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#i know a lot of people have shitty dads
taikanyohou · 2 years
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VEGAS + PETE | KinnPorsche (2022). TEAM + WIN | Between Us (2022).
#vegaspete#teamwin#kinnporsche#between us#asianlgbtqdramas#*#faiza gifs#tw suicide#i just find it .... flabbergasting that some people really truly do not know just how fucked up and intertwined in trauma teamwin#actually are#like most people i think assume that team's trauma /isn't that deep/. oh my god yall are gonna be in for a SHOCK.#the other day i made post loosely paralleling teamwin and vegaspete and someone said in the notes#'are you actually comparing these 2 op .... lemme get this right' .... and i was like uhhhhhhh YA i am.#bc there ARE similarities that you CAN dig out from them both even though theyre 2 such completely different couples#like this isnt me even REACHING here. this is just. IN PLAIN SIGHT.#both team and vegas are extremely suicidal people that think a LOT about death and ending all the pain they have in them through death.#they both have shitty absent fathers.#vegas' dad blames him for all this misfortunes#whilst team's dad blames him for ... well i wont spoil it but if the show goes according to the novel then /its THAT/.#i just. yeah. *HOLDS MY 2 BELOVED COUPLES IN EITHER HANDS* they have so MUCH trauma trauma trauma.#and its not like their other halves - pete and win - are trauma free. hell. THEY HAVE THEIR OWN TRAUMA.#and vegaspete and teamwin are TRULY CODEPENDENT in their own ways. vegaspete are moreso more obviously.#but teamwin are in their own subtle way too. team gives win the VALIDATION he CRAVES. he gets HOOKED onto it.#like. idk man yeah teamwin aren't toxic. but they're not ~healthy~ either. so yaaaa.
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gayrogues · 10 months
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there is no fucking way that tom king's shitty oneshot, featuring the most out-of-character riddler known to man and a batman who breaks his no kill rule and waterboards people, got nominated for an eisner award...
#i hate the riddler issue of one bad day so much it's unreal#1. why write a riddler comic if you're gonna be like 'actually he HATES riddles and puzzles and won't be using them anymore'#now he's just some guy who kills people#2. i don't think i need to explain why i hate the concept of batman breaking the no kill rule or waterboarding people#3. trying to make the killing joke relevant again after 30 years? to say that ed was the mastermind behind it?#4. the plot is just. incredibly silly and not in a good way like you're telling me once the riddler stops using riddles he#becomes powerful enough to take over the entire city and batman can't do anything about it except kill him?#and i'm not talking taking over the city like in zero year where there was an actual plan#in one bad day everyone just gets sooo scared of him and his massive brain that they fall in line#5. that is not his fucking backstory#that's like. the complete opposite of it. keeping only the part about him having a shitty dad#he was never a prestigious prep school kid under immense pressure to be the smartest#he was just some kid who went unnoticed by everyone and that's why winning that puzzle contest was so important to him#and then his dad refused to believe he was smart enough to win the contest without cheating and you know the rest#he has a very ordinary backstory that explains a lot about him#meanwhile i feel like tom king was like 'oh shit this series is called one bad day'#'i need to give ed a pivotal moment in his life that made him fucked up and evil'#'how bout i write all this stuff leading up to him brutally killing his teacher at the age of like 15'#and it just sucked ass#i feel like there was more stuff i hated that i'm forgetting but i am not gonna re-read this comic to remember! at least the art was good#oopsie daisy these tags turned out to be much longer than i was expecting - i don't even care about the eisner awards i just saw the#category pop up on the library app that i use and i was like Why is This in here#ransom.txt
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astridthevalkyrie · 1 month
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feeling like you’re 12 when you’re 22 is genuinely such a humiliating experience.
#my dad and mom have been on my case ab asking for permission before I go places and it makes me kinda sick#seeing everyone around me make plans or whatever and then being like ‘I’ll have to ask 🥺 👉🏽👈🏽#’#and my dad’s a liar he’s like it’s not like we ever say no#except my mother does and so does he???#even the muslim girls I am friends with have more freedom and you know what’s amazing ab this is#they can’t stop me from going to school. they don’t pay for that#they can’t take my car. they don’t pay for that#my mom can stop making food for me and I will manage just fine#they wanna kick me out???? blessing in disguise#but it’s hilarious that as an adult i’m still paying for everything I use but I still have to ask permission genuinely fuck off#my parents when I have to stay late on campus for some school event: 😒#the way I’d be making money rn if they didn’t decide to come and stalk me at work and see me without my hijaab on#and that one’s on me I could choose to just work with it on and make them happy#but I literally can’t as a matter of principle#i’m given such little pride as it is and if I say I don’t want to work with a hijaab on that’s that#i got an internship two days ago for the summer and you can bet your ass I’m not wearing my hijaab#except it’s not paid#and as much as I have guilt spending I really don’t spend a lot and it makes me so angry#i know that your 20s isn’t your whole life and people shouldn’t think that if they waste their 20s their life is up#but it’s like#my teens were already so shitty and abusive and trapped#how much longer do I have to deal w this before i’m treated like an adult#trick question! it’s only until a man can own me bc then he can make my decisions instead of them <3
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llilychen · 2 years
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no one understands overhated female characters the way i do 💔💔💔
#alicent my beloved#yeah she sucks#is she a good person? no 💔#is she gonna get worse? absolutely#but i understand why she is the way she is#if i was pretty much forced by my dad to marry a gross old man at the age of 15 and have a bunch of babies really young#i would want to make other people miserable too#she hasn’t done anything too horrible yet and she’s getting a lot of hate#these people really like daemon who is way worse#i didn’t even care that much about her at first but seeing people’s reactions to her made me get defensive#anyways i love female characters who are not good people and i look forward to her doing terrible things#also this is got and everyone does shitty things#alicent is the scum of the earth yes but so is everyone else#i also think that people love pitting women against each other and since rhaenyra is the fan favorite in people’s minds#everything alicent does against her is 100x worse no matter how minute an action it is#and yeah i know the conflict is one sided at the moment#and alicent is messy and petty and self centered and everything will kinda be her fault at the end#but people have been hating on her since episode 1 and by the time she actually did questionable things i was already annoyed#at the people hating on her#and seeing people use that audio seeing that they stop being feminists when alicent comes on screen#shut up!! it’s not cute it’s not funny#i rooted for cersei every once in a while and i thought that daenerys burning down king’s landing could have been a slay#if it hadn’t been for bad writing#this is all over the place lol#alicent hightower#house of the dragon
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griffsursparker · 7 months
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my dad's gonna be in town next weekend. the same weekend i'm going to this music thing hosted by the local trans group. my dad does not know i'm not cis. i have invited him to the music thing. this should be interesting
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LOL I love how I haven’t gotten a chance to recover from the Christmas Spiral after all the issues w my car as I’m quickly being plummeted into the Shared Birthday Spiral
#mud rambles#this is vague as hell but to elaborate just a little#as we all know i hate christmas for a lot of reasons#mostly i have trauma and generally uncomfortable/shitty feelings centered around christmas#and as for the Birthday Thing#my incestual abuser's birthday is coming up soon and that just so happens to also be my ex best friend's birthday#because fuck my life#so before. the day had been pretty balanced out bc before everything I had someone i loved and who i THOUGHT cared about me to celebrate#on that day instead of having to think about my incestual abuser#and now this is gonna be the first year since at least like 8? that not only am I gonna have to fully deal with that#but now i have the added pain and trauma of not having my best friend anymore!#so the day compounds into bday of my incestual abuser and bday of the person i thought i was gonna be with for the rest of my life but#instead they decided to treat me like nothing. not in the same way as my abuser but yknow. both have treated me like nothing#theyre not abusive for what they did (ex bsf) but it doesnt change that what happened was fucking traumatizing#id love to not have to worry about this shit but unfortunately i dont get to choose what traumatizes me or how people treat me#i only get to choose how i react#shit sucks. it's hard. ive been trying not to think about it but so much has been fucking ass for me lately#and the timing of this shit is just. lovely. when this year marks a full fucking decade since my dad died#but hey! at least i wont have to deal with insensitive ass comments from their girlfriend on fathers day like last year!#i dont regret cutting either of them off for a second i just regret giving so much of myself to them#i regret giving them the power to hurt me like they did#i know i talk about this shit A LOT but like. what the fuck else am i supposed to do when i cant get therapy#to deal with the fact that my best friend of what? 7 years? treated me like fucking garbage and enabled their girlfriend to do the same#im not sorry for talking about it anyway. especially because this is the ONE place i can#i talk to my partner but like. I cant traumadump every single time i think about this shit so. this is the alternatibe#idk im just really. so sick of it. idk what i need to do to feel better#i get better for a bit but then shit happens and i ruminate because what the fuck else can i do#the one good thing about this stupid month is my lil bros birthday but im also sad because idk if he's gonna be able to visit =(
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friendofthecrows · 1 year
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Hate hate hate how my wallet looks thick and muggable with cash basically falling out with how full it is but it's just because last time I went to the ATM it inexplicably gave me the entire amount in 5 lira bills???
(For context the average meal is around 50 lira, I was just grabbing an appropriate amount of cash for a few days. Previously that same ATM has given me the amount in a mix of 100 and 50 lira bills, so idk why it decided to make my life harder this time)
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bookwyrminspiration · 2 years
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(Ophelia) are you cyberstalking your little sister/j
…only a little bit—
listen. did I specifically peer over her shoulder when standing behind her to watch her scroll and confirm it was tumblr? yeah. did I wait to watch her like a post? yeah. did I then look at the url of the person who made that post and find that exact post on their blog and then go through the recent likes until I found my little sister? yeah
when I put it like that it sounds a lot worse. hmm. i will proceed to say nothing about it and pretend I know nothing and pretend like I didn’t go through the exact sequence of social media to get here that she’s going through
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Teacher: If you don't get anything in to your boss on time, guess what? You'll be fired!
Me: Crazy. Guess who's staying unemployed for the rest of her adulthood?
#sam's talky talks#Haha. I hate it here#Actually. Recently I've been thinking about adulthood as well. But more of just...am I gonna be stable enough–#–to provide for myself? What if my job is shitty? What if I stayed unemployed for the rest of my life?#What the fuck am I going to do?#I mean. Shit. That's scary. And I'm so bad at communicating with people because I get anxious and shy#I suck at getting shit done so throw some job opportunities out the window. I'm so bad at writing stories I can't cut it as a writer#I...my mom was right. I'm never going to succeed in life. I'm just too busy stuck in my little world#I'll never be able to help anyone. I'll never be the amazing daughter she always wanted. I'm gonna be like those 30 years olds–#–who still live in their mother's basements haha...#I bet by that time I'm 20 my mom is gonna be sick of me. She'll probably want to throw me out by then because I'm such a disappointment#It's always what I've been anyways ya know?#Shit. I'm probably never going to finish high school. Never go to college. I can see myself being a drop out more than anything#Disappointing huh? It's all I've known. I'm surprised my parents haven't caught that yet#My dad and step-mom have so much hope and expectations for me I can't breathe#<- I mean. They don't want me to be an A+ student. But they really seem to want me to do amazing#You know. My dad jokes about how I should be getting A's. That B's and C's aren't good enough. And that kinda hurts#That hurts a lot. Because I've never been a good student. Just average#I'm venting and rambling in tags. Haha#Ignore me please. This is nonsensical that this point
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sleeperagentclone · 2 months
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I am too socially inept to deal with all the weird people my dad has collected over the years
#Like no my dad is not here right now because come back when he is#The old people who seem like they did too many drugs in the 70s/80s are more annoying#But like he'll set up a precedent of buying shit from homeless guys because “maybe they'll have something good someday”#And he'll just give them money which is all well and good (if I ever donate money to anything or give change to anyone I've been scammed)#But then he expects me (5'1 teenage girl looking ass) to refuse to give them money when he cuts them off#Like he is 65+ and over 6 feet tall I AM NOT#And like telling people who are seemingly unstable that you can't give them money and that no only the owner buys things and no you can't#Leave a pile of junk for him to look at later and no I can't give you any money over and over is fucking scary!#I am for sure speaking from a place of privilege because I would probably just be dead if not for my support network#I could very easily be on the other side of this I'm not fucking stable I can't hold down a real job#But I am just not equipped to be having these interactions and honestly I shouldn't be having them anyway#He keeps pretty regular hours and answers his phone so I don't understand why people are always looking for him when I'm here#I will say the homeless guys he buys from have gotten a lot better about coming in when he's actually here#And one of them Chris is perfectly nice he's a great artist but he also smells bad and is visiblely dirty sometimes and that sets off my ocd#and also makes me feel like a really shitty person for 'judging' him when I know that he doesn't have stable access to a shower#When I'm actually just suffering from my mental illness and that can also trigger the intrusive thought side of the ocd#Where I get stuck in a loop of thinking I'm a terrible person#And also I just feel bad not giving him money#And like we sell his art in the store but people rarely buy it which is annoying because it's pretty fucking sick
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welcome-home-official · 8 months
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'Unconditional love' is such a joke, and not a very funny one.
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straawberries · 2 months
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gonna make another post since that usually helps with reach
teehee poll for reach. please read the rest of this if you can
HI IM DELILAH AND IVE GOT LESS THAN 4 MONTHS BEFORE IM HOMELESS WITH NO OPTIONS FOR PLACES TO LIVE
heeyyy its me delilah. im an autistic plural trans girl with ptsd, and im living in an abusive household with my adoptive "father" that absolutely hates me. in less than 4 months, i am going to be kicked out, and i am trying to raise the money i need to survive this event.
ive been trying, pretty much every chance i get, to get a job, but i think because of this shitty small town in texas, everyone already knows who i am and nobody wants to hire me. this means i have to rely on stuff like this.
by JUNE 1ST 2024, i need to make enough money to move out, or else... well, i dont really know what will happen to me (other than vague "homelessness"), but im really scared that it wont end well.
on top of that im rarely being fed enough which is seriously fucking with my mood and making me feel like shit, so im having to balance saving and eating which.. with the money im currently getting, is not very sustainable. other than a few people giving a lot (who i am eternally thankful for and if youre able to do this i would basically do anything for you) im basically getting zero donations.
i get that this kind of stuff is annoying and maybe a bit slow, but just taking a few seconds, maybe a minute or two at most, to give me a small amount of money, would be a hell of a lot more helpful than doing nothing.
C*SH*PP - @delilahswagga
P*YP*L - @delilahkill
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plenty of people use stuff like this to scam, so heres some info about me if you doubt that this is true. (copy pasted from previous post)
i have a really big love for performing, i fell in love with theatre years ago and performed the addams family musical as fester about a month ago as my biggest role on stage yet, and right now im in the process of getting ready for antigone as teiresius. i love music, and its one of my life goals to learn as many instruments as possible, and currently i own quite a few, though my favorites are my two ukuleles and my super cool electric guitar. i have 8 partners at the moment, and i have a very big desire to one day live with as many of them as i can. i pride myself on being the best partner i can be, and its been my goal to make all my partner's lives better (and i think ive been doing a good job at it :3)
i love cats an extreme amount, ive never had a cat myself (because my dad is insane and hates cats and tries to hit cats with his truck) but being around cats makes me super happy and always makes my anxieties go away, even when im having an anxiety attack or a panic attack. i really hope i can get a few cats one day, and i want to give them all silly food names :) my fursona is kind of a reflection of that, her name is bagel. some cat names ive thought of are mochi, chili, Supreme Pizza, or maybe french fry :)
im not sure if ill be able to achieve any of my goals if i dont get the financial support i need. ive been.. really close to giving up recently, but i dont want to have to do that, so im going to fight like this for as long as i can.
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mr-ribbit · 7 days
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i have so many friends that already have little quirks about them like "everyone always thinks I must be really religious but I'm not" or "everyone always thinks I must be really good at math, but I'm not" or yes, even "everyone always thinks I must be gay but I'm not".
there's a million things people run into where they might have a minor misconception they have to correct about themselves here and there, and it's usually fine. pretending that the mere act of someone asking you if you might be trans is some terrible slight is JUST transphobic. every single cis person I know personally, who isn't already a transphobe, would just laugh a little and wonder what about them came off as trans. hell, some cis people LOVE to be told they look a little queer.
i think most people would be touched if you reached out to ask about their identity, give them a chance to talk about it, even if you were wrong. a lot of cis people I know love to be like "haha I'm not trans but you know, I've always kind of liked football, but my dad didn't let me play cuz I'm a girl. isn't that fucked up?" and then you get to have a nice conversation about what you have in common anyway.
but if you bring it up to your friend and they accuse you of "converting them" or "pressuring them" to be trans? those are literally dog whistles for their true fears and beliefs about trans people. trans people "making other trans people" through mere discussion is literally a fox news level bigotry callsign. it's what your transphobic relatives and peers are saying about YOU when you bring up your pronouns around them.
any sincere cis ally would not think a mere question from a friend is capable of spreading The Trans Contagion- they're getting that idea from something rooted deeper and I would be unsettled by it if I were you.
obviously if your friend told you kindly that they didn't like it when you asked if they would ever consider being trans, then you should respect their feelings. but if you're sitting out there right now with that straw man in hand, ready to argue with other trans people for the sake of your poor little cis friend, have you also considered why your friend is so offended at the idea? like, if you're trans and you're caping for a cis friend who gets mad if you say they have tgirl swag or whatever, have you considered that their anger might actually be kind of shitty and you don't need to defend it?
none of my friends would act like that, that's all I'm saying. and if they did I'd be uncomfortable.
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neonpinksnake · 1 year
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I WATCHED DON'T HUG ME I'M SCARED. FINALLY. I DO LOVE IT AND FEEL SO MAMY THINGS ABOUT IT. WILL RE WATCH EVERY SINGLE EPISODE ABOUT IT.
#I'm ignoring the theories <3 some youtubers do not know how to be normal about horror so I avoid them <3#I only watched one (1) about what if it's all about autism. I only watched it cause I was really curious if I was wrong in thinking that#and nope!! I might be right!! cause there are a lot of things talking about struggles of being autistic#now I don't think the other theories of it criticizing how fascist and outright bad is traditional education#like the points ARE there it's not like people just put thing for nothing#but I think both theories are right. like it's rouching multiple themes at the same time#it does talk about trauma a lot too. and model families. education system. religion. neurodivergent (specially autism)#like it's not just one thing although the video I watched made it seem like it can't be the other things#so disagree only that cause the theory the video presented was spot on for me#I think in the series it touches neurodivergency more broadly cause surely duck has Something#he reminds me of my dad so I might be projecting but maybe ocd?#my point is all of them have their issues and that's one reason it's difficult to love together. cause the whole thing is also them trying-#- to not kill each other and figuring out how to live with the other person + all the people jumping out of nowhere to teach them#red guy trying to scape? maybe not scape but trying to See more things. to experience more and discover what's happening or why#LOVE that. hunted by the narrative#I hate duck <3 PUT THAT KNIFE DOWN. I'M SAYING IT WITH LOVE#he's so well made like I hate him but he's so necessary it's insane. I went full circle watching the series#'i hate him' 'i love him' 'I hate him <3' Like he's my emotional support shitty guy#THE SECOND RED GUY TALKED I LITERALLY FELL IN LOVE. SORRY. Not as in literally but in a 'He's just like me fr' way#I see myself in him soooo much I WANT to be him#And then yellow guy#I am ACTUALLY him <3 I'm not joking every time he appeared I was like 'ME. I DO THAT#AND THIS IS WERE THAT VIDEO I WATCHED GAVE ME A NEW PERSPECTIVE: the horror is Not in what it satirizes or the weird theory saying this is-#-an actual kids show that went wrong. The horror is in the experience of being autistic and living in the world.#That person was so right for that. what the theories do is make the story intresting. but the horror is There. Visible.#you don't have to look for easter eggs. you don't have to analyze how they move. the horror looks at you the second it can#things fall apart and have a reason and I do think it tackles a lot of the problems living in the world being autistic. SO good. loved that#I headcanon all of them with autism but + other things. like they're all autistic but also have other conditions that make it difficult#edit- there are many typos SORRY. will happen again. specifically 'rouches = touches' and 'love (together) = live (together)'
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swiftispunk · 5 months
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autumn air | joel miller x f!reader
a your summer dream one shot
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your summer dream masterlist | main masterlist | ao3 | follow @swiftispunkupdates and turn on notifications for updates
The heat of autumn is different from the heat of summer. One ripens apples, the other turns them to cider.
– Jane Hirshfield, The Heat of Autumn
pairing: joel miller x f!reader rating: 18+ word count: 10.4k series warnings etc: [NO OUTBREAK] we'll call him dad's buddy!joel, fairly soft!joel, age difference (28/50), angst, smut (will specify with each chapter), fluff, alcohol, food, secret relationship until it's not. series summary: after falling head over heels for your dad's buddy on vacation, it's now time to navigate the real world together. or, a year in the life with joel miller. chapter summary: it's been a month since you returned home from costa rica and you and joel have fallen into a blissful routine. when a rude awakening threatens to disrupt that peace, together you must make a decision...or two. chapter warnings: smut, unprotected p in v sex, discussions of somnophilia, BONDAGE-ish, oral (m receiving), exhibitionism, some body/cock worship, joel miller's filthy mouth, anal play, cum play, shitty landlords and shittier roommates, being allergic to cats, feelings, almost getting caught (again), fluff, angst in the mildest sense, one little pov swap. no use of y/n.
A/N: well hello. sorry this took about a hundred years. welcome to our first glimpse of life post-vacation. this turned out to be a lot more set-up than i anticipated, so please be patient as there is lots more still to come and to happen. BUT WE GOTTA START SOMEWHERE, OK?
a forever thank you to @joelscruff pretty much just for existing at this point but also for beta'ing this bad boy
It had taken just over a month for your weekends to become this. 
Lazy, dreamlike collages of playing house with Joel Miller. Learning to like black coffee and the slow, patient pace of suburbia, a stark but welcome contrast to the ceaseless stress of work and the incessant, gnawing rift that's been developing between you and your roommates.
Here, curled up on his couch or busying yourself in his kitchen, it's easy to forget. To savour the private hours you share here in his home, listening to him noodle absently on his guitar or talk your ear off about his brother's new baby. To pretend this all isn't some colossal, breakable secret. 
Summer slips away and you're still living inside a snow globe. What was once a cozy hotel room now replaced by an aging Craftsman on a cul-de-sac. A new private oasis, one that feels infinitely more real. 
Even if you are the only two people still privy to it all.
Well, three people. 
More than anything though, your weekends have become this. Joel's broad body over yours, forehead and chest dampened with sweat, glowing in the orange-pink haze of a sunset. 
His thick fingers wrap around your wrists where they're pinned against his mattress, granting a wish you'd voiced as he'd laid you down and kissed you, deep and slow. 
I think it'd be so sexy if you tied me up, you'd told him and his eyes had burned with hungry fascination, fiery at your willingness.
You don't know what it is about Joel, but you just want to try everything with him. And he is equally as willing to provide
Let's try it like this first, he'd suggested, gripping your arms and manoeuvring them beside your head, squeezing with just the right amount of pressure, just the right amount of intent to lock you firmly in place beneath him. Your cunt had throbbed and your mind had gone fuzzy but Joel had still leaned in to whisper, You tell me if you like that and–Christ, you do, you really fucking do.
So you tell him. You tell him again and again and again. Every time he asks you, implores you, orders you to tell him how good he makes you feel and how wet you are for him, how desperate you are to touch him even though you love that he won't let you.
He's asking again now, you think, but it's getting too hard to answer. He's drawing it out, the roll of his hips into yours agonizingly slow, the drag of his thick cock moving in and out nearly too much to take after he's already made you come twice.
He likes it this way, you've come to learn, now that you're home and free from prying eyes, safe to take your time and truly relish in each other's bodies. And for how torturous it can feel–like right now, sticky-wet and limp below him–he knows you love it too. 
"Fuck–listen," he commands you softly.
You whimper, straining your ears through a thick fog of pleasure to obey him. His brows are knitted together in concentration, plush lips parted as he glances between your bodies, encouraging you to follow his gaze to the place where you're connected, where his cock is still impaling you, glistening wet with your last release. You both watch as he pulls out before lazily pushing back in, a wet squelch filling the room as your drenched walls swallow every inch of him.
"So fucking wet for me. Always are, huh?"
He groans, catching your quiet sob as he dives forward to kiss you, licking into your open mouth with the same indulgent, unhurried pace that he's fucking you.
"You love takin' this cock," he says, dragging his lips downward along your neck, over the seashell that hangs there, nipping affectionately at the skin above your breasts before taking one pebbled nipple into his mouth. You moan, so sensitive, your body betraying you as you writhe against the sheets and his hands loop tighter around your wrists in response.
"I know, baby, I know," Joel murmurs, and you think you can hear the control wavering there in his voice, just a bit, as he moves to suckle at your other nipple, flicking the bud of it under his tongue just to hear you cry out again. You feel his smirk against your skin. "Bein' so good. So good."
You're drenched, soaked between your legs and around his length, sweat stuck to every crevice so you feel almost humid, dizzy and faraway and so fucking full. 
And then Joel's lips are at your ear again, hot breath condensing on the skin there too and the air feels altogether too thick. Too foggy. 
"I just wanna feel you come one more time," he whispers.
You're shaking your head before the words can even leave his mouth.
"Can't…Joel, I can't," you croak.
"You can," he assures you. "Did it last week, remember?"
You whimper and nod–he's right. With much coaxing and patience and Joel's unwavering attentiveness, he'd drawn three orgasms from you, something you'd once thought impossible. But then again, you weren't sure you could come at all by a man's hand before you'd met him.
"What do you need? Let me get you there," he pleads, teeth coming down on your earlobe and sending an involuntary shiver down your spine. 
His mouth is on yours before you can answer, kissing you until your lips are numb beneath the scratch of his moustache and your will to deny him steadily wanes. 
"Tell me," he says against your lips and your heart flutters as the hands around your wrists move, Joel interlocking his fingers with yours instead. A different kind of warmth spreads through you at that, a new form of ecstasy, one laced with devotion and tenderness for this man who takes such expert care of you, always. 
"Need it…harder," you manage as tears prick at the corners of your eyes. "Fuck me harder, Joel. Please."
"Yeah?" he grits out, thrusting into you with more force on his next stroke and pushing the air from your lungs. "That what my girl needs?"
You whine and it sounds like yes, so he does it again, just once–another quick, hard push into your spent pussy that has you gasping and keening. 
"Let me hear you say it, sweetheart."
You groan, search for the words, knowing he likes this too, for you to be just as vocal as he is. To hear in your sounds and your cries and your wanton pleas how much you want him.
"Yes, yes, yes," you tell him in a rush, already feeling some tangled swell of something curl in your lower belly. "Just–just like that. Please. More."
"One more time," he grins with another deliberate rock of his hips. Fucking bastard.
"Please," you beg, fingernails digging into the backs of his hands when you squeeze down into his grasp.
"Fuck–yeah," Joel growls, taking you by surprise when he suddenly collects your hands above your head, freeing his own to tug you further down the bed and fold your legs into your chest. He crashes forward, big hands finding your wrists again and keeping them pinned where they are as he begins to fuck you with new vigour. The new angle hits somewhere deeper, each rough thrust of his cock into you nudging at that spot inside you that makes your vision blur and your mind go blank, the tangle of pleasure building in your core already threatening to unravel.
"Shit," Joel curses above you, refocusing your attention on his face, his expression almost pained as his chest heaves above you. He's trying to hang on, you realize. For you.
You moan as you lock eyes with him and you wish you could touch his face or run your fingers through his messy curls but you like this just as much, maybe even more. The unrelenting grip of his hands around your wrists, held high above your head so your body is spread long and open for him to use. You don't think you've ever trusted anyone like this before. That you've ever felt this safe and cared for.
"Come on, baby, come on," Joel's chanting as he pounds into you, his low drawl cutting through the noise of whatever lewd sounds are spilling from your throat. "Fuckin' come for me. Just one more. Yeah? God, you're so fuckin' good. This pussy's so fuckin' good."
"I wanna come, Joel–I wanna come," you whine.
Joel groans raggedly as a tear drips from the corner of your eye and pools into your ear. His fingers remain firmly curled around your wrists as he falls forward onto his elbows and then his mouth is at your ear too, breath warm and voice deep.
"Yeah?" he hums. "Show me. Show me how you come for me. Show me how much you fuckin' love this cock. How much you love gettin' fucked like this."
A broken squeak catches somewhere in your throat as your mouth falls open, Joel's cock mercilessly hitting right where you need it with each stroke and you can feel it now, as the swell begins to crest and his words echo through you, your arms still trapped under his grasp, rendering your powerless in the very best way–you're going to come again.
You cry his name and Joel only fucks you harder, determined in his efforts as you begin to tense beneath him and a fire ignites in your belly. It's a gradual build this time, clawing and bubbling till it finally erupts in a burst of blinding white warmth, Joel's voice carrying you through the haze of release. 
"Yeah–good girl, that's it, honey, there you fuckin' go," he rambles as you fall apart, walls constricting around his length as wetness pools down his balls and Joel just keeps fucking you. "Fuckin'...shit, baby–fuck, m'gonna come. Where do you want it?"
Still lost in a syrupy daze, you say without thinking, "Mouth–my mouth. Joel, wanna taste you."
"Oh, fuck–"
But it breaks him, that request–those words in your shattered, weary voice, teary stare locked with his–and all too soon his muscles go rigid, cock spasming deep inside you as his climax hits him before he can grant your wish. 
"Shit, shit, shit," he curses as he pumps you full of his seed, his face a mess of pleasure and shame at his unceremonious orgasm, brows furrowed almost apologetically as he rides it out. His fingers loosen around your wrists and his forehead collides with yours, his form quaking above you as the last of the aftershocks pass over him and your lips crane up to meet his in a sleepy, breathless kiss. 
"Fuck, m'sorry," he sighs, shaking his head as it falls to land in the mess of sheets beside your face. 
"Shh, it's okay," you assure him. And it is okay. You just wish you were touching him. "Let me go, babe."
"Oh, fuck, sorry, honey, sorry."
Joel hurriedly releases your wrists, simultaneously pulling out of your wasted cunt and curling into your side. You turn to face him, wrapping your arms around his neck and twisting your fingers into his hair like coming home. You hadn't realized until now how much you'd missed having your hands on him. 
He's still catching his breath, gaze foggy as he cups the side of your face and tenderly strokes a calloused thumb across your cheekbone. 
"You okay?" he asks, eyes searching. 
"Mhm," you grin. "I was hoping for a taste, but I guess I'll survive."
Joel smirks, but it's a bashful little thing, and you know him well enough by now to know the pink in his cheeks is only partly due to exertion. He's embarrassed.
But hell, if he's not going to make it up to you.
You watch his face carefully as he begins to trace a line down your body with his fingers, taking his time as he draws them over the gentle curve of your hip to the sweat-laced hinge of your knee. He kisses you, slow and soft as he coaxes your legs apart, sighs into your mouth when his hand moves to the apex of your thighs. His tongue plunges between your lips at the same time his fingers sink between the wet seam of your folds, so gentle. Even so, it makes you whimper into his kiss, shudder as he dips the tips of his fingers to your sensitive entrance and coats them in the spend steadily leaking out of you. You moan softly when his tongue in your mouth is replaced by those fingers, close your lips around them instinctively and suck lightly at the welcome taste of your combined releases, salty-sweet and warm while Joel moves to press wet kisses into your cheek.
"Thanks," you whisper dreamily as Joel withdraws his fingers, trailing them over your chin before settling his hand on your waist and pulling you into his chest. 
"Dirty girl," he hums, hushed and underscored by a sleepy laugh, his eyes already slipping shut above you.
"Mhm."
You feel the comforting touch of his lips against the top of your head and then he's rolling onto his back beside you, looping an arm under your neck and encouraging you to take your rightful place against his side.
But while Joel is already drifting off, you feel strangely giddy, electric and enrapt as you gawk at the rise and fall of his broad chest, the lax set of his features, his thick lashes casting shadows over his cheeks. It's darker now, the sun faded beyond the horizon outside his window–still far too early for sleep but time, you've found, doesn't mean much when you're wasting away your weekends at Joel's. Inside these hours, you cling to the memory of a Costa Rican resort; eat when you're hungry, sleep when you're tired, fuck when it feels good and mourn when it ends. Slog through the week until you're back in his arms and free to do it all again.
You know this feeling. This beautiful, tangible, dangerous feeling. You haven't voiced it yet, and neither has he. But you know.
You sigh and steer your thoughts elsewhere.
"I really do love this cock, you know that?" you muse, brushing your fingers featherlight along its veined underside, the heft of it lying soft and heavy against his belly. 
He huffs a quiet chuckle, peeking down at you with one eye open while your fingers continue to trace absent patterns over velvet smooth skin, still faintly sticky with you. 
"Yeah?" he smirks. 
"Yeah," you nod, unable to stop yourself from ducking down to softly kiss the tip, letting your lips linger when you hear Joel sigh.
"S'yours whenever you want it, sweetheart."
You flash your gaze upwards but his eyes have slipped closed again, one thick arm slung over his forehead. 
"Whenever I want it?" you press him.
Now his eyes open, his brows coming together as he takes in the mischievous glint in your eyes and your lips hovering just above his softened cock. 
"Uh–maybe not right now."
"No, no, of course," you smile. "But maybe I…wake you up with my mouth some time?"
At that, Joel's eyes widen and then he chuckles somewhat disbelievingly, shaking his head above you, eyelids slipping closed again.
"Sure, baby," he grumbles. "You wanna suck an old man's cock in his sleep? I won't kick ya outta bed."
"Oh, fuck off," you laugh, lightly smacking his arm before settling back in to the space you've carved out for yourself against his shoulder.
Joel shifts before you can get comfortable though, groaning a little as he rolls over to face you. His eyes are open again and he's grinning, leaning in close to brush his lips over yours.
"Maybe I return the favour some time," he whispers. "Get you all nice and wet while you're sleepin' so I can wake you up and slip right inside that sweet little cunt of yours."
"Fuck," you shiver, unconsciously pushing your hips into his at the thought. Leave it to Joel and his fucking mouth to make you already want him again. "I–you wouldn't even need to wake me up, Joel. You could just take me in my sleep."
That seems to catch him off guard.
"Jesus," he marvels, pulling back to search your face. He's not grinning anymore. "Fuck, that's–you'd let me do that?"
"Anything, Joel," you vow as you loop your arms around his neck and clutch tightly at the curls at the back of his skull. "Anything."
You close the space between your mouths and kiss him deeply, mould your lips to his with all the words still left unsaid till you're breathless and impatient with it, unconsciously pressing your chest into his and sucking hungrily at his plush bottom lip. There's no real intent behind any of it, just a need to be close, to consume. 
"Goddamn," Joel moans when you break away to kiss along the greying scruff at his jawline. "You're somethin' else."
"I know," you murmur against his skin. 
"Christ, baby, I-I don't think I got another round in me tonight," he admits almost sheepishly, but you don't mind. This is enough. 
"Shh," you tell him, traversing your lips lower to explore the column of his neck, tasting the even pound of his pulse below your tongue. A reminder that he's here with you, alive and well. And how that knowledge makes you sick with warmth, a twist in your guts that almost hurts, like a preemptive pain at the thought of losing this, losing him.
Oh, god. You know this feeling. 
"Go to sleep," you breathe, before you say something else. "It's okay. It's okay."
-
As it turns out, you don't get the chance to wake Joel up with your mouth, because the next morning, he's up before you, the smell of brewing coffee luring you towards consciousness. The stand fan beside his bed blows cool air over your face and shoulders as your eyes adjust to yellow sunlight and your body aches and creaks with the reminder of last night. The sound of heavy footsteps in the hallway saves you from starting to miss him.
You can't bring yourself to lift your head up off the pillow, even as he places a steaming mug on the nightstand beside you and sits on the edge of the bed.
"Hey," he murmurs, gently shaking you to life with a hand on your hip over the covers. "You awake?"
You peek up at him, smiling blearily through the sleep in your eyes. Clad only in a pair of grey sweats, his belly–with its now fading tan–is on full display, curls messy atop his head. He's so handsome in the morning, all puffy-eyed and soft. 
"Yeah, but I don't wanna get up.''
Joel smiles back, just a fleeting thing before it fades and his brows knit together. You frown in turn as his gaze drops to the hand he has on your side and his thumb strokes nervous circles into your skin. 
"Was thinkin' we could go for a drive or somethin' today."
His voice is low, almost pensive, too sad for such a simple request. But you get it, know all too well where it stems from.
Because drives out of town are all you have beyond the safety of his home, the safest way to keep this thing a secret. Sunday after Sunday of Joel bailing on your father's invitations to go golfing, while guilt slowly eats away at him.
And it hurts Joel, you know it does. Truthfully, it hurts you too. But it's better this way, at least for now. You're still not even sure what you two are doing together, and you're not sure Joel does either. All you know is this feeling, this ache in your bones and this swell in your chest, that sense of fragility you always feel when you're with him. You're not ready to let anyone shatter it. Not yet.
You sigh, sit up a little straighter and place your hand over his on your hip until he finally meets your eyes. 
"Where?" you ask. 
"I don't know…nowhere," he shrugs, lips twitching ever so. "Lockhart, maybe, f'you want."
You squeeze his fingers playfully just to watch his smile widen–and it works.
"You craving barbeque, cowboy?" you tease and his eyes sparkle with positively endearing excitement.
"Chisholm Trail?" he suggests.
You scoff. 
"Fucking–yeah, right. Kreuz all the way."
Joel laughs, throaty and genuine in a way that makes your heart swell–even if his taste in barbeque is… questionable at best. 
"So s'that a yes?" he presses.
As if there were ever any doubt. 
"Yeah, okay. But I have to stop in and feed Henry."
He grimaces and you smirk sympathetically. You'd be offended by his obvious distaste for your cat if you hadn't come to discover a fact about him that hadn't mattered much at all until you'd got home; Joel is allergic. 
"I'll wait in the truck," he grumbles. 
-
You make yourself at home in his kitchen, topping up your coffee and leaning against the countertop while Joel showers upstairs. Staring out his kitchen window to the quiet street outside, you sip your coffee and think about how much you like it here. How comfortable you've become in his home. How much it feels like his and how lucky you are to know him here.
Cluttered and almost haphazardly decorated, Joel's house feels like somewhere truly lived in, the art and photos that line the walls borne out of memories more so than aesthetics, a mess of disorganized posters from music festivals and surely inherited paintings. 
Mostly there are photos of her, his daughter Sarah at various stages of her life. Family photos of her as a child, tucked under the arm of Joel or his brother you've still yet to meet. Polaroids of her with friends as a teenager, framed graduation photos from high school and college, action shots from countless varsity soccer games. 
One custom magnet stuck to his fridge still gives you pause, pink and flouncy and faded with time. Sarah's name, ornately printed over her exact birth date and time, a constant reminder of a truth you'd rather not think too hard about. 
It had made your heart sink the first time you'd seen it, when you'd come face to face with the unfortunate realization that Sarah is one year older than you. 
You try not to look at it too much, if you can help it. 
Of course, Sarah herself is unavoidable, since Joel had already shared with her what you're still too scared to share with anyone.
Sarah, the third and only other person to know about you and Joel. You hadn't even been mad that he'd let her in on it; if anything, you'd been envious of their trust in one another, how Joel had waited less than a day after coming home to tell her about you. 
To your surprise–and maybe also his–she'd taken it…fine. Apparently, just content to see her father happy even if she'd been somewhat taken aback by his choices. You have to admire her maturity; you're not sure how you would have reacted if you'd been in her shoes.
Sarah's acceptance had crossed one gigantic, cataclysmic fear from your long list of gigantic, cataclysmic fears.
Still, your heart nearly leaps out of your chest when you hear the front door opening behind you and a familiar voice calling out as footsteps round the corner into the kitchen. 
"Dad?" Sarah's voice says. "Dad–oh, hey."
She stops in her tracks and you straighten up from the counter, smoothing out your shirt–Joel's shirt–and offering her your best smile. 
"Oh–hi, Sarah."
She smiles back, polite if not a little unsure.
Because yes, Sarah's been altogether more accepting than she has any right to be. But that doesn't mean it's not still awkward as hell. 
"Is my dad here?" she asks.
"Uh, yeah, sorry, he's just–he's in the shower."
"Ah, okay, no worries. How's it going?"
"Good–yeah. Fine." You wrack your brain for any other details, ultimately coming up short and landing simply on, "Busy."
Sarah smiles knowingly.
"How's he?" She nods in the general direction of the stairs.
"He seems…"
You ponder it for a moment, think about Joel all giddy-eyed and soft as he'd brought you coffee in bed this morning. How every Friday since you got home, he's pulled up outside your apartment without fail, right on time to sweep you away to your own mini-version of paradise. How he does it all without pretension, just the same burning need to be together that's been plaguing you since vacation ended. 
You smile. Sigh a little more dreamily than the moment calls for.
"Great," you settle on at last.
Her responding smile is genuine, sweet and full of understanding. 
"Good," she says. "He seems it."
That softens you, that his contentment isn't just in your head, that she can see it too. Not that you have many doubts about his feelings for you–it's just nice to hear. 
"I'm just gonna grab something from upstairs," she announces then, and you make some non-committal sound, not quite go ahead–because this was her house long before it was yours–but a dismissal all the same. She flits out of the room and you take a long, steadying breath.
It gets a little more painless every time, but you expect it'll take a while to feel totally at ease around her. You're certain you were once forced into play dates with the girl and now you're–
You shake your head to dislodge the thought, swallow down the rest of your coffee so fast your stomach burns with an acidic twinge. 
How the fuck does Joel drink this stuff like this? 
She's back before you can even finish washing your mug, calling your name over the sound of the faucet.
"I gotta run," she tells you. "You can let him know I stopped by. But don't tell him about this–" she winks and waves a photo at you that you can't quite make out, clearly the thing she'd stolen from upstairs, "–It's for his birthday."
She smirks slyly and you smile back, offering her a thumbs up. 
"Got it."
"Well, see ya."
"Bye, Sarah."
She skirts out the door and you let out a long breath.
Easier with time, easier with time, you remind yourself. Everything about this gets easier with time.
-
It's hard to imagine, sitting in the front seat of his truck, how there was ever a time you didn't think Joel Miller was beautiful. 
The weight of that truth had hit you like a ton of bricks that first night in Costa Rica, and it strikes you still now, in the way you stare openly at the sight of him with one hand on the wheel, the other curled casually around the nape of your neck. His legs are spread wide, dark denim stretched taut across his thighs, the sleeves of his light blue shirt rolled up to his elbows, brown eyes on the road before him. Windows rolled down so a warm, late-summer breeze plays in his salt-and-pepper curls and sunlight glows on his exposed skin.
Classic rock radio underscores the hum of the engine and you're both singing along to the sweet sounds of Creedence and there's that damned feeling again, gnawing and incessant, burning sharp around the edges of your heart. 
Sometimes you can't believe he's really yours. 
You sigh, a deeply longing thing as your eyes rake up and down his body. Joel catches it. 
"What's wrong?" he asks, tearing his eyes from the road to turn down the music and glance over at you curiously.
What's wrong is you're fucking insatiable; you want him again already, truly mournful you'd missed the chance to get your hands on him this morning before you'd hit the road. And in the quiet confines of his truck, the smell of Joel and leather all around, his competent fingers on the steering wheel and the hand on your neck that's starting to feel almost possessive…you practically ache at the thought of having to spend a day out and about when all you really want is to be back in his bed. 
"I was supposed to…" you shake your head, unsure of how to bring up your conversation from the night before. "Why'd you get up before me?"
Joel smirks, seeming to understand your train of thought.
"What?" he laughs, gently squeezing your neck. "You wanted to suck my cock that bad?"
You frown, putting on a show of petulance. 
"Yes," you grumble. 
Joel laughs, fiddling absently with the chain of your necklace, his fingers just barely brushing your skin. You can't help the way your eyes slip closed in response. 
"How do you know I didn't take you in your sleep?" he hums, his tone light, but still enough to make you shiver with the reminder of your words from last night. 
"Mm-mm," you reply, a little breathless as you lean back into his touch and shake your head from side to side. "I would know."
Joel chuckles. 
"Probably right," he concedes, letting you go to grip the wheel with both hands, much to your dismay, his eyes refocusing on the road. "Anyway, I don't think I'd be able to–"
He stops mid-sentence, contemplative and then momentarily distracted as he makes a left hand turn. You ogle his hands deftly moving on the steering wheel until Joel straightens out and clears his throat, at last glancing back in your direction. 
 "I'd need to wake you up," he finishes. 
"Yeah?"
"Yeah," he nods, reaching back across the seat to lay a hand on your thigh, just below the hem of your sundress. "Don't think I'd be able to come without hearin' all those pretty sounds you make–" he smirks and meets your gaze, his sweet brown eyes somehow doleful and smouldering all at once–"Without seein' your eyes."
The hand he has on your thigh moves to cup your chin, gently twisting your face in his direction. You bite your lip and make a show of batting your lashes at him. 
"These eyes?" you tease but Joel isn't smiling anymore. 
"Hm," he hums lowly, snaking his hand carefully back to its place behind your neck. Only this time, his grip is firm, commanding in the way it nudges you across the bench towards him. "Why don't you come over here and show me what you had planned?"
Your heartbeat stutters, arousal coursing through you in an instant, unabashedly giddy at the offer. Your mouth falls open unconsciously, as though your body can already feel the weight of him between your lips. Joel's eyes flit between your face and the road, gauging your reaction, sensing your hesitance when, in spite of how badly you want him, you find yourself peeking over your shoulder to the passing cars outside, the scattered pedestrians on the sidewalk. You're nearing downtown Austin, and the streets are far from quiet.
"They can't see," Joel assures you, easily redrawing your attention. "S'just you and me."
It steadies you, that resoluteness. Always does. You're already unfastening your seatbelt and twisting at the hip, leaning across the bench to plant a kiss behind his ear. 
"Let them look," you murmur. Joel chuckles darkly, the sound laced with something like pride. He's been rubbing off on you.
"Attagirl."
You bite down lightly on the hinge of his jaw before moving lower, making quick work of his belt buckle while Joel conveniently comes to a stop at what you can only assume is a red light. 
The lack of movement makes it easier to unbutton his jeans, to palm at his burgeoning bulge through the fabric of his boxers before yanking them out of the way too, at last freeing his semi-hard cock. 
You think you actually moan at the sight of it, salivating openly as you grip him at the base and slip his length between your lips.
"Oh, fuck–" Joel groans, one hand moving to gently cradle the back of your skull as his cock comes alive in your mouth. "Yeah, there you go…"
You preen at the response, stroking the length of him with your fist while your tongue dances around his tip until you feel him harden fully in your grasp and your jaw begins to strain around his girth. You moan around him when you taste salt, pulling off him to lap sweetly at his slit and collect the beading precum there. Joel's fingers tighten in your hair. 
"Shit, that's good, honey…" he sighs.
There's a jostling as he steps on the gas and then you're moving again, the precision of your tongue faltering as you bounce in his lap. You surrender to it, swallow him down once more and do your best to match the bob of your head with the bumps in the road. 
Of course it's more challenging than you could have anticipated, and you splutter around him when he comes to an unexpected stop, Joel quick to pull you off him with a hand in your hair. 
"Shh, hey, you okay?" he asks, voice strained but oozing concern. You just nod determinedly, already diving to take him back in your mouth, all the way down so your lips brush against the coarse hairs at his base and welcome tears prick at your eyes. 
"Fuck–" Joel grits when you begin to move again, up and down with focused intent, eager with it, greedy. "Jesus, wait."
You pull off him, glancing upwards to the edge of his window, fearful perhaps that you'd been caught. But Joel's hand on your head is already pushing you back down so your cheek brushes against the wet tip of his cock. 
"You're good–just…slow, baby," he tells you. Oops.
"Sorry," you laugh.
"Just love it that much, don't you?" he asks, stroking your hair.
"Shut up," you mumble, silencing his responding laugh when you brush your lips featherlight over his length. "But yes."
You show him as much, tilting your face and dragging your lips and cheeks along his shaft, all languid and adoring as you plant an open-mouthed kiss to the soft skin between his base and his balls. You peer up at him and your pussy throbs at the realization he's not even looking at you, eyes fixed on the road while his other hand moves downward along your spine before easing your skirt up over your waist. You sigh a breathy groan and lick a wet stripe up the underside of his cock as Joel slips his fingers below the waistband of your underwear. Then time seems to stop altogether as Joel glides his hand through the seam of your ass down to your neglected cunt.
Your breath hitches, arching at his touch, forgetting his cock for a moment as Joel dips two fingers into your slick heat with the same absent ease with which he'd been stroking your neck a moment ago. He curses under his breath when he feels how wet you are, steals your focus completely when he slowly begins to fuck his middle and ring fingers into you. You whimper as you pulse around his digits and it takes everything in you just to close your lips around his cock again, sucking him up and down, working to match the pace of his fingers moving in and out of you. 
"Yeah, baby," he praises you softly, dick twitching between your lips as his truck comes to yet another stop. It crosses your mind that at a red light, the risk of someone seeing you like this–Joel's fingers in your cunt, his cock taking up your mouth–increases tenfold. You're so far gone now that the thought only makes you wetter. 
Only then he retracts his fingers, making you gasp when he trails them, slick and dripping, to your other hole, coating the tight ring of muscle with your arousal.
"Shh," Joel coos when you falter with your movements, crying out at the welcome contact, your vision blurring when he carefully presses one thick, wet finger into your asshole. 
Fuck.
Together, you've discovered how truly crazy it makes you when he does this, whether he's slipping a thumb into that tight ring of muscle while he fucks your pussy or generously offering you his tongue there whenever he eats you out. He hasn't fucked you there yet–because you haven't asked–but each time he does this, it's like a beautiful reminder of how much you do want it, how much you're still aching to be so, so full of him, everywhere. 
Another time, he'd said, that last day in Costa Rica. You have every intention of holding him to that. 
"Don't stop," he growls because you've apparently lost the will to do anything but keen and whine at the feeling of his fingers inside you, his cock stiff and leaking in your grasp. You steady yourself with one hand against his thigh as Joel steps on the gas and you wrap your lips securely around him again. It's overwhelming–the bumps in the road now forcing his cock deeper down your throat and his finger deeper into your hole.
"Fuckin'–yes, good girl. Don't you stop, sweetheart."
You increase your pace then, near-frantic in the way you moan around him, bobbing up and down as you swirl your tongue hungrily around the head of his cock. Joel pushes his finger deeper, nearly to the knuckle, blinding you with pleasure as you cup his balls, all weighty and warm in your palm, feeling the moment they begin to tighten and Joel's face screws up above you. 
"Fuck, m'gonna–look at me," he orders hurriedly and you do, glassy gaze flashing up to meet his for just a fleeting moment before he's spilling down your throat with a ragged sigh, eyes flashing between yours and the road.
His hips jerk upwards as he empties himself, hot and salty over your tongue. You keep your cheeks hollowed around him, swallowing down everything he gives you with reverent willingness, your thoughts clouded by the image of his come filling your ass instead. It's almost impossible to think of anything else with his thick finger still impaling you there. 
"Fuck," Joel almost laughs it ends, sliding his finger free from the tight fist of your hole to lay an affectionate slap against your ass. His truck comes to a stop and you feel as though you've been pulled from a dream when he cuts the engine and a hand in your hair is pulling you off his length, encouraging you to sit up. You're on your street, you realize, already parked outside your apartment. Joel hastily tucks himself back into his jeans while you take in your surroundings, still buzzing with unrelieved tension. 
On your knees beside him, he finally turns to face you with a blissed-out gaze. You await his praise, certain it's coming, but instead, he places a hand below your chin, fingers coaxing at the hinge of your jaw. 
"Lemme see," he says expectantly.
You smile, parting your lips and presenting your clean tongue for him. Joel smirks. 
"Good girl."
You warm at those words–just like always–as he pulls you in for a kiss, long and deep, leaving you breathless when he ends it far too soon. 
The click of his truck doors unlocking breaks the spell.
"Go feed your damn cat."
You huff, exasperated and far from sated, hopping out of the truck and already teeming with anticipation over what awaits you when you return.
-
A grating voice greets you the second you walk through the door. 
"Hey! You're here."
You're not surprised to find it's Megan, the more overbearing of your two roommates, standing from her place on the couch in the living room. You are surprised to see Deena there, too, though, wringing her hands nervously in her lap and staring at Megan.
You get the unpleasant feeling you've just interrupted a conversation. 
"Uh, yeah," you mumble awkwardly, eyeing the two of them suspiciously as you make your way towards the kitchen. "Just feeding Henry. What's up?"
You think you know, but you feign confusion all the same, turning your back to Megan and rummaging in the cupboards for Henry's food. You hear the familiar patter of his paws against the laminate flooring before you see him, but then he's there on the counter, nudging his sweet face against your wrists as you crack the can and scoop the nasty sludge into his bowl. 
"We need to talk," Megan continues and you finally look up to find she's staring at you and Henry with her arms crossed over her chest. 
"I have a ride waiting," you say hurriedly. You're not doing this now.
You toss the empty can of food into the recycling bin, pat Henry's head affectionately as he eats and make your way towards the door.
But Megan says your name before you can get there, stopping you in your tracks. 
You sigh. 
"I–alright," you decide.
This should only take a minute anyway. You just need to explain, for the hundredth time, that you're still figuring out the situation with Henry. Still working on finding a new apartment since you've stubbornly decided not to take the route of asking your parents to take him in the meantime. You can figure it out, and you will. Yes, you've been putting it off, but...you just need some time.
You cross the room and take a haphazard seat on an ottoman. There's a beat of awkward silence, and then Megan retakes her place on the couch. Deena stares at her feet, her incessant fidgeting putting you uncomfortably on edge. 
Megan takes a deep breath.
"There's no easy way to say this," she starts.
Your eyes narrow. "Okay."
Another excruciating pause, Deena picking at her fingernails, Megan steeling herself with another, long, drawn-out sigh. Your eyes flit between them as an uneasy sense of dread begins to wash over you. 
"We can't wait anymore. We've had to offer your room to someone else," Megan says at last.
And that's–well, that's not what you'd been expecting to hear.
It's quiet for a long moment as you work through what that means, staring blankly between the two of them. Deena avoids your gaze, her foot tapping out a nervous pattern into the floor that's starting to drive you slightly crazy. Megan watches your face as every emotion possible flits across your features, first anger, then confusion, then something akin to panic when it finally clicks. 
"You're kicking me out?"
"Look, I know it's not ideal–"
"Where the hell am I supposed to go? I've been looking for a new place, I just need more time."
The anger seeps back in, betrayal stinging behind your eyes. They can't do this. Can they?
"You've had almost a month to figure out this cat thing," Megan contends, irritation coating her words now too. "And Steve says he'll evict us all if you don't re-home it or leave."
You know–you know that. 
"I was…I'm trying to figure it out."
"Are you? I mean, most of the time you're not even here anyway. We never see you."
"I…"
Your head is spinning, denial setting in while you cling to whatever argument you have left.
"You guys let me move in here," you say meekly. "You knew about the cat."
Megan nods. "We were desperate, too, okay? It was a mistake, and I'm sorry. But we can't lose this place. Do you know how crazy rents are nowadays?"
Yeah, you really fucking do. You just shake your head, fully aware there's nothing more you can say. They've clearly made up their minds. 
"I'm sorry," she repeats. "We can give you another month to find somewhere new. If there's anything we can–"
"No," you cut her off, hastily standing, humiliated and desperate to just get out of there and back to Joel. "It's fine. Sorry. I get it. Um, I have to…my ride."
Megan's nodding again, something like sympathy in her eyes. 
"Of course," she says, dismissive.
You ignore their lingering stares on you as you quickly kiss the top of Henry's head and then all but run out the door, slamming it shut behind you.
-
Joel Miller is an observant man.
He's still learning you, studying your tells. Though, he has to admit, you're somewhat of an open book. Silent in your sadness, stoic in your frustration, tears that well up in your eyes when you're feeling small or angry. He knows. Since that day on the back of the boat, he's known. 
So when you stalk back towards his truck, hop quietly into the seat beside him and buckle your seatbelt with a steely expression, wordless and hard, he knows. 
"All good?" he asks, knowing right away that it's not. You face him, your smile all tight and deceptive. 
"Mhm."
You nod, offering him only a cursory glance before you avert your eyes to the windshield. 
Joel frowns, wonders if he should pry. He thinks you've come to know he won't, that maybe you're in the habit of exploiting that by holding fast to silence when you'd rather not burden him with your emotions. As if you ever could.
You're an idealist, he's discovered. The type to build up a plan in the image of perfection only to deflate when it fails. One crack in the foundation and you come toppling down, walls caving in, imploding in on yourself with spectacular force. 
Not unlike him.
But Joel is adaptable. He's had to be. Whether it was becoming a father at twenty-one, saving Tommy's skin at every turn, or–most unlikely of all–meeting you, he's found a way to manage whatever life has dared to throw his way. To rebuild his plans until they take the shape of something resembling good.
So, he gives what he thinks you need, what he thinks he's always been for you: A distraction. The illusion of perfection.
He turns the key in the ignition, takes your hand across the centre console and drives you out of town. 
-
The tightness around your eyes never fully disappears, your voice always escaping you in this subdued, quiet timbre. Joel, meanwhile, never falters in his steadfast positivity, even as concern claws painfully at his insides with each passing second you keep him in the dark. You smile sometimes, like when he gripes about your choice of barbeque joints or tells you how he'd grown up in a town kind of like this one. But it reminds him of how you'd smiled at him on the plane to Costa Rica. Shy. Vacuous. A little phony. 
Still, he doesn't push it. He walks with you hand in hand all afternoon and talks enough for the both of you, tries to tell himself that when you're ready to share, you will. Because he knows, he knows there's something bothering you. He has to fight with every instinct in his body not to rip the answer straight from your throat, just so he can offer a solution or ten.
But he doesn't, because he knows. That when the time is right, the truth will pour from your mouth like a waterfall, and he'll be there to help you when it does.
It's not until he's pulling up outside your apartment that your anxiety seems to reach a visible fever pitch, your hands pressed tightly together, body tense under the arm he has slung over your shoulder. You're frozen where you sit, but it's not the familiar reluctance he's used to seeing on Sunday nights, that kind of yearning sadness he also feels when it's time to say goodbye for the week.
No, it's something else. Something like fear that keeps you glued to your seat, eyes fixed downwards, not at him.
Joel sighs.
"Hey," he nudges at last, unable to stop himself from tilting your face towards his with a coaxing hand on your chin. Your eyes appear far away, almost black with dread. It's been so long since he's seen them like that, and he fucking hates it. "Where'd you go, sweetheart?"
You shake your head, unconvincing as you frown and attempt to pull free from his grasp. He doesn't let you. 
"Nowhere."
He sighs again and maybe he should just fucking let it go, but his own fears are creeping in now, fear that it's him that's done something wrong, fear that you're not giving him a chance to fix whatever's broken. 
His hand moves to cradle the side of your face, and this time, you don't fight him. Your eyes close and you lean into his touch, soften just the tiniest bit as he lightly scratches his fingers into your hair. 
"I can't help you f'you don't talk to me," he says and it sounds almost like a plea.
You take a deep breath and when you open your eyes, he sees wetness there, glistening under the dim light of a streetlight outside. 
The waterfall crests…
"I have to leave my apartment," you admit in a whisper. 
Joel frowns. "What do you mean? Thought you already knew that."
…and then cascades.
"No, like, I have to leave now. They're giving me a month," you go on, your voice rising in volume and pitch as the wetness in your eyes pools into bonafide tears that spill out into his palm. "I'm not supposed to have the cat–I know I'm not supposed to have the cat. But I mean, they knew too! And they let me move in. I thought they'd have my back if the landlord said anything but now I guess they're giving my room to someone else and I have no idea where the fuck I'm gonna go–"
"Stay with me," he interjects simply.
"Joel."
It's a quiet protest, a tilt of your head and a flatness in your voice as you grip his wrist and pry his hand from your face. Joel just shrugs like it's not some monumental thing, like he's offering you a morning coffee or a ride home from work. 
"I got a spare room," he says but you're already shaking your head. "You're there half the time anyway."
He holds one other truth close to his chest, the fact that he wants nothing more than to have you around as much as humanly possible. That every second he's not with you feels incomplete and hollow and how he hasn't felt that way in god knows how long.
"I can't ask that of you, Joel," you argue stubbornly.
"Well, you're not askin'. I'm offerin'."
You stare each other down, a bittersweet sort of stalemate as he watches a series of emotions flit across your face. A warmth as your tears dry, a hardness as your brows furrow, concern in the way you chew the inside of your cheek and fight with what he's sure is your admittedly admirable longing for independence.
And there's the fear. There's always the fucking fear. Because he knows what the offer implies. It's fast, too much. All of it, all of this, happening so goddamn fast all the time.
"That's like...that's like living together, Joel," you whisper at last, and the fear is there too, in the hushed squeak of your voice.
Joel sighs. He knows.
"M'not sayin' you need to stay forever," he insists. Mostly true. "Just till you figure things out."
He twists to face you, reaching out to toy with the seashell that hangs from your neck, a reminder of when things were easier. It seems to placate you some. 
There's a long beat, Joel smoothing his fingers along the chain of the necklace he gave you while you watch him, deep in thought.
"What about Henry?" you ask at last and Joel grins. He knows he's won.
"I'll survive," he vows, too fast. Fuck it.
You think it through for another breath and then finally, a smile cracks your stony features.
"This is crazy," you almost laugh. Joel laughs too, because it is.
"Too crazy?" Please say no.
"No."
"Good. It's settled then," he says, and it is.
-
Another month passes, and now your every day is this.
Hurried mornings and drives to work, a bottle of cream for your coffee and an endless supply of antihistamines for Joel. Changing leaves and kisses on cheeks and a spare room that's more Henry's than yours. What little belongings you have wind up there too; a forgotten twin bed, a cheap dresser Joel had disavowed as "practically garbage," posters that you'd hang on his walls if you weren't still convincing yourself this is all only temporary.
Joel turns fifty-one and you celebrate with take-out and your best attempt at Blue Lagoons, a neatly wrapped framed photo from Sarah of him and her, years ago.
It gets harder and harder to pretend that you're still just figuring things out with him, because Joel is now undeniably your boyfriend and you are now undeniably his girlfriend and–even crazier–you're now undeniably living in his home. 
Which makes it all the more ridiculous that it's still a fucking secret. 
It's fall now, the days growing shorter and cooler, your hours with Joel spent more often tucked in bed than on day trips to Lockhart. You can't think too hard about it or else it starts to feel insane–the fact that barely two months ago your heart had seemed irreparably broken and now you're sharing a home with another man, a man with whom a future still feels altogether impossible.
It should make you panic, and you think maybe it would…if you weren't so stupidly, unbearably, perfectly happy. 
You know this feeling, this giddy all-encompassing joy, this certainty that nothing this good could ever be bad. He calls you his girl and it's never felt more true. You're his, and you're perfectly content, for now, to stay that way.
But, as ever, reality is tapping incessantly at the doors of your new life, and it's a Friday night in late October when the whole thing threatens to come crashing down.
You lay with your head in Joel's lap on the couch, his fingers playing softly in your hair while some action movie you've both seen a hundred times flashes on the TV. It's routine at this point, these moments of domestic intimacy that will undoubtedly morph into something else once his fingers wander to other places.
You think you feel it now, as he trails his touch down your shoulder, along your arm, finally resting his palm on your hip and squeezing. His gaze drifts from the images on screen to take in your body as your breaths begin to shorten and you nudge yourself a little closer to him.
That's when his phone rings. 
You peer up at him as he reaches over you to the coffee table and glances at the little screen, your brows furrowing when he frowns at the caller ID.
"Who is it?"
Joel clears his throat, and very pointedly drops his hand from your side. "Your dad."
"Oh."
It's stupid, the surge of unease it elicits, the way you sit up and bite your nails nervously as Joel answers the call. 
"Hey, buddy," he says while you hastily turn the TV down a notch or two.
Your worry deepens when Joel turns to you with panic in his eyes and asks, "Right now?" into the phone.
You stiffen–mouth the word, what at him–but Joel is looking over his shoulder, out the window behind you to the street outside.
"You're–? Uh, okay, just gimme a sec."
He hangs up and stands, reaching behind the couch to close the curtains, whispering, "Shit," to himself as he does.
"What? What's going on?" you demand, feeling suddenly frantic.
"He's, uh, stoppin' in to say hi."
"What?"
Your voice rises about ten octaves, and then you're on your feet too, Joel already flitting past you to unlock the front door, peeking through the glass there as a pair of headlights pull into his driveway.
He turns back to you, frozen in the middle of his living room.
"What are we doin' here, sweetheart?"
"I–"
You shake your head, glancing between the front door and the stairs, before your gaze finally lands on Joel, his expression almost helpless. He's leaving it up to you, just like always.
"I'm not ready," you admit hoarsely.
He nods, too understanding for his own good. "That's okay."
But it really doesn't feel like it. It feels cowardly. Guilt and fear, usually suppressed beneath layers of happiness, bubble to the surface in a white hot flush. Joel takes two steps towards and places his hands on either side of your face, steadying you.
"It's okay," he repeats. "It's your call. Always."
"I'm sorry."
"Shh, none of that," he soothes, silencing you with a kiss. "Where's the cat?"
"Hiding, I don't know."
"Okay," he says again. "What are you gonna do?"
You almost laugh, but there's little humour in the sound. "The same, I guess."
Joel smirks, offers you one last parting kiss and finally lets you go.
"I'll come get you when he's gone," he promises but you're already halfway up the stairs, fleeing in a rush as a knock comes at the door.
-
Exactly twenty-six excruciating minutes pass. You know this, because you watch each one pass on the alarm clock on his bedside table. 
Henry's there too, you find, seeking refuge in Joel's bed just like you. You sit with him, legs crossed in the middle of the mattress, and wait. And while you wait, you stew.
It's ridiculous. This is ridiculous. Hiding from your dad like some misbehaving teenager stashing drugs in their closet, as if he still had some kind of power over you. As if the big secret you're hiding isn't the one thing making your life worth living at the moment.
So what are you so afraid of? 
You ask yourself that same question a hundred different times until the doorknob turns and Joel is stepping into the room with a sympathetic smile.
He keeps the door open behind him.
"Hey, baby."
"Hey," you whisper, like you're still hiding. "How was that?"
"Fine," he shrugs. "Gave me hell for skippin' out on golf the past few weeks. Thinks I must be loved up or somethin'."
He's trying to keep his tone light, but something twists in you when he says that word, that one neither of you have said yet.
He's so good. What are you so afraid of?
"Hm."
"Almost had a heart attack when he saw the damn litter box," he laughs.
Panic paints your features but Joel raises two hands soothingly, stepping further into the room.
"It's okay, it's alright," he assures you. "Told him I was cat sittin' for a friend. He didn't think nothin' of it."
You're still frowning, but you nod, hands clamped anxiously in your lap. Joel steps closer, around the side of the bed, close enough to tilt your face upwards to meet his eyes.
"You okay?"
You shake your head. You're so afraid. What are you so afraid of?
"Feel stupid," you mumble.
Joel sighs then, his knees popping slightly as he crouches onto the floor before you, clutching both your hands in his. 
"You're not stupid," he says softly, bringing your fingers up to his mouth to plant a tender kiss against your knuckles. The same spot he'd first kissed you. "I'm sorry."
"For what?"
Joel sighs, long and slow. You shimmy on the mattress so you're facing him, squeezing his hands like you're afraid he'll disappear if you don't. He stares at them as he speaks.
"I know…I know you bein' here puts you in a shitty position," he starts. "Hell, I know bein' with me puts you in a shitty position–"
"It doesn't–"
"But," he cuts you off, meeting your eyes at last, something warm and intense smouldering in the soft brown. "I'm not in any rush. Okay? We can keep this under wraps for s'long as you want. I mean that. I'm just–I'm just happy you're here."
You hold his stare, cup his weathered cheek in your palm and let whatever's burning behind his eyes melt into yours. He's doing what he always does, giving you the choice. He's so good. He's so good to you. 
So what are you so afraid of?
"I think we should tell them," you murmur and the smouldering burn turns to glittering anticipation, dulled by uncertainty while he looks for any trace of a lie on your face.
You know he won't find one. 
"Yeah?"
"Yeah."
"You're sure? 'Cause we can wait–"
"No," you assert, clutching at the greying curls on the side of his head fiercely, tugging him in closer. "Joel, I–I'm happy too. I want them to know. They should–they should be happy we're happy, right?"
He allows himself a smile, and you feel your fears start to fade away. 
"Should," he agrees.
"And if they're not then…then I don't care. I care about you. No more secrets."
"Alright," he whispers, emotion coating his words before he's wrapping his arms around your middle and burying his face into your chest. You hook your legs around him, some noise between a laugh and a sob getting caught in his t-shirt. "No more secrets."
He holds you like that for what feels like hours, knelt before you as though you were some kind of deity, safe in his arms while you stare down the barrel of whatever comes next. 
At last, he frees himself, the energy shifting as he rises up off the ground with two hands on your thighs and suddenly everything realigns. Joel towers over you, strong and solid, so perfect it feels almost criminal to keep him all to yourself. 
His calloused fingers stroke your cheekbones and you stare up at him, worshipful, blanketing his big hands with yours. 
"I'm your girl, right?" you breathe alluringly. 
Joel nods, his voice gruff, "You're my girl."
"Then let's let 'em know."
He hums, almost a growl, hinging to connect your mouths in a searing kiss and–finally–there is no more fear.
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scribbles-ink · 6 months
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im just thinking what if mike schmidt is the son of the movie's equivalent of henry emily. i had this thought on the way home from the movie at like. 10 pm so at the time it was incoherrent, but im going to expand on it here.
point 1- garrett played a similar role to charlie emily, in that despite being watched over they were both killed by william afton.
p2- in the flashbacks, its very obvious that the entire family is in a place away from society. they're literally in a forest. it wouldn't make sense for william of all people to be there if he wasn't close to the family.
p3- the books and the game mirror eachother, so there is a chance that schmidt could be another fake name, one william recognized because, again, he was a family friend.
p4-what happens when your kid goes missing? idk probaly witness protection or an urge to seperate yourself from the incident, both reasons for the name change.
p5-(kinds joke reason) abby rhymes with charlie and looks similar to her (brown hair, brown eyes)
p6-i argue that abby also took on the role of the puppet/charlie at the end of the movie. she didn't necessarily give them life, not like what was done in the game, she shoeed them how they died. she reminded the children of the life they had before, and of who really took it. by doing that, in a way, she gave them that life back. she gave them their real personality back, one not influenced by william. she cut them from his influence, she gave them the gift (the picture) and it gave them life (their memories)
p7- in the movie, mike says his father 'couldnt deal with it' and left after his mother died. yk what that sounds similar to? book henry emily killing himself in despair. maybe mike's dad is alive maybe he's dead, we dont know. but it is similar enough, an act of completely removing himself from the equation.
p8-book henry has a sister named jen, yk what name that sounds like? jane. who was mike and abby's aunt, and we dont know which parent she was related to.
p9-'but wouldn't mike know about the pizzaria if william was a family friend?' honestly, probably. but theres also a high chance that he wouldnt. if the family lived in nebraska, (which im pretty sure they did) they wouldn't have a need to go to utah, not even for a friend's restaurant. sure, he might know that his dad's friend had a restaurant, but not that it had animatronics or anything. the family probaly moved to utah after garrett's disappearance and after freddy's closed down.
p10-'wouldn't mike know vanessa? theyre similar in age' if they didnt live in the same state, probaly not. william in the movie was a, suprise suprise, shitty father, even foregoing the stabbing of his kid. i doubt hed care enough to take her with him on like. a short out of state trip.
p11(edit)- in the books aunt jane was killed by evil charlie to get to charlie, yk what that sounds like? the animatronics killing aunt jen to get to charlie
p12(edit)-the words at the end of the movie say 'come find me' and the music playong at the end is the puppets song so i think garrett is the puppet which is. again. an emily thing
p13(edit)- mikes dad looks like a mechanic shown in the training videos [cough henry emily cough]
if i think of anything else ill add it but anywys this is why i think the schmidts in the movie are the emilys equivalent. also check out the notes on this post because theres a lot of replies n reblogs that support my theory
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