proposes, being sensible for once. Luke nods along to the idea.

“How about a little of both? Mysterious yet simple?” Emily proposes. She grabs Jackie’s can of soda and takes a big swig out of it, causing Jackie to yell, “hey!”

Luke leans over and places his arm on the Desk in the Hotel room. Everybody crowds around awaiting what he is about to write.

He places the pen down on his arm and begins to write.

She places the pen down on the paper and begins to write.

Essays for this and Essays for that. There is always so much work to be done. It’s while Y/N is doing her work her arm begins to tickle. She looks down to see words appearing onto her arm after so long. “I’ll be looking out into the crowed for you” What the hell does that mean? He’ll be looking out into the crowed? You look at the other things you’ve written on your arm as if it’ll give you an explanation. You finally spot something that may be of help. “5sos Thurs. 5pm” Was he talking about that concert?

You faintly remember that all the boys had their soulmates, but to check you look it up. Luke Hemmings. He was the only one who didn’t have a soulmate. Then you think its ridiculous and look up the opening act, Hey Violet. The two boys in the band had already found their soulmates, and you were pretty sure you weren't into girls.

So you were left with Luke Hemmings. Lead singer. Loved by many. It was a split second decision. You know it was going against your promise, but you had to write back.

“‘Lead Singer?’ guys! she wrote back!” Luke yelled, even though his friends were only a few feet away. Everybody quickly starts to ask him what it says.

“She asked if i was the lead singer!” Luke yells, he grabs a marker and writes back.

“Yes” Was the immediate response Y/N got. Her breath hitches.

“Two days” Is what Luke got in return. He would see his soulmate in two days.

+++

It seemed to good to be true. The radio station had given Y/N and Alyssa (your friend who won the tickets), backstage passes too. She was going to be able to see him before the show. He was going to know who Y/N was, in just a couple of hours.

This is when it begun.

First It was the curling iron. Alyssa’s hair just has to be curled, because if Michael saw her, there was no way she would have strait hair. So Y/N had to go to the store to get a curling iron, but only a specific type of curling iron. It had to be one with a ceramic iron. So Y/N got the correct curling iron after driving to about three stores to find it. Then once Alyssa’s hair is properly curled, you were off.

Second, you had started about an hour later than you planned, but you were scheduled to get there on time, well if it weren't for the traffic. When you think of traffic you think of plenty of cars on the road, but you were moving. Even if it was just a little. This was stand-still traffic. It would take you an hour to get there without traffic, but now it had taken five.

Y/N missed the concert. She missed the concert by a long shot. I they wouldn't even let the girls into the venue, since there was only about ten minutes left when they got there.

It killed Y/N to miss it. Not just miss the Meet & Greet, but the whole concert.

Luke had kept on putting little cute notes on his arm. They were small things like “I can’t wait to see you” or “I will always find you in a crowed” and the ever so famous words that Michael wrote on his arm, “Hey you got a bangin’ body” in which Luke wrote under “from Michael”

Luke assumed that when he got on stage, that he would get a feeling, or his eyes would meet her’s. Or any of the cliche’s that Emily, Ashton’s soulmate, was feeding him. But there was nothing. There was no feeling, no eye contact, and no explanation written on his skin.

When they all got off stage the first time, the boys all looked at Luke for an explanation. They were all prepared to stop in the middle of any song, just incase he found her. Luke never stopped though. He never stopped a song, and he never stopped looking for her.

“Did you see her?” Michael asks, bouncing on his toes.

“Nothing. I didn't see her. I didn't even feel like she was there!” Luke cried out. “Maybe its some joke that she's playing on me?” Luke wonders

“Thats a sick joke, if she is” Ashton says, and the other boys agree with him.

“C’mon we gotta go back onstage,” Luke says and they all run out again.

When the boys go back to the dressing room, the girls were waiting for them. Emily, Ashton’s soulmate comes running and jumps on Luke, causing Ashton to give out a little whine, “She’s my soulmate”

“Where is she? Where?” Emily says, bouncing around, trying to get a good look over Luke’s shoulder.

“She wasn’t out there,” Luke says gruffly, causing the whole room to still. The girls were very excited to meet the last person in their own foursome. The girls Emily, Jackie (Michaels soulmate), and Alex (Calum’s soulmate), all became very close with each other on tour. Although there always felt like something was missing in the small group of girls, they always assumed that it was because Luke’s soulmate wasn't there.

“What?” Emily says in complete surprise

“She wasn't out there,” Luke repeats pushing past the girls and flopping down on one of the couches. He looks down at his arm again, hoping that she would give him some type of explanation to why she just ditched him.

Its about an hour or so later when they leave the stadium to go to their hotel rooms. The stadium is empty, just like Luke’s heart. They ride up in the elevator, and break apart to go to their respective hotel rooms. Once again, Luke was left with a single king bed in his room, and nobody to share it with. He sits down and contemplates what could’ve happened tonight… if only she showed up!

Michael bursts into Luke’s room. “We’re getting McDonalds, wanna come?” He asks

‘No’ was ready on the edge of Lukes lips, but he just couldn't push it out. Instead he nods and goes with the blond boy.

“Lets go to McDonalds!” Y/N begs her friend, Alyssa.

“Why?”

“I’m hungry!” It was a lie. She wasn't hungry. She just didn't want to leave yet. Her soulmate was only going to be in this area for today and tomorrow, and she already wasted today. Y/N just wanted to stay in the area in hopes to see him. She didn’t write anything on her arm to tell him. What would she say? ‘hey sorry there was traffic?’ Pathetic. Alyssa didn't know to boot. How were you supposed to tell your best friend, “hey the guy your crushing on? In that band? Yeah he’s my soulmate”. Yeah, that wouldn't go over well. Alyssa would probably use it to boost her Twitter fame or message Luke. Y/N and Alyssa were sitting in a booth near the door when Alyssa spots them.

“Omg, Oh my lord, Its them!” She stage whispers to Y/N.

“Who?” Y/N asks turning in her seat. Alyssa reaches out and snags Y/N’s arm, pulling her back down into her seat.

“Don’t look!” Alyssa says like its the most obvious thing in the world. “Its Five Seconds of Summer!” She says with a little yelp and giggle. “And their soulmates,” Alyssa adds on darkly. Alyssa would like to say that the fandom liked the soulmates, and they totally do! But everyone in the fandom can’t help but be a little salty that they weren't 5sos’s soulmates. Luke is still up for grabs though. Nobody knows who his soulmate could be.

“I’m going to go talk to them” Y/N announces to Alyssa, about to stand up.

“What? are you crazy? You gotta play it cool!” Alyssa insist, standing up herself. Y/N lets out a little laugh at the memory of Alyssa’s last ‘playing it cool’ act.

Y/N leans back in her side of the booth. “go ahead, i’l watch from here!” Y/N says, just as Luke spots her.

+++

Luke couldn't breath. That was her, sitting in the booth, just across the McDonalds. He could take three steps (five for a regular sized person) and he would be in reaching distance with his soulmate. His heart couldn't take it. He takes a step towards her.

Luke’s friends looks at him with curiosity. Wondering why he was looking at some girl in the middle of a McDonalds like she was his hope.

Then it hit Emily, Ashton’s soulmate, like a ton of bricks, “Guys! Do you think that’s her?” Emily stage whispers to the rest. Everyone gives suspicious nods.

Then Luke bumps into Alyssa.

Y/N watches Luke and Alyssa from the booth. “Excuse me,” Luke says, trying to be polite, his attention was on the girl in the booth. He tries to step around Alyssa. Alyssa moves to block his way again.

“Oh! I am just so sorry!” Alyssa says. Y/N watches as she pretends to drop something and proceeds to stick her butt in Luke’s face. Y/N silently giggles from her seat a few feet away. Alyssa was not the smoothest person… like ever. Y/N stands slightly to get a better angle

Then Y/N makes eye contact with Luke. The whole world stopped. His eyes were as blue as the liquid they use in pad commercials. His dirty blonde hair flopped down across his forehead. He licked his lips, darkening the shade slightly.

Then Luke makes eye contact with her. The whole world stopped. Her hair, her clothes, she just looks perfect. You could say she looks so perfect standing there.

Y/N watches from a distance, although every inch of her body wanted to go to her soulmate. As much as she wants to actually meet Luke, Y/N also wanted to see what Alyssa would do next. A good friend would save her form embarrassment, a best friend would watch… then help. “Sorry!” Alyssa says again as Luke tries to move around her again and she blocks him… again. “Such a klutz!” She yells.

“Oh my lord! Move bitch!” The girl holding hands with Ashton yells. Her name is Emily if Y/N could remember it correctly. Alyssa looks taken aback and Y/N thinks this is a good time to say something.

“Hey! Don’t talk to my best friend like that!” Y/N yells back, moving out of the booth. Then she adds in a stage whisper, “bitch.” Emily gasps, tugging her hand out of Ashton’s.

“You want to go right now?” Emily yells, and Ashton places a hand on Emily’s shoulder. Y/N wasn’t sure if it was for reassurance or to hold her back, if necessary. Y/N is not one to back down from a fight, but now way was she a fighter herself. Luke looks at Y/N with wide eyes.

“You just insulted my best friend! Of course I’ll fight you!” Y/N screams. Everybody in the McDonalds is looking at them now. The employees were frozen in place, watching, but unsure of what to do. Do they call the cops? There wasn’t a fight… at least not yet. “Stop it!” Luke abruptly yells. It causes the two girls to shut up for a moment, giving Luke their attention. Luke turns to Emily, “Please shut up, she’s my soulmate!” He says in a stage whisper, hoping to sway her. Emily grumbles a little, but keeps her mouth shut. Then Luke does something nobody was expecting. He takes the last two steps between Y/N and him and wraps Y/N in his arms.

It’s like coming home, Y/N decides. Y/N never really had a home, she moved a lot and her parents were a nightmare. Luke, he felt warm, like baking cookies in the oven or talking to a best friend. He smelled of sweat, but Y/N didn’t mind.

It took a minute, but Luke finally breaks apart from her. It felt to Y/N as if she is suddenly missing something. She is missing his warmth.

“I thought you said you were going to be at the concert,” Luke says, cupping Y/N’s face in his hands.

“There was traffic, and a curling iron mishap,” Y/N begins to explain when suddenly she heard a screech. Y/N quickly pulls away from Luke to face her best friend, Alyssa.

“YOU KNEW!” Alyssa yells so loud that the restaurant shakes a little. “How long?” Alyssa demands.

“A few days,” Y/N says shyly.

“A FEW DAYS?” Alyssa yells again, in disbelief. “You didn’t tell me for a few days? I thought we told each other everything!” Alyssa yells, broken hearted.

“How was i supposed to tell you?” Y/N says despretly, she looks around at the restaurant for an answer. Y/N notices a few phones pulled out and pointed, no doubtedly on the camera app. “Let’s not do this here, Alyssa,” Y/N begs.

“You didn't tell me about Tom, you didn't tell me about the trip to Paris, and now this? Are we even friends?”

“Alyssa..”

“You went on that trip and didn't tell me! You were gone for days, and you wouldn't pick up your phone!” Alyssa yells. Y/N had really messed up this time. Y/N, over the past few years had a streak with Alyssa of not telling her what was going on in her life, breaking their first and vital rule as best friends: tell each other everything.

Tears were streaming down Y/N’s face now, Luke reaches over to wipe them away, but Y/N instinctively swats his hand away. “I said I was sorry! I’m sorry I didn’t tell you! I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about Luke!”

“Sorry isn't enough this time! I hope you have fun with your new friends.” With that Alyssa storms out.

Y/N was out of words. What just happened? One second she was defending her friend, then she met her soulmate? Then she gets into a fight with her friend? Y/N is left in the middle of McDonalds looking around for her own answer. Emily opens her mouth to speak, but Ashton quickly puts a hand over it, silencing whatever she was about to say.

Y/N turns to Luke, knowing what she had to do next. “I have to go after her,” Y/N says, as the only explanation. Then Y/N ran out into the warm summer night after her friend.

Luke was left in a McDonalds, phones pointed at him, his friends staring, and with absolutely nothing. He has nothing of her, not even a name. He didn't have a phone number. He didn't have a picture. The only thing he had was a memory.

+++

Y/N runs out of the restaurant. Her head is still spinning. It seemed like everything was going okay and then it all turned on the head. She still couldn’t really grasp what happened. All Y/N knows now is that she needs to find her best friend. Y/N’s head is on a swivel, looking left and right.

Y/N lets out a small breath of relief, when she spots Alyssa’s tight ringlets. Y/N rushes over to the girl, wrapping her arms around her body.

“Alyssa…” Y/N says.

“What?” Alyssa snaps, wriggling out of Y/N’s hold and snapping around to look at her.

“I’m sorry.”

“You always say that! And I always forgive you! Y/N… this was your soulmate. All I wanted was to be excited for you and experience it with you! Instead you ignore me!” Alyssa yells, grabbing tightly onto Y/N’s arms, trying to get her point across.

“I’m sorry! I was just so worried about what you might say or do, if I told you he was Luke Hemmings.” You try to explain, “I was worried you might try something or I don’t know,”

“You do know though,” Alyssa accused correctly.

“Yeah. I was worried that you would be jealous and try to use me to get to my soulmate,” You admit, worried what she might say.

“I’m a friend first, Y/N. I’m a fangirl second,” Alyssa says. And thats all you need to embrace each other again. “I still don't forgive you about the Paris thing though,” Alyssa says, surprising Y/N, “But I will forget,” Alyssa ends, causing both girls to laugh for a second.

They only laughed for a second, because then Alyssa’s big clunky purse was stolen. The girls glance at each other for a moment before running after the criminal. The girls were both in track, and although the guy was fast, the girls had technique to fall back onto. When reaching the guy, Y/N jumps onto his back, bringing him down, due to his unsteadiness. Alyssa reaches the thief second, she grabs her purse and proceeds to kick the man on his side. Y/N stands up herself and proceeds to do the same.

So thats how the three of them, a robber, Alyssa, and Y/N ended up in the back of a cop car. The girls were in there for Public Assault, while the robber for, well, robbing. The girls look at each other and gives out a silent giggle. This is one hell of a night.

This is one hell of a night, Luke thought. He and the rest of the band decide to get food and wait, hopefully Luke’s soulmate would come back. Luke thinks over his night. His soulmate missed his concert, but he found her in a McDonalds, picking a fight with Emily (Ashton’s soulmate). Then once Luke gets Emily to shut up, her friend… Alyssa was it? She starts yelling at his soulmate. Then Alyssa storms out, causing Y/N to leave only saying, “I have to go after her.” So yeah, it’s been one hell of a night for Luke.

It was about and hour or so later, since they finished their meal, and still no sign of Luke’s soulmate. Luke finds himself tapping to an unknown beat, and ignoring his friends conversation. All Luke can do is stare at he door, hoping that his mysterious soulmate would appear. Its another hour later when Alex, Calum’s soulmate suggests that they go back to the hotel. “No” was Luke’s first response.

“She might go to the Hotel,” Alex tries to rationalize.

“No, I’m sure she’ll come here,” Luke demands. The rest of the group nods a little, but Alex continues to push.

“How about some of us go to the hotel, just incase?” Alex says. Luke suspects that she is just tired. Of all the girls, Luke has spend the least time with Alex. So there is not much allegiance between the two of them. A wave of anger washes over Luke, didn’t Alex realize how important this is? She had already found her soulmate, but Luke is left empty. Didn’t she remember when she first met Calum? Didn’t she remember the best day of her life? Didn't she realize that the best day of his life was just pulled out from under Luke’s feet?

“She has a point,” Calum says after a few beats of nothing. Luke nods, understanding. If his soulmate was here he would back her up no matter what happened. “Me and Alex will go back,” Calum says, standing with Alex. They are about to walk away from the table when Luke speaks.

“Please just stay in the Lobby? Just incase?” Luke asks of his friend. Luke knows that plenty of fans know where they're staying, and so one girl, claiming to be Luke’s soulmate would not be let through. Even if she was the real thing. Calum gives Luke a subtle nod and they leave.

Luke places his head in his hands. Its been three hours since they finished their food. He could tell that everybody just wanted to go back to the hotel. They stayed for Luke though.

“Luke,” Ashton says, breaking the silence. The noise of talking died out about a half hour ago. Now all was left was little comments. “Luke, look at my phone,” Ashton passes his phone over to his friend. Then there she was. Luke lifts the phone, gently into his hands. On the phone is a video that was posted to twitter of Luke’s soulmate shouting at Emily, Luke hugging her, and then Alyssa shouting at his soulmate. The caption on the tweet, “Luke’s soulmate?” There wasn't a clear picture of her, her back faced towards the camera. But Luke would know her anywhere.

Luke looks up for the first time in a while. Hope is written on Ashton’s and Emily’s eyes. reassurance was in Mikey’s eyes, and Jackie (Michael’s soulmate) is sleeping on Michael’s shoulder. Although Calum and Alex wasn't here, he knew that they would be in the lobby, waiting for her to show up. All Luke could think about is how lucky he is to have these friends. That and he understands why she had to leave.

“Um, I’m sorry but you have to leave,” An employee says, sneaking up on the group. They collectively jump. They give him a dumb look. “It’s midnight, and we need to close,” He says as an explanation.

So they all stood, Mikey woke up Jackie, and they left. All Luke could think, is why didn't she come back?

+++

It’s the Morning when Y/N and Alyssa are released from the Police station. They had a court date in hand, and they were free to go. Alyssa has her phone whipped out in her had as Y/N calls a taxi.

“Did you find it yet?” Y/N asks anxiously. She tries to peer over at Alyssa’s phone, but Alyssa expertly moves it away.

“I’m trying, I’m trying!” Alyssa yells as the taxi pulled up. “Got it!” Alyssa yells, stepping into the taxi. Alyssa gives and Address to the driver and they are off.

When they arrive, there is a crowed of girls bunched at the door. They scream for Calum and his soulmate Alex. Y/N and Alyssa push through the crowed, (not easily, mind you) and they reach the door where there is a body guard posted. Y/N pushes past Alyssa to talk to the guard.

He beats her to the punch though, “May I see your keycard miss?” He asks, focusing his attention to Y/N.

“I don’t have one,” Y/N says, and is about to continue when he cuts her off.

“No keycard, no entry, sorry,” He says, not sounding sorry at all.

“Please let me in, Luke’s my soulmate,” Y/N begs, knowing that this is her only way in.

“Hah,” The body guard gives out a half-laugh, “That’s what they all say!” With that he dismisses the girls.

Y/N and Alyssa take a look at each other, before starting to scream with the rest of the girls. They yelled for Calum and Alex, who was standing in the Lobby of the hotel talking, and occasionally looking out into the crowed.

Then Calum spots her. It’s the girl that Luke claims to be his soulmate. She showed up. “Oh my god!” Calum says, rushing to the door. Alex, Calum’s soulmate, looks at him in curiosity. Calum turns around, “Thats her right?” Calum asks and Alex gives him an encouraging nod.

Calum saw her, they were in. The girls stood inside of the hotel lobby, looking at Calum and Alex. “So you’re Luke’s soulmate?” Calum asks Y/N. She nods, “Cool what’s your name?”

“Y/N” She responds. After a few beats of silence, she talks again, “Where is Luke?”

Luke slept in the Lobby last night, in hopes that she would show up at the hotel. Then, in the morning when she didn’t show, he left for the McDonalds with Emily, Ashton, Jackie, and Michael. They left Calum and Alex back at the Hotel just incase she went there. The fans had all had found her twitter account, after seeing the video of her, and so the boys followed her. His soulmate wasn't following the boy’s twitter though so they couldn’t DM her.

Luke’s leg begins to vibrate, causing Luke to whip out his phone to look at the caller ID. Once he sees the name on the screen, he quickly picks it up.

“Calum? Whats going on? Did you find her?” His questions come out all at once. Spilling from his mouth like truths. Ashton, Emily, Jackie, and Michael’s eyes were quickly on the boy. They look at him with interest, ready to hear what Calum has to say.

“Um, It’s not Calum,” Says a female voice over the phone. Her voice sounds angelic. Like an orchestra playing. Luke knows immediately who it is, sitting up straighter, he prepares himself for the conversation at hand.

“Yeah?” Luke asks to fill the silence.

“Yeah, It’s Y/N,” She says. Luke silently mouthes the name, testing it on his lips. “um your soulmate?” She adds on, to jog his memory.

“I’ll be at the Hotel in five minutes,” Luke says standing up, causing the rest of the group to stand also.

“Okay,” She says and Luke hangs up the phone. He could talk to her all day, but he’d rather talk to her in person. Luke bursts through the McDonalds door and start running. The rest of his friends start sprinting behind him, calling his name occasionally. All Luke could think about is getting to the Hotel. When outside the Hotel, Luke and the rest are bombarded. Luke continues to push his way through the crowed, forgetting manners. When Luke reaches the door, the body guard immediately recognizes him and opens the door. Luke mumbles out a quick thanks, but then he sees her.

“Oh my god,” Luke whispers running to Y/N and wrapping her in a hug. He pulls her head to his chest and cradles her there. He can’t believe he found her; his soulmate. She breaths out, and takes a deep breath of his scent. He smelt like McDonalds and sweat, but she knew that she would grow to love it. It’s a minute or so before Y/N speaks.

“Luke-“ She begins to say, trying to pull away.

“Let’s talk upstairs?” Luke quickly asks. Y/N nods along to his idea, and the nine of them travel to the Elevator and to Luke’s room.

Luke, and Y/N sit on the bed, next to each other and Luke catches Y/N’s hand in his own; causing red to spread across Y/N’s cheeks. Alyssa stays standing next to Y/N. Michael sits on a chair next to the bed and Jackie sits on his lap. Emily and Alex sit on the bed next to Luke.

“So who the hell are you?” Emily asks, nodding her head to Alyssa. Y/N is prepared to jump up and defend her best friend, but with a sharp tug on her arm by Luke she says sitting.

“She’s my best friend, I thought I made that clear,” Y/N growls. Her guard is up, and she is ready to jump up incase of another attack on her friend.

“Y/N calm down,” Alyssa says, her stance also defensive.

“She shouldn't talk to you, or anyone that way!” Y/N says. Emily herself looks like she is ready to fight.

“Don’t tell me what to do!” Emily yells, defending herself.

Alyssa and Y/N ignore her this time. Their eyes meet and they both silently agree that she isn't worth their time. “Luke what are we going to do?” Y/N ask her soulmate.

“What do you mean?” Luke asks genuinely curious.

“I mean, what are we going to do about being apart? If we’re apart for too long we’ll get sick” Y/N says

“Simple, you come on tour with us,” Luke easily proposes. He doesn’t see why this is so much of an issue. The other girls did it.

“I can’t come on tour with you,” Y/N says, and the whole room freezes.

+++

There is a collective breath in the room before it starts.

“What?” “Why?”

“What do you mean can’t come on tour?”

The boys and their girl’s shouted these things at Y/N making her want to curl up in a ball and leave. It was true though, she couldn't go on tour. She is in the middle of Finals Week in her last year of College. There is no way she's giving up her dream for her Soulmate. Y/N has always wanted more. Everybody else seems content just having a soulmate, but Y/N wants a life. A life outside of her relationship.

“I mean, I can’t come on tour. At least not for a few days. Its finals week,” Y/N says, looking directly at Luke.

The shouting starts. They boys yell to screw school and that her soulmate is more important than an education. Their girls start off at the boys side, but slowly start to side with Y/N and Alyssa. The girls draw upon their own lives and what they gave up to be with the boys.

“I was going to be a doctor!”

“So your job is more ‘important’ than my dream job?”

“I may not have had a plan, but I didn’t need you,”

These are all quotes from the girls yelling at the boys. The boys, excluding Luke, yell back their own small comments, but what could they say? The girls did give up their lives to be on tour with the boys. Sure they seems to enjoy it, but they always had other dreams outside of the boys and their dreams.

“What should we do?” Luke whispers to Y/N. The yelling of the girls and boys continue in the background, but neither Y/N nor Luke is worried about them. They’re soulmates, they’ll work it out. They have to. It’s written into their genes.

“I have to finish Finals. I’ll come to wherever you are in like four days?” Y/N asks. She had been thinking about this for hours now. She couldn't ask Luke to leave the band for her, so he can’t ask her to leave her life to go to him. “Okay,” Luke says agreeing to her plan. It’s not that Luke didn't think that Y/N would have her own life before him, he just thought that he life wouldn't be so much of a problem. He just thought that she would want to be with him, her soulmate, more than she would want to be…well whatever her profession was. Was being her soulmate not enough for her? Was being Luke Hemmings not enough? He is successful, and he’s always told how handsome he is. What else could he do?

“Do you have a phone charger?” Y/N asks. Her phone died sometime during the police investigation, and she needed to check some things for a school project.

“Sure” Luke says, taking her phone and plugging it into his charger. The couples were still fighting about god-knows-what. They had moved off the topic of what they had to give up to be with the boys and were spread out into their own arguments now.

“Yo!” Alyssa suddenly yells, shutting everybody up.

“What?” Jackie says annoyed. Her finger is poised into Michaels chest. Michael looks more frightened than he ever has before.

“Nothing, this is just getting stupid. And we have the computer final in three hours,” Alyssa says looking at Y/N, “So what are the two of you going to do?” She says bluntly.

“I’ll catch up to the tour in four days; after finals,” Y/N says. All the girls give approving nods. While the boys look a little bug eyed. “What if Luke gets sick,”

“We can’t lose out lead singer,”

“Just come with us”

Emily grabs Ashton’s collar and tugs him down to her height. “You are Lucky she is willing to come on this stupid tour,” Emily looks at the rest of the guys now, “So shut up,” She says darkly. Y/N and Alyssa make eye contact after Emily says her thing; they both whisper a quick “Damn.” Michael, still looks frightened, while Calum stage whispers, “Whipped.” Luke just stays seated on the bed looking at Y/N like its the last time he’s going to see her. Y/N stands, preparing herself for what she is about to say.

“Alyssa is right, I need to go,” Y/N says, then she leans down and kisses Luke on the cheek, leaving the whole room surprised. She grabs her phone off the charger, a glowing 5% lit up in the top corner. It will have to do. Y/N and Alyssa are halfway out the door when Luke yells.

“Wait!” He yells, Y/n and Alyssa turn around, expecting the worse. Luke just takes Y/N’s phone out of her hand and inserts his name and number into it. “Okay baby,” He says, then leaning down to peck Y/N on her cheek. The girls ‘aww” in the background, followed by groans from the boys.

“I’ll see you in four days,”

“Four days,”

Then she left, again.

+++

“All will come to a happy end” Y/N whispers to herself. She was on her way to Holmdel New Jersey. Thats where the boys were today, along with their soulmates. She just finished her last semester at college. Her final grades will be in soon. Y/N is secretly happy that she chose a career that she can do on the road with Luke.

What Y/N was not happy about was the twitter notifications. It had been after her Computer final. She doesn't have notifications on regularly, but if she had they would've been bombarded. When Y/N saw the little red bubble in the corner of her app with over one hundred notifications on it she was shocked, and a little scared. Y/N is always happy with being unknown. She loved being anonymous, having nobody know her, having nobody pry into her private life. Y/N would have to admit that she would miss it. It’s inevitable now that she’s the Luke Hemming’s soulmate that people would be curious. Y/N understood their curiosity to some extent. She understood that they loved Luke and wanted to make sure she was treating him well. She sometimes looked up celebrities and did the same thing. Did they really need to know her middle name though? Or the town she grew up in? It was ridiculous. Why do they have to care about her? She is just supposed to be a nobody, but here she was, soulmates to Luke Fucking Hemmings.

Y/N arrives at the Hotel and parks her car in the lot. Outside the doors there was bunches of fans. Y/n expected to just walk through, unstopped, because she is a nobody right? Wrong. When the fans get a first glimpse of her, her name “Y/N” and “Luke’s soulmate” ran through he crowed of girls. They don’t move from the door though, not wanting to give up their spots. When she gets in reaching distance there is asks for her picture and autograph, which amazes her. Why do they care?

Y/N takes a few awkward pictures, and signs a few random strips of paper and walks inside. She never thought she would have to do that. She never wanted to do that. She only did it because she had waited outside of hotels before, trying to get a glimpses of her favorite bands. She knows what its like to be ignored before.

Luke and her have been texting and they were staying in the same hotel room on the fourth floor. He was in soundcheck right now, so she would have to get the keycard from one of the girls that was left behind. Y/N tugs on her suitcase to bring it into the hotel elevator next to her and presses the button labeled “4.” Thats when the dreaded thinking starts. She feels so torn right now. There is Luke, but there is also her career. She left Alyssa for Luke, but if she could choose who would she choose? Probably Alyssa. Y/N doesn't know Luke that well. She knows that one day she will love Luke, but right now, she feels more loyal to Alyssa. Does that make her a bitch? Probably. Y/N wants a career outside of Luke. She needs to feel productive, not just a trophy wife. or girlfriend. or whatever they are. She settles it in her mind, she may have had to leave Alyssa, but she won’t leave her career. As soon as she settles on this the door to the elevator opens.

She makes her way down to room number 127, which is supposedly Ashton and Emily’s room. The door swings open to reveal a Jackie, and behind her Emily and Alex. “Hey,” Y/N says suddenly nervous. They all look skeptical of her, but Y/N couldn't blame them. Every time they have seen each other, there has been yelling. “Luke said to get the keycard from one of you?” Y/N asks nervously, her bag next to her.

Jackie motions her to come inside the room. Y/N steps into the room and Emily stands and gets a card off the dresser. Emily holds out the card and Y/N reaches for the card, but Alex beats to it, snatching it out of Emily’s hand. “So tell us about yourself?” Alex says waving the card around. Y/N takes a deep breath.

“Um, well…” Y/N trails off, “What do you want to know?” She asks finding her words.

“Do you stan the band?” Jackie suddenly asks.

“Do I what?”

“Do you stan the band? Do you like 5sos?” Jackie asks again in a ‘duh’ tone.

“Sure?” Y/N says it as a question. The other girls look at her skeptically. “I mean, I’m not a huge fan, but I never hated their music…” Y/N trials off again, hoping she didn't just make it worse.

“Omg same,”Alex suddenly breaths out, causing a quick “what?” from the other girls. “I was never a big fan until i was one of their soulmates! And then once I said I was a fan everybody assumed i was some big fangirl, which I’m not.” Alex says quickly, to the surprise of the other girls. “I love them now, obviously,” She says in a ‘duh’ tone.

“I was always a big fan,” Emily says, having Jackie agree with her. “Tell me you at least know who ketchup is?” Emily says with begging eyes.

“Who?” Y/N and Alex reply. Emily and Jackie groan at their obliviousness. “Do you remember that Hannah Montana episode where they rubbed their hands in ketchup?” Y/N says after a few beats of silence. The other girls laugh, remembering the episode.

“I remember trying that!” Jackie yells, causing the other girls to laugh at her stupidness. “Hey! I was like seven, don’t laugh!” Jackie says, trying to defend herself.

“I remember when I was seven, I broke my arm playing golf,” Alex pauses, causing the other girls to scream “how the hell did you break your arm playing golf?” Alex just shrugs her shoulders and continues with the story, “After the hospital, i put ketchup all over the cast because my brother said it would make my arm feel better,” Alex finishes the story, looking at the gasps of horror on the other girl’s faces. “I remember when my brother was like ten and i was seven, My brother and his friend were play sword fight in the driveway, but there were no more plastic swords and i wanted to play, so i took a golf club and clubbed my brother in the head!” Y/N says, the girls look at her in horror until Y/N adds that everyone was fine. All the girls break down laughing then.

They all sit there for a while, forgetting about Luke’s room, talking about stupid things they did when they were younger. Then Alex checks the time.

“We should probably go to diner now if we want to make the concert,” Alex says.

“Yeah, let me put my suitcase in my room?” Y/N asks. As they are walking to her room, Y/N asks another question, “Do you guys always go to the concerts?”

“Not really anymore.” Emily replies, “We’re going tonight since it’s your first night and all,” She explains. Then Y/N remembers something.

“I’m sorry by the way, for yelling at you?” Y/N apologizes. Emily nods along to what Y/N says and accepts the apology saying, “that you were just trying to protect your friend.”

Y/N slips her keycard into the door 128 and it opens. She walks inside, flipping on the light. Y/N gasps under her breath, and swears a little. There is only one bed in the room. She is sleeping with Luke tonight.

+++

Luke bites his lip, and tries to relax. It seems impossible. His muscles are tightening, causing his strumming to be irregular and awkward. He could tell by the looks of Calum and the other band members that, he wasn’t doing so hot. They were at soundcheck right now. Luke is so nervous for Y/N to see him that its affecting his playing. He is forgetting lyrics and strumming the wrong chords.

“Luke what’s going on?” Calum asks him, as they leave the stage.

“I don’t know, I’m just nervous,” Luke says, trying to rationalize his feelings. It was the first time Y/N would see the band play, after all. The boys were supposed to meet the girls for diner in about a half hour, so they all go quickly change into something less sweaty and are on their way.

When they arrive, Jackie, Alex, Emily and Y/N were already sitting at the table, the four seats across from them open. Luke hangs back a little. The other boys give their respective soulmates a kiss and sit across. Luke just looks at the back of her head, imagining the last image of her face he can remember. The blush from his kiss, the sweat from the night gleaming on her forehead, and the worry in her eyes. Now he is ready for a new image of her.

She looks beautiful, is all he can think as he catches the first glimpses of her. Her hair is long, but not too long, basically glowing in the light. Her eyes glimmer with hope? maybe a little anxiety? She seems relaxed with the girls, but once the group of guys came, she seemed to freeze a little.

Luke walks over to her seat and offers her his hand. She is already staring at him, quickly looking between him and his hand. Then she takes it. Luke pulls her up into his body, hugging her tightly. Luke, looking at the rest of the group sees some approving nods from the boys and warm smiles from the girls, then he closes his eyes because all he wanted to do was memorize Y/N.

Y/N leans into him, unsure if She is ready for this or not.

The concert is loud. The only thought that can run through Y/N’s head is the direction you are going in. Fans are crowded in the pit, were she is to be standing during the concert. A few girls come up to the rest of the soulmates, looking for a autograph or maybe a pass backstage (The girls have been known to give a few out). Jackie, Emily, Alex, and Y/N stand on Calum’s side of the stage, to Calum’s enjoyment. Y/N spots Michael give a jealous look during the concert also.

Luke couldn't keep his eyes off of Y/N. She notices how he would continue to steal glances at her during the concert. There is something surreal, knowing that somebody will love you. It leaves Y/N gasping every time. She never thought about having a soulmate until now. Now she knows whats it’s like, could she ever leave? It was not secret, at least to herself, that she didn't want to be famous. She didn't want to have to sneak around. She didn't want to be the person that gave out backstage passes. Y/N is secure in her anonymity.

Y/N couldn't keep her eyes off of Luke. She watched him jump around and have the time of his life on stage. Could she give him that happiness? If she couldn’t could she leave him? She shakes her head, this is crazy talk. They’re soulmates. Soulmates are made for each other. They can’t leave. If they leave they will start to get sick after a few days, and if it last a few weeks, they’ll die. All of this goes into effect after they meet of course. Y/N doesn't know what to do. The answer seems so obvious, to give in and be with Luke, become famous, and tour the world. But also there is parts of her which is refusing. She doesn't want that. She doesn't want to be famous. She never cared to tour the whole world. But she does want Luke.

When they get back to the hotel rooms, Y/N excuses herself from the rest of the girls. They were all pretty tired, so they skipped seeing the boys after the show tonight, in favor of seeing them later on. Y/N goes to the bed in Luke and her’s hotel room, and sits on the bed. She bury’s her head into her hands. It hurt to think of leaving. But could she stay? And give up everything? Once your Famous, it’s not like you can go back.

This is how Luke found her. He heard her sobs from the outside of the door. It was like his heart was breaking with each of her sobs. He stands in the doorway of the room, scared to help, but more scared to leave. She is mumbling about being unsure. Her head lifts from her hands and makes eye contact with Luke, which she quickly breaks. Luke thinks his breathing stopped when she looked away. Luke takes a careful step foreword, closing the door. Nobody needs to see this. Y/N is looking frantically around the room, trying to associate herself with her surroundings. Her breath is picking up, to the point where she seems to be choking on nothing. Luke stands frozen in the door as he watches her fall apart.

“I can’t do this!” Her strangled cry runs out. Luke rushes to her.

“What can’t you do?” He places an arm around her. He tries to bring her to his body, but she lashes out.

She doesn't know who is sitting next to her. Y/N feels the connection, but when it tries to restrain her she lashes out. She doesn't want to be controlled. She had been controlled her whole life. Now she wanted the freedom to be herself, not just somebody's soulmate. Words like this and worse run through her head. She remembers how she was called fat as a kid, she remembers being bullied on the playground, she remembers the first time a boy looked at her as more than just a fat kid. It had been after she lost all the weight. It was the same boy that bullied her. She remembers how she bought into his lies. She remembers throwing up. She remembers everything. She doesn't want to be that little kid anymore, who was controlled by her bullies. She wants to walk the streets without judgement and without being acknowledged. She doesn’t want to be Luke’s soulmate. Why did it have to be her?

“I can’t do this!” She cries out again, grabbing his shirt, fisting it into her hands. She can’t handle the judging. She can’t handle it! “Why,” She cries out.

“Why what?” A warm voice says.

“Why do I have to be his soulmate?” She chokes out.

+++

“Why do I have to be his soulmate?” She chokes out. “You have to be his soulmate, because thats your destiny,” Luke says quietly, wrapping his arms around her. His mind begins to race with questions about not being good enough, but he pushes them back. Right now his soulmate needs him. “Its like how the world turns, and how the bird fly south in the winter, its their destiny. I bet if you gave him a chance, it wouldn't be so bad,” Luke says softly. Y/N’s hands tighten in his shirt.

“I don’t want to be famous,” She cries out. She tugs on Luke’s shirt more, he is sure it will rip soon.

“It’s okay baby,” The words slip from Luke’s mouth easily. He says it as a whisper, only meant for her. He presses his lips to her forehead.

She looks up, her eyes glassy. He watches her eyes as they change in recognition. She scrambles back to the end of the bed. “I’m sorry,” She whispers, swiping a stray tear from her cheek.

“No, it’s okay,” Luke whispers, edging closer to her. “It’s my dream to be famous, not yours,” He whispers, edging closer again. She watches the inches between them disappear. Luke sees her muscles tighten, ready to flee if necessary. The thoughts of not being enough are back and flooding his mind. Luke struggles to stay focused on her, like he should be. “Y/N,” He whispers, and every single one of her muscles tighten again, preparing herself like a cat ready to spring.

“It’s not okay…Luke,” She says recognizing who it is in the room with her. It would never be okay with her. “How am I supposed to do this?” She asks, the tears welling up in her eyes again.

“No, no, you don’t have to do anything. We are doing this together.” Luke says, taking her hands. He wraps them in his own and gives a small squeeze. Her body relaxes back into the bed. She nods like a small child, willing to believe anything their parents say. “Look, look at what is written on this skin,” Luke pulls his shirt sleeve up to show faded sharpie marks of their short conversations. He had been washing around his arm for the past week, trying to preserve the little conversation they had. Luke had dozens of photos on his phone of the text in its prime. “It’s you and me, baby. Forever.”

“What if I can’t do this? I can’t handle the pressure,” She cries out, trying to convey how broken she is. She is trying to tell him how she can’t do it.

“It’s okay, It’s okay, we’ll start slow okay?” Luke rushes to say, trying to quiet her down again. Trying to stop her tears. “We can’t be apart. So your just gonna come on tour with us okay? We don’t have to tell anyone who you are, we don’t have to tell anyone, okay? All you need to do is be on the tour bus with us,” Luke says gently, trying to get her to agree. She nods numbly. Y/N is still shaking a little.

“Do you want to go to the tour bus now?” Luke asks. Y/N gives a nod. “Okay,” Luke stands, and pulls Y/N up with him. Y/N quickly looks around for her bag, but Luke grabs her face and focuses her attention back to him. “I’ll get our bags later, okay?” Y/N gives an approving nod and they move out of the room, one hand on Y/N’s back.

The two of them pass Ashton in the hall. Once he see’s Y/N’s red eyes and tear strewn face he opens his mouth to say something, but Luke quickly gives him a look. Ashton ducks his head and moves to his room to pack.

When Ashton gets to his room he grabs Emily by her arm and spins her around to face him. “Wha- Hey Ashy!” She says with a big smile. She quickly spots his serious mood and her smile fades. “What’s wrong?” She asks, her body at attention. Emily is a helper, that is who she is. She lives to make people smile and happy, much like Ashton. Ashton tells he what he saw in the hall.

Emily quickly starts going down the stairs to try and catch Luke and Y/N to try and help when she bumps into Mikey right outside of her door.

“Hey, Em, What do you think of Blue? Because Jackie says- Hey! why ya in such a rush?” Michael asks Emily. Emily looks up, panic in her eyes. Michael quickly jumps into action. “Are you okay? Emily? Do I need to get Ash?” He asks quickly. Emily rarely panics, so to see her in such a jumpy state was rare. Emily is more of a calm helper.

“No, it’s Y/N, Ashton saw Luke taking her out to the bus-“ “So?”

“Let me finish Mikey! She was crying, I want to go see if I can help,” Emily moves to walk around Michael, but he quickly grabs her arm and pulls her back.

“No, I’m sure Luke’s got it,” Michael says, but he wasn't so sure. His and Luke’s rooms are next to each other, and he thinks that he heard some crying in there. Maybe even a panic attack, Michael thinks, remembering the heavy breathing and the yelling. Michael pushes Emily back into the open door to her room, “Just stay here, Luke’s got it,” Michael promises, leaving her there.

Michael walks back to his room. He knows what panic attacks are like, and Emily doesn’t, he would be much better helper. Michael just wants to check on Jackie first. He opens the door to the room to see Jackie with her checklist, making sure that everything was packed. Jackie may be punk rock, but she is secretly like Monica from Friends. Always has a list in her hand. “I’m going to head down to the bus,” Michael announces to Jackie.

“What? I thought we were gonna ‘do it’ one more time!” Jackie says, protesting.

Michael shakes his head. “I would love to, but I think Y/N needs me,” Michael tries to explain.

“Why would Y/N need you?” Jackie says, getting immediately defensive.

“Not like that baby, I think she had a panic attack,” Michael says, grabbing Jackie’s hips and pulling them into his.

“Is she with Luke?” Jackie asks, knowing that only a soulmate could calm down Y/N. Jackie had been there for a few of Michaels most recent panic attacks, and it seems like Jackie always knew the best thing to say to help him calm down. It’s odd that anybody can calm Michael down too, considering he likes to be alone when he's having a panic attack. “Then everything is okay, okay babe?” Jackie says. She pulls away from Michael and sits him down on the bed. “Finish packing,” Jackie demands, handing him a list.

Jackie walks out of the room feeling more nervous then ever. Even though she has only known Y/N for a night, she just fits in so well with the girls…. Jackie walks over to Alex, and Calum’s room for reassurance from Alex. Jackie knows if she tells Michael just how nervous she is about Y/N he would storm down to the bus to try and help, which could just make things worse. Also, sometimes people just need their best friend. “Hey,” Alex says opening the door.

“Y/N had a panic attack!” The words rush out of Jackie’s mouth. She is the worst at keeping secrets.

“What? Is she okay?” Alex says quickly, moving out of the room and into the hall. Y/N had told the girls that she will sometimes get bad panic attacks when she is really stressed out, and they are like hell for her. She also mentioned that she is scared to be soulmates with Luke, something that all the girls kinda just breezed over.

“I don’t know Luke took her down to the bus,” Jackie says, and Calum walks up behind them.

“What happened?” He says, oblivious to what was going on.

“Y/N had a panic attack,” Alex says, filling in her soulmate.

“Does Luke know?” Calum says. The girls give him a ‘duh’ look and Calum puts his hands up in surrender. “She is probably fine then. Luke’s got this,” Calum says, trying to reason.

Suddenly, two more doors open on the floor at the same time. Michael stood in one door and Emily stood in another with Ashton behind her. Everyone froze in the hall, they all know what’s going on and want to help, but all frozen, knowing that Luke is the only one who can truly help. Like a movie, they all walk to meet in the center of the hall.

“I have to go down there and help,” Michael says, about to turn away when Jackie, his soulmate, grabs his arm.

“No, we can’t” Jackie says. “Luke is her best bet,” She says.

“I think we should go down there!” Emily says to the circle. He motherly instinct kicking in. “Luke can handle it,” Calum says, his usually quiet voice rising over the rest. “Jackie knows it, and we all know it. You all will just overwhelm her,” Calum says from experience. The boys had helped Micheal out with his panic attacks before, and he would hate it when the three of them would crowed around him asking questions. They did it to try and help him, but it didn't do so well with working.

The elevator chimes abruptly and the group looks over to see Luke walking out of the elevator. Everyone quickly jumps on him, not literally.

“Luke!”

“Is Y/N okay?”

“Can we go see her?”

Their questions are sprung onto Luke, and he feels like he is at a press conference suddenly. He looks around the group, and with their frantic eyes, he figures that they all knew what happened. Luke takes a deep breath and begins to speak.

+++

“She’s okay,” The group lets out a collective sigh. The worry seeping out of all of them, that some didn't even realize that they had.

“Can we go see her?” Michael asks, ready to jump around Luke to help someone who has gone through the same as him.

“I don’t know,” Luke breaths out. He is unsure about what to do next, he is unsure if he should be doing anything. He would never be enough for her, so why try? Luke will never be enough for the girl who is destined to share a bed with him. And he knew it. He knew it when she said she didn't want to be famous. He knew it when she didn’t want to be his soulmate. He knew it when she was crying hysterically about wanting more for herself. Luke will never be enough.

As if sensing his friend’s sadness, Micheal wraps Luke into a hug, followed by the rest of the group. They look at Luke in worry, they know he’s been going through a lot with Y/N right now, but none of them had stopped to think about how that would really be effecting him.

Ashton pulls away first and begins to take charge. “Okay, Mikey and Emily, go down and make sure Y/N is okay. The rest of us will stay up here, with Luke, finish packing, and be down in a half hour with everything,” Ashton says. He sends Michael down with Emily to see if Y/N is okay, because he knows the two of them are probably he most nurturing, well Emily is. Michael just understands what she is going through.

Ashton leads Luke to his room, where Luke begins to grab his things and put it back in his suitcase. “What’s wrong Luke?” Ashton asks, and Luke slams his suitcase onto the bed, which only caused it to bounce a little.

“Nothing,” Luke grits out. Luke is not an angry person, so what’s left of the group flinches back a little.

“Can we have some space?” Ashton asks the rest of the group. Jackie and Alex nod and turn to leave, but Calum stays put. Alex looks over her shoulder and motions for Calum to follow, but with a shake of his head, Calum stays put. Ashton looks over his shoulder to see Calum and Calum just gives a small shrug.

“What's got you upset, mate?” Ashton asks, accepting the fact that Calum is here to stay.

“I don’t think she wants me.”

“What do you mean she doesn't want you? You’re her soulmate?” Ashton exclaims, and Calum gives a subtle nod.

“I mean, she wants to do something more with her life! Something I can’t give her! She says she doesn't want to be famous!” Luke exclaims, violently throwing clothes into his suitcase.

“She can be something while being with you,” Ashton tries to reason. “Look, I don’t think she knew it was me in the room when she said this, but she said, ‘Why do i have to be his soulmate?’ If that isn't enough to say that she doesn’t want me, I don’t know what is.” Luke says, throwing his suitcase shut.

“Mate…” Ashton begins to say, but Luke’s choking sobs cut him off.

“I just want to be enough for someone,” Luke says, sitting down on the bed. Silent tears roll down his face, as the horrible thoughts flood into his brain. Luke bows his head, as he thinks of what could’ve been. If he just had a different soulmate. If only he had someone who would thing he’s enough. He’s nice. He’s been told all his life how handsome he is. He brings home enough money to support them. Why does she want to have more? What could she want that he can’t give her.

“Luke…” Ashton starts again, but he is out of words.

“Luke, its not that you aren’t enough,” Calum says, kneeling down next to Luke. “There are just some things that you can’t give people. From what I hear from Alex, Y/N is not someone to sit back and relax. She is always doing something. It’s not that you are not enough, it’s that she wants something more outside of Love.” Luke nods numbly along to what Calum says. “She needs you, just as much as you want her. You can’t give up on these kinds of things,” Luke throws himself off the bed and onto Calum, wrapping him into a hug. “Let’s all finish packing and go down, yeah?” Calum asks after a few moments. Luke peels himself off of Calum and turns to finish packing.

When the whole group is ready, they proceed to the bus.

When Luke is outside the bus, a few steps away from the door, he feels something heavy jump onto him. He stumbles back a few steps, and drops both suitcases in an effort to catch the girl.

“I’m so sorry,” His soulmate whispers in his ear. +++

“I’m so sorry,” His soulmate whispers in his ear.

“For what baby girl,” Luke whispers back.

“For saying I didn’t want you. I want you. Damn do I want you,” Y/N whispers in his ear, biting it playfully. Luke smiles, holding his baby close. He tucks her under his chin.

“I want you too,” Luke says, “But I think we need to talk,”

“Yeah, okay,” Y/N agrees. The two of them commandeer the back room of the bus, closing the sliding door. The other’s had little argument, because after all that had happened today, they all knew that the pair of them needed alone time.

They sit in the back of the bus, on the circular couch, across from each other. Luke’s legs are so long that they tangle in Y/N’s. She discreetly leans her own legs against Luke’s. They sit there for a few moments, looking at each other. Luke looks up at her through his eyelashes, flashing his baby-blues, and says, “Baby, won’t you come over here?” He asks, his hands wringing.

Y/N swiftly moves to sit next to him and Luke cheekily does a yawn-and-stretch, wrapping his arm around Y/N. He pulls her into his chest, and she leans her head onto his chest.

“What are we going to do?” Luke asks, nervous for her reply.

“I-I can’t, I want to have a job, Luke,” Luke opens his mouth to say something, but Y/N quickly catches on and playfully covers it. Luke scrunches his eyebrows a little and looks down to her. “I’m going to freelance coding” Y/N tells Luke. She glances up at him through her eyelashes, ready for his argument.

“Okay, that sounds good baby,” Luke says. Y/N lets out a sigh that she didn’t know she was holding.

They sit there for a few beats, breathing in each other. They are both memorizing each other, unknowingly to the other. They both sit there, listening to the other’s breaths. They both sit there, hearing the other’s heartbeat. They both sit there trying to remember that the other is alive. That they are together. That they wouldn’t let go of each other.

Y/N lets out a heavy breath, bringing Luke’s attention to her. She starts to wiggle out of his hold, and announces that she has to pee, making Luke give a little chuckle. She opens the sliding door and moves out of the room. Luke still doesn’t know much about his Soulmate, but he knows that he will have his whole life to learn about her. He does know the way her hair shines in the sun though. He knows that nobody’s eyes can sparkle like her’s. He knows he will never go looking at another girl again. Why would he when he has Y/N?

A bubbling Michael burst through the door, “Its me the love of you life!” He proclaims.

“Please, I can wear heels bigger than your dick,” Luke says, quickly responding without thinking. Michael lets out a big, stomach rumbling laugh.

“Please,” Micheal begs, his laughter continuing on. Luke gives a fake chuckle, before Emily pushes pas Mikey.

“What’s so funny,” Emily asks.

“Baby, come back, i wanna cuddle,” Ashton whines, following his soulmate to the back room. He grabs her hand and drags her to the couch across from Luke and pulls Emily to sit on Ashton’s lap facing him. For once in his life, Luke isn’t jealous of the pair. He has his own little sunshine.

“What’s going on?” Y/N asks, pushing past Michael, who is still standing in the doorway. Y/N moves to sit next to Luke again, but Luke wasn’t having it. He’s only been able to touch her for the past few hours, so he will be damned if she only sat next to him. Luke pulls his baby girl onto his lap, his chin resting on her shoulder. “Nice butt Emily” Y/N comments playfully, facing the pair, and Emily throws her hands to protect her already covered behind. Ashton’s hands quickly cover her’s and soon he is the one holding Emily’s bum. Y/N watches as Ashton pulls Emily in for a kiss and Luke squeaks, covering Y/N’s eyes.

“Do you wanna watch a movie?” Michael says from the doorway. They all hear a distant yes from the front of the bus. Jackie walks past Michael and motions for him to follow her. Calum and Alex show up in the doorway holding hands.

“I heard we were watching a movie?” Calum asks dragging Alex to the couch. Everybody moved to make room, but every one was still squished.

“What movie?” Emily asks, attempting to turn around so she can see the tv, but Ashton tightened his grip on her, not wanting her to move.

“Deadpool, duh,” Michael says, getting up and popping the DVD into the player. He sits back down, causing a groan from Jackie and Calum, whom he was sitting in-between.

Was this what family is like? Y/N has to wonder as the movie begins. Putting up with each other’s bullshit? Is this what family was like, watching the tv together. YN had always found family with her friend Alyssa, but she had never had people other than Alyssa care when she had a panic attack. Emily and Michael really helped Y/N. They understood what she is going through. Talking to Emily is like talking to a long-lost friend. They just clicked so well, just like Y/N and Alyssa did. It’s amazing. The group dynamic is just so nurturing for creativity, and they genuinely care. Even though Y/N is the latest addition, they all were so worried about her.

It’s a few days later. Y/N and Luke is just getting to know each other. Trying to figure out their patterns, and to try and remember their habits. They are both trying to memorize the other. They are back in New York City after Toronto, and Y/N is excited because she asked Alyssa to drive down to meet her. She drags Luke through the city which she visited every few weeks as a kid. Y/N’s parents were obsessed with the city, but didn’t want their children to grow up in it.

“Hey!” Alyssa shouts, wrapping Y/N into a hug. Luke is standing behind Y/N in aviator and a hat. He looks around a little worried that fans would pop out and drag him away. Luke loves his fans, but right now his whole mind is focused on Y/N and meeting Alyssa formally.

The two girls walk into the restaurant chatting, and Luke follows. Y/N had told Luke that Alyssa is like her sister, and that she didn’t care if they were soulmates, Alyssa’s opinion could break them up. Luke wasn’t that worried though, wasn't Alyssa a fan?

Sure, Y/N told Luke that Alyssa could break them up, but it wasn't exactly true. Nothing could break up soulmates, and Alyssa would be stupid to try and break them up. She told Luke that to get him nervous. She wanted Luke to really try to like Alyssa, Y/N is worried that Luke would only look at her like a fan, not a friend.

“So Luke…” Alyssa starts, drawing out her words. Y/N is quick to hide her face, knowing what question is coming next.

“Have you and Y/N done the dirty yet?” Alyssa asks, and Luke chokes a little on his coffee.

“Um, no? I’m not a rabbit,” Luke says, trying to add some humor to the conversation. When he gets no reaction he goes on, “But if Y/N wanted to, I would. I don’t want to pressure her,” Luke says.

“Okay, so have you gone on any dates?” Alyssa asks, and Y/N quickly picks up her head. “Give it to me,” Y/N demands.

“Give what to you?” Alyssa says playing innocent.

“The tape recorder,” Y/N says. Luke looks between the two of them with wide eyes. His soulmate is badass. How did she know that Alyssa has a tape recorder, Luke wonders.

“What tape recorder?” Alyssa asks.

“The one in your pocket,” Y/N says confidently. She knows that Alyssa has a fan account for 5sos and to get an exclusive interview on Luke and his soulmate would be pure gold. Alyssa throws a tape recorder onto the table, the film inside still running. “The other one too,” Y/N says with a sigh. Another tape recorder is thrown up onto the table. “And your phone,” Y/N says again and Alyssa’s iphone, which is opened up to the voice memo app is on the table. Y/N carefully stops all the recordings and takes the tapes out, and deletes the voice memo. “I thought I told you no taping?” Y/N whines to her best friend.

“Sorry bub, but this was such a good opportunity!” Alyssa says, jumping in her seat a little.

“Oh, Alyssa,” Y/N says, “I thought we said, Friend first, Fangirl second!” Y/N yells playfully. Alyssa and Y/N let out laughs, not knowing what they were laughing about themselves. Luke looks around nervously, not understanding the joke, if you could call it that.

They leave the Café after a few hours, heading back to the tourbus with Alyssa so she can see it and meet everybody else properly. They all walk excitedly to the bus. Alyssa and Luke got along really well, and Y/N is happy about that.

Y/N glance up and quickly recognizes a face, one that she hadn’t seen since College. Her eyes widen and she nudges Alyssa about it. She looks up too and recognizes the face. It was a name that she has written about on her skin before.

“Tom?”

279 notes · View notes

atruthuniversallyoutthere · 5 years

Text

im bored so i’m gonna answer some Qs

What do you think of love?

its great and its not reserved for romance

When is the last time you went to a party?

fuck have i ever been to a party? i dont know. what kindof party do we mean because i dont think i’ve ever been to a house party, but like... idk maybe like my friends wedding was the last party type event i was at?

When is the next time you'll hit up a club?

if i ever have friends in the future who’re inclined to go clubbing? maybe white night if i can wrangle someone to go with me?

If you had to eat 1 thing for the rest of your life, what?

idk, raw salmon or maguro sushi as long as its fresh

Have you dated anyone on your top 4?

oh... this is from back when myspace existed and the answer is no

Has your number 2 on your friends ever made you cry?

bitch most likely. but fucked if i know i dont remember

How do you feel about abortions?

i dont. you do you. pro choice i guess. its kinda up to whoevers body it is and their own consciousness/moral compass.

Do you eat junk food everyday?

nope, and i try not to

How often do you drive?

not as much as i want

Where did you last drive to?

idk home from my aunts house or something

Describe your bestfriend?

an idiot i love who i can laugh with, who reads dumb fanfiction to me over skype

Who was the last person to touch you?

idk my mum? my cat?

How did you and your number 1 become friends?

i dunno bitch im not on myspace right now its 2019

How late did you stay up last night and why?

i went to bed at like 9 and fell asleep at like 11 because chronic fatigue

What's the connection between you and the last person you texted?

theyre my mother/ if we’re going by any type of text i fb msged my cousins

Do you like someone?

i like a lot of people. but not really in the way you mean. its fucked up, i develop crushes but theyre never more than that and it really annoys me, like i cant connect with people any more than that or something and i HATE IT

Have you ever been hit by the opposite sex?

my dad when i was a kid probably. i dont know, probably jokingly by others

Have you ever kissed someone whose name started with an S?

yep i kiss my mum on the cheek

How's your life lately

okay, could be worse, could be better. a bit lonely

Do you know anyone that is currently locked up?

if i think hard enough i could probably think of someone. i think one of my distant cousins fathers is or was but i dont know if i ever knew him personally

Have you ever dated someone longer than a year?

yep ugh such regrets

What do you think about the current gas prices?

let me go places for free

Would you sex tape with you in it for 3 million dollars?

this question makes no sense, a vital word is missing, and the answer is i have no idea honestly. like the money would be great, depends who i was selling it to and me + sex is something i’m currently really weird about and i wish i wasnt

Have you ever been so drunk that you blacked out?

yes

Do you think that you’re a good person?

majoritively. i try to be at least

Have you ever loved someone so much that it hurt?

yes

Are you happier single or in a relationship?

probably single, but i’m lonely, but i need to fill that with friends not neccisarily romance

Have you ever flirted with a friends crush?

i dont know, probably when i was a stupid moronic teenager?

Last time you ate a homegrown tomato?

uuuum.... i feel like it was nt too long ago but i dunno

Ever ordered from an infomercial?

i’ve wanted to, i think my mum has... maybe on my behalf when i was a kid...

Do you believe in love at first sight?

not really. attraction yes, full on love??? im not sure. I dont know because you never stop learning about people. and if you decide you love someone before getting to know them it can sometimes be harmful. I think thats the reason why i’m so cautious now. because i would do most anything for someone i love, yet i dont want to do things i DONT want to do. so i believe you can be charmed by someone and be attracted to them and enamoured or bewitched by them on first sight, but i dont think you should call that the same as love, deep love at least.

Have you ever requested a song on the radio?

i dont remember. i think i sent a message online or something but id if they played it lmfao

Do you hate the last girl you were talking to?

um, no. i wouldnt really bother talking to someone i hate

When is the last time you took a nap?

yesterday

Who was the last person you talked to on the phone?

lmao it was my mum. again

To text you?

my mum lmao

To send you a myspace message?

myspace is a million years old. i think it was my cousin if we talk facebook

To send a friend request?

me or them??? idk i think it was some random friend of a friend from america (kateera i’m looking at you, why are all these random friends of yours adding me this is the 2nd dude in like a month lmfao)

Whose bed did you sleep in last night?

miineeee????

Have you kissed anyone in the last week?

my mum on the cheek probs, maybe other various members of my family on the cheek maybe MY CAT

Do you miss anyone?

yep! lotsa people!

What does your 8th text message say and who was it from?

“haven’t heard” from my mum

What are you listening to?

the fan and my dad watching stargate atlantis

Is there one place you'd like to visit?

they are many bih

Have you held hands with anyone today?

naqh

Do you like winter time?

nooooooooooooooot really

Do you own uggs?

ew no

Do you regret anything?

yep

What are you excited about?

jegnerg idk ufjwoiefkl the prospect of life

Plans for today?

i should be doing more uni work hahaha

Seven days from now will you be in a relationship?

doubt it?

What are you doing tomorrow?

not sure

How many different people of the opposite sex have you cried over?

probably like a handful

Where is your number one person on your friends list?

bih im not on myspace

Do you want to dance?

with sooooomebody whoooo looooovessssssssss meeeeeeeeeeeeEEEEE!?

Who do you not get along with?

i get along with everyone until they are radically annoying

Last movie you watched?

was it deadpool 2? im not sure

What are your plans for the weekend?

it is the weekend

What do you notice first about a guy?

oh look a person

Something interesting happen lately?

i ate watermelon

Where is the person you like right now?

up ya butt

Last time you took a shower?

had a bath 3 hours ago

What were you doing at 8:00 this morning?

sleepin

What were you doing 30 minutes ago?

filling this shite out

When was the last time you talked to your most recent ex?

when we broke up and he ghosted me

Have you ever been around someone who was high?

yes

Do you like where you live?

the town, sure, the house, no

Last thing you purchased?

...pants

Have you kissed your number one on your top?

have you

Where are you right now, and how do you feel about where you are?

at my parents house doing uni work, i wish i was out in the sun, like a at beach with friends or something

Explain why you last threw up?

i was brushing my teeth and my gag reflex is turning to shit

Where did your last hug take place?

in my driveway a few nights ago or maybe it was at my friends house or down the street

Who was the last person to hold your hand?

my nephew, harvey (:

Are you a jealous person?

probably

Did you have a good birthday this year?

yup

Are you tired right now?

not tired, but sore

What are your outlooks on gay/bisexual relationships?

where s mine

Do you chew on your straws?

sometimes

Who was the last person you rode in the car with that was under 21?

harvey and gemma

Three days from now will you be in a relationship?

nope

Do you have curly hair?

wavvy, but straightish

Who was at your house last?

support worker

Do you lead people on?

not intentionaly

Is there anyone who doesn't like you because of something you didn't do?

yep probably

Have you kissed anyone today?

Have you ever been awake for 48 hours straight?

yes lmfao

Last person you cried over?

probably myself

Do you cry easily?

i guess

Do you have any brothers?

What do you think of them?

none

Where did you go today?

my parents house

What should you be doing right now?

uni work or something productive/self care-y

Are you a heavy sleeper?

yes

When was the last time you hand washed the dishes?

every time i do dishes

Name everyone that made you smile today?

my cousins, my cat

Who was the last person to put their arm around you?

my mum??? i dont remember

Three feelings at the moment?

ouch my back, content, wanderlust

What are you listening to right now?

didnt i already answer this?

The highlight of your week?

bubble cup in melbourne

Who were the last people you ate with?

my family

What really makes you mad?

heaps of thins

Ever had a drunken night in Mexico?

What are your plans for tonight?

shut up

What does the seventeenth text message in your inbox say?

“True!!!”

What's the last piercing you got?

right conch

Ever toilet papered someone’s house?

Do you want to be married right now?

not really? i dont know. theres nobody i would like to be married to right now

What were you doing at 4am this morning?

sleeping

What do you usually do first in the morning?

take my meds and feed my cat

Do you have college plans?

i am studing graphic desing right now

Are you mad at anyone right now?

yes, this quiz

How many different beverages have you had today?

coffeee and green tea

What did you do today?

had a bath

What is your favorite flavor of jelly?

blue?

Do you want children?

What were you doing at 7pm yesterday?

watching something on tv

You're in the hospital, who on your TOP friends would come to visit you?

my family memebers

If alcohol were banned, what would your reaction be?

that sucks

Do people underestimate you?

Are you named after a grandparent?

middle name, kinda

What's something you're scared of?

deAth And The VOId

Name some of the people you love?

mich, linky, vinny, harvey, gemma, kateera, mikayla and more

What's your favorite color?

the gradient between aqua and hot pink because im an edgelord

Ever been kissed under fireworks?

not that i can recall

Do you wish someone would call you?

maybe idk

Is there someone you wanna date right now?

not really idk

Are you usually the heart breaker or the heart broken?

both lmao>>????/

Is there a meaning behind your profile song?

ya mum ba dum tis

Do you have a best friend?

not really

Do you belive that what comes around goes around?

sometimes

Who was the last person you were mad at?

quiz for being a repetitive piece of crap

What is the last song to make you cry?

dont rememeber

Is your best friend pretty?

yep

Have you ever felt like you hit rock bottom?

constantly

What do you miss?

this is a loaded question

Do you give out second chances too easily?

probably

Ever felt that no one relates to you?

sometimes

Had plans and broke them?

yup

When was the last time you saw your grandparents?

theyve all passed away

Who are you jealous of?

yo mumma

#op

0 notes

lawrenceseitz22 · 7 years

Text

Weekly Digital Marketing Q&A – Hump Day Hangouts – Episode 123

youtube

Click on the video above to watch Episode 123 of the Semantic Mastery Hump Day Hangouts.

Full timestamps with topics and times can be found at the link above.

The latest upcoming free SEO Q&A Hump Day Hangout can be found at http://ift.tt/1NZu6N2.

Announcement

Marco: I see Bradley. Hey, Bradley. I’m really excited to be here. I’m happy to be here as always.

Adam: Well, we’re going to begin. Let’s check in with Marco. Marco, how’s the weather down there?

Marco: Hey, man. It’s beautiful still. It hasn’t rain in I can’t remember how long. Warm and sunny. Sorry about the snow guys. Wish you were here. Not.

Adam: Yeah, there’s a reason I’m wearing a hoodie, and now we’ve got about 18 or 24 inches. Two feet. Yeah, there’s a ton. It’s crazy. It’s like a blizzard outside. It looks like that wall outside.

Bradley: It’s crazy.

Adam: Bradley, how’s it going man?

Bradley: I’m good. Cold as hell in Virginia as well. It’s like 27 degrees. It’s awful. It’s been windy all day. It was like 75 degree over the weekend, so it’s crazy. Glad to be here. We’ve got several questions already. What announcements do we have for today?

Adam: Well, we wanted to let everybody know … Actually, I’ll let Marco. You want to tell people about the [inaudible 00:01:30] webinar?

Marco: Yeah, I want to tell them about the replay actually. Caesar is working on it. We have a Caesar, so he’s getting that done, and once he has it all spliced together, and taken out the technical difficulties and everything that we ran into, we will make it available for 24 hours only. If you miss it after that time, I’m sorry. You can’t have it. It’s going on pay-per-view, and since it’s my webinar, I decide what to charge. I’m sorry but it’s not a Semantic Mastery webinar. I did it. It was on my time. It was on my dime, and so I know that we always say membership has it’s privileges, but in this case, the privilege was getting all that information for free.

Adam: Got you, and you had to say it, too. The reason there’s a reply is because there was that issue. We had some technical issues that were out of our control, so we don’t want to penalize people because of that.

Marco: It was going to go on pay-per-view immediately after it was done, but since we had those technical difficulties, we’ll replay it for 24 hours exactly. Then that’s it. Don’t ask for anything else. You’re not getting anything else.

Hernan: I like that pay-per-view term. It’s like [inaudible 00:02:55] this case is going to be [inaudible 00:02:57] versus the search engine or something like that.

Bradley: [inaudible 00:03:00] versus Google.

Marco: This is me versus Google.

Chris: The IM world because IM'ers got me pissed man. I’m locked and loaded, and I’m ready for war.

Bradley: There you go.

Adam: Awesome. Well, I’m [crosstalk 00:03:14].

Bradley: I said I’ll get Marco a fighting robe and all that shit.

Marco: Oh, yeah. I’ll take the bets.

Adam: In some SerpSpace news and some happier news, video powerhouse members got some v-mail prospecting templates to along with the video email prospecting course, which is kind of cool, and then they also got a free customer acquisition funnel last week, which is pretty sweet. If you didn’t have … In a powerhouse launch, I’m going to pop a link in here, and it’ll be in the show notes. You can check that out if you’re interested, if we reopen that up here down the road, and you want to get some pretty sweet bonuses along with, obviously, video powerhouse, which is pretty sweet. Then also, for Surf Space, they’re having for three days, you guys can get 15% off any syndication network, and that also includes link building if you order it with the network. It’s a pretty sweet deal.

It’s pretty rare that SerpSpace gives 15% off on the link building. If you order that all together, it’ll be off everything you order right then and there so long as it’s a Syndication Network and Link Building. By all means, take advantage of that. We’ll email that out to our subscribers and SerpSpace subscribers, so you guys can take advantage of that. That, I believe, is it. Should we get into it?

Bradley: Yeah, sure. Sorry, I had a stupid Windows update this morning. It took almost an hour. It was ridiculous. Now a whole bunch of settings have been updated apparently. I’m getting desktop notifications for every freaking email. It’s unbelievable, so I’m a little bit discombobulated, guys. Sorry, forgive me for that. Let me grab the screen and we’ll get into it. Can you guys hear me?

Marco: Now we can.

Bradley: Now you can hear me?

Adam: Yep.

Bradley: Okay, what about when I change screens. Can you hear me now?

Adam: Yep.

Best Practices For Link Building And Ordering Services From SERP Space Done For You Links

Bradley: Okay, what a long delay that was. I’m not sure I’m really crazy about this webinar jam platform. It seems like we’ve been having trouble with it the last couple of webinars, so we might have to discuss that at a later time, guys. Scott Holden is up first. He said, “General question on link building best practices and ordering services from SerpSpace done for your links. When I add links to a local service site, I firstly create my main branded social sites such as GMB, then Google Plus, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube. Then I build local and national citations keeping my NAP the same as my GMB and AP across all citations. Now I’m ready to add links to anything and everything. In what order would you recommend ordering links from SerpSpace? Would you firstly create a blog on my site, and then set an IFTTT network order for it?” Yes. That’s always the first thing that I do, Scott.

In fact, we’re actually working on, Hernan has started working on a blueprint or a road map of the process that we use whatever we’re launching new properties or new marketing campaigns period. Hernan, you want to chat and talk about that briefly?

Hernan: Yeah, definitely. We had this upcoming question over and over, and we know that we had this discussion yesterday. We know that’s kind of overwhelming if you would because we were putting out content and good stuff pretty much every week or every day [inaudible 00:06:51], so what we are doing is to do kind of a blueprint or a battle plan. The main point is that you have a clear understanding of what you do on site SEO wise, number one. Then depending on what you need for a template, if it’s a new site, if it’s an H site that needs a bump, if it’s a local website, if it’s a YouTube video depending on what you need, we’re going to lay out a strategy step by step so that you can follow it.

It’s basically the strategy that we have been following for our own properties, our own case studies. We have been teaching to [inaudible 00:07:24] members etc. It’s going to be pretty cool. I think it’s going to take, I don’t know, maybe another week or so, but it’s going to be ready. It’s going to be ready to access, and it’s going to be pretty cool.

Bradley: That’s great. Is that going to be, just so people know where they’re going to be able to find that, is that something that’s inside of SerpSpace or is it going to be something that you purchase? How are we going to work that?

Hernan: It think that we’re going to work it out in a way that it’s a separate product. It’s going to be affordable, and we haven’t discussed the details yet, but I think it’s going to be a separate product, and it’s going to be affordable enough so that you can grab it and take it. That’s basically how I think it’s going to work out.

Bradley: Awesome. Very good, thank you. Scott, that’s the reason why I brought that up with Hernan now is because I know that we’re working on that. This is a question that comes up a lot. It not only comes up in Hump Day Hangouts, but we get in support a lot as well, so you’re not the only one. We’re definitely working on trying to provide a better process for people to be able to order services and use basically the same methods we use. That said, the way that I do it, and this is probably going to be unique to each one of us on the team here, but the way that I launch new campaigns when there’s a website, especially for local stuff, is I build the site. Do the main social network properties, which you’ve already done, and then I immediately order an IFTTT network because it takes a few days, a week to ten days or whatever, for me to get it back from the builders. I usually order that while I’m actually setting up the site.

Once the site has been completed, and I get the network back, it’s been connected via RSS. Then, I’ll end up having at least three posts. That’s my bare minimum. I always publish three blog posts to the money site itself, and then that syndicates and basically what I call primes the network. You’re putting those initial posts out there, getting some initial back link social signals back to the money site. Then I order the RYS or the drive stack at the same time because that takes a week or so, a week and a half to get back, and while I’m publishing the blog posts. Because I don’t usually put out all three blog posts in the same day. I will put them all out in the same week, but I usually stagger like one every other day or something like that when I’m publishing, so that it’s not just like boom, three posts out there at once.

While the drive stack is being built, I’m working on syndicating the content to the network, and then I also order the citations package because it’s certainly not something that I do, so I order that or outsource that. Then once the three posts have been published, that’s about the time that I get the RYS stack back, the drive stack back. Now I have a whole bunch of links. I’ve got my IFTTT network links. I’ve got my first batch of citations back from our citation service. Then I also have my drive stack links. Then I end up having pretty much all the links that I need that I want to build additional links to, so that’s when I’ll go.

After I get that back, then I’ll go over to the SerpSpace to the link building packages, and I’ll end up submitting all of the URLs from those. Now you don’t have to submit all of your URLs. You can hand select a few of them. In which case, I recommend if you’re going to do that, like if you want to boost a certain property over others, then you would just filter out the ones that you’re not so concerned with. Typically, what I do is boost all of the profile URLs for all of the IFTTT network properties, or I should be saying syndication network properties, because that, to me, is the most efficient. What I mean by that is a lot of times we get the question, and this comes up often as well, should we be building links to the individual post URLs from the web-to properties? Yes, that’s super powerful, but it also requires a lot of work because you manually have to go scrap those post URLs whenever you want to start a new link building campaign.

Whereas if you build links just directly to the homepage, depending on how you have your settings on each one of the properties, especially for the blogs, but for a blogger on Word Press Tumbler, you’re going to build links to that homepage, and there will be a number of posts on that page before they start to paginate. Where they go to the archive page or page two or whatever. A lot of times, I’ll just build links directly to the homepage URLs or the profile URLs from the syndication networks. That way, when I start to syndicate additional posts … First of all, the three posts that I started with will already be on the homepage, so they’re going to benefit from those additional links anyway. Then whenever I go to publish new posts, they’re going to automatically be placed on the homepage of the blogs, which means they’re going to benefit from all of that inbound link juice to the those syndication network properties.

Does that make sense? We talk about this a lot or we’ve done this several times in master class, because that’s where we do our live case studies and such, so that process has been shown repeated through there both for local sites, and I do the same thing for affiliate sites. It’s just as matter of setting up the process and the timing works out to be … It works out well. Do you guys have anything else you do differently?

Hernan: No, we usually take the same approach, Bradley, on that case. The reality is that for example on the IFTTT network, we are stating on one of them. I’m going to give away a little line of the battle plan. One of the things that we were saying is that if your brand, if your IFTTT network is brand new, you can order a small package. If you’re pumping an H site, you can kind of order a bigger package. If that’s the case, it would be properties RH, etc., but the rest of the mechanics are pretty much the same on my end, too.

Bradley: It’s a great question, Scott. In reading the rest of your question, that’s exactly the way that I do it. Just to recap from a brand new site is while I’m building the site, I order the network. Just make sure that there’s one post in the RSS feed. It can even be the “Hello World” post. It doesn’t matter. There just has to be a post present when you order the network or else the RSS feed will throw an error when you try to connect it to IFTTT or when the builders try to connect it and will slow the build process down. My point is, have at least one post in the feed, and it can be the “Hello World” post. That’s fine. Then build out the site while the network’s being built. When you get the network back to you, then publish. I always do a minimum of three posts, and then I’ll order the drive stack at the same time that I get the network back.

Then once the drive stack gets returned, and also, by the way, at the same time that I order the drive stack, I’ll order the citations. Usually, I get the first batch of citations back around the same time that I’ll get the drive stack back. Then I’ll just go over to SerpSpace and order links for all of those. The first batch of citations, the IFTTT network properties and the drive stacks. That’s the way that I do it, and then it’s about literally always building more citations if it’s for a local business, and continuously publishing content. Keep on it on a good publishing schedule. It’s going to vary obviously depending on industry, but it could be one post per week. It could be one post every two weeks. It could be three posts per week. It just depends on your industry and what you think it’s going to require.

Then that’s what I do is I start publishing posts regularly, and then just start monitoring ranking results, and citations are constantly being built as well, but I’m using a rank tracker all the time, so I’ll go in and check on the rank tracking and see where stuff is. I should see movement from publishing posts at that point. If I don’t, after a few weeks, and remember. You’ve got to be careful especially with a new site. You don’t want to go too fast, and I noticed you said something about what velocity. As far as building additional links directly to the site, you want to be careful with that. That’s why I prefer using the syndication networks and the drive stacks and citations because I build all my links to those instead of directly to the site.

The links that are built directly to the site come from my blog syndication when I’m publishing blog posts and syndicating those out. Everything else, all the external link building is being done to tier one or beyond if that makes sense. The velocity to my actual site is relatively low. The velocity is determined by my frequency of publishing. Does that make sense? It’s a great question, though, Scott. Again, that’s why Hernan is diligently working on this road map or blueprint or whatever you want to call it. That should be available shortly, and we’ll make sure that everybody’s aware of how they can get it.

Using Semantic Mastery Syndication Network and Link Building Strategies On A Shopify Store

Jay’s up. He says, “Hey, guys. Can I use the syndication network strategies and all of the other link building strategies of Semantic Mastery on a Shopify store?” As far as I know, Jay, you can. I’ve never done anything with Shopify, so I’m not 100% sure how that works and everything, but I can’t imagine why it wouldn’t work. Somebody else want to comment on that? Have any of you guys done anything with Shopify? I don’t think any of us have really.

Adam: Yeah, it’s been a little while though, and while you can’t do the sub domain, you should be able to install Word Press in a folder, I thought. I would look into that more either a sub domain or a folder. There’s definitely a way to do this. I know stores that did do that. They would use that for their blog for a Shopify store.

Bradley: If you have a custom domain for your Shopify store, then you can absolutely add a blog to a sub domain. All you need to do is map the domain over to Shopify via a DNS service. You can do it in C Panel, but I prefer using something like Cloud Flare or Amazon Route S3. Then you can set the sub domain to point to whatever hosting account you want. You just set an A-record for a sub domain and point to the IP of your host account. That’s how you would set up a Word Press blog on a sub domain if you’re using a custom domain for a Shopify store.

Adam: Yeah, and just to clear up that last one. You bet you. I’m sorry, I can’t see who’s asking this, but if they’ve got an Adam feed, hell yes you can use that to trigger the network.

Bradley: Yeah, I don’t know how the formatting works for publishing posts on a Shopify store. If you have a WYSIWYG editor that you can basically create normal type blog posts with, then yeah. You should be able to use if. If it’s an Adam RSS feed, that shouldn’t create any problems triggering the applets to work in IFTTT. Yeah, there are two things you can do. One, if you’re using a custom domain, you have to map the domain over to the Shopify store anyway. If Shopify hosts your store, and you’re using custom domain, you have to be able to map it over there anyway. That’s going to be required, so in that case, you could use a third party DNS service and create a sub domain anyway. Just point that to whatever hosting account you want. I like said, you just set an A record with the IP address as the record.

It’s very simple to do. However, if you don’t and for whatever reason, if your blog function within Shopify doesn’t give you the functionality you want, then you could aways create just another website that’s used specifically for the blog to promote your Shopify store. That’s not the most beneficial way to do it, but it’s an alternative that will at least provide some results. It won’t be as good, like I said, as being able to have a blog on the same domain. There’s no doubt, but if that’s all you can do, that’s all you can do. It’s better than nothing.

Adam: There’s a ton of tutorials out there for any of these solutions that we talked about. If you want to use Word Press, just Google how to install Word Press blog on Shopify. If you want to just use theirs and syndicate from that link you put out, then you can do that, too.

Shopify/Amazon Stores

Bradley: Okay, Toby’s up. Virginia Surgeons. He says, “In the followup on Jay’s question, are any of you geniuses doing any Shopify, Amazon selling or just SEO contracting rank and rent. Thanks, Toby.” I’ve never done any Shopify, but I’m in the process of starting an Amazon store right now. I’ve been working on it in my limited free time in the evenings for the last week and a half. I’m actually going to be announcing an Amazon store case study for the Master Mind on Thursday next week. I’m going to be basically announcing that.

I’m getting started on that now. My daughter and I are actually building an Amazon store together, and that’s kind of a little side project I’m doing with her. It’s funny, but she wants to sell unicorns and fake mustaches, and things like that. She’s 11. I say, “Anything I can do to get her involved with my business in any way, shape or form, I’m happy to do it.” I’m going to make the case study part of the Master Mind, so that’s something that I’m actually looking forward to doing, because I’ve never done any e-com stuff before at all. We do more than just rank and rent, Toby. You’re thinking about local SEO stuff. We’ve been doing Amazon case studies, excuse me, not Amazon. Affiliate case studies, and we’ve done plenty of launched at case studies and everything else.

The majority of what I’ve done throughout my career has been local or lead gen or local consulting. That kind of stuff, but I’ve expanded over the last year a lot. That’s a lot less of my business now than it used to be. We try to teach a lot of other stuff outside of just local stuff, guys, and anybody that’s in our more advanced groups would know that. Come join us, Toby. That’s what I’m trying to say.

Outsourcing Content For A Client Site

Edward is a new Master Mind member. He just joined yesterday. It’s awesome, Edward. Thanks and welcome. He says, “I am outsourcing websites. The guy I am using is amazing. The issue I have is having content for him on all pages of a site. How can he get all of it done without spending hours doing each page myself and getting it from the client is impossible. How to outsource this?” Good question, Edward. The best thing that you can possibly do for your business is start hiring writers, interviewing and hiring writers. I would recommend going to Upwork to start.

In fact, Edward, since you are a member of Semantic Mastery, we have a discount for outsource Kingpin available to you. I’m not sure exactly how that works at the moment because we’ve changed some things recently, but you have at least a discount if nothing else, so we’ll make sure you get access to that depending on what it is that we’ve got to do to get it to you. You should go through that because you can set up an outsource hiring funnel that you can put a couple of writers through. Now you’re going to have to pay each writer that you give to put through the process, and give them a small writing task. What I do is I’ve got writers now because I’ve screened them and found some really good ones over the last several years that I use now.

What I was trying to say was the best thing that you can do is to hire a writer directly. Not going to a content farm and buying shitty spun articles that are just trash content. That’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about developing a relationship with a writer that you can contact at any time on an as needed basis, and send work to. That is one of the best things that you can have on your team is a contractor available for writing or multiple contractors. That’s what I recommend. Most of the SEO work that I do for my clients on my lead gen sites, guys, is I have curators on staff that curate and publish posts. All the heavy lifting has been done for most of my projects, so it’s just a matter of maintaining rankings, which basically is just content marketing.

Because of all the IFTTT work and all the external link building and eveything else that has been done already, it’s just a matter of maintaining rankings and that just requires content marketing, so the majority of my SEO business now is really just managing a team of curators. I also have writers. There’s a difference between a writer and a curator, but I have several writers that I use for various projects that are outstanding as well. One in the UK. One in Africa, and one here in America in the US. I’ve got three different writers that I use all the time. All three of them I’ve been able to hire from Upwork or other outsourcing type sites. I ended up pulling them from those escrow sites and hiring them direct. They work direct for me now on an as needed basis. I just pay them on a per article basis or a press release or per article or per word depending on what the project is.

I highly recommend that’s what you do is start going through, first of all, the outsource Kingpin. I know you’ve got so much on your plate, Edward, right now, so I recommend going through the Outsource Kingpin product because it will help you to streamline, trying to screen potential writers. It takes a little bit of work to set up, but trust me. It’s going to save you so much time compared to what you would spend if you had to screen every single one of the candidates manually. That’s what I recommend is you go out and you start looking for your own, and hiring and screening, and then hiring your own writers for your own projects because having somebody that you can contact via Skype or whatever at any time and just submit projects to and have them do it well, it’s going to be critical to growing your business. Do you guys have any comments for that?

Hernan: I totally agree with you, Bradley. The fact that there are some services out there, but the reality that the best way to go is to get a writer that you can treat directly with because if you go to a content farm, you will end up screwing up your website getting the index out. That’s not worth the trouble, number one. Number two, if you go to a … How would I put it? There are services out there that are really good, but they will charge on top of each article because they have overhead. They have editors. They have a bunch of things, so if you want like a send and forget, and you’re willing to pay premium, that’s the way to go. Again, I think that a good content writer for whatever you need; press releases, curation, even big time money sites, and big time projects, I think that having a content and paying them well, treating them as well as you would with any other contractor, I think that’s golden.

Once you find one, you need to keep them happy because the content writers that really deliver, and they are on time, and they do not disappear as with any other contractor, basically they are really valuable, number one. Outsource Kingpin will help you achieve exactly that. You will be mind blown with the quality of contractor that you can find using that process.

Bradley: Yeah, and how quickly. As Chris says, here is the second part of his comment to you, Edward. You can train the curators. Here’s the thing, for pages on a site, guys, I don’t recommend curating. It’s okay to curate content within a page. There’s no doubt, but general for websites for pages, I have original content written. For posts, I always curate because it’s so much more efficient. I don’t do any of the curating myself now. I’ve got a team that does it, but curating is so much more efficient for the blog posts, and not only is it efficient, but it responds well. Google responds well to that type of content. For writers, I would recommend hiring writers. For curators, you can hire just virtual assistants that have no writing experience whatsoever. Obviously, they have to … Let me just explain what I mean.

I’ve got curators in the Philippines that curate on a lot of my lead gen sites, or when I used to do a lot PBN work, which I don’t anymore, but when I used to do a lot of that, they would curate on the PBN sites for back links basically, for link building. They’ll do a lot of the curated posts for my lead gen sites, and then all of my curators for money sites, for client sites, I end up having native English speaking curators, which again, I’ve got my three writers that have been trained in curating. What did I do to train them to curate? I put them through Content Kingpin. I’m not kidding.

My three writers that I just talked about: I’ve got one in the US, one in the UK, and one in Africa. Those three writers are amazing, but I put them through Content Kingpin to show, it was called Curation Mastery at the time. In fact, it wasn’t even a product. I created the product to teach my writers how to curate, and then I created the product out of that training if that makes sense. They do the actual curated posts on the money sites as well. There’s a huge difference in how much money you can charge between, for example, having original content written and then having curated content. You can make a hell of a lot more money curating content and paying the curators only a portion of what you charge the client.

For example, if you charge a client, say $35 or $40 per post that you syndicate to their blog or that you publish to their blog, you can pay a curator anywhere $15 or $20 per post. That’s on the high end, but as Hernan just mentioned, I always pay my good writers, my good curators top dollar because I want them working for me, and in fact, one of our writers here in the US, her name is Elaine, I’ve been working with her for over three years now. We give her work all the time. We just sent her another job today for another writing job for a press release. It’s crazy, but I’ve kept some of these writers and curators now for years because they’re just really good.

For curating posts, you can charge a client $35 or $40 bucks, and I’m just pulling this number out of the air. I’ve got a lot of clients like this, but say $35 or $40, and you pay the curator $15 or $20. You make a nice spread, and you don’t have to do jack except manage them, which is very easy to do once they get into a routine, and put them through the Content Kingpin course. We have no problem with you sending your virtual assistants that you’ve hired through the course. We’ve got no problem with that.

Anyway, that’s a whole other stream of revenue in itself, Edward, is content marketing services, and that does not require results based. You can use that in your pitch for the services that it’s going to produce results. It’s going to help SEO blah, blah, blah, but you can sell just content marketing services alone without even mentioning SEO, and it’s an activity based service instead of a results based service. In other words, you get paid just before the publishing of posts whether it produces results or not. If it’s part of an SEO package, obviously you’re going to want those to produce results, and they usually will if you know what you’re doing. Follow our training. You’ll be fine. Great question.

Googlebot Crawl Rate

Dean says, “Does reducing Google Bots crawl rate affect anything negatively. The reason I’m asking is a project I’ve been working on in the last four months made a jump in serps in January, and the site before that date had 7,000 pages a day crawled, and 600 megabytes of data downloaded. G-Analytics crawl data. Mid January, the crawl pages data downloaded and hosting costs spiked massively to 6,000 pages per day crawled and 3.6 gigabytes of data downloaded, and that’s been constant at that new rate since mid January. Traffic’s up and hosting costs have hiked massively.”

If that’s all bot traffic I wouldn’t, Dean. I would limit that. I’ve never tested reducing bot crawl rate for SEO, like if it’s had effect, but I’ve had reduced crawl rate before because it was slamming the servers. I did that specifically for that reason. Honestly, I never really tested that specifically for SEO purposes. Marco, that’s probably up your ally. You got any comment on that?

Marco: No, it’s nothing that I’ve ever tested. I couldn’t answer it properly.

Bradley: Okay, Dean, the worst thing that can happen is if you adjust your crawl rate or reduce the crawl rate, and then it affects rankings. You can always bump it back up, but again, if you’ve got Google hammering your site with that many bots, yeah, it can put a hell of a load on a server. In fact, if you’re on a shared server, a lot of the times, you’ll end up getting suspended for that. They’ll suspend you’re posting account for that kind of stuff. I’ve had it happen many times. A lot of times, it’s been just from like PBN sites that for some reason just got a super amount of bots come crawl it for some reason, and it ended up causing … On PBN hosting, that type of stuff is often times really overloaded IPs, so you’re sharing with hundreds of other sites. Yeah, if you’re paying for the actual bandwidth usage, then I would recommend that you reduce the crawl rate.

Marco: Let me give him a recommendation if he is going to do this. Because if this is definitely G-Analytics crawl data, if he’s being crawled by Google rather than other bots. Determine the source of the bots, because a lot of them, you need to block. That’s just .htaccess.

Bradley: Spam bots.

Marco: Right, but if he can determine that those are good sources, and you’re going to reduce the crawl rate, then I would start small and see if there’s anything significant changes, and continue until you see a change in ranking, a negative change. You may not see one. If you do, then you boost it back up because there’s no reason. If you’re getting good rankings, even if you have a spike in what you’re paying for hosting, this is a good thing. Ranking is what you want because that’s what brings you traffic. Except that if it’s not affective your bottom line. Your bottom line should reflect your rankings increase and your traffic and the money that the website is making. If none of those are happening, then yeah, you have to reduce that so that you reduce costs. Be careful with whatever it is that you decide to do.

Websites With No Meta Titles/Descriptions

Bradley: That’s right. Make a small change, and give it a few days. Watch everything and then if nothing negative happened, Dean, go back and reduce the rate a little bit more. Do it just like he said. Do it incrementally. Okay, Michael says, “Does not adding a meta description to a webpage better rank your page? The reason I’m asking is I see a plethora of sites on the first page of Google with no meta description, and it appears that Google displays the appropriate information from the page as it relates to the query. I’ve tested this a few times, and I have seen the meta description data change. I just want to know if this is something Semantic Mastery has noticed, and if this tactic is affective.”

Okay, Michael, the official response would be that the meta description shouldn’t affect rankings at all. I’ve played with it though, and what can happen is if the meta description is over optimized, and there’s four things that the bot first looks at when it comes to crawl a page, and that’s going to be the SEO title, number one. Number two is the URL. Number three is the page title, and number four is the meta description. The page title meaning the H1 tag. Those four things: If you over optimize across those four things, and the meta description being number four, then yes, it can negatively affect rankings. I’ve seen that. I’ve tested that, and I’ve proven that multiple times if you’re over optimized across those four. Typically, if you know what you’re doing, you’re not going to be over optimized across those four in which case the meta description should have no affect on rankings. That’s official word from Google.

However, let me explain. I don’t go in and optimize meta descriptions until pages start to rank. What I do is I let the SEO plugin display whatever meta description it wants or whatever meta description Google pulls from the page. In other words, I do set a meta description when I set up the pages on site or post or whatever. I don’t set that. I just allow whatever Google data to pull from the page that it wants related to the query that the searcher puts in. However, once that page starts to rank, and again, I’m using rank trackers. Once I know that the page has started to rank on first page, and I’m starting to see traffic coming in either through analytics or if I’m looking at search console, whatever, and I’m seeing data where I’m seeing clicks coming through, that’s when I’ll go in and I’ll start optimizing meta descriptions, and I don’t optimize for SEO. I optimize for click through rate. Does that make sense?

Guys, your meta description is short. It should be considered a call to action like ad copy. It should be like ad copy. It should be optimized to compel a visitor, a searcher, a Google user, to click your ad, or excuse me, to click your link over the other links that are above it or below it or both because that’s basically ad copy. It should be a call to action. It should be very compelling. Whenever I got to optimize meta descriptions, I’m optimizing for conversions or CTA, or excuse me. Click through rate, CTR, not for SEO. Because if you follow the rules, at least what I follow as far as the four things that the bot looks at first when it comes to crawl a page, again, SEO title, URL, page title or H1, and meta description, then you’re only going to want to be optimized in any one of those locations preferably the SEO title for your exact match keyword anyway.

The other three areas you can have co-occurring or LSI-type T words in there, but you don’t want to stuff because that would be over optimization. Treat your meta description as ad copy, like a small billboard. Use it to write a compelling call to action.

Marco: That’s exactly what I tell my coaching students. I’m giving a lot of stuff away that I teach my coaching students. I don’t know why because they pay me a lot of money for it. That’s an ad. It’s like taking an ad out in the newspaper. What do you want that newspaper to say? What is that add that makes it so compelling over any other because you have to remember that everyone is trying to say the same thing. You have to make yours stand out. It’s almost like in Ad words you have a lot less space, so you really have to work on that. In the website and in the meta description, you have a lot more space to try to get that person to click over to your website, and it’s one of the most important things that you can do is write that really well so the person will focus on it, see it, and want to click and get that trigger finger affect.

Bradley: That’s why I don’t do that until after the page starts to rank, and I start seeing some, if nothing else, rank. I don’t have to start seeing traffic because typically once I see it rank on first page, then I know that it’s time to go optimize the description so that I can get the click through rate up. Does that make sense? So the people will choose my link over other links on the same result page. The reason why is because copywriting is not my strong suit. I’m okay at it, but it takes me forever to do any sort of copywriting. Even writing a stupid AdWords ad sometimes takes me 15 minutes, which is like two short lines of text. It’s very, very painful for me write a compelling call to action like that. It’s just tough for me.

That’s why I always wait until the page ranks to go do it. Because otherwise, if I was trying to optimize the meta descriptions of every page on a site, it would take hours, so I typically will just wait until it start to rank, and then I’ll go in and that’s my compelling reason for going in and optimizing at that point.

Hernan: Sorry, Bradley. If I can add something, it’s that don’t worry about it because the shorter the ad, the tougher it is to write compelling ad in I don’t know. I think there are like 300 characters or something like that in AdWords. It’s crazy. That’s number one. Number two, that’s why it really pays to ask some entrepreneurs who know about copywriting. I think that it’s one of the best skills that we could learn, and one of the things that has been helping me a lot was going through Gary Halbert materials. I’ve been sharing this with Adam a lot lately. Gary Halbert material, and if you can’t writing the ads that you see that they are compelling to you, copying them, and having kind of a side file, and if you see a really good description … You’re surfing. You’re using Google as a user, then you see, “Okay, why do I click on this specific result and not the other one?”

Take a screenshot and make a side file, and then you will start seeing patterns that will allow you to write better descriptions to your website that entices the click. I think that’s valuable, and anyone of us should have some sort of side file or someplace where you can go back and rewrite things so that they are enticing for people to click. I totally agree with Marco. When you are doing AdWords, when you are paying per click, you cannot miss this. You really need to hone in your copywriting skills, but we as SEOs, we take copywriting as a secondary skill and we should be really honing them down.

Bradley: That’s interesting because I do a ton of Adword stuff now, and that’s something that I’ve learned to actually use AdWords to help you write your meta descriptions for your pages that your ranking because you can test keywords and ad copy in AdWords adds very easily. As soon as your ad gets approved, which is usually within a couple of hours from the time you submit it to AdWords, it will start sending traffic. As soon as it’s approved, it will start sending traffic. If you can get your click through rate up on your AdWords ads, and the only way you do that is through split testing. You constant split test. You always, never stop split testing ads, so you can change the headline or description one or description two or any one of those three, but the point is you always run two ads against each other. Then whatever the better performing ad is after a certain amount of time or a certain amount of clicks, you determine what that threshold is.

Let’s say that you allow 50 clicks, and then between those two. Then you determine the winner, and AdWords will tell you which the winner is. Then you pause the underperforming ad, and then write a new add to compete with the ad that was performing better. You do another 50 clicks. You constantly are trying to improve that click through rate. What you’ll find is if you’re doing both SEO and AdWords for projects, then you can use AdWords to help identify or help to tell you how to write the meta description because you’re seeing all the data. You know which meta description or in this case an ad description is producing the highest click through rate. That’s the most compelling text or the most compelling copy. You can now add that same copy or a variation of it, something very similar to it, to the meta description of the page that you’re also trying to rank for the same keywords. If that make sense.

AdWords will give you the ability to test your meta descriptions and identify or constantly improve your meta descriptions and it’s a hell of a lot faster than trying to change a meta description on a page, wait for Google to update the index results because that won’t be instantaneous, and then trying to monitor SEO traffic through that and determine if your previous meta description was more compelling than the new one, if that makes sense. It’s just as lot faster to test using AdWords is all I’m saying.

Moving Personal YouTube Profile To Brand Account

All right. Moving on. Greg says, “Have you guys used feature much to move a non branded YouTube channel to a branded channel in order to use the ad remove manager feature. Any repercussions on a channel that’s got about 13,000 subscribers?” Okay, Greg. I’ve never done it to move a profile account to a brand account. I’ve moved one brand account to another, so essentially I’ve reassigned a brand channel to another Google plus brand page, but I’ve never done it to a profile to a brand account, so I don’t know. What I would suggest doing: I don’t think it would affect the 13,000 subscribers, but I don’t know that for sure, and I would not recommend testing it with that channel.

What I would do is set up a dummy channel, or excuse me, under one of your personas or just set up a persona. You’re talking about using a profile channel instead of a brand channel. Set up a profile, just a dummy profile, create a YouTube channel for that. Then post in the Master Mind, and we’ll get a few of us to subscribe to the channel, and then reassign it to a brand page and see if it loses your subscribers. If it does anything to the subscriber count when you go to transfer ownership to the brand page, then you know not to do that. If everything works out okay, then I’d say, go ahead. I don’t see why it would be a problem, but I’ve never actually moved a profile account to a brand account. I’ve done brand to brand, but never profile to brand. It’s just not something that’s ever come up for me. Do you guys have any experience on that?

RSS Masher To Merge Feeds

Okay apparently not. Moving on. Let’s see. Adam said that we’re having a sale for networks and link building, three days only, so go get ‘EM guys. Ken says, “Since Back Link Commando is no longer working, can we use RSS Masher to merge all the feeds, and then how would we be able to scrap all the URLs like we did with Back Link Commando.” Ken, go watch last month’s Syndication Academy Update webinar. It’s in the member’s area. Go check it out. The month of February is the … I believe it was update webinar number nine for February 2017. Go watch that. That has been solved. It’s not as automated. It is automated. It takes a little bit of work to set up, but I liked the Back Link Commando process that we had. Unfortunately, that doesn’t work anymore. They stopped supporting that plugin, so the work around, which by the way, Rico Suave, he’s the one that gave me the idea, and provided that, so I’m going to give him credit.

Embedding iFrame To A WordPress Blog

All I did was expand on it, and provided training for exactly how to set it up, and that’s in the last Syndication Academy Update webinar. “How can I embed an i Frame on a Word Press blog? I’ve tried in text mode, and Word Press still changes it.” Marco, have you got a comment for that?

Marco: Let me think. Text mode.

Hernan: Can I?

Marco: Go ahead.

Hernan: A [crosstalk 00:47:11] yeah, in text mode, the html code should do it. [inaudible 00:47:18] my experience is that you need to save it while you are in text RHTML mode. Because if you roll back to the [inaudible 00:47:29] maybe it gets trigger out. Depending on if you want to do it on a widget, you can do it HTML directly. If you want to do it on a post, then you go to the text mode, and then you save the post or you publish the post while it is in text mode. Makes sense?

Marco: Let me just add this. YouTube embed code will be changed by Word Press. They will add their own, but I don’t see why it would change any other type of i Frame. It’s just HTML and you’re allowed to go into your WYSIWYG editor as HTML. It could be switching back and forth between HTML and the text. That’s when it might get stripped.

Bradley: All right. Here’s a plug in that I use whenever I come across shitty Word Press problems that are due to the editor, the text editor or the WYSIWYG editor or whatever. It happens often in Word Press, guys. It is what it is, but use this plugin. A Word Press plugin called RAW HTML. Once you install and activate that plugin, then all you do is wrap whatever text that you don’t want Word Press formatting to strip. You wrap them in these tags, these short codes, RAW and then close RAW. That’s it. Once you do that, Word Press won’t touch anything between those tags or the short codes. Try that and see if that works for you, Ken.

Next, let’s see. [crosstalk 00:49:05]

Adam: Real quick. He just posted. Ken was saying he was talking about WordPress.com

Bradley: Oh, hum. I have no idea. I don’t know what you can do on that because I know that on self-hosted blogs you can install plugins like RAW HTML, but I know at wordpress.com, you probably can’t, so I’m not sure.

Marco: Try going in it to the widget section, and adding it in the text box.

Bradley: Yeah. That’s interesting. I don’t know what the deal is with that on wordpress.com, Ken. Sorry. I haven’t played with that. Okay, so Edward’s up. Yeah, Master Mind is next week Edward. It’s every other week. Next Thursday is the next scheduled Master Mind.

Adam: You’ll get an email notification.

Bradley: Edward says, “Please explain Hernan’s product again. I really have to bring a difficult real estate client to Rank. His competitors have 20,000 links. Help. Not sure where to go for drive stack links. What can I do for him now?” Well, I’ll tell you what, Edward. We can give this a lot more attention in Master Mind, so since you’re in Master Mind now, if you want to post this question in there, we can start a thread where we can get not only us, but our other members in there to chime in. You’ll probably get a hell of a lot more out of it than we could right here now anyway. We can explain a little bit more about what the road map or blueprint that Hernan is working on. That should be available within the next week or two.

In the meantime, just start a thread in Master Mind, and we’ll get on it. Okay? Watch out for these fembots. That’s awesome. Austin Powers. That’s one of my favorite movies. WordPress.com. Thanks, cool. It looks like everybody’s wrapped up. That’s great. You guys got any other questions, you’d better post them quick because we’re going to wrap it up. We’ve got Syndication Academy Update webinar number ten today. Yes, we have it today. We’re going to have that in about five minutes. It will be a short webinar, but I’ve got some properties I want to share with you guys and a couple of updates, so be there or be square. There is, if you’re trying to find out where it’s at, go to the Facebook group. Click on the events tab, and you’ll see the upcoming event.

Adam: I’ve got a question for you, Bradley, because you embedded files and folders and everything on a free Word Press blog for SEO Virginia.

Bradley: Yeah, we can go look at it. All I did was just grab the i Frames and put them in there.

Adam: I don’t understand why he’s [crosstalk 00:51:38]. It could just be the template that he’s using, right?

Bradley: Might be. Here we go. Number two. Look at this, guys. This is what I love about this.

Adam: I showed that yesterday.

Bradley: Yeah, so wordpress.com site, and it has zero content except for this right here. This is the only content in this post. Everything else is just embeds, and it’s ranked number two for SEO Virginia, and it has been for months. It’s awesome. Yeah, all I did was just go into the text editor and just grab the embeds codes for each one of these files, and installed it. It was done on May 16, 2015, so it’s been almost two years.

Adam: Ken, I don’t know what probably you’re running into, but maybe you should change templates, and try that. Just a really simple template. Nothing with all this fancy garbage. Just something really, really simple. [crosstalk 00:52:39]

Bradley: Okay guys. I think that’s it. Thanks everybody for being …

Adam: I think Bradley is switching. Yeah, you’re back.

Bradley: Thanks everyone for being able to see you in Syndication Academy webinar in just a few minutes.

Weekly Digital Marketing Q&A – Hump Day Hangouts – Episode 123 posted first on your-t1-blog-url from Blogger http://ift.tt/2neFcbs via IFTTT

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beyondvapepage · 7 years

Text

Weekly Digital Marketing Q&A – Hump Day Hangouts – Episode 123

youtube

Click on the video above to watch Episode 123 of the Semantic Mastery Hump Day Hangouts.

Full timestamps with topics and times can be found at the link above.

The latest upcoming free SEO Q&A Hump Day Hangout can be found at http://ift.tt/1NZu6N2.

Announcement

Marco: I see Bradley. Hey, Bradley. I’m really excited to be here. I’m happy to be here as always.

Adam: Well, we’re going to begin. Let’s check in with Marco. Marco, how’s the weather down there?

Marco: Hey, man. It’s beautiful still. It hasn’t rain in I can’t remember how long. Warm and sunny. Sorry about the snow guys. Wish you were here. Not.

Bradley: It’s crazy.

Adam: Bradley, how’s it going man?

Adam: Well, we wanted to let everybody know … Actually, I’ll let Marco. You want to tell people about the [inaudible 00:01:30] webinar?

Hernan: I like that pay-per-view term. It’s like [inaudible 00:02:55] this case is going to be [inaudible 00:02:57] versus the search engine or something like that.

Bradley: [inaudible 00:03:00] versus Google.

Marco: This is me versus Google.

Chris: The IM world because IM'ers got me pissed man. I’m locked and loaded, and I’m ready for war.

Bradley: There you go.

Adam: Awesome. Well, I’m [crosstalk 00:03:14].

Bradley: I said I’ll get Marco a fighting robe and all that shit.

Marco: Oh, yeah. I’ll take the bets.

Marco: Now we can.

Bradley: Now you can hear me?

Adam: Yep.

Bradley: Okay, what about when I change screens. Can you hear me now?

Adam: Yep.

Best Practices For Link Building And Ordering Services From SERP Space Done For You Links

Using Semantic Mastery Syndication Network and Link Building Strategies On A Shopify Store

Adam: Yeah, and just to clear up that last one. You bet you. I’m sorry, I can’t see who’s asking this, but if they’ve got an Adam feed, hell yes you can use that to trigger the network.

Shopify/Amazon Stores

Outsourcing Content For A Client Site

Googlebot Crawl Rate

Marco: No, it’s nothing that I’ve ever tested. I couldn’t answer it properly.

Bradley: Spam bots.

Websites With No Meta Titles/Descriptions

Moving Personal YouTube Profile To Brand Account

RSS Masher To Merge Feeds

Embedding iFrame To A WordPress Blog

Marco: Let me think. Text mode.

Hernan: Can I?

Marco: Go ahead.

Next, let’s see. [crosstalk 00:49:05]

Adam: Real quick. He just posted. Ken was saying he was talking about WordPress.com

Marco: Try going in it to the widget section, and adding it in the text box.

Adam: You’ll get an email notification.

Adam: I’ve got a question for you, Bradley, because you embedded files and folders and everything on a free Word Press blog for SEO Virginia.

Bradley: Yeah, we can go look at it. All I did was just grab the i Frames and put them in there.

Adam: I don’t understand why he’s [crosstalk 00:51:38]. It could just be the template that he’s using, right?

Bradley: Might be. Here we go. Number two. Look at this, guys. This is what I love about this.

Adam: I showed that yesterday.

Bradley: Okay guys. I think that’s it. Thanks everybody for being …

Adam: I think Bradley is switching. Yeah, you’re back.

Bradley: Thanks everyone for being able to see you in Syndication Academy webinar in just a few minutes.

Weekly Digital Marketing Q&A – Hump Day Hangouts – Episode 123 posted first on http://ift.tt/2lnZU8p

0 notes

zeek1991-blog · 7 years

Text

Weekly Digital Marketing Q&A – Hump Day Hangouts – Episode 123

youtube

Click on the video above to watch Episode 123 of the Semantic Mastery Hump Day Hangouts.

Full timestamps with topics and times can be found at the link above.

The latest upcoming free SEO Q&A Hump Day Hangout can be found at http://ift.tt/1NZu6N2.

Announcement

Marco: I see Bradley. Hey, Bradley. I’m really excited to be here. I’m happy to be here as always.

Adam: Well, we’re going to begin. Let’s check in with Marco. Marco, how’s the weather down there?

Marco: Hey, man. It’s beautiful still. It hasn’t rain in I can’t remember how long. Warm and sunny. Sorry about the snow guys. Wish you were here. Not.

Bradley: It’s crazy.

Adam: Bradley, how’s it going man?

Adam: Well, we wanted to let everybody know … Actually, I’ll let Marco. You want to tell people about the [inaudible 00:01:30] webinar?

Hernan: I like that pay-per-view term. It’s like [inaudible 00:02:55] this case is going to be [inaudible 00:02:57] versus the search engine or something like that.

Bradley: [inaudible 00:03:00] versus Google.

Marco: This is me versus Google.

Chris: The IM world because IM'ers got me pissed man. I’m locked and loaded, and I’m ready for war.

Bradley: There you go.

Adam: Awesome. Well, I’m [crosstalk 00:03:14].

Bradley: I said I’ll get Marco a fighting robe and all that shit.

Marco: Oh, yeah. I’ll take the bets.

Marco: Now we can.

Bradley: Now you can hear me?

Adam: Yep.

Bradley: Okay, what about when I change screens. Can you hear me now?

Adam: Yep.

Best Practices For Link Building And Ordering Services From SERP Space Done For You Links

Using Semantic Mastery Syndication Network and Link Building Strategies On A Shopify Store

Adam: Yeah, and just to clear up that last one. You bet you. I’m sorry, I can’t see who’s asking this, but if they’ve got an Adam feed, hell yes you can use that to trigger the network.

Shopify/Amazon Stores

Outsourcing Content For A Client Site

Googlebot Crawl Rate

Marco: No, it’s nothing that I’ve ever tested. I couldn’t answer it properly.

Bradley: Spam bots.

Websites With No Meta Titles/Descriptions

Moving Personal YouTube Profile To Brand Account

RSS Masher To Merge Feeds

Embedding iFrame To A WordPress Blog

Marco: Let me think. Text mode.

Hernan: Can I?

Marco: Go ahead.

Next, let’s see. [crosstalk 00:49:05]

Adam: Real quick. He just posted. Ken was saying he was talking about WordPress.com

Marco: Try going in it to the widget section, and adding it in the text box.

Adam: You’ll get an email notification.

Adam: I’ve got a question for you, Bradley, because you embedded files and folders and everything on a free Word Press blog for SEO Virginia.

Bradley: Yeah, we can go look at it. All I did was just grab the i Frames and put them in there.

Adam: I don’t understand why he’s [crosstalk 00:51:38]. It could just be the template that he’s using, right?

Bradley: Might be. Here we go. Number two. Look at this, guys. This is what I love about this.

Adam: I showed that yesterday.

Bradley: Okay guys. I think that’s it. Thanks everybody for being …

Adam: I think Bradley is switching. Yeah, you’re back.

Bradley: Thanks everyone for being able to see you in Syndication Academy webinar in just a few minutes.

Weekly Digital Marketing Q&A – Hump Day Hangouts – Episode 123 published first on your-t1-blog-url

0 notes

daynamartinez22 · 7 years

Text

Weekly Digital Marketing Q&A – Hump Day Hangouts – Episode 123

youtube

Click on the video above to watch Episode 123 of the Semantic Mastery Hump Day Hangouts.

Full timestamps with topics and times can be found at the link above.

The latest upcoming free SEO Q&A Hump Day Hangout can be found at http://ift.tt/1NZu6N2.

Announcement

Marco: I see Bradley. Hey, Bradley. I’m really excited to be here. I’m happy to be here as always.

Adam: Well, we’re going to begin. Let’s check in with Marco. Marco, how’s the weather down there?

Marco: Hey, man. It’s beautiful still. It hasn’t rain in I can’t remember how long. Warm and sunny. Sorry about the snow guys. Wish you were here. Not.

Bradley: It’s crazy.

Adam: Bradley, how’s it going man?

Adam: Well, we wanted to let everybody know … Actually, I’ll let Marco. You want to tell people about the [inaudible 00:01:30] webinar?

Hernan: I like that pay-per-view term. It’s like [inaudible 00:02:55] this case is going to be [inaudible 00:02:57] versus the search engine or something like that.

Bradley: [inaudible 00:03:00] versus Google.

Marco: This is me versus Google.

Chris: The IM world because IM'ers got me pissed man. I’m locked and loaded, and I’m ready for war.

Bradley: There you go.

Adam: Awesome. Well, I’m [crosstalk 00:03:14].

Bradley: I said I’ll get Marco a fighting robe and all that shit.

Marco: Oh, yeah. I’ll take the bets.

Marco: Now we can.

Bradley: Now you can hear me?

Adam: Yep.

Bradley: Okay, what about when I change screens. Can you hear me now?

Adam: Yep.

Best Practices For Link Building And Ordering Services From SERP Space Done For You Links

Using Semantic Mastery Syndication Network and Link Building Strategies On A Shopify Store

Adam: Yeah, and just to clear up that last one. You bet you. I’m sorry, I can’t see who’s asking this, but if they’ve got an Adam feed, hell yes you can use that to trigger the network.

Shopify/Amazon Stores

Outsourcing Content For A Client Site

Googlebot Crawl Rate

Marco: No, it’s nothing that I’ve ever tested. I couldn’t answer it properly.

Bradley: Spam bots.

Websites With No Meta Titles/Descriptions

Moving Personal YouTube Profile To Brand Account

RSS Masher To Merge Feeds

Embedding iFrame To A WordPress Blog

Marco: Let me think. Text mode.

Hernan: Can I?

Marco: Go ahead.

Next, let’s see. [crosstalk 00:49:05]

Adam: Real quick. He just posted. Ken was saying he was talking about WordPress.com

Marco: Try going in it to the widget section, and adding it in the text box.

Adam: You’ll get an email notification.

Adam: I’ve got a question for you, Bradley, because you embedded files and folders and everything on a free Word Press blog for SEO Virginia.

Bradley: Yeah, we can go look at it. All I did was just grab the i Frames and put them in there.

Adam: I don’t understand why he’s [crosstalk 00:51:38]. It could just be the template that he’s using, right?

Bradley: Might be. Here we go. Number two. Look at this, guys. This is what I love about this.

Adam: I showed that yesterday.

Bradley: Okay guys. I think that’s it. Thanks everybody for being …

Adam: I think Bradley is switching. Yeah, you’re back.

Bradley: Thanks everyone for being able to see you in Syndication Academy webinar in just a few minutes.

Weekly Digital Marketing Q&A – Hump Day Hangouts – Episode 123 published first on your-t1-blog-url

0 notes

sabrinasupdates · 7 years

Text

Weekly Digital Marketing Q&A – Hump Day Hangouts – Episode 123

youtube

Click on the video above to watch Episode 123 of the Semantic Mastery Hump Day Hangouts.

Full timestamps with topics and times can be found at the link above.

The latest upcoming free SEO Q&A Hump Day Hangout can be found at http://ift.tt/1NZu6N2.

Announcement

Marco: I see Bradley. Hey, Bradley. I’m really excited to be here. I’m happy to be here as always.

Adam: Well, we’re going to begin. Let’s check in with Marco. Marco, how’s the weather down there?

Marco: Hey, man. It’s beautiful still. It hasn’t rain in I can’t remember how long. Warm and sunny. Sorry about the snow guys. Wish you were here. Not.

Bradley: It’s crazy.

Adam: Bradley, how’s it going man?

Adam: Well, we wanted to let everybody know … Actually, I’ll let Marco. You want to tell people about the [inaudible 00:01:30] webinar?

Hernan: I like that pay-per-view term. It’s like [inaudible 00:02:55] this case is going to be [inaudible 00:02:57] versus the search engine or something like that.

Bradley: [inaudible 00:03:00] versus Google.

Marco: This is me versus Google.

Chris: The IM world because IM'ers got me pissed man. I’m locked and loaded, and I’m ready for war.

Bradley: There you go.

Adam: Awesome. Well, I’m [crosstalk 00:03:14].

Bradley: I said I’ll get Marco a fighting robe and all that shit.

Marco: Oh, yeah. I’ll take the bets.

Marco: Now we can.

Bradley: Now you can hear me?

Adam: Yep.

Bradley: Okay, what about when I change screens. Can you hear me now?

Adam: Yep.

Best Practices For Link Building And Ordering Services From SERP Space Done For You Links

Using Semantic Mastery Syndication Network and Link Building Strategies On A Shopify Store

Adam: Yeah, and just to clear up that last one. You bet you. I’m sorry, I can’t see who’s asking this, but if they’ve got an Adam feed, hell yes you can use that to trigger the network.

Shopify/Amazon Stores

Outsourcing Content For A Client Site

Googlebot Crawl Rate

Marco: No, it’s nothing that I’ve ever tested. I couldn’t answer it properly.

Bradley: Spam bots.

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Marco: Let me think. Text mode.

Hernan: Can I?

Marco: Go ahead.

Next, let’s see. [crosstalk 00:49:05]

Adam: Real quick. He just posted. Ken was saying he was talking about WordPress.com

Marco: Try going in it to the widget section, and adding it in the text box.

Adam: You’ll get an email notification.

Adam: I’ve got a question for you, Bradley, because you embedded files and folders and everything on a free Word Press blog for SEO Virginia.

Bradley: Yeah, we can go look at it. All I did was just grab the i Frames and put them in there.

Adam: I don’t understand why he’s [crosstalk 00:51:38]. It could just be the template that he’s using, right?

Bradley: Might be. Here we go. Number two. Look at this, guys. This is what I love about this.

Adam: I showed that yesterday.

Bradley: Okay guys. I think that’s it. Thanks everybody for being …

Adam: I think Bradley is switching. Yeah, you’re back.

Bradley: Thanks everyone for being able to see you in Syndication Academy webinar in just a few minutes.

Weekly Digital Marketing Q&A – Hump Day Hangouts – Episode 123 published first on your-t1-blog-url

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charlesswink19 · 7 years

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Weekly Digital Marketing Q&A – Hump Day Hangouts – Episode 123

youtube

Click on the video above to watch Episode 123 of the Semantic Mastery Hump Day Hangouts.

Full timestamps with topics and times can be found at the link above.

The latest upcoming free SEO Q&A Hump Day Hangout can be found at http://ift.tt/1NZu6N2.

Announcement

Marco: I see Bradley. Hey, Bradley. I’m really excited to be here. I’m happy to be here as always.

Adam: Well, we’re going to begin. Let’s check in with Marco. Marco, how’s the weather down there?

Marco: Hey, man. It’s beautiful still. It hasn’t rain in I can’t remember how long. Warm and sunny. Sorry about the snow guys. Wish you were here. Not.

Bradley: It’s crazy.

Adam: Bradley, how’s it going man?

Adam: Well, we wanted to let everybody know … Actually, I’ll let Marco. You want to tell people about the [inaudible 00:01:30] webinar?

Hernan: I like that pay-per-view term. It’s like [inaudible 00:02:55] this case is going to be [inaudible 00:02:57] versus the search engine or something like that.

Bradley: [inaudible 00:03:00] versus Google.

Marco: This is me versus Google.

Chris: The IM world because IM'ers got me pissed man. I’m locked and loaded, and I’m ready for war.

Bradley: There you go.

Adam: Awesome. Well, I’m [crosstalk 00:03:14].

Bradley: I said I’ll get Marco a fighting robe and all that shit.

Marco: Oh, yeah. I’ll take the bets.

Marco: Now we can.

Bradley: Now you can hear me?

Adam: Yep.

Bradley: Okay, what about when I change screens. Can you hear me now?

Adam: Yep.

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Adam: Yeah, and just to clear up that last one. You bet you. I’m sorry, I can’t see who’s asking this, but if they’ve got an Adam feed, hell yes you can use that to trigger the network.

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Marco: No, it’s nothing that I’ve ever tested. I couldn’t answer it properly.

Bradley: Spam bots.

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Moving Personal YouTube Profile To Brand Account

RSS Masher To Merge Feeds

Embedding iFrame To A WordPress Blog

Marco: Let me think. Text mode.

Hernan: Can I?

Marco: Go ahead.

Next, let’s see. [crosstalk 00:49:05]

Adam: Real quick. He just posted. Ken was saying he was talking about WordPress.com

Marco: Try going in it to the widget section, and adding it in the text box.

Adam: You’ll get an email notification.

Adam: I’ve got a question for you, Bradley, because you embedded files and folders and everything on a free Word Press blog for SEO Virginia.

Bradley: Yeah, we can go look at it. All I did was just grab the i Frames and put them in there.

Adam: I don’t understand why he’s [crosstalk 00:51:38]. It could just be the template that he’s using, right?

Bradley: Might be. Here we go. Number two. Look at this, guys. This is what I love about this.

Adam: I showed that yesterday.

Bradley: Okay guys. I think that’s it. Thanks everybody for being …

Adam: I think Bradley is switching. Yeah, you’re back.

Bradley: Thanks everyone for being able to see you in Syndication Academy webinar in just a few minutes.

Weekly Digital Marketing Q&A – Hump Day Hangouts – Episode 123 published first on your-t1-blog-url

0 notes