#(i went to two proms and one group went and saw a bad horror movie after prom and i went to a diner with the other group) | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

qprstobin · 9 months

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Stobin Different First Meeting AU where they go to prom together. This was meant to be an au post and turned into a mini fic oops (written completely within a tumblr post so sorry for the poor quality)

(edit: realized I should link the fic I was inspired by for those who don't follow me and so didn't see me reblog it earlier)

Steve doesn't necessarily want to go to prom, right? Like yeah, he'd been imagining it for a while, but now that he was very, very single it just didn't have the same shine that it used to. And he really wasn't ready to start dating yet. However, he didn't want to just, not go to prom, and also knew it would seem really weird (and pretty fucking sad) if he didn't go.

Which leaves him in a conundrum.

He thought for a while that maybe he would go with one of the junior cheerleaders. While he didn't have any close friends anymore, he was still friendly with plenty of people. There were girls that wouldn't be going to prom unless they had a senior boyfriend - some he had even gone on dates with in the past who wouldn't think a single prom date meant that he wanted a new girlfriend.

However, he is pretty sure most of those girls would have... other expectations for the night. And honestly? He isn't quite sure that he was ready to get back on that horse either.

... Not that he thought women were horses.

He's pretty sure men are normally the ones called horses in riding metaphors.

Anyway.

That left him stuck. He couldn't just not go to prom, but also didn't want to wind up trapped on an actual date with someone. So who could he ask?

His solution ended up coming from an odd place.

Robin Buckley was... quite honestly, kind of a weirdo.

She was cute, in an alternative sort of way. She never took any of his shit (he wasn't completely sure she even liked him) but also reluctantly laughed at the snarky shit he said under his breath during their Film History class. And not in the fake giggly way girls did when they were flirting, but didn't actually care about what he was saying, just the way he said it. She actually seemed to think he was funny. Even if that revelation seemed to piss her off.

The only reason he was even in Film History that semester - and therefore, knew who she was - was for the easy A. He got to watch movies in class, and watch movies for homework. He was willing to plow through a couple of shitty essays in exchange for a class that he didn't feel like a complete idiot in.

(Well, he was pretty sure Robin thought he was an idiot about movies, but just because he had trouble remembering the names and shit of characters, didn't mean he couldn't analyze the themes, fuck you very much, Buckley.)

They had gotten assigned a project together early on, and it hadn't been completely terrible. She had quickly taken over doing most of the writing portions, but hadn't thought all of his ideas were terrible. By the end of the project he thought they were even sort of having fun together.

He'd always been one to try his luck, take a little more than he was given. So, after that assignment was over, he started sitting next to her in class, not wanting that easy, if sharp, camaraderie to end. Robin rolled her eyes at him and asked him what he thought he was doing the first time he did it, but she never sent him away.

They ended up chatting more and more during down times, passing notes to each other and sharing sly comments under their breaths during the movies. Steve often had trouble paying attention at school, his mind easily wandering away, and it was almost as bad during most movies, but Robin helped keep him on track.

The class turned into one that was done for the easy grade, a last ditch effort to improve his already hopeless GPA, and became one he actually enjoyed.

The more he thought about it, the more he liked the idea of going to prom with Robin. It made the night seem a little less unbearable.

He thought about making a big deal out of asking her, because he knows that's what girls (and even Nancy) had enjoyed for past dances. He quickly scrapped that idea, however, because not only did he not want to put pressure on her like that, but also she seemed to hate public spectacles like that.

Or at least when aimed at her, they both enjoyed watching drama unfold in the halls a bit too much to say she hated it completely.

So Steve waits until the end of the day, their film class being their last, to pull her into an empty classroom. She follows him without question in a show of trust he didn't realize she had in him. The notion warms him, and for some reason makes it more difficult to get the question out.

"Why do I feel like you're about to try to sell me drugs or something?" Robin asked, raising an eyebrow at him. He squints at her in offense.

"Why is that your first assumption?!"

"I don't know! Why else are you pulling me out of the hallway all secretive like, making sure no one followed us, into an abandoned classroom," she asks, throwing her arms into the air.

"The classroom isn't abandoned, it's the end of the day! Also, who does drug deals on campus, that's just stupid?" He asks rhetorically, before waving one hand through the air, as if trying to erase the current thread of conversation. "That doesn't matter, you're distracting me."

"Well then, get on with it! Some of us have practice we need to get to."

"It's like talking to the kids," he mutters to himself, "Whatever. I wanted to ask - will you go to prom with me?"

That stops Robin up short. There's panic in her eyes now, though Steve isn't sure what exactly put it there. Was his reputation that bad that even band geeks are terrified of getting asked out by him?

"You want to go on a date? With me?" she asks slowly, disbelief coloring her voice, though it doesn't hide her unease.

"No, I want to go to prom with you," he scoffs, "Not go on a date with you."

"That is a date, dingus! The person you go to prom with is literally called your date!"

"Okay, sure, maybe, but I don't actually want to date you," he said, rolling his eyes at her.

Like, okay, he understood his reputation for being... what did she call him last week? A 'huge effing rake'? But that didn't mean that he was trying to date any girl that looked in his direction. A lot of girls looked in his direction. That was too many women, even for him.

Robin relaxes a little at that.

"Then why are you asking me to prom instead of someone you actually want to date?"

"Because!" he says, resisting the urge to flail his hands back at her. "I don't want to date anyone right now. Most people I ask are going to expect all these things from me - they're going to want dinner, and at the very least a kiss at the end of the night if not more, or another date the very next day. Because Steve Harrington is supposed to want those things!" He takes a deep breath and runs a hand through his hair to calm himself. "But right now? I really don't."

"Well then, what does Steve the Hair Harrington actually want?" She had relaxed fully at this point, a smile playing at the corner of her mouth.

"I want to go to prom with someone I consider a friend, someone who makes me laugh," he says after a moment of silence. "I want to dance badly to really corny pop music and drink just enough spiked punch that I don't remember how much I hate wearing any sort of tie. Then I want to go get milkshakes or go see a really trashy midnight horror flick, just because I'm having so much fun I don't want the night to end."

That small smile has grown into a reluctant grin on Robin's face. It makes her eyes shine and her freckles pop. Steve thought that if he was in a better place, if they had met at a different time, he could have fallen in love with her.

But they had met now instead, in some shitty public school elective course, and she was the closest thing he had to a friend that wasn't a snotty middle schooler.

"That sounds... like a lot of fun, actually," she says, mischief sparking on her face. "Who would've known the hidden depths hidden behind all that hair."

"Hey!" he protests half-heartedly, unable to keep a grin of his own off his face. "So what do you say? Wanna go to prom with me?"

"I guess," she sighs, acting like it was such a trial to go to prom with him. Him! But her next words make up for it. "Since we're friends, and all. However, I still expect you to buy me dinner, though you can keep the kiss goodnight to yourself."

Steve can't help the giddy laugh from spilling out of him. For the first time in weeks, he is actually looking forward to prom.

#stobin #platonic stobin #st fic rec #mini fic #steve #robin #my writing #writing tag #this was got out of hand #all of the stuff about prom is pulled loosely from my own experiences with prom #both from it being seniors only (juniors at my school had their own dance) to what people did after prom #(i went to two proms and one group went and saw a bad horror movie after prom and i went to a diner with the other group)#also this is barely editted so there is some weird tense switches in here im sorry!#this wasnt meant to be an actual fic i had just meant to throw out the idea of steve asking robin to his prom #and steves voice got away from me quick #this was inspired by the fic i reblogged earlier today about steve taking robin to her prom

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imgoingtohellsofuckit · 4 years

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Hope Can’t Fix Everything

Jasper x Human!Reader

Warnings - Angsty, mention of blood

Summary - Jasper finds his mate, but it’s not all perfect.

Jasper Hale never planned for his life to go this way. He never planned to become a vampire or to live for eternity. But he always went along with it. No matter what fate tossed at him. Because he had hope. Hope guided him through all his years. It lead him to Alice who took him to the Cullens. Hope brought him a undead life he finally could be okay with it. But something was missing. His true love. He saw Emmet and Rose. Carlise and Esme. Edward and Bella. But he still was alone. He couldn't believe it. How could fate screw him over again. But even when it looked like fate forgot him. Alice reminded him to remember to have hope. To trust fate to bring him who he's looking for. And one day it finally died.

"Is this seat taken?"

Jasper's eyes moved from his paper to the person before him. They were beautiful. Absolutely stunning. They have no right to be this perfect.

"Hello?" They ask, "is it taken?"

"Uh no," Jasper says softly, "it's free." They smile lightly.

"Do you mind if I sit there?"

"No... I mean no I don't mind you can sit there," He says panicking lightly. They chuckle.

"You're cute," They say, "my names Y/n L/n. Yours?"

"Jasper Hale," He says softly.

"Jasper Hale," They say, "that is a nice name. You got lucky your parents loved you enough to give you a cool name." He chuckles lightly.

"I like your name," He says.

"Thanks," They say, "I hated it growing up. But it grew on me."

"Alright now that everyone is settled lets get started."

The feeling in Jaspers chest revealed it right away. This was his person. This was his mate. And to think they were just right there. So close. He felt excited for what was to come. But he was also terrified. He knew nothing about this person. But he knew one thing about them. His mate was human. Which made this about a hundred times harder.

When Jas got home that night Alice practically tackled him to the ground.

"Well?!" She exclaims.

"I found them," Jas says, "I found my mate."

The rest of the family looks wide eye at the boy. Happy for him. Sure but confused.

"Slight problem though," He says.

"What type of problem?" Bella asks.

"They are human."

This was something they weren't prepared for. Even after Bella and Edward. They always assumed that Jasper would end up with another vampire. Mostly because of his trouble with humans. But still it's not like he could change it now.

"So their human," Bella says, "so. I was human."

"Yeah Bella is right," Alice says, "they are your mate. You are destined to be together."

"Yeah Jasper," Emmet says, "you've been waiting for them for over a hundred years. I'm sure that a pulse isn't enough to stop you."

Jasper with his families' encouragement suddenly felt a lot better about the situation. He has his mate. The person he is destined to spend the rest of his life with. And they are right here. He'll do this right.

The next day he was waiting for them in his last class. Excitedly watching as they stride across the room to take the seat next to him.

"So why are you taking AP Environmental Science?" They ask Jasper, "what made you choose a class 9 other people choose?"

"I like science," He says, "and I wanted to study something new. What about you?"

"I'm a hippie," They say simply, "metal straws no plastic. Pure vegan." Jaspers smile drops lightly. His mate was a treehugger? He suddenly didn't know about this. "I'm totally kidding. My mom is a Environmental Lawyer and she signed me up for the class." He chuckles lightly. "This class is a joke. You're lucky you joined halfway through it. Mr. Jones has been making us teach ourself since day one. So that fun little slideshow demonstration yesterday- don't get used to it."

"He doesn't teach?" Jasper asks, "why?"

"He's going through a divorce with his wife who also happens to be the Honors Anatomy Teacher," They explain, "since they filled for the divorce he's just been sitting at his desk sulking."

"Thats a shame," Jasper says.

"Yeah for our ap scores," They chuckle, "but don't worry I'll add you to the class group chat. What is your phone number?"

"Uh here," He says scribbling it down then handing it to them. They smile wide.

"Perfect," They say, "I'll add you to it. You'll get everything you need in it. Plus we have study sessions all the time and you get all the info for it in there."

"Thanks," He says, "thats awful nice of you."

"Anything for my fellow prisoner," They say, "besides without us there is no way you'd pass." Jasper chuckles. His mate moves to open their laptop and start working on something the teacher had sent for them. "So you have a big family?" They ask, "the ones who I always see you with right?"

"Yeah we were all adopted," He explains, "thats why-"

"You guys have people dating each other," They say, "I mean it's the talk of the school. The first interesting thing to happen in Evergreen since our prom queen killed our prom king."

"That happened?" Jasper asks.

"Yeah well that's what everyone thinks happen," They tell him, "I mean they never found a body and well Cassie and her family left town three days after Camden went missing. Anyways it happened a year ago. So now everyone's focus is on you guys. The Cullens."

"We are pretty used to it," He says, "we are a weird family so when we move to a new town we tend to get plenty of attention."

"Do you move a lot?"

"Uh kinda," Jasper answers, "just depends."

"Your dads a doctor right?" They ask, "what causes a doctor to move a lot?"

"We go where they need more doctors," Jasper answers, "apparently you guys were in some pretty desperate need." They chuckle.

"Yeah you can say that," They say, "we have a really small hospital so when Cassie's mom left we were down a doctor. You'd be surprised how bad losing one doctor is in a town like this."

"I can imagine," He says, "I mean it's a pretty big deal when you have one doctor."

"Tell me about it," They say.

The bell for the class rings signaling the end of school. They smile over at Jasper brightly. Then looks down to their phone. Jasper feels his phone buzz in his pocket. He pulls it out and smiles lightly.

Unknown- It's Y/n! Can't wait to get to know you

"If you need anything feel free to text me," They say.

"Hey Y/n lets go!" Some girl calls from the door.

"Yeah alright," They call to their friend then looks back to Jas, "I'll see you around Jasper."

As they move off Rose moves to Jaspers side with a smirk.

"They are cute," Rose says, "you should get on with it."

"Yeah sure," Jas says, "I'm trying okay."

The next couple days it seemed to go smoothly. They'd hang out at school text all night. It felt like everything was going right. So on Friday he decided to step it up a bit.

"Okay do you have any plans for tonight?" Jasper asks them.

"Uh no," Y/n says, "why? Wanna take me out on a date?"

"If you'll have me," He says, "a movie?"

"Sounds great," They say, "got any movie in mind?"

"I was gonna let you pick," He says. They move pulling their phone up. Then nod.

"Alright there is this horror movie called Until Sunrise and apparently its terrible," Y/n tells him, "we have to see it."

"You like horror movies?"

"I love horror movies," They tell him, "even more than that I love terrible horror movies. Ya know the ones that make you question if the writers were on bath salts while making them." He chuckles lightly. "If you don't like horror movies we have other options. But if it's just cause you're scared don't worry you can hold onto me for support."

"No that sounds great," He says, "do you need me to pick you up or do you just want to meet there?"

"We can meet. I'll see you there Jasper."

So he heads home to get ready. Explaining to his family that they were going to a movie. Bella tries to give him some tips for how modern human girls like their dates. Rose immediately tells Bella that Bella has no authority to talk because she was weird.

"I know what girls like-"

"Yeah from like 12 years ago," Rose says, "seriously think about it. Times have changed. Humans have changed since then."

"Okay so just be yourself," Alice recommends.

"He can't be himself his mate will run for the hills," Emmet says, "no you've got to be cool."

"Ignore him," Esme says, "just relax. Read the room."

"And remember to breath," Bella adds, "when you stop breathing it freaks people out. And blink."

"I remember to blink," Jasper says.

"No you really don't," Rose says, "so remember to do that."

"You should get going," Alice says, "you don't want to be late."

So He got to his car. As he drove he couldn't help but feel overwhelmingly nervous. What if he messes this up? What if he drives them away? Oh god. Suddenly his didn't know if he could go through with it anymore. But when he saw them sitting outside the theater staring up into the sky waiting patiently. It all melted away. He climbs from his car heading towards them.

"Hey Y/n," He says.

"Hey Jas," They say, "you look nice."

"Thank you," He says, "you look beautiful." They smile lightly.

"Thank you," They say, "wanna head in?" Jas nods. Y/n moves lacing her fingers in his. The movie is terrible. Honestly. The two end up laughing through most of it. However Jas being able to hold their hand. Cling to them. It makes it the best date he's ever been on. It's one of the only dates he's ever been on.

One date turns to two. Turns into dating. It's going amazing. But he feels guilty.

"You still haven't told them?" Rose asks him carefully, "Jasper you have to tell them."

"I was planning to tell them," Jasper says.

"No you weren't," Edward says.

"Get out of my head Edward," Jasper says at once, "I'm tryin it's just. I don't want to ruin this ya know."

"If you don't tell them then you'll ruin it regardless," Emmet says, "I mean you can't not tell them."

"I know I know," Jasper says, "I'll tell them soon. Tonight. We have a date."

Before they can keep hassling him he leaves to go prepare for his date. His partner had talked him into going swimming in some lake. He didn't really care much for the later but when they suggest skinny dipping well he couldn't exactly say no to that.

He meets his partner at the lake. They are already in the water. Though apparently in a swim suit. They smile widely at Jasper as he makes his way towards them.

"Hey!" They call, "I was gonna wait but the water is really nice."

They move slipping out of the water to meet Jasper. Pulling him into a soft kiss.

"Come on," They say leading him into the water. He tosses aside his shirt then kicks off his jeans. Jumping in the water in his boxers. The vampire is thankful that the lake was shallow. It only went to chest meaning no awkward sinking of being the rock solid vampire. They pull Jasper into another kiss. "I've missed you," They say as the break the kiss, "I'm not one for teen romance bullshit but... You are different."

"Well we were meant to be," Jasper says, "fate. Right Darlin?"

"Right," They say, "you are so right." They move kissing Jasper's jaw. "You are always talking about Fate. It's like you've been looking for me." They pull away from Jasper to sink into the water. Swimming away from him. Jasper smiles. If only they knew. The two move around the water playfully. He scoops his mate in his arms and playfully dunks them under the water. They come up laughing.

"Oh I'll get you for that Hale!" They scream. They splash the vampire with full force. He seems unfazed so they try again this time jumping on Jaspers back. He moves a little to roughly and knocks them back into the water. They simply laugh for a second before they make a pained face. Then suddenly the smell of blood fills Jaspers senses. "Oh shit. I think I stepped on glass." Jaspers eyes shift to black. Pain and hunger filling him. His partner climbs from the water gentle moving to their pile of clothes hoping to address the wound. Jasper stares at his mate. Trying to keep himself in the water. Trying to relax. But the smell. The bloodlust rising in his stomach.

He moves towards his partner. Jumping to pin them down. They were shocked. Confused as to why this was happening.

"Jasper what are you doing?" They ask slightly startled. They start to move. But Jaspers firm grasp keeps them pinned down. His mouth opens. His fangs showing clear as day. Y/n tenses looking at her partner in pure terror. He looks like an animal. A monster. "Jas! Jas! What are you doing?!" They are thrashing under him. Trying to push him away. "Jasper get off of me!"

Jasper leans to his mates neck. His teeth scraping lightly.

"Jasper stop! Get off me you're scaring me!"

The boy moves starting to bite but before he can sink his teeth into her he's yanked off. He see's Edward and Emmet holding him back as he growls lightly.

"Jasper! Jasper stop!" Edward yells.

But he doesn't calm down until he sees his mate in Bella's arms sobbing violently. He feels his mates terror. It's suffocating. All his hunger melts into guilt and regret. What did he just do?

"Babe," He says softly. He moves yanking away from the two men.

"Get away from me!" They shout, "I don't want you anywhere near me you freak!"

"Darlin just let me explain-"

"No Jasper we are done!" They shout, "I don't want you anywhere near me."

"Darlin I-"

"You freak!"

Disgust. Thats all that's radiating from them. He watches as Y/n leaves. Bella walking with her. He ruined it. He lost his chance at his mate. He ruined his own life. All his hope for nothing. He could hope that in time they will let him back in but his hope can't fix anything. This time- hope isn't gonna be enough.

#jasper hale x reader #Jasper hale #jasper whitlock x reader #jasper whitlock #Twilight #twilight x reader #jasper x human!reader

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lesbianlovelanguage · 4 years

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i want to feel something (i’m numb inside)

It’s another HfBLM Prompt for imperfectabstraction on AO3, who requested pining!Billy who’s bad at communication. Thank you endlessly for your donation!!

Also a huge ass thank you to @gideongrace for your patience and help in me writing this and basically betaing it. I love you so much.

Read it on AO3 here or below the cut

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1. Welcome to Hawkins.

Billy had been attending Hawkins High for two weeks when he realized what was happening.

It wasn’t anything special, no fireworks or butterflies, but instead a cold frustration frosting over him. Because he realized he had a crush. On the most popular and decidedly straight boy in the miserable town of Hawkins, Indiana. Neil’s beatings could never compare to the sinking feeling in Billy’s gut when Steve Harrington stood in front of their english class and gave a frankly terrible report on Moby-Dick .

It certainly wasn’t Harrington’s presentation that made Billy recognize his crush, but the way his soft hair shined and he stood tall and confident even as the words that poured from his mouth were utter bullshit .

Billy had always been a sucker for confidence and cockiness.

But once Harrington had sat down, and was thus out of Billy’s sightlines, the warmth that came with a new crush turned to the familiar iciness, and it felt as if a great gaping maw had opened below him.

Even after the bell rang and the classroom emptied out, Billy was stuck in his head.

It wasn’t fair, he thought. He was supposed to hate everyone and everything about this town, and be fucking thankful when he got to put everything in his rearview mirror. But here he was with a ridiculous crush.

It wouldn’t couldn’t change his plans. Billy was resolute to not act upon his feelings, to avoid Harrington at every turn.

That resolution to ignore Harrington stayed for the next 5 periods, until he got to basketball practice. Harrington was clearly in his element on the court, no math problems or english reports here. Just sheer athleticism and strategy. And it made Billy angry. Because he couldn’t do anything about Harrington’s breathless panting or the way he was clearly showing off. So Billy did what he always did when he was angry.

He played dirty.

He used every trick in the book to trip up Harrington, guarding him by pushing every body part up against Harrington, using even the tiniest of openings to steal the ball, and he rammed into Harrington to steal the ball. He showed off a little, bolstered by the knowledge that Harrington’s focus was entirely upon him, the anger replaced by the feeling of pride.

When he landed after dunking the ball, he turned and continued to use the excitement of being Harrington’s sole focus to bound over to the tangled heap of lanky limbs and pale, creamy skin. He even put out a hand to help him up before he came back to himself, violently.

What was he doing? This is the exact opposite of ignoring Harrington .

He tried to save face by growling some stupid one-liner about planting his feet, and then dropped him like a sack of potatoes.

When Harrington popped back up and ignored Billy completely to chase after the ice princess herself, he shook his head and continued to play. This time, his showing off and dirty moves turned vicious as he continued to foul right and left before the coach was forced to bench him. He tried to shrug off the anger and left to take a shower.

Thankfully the showers stayed empty, and Billy was able to escape. After the disaster that was basketball practice, he decided to firmly clamp down his feelings and avoid Steve Harrington at all costs.

2. Can’t Ignore Him Anymore

Billy was having a bad night, to say the least .

His plan to head off to Indianapolis and the nearest gay bar with a loose ID policy was ruined because his shitbird step-sister decided to fuck off with her weird ass friends, probably with Sinclair even though he tried to warn her that Neil wouldn’t be happy. He had proof of what happened when Neil wasn’t happy blooming on his back too. At least it wasn’t worse, he thought with a grimace. He wasn’t sure when walking away with bruises had become lucky but it was what it was.

And now he had to run all over Hawkins to find the little shitbird, and with every house that sent him somewhere else his admittedly small patience was dwindling. By the time he was pulling into the dark driveway of the Byer’s house, he was itching for a fight.

And then Steve fucking Harrington walked out of the house. Because God hated him.

Or at least, it felt like the Big Man hated him as Harrington sauntered towards him, dish towel casually tossed over one shoulder and hands tucked into his jacket pockets.

“Am I dreaming or is that you, Harrington?” He felt himself call out before fully processing the words.

“Yeah, it’s me. Don’t cream your pants.” Harrington sounded blase in his response, but a faint blush appeared on his cheeks as Billy took off his jacket. Interesting. As he walked towards Harrington, a familiar bush of bright red hair popped in and out of the window and shocked Billy back to reality. He stopped, leaving plenty of space between himself and Harrington, enough to hopefully let him keep a clear head.

“What are you doing here, amigo?” Billy taunted. Maybe he would finally see some action tonight, at least enough to wipe the bitter taste that flirting with Mrs. Wheeler left in his mouth.

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” Harrington retorted, sounding exactly like a fifth grader.

“Well, I would. ‘S why I asked, cause I don’t really like the picture that’s being painted here. Max goes missing all day, and then I find her here in some stranger’s house, with you of all people. See what I’m seeing, Pretty Boy?”

“What’s that supposed to mean, me of all people?” Of course Harrington would pick up on that.

“What does King Steve want with a thirteen-year-old girl? Not a great look man.” The adrenaline bubbled up in Billy’s stomach in anticipation of a fight, fists clenching and skin buzzing. But Harrington never reacted how Billy expected, and this was no exception.

“Yeah, but letting demon monsters kill a group of pre-teens isn’t so great either,” he said casually, as if his words would make a lick of sense. Billy gaped a little before shaking his head and laughing a bitter, mean laugh.

“You’re digging your own grave man. I just wanted my step-sister, but it looks like I’m gonna have to kick your ass.” That was the only warning he gave before closing the distance and swinging. Harrington went down like a sack of potatoes and Billy couldn’t help the smugness in his voice when he bent over and spit, “Told you to plant your fucking feet, Princess.” He then stepped over Harrington’s sprawled body and walked inside.

He noticed all of the usual brats that hang off of Harrington, but his gaze zeroed in on Lucas. All of the anger and frustration Billy had felt over the course of the night collided into one comprehensible thought.

He had warned her.

He wasn’t proud of what he did, but at least he had the ability to stop. He just wanted to scare the kid, hoping that if he couldn’t warn Max he could scare the kid off before Neil got involved.

If he got involved, he wouldn’t stop, not until Sinclair was really hurt. Or even dead.

Billy didn’t like himself while he was doing it, knew that his behavior was revolting and monstrous, but he was willing to play the bad guy if it kept the gremlins from the real bad guy. He was thankful when Harrington forced him around and clocked him in the face. Then he had something better to focus his rage and fear on.

They were in the middle of fighting when Billy thought he lost his mind. He had grabbed the fridge door, planning to use it to clock Harrington in the head, when a thing fell out. It didn’t move from it’s spot on the kitchen floor but it left a trail of something slimy and Billy went mental.

“What the actual fuck. Someone had ten seconds to explain what this is,” he growled, and was promptly educated about the Upside Down, demogorgons, and something the brats called The Mind Flayer. Apparently Hawkins was housing some horror movie level shit, and of course Harrington was involved. So much for ignoring him forever.

3. Summer Sweetness

Billy didn’t just enjoy summer. He thrived in the summer. The sun, the heat, the smell of the ocean and the sound of busy beaches filled him with a happiness even Neil couldn’t touch. There were no ocean waves that summer, but chlorine was a close substitute. Anything was better than the disgusting stench of cowshit that seemed to permeate Hawkins in the fall.

And even better was the silent agreement he had made with one Steve Harrington.

It started at Prom. Billy had agreed to go with some girl, he hadn’t bothered to remember her name, only to get the promposals to stop. It was a good ego boost at first, but after six in four class periods, it got exhausting to try and politely decline. So, the seventh girl who came up to him with a big home-made card practically dripping in glitter got a ‘Yes’ from the Billy Hargrove. Ridiculous.

He made the mistake of telling Max somewhere that Neil could overhear him, so he ended up having to rent a limo and buy a corsage and dress up in a full tux. All for a thing he didn’t want to go to with a girl he didn’t care about. To just get through the night, he ended up downing an entire bottle of tequila by himself.

The next morning he would definitely be blaming the tequila, but he would be lying to himself that it was the only reason he did what he did.

It had been building for a long time, but it wasn’t until he saw Steve in the bathroom furthest from the gym that he realized what it was.

He had stumbled down the darkened hallways of Hawkins High, desperate for the escape a cigarette would bring him. He knew the bathroom in the english hall had a busted fire alarm, so he made a beeline towards it. He was so focused on pulling the pack out and lighting up, he failed to notice there was someone else, not until they cleared their throat. His head shot up, ready to fight, only to be met with big brown eyes and pale creamy skin.

“Oh hey, Pretty Boy. What are you doing here?” He tried to play it casual, not letting on that blood was rushing in his ears and his heart was in his throat.

“Could ask you the same question. I’m pretty sure Colleen is asthmatic, won’t appreciate the nicotine smell,” he said, gesturing to the cigarette he had just lit up. It took him a minute to figure out who the fuck Colleen was, until he realized it was the date he had abandoned in the gym.

“Pretty sure she won’t care what I smell like, if you know what I mean.” Billy waggled his eyebrows and dragged his tongue along his bottom lip. He was caught off guard though, when Steve’s pupils dilated. Interesting.

“You’re nasty,” Steve tried to cover the few seconds of silence, but Billy was a shark who had smelt blood.

“Oh really, Stevie?” He asked before taking a long drag of his cigarette and blowing it towards Steve. “You don’t like the idea of Colleen and I getting freaky? What’s a little locker room talk between amigos after all?” He smirked before going in for what he hoped was the kill. “Unless… You’re jealous?” His smirk only grew as Steve stuttered, trying to form a rebuttal.

“I am not jealous of Colleen. I feel bad for her, going to one of the most special nights with you.” Steve’s words were meant to cut, but Billy could hear the uncertainty in his voice.

“Never said you were jealous of Colleen, Stevie. But if you are, I think I have a solution.” That was the only warning he gave Steve before walking over to be right in front of him. They were so close their shoes were touching, and Billy could smell the smoke on Steve’s breath.

“Seems a little hypocritical to yell at me about smoking when you were doing the same thing.” Billy may have noticed that Steve wasn’t the best in school, but he would never say the boy was slow. He seemed to get with the picture pretty quickly.

“Oh yeah?” His voice was breathy and soft. “You gonna do something about it?”

“I think I have to. It wouldn’t be right if I just ignored it.”

“Well, what are you waiting for? Do it,” Steve challenged. And Billy never backed down from a challenge. He lunged forward the few feet between them and smashed his lips against Steve’s.

The kiss wasn’t nice or gentle. It was a battle between two wild animals, only softened when Steve’s hands snuck up Billy’s back and tugged on the golden ringlets. Billy broke the kiss with a moan and Steve grinned.

“Like that, tiger?”

“Shut up and get back here,” was Billy’s only response before they collided again. Shaky hands unbuttoned shirts. As soon as Steve’s torso was exposed, Billy moved down to suck what was sure to be an impressive hickey along Steve’s collarbone, unable to resist marking the pale skin.

Steve’s moan was loud as Billy moved his hands from the small of his back to his thighs and picked him up. Like he was nothing. He was placed on the edge of a sink, and then Billy moved down Steve’s chest, kissing every mole he could find. After successfully making his way down to his knees, Billy unzipped Steve’s pants and proceeded to rock the boy’s damn world.

That was the only time they had sex during school, but it wasn’t the last time they had hooked up, far from it in fact. He was dropping Max off at the ice cream shop, Scoops Ahoy, when he saw Steve again. He was in a truly ridiculous parody of a sailor’s costume and Billy wanted to eat him alive.

He was surprised to find the feeling was mutual. He walked up to the counter to tease Steve about the uniform, and somehow ended up in the storage room getting his dick sucked this time.

The summer proceeded to pass like that, until some time in July when Steve said he couldn’t keep having sex at work and gave Billy his phone number with a wink. Then Billy started sneaking into Steve’s bedroom at ungodly hours and left before the sun had risen.

But all good things came to an end, and Billy was nothing if not a coward. As soon as August came around, and the pool closed, Billy took all of his savings and the four boxes it had taken to pack up everything he cared about, and left. Without a word, a text, or a note. He ran away from Hawkins, ran from his father, and from Steve, who had started talking about having movie nights and cooking dinner together and other domestic crap fuck buddies weren’t supposed to do together.

He ran.

4. Hey Pretty Boy, Long Time No See

Billy loved Chicago. He had moved there with plans of just saving up enough to fly back to Los Angeles, but a year into living there he had fallen in love. Sure there were things he hated, like the winters and the tourists, but there were so many more things to love.

Like the food, and the people he had met. Both of which he was enjoying on a perfect summer’s day. And to top it all off, he was finally going to get a tattoo.

Robin, a girl he had met through work and then started to hang out with after running into her at the annual Pride Parade, had convinced him to finally indulge in it, helped him work out what exactly he wanted, and even gave him a recommendation for a guy at her shop that specialized in the style of tattoos that Billy had decided he wanted.

So, on the day of his appointment, he met Robin during her lunch break where they grabbed some tacos from a street car and walked back to her shop. Billy was silent, nervous as hell, but luckily Robin was enough of a chatterbox to fill the silence and keep it from getting awkward.

“You will love Steve, Billy. Swear to God he’s one of the sweetest people I’ve met.” She let out a small huff. “Of course he’s a total dingus, but so are you. Boom. Match made in Heaven.” She waved her hand around, almost dropping her taco, and Billy couldn’t help but laugh at her antics.

That laughter died in his throat though, and he nearly choked on his own spit, as they walked through the door of The Mind Flayer Tattoos and Piercing because behind the desk was a face he never thought he would see again.

Steve Harrington.

Of course he had fantasized about this moment, had dreamed about those Bambi eyes and impish grin, even years later as it was. He had tried to distract himself, tried to move on, but he quickly realized it wasn’t working. Once he realized he had been silently comparing every other guy to Steve, he gave up, resigned himself to being alone, and had gotten a cat.

Just like in high school though, all of his resolve to move on disappeared when faced with Steve Harrington.

The years since high school had clearly been kind to him, and while Billy had always thought he was pretty, now he was downright gorgeous. His hair was still perfectly styled, but he had grown it out so that the ends just barely touched his shoulders. He was also wearing a pair of stylish glasses with thin golden frames that glinted softly in the warm lighting of the tattoo parlor. Most notably though, Billy could clearly see his left arm where it rested next to a book he bent over, and it was covered in a beautiful, intricate tattoo sleeve. All Billy wanted in that moment was to trail his fingertips over the black lines that formed shapes that resembled flowers. Looking closer though, he realized some of the flowers actually held rows and rows of teeth, and mixed in was the rough outline of a baseball bat with nails. It was a mural dedicated to his experiences that one fall day, a constant reminder of what he had been through.

Steve finally looked up at them as Robin led Billy to the counter, and he clearly recognized Billy, as his mouth dropped open and his eyes widened.

“Holy shit.”

Billy felt a small smile form as he lifted a hand and waved awkwardly at the boy he had left behind. “Hiay Pretty Boy. Long time, no see.” He had hoped that the nickname would lighten the mood, but instead Steve’s shock was replaced by hard lines and tense shoulders.

“What the fuck are you doing here?” His voice was dripping in hostility, making Billy flinch slightly before tensing up as well. He knew he was the one in the wrong, but fuck if that had ever stopped him from being the weak one.

Robin beat Billy to a response however, letting out a small noise before looking quickly between the two boys.

“I think I’m missing something here, and that something is big,so I’m jist going to walk over here and let you two work it out. Please don’t kill each other.” Despite the lingering angst in the air, both boys couldn’t hold back a chuckle as Robin walked away from them and disappeared into the back room. As the door swung shut though, and they were alone in the shop, the tension could be cut with a knife.

“Let’s get this over with,” Steve said with a sigh, and all Billy could do was nod and follow him to a prepared work station in the back corner of the open-plan parlor.

He double checked where the tattoo was going, on his right shoulder, and then gently placed the stencil on and smoothing it over. He removed the plastic to reveal a purple version of the tattoo and then nodded to where a full length mirror had been hung on the wall.

Billy checked how it laid, and took in how the design had turned out once again. He had seen the draft in an email, but to see it on his body was an entirely different experience. It was a depiction of the beach, detailed with old school flowers and a setting sun, and a perfect symbol of Billy’s origins. He had decided that while he didn’t want to return to California, he wanted a reminder of the peace an evening on the beach brought him.

Having confirmed that it was perfectly placed, he returned to the workstation and settled into the chair. The tension remained as Steve silently placed his arm in the best position and loaded the gun with ink. He returned to Billy’s side and sighed.

“You need to relax if you want me to actually do this.”

“Sorry, Pretty Boy. Guess you just fill me with butterflies,” Billy shot back, trying to regain some of the bravado that had conveniently left him. Steve snorted before setting down the tattoo gun and muttering Jesus and rubbing at his temple.

“If we’re gonna do this, you gotta cut that shit out.”

“What shit?”

“The- the fucking flirting and the nicknames. That shit.”

“Sorry, Pretty Boy,” he emphasized the name with a cocky smirk. “It’s just part of the Hargrove charm.”

“Well if you want a good tattoo, you’ll dial back the Hargrove bullshit. Now take a deep breath and fucking relax.” Billy gave a sarcastic salute before deliberately taking a deep breath and dropping his shoulders. Steve rolled his eyes, but reserved all his smart comments in favor of starting the tattoo.

They sat in relative silence, only broken by the gentle whir of the tattoo gun and Steve occasionally reminding Billy to not hold his breath. It wasn’t until Steve muttered a soft, “Halfway there tiger,” that he found the courage to break the silence. Whether consciously or not, Steve had used one of his favorite pet names for Billy and that action alone gave him hope that he hadn’t ruined their relationship completely when he left.

“Nice tats Harrington,” he said casually, nodding at his left arm. Steve snorted.

“Thanks. Of course, you know the whole story behind it. Robin and everyone at the shop just think it’s some insane movie monster they’ve never heard of.”

“Yeah, not exactly the easiest thing to explain to people,” Billy agreed, nodding his head.

“As chill as Robs can be, I think if I tried to tell her I fought off intergalactic demon dogs with a nail bat and a group of four middle schoolers she would check me into the nearest institute.”

Billy faked an offended gasp. “It wasn’t all middle schoolers, I was there too. Saved your ass at one point too.”

“Bullshit you saved me. If I recall, you screamed like a little bitch until Max threatened you with my bat and then stole your keys. If she hadn’t threatened to drive your car I think you would never have come with.” There was a fire in Steve’s eyes now, a warmth Billy thought he would never be privy to again.

And then Steve looked up from his arm and his face shuttered back into stone. He wiped the excess ink and blood off of his arm and studiously ignored any more attempts Billy made at conversation, which ranged from commenting about the photos littering his workstation to commenting on the fucking weather. Eventually he got the message and shut his trap for the rest of the session.

Steve walked him through the after-care steps clinically, and he faintly picked up the “wash with antibacterial soap twice a day” and “apply scent-free lotion when it starts flaking”, but his brain was mostly stuck on “touch-ups are free up to six months after the first appointment.”

He still had a chance. Maybe the shock was too much, but if Steve was offering up the chance to meet again?

Billy wouldn’t let it slip past.

5. Let’s Try This Again

Billy loved his tattoo. He made sure to take meticulous care of it, applying lotion religiously and steadfastly ignoring the urge to pick at the peeling skin. Luckily, the amount of sunburns he got back in California prepared him for it pretty well.

Even if it was healing perfectly, and he was ecstatic about the final result after it had finished peeling, he still decided to talk to Robin about scheduling a touch-up. She had looked it over when he asked while they were grabbing burritos, and told him that he definitely didn’t need a touch up, but when he continued to insist that he wanted another appointment she looked at him skeptically and agreed.

He had it scheduled for a month after his initial appointment, and the weeks seemed to drag by as he eagerly awaited his second- well, technically third- chance with Steve.The day of, he and Robin agreed to the same schedule of grabbing lunch and then walking over to the shop together, but instead of Robin filling the silence, Billy instead prattled on about a couple cases he was looking over and how well they were going. As much as he could without breaking the NASW Code of Ethics of course.

Robin nodded along agreeable and made all the right noises in the right places, but she was overall quieter than usual, until the shop got into view.

A block away from the neon sign, she stopped them both and turned to Billy. “I’ve been pretty patient, but I have to know before we walk in there. What is the deal between you and Steve?”

“I- I don’t know what you’re talking about, Brat. There’s no story there,” Billy tried to brush it off and keep walking, but Robin was surprisingly strong for her slender frame. She grabbed his arm and forced him to stop.

“That’s a blatant lie, and I can’t let you in there if you’re on some sort of weird revenge quest or something. He was seriously shaken up after your session, and I love you, but I love the dingus too.” She paired the serious tone of her voice with stern eye contact and a slight tightening of her hand on his bicep.

“Jesus Robin,” Billy said, shrugging off her vice-like grip, “It’s nothing like that, I swear. If anything, I’m trying to fucking apologize.” She just raised an eyebrow, clearly not satisfied with his explanation. “Fine. We went to high school together and I fucked up in a big way, alright? I regret it, and I want to try and make it up to him.”

“Yeah, well. You seem to have forgotten that this-” she emphasized with a sharp point at the parlor “-is his work. His job. He doesn’t deserve you pestering him here of all places. Just do what everyone else does and fucking ask him out to coffee.”

Feeling slightly chastised as only Robin could do, he looked down at the scuffs on his work boots and muttered, “Yeah, whatever.”

Finally satisfied, she continued their walk to The Mind Flayer Tattoo and Piercings Shop, Billy trailing two steps behind her.

The little bell tinkled again as the door opened, but this time Steve wasn’t at the front desk. Instead a tan woman with long, curly, dark hair was popping bubble gum and casually scrolling through her iPhone. All of the frustration seemed to seep out of Robin at once as she squealed, “Heather!” and launched herself at the girl behind the desk.

Letting Robin and Heather do their thing, Billy wandered over to where he could see the top of Steve’s head peeking over the low wall of his work station. He could see that all of his focus was on a drawing pad, where he was carefully sketching out something in pencil. He was so in the zone that the tip of his tongue was poking through his teeth. Cute.

Loath as he was to break the peace on Steve’s face, he cleared his throat and called out, “Hey Harrington.”

Steve, predictably, shot up out of his chair and whirled around to face Billy. “Jesus Christ Billy. Don’t sneak up on me like that.”

“Sorry, amigo. Didn’t mean to scare you.”

“What, no Pretty Boy?” Steve spit out as he tried to recoup from being startled. The tone brought back the sense of shame Robin had made him feel earlier, and he held up his hands in surrender.

“No, um,” he tried to start. “Actually, I’m here to ask if we could get a cup of joe? Talk some shit out?” Steve seemed startled by the proposal, but masked it with a suspicious glare.

“Is this some kind of joke? You want to get coffee?”

“Yeah. I want to- want to explain I guess.” Steve continued to glare at him, but after finding or not finding something, he nodded his head and sighed.

“Fine. Fuck it. You were my last appointment, so why the hell not.” Billy blinked, surprised that it had somehow been that easy to get Steve to agree. Maybe they could work it out, at least enough to be friends again.

He decided to wait in the front area while Steve packed up his station and grabbed his bag from the back room, nodding at Heather and Robin when they left.

They mutually agreed to walk the block down to a local coffee shop, called Joe’s Joe. Billy got a black iced coffee while Steve got a complexe medley of coffee, oat milk, and sugar. After they got their drinks, they sat at a table by the window.

“Do you want to start?” Steve asked.

“I mean, I guess. That’s kind of why we’re here or whatever.” Billy hadn’t wanted to start out hostile, but his nerves were starting to get the best of him. He took a swig of his coffee, letting the scalding heat coat his tongue. “Just, I’m sorry I guess.”

“You’re sorry?” Steve asked indignantly, “For what? Fucking with me for an entire summer? Leaving without a single fucking word? Or just being an all around asshole?”

“Technically, I was fucking you, not fucking with you,” Billy corrected absentmindedly, before wincing as Steve’s expression grew even more hostile. “Shit, I’m sorry. For- for everything alright? I was a dickhead, I shouldn’t have left but you have to underst-”

“I don’t have to do shit, Hargrove,” Steve interrupted.

“No, you have to understand that I didn’t have a choice. I packed up and left in the span of like four hours. There wasn’t time to tell you.”

“There wasn’t time to send a fucking text? Call? Something? I thought you were dead in a ditch somewhere. I had to find out from Max that you just pissed off to who knows where in the middle of the goddamn night. And you couldn’t bother to send anything? It’s been eight fucking years jackass.” Steve was almost yelling by the end of his rant, panting and visibly trying to calm himself down.

“It didn’t seem like something to send over text, I just figured it was better to do a clean break. Let you move on.”

“Let me- Fucking hell, you let me move on?” Steve was borderline hysterical at this point. Billy wasn’t sure when he had lost control of the conversation so drastically, but he felt the chances of him and Steve rekindling some sort of friendship slipping away. This wasn’t how he wanted to do this at all. Fuck.

“Yeah, because you shouldn’t be stuck with someone like me, Pretty Boy. I’m sorry I hurt you but I was stupid and young and I didn’t see any better way to do it.”

“You fucking broke my heart Billy. You’re gonna have to do a lot better than that,” Steve said, and walked out of the coffee shop.

6. Billy Does Better

After the disastrous coffee date, Billy steered clear of everything to do with The Mind Flayer, including Robin. He buried himself in his work, doubled his gym hours, and let the weekends pass by in a haze of cheap whiskey.

It took Robin a week to decide she was over him avoiding her. She stormed into his apartment on Sunday morning and forced him to take a shower, put on clean clothes and go with her to her apartment.

Once there, she sat him down on the couch and told him in the sternest voice she had to stay, and then left him to go let in someone else. He really shouldn’t have been surprised at who it was, but he still blinked rapidly when Steve appeared in the doorway.

“Am I dreaming, or is that you Harrington?” Billy asked, his voice hoarse from the lack of water he had drank in the past 48 hours.

“Yeah, it’s me. Don’t cream your pants.” If Billy sounded hungover, Steve sounded wrecked. He looked like it too, eyes rimmed red and puffy, lips chapped and bitten within an inch of their soft, plush life, and skin even paler than it usually was. Robin dragged him by the back of his shirt over to the couch, next to Billy, and pushed him down.

“Alright. I tried to give you two assholes space to work it out yourselves, but I am officially over it, so you’re going to figure it out here and now. I’m going to go in the kitchen to make lunch and when I get back, I expect you both to at least stop moping like fucking widows.” She turned on her heel and marched into the kitchen, where she could give them some semblance of privacy, but would still be within ear shot if they decided to kill each other or something.

Once she disappeared through the doorway, Billy turned hesitantly to face Steve, but when they made eye contact, any words he may have managed to string together left him and he was left there gaping like a fish. Steve saved him the trouble of starting though.

“You were moping?” He asked, voice quiet and defeated.

“Yeah, Bambi. Pretty heavily too if Robin had to step in.”

“What were you so upset about? You broke my heart after all.”

“Because I never meant to. I only meant to break my own damn heart, but not yours. Never yours Pretty Boy,” Billy’s voice was dripping in honesty and vulnerability, the dredges of alcohol still in his system making this entire situation exhausting. He just wanted to go back home and sleep until tomorrow.

“You- you loved me too?” Steve sounded so damn unsure, it hurt Billy to hear.

“Yeah, of course I loved you. That’s why I had to leave. I couldn’t love you and be under Neil’s roof. He would kill me. He would kill you. So I had to leave.”

“A clean break,” Steve finished for him. He didn’t sound as angry as he had at the coffee shop, more defeated.

“Exactly.”

They sat in silence for a few moments that seemed to stretch on for eternity before Steve finally broke it.

“So, where does that leave us?”

“Can we, can we try friends?” Billy asked hesitantly, eager for any opportunity but scared to push his luck.

“Yeah. I think that could work,” he said with a faint smile. As if on cue, Robin burst through the kitchen door armed with a plate of sandwiches and snacks and declared it a movie night.

7. Steve Takes A Leap

It had been two months since Robin’s forced intervention, and Steve couldn’t have been more thankful towards her. He had been scared that having Billy back in his life would drag up the memories he tried so hard to hide from, but it was actually refreshing to have someone to call when the memories came back, someone who understood what he was going through.

He also realized how much he genuinely missed Billy himself. He had grown and changed for sure, but it was only in that he was far less angry all the damn time. Steve had really come to realize just how intense the hold Neil Hargrove had over his son in high school. Now the sharp wit Billy had wielded as a weapon in high school was more playful than hurtful, and his more self-destructive tendencies of driving recklessly and chain-smoking had been replaced by a gym membership and therapy. Apparently, Billy had gone through a lot of therapy.

With all of the changes, he realized that it was just that much easier to find the Billy he had fallen in love with all those years ago. He had started recognizing the feelings a month into their rekindled friendship, but he waited for another month to make sure the spark was still there, that it wasn’t just him romanticising the past. They had added each other on snapchat and had even started a streak. It was at a solid 55 days that Steve finally made his move.

It was a simple snap of his work station with the caption What are you doing Saturday night?

Not even two minutes later he got a response. The picture was of Billy’s coffee mug he kept at his desk and said Nothing, wbu?

He snapped another hasty shot of his station, replied, Thinking about going out. Wanna join?

Another notification, another shot of his mug. “ Sure. What’s the plan?”

He was in the middle of prepping his station for an appointment in twenty minutes, so it was a quick shot of sterile packaging. Dinner and then hit up a club I know in Boystown?

This time the response was immediate. Sounds good.

Cool, I’ll make a reservation for six? Then club at like 8?

Why do we need a reservation? Want to spoil little old me, Pretty Boy?

The old nickname gave Steve the courage he needed to finally take a selfie and stop beating around the bush. He gave the camera an impish grin and raised eyebrows. I just want to make our first date memorable.

There was no response to that. Steve waited with bated breath, chewing on his bottom lip anxiously as the minutes ticked by. His appointment had shown up, and he finished the 45 minute session. Still no response.

Anxiety coursed through him, swirling around in his head. He could see that Billy had opened the picture as soon as he had sent it, a whole hour ago. But no response. No notifications. Nothing.

Steve tried to reason with himself that maybe he had a meeting or a lot of paperwork or something, but that didn’t stop him from bouncing his leg and fidgeting around until Robin finished her final appointment.

She only needed to look at him once to know something was up. She decided they were going to dinner together, and they walked to the diner three blocks down in silence.

It wasn’t until they had sent in their orders that Robin finally broke.

“Okay, what’s going on? I haven’t seen you this nervous since your first date with Julian,” she stated.

“I might have fucked up Robin. Like big time.” She sighed, used to Steve’s dramatic tendencies, and sipped at her strawberry milkshake.

“I doubt that, but I need more information. So spill.”

“I asked Billy on a date,” he blurted out, knowing there was no use in bullshitting Robin.

“And? Seems like a logical move, Dingus. I was getting sick of the intense pinning like ten days ago.”

“But, he left me on read Robin. We were talking about going out on Saturday and then I mentioned it was a date and boom. Radio silence.”

“Okay, chill out. He was probably busy at work. You know how seriously he takes that shit.”

“Yeah, but no response for three hours?” He said, voice raising in pitch on the last words.

“I’m sure there’s some explanation. Have you reached out again?” Robin’s patient and even tone calmed Steve down a little, but his leg still bounced up and down rapidly as he thought over what she said.

“No. I didn’t want to pressure him.”

“Just send something unrelated to the date. Like your milkshake. You’ve done it a million times, it’s safe.”

“Yeah. Okay. I can do that.” He nodded to himself before pulling out his phone, only to see a single snapchat notification amongst the barrage of emails and other random updates. It was from Billy.

He immediately felt his heart leap into his throat, and Robin reached over to grab his hand that was still resting on the table.

“Is it from him?” She questioned, deliberately neutral.

“Yep,” he choked out. His finger shook as he opened up his phone, and he felt paralized by the little blue box letting him know it was a text response. He took a deep breath before clicking on it.

Sorry I was MIA, Pretty Boy. Got busy with work, but I’d love to see where you want to take me. He included a winking and smirking emoji. Steve let out a startled laugh as the anxiety slowly dissipated.

“Code red officially over. I have a date on Saturday,” he informed Robin, and they finished up dinner with casual conversation about their various appointments throughout the day. They paid and eventually parted ways towards their respective apartments.

He trudged up the stairs because the elevator in his building was perpetually broken, but stopped in his tracks when his door got within view. There, resting innocently on his doormat, was a simple bouquet of sunflowers and baby’s breath. He gently picked them up and noticed a small piece of cardstock. In simple black scratch it read I am sorry for the no response. I got nervous. Bill.

Steve smiled gently at the note and pulled the flowers close to smell the soft fragrance they held. He felt another wave of confidence swell and push him to walk into the apartment and pick up his phone. He called Billy and waited in excited anticipation for him to pick up.

“I love them,” he said, and smiled a little more when Billy chuckled.

“I’m glad. They made me think of you.”

“Can’t wait for Saturday,” Steve confessed and Billy finally smiled back.

“Me too, Pretty Boy. Feels like it’s been years in the making.”

That it had been, but man had it been worth the wait.

----

tag team: @lostnoise @gideongrace @stevefuckingharrington @a-magey @trashmouth-hargrove @catharrington (lmk if you would like to be added/removed from the list!)

#harringrove for blm #harringrove #a dash of #bucklway #angst #fluff #hurt/comfort #pining!billy hargrove #billy hargrove centric #billy hargrove #steve harrington #tay writes #holy shit #i think this is the longest thing I've ever written #minus lost boys

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xxfanfiction-emo-trinityxx · 4 years

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Serenade - Frank Iero x Reader

Request: Hey could I request Trish? Frank Oreo asks reader to prom. Really fluffly and Funny maybe cringey? Idk Warnings: super cheesy, somewhat cringey maybe? I think it’s cringey a little. In a sweet way. Word count: 1 831

“Proms suck.”

“Yesterday you sounded a lot more enthusiastic about it,” Gerard giggled over his lunch.

“Yesterday I didn’t consider that (y/n) might say no,” Frank exclaimed.

“They won’t, don’t worry,” Mikey shrugged.

It was a not very well kept secret that Frank was terribly in love with you, and it was an equally bad kept secret that you were just as much in love with him too. The only people doubting that? The two of you. Frank thought someone as clever and pretty as you could never be in love with him, and you were convinced someone as talented and badass as him would never be interested in someone as ordinary as you. So both of you thought the stories the other students were telling you were just made up lies.

“You don’t know that,” Frank whined, unhappily staring at his pasta.

“Yeah, well, I think we do, but if it would make you feel any better, we could help you make a plan,” Gerard offered, not at all worried, unlike Frank.

“What kind of plan,” he now perked up.

“Dude, how am I supposed to know? I read comics and watch old horror movies all day long, I don’t know anything about being romantic,” Gerard shrugged, “we’ll just make something up.”

“Shush now, they’re coming over,” Mikey warned, just in time, pointing out that you were walking up to your group of friends.

“Does anyone want to exchange their chocolate pudding for vanilla,” you asked, sitting down next to Frank, who quickly exchanged your little cup with dessert with his.

~*~

It was still a week until prom, when finally the plan the three friends were working on, got finished. Frank had started to panic already, because how small would the chance be that you did not have a date yet? He even had heard other boys talking about asking you to prom, but when he had talked to you this morning, you had told him that you did not have anyone to go with. And so he slipped the red rose with the little note into your locker.

After the first two classes, you returned to your locker to pick up the books for the next class, but instead of your books, a red flower fell out of it. Surprised you managed to catch the rose before it tumbled to the ground. Curiously you unfolded the typewriter written note that was tied to the stem of it.

“Dear (y/n), I don’t want to reveal my name just yet, but I thought you looked very pretty today, I hope you have a great day.”

Confused you raised your eyebrows and glanced left and right down the corridor. The usual students were walking past, nobody paying you especially attention, except for Gerard who waved over from the other side of the corridor.

“What’s this,” he asked curiously, knowing very well that you had just found Frank’s first gift.

“I don’t know,” you furrowed your eyebrows, showing Gerard the note, “someone hitting on me?”

“Aw, (y/n), that’s cute,” he smiled, but it froze on his face as he saw that instead of being happy you still looked confused.

“I don’t want it,” you mumbled quietly, only for him to hear.

Yes, you were flattered, but you did not want anyone to be interested in you, if they were not Frank.

“What, why not,” shocked Gerard pulled you aside.

“Because-“ you looked up at the taller, dark haired boy, “Frank!”

Gerard had known about your crush for a long time, and now he was not even allowed to tell you that it was in fact Frank who had sent you the message.

“Maybe you can try to find out who it is, and let them down gently then,” he suggested, “Maybe don’t throw away the flower immediately, the guy surely knows you found it already, and would be really upset about it if you threw it away straight away.”

“But I don’t want it,” you argued. It even made you feel uncomfortable; having someone’s attention, knowing you would hurt them if you did not return their feelings.

“You can throw it away after school,” Gerard argued, knowing that if things went smoothly, you would have found out by then that it was Frank who was trying to woo you, “this way you at least show that, while you might not return their feelings, you don’t dismiss them, but care about their feelings.”

You nodded, even though you felt uneasy, and together with Gerard you walked to the next class. As soon as you had entered the room, you noticed something was off. The students already in the room, kept glancing over to your desk, and sure enough, there was a second rose. Confused you walked over, and picked it up, this time no note was attached.

Shooting Gerard a look, you collected the rose in your arm with the other one.

And so it continued, every lesson and every break you found a new rose, on your desk, in your locker, and once even a younger student ran up to you, and handed you a flower. You tried to ask him who had told him to give this to you, but instead the boy had just giggled, and run of again.

There were no further notes until you went to your locker after the last class. At this point you were carrying at least twelve roses in your arm, all together huge, beautiful, lovely smelling flowers with deep red petals. Once more a rose tumbled out of your locker, together with a note. Quickly you picked up the note, and added the flower to the bunch in your arm. By now you were not sure if you were feeling flattered or uncomfortable anymore. You thought that if you were not so much in love with Frank, you definitely would give whoever had made such an effort, a chance. Now you unfolded the note, once again typewriter written, not giving away the author by the handwriting.

“I think it’s pretty clear now, how I feel about you. Would you do me the honour and accompany me to the prom? Meet me in the schoolyard, I’ll be waiting.”

Quickly, forgetting even to drop your books off first, you slammed the locker door shut, and turned around on your heels. You were curious to find out who had sent you all these flowers.

When you came closer to the yard, you noticed the students that were standing outside, some giggling, most pointing at a person who stood in the middle of the yard. Quickly you walked outside, and carefully pushed past a few students, to see who the person was.

To you surprise it was Frank, holding a ukulele that hung from his neck. No, that couldn’t be. That had to be some coincidence, or a bad joke. But just in that moment his eyes met yours. You could see him swallow nervously before he spoke up.

“(Y/n), this one is for you,” he spoke, his voice loud, but slightly shaky. He played a few chords on his ukulele before he began singing. “Wise men say-“

You could hear people giggling, some even started laughing, most were looking between you and him. At the side of the crowd you could see Gerard hiding behind his hands. A blush burnt terribly on your cheeks. You had never expected to be the centre of such attention, or to get a song sung for you, not to mind in front of a crowd, especially not at school. But Frank’s voice was clear and beautiful, and carried well over the yard, the sweet words and quiet chords of the instrument making tears sting at the corner of your eyes.

Unluckily not everyone was as moved as you were. Around you people started laughing and bickering, but Frank continued playing, his eyes fixed on you, scared, but also full of hope. When people started talking louder and louder, making fun of him, and how you surely wouldn’t say yes now, he just played and sung louder, making your heart break more, before your feet finally listened to your head, and moved forwards.

Quickly you pushed past the people, and crossed the small patch of grass between the edge of the crowd and Frank. On your way you dropped the roses, which you had still been carrying, to the ground, and embraced him, interrupting his play. Confused his arms fell to his side, as you nuzzled your nose into his neck, trying not to squeeze the ukulele too hard between your bodies.

“Yes, yes, yes,” you whispered, just loud enough for him to hear, “I’d love to go to prom with you.”

Surprised he pulled away, a smile slowly creeping up on his face.

“Really?”

“I want nothing more,” you grinned, and following an instinct, you took his face in your hands, and kissed him on the lips.

Around you cheers and applause erupted, but you could not have cared less, because Frank finally reacted and copied your movement, placing his hands on your face too, pulling your closer, without crashing the instrument that dangled between you.

When you eventually were able to focus on something that was not Frank again, the yard had emptied, and you were alone. Brushing your nose against Frank’s, you pulled away.

“You know, you could have just asked,” you giggled, finally remembering the flowers you had dropped earlier, and went to collect them.

“I didn’t think you’d say yes,” Frank confessed, swinging the ukulele to his back, and helped you pick up the roses.

“So you wanted to guilt trip me,” you joked.

“Make you fall in love with me,” Frank corrected seriously.

“Moron,” you giggled, and got up, having collected everything off the ground, “I’ve been in love with you for ages.”

Frank placed the few flowers he had picked up, in your arm as well.

“Then we’ve wasted a lot of time, I’m afraid,” he shook his head, “because I honestly can’t remember the last time I haven’t been in love with you too.”

You laughed at his stupid cheesiness, and leant your head against his shoulder.

“Then we’ve got some catching up to do, don’t you think? How about we go out for coffee,” you asked boldly.

You knew he would not turn down such an offer, after all he was one of your closest friends, and you knew him well enough to predict his answer. Although you really had not noticed that he liked you.

“When,” Frank asks, slowly starting to stroll towards the school’s exit.

“Right now?”

Frank chuckled and nodded, throwing an arm around your shoulder.

“I like that,” he grinned.

“I like you,” you answered without missing a beat, making both of you laugh.

“I like you too, a lot,” Frank giggled, and nuzzled his nose against your ear quickly before concentrating on walking again; and together you made your way to your favourite café, arm in arm.

Taglist (if you want to be added or taken off, please let me know):

General: @justawriterinprogress @robinruns @jayloverthe3rd @lookalivefrosty @butterfly-writes @angelevansfalls @rene-royale @500240

MCR: @deadlovers

#frank iero x reader #frank iero fluff #frank iero x reader fluff #frank iero fanfiction #frank iero imagine #my chemical romance #my chemical romance imagines #my chemical romance imagine #my chemical romance fanfiction #fanfiction #fanfic #fluff #cute #cringe #high school #high school au

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awfully-sadistic · 5 years

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{{ Book talk: Friend Request

I finished Friend Request by Laura Marshall today.

I don’t quite remember when I bought it but it was sometime during the beginning of the month of December. Jeff and I went to Fry’s and scanned the book section looking for any more Kay Hooper books, especially her Bishop novels. Anyway, there wasn’t any though I did see Christine Feehan! A few of her books, I saw Dark Fire and one of the Leopard books? I know I went and told Dot about it when I got back.

Here is the summary for this book: 1989. When Louise first notices the new girl, Maria seems to be everything the girls Louise hangs out with aren’t. Authentic. Funny. Brash. Within just a few days, Maria and Louise are on their way to becoming fast friends. 2016. Louise receives a heart-stopping email. Maria Weston wants to be friends on Facebook. Long-buried memories quickly rise to the surface: cruel decisions made and dark secrets kept, the night that would change all their lives forever.

As she tries to piece together exactly what happened that night, Louise discovers there’s more to the story than she ever knew.

I’m going to dive into the book but I’ll keep my thoughts below a cut just in case anyone who stumbles upon this doesn’t want to read on spoilers and stuff. I’ma be spoiling things. That’s the point of these talks. I want to TALK ABOUT THE BOOKS I READ AND SHIT.

First off, I don’t care about Louise. She’s a freaking weak character. She has a group of friends she hung out with in high school. She wasn’t too much of a popular kid but her “best friend”, Sophie, was even though Sophie was the one that seemed to be on the fringes of that popularity herself. Claire and some other chick were the true popular girls and Sophie used to be close with Claire until they started to push her out because you know, Sophie became a third wheel... in a group of girl friends. As you can imagine, it was a cliche catty thing. I didn’t care for that aspect but I guess it showed how terrible girls can be to one another.

Another aspect I should mention is that this author is British and this book, you can tell, is British. I didn’t mind it and although some terms/slang went over my head, it wasn’t hard to tell what things meant through the context and it was very little I ran into this problem as an American reader. Further, what caught my attention about this book was the genre of suspense and mystery. Maybe a little horror. I thought it would be like the horror movies with social media and being online, in book form. The cover looked interesting.

The tagline says “Maria Weston wants to be friends. But Maria Weston’s dead. Isn’t she?” And that’s the sort of premise of the story. Louise gets this friend request from her after many years after high school on Facebook and it’s so strange, as someone who is constantly on the Internet but over the whole “Facebook” phase to hear people talk about it like it’s this... Idk, cool thing to use when in actuality, the people that seem to use Facebook are the older generation and it seems that this is where the author fits the mold. She does hit the nail on the nose where she describes Facebook as this community where people put all of their business on it, but only the storybook and fairy tale aspects what everyone is happy to put on display for their friends and mutual to brag to. I think nearly everyone can attest to their family members using Facebook for things like this. My family does it and I think Dot’s does, too. The author does a good job emulating this in her universe.

So, Louise gets this friend request from Maria who had been killed back in 1989, during prom night. The mystery about this is whether Maria is alive or not. Louise is a divorced mother by now, having married and had a son with a guy she loved in high school, Sam. But Sam cheated on her and eventually had another kid with the woman he left Louise for. One of the things that bothered me about this aspect is that it is never quite explained what the text message said Louise kept bringing up that caused their marriage to splinter. Things like that aren’t explicitly said but seems to be a very important detail. I get that he cheated on her, she read something that she wasn’t supposed to... or however it was described, but the fact that she never writes that detail in makes it an itch I couldn’t scratch. It bothered me. I wanted to know. I never found out what that stupid text message said.

I do like Louise’s son and the relationship she had with him. Henry was an adorable little child and I adored the way she described some of the scenes between mother and son. It gave me better insight on how to write interaction with children, something I don’t quite run into despite wanting to write interactions for Dot and her children.

Going back to Louise, I found it hard to sympathize with her because like I said before, I didn’t like her. I found that she was weak and always had been since high school. She was making decisions that would have me all “Girl, WHY” and wishing she had done things differently instead of the route she had taken. She wasn’t UNBEARABLE like some female protagonists, but she was... stupid. But I get that she was also fearful. She had been carrying around this “secret” of hers since high school, feeling responsible for Maria’s death.

I felt sorry for Maria since I brought her up. She was a new transfer to Louise’s school and at once was ostracized. The summary made it sound like she and Louise were friends but I felt that hardly happened. What happened was that she and Louise hung out about two major times; one was when Louise had been ditched by Sophie (who went to hang out with one of the popular girls and wasn’t even a real friend to her but Louise wanted so bad to fit in with these girls) at lunch and Louise and Maria hung out. Louise, in a sense, used Maria whenever she couldn’t hang out with Sophie.

Maria had these rumors surrounding her as soon as she moved to a new school In actuality, she had a stalker. This stalker put out horrid rumors about her that ruined her reputation at her previous school and somehow, this new school. Some kid that went to that school had a cousin that attended this new school and that was how these rumors seemed to persist with Maria. It’s quite sad. She was the type that stood up for herself even though she was being treated horribly. She mouthed off to Sophie for treating her like shit and she was kind to Esther, an old friend of Louise that she ditched in order to hang out with Sophie and the popular kids. Maria was a character that you could have liked, instead, we got weak ass Louise and her inability to stand up for herself. In all fronts. The only time she did something that was strong was 1) when her son went missing and 2) when she was being choked near the end of the book. BUT SHE FAILED ALL THE OTHER TIMES TO BE A STRONG CHARACTER. I guess it’s meant to display a whole, every-day jane or something, but like... c’mon. How many chances do you get to rightfully apologize to someone for being a little shithead in your youth? She’s had so many times to apologize to Esther with how she treated her, explain and come clean with so many things, but she kept thinking of herself. She kept saying she felt bad and sorry and regretted everything she had done and how she treated people but it wasn’t until her ass was cornered and she had no other path to take that she RIGHTFULLY apologized or explained herself to the people she should have in the beginning. I felt if you were really that remorseful, you would have done so earlier.

So I didn’t quite blame Esther for feeling distrustful of Louise as she did throughout their encounters. I just thought Louise was a weak protagonist and hard to relate to. Or perhaps I felt too much sympathy for the characters who were done wrongly and came to resent Louise. Sophie was too fucking ridiculous to outright hate; I knew she was a bitch and didn’t care too much for her. She was awful. But Louise was supposed to be the main character you were supposed to be sympathetic towards. I COULDN’T DO IT, lmao.

I suppose I should talk about what I liked about the book. I mean, I only read it on my spare time--which was anytime I wasn’t doing things on my computer which meant cooking and occasionally sitting down with it. I wasn’t in a hurry to read it until that last stretch where Louise went to her high school reunion. I guess that meant it was sort of like a slow build or that just may be because I had been reading slowly. I wasn’t bothered by it, though. I wasn’t taken out of the story, I was able to dive back into it every time I picked it back up. The author’s writing voice seemed good too considering it was her first published book. It wasn’t quite my favorite type of writing style (the book was written in first person, too) but it wasn’t bad. Not at all. Just different. And there wasn’t too many romantic points in it; the romantic aspects I guess I could count were when Louise would speak about her marriage to Sam. How much they loved each other (how much she loved him because she honestly gave him everything). Sam was... something else. I won’t delve too much into his story; I mean, for as involved in the book as he was, I just... didn’t get too much of an impression of him. I didn’t like Sophie more than him and that’s hilariously weird considering the outcome.

The italic chapters, portions where it was written in someone else’s POV, were confusing and I can’t think... why it would be part of the story. I mean, from what I can remember and gather about those small chapters was that... it was in the past. They were hints, I’m going to assume, but they just felt out of place and distracting to me. I didn’t care of those small chapters.

The hints of BDSM also threw me a little. But that was probably because it was mingled in with abuse. So it wasn’t quite real BDSM practices. Just that... Sam was a piece of shit and there was signs Louise couldn’t see and she mistakenly pegged it as BDSM.

I honestly... don’t know what else to talk about this book now that I’ve expressed the little things that were bothering me and how I overall felt about it. It was a pretty... okay read. Not GREAT but it wasn’t bad either. It wasn’t what I was expecting but I wasn’t quite disappointed with what I got.

#{{ Book Talk

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thedeaditeslayer · 6 years

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Interview: Ray Santiago ready for the next chapter in life – whatever that is.

Ray Santiago (aka Pablo Simon Bolivar from Ash vs Evil Dead) stopped by to chat with us at 1428 Elm about his memories of the show, what is going on in his world and the future.

“I don’t know where I’m going from here, but I promise it won’t be boring.” – David Bowie

Along Came Pablo

The heart and soul of the Ghostbeaters on Ash vs Evil Dead was Pablo Simon Bolivar, played for three seasons by the always engaging actor, Ray Santiago. We fell in love with him as the shy clerk at Value Stop who carried a torch for the beautiful Kelly Maxwell (Dana DeLorenzo). We watched him grow into the self-confident El Brujo Especial who helped his Jefe (Bruce Campbell) save the world.

It was the role of a lifetime in a legendary franchise and Santiago played it to perfection. At 1428 Elm, we were fortunate enough to sit down with the actor to discuss his memories of the show, what is going on in his world and his hopes for the future.

The Interview

In the Rearview of the Delta

1428 Elm: Hi, Ray! It’s a pleasure to be speaking with you again. Thanks for taking the time to talk to us at 1428 Elm. We loved the finale and the entire journey of the third season. What was the mood on the set the very last day of shooting? Was it difficult not knowing the fate of the show or is that just business as usual nowadays in tv?

Ray Santiago: I think it was just one of those moments. It was difficult. No one knew if we were coming back. We did our best with the finale so that it could ultimately be the last episode while setting it up for a great fourth season if that is what happened.

For all of us, we were more than a little bit sad that we didn’t really know. If you know the show is done, you can close the chapter and walk away.

We were going through the same thing the fans went through waiting for an answer as to whether or not we would be coming back. So, we were in a very similar place to them.

Looking at a Legacy

1428 Elm: In LA, we talked about the possibility of a spin off happening. Bruce has given you and Dana his blessing. How do you see the series continuing in the future? There has been some interest in an animated version of the show on the part of fans.

RS: I mean, listen, it’s really flattering that people want to keep these characters alive and that they generated such a fan base that people want to continue it. For me, bringing life to Pablo changed my life as Ray in a lot of ways.

So, I will always want to keep Pablo alive and keep the Ghostbeaters alive, as well as the franchise. If they call me in 30 years to do another version of this show, I would. It’s one of those series that is timeless.

I’ll be the voice of Pablo for an animated program, go for it!

1428 Elm: Were you pleased with Pablo’s story arc this season? Is there anything you wished the writers would have considered or done differently?

RS: I was very pleased with my arc. I had no idea that it would culminate in the way that it did. It was great that we got to see the evolution of a guy that started off as a sidekick and became a significant part of the team.

He became his own hero by embracing who he really is and by understanding the power he had within himself to bring to the group and to help save the world from evil. So, I was very pleased with my arc.

Ghostbeaters Never Leave a Man or Woman Behind

RS (Cont.): Do I wish that the Ghostbeaters were there for the final fight? Yeah. Even though it was emotional for each person in that car when Ash sent us off, I really did feel like it would have been nice to see us in the battle with him or to see where we ended up.

Because it wasn’t like us to leave Jefe. For me, he spent three seasons grooming the Ghostbeaters so that they finally have all their strengths and they’re ready to do this and then Ash does it by himself.

It is called Ash vs Evil Dead but I would have loved to see the battle if we would have been a part of it. With that being said, it did make sense the way that they did it.

You know people want to see Ash kill that monster. I just felt bad that we left him.

Acknowledging the Journey

1428 Elm: I want to talk about that scene in the truck. It was very emotional. Watching you looking at Ash was heartbreaking. Were you caught up in the moment? Was that your real reaction?

RS: I think for me since I spent so much time shooting with Bruce what you saw were tears of joy and tears of sadness. They were also tears of recognition and acknowledging the journey that we had been on together as actors and as these characters.

What we started out to do, we did and we did it in a way that was beautiful and satisfying to the fans and to ourselves. For me, it was a moment of “Oh, you may not come back to this.”

You now know that you can walk alone in your next journey because you went through this. So, yeah, that moment that you saw, it was a tough moment for me.

I was pretty mad that we had to share that window because it wasn’t very easy. When I envisioned it, the doors of the vehicle were open and you could really see us.

You’re the Jefe Now

RS (Cont.): You sort of had to find that small window. For me it was hard because I knew I had like two seconds to find it. Originally, Bruce didn’t say anything to me in the last moment.

I said, “I think it’s bizarre that you say something to Kelly, and that you say something to your daughter but you don’t say anything to me.” He said, “Well, what do you think I should say?” I answered, “I don’t know. You’re the Jefe now?”

Bruce liked it and kept it. There was a lot of that between him and I where we would play and things would happen. I was glad that he threw that in because it makes sense when he gives us the final farewell.

It was emotional for all of us. I am glad that the moment worked and that the fans felt it.

Reflections of a Brujo

1428 Elm: Do you have any memories about life on the AVED set that you could share with the fans?

RS: I have a beautiful family at home that raised me but my tv family, my tv Dad and my tv Aunt (Lucy Lawless) and my tv hot stepsister, it was a beautiful thing. We were really a family unit.

Some of the memories I think about are Bruce chartering a boat and taking us out on Easter for Seasons 1 and 2. He also took us out to fancy dinners. We always wanted to hang out on our days off.

It’s not a thing that really happens when you’re around people all the time. There was that and there were wonderful dinners at Rob Tapert’s house where they had sommeliers and chefs that made beautiful meals.

Other great memories for me were becoming friends with the crew. By taking me and showing me their country, that meant a lot but they were also my moral support.

I became really good friends with my hair and makeup team and my wardrobe dresser. Being able to collaborate with everyone was terrific. The costume designer was very hands on with us. It was really nice having that experience.

Welcome to the Evil Dead

RS (Cont.): I will never forget the look I shared with Bruce whenever we showed up and they would tell us what we were doing and they would explain it. We would just look at each other in whatever dark basement we were in and in the midst of shooting and things being set up, we would just find each other’s eyes and start laughing.

It happened once and I thought am I the only one seeing the absurdity of the situation? Then as episodes went on and on, it became this thing that we did. “Yep. This is the Evil Dead. This is our life.”

I remember we hated the blood or we complained about the blood and I’m on this other horror shoot now and I’m thinking there is not enough blood! I am wondering where the rig is and what are we doing? We need more blood!

I am so used to the craziness of Ash vs Evil Dead. The other thing we experienced was we got to travel around the world with Bruce and meet our fans. He is such a showman.

Bruce is number one on that call sheet and he showed me how to be a leader. He has more energy than Dana and I and we’re much younger than he is!

We had a blast making the show and I had a blast watching it. Whenever it would premiere I would be like a little kid.

Now for Something Completely Different, Yet Somehow the Same

1428 Elm: You will be appearing in the very first episode of Blumhouse’s new horror anthology series, Into the Dark on Hulu this October. I know that each segment is going to be the length of a movie. What can you tell us about The Body? Can you tease anything?

RS: I play a young Hollywood wannabe visual effects maker who is also creating a virtual reality experience. He’s a trust fund kid. There is a party on Halloween and a bunch of crazy things happen to him and his friends.

There is a body, it’s Halloween and it’s happening to me and my friends. This has been really fun because the action takes place all in the course of one night. We’re shooting in Los Angeles so I can just pop over to the set really quickly from my place.

We have this great, young horror director named Paul Davis who really knows his shit. He’s thrown a bunch of Easter eggs in the film and we have a great cast, it’s really fast paced.

It has an 80s really culty, Prom Night type of feel to it. It’s really beautiful the way we’re shooting it so I’m excited for it to be coming out. I’m excited to be working with Hulu and Blumhouse.

They’ve been really supportive in allowing us to do what we want to do. My character is sort of high strung, kind of an asshole. He reminds me of Matthew Lillard in Scream.

He’s a little bit different but you’re going to see my eyes bulging out of my head, just like Pablo. In the sense that I am trying to escape being tortured.

1428 Elm: Are you done shooting Speed of Life now?

RS: Yeah. We finished. That was a very amazing experience. I got to work with Ann Dowd. I had my first sex scene with her so I am super excited for the world to see.

It was a bizarre movie and it was nice to not rely on things that weren’t there. In other words, it was nice to act with another person. To have someone there and to have a conversation and let the action be in the words and not practical effects or CGI.

There are some of those things in this movie because it is about a guy who falls into a time warp and he comes back to the future. It seems like I am being followed by this strange portal and time zone kind of film taking me to different places.

I am excited to see where things go. Working with Ann and Allison Tollman was really wonderful because they’re such pros and leading ladies of this industry.

1428 Elm: How is the character that you are playing in Speed of Life different from the one that you are playing in the Body?

RS: The Body is a horror movie. In Speed of Life, it is a romantic comedy. My character loves cracking jokes. He doesn’t take anything seriously.

Then he becomes shaken up when he is thrown into a different time zone. He has to step up to the plate and be a man by trying to save his relationship in a way that he never thought he would have to.

Possibly Getting the Band Back Together in a Different Way

1428 Elm: Could you foresee a non-Ash collaboration with any of your former co-stars?

RS: Certainly! I told Bruce that I wanted to remake Fantasy Island with him. We would laugh about it.

1428 Elm: Is there anything else that you would like to experience in the future career wise? When you sang ‘At the Ballet’ from A Chorus Line at Dortmund, it was surprising! You have such a beautiful voice! Is there something you would like to do where people would say, wow! We didn’t know Ray could do that!

RS: Yeah! I do like to sing. There was talk of them making “In the Heights” (Broadway show by Lin-Manuel Miranda) a film so I would love to do that kind of thing. I would love to be on Broadway whether it be a musical or just a straight play.

I have had a couple people say if there was a chance to do a Prince biopic would I jump at it? Absolutely. I have also been told that I remind people of Freddy Mercury and Jim Croce.

If the opportunity came up to do a multiple camera sitcom, that would be great. I learned so much from doing AVED exploring so many different avenues in a half hour. So, I am really ready for whatever the next chapter is.

It’s fascinating that Blumhouse went for someone like me to play the asshole and the trust fund kid. I don’t know very many Latino trust fund kids so I thought it was a real interesting play and I was happy to do it.

Saying So Long

1428 Elm: Do you have a message for AVED fans?

RS: I would like to thank them for accepting me into their households and into a franchise and for loving me. I love them! I would like them to continuously support and keep their eye on me because I am going to make more stuff. This is just the beginning.

What got me this far was making the choice everyday to believe in myself. When you look in the mirror, that’s all you have is yourself. If you believe, the world will believe in you.

I say to the fans that whatever they do, if they stay true to themselves, the world will speak to them, the same way it has spoken to me.

I want to thank them from the bottom of my heart. I’m happy that they are down with me because this lets me know that I am doing exactly what I am supposed to be doing.

It’s All about Heart

This last part was a special message to Bruce Campbell and Lucy Lawless from Ray. It is touching and I am glad that he shared it with us. This is precisely why Ghostbeaters are for life.

RS: I learned a lot of things from my Dad but I learned more from Bruce. He was the best leader I could have ever had and it makes me sad that this great adventure has come to an end. The saddest thing about my job was when they said, “That’s a wrap,” and I had to go home.

People like Bruce and Lucy who have been in the industry for so long taught me how to do it and how to be happy doing it and what is the right way to do it.

I am so thankful for them and I am also thankful for the fans because without them, we would be nothing.

#Ray Santiago #1428 Elm #Ash vs. Evil Dead #Ash vs Evil Dead

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actor-babes · 7 years

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Scream Part 10

Contracts and Parties "Hey Rands," I pulled up in front of Randy's house exactly eight minutes after I left Stu in my own house. Was that a bright idea? Probably not. "I'm so sorry, I was reading and I completely lost track of time and then I went into the bathroom to wash my face and you called." He looked me over. He didn't believe a word that I had said. "It's fine." He climbed in. He could tell I was lying. My lips were red and swollen looking as if i'd just been kissing somebody. My hair was somewhat frizzy and my hair was never frizzy. I smelt kind of like a cologne instead of my normal fruity scent. I'd been with a guy. "What were you reading?" "Stephen King. One of his books with like four novellas. It was really good. The ones that I read. I read two." He nodded, "Nice." I was still lying to him. He could tell simply by the way that I spoke. And I looked upset about it, almost as if I was ready to cry. He didn't push it. With the threat of being murdered at any given time now, he had planned on telling her how he felt. Tonight, at Stu's. But it seemed as if she had found someone else. We entered the video store and clocked in, we each went to our respective post for awhile before having to take care of customers and put tapes away. Stu snuck up behind Randy in the aisle he was in and knocked the videos out of his hand, making a loud exclamation. "Jerk," Randy bent over to pick up the tapes. Stu grinned, leaning his chin in his hand and his elbow on the shelf, "So, you coming to my little fiesta tonight?" "Yeah," Randy nodded, "I'm off early. Curfew, remember?" "Nice!" Stu grinned. His eyes were wandering, "Where's Steph at?" "In the back rewinding tapes I think," he shrugged as his eyes scanned the store quickly. They fell on one character. "Uh, now that's in bad taste." "What?" Stu questioned, looking around before his eyes found Billy. "If you were the only suspect in a senseless bloodbath, would you be standing in the horror section?" Stu shook his head, "It was all a misunderstanding. Billy didn't do anything." "You're such a little lap dog. He's got killer printed all over his forehead!" "Errrr, okaayyy!" Stu made a funny face. "Then why'd the cops let him go. Huh, smart guy?" "Because," Randy rolled his eyes, "obviously they don't watch enough movies. This is standard horror movie stuff. Prom Night revisited, man." "Why would he want to kill his girlfriend?" Stu raised both of his eyebrows. "There's always some stupid bullshit reason to kill your girlfriend. That's the beauty of it all. Simplicity. Besides, if it's too complicated, you lose your target audience." Stu was clearly interested now, "Oh yeah? So what's his reason?" "Maybe Sidney wouldn't have sex with him," Randy mumbled, putting the tapes on the shelf. "What? She saving herself for you?" Stu laughed, "You just want all the Prescott women, don't you Randy?" Randy glared. "Could be. Now that Billy's tried to mutilate her…do you think Sid would go out with me?" Stu laughed. Mainly because Randy was trying so hard to get the general population to believe that he really was in love with Sidney Prescott and not Stephanie and mainly because the idea of either sister getting with him sounded ludicrous. He stopped his obnoxious laughter and went straight-faced immediately. "I think her father did it. I mean, how come they can't find their pops, man?" Randy looked at Stu as if he was a moron. Which, in some ways (like when it came to advanced calculus, Stu was. Although he was pretty great at pre-calculus) he was. "Because he's probably dead. His body will come popping up in the last reel somewhere…eyes gauged out, fingers cut off! See, the police are always off track with this shit. If they'd watch Prom Night, they'd save time. There's a formula to it. A very simple formula! Everybody's a suspect!" Randy shouted out parts, causing Stu to look very embarrassed to be seen with the boy and at the end, he told Randy to be quiet and made a motion with his two fingers that Randy was high. "I'm telling you. The dad is a red herring. It's Billy," as Randy turned to face the other shelf, he walked into the accused. "How do we know you're not the killer…huh?" "Uh…" Randy looked at him wide eyed, "Hi, Billy." "Maybe your movie-freaked mind lost it's reality button." Randy laughed nervously, backing away from Billy. "You're absolutely right. I'm the first to admit it. If this were a scary movie, I'd be the prime suspect." Stu was right behind him, flicking his earlobe, "And what would be your motive?" Randy flinched away, and as he did so, he caught a whiff of Stu's cologne. He blinked, trying to place where else he'd smelt that. "It's the millennium. Motives are incidental." Billy grinned, "Millennium." His grin grew wider. "I like that. Millennium. Good kid," he smacked Randy's cheek lightly before walking away. Stu grinned, "Millennium. Good word, my man!" Randy turned to face Stu once he was sure that Billy had left, "And you're telling me that that's not a killer?" Stu laughed, "Whatever. Bring movies, okay?" He peered around a wall of movies to see Steph bending down to place a movie on the bottom shelf. He pinched her arm and she jumped up with a shriek. "Hey, Steph" he grinned, faking shock that I was there as he laughed. "Stu!" I cried out, hitting him with a tape. Randy looked confused. Steph was laughing and smiling as she yelled at him when usually she would be beyond pissed. When Stu finally left, Steph turned the corner into the aisle Randy was in. He caught a whiff of that smell again. And then he knew. Steph had been with Stu. *** "Ooh!" Stu exclaimed, clearly excited, as he opened the door. "You're early!" I smiled, "You told me to be." He looked me over. I had a tight, short red skirt on, with a tight, white sleeveless turtleneck sweater. I had short, red velvet heeled booties on. My hair was down and I had done my makeup. "Come in, come in," he beamed. 'Might as well get some action before she hates me forever.' He pushed me against the door after he closed it and began to kiss me. "Ew, stop," Billy entered the foyer. "That's disgusting. Can't you at least wait until I leave?" "You're leaving?" I asked, confused. "Sid doesn't want me here." "Oh, so before it starts you're gone? Nice." "Oh, no. I'll leave now, because Stu is obviously preoccupied. But before I go, I put that contract of your's in writing, Steph There are three copies. One for each of us. And we each have to sign all three." I nodded and followed them into the living room. At the top of each paper 'CONTRACT' was stamped in big, bold letters. It looked very professional, as if Billy had looked up what they should look like online. I read it to herself before I signed it. Contract 1. We (Stuart Macher and William Loomis) will not kill Stephanie with the exchange that she, will not tell anybody (especially the police) that she knows that we killed Casey Becker and Steven Orith and that we are the murderers the police are searching for. 2. Also, we will not hurt Sidney Prescott or Randy Meeks, as she has asked. 3. She will do whatever Stuart says/asks of her. I (William Loomis) have nothing to do with this. It was his request. The following rules also apply: Because we may not kill Steph she will not kill us (William Loomis and Stuart Macher). This contract is valid while all three of us are still alive. If one of us should die, than the other may, by any means confess whatever they would like or kill the other remaining survivor. What good that will do, I have no idea. But, feel free. Sign below if you agree to abide by these terms. There was a blank space with each of their names typed below it. The entire thing was typed. After William Robert Loomis and Stuart Evan Macher was me. I signed my name above it, on each copy of the contract and Billy walked to the door with his. He stopped at the door way, "Remember, to the side!" Stu grinned, "To the side!" he repeated. I looked confused, "Huh?" "Eh, it's nothing. Don't worry about it." As soon as the door shut, Stu's fingers were tangled in my hair, pulling me closer, and his tongue was in my mouth. His touch sent fire through my body. We were still clothed. The doorbell rang, interrupting us. "Damn," he looked at the clock. "Off." I stepped back gasping. He left me in his room, letting in his guests. I waited for two more groups to show up before blending into the crowd. As I was being hit on from someone from my math class, I sipped on my beer. I cringed. I thought beer was bitter. Then, I saw Randy. I excused myself and ran over. "Randycakes!" I sat next to him. He was stiff to me cuddling into him as he answered, "Hey." "What's wrong?" I backed away from him slightly, pouting. "Not here, Steph. I'll tell you later." "But-" I stopped trying after he saw the look on his face. "Fine." I moved away from him and went back to where Stu had the hard liquor. Tears in my eyes, I took my first shot of the night. And I didn't remember much after that. Most of the people were gone. I'd seen Sid go upstairs with Billy a little while ago. Only Randy and Stu remained on the lower level with me, along with three other guys that I didn't know. This was going to be a long night. A lot longer than I anticipated.

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