#my mom was starting to do that yesterday and i was like we are in the grocery store...

[luke-hughes43]

surprise pt 2 | luke and stella

hehe this is a part to this fic!

~

stella's pov

i wake up to my alarming blaring and luke gone. i'm not happy for two reasons: i got woken up, and luke isn't here. i knew he'd be gone when i woke up but that doesn't mean that i'm happy about it.

i push the covers off and go to put my contacts in when my knee is screaming at me when i put weight on it. i limp into the bathroom and get ready for my games.

i have plenty of time because i woke up at 7 but i don't have to leave until 7:45. i text luke to see if he's awake: morning lukey, hope you got home safe last night. sorry i fell asleep.

i put my headphones in and start icing my knee again. at like 7:30 i get dressed because i always get dressed before doing my hair. i'm braiding my hair when the music gets interrupted from a facetime call from lukey. i answer with a small smile, "hey you."

"hey beautiful. what time do you play?" he asks.

"10 and 12. have to be there at 8:15. why are you up so early?"

"i don't know. just am. i am coming to your games again by the way. mom is coming too." luke tells me. i smile and nod. i discover that i am too far away from the mirror to do what i want with my hair and see properly. i climb onto the counter and move closer to the mirror, it also takes the pressure off my knee.

i hear luke chuckle and he asks, "why are sitting on the counter like that? that can't be good for your knee."

"it's better for my knee then what i was doing before. i'm short and can't get as close as i wanted to do this right." i explain and i can feel him shaking his head.

once i finish with my hair i say to luke, "i'll see you at my games i guess. but i gotta go luke."

"sounds good baby." he says and i hang up.

i get my bag and me and mom head off to the fields. we get there ridiculously early and i spend the whole time with ice on my knee. mom drops me off and goes to a drug store to get me a knee brace. this is hurting more than i thought it would.

mom isn't back in time for the start of the game so i'm playing the first inning without the brace. i'll be fine. i am the leadoff to start the first game and after two pitches, i'm drilled right in the knee. the same knee that i hurt yesterday. i drop the bat and grab my knee.

i'm pissed. it's the same team we played in new york a few weeks ago that we crushed 7-0 and it feels personal.

coach comes running over, "jesus christ kid, that knee is a magnet for trouble this weekend."

"must the michigan water."

"in all seriousness, are you ok?" he doubles down. i nod and get on my hands and knees. i take some deep breaths and say, "i think i'm ok. it just hurts. because i turned to avoid it, it caught me in the back of the knee. i'm not having good luck this weekend."

"you're telling me. so what's the move? do you want a runner or try to tough it out?" he asks. i take a second to think about it. i ask him, "what do you think i should do?"

"is your mom here with the brace yet?" he asks. i take a quick look and shake my head. i say, "not yet. i figured that she'd be a few minutes late."

"then i think you should come out. at least until you can get that brace. i don't want you to do permanent damage z." he says. i nod and let a few tears out form the pain and i limp off. he says, "sarah (not the sarah that dates jack) get your helmet."

i get to the bench and lean back against the wall letting out a sigh. i stand to get ice and the pain is so much that i have the urge to throw up. i hobble to the trash can behind the dugout and puke.

avery comes over and holds my hair back. i look up and see luke standing at the other end of the dugout keeping a close eye on me. he says, "hey, are you ok?"

"yea i'm fine." i force out.

i take some deep breaths and go back to the dugout to drink water and ice. mom finally comes with the brace and i put it on. it felt so much better. i start to walk around the dugout to test it out and i feel fine. i run down to the foul pole and back and it feels really good.

i say to coach, "i'm good to go back in."

he nods and subs me back in to my spot. i have a great game after that and feel so much better moving around. we won like 9-1 so it was a great showing for us. i spend all of the 20 minutes game break sitting on the ground with luke, between his legs as he holds me against his chest.

he asks softly, "are you sure that you're ok baby?"

i nod and just cuddle into him. he says, "talk to me stel, what's going on? you don't have to keep playing so why are you?"

"i'm just worried about letting everyone down. trev is doing so well and i'm afraid that i'll never live up to what he's doing. everyone already looks at me and treats me like i need to be this superstar because of him. and i just don't wanna let anyone down luke." i explain softly.

he sighs and hugs me tighter. he kisses the side of my head and says, "you don't have to be anyone but yourself. i get what your going through baby, i really really do, but you don't need to be anything other than you, on and off the field. if stella isn't good enough for them then they can kick rocks. but stel, you can't be playing through injuries like this just to try to live up to trev. you don't even play the same sport. just be you, and please be careful."

i nod and say quietly, "ok." there's a calm silence before i say, "i'm glad your here."

"anything for you." he says softly.

bella walks over with avery and says, "i hate to break this up but time to go stel." i nod and both her and luke help me stand up. i give luke one last hug and he leans down, cups my cheeks, and kisses me softly. he pulls away and says, "good luck baby. I know you'll play great. just be careful."

i smile, "i will."

we go back to the dugout to get loose for the game. bella asks me, "so, you and lover boy?"

"yea. bells, i think i love him."

"you think? you totally do! girl, he looks at you like you hung the freaking stars. and you look at him like he's the air you breathe." bella exclaims. i blush and nod a little bit. but then i say, "no more. i'm not ready to tell him yet so shut up."

bella and avery both say, "lips are sealed."

the game starts and we win. by a lot. like 12-2. the game ended early because of the slaughter rule. we clean up and head over to get the debrief. after coach finished talking, he calls me over, "zegras, come here." i nod and hobble my way over.

"how are you feeling?" he asks.

i shrug, "it hurts but i'll be fine. nothing i can't handle. the brace helped a lot so i'll play with that again tomorrow." he nods and we talk about options if it's too bad tomorrow. i head over to mom and luke.

mom asks, "honey, are you ok?"

"yea. i'm tired and in pain but i'll be ok. just wanna take a nap." i say. luke wraps an arm around me and i lean against him. i hug him and say, "i'm gonna head back to the hotel and shower and get some rest. depending on how my knee feels, i might come to your game tonight. we'll see luke."

he nods and smiles, "ok. don't worry if you can't make it. just get some rest sweet girl." he softly kisses my forehead and heads off to his car. once mom and i get in our car, the tears start flowing from how much it hurts. mom asks, "stella, are you ok? do i need to take you to the doctor?"

"no. i just need some rest. it just hurts a lot mom. it's the most pain i've ever been in." i explain. she nods and we drive back to the hotel quietly. after all 3 of us shower, bella and avery come into our room and the 3 of us end up sleeping in my bed.

i wake up to go to the bathroom and my knee is feeling fine. thank god. because i really wanna go to luke's game tonight. i climb back into bed with the girls and they both wake up. avery waks up as i climb back into bed. she says, "what time is it?"

"4. so we have a few hours before luke's game if you guys wanna come with me?" i offer. avery nods, "i'll probably come. gives us something to do."

i nod and after bella gets up, we get changed to go to the rink. mom comes in as we're all finishing getting dressed. she asks, "are we going to the rink? how do you feel stella?"

"i'm fine. i was just overworking myself to close to getting hurt. but i'm ok. i just wanna see luke play." i say from the bathroom.

she says, “ok. i’ll let ellen and jim know that we are coming. are you sure that you’re ok?”

“yes mom.” i say rolling my eyes. bella and avery come with us to the game too. and halfway to the rink, bella says, "you know that we don't know anything about hockey right?"

"it's fine. i'll explain it while the game is going on." i say to them.

avery asks, "have you ever seen luke play?" i shake my head. i turn around and say, "not in person. i stream his games all the time but i'm excited to see him play in person."

we finally get to the rink and head inside. it's not as packed as i expected it to be. we find ellen and jim sitting in an area big enough for all of us and go over there. i see ellen and smile, "hi mrs hughes."

"oh stop it, just call me ellen. here, i grabbed this from luke's closet for you. i figured you needed one of his hoodies. i wasn't sure how you packed so..." ellen says handing me a hoodie of luke's. it's one of his usa hockey hoodies.

i smile and accept it. i say, "thank you." i put the hoodie on and it smells just like him. i say to ellen, "oh! this is bella and avery. they play softball with me and are my best friends. girls, this is ellen and then jim, luke's parents."

avery waves with a small smile and bella says, "it's nice to meet you." ellen smiles and says, "you too. now stella sit, tell me everything." ellen drags me down between her and jim. bella and avery sit in the row in front of us and i'll join them once i catch up with ellen. ellen asks, "now, is luke treating you right? i know it can be hard with long distance but he's being a good boyfriend?"

"yes. the best. he's everything i could imagine in a boyfriend ellen. he's perfect." i say with a smile. ellen smiles and pulls me in for a side hug. she says, "good. i'd kill if he wasn't. i raised him better than that. how's school and softball?"

"good. the same i guess. classes are kinda hard, softball is going. i'm still playing really well so everything is good." i say. we both look up just in time to see luke get an assist! we both cheer, "yea luke!"

i smile at ellen and then join the girls. i ask, "have you guys caught on to anything yet?"

they both shake their heads. bella says, "not really. i know that they shoot the puck into the net for a goal, and the penalty box is where you go when you break the rules but that's all i got."

"you got all you need then." i say and focus more on the game. late into the third period, the game is tied. luke gets the puck and takes a slap shot and scores! i jump up and down cheering for him. i turn and high five ellen and jim! he just won the game for them.

i'm cheering for him so loud, "yea lukey!"

he must've heard because he looked over and smiled. i smile back with a wave.he goes through the handshake line and he waves me down by the locker room. i look at the girls who practically push me over to the locker room.

when i come into luke's view, he smiles and picks me up in a bone crushing hug. he says, "you made it! i wasn't sure if you were coming."

i smile and grip him tighter, "of course. you came to my games and i had to come. knee pain and all."

he pulls away from the hug and kisses me. i smile and pull him as close to me as i can. when we pull away, he tucks a strand of hair behind my ear and says, "hey beautiful."

"hi handsome." i whisper back.

he presses a kiss to my lips before saying, "i love you stella."

i gasp with a smile, "you love me?" he nods and then adds, "more than hockey."

"i love you too luke." i say with a smile. i go back up to my tip toes and kiss him again. he smiles and kisses me back while pulling me close. eventually he pulls away, "i gotta change, but stay right here. i'm not done with you."

i nod and wait for him to change. he comes back out and pulls me close. he kisses me again and says, "what do you think about coming out with us tonight? it's about time i show my girl off to the guys. bella and avery can come too."

I shake my head and then explain, "we can't. we don't go out during tournament weekends. if it wasn't a tournament we'd be going out but we can't."

he nods, "i get it. could we at least spend time together tonight? i don't have a lot of time with you this weekend and i wanna spend as much time with you as i can."

"let me get back to the hotel with the girls, and i'll figure something out." i say. he nods and kisses me softly before we head out to our parents and the girls.

mom takes us back to the hotel and after bella and avery go to their rooms, i beg my mom, "mom can luke please please please come and sleep over? please?"

"if it's ok with ellen, then fine." mom caves. i squeal and text luke. about 10 minutes later, luke texts me, mom said yes! i'll over in 15 baby❤️

i smile and get ready for bed. luke comes over right when he said he would. i let him in and we just end up cuddling in bed all night. me wrapped up tightly in his arms, head on his chest, both of us smiling. just before i fall asleep, i hear him mumble quietly, "i love you stella. sweet dreams baby."

"i love you too lukey." and then i'm out. feeling so safe in his arms.

[lean-mean-demon-genevieve]

I could just feel her need to spew diet culture nonsense in my bones yesterday. And here it is today in her stories:

I’m going to try so hard to keep this brief…

1.) Note the typo in the thumbnail in the white box. GenPad: Consummate Professional; English Major. Apparently busy moms don’t proofread.

2.) This meal program costs $465/week for FIVE days of breakfast, lunch, and dinner. (That’s $31/meal.) Or $395/week with an auto-pay subscription. ($26.33 per meal.) It doesn’t appear that there is an option for multiple people per household. There is also no 7-day option. Yes you’re paying for the convenience of a pre-made meal and no I haven’t run the numbers on what it would cost you to make all of this at home, but the fact remains: shit is pricey.

3.) It all comes in plastic containers. TOWWN, indeed!

(Source listed below)

4.) Sakara does not share the nutrition info in these meals. (You can find nutrition profiles on some protein bars and powders on Google but not the meals.) This is sketchy as hell and for that price, their customers deserve to know. The company claims that “calories don’t matter” and suggests that people do not count calories. Which isn’t a terrible message on the surface, but that’s not all that goes on a nutrition label.

5.) What little nutrition info anyone has been able to arm-wrestle out of Sakara (see above) is generalized, but it also suggests that it isn’t enough calories for most women/their target audience. A dietitian who tried the program for 5 days reported that for 0 of those days did they only eat Sakara’s food because they were hungry in between. It’s also low in protein, so add some snacks and meat to your weekly $465 budget for ONE PERSON.

“To their credit”?? …no. Not for that price.

6.) The phrase “clean eating” is a marketing gimmick. It’s also how people like Gen signal their superiority in their food choices. A study published in The Journal of Eating Disorders showed supporting data that perpetuating “clean eating” as a goal may be harmful, especially to vulnerable audiences. (And the thing about eating disorders is that it is really difficult to tell who is vulnerable until it’s too late. It is estimated that 1 in 4 diets results in an ED.)

7.) Gen continues to shill health and wellness misinformation that has potential to harm others for her own profit. What a gal!

Bonus: Gen also claims to have her own history of an eating disorder in this podcast (start at 24:14) which obviously doesn’t make her inherently bad or untrustworthy but I do feel like it should mean that SHE KNOWS BETTER THAN TO PUT OTHERS AT RISK WITH HER INFLUENCER BULLSHIT…but here we are. 🖕🏼

Sources:

“A Dietitian’s Review of Sakara’s Insta-Famous Meal Plans”

“Sakara 101: Why Calories Don’t Matter”

Journal of Eating Disorders article

[olliedoesthings]

I have a small story for yall!

So my family had a skunk living under our back porch and it has sprayed my house and dogs 3 times over the past week or two. So my dad went out and bought a trap for it. Well, he caught it, and we didn’t know what to do with it because it was too silly to shoot, but we also couldn’t just let it out and let it go back into our porch. So me and my dad made a “release plan” and we went out yesterday morning to release the skunk, who we had named Jim.

So we put towels over the trap with Jim in it so he stayed calm and we put him in another container on the back of the truck so if he sprayed, he wouldn’t spray the truck and make the truck smell like skunk ass. We drove him up to a spot in the mountains that looked like a good place for a skunk, which only took a few minutes. In that amount of time, Jim ripped the towels off his cage by pulling them through the cage and shredding them to bits. Without the towels on the trap, he could see what was happening outside of the cage, and that little guy was staring me and my dad down.

We found a new towel and put it on the trap, but it wasn’t quite big enough and only covered part of it. We took him out of the container and we almost had him put on the ground, and he sprayed us. I thought it wasn’t that bad (it was, I stunk super bad) but my dad got the majority of the spray. So he stunk worse than I did. But we got Jim released and he ran off all happy like and started sniffing trees and whatnot!

But because my dad got sprayed the most, he didn’t want to ride in the truck. So he had me drive alone with him in the back of the truck (I was terrified cause I’ve never driven alone yet). We got back home safely tho! My mom did tell me to get out of the house because I stank like skunk ass tho.

Here’s Jim the skunk!

Yay skunk adventures! Sorry for the extreme yapping, I thought this story would be fun to share. :D

[yoohyeon]

Puppy is not feeling well, I’m worried :(

[solace-seekers]

screaming into the void <3

[pandaspwnz]

Whoever decided it was a good idea to bake a pie on a fucking wednesday afternoon is a goddamn clown and should be dropkicked into the sun

[salsflore]

everyday i wake up and have to start a new boss challenge called dealing with my mother

[todayisafridaynight]

Hey so Snap this is going to be so fucking weird, but honestly don’t care. So I was watching a clip of Drag Race Philippines and it was the make over episode and I think they were making over family members and this father was all about getting into drag. So, I just wanted to tell you never forget how much of a lovely loving kind and caring father you have, who loves you and protects you and makes you feel heard. That’s all.

i'd have to die before i forget how great my dad is thank you for the opportunity to brag about him again anon

[guinevereslancelot]

why do i feel weirdly guilty for taking a day off of work to have necessary surgery 🤡

[holydramon]

i think aoi is definitely now fighting with saki for my favorite survive character

[xxxemilyg1996]

It's been a good week. The first good week I've had in a while. I hope you all also have better days coming your way

[heavenlydreamangelflyhigh]

moms getting competitive w her eating disorder again

[widevibratobitch]

im so fucking mad at myself at my mother at her dead husband at god fucking knows what. "concentrate on yourself" well i cant can i. now more than anything i should and i cant. losing my fucking mind istg

[sudokuplayer]

i'm so angry and heartbroken and i think this is all i will ever be

[just-another-wren]

my dreams recently have both ended in an awesome like. music video thing and I'm sad cause I can't figure out how to do them

[hazlelnoot]

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