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Post by Emily Parker on Jun 4, 2018 17:27:43 GMT -5
She didn't know the day when she'd fallen in love with him. It probably would be impossible to figure it out even, since she suspected that she'd fallen in love with him long before she'd really understood what love was.
What she did know was that one day she was hit by the crushing realization that she was deeply in love with him.
They were hanging out in his house and Shane was busy being... well, Shane and she'd given Thomas a look at the same exact moment he looked over at her. Both of them knew the opinions of one another on the antics that his twin was frequent to participate in so a look was all it took to display such thoughts. And even though it was something that had happened a million times before, this time was different.
Her crush on him had been something that she was aware of before, and had been aware of for a while if she was honest, but this felt different. When his eyes met hers it filled her with a warmth and appreciation for him that went deeper than any time in the past.
A simple, commonplace moment but suddenly she knew it. Knew that her heart actually belonged to him. It was a little scary, how deep her feelings actually ran for the kindhearted boy. Her fear must have shown on her face because suddenly he was leaning closer to her with a look of concern crossing his features.
"Em," he spoke, his voice quiet so not to draw Shane's attention to them. They each tended to speak quietly to one another whenever Shane was in the middle of his antics. "Are you okay?"
His eyes were so warm and his face so close that although she'd seen it all of her life, she felt like it was new all over again. She could notice every detail there and he was so attractive that she wondered how he managed to go through school without a million girls asking him to be his girlfriend all the time.
Not that his looks were even the best thing about him. Thomas was kind, he was loyal, he was intelligent and funny and so caring and she loved him. She loved his smile and his blue eyes, she loved his wit and his thoughtfulness. She loved Thomas Micklesen.
Her whole life she'd known him and she'd been around him, but she'd never quite realized before this moment how incredible he actually was. How had she not recognized it sooner? When she'd first gotten a crush on him - somewhere in early childhood, at an age she couldn't pinpoint - she thought that she'd figured it all out. Clearly she'd been wrong though because right now she seemed to be coming to terms with it in an even grander sense. How could she not have fallen in love with him when this was who he was? When he was such an incredible person?
The fourteen year old wondered if he could see her feelings spilled out across her face. It felt like it had to be written there, large and bold for anyone to see, that she was hopelessly in love with him. He'd see it and he'd let her down gently, because he was so sweet and caring, but it'd change things between them forever.
That thought caused her stomach to sink, filling with dread as she thought about not being able to count on Thomas like she could right now. Her relationship with him was so important and she couldn't let anything happen to it. She couldn't handle it if he began to put distance between the two of them, it'd break her heart to lose the relationship that they already had. It was certain that she wouldn't be able to tell him about her feelings, not when the risk was to lose the relationship they already had.
"Emily?" he questioned again, his voice filled with another note of concern. The way he looked at her said that he thought something had to be wrong.
"I'm sorry," she apologized, shaking her head and pulling on a smile. "I just zoned out, I guess." She could do that from time to time, so it wasn't likely to give him any reason to be suspicious. "Got lost in some ideas for a new poem."
Yes, she'd have to write one when she got home tonight, about loving someone you knew you couldn't tell.
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Post by Elsie Hale on Jun 4, 2018 18:27:47 GMT -5
She'd always been terrible with caring about people outside of her family. She hadn't needed to she had all she needed in terms of support and love from Chloe with additional love and support from her family. Thus, she'd never searched for it elsewhere. Why did she need to? No one else could really be trusted not to fuck up her emotions and she didn't want to give them that power.
Getting involved with Kevin hadn't made her think for even a minute that anything would happen on that front. She'd gone in with the goal of just fucking him as much as possible. Then they'd started talking more and spending more time together before or after having sex. She'd started to learn more about him during that time and he'd started to learn more about her. Without knowing it, she started trusting him and she was sure that he'd started trusting her without realizing it either. Then, sometime she started to text him just to be able to talk to him, started looking forward to seeing him instead of just looking forward to fucking him.
Then Shane had to be a giant jackass and make a joke out of the situation in front of most of their families, but through her anger she recognized that she did care for the med student and he had shared his feelings. That had been a little scary and a little thrilling, but it hadn't changed anything between them. Maybe that even succeeded in endearing him further to her. The way that he didn't pressure her with his feelings, the way that things stayed with the same pattern that they'd fallen into, it made her feel better and she hadn't given much thought to her feelings past that.
At least not until today. Today he'd be heading back to St. Louis for school, which meant that there'd be a lot more limitations on when they got to see one another. In fact, it'd probably be a few weeks before they saw one another again at all, which was why she'd spent the night with him last night.
That thought made her feel unhappy and she couldn't even deny it. She realized as she lay next to him that she'd miss him, that she might wish to see him more than she'd be able to and she didn't like it. Her hand moved slowly across his chest as she thought about the fact that they'd have to work out a schedule to see one another.
"Morning," he spoke, his voice causing a twitch of a smile on her lips as he pressed a kiss against her forehead.
"Morning," she answered, her voice quiet but steady. She refused to be a weakling about this and she refused to look like she was sad about him returning to school.
In fact, she managed to act normal throughout the rest of the morning until it came time for him to take the last few items out to his car. At that point it became evident that it was approaching the time to say goodbye.
They shared a kiss and he told her he'd text her when he got in. As she stared into his green eyes - they were such a light green, lighter than she'd ever seen on anyone else - she gripped a bit tighter to him, stopping him from pulling away. He could have easily broken her hold, of course, but he didn't. Instead he looked at her in a bit of confusion instead, silently asking her what she was doing.
A hard swallow followed, but she looked at him with a sense of determination. "I'll miss you," she told him, a bit uncomfortable to put the knowledge out so openly but he looked surprised and pleased to hear her say it which made her feel a little better.
"I'll miss you, too," he answered, pecking her lips and giving her a smile.
That smile was what hit her. It made her realize all at once that everything everyone had been saying was true. She loved him. It was Kevin and he could be a bit dry at times, he could work too hard and too long, he could be a bit of a buzzkill now and then, and despite all that she loved him.
She wouldn't have picked him out as the person she'd give her heart to but somewhere along the line she'd started giving pieces of her heart away to him. She'd started to learn about his dry sense of humor, one that she could appreciate thoroughly. She'd learned more about his stresses with school and his weaknesses. She'd learned about his plans and his family relationships. And she'd shared about herself too. She'd started telling him about her worries, her schooling, her aspirations. She'd told him about her relationship with Chloe an her uncertainty of what the future held for her. They'd shared opinions on photography and movies and people that they both knew and every time she'd given more of her heart to him.
That heart seemed to pound with the realization of what she'd done. Of how thoroughly she was lost without having thought about it. Her face must have shown it too because he looked at her with an emotion that she wasn't able to read. Now it seemed stupid not to say anything when he looked like he knew anyway. It was stupid to pretend when the truth was smacking her in the face.
So, she took a breath and parted her lips and forced the words out. "I love you." The words were a little shaky but she looked him in the eye, terrified that she'd allowed someone so close to her but relieved to have it be Kevin. At this point all she could do was trust him and it seemed like she'd been doing that for a long time already.
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Post by Tristan Dunn on Jun 5, 2018 17:06:22 GMT -5
Most people in Tristan's social circle wouldn't understand the disappointment that he felt as another gathering came up and he wasn't invited. He knew that Alex just barely understood him but even he didn't think that he should be any sort of jealous over the fact that the Dunn family hadn't made the cut for the upcoming social event.
"It's going to be the same as all the others," his best friend pointed out.
But gatherings served two purposes for the upcoming junior that they didn't for most others. First, they allowed him a chance to socialize. His parents let him hang out with Alex but with fairly strict parameters even over the summer, thus a gathering was actually one of the freest times that he had. His parents were too busy trying to socialize that they rarely kept an eye on him. That meant that he could talk more with some people than he was usually able to. In a very sad way, as had been pointed out to him, gatherings were a fairly crucial part of his social life just for the fact that they allowed him to be social.
Amongst the socializing aspect though, they also served a slightly more interesting purpose to allow him to interact with Leslie Aldridge. Leslie, who'd he'd known of his entire life but never known until a gathering, was his crush and even he could admit that he had it pretty bad.
"You're whipped," Alex teased him from time to time, but he couldn't deny it and he didn't want to fight it.
Leslie, who he interacted with at gatherings and with online, was the type of girl that was impossible to ignore. Part of that came from her family as people always noticed when an Aldridge was about, but there was more to it than that. She held herself differently than the other Aldridge kids. He'd seen them all over the years, from proper Mackenzie who seemed to have an air of grasping perfection with a bit of difficulty, to spacey William who never seemed to realize where he was and didn't seem to be in a hurry to either, and even young Chace who seemed proud and determined when he entered a room as if daring anyone to call him out.
Leslie though, she was something else. He'd always noticed her presence in the past, because she came into a room with a self-assuredness that made him jealous when he'd first seen her. She seemed to be so sure of who she was and seemed happy with it and that was something he'd always struggled with. Yet, as they started getting older he'd also found that Leslie Aldridge was growing up gorgeous. It wasn't a surprise, the entire family seemed to have good genes and he hadn't thought more about it.
Then one gathering he, of all people, got pulled to socialize with her and he quickly discovered there was more than her looks to the brunette. She was funny, she was interesting, she had a quick mind, and talking to her made him feel great. That first time he developed a crush on her, and every time that he met with her it got stronger. Each conversation brought forth another thing for him to like about her and dug him deeper in the hole as to his crush on her. It was like every interaction they had just served to further convince him of how incredible she was.
He glanced at the clock and saw that it was about the time that the gathering would be starting and groaned as he fell back onto his bed. It wasn't even all that logical for him to be thinking so much about it in relation to Leslie. "What did you expect?" he asked himself aloud. "To talk to her tonight and then she realizes she's in love with you too?" The words were met with silence in his room, but in an almost delayed reaction he realized what he said and sat up slowly.
In love with him too. Was he in love with Leslie?
He thought about her warm brown eyes, about her wide smile, about the sound of her laugh when she found something funny. He thought about the fierce loyalty she showed when she spoke about her cousin, about the warmth that she displayed when she spoke about her older brother, and about the humorous way she could tell stories. Was that love?
With a frown he walked over to his computer and decided to look it up. So, he opened up Google and searched the definition of the word.
love ləv/ noun noun: love; plural noun: loves
1. an intense feeling of deep affection.
That seemed to be true. The intensity of his affection for Leslie wasn't in doubt. Everyone teased him about it, there was no denying that he felt an affection for the brunette and it was intense. Even thinking about her now made him feel... warmer. The thought of her smile, of the way that she said his name, of her, made him smile without a second thought.
verb verb: love; 3rd person present: loves; past tense: loved; past participle: loved; gerund or present participle: loving
1. feel a deep romantic or sexual attachment to (someone).
Attachment. That was the question there. Did he have an attachment to Leslie? Well, he wasn't dating anyone else and he wouldn't if someone would have asked. It would feel wrong because he knew he didn't want to be with anyone else. As for the sexual aspect... well, the brunette had stared in more fantasies than he cared to admit.
"Oh, shit," he muttered, looking up from the screen. This was bad. Having a crush on someone who was never going to be into you because you were so far beneath them in terms of the type of person you were wasn't great. Being in love with someone who wouldn't love you. back because you were leagues below them was a disaster.
And yet, when it came to Leslie, even knowing that he should be trying to stop himself from caring about her all he could do right now was wish that he could see her.
Alex was right, he was whipped and he wasn't likely to get better any time soon.
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Post by Zane Harris on Aug 18, 2018 19:10:30 GMT -5
It should have possibly occured to Zane when he'd accepted to go and meet Andrea's family that his feelings for her had turned to be serious, especially when he'd accepted to meet them in what would essentially be a giant family gathering of sorts. Meaning that he wasn't just going to be meeting the rest of her immediate family but the whole gang. He didn't even regret going either, maybe that's when he should have realized it. When he'd told her he was glad that he'd come with her despite the fact that the day, frankly, had been a disaster, it probably would have been the ideal time to have realized it. Yet, he hadn't. Hadn't thought to examine his feelings for his girlfriend, but simply had gone to bed with her that night feeling glad that he'd come with her.
The truth of the matter was that he didn't even think about it until he was saying it. She was dropping him off at his apartment after the drive back from her parents house and as he leaned over to give her a kiss, it wasn't until he was speaking the words that he realized that he felt them. Just like that, she was telling him she'd see him soon and he told her goodbye.
"See you soon," he had responded, pressing a kiss against her forehead and pulling away. "Love you, drive safe." And he'd moved to get out of the car without the full gravity of his words having hit him just yet. They didn't when her hand had reached over to grab his hand, stopping him from getting out the door, nor did they hit him as he turned to look at her. The sight of her incredious face a bit comical although it was certainly confusing to behold.
"What was that?" she demanded, her tone urgent. She seemed like she might be upset with him about something and he looked at her without realizing yet what he'd done.
"What was what?" he replied, the words having flowed so naturally that they hadn't seemed to have come from him consciously. She looked ready to smack him, or shake him. Either way, the amount of unimpressed that crossed her face was not something that he was familiar with having directed at him. Not anymore.
It wasn't until he replayed his words in his head that he realized what he'd done. What he'd said and it was the first time that he'd ever expressed the sentiment to her. That much seemed surprising on its own, as the knowledge that he loved her was new but not new. It seemed natural and right, that of course he would have fallen in love with Andrea. That it would have been unavoidable to find himself in love with the caring, beautiful, intelligent woman that sat across from him. She was ambitious but gentle, cute but sexy, giving but not naive, truly she was exactly the type of person that anyone would be lucky to have and at some point in their relationship his feelings had progressed into something more serious. At what point it was impossible to know and to be honest, he didn't think that it mattered so much.
However, he did know Andrea and for her this was going to be a big deal. So he settled back into his seat and shut the door, leaning back over to his girlfriend. "I don't imagine you could find it surprising," he told her, which did not seem to be the ideal thing to say but he softened slightly as he looked over at the future vet. "I love you, Andrea."
She was looking at him in such a way, a way that showed her feelings clearly written across her face so much so that he didn't even need to hear her say the words back because they were so obvious. Nonetheless, she did say the three words and when she did he leaned forward to press his lips against her own in a kiss that tried to express what he wasn't so great at saying. That she'd become one of the most important people in his world, that he found her entirely charming, that he had started to envision a future with her. The long and short of it, of his love for her. A love that he hadn't expected but now couldn't imagine having done without.
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Post by Brendon Clarke on Apr 20, 2019 14:12:01 GMT -5
When Brendon first got involved with Lacie it just made sense. They were in the same place, she was gorgeous, they had a natural banter and a chemistry that was hard to deny. From there, things just sort of progressed. They lived half a world apart, but they stayed in contact. He texted her every day, his sleep schedule shifted because of her. He stayed up later and woke up earlier so that he could talk to her longer. They would Facetime and she got to know his best friend Cora from that. They developed inside jokes and fell into a pattern that was comfortable and nice. She lived halfway across the world though, so nothing more could happen.
He started dating another girl, someone who was close and funny and beautiful even. She didn't seem to get him in that complete way that Lacie did, but he had fun with her and dating her was easy. They had a good time together. Still, he texted Lacie more and if he lay awake in bed with Nicole sleeping, he'd end up texting Lacie then too. Somewhere along the way, she became an essential part of his day. He had to talk to her at one point or another.
Some people, thought this meant that he was in love with her. He wasn't in the camp of people who believed so. No, he cared about Lacie - he couldn't deny that, but it wasn't love. He didn't trip over himself trying to make her happy, like Eric did with Ivy. They didn't have that connection to each other where his father would anticipate what his mum was going to need before she asked for it, and could be found already holding out a tissue or passing her a pen when she turned to ask for it. Nor, did he think that he looked at her in the way that he caught his Uncle Oli looking at his Aunt Mel, like he was happy just to be in her presence. Not that he wasn't happy just to be around her, but still. Clearly, he was not in love with her because he wasn't like any of the couples in his life that were in love with one another.
And if he obsessed over her new boyfriend, that was just because he wanted to know what was going on there. Because it was important to know when Lacie was being so very secretive over him. Really, what he had to know was if the other guy was better than him. He didn't want the boyfriend to be better than him. It seemed very important that he wasn't. Nicole wasn't better than Lacie. That's what ultimately did them in too, the fact that he couldn't convince Nicole that he'd pick her over Lacie - because he wouldn't.
It had been a relationship on a timeline anyway, so he wasn't heartbroken when it came to an end a bit sooner than anticipated. His gap year came soon after and he made his way to Australia. He started in Perth, staying with his grandparents and taking a job as a bus boy at a restaurant, filling a temporary posting and then leaving after six weeks. By that point he'd saved up enough money to start moving on, having set up a series of homes where he could stay ahead of times. He went to stay for a few weeks in Kangaroo Island, helping on a farm in exchange for a place to stay. Then he moved on to Tasmania, working on a brewery for a little over a month and having plenty of time to explore around in the meantime. He continued to move around the country, staying weeks at a time in one place or another and exploring around, doing odd jobs to earn money or accommodation. He hit Sydney, Melbourne, and plenty of places in between during the months that followed.
During that time, he still kept in close contact with Lacie, he took videos that he'd send her of his adventures. He enjoyed the fact that now he was four hours behind her really, even if he was 20 hours ahead. It made keeping in contact a lot easier and he did take advantage of it as much as possible. When Christmas came, he made his way back to Perth, spending the holiday with his family as they came from England to be with his grandparents. Then it was time to make his way over to the other side of the country, because Lacie was coming for her surf camp and he knew he had to relocate closer to her. He wanted to see more of Australia though, so he took a bus to Darwin, allowing himself some time to see more of the coast. Then (and he did not tell his parents this) he hitchhiked his way to Alice Springs. It wasn't a bad experience, he had a lot of interesting conversations and got to see a lot of every interesting places. He spent a few days in Alice Springs, exploring and took a bus to Ayer's Rock from there.
Once back in Alice Springs, he took a bus to Brisbane and then made his way to the town where Lacie would be doing her surf camp. Luckily, he'd found someone looking to rent out their room for a few months because they were going abroad. He easily found work at a restaurant as a kitchen hand and waited for the day when Lacie would arrive. When the day came that he'd actually be able to see her, he was excited and he went to meet her.
Then he saw her and it hit him all at once. He was in love with her. Seeing her made him feel the way that he imagined that Eric felt when he looked at Ivy, this sort of amazement that she was here to see him. Being able to touch her, to pull her into his arms filled him with the rightness that he was sure his dad felt whenever his mum came to sit by him and he'd relax into her. The way that she smiled, sent a jolt through him that made him get why his Uncle Oli looked at Aunt Mel like she was the most gorgeous woman he'd ever seen, because in this moment he felt that. Sure, there were models and celebrities and everyone else, but none of them were as gorgeous as Lacie was.
And he tripped over his words as he went to tease her, still trying to find his bearings in this new world with this new revelation. He loved Lacie Tanaka, and he had no clue when it had happened. It didn't matter though and when she looked at him, raising an eyebrow at him to ask what was going on he shook his head.
"Still messed up from that 44 hour ride across the Australian Outback," he excused himself, not ready to tell her about this realization. "Come on, let me show you my place while I'm here." And they started toward the flat that he was sharing, knowing that there'd be a lot of catching up to do between them.
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Kaitlyn Foster
Midwest Native
Daughter of Bethanie and Samuel
Posts: 261
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Post by Kaitlyn Foster on Nov 8, 2019 11:59:05 GMT -5
Kaitlyn had never thought of herself as a sentimental person Maybe in part because of how inherently, hopelessly romantic her mother was - growing up watching her, associating her behavior to the idea of romanticism, had somehow made her feel that if she wasn't at her level, then she just wasn't a romantic person at all.
Of course, it didn't quite work like that, but she held on to that idea in high school and carried with her to college. So what if she enjoyed the occasional fluffy, romantic comedy? She had been conditioned to enjoying them. So what if she found herself sighing over regal, shimmering wedding dresses? She'd always liked pretty clothes, and gowns were the epitome of that. So what if she sometimes watched over particularly scenic spots and caught herself thinking of what a lovely proposal spot it would be? Okay, well, that one was a bit harder to explain away, but it didn't matter.
She'd never dated with the intention of starting a lasting partnership. Her relationships were casual to the extreme, if they could even be called relationships. They were one night stands, sprinkled with the odd hook up buddy she found herself wanting to see more than once. Even in her teen years, her main interest in having a boyfriend had been for making out, and then moving on to the next once it got boring. And as she got older, making out evolved to sex, with the same short term mindset. She was out to have a good time, nothing less, nothing more.
And then, Marcus had come into the picture. Her intent with him had been the same as with any other guy before, but man had he been good at it. So she had seen him, again, and again. As time went on, she'd found herself spending more time at his place, for the sole purpose of being around him. Her own bed had started feeling empty without him in it, her days long when she didn't get to talk to him. Faith teased her about him, and although she was unwilling to admit the extent to which he was on her mind, she couldn't entirely deny that she liked him. He'd definitely gotten past the occasional hook up stage, but it felt like a weird place to be in, somewhere between casual and not.
The full nature of it all didn't reveal itself as it did in the movies and in books. They had been doing school work in bed at his place, him reading a text book for class, her working on an assignment that she couldn't seem to get past. And as she'd sat there, silently growing more frustrated with herself and the work itself, he'd looked over at her, taking her in. The frown of aggravation that pulled her eyebrows together, the slight pout of displeasure on her lips, the way she kept tapping her fingers against her thigh. He'd closed his own book and set it on his nightstand before gently prying the papers she hadn't written anything on for nearly an hour out of her hands. His fingers had brushed against the side of her forearm as he'd pressed a soft kiss to her forehead, saying that they should call it a night, to which she hadn't protested, her brain too fried to really do anything more at this point.
After turning off the light, he'd pulled her into his arms, holding her close to him, and the steady rhythm of his chest rising and falling with each deep breath had calmed her. The frustrations of the day had slowly left her, his embrace making her feel safe. And as she'd been running through her mind how nice it felt to be here with him, how comfortable and right it was to be in his arms, it had suddenly hit her with such strength her breath had caught in her throat for a second. Marcus had somehow become one of the most important people in her life, someone she went to when she felt down, someone she trusted with all of her, and she was in love with him.
The realization was like a flood of warmth through her entire body. It was exciting and strange and a little scary, causing her to instinctively snuggle herself a bit closer to him, burying her face into his chest as he held her tighter in response. She wasn't entirely sure what to do with this new information - she knew his view on romance was quite different than her own, and she wasn't sure what to expect out of him. Did he see their relationship in the same light she did? Was there a somewhat blurry, but ever present picture of their future together starting to bloom in his mind, like it did in hers? Somehow, the idea of asking these questions was even more frightening than the sudden strength of her emotions unraveling. And although there was a part of her that felt an overwhelmingly strong urge to speak the words to him right now, she decided to wait. Wait until she felt they were maybe in the same place. Or better yet, wait for him to say something first. And hope that it wouldn't take too long for him to.
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