#the chokehold this pair has got on me rn

[gingersnapped]

"Sam is probably my only friend in this town..." emergency sleepover time in the mountains after local small town emo and skater boy played too much solarion chronicles and lost track of time

[rewritingcanon]

idk why im in such a bad mood rn but it actually PISSES ME TF OFF how the entire marauders fandom collectively decided to take this bum-ass loser character with one discernable impact on the storyline (regulus. im talking about regulus) and make him a super complex, three-dimensional MAIN character in the era that’s being literally paired with JAMES POTTER(???) when they could’ve taken a character who AREADY has existing complexities and everything they could ever want and develop them. but they won’t because that character is a fucking woman ☠️☠️

the way the black sisters would have the entire fandom in a fucking chokehold if they were boys. do you actually think sirius and regulus would be as cherished as they are now if they were women? hell fucking no, regulus would be hated on so badly. the way we were given narcissa and fucking andromeda too? here’s the entire fandom yapping on and on about how cool regulus is for rebelling against the dark lord when narcissa was doing it and fucking getting away with it too (because she’s better and doesn’t suck ass). here’s andromeda going against her entire bloodline ON HER OWN but yet shes still so overshadowed by sirius (who literally came after her). then you got bellatrix who is canonly one of the most powerful (and cuntiest) witches in the hp-verse and you decide to go and develop BARTY instead. think about it. they’re both crazy except one is more of a loser and is a male so of course the fandom will choose him.

and then. of course. lily evans who is literally the mother of the entire verse itself is still out here fighting for literal recognition and development from the fandom. and those mfs still give it to regulus instead ☠️☠️

[minhosimthings]

Backstage Notoriety

Synopsis: Chan trying to shush you, as you try not to alert the rest of the boys about what you're doing backstage

Pairings: Bang Chan × Soloist!fem!reader

Warnings: SMUT MINORS DNI, fingering, overstimulation, Degradation (like only a little), praise, gagging kink, necklace is used as a gag, unprotected sex (wrap it before you tap it), pregnancy joke, angry sex, rough sex

A/N: ITS YO GIRL MONA BACK WITH ANOTHER SMUT YALL WOOOHOOOOO I really like this for some reason I had fun writing it. Also Chan has got me in a chokehold rn I NEED THIS MAN TO BREED ME. And yes this is me procrastinating on my ongoing wip.

Dating a fellow idol was something you never thought you'd do in your entire life but here you were. Staring at your boyfriend dancing with the rest of his kids members and watching all his Stays with bedroom eyes. To say you were jealous was an understatement. A very great understatement, that is.

Being a soloist was a lonely job, with the one exception being that you didn't need to follow a packed schedule like other groups did. You could just sit back after your stage, and stare at everyone's outfits backstage, as you wait for your boyfriend to take you home and fuck you into oblivion. Yet as you watched your boyfriend show off his waist in a crop top your favourite colour, you couldn't help but want him to notice you. Stupid horny teenager coded feelings right?

"Haneul how much time till they finish?" You asked your manager who was packing up your things. She looked over at you and smiled. "Just another minute or so Y/N be patient you'll see him soon enough." She bent down and kissed your head "I'm going home alright? Tell Minho where I went or he'll go crazy. You'll come with Chan or should I tell a car to wait?" You shook your head at her. "I'll come with him don't worry. You should worry about Minho though he's gonna go mental when he finds out you left without him." Haneul let out a laugh and patted your shoulder before quickly walking out the door, leaving you all alone.

The sound of thunderous applause startled you, as you saw your boyfriend quickly walking down the stage, seven kids following him like penguins. The first one to enter the room was your boyfriend, suprisingly not covered in sweat and fashioning a towel round his neck. His face was not without happiness as he caught his eye on you and strode over, making adorable grabby hands.

"Baby!" he hugged you tightly, as you did everything in your power to stay mad at him, "Next time I'll make sure they arrange our shows right after one another. I can't stand not being with you for so long." "hmm" you hummed in response, not reciprocating the hug as you usually did. The rest of the members had entered the room by then and you spotted Minho frantically searching for his phone. "Haneul went home Minho." you cried at him, successfully catching his attention as he looked at you with widened eyes, "Don't worry, she's probably waiting for you."

"Oh alright." Minho said, plopping down onto the sofa, "Thanks for the message." You smiled gently at him, and turned to pick up your phone, when warm arms wrapped around your waist, making you freeze in your spot. The offer to sink into Chan's embrace was a tempting one, one that would effectively ruin your plan. "Did I do something wrong baby?" you heard Chan's voice whisper in your ear, tone akin to one he'd use for a child. You were being childish after all.

"Just tired Chan. I need to get home alright?", you briefly responded, wiggling away from his embrace. "I'll drop you off to the car." Chan responded, wrapping an arm around your waist so tightly that you couldn't protest, "I left something in my dressing room anyway so we can just get that on the way hm?" His tone worried you slightly. It was unlike the lovey-dovey one he usually used with you. Lovey? yes. Dovey? Definitely not.

The silence between you and Chan was too loud as both of you walked to Chan's dressing room, which was relatively near the exit point. His stare remained in front of him, not even a glance at you. You, on the other head, were trapped in his hold on your waist. It was tight. Too tight. The Pain kink comes in handy though right?.

"You really thought ignoring me would do anything baby?" Chan suddenly spoke up, when you reached the door to his dressing room. You shuddered as he pushed you against the door, one hand on the doorknob, the other holding your chin to him. "Chan-" "Nuh uh baby." He glared, "You're gonna pay for this."

Chan bombarded your lips with his and kissed you with every inch of pain in him. You would have melted into the kiss had it not been for Chan opening the doorknob and pushing you in.

"Wearing this cute little outfit and ignoring me." Chan mumbled in between the messy kiss, "Stupid little girl aren't you?" You gasped for air as Chan slid his fingers down your panties. You decided to give your stylist a bag of chocolates the next day, for giving you such an accessible dress.

"Ah Chan!" You shout out as Chan moves his fingers around your pussy, touching you exactly at all the spots he knew you adored. Chan slowly pulled off your underwear and threw it on the floor before pulling you into another kiss, fingers still racing across your cunt. His other hand reached up almost automatically to your hair, gripping it hard. You moaned into the kiss at his touch on your scalp as your hands quickly undid his trousers.

He’s rough. Good god, he’s fucking rough. His cock stretches you open deliciously, slamming into the deepest parts of you. The slick sounds of your dripping arousal fill the room with every violent thrust. You were sure your already short dress was about to get shorter as Chan kept such a firm grip on them, feeling the fabric twisting in between his fingers. With Chan continuing to fuck you, It’s almost impossible to keep yourself quiet at a time like this.

“J-Jesus,” you gasp, “holy fuck, Channie, y-you, fuck, you feel so fucking hot.” Your voice wavers in pitch and volume. Chan maintains a brutal pace, which you could swear he does on purpose. He lets out a gruff chuckle.

"It's Channie now is it baby?" He mocks you, "Fucking you so good you can't even speak can you?"

You let out a loud yelp when you feel his hand give your ass a hard slap. You jerk forward, shuddering on his cock. You can feel his towering frame lean over you, pulling you up by the shoulders, gathering you to his chest. He puts his fingers in your mouth, silencing your cries of lust.

You suck on his fingers, moans bubbling in your throat as Chan pistons his hips. It’s almost embarrassing how much you like the feeling of Chan using you like his personal doll.

“Babe,” Chan slows down. “As much as I love hearing what I do to you…” he gently maneuvers you, flipping you to look into your eyes. His hand tucks a piece of hair the fell onto your face behind your ear. His hand cups your cheek, the sweetness of his actions causes your mind to run wild with what kind of degenerate, devious plans he has in store for you. He reaches over to his neck and slowly unclasped the metal chain decorating it ever so wonderfully. "You're way too loud darling.”

"Open your mouth for me darling." He cooes at you as he shoves the necklace into your mouth. You wince in pain as the cold metal hits your tongue. Chan stares at you with an amused look on his face. "That's my good girl." He praises, giving a sudden thrust, which makes you widen your eyes.

You make a muffled cry for more, your soft and loud moans were music to his ears. He breathed heavily along with you as held onto your hips tightly. Skin smacking echoed in the room and you heard his soft groan which sent you coming. He groans louder as you clench around him.

Thankfully, Chan didn’t argue or get you to beg for his cock any more as he jolted his hips into you. “Always so loud aren't you darling?”, he scolded light-heartedly under his breath.

“Cha- Channie no more,” you plead with the necklace muffling your tone, tossing your head back onto the wall, hips bucking up into his despite your words. Chan growls, pushing you down by your stomach and blanketing your body with his own and pressing your knees almost up to your tits.

“You can take it, my dove, I promise,” the words come out choked, hoarse, but you wither under them nonetheless. The necklace had been laying down on the floor, having been detached from your mouth a long time ago. You can feel his cock pulsing deep inside your walls, seed almost spilling out from your entrance from his last two orgasms. You’re sure he’s overstimulated beyond belief, just like you, but he just can’t seem to stop.

“Wait, don’t cum yet; I’m so close, don’t cum”, you begged , not entirely wanting it to end just yet. Chan gasped, his mouth opening wide as his eyes did the opposite as they clenched shut as he concentrated on fucking you and not having another orgasm.

It doesn’t take long to feel the first flutterings of that eye-wateringly beautiful sensation between your legs as you quickly stammer, “I’m cumming! Fuck!”. Chan’s legs nearly gave out underneath him, hearing your sweet words.

As your pussy contracted in wet bursts around him, Chan released every drop of cum inside of his body, deep into your walls so that you could feel yourself becoming full and it beginning to drip out as it became too much. His thrusts slowed to a stop as you both slumped against the wall, bodies covered in a thin line of sweat.

"You alright honey?" He mumbled into your neck as he holds you tightly in his arms. "I'm good." You simply respond, cradling in Chan's warm muscles. Chan quickly deposits your weak figure on the divan before rushing off to find a towel and a change of clothes.

"I'm sorry Channie." You mumble, feeling your face turn red as Chan puts your shoes back on. He looks up at you with an amused expression and hums. "It's alright darling." He chuckles, "My jealous little baby." You slap his arm playfully as he gets you up slowly and walks you to the door, this time the grip on your waist being a comforting one.

"I wonder if your cum took or not." You blurt out. Chan looks at you with widened eyes before giggling. "You wouldn't really have to get used to being called mom do you? What with your seven adopted kids." "Our seven adopted kids." You correct him as he blushes and kisses you on the forehead.

"Seven kids who are probably wondering what their mom and dad have been doing backstage."

[svftvluv]

Alone Time

Pairings: Peter Ballard x Fem!Reader

Synopsis: Peter takes advantage of every chance he gets with Y/N

Warnings: smut, fingering, praise kink, oral receiving(female), peter & y/n being sneaky

Author’s Note: I had to at least write something about Peter cuz he currently has me on a chokehold. Also Y/N is also a worker at the lab. Enjoy!!

very much taking requests rn

Any alone time he got with her he wasted no time in taking her up against the wall. Whether it was with his cock shoved inside her or his fingers. And today was no different. He pulled her into a small maintenance room that rarely anyone went into. His lips crashed onto hers with such force that made her moan into his mouth. He held one hand on her throat as the other unzipped her white khaki pants. After the pants followed her panties in which once those were off he toyed with her clit, making her let out a whimper. “You have to be quiet if you wanna cum.” He stated with a straight face before placing a kiss on her temple. Unexpected to her, he slipped a finger in, making her eyes roll back.

Two more fingers followed after the first one and he was now on his knees eating her out. Her hands were tangled into his once properly brushed hair. She bit her lip holding back the moans that threatened to spill. She could feel his fingers hitting the places that drove her crazy. His mouth would toy with her clit as he would flick it with his tongue and wrap his lips around it, harshly sucking on it. He could feel that she was close as she began clenching around his fingers, which were gleaming with her juices. “I want you to make a mess on my face, Y/N.” She frantically nodded her head in agreement as she didn’t know how much longer she could hold it in. It took a couple more thrusts before her legs shuddered. She held onto a piece of furniture that was right next to her to hold her up. She moaned into her arm as she couldn’t hold them back anymore. He gave her a few more thrusts before she became sensitive.

He stood back up and made eye contact with her before slipping his fingers into his mouth, licking them clean. “You taste amazing, princess.” He said before pulling her into another kiss. Once he pulled away he whispered in her ear. “Next time it’s my cock you'll be having inside you.”

[dismas-n-dismay]

Please I need to see the ship kids? Is Laios a good uncle? Do they have scales/feathers or sharp teeth? Horns? Claws? (This series has me in a chokehold rn)

*SQUEEZES YOU IN MY GRASP*

I had to put everything under the cut because this is a hella long post so everyone else just look at these cute farcille babies and rock on

HI HOWDY!! Laios is obsessed with these little freaks (he would never call them that though cause he would literally die for them if needed) He’s essentially been right by Falin and Marcille’s side since day one when it came to the babies! He’s a surprisingly good uncle but definitely that one where he gives the kids gifts that the parents are like “YEAH NO- he’s 8 he doesn’t need a crossbow”

He definitely gives the kids little trinkets he gets from foreign dignitaries since I don’t picture Laios really liking all the gifts and gold and money people will give him to butter him up when he catches onto it. The cool monster stuff stays with him though, but he’ll let the kids look at anything cool he gets that he decides to keep for his personal collection. I like to imagine that when he holds them he always keeps them to the side of his hip, real mom type stance when he’s holding them.

Secondly, GREAT QUESTION!! They have a little bit of both! Haru (the cream colored baby) has feathery down covering his ears, chest, and wings as well as basically anywhere else that he isn’t scaly or covered in soon to be thought flesh. He’s more of a dragon from the waist down but bird from the waist up like Falin was.

His sister Haize (the apple red one) has the most scales! (But the least feathers out of the pair) Haize has more of that traditional dragon look and unlike Haru, she’s dragon basically to the neck up. She has scrawny little forearms that aren’t quite attuned to walking yet but once she grows they’ll become a lot more useful for the crawling around stage of her infancy! Haru will often try to climb on her back because he wants to be fast too- he’s only a little guy but he still hates that she got the extra limb genes where he didn’t.

Both have wings though the down that Haru has makes it a bit difficult for him to fly, though he really grows to enjoy flapping and the flutter of his wings! Haize has more sleek featherless dragon wings which make her flight process a bit easier, though her longer body means that her flying is quite silly (it’s like when you pick a cat up by their middle and they just dangle, imagine that but with flight and her trying to tuck her limbs in to have less weight pulling her down). Both have claws on their dragon halves as well as spikes/spines on their backs though only Haize has been born with the making for clawed hands, Haru grows into his later in life!

Really Falin and Marcille are glad that the kids are in relative captivity, Haru’s inherited the “head empty, no thoughts, tee hee” touden genes and they’re like 75 percent certain that he would get eaten if natural selection had its way - assuming Haize didn’t protect him ofc. Haru is very sleepy as a baby while Haize is very cranky. She likes to sleep on her back but her itty bitty dragon wings get cramped when she does and sleeping on her side isn’t as a comfy. Aside from that she just likes attention and being with her parents which is tough due to their jobs.

Haru has colic due to the light magic that manifests in his stomach pouch organ! He was born with an organ similar to the one red dragons have that allows them to breathe fire! It allows him to conjure and manifest light and can be weaponized if a dragon knows what they’re doing. Really it’s much more useful as bioluminescence for dragons who dwell in darker dungeons as it allows them to lure in prey and the pouch’s brightness grows as a dragon approaches somewhere stacked with mana and magic which is an easy way to find enemies or food! Typically light dragons are very powerful but a rare find as they’re often incredibly soft and unable to protect themselves as babies as well as their newly born pouches which let off a lot of glow due to basically incubating for a year or so and refuse to dampen until they learn to properly dispel their magic via spells. Not to mention how easy of a target it is for their obvious weak spot, one bad slash to the tummy and ur done.

Most dragon babies learn early as having that much magic in you hurts a LOT but Haru takes a lot while to learn it, though Falin soon learns that pressing on his stomach and conjuring her own light magic to siphon Haru’s own eases a lot of his tummy aches and pains.

(I got way more facts about these guys so if you wanna know more just send another ask!! :]!! /gen)

[ilkuee]

@wolfythewitch ‘s zombie au has me in a chokehold rn so i just had to write something

i’m aware i’m a bit late but zombie apocalypse aus are a special interest of mine and i like writing and i’m trying to improve so here goes nothing <3

-

Happiness is always hard to grasp, but when you find it, you know that you never want to lose it again.

The warmth of being genuinely happy was one of the first things Wilbur lost after Phil was bitten. He spent most days crying, apologizing over and over to the slowly rotting corpse that was his father. He never got a response. He never got a hug. He never got reassurance. He just received groaning, or a scratch on the arm from the zombified man. Occasionally, Wilbur would find himself content with that. The contact. It makes him feel like his father is still in there, somewhere, even though he knows that he probably isn’t anymore.

His own father didn’t feel like family anymore. “He's still in there. That’s still Phil.” was something that Wilbur found himself chanting in his head most days, and yet he still struggled to believe that it was true. Everything about Phil Craft had changed. Everything.

His normally alive, bright skin had paled into a dead, pasty gray. His warm blue eyes were replaced with pits of complete darkness that shot daggers into the back of Wilbur’s head. His gentle smile changed to a constant frown. His cheery voice had shifted into nothing but a low, raspy one. And his smell, the smell that had always allowed Wilbur to feel at home no matter where the pair was, had been erased entirely, covered with the scent of a rotting body. A dead person. His father’s corpse.

The teen drags Phil along everywhere with him. Countless people have tried to take him away, but he doesn’t let them. He puts a gun to their heads and tells them he will shoot if they don’t back away. It works, most days. Wilbur is only ever bluffing, but sometimes if the gun doesn’t work, he just takes off running, taking the corpse with him. All the two have ever done is run.

Perhaps it’s time to fight, but it’s hard to do so when you don’t have anything to fight for anymore.

The pair have been through so much together. He can’t let him go. Not now. Not ever. That’s his father. Infected or not, he is not letting him go. No matter what. He would let Phil bite him, if it came down to it, despite knowing that his father would never bite anyone not would he want Wilbur to allow himself to be bitten.

Sometimes, Wilbur talks to Phil. Forcing yourself into believing a lie is unhealthy, sure, but maybe, just maybe, if Wilbur pretends everything is normal for just a little while, life would go back to being how it was before. He tells him about his day. How he feels. What he ate. What he dreamt about the previous night. The topic of the one-sided conversations always varied, and Wilbur felt like he was just talking to a mannequin constantly, but he was fine with that.

The only thing that didn’t vary about the conversations, were the apologies, and the affection, and then the sobbing.

They always came in that exact order. Wilbur would apologize for letting Phil get bitten in his place, or for not being quick enough, or for not being smart enough, or for being so weak. And then he would tell him how much he loves and misses him, how he will always love him no matter what, how he wishes he could still talk so the pair could have a normal conversation, even if it’s just one, and it’s short. Hearing Phil’s voice again instead of constant groaning would be a blessing.

And then comes the sobbing. Wilbur saw his parents hide their tears from him a lot, and he grew up doing the same. He doesn’t like letting Phil see him cry, but he can’t help it anymore. He just lets the tears flow while his father sits there silent and motionless, staring.

Wilbur always ends up staring back into the dark abyss that is what is left of Phil’s eyes. He finds comfort in the darkness, funnily enough.

Though he would much rather a hug. Or reassurance. Or even a smile. He wants to go back to how everything was before the apocalypse, but he can’t, and he has come to terms with that. To an extent. He knows he can’t go back, but that doesn’t change that he wants to.

[nezuscribe]

𝐟𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐚 𝐠𝐨𝐝

---

pairing: marc spector x reader

genre: angst, blurb, marc sector has me in a chokehold rn 😔

summary: he's the folly of a god, a shell of a man, and no longer who he was when you first met him, a man who used to buy you flowers is now a man covered in blood and you can no longer handle it

word count: 1k

takes place before the show

mcu masterlist

---

the bazaar was crowded, bodies pushing up against one another as the smell of saffron and turmeric filled the scene, vendors selling their own food adding the appealing aroma.

"care for some kebab?" the question was simple had the voice behind it not have sounded so tense, so full of fright that to the unknown ear it would have been almost comedic.

you turned your head away, jutting your chin out as you stalked through the sellers, blocking out every noise, every shout and yell as you clenched your fists tightly.

"i can pay," he offered and you almost scoffed, it's not as though he ever let you pay anyways, "free of charge," gods, he was truly awful at joking.

he glanced to his side, biting hard on the inside of his cheek as he noticed you looking even angrier than you usually were, your brows pulled together as you looked straight ahead, refusing to look him in the eye.

he would spill everything if he could, right here, right now. but under the appeasing eyes of so many, he opted to wait, to save it when it was just the two of you and nobody else.

"darlin'," he tried, this time quieter, filled with more desperation, "it's not as bad as it loo-" he heard a snort coming from your end, your jaw ticking as you rolled your eyes at his oblivious words.

"really it's not," he continued, his fingers trying to find yours but you kept pulling them away when he got too close.

your pace quickened, but his long strides made up for it, and he seemingly didn't have to struggle very much to catch up to you, his hand finding your elbow as you paused, glad that you were out of the busy marketplace.

with a deep breath, you looked around, keeping your expression steady as it reflected his rather frantic one.

"marc," you seethed through your teeth, looking away when he took a step forward, not trusting your tuition as you knew you'd just fall into his embrace, "not here."

"yes, here," he argued back, eyes trying to find yours as his hand slipped down to yours, encasing them in his larger, rougher ones. he had callouses on his palms, but you'd always press your lips to them, and say you loved them.

"y/n," he tried once again, slowly, the air filled with a breeze that only autumn held in egypt, something you used to enjoy with him. you glanced up at the starry sky, lips pursing as you thought.

"i saw blood on your hands again," you scoff to yourself as you shake your head at the haunting thought. you could vividly remember finding him in a corner, skin stained red as he widely breathed in and out.

"is that what he wants you to do now?" you pointed up at the sky, "khonshu?" you knew of his past job, heard of what he did. but you had never seen him in action. now, however, you could see the violence in his posture, how he was no longer the same person you met so long ago.

marc let go of your hands, running one through his hair as he looked back at the bazaar and then to you, eyes piercing as he debated an answer.

"marc, y-you're losing yourself!" you shouted when he couldn't think of a response, "look at where we are!" his blood-stained clothing, your crumpled night clothing from running out of your shared bedroom when you saw that he was gone.

"y/n," his hands reached for your face but you pushed them away in disgust. you missed the way his eyes flashed with hurt, how he looked at his own skin as if to see if he had burned you in some way.

"i-i didn't sign up for this marc. you barely come home, the only time i see you is before you go to sleep, covered in blood. i mean, it's like you're a totally different person now," you took a deep breath in, shaking your head as you admitted; "t-this isn't a life i can live in anymore. i just can't, marc," your face broke, and for just a second, you mirrored him. there was pain, longing, and ache.

"darlin', please, give me a chance," he moved after you, realizing you were walking back to the apartment, and sighed deeply through his nose, looking up almost as if he were pleading for help.

"you know i love you, god, i'm so fuckin' sorry for hurtin' ya' but you gotta believe me..." he trailed off, pressing little kissing to your knuckles, lips wet with hidden tears as he shook.

"this whole thing is new to me, i have to get used to it. but darlin', you know i can't forget about you. you're my fuckin life, ya' know that?" he pressed more and more kisses to your arms, traveling upwards as he tried to nudge your jaw with his nose but your eyes wrung shut, your face moving to the other side as you avoided his lips.

"you're so good to me," his voice cracked as his tears wet your skin, "ya' know that? you're so fuckin' amazin' and beautiful, y/n, you're eveyr-"

"no, marc," you wrenched your hand out of his once again, your eyes glossy in the light of the moon, shining over as your lips trembled, your head shaking feverishly as you took a stumbled step back, "no more. please."

he took a step back instantly, hands up in the air almost as a surrender,

"okay, okay, i get it," he quickly moved away, trying to give you space, "no more. how about we go home and i make you somethin', yeah? that pistachio thing you like so much, hm?" he tried for a smile but you shook your head, quick to wipe your tears as you repeated it again.

"no more, marc," you whispered, voice hoarse, and it cracked for a second as his face scrunched up in his oblivious confusion, "no more. please."

and no more, please, translated to you pulling away from his hold, leaving him alone in the eyes of khonshu as he stared aimlessly at your receding figure.

sure he's died before, but nothing felt as painful as watching you walk away with a piece of his heart.

[ashes-writing]

wild one pt seven | stranger things ; g.emerson

tag list babes || req rules / fandoms+characters || got a req? || masterlist

CHAPTERS ; 

one two three four five six can be found by clicking. stranger things masterlist is here -be warned, it's a clusterfuck rn.

AUTHORS NOTES;

This story still has me in a chokehold.

So... I'm thinking two of you miiight maaaybe possibly...be a little happy with what happens in this part. Honestly, they needed to take a huge leap because summer doesn't last forever y'know. I'm gonna give a shoutout to @pin-down-rainbow and @50shadesofjayden because your comments kind of inspired the huge long winded thing that came to me this time and I love you both for it.

Huge thanks to everybody putting up with -and indulging, my bullshit thus far. The interactions have given me life and they've been keeping me inspire and you don't know how much everything, from likes to comments t reblogs with tags and reblogs they mean the world to me and you guys just have me mind blown rn.

SUMMARY;

-- cheerleaders and drummers aren't supposed to mix. but maybe sometimes, they do.

PAIRING;

Gareth Emerson x Fem!Reader (female parts, personality / outfit descriptions, is a blank slate beyond these things. Or as blank as I could get. I'm still learning this.)

WARNINGS;

swearing, jocks -they are the warning, teenage girls doing dumb things (climbing a water tower to sit and stargaze), more swearing, uh... certain kinks are hinted at if you squint (sir / dominance /etc), meddling stepsisters with loud voices, teeeniest hint of will byers lil crush on mikey boy but it's not integral, that's kind of everything.

TAGLIST;

@littlestarfighter03

TAGLIST;

@AURUMBELIS

@ALLELITESMUT

@ARIES-ARCADE

@COLE22ANN

@ebonybloom

@HEYAITSKLAUDIA

@HCLOANGCLS

@hoeshii

@hotgirlsshareaccounts

@ICEQUEEN1371

@KRYS-ORION

@LETSBEDRAGONSTOGETHER

@LOUDERFORTHEBACK

@MUSICHEALSSCARS

@SECRETSICANTHIDEANYMORE

@SCOOBIESSNACKS

@THECHOICESLOOKGRIMM

@UNTITLEDAREA - these are all the names on my stranger things taglist. if you’d like to be added, please click the link at the top of the post.

OTHER STUFF;

Set in S4 -with none of the Upside Down monsters / Vecna and past instances of the Upside down or deaths. Slice of life kinda stuff, ya know? Gareth is aged up to 18 here. JSYK.

Timeline here is half one night, the rest of the chapter the next day.

“Ugh, I know, I knowwww.” you laugh and tip your head back, gazing up at the twinkling stars overhead. The sleeves of his flannel shirt just manage to graze your fingertips and there’s a distinct chill in the air tonight that subtly tells you the end of summer is coming. 

As the breeze picks up just a little, you hug into the flannel shirt and reach out to the little case of sodas sitting between you and Emma. “I know I need to give this back I just…” you laugh and fidget with the sleeve of the flannel a little as you add in a quieter tone, “I can’t, okay? I’ve tried, oh my god. But then I panic. Or I smell him on me because I’m wearin it and my brain shuts down.” you fall back against metal scaffolding and dramatically throw your hand up to your forehead. “What the fuck is wrong with me, Em?”

“You’re a romantic. And,” Emma pauses to take a sip from her own glass soda bottle, “You’re also a chickenshit. And those two things don’t play well together.” 

You flip her off and pull yourself to your feet, leaning out over the rail around the water tower’s scaffolding to peer down at the ground below. “Wow. This is really fucking high when you stop to think about it.” you muse, pulling yourself back. Emma nods to a familiar cream colored K5 as it parks. “Chief is here.”

From the ground, Jim Hopper grumbles to himself and cups his hands around his mouth to holler up to the two of you, “Ladies… How many times are we gonna go through this, huh? Water tower’s not safe to climb up and sit on. Can’t ya have your fuckin smoke breaks on the ground? Where it’s safe?”

“Sorry, Hop!”

“Sorry! We’ll come down!” you call out. The two of you gather your cigarettes and sodas and start to carefully make your way back down the ladder. You skip the bottom two rungs on the steel ladder and laugh, gazing up at the older man. 

“You give your dad every single one of his grays, don’tcha?” Hopper’s joking, of course. You shrug and laugh quietly. “I mean I’m not tryin to, sir.”

“Don’t let her lie! She lives for chaos.”

“Okay, well.. I’ve gotta get home to the wife. Stop climbing the damn tower, girls. I mean it. You scare Ms. Rosen shitless every single time she looks out and sees it, okay?” Hopper uses his firmest tone and it… Doesn’t have the effect that a similar one when used by a certain Corroded Coffin drummer always has.

You giggle upon the realization, your hand flying up to your mouth because you’re gaping about it.

“What the hell is wrong with you, woman?”

You laugh and shrug. “I was just thinking.”

– ( Gareth’s garage )

It doesn’t register until much later what you called him hours before. But when it does, he fumbles his drumsticks mid-twirl and they hit the concrete with a loud clatter. The missed beat prompts Eddie to sit down his guitar and chuckle, gazing his way patiently. “You gonna be okay, Gare?”

“Fuck.” Gareth mutters, his mind looping what you called him on repeat. Distracted. “Fuck.” is uttered in a quieter and more thoughtful tone as soon as Gareth begins to realize that he liked it. He liked it a lot more than he probably should, truth be told. Just thinking about it now, hours after the fact, it has him straining hard against the black denim he’s wearing. Gareth shifts around on the stool seated behind his drum kit and drags his hand through thick curls. “Just give me a minute, alright? Shit.”

Jeff and Grant exchange puzzled looks and Eddie, determined to get to the bottom of whatever’s going on with his drummer, clears his throat. “Wanna share with the rest of us, maybe?”

“I’m gonna uh.. Smoke.” Gareth snatches up his cigarettes and either Jeff or Eddie’s lighter and he rushes out of the garage, sitting on the concrete in front of it. 

“Fuck it. Smoke break, guys?” Eddie asks the other two.

“Yeah.”

“Yeah, definitely.”

The three remaining members of Corroded Coffin file out of the garage.

“Okay, spit it out, Gare.”

“Yeah.”

“Just tell us already.”

Gareth takes a drag and shakes his head no. “Yeah, not happening. You assholes give me enough shit already.”

“We won’t.”

“I swear.”

“On Ozzy, man. Just tell us. I’ll beg, dude.” Eddie moves like he’ll grab hold of Gareth’s outstretched leg and goes to lie on the concrete and Gareth backs up a little, laughing and rolling his eyes. “Fine.” he laughs. “It’s dumb.”

After taking a deep breath, he says it fast. In a rush that has his three best friends trying to figure out what he said until Eddie gets him to repeat it. Gareth repeats it with a laugh. “I just realized she called me something earlier, okay? And it’s weird, like.. Fuck.” he shifts the way he’s sitting and takes a very deep breath before puffing the cigarette again, exhaling shaky a few seconds later as he stares up at the sky, “She called me sir. And now I can’t stop fucking thinking about it.”

The three of them try not to laugh, they really do, but Eddie is the first one to crack, his boisterous laugh echoing off the night as he clutches his side. Jeff is almost crying as he nudges Gareth and wheezes out, “Oh hell, you really do have it bad, buddy. It’s baaad.”

Grant is the slower of the three to catch on but when he does, he grins and his laughter immediately worsens. “Holy shit, man. I mean, I suppose I can’t blame you for missing an entire section of beats now, that’s.. Whew.” he fans himself with his t-shirt and raises a beefy arm to rub across his forehead.

“Fuck you. All of you. Now all I’m thinking about is how fuckin flustered I’m gonna be when I’m around her. Fuck!” Gareth thumps the cigarette out into the road and leans back on his elbows, laughing a little at himself. “It was so fucking hot though.”

“Okay, alright.”

“Do not… go any further with that.”

“Yeah, how about we just push this conversation into a bottle and throw it in the ocean, buddy?” Jeff snorts in laughter.

“I always kind of thought you were a kinky little shit, Emerson.” Eddie loops an arm around his friend lazily and Gareth glares, flipping him off as he nudges the arm right back down. “Oh hahafuckyouhaha.” he laughs quietly.

An engine’s roar up at the corner of the street catches their attention and as the red Trans Am whizzes past, Gareth rubs a hand over his face and nods to it. “She drives like she’s got a thousand goddamn lives to spare. I thought Eddie couldn’t fucking drive. Like… she’s my girl but she can’t drive. At all.”

“Hey, asshole.”

“What? It’s true! I wanna kiss the fucking ground every time I get outta your van.” Gareth shrugs as he says it, laughing.

“He’s not lying, Munson.” Grant laughs, ducking away from Eddie.

“Fuck both of y’.” Eddie flips them off, laughing. Thumping his own cigarette out into the street. The Trans Am whizzes past again, the faintest sound of Ace of Spades by Motorhead floating out the car’s interior as it passes.

–(next day, at Hawkins Pool)

You’re easy to spot, the flannel over your new red and white striped bikini stands out amongst all of the other people walking around in various states of undress. You’re leaning against the vending machine and you’re talking to Emma and Chrissy Cunningham.

Gareth is still thinking about the day before.

And the fact that you’re wearing a flannel almost exactly like one he owns, yet again.

It’s a lot. Frankly, his mind is blown.

And his friends keep telling him to just go for it. They do have a damn good point, this is senior year, if he doesn’t go for it now, when?

And he’s so damn tired of reigning in his own feelings.

Across the pool, Max and Eleven are talking quietly.

“Do you think she’ll actually give him his shirt back today?”

“Considering she went the long way home to drop Emma off last night just to do that and still came back wearing it, I doubt it, El.” Max laughs and shakes her head, raising to a sitting position. She nudges Will and Will lowers his battered copy of The Shining to look at her. “Sunscreen, Byers.”

Will passes her the bottle of sunscreen and Max motions for Eleven to turn facing her. “You’re really starting to burn, El.”

“Yeah.” Eleven laughs softly. “We could tell him.. About the flannel.”

Will puts down the book and gazes out into the pool where Gareth Emerson is standing, with his friends. Will chuckles. “We could. I mean.. It needs to come out. And there’s nothing else to do.”

Max laughs softly. “You’re on our side of this then, huh?”

Will grins, nodding. “Mhm. I know Lucas, Mike and Dustin mentioned that it’s better to just let things happen, that it’ll be funnier, but like… Look at them, damn it.”

“Aww, you big softie.”

Will shrugs.

Eleven gives Will a little look. If he’d just apply this logic to his own situation with Mike.. She could say it, but she keeps it to herself. For the moment. But it does need to come out sooner or later and she knows it. She wants it to.

Andy and his noisy friends invade the water, splashing and yelling, roughhousing. Max flips Andy off at one point because he sends up a splash that soaks her and Andy swims over, smirking. “You got a problem, doll?”

“Yeah. You.” Max calls out, glaring when she’s splashed again. “Assholes.”

Andy and his friends go back to roughhousing elsewhere in the pool and Max turns her attention back to the current discussion at hand.

“She’s never going to give him back his flannel shirt at this rate, look at her.” Max nudges Will, who looks up from his book just in time to see you hugging into the flannel because Andy’s doing the thing where he’s lurking again and out of habit, because Andy scares the everlasting fuck out of you even if you’d die before admitting it, you’re huddling into the flannel and scowling. 

Andy sends up an obnoxious splash at you and you flip him off, rolling your eyes about it. Huddled into that shirt like it’s a lifeline.

 “The creep’s scaring her.” Will nods to you and El nods. “She’s scared of him, she just acts like she’s not.” and Max nods in agreement, locking eyes with you as she nods to Gareth and then the flannel you’re wearing as a cover up.

You swallow hard and take a shaky breath, gazing out where Gareth and his friends are sitting in a row along the edge of the pool. “You said you were going to give it back.” Emma points out with a soft laugh. Chrissy smiles at you, “You don’t want to, huh?”

You sigh and shake your head, cringing a little. Gulping because you know damn well that telling him now will be awkward as hell. “No, actually, I don’t. I mean… Not only for obvious reasons, but it’ll be kind of weird, I mean… I barely know him and I have and am wearing his shirt.”

“Little pervert.” Emma teases, making Chrissy laugh and shake her head. “No, it’s sweet! I always thought you were too badass to get a crush on somebody? It’s cute, though.”

“I’m a whole mess, okay?” you laugh, rolling your eyes as you palm at your face. 

And across the pool, Max grumbles and throws up her hands. “I knew it! I knew she wasn’t going to give it back to Gareth! She’d better not even try to pretend she doesn’t like the guy, she’s had his damn shirt for a week now. And she slept in it last night, even! Said and to quote her words exactly, “It’s soft. It smells like him. It’s like he’s close. Stop giving me shit, Max.” ” Max’s outburst has Will laughing and Eleven snickers about it. 

What Max doesn’t realize is that while she wasn’t that loud when she said it, she was loud enough that a certain drummer happened to overhear every single word. As did his three best friends, on top of it. 

Gareth chokes on the sip of Dr. Pepper he’s just taken as his eyes widen almost comically and Eddie’s laughing, hitting him on the back as he muses with a smug grin, “Cat’s out of the bag now, I suppose.”

“That’s..” Gareth stammers, mind blown. Staring intently now that Max has said it, realizing that it has to be his shirt, there’s even a bleach stain on the elbow on the left sleeve. “That’s my shirt. Fuck.”

“So, in light of this little plot twist, Gareth the Great… Any clue what you’re going to do about it?” Eddie asks, chuckling as he gazes at his very shocked best friend.

Gareth is turning redder and redder in the face. He’s only barely gotten it processed that you called him Sir the day before at Starcourt -and he loved it, it gave him this sense of power when he normally feels like he has none, but now.. Oh god, now. Not only did you somehow manage to get hold of one of his shirts but you’ve been wearing it a little over a week now, right in front of him. And you apparently have a real hard time giving it back.

Giving his shirt back is honestly the last thing he wants you to do now that he’s aware of the fact that you have it. He’s staring at you intently, watching the way you fidget with the sleeves. The way it hangs on you, stopping just below the middle of your thighs. The way it’s slipping down off of one shoulder as you laugh and talk and bounce around on your feet while standing with your two best friends Emma and Chrissy.

“Fuckin hell.” he rakes his hand over his eyes and takes several long and deep breaths.

“I think he’s broken now. Yep,” Eddie chuckles, “His brain is totally scrambled.”

“Fried, man.”

“Dude, you have to do something. You have to, man.” Grant insists.

“Yeah. Alright, alright. Shit.”

Laughter and yelling from your direction has him looking over, just in time to watch you climb the ladder for the high dive, having shed the flannel. Chrissy is holding it for you, Gareth notices when she holds it up as if to reassure you that she’s holding it and it didn’t just get thrown somewhere. You give Chrissy a thumbs up as you slink out to the edge of the board and Emma yells up, “The handstand!”

“Yeah, yeah! Alright, okay, shit.” you call down to her before going into a handstand. As you right yourself and dive off of the board a few seconds later, you hit the water with a big splash and come up shaking your hair at Emma who leaps back, shrieking, “I did not ask for a shower, damn it! Hey! Knock it off, trouble, c’mon.”

You pout a little and pull yourself up onto the concrete, taking the shirt back from Chrissy to put back on. You happen to lock eyes with Andy, who winks and gives you one of his lewd stares.

“Not gonna happen, Weber, fuck right off.” you cup your hands around your mouth to call out to the brunet jock.

“Hey, did they have Sprites or are they still out?” you ask as Chrissy turns her attention to the machine, working to straighten the bill she’s trying to put in. “I think they have them this time.” she answers, slipping the dollar in.

Scowling when she spots Jason, Andy and Chance making their way over. 

“I’m not talking to you, Jason. Go away.”

“Aw, princess, don’t be that way. I was just trying to look out for you. You have an image, princess.” as Jason says it, he glares at you and Emma and the two of you double over laughing. “Is he serious?”

“He looks like it, hell.” you answer, rolling your eyes as you say it.

Your laughter dies and you fix your gaze on Jason, arms folded. “What you’re gonna do now, Carver, is walk away. Chrissy needs space. She’s getting it, one way or another.” you step up. He glares down at you and chuckles. “She needs to talk to me. If I were you, I’d stay out of her business.” and this is when Emma steps up, a hand on her hip. “Y’know…you’re real stupid for somebody with a 3,8 GPA, Carver. How many times does she need to say it out of her own mouth? She doesn’t want to talk to you. And you’re not the king ruler of all.”

“You two are nothing but a bad influence.” Jason’s voice is clenched and he’s giving both of you his most stern and humorless gaze as he says it. “Chrissy knows I’m only trying to help her. You two are trying to corrupt her, I mean… You with your obnoxious behavior..” he rolls his eyes at you and Emma, “Have never taken the honor it is to be a part of something like this serious, not even for one second.”

Emma laughs and so do you. “And? Die mad about it. Do you really think it’ll matter in five years, Carver?” Emma shoves past him as she says it. Chrissy is between the two of you as the three of you walk past and find three sun loungers to flop into. Chrissy manages a smile. “Thank you.”

You and Emma shrug. “No big deal, I mean. You’re our friend.” you answer, quick to add, “And probably the sweetest person we know.”

“Caroline said she’s my friend too and then she proceeded to stay on the phone with me for three hours to explain why I needed to give Jason a chance to talk.”

“Please tell me you hung up.” Emma groans out, pinching at the bridge of her nose as she tilts her head back, squeezing her eyes against the sun. “Ugh, the bullshit alone almost makes me want to tell the coach where to shove my pom poms. And it’s gotten worse with Caroline as co-captain.”

“Unplugged the phone, actually.” Chrissy laughs softly, twisting strands around her finger. “It really has, hasn’t it? Or maybe it’s always been this bad, we just never noticed it until now.” she shrugs and sighs. “Either way, you two need to watch your backs. She’s already foaming at the mouth to find ways to get you thrown off the squad somehow.”

“Let her say one word to me. She won’t have to invent something, I’ll give her one.” you laugh when you say it, you’ve been thinking about quitting all summer and the more you think about it, the more you wonder if maybe it’s not a good idea. 

You pull your hair out from beneath you to let it dangle over the back of the chair and turn so that your legs are draped over an arm. “I can’t believe we’re going into our senior year… Wow.”

“Me either.” Emma laughs. “Only a few months and we’ll be leaving this hellhole. Maybe.”

“It feels so weird, right?” Chrissy muses.

“It really does.” you admit.

Emma gazes over at you. “Y’know if you don’t do something soon, time will run out.”

You rub your forehead, your eyes squeezed shut. “I know, I knowwww. But what do I do, I mean… We’re speaking now? It’s a start?”

“Do you really want to let the chance slip through your fingers though? I mean, is that really what you want? He’s oblivious, woman. Sweet, but oblivious. We live in a new age. You can totally make the first move.”

“How?” you ask, laughing at her. “You’re the one who happens to be good at this crap, Em!”

“Just figure something out!” Emma laughs as she says it and you roll your eyes, flipping her off as you finish off your Sprite. “You say it like it’s easy, Em. Every single time I turn around, I’m doing dumb stuff. Like covering him in vomit or falling on top of him, then there’s the drowning incident I mean, I fucking froze up and he had to get me.... Or stealing his shirt, purely by accident, I swear to God you two better stop looking at me that way,” you rub your temples as you trail off, “I mean.. I’m an actual disaster at this, alright?” 

“That was not an accident and you know it. You could’ve worn the sports bra, you were the only one there with his sisters, it’s not like it’s a big deal. Gretchen walks around like that all the time at home and seeing her like that as a child didn’t scar me.” Emma points out calmly. “Maybe you could  ask Susan. She landed your father, duh.”

“Em, ick.” you wrinkle your nose, “I still can’t believe you have a crush on Wes.” you shake your head, laughing.

“He’s hot!”

“He’s my father, fuckin hell!” you pout at her, laughing. “I’m getting in the water, I cannot with you right now. You wanna come out, Chrissy?”

“You two go right ahead. I’m staying up here. Where it’s dry. I am not messing up my hair and making a mess out of my mascara, alright? I’m not.” Emma insists when Chrissy glances over at her.

“We’re drenching her.”

“We are.” Chrissy laughs, smiling just a little as you two fall into the pool water and pop up, sending up an obnoxious spray that drenches your friend Emma. Emma scowls, folding her arms. “Fuck you both.”

“Aw, love you too, storm cloud.” you laugh out.

“I love you significantly less, heathen.” Emma retorts, laughing as she flips you off.

As you pull yourself to a standing position, prepared to launch your body at the lounge chair, you find yourself body to body with Gareth. He swallows hard and you shuffle your feet, toying with the sleeves on a shirt you stole from him.

Your brain keeps telling you to open your mouth and just confess, because it’s honestly silly, but your mouth is frozen and the words aren’t coming. 

“Hey.” you tilt your head just slightly, gazing up at him as you raise a hand and twist damp strands around your finger. You grin when you notice the pins you brought him and the Motorhead patch on the front of his flannel and before you can stop yourself, you’ve got a hand resting against his chest, your finger dragging over the stitching of the patch. “Oh hey, you got it on there after all!” you’re grinning up at him.

He is still frantically trying to process, but he does manage to step close. And then closer. And then, all the way into you so that there’s no space left between your bodies. You swallow hard, skin on fire and it’s not just from the hot afternoon sun. 

He opens his mouth to say something but nothing comes out. He’s doing it again, the thing where he dominates the space between you two entirely and you can only feel yourself burn hotter because it somehow manages to both fluster you and make you feel safe all at once. Every single time he does it. Your free hand raises, catching in messy and wet hair. It occurs to you that maybe he wants to walk past you, but for some reason you don’t step back to let him pass by.

Gareth takes a deep breath. You’re wearing his shirt and you’re pressed against him and you haven’t moved yet and it’s thrown him straight into a daze. He can feel all three of his friends staring at him intently, willing him to do something, anything at this rate would be awesome. The longer he stands there, the hotter he can feel his cheeks getting and he wants the ground to open up and swallow him. In all honesty, he came up to you with every intention of just saying it, telling you that he knows but that’s long fled his brain.

“Jesus christ, if they don’t get a room, I swear to God.” Eddie grumbles and he’s a breath away from just hollering out but Jeff gives him a silencing head shake after nudging him in the side. “He’s gotta do this himself, Munson.”

“He could do it faster, holy shit.” Eddie grumbles.

Emma’s watching you both and she nudges Chrissy. “I am so tempted to just knock into them and make them bump into each other. I swear, it’s like when we used to play dolls, y’know? Shoving their heads together so they’d kiss? That. I wanna do that right now.”

Gareth rubs a hand over his face after a second or two.

“Gareth?” you smile up at him. You’re playing with the ends of the sleeves on his flannel again and maybe it drew his attention because maybe he’s starting to realize you’re flustered right now too and he doesn’t know what to do with that knowledge.

“Yeah.” he questions, unintentionally using that tone that always flusters you and realizing it, instantly wanting to kick himself because he did not mean to sound… however it was that he sounded. The last thing he wants is for you to think he’s annoyed by you or doesn’t want you around because neither thing could be farther from the truth.

“Nothing…” you bite your bottom lip as you say it and his eyes hone in on the way your lip is caught between your teeth. You were just about to tell him, explain the whole thing and laugh it off, because it’s so silly, you taking his shirt, right?

The words get hung in your throat just like they always seem to lately.

“There’s a gig at the Hideout.. It’s uh.. Tonight..” he’s fully aware that he’s rambling and he wants to punch himself for it. He takes a deep breath, tries it again with less stammering this time. “You can come.. I mean if you want to?”

Christ, he thinks to himself, I am going to completely fuck this up. 

But then you’re playing with the patch on his shirt pocket and dazed. And now that he’s fully aware of the situation in its entirety, he can see what the guys have been saying for at least three weeks now. You really are flustered by him and it’s kind of mind-blowing because of anybody he knows, you are not the girl he’d think anybody could fluster like this, especially not him.

“I could.” you answer, glancing up at him as you lick your lips, “But do you want me to?” you ask, immediately wanting to vanish on the spot because your voice came out so flirty, so much more like Em or Chrissy than you that it throws you for a loop for a little bit.

“Mhm. I really do.” he’s distracted again, the sun overhead is glinting off of that little silver necklace with the switchblade charm you’re always wearing. You catch on to his distraction and reach up, gripping his jaw gently. Guiding his face -and his eyes so that they’re fixed on yours as you giggle about it. “My eyes are up here, Gareth.”

“Shit. I’m..” he laughs quietly. “Sorry.” he’s shuffling his feet against the concrete. You shrug. “It’s okay.”

It is because he’s not Andy or Chance or one of the other boys and you know he’s not an asshole, he wasn’t intentionally staring at your tits to make you feel creeped out or anything.

 “Is that a switchblade? On your necklace?” he wants to punch himself when he asks the question but you laugh quietly and nod. “Yeah.. Wes, he went on a trip and saw it, and presented it to me as a 16th birthday thing? It’s actually kind of stabby too.” you’re the one rambling now and your words trail off as you wait patiently on the concrete to open below your feet and Satan himself to pull you down to Hell.

“Cool.” Gareth laughs quietly.

“So uh.. Your show? What time is it?” you ask, shifting around, fidgeting under his intent gaze. Burning up all over again the second you realize that his eyes are roaming and there’s this wild gleam to them and it’s hot, you’re definitely into it. He smiles, drags his hand over thick, wet curls. “It starts at 9. You’ll have to tell the guy at the door you’re there for it.”

You laugh softly. “Doubtful. The bartender, she uh.. Used to babysit me when they had pool tournaments there on the weekend. She’ll let me in.”

Gareth grins  a little brighter. “Awesome.”

And you keep trying to make yourself just do it, just give him back his flannel, but then he’s walking back over to his friends, walking away and you didn’t do it, yet again.

“Fuck.” you fan yourself as you fall back into the lounge chair. “Nobody speak to me for like.. At least an hour, I need to uh… Yeah.” your dazed words make Chrissy and Emma clutch each other and laugh as Emma asks, “What’d he say? Woman you are.. So flustered right now.”

“Fuck off, Em!” you laugh out, pouting at her as you look over to the chair she’s sitting in. “I uh… He asked me if I wanted to come and watch their band play tonight.”

“Well?”

“I’m going!”

“And the flannel?”

“I,uh…” you palm your face and laugh. “I tried, okay? I did try.”

“Mhm. Tell that to somebody who believes you, you perverted little heathen.”

[ilyjerome]

seongmin as your boyfriend !!

pairing: oh seongmin x fem(? i didn’t really specify a gender)reader ( to1 fm )

genre: a disgusting amount of fluff.

prompt: just seongmin has ur bf !! some cute things he’d do and little stories djdheie

not proofread !! lowercase intended

————————————————————————————

♡ - this boy is always w you . like , he is GLUED to you !! even if your not physically touching he’s always in ur field of vision JDBRJD he needs to almost always have you with him for his sake :( he just wants to be with uuuuu

♡ - will randomly start squeezing ur neck and being all touchy (even tho he is already like i said boy is glued to you) prolly twirling ur hair around his finger while laying on u waiting for you to stop whatever ur doing JTHRIE give ur bf some attention pls !! will definitely 101% start whining if you take too long or just ignore him for fun or something

♡ - “waaah y/n !! give me a hug !! please !!” and literally pounces on you HDBEJ starts fake biting u n shit <\3 “nammm” can u hear my heart breaking ?

♡ - is ALWAYS laughing or giggling w u we’ve all seen this guy in his vlives he’s always laughing its so precious he probably thinks ur so cute and giggles a lot at what you do

♡ - definitely boasts about his shoulders i can already see him taking off his jacket and patting them like “here, you can rest here” and WINKING or something this boys got me in such a chokehold he knows he’s so cute so he takes that in advantage too bcz we all know we are not getting past his puppy eyes

♡ - randomly intertwines ur hands …. :( like you two could be having a conversation and (example) ur sitting in his lap facing him telling him about your day he will just grab ur hands and intertwine them w his and he’s nodding listening to everything u have to say but if ur days bad he’ll order food or cook some for you ;( or you two can just cuddle while watching a movie as long as your there he really doesn’t mind *crying*

♡ - he’s definitely got a lot of pet names for you but more alongside the basic ones like “baby” or “darling” he literally calls jaeyun darling ?? and he calls jeyou “my pretty baby” stopppp be prepared to get showered in pet names and compliments if you look good (to him u look good everyday even if u just got out of bed and have a severe case of bed head) <33 prolly showers u w kisses too or the tightest hug ever :p - you can’t breathe so you’ll have to slightly tap him like “seongmin .. i can’t breathe “ JDBEJD definitely exaggerates his gasps to make you feel better if your showing him a new outfit his eyes widen and he covers his mouth he’s in awe over u rn

♡ - BACK HUGSSS !!!!! i cannot stress this enough he prolly kisses behind ur ear and asks what ur doing ;((((( seongmin is tall and broad so he’s most likely gonna tower over u (i’m 5’3 so ..) you can hear him oooing and stuff at u explaining or watching whtv ur doing he’s so mesmerised over little things it’s adorable $~€{ he rests his head on yours or if your taller he rests his head on your shoulder and his cheeks r puffed up ;((( and leaning on u

♡ - when u hug he swings u both and makes cute asf noises :( and probably swings his head to look at you n giggles and you can see his gums i’m crying so hard rn !!!!!!!!!!! definitely a squeezer like i said but not always as tight like he just wants to give u a quick squeeze

♡ - loves making sure you eat well !! will feed you and do the airplane whatever it takes to make you eat and the airplane just adds cuteness and we all know seongmin is a sucker for cute things +10 points for a jordy spoon FHJRJR lovezzzz eating with you or just cooking a simple meal for you both and he loves it when you join in cooking so <33 but u two always need something sweet after so sometimes you go out to the convenience store to get snacks or ice cream ;(( like a lil date

♡ - if ur both sitting down sometimes he’ll put his legs over yours while he’s laying down :(( or if he’s sitting upright there’s a good chance he’s hugging u close to him <\\\\\3 prolly looks at you sometimes and pretends to bite your cheek *cries*

♡ - he’s always touching you in some way ?!?!?! u’re either holding hands, arms are linked or his hand is on ur thigh or something he cannot keep his hands away from u seongmin just loves u sm <\3 also bonus if your sitting he prolly snakes his arm around your waist and tickles you and cause its from the other side this boy acts clueless LMFAOO like “what do u mean ?? that wasn’t me !!” he’s such a tease with u sometimes he just thinks it’s cute it gets him going JFBEIE

♡ - he loves just walking around with you holding hands around the city and admiring pretty buildings and you go into cool stores and probably watch the sunset together <\3 even though this is a rare occurrence since he’s so busy with his hectic schedule when it happens it means so much to you both !! quality time together <33 seongmin probably pretends to push you in rivers and stuff JFHDUE but will definitely end up buying matching headbands and small things for you both ;((

♡ - brings you to his practices and recording sessions !! when he’s getting a couple extra hours of practice in he likes bringing you with him so you can watch him and tell him he did well JFBEUD every 10 minutes he’ll come over to you and ask “am i doing it well?” or something but bonus bcz you just get to see him all sweaty JFBEJE and when he’s recording (the little private rooms not literally vocal recordings) your always there to help him and give him ideas since he loves the way you think JSHSR sometimes your behind him playing w his hair and he’s sitting in the chair with his mouth open a tiny bit and he looks so cute you just have to take a pic and he gets all shy about it :(( i love this boy sm ————————————————————————————

[guu]

Got tagged by Julia @wuggen in this big ol Answer These Questions chain letter thingimajig. Supposed to tag 25 people (wowie this one feels like it was taken straight from the old myspace ones)

Last...

Beverage: Full Thottle bc energy drinks have me in a chokehold to function

Phone call: uhhh either a doordash customer or my bff gabs

Text message: talkin with my mom abt her surgery tomorrow

Song you listened to: idk man i’m on a vaporwave mix rn

Time you cried: i don’t cry much anymore so uhhh... maybe... a month ago?

Have you ever...

Dated someone twice: yeah ;;- _-)

Kissed someone and regretted it: when i was 16 yeah

Lost someone special: In the sense of fucked up a good relationship: yes

in the sense of losing contact: soo many

in the sense of death: my grandma

Been depressed: bro since i was 11

Been drunk and threw up: oh yeah. hasn’t happened in years tho

Last year, have you...

Made a new friend: Ya!

Fallen out of love: Nope

Laughed until you cried: I don’t think so but mb. memory shit.

Found out who your true friends are: I mean, I guess. too bad none of them are here irl.

Found out someone was talking about you: No bc I’m 30

General

How many people on your fb friends list do you know in real life?: I only have ppl added i kno irl bc i never use fb.

List 3 favorite colors: This hasn’t changed in like 15 yrs

pink, green, black

Firsts

First surgery: Still none

First piercing: I got my ear pierced at Claire’s when I was like. 6. so yeah that got infected Fast.

First best friend: I never had a true best friend till 7th grade, so my first is still my best friend in the whole world, Gabs.

First sport you joined: I was on the tennis team in middle school

First vacation: My family has never been rich. soo.

The time they took us along to Dodge City for a motorcycle rally back when they were bikers. that was fun. there was blood outside one of the rooms at the Best Western and i got a harmonica there.

First pair of trainers: Yeah I’m with Julia wth does this mean, I wouldn’t have guessed shoes if she didn’t say so. Licherally don’t remeber

Right now

Eating: Nothing atm, might break into some kettle corn soon

Drinking: Still the. Full Throttle.

I’m about to: get some more work done on Jewel Thieves and prolly go back out and play more Tales of Symphonia

Your future

Want kids: Got two, don’t want more.

Get married:Man i don’t know and i don’t care. if i do get married to anyone it’ll be for like, marriage benefits?

Career: I want a show of one my comics. But anyway as for ‘career’, character designer seems to be my best shot with what i Want to Do.

Which is better

Lips or eyes: yeah i think this is rly where u can see teens made these old things. both are good? people all definitely have both.

Hugs or kisses: i am so starved for friend hugs.

Shorter or taller: I don’t actually care much, it’s hard to be shorter than me, but taller is ideal cause then they could get stuff off high shelves and i go low and in small places. ideal dynamics.

Older or younger: As long as they’re old enough to drink, either is chill. probably older tho. Or a few yrs younger.

Romantic or spontaneous: Can we not have both????? What's the distinction here??? (leaving ur answer Julia cause I agree)

Nice stomach or nice arms: Big tummy... but i am a slut for a man with big strong arms

Sensitive or loud: I feel like these are not mutually exclusive? I’m sensitive and loud about it. (well. some of us are. i don’t feel much strongly)

Hook-up or relationship: Meh, either. I’m not the best with hook-ups but I might go for one if presented it.

Trouble maker or hesitant: Troublemaker within reason. I need someone who can make decisions for me so hesitant is a bit...

Have you ever...

Kissed a stranger: Yeah

Drank hard liquor: Yeah but I can’t do it anymore. Gives me heartburn.

Lost glasses/contacts: Used to lose or break my glasses all the time.

Sex on first date: Yea

Broke someone’s heart: Unfortunately u_u

Been arrested: I’ve been in handcuffs but that’s it.

Turned someone down: Hmm... yeah actually I think. I usually give just abt anyone a shot but there was that weird brony guy who was a huge misogynist.

Cried when someone died: Sorta. I didn’t know how to feel when gradma or grandpa died but I cried for my mom when they both passed.

Oh and I guess after the initial celebration of “the dead one”‘s passing, and realizing him being gone didn’t help how I felt I cried.

Do you believe in...

Yourself: Considering I’ve been let down so much I’d often have to say “if ya want somethin’ done right-” yeah

Miracles: No, but I want to.

Love at first sight: Used to. Romance is weird for us these days.

Heaven: No

Santa Claus: Okay uh, bro????

Kiss on the first date: Yeah man just go for it if it’s right for the both of ya.

Angels: Ok I know I said i don’t believe in heaven (or hell) but I’m on the fence with angels.

ok im not tagging 25 but let’s see. (as usual, only do if ya wanna ofc!)

@chocolatechippi , @babylonbirdmeat , @lilstinky , @goodvibesdog , @mood2you , @nonbinaryjew , @e-102 , @cringezskull430 , @snailbutch ,

@minmos , @3000s , @sablesablesablesable

[pinkchanelbag]

apartment 6C. [e. jaeger]

the annoying guy in the apartment above you refuses to keep quiet, so it’s time to fight fire with fire.

cw: not proofread? idk like cussing also armin’s high lol

wc: 1k.

note: yes i got lazy in the end so what? idk this is just a funny idea i had it has potential but i am simply too tired to continue it rn enjoy lol.

“jesus christ i’m gonna fucking kill him!”

“is that—oh...okay,” jean doesn't get to finish his sentence before you get up from your place at the coffee table, round the couch, and yank open the tiny storage room in the kitchen.

“can’t you just file a complaint?” sasha asks. her eyes follow you curiously as she nestles an open box of pizza in her lap on the loveseat.

“you saying she should snitch?” connie pulls a face that’s meant for her, but his eyes are glued to the tv screen as his posture jerks left and right in accordance to the xbox controller in his hands.

you return with indistinct grumbles under your breath. jean snickers at you until he sees what you’ve brought back.

“fighting fire with fire?” he cranes his neck up from his seat on the floor to look at you standing. you give him a deadpan expression before stepping up onto the coffee table, taking the bright red broom in both your hands, and knocking the pointy end into the ceiling. one, two, three, four times, firm and fast.

“woah!” armin’s entire body jolts, the book in his one open palm getting tossed to the floor and the joint in between the fingers of his other hand dangerously close to being loosed. “what the hell was that!?”

“what?” eren calls to his friend from the other room. the kitchen door swings open as he steps through with two beers tucked between his long fingers and the other hand holding his phone to his line of vision.

“that scared the shit out of me,” armin breathes. “loud ass knocking from the floor below.”

eren’s eyes flick up from his phone. his hair sticks out of his small ponytail messily, a result of his frenzied reactions to watching the football game that has only just recently ended. the game was neck and neck the entire time, and it completely fried his nerves, not to mentions his friends’. at some point eren put armin in such an excited chokehold that mikasa had to chop him on the nape of his neck before the blond passed out. but it was still a win, topped off with panned shots of the stadium chanting we will rock you with deafening claps and stomps. armin and mikasa shared bemused looks at the way eren sang and percussed along like a little kid watching cartoons. yeah, he’d gotten a little rowdy.

“whatd’ya mean?” he asks to be sure.

“like, it sounded like if someone was pounding on a door except the door...was the floor,” armin leans back against the seat behind him and rests his head on the cushion, legs spread out across the floor and his joint-carrying arm raised high in the air, clearly already over the disturbance. he doesn’t catch the grin that rises slowly to eren’s face.

“she thinks she’s slick.”

“you’re gonna put a hole in your ceiling,” sasha tells you with curious eyes and no particular warning in her tone. her mouth works around the pizza as she talks.

“if it means it’ll fuck up his flooring, then i won’t mind as much,” you scoff, taking jean’s extended hand to help you down from the table.

“will somebody pleeease play mario kart with me,” connie hollers. any potential reply is cut short by a booming thud that has all four of you jumping out of your skin. sasha makes an eep sound chokes on her pizza, and connie—whose remote flew out of his hands at the sound— gets up to thump against her back as she coughs.

“what the fuck?” jean asks in genuine disbelief. it seems he’s finally catching on to the situation at hand. and then he’s looking at you, and you’re fuming.

“do you enjoy making people not like you?” armin asks his friend. there’s a confused frown etched onto his face as he watch eren drop a heavy dumbbell he’d retrieved from his room onto his hardwood floor.

“not especially, but with this girl it’s fun.”

“what girl?” armin asks, and he’s crawling onto the couch to lay on his back.

“lives under. she goes to trost too, but probably in a different school.” he lifts the dumbbell with one hand, veins protruding up his arm, and places it next to the tv stand before coming to sit on the floor in front of the couch. “annoying...as hell. like, gives me a dirty look if i take more than one of the complementary muffins in the lobby. complementary literally means free,” he says incredulously. his hand reached up to yank out his hairtie and re-pull his hair away from his face for a new bun. “plus, she’s friends with that guy jean.”

“from high school? didn’t he like mikasa?” armin asks. with eyes closed and his hands behind his head, he looks like the definition of unbothered. eren hums in confirmation.

“yeah, imagine my fuckin’ horror when i come home one day to see the hot girl who lives a floor down with horse face.” he pauses for a moment before continuing the one-sided conversation, though he doesn’t appear fazed. “they’re not together though. she comes home from dates or whatever sometimes.” armin makes an mhm sound as an act of attentiveness.

“ready?” connie asks. upon getting the okay, resounding crashes and clangs echo through the panels of wood beneath eren’s body. it’s not as startling as knocking, but tenfold more annoying.

“keep going!” jean yells over the crashing pots and pans. he begins alternating between banging his spatula into the casserole pan and onto the ceiling itself. connie hits the inside of his pot with a wooden spoon as if ringing a church bell, hand moving almost too fast to see. he pairs this with a sound akin to a turkey gobble, high and aggressive like a war cry. and finally, you and sasha each grip the handle of a large metal wok and smack its underside over and over again with your own tools of choice.

“eren,” armin says in part-groan part-whine. “why’d you provoke her? i’m tryna sleep.”

but the brunette’s attention is elsewhere. once again, that sly smile plastered to his face, he’s all too cheerful for a person whose ears are undergoing a violent assault.

“you know what this means, right...?” eren says. armin hmphs.

“you’re a child.”

“this means war, man.”

[ashes-writing]

wild one pt. five | stranger things ; g.emerson

tag list babes + req rules / fandoms & characters ; reqs open + got a ? + masterlist

CHAPTERS ; 

one - two - three - four can all be found by clicking. my stranger things masterlist is here.

AUTHORS NOTES;

Listen, this story has me in a fucking chokehold rn. This came to me earlier and I thought it'd be cute so I decided to go for it. I mean, they needed themselves a little cozy moment, did they not? Annnyway, here we are, I guess?

Huuuuge thanks to everyone for indulging -and putting up with as well as interacting with my bullshit because it blows me away, you have no idea and I can't even begin to properly express just how much the likes / reblogs / reblogs with tags -i love the tags omg and comments truly mean to me when I get them, it just.. Fucking emotions, okay? It makes me so so so so so happy and inspires me and I just love you guys so much.

SUMMARY;

-- cheerleaders and drummers/freaks don't go together... or do they?

PAIRING;

Gareth Emerson x Fem!Reader (vague clothing / hairstyle description and glasses, a personality and female parts. Beyond these things, reader is blank slate.)

WARNINGS;

Fluff, oh my god. Like, it's also kinda domestic-y fluff? There's a little angst here, mutual pining, nothing real concerning.

TAGLIST;

@AURUMBELIS

@ALLELITESMUT

@ARIES-ARCADE

@COLE22ANN

@EBONYBLOOM

@HEYAITSKLAUDIA

@HCLOANGCLS

@HOESHII

@ICEQUEEN1371

@KRYS-ORION

@LETSBEDRAGONSTOGETHER

@LOUDERFORTHEBACK

@MUSICHEALSSCARS

@SECRETSICANTHIDEANYMORE

@SCOOBIESSNACKS

@THECHOICESLOOKGRIMM

@UNTITLEDAREA - these are all the names on my stranger things taglist. if you’d like to be added, please click the link at the top of the post.

OTHER STUFF;

Set in S4. All parties (Gareth, reader) have been aged up to 18, so everyone is legal for anything that may occur down the road. No deaths, no Vecna, no Upside Down, only your typical high school crush to lovers cheesefest, so if you're into that, have fun!

The scent of marinara hits his nose and makes his stomach growl as he steps through the front door of his house. He bends down to pull off his sneakers like usual. He knows his mom and dad went out for a date night to celebrate something or other, so he knows that his mom got a babysitter. However… The babysitter usually doesn’t bother with the stove. And she usually doesn’t play with his little sisters or anything like that. 

“Leah?” he calls out, brows knitting when she doesn't answer, an irritated huff to her voice or call out for him to cram it, she's on the phone. Because all she does is watch some shitty soap and tie up the phone all night whenever she sits.

His sister tugs his jeans leg. “Mommy got us a new sitter, Gare!”

He bends to pick up the little girl and he laughs. “Oh, she did, huh?”

“Mhm! She’s fun.” his little sister answers, yawning as she lays her head against his shoulder. “She’s makin spaghetti.”

And then, he hears you calling out to the sister currently in his arms from the kitchen. Laughing as you call out to her. “Sweetie, don’t just throw the door open, ‘kay? Remember our talk? You gotta make ‘em identify themselves first.”

You lean in the doorway between his mother’s kitchen and the living room, his youngest sister balanced on your right hip. He’s thrown for a loop because you’re wearing these big but adorable black framed glasses that keep sliding down your nose. Your hair is half up and half down, those two pigtails you wore all through cheer camp the week before. He’s trying not to stare like an idiot but he can’t help himself. 

“Gareth?” and like always, when you say his name, it’s like his brain shuts down for a few seconds to reboot. So while that’s happening and he’s caught up in that, you’re staring right back but naturally, this doesn’t register to him. You laugh softly. Raise a hand, your finger catching in the end of one of your ponytails. 

“Leah’s not babysitting?” Gareth finally manages to form words. 

You shake your head and laugh, grinning. “No. I guess your mom talked to Susan. Apparently, Mrs. Sinclair recommended me when she was asking around for other babysitters?” you can feel your cheeks burning hot and you know you’re staring at him but whenever you try not to, you can’t stop. 

Finally, you manage to pull yourself together, grinning at his little sister. “You hungry, little bit? The noodles should be done.”

Then you hear the pot on the stove bubbling and you bite your lip, turning away to rush back into the kitchen. You get to the stove just before the water bubbles over the rim of the pot. “Wouldn’t have happened if I had a wooden spoon to put over this.” you mumble to yourself, mostly so you’re not hyper aware of Gareth as he lingers in the doorway between rooms watching you.

You place his little sister on her feet and grab the pot so you can drain the noodles into the colander you’d placed in the sink and as you’re going to pour out the pasta to drain, some of the hot water splashes up and makes contact with your wrist.

“Fudge popsicles. Son of a biscuit.” you say it instead of what you would’ve said if you were at your own house in your own kitchen. Gareth snickers quietly. You stop in front of him and you’re holding out your arms, giggling softly as his little sister comes to you. “You can’t go t’ sleep yet, little bit. You’ve still gotta eat.”

The little girl yawns but smiles, eyes drooping. “She should sleep real good tonight. We went to the park down the street since Emma watched Janelle tonight, they got to play.” you say it as you place the little girl in her high chair.

His brain finally decides that it wants to function again and he chuckles, speaking up at last. Gaze fixed on you intently. “Yeah, they’re always over there playing with her.”

You smile and nod. You’re trying not to, but you’re doing it again, staring at him with not a thought in your brain. It happens a lot lately and you’re torn between being annoyed by it and utterly baffled by it. You nod to the pasta on the stove. “Are you hungry?”

He laughs, dragging his hand through sweaty curls. “I could eat, yeah.”

“Don’t be too impressed, by the way. Susan taught me how to make this and this is the first time I've actually ah.. tried to without her supervising me,so... yeah. It’s the only thing I know how to make.. Right now.” you say it with this cute little smirk. You go to push your glasses up, grumbling about how much you hate them under your breath and Gareth bites his lip, eyes fixed intently on your finger as you push the glasses up onto your nose. “I uh.. Didn’t know you wear glasses.”

“I didn’t until today when they came in. Went to the eye doctor last week and apparently, the reason I’m a clumsy person has a lot to do with being blind as a bat. I mean not really, but my vision was bad.” you’re burning up all over and you can’t help but feel just a little pinned by his intent gaze. “Go ahead.” you pout a little. “You’re dying to laugh, I know it.”

“No, no.” Gareth says it and shakes his head. He’s not dying to laugh at all. He’s dying to tell you how hot you look, how the way you look right now, white cropped bra thing, slightly baggy sweatpants, your hair all wild and half up, half down with the glasses that won’t stop slipping down your nose just seems to fit you so much better than any other way he’s seen you lately whenever you cross paths. He wants to reach out and push your glasses up on your nose for you, maybe reach out and place his other hand on your hip, let his fingers drag lazy designs against soft,bare skin. He wants to be closer to you and lately, the more he runs into you like this, the harder it gets to fight this off.

It’s happened again, he’s stepped closer to you. Practically engulfing you as you tilt your head a little, hair falling away from your neck as you stare up at him and try to pull your gaze away, focus it anywhere else. You don’t even realize that you’ve got a hand on his upper arm resting against it until you feel the soft of his black sleeve under your hands and as soon as you do, you can feel your face burning and you’re quick to pull your hand away just to keep from making things weird or awkward.

Like they can’t be any more awkward than the night you covered him in cake flavored vomit in a classmates basement because you were just so nervous about kissing him because you really wanted to.

His other little sister runs past and you reach out, picking her up, the two of you laughing. “Did you wash your hands?” you ask her.

She pouts. Shakes her head no.

“Go wash your hands.” Gareth speaks up.

And even though he’s not using that tone on you this time, you can’t help but feel your stomach do that lazy flip that it does when he is using that tone on you lately.

Which is a lot, truth be told.

His little sister goes back upstairs to wash her hands and you’re poking around in cabinets in search of plates to put the pasta on. Gareth ends up behind you, reaching up over your head to grab them when he sees them in the cabinet you’ve opened and this puts his chest against your back.

Gareth has to grip his mother’s favorite plates just so he doesn’t drop them or sit them back down on the stack too hard and his breath hangs long enough in his throat that he wonders if he’s going to breathe again anytime soon. And his breath is warm against the shell of your ear, tickling at it as he mutters quietly, “I got it.”

You glance over your shoulder at him and you’re surprised that your brain allows you to get out a nod because the way he’s awkwardly pressed into you from behind has you beyond flustered. If he had one tenth of a clue what he did to you.

But he doesn’t.

He takes the plates and goes over to the table, sitting them out. One directly across from the other. And then he goes to another cabinet and digs out two pink plastic plates, stopping by the stove to fix his sisters their plates. You’re about to get up and get your own but he grabs the plate and goes back to the stove, returning with a plate and a fork, sitting it in front of you.

Then he fixes one for himself and sits down.

You’re twirling the pasta around your fork and you raise it to your lips and Gareth’s gaze fixes on you as he takes his own bite. Groaning at the taste as it bursts in his mouth. “This is good.”

You grin. “Yeah? Maybe there’s hope after all that I won’t burn down Hawkins High when I take stupid Home Ec this year.”

He can’t help but laugh at it and you take another bite. “Susan, she’s uh.. Teaching me stuff.” you muse aloud, twisting some hair around your finger as you place your fork on the plate for a minute or two. “Did you have band practice tonight or was it that uh.. The game.” you rub your temple trying to remember what Lucas called the game they’re always playing, the one that Gareth and his friends happen to play too.

“Dnd?” Gareth questions and you smile, nodding. “Yeah, that. What’s that stand for anyway?” you ask, curious.

“Dungeons and Dragons.” Gareth answers, taking another bite. Trying not to stare like an ass across his table at you when you take a bite out of your own plate too.

“Oh. Okay, that sounds cool, actually.” you admit, your soft laughter tapering off as you take another bite before you start to ramble or say something annoying or just do too much and annoy him because you’re not dumb. You know that lately, you’ve been crossing paths a lot more. And sooner or later, it’ll probably happen, you’ve already annoyed him one time this summer.

“Yeah, it’s fun.”

“My thing is poker. Or darts. It does sound interesting, I mean from what Max’s boyfriend has explained to me about it.”

Gareth scoffs. “Those kids still use a rulebook for everything. You should let somebody who’s played the game longer explain it.” he’s half joking and maybe, just the tiniest bit of what he’s just said is him and the overwhelming desire to make himself look better even though he knows it’s pointless, because you and him will never work out, there’s too much against it. He just can’t stop himself or turn it off lately and the more he runs into you at random like this, the more it seems to grow out of control. The more he finds himself doing -and saying, things that he probably should keep to himself.

You gaze at him thoughtfully. “Maybe I should.” you’re twisting your pasta again and staring even though you know you shouldn’t be, that it has to be unsettling. He raises up in his chair a little and leans out across the table, dragging his thumb against the corner of your mouth and it takes every ounce of will you possess not to whimper or something equally embarrassing.

“You uh.. Marinara.” he manages to stammer out, quick to pull his thumb away and sit back down in his chair. You swallow hard and nod, that cute little quiet giggle coming next as you glance down at the white cropped top you’d thrown on to wear with your sweats tonight.

You’d dressed for comfort, figuring there was little to no chance you’d encounter him while you were here and honestly, you were torn between wanting to kick yourself for it and being glad that you were a little comfortable right now because you were all tensed up. And now, you have the homemade marinara Susan taught you to make on Monday night on your top, so there's that..

“Thank you.” you smile as you pop the last bite into your mouth. As you stand to put your own plate into the sink, he winds up right behind you again. Reaching around to sit his plate into the sink too. “Since they’re playing in it more than anything and look like they’re about a second away from face planting their plates, I’ll take ‘em to their room, alright?”

His breath tickles the shell of your ear and flustered, you just barely manage to stammer out a quiet, “ ‘Kay.” as you nod. He picks up his sisters, one on each hip and makes his way up the stairs to tuck them in and given that you have a little time to kind of relax and breathe, you lean against the wall and do it.

You jump a little and hurry to collect yourself as you hear him walking down the stairs again. And you busy yourself in a hurry, washing the dishes and stacking them neatly in the rack next to the sink to dry. You can feel him watching you but you’re just too damn flustered to really look up just yet.

If he had even a tenth of a clue what being around him actually did to you…

[ashes-writing]

wild one pt four | stranger things ; g.emerson

tag list babes || req rules + fandoms/characters; reqs open hcs nsfw/sfw abcs || got a req or ? || masterlist

CHAPTERS ; 

one - two - three - can all be found by clicking. stranger things masterlist -that needs to be updated just a lil bit oopsie, that's here.

AUTHORS NOTES;

So this chapter kind of.. came out of several different ideas I had all at one time so I just combined them. I hope nobody wanted a really slow paced story because this one might not be that. Like I said yesterday, oops rip, this story has me in a chokehold rn. BUT.. i will be posting / updating other ones and uploading other content soon, I s2g. Also, the next chapter I'm seriously gonna try to do some of Gareth being a big brother bc I enjoy doing that.

I love you all so fucking much, you really don't know how much your interactions with my bullshit truly mean to me, I swear. You don't know how much the comments / reblogs and reblogs with tags / likes really do keep me motivated a lot of the time and I can't thank you enough. Thank you so so so so much.

SUMMARY;

-- cheerleaders and drummers don't mix... or do they?

PAIRING;

Gareth Emerson x Fem!Reader, (beyond outfits / personality and having female parts currently and at birth, reader has no physical description)

Reader is a cheerleader / badgirl hybrid.. kinda?

WARNINGS;

Reader's car does do pretty well at throwing these two together here, swearing -lots of it, girls fighting / arguing + some really shitty takes on what's acceptable for reader to do as a cheerleader, it's hinted that reader has / does hitch rides now and then and all I can say is that it's the 80's and it was a different time / a small town.. Do not do this shit though it's dangerous, the world is definitely not the same as back then and I do not endorse hitchhiking. Mentions of an injury. Awkward flirting / little moments, if you squint, smoking -nicotine,rn and that's it.

TAGLIST;

@aurumbelis

@allelitesmut

@aries-arcade

@cole22ann

@ebonybloom

@heyaitsklaudia

@hcloangcls

@hoeshii

@icequeen1371

@krys-orion

@letsbedragonstogether

@louderfortheback

@musichealsscars

@secretsicanthideanymore

@scoobiessnacks

@thechoiceslookgrimm

@untitledarea - these are all the names on my stranger things taglist. if you'd like to be added, please click the link at the top of the post.

OTHER STUFF;

set in S4 but the Upside Down / Vecna / the other stuff and the deaths do not take place here. Gareth is 18 here, also. So is reader. This is slice of life -but I might take inspiration from some of the other parts of the show that happened (ie, the fight in Gareth's garage, maybe, idk yet.)

The loose timeline here is that this chapter is two/three days after the previous one. Oh and and.. my own bit of a turn on personally is in here. When a guy backs out a vehicle like this kinda.... iykyk.

The car absolutely won’t start. You’ve tried jumping it off, you’ve tried cranking it numerous times and nothing. You’ve threatened it, you’ve pleaded with it and still nothing…Not even the smallest hint of a sign of life from the engine. And any other day, this would be totally fine. But today is your fifth day of cheer camp and you woke up late to begin with.

You’re poking around under the hood and grumbling, with your dad’s wrench set open and  sitting under the hood, one in your hand. Parts of you are just tempted to start wailing on the engine with the wrench in your hand, but you decide against it.

You’re already late enough. If you just go ahead and walk to Hawkins High now, you might not have to run until your legs fall off for the second day in a week. But you are your father’s daughter and you’re determined. This car is not going to best you.

You’re standing there with the wrench in your hand, raising swearing to an art form when a throat clears from nearby. When you go to look up, you hit your head against the raised hood and raise a hand, resting it against the top of your head.

Gareth Emerson is standing there, leaned against the streetlamp right beside your trailer. He nods to the car. “Something wrong?”

“This whole fucking car, basically. Having thoughts about just shoving it over the cliff up at the quarry.” you answer, dragging your hand against your forehead to wipe away sweat already starting to gather as you sit down the wrench and grumble to yourself that it’s totally fine, you never wanted to feel your legs again anyway.

Gareth doesn’t say anything, but he does chuckle to himself. You wander over to where he stands, leaning against the back of your car for a moment before hoisting yourself up to sit on it, packing the cigarettes you’d grabbed from beneath the hood and tearing the wrapper open with your teeth.

You hold out the pack to him and he takes one. You dig around until you find your red Zippo and flick it open, striking up a flame to light it. You slip off the hood and stop in front of him, lighting the cigarette between his lips. You put the lighter on the back of your car and exhale a plume of smoke as you lean back against it a little.

For a few seconds, neither of you really says anything.

“I should probably start walkin.” you say it with a laugh, “Because between the walk into town and the laps I’m going to be given for a second time this week, yeah… I’m gonna want to saw off my own legs.”

“I’m going that way.” it’s out before Gareth can stop it or take it back.

Your brow raises and you bite your lip, gazing at him. “It’s probably out of your way.”

“Just c’mon. So you’re not trying to hitch a ride again like I saw you doing outside Starcourt.”

And that damn tone. He says it so firmly. Blue eyes fixed on you expectantly. You can’t help but squirm a little as you feel your legs clench and your panties start to get just a little wet.

That fucking tone he's using on you, it’s a weakness you didn’t realize existed for you, it has to be because when you open your mouth with every intent to protest again -because you don’t want to further annoy him or anything like you seem to be so good at, instead of your usual resistance or the polite protest you intended, what comes out instead is a quietly uttered and softer spoken, “‘Kay.” as the bubble you’ve blown with the slice of gum you slipped into your mouth seconds ago pops loudly.. The answer you’ve just given him sounds more like Chrissy or Em than you and this has you blinking at yourself as you try to puzzle out where it came from exactly.

One of you has stepped closer to the other too, and you don’t remember moving at all. He makes himself taller and it feels like he could easily engulf you and you’re noticing how your forehead stops just above the center of his chest and this sends your mind racing. You’re trying to pull it together but nothing’s working because you’re too distracted by the scent of his shampoo, the way he keeps stepping closer, him, to really accomplish anything.

He reaches out before he can stop himself and he drags his hand across your forehead as he turns red in the face, flustered at the feel of your soft skin under his hand for a second time this week. 

“You had grime on your forehead.” he clears his throat and then nods to his truck still sitting in Eddie’s yard. “C’mon. I was leaving anyway. I uh..” he raises a hand against the back of his head  after thumping his cigarette into the middle of the rocky dirt road that leads into and out of Forest Hills and he stares at you a second or two, distracted, “I saw your hood raised.”

You swallow down a lump in your throat and again, you find yourself just full of compliance and it shocks you a little.

Chrissy and Em are the sweet little docile ones. They’re sugar, you’re spice. What you’re doing now isn’t what you’d normally do and the fact that somehow, you are, that has totally thrown you for a loop. He stops to glance back at you after realizing you’re still standing in place. “You comin?” he asks, a brow raised.

In that same tone. Firm. 

Before he even realizes that he’s done it again, he’s said it just a little too firmly, a little too tense and he wants to kick himself because he doesn’t want you to think he hates you or anything and yet, every time he’s around you, he gets tense and it just happens. If it’s not his face, it’s obviously going to be the tone of his voice.

You’re walking over to his truck on autopilot and it registers that he’s done it a second time somehow around the same time your hand closes around a hot metal handle and you yank it away, hissing and shaking your hand, opening and closing it as you glance up and scowl at the bright blue sky overhead. “I miss the rain. And fall. I’d even be okay with snow right now.” you mumble, mostly to yourself and mostly because you’re still wrapping your head around what’s going on right now.

“Burn your hand?” he asks, gazing at the way you still have your hand against your chest while trying not to let his gaze linger a little too long or anything. You nod. “Yeah. It’s fine.” you shrug it off and get into his truck, settling into the passenger seat with your head leaned back against the headrest. 

The truck starts and Gareth backs out of the driveway, not thinking about what he’s doing as he does it, slipping an arm across the seat so he can glance back instead of using the mirror. You’re trying not to stare or anything, but you can’t help it. A finger catches in the bottom of your left ponytail and you pop another gum bubble. He happens to glance right at you and you want the floorboards to open and suck you through, burning hot under his gaze. You’re quick to look down, staring intently at the short orange shorts  you’re wearing for cheer camp with their green banding around the legs. Toying with the green strip quietly.

The tension is thick, it’s almost so that you can’t breathe. And it’s driving you crazy. The local rock station finally comes in clear enough that you hear one of your favorite Motorhead songs playing and you’re humming along, even thrashing your head around a little and you can feel the exact second his eyes fix on you beneath that one red light a block away from Hawkins High. He reaches out to lower the radio and you pop another bubble loudly. “Hey! Rude, I was listening to that.”

“You actually like this? It’s not just a defense mechanism?” Gareth questions, gazing across the seat at you, curious. He’d been wondering. He got the sense that maybe a third of the way you were was defense, it was posturing. The fact that you liked the same music only made that pesky little crush he’s been trying to fight off grow that much more.

You nod. Tense up a little, because you’re used to comments being made whenever you even hint you don’t like pop. Or pink. Or glittery and girly shit. What do people expect out of you? You were raised by a single father. The closest to a female influence in your life has been Angel, a bartender who works at the Hideout or Susan, your stepmother. You haven’t seen or heard from your actual mother since you were about two and you barely remember her. While other girls were playing dress up and dolls, you were fishing or playing by yourself in the woods near the trailer park. Out at dirt tracks with your dad when he worked in the pit for a year or two there  or down at the Hideout watching your dad play in pool tournaments every weekend.

You don’t know any other way to be and you’re not interested in trying to figure one out, either.

Gareth would die before admitting it, but the little crush that’s been coming back lately grows even more. He studies you intently. “I thought you liked Cyndi Lauper though.” he laughs quietly.

“Nope. Untrue. False. I like one song only because it’s in that movie The Goonies. I also like Corey Feldman but that’s neither here nor there.” you’re rambling because you’re distracted. Staring. Thrown into a total uproar and it’s new to you. “What part of me looks like a lil pop princess anyway, huh?” you pout a little and he chuckles.

“Yeah. I guess you’ve got a point.” he answers, going quiet. Hawkins High and it’s football field comes into view and you pinch the bridge of your nose. “Maybe I won’t strangle anybody today.” you mumble, mostly to yourself. Gareth hears you and before he can stop himself, he’s asking what is probably a really nosy question.

“If you hate it, why not quit?”

“Because if I quit, I’m trash and they win. I’m too petty for that.” you give him a little smirk as you reach for the handle in the door. You’re about to get out but Gareth grabs hold of your wrist gingerly to stop you. “Hey.” he speaks up. “Get a ride home. Don’t fuckin hitch.”

You let go of the door handle and lean across, fluffing his hair, sitting in the middle of the seat for a few seconds, close, but you wouldn’t mind being closer and you absolutely do not dare attempt it. You laugh and shake your head and you tell him “Relax! Even if I do, if anybody kidnaps me, they’ll bring me back in like… ten seconds.” you laugh again and go quiet when you see him giving you that warning look. You bite your lip and giggle. “You’re too easy to mess with. It was a joke, Gareth. I can call somebody or something. Or I’ll walk.”

“No. Get a ride. It’ll be hotter than this when you’re done here.”

And there he goes again with that firm tone. He wants to kick himself because one, he has no idea where it’s coming from and two, he’s pretty sure if you don’t think he hates or is annoyed by you now, the tone he’s used at least four times on you by now is gonna be what does it.

Your breath hangs in your throat and you nod. “Yeah, okay. Alright. I’ll get a ride.”

He seems to relax at hearing this and you fluff his hair one more time before crawling across the seat away from him and climbing out of the passenger door. You rush through the chain link gate and slip into the circle beside Emma and Chrissy.

“Did you just get out of Gareth Emerson’s truck?” Megan’s obnoxious when she asks, loud. Calling attention to both who you arrived with and the fact that you’re late. But she’s not done. “He’s a freak. We don’t mingle with them.”

You roll your eyes and you try to just ignore her. But she’s determined to keep going. “You looked a little too cozy too. You’re one of us. We have an image. Being seen with Gareth Emerson is an image problem. We don’t mingle with freaks.”

Your jaw clenches at the same time as your fist. You almost feel like you’ll have to sit on your hands to keep from just taking a swing. You raise a hand and rub the bridge of your nose. “One, he’s not a freak. Knock it the fuck off. Two, he gave me a lift because my car wouldn’t start.. Not that it’s any of your fucking business,” and you trail off, laughing. “I mingle with whoever I choose. You don’t own me. Got it?” you glance at her with a smirk, “Next time, keep your mouth shut until I tell you I want your opinion.”

The second that cheer camp is over for the day, you’re just ready to leave. You’re exhausted, your legs feel like they’ll fall off and they’re made of rubber because Megan blabbed to the coach about you being late and you’re covered in sweat. All you want to do is get home and shower.

You glance up at the road in front of Hawkins High and kick at gravel, grumbling to yourself. You wander over to the payphone and vending machines in front of the gym but about halfway across the lot, you spot Gareth’s truck sitting in the parking lot.

Emma nudges you. “Ooh la la.”

“He’s not here for me.”

“Why else would he be here, hm?”

“Hellfire? That game club… that’s it, yeah.” you mutter. Emma laughs, shaking her head no. “Sweetheart, there’s no way in hell they’re doing Hellfire meetings in this hellhole during the summer. They probably play at each other’s houses.”

You knit your brows together and mull it over. “The guidance counselor called him.”

“Yeah, if she wants to praise him for having good grades and perfect attendance, maybe.” Emma laughs as she shakes her head. You rub your forehead, wiping away sweat and grimacing because you’re practically soaked in sweat. You grumble quietly. “I’m telling you, he’s not here for me. I bet he’s not even in his truck. He probably ran into Jeff or Grant when they were done with band camp earlier and caught a ride. Yeah, that’s it. It has to be.”

“Okay, fine. But I’m telling you, he’s here for you.”

“And I’m telling you, he’s not.” you dig around in your pocket for the few dollars you’d shoved down into them earlier in the morning before leaving your trailer. You and Emma wander past Gareth’s truck and you happen to glance over and you see him sitting inside.

Ranting to himself, which makes Emma laugh and you stare a little bit, twisting the end of one of your half up and half down ponytails around your finger. She grabs your elbow and drags you over to the vending machine as she laughs. “The look on your face right now, oh my god.”

You flip her off and pout at her. “Oh fuck off.” you pop the tab on the soda you’ve gotten yourself when the machine finally spits it out. “I’m gonna go. Patrick should be out of that team meeting by now. I’ll call you tonight!” and Emma disappears, leaving you to stare intently at the road that runs in front of the two schools.

“He’s not here for me, there’s no fuckin way.” you tell yourself as you start to walk towards the road in front of the school. Every intention to walk home.

You’re just about to step onto the sidewalk when you feel someone grab your elbow from behind. You whirl around and find yourself looking up at Gareth.

You swallow hard and raise the soda can to your lips. “Hey.”

“Tell me you weren’t about to walk..Or hitchhike.” he’s stepping closer. Staring down at you, the way sweat makes your hair cling to your forehead. He knows he should probably step away, give you space, but he just can’t. Every time he’s tried, he only winds up stepping close all over again a second or two later. 

You laugh softly and shrug, taking another sip. “If you don’t ask, I won’t tell.” you answer, gazing up at him as you tilt your head to one side just slightly. His eyes settle on the way this makes your hair fall to one side, exposing your neck.  He grumbles to himself, you can’t really understand what he’s saying and honestly, you’re too busy staring too.

Which yes, you want to kick yourself for.

“C’mon. I’m going back to Munson’s anyway. Since Grant actually drove himself here today.”

You feel a little let down and you’re annoyed with yourself because of it. You’d tried to tell Emma that Gareth wasn’t here for you. You were right after all.

It was honestly kind of disappointing.

“It’s too hot to walk all the way back. Your legs have to be killing you anyway, I uh… Saw you running around the field when I pulled up again earlier.” he gives you a little smirk when he says it, chuckling quietly as he gazes down at you.

What he’s not saying is that one, he didn’t really have to pick Grant up because he knew damn well Grant drove himself to band camp, he always drives himself, and two, he may have gotten to the parking lot just in time to watch you when you were cheering. 

He tried to resist the urge, but when you made the little joke about hitching a ride later or walking in the heat, he couldn’t get it out of his mind and he grumped around all damn morning until Jeff threw his keys at him and told him to just show up before he drove the rest of them crazy. Which of course, he tried to argue his way out of, but he found himself coming by anyway. Because he just couldn’t fight the urge to do it, no matter how hard he tried to do so.

You nod, popping another gum bubble. Laughing softly. “You saw that, huh?”

“What happened?” he asks as the two of you begin to walk down to the parking lot where his truck is waiting. You laugh and shrug. “Megan Connor and I had a teeny difference in opinion. Then she decided to be a fuckin tattletits and ratted me out for coming in late.”

“What about? The difference in opinion, I mean.” Gareth asks before he can stop himself. You swallow hard and shrug. “Just dumb stuff. I handled it.”

“Yeah, I can just imagine.” he mutters. You pretend to be upset, pouting up at him with big eyes and a finger wound in the end of your ponytail. “What the hell’s that mean, huh?”

Gareth laughs quietly and shrugs. “I’m starting to see exactly why people call you fireball or trouble instead of your name now. But it’s..” he wants to kick himself because it’s not an insult, it really isn’t, it’s actually one of the things he finds really hot about you now, “It’s not a bad thing. I mean it, okay?”

You’re staring at him just a little too hard. His cheeks are flushed. You shrug and give him one of your little grins. “It’s really not. Nobody hurts me anymore.” you admit, going quiet. 

His truck comes into view and you stop on the passenger side. You lean against the door, gazing up at him. You spot Megan wandering past with Caroline Owens and Lynette Mercer and when Megan sees you both together, she gives you a disgusted look that has you grumbling under your breath, “Keep walkin. If you’re smart, you’ll keep walkin.”

Gareth glances back and chuckles. Catching the three girls glaring a hole through him and for some reason, it doesn’t bother him as bad as it normally would, he just rolls his eyes and turns his attention back to you. When you step even closer, a hand palm down against the front of his flannel shirt, he nearly chokes on air but he steps closer too, reaching an arm around you to feel around for the door handle.

Your breath hangs in your throat when you feel his hand against your exposed back.

Megan glares even harder and all you do is smirk at her calmly. “She thinks she’s gonna tell me what I can and can’t do. She’s wrong and an idiot.” you say it as you tear your eyes off of her and fix them on Gareth again. “I owe her one, she’s the whole reason my legs feel like jello right now.”

“Do you wanna sit?” Gareth laughs it out. “Didn’t you already have to run once this week?” he asks, gazing down at you. Gulping because it’s like that day in the pool when he got you out of the deep end all over again, body to body with you and it’s driving him a little crazier than he’d like to admit.

“Please?” you give him this cute little pleading look that he quickly realizes he is not as immune to as he thought up to this point. At least, not from you.

He opens the door and you climb into the truck, falling back against the seat. He laughs and starts the truck, slipping an arm across the back of your seat to back out again and you bite your lip as you watch him do it because there’s something hot about it. And the instant this crosses your mind, you’re trying not to actively think about it or anything.

When he glances over under the red light on the way out of town, you’ve got your head back against the seat with your eyes closed but you’re moving your fingers around to the beat of the song just barely heard through the static on the local station and humming along. He can’t help but smile a little. “Are you that tired?”

“Hm.” you mutter, opening your eyes. “I swear my coach actively tries to kill me.”

He snickers when you say it and you pout a little, reaching out to lightly swat at his upper arm. “Rude. It’s not funny.”

“Kinda is, when I’m at least halfway sure that you don’t try to avoid it.”

“Bite me.” you stick out your tongue at him. 

He almost responds with something clever, something bold like “Where?”, but he keeps himself from doing it. The dirt road leading into the trailer park comes into view and you really don’t want the ride to end. But you know he’s probably had more than enough of you for one day, so you fluff his hair and thank him for the ride back and you get out of the truck, wandering up the front steps and into the house.

Max and her friend Eleven pop up out of seemingly nowhere and you jump a foot in the air, the floor rattling just a little as you do it. You pout at them both.

“He gave you two rides.”

“One of them was probably because he thought you were going to hitchhike..” Eleven says it and Max nudges her, shaking her head.

“Wait, huh? No, he was supposed to pick Grant up but he drove or something.” you laugh softly, making your way over to the old puke green fridge to open the door, digging around for a Tab, a Sprite, something. You find a strawberry yogurt and you begin opening drawers to try and find a spoon.

“Grant always drives. His mom gave him her old car.” Max is looking at you with a brow raised. Eleven giggles at the confused look on your face. You peel off the foil wrapper on the yogurt cup and pull yourself up on the counter to eat. “Okay, no.. But he told me specifically, out of his own mouth that he came to pick up Grant this time. And he realized Grant drove.”

Max laughs and nudges Eleven, nodding at you. “See? See how oblivious?”

“Hey!” you exclaim, laughing. “I’m not.”

“You are, oh my god!”

“Okay, fine.” you pop the spoon into your mouth, “Set me straight. I’m assuming whatever you know was overheard at some point while you were with Lucas.”

“Okay, so.. Y’know how they get together in Mike’s basement to play DnD on Saturdays, right?”

You nod.

“Today, Lucas did it at his house. In that old treehouse out back. And at some point, he walked over to Gareth’s house to get a rulebook or something because Mike was being an ass again,--” Max pauses to laugh when Eleven frowns and nudges her and then she continues, “And while he was there, he happened to overhear Gareth going on a tangent about how crazy it is for you to hitch rides or walk. How it was too hot and lately, people have gone missing because they hitchhiked.”

You bite your lip. Listening intently, but with everything your step sister tells you, you’re trying to prepare a counter argument as to why it can’t be so.

“Apparently, he drove the guys crazy enough that around lunch, Jeff threw him the keys to his truck and told him to come and get you and that would solve all of his worrying and ranting.”

You nearly choke on the bite of yogurt you’ve just taken. “Wait.. huh?”

“He wasn’t ever there for Grant to begin with, Grant was with him the whole time. Will said the band director called it today because it got hot enough that one of the other freshmen in percussion just dropped on the field.”

“Okay, so he was just being nice.”

“Ugh! Seriously?” Max throws up her hands and Eleven laughs. “You were right, Max. She is oblivious.”

“No, I’m not. He’s just… he’s sweet, okay? That’s it. That’s all.” you insist, popping the spoon back into your mouth. Licking it clean as you swing your bare feet against the counter below where you sit. 

“Okay, what about the drowning incident, hm? Explain how that jerk Andy was literally right there and yet, Gareth, who was at least halfway across the pool, got to you when you screamed like a banshee.”

“How’d you..”

“You’re loud. The walls are thin. I heard you when you were talking to Emma about the way his hands felt.”

You groan. “Kid, you have got to stop listening through walls and doors.”

“No, actually, I don’t. You need to learn the difference between indoor and outdoor voice if you don’t want your stepsister to know that you think some guy’s hands feel amazing.”

“Jesus christ.” you laugh out, shaking your head. Stealing a look through the window facing Eddie Munson’s trailer. They were all out on the lawn now, passing around a cigarette.

When Gareth happened to glance right at the window you were staring in, you quickly step away, flatten yourself against the walls and laugh at how stupid you are to do it to begin with.

The dryer buzzing loudly drew you out of your little daze as you tried to both process what Max was suggesting and convince yourself that somehow, you were right and she was wrong. “Did you do laundry?”

“Eddie had to put a load on.” Max goes over and heaps the clothes into a basket that’s falling apart and is literally being held together by duct tape and hope and after she’s done this, she shoves the basket at you with a shit-eating grin.

“Go.”

“Maybe he’ll come get it.”

“Go, oh my god.” Max shoves you at the front door and you grumble, but you take a deep breath and step out. Walking across the hot dirt road barefoot. About halfway across, you feel something stab against the bottom of your foot and you put the basket down, picking up your foot.

It’s a little shard of glass.

You pick the basket back up and make your way over, knocking on the trailer door because Eddie and the others have all gone in by now.

Eddie throws open the door and you hold up the basket to him. Then you sit down in the doorway and lift your foot. “Damn it, ouch. Somebody’s gotta tell Dale and those other idiots to stop throwing their bottles out on the road.”

“Maybe if you wore shoes instead of walking everywhere barefoot, fireball.”

“Oh fuck you, Munson.” you grumble as your tongue settles between your lips and you try to pinch and push to get the little glass shard out of your foot.

“If you come inside, you can probably see better..”

“I’m fine, thanks.” you mumble, glancing up to bite your lip because you wind up locking eyes with Gareth, who was watching you with a raised brow. When he wanders over and nods to your foot you manage a sheepish, “Glass?” with a shrug before calling out to Eddie, “Still have that needle you borrowed to sew a patch on your vest, dude?”

Gareth sits down next to you. “Let me guess. You were barefoot.”

“Mhm.” you answer as he takes your foot into his lap and chuckles quietly. “I could’ve got it. Just needed a needle.”

What you’re not saying is you are a huge baby when it comes to pain. And you’re so used to patching yourself up it feels a little… strange to have someone else do it at this point. Eddie comes back out with the sewing needle you loaned him.

You go to reach for it but Gareth gets it. “It’s fine.”

“Just be still.”

“Gareth, it’s fine. Really.” you gasp when the needle’s sharp tip scrapes right against the tender skin that the little sliver is lodged below.

And you’re trying not to look like a giant baby or anything, but you can’t be still.

Gareth glances up at you and you try to go still. He ducks his head again, brows knit. Tongue jutting out between his lips as he focuses on getting the glass out more carefully.

You let your head fall back and tense up. “Ouch! Hey, can’t you do it less poke-y?” you whine.

“Sorry.” he mutters, glancing over at you. “Close your eyes and count to three, alright?”

“That’s not gonna–” you trail off  with your argument because he’s giving you that look again. You wind up closing your eyes and doing what he says and he laughs. “Got it.” he holds the tip of one of his fingers out to you to show you the tiny shard of glass he’s worked out with the needle a few seconds later.

You swallow hard and nod. Eventually removing your foot from his lap and leaning in just a little to fluff his hair again. “Thank you.”

Before he can respond in any way, you’re about halfway back across the road again.

And inside the living room, Eddie, Grant and Jeff are doubled over, nearly shaking in laughter. As their laughter dies, he gazes at Gareth.

“How’d you do that?” Eddie questions.

“What?” Gareth has a blank look as he stares up at Eddie, standing in the middle of the living room.

“You looked at her and she didn’t argue. Pretty sure her dad would like to know that one, buddy, because when those two get started, holy shit..” Eddie is amused. Studying Gareth intently as he rubs his chin. He has his suspicions but somehow, he doubts Gareth would believe him if he said them out loud.